Chapter 62

With Spike still at large, albeit on crutches, and Drusilla now back to full physical health, even if she was still quite mad, I redoubled the pace of my training along with that of Amy, Sheila, and Xander. We couldn't afford to slack off now that one half of the Whirlwind was in play. What this primarily meant was a renewed focus on training as opposed to social obligations, something that was not great for our various relationships. While I still made time once a week for Cordelia, that was largely the extent of my social interactions. Amy and Sheila weren't the most social of people to begin with, though in different directions. Really, it was Xander who suffered the most from this new focus.

Xander was already torn between two groups of friends, having a foot in both mine and Buffy's camps. With extra training added into the mix, something had to give. That something wound up being his relationship with Ampata. The former Life-sucking Incan Mummy Girl and Xander had been a couple for months now, and had always had time for each other, going to see movies, having dinner, and whatnot. Unfortunately, my insistence on training led to those outings becoming few and far between. It'd been during the sole date they had in December, a trip to see Pinocchio starring Joey Tribbiani, that Ampata had broken up with him.

I wasn't entirely sure what words had been exchanged beyond Ampata saying that Xander had been neglecting her all month, but the end result had been that she'd broken up with him during the post-movie food outing at Mondo Burger and had caught a flight back to Peru the next day. It had made Xander a bit less enthusiastic for training until I agreed to start him on the Shou Ha. The prospect of learning tovfire an actual Chi Blast seemed to pick his spirits right back up.

Speaking of techniques, over the course of December, Xander and Sheila learned not only the various Chi-based Combos of the Great Kung Lao, but also the Senshippou and Ressenkyaku of Master Tung Fu Rue, and the Zan'ei of Master Gen. Not only that, but their Basic Chi Enhancement had grown to the point where they would both be capable of going one-on-one with a Master Vampire with eighty years of undeath under their belt. That wasn't saying much, given how Drusilla had over a hundred-thirty years of undeath under her belt and Spike was even older, to say nothing of their trickiness or Drusilla's Seer abilities. It was still a lot compared to most people, though.

Meanwhile, Amy had finished her first enchanted item, a steel copy of Kasim's Adamantine Dagger of Celerity. It wasn't as potent as the adamantine dagger, given how the properties of the metal allowed more accuracy and a sharper edge by default, but she made up for it with magical enhancements. She now had a melee weapon that would make her faster and I began to teach her some dual weapon fighting techniques to better utilize the weapon alongside her Magic Kris. With both the dagger and kris, plus her mystic enhancement spells, Amy was turning into quite the little dervish when it came to using weapons with Escrima. In a purely physical contest, I'd give her even odds of victory against a Master Vampire with sixty-five years of undeath under their belt. That's without using offensive magic.

Aside from that, Amy learned several more spells, Stoneskin, Waveform, Fireflow, and a few spells I taught her from my own research, such as the Daibakusatsu, a spell I found in the fourth volume of the Galford Journals detailing the second fight against the Revenant of Amakusa Shiro. It was essentially a tactile explosion, a version of shocking grasp that caused the struck target to explode in flames rather than be electrocuted. She also learned a few spells I found tucked away in a translated copy of a book of Egyptian Spells written by Jonathan Carnahan. The Wisdom of Horus, the Cloak of Amon, the Tongue of Hathor, and the Grasp of Sobek.

The first was an invocation of Horus in his aspect as the Master of the Hunt and allowed the caster to know the direction of people or objects they were looking for. The second invoked the God Amon in his aspect as the Hidden One and allowed the caster to engage in a version of disillusionment. The third invoked the Goddess Hathor in her aspect as the Mistress of Joy and granted the caster a supernaturally silver tongue. The last invoked the God Sobek in his aspect of the Lord of Robbery and allowed the caster to pick locks, disarm traps, and pickpocket with supernatural capability. All told, it was a book of spells more useful for a thief or tomb robber than a warrior, but given what my downloaded information had to say about the man who translated it, that was pretty spot on.

Of course, all of them continued to train in their chosen martial arts styles. By the time Christmas rolled around, all of them had attained First Dan or equivalents in their various chosen Martial Arts styles. This was largely thanks to the various fatigue cures, memory enhancers, and other force multipliers we all kept dosed to the gills with for training purposes. I took them as well, and they were largely the reason I could keep up my own pace of training while still teaching them. Well, that and the fact that I cut out all other social interaction except for the single night a week that I alotted for Cordy and I, or the occasional trip to Whammy Burger or Teriyaki Donut for food and drinks. I didn't even go to the Espresso Pump open mic if Cordy didn't want to for date night this month in order to better train.

