Chapter 66

Two days later, I got a call from Buffy. Her group had tracked Angelus's group as it was staking out the Sunnydale Freight Yard for some reason. Buffy wanted me and my group for backup in case things got out of control. Amy and I made our way over to the Sunnydale Freight Yard, swinging by Xander's place to pick him up, as it was on the way. While we did that, we also stopped and grabbed a bunch of burgers and drinks from the local Whammy Burger.

Unfortunately, we were down Sheila, as she was out of town helping a friend out. Some guy named Zeke Tyler who she knew from the Los Angeles Music Scene had moved out to some small Ohio town a few months ago and had called her in to help out with some sort of supernatural invasion of the rinky-dink town his folks had moved him out to. She wasn't available for this accordingly, though it was likely she'd be back in a few weeks. Assuming we didn't dust Angelus and his group before then, she'd help out then.

At the same time, on Buffy's side of things, Wesley had been diverted to New Mexico by the Watcher's Council to act as backup for the Vatican-backed Jack Crow and his team. Apparently, they had a rogue cardinal down there who was working with a Master Vampire to unleash some sort of ancient dark ritual to drown the world in eternal night or something. Wesley not being available might actually be a good thing, though. I was given to understand that he was next to useless in the field.

Fortunately, they had gained the help of Oz, who was training to use his Rooster Cogburn Skills and Transformed State in tandem from Giles. Apparently, Giles was training him in a sort of Martial Art used by a subsection of the Hong Kong Police Department pioneered by an Inspector named 'Tequila' Yuen Ho-Yan in addition to the quickdraw style of Rooster Cogburn. He was also being trained in knife fighting techniques to use with his Bowie Knife and further refining his more rough and tumble Western Fisticuffs and Folk Wrestling with Boxing and Jiujitsu.

It had only been a couple of days and already the training was apparently seeing results. Likely that had to do with the equipment that Xander had borrowed from me. Memory enhancers, fatigue cures, bruise healing salves, and Xander's own Training Circlet had all been used to shovel as much training time into Oz as he could get. It wasn't a patch on dedicated months of training, mind you, but with each piece of training equipment adding a three-times multiplier to his ability to learn, all of them combined gave Oz around one-hundred-sixty-two days of subjective training from mystical force multipliers.

For his part, Giles had, apparently, taken to the training with the sort of gusto that can only come from a man who was burying his grief behind his work. While he was still not exactly in a fit state to take the field against any of Angelus' New Whirlwind, Giles was still contributing as best as he could. He'd taken Miss Calandar's death pretty badly. If training Oz was how he was going to get his revenge, then that's what he'd do. He wouldn't half-ass it either, going full-tilt with it.

I hadn't known that he and Miss Calendar were still that close. Conversations with Xander had made it seem like the fact that she'd hidden she was of the Kalderash Clan of Romani had broken them up. Mind you, I'd known who Miss Calendar really was for a long time. I also knew from talking with Enyos Kalderash that the Kalderash hadn't approved of her and Giles' relationship. I had been off buying more Blood Jelly Ooze for use in a more powerful warding ritual against scrying after I'd first met the Mayor when he'd mentioned it. The Old Man had believed the relationship would get her killed. Fair dues to him, he was right on that count.

Regardless, this all meant that while we wouldn't have Sheila, Giles, or Wesley tonight, we would pick up Oz as a replacement for one of them. As we pulled into the abandoned gas station in the desert across the railroad tracks and highway access road from the Sunnydale Freight Yard, we spotted Buffy and company hidden out of the direct line of sight from the Freight Yard behind the bulk of the abandoned building, using Oz's van for the stakeout. Oz was peeking out around the corner of the abandoned gas station with binoculars every so often to check the Freight Yard. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but notice that there was also a lack of Willow and I voiced my concerns on that out loud as I shared out the burgers and drinks.

"Willow has a thing out in Sacramento this week. She left earlier today." Answered Buffy.

"Governor's achievement award. She did good." Informed Oz, proudly.

