Buffy the Vampire Slayer

POISON CLAN

By Bryan "Blade" Bonner

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and related characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Productions, 20^th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. Original concepts of the Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad are the property of Chang Cheh and Entertainment Programs International (EPI). All other characters and story concept is the property of the author, Bryan A. Bonner. This story is not intended for sale or commercial profit. Any unauthorized reproduction, copying, or use of any portion of this story, without the author’s express permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Chapter 4 -Questions

It was difficult for Buffy to concentrate on dressing mannequins for the Express Fall back to school sale, the Hellmouth had thrown another world ending problem her way.

"Yet another megalomaniacal, undead, ruler of the world wannabe trying their had at world domination" she thought to herself "this is starting to get old." Buffy had dealt with the undead before, it was her job, part of slayer territory.

Vampires, demons monsters were all par for the course for a vampire slayer. Matters of the heart, however, couldn’t be slain in the traditional manner they were a completely different story. Memories of Angel still plagued Buffy’s thoughts, dreams, and even nightmares. Now Allen and his expression of affection were raising the stakes, the pun was intentional. It was easy to deal with infatuation when it was playful banter back and forth, kind of like when she was in junior high, but in your face dating via direct expressionism, even the mighty slayer had a problem with that one, not to mention the perceived perception problem. Buffy never really considered Allen’s race an issue, not until he brought it up, raising her awareness, so to speak.

"Am I hung up on the fact he’s Black?" Buffy worried to herself. "Other than Kendra, I guess I’ve never really had any Black friends, but why should that matter?"

"Penny for your thoughts Summers?" Allen peeped from around the imaginary wall corner, which separated the seemingly symbiotically joined Structure and Express stores.

"Nope, it will cost you at least a nickel per thought, unless its Tuesday, then they’re two for one" Buffy’s smile was forced, obviously contrived. "Is it time to jet already?"

"We don’t want to keep your…what did you call him…’Watcher’ waiting" Allen stepped from around the corner, backpack slung over his shoulder in the customary ready to travel position.

Buffy slowly approached Allen, stopping close by his side; he could smell her Tommy Girl perfume. "Allen the thing about secret identities is the not telling the whole world part. Its kind of what makes it secret" Buffy whispered gently in Allen’s ear, feigning affection in order to convey her thoughts inconspicuously.

Allen’s pulse quickened slightly, his heart beat a little faster. "Sorry, Summers, still processing, brains operating at 486 speed, not quite Pentium" Allen barely got the words out over the huge gulp in his throat.

"I.T. humor, who knows it may catch on" Buffy grabbed her cotton jacket. "I guess I’m driving."

The ride to Giles’ apartment was uncomfortably quite. Other than some forced small talk about the weather, politics, and school Buffy and Allen really didn’t have too much to say. Much had happened in the last 24 hours. Allen found out Buffy was a supernatural vampire slayer, a chosen one to fight the forces of evil. Buffy learned a new evil was cooking in the Dale and that Allen was some kind of cross between Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Wesley Snipes. Not to mention Allen wanted to date and Buffy wasn’t sure if she was ready, it was still too soon after Angel. Buffy’s car rounded the corner into Giles’ apartment complex.

Giles had been spending most days at his Sunnydale apartment. With the complete destruction Sunnydale High School, as well as his very impressive, yet comprehensive occult library, Giles was forced to use the comparatively small personal library maintained in his spare bedroom. With Wesley back in England and Buffy’s resignation from the Watcher Counsel, Giles wasn’t quite sure how he was going to fill the knowledge black hole left by Sunnydale High’s explosion. An explosion for which the library served as the nexus.

"Ironic" he thought to himself as he sipped his afternoon tea "gives a whole new meaning to knowledge is power."

In the parking lot outside, Giles could here Buffy’s car pulling into a free parking space, he’d been expecting her all afternoon. Truth be told, the music from her car stereo announced her arrival several meters ago.

Buffy and Allen stepped from the car anxious to end the awkward silence, which dominated their conversation or more accurately lack thereof.

"Buffy" Allen pulled his Jennifer Lopez CD from Buffy’s in dash player.

"Yeah." Buffy wasn’t sure what to expect. Allen had only called her Buffy once before, that’s what started this whole mess.

"To say things have been ‘weird’ over the past several hours would be a monumental understatement" Allen walked close by her side, resting on the hood of the car. "I wasn’t expecting, well you know, what I ended up getting" Allen’s gestured Buffy to sit next to him. "Slayers, kung fu vampires, apocalyptic predictions…its been a lot to absorb in a few hours, but I don’t want things to be weird between us, not anymore" Allen smile was warm and friendly, it put Buffy at ease. "I know raised the specter of dating, getting closer to you, but if it means we can’t be the way we use to then…"

"Its okay Allen" Buffy interrupted her friend, sliding closer, placing her hand on his thigh. "Whatever is going on, we go through it together, then we deal with the dating monster. Cool?"

