Let me know what you think, ok?
The Knights of Scooby
Chapter Two
by Lionheart
based on scene by Prince Charon
*-*-*-*-*
When dawn arose, ending their night of terrified vigil, the trio of teens broke up so each could go to their separate homes. None spoke as they were too busy dealing with their shock over the horrifying reality of the dangers that theyÆd seen, and the very helpless feeling theyÆd suffered as theyÆd watched those... creatures, assault, then drain and kill that innocent jogger.
TheyÆd wanted to do something to help, to stop that horrible, awful murder, but what?
They were still kids, and those were vampires! They had neither guns nor bows to do anything about it from a safe distance, and going out there to try and do anything to save the man in person would have been like three small pieces of candy bravely assaulting a hungry group of five year old kids!
TheyÆd felt helpless to save that man, and indeed they were, but that very helpless feeling underscored their fear and all night long those three friends had been very afraid indeed.
It was a life-altering experience for all of them.
For Xander in particular, who could see their black and sickening auras, it was an even worse experience than for his friends.
He also got annoyed at himself for his weakness. HeÆd sworn to Mr. Mage Dude whoÆd taught him (okay, a couple of minutes one evening while heÆd made him memorize some books, but still) that he would protect his friends.
The trouble with that was, Xander spent that whole night wondering how on Earth he was going to do it!
Vampires were faster and stronger than humans were, by a lot! Okay, so they were toasty, but he hadnÆt had any convenient cans of lighter fluid to spray around to save that guy.
Maybe he should?
Ok, pyro tendencies aside, there had to be something he could do. And, as they spent the night in horror waiting for the dawn to come, Xander had had an idea.
Ok, it wasnÆt much of one, and he had no idea if it was truly going to work or not. But both of those books on demons had said that one good way to slay a vampire was to stick a wooden stake through its heart.
Well, after seeing those vampires effortlessly toy with a grown man, a fit jogger who looked like he also lifted weights, neither Xander nor his friends would be terribly eager to walk up to one of the living dead and try their luck perforating its chest cavity with a broken off ruler.
But something about one of the lines in Van HellsingÆs guide struck him, and heÆd been worrying that thought over in his head all night.
Vampires grew stronger with age. The guide even said that fledglings were the easiest for a human being to destroy, as they were the weakest in their powers and had the most exploitable weaknesses - being able to find them was one, as you generally had a good idea where theyÆd been buried. But still, even the fledglings were far more than he felt he could handle.
So, Xander had stewed over this thought all night: was it possible to stake them even earlier? Like, say, before they even æwoke upÆ as vampires? That would be the easiest and safest of all, right? They wouldnÆt even be able to fight back at that point. Just shove the wood in and go.
He knew it was his fear talking, and right now it was one of the loudest things heÆd ever heard. But it seemed a simple yet sound theory. Even if the stake through the heart method wouldnÆt work until the vamp actually became a vamp, having the bit of wood already through there ought to stake it the moment staking became an option, right?
The boy was, quite frankly, terrified of trying to face those demons in any kind of stand up fight. They had toyed with that jogger and only seemed to enjoy themselves more as heÆd struggled. So anything that meant getting to avoid having to go through that dance himself was probably a good thing.
It was, quite frankly, the most sickening event heÆd ever had to watch, and with parents like his heÆd thought that record would be pretty hard to beat.
So, in the protecting rays of the soothing morning light, Xander had made his way to the nearest mortuary with a box of sharpened pencils. From what he knew about the theory of magic, coupled with those demonology texts, any kind of wood through the heart made some kind of short or grounding on the type of magic animating vamps as vamps. So even a pencil ought to do it, as it ought to be a magic thing, not a gross tissue damage sort of deal.
Which was a good thing, as a box of pencils was cheap, and they were easy to sharpen.
The hours around dawn were a golden opportunity, as it ought to be safe from the creatures that hunted the night, as well as being too early for the sort of routines led by normal people, so no one ought to run into him. That was good, as it made a little breaking and entering possible for very little risk.
Xander found that he couldnÆt do nothing, that it just wasnÆt in him to sit idly by and let those fang faced horrors assault and kill people in his town. But at the same time he was waaay too scared to even think about going up against them directly.
So, as they had waited for dawn to come, heÆd resolved to see if he couldnÆt try this to reduce their population indirectly.
Breaking into the mortuary was not the hardest experience in XanderÆs life. Working his nerve up to do it had been far harder. As he got there he discovered the service door in the back had a broken lock, probably left that way for years, and the claw marks around the handle had also been an eye-opener. Still, the place had been quiet as heÆd made his way inside.
The funerary services of Sunnydale were frighteningly efficient. TheyÆd tag, bag and bury bodies as part of a smooth operation that would give anyone the wiggins if they knew how much volume that service handled.
The teen had no way to know which bodies were those lost to æanimal attacksÆ or æGangs on PCPÆ and he wasnÆt about to stick around trying to find out, reading charts when who knows what demons could be about. So he just opened cabinets of refrigerated bodies and, after popping back outside to find a good, solid rock to use as a hammer, pounded away, shoving his pencils all of the way in body after body so they left no outward part. Then he spent half an hour gaining sufficient mastery of a *very* minor illusion, one of those æproof of conceptÆ magic tricks, so that he could cover the holes and make it seem like nothing had happened.
A bit of makeup would have done as well. Luckily, no one looked too closely at bodies in Sunnydale, although he did note that the doors into the staff areas like the employee lounge were all decorated with huge, elaborate Maltese crosses, and had silver plated door handles also worked in religious designs.
That was a good idea, and he wondered if the hardware store sold any.
Discarding his rock back to where heÆd found it on his way out, Xander reflected in shocked amazement that heÆd brought with him a box of two hundred pencils and it was severely depleted.
Still not feeling very Xander-like, almost certainly in shock from the whole night (not to mention what heÆd just done) the poor teen dragged himself home so that he could sleep.
Back at his house he skirted around the edges, sneaking up to his room, as his parents were in one of their shouting matches, once again over finances as each drunk blamed the other for spending too much. Xander paid very little attention to the content of the shouting, only to be glad it distracted both of them and let him sneak in unnoticed.
However, as Xander was showering just before he got to bed, his parents had settled down to angry glaring when an insurance salesman called at their door and both of them had the same thought all at once, almost like magic.
*-*-*-*-*
Much later that day, three kids on bicycles came to a stop before a store front, looking up at a sign that said, æTai ChiÆ.
ôSo, tell me again; Why are we spending our comic book money on this?ö Jesse quipped, looking dubiously through the glass at the gi-clad students within.
Xander shrugged. ôYou canÆt learn martial arts properly from a book. I ought to know, as I have a half dozen of some of the best books memorized and I canÆt make heads or tails out of how to start. ItÆs like hearing a tune on the radio then trying to play it on a piano. I know how itÆs supposed to go, but getting there is a whole nuther deal. So, while I probably could sort it out eventually, we are going to take a shortcut by going around town to find out which class has the best instructors so they can get us started. WeÆd need lots of drills in any case. This way we at least have an expert correcting our mistakes. The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread.ö
ôAnd, why do we need to know how to fight, again?ö Jesse rubbed the back of his neck while the others attached locking chains to their bikes. ôI was getting kind of attached to letting the jocks beat us up.ö
ôThink of it as taking away their birthday presents,ö Xander quipped.
ôOkay, IÆm fine with that,ö his lifelong buddy shrugged, then shrugged again. ôBesides High School jocks probably hit harder, and now weÆre old enough to appear on the radar of the vampires. So, I guess this is cool.ö
Willow appeared beside them, fresh from locking up their bikes (all three together), looking nervous and not at all sure of herself as she stared up at the shop sign.
ôHow is this going to work?ö she asked.
Xander gave a very casual shrug. ôI dunno. I like what IÆve read about Jeet Kune Do, but they havenÆt got a school for that here.ö Then he put his hands together in a martial arts æwise manÆ pose and intoned in a voice too silly to be serious, ôbut, as Master Bruce Lee taught, æThe Truth in Combat is different for each person in his style. You must research and absorb what is useful, and discard what is uselessÆ.ö
His æwise senseiÆ nodding pose was disrupted by Jesse taking a pretend swing at him. Laughing, the trio went inside, although it was a strained laughter.
In the end they would cut their allowances to the bone, scrounge, bite into savings and eventually ask loans from Willow to each sign up for three full length summer courses on self defense, each meeting five times a week. The courses they would take would be those with competent-seeming instructors (part of this was easy to judge by them having crosses around their necks and on the doors to their dojos), and so they started to learn Tai Chi, Shaolin Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do.
It would be an intensive summer program for them, studying all three at once. But then again it was the only thing theyÆd thought of yet that would make the butterfly filled knots of terror in their stomachs go away even a little bit.
They had seen the night, and it was dangerous. Learning how to defend themselves, as useless at that might be against the vastly superior vamps, was also the first thing they found that could calm them down even a little.
They also started to take longer bike rides, going out for exercise more than transportation as they went on more difficult routes through the local hills, filling out what Xander liked to call ætheir running away muscles.Æ
Willow got them all permission to visit a pool for swimming, where they all spent as much time horsing around as anything. It was good therapy, and a way to hang out and remain friends in spite of having so much reduced their mutual play times.
*-*-*-*-*
Back at the Harris residence, there were maids aplenty in evidence as a professional cleaning crew came through and thoroughly cleaned out the place from top to bottom.