"Governor Vinick is apparently running for the Senate. He's been doing a bunch of stuff like this to increase his profile ahead of the elections." Offered Amy.

"Good for her, but that still means we're down more people than we should be." I intoned.

"You really think Wills was gonna miss out on her attagirl from the government? She's not that kinda person. Besides, it's not like we don't have enough people here already. It's just Spike and two other guys, right? Let her have this." Shrugged Xander.

"It's one of those other guys I'm worried about. From what Buffy mentioned, one of them is Dave Gustafson, Angelus' pet Sorcerer. If what I've guessed about his capabilities is right, he can easily summon more help." I frowned.

"There's nothing we can do about it, Ulysses so we're gonna have to just deal." Huffed Buffy.

Ordinarily, I'd argue, but whether it was the fact that she made a decent point or our recent level of detente, I didn't offer a retort. Instead, I inclined my head and acknowledged her point. Buffy was right about this. There was no sense in arguing over stuff that couldn't be changed. Instead, we settled in to keep watch over the Freight Yard via binoculars as we silently munched on burgers and fries from Whammy Burger.

The Sunnydale Freight Yard was, in essence, a place for the loading and unloading of freight trains and semi-trucks coming from the depots in LA or San Francisco. It was on the outskirts of town where nobody ever seemed to go, just before the scrubland plain the town was built on top of turned into desert off to the Southeast of town. There was a spur line that led off from Sunnydale Station where the passenger trains stopped, along with an access road for truckers that connected to the Highway. The Yard itself was a flat space with walls of cranes and shipping containers piled up thirty-five feet high on three sides and the fourth side open to the railroad tracks and highway access road.

Spike, Dave Gustafson, and another, large, Makai-Demon who I couldn't place sat in wait in one of the crane operator huts. Spike sat at the crane-manning station complete with hardhat on his bleach blonde head as if he belonged there. Dave Gustafson had a clipboard in his hand, periodically checking it, while the Makai Demon wore a reflective orange vest over his sleeveless denim vest.

 The only sign that the three weren't supposed to be there was the faint smell of blood coming from inside the building that only I could smell due to my Goa'uld genetics amping up my senses to superhuman levels. Otherwise, if I didn't know who Spike and Dave were, and if Buffy hadn't watched them break into the Freight Yard, they could have been just any trio of night shift workers for the Freight Yard. It was a pretty clever ambush on their part.

Indeed, as the hours passed, it almost looked like nothing would happen. That was until eleven at night when a freight train pulled in from the Northern part of the Spur Line, indicating it'd come from San Francisco. My Mystic Radar blared out a warning, even while set to passive perception as if something on that Train was very bad juju. I let out a hiss of warning that drew Buffy's attention to me.

Unfortunately, before I could explain, Oz called out, "We have movement."

Buffy turned back to him and snapped, "Let me see!"

Grabbing the binoculars from Oz, she looked through them at the Freight Yard. I didn't need binoculars to see what was going on, though. My superhuman senses picked it up right away. Spike was, ironically, using the Crane as intended to grab the cargo containers off the train. It was probably a move calculated to prevent suspicion from forming. Whatever artifact was on that train, Angelus didn't want anyone to know that it was in his possession.

"What's going on?" Questioned Xander.

"Spike's using the crane to rob the train. He's acting like a Freight Yard Worker, probably so that nobody realizes he's robbing the train." I answered.

"How can you tell? I have the binoculars." Frowned Buffy.

"His eyesight is really good. He always manages to spot stuff before any of the rest of us can. I've always just put that down to whatever power his patrons have given him. He practically radiates the stuff, even when he isn't casting or using Chi, though you need to be up close to him for a while and able to see that sort of thing to be able to tell." Relayed Amy.

"Is that true, Buff?" Queried Xander.

"The stuff about what Spike is doing? Yeah, absolutely. The bit about Ulysses? No clue. We will be talking about that later, though. I'm suddenly realizing that there's a lot I don't actually know about you and I'd like to get to know you more than I have if we're gonna be fighting together and not be at each other's throats the whole time." Nodded Buffy.

