Melba watched the vampires turn away.  "I take it by 'The Slayer" she means Buffy and not the heavy metal band." She smiled and patted the back of Garrett's hand, "And you see Garrett, it's not KNOWING that'll get us killed, it's not knowing.  So where IS the Slayer?  Perhaps we should go and tell her."

As an afterthought she said to Hunter, "Those were vampires".

Chan gritted her teeth and did her best to at least appear to completely ignore the fiend. For some reason she was seeing wolf beneath the sheep's clothing, and made her wonder about the store proprietor. It looked as if he were some sort of monster too, and that might mean that their was more going on than their appeared to be.

After the vamp had left she shook her head slowly, trying to rid her mind of the ick factor. This subhuman was interested in her brother, and that meant that she needed to be dealt with, and fast. <aqua>"Someone needs to put a stake in her. Before she kills even more people."</red> She muttered softly to herself, having lost her appetite.

Buffy's eyes snapped open and she let out a muted cry. Buffy immediately threw off the covers and leapt out of bed. She was breathing hard, that stench, even non-existent still in her nostrils. Buffy opened the window and leaned out, breathing in deep, trying to let the cold night air dull the panic and fear that she'd just felt. Buffy looked down to see herself shaking.

What the hell was that dream all about? Buffy kept trying to tell herself that it was just everything that she'd been through in the past couple of days. It was her unconscious mind trying to deal with the stress and trauma. Buffy's heart told her that was a load of crap. Buffy leaned against the window pane for a long moment before snapping into action. She threw on jeans, and a white t-shirt, pulling on some boots, and a little black leather jacket. She tucked a credit card and her phone into one of the pockets, and tucked a stake in as well.

With that, Buffy exited her room via the window and made her way onto the streets, intending to wandering aimlessly, and just maybe find something. Either her friends, or trouble...she wasn't sure which just yet...Anything to help her shake the mental images out of her head.

Melba nodded to Chan.  "Crossbows", she said, "The Inuit used a trap called an automat to kill polar bears.  It consisted of a very powerful crossbow, bait and a trigger.  Similar principle could work for vampires, I wonder if you have to his the heart."

"She seemed kinda nice for a vampire," Hunter offered helpfully.  He frowned at the turn of conversation taken by the girls.  "You realize that you're talking about vigilantism, right?  Isn't that considered, like, domestic terrorism now?"

Hunter turned to Garrett.  "Hey.  Are you okay?  You look kinda wigged out."

"Vigilantism" asked Melba innocently.  "Surely that's about criminals?  A rabbit doesn't consider a fox a criminal but nevertheless... if they had weapons, they would kill them.  We are in the same position vis a vis the vampire as the rabbit vis a vis the fox."

She thought for a moment and then added.  "I can kind of respect Gabrielle but like she said, her entourage... it's not vigilantism, it's more of a hygiene thing."

"So you're using fluffy animal analogies to justify sticking a sharpened piece of wood through a girl's heart."  After a pause, Hunter shrugged.  "Just so I'm clear on this."

Melba looked at Hunter long and hard as if considering putting a stake through HIS heart. Instead, she decided to wait until, as seemed inevitable, he became a vampire.  "Not necessarily, how about a nice big supasquirta full of Holy Water?  Or do your ethics make spraying water at people a mortal sin?  After all, Holy Water could be like the Chlorine in Spider Robinson's "Telempath", a weapon that convicts as well as doing its job."

Then she got a really big wide grin on her face... "We really ought to organise a wet t-shirt competition without telling any of the contestants it was Holy Water."

Garrett turned to Hunter, "No, I'm okay really." He shook off the feeling of badness that was this entire conversation.

"How about we stop talking so seriously about killing people or things or vampires. I'm not hungry any more." He said, scooting his plate away.

"I don't want to think of what it would be like to be in a one-on-one with anybody like Gabrielle. I mean, did you see her nails? Just because you're dead doesn't mean you give up on yourself. I'm with Melba, it's a hygiene issue first and foremost."

Looking back at Hunter, "Don't you think it's different with vampires? I mean, they're like clinically predisposed to chomp and chew on anyone in sight. Probably the only reason we're alive now is because Gabrielle has control over those minions of hers. Otherwise, we'd be in worse shape than Melba's pizza." he said, pointing to Melba's plate.

"If you're not going to finish that, Garrett honey", asked Melba, "Do you mind if I do?"  She gazed at the Pizza as the vampire girls had gazed at Hunter.

Buffy had wandered. She'd wandered for quite a bit, through darker parts of neighborhoods. Almost as if she was daring someone...or something to pop out at her. Something so that Buffy could take out her frustrations in full on.

She had no such luck. Instead, Buffy found herself wandering down the more populated parts of town, it was still kicking, despite it being decently late. Well, late for suburbia. Buffy couldn't help but overhear conversations. One caught her attention in particular.

...mainly because there was talk of a Holy Water wet t-shirt contest and vampires and controlling their minions. Buffy walked up quietly behind Melba, she listened for a bit before interjecting after Melba asked for the slice of pizza.

"In my experience, vampires tend to be a lot more lustful right after they first...turned? I guess that's the best way to describe it. Their masters certainly exert control if they're strong enough, though."

Buffy shrugged.

"I've always wondered if a SuperSoaker full of Holy Water would be useful..."

