Lois stared up at the two headless bronze statues in front of the stadium. Angelica couldn’t have picked a more conspicuous place for her meeting, although at two o’clock in the morning in south Los Angeles no one was likely going to ask many questions.
Although the stadium was semi-famous, it was in a bad part of town. The place was dark, except for a few lights in the parking lot. It was a safe bet that nothing short of a shooting war was going to draw in the police.
Glancing back, Lois noticed that Buffy was somehow holding the scythe again.
“They’ve got the entrances blocked,” Willow said. “Nothing we can’t handle, but inside….there’s a huge crowd of vamps and demons.”
The lights on the bus went out, and the one eyed man squinted desperately as he was suddenly blind to things the Slayers could still see.
“Any way in that they forgot to guard?” Lois asked.
Buffy gave her a hard look and then turned back to Willow, who closed her eyes. She shook her head. “They’ve got a dozen vamps at each exit.”
“It’s too bad you can’t make things quiet.” Lois said. If she had been able to do so, Clark wouldn’t be in the mess he was in.
“I can,” Willow said, “but it won’t be mobile. I certainly couldn’t follow somebody moving as fast as Clark with it.”
“So we go in a side entrance, kill everything that moves and we go from there,” Buffy said. Glancing around to see if anyone had any objections, her eyes met Lois’s.
Lois nodded slightly. She’d follow the lead of the more experienced person until the time came.
Buffy gestured and the others began filing out of the bus, which had parked near a service entrance. She turned to Willow and said, “The last time I had a big group like this, I burned down my gym. Do you think…?”
“This is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum!” Willow protested. “They’ve had two Olympics here! Didn’t you see the bronze guys out in front? This place has a lot of history…”
“A lot of people will be history if we don’t consider all the options.” Buffy’s voice was grim. “I don’t particularly want to face another army of darkness any time soon. I’m out of boyfriends to sacrifice.”
There was a hint of bitterness in her voice that Lois hadn’t heard before.
“Buffy…” Willow said, but before Lois could hear any more she felt Faith’s hand on her shoulder.
“Come on,” Faith said in a low voice.
Lois glanced down as she felt a stake being pressed into her hand. It was obviously hand carved, and its tip had been shaved to a point which was razor sharp.
They moved quickly across the expanse of the parking lots, staying in the same groups they’d been in before. It was a moonless night, and with the exception of a collection of cars and RVs near the entrances, the place was deserted.
Just as Lois saw the first of the guards by the entrance, the world went silent around them. Lois could see one frantically trying to use a walkie talkie, but no sound came out of his mouth.
Although there were twelve vampires, there were an equal number of Slayers, and the fight was short and brutal.
All of the girls were deadly, but their fighting styles were uncoordinated and brutal. Lois’s sensei would have been disappointed at their recklessness. Despite the lack of skill, they were faster and stronger than their opponents, and they didn’t hesitate to press their advantage. By contrast, Faith and Buffy moved with a deadly fluid grace, killing almost effortlessly.
It was over in a matter of seconds. Lois never even had time to lift a stake.
Sound suddenly appeared in the world around them, and Lois heard the excited breathing coming from the girls.
There was a strange, wild excitement in their eyes.
It was hard for Lois to understand how they could enjoy this. It was combat, short and brutal, and even if there was something about it that called to the new darker part of her soul, it wasn’t the sort of thing that should be enjoyed.
Even though Lois knew it had to be done, she wasn’t looking forward to doing it herself. The times she’d already killed had been in the heat of battle. Doing something like this, so cold blooded just seemed wrong somehow.
Buffy gestured, and the first of the girls headed for the door.
Willow lifted a hand and the girls stopped.
A moment later, the door opened on its own, without anyone touching anything.
As they passed through the door, Lois saw the tell tale signs of an alarm system. If Willow had somehow kept it from being tripped, that would make everything a little easier for them.
Smart baddies like Angelica wouldn’t just use one system, but the minions were likely to get a little lazy if they thought they were safe. The farther in one got through rings of security, the more lax the guards tended to get.
It was a principle that had saved her life time and again.
Of course, if the group inside consisted of possible allies and probable enemies, the reverse might very well be true. From what Lois had seen, Demons weren’t a very trustworthy bunch, and so they might be spending most of their attention focused inward.
This would work just as well. Anything that distracted the others until they could get in and take out Amy and Angelica would be for the good.
They moved into a lightless corridor, and though Lois was sure that Willow could have made light, she didn’t. Instead, they had to move along using on the reflected light of the moon from the open entrance behind them.
Even with Lois’s newly improved night sight, it was all she could do to make out the figures moving around her.
They exited into a pitch black area, and for the first time Willow risked the smallest light she could manage.
In the light of the wavering matchstick sized flame, Lois could see the steel countertops and dimly she could make out the shape of other mysterious items that added up to only one conclusion.
They were in the concession stand.
There was a door nearby, and Willow’s flame went out. The door clicked open, and blessedly there was a little light from outside.
Slipping out into the common area, which was deserted but lit by the dozen or so entrances to the stadium itself, Lois felt her stomach tighten.
This was it. She could hear Angelica’s voice amplified, but due to the distortion she couldn’t understand what she was saying.
As a group they headed for the nearest opening. This lead to the seats on the lower levels.
Lois found herself crouching as they got closer to the opening. The others were following suit, and Buffy and Faith glanced at Willow, who closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded.
No one waiting around the entrance then to ambush them, presumably.
Buffy and Faith moved forward, almost crawling, while Lois followed behind. It took a couple of minutes before they were out in the poorly lit stadium. Although there wasn’t much cover, other than the short dividing wall between the section they were on and the lower section, the poorly lit seating meant they6 weren’t likely to be seen.
