B.J. saw one last vampire that had gone unnoticed in the fray between the White Hats and Gabrielle.  She was a small, thin vamp who hung back in the shadowed corners, creeping toward an escape down the tunnels.  The "Coach" and Clive had a clear line toward her if they hurried...

At the same time, Buffy drove her stake downward in a powerful stroke.  The point struck true, the vamp dusted, and Darius could breathe much easier again!  Meanwhile, the vampire that Gracie Lynn spotted ran deeper into the narrow passage.  The sounds of rain grew heavier, and could be heard, even so deep in the tunnel...

Luthien, still a standoff with Gabrielle, heard the dusting of the minion. Vampires always made a distinct sound when they were dusted.

"Oh dear. Looks like you're out of time. Say, Buffy, would you prefer to use a stake or her own sword on her?"

Luthien phrases it such that it sounded like Gabby's end was surely nigh, and she was fairly being toyed with by the dude in white. It might be reminiscent of the way vampires normally toyed with their prey. After all, Luthien's delaying her demise only so the Slayer can properly finish her off.

Buffy felt a bit of panic wash away as her strike fell true. The vampire opened its mouth for a scream, but instead crumbled away as so much ash. Buffy gave Darius a nod.

The Slayer gritted her teeth and turned her attention to cause of all of this. To the "lead" vampire. To Gabrielle. She stalked forward, whirling the stake in her hand again, in the same casual manner that one might click a pen. She heard Luthien taunt Gabrielle and she declined the sword with a polite wave of her hand. Buffy would have said something, but at the moment, with her heart pounding in her chest, and adrenaline coursing through her, the blonde Slayer was afraid it would just come out as some sort of shout or scream. Something about this vampire just got under Buffy's skin.

Buffy paused a few feet short of Gabrielle, locking eyes with the vampire. She felt tension in the air. There was a long pause. Buffy moved her fingers against her palm in a nervous motion, then, charged forward, aiming as hard a punch as she could muster at Gabrielle!

Luthien shrugged, and held onto the sword himself then. He circles the fight, making ever sure to make sure he's between Gabrielle and freedom, but never interfering. It was Buffy's fight, and she'd do it her own way. All he was doing is making sure she couldn't run away.

Buffy's punch rocked Gabrielle's head backward.  The vampire gang-leader stumbled a few steps backward.  Reeling from the attack, Gabrielle tripped and fell.  Buffy and Luthien loomed over the fallen vampire.  Their stance was a triumphant one, with Darius stepping into the chamber behind them.

From behind, the old man who came with Gracie said, "What about that fang-banger who ran off?"

Gabrielle chuckled when she heard those words.  Instead of fear, Luthien saw an assured glint in her eye.  "It's you who've run out of time!"

Suddenly, everyone heard a tortured groan of old metal!  It sounded as if a gate which hadn't been used in at least a decade were being forced open.  Then, the rush of water as the chamber flooded!

Gabrielle threw her head back in exultant laughter.  "Destroy me or save your friends, Slayer!  Unlike them, I don't worry about drowning!"  Water rushed in a rapid flood, and Gabrielle let it sweep her away!

Buffy, Luthien, and the others only had seconds to act before they, too, were swept away!

It was fairly clear that Chan was having the worst day in her entire life. Between the abduction and what had appeared like certain death, it was by far the most terrifying. It wasn't like she was anyone special, to go around dealing with death and come through it just fine. Taking cover from gunshots hadn't exactly been fun either, but it was a sight better than certain death.

The metallic groaning of rusted gates being opened struck like a cold knife in her back, and she could feel a new wave of elemental fear course through her. It seemed very likely to her that she was just plan screwed. She really wished that she had just stayed in bed today, that would have been nice. She frantically looked for something to grab onto, or climb to safety. She knew for a fact that Darius should be okay here, and that what she really needed was to look after herself.

After they were all swept away by the foulest, worst smelling water imaginable (hey, it was sewer water, what'd you expect?), Luthien did his best to make sure nobody's head went underwater too long, and he always seemed to somehow be there when somebody needed help and nobody else could get there.