As Buffy caught up with friends, B.J. enjoyed the middle of Caitlyn's remarkable set.  The bar was filled, everything nice and cozy, setting an indulgent-yet-just-bawdy-enough tone.  The audience responded positively to the good music!  Several sang along on the livelier tunes.  Whether or not they could carry a tune as well as the featured performer was irrelevant!

Evangeline had parted ways, citing papers to grade.  B.J. was left alone at her table, although more than a few men--particularly military--attempted to change that particular detail!  The latest, a strapping young blond from the Hunter base, had just pulled up a stool, when something else caught Bonita's attention:  Kieran Metz and Lucy Whitfield in the process of ordering a drink in the "21 and over only" bar!

Melba smiled at Buffy, "Gabrielle says you're the slayer and she thinks downtown is her turf.  She even asked us to pass on a message about it being hers." She winked and continued, "... so what's a slayer? What can you tell us?"

"Sorry..." BJ says to the man, who looked to her to be another Army man. She felt bad shooting them down but they kept coming. "I see a couple students playing with the rules." She grinned to him with a wicked smile as she got up to go talk to said stray students.

"Excuse me ladies.. might I see your IDs?"

And into the bar comes another guy, dressed all in white. One of the few non army personell in the bar.

Luthien came here straight after assisting Clive in maintaining his connection to this mortal world. But, he felt this is exactly where he needed to be now...and drinking was the last thing on his mind.

He takes in the situation for the moment...

Appearing poised for a smart-ass remark, Kieran spun around to lay into the unexpected pest.  His mouth dropped open when he saw B.J. standing there.  "Hey...um, Coach.  _{Oh God.}"

Just like the post-dodge ball moment, Kieran's cheeks flushed a furious crimson.  He exhaled nervously and couldn't take his eyes off the floor.  Playing cool wouldn't even remotely be an option!

Buffy thought about that for a long minute. What was a Slayer? Somewhere, in the back of her head, an old, nerdy classmate muttered "A miserable pile of secrets...". Buffy shook her head, not getting the reference, and looked back at Melba.

"I wish I had a better answer other than I slay stuff."

Buffy sighed as she stretched.

"I mean what's there really to say beyond I'm some prophesied girl who has had some cool abilities 'bestowed upon her' that make me the ultimate vampire fighter...it sounds like a corny TV show, honestly."

Buffy shook her head.

"I wish I had an instruction manual. Actually, what I really wish is that I didn't even have to worry about any of this. It sucks."

Unnoticed by the Slayer, a new addition to their social circle waved amiably.  "Hi.  Hunter Rossum.  I'm in P.E. with you."  A skeptical smile remained in place.

"So...vampires are real and you're, what, the 'Chosen One' sent to destroy them all?"

Melba nodded.  "I guess we all have to worry about this stuff.  Once you know, you're stuck with knowing.  So... you have to rely on instinct or is there somebody to teach you what you need to know, like the old Chinese guy in Kung Fu?"

"And what are you doing here Mr. Metz? I'm assuming that given the ease you got into the building with, the ID you used isn't the same one you gave the school for your athletic permissions." BJ said dryly as she looked at him as she held out her ID.

"I'm, uh, I got in with, uh...there's absolutely no way you're gonna let me out of this without putting me through juvvie until I'm old enough to actually come here, huh?"  Kieran looked appropriately hang-dog with the requisite amount of sheepishness.  He offered a weak smile, the kind that brought to mind a mouse desperately hoping the cat wouldn't clamp down its jaws on its mousy little neck...

Buffy looked at Hunter, truly noticing him for the first time tonight as he interjected. She also noticed his skeptical smile.

"Believe me, Hunter, I wish it was as much bullshit as it sounds like. But, yeah, I guess you could say that. Vampires and things that go bump in the night are real. I dunno about the rest of it, I just know that I started having these godawful dreams and then I was able to stand toe to toe with the bloodsuckers."

Buffy shrugged.



Buffy looked at Melba.

"Right now, I'm totally winging it. Not gonna lie. I've got some experience, but whatever pops into my head, that's what I do. And I gotta be honest, I don't need a Mr. Miyagi, I need someone to tell me that I'm not the sole purveyor of fang-y justice, and that somebody else will take up the fight."

"We've two choices. You can hand me the ID, go home and by friday I want a five page paper on why this isn't the best thing you could have done with your night. Or we can meet tomorrow with the headmaster and discuss things with him." She said with a straight face as she holds out her hand. Clearly he was losing any fake ID either way.

Melba sighed, "In that case I'd better ask you... to kill them does it have to be real sunlight or will high intensity UV do?  Does the crossbow bolt actually have to hit the heart?  Do crosses and garlic work? Can you kill 'em by burning?  Does holy water work... and if so, does it work even if it's from a supersquirter?  Do they need permission to enter a room (or is it to pass through a door... that could be interesting)?"

With the gig up, Lucy no longer had the patience for any of it.  She huffed and rolled her eyes.  "Why don't you just ask Metz to write about the real reason he's here?  He promised me he could get us into a bar.  That sounds cool, right?

I should have known that he only wanted me as his 'beard'!"

"What are you...?"

A mean twinkle filled Lucy's eyes.  Hands on hips, she leaned closer to Kieran and Cordova.  "This freak just used his fake IDs so he could stalk you, Coach!  Kieran Metz is just a creeper and a stalker!  Don't bother denying it, you're only here because you've got blue balls for your teacher!

God, what a waste of my night!"