Battle Lines
in this corner
William the Bloody,
Buffy Summers,
Wolverine,
Huntyr
Lightning,
Ratio Hornblower,
Rockman
in that corner
Spike,
Cave Slayer,
Ashe,
Kimmy
IMP,
Ares,
Darth Maul
stuck in the middle
the Bamfs
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This came about through the following events: #1 & #2
location: unspecefied neutral area and then William the Bloody's Sunnydale
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To make a long backstory short, juggled around a number of parallel and alternate dimensions, a vampire version of Buffy has been regularly abused by the vampire that sired her. While she had no real problem with this, she crossed paths with the IMP and he doesn't like to see people hurt for no good reason.
On top of this, in yet another reality, one of the Bamfs fell for this particular undead Buffy rather hard and vowed to beat the crap out of her sire. Bamfs, goofy horndogs that they are, back each other up rather oddly.
Here we go.
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The IMP considered those assembled around him, having been making numerous connections through his father and a few friends of his own in passing. The assempled group looked back on him, loose and ready to go...more or less.
Ares spoke up "Is the violence part really that necessary?"
"Bloody Hell." Spike rolled his eyes, "How exactly would you recommend we go about teachin this bastard what he's doin is wrong?"
"Well," Ares replied, "couldn't we scold him rather harshly?"
Spike's jaw dropped and then he got a murderous look, advancing on the godling and vamping out when Ashe grabbed him and pulled him back, "Better not."
The vampire turned and looked at the Crow for a second before shrugging off the grip.
"This is going to be fun." smiled the Sith from under his hood.
IMP looked over to him, "Think I could've picked a less volatile crowd, eh?"
"Not what I meant."
"Oh?"
Maul's smile broadened, "This volatile nature of this gathering makes it all the more appealing."
"Red Stripey be nice." the cave slayer looked up at him, poking him in the middle of the chest, "That talk not make for good times."
Maul chuckled at that but held his tongue for the moment. Buffy felt very good about herself for having chided the Sith and not needing to bop him one. Even moreso because she just noticed the tattooed girl just past him, who was glancing at her curiously....so she ambled over. She crouched next to her and smiled at her.
Kimmy looked at the straggly haired girl that was glancing back at her with some amusement, the face was kind of cute under all that mange. "Hi...I'm Kimmy the vampire slayer."
Buffy's eyes went wide, "Wow....Buffy impressed!"
"Did you say 'Buffy'? Aren't you a...?"
"Yuppers! Buffy a slayer too." she beamed at the other slayer. Then she sat right next to her and put an arm over her shoulder, "Not seen you before...you know anyone here?"
Kimmy glanced past Buffy to the Sith, "I got in a fight with Darth Maul almost a year ago...that's about it."
"Who won?"
"Let's just say that round two's gonna be all about me and leave it at that." she glowered at Maul, who turned and grinned back at her.
IMP stood back and let them chat amongst themselves. He didn't know about half of them but they all were interconnected through various associations. Personally he'd only really hung out with Maul and Buffy before, both of them being closely tied to his father. Besides, it wasn't like they were on a specific timeframe or anything...there was no damsel in distress here. In fact, the damsel in question was just very accepting of the circumstances...which bothered him even more.
Spike leaned back against a wall and lit a smoke, still eyeing the Crow because he couldn't figure out what he was exactly. The man...if that's what he was...seemed very detached from everything going on about him. He'd seen this kind of thing before but it seemed much more pronounced in this guy. Pulling out his pack he held it up, "Want one, mate?"
Ashe turned and glanced at the pack as though it were floating there on it's own before following the path up the arm to the shoulder and face of the one holding it. Shrugging, he took one and waited for the proferred light that came with it. Taking a long drag he nodded to Spike and then just watched the others again...seemingly as not a part of things as he could be, excepting the fact he was there.
"What exactly is your deal?" Spike whispered.
Ashe turned back and looked at him questioningly.
Spike rolled his eyes, taking another long drag, "I mean you're standing there sure enough but I ain't picking up no pulse or nothin... You sure as spit ain't a vamp."
"Ah..." he nodded, turning back to the vampire, "There are no words to speak....I am a Crow."
Crossing his arms, Spike just looked at him.
Ashe was taking great interest in the burning end of the cigarette, "A fallen angel if you will, a spirit of vengeance if that is not enough." he met the eyes of Spike over the tiny embers, "There was no instruction manual when I came to be."
Nodding, Spike inclined his head to the others, "What's your stake in all this, then?"
"I do not care to suffer the pain of another when there is something I might be able to do." he glanced back to the vampire again, "You?"
Spike snorted, "Bloke behind this is a darker version o' m'self." he looked up with a grim expresssion, "Been meanin to teach the blither a lesson but I got caught up in things."
"That's the way of the living."
"Which I'm not."
Ashe managed a sad smile, "Welcome to the club."
Chuckling, the vampire gave him a side look, "Think we should rate a bleedin union rep, eh?"
They both chuckled.
Sidling up to the IMP, Ares put an arm over his shoulder, "While I am opposed to this whole venture for purley moral reasons...how exactly are we going to get from here to there?"
"We're waiting for divine intervention." said the IMP.
"Really?"
"Most definitely."
Ares looked around and above, "When exactly do you expect this to happen?"
"As soon as you realize I'm hinting it's you."
"You consider me to be divine?"
IMP glanced askance at him, "Duh! ...you are a god."
"True." he smiled, "I'm still very touched by the faith you're instilling in me."
"Should've gotten the God of War version." the IMP choked under his breath.
"Pardon?"
"Never mind." he stood up, "Can you get us there or not?"
"Before you even asked..."
A brief passing of air to fill the void made by their absence was all the sound that was left.
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William the Bloody lay back on the couch with one of his two Buffy vampires draped over him. This was the only slightly more submissive one, the one that was a bit of a homebody but with a body like hers he wasn't in any rush to send her packing. The one that wasn't here, the more rebellious of the two, was off licking her wounds after their last set....that had been fun.
He was flipping through channels, nothing good on, while she nibbled at his neck.
Truth, having conquered Sunnydale had been relatively easy once he'd gotten his head on straight. Letting the demons that the slayer had previously always been killing take up residence as they would all over made the place rather peacable, surprisingly enough. All that the rabble had to do was accept him as the top man and everything was good to go. There'd already been some talk to extending their influence to the nearby cities and towns. No rush really but it was something to consider.
Most of his troops were out of the area just now, doing their own thing in their own territories, those that considered such things important. William did have a few troops, in his personal cadre, that were less concerned about having anything to gain other than his praise for good work. He liked that about them...not to knock the others that he had on retainer or anything. It was good to know he could count on them when he got attacked.
Which hadn't happened in quite awhile. He'd been a bit taken aback having to fight Buffy all over again, seeing as he'd snapped her neck not more than a couple months before. It turned out that he was being assaulted by otherdimensional variations of the slayer and her allies. That's why he'd begun to bulk up on more than the average run of the mill demons in the first place. Especially when they'd dragged in Illyria...that blue freak was a bit much for anyone to take on their own no matter how powerful they thought they were.
He could hear Wolverine and Rockman arguing over something in the other room and was dimly aware of a few others upstairs but nothing major was going on. Things had been right quiet like for a fair stretch and it didn't look like there was going to be any upset in things anytime soon.
When the large flash exploded between himself and the television, his first thoughts were he had kind of been asking for that.