"Sure. After we deal with this New Whirlwind Angelus put together. We can play twenty questions then." I agreed.

This was probably inevitable, but at least I'd sort of patched things up with Buffy and her group before it happened. If we were still being antagonistic to each other, there would probably be a fight involved once I inevitably broke the news about my background. I didn't imagine that Buffy would be all that willing to let me leave peacefully once she found out that I was the product of magic and genetic engineering using Go'auld DNA. Not if we were still bickering like potential opponents constantly.

Our conversation was interrupted again, this time by the train pulling out of the Freight Yard and the Makai Demon busting open one of the Cargo Containers. He rummaged around inside for a few moments before coming back out with a wooden box, about the size of an old-timey hatbox. Spike grabbed the box and his face broke out into a huge smile.

"Looks like that's our cue." Remarked Buffy.

She rounded the corner of the abandoned gas station, heading for the Freight Yard. The rest of us followed after her, I engaged my various Chi and Mystical Enhancements as we headed over. Amy did likewise with her Augmentation Magic, Xander did the same with his Chi Enhancement, and Oz shifted into his hybrid wolf form. As we burst into the Freight Yard, Spike turned to glare at us.

"I thought you lot might try to intervene. That's why I had my mate Dave here prep a bit of a surprise." Snarled Spike.

Before any of us could retort, however, Dave pulled out a wand and pointed it out in front of him. With a long pulse of magic, there was a giant flash of light. When the light subsided, Fifteen Monsters stood on the field, ready to fight. Three Ankhegs, Three Worgs, Three Owlbears, Five Aurumvoraxes, and a Five-headed Hydra. The wand of Monster Summoning was then handed off to the Makai Demon as Spike turned to Dave Gustafson and the Makai Demon.

"Dave, back to the lair, Mate. Makintaro, deal with the White Hats then follow us." Grinned Spike.

"Right, time to scrap!" Grinned the Makai Demon, Makintaro.

Oz quickdraw his revolver and snapped off an incendiary round at Spike, but Dave Gustafson was already casting a teleportation spell. There was a flash of light and the burning bullet passed through empty air as Dave and Spike teleported away with the box. The Makai Demon grinned ferally, his arm morphing into a twisted bone axe as he tucked the wand into the sash of his pants.

"Right, you heard the Man, get after 'em!" Snarled Makintaro.

The Makeshift army of monsters charged, and suddenly we found ourselves neck-deep in combat. It was lucky that nobody was around the Freight Yard to see the fight because the Hydra alone was around thirty feet tall. Try explaining that to any curious passersby. Regardless, it seemed like the Hydra was going to be my problem since Buffy was charging at Makintaro, and the others were stuck in against various monsters.

I drew the Green Destiny in my right hand to deal with it while letting off a blessed silver shot from my Quigley Colt in my left that pierced through one of the Ankheg's bug eyes and struck it in the brain, killing it. The other two Ankhegs dug down into the packed dirt of the Freight Yard floor, my second shot sailing harmlessly overhead. Thankfully, my third shot struck one of the Aurumvoraxes in the mouth as it leaped for Amy's side, punching up and into its brain and killing it. As I fired three more shots, I caught one of the Owlbears that was bearing down on Xander in the neck with a pair of shots that killed it and took one of the Worgs in the side as it tried to pounce on Oz from the flank, smashing it to the ground. I didn't have time to reload my pistol, unfortunately, as I was closing in on the Hydra, cutting out at the somehow still-alive Worg that was shakily standing, cleaving its side open and spilling entrails out on the ground.

Then I was engaging the Hydra as its heads snarled and snapped at me. I dodged to the side as one head snapped for me, sliding under a second head on my knees as it thrust forth with snapping jaws. I cut up at its snakelike neck with the Green Destiny, channeling Chi through the conductive blade that would ensure the weapon cleaved through the head. With a silent roar, the second head fell and I popped up to my feet, channeling mana to spit out an Ahaooh Castiga at the severed stump. The mystical fireball seared into the stump, which was already beginning to heal around the edges in preparation for growing more heads. The neck was cauterized by the spell to prevent that, but in the process, one of the other heads snapped out for me and I was unable to dodge.