Lucky, everyone was standing on the floor of the stadium, standing out in the middle of the green football field.
Angelica had an eye for the dramatic. The field was lit with torches driven into the ground around half the field. The only artificial lights shone up towards a stage beneath a large Olympic style torch, a remnant of an earlier better time in the life of the stadium.
On the stage stood Angelica, Clark, Amy, three vampires and kneeling on the ground were two nude men and three nude women. They had collars around their necks with medical tubing attached to them. Lois couldn’t see where the tubing was leading, but the lines were red with blood.
The crowd in front of the podium seemed huge to Lois. There were at least five hundred creatures there, at least half of whom seemed to be vampires. Lois glanced over at Buffy, who winced.
Even with Willow and twelve other Slayers, they wouldn’t stand a chance if the full might of that group came to bear.
Angelica spoke into a microphone. “It’s time we entered into a new age! For too long we have lived in the dark ages, forced to live in whatever holes in the ground the humans couldn’t be bothered to occupy.”
The torch behind her suddenly lit with an unnatural flame, leaving the whole field lit in an eerie blue light. Lois found herself crouch lower, and she saw that Faith and Buffy were doing the same.
“Don’t we deserve the benefits of modern technology? Don’t we deserve to have our rightful place as the masters of the humans? What are we now? Petty scavengers who hunt the isolated and the weak.”
A large demon stepped forward. Lois would have almost thought it to be a vampire except for the cloven hooves and twisted monstrosity of a face. When it spoke, its voice was deep and carries across the length of the football field.
“Stop making a fool of yourself. No one will follow a fledgling. Fewer will follow a woman.”
Angelica stared at the creature which had stepped forward, and she sighed. “Clark-“she said.
There was a flickering sensation of movement, and Clark disappeared from the stage and reappeared beside the tall demon. A moment later, he flickered again, and the demon was on the stage with them. It tried to struggle against Clark, but it clearly couldn’t move.
“Break his neck.” Angelica ordered.
There was a shocking, audible crack, and the large creature slumped in Clark’s grasp.
“This won’t kill me,” the thing protested. “I’ll heal, and when I do-“
Angelica reached behind her and grabbed the American Flag. Pulling it from its stand, she held it up. The end had been whittled to a sharp point.
She shoved it into the monster’s chest as hard as it would go.
“You’ll be dust in the wind.”
The monster stared down at the pole in its chest and a moment later it turned to dust, its outline visible for only a moment.
Angelica turned toward the crowd, which was stirring and muttering angrily.
“The old ways are dead! For too long have the old demons kept the rest of us under their heels. They have kept us trapped in a way of life that is far less than what we deserve.”
“Why should we listen to you?” One voice shouted from the crowd.
“Because I have him,” Angelica said. “And with him, we can stop all the humans, turn back their war machines. We can bring this country to its knees, and once we have the power of this country, the world will follow.”
“Your hellgod is bleeding.” Another voice said. “If he can be hurt, then…”
“He is making a sacrifice for the cause.” Angelica said. She gestured and one of her minions brought forward a wine glass filled with something red and luminescent.
“You’ve all heard of the power that the blood of a Slayer gives vampires,” Angelica grinned. “What then, would the blood of a hellgod do?”
She lifted the glass, only to fall back as two vampires jumped to the top of the stage and grabbed the glass out of her hand. He punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground.
Lois noted that Clark did not move. Without orders, he wasn’t inclined to help Angelica at all.
It took her another moment to realize that Clark was staring through the darkness directly at her. She stiffened, and Buffy stiffened beside her.
“He noticed us,” she hissed.
Lois shook her head. “As long as the others don’t notice us, we’ll be ok.”
Slaves didn’t do anything they didn’t have to do.
The first vampire grabbed the glass and lifted it to his lips. He grinned as he drank, shouting in triumph and closing his eyes in apparent ecstasy.
The second vampire was already dust, and Angelica rose to her feet. She stared intently at the first vampire, and then grinned as he began to scream.
A moment later, he exploded.
“I guess I should have mentioned it needs to be diluted a bit.” She glanced back at the weakening slaves behind her, and then snapped her finger for another glass.
This time the crowd was silent as she lifted it to her lips. She grinned and tossed it down.
The crowd waited expectantly, and when she bent forward as though in pain, the front row moved back a little. A moment later they had their answer.
She was laughing, and a moment after that she leapt down onto the ground in the front of the crowd.
The first seven foot tall blue demon she saw, she grabbed with one hand and tossed it through the air.
It landed in the middle of the crowd and did not move.
Angelica had already leapt to the stage, far quicker than she’d ever been before.
“Unlimited power to any vampire who joins me!” she shouted. “If you are with me, cross that line!”
Almost a hundred vampires rushed forward to the empty spot on the field, right of the field goal.
“This is the last chance for the rest of you. Join me!”
“Or what? You can’t take us all, bitch, even with that freak you have with you.”
No one else moved to join her.
“Remember what I said about the humans?” Angelica said. “All that military hardware, all that science just lying around for anyone willing to use it?”
The torches had been carefully placed so as to blind those within the circle of light to what was going on outside. Lois could see this now, as the shadowy figures began to step forward from the shadows.
The rest of Angelica’s men, wearing flame retardant suits and carrying huge packs on their backs with hoses.
It wasn’t until the flamethrowers started to be used that Lois fully understood.
This wasn’t about politics at all. It was about getting rid of the competition, all in one major offensive.
One look at Buffy, who was already gesturing curtly toward the others, gave the bad news.
They were about to enter the firestorm.