William got to his feet fast, assessing the situation, as Buffy reached for the nearest blunt object and snarled. He toom a step forward and shouted at the people blocking his few of absolutely nothing to watch on the telly, "Who the bloody hell do you think you are to be messin with the Big Bad in his own home?" one of them turned and faced him causing him to step back in a bit of shock.
"Who else but the real Big Bad come a callin, mate." Spike snarled at him. He took a step forward but not before the cave slayer shot around him and tackled the vampire Buffy, the two of them crashing out the window.
From the next room, having heard the commotion just after the burst of light, Wolverine and Rockman lurched into the room. Cheking out the new players, they both charged in; Wolverine extended his claws and slashed at Maul who sidestepped, Kimmy getting clear fast backhanded the demonized mutant and regretted it immediately for his adamantium skull. Rockman saw the Sith dodge his friends attack and scooped him up by his cloak, slinging him to the far side of the room and down a hallway, stomping after him.
Wolverine turned on Kimmy, "Yer about as dead as dead can be, frail!" he slashed at her and missed only as Ashe stepped between them, taking the strike full on. The claws ripped through his sternum, which healed almost instantly but the pain was considerable. Ignoring that, he stepped into the charge a bit more, grabbing the mutant by the collar and hurling him towards the window the two slayers had just gone through, leaping after him.
Regaining his footing and sliding alongside his attacker, barely escaping those massive rocky fists, Darth Maul drew his lightsabre and slashed through Rockman's waist, dividing him in half. Smug in the fact that was over, he turned to see what he could to assist his allies. Taken completely off guard, he fell forward as his feet were yanked out from under him. Staring in shock, he saw that the two halves of the brute had formed into two seperate versions of the whole creature, each with half the mass of the original. He pulled his boot free, Force pushing one aside as he clamored back to a standing position, the other Rockman charged him. Catching him about the waist, they slammed through the garage door and down into the room beyond, the other Rockman getting to its feet and following.
Spike slammed William across the face, reaching for a nearby chair and smashing it over his doubles head. He'd heard that this darker version not only had the Ring of Amarah but that its essence was infused into his very being. Still, sometimes you've got to go with the basics. He reached down for a shard of wood when William came up hard, kicking him in the chest, hauling him up, and head butting him. Staggering back, he got his guard up in time to block another shot that was coming towards his face but he lost the piece of wood. Another kick drove him further back and then he was hauled close by his collar, William chuckling, "Always wondered how I'd be lookin dusted." Spike barely saw the stake as it went for his chest...
...only to be yanked from William's hand by a long green tail. The vampires both looked up in surprise as the IMP twisted the stake to his hand and dropped down on William. His tail wrapped tightly about the vampire's waist, securing both his legs with his feet and more or less getting both of his hands with his free one, "Surprise, fang face!" William was a bit too taken off guard to do anything fancy so he bit the green thing in the arm, immediately regretting it as the electricity lanced through his fangs and throughout his skull, "Yeah, I could've told you that was a bad idea if you'd asked..." IMP sited on about where the heart should be and brought the stake down.
Ever get the sense that stake is never going to find its target?
A bolt of directed lightning slammed sideways through the room, wrapping around the IMP, lifting him clear of William and across the room. He hit the wall and came down hard, smoking slightly; shaking his head from the after effect. He raised his eyes to the source of the bolt as another hit him, slamming him against the wall again and on through it.
Lightning followed closely, not giving the strange creature a chance to regain his footing. Electricity coursing up his arms and feet, he pounded the IMP repeatedly, partially disrupting his form and decidedly knocking him a far cry from conciousness.
Kimmy and Ares watched the chaos going on about them, unsure of how to proceed. Just to be ready, she pulled out her own stake...a special little thing she'd gotten engraved with the number of each vampire it had dusted so far. Seeing the IMP getting knocked all over by the electrical chinese guy, she stepped over William the Bloody to take her shot, only to have a hand grab it out of hers and tuck it into a belt at its side. She turned in surprise as the creature decloaked in front of her, slapping her off her feet and outside. It shoved Ares out of the way as it went after her.
Climbing back to his feet, Ares gave some sudden thought to turning the armored ugly into a pig on account of its manner if nothing else. He extended his hand in its direction, about to do that very thing when he noticed the oddest thing running at him. At first he thought it was an unusually large gumdrop that someone had left unattended but that wasn't possible.
Who could possibly resist a gumdrop so large?
Ratio Hornblower had just been coming back when he'd heard the clamor. Thinking that Illyria had come back, he ran the rest of the way until he got in and saw people he didn't recognize, minus the one guy that looked like his boss. Everyone had pretty much paired off, excepting this guy in the white silk he spotted near the middle.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Ratio rammed into the silk wearing guy, figuring him to be an easy target considering the expression on his face and the clothes. However, he turned out to be surprisingly strong...even though he wasn't fighting back so much as trying to make sure they both didn't fall over. This was confusing enough without having to deal with this kind of treatment. Shoving himself free, Ratio honked a very devestating sonic blast at the gaudily dressed stranger, which seemed to stagger him. Then he tackled him, rolling about the floor as he rained one fluffy punch after another onto him.
Ares for his part wasn't exactly sure what to make of this. All he knew was he was being padded by this large furry individual's hands. It didn't hurt much at all but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. Hoping no one was watching he grabbed the fluffy thing firmly in one hand and punched it squarely in the face, knocking it across the room and into the kitchen. Sitting up and dusting himself off, not sure how best to proceed from here, he followed it into the other room.
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Terribly off balance, Kimmy twisted this way and that, unable to get free. She was hanging upside down as Huntyr had her by the left ankle and was inspecting her shoe...he'd never seen a boot quite like that and he was considering adding it to his collection. She's tried punching him in the legs and crotch a couple times but a combination of his armor and not having any specific vulnerable areas weren't helping her cause much.
He took one of the boots and tossed her aside, tucking it into his pouch along with her stake. Just as soon as it was in, Kimmy jumped on his back and tried to choke him. He gagged a bit and shook her off.
Just a bit away from them, the cave slayer and the undead slayer were rolling all over. The more simpleminded of the two was trying to choke the dead one, who laughed as she didn't need to breathe....although the shaggier Buffy's choking attempt was keeping her from getting at her throat. She was surprisingly strong, stronger than even the vampire could deal with easily. She tried shifting her hold on the other, to wriggle free and maybe just bite her arm or something when the cave slayer, braced a foot against her chest, finally remembering why choking was pointless, and kicked her a good twenty feet away. Rolling to her feet, she grabbed a nearby compact car...picking it up and running after the very stunned vampire version of herself.
The last thing the vampire Buffy saw, before she was reduced to dust, was a license plate slamming into her head. The cave version rolled the car off of her, grabbed her by the head, and tore it free from the mostly mushed body...ending the shortlived career of this vampire. Dusting off the remains of her doppelganger, she noticed Kimmy having trouble with what looked like a heavily armored demon with dreadlocks so she bounded over that way.
Moving as fast as he could, dodging more by instinct that anything else, the IMP made an erratic path for the nearest telephone pole. Behind him came a flurry of electrical discharges as Lightning pursued him closely, not giving him a moments rest. Having already determined the green creature had no actual combat skills, the elemental had been enjoying the ease of cutting loose and battering it. When the green one had dived through him, literally, and leapt out a window he had hastened outside to finish him off. Why he was running towards that odd tree was a bit of a mystery but he wasn't overtly concerned with that...
