There's a few in every barrel...
There's a few in every barrel...
Pleasant Hills hides many secrets and holds many threats. Some are evil, some are just mysterious.
Okay most are evil.
After a few weeks of operation, Sