Buffy felt her sledgehammer strike the vampire, but she didn't hear the satisfying cracking squish that comes with bashing an undead skull. Buffy narrowed her eyes, her muscles flaring as she let the momentum from the initial swung carry the sledgehammer back up and she brought it down hard again, aiming for the vampire's head again.

"Yeah, that's me!" He shot a look back to Mel. "Hey, this might sound kinda crazy but," he said looking from the woman to the ground, "we need a way to bless a Costco stock amount of water. Like blessing in bulk. I mean I don't need it, but I've got this friend who's really religious and he goes through holy water like smokers go through cartons. So, is there any way you might know how to help us?"

Lauren shut and locked the shop door behind them.  "Store robberies on the west side lately."  Her full lips drew up in a wry smile.  "I'm locking it for their safety.  You really don't wanna know what happened to the LAST guys who tried jacking Gabriel Booke!"

She padded easily toward the book shelves that Garrett clearly wanted.  In reply to his and Melba's questions, she shrugged.  "That depends.  Do y'all wanna go all 'High Church' with the Latin verse?  Would a Wiccan blessing be good enough for your friend?  Or do you guys need something more esoteric?"

Almost as an afterthought, Lauren frowned and asked, "What are your names again?"

Melba grinned.  "I'm the friend, and I tried the High Church version using a recipe I found on the Internet, didn't work, maybe because, like I said to m'man Billy here, I'm part Jewish and part Kurt Cobain, so something a bit eclectic would be best.  I'm Peaches.  Mr Booke and Ms Bell, are they out of town or out of plane?"  She smiled.  "Got a little of the high church version (obviously from a church) and I have some on my person but I also injected some.  How much d'you reckon I'd need to make my blood like acid to vampires?"

BJ pulled out her pistol and peeks out from behind cover, taking in the situation and trying to figure where to put her knives and/or pistol  for best effect.

Only after Melba gave them false names, and he recognized the woman had locked the door up tight behind them did Garrett start to sweat. His hands got clammy, his temples beaded up, and fear was probably pretty plain in his voice. "Yeah," he said, "and I just had a holy water bath so I feel really clean, y'know? Inside and out." He toyed with his hair adjusting it one way, then the other.

"Maybe there's some faucet blessing, or a well blessing? Those old monks and wiccans had to get tired of blessing twelve ounces at a time, right?"

Melba grinned.  "Maybe a Moslem blessing... or a Mayan one... they had these big tanks of water in the desert, yeah, and it's gotta be Holy if it'll clean your hands outside of a mosque?  Look I wouldn't ask but after the last time, I've been told I'll be tried as an adult if I use napalm again, so I'm going with something harmless to humans."

She winced at Garret's comments but shrugged her shoulders slightly.  "You okay Billy?" she asked.

Clive continued positioning himself to be the bullet shield that he was currently.  Peeking out slightly he would begin to listen if the sound of gunfire had finally come to a complete close.  Aside from any presents BJ had to give their fanged hosts.

Buffy swung the sledgehammer again, striking the vampire with another sickening "KRNCH!"  The vampire's head caved in and she immediately crumbled into a heap of ashy dust.  The Slayer was mad as hell and she wasn't taking it anymore!

Following Buffy's cue, the captain of Jepson Academy's junior cheer-leading squad raised her prop.  She spewed a tongue of fire that struck a tall vampire and sent her screaming into the tunnels to a fiery end!  Inside the chamber, the vampire's finally ran out of ammo.  They realized that taking time to reload would leave them vulnerable to the band of ersatz vampire hunters!

Two vamps made eye contact, watched Luthien hold off their mistress with ease.  They mutually shrugged and fled down a nearby tunnel!  Gabrielle screamed inarticulate rage at her cowardly minions!

B.J. and Clive finally had an opening to act if they wanted!  Gracie's relatives hung back quietly, ready to help if needed.  For the time being, Papaw kept a silent watch on his granddaughter.  Luthien and Gabrielle continued their deadly dance...