They vacuumed, steam cleaned and dusted all of the corners, throwing out the accumulated garbage of ages, grubbing out all of the mess as well as spraying for insects and molds, along with placing in new carpets to replace the ones subjects to countless years of abuse, and painting over all of the interior walls.
It could hardly be accounted the same house, and they were hardly done with it yet. New curtains had been ordered, as well as new furniture and finishings that there was no way the Harris family could truly afford. The TV moved in after the cleaning crew left was so big theyÆd have had to move out if it wasnÆt a flat screen. The kitchen and bath wares got totally replaced with the newest top of the line models. They got new towels and silk sheets, with new beds to go underneath them, lighting fixtures got changed out for more expensive ones, and, indeed, the entire home went through a badly needed overhaul into something distinctly close to high class.
No one knew how, or why, but somehow XanderÆs mom had even managed to call on someone who remembered her from better times and could pull some strings to get this all done in a single week.
It had to have cost a bundle, but it happened.
The bill was enormous, but they smiled as Mr. Harris signed for the debt.
*-*-*-*-*
It was a week after they had first seen and acknowledged the existence of vampires, and Xander was back in the church where theyÆd seen a man killed, helpless to do anything to help him.
Xander still hadnÆt been able to get the frustrations heÆd felt out of his craw, so he had stolen a can of gasoline his dad kept in the garage for fueling the mower earlier that evening and spread it around the site of the major vamp gathering theyÆd seen that first night.
This time, as he was once again hanging out at the church with a set of binoculars he was lying on the floor of the belltower just barely peeking over the edge, as he didnÆt want any of the vampires to see him. The reason for this was he had in his hand a radio remote scavenged from an old toy, and connected to a pair of wires down in the cemetery that heÆd set to spark off the gasoline whenever he pulled the trigger.
While heÆd not yet mastered the spells from any of that techno-pagan stuff, some of the descriptions of technology they had proved to be very useful, as in setting up this very basic trap.
So, he waited as he once again saw the vamps gather and fledglings rise from their own fresh graves. The difference was, this time as soon as he had most of them gathering in the spot they had last time he lit off the gasoline, torching them all, killing off a whole group of them in a short burst of flame.
Once it was over, the young man found, to his own surprise, that he was shaking in relief. He hadnÆt known what he expected, but that was certainly far easier than heÆd originally feared.
Revenge for the jogger and a release from some part of his fears all at once. It felt very good in a very strange sort of way.
Now he only wished heÆd shared this moment with Willow and Jesse.
Jogging down the stairs to where heÆd left a sleeping bag laid out on a pew, the young man resolved to tell them about it - after heÆd run his now regular errand of staking all of the bodies at the morgue early the next morning.
*-*-*-*-*
ôSo you just burned them up, just like that?ö Jesse ignored his softdrink he was so impressed. Then he grinned widely and resumed stirring with his straw. ôDude, I so totally wish I couldÆve seen that! So, when are you going to invite us to the exciting rerun of the æBurn That VampireÆ show?ö
Xander was actually feeling uncomfortable as he shrugged. ôSorry. Van HellsingÆs guide is pretty firm that you should never set the same trap twice, ælest the hunter become the huntedÆ and all that. I guess what he meant to say was that these vamps were all human once, and that the older ones can think just like the rest of us, so if we become too predictable they can start setting traps for us, rather than the other way around.ö
ôWhat could they do to us on holy ground?ö Jesse gloated, still stirring his drink.
ôI dunno. Throw rocks, shoot us with guns, I guess. The old guides talk about them using swords and bows, so I canÆt see why they couldnÆt go buy a rifle or something.ö Xander was still struggling with this burden, even after a week. He sighed, ôbut anyway, Sun Tzu agreed with Van Hellsing. He said: Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.ö
ôOh,ö Jesse wilted, depressed.
ôBut how would they even know we are there?ö Willow bubbled.
ôVampires have excellent hearing, or so the guides say. TheyÆd probably be able to detect us by our breathing. But anyway, theyÆd smell the gasoline if we tried that a second time, and thereÆs no way theyÆd step on it. The first time they knew but didnÆt care, as they didnÆt see any danger.ö The boy of her dreams sighed, still struggling to restore his essential Xander-cheer. But she could so easily see why he felt this whole mess fell on his shoulders. I mean, who else could they rely on?
ôDude, I so totally want to flame a group of vamps,ö Jesse interrupted. ôCanÆt you think of anything?ö
Willow watched her crush try to sort through his knowledge trying to answer that question, the young redhead fretting visibly over his changes. It was sobering him, and a sober Xander was very un-Xander-like, a crime against nature. ôI wish there was something we could do to help,ö she pouted.
This restored a very Xander-like grin to his face, as he joked, ôWell, if you were very good I could just recite those old guides to you as bedtime stories. Too bad I donÆt have a physical copy, but the text is all here.ö He tapped his forehead. ôDo you think I should photocopy my head?ö
ôSo, you donÆt have a spell for reading minds?ö Jesse asked, nodding when Xander shook his head.
ôBut you could type it all out,ö Willow offered.
Both boys looked at her in varying stages of shocked disbelief.
ôIÆm serious,ö the redhead wriggled into a better state to preach her idea. ôI could give you lessons, and IÆve got a word-processor. IÆll bet you wouldnÆt be long before you were up to sixty or eighty words a minute, and it would do us all good to have Word files of those books. That way theyÆd be searchable and I could cross reference them, not to mention we could all read them.ö
ôYah, but that would take all summer,ö Xander protested, leaning back as if to distance himself from the amount of work sheÆd just implied him doing.
ôBut the time will pass anyway, whether you type out those books or not,ö Willow countered. ôThink of how much better prepared weÆd be if we could know all the stuff you do about how to fight ugly, nasty, icky things!ö
ôUh, I thought most of our plan was to run away?ö Jesse prompted.
Xander once again dropped into what his friends had taken to calling his æwise guyÆ pose as he mocked old teachers with great pretended seriousness. ôSun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected as we prepare to run like chimps with our pants on fire.ö
Willow giggled while Jesse guffawed out loud.
Still in his pretended teacher mode, Xander raised a finger in mock wisdom. ôAll warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.ö
Continuing in his æwise guyÆ act, Xander waggled his eyebrows, pontificating while his friends sniggered. ôHold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.ö
Still amused at his overacting, Jesse waved his friend down. ôYah, yah, I get it: Where you are weak, appear strong. Where you are strong, appear weak, and so on. But thatÆs bogus! WeÆre totally weak! We canÆt possibly fight them! And how are we supposed be seem strong anyway? Well, maybe if we had, like, a vampire-proof suit or something, but... I dunno, do you think we could, like, paint an æSÆ on your chest and get you to wear blue tights and a cape, or something? Do you know how to fly yet?ö
ôNo!ö Xander laughed along with them.
ôWould be nice if we could, though,ö Willow murmured, eying Xander as she blushed prettily.
Could they actually come up with such a thing?
He wondered.
Now Xander had never truly used all of the brains he had been given at his birth. However, he was continually forced to reexamine that habit over the past week since Mr Mage Dude had stopped by his bedroom, and only part of that was the mage giving him a hypnotic command to do so. He had bunches of reasons, and actually Sun Tzu summed up most of them pretty well: The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
Or, to use a modern colloquial, ôhe who fails to prepare, prepares to fail.ö
And, to put it bluntly, failure in this meant either death, or worse, for himself or for his friends.
But dang it! Now this was all sounding like schoolwork!
Then again, without a bit of math he never couldÆve been sure of getting that radio remote gas trap to go off, and without that he never couldÆve dusted so many vamps on his first try.
On reflection, he decided he could live with a bit of schoolwork if that kept he and his friends alive. That certainly gave more meaning to the experience than dull routines, boring homework, and the uninterested glares his parents and teachers gave regardless of whether he did well or poorly.
Blowing up a few vamps here or there could almost be considered reward enough for the whole school experience on its own. What was otherwise dull being used to explosively remove certain fang-faced cretins from the area in balls of flaming death... well, he could no longer say that his school material was boring, or that it had no practical value to his life, or even that it was uninteresting anymore, as he was very interested in exploding vamps.
And all of that techno-pagan stuff was about technology, and technology was all about science, and that was, admittedly, one of those subjects theyÆd more or less been failing to cram into his head at school.
Another line came to him, this time from the Book of Five Rings: It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.
Maybe there was more to this that he could be investigating?
Yet another quote assailed him: From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of Strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see. You must study hard.
Xander sighed inwardly, resigning himself. All of the experts seemed to agree that it was time for him to start channeling Willow as far as studies go. And, with the lives of his friends at stake, poised to enter the bait pool of a town full to overflowing with icky, superhuman uglies, he couldnÆt say that it wasnÆt something he was willing to do.
Even he knew that lessons in applied chemistry eventually yielded things like TNT and plastic explosive and all sorts of nifty toys that one could use to play with the undead. TheyÆd never teach the actual formulas to High School students, but heÆd need that solid grounding in the basics they did give if he ever wanted to make use of any of those recipes, should he find them.
Similarly physics and all that. Who cared about bending light? Well, now that he could very well be fighting vampires every so often, if he could find a way to bend some sunlight into a lair here or there... it had possibilities.
Some of that technomancy stuff sounded so sweet. Yet the key to that was science and the key to science was math.
ôXander?ö Willow ventured, causing him to realize that heÆd been spacing out for a while there.
He shook himself. ôSorry Wills, got distracted there. I think we could actually make a vampire-proof suit if we wanted to. If we just put crosses all over the surface of it they shouldnÆt be able to touch it. No touching means no biting, so it should be safe to wear outside at night.ö
End of Chapter Two
The Knights of Scooby
Chapter Two
by Lionheart
based on scene by Prince Charon
*-*-*-*-*
When dawn arose, ending their night of terrified vigil, the trio of teens broke up so each could go to their separate homes. None spoke as they were too busy dealing with their shock over the horrifying reality of the dangers that theyÆd seen, and the very helpless feeling theyÆd suffered as theyÆd watched those... creatures, assault, then drain and kill that innocent jogger.
TheyÆd wanted to do something to help, to stop that horrible, awful murder, but what?
They were still kids, and those were vampires! They had neither guns nor bows to do anything about it from a safe distance, and going out there to try and do anything to save the man in person would have been like three small pieces of candy bravely assaulting a hungry group of five year old kids!
TheyÆd felt helpless to save that man, and indeed they were, but that very helpless feeling underscored their fear and all night long those three friends had been very afraid indeed.
It was a life-altering experience for all of them.
For Xander in particular, who could see their black and sickening auras, it was an even worse experience than for his friends.
He also got annoyed at himself for his weakness. HeÆd sworn to Mr. Mage Dude whoÆd taught him (okay, a couple of minutes one evening while heÆd made him memorize some books, but still) that he would protect his friends.
The trouble with that was, Xander spent that whole night wondering how on Earth he was going to do it!
Vampires were faster and stronger than humans were, by a lot! Okay, so they were toasty, but he hadnÆt had any convenient cans of lighter fluid to spray around to save that guy.
Maybe he should?
Ok, pyro tendencies aside, there had to be something he could do. And, as they spent the night in horror waiting for the dawn to come, Xander had had an idea.
Ok, it wasnÆt much of one, and he had no idea if it was truly going to work or not. But both of those books on demons had said that one good way to slay a vampire was to stick a wooden stake through its heart.
Well, after seeing those vampires effortlessly toy with a grown man, a fit jogger who looked like he also lifted weights, neither Xander nor his friends would be terribly eager to walk up to one of the living dead and try their luck perforating its chest cavity with a broken off ruler.
But something about one of the lines in Van HellsingÆs guide struck him, and heÆd been worrying that thought over in his head all night.
Vampires grew stronger with age. The guide even said that fledglings were the easiest for a human being to destroy, as they were the weakest in their powers and had the most exploitable weaknesses - being able to find them was one, as you generally had a good idea where theyÆd been buried. But still, even the fledglings were far more than he felt he could handle.
So, Xander had stewed over this thought all night: was it possible to stake them even earlier? Like, say, before they even æwoke upÆ as vampires? That would be the easiest and safest of all, right? They wouldnÆt even be able to fight back at that point. Just shove the wood in and go.
He knew it was his fear talking, and right now it was one of the loudest things heÆd ever heard. But it seemed a simple yet sound theory. Even if the stake through the heart method wouldnÆt work until the vamp actually became a vamp, having the bit of wood already through there ought to stake it the moment staking became an option, right?
The boy was, quite frankly, terrified of trying to face those demons in any kind of stand up fight. They had toyed with that jogger and only seemed to enjoy themselves more as heÆd struggled. So anything that meant getting to avoid having to go through that dance himself was probably a good thing.
It was, quite frankly, the most sickening event heÆd ever had to watch, and with parents like his heÆd thought that record would be pretty hard to beat.
So, in the protecting rays of the soothing morning light, Xander had made his way to the nearest mortuary with a box of sharpened pencils. From what he knew about the theory of magic, coupled with those demonology texts, any kind of wood through the heart made some kind of short or grounding on the type of magic animating vamps as vamps. So even a pencil ought to do it, as it ought to be a magic thing, not a gross tissue damage sort of deal.
Which was a good thing, as a box of pencils was cheap, and they were easy to sharpen.
The hours around dawn were a golden opportunity, as it ought to be safe from the creatures that hunted the night, as well as being too early for the sort of routines led by normal people, so no one ought to run into him. That was good, as it made a little breaking and entering possible for very little risk.
Xander found that he couldnÆt do nothing, that it just wasnÆt in him to sit idly by and let those fang faced horrors assault and kill people in his town. But at the same time he was waaay too scared to even think about going up against them directly.
So, as they had waited for dawn to come, heÆd resolved to see if he couldnÆt try this to reduce their population indirectly.
Breaking into the mortuary was not the hardest experience in XanderÆs life. Working his nerve up to do it had been far harder. As he got there he discovered the service door in the back had a broken lock, probably left that way for years, and the claw marks around the handle had also been an eye-opener. Still, the place had been quiet as heÆd made his way inside.
The funerary services of Sunnydale were frighteningly efficient. TheyÆd tag, bag and bury bodies as part of a smooth operation that would give anyone the wiggins if they knew how much volume that service handled.
The teen had no way to know which bodies were those lost to æanimal attacksÆ or æGangs on PCPÆ and he wasnÆt about to stick around trying to find out, reading charts when who knows what demons could be about. So he just opened cabinets of refrigerated bodies and, after popping back outside to find a good, solid rock to use as a hammer, pounded away, shoving his pencils all of the way in body after body so they left no outward part. Then he spent half an hour gaining sufficient mastery of a *very* minor illusion, one of those æproof of conceptÆ magic tricks, so that he could cover the holes and make it seem like nothing had happened.
A bit of makeup would have done as well. Luckily, no one looked too closely at bodies in Sunnydale, although he did note that the doors into the staff areas like the employee lounge were all decorated with huge, elaborate Maltese crosses, and had silver plated door handles also worked in religious designs.
That was a good idea, and he wondered if the hardware store sold any.
Discarding his rock back to where heÆd found it on his way out, Xander reflected in shocked amazement that heÆd brought with him a box of two hundred pencils and it was severely depleted.
Still not feeling very Xander-like, almost certainly in shock from the whole night (not to mention what heÆd just done) the poor teen dragged himself home so that he could sleep.
Back at his house he skirted around the edges, sneaking up to his room, as his parents were in one of their shouting matches, once again over finances as each drunk blamed the other for spending too much. Xander paid very little attention to the content of the shouting, only to be glad it distracted both of them and let him sneak in unnoticed.
However, as Xander was showering just before he got to bed, his parents had settled down to angry glaring when an insurance salesman called at their door and both of them had the same thought all at once, almost like magic.
*-*-*-*-*
Much later that day, three kids on bicycles came to a stop before a store front, looking up at a sign that said, æTai ChiÆ.
ôSo, tell me again; Why are we spending our comic book money on this?ö Jesse quipped, looking dubiously through the glass at the gi-clad students within.
Xander shrugged. ôYou canÆt learn martial arts properly from a book. I ought to know, as I have a half dozen of some of the best books memorized and I canÆt make heads or tails out of how to start. ItÆs like hearing a tune on the radio then trying to play it on a piano. I know how itÆs supposed to go, but getting there is a whole nuther deal. So, while I probably could sort it out eventually, we are going to take a shortcut by going around town to find out which class has the best instructors so they can get us started. WeÆd need lots of drills in any case. This way we at least have an expert correcting our mistakes. The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread.ö
ôAnd, why do we need to know how to fight, again?ö Jesse rubbed the back of his neck while the others attached locking chains to their bikes. ôI was getting kind of attached to letting the jocks beat us up.ö
ôThink of it as taking away their birthday presents,ö Xander quipped.
ôOkay, IÆm fine with that,ö his lifelong buddy shrugged, then shrugged again. ôBesides High School jocks probably hit harder, and now weÆre old enough to appear on the radar of the vampires. So, I guess this is cool.ö
Willow appeared beside them, fresh from locking up their bikes (all three together), looking nervous and not at all sure of herself as she stared up at the shop sign.
ôHow is this going to work?ö she asked.
Xander gave a very casual shrug. ôI dunno. I like what IÆve read about Jeet Kune Do, but they havenÆt got a school for that here.ö Then he put his hands together in a martial arts æwise manÆ pose and intoned in a voice too silly to be serious, ôbut, as Master Bruce Lee taught, æThe Truth in Combat is different for each person in his style. You must research and absorb what is useful, and discard what is uselessÆ.ö
His æwise senseiÆ nodding pose was disrupted by Jesse taking a pretend swing at him. Laughing, the trio went inside, although it was a strained laughter.
In the end they would cut their allowances to the bone, scrounge, bite into savings and eventually ask loans from Willow to each sign up for three full length summer courses on self defense, each meeting five times a week. The courses they would take would be those with competent-seeming instructors (part of this was easy to judge by them having crosses around their necks and on the doors to their dojos), and so they started to learn Tai Chi, Shaolin Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do.
It would be an intensive summer program for them, studying all three at once. But then again it was the only thing theyÆd thought of yet that would make the butterfly filled knots of terror in their stomachs go away even a little bit.
They had seen the night, and it was dangerous. Learning how to defend themselves, as useless at that might be against the vastly superior vamps, was also the first thing they found that could calm them down even a little.
They also started to take longer bike rides, going out for exercise more than transportation as they went on more difficult routes through the local hills, filling out what Xander liked to call ætheir running away muscles.Æ
Willow got them all permission to visit a pool for swimming, where they all spent as much time horsing around as anything. It was good therapy, and a way to hang out and remain friends in spite of having so much reduced their mutual play times.
*-*-*-*-*
Back at the Harris residence, there were maids aplenty in evidence as a professional cleaning crew came through and thoroughly cleaned out the place from top to bottom.
They vacuumed, steam cleaned and dusted all of the corners, throwing out the accumulated garbage of ages, grubbing out all of the mess as well as spraying for insects and molds, along with placing in new carpets to replace the ones subjects to countless years of abuse, and painting over all of the interior walls.
It could hardly be accounted the same house, and they were hardly done with it yet. New curtains had been ordered, as well as new furniture and finishings that there was no way the Harris family could truly afford. The TV moved in after the cleaning crew left was so big theyÆd have had to move out if it wasnÆt a flat screen. The kitchen and bath wares got totally replaced with the newest top of the line models. They got new towels and silk sheets, with new beds to go underneath them, lighting fixtures got changed out for more expensive ones, and, indeed, the entire home went through a badly needed overhaul into something distinctly close to high class.
No one knew how, or why, but somehow XanderÆs mom had even managed to call on someone who remembered her from better times and could pull some strings to get this all done in a single week.
It had to have cost a bundle, but it happened.
The bill was enormous, but they smiled as Mr. Harris signed for the debt.
*-*-*-*-*
It was a week after they had first seen and acknowledged the existence of vampires, and Xander was back in the church where theyÆd seen a man killed, helpless to do anything to help him.
Xander still hadnÆt been able to get the frustrations heÆd felt out of his craw, so he had stolen a can of gasoline his dad kept in the garage for fueling the mower earlier that evening and spread it around the site of the major vamp gathering theyÆd seen that first night.
This time, as he was once again hanging out at the church with a set of binoculars he was lying on the floor of the belltower just barely peeking over the edge, as he didnÆt want any of the vampires to see him. The reason for this was he had in his hand a radio remote scavenged from an old toy, and connected to a pair of wires down in the cemetery that heÆd set to spark off the gasoline whenever he pulled the trigger.
While heÆd not yet mastered the spells from any of that techno-pagan stuff, some of the descriptions of technology they had proved to be very useful, as in setting up this very basic trap.
So, he waited as he once again saw the vamps gather and fledglings rise from their own fresh graves. The difference was, this time as soon as he had most of them gathering in the spot they had last time he lit off the gasoline, torching them all, killing off a whole group of them in a short burst of flame.
Once it was over, the young man found, to his own surprise, that he was shaking in relief. He hadnÆt known what he expected, but that was certainly far easier than heÆd originally feared.
Revenge for the jogger and a release from some part of his fears all at once. It felt very good in a very strange sort of way.
Now he only wished heÆd shared this moment with Willow and Jesse.
Jogging down the stairs to where heÆd left a sleeping bag laid out on a pew, the young man resolved to tell them about it - after heÆd run his now regular errand of staking all of the bodies at the morgue early the next morning.
*-*-*-*-*
ôSo you just burned them up, just like that?ö Jesse ignored his softdrink he was so impressed. Then he grinned widely and resumed stirring with his straw. ôDude, I so totally wish I couldÆve seen that! So, when are you going to invite us to the exciting rerun of the æBurn That VampireÆ show?ö
Xander was actually feeling uncomfortable as he shrugged. ôSorry. Van HellsingÆs guide is pretty firm that you should never set the same trap twice, ælest the hunter become the huntedÆ and all that. I guess what he meant to say was that these vamps were all human once, and that the older ones can think just like the rest of us, so if we become too predictable they can start setting traps for us, rather than the other way around.ö
ôWhat could they do to us on holy ground?ö Jesse gloated, still stirring his drink.
ôI dunno. Throw rocks, shoot us with guns, I guess. The old guides talk about them using swords and bows, so I canÆt see why they couldnÆt go buy a rifle or something.ö Xander was still struggling with this burden, even after a week. He sighed, ôbut anyway, Sun Tzu agreed with Van Hellsing. He said: Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.ö
ôOh,ö Jesse wilted, depressed.
ôBut how would they even know we are there?ö Willow bubbled.
ôVampires have excellent hearing, or so the guides say. TheyÆd probably be able to detect us by our breathing. But anyway, theyÆd smell the gasoline if we tried that a second time, and thereÆs no way theyÆd step on it. The first time they knew but didnÆt care, as they didnÆt see any danger.ö The boy of her dreams sighed, still struggling to restore his essential Xander-cheer. But she could so easily see why he felt this whole mess fell on his shoulders. I mean, who else could they rely on?
ôDude, I so totally want to flame a group of vamps,ö Jesse interrupted. ôCanÆt you think of anything?ö
Willow watched her crush try to sort through his knowledge trying to answer that question, the young redhead fretting visibly over his changes. It was sobering him, and a sober Xander was very un-Xander-like, a crime against nature. ôI wish there was something we could do to help,ö she pouted.
This restored a very Xander-like grin to his face, as he joked, ôWell, if you were very good I could just recite those old guides to you as bedtime stories. Too bad I donÆt have a physical copy, but the text is all here.ö He tapped his forehead. ôDo you think I should photocopy my head?ö
ôSo, you donÆt have a spell for reading minds?ö Jesse asked, nodding when Xander shook his head.