Getting to the base, the IMP looked up and located the nearest junction. Converting his form to impulses, he dove right into the powerlines and traversed the entire town, building up as much momentum as he could. While Lightning was trying to work out where he'd gone exactly, he had made three successful laps of the entire network. Feeling as pumped as he could get, he came back out the same spot, ramming feet first into the elemental, knocking the wind out of him. Going more on rage than any actual fighting skills, he hauled him up and slugged him repeatedly; again and again and again.
Lightning got tired of this quickly but what the creature had just done gave him an idea. Breaking free of his hold, he lashed out with a massive electrical jolt knocking the IMP away. Reaching to the skies, he drew down lightning around himself and then channeled it in all directions for its mortal trapped cousin of all the electrical energies around him. Every street lamp for several miles around exploded, generators froze, as he called all those energies back unto himself. He pulled it all in, steadily increasing the strength of the draw until even the IMP could feel the pull. Reaching out for the nearest thing to anchor himself to, the IMP just barely missed the pole that had started all this when he was yanked off his feet and sucked deep inside Lightning.
Tossing the redheaded slayer aside again, Huntry considered breaking his steadfast rule about taking formerly living prizes and just grabbing her skull for the steady pummeling she kept putting him under. He tensed up as she got to her feet, ready to finally end this when he saw the look of shock in her face as she backpeddled rapidly. Grunting at this odd tactic, he looked over his shoulder...
...using one of her often favorite weapons, Buffy slammed the predator off its feet with a park bench that she'd scooped up on the way over. Kimmy ducked as the creature sailed over her head and crashed through the side of a van. It managed a barely strangled purring noise before it just slumped in the wreckage and passed out. Breathing heavily, the cave slayer dropped the bench and helped the redheaded slayer up...both of them staring at the creature for a second before approaching and getting back the stolen stake, though the boot was nowhere to be found.
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Spike slammed William into the wall again and again. He's already staked him twice but it had no effect other than briefly making a hole in his chest so he'd opted for just kicking the crap out of him as best he could. For all his invulnerability, his darker version was out like a light but Spike was taking no chances on a speedy recovery. Pulling him into a standing position, he kneed the other in the groin and then punched him across the face, letting it all the way through until his elbow, briefly, broke the other vampire's nose.
He was just about to see what would happen if he hauled him into the kitchen and fed his doppelganger into the garbage disposal when a flurry of little popping sounds and a bad stink came over him. Turning he saw a smoky haze filled with lots of little glowing yellow eyes.
"Is that him?"
"Looks like....just like the picture."
"Didn't know we were going to be kicking the crap outta Billy Idol!"
"Who care's what kinda poser fantasy he's got..."
"Yeah, let's get him!"
The voices were high pitched and fast, like a recording at double the normal speed. Spike barely made out what they said when the little creatures were all over him; kicking, punching, biting, yanking on his hair, and painting him with little crayola markers. Cursing, he tore one off and threw it across the room, stumbling backwards and tossing them this way and that as more piled on.
One of the discarded Bamfs was about to dogpile back on Spike when it stumbled over William the Bloody. Confused for the briefest second, it shrugged that off and broke out some more crayola, calling a few of its brothers over.
In another section of the house, Ashe could see this was getting nowhere fast. The clawed mutant wouldn't go down, healing any damage he made seemingly as fast as his own wounds did. They were about equal in skill, Ashe more from instinct and carryover from previous Crows and Wolverine from actual decades of combat experience. Kicking the clawed one in the face, he tackled him through yet anoher wall and booked for upstairs. Thinking the sullen one in the trenchcoat was retreating, Wolverine shot up the stairs after him...which turned out to be a bad idea. The Crow had grabbed a couch he found up there and shot it straight back down the stairs, directly into the charging mutant. Couch and guy with claws slammed downstairs very fast and into the wall. Slightly staggered, Wolverine tried to get back to his feet but Ashe whacked him in the head with a lamp he'd also grabbed, still plugged in the electricity was enough to push the mutant over the edge and unconcious. Ashe slumped back onto the staircase and just waited for his head to stop spinning. He heard a sudden clamor and looked up but the mutant was still down so he followed the sound to see Spike struggling under a growing pile of tiny blue bodies and forked tails. Blinking at that a few times, thinking maybe he'd been hit in the head too many times, he went over to get the vampire free when he convinced himself he wasn't hallucinating.
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This was not working out quite the way Maul had planned. Though it had not been his intention to wind up in the garage, he'd turned it to his advantage at first. That there was a car in here gave him the briefest edge of something to fight around, until the two Rockmen had determined that pulping the car ended that difficulty. That was when Maul had gone to Plan B.
He'd observed that the creatures each seemed about half as strong as the original brute and assumed this had to do with the amount of mass each had. Less mass meant less strength, coversely, tiny monsters would be next to no threat at all. From there he'd proceeded to divide them into smaller and smaller bits. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
One of many phrases his Master had advised him to avoid ever uttering or thinking.
Backing slowly up the stairs towards the main house, he Force pushed back another wave of the creatures. There were now about 50 of them, in various sizes, all of them thinking...as close as they could come to that process...of smashing him into a smear on the floor and walls. To buy himself some time, he deactivated his lightsabre and cut losse with Forece lightning, knocking them all back and causing them to writhe in pain. That they did this silently unnerved him not a bit as he took a great amount of glee in the agony he inflicted on them. Ending the barrage, he dashed upstairs and rounded the corner, taken off guard to see Ashe and Spike battling multiple little blue creatures. He knocked a wave of them back with the Force which caused numerous Bamfs to jump at him. Backing off and swiping at them with his sabre, Maul tried to kill as many of them as possible.
Ashe came up hard, several bamfs raining off of him in all directions as Spike bit one of the ones closest to his mouth. More of them kept popping in from seemingly nowhere, making it impossible for them to make a dent in this indigo assault. Spike got up and ran for the far side of the room as the little bamfs kept pounding on him, half blinded from the constant attack he crashed into a wall and fell back to the floor and was soon buried in a wave of blue again. Ashe jumped over there and tried digging him out as more of them climbed over him, pulling him to the ground and under them.
The sheer number of the bamfs made it impossible to use the sabre at this range, Maul tucked it back into his belt under his cloak away from them. He choked the nearest ones to him with a wave of his hand, battering them back and away. One hopped onto the back of his neck, pulling one of its brothers into his hood. Growling, Maul rammed backwards into the wall, snapping his head back and skewring one with on his horns. He rammed back repeatedly, against the wall, until he heard the satisfying sound of the others bones breaking. Pulling his cloak free, he threw it over the next bunch of the little creatures charging him and then jumping on top of it and smashing them against the floor beneath.
The Bamfs, noticing what was going on with the tattooed guy, gave him a wider berth and concentrated on the other three.
It was about this point when William woke up, raising a hand to his head, still dazed enough to not be aware of the little blue creatures around him. Until he saw his hand painted in multiple colors and looked at the rest of himself and spotted them drawing all over him and tearing and pulling at him. He got up and ran out to the back area, jumping into the pool and sinking to the deep end where he didn't need to breathe and the little blue freaks would have to let him go eventually.