"Cool" Allen’s hug washed away the car trip’s anxiety. "So Giles is kind of an important guy. I feel like I’m going to meet your Dad" Allen’s smile was quirky.

"Giles is probably more fatherly than most watchers, but he’s more friend than Dad" Buffy knocked gingerly on the door. Giles’ stalwart English exterior greeted them, tea cup in hand.

"Hello Buffy. You must be Allen" Giles extended his hand.

"Sir, pleasure to meet you" Giles noticed Allen’s grip was strong, slightly reminiscent of Buffy’s strength. Giles invited them in. Several hours, 3 ancient texts, and 6 bottles of Evian later Giles had a fairly complete picture of yesterday’s events, at least as complete as he believed he could get.

"I think I’ve found something" Giles nose never left the book it was in "the poison clan was an ancient martial arts order, very powerful, very skilled. Five primary techniques based on living creatures" the excitement in Giles’ voice rose as he uncovered more and more of the mystery. "Yes, yes…centipede, snake, toad, lizard, and scorpion, the five deadly venoms."

"Could they have been something cooler like tiger, eagle, or dragon" Allen sounded genuinely disappointed.

fell upon them" Giles paused momentarily, looking up briefly "Vampires." Giles dropped his nose in the book again. "They raped, plundered, and pillaged for years before vanishing from sight. The text suggest some or all of them would return to bring death upon the world through the cleansing of Tien-mu." Giles closed the book, he knew he wouldn’t be getting any other information from that volume.

"And they’re here in Sunnydale why?" Buffy sipped on the last bottled water.

"Well the Hellmouth has away of attracting all kinds of evil" Giles turned the heat up on his teapot.

"Like there isn’t any room for evil in China, I mean the country is way larger than Sunnydale" Buffy was getting slightly irritated with the notion of evil always migrating to her backyard, she wondered if there should be an immigration law or something.

"So no info on my sudden ‘Enter The Dragon’ Bruce Lee transformation" Allen threw a series of quick air jabs, verifying his new found talent was still intact.

"I’m afraid not" Giles poured the hot water into his favorite cup causing the slightly used Earl Grey tea bag to float to the top. "Tien-mu, Tien-mu my ancient Chinese is not very good. I’ll need Willow’s help. Perhaps the Internet can bring us some additional answers. Lord knows only she knows how to get answers out of that infernal box."

"Willow?!?" Allen stopped shadow boxing, caught off guard by the statement. "She knows about the whole slayer thing?"

"Well yeah, but that’s really it. Unless you count Xander, Cordelia, and Oz" Buffy’s voice started to trail off at the end.

"I guess I missed the ‘hey I’m a slayer’ staff meeting. Were there notes?" Allen’s joking tone made Buffy feel a little better. "I’m thinking food, then back into research mode. Mexican?"

"Gives me the gasies. Italian?" Buffy perked up at the talk of food.

"Hmmm…pizza?" Allen countered.

"Pizza, the staple of the teenage generation. Can we get pepperoni?" Buffy was putting on her jacket, anticipating an imminent departure.

"Pepperoni and extra cheese. Maybe the rest of the Mickey Mouse Club wants to join in on our reindeer games" Allen headed towards the door.

"That’s Scooby Gang, I see some of us need to brush upon our Saturday morning cartoons. Giles were past tense. See you in a few hours. We’ll bring Willow" Buffy was out the door and half way down the stairs before Giles could reply.

"Buffy" Giles shouted slightly to get her attention.

"Yeah" Buffy stuck her head out of the driver side window.

"Would you mind terribly bringing back a few slices?" Giles almost seemed embarrassed, an Englishman eating pizza.

Buffy smiled, seeing the obvious pain it caused Giles to ask that question in public "no problem."

Buffy and Allen pulled into the pizzeria parking lot. Theofan’s Pizzeria was the closest thing to New York style pizza in all of Sunnydale, even though it was on the ‘ritzy’ side of town. Allen wouldn’t order his pizza from anywhere else, Domino’s, Pappa John’s nothing could compare to Theofan’s. Pizza Hut was especially blasphemous in his eyes. "The Big New Yorker pizza" he thought to himself "give me a break "talk about perpetrating a fraud." Allen had never actually eaten in the restaurant, but the delivery was the closet thing to 137^th New York, N.Y. he could find.

The crowd was a little older, probably mid forties, with a few smatterings of 20 somethings sprinkled throughout the restaurant.

"Table for…me, Summers, Xander, Willow, Oz" Allen was finger counting "table for five please. Non smoking."