ôBut you could type it all out,ö Willow offered.
Both boys looked at her in varying stages of shocked disbelief.
ôIÆm serious,ö the redhead wriggled into a better state to preach her idea. ôI could give you lessons, and IÆve got a word-processor. IÆll bet you wouldnÆt be long before you were up to sixty or eighty words a minute, and it would do us all good to have Word files of those books. That way theyÆd be searchable and I could cross reference them, not to mention we could all read them.ö
ôYah, but that would take all summer,ö Xander protested, leaning back as if to distance himself from the amount of work sheÆd just implied him doing.
ôBut the time will pass anyway, whether you type out those books or not,ö Willow countered. ôThink of how much better prepared weÆd be if we could know all the stuff you do about how to fight ugly, nasty, icky things!ö
ôUh, I thought most of our plan was to run away?ö Jesse prompted.
Xander once again dropped into what his friends had taken to calling his æwise guyÆ pose as he mocked old teachers with great pretended seriousness. ôSun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected as we prepare to run like chimps with our pants on fire.ö
Willow giggled while Jesse guffawed out loud.
Still in his pretended teacher mode, Xander raised a finger in mock wisdom. ôAll warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.ö
Continuing in his æwise guyÆ act, Xander waggled his eyebrows, pontificating while his friends sniggered. ôHold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.ö
Still amused at his overacting, Jesse waved his friend down. ôYah, yah, I get it: Where you are weak, appear strong. Where you are strong, appear weak, and so on. But thatÆs bogus! WeÆre totally weak! We canÆt possibly fight them! And how are we supposed be seem strong anyway? Well, maybe if we had, like, a vampire-proof suit or something, but... I dunno, do you think we could, like, paint an æSÆ on your chest and get you to wear blue tights and a cape, or something? Do you know how to fly yet?ö
ôNo!ö Xander laughed along with them.
ôWould be nice if we could, though,ö Willow murmured, eying Xander as she blushed prettily.
Could they actually come up with such a thing?
He wondered.
Now Xander had never truly used all of the brains he had been given at his birth. However, he was continually forced to reexamine that habit over the past week since Mr Mage Dude had stopped by his bedroom, and only part of that was the mage giving him a hypnotic command to do so. He had bunches of reasons, and actually Sun Tzu summed up most of them pretty well: The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
Or, to use a modern colloquial, ôhe who fails to prepare, prepares to fail.ö
And, to put it bluntly, failure in this meant either death, or worse, for himself or for his friends.
But dang it! Now this was all sounding like schoolwork!
Then again, without a bit of math he never couldÆve been sure of getting that radio remote gas trap to go off, and without that he never couldÆve dusted so many vamps on his first try.
On reflection, he decided he could live with a bit of schoolwork if that kept he and his friends alive. That certainly gave more meaning to the experience than dull routines, boring homework, and the uninterested glares his parents and teachers gave regardless of whether he did well or poorly.
Blowing up a few vamps here or there could almost be considered reward enough for the whole school experience on its own. What was otherwise dull being used to explosively remove certain fang-faced cretins from the area in balls of flaming death... well, he could no longer say that his school material was boring, or that it had no practical value to his life, or even that it was uninteresting anymore, as he was very interested in exploding vamps.
And all of that techno-pagan stuff was about technology, and technology was all about science, and that was, admittedly, one of those subjects theyÆd more or less been failing to cram into his head at school.
Another line came to him, this time from the Book of Five Rings: It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.
Maybe there was more to this that he could be investigating?
Yet another quote assailed him: From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of Strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see. You must study hard.
Xander sighed inwardly, resigning himself. All of the experts seemed to agree that it was time for him to start channeling Willow as far as studies go. And, with the lives of his friends at stake, poised to enter the bait pool of a town full to overflowing with icky, superhuman uglies, he couldnÆt say that it wasnÆt something he was willing to do.
Even he knew that lessons in applied chemistry eventually yielded things like TNT and plastic explosive and all sorts of nifty toys that one could use to play with the undead. TheyÆd never teach the actual formulas to High School students, but heÆd need that solid grounding in the basics they did give if he ever wanted to make use of any of those recipes, should he find them.
Similarly physics and all that. Who cared about bending light? Well, now that he could very well be fighting vampires every so often, if he could find a way to bend some sunlight into a lair here or there... it had possibilities.
Some of that technomancy stuff sounded so sweet. Yet the key to that was science and the key to science was math.
ôXander?ö Willow ventured, causing him to realize that heÆd been spacing out for a while there.
He shook himself. ôSorry Wills, got distracted there. I think we could actually make a vampire-proof suit if we wanted to. If we just put crosses all over the surface of it they shouldnÆt be able to touch it. No touching means no biting, so it should be safe to wear outside at night.ö
End of Chapter Two