Still, there was one problem he just couldn't fixed. He smelled like Crap. LITERALLY, smelled crap. Of course, so did everyone else, so he couldn't feel guilty about it just then, but...yeeeeah, this outfit was done for. No amount of washing in the universe was gonna fix it.

Shopping, definitely his next priority. "Is everyone alright? Besides the fact we're going to have a clothing bonfire soon?"

Melba drove around, slowly.  The damned car seemed to move like a waddling duck in a desert.  She had no idea where they'd find vampires so she reached into her glove compartment and handed him her Nitescope.  "Don't worry", she said, "It's light intensification, not infra red, the leeches'll show."

She put Blue Oyster Cult on the inside speakers, deciding the time for the external ones was not yet, and she tried driving in a search pattern, giving Garret the chance to look into every nook and cranny to see what evil was hiding there.

"Fancy-schmancy Melbo-tech. When are you going to launch your evil corporation and take over the world?"

Garrett scoped into every corner and alley crossing his fingers, toes, legs and arms that nothing would be there, thankful to be encased in a steel box far away from Gabrielle the gross and her miniony fangs.

"Hey!" protested Melba.  "I'm not evil. I'm just misunderstood.  That is the burden we gifted kids have to bear, just as you beautiful kids have to bear the burden of appreciative stares."

Garrett flicked his beautiful burden of hair back.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He raised the Nitescope to his eyes for another pass as they turned a corner. "'Gee, Mel, what do you want to do tonight?''The same thing we do every night Garrett--try to take over Savannah!'"

He lowered the scope and pointed to the cannon. "Is this thing primed to bail us out if we find some toothy trouble?"

Melba grinned.  "Experimental isn't it... keep watching.  If we see toothy trouble, I'll try out the water cannon, photograph it and then drive like it's GTA."

Garrett swooned. "Woman after my own heart. What would we do if one of us was the gung ho type? I'd probably be the one cowering in the corner making gurgling sounds. No, I'd definitely be that one."

Before they took off, Melba clicked on a small, hand-held device that looked suspiciously like a cell-phone jammer.  Not to be considered lacking ambition, Melba had long ago customized the illegal device to also pick up desired cell-phones.  Thanks to Gracie-Lynn generously sharing her phone number multiple times on Facebook, Melba had a number to work with!

The device beeped louder as the "Melba-Mobile" drove closer to their friends.  Just as they reached the downhill slope of President street, Garrett noticed a manhole cover flying up in an alley!  Slender African-Americans emerged from the hole...fangy, feral-looking African-American girls...

Melba immediately recognized the vamps who'd taunted her at Vinny's and wheeled her car into the alley with skill that would make Danica Patrick chartreuse with envy!

Melba flicked the music stream to play cheesy seventies kitsch anthem "It's raining men" to the whole world if necessary.  She grinned a feral grin and flicked the switch on the water cannon.  "Time for a wet T-shirt contest". She said as a fairly short burst of Holy Water splashed the first of the girls.

She was ready to reverse out of there as fast as she could.  But not before she'd seen the effect of her water cannon - after all, that's what she'd come for.

Garrett let out a high pitched squeal as Melba pulled the trigger. He covered his mouth with one hand as he watched the splash in conjunction with "It's Raining Men," Melba was a genius, in more than one hilarious way. All the stunned and nervous co-pilot could do was grip his chair and pray they weren't just giving the fatal femme free baths.

The first vamp cocked her head when she heard the classic disco tune.  Her lips drew back in a fearsome, toothy grin when she recognized the driver.  "Hey, y'all, check it!  It's Roly-Poly behind the wheel!"

Perhaps the vampires mistook Garrett's delighted squeal for fear.  If so, they would have failed their "Intelligence Check" if this had been a Dungeons & Dragons game!  With menacing chuckles, the girls strode toward Melba's souped-up car...