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Shortly after Ares got into the kitchen, Ratio was back on him. First he bashed him in the head with a watermelon, following up quickly with a bag of flour. The God of Love took the fruit full in the face but managed to burst the flour before it reached him with an energy burst. For a time neither could see the other for the whiteness about them but when it cleared they gazed at each other cautiously. Ares held up a hand to show that he was willing to handle this peaceably when Ratio directed his dark puppet magicks at the godling, shrinking him to the size of a toddler. The Baby of Love screamed out unhappily, balling his little fists and looked around fearfully for his ba ba. Not able to find it, Ares turned his tearful face up to the giant grumdrop and shrunk him down to the size of a teddy bear.
Pulling his new ba ba close and sucking his thumb, squirming to get cozy in his silk diapers, he rocked himself to feeling more secure.
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Lightning stormed back into the house, taking in the chaos in one sweeping gaze; none of his allies were in the room and those that invaded overrun by a swarm of stange blue creatures with colored pens. All of the trespassers were fighting the little blue ones but it was uncertain which way the battle would go.
He didn't care.
Cutting his power loose, the room filled with electrical bolts that fried the Bamfs and threw Ashe, Spike, and Maul every which way. Bringing up his lightsabre, Maul managed to deflect some of the barrage but still it forced him steadily back. Lightning increased his power output exponentially, moving forward and increasing the range of his attack at all of them. Spike and Ashe were overwhelmed, unable to do more than writhe and wish very hateful thoughts at the elemental.
The only thing that stopped off Lightning's attack was the park bench that slammed him in the back. He staggered briefly and turned, only to receive two roundhouse kicks in the face from the slayers.
Buffy moved into her kick, turning and bringing her elbow around under his hat and crunching in his nose as Kimmy dropped and slugged him in the crotch. Lightning reeled from the suddeness and speed of the assault but shrugged off the pain and grabbed them both, one by the throat and the other by her arm, letting his power flow into them. Stunned, the two slayers both went slack as he increased the voltage and got ready to fry them both.
Which is about when a green arm tore itself free from his chest and grabbed him around the neck. Surprised, Lightning grabbed at its wrist as a tail tore out of his mouth and wrapped around his head; slowly the IMP pulled his way out of his captor's body. Snarling in pain and rage, he pulled his arm free and grabbed Lightning's head...pushing his thumbs into the eyesockets and drilling them back into his skull, bursting the eyeballs. Lightning screamed, dropping the other girl and trying to choke the IMP, lancing all of his botls through his form but the IMP, having been inside him had adapted to his frequency and was able to remain unaffected.
Not having lungs, the IMP hardly had to worry about being choked either. Interfacing with the brain of the elemental, something he'd never attempted outside of a cyberspace, he lanced every bit of pain that had been inflicted on himself to there and magnified it as much as he could. Lightning dropped to the ground immobile as the IMP pulled himself fully free, stepping over him to help up Buffy and Kimmy.
From around the side of the next room, Wolverine tore his way through a wall and rammed into the IMP from the side, stabbing his claws deep into his body. IMP gasped in shock, turning to look into the demonized mutant's eyes just in time to get headbutted by the adamantium skull. Wolverine snarled at all those around him, turning just as Maul stepped forward. Bringing his claws up, he charged the Sith as Maul turned to the side and brought his lightsabre over his head and down through the berserker. The lightsabre cut through flesh but not bone, unable to melt the alloy that coated his bones.
Still, the pain was considerable.
Screaming in shock, Wolverine turned and slashed, tearing through Maul's cloak and tagging his right side. Grimacing in pain, the Sith stepped away and ducked low, bringing the sabre through Wolverine's legs and then up again from the crotch to the head; knowing his cuts could not get around the bones he was intending only to inflict as much pain as his blade could cause.
Wolverine just kept on coming. Stabbing both his claws at the Sith again, he rammed him into a wall just to the side of the kitchen; claws sinking into the wall on either side of Maul's head. Nose to nose, they both snarled at each other...
...a hand reached out of the kitchen, adult again, and grabbed the top of Wolverine's head. Maul, still with a snarl on his lips, watched Wolverine's expression soften, go slack, and then become extremely giddy. Turning to the door, the Sith looked at Ares, who stepped out and put an arm around Wolverine's shoulder. He smiled at the Sith, "See....we really can all get along."
Grunting, Maul grabbed the mutant by the neck and drove his knee into his gut, causing him to double over coughing...though Wolverine couldn't really blame him for what a monster he'd been acting like earlier. Standing over his fallen opponenet, he sneered at the godling who just rolled his eyes and stepped away.
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Just outside, walking out of the pool with dead and water soaked Bamfs in each hand, William the Bloody headed back into the house. He dropped them as soon as he stepped in and looked at all those there; his counterpart and that other dead thing smoldering but otherwise all right, his Wolverine nearly unconcious on the floor with several bloody burns all over him but smiling strangely, Lightning unconcious or dead and bleeding from his eyes, no sign of his Buffy or Rockman anywhere, and what looked like a minaturized version of Ratio in the kitchen. Facing him were that green creature with several large gashes in him but otherwise unhurt, that feral looking Buffy and the redhead that carried herself like a slayer, Darth Maul, and someone that looked suspiciously like Elvis. He sighed and got himself ready for more fistcuffs, "Gonna do this fair like or all at once, now?"
"You really don't stand much of a chance, you know." Ares began, "Why not just throw in the towel and we can discuss this like sensible people."
Maul stepped in front of him, "...or we could proceed to reduce you to a small dusty pile."
From behind him, a gravelly sound swept up as several Rockman of varying sizes grouped behind William. They smiled up at him and looked eagerly at the heroes beyond. With them, his predator decloaked and took up a stance beside him. The vampire smirked and turned back to the others, "Seems the odds are lookin a bit better for me side, eh?"
Spike got up, as much leaning on Ashe as he was on him, and glared at his mirror self, "Howabout we pass this off on a compromise, then?"
"What'd you have in mind, mate?"
Spike growled out, "You pass off your lease on the vamp Buff that weren't here and we'll let you and yours be...for now."
"Just for now?"
"Seems to me we'll be at each other again sometime..." Spike smirked.
"Probably right on that." Willaim considered for a bit, "Fine, she's your baggage now but I ain't gonna be held responsible for what happens to her if'n she comes back to me place again. Fair?"
"Fair enough, mate."
William waved them off, "Then get outta me place before I change me mind."
A nod from Ares and they were all gone, leaving Willaim the Bloody to look about putting his house back in order.
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Several hours later, William was kicking back with a newly dead girl across his lap, her blood on his lips. He just about felt himself again and from the looks of things his troops were well on the way to recovery too. He'd had Huntyr treat them while he kicked back.
The predator entered the room, waiting til Spike acknowledged him.
"Well?"
In a parody of his master's voice, "She cannot be found anywhere. I think the other like her dusted her proper."
Willaim nodded, "The others?"
"Wolverine's nearly back to himself, whatever that godling did is wearin off. Lightning's gonna be healin for days." he leaned back against the wall, "Rockman is nearly full reformed and Ratio is about back to his normal height."
"That's good." William looked out the window at the afternoon sun thinking.
"What about your vampire slave?"
William shrugged, "Multiverse has more than a few other Buffy's runnin around out there. Plenty where she came from...when I find the time."
"The invaders?"
That brought on a smirk, "Never you worry about that, mate. Got plenty o' time to even up old scores and stage an assault later." standing up, letting the dessicated body hit the floor, he stretched, "Got nothin if not time to take care o' that later."
Walking downstairs, he smiled casually, "Plenty o' time for an immortal."