Instead, I caught the jaws of the Hydra with both hands, dropping the Green Destiny to do so. My right hand clamped down on the upper jaw while my left did likewise with the lower. I began to pry them apart. There was a panicked look in that head's eye as the jaws broke with a snap from being forced too far apart, and I tossed the head to the ground. I scooped up the Green Destiny intent on severing another head while it was disabled only for a fourth head to whip into me from the side. The Hydra had used its other head like a whip to prevent the loss of another head, not biting me, but slamming into me sideways in a sort of headbutt. I felt my ribs crack from the hit as a twelve-foot-long, sinuous, length of muscle whipped a bony head that was six-foot-in-diameter into my side.

I skidded away from the Hydra and growled as the disabled head suddenly healed the broken jaws and got back into the fray. I stood up, ribs twinging in protest just in time for one of the Ankhegs to tunnel up from under me and snap its mandibles into my leg, cutting a gash into my calf as it tried to pull me under. Fortunately, I was able to use my enhanced strength along with telekinesis to avoid that and plunged my blade into its complex series of eyes, stabbing it through the brain and killing it.

As I clambered back up onto even footing, I spotted that Oz had killed the remaining Wargs with his pistol and managed to tag team one of the Owlbears with Xander. The two were facing off against the last Owlbear with pistol and Poleaxe. Meanwhile, Amy had managed to kill the remaining four Aurumvoraxes by setting one aflame with a basic pot of flaming oil and then using Fireflow to spread that fire to three others before snuffing it out with a water sphere. The last had apparently been killed by a telekinetic neck snap. Now Amy was dueling the third and final Ankheg, which kept tunneling underground to avoid her spells. Meanwhile, Buffy looked fairly beaten up, as she was trading blows with Makintaro, whose Demonic Energy Techniques were healing his wounds at a rate similar to that of the Hydra while Buffy's regeneration took up to a day to fully heal her.

That was all the time I had for scoping out the state of the battle, though, as the Hydra moved in to attack me with multiple heads. I dodged, ducked, and weaved as best I could, but with cracked ribs and a wounded leg, I wound up parrying more often than I'd have liked. In the end, however, I managed to hit the Hydra with one of the spells from Kasim's spellbook. With an arcane gesture and a chant in mystic language, I stopped the Hydra's movement with a Hold Monster spell. My will and mystical might proving sufficient to root the Hydra in place long enough for me to cleave through a second head and cauterize it with the Great Kung Lao's Dragon Fire Blast. Unfortunately, the Burning Chi Blast ensured that the Hydra wouldn't regenerate from that stump but also shocked it enough to begin to move again.

Fortunately, I was already moving away as it woke from the stopped movement imposed on it by my spell. I leaped at it once more, hoping to take another head before it fully threw off my spell. Unfortunately, it proved surprisingly able to wake up, smashing me aside in another of those odd headbutts, this time bruising my tailbone along with cracking my right floating ribs. I landed hard on the ground with a grunt of pain but drew on another of Kasim's spells to avoid the follow-on bite. An arcane gesture and mystic incantation found an Acid Arrow spell streaking from my hand to eat into and through the Hydra's descending head. The constant pressure of acid that just kept eating through its neck with every second proved too much for the Hydra and its head stopped its attempt to bite me.

As I pushed myself up off the ground, the head that I hit with the Acid Arrow was severed from the spell, the acid burning through the neck entirely and cauterizing the stump as it went. Three heads down, two to go before the Hydra was finally slain. I headed back into the fray, swaying out of the way of an attempt to bite me from one head and cutting down with the Green Destiny. A fourth head was severed, and this time I hit the stump with a Dragon First Punch with my off-hand, the burning Chi attack from the Great Kung Lao catching the stump on fire and cauterizing the wound as the flames engulfed it. The last head reared back, and I could see the fear in its eyes as the Hydra tried to claw at me with its body's forelimbs. I launched myself into a Ressen Kyaku Kai, the more powerful version of Master Tung Fu Rue's Thousand Violent Kicks taking me skyward out of the range of the claws to smash into the Hydra's last head.