...just in time for a cannon to emerge from the grill and HOSE down the two vampires!  Melba and Garrett heard pained shrieks from the girl gang-banging monsters.  They saw smooth brown skin bubble as if they'd been splashed with acid!

"And that's proof of concept", said Melba.  It had been quite a short burst but that was enough for now.  She put the car into reverse and slowly began to pull back, not in any disarray, but holding the now sullied gazes of the once pretty vampires with her own half-smiling grin.  She spoke into the mic and asked, "Want more, ladies?" before letting the music return.

"That was fan-freaking-tastic, give it to them again and teach those fangy bitches what they get when they mess with us!" He could still see the vampire's face hanging above him; him completely at her mercy and helplessly pinned to the ground, before that shot rang out and spattered him in her blood.

He raised the Nitescope and watched their faces writhe in pain.

"Do it again Mel." He said, flatly.

Buffy heard the sound of the roaring water. She glared as Gabrielle skittered away, crowing about making a choice. Again, to Buffy, it wasn't really a choice. She'd be saving her friends. Buffy didn't even think, her body was already in motion, heading towards Chan. Of all the people down here, that was who the Slayer was most worried about. Buffy was reaching out for her when the water rushed through, carrying them all away. Buffy took a deep breath before the torrent of water carried her away. She used the momentum to grab onto Chan, Buffy grabbed onto a loose grate, climbing up it. She saw Luthien helping everyone else and relaxed a bit.

Buffy made sure Chan was safely up before climbing up herself, collapsing next to her friend, sputtering, chest heaving. She was soaked, and it was nothing like the action movies. It was disgusting and foul. Buffy supposed that was the result of sewer water. But she was alive...and so was everyone else. The blonde slayer simply lay on her back next to Chan, exhausted, the adrenaline and fear that had gripped her and driven her dissipated, and it left her feeling empty and tired. And slightly happier, despite being disgusting. In response to Luthien's inquiry, Buffy made the "ok" symbol with her hand.

Melba still watched the pretty vampires as Garrett asked her to do it again.  "Wait", she said, "Firstly I want to see if that was enough to kill. Secondly, if it's not, I want vampires in this city scared of water.  It'll give us a tactical advantage."

"How about it ladies?" she asked.  "Wanna live to tell the tale?"

The vampire sprayed head on looked acid-burned, her skin ravaged with hideous furrows.  Her two sister vamps carried what looked like second-degree burns on their faces and necks.  They squealed in pain and skittered backward.  "Fat bitch," one screamed!

By all appearances, the fight was clearly gone.  They ran for their un-lives!  Melba knew she could overtake them, though, if she put pedal to proverbial metal!

Melba moved to keep the vamps in sight, wanting to see where they went and also, just to give the most badly wounded of the vamps another dose, trying to calibrate how much it takes to kill.  The less badly wounded ones though, provided they kept running, she'd leave alone.  She was not going too far though, avoiding an ambush was more important than killing.

"Keep watch", she told Garrett,  "I'm relying on your instinct for self-preservation, because I of course may well be a fat bitch with a death wish."  She grinned and said.  "If they're coming up, perhaps our friends will be following".

Garrett didn't see the others personally, but received a text message:  Your friends just crawled out of a sewer.  They're okay, though.  :)  He hadn't saved the number in his phonebook yet, but Garrett thought the text might have come from Hunter.

The vampires thought better of confronting Melba and skurried deeper into the alley.  They were hurt and Melba had shown an unexpected, and impressive, show of force with the holy water cannon!  The two friends noticed that Gabrielle wasn't among them, the remaining vamps were on the run--things definitely looked up for our stalwart young heroes!

Luthien got the okay sign from Buffy, and could tell everyone else was still breathing. That would have to be enough. Granted, the smell was such that they might be envying those that don't have to breathe, but still they were all breathing, and that'd have to do for now.

He noted the others seemed tired or unresponsive, at least. Then again, they didn't have Slayer stamina, so of course they were wiped out, and even he was relatively tired. "After we get cleaned up, we'll have to meet somewhere...anywhere in particular you have in mind?"