William the Bloody,
Buffy Summers,
Wolverine,
Huntyr
Lightning,
Ratio Hornblower,
Rockman
in that corner
Spike,
Cave Slayer,
Ashe,
Kimmy
IMP,
Ares,
Darth Maul
stuck in the middle
the Bamfs
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This came about through the following events: #1 & #2
location: unspecefied neutral area and then William the Bloody's Sunnydale
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To make a long backstory short, juggled around a number of parallel and alternate dimensions, a vampire version of Buffy has been regularly abused by the vampire that sired her. While she had no real problem with this, she crossed paths with the IMP and he doesn't like to see people hurt for no good reason.
On top of this, in yet another reality, one of the Bamfs fell for this particular undead Buffy rather hard and vowed to beat the crap out of her sire. Bamfs, goofy horndogs that they are, back each other up rather oddly.
Here we go.
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The IMP considered those assembled around him, having been making numerous connections through his father and a few friends of his own in passing. The assempled group looked back on him, loose and ready to go...more or less.
Ares spoke up "Is the violence part really that necessary?"
"Bloody Hell." Spike rolled his eyes, "How exactly would you recommend we go about teachin this bastard what he's doin is wrong?"
"Well," Ares replied, "couldn't we scold him rather harshly?"
Spike's jaw dropped and then he got a murderous look, advancing on the godling and vamping out when Ashe grabbed him and pulled him back, "Better not."
The vampire turned and looked at the Crow for a second before shrugging off the grip.
"This is going to be fun." smiled the Sith from under his hood.
IMP looked over to him, "Think I could've picked a less volatile crowd, eh?"
"Not what I meant."
"Oh?"
Maul's smile broadened, "This volatile nature of this gathering makes it all the more appealing."
"Red Stripey be nice." the cave slayer looked up at him, poking him in the middle of the chest, "That talk not make for good times."
Maul chuckled at that but held his tongue for the moment. Buffy felt very good about herself for having chided the Sith and not needing to bop him one. Even moreso because she just noticed the tattooed girl just past him, who was glancing at her curiously....so she ambled over. She crouched next to her and smiled at her.
Kimmy looked at the straggly haired girl that was glancing back at her with some amusement, the face was kind of cute under all that mange. "Hi...I'm Kimmy the vampire slayer."
Buffy's eyes went wide, "Wow....Buffy impressed!"
"Did you say 'Buffy'? Aren't you a...?"
"Yuppers! Buffy a slayer too." she beamed at the other slayer. Then she sat right next to her and put an arm over her shoulder, "Not seen you before...you know anyone here?"
Kimmy glanced past Buffy to the Sith, "I got in a fight with Darth Maul almost a year ago...that's about it."
"Who won?"
"Let's just say that round two's gonna be all about me and leave it at that." she glowered at Maul, who turned and grinned back at her.
IMP stood back and let them chat amongst themselves. He didn't know about half of them but they all were interconnected through various associations. Personally he'd only really hung out with Maul and Buffy before, both of them being closely tied to his father. Besides, it wasn't like they were on a specific timeframe or anything...there was no damsel in distress here. In fact, the damsel in question was just very accepting of the circumstances...which bothered him even more.
Spike leaned back against a wall and lit a smoke, still eyeing the Crow because he couldn't figure out what he was exactly. The man...if that's what he was...seemed very detached from everything going on about him. He'd seen this kind of thing before but it seemed much more pronounced in this guy. Pulling out his pack he held it up, "Want one, mate?"
Ashe turned and glanced at the pack as though it were floating there on it's own before following the path up the arm to the shoulder and face of the one holding it. Shrugging, he took one and waited for the proferred light that came with it. Taking a long drag he nodded to Spike and then just watched the others again...seemingly as not a part of things as he could be, excepting the fact he was there.
"What exactly is your deal?" Spike whispered.
Ashe turned back and looked at him questioningly.
Spike rolled his eyes, taking another long drag, "I mean you're standing there sure enough but I ain't picking up no pulse or nothin... You sure as spit ain't a vamp."
"Ah..." he nodded, turning back to the vampire, "There are no words to speak....I am a Crow."
Crossing his arms, Spike just looked at him.
Ashe was taking great interest in the burning end of the cigarette, "A fallen angel if you will, a spirit of vengeance if that is not enough." he met the eyes of Spike over the tiny embers, "There was no instruction manual when I came to be."
Nodding, Spike inclined his head to the others, "What's your stake in all this, then?"
"I do not care to suffer the pain of another when there is something I might be able to do." he glanced back to the vampire again, "You?"
Spike snorted, "Bloke behind this is a darker version o' m'self." he looked up with a grim expresssion, "Been meanin to teach the blither a lesson but I got caught up in things."
"That's the way of the living."
"Which I'm not."
Ashe managed a sad smile, "Welcome to the club."
Chuckling, the vampire gave him a side look, "Think we should rate a bleedin union rep, eh?"
They both chuckled.
Sidling up to the IMP, Ares put an arm over his shoulder, "While I am opposed to this whole venture for purley moral reasons...how exactly are we going to get from here to there?"
"We're waiting for divine intervention." said the IMP.
"Really?"
"Most definitely."
Ares looked around and above, "When exactly do you expect this to happen?"
"As soon as you realize I'm hinting it's you."
"You consider me to be divine?"
IMP glanced askance at him, "Duh! ...you are a god."
"True." he smiled, "I'm still very touched by the faith you're instilling in me."
"Should've gotten the God of War version." the IMP choked under his breath.
"Pardon?"
"Never mind." he stood up, "Can you get us there or not?"
"Before you even asked..."
A brief passing of air to fill the void made by their absence was all the sound that was left.
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William the Bloody lay back on the couch with one of his two Buffy vampires draped over him. This was the only slightly more submissive one, the one that was a bit of a homebody but with a body like hers he wasn't in any rush to send her packing. The one that wasn't here, the more rebellious of the two, was off licking her wounds after their last set....that had been fun.
He was flipping through channels, nothing good on, while she nibbled at his neck.
Truth, having conquered Sunnydale had been relatively easy once he'd gotten his head on straight. Letting the demons that the slayer had previously always been killing take up residence as they would all over made the place rather peacable, surprisingly enough. All that the rabble had to do was accept him as the top man and everything was good to go. There'd already been some talk to extending their influence to the nearby cities and towns. No rush really but it was something to consider.
Most of his troops were out of the area just now, doing their own thing in their own territories, those that considered such things important. William did have a few troops, in his personal cadre, that were less concerned about having anything to gain other than his praise for good work. He liked that about them...not to knock the others that he had on retainer or anything. It was good to know he could count on them when he got attacked.
Which hadn't happened in quite awhile. He'd been a bit taken aback having to fight Buffy all over again, seeing as he'd snapped her neck not more than a couple months before. It turned out that he was being assaulted by otherdimensional variations of the slayer and her allies. That's why he'd begun to bulk up on more than the average run of the mill demons in the first place. Especially when they'd dragged in Illyria...that blue freak was a bit much for anyone to take on their own no matter how powerful they thought they were.
He could hear Wolverine and Rockman arguing over something in the other room and was dimly aware of a few others upstairs but nothing major was going on. Things had been right quiet like for a fair stretch and it didn't look like there was going to be any upset in things anytime soon.
When the large flash exploded between himself and the television, his first thoughts were he had kind of been asking for that.