With a plaintive whine, the Hydra toppled to the side, sprawling out over the train tracks as my Resen Kyaku Kai struck it down and disabled its last remaining head. As I landed nearby, I cut out with the Green Destiny one last time, cauterizing the wound with one more Ahaooh Castiga, and finally killing it. I straightened up, looking around and noticing that everyone else except for Buffy seemed to be finishing up their fights. Oz had moved to help Amy by dragging the last Ankheg up out of its tunnels with his enhanced Werewolf Strength so she could finish it while Xander had the last Owlbear impaled through the neck on the spike of his Poleaxe.

Buffy meanwhile, looked beat up. Makintaro was clearly getting the better of her. Seeing this, I charged him from the side, putting the Green Destiny into my expanded pocket and blurring into the Hyakurenko of Master Gen. The pressure point strikes smashed into half a dozen vital areas on Makintaro's body, temporarily stunning him. As I stopped, I poured Chi into a Hadouken from the Ansatsuken Manual that Sheila had given me for Christmas, the Chi Blast smashing the stunned Makintaro to the side.

Buffy looked over at me before asking, "Fighting this guy bare-handed has been a major pain. Do you have a weapon I could use?"

I reached into my expanded pocket and pulled out a blackened, mystical, hatchet that I'd kept from Luther's collection, handing it to Buffy. She took it with a nod and bore down on Makintaro, who had just gotten back to his feet after shaking off the temporary paralysis. Buffy swung down with her hatchet and cleaved off Makintaro's arm, which had since shifted from a bone axe to a bone club.

"Beat me to death, huh? How are you gonna do that now?" Spat Buffy.

"Gah! You bitch! Just you watch this!" Snarled Makintaro, concentrating for a moment before his arm spontaneously regenerated in a burst of demonic energy. Immediately, the arm turned into a bone axe, as Makintaro was apparently done messing around.

"Neat trick. Wanna see one of mine?" Snarked Buffy.

"Fuck you! Enough games, you die now!" Howled Makintaro.

Makintaro charged Buffy only for her to toss the hatchet at him. The blade struck his skull as he tried to charge into chopping range, splitting it open. Makintaro stumbled a few more steps closer to Buffy, his great fortitude keeping him going a bit longer, but just before reaching her with his axe arm, he slumped to the ground, dead.

"Tada!" Smirked Buffy.

We had won the battle. Unfortunately, it seemed that Spike had gotten away with whatever he was after, along with Dave Gustafson. We'd still taken out one of the members of Angelus' New Whirlwind, though. Of course, something odd was occurring as well. None of the summoned monster corpses were dissolving back to their initial planes. It took Amy looking over Dave's wand to figure out why.

"This isn't a wand of Monster Summoning. It's a sort of Limited Gate Wand. I'm not sure I've seen or even heard of anything like it! It seems to trade the power of summoned entities for the ability to summon more entities. Around four at a time, if I'm looking at this right. There's still six charges on it too." Explained Amy.

"What does that mean?" Asked Xander.

"Aside from the obvious, like how Spike's pet Wizard is dangerous, he means." Opined Buffy.

"Well, with the way that the version of Sorcery that Dave Gustafson practices is set up, spells come in Circles. The higher the number of Circle, the more powerful the spell. Gate is a Ninth Circle Spell, but the sorts of monsters that were gated in to fight us were the kind that you'd get from the Sixth Circle Version of Monster Summoning. I'm guessing that means this Limited Gate Spell is around a seventh or eighth-circle spell. It means that Dave is more powerful than Kasim the Terakan Sorcerer was by at least one circle, possibly two, and had just been hiding it." I informed.

"No wonder Rack threw him out. Guy's a threat." Remarked Oz.

"It also means one more thing, though." Nodded Amy.

"What's that?" Questioned Xander.

"Loot, of course!" Chirped Amy.

"What are you talking about, they're all monsters. It's not like they had any weapons or anything." Demanded Buffy.

"I don't think that's what she means." Intoned Oz.

"Nope, we're talking body parts to be used as crafting components." I confirmed.

"Gross." Gagged Buffy.

"Gotta agree with the Buffster on that one." Added Xander.

"If you guys want to leave you can." Pointed out Amy.

"Yeah, Amy and I can handle this, just take Xander home on the way back." I concurred.

"Come on, I'll take you home." Smirked Oz.

As they headed out, Amy and I got to work. Hides from Owlbears, two of the Aurumvoraxes, and the Hydra were skinned, Carapaces from Ankhegs were collected, teeth from the Hydra and Worgs prized out of mouths, tongues, eyes, blood, bones, fat, sinews, and bile were collected from everything save the three incinerated Aurumvoraxes. Those three Aurumvoraxes produced around two-hundred pounds of raw gold each thanks to the bio-alchemical processes that were kickstarted by incinerating their corpses.

By the time we were finished, it was two in the morning and there was practically nothing left of the gated-in monsters. About the only thing we didn't grab was the meat from the two, skinned Aurumvoraxes. Amy piled all of the components into several bags of holding she had enchanted previously and headed for the car. Meanwhile, I stopped to make a single call from a nearby payphone to the Mayor's office, letting him know about the fight. He'd be sending people to clean up afterward anyway unless I missed my guess. Who knew, maybe he knew a Demon who was immune to poison to a high enough degree that it could eat Aurumvorax Meat? It was damn sure too toxic for humans to eat and not keel over, after all.

The Mayor, meanwhile, thanked me and told me he would take it as a personal favor if I could make sure that whatever scheme Angelus and his group were pulling would be stopped. I misliked trading favors with a Dark Sorcerer of his power like this, but I was going to do that anyway. Besides, if he'd already found out that Angelus was back it was likely that he was keeping an eye on the situation anyway, so I agreed.

When we returned back to my converted warehouse, the pair of us immediately hit the showers and then went to sleep. We could get to crafting in the morning, and I was beaten up enough that a bit of sleep to let my regeneration kick in would only do me good. It'd wind up being the first of March before we ran into any of the New Whirlwind again.

When we did, it would be as they were making their way out of Restfield Cemetary with another of those wooden boxes that reeked of dark magic. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so that's one member of the New Whirlwind Down. Unfortunately, Spike and Dave Gustafson got away with the Head of the Judge. In the process, Dave revealed that he actually has more power under the hood than anyone thought he did. It seems Rack kicked him out when he found out about that and found he could no longer leech off Dave. Rack isn't the kind of guy to let a potential threat live under the same roof, but he also had some attachment to Dave as a person, hence kicking him out to fend for himself instead of trying to kill him, and potentially wrecking his sanctum in the process.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of Zeke Tyler and the Invasion of Small Town Ohio from The Faculty, Jack Crow and the Renegade Cardinal from John Carpenter's Vampires, Inspector Tequila Yuen and his Gun-Fu from Hard Boiled, Makintaro, and Makai Demons are from Yu Yu Hakusho, All of Dave Gustafson's Magic, along with Aurumvoraxes, Ankhegs, Worgs, Owlbears, and Five-Headed Hydras, along with their uses are from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons, Whammy Burger is from Falling Down, The Great Kung Lao is from Mortal Kombat, the Hadouken and Gen are from Street Fighter, Tung Fu Rue is from King of Fighters, the Green Destiny is from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Blood Jellies are from Castlevania Sixty-Four, and the Quigley Colt is from Quigley Down Under.

At any rate, the next chapter will be another time skippy chapter as we go through the rest of February. Then we'll have the second clash between the New Whirlwind and Ulysses, Buffy, and their respective groups. Once that's done, we'll finally get to the attack of the Judge. Then there will be one more interlude followed by one more chapter before we're finally done with the Angelus Arc and Ulysses can leave Sunnydale for the Summer.

Stay tuned. . .