PAIN, INC prologue

The vampire grinned at the terrified expression of the girl in front of him and prepared to sink his teeth into her neck, when he heard a suspicious whoosh! behind him. He looked over his shoulder where his buddy was supposed to stand, only to find some setting dust and a stranger standing there. Growling, he let go of the girl and turned around to attack, but the stranger suddenly produced a sword out of nowhere and decapitated the other vamp, too.

The blonde girl that was about to become a snack looked all that, eyes wide in fear. She observed the stranger closer – dark hair, pale face and very pretty, dressed in black leather pants and a dark blue vest.

“You okay?” she asked.

The blonde nodded, not all that certain. “I… I think so… what the hell just happened? Who were these guys? What did they want from me? Why did they disappear after you killed them?”

The brunette smiled and held up her hand. “Whoa, one at a time, please! You were just almost eaten. These guys were vampires, who, as you just witnessed, are very much real. They wanted to suck your blood, and they disappeared because all killed vampires turn to ashes – it’s evil’s way of protecting it’s creation.”

The blonde’s eyes were wide. Part of her told to run screaming, ‘cuz the other girl was mad, another said that the stranger is right, she just witnessed it. “Umm… Umm… okay…”

“What are you doing here, anyway? That’s not a nice surrounding to be in,” the brunette asked, looking around. The half-abandoned buildings, trashcan fires and the lowest of lowlives that always looked the other way – that was the surrounding, and the girl in front of her didn’t look like a homeless person.

“Well, I’m kind of forced to live here. At least for time being. Monetary problems.”

“Ahh… ‘kay. Well, then, in this neighbourhood, I’d say you need some tips on self-defence. Against both fanged and non-fanged foes. What do you say we go somewhere to eat and discuss it there? ‘cuz I’m hungry.”

“Umm… okay.”

“The name’s Faith, by the way.”

“Anita.”

They sat in a café, with Anita still not being quite if she was dreaming or not. But the stranger here seemed very real and completely in her own element with these vampires.

“How old are you?” Faith asked suddenly.

“Umm… 16. Why?”

“Just wondering. Got any family?”

“Uhh, no, not here.”

“You mentioned monetary problems. Do you have a job?”

“No.”

Faith smiled, or more like grinned. “Would you want one? ‘cuz I got a job opening and you’d fit right into it. Doesn’t involve drugs, stealing or working on your back, either.”

Anita raised her left eyebrow suspiciously. “You know me for a whole lot of five minutes, and you already know what jobs I would do good?”

“I don’t, but someone else, who was apparently too nosy for their own good, knew, and I learned that from him.”

“Who was that?”

“A nasty guy. Named Quentin Travers – he’s looking to ruin two lives. I’m looking to save more.”

Anita raised her hand. “Hold on now, you’re not making much sense here – ruin lives how? Save how?”

“He wants to kill me and make your life extremely miserable. Imagine that – a bunch of guys in tweed suits come to you one day, say that from now on, you are to do their bidding without questioning the orders of a stuck-up sorry son of a bitch who doesn’t know shit about real life, yet orders you around like he’s the wisest guy on the Earth? Who betrays you on your 18th birthday just to test you?”

“Umm… That’d suck. But I got the feeling that you’re a loony.”

Faith chuckled. “Maybe. Sometimes I’m not quite sure. Maybe I am. But what if I’m not, and all I say is right – these tweed guys come, take you away and you will die probably before you reach your next birthday? Are you willing to take that risk?”

“Umm…” was all Anita could muster.

Faith calmly ate her last pie and downed the last of her Pepsi. “Come on. I’ll show you a few things. You’re not in a hurry, are you?”

Anita shook her head and they headed outside. Strolling down a street, they noticed a gang attacking a woman. “Vamps. Watch,” Faith said, pulled a crossbow from her backpack with one expert move, aimed briefly and shot. One of the vampires yelped and turned into dust. The others looked around, noticed Faith and charged. She calmly reloaded her crossbow, killed another vamp and grabbed a wooden stake. “Stay back,” she told Anita.

The vamps reached Faith and the fight began. Anita witnessed as Faith easily overcame the 6 foes and remembered how one of them had pinned her against the wall as if she was a rag doll. Right now, though, Faith kicked them around and staked the vamps at a quick pace. Two minutes later, 5 out of six were dust and the remaining one was pinned to the ground. Faith produced a pair of handcuffs and cuffed the vampire and then knocked him out, just in case.