William got to his feet fast, assessing the situation, as Buffy reached for the nearest blunt object and snarled. He toom a step forward and shouted at the people blocking his few of absolutely nothing to watch on the telly, "Who the bloody hell do you think you are to be messin with the Big Bad in his own home?" one of them turned and faced him causing him to step back in a bit of shock.
"Who else but the real Big Bad come a callin, mate." Spike snarled at him. He took a step forward but not before the cave slayer shot around him and tackled the vampire Buffy, the two of them crashing out the window.
From the next room, having heard the commotion just after the burst of light, Wolverine and Rockman lurched into the room. Cheking out the new players, they both charged in; Wolverine extended his claws and slashed at Maul who sidestepped, Kimmy getting clear fast backhanded the demonized mutant and regretted it immediately for his adamantium skull. Rockman saw the Sith dodge his friends attack and scooped him up by his cloak, slinging him to the far side of the room and down a hallway, stomping after him.
Wolverine turned on Kimmy, "Yer about as dead as dead can be, frail!" he slashed at her and missed only as Ashe stepped between them, taking the strike full on. The claws ripped through his sternum, which healed almost instantly but the pain was considerable. Ignoring that, he stepped into the charge a bit more, grabbing the mutant by the collar and hurling him towards the window the two slayers had just gone through, leaping after him.
Regaining his footing and sliding alongside his attacker, barely escaping those massive rocky fists, Darth Maul drew his lightsabre and slashed through Rockman's waist, dividing him in half. Smug in the fact that was over, he turned to see what he could to assist his allies. Taken completely off guard, he fell forward as his feet were yanked out from under him. Staring in shock, he saw that the two halves of the brute had formed into two seperate versions of the whole creature, each with half the mass of the original. He pulled his boot free, Force pushing one aside as he clamored back to a standing position, the other Rockman charged him. Catching him about the waist, they slammed through the garage door and down into the room beyond, the other Rockman getting to its feet and following.
Spike slammed William across the face, reaching for a nearby chair and smashing it over his doubles head. He'd heard that this darker version not only had the Ring of Amarah but that its essence was infused into his very being. Still, sometimes you've got to go with the basics. He reached down for a shard of wood when William came up hard, kicking him in the chest, hauling him up, and head butting him. Staggering back, he got his guard up in time to block another shot that was coming towards his face but he lost the piece of wood. Another kick drove him further back and then he was hauled close by his collar, William chuckling, "Always wondered how I'd be lookin dusted." Spike barely saw the stake as it went for his chest...
...only to be yanked from William's hand by a long green tail. The vampires both looked up in surprise as the IMP twisted the stake to his hand and dropped down on William. His tail wrapped tightly about the vampire's waist, securing both his legs with his feet and more or less getting both of his hands with his free one, "Surprise, fang face!" William was a bit too taken off guard to do anything fancy so he bit the green thing in the arm, immediately regretting it as the electricity lanced through his fangs and throughout his skull, "Yeah, I could've told you that was a bad idea if you'd asked..." IMP sited on about where the heart should be and brought the stake down.
Ever get the sense that stake is never going to find its target?
A bolt of directed lightning slammed sideways through the room, wrapping around the IMP, lifting him clear of William and across the room. He hit the wall and came down hard, smoking slightly; shaking his head from the after effect. He raised his eyes to the source of the bolt as another hit him, slamming him against the wall again and on through it.
Lightning followed closely, not giving the strange creature a chance to regain his footing. Electricity coursing up his arms and feet, he pounded the IMP repeatedly, partially disrupting his form and decidedly knocking him a far cry from conciousness.
Kimmy and Ares watched the chaos going on about them, unsure of how to proceed. Just to be ready, she pulled out her own stake...a special little thing she'd gotten engraved with the number of each vampire it had dusted so far. Seeing the IMP getting knocked all over by the electrical chinese guy, she stepped over William the Bloody to take her shot, only to have a hand grab it out of hers and tuck it into a belt at its side. She turned in surprise as the creature decloaked in front of her, slapping her off her feet and outside. It shoved Ares out of the way as it went after her.
Climbing back to his feet, Ares gave some sudden thought to turning the armored ugly into a pig on account of its manner if nothing else. He extended his hand in its direction, about to do that very thing when he noticed the oddest thing running at him. At first he thought it was an unusually large gumdrop that someone had left unattended but that wasn't possible.
Who could possibly resist a gumdrop so large?
Ratio Hornblower had just been coming back when he'd heard the clamor. Thinking that Illyria had come back, he ran the rest of the way until he got in and saw people he didn't recognize, minus the one guy that looked like his boss. Everyone had pretty much paired off, excepting this guy in the white silk he spotted near the middle.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Ratio rammed into the silk wearing guy, figuring him to be an easy target considering the expression on his face and the clothes. However, he turned out to be surprisingly strong...even though he wasn't fighting back so much as trying to make sure they both didn't fall over. This was confusing enough without having to deal with this kind of treatment. Shoving himself free, Ratio honked a very devestating sonic blast at the gaudily dressed stranger, which seemed to stagger him. Then he tackled him, rolling about the floor as he rained one fluffy punch after another onto him.
Ares for his part wasn't exactly sure what to make of this. All he knew was he was being padded by this large furry individual's hands. It didn't hurt much at all but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. Hoping no one was watching he grabbed the fluffy thing firmly in one hand and punched it squarely in the face, knocking it across the room and into the kitchen. Sitting up and dusting himself off, not sure how best to proceed from here, he followed it into the other room.
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Terribly off balance, Kimmy twisted this way and that, unable to get free. She was hanging upside down as Huntyr had her by the left ankle and was inspecting her shoe...he'd never seen a boot quite like that and he was considering adding it to his collection. She's tried punching him in the legs and crotch a couple times but a combination of his armor and not having any specific vulnerable areas weren't helping her cause much.
He took one of the boots and tossed her aside, tucking it into his pouch along with her stake. Just as soon as it was in, Kimmy jumped on his back and tried to choke him. He gagged a bit and shook her off.
Just a bit away from them, the cave slayer and the undead slayer were rolling all over. The more simpleminded of the two was trying to choke the dead one, who laughed as she didn't need to breathe....although the shaggier Buffy's choking attempt was keeping her from getting at her throat. She was surprisingly strong, stronger than even the vampire could deal with easily. She tried shifting her hold on the other, to wriggle free and maybe just bite her arm or something when the cave slayer, braced a foot against her chest, finally remembering why choking was pointless, and kicked her a good twenty feet away. Rolling to her feet, she grabbed a nearby compact car...picking it up and running after the very stunned vampire version of herself.
The last thing the vampire Buffy saw, before she was reduced to dust, was a license plate slamming into her head. The cave version rolled the car off of her, grabbed her by the head, and tore it free from the mostly mushed body...ending the shortlived career of this vampire. Dusting off the remains of her doppelganger, she noticed Kimmy having trouble with what looked like a heavily armored demon with dreadlocks so she bounded over that way.
Moving as fast as he could, dodging more by instinct that anything else, the IMP made an erratic path for the nearest telephone pole. Behind him came a flurry of electrical discharges as Lightning pursued him closely, not giving him a moments rest. Having already determined the green creature had no actual combat skills, the elemental had been enjoying the ease of cutting loose and battering it. When the green one had dived through him, literally, and leapt out a window he had hastened outside to finish him off. Why he was running towards that odd tree was a bit of a mystery but he wasn't overtly concerned with that...