As for what I was training, aside from learning the Daibakusatsu and Carnahan's Egyptian Thief Spells, I also picked up the spell of Cloudkill and the spell of Dimension Door from Kasim's scrolls. The first would be useful if Spike ever got control of more Hellhounds or any other Demonic Beasts. It created a cloud of toxic vapors that was deadly to most beings of lesser power, but also harmed beings that it could not kill. Of course, anything immune to poison wouldn't be effected at all, which included most varieties of Vampire and several species if Demon, but Hellhounds weren't among those. This would be able to put down the entire Pack that Spike had summoned at Saint Katherine's. The second spell was short-ranged teleportation, allowing me to teleport up to three-hundred yards away from my current position instantly.

Aside from that, I finished learning several other Chi Techniques, the Flying Dragon Kick and Whirlwind Spin of the Great Kung Lao, the Gekirou and Shitenshuu of Master Gen, and the Juujiken and Chou Shou Ha of Master Tung Fu Rue. These were, respectively, a literal Chi-enhanced flying side kick, a Chi-enhanced rapid spin that bounced incoming attacks away, a flurry of mid-air, Chi-enhanced kicks, a Chi-enhanced, dashing, one-fingered, strike to an enemy's vital points, a diving, Chi-enhanced, cross chop, and a massive Chi Blast of Heavy Chi. Some of these techniques were redundant with others, like the Gekirou was with the Ressenkyaku, but a little redundancy never hurt anyone and could lead to other insights into new techniques.

Aside from those, I continued my Martial Arts and Chi Enhancement training, though that was much slower going than learning new spells or Chi Techniques. All told, however, December turned out to be a pretty productive time for my group, if achieved by largely cutting out social interactions. That last part was why I was so surprised when Buffy showed up at my converted warehouse on the morning of the twenty-third with a box of Donuts from the Stan Mikita's Donuts in LA alongside coffee.

"Buffy. What are you doing here?" I blinked as I answered the door.

"Mom said I should play nice and Giles agreed, especially with how you've gone all hermit on us this month. Can I come in?" She questioned.

"Sure. I guess." I frowned, stepping aside.

Buffy walked inside and immediately noticed Sheila crashing on my couch and Xander passed out on an armchair. Neither of them were actually permanent residents, but Amy had moved herself in earlier in the month and was now my roommate. Speaking of the Tiny, Caffeine-deprived Witch, she stumbled into the main area in pajama bottoms and a camisole looking blearily at Buffy holding donuts and coffee.

"Ames, Buffy's here." I pointed out, figuring I'd give her a chance to go back upstairs and put something on over the camisole.

"Don't care. Coffee now." Intoned Amy.

"Here. Black, right?" Queried Buffy, holding out a large cup toward Amy.

Amy snatched the cup out of Buffy's hands and immediately took a sip. Sighing as the ratio of blood to caffeine in her body equalized to its usual levels. "Just the way I need it, black, like my soul." She sighed.

"Not that I'm one to look a gift horse in the mouth in case it bites me, but I'm guessing you had other reasons for stopping by than donuts and coffee?" I pressed.

"Donuts?" Came Xander's voice as he got up off the armchair he was sleeping on. Sheila seemed to be waking up too.

"Maybe let's hold off on the explanations until everyone's ready, yeah?" Grinned Buffy, amused.

"Sure. Amy needs her coffee fix anyway, and Sheila usually goes for a cigarette first thing in the morning." I shrugged.

"Yeah, there's too much blood in my caffeine stream right now." Agreed Amy. Meanwhile, Sheila was already pulling a battered packet of Red Apple Cigarettes out of her jacket, along with a lighter. Xander, meanwhile, had half a maple bar stuffed in his mouth and his mumbles of assent couldn't really be understood.

So we waited until Amy had finished her coffee, Xander had stuffed two donuts down his gullet, and Sheila had finished her smoke before Buffy started to let us know the reason for her visit. Apparently, Kendra's report back to Watcher Zabuto in Kingston hadn't painted Buffy's actions at Saint Katherine's in a particularly stellar light. Kendra was being recalled and second Watcher was being sent over from England to help out, since the Council had decided to put Giles on probation due to his Slayer's 'questionable conduct'. Apparently, the new guy, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce was kind of a know-it-all and also what Giles had referred to as an 'Utter Prat'. Apparently, he was fresh out of the Watcher's Academy where he'd been Head Boy and was the Golden Child of certain members of the Inner Council.

"Anyway, it's been a Hell of a month, between having to deal with this Wesley Guy and the whole Ted thing, so Mom thought it might be a nice idea to invite everyone over for Christmas Day as like a morale thing." Sighed Buffy.

"Alright, I'll bite, what Ted thing?" I asked.

"Oh, I didn't mention Ted? He was this schizo robot guy that tried dating my mom. Total fifties vibe and everything. He tried drugging me with cookies like he was drugging Mom, but thankfully, Kendra and Willow figured out his plan in time to turn the tables on him. It was actually the last thing Kendra helped out with before she had to go back to Jamaica. " Informed Buffy.

"A Robot, huh? Do you still have the parts?" I questioned.