14:46, Today: Luthien rolled 31 using the Unisystem system (1d10+22). Heroic Feat Disarm.

Luthien suddenly felt inspired to just take that sword away from her. His eyes watched the way she moved, the way she held onto the blade...and with speed so great even a master vampiress like her would have trouble keeping up with it, he grabbed the sword...right out of her hand!

"Nice sword. I don't think it should be used to kill people anymore."

With Gabby's own sword in one hand, and his stake in the other...Luthien cut quite a formidable figure.

Lauren nodded languidly at the aliases.  "Peaches & Billy The Kid.  Gotcha," she said while scooping jars of herbs and white candles into her arms.  She raised a questioning eyebrow at the different religions rattled off by Melba.  "Look, do you two want a blessing or a Unitarian church service?"

She wrung her left hand as she lowered the items onto a small, circular table adorned with a green and gold silk cover.  "Let's just keep it simple.  I know a Wiccan blessing that should work."  After gathering more supplies, Lauren pointed at two spots.  "Peaches, you stand over there.  You stand here with me, Billy."

Lauren lit a bundle of Sage incense.  "By the power of Air and Fire, I purify thee," she said as she smudged the kids with the incense.  "By the power of Air and Fire, I cleanse and consecrate this circle!  By the Powers that govern North, South, East and West, let this sacred space now be blessed!"

The sage was passed to Melba.  "Hold the Sage and wave the smoke toward us. Just like this," she said with a quick demonstration.  To Garrett, she said, "Strike the bell each time I say a chant."  She thrust a small brass rode and a small bell with Celtic designs into Garrett's hands.

Four gallons of the water had been poured into four large mixing bowls.  Lauren held her hands over the water.  ""I cleanse thee, oh creature of water, of all negativity both seen and unseen, and bless thee in the name of the divine goddess."  She nodded expectantly at Garrett.

Then, Lauren poured a small amount of sea salt into her hand.  "I cleanse thee, oh creature of salt, of all negativity both seen and unseen, and bless thee in the name of the divine goddess."  The Wiccan then poured salt into each bowl.  She stirred each bowl with her fingers clockwise three times.

Finally, Lauren held her hands over the bowls.  Confidently, she chanted, "I cleanse and concentrate this water in the name of the divine goddess, may this liquid enhance and purify all that it touches, so mote it be!"  When she finished, Lauren "opened" the circle and smiled at her visitors.  "Your water is now blessed!  I don't know if we got it all, but this spell only had enough mojo for 4 gallons!"


OOC:

With a little help from Garrett, Lauren rolled a 15!  Successful ritual for 4 gallons of Pagan Holy Water!

Melba smiles,  "That will do nicely.  Certainly enough for a proof of concept."

Garrett felt the tug of the ether in the room as Lauren chanted and he chimed along. He'd never practiced with another witch before and the feeling bordered on euphoric. He wanted to stay and ask questions he hadn't been able to ask anyone since he'd started practicing, but he knew that he and Mel needed to get the Melbamobile fully tested.

"Wow, thanks a lot. You didn't have to help us out like you did back there." Garrett said to Lauren, slightly shy from sharing the strange experience with both Lauren and Melba.

Melba nodded, "And please forgive my earlier suspicion.  I'm Melissa, folks call me Melba or Peaches or any other epithet they can on account of my sweet addiction."

Buffy felt her sledgehammer connect again, and her opponent crumbled away, turned into so much dust. The Slayer plowed forward, not even waiting for the ash to finish hitting the ground. A rage filled shriek that echoed down the long corridors steered Buffy towards where she needed to go! The Slayer ran forward towards the noise, eventually coming across Gabrielle facing the mysterious figure that Buffy had kept running into! He had a sword in one hand, a stake in the other, and seemed to have Gabrielle well in hand.

Buffy and Luthien both apparently cornered Gabrielle.  The vampire faced the Slayer and her mysterious ally with a defiant gleam in her eye.  "I see.  You've slain some of my gang and taken my weapon.  You think you'll reduce me to so much ash and dust, huh?"