Getting to the base, the IMP looked up and located the nearest junction. Converting his form to impulses, he dove right into the powerlines and traversed the entire town, building up as much momentum as he could. While Lightning was trying to work out where he'd gone exactly, he had made three successful laps of the entire network. Feeling as pumped as he could get, he came back out the same spot, ramming feet first into the elemental, knocking the wind out of him. Going more on rage than any actual fighting skills, he hauled him up and slugged him repeatedly; again and again and again.
Lightning got tired of this quickly but what the creature had just done gave him an idea. Breaking free of his hold, he lashed out with a massive electrical jolt knocking the IMP away. Reaching to the skies, he drew down lightning around himself and then channeled it in all directions for its mortal trapped cousin of all the electrical energies around him. Every street lamp for several miles around exploded, generators froze, as he called all those energies back unto himself. He pulled it all in, steadily increasing the strength of the draw until even the IMP could feel the pull. Reaching out for the nearest thing to anchor himself to, the IMP just barely missed the pole that had started all this when he was yanked off his feet and sucked deep inside Lightning.
Tossing the redheaded slayer aside again, Huntry considered breaking his steadfast rule about taking formerly living prizes and just grabbing her skull for the steady pummeling she kept putting him under. He tensed up as she got to her feet, ready to finally end this when he saw the look of shock in her face as she backpeddled rapidly. Grunting at this odd tactic, he looked over his shoulder...
...using one of her often favorite weapons, Buffy slammed the predator off its feet with a park bench that she'd scooped up on the way over. Kimmy ducked as the creature sailed over her head and crashed through the side of a van. It managed a barely strangled purring noise before it just slumped in the wreckage and passed out. Breathing heavily, the cave slayer dropped the bench and helped the redheaded slayer up...both of them staring at the creature for a second before approaching and getting back the stolen stake, though the boot was nowhere to be found.
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Spike slammed William into the wall again and again. He's already staked him twice but it had no effect other than briefly making a hole in his chest so he'd opted for just kicking the crap out of him as best he could. For all his invulnerability, his darker version was out like a light but Spike was taking no chances on a speedy recovery. Pulling him into a standing position, he kneed the other in the groin and then punched him across the face, letting it all the way through until his elbow, briefly, broke the other vampire's nose.
He was just about to see what would happen if he hauled him into the kitchen and fed his doppelganger into the garbage disposal when a flurry of little popping sounds and a bad stink came over him. Turning he saw a smoky haze filled with lots of little glowing yellow eyes.
"Is that him?"
"Looks like....just like the picture."
"Didn't know we were going to be kicking the crap outta Billy Idol!"
"Who care's what kinda poser fantasy he's got..."
"Yeah, let's get him!"
The voices were high pitched and fast, like a recording at double the normal speed. Spike barely made out what they said when the little creatures were all over him; kicking, punching, biting, yanking on his hair, and painting him with little crayola markers. Cursing, he tore one off and threw it across the room, stumbling backwards and tossing them this way and that as more piled on.
One of the discarded Bamfs was about to dogpile back on Spike when it stumbled over William the Bloody. Confused for the briefest second, it shrugged that off and broke out some more crayola, calling a few of its brothers over.
In another section of the house, Ashe could see this was getting nowhere fast. The clawed mutant wouldn't go down, healing any damage he made seemingly as fast as his own wounds did. They were about equal in skill, Ashe more from instinct and carryover from previous Crows and Wolverine from actual decades of combat experience. Kicking the clawed one in the face, he tackled him through yet anoher wall and booked for upstairs. Thinking the sullen one in the trenchcoat was retreating, Wolverine shot up the stairs after him...which turned out to be a bad idea. The Crow had grabbed a couch he found up there and shot it straight back down the stairs, directly into the charging mutant. Couch and guy with claws slammed downstairs very fast and into the wall. Slightly staggered, Wolverine tried to get back to his feet but Ashe whacked him in the head with a lamp he'd also grabbed, still plugged in the electricity was enough to push the mutant over the edge and unconcious. Ashe slumped back onto the staircase and just waited for his head to stop spinning. He heard a sudden clamor and looked up but the mutant was still down so he followed the sound to see Spike struggling under a growing pile of tiny blue bodies and forked tails. Blinking at that a few times, thinking maybe he'd been hit in the head too many times, he went over to get the vampire free when he convinced himself he wasn't hallucinating.
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This was not working out quite the way Maul had planned. Though it had not been his intention to wind up in the garage, he'd turned it to his advantage at first. That there was a car in here gave him the briefest edge of something to fight around, until the two Rockmen had determined that pulping the car ended that difficulty. That was when Maul had gone to Plan B.
He'd observed that the creatures each seemed about half as strong as the original brute and assumed this had to do with the amount of mass each had. Less mass meant less strength, coversely, tiny monsters would be next to no threat at all. From there he'd proceeded to divide them into smaller and smaller bits. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
One of many phrases his Master had advised him to avoid ever uttering or thinking.
Backing slowly up the stairs towards the main house, he Force pushed back another wave of the creatures. There were now about 50 of them, in various sizes, all of them thinking...as close as they could come to that process...of smashing him into a smear on the floor and walls. To buy himself some time, he deactivated his lightsabre and cut losse with Forece lightning, knocking them all back and causing them to writhe in pain. That they did this silently unnerved him not a bit as he took a great amount of glee in the agony he inflicted on them. Ending the barrage, he dashed upstairs and rounded the corner, taken off guard to see Ashe and Spike battling multiple little blue creatures. He knocked a wave of them back with the Force which caused numerous Bamfs to jump at him. Backing off and swiping at them with his sabre, Maul tried to kill as many of them as possible.
Ashe came up hard, several bamfs raining off of him in all directions as Spike bit one of the ones closest to his mouth. More of them kept popping in from seemingly nowhere, making it impossible for them to make a dent in this indigo assault. Spike got up and ran for the far side of the room as the little bamfs kept pounding on him, half blinded from the constant attack he crashed into a wall and fell back to the floor and was soon buried in a wave of blue again. Ashe jumped over there and tried digging him out as more of them climbed over him, pulling him to the ground and under them.
The sheer number of the bamfs made it impossible to use the sabre at this range, Maul tucked it back into his belt under his cloak away from them. He choked the nearest ones to him with a wave of his hand, battering them back and away. One hopped onto the back of his neck, pulling one of its brothers into his hood. Growling, Maul rammed backwards into the wall, snapping his head back and skewring one with on his horns. He rammed back repeatedly, against the wall, until he heard the satisfying sound of the others bones breaking. Pulling his cloak free, he threw it over the next bunch of the little creatures charging him and then jumping on top of it and smashing them against the floor beneath.
The Bamfs, noticing what was going on with the tattooed guy, gave him a wider berth and concentrated on the other three.
It was about this point when William woke up, raising a hand to his head, still dazed enough to not be aware of the little blue creatures around him. Until he saw his hand painted in multiple colors and looked at the rest of himself and spotted them drawing all over him and tearing and pulling at him. He got up and ran out to the back area, jumping into the pool and sinking to the deep end where he didn't need to breathe and the little blue freaks would have to let him go eventually.