"No. By the time we went back for Ted's body, it was gone. Willow said it was all Russian Stuff from the eighties anyway. Totally useless compared to the stuff that's out these days. Why?" Queried Buffy.

"'Cause the Russians have some pretty out there stuff when it comes to robotics. They just unveiled a working combat android, the Jack Series, a couple of years ago that was supposed to begin production this year. I'm a bit worried about that sort of loose end running around." I frowned.

"Combat Android? Are you saying we might have a Terminator corpse going walkabout?" Piped up Xander.

"I hope not." Added Amy.

"I'm sure it's fine, it sounds like this Ted Guy wasn't all that anyway, yeah?" Pressed Sheila.

"Yeah, outside of the drugs, he wasn't really any harder to beat up than some of the Demons I've slain." Confirmed Buffy.

"Even so, it's worth looking into. That kind of tech isn't widely available, even out of date by a decade or so like it is." I cautioned.

"Add it to the list. There's a lot of stuff already on there to be worried about as it is." Grumbled Buffy.

"Anyway, about your Christmas Invitation. Whose all going to this thing?" I asked.

"Aside from me and Mom? Willow, Giles, Willow's new boyfriend, Oz, and Wesley." Answered Buffy, face scrunching up at the mention of the new Watcher.

"What do you guys think? Should we go? Cordy's in Prague for Chrismas with her folks, so I've got no plans." I offered.

"Could be nice. My dad isn't exactly the most festive of people. We'd only wind up at a resturaunt anyway." Nodded Amy.

"You think not being Festive is bad? Try Christmas with your drunk mom and her latest boyfriend. I'm definitely in." Scoffed Sheila.

"You know I'm always down to visit, Buff." Affirmed Xander.

"It looks like we'll be there. What time do you want us over?" I questioned.

"Noon should be good. I'll take anyone over having to deal with Wesley a whole bunch." Groused Buffy.

With that, Buffy made to leave and the rest of us had gifts to prepare. Fortunately, I'd already prepped a bunch of stuff in advance. Magic items for everyone, not all of the others had been as dilligent. I knew Amy was done with her shopping and crafting, but Sheila and Xander were the type to wait till Christmas Eve rolled around and then get everything they needed to buy at the eleventh hour. Only now there were extra people to buy for in the form of Oz and Wesley, even if they would only get some basic stuff because everyone else was getting stuff. Amy also joined in for the trip to the mall, since she had no idea that Oz and Wesley were people she'd have to buy gifts for.

As for me, I'd already gotten Oz something, an enchanted belt buckle that would increase his speed. That was something he'd need to more quickly reload his revolver, as well as avoid attacks while out hunting. Wesley, though, well I wasn't sure if I should get him the same thing I'd bought Giles, that being a Forty Year Reserve bottle of Scotch. Probably not, from what Buffy had said, the guy seemed to have a real stick up his ass. Instead, I decided he'd prefer a book and grabbed the rare thirties edition of Tobin's Spirit Guide that Luther had left sitting in his library. It was out of date, but the age and rarity meant it was a similar gift as Giles' scotch.

As the others headed out for the mall, that left me alone to ponder Buffy's attitude shift. Maybe getting chewed out for fucking up and not helping me take out Spike had caused her to re-evaluate things? Was that possible? She had certainly put aside her ego when she'd come over. I pondered that for all of two seconds before discarding the idea with an amused snort. Sure she was playing nice now, but I wasn't at all betting on a complete attitude shift from Buffy. After all, that would mean she'd have admitted she was wrong about something. With that bit of amusement done, I set out to begin brewing more fatigue cures and memory enhancers. I would need them.

After all, this break for Christmas didn't mean we would stop training for the rest of the month. . .

XXXX

AN: All right. Bit of a time skippy chapter here. Lot of training progress being done, but also a few things have gone on in the background while Ulysses and company focused on training. Namely, Wesley has arrived a year earlier and Willow has begun dating Oz. The Ted thing also happened, and Ted's body vanishing is a sign that the Trio are continuing to gather power and equipment in the background. Expect Warren to be studying the tech to make Doombot-style minions for future plots.

As to Wesley, because it's a year earlier, he's literally just graduated from the Watcher's Academy. That means he doesn't even have the limited experience he did when he showed up in canon and will be even more of a pillock. Oz Meanwhile, has begun dating Willow, which means you can expect more interaction with Cowboy Oz going forward.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of Teriyaki Donut and Red Apple Cigarettes from the films of Quentin Tarantino, Mondo Burger from Good Burger, Whammy Burger from Falling Down, Jonathan Carnahan from the Mummy, and Stan Mikita's Donuts from Wayne's World. Finally, the Galford Diary, Amakusa Shiro's Revenant, and the Daibakusatsu are from Samurai Shodown.

At any rate, the next chapter will be Buffy's Christmas Party and be character interaction focused.

Stay tuned. . .