Her eyes cut to Buffy's right.  "Can you slay me and save the girl's brother?"  She grinned as she nodded toward Darius, who'd found the tables turned quickly!  The jock still fought, punching the vamp whose hands now encircled his throat.  She laughed and began squeezing.

"Can you slay me before my girl snaps his neck?"

Peering over Clive would stand up to watch the ongoing standoff.  The practical thing to do would be to indeed sacrifice Darius.  Especially as choosing to save the boy wouldn't guarantee Darius' survival.  But practicality didn't exactly go in line with morality.  The Watcher uttered not a word as he neared stake clenched ever so tightly in hand.  Clive wanted to see her character first hand, after all an unfair life of hard choices was ahead.  Modern firearms and pragmatism, dangerous enough to warrant research if the vamp gets away.  I get the feeling she didn't just recently start dreaming big.

Buffy stood there, her fists clenched in anger around her sledgehammer. Her knuckles were white from how hard she was squeezing onto that handle. Buffy felt nothing but rage for Gabrielle. It had transcended the typical hazy vision red anger that flared up in a person. This was hot, searing, blinding hatred. Buffy gritted her teeth hard. It took her less than a second to decide what exactly she was going to do once Gabrielle finished with her threat.

She was going to save Darius. "I swear to you, I am going to end you. And I'm going to enjoy every second of it." The Slayer practically spat the words at Gabrielle before turning around and racing towards the vampire that was attempting to strangle Darius. Buffy would be damned before she let someone die tonight. Not tonight. Not when they were so close to getting Chan back. Buffy screamed out in rage as she swung her sledgehammer at the vampire assaulting Darius.

Melba smiled, "If you'll excuse us.  We need this Holy Water as a proof of concept.  I plan to load it into my water cannon.  I'm hoping it works for our purposes, after all, they said they'd try me as an adult if I used napalm again."

"Seems you have a problem, Gabrielle. The Slayer is more then capable of handling one minion of yours without me. So...issue. You would need CONSIDERABLY more then that to threaten her alone."

But Luthien wasn't making further attacks. He just wanted to keep Gaby cornered till Buffy could live up to her promise.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:06, Sat 05 Oct 2013.

Melba moved toward the Melbamobile with Garret in toe.  As she entered, she turned around and asked.  "Fancy coming along to see if we can find any vamps and try it out?"

Gabrielle kept a fair distance from Luthien.  Her disguise melted away, revealing her true, feral face.  She growled at the white-clad stranger.  "Mind your own damn business, fool!"

As she avoided her threat, the Slayer dashed toward another.  Darius struggled to just barely keep the vamp from closing slavering fangs around her throat.  Buffy saw a camo jacket with cutoff sleevest that presented a nice target for a stake.  The vamp licked by Gracie Lynn's fire spitting had already dusted.  She saw the remaining vamp cut off to the left up a narrow staircase...


OOC:

B.J., Clive, and Chan have a respite from the gunfire now.

Luthien points out, mildly, "But I have your sword. Doesn't that make me your business?"

Her showing her true face only amused him, if anything. "You did remember to brush your fangs tonight, right? The Slayer will be here shortly, since your minion has no real hope at all."

All Luthien was doing here is keeping Gabrielle from running for it, keeping her contained. He wanted the Slayer to finish this. Unless of course, she ruined that idea by attacking him, in which case self defense becomes an issue.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:47, Tue 22 Oct 2013.

BJ peaks up and moves to intercept the nearest vampire as she pulls her Gurkha and stake in a smooth motion that seems well practice and near instinctive. She strode determinedly towards the nearest vampire without pause.

Buffy saw the opening, and immediately threw aside the sledgehammer, her right hand dropping back to her back pocket, grabbing one of the impromptu stakes she'd made right after Gabrielle had done her best Mark McGuire impression with Buffy's head. The blonde whirled the stake in her hand so that the pointy end was aiming right for that camo jacket. Buffy let out a shout, and thrust forward, aiming to free Darius in one fell swoop.