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Shortly after Ares got into the kitchen, Ratio was back on him. First he bashed him in the head with a watermelon, following up quickly with a bag of flour. The God of Love took the fruit full in the face but managed to burst the flour before it reached him with an energy burst. For a time neither could see the other for the whiteness about them but when it cleared they gazed at each other cautiously. Ares held up a hand to show that he was willing to handle this peaceably when Ratio directed his dark puppet magicks at the godling, shrinking him to the size of a toddler. The Baby of Love screamed out unhappily, balling his little fists and looked around fearfully for his ba ba. Not able to find it, Ares turned his tearful face up to the giant grumdrop and shrunk him down to the size of a teddy bear.
Pulling his new ba ba close and sucking his thumb, squirming to get cozy in his silk diapers, he rocked himself to feeling more secure.
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Lightning stormed back into the house, taking in the chaos in one sweeping gaze; none of his allies were in the room and those that invaded overrun by a swarm of stange blue creatures with colored pens. All of the trespassers were fighting the little blue ones but it was uncertain which way the battle would go.
He didn't care.
Cutting his power loose, the room filled with electrical bolts that fried the Bamfs and threw Ashe, Spike, and Maul every which way. Bringing up his lightsabre, Maul managed to deflect some of the barrage but still it forced him steadily back. Lightning increased his power output exponentially, moving forward and increasing the range of his attack at all of them. Spike and Ashe were overwhelmed, unable to do more than writhe and wish very hateful thoughts at the elemental.
The only thing that stopped off Lightning's attack was the park bench that slammed him in the back. He staggered briefly and turned, only to receive two roundhouse kicks in the face from the slayers.
Buffy moved into her kick, turning and bringing her elbow around under his hat and crunching in his nose as Kimmy dropped and slugged him in the crotch. Lightning reeled from the suddeness and speed of the assault but shrugged off the pain and grabbed them both, one by the throat and the other by her arm, letting his power flow into them. Stunned, the two slayers both went slack as he increased the voltage and got ready to fry them both.
Which is about when a green arm tore itself free from his chest and grabbed him around the neck. Surprised, Lightning grabbed at its wrist as a tail tore out of his mouth and wrapped around his head; slowly the IMP pulled his way out of his captor's body. Snarling in pain and rage, he pulled his arm free and grabbed Lightning's head...pushing his thumbs into the eyesockets and drilling them back into his skull, bursting the eyeballs. Lightning screamed, dropping the other girl and trying to choke the IMP, lancing all of his botls through his form but the IMP, having been inside him had adapted to his frequency and was able to remain unaffected.
Not having lungs, the IMP hardly had to worry about being choked either. Interfacing with the brain of the elemental, something he'd never attempted outside of a cyberspace, he lanced every bit of pain that had been inflicted on himself to there and magnified it as much as he could. Lightning dropped to the ground immobile as the IMP pulled himself fully free, stepping over him to help up Buffy and Kimmy.
From around the side of the next room, Wolverine tore his way through a wall and rammed into the IMP from the side, stabbing his claws deep into his body. IMP gasped in shock, turning to look into the demonized mutant's eyes just in time to get headbutted by the adamantium skull. Wolverine snarled at all those around him, turning just as Maul stepped forward. Bringing his claws up, he charged the Sith as Maul turned to the side and brought his lightsabre over his head and down through the berserker. The lightsabre cut through flesh but not bone, unable to melt the alloy that coated his bones.
Still, the pain was considerable.
Screaming in shock, Wolverine turned and slashed, tearing through Maul's cloak and tagging his right side. Grimacing in pain, the Sith stepped away and ducked low, bringing the sabre through Wolverine's legs and then up again from the crotch to the head; knowing his cuts could not get around the bones he was intending only to inflict as much pain as his blade could cause.
Wolverine just kept on coming. Stabbing both his claws at the Sith again, he rammed him into a wall just to the side of the kitchen; claws sinking into the wall on either side of Maul's head. Nose to nose, they both snarled at each other...
...a hand reached out of the kitchen, adult again, and grabbed the top of Wolverine's head. Maul, still with a snarl on his lips, watched Wolverine's expression soften, go slack, and then become extremely giddy. Turning to the door, the Sith looked at Ares, who stepped out and put an arm around Wolverine's shoulder. He smiled at the Sith, "See....we really can all get along."
Grunting, Maul grabbed the mutant by the neck and drove his knee into his gut, causing him to double over coughing...though Wolverine couldn't really blame him for what a monster he'd been acting like earlier. Standing over his fallen opponenet, he sneered at the godling who just rolled his eyes and stepped away.
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Just outside, walking out of the pool with dead and water soaked Bamfs in each hand, William the Bloody headed back into the house. He dropped them as soon as he stepped in and looked at all those there; his counterpart and that other dead thing smoldering but otherwise all right, his Wolverine nearly unconcious on the floor with several bloody burns all over him but smiling strangely, Lightning unconcious or dead and bleeding from his eyes, no sign of his Buffy or Rockman anywhere, and what looked like a minaturized version of Ratio in the kitchen. Facing him were that green creature with several large gashes in him but otherwise unhurt, that feral looking Buffy and the redhead that carried herself like a slayer, Darth Maul, and someone that looked suspiciously like Elvis. He sighed and got himself ready for more fistcuffs, "Gonna do this fair like or all at once, now?"
"You really don't stand much of a chance, you know." Ares began, "Why not just throw in the towel and we can discuss this like sensible people."
Maul stepped in front of him, "...or we could proceed to reduce you to a small dusty pile."
From behind him, a gravelly sound swept up as several Rockman of varying sizes grouped behind William. They smiled up at him and looked eagerly at the heroes beyond. With them, his predator decloaked and took up a stance beside him. The vampire smirked and turned back to the others, "Seems the odds are lookin a bit better for me side, eh?"
Spike got up, as much leaning on Ashe as he was on him, and glared at his mirror self, "Howabout we pass this off on a compromise, then?"
"What'd you have in mind, mate?"
Spike growled out, "You pass off your lease on the vamp Buff that weren't here and we'll let you and yours be...for now."
"Just for now?"
"Seems to me we'll be at each other again sometime..." Spike smirked.
"Probably right on that." Willaim considered for a bit, "Fine, she's your baggage now but I ain't gonna be held responsible for what happens to her if'n she comes back to me place again. Fair?"
"Fair enough, mate."
William waved them off, "Then get outta me place before I change me mind."
A nod from Ares and they were all gone, leaving Willaim the Bloody to look about putting his house back in order.
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Several hours later, William was kicking back with a newly dead girl across his lap, her blood on his lips. He just about felt himself again and from the looks of things his troops were well on the way to recovery too. He'd had Huntyr treat them while he kicked back.
The predator entered the room, waiting til Spike acknowledged him.
"Well?"
In a parody of his master's voice, "She cannot be found anywhere. I think the other like her dusted her proper."
Willaim nodded, "The others?"
"Wolverine's nearly back to himself, whatever that godling did is wearin off. Lightning's gonna be healin for days." he leaned back against the wall, "Rockman is nearly full reformed and Ratio is about back to his normal height."
"That's good." William looked out the window at the afternoon sun thinking.
"What about your vampire slave?"
William shrugged, "Multiverse has more than a few other Buffy's runnin around out there. Plenty where she came from...when I find the time."
"The invaders?"
That brought on a smirk, "Never you worry about that, mate. Got plenty o' time to even up old scores and stage an assault later." standing up, letting the dessicated body hit the floor, he stretched, "Got nothin if not time to take care o' that later."
Walking downstairs, he smiled casually, "Plenty o' time for an immortal."