“Now, I believe you already felt how strong the vampires were,” Faith said in her lecturing mode. Anita nodded. “And you saw how easily I kicked them apart.” Another nod. “I am what they call a Slayer, or a Vampire Slayer. With capital letters. There’s one in every generation – if the last one dies, another one comes. By a strange twist of fate, there are two Slayers at this time – one was drowned, but her friends did her CPR and she came back to life. That activated another Slayer, and when the other one died, I became the Slayer. Oh, yeah, and the Slayers are always female. We are the superhuman weapons built to kill vampires – I can see in the dark, smell and hear things that others can’t, I am stronger, faster and more endurable, I heal faster and wounds that would kill most everyone may be really light on me. You can shoot me with that crossbow for proof if you want.”

“Umm… no thanks,” Anita said. “Okay… so you’re Wonder Woman. What’s that got to do with me?”

Faith stood up and grinned. “When I die, YOU are gonna be the Wonder Woman.”

“Okay, that’s it!” Anita said, backing away. “You’re insane! This whole thing, it’s not real!”

“Isn’t it? Why did these guys turn to dust, then? Why can I hear that cat running behind me?” Anita glanced pass Faith, and indeed, there was a cat hurrying across the back alley. The woman that the vamps had attacked was long gone.

“Holy shit… What do you want from me, then?”

“As I said, I want to help you. The Slayers are mostly controlled by an organisation called the Watchers Council. They take the Slayers and train them, so they would be strong, but mindless drones. They train golems for their use. They tried to do that with me, too, but I managed to get myself big enough friends to kick the Watchers’ asses.” Faith took the wooden stake and handed it to Anita. “This is what the Watchers will give you to fight vampires.” Then she took her sword and crossbow, and handed them to the blonde as well. “And this is what I offer you.”

“A… And what if I don’t want to fight these vampires?”

Faith shrugged. “That’s five by five with me. But the vampires will still be swarming you, so it would still be good if you could defend yourself. That’s what I’m offering you – come with me, you’ll have free training, free place to live, free food PLUS you will be getting paid. Not much at the beginning, but it will increase.”

“You remember when I said you are insane?” Anita asked. Faith nodded. “Well, I still think you are, but I’m probably more. I’m in.”

The brunette grinned wider. “Ohh… yeah. Well, lesson number one – what vampires fear. Metal can kill vampires only one way – decapitation. The most common ways to kill vampires are, in fact, putting a wooden stake through the heart or cutting off it’s head. For non-Slayers, a good way to protect themselves are crosses.” Faith took a cross and put it against the vampire’s skin and smoke erupted. “That’s what happens when vampire and cross make contact. They know it, too, so they are afraid of crosses.”

And the brunette started a lecture on vampires and killing them to her heir.

PAIN, INC. chapter 1

“GILES!!!” Buffy exclaimed happily, hugging her former watcher tightly. “How’s did you get here? Why didn’t you tell me you’re coming? How you’ve been all the while? What’s up?”

Giles raised his hand and smiled. “One at a time, please. I just arrived here today, and, well, the matter was so urgent that I simply did not find the time to call you. Plus when I left, it was 3 am for you and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Come in, come in!” Buffy said, still smiling and stepping aside. “Although it’s not a smart thing to say in Sunnydale,” she added, smiling. “Dawn! Giles is here!”

“Hey Giles,” Dawn called, descending from the stairs. “Please tell me you’re staying! Maybe Buffy would stop moping and brooding all the time with you around, seeing the change right now.”

Buffy glared at Dawn, but the smile returned soon. “Sorry if the home isn’t in the best condition, we weren’t expecting guests. Would you like something to eat, or drink? We got tea – probably every single sort there is in the world; Dawn’s a real addict for that stuff,” Buffy finished with a chuckle. “Oh!” she slapped her forehead. “Do you have a place to stay? ‘cuz we’ve got free space, plenty of it, after…” her smile disappeared. “After Willow left.”

“Ahh… yes, I’m sorry about that. Have you heard from her ever since?”

Buffy shook her head. “No. Nothing. Well, except the “I’m fine and still alive” delivered via Wesley.”

“Ahh… Yes,” Giles replied as they sat around the kitchen table and Dawn went to make tea. “Well… I did have an urgent news, so I think I’d… rather tell it right now. A new Slayer was called.”