Before responding the maitre d’, an older woman in her 50’s, looked Buffy up and down, glanced seemingly disgusted at Allen, and looked Buffy up and down again. What see saw obviously was not pleasing "One moment, sir" her tone was dry and condescending.

"What? Is there large grapefruit growing on the side of my face? What crawled up her skirt and died" Buffy was perplexed by his behavior. However, it was all too familiar to Allen.

"She’s got an Ebony & Ivory complex" Allen was clearly disappointed.

"Can I just say…huh?" Buffy clearly was in the dark.

"Ebony & Ivory complex, a little term I’ve came up with. She thinks were together, as in together together. Problem is I’m Black, you’re not, so that makes me a sell out because I’m not dating someone who’s Black." Allen felt embarrassed, ashamed, as if it were his fault "I’m sorry."

"What are you apologizing for? You’re not responsible for her ignorance" Buffy wasn’t quite sure how to react. On some level she almost expected racism in its historical form, but Black on Black racism was something she had never experienced. "But were not really dating" Buffy barely squeaked the words out.

"I know, sometimes its about what people think they see, not what’s actually there" the maitre d’ approached as Allen finished.

"Right this way sir" the maitre d escorted them to the table. Buffy’s look was intense. The maitre d’ adjusted her blouse collar, as if she could feel Buffy’s eyes on her neck. She was visibly uncomfortable. "I’ll direct the rest of your party when they arrive" the maitre d’ was anxious to leave the couple alone.

The rest of the Scooby Gang was not far behind, arriving several hours behind Buffy and Allen. Two large pepperoni pizzas later, plus Giles’ small pie to go, the wayward supernatural defenders of Sunnydale were forming the beginnings of a plan.

"So let me get this straight. Buffy’s getting her butt kicked by some kung fu vampire vixen…no offense Buff" Xander apologetically made eye contact "then you magically turn into chop saki guy and start whuppin some ass?"

"That’s’ an accurate encapsulation, it lacks certain subtle nuances, but for the most part pretty darn close" Allen nodded approvingly.

"Man I really need to get me some super powers" Xander was only halfway joking.

"I wouldn’t say I have super powers, just really good fighting skills. I’m no slayer" Allen wanted to make it clear he was no Superman.

"What I don’t get is why now, I mean what triggered the change?" Willow was shifting her brain gear to analytical.

"Maybe it was seeing Buffy in trouble, kind of like a latent mutant power, you know brought on by intense emotion" Oz’s tone followed his laid back demeanor.

"You mean like when Bruce Banner becomes the Incredible Hulk?" Xander was confident in his analogy.

"Hmmm…your comparison is faulty. Hulk changed when he got angry, not just when there was danger. Plus he wasn’t a mutant" Oz countered "…gamma radiation."

Allen felt compelled to interject his comic book expertise "Since the enhanced skills, not powers, are still around, I think it’s a combination of both. The abilities seem to be magical in nature, not mutant or radiation induced, so there’s a definite Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts element. Superior martial arts is also clearly a factor…"

"…suggesting Shang Chi or maybe some Iron Fist influence" Xander interrupted, but was proud of his contribution.

"Good call" Allen continued "Now that the latent abilities have been activated the really question is does it come with something cool like spider sense?" Oz and Xander nodded approvingly.

"That would be cool" Oz added "although Daredevil’s danger sense wouldn’t be too shabby either."

"That’s kind of true" tapping his chin while staring at the ceiling, Allen was now pondering the true depth of Oz’s statement.

"Gentlemen, if we could leave the world of spandex tights behind and return to reality" Buffy spoke with the authority of reason "apocalypse to stop…again."

"What…were working over here" Xander was slightly offended at the implication of loafing.

"Willow, you and Oz head to Giles’place, take his pizza, see what the Net can dig up on Tien-mu." Buffy was falling into her leadership role, a role all too familiar to her. Allen thought it made her quite sexy. "Xander, visit Willie the Snitch see if he knows anything about a kung fu vampire clan."

"Need to keep a receipt book, this slayer assistance thing is starting to affect my arcade money" Xander began scouring the table for paper and pencil.

"Allen you and I will leave together, I think we may have some unexpected company. Buffy motioned with her eyes.

"Who?" now it was Allen’s turn to be perplexed.

"The one in the trench coat and sunglasses, he’s been checking you out since we sat down" Buffy was clearly suspicious.

"He seems harmless enough. Okay maybe his fashion sense is a little off, but that’s not against the law" Allen was still a little puzzled.

"A) He’s been staring all night B) he’s wearing a trench coat…in August

C) there’s no sun inside the restaurant. On the Hellmouth, that spells vampire, only they think fashion died the day they did. This falls into the worth checking out category, he could be another of the kung fu contingent" Buffy was getting up from the table.

"Let’s roll" Buffy was tired of waiting, it was time for action.