Episode 8: The Vampire Slayer

 

With many balls up in the air, the Slayer gang meets a new ally: Miles Callendar, junior ROTC cadet and Marcus Pope's new best pal. Marcus' dad is concerned that Marcus won't be able to qualify for Special Forces when he joins the Army after graduation, so he's asked Miles to toughen him up. Miles' father has told Miles to shape Marcus up, and Miles is not too thrilled, although the discovery that Marcus has been provided a fund to entertain Miles helps a little.

 

Miles' first day in the Yearbook Club is a mind-blower. Besides Dr. Armitage restocking Alexandra's 9mm ammo and showing Juliet a new Jeet Kune Do video he found, there's also the discussion of the day: should we invite Walker's werewolf relatives to come down for a while and help out? Diligence asks if Walker is the party animal of his group or more of the, well, Diligence, and Walker assures everyone his clan mates are okay folks. For werewolves.

 

Marshal turns up and has a private chat with Juliet to warn her: Husamettin, the Assamite leader, and a dozen of his friends are in town. Also, Marshal doesn't know why Belial, his commander, assigned him to Asmodel, the Fourth of the Fallen, but as obedience is the highest virtue, Marshal can hardly help but obey. His orders, as you will recall, are to kill Juliet's friends, one by one, when they're alone. Then when they're all gone, he's to kill Juliet. Julie tries to suggest that she no longer has any friends, or alternatively, that all the people on her listservs are friends, so Marshal had better kill them, too. Marshal knows nothing of computers, so in order to assemble his target list, he'll have to learn. Marshal admits that he learns slowly, so that should buy our guys some time.

 

Dr. Black shoots arrows at Marshal, which don't hurt him but do make him run off.

 

The football team is still missing, which leads some of our heroes to look about, and others to consult Dr. Armitage and Walker at the hospital. The Assamites attack at the hospital, coming in waves from the elevator, the X-ray room and right in through the window! Fortunately, just about everyone is on hand, and between machine-gun fire, stakes, Marshal's sword, Miles' razor-wire garotte and Marcus' new spring-powered stakethrower, all 12 Assamites are dusted. As are three others, neonates whom Julie identifies as members of the football squad. Guess that settles what happened to them ... they got turned into vampires!

 

The last vamp is dusted by an arrow fired by Faith, who has just shown up in the nick of time. Diligence is impressed with her martial skills and the amount of leather she wears, but Faith only has eyes for Julie -- there's Slayer stuff afoot they need to discuss. Faith and Julie walk down the hall a bit and Faith tells her the reason Faith got called to be a Slayer -- seems Buffy drowned, but was revived, and during the thirty seconds she was dead, Kendra got called. When Kendra died, Faith was called. And now Julie has received the call. Did Faith also drown, she asks? No, I'm an old-fashioned girl, Faith replies, and her face contorts into the vampire rictus. "I just plain died."

 

Faith bites Juliet, who uses a wrestling breakaway to break contact. Faith's Slayer strength is amplified by being a vampire, so she's crazy strong, but Julie is more athletic and trains way harder, so Faith can't seem to lay a hand on her while Juliet kicks her again and again. Miles throws a razor-bolo around Faith's neck and tries to pop  her head off, but she's too tough for that, and turns, to face not just Miles, but Alexandra with her fire spell, Marcus with his stakethrower, Diligence with a pair of bolt cutters, Marshal with his sword, and Walker with blood seeping between his fingers where he's torn his stitches, but still fighting mad.

 

Faith breaks for the window, and Julie throws a stake and scores a hit on the heart. But Faith hits the ground, rolls over, and reveals a bulletproof vest under her t-shirt. She's taunting Julie when Miles drops a five-gallon jug of napalm on her, setting her on fire with the splash. Faith runs screaming into the street and is hit by a truck, thrown 200 yards down the street and slammed through a plate glass window.

 

In the confusion, Billy snatches Marshal's sword. Marshal stalks Billy to get it back, but Billy makes him promise to kill Billy last, and also to help the gang find more weapons with which to attack the Fourth of the Fallen. Marshal agrees.

 

Now, of course there's no body. Which means Faith's out there somewhere, though possibly crippled and definitely unwilling to write Julie's pals off again. And the football team have become vampires, which means it's time to seek and destroy. Miles wonders if every day is like this, and the guys admit that, no, this was a busy one.

 

Alexandra's mother wins the mayoral election, and everyone attends her victory party. A motorcycle sputters up with a blond man dressed in white studded leather, like an Elvis impersonator. This is Bobby C, one of Walker's cousins. Quentin, the quiet one with the black mirrorshades, steals most of the refreshments while Natasha, the wild one, is riding the angel ice sculpture like a cowboy. The werewolves glare at everyone, then laugh, and declare it's good to be in town!