That caught the attention of both of the Summers women. “As in… Faith’s dead?”

Giles sighed, took off his glasses and cleaned them. “According to all logics, yes – but I’m not sure, because the Slayer that was called was not the one who was SUPPOSED to be called after her death… nor the next, nor the third. So I believe it was the 4th Slayer-in-line, who’s whereabouts, though, are unknown to the Council.”

“Umm… and that tells us what?”

“Someone has, hmm, misplaced one Slayer candidate and neutralized the others.”

“Neutralized? As in killed?”

“No, no – neutralized using an altered version of the serum that… that is injected to Slayers on their 18th birthday. Altered so that the effect is permanent and they will never become Slayers.”

“Umm… and where is the new Slayer?”

“We don’t know for sure. One of the members of the Council, actually, came up with an interesting theory that is worth checking, however – he suspected that Faith might have been the one who took the Slayer and faked her death. Well, not entirely faked, but had her heart stopped temporarily. Which, as you know, is very easy to do with nowadays medicine.”

“Why would she do that?”

“To gain a powerful ally,” Dawn interfered. “It makes perfect sense – Faith befriends the Slayer-to-be, trains her and then has her activated through her own temporary death!” Both Giles and Buffy looked at her in amazement. Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them again.

“That makes perfect sense, Dawn. And that none of us thought about it before!”

Dawn smiled and shrugged, in a kind of cocky way. “You can call me Dawn Holmes,” she said, mimicking the English accent as much as possible.

Faith massaged her neck and stretched herself, yawning at the same time. She opened the window and sat on the windowsill, lighting a cigarette.

“These things ’ll kill you one day, you know,” Anita said from behind the computer.

“Right… is that because the chance of me dying a violent death is so tiny?” Faith asked, grinning. “Y’know, other than sensing your presence, I don’t feel really different. Thought dying would leave a deeper mark on me.”

“Well, you didn’t die violently, but under your own control. And you weren’t gone for more than 30 seconds, so I’m not too surprised it went so smoothly. Of course, as you might expect, you dying left a HECK of a lot deeper mark on me,” Anita chuckled, never lifting her eyes from the screen nor her fingers from the keyboard. “I can hear people walking downstairs. And voices from Sunday’s room…” she froze for a moment, listening more intently, then blushed and lowered her head to let her blonde hair cover her face. “Oh… ahem… I think she’s occupied.”

Faith laughed at that. The vampire had left her room’s window open and she could hear them perfectly well. And she didn’t need guessing who was the other one in Sunday’s room, either – no other than the Mysterius Magnus of her life, who just dropped in one day and stayed there. Never in a million years would have Faith thought of her being anything OTHER than a Buffystic goody-goody-two-shoes, but here she was, teamed up with the “neutral evil” and obviously at good terms with her own darkside and controlling it without it controlling her. The other thing about her that surprised the heck out of Faith was Sunday – never in a million years, once again, would have Faith thought she might have a thing for vamps, or females, let alone female vamps! Even if they are non-evil (which does not automatically mean they are good or have a soul, mind you).

“What are you doing so intently, anyway?” Faith asked.

“Kicking ass,” Anita replied casually.

“Uh-uh… how’s that?”

“Unreal Tournament 2,” Anita said casually. She had soon learned after being hired by Faith that the Wilkins Industries had probably THE most complete set of computer and PlayStation games in the world. She and Faith battled in various games constantly, usually with Faith being on top in shooter games and one-on-one fighters, but Anita being superior in strategy and roleplaying games.

“Uhh… goody! Once you’re done, get down to the library. I think I might have interesting info. Well, whenever the Bunny-Vamp and Bunny-Witch are done…” she finished, flicked the cigarette out of the window and left the room.

“Well… but that’s totally not good if Faith has two Slayers, right?” Buffy said, looking around to get confirmation from others.

“Speaking of Faith… have you heard anything about her lately? What is she doing in general?”

“Well, as you know, she’s got a whole company… made up of mercenaries and killers, mostly, with an occasional vamp thrown in the mix. She’s also got guns and I hear she’s bossing around in the Californian underground. Not sure how true that is, though,” Buffy spoke, not all too cheerily.

Giles was about to respond, when the door flung open and a breathless Tara with an equally breathless Xander charged in. “Hey Giles, nice to see you and just in time you arrived because someone is opening a portal right outside Sunnydale and bad things are already coming through!” Xander said with his best imitation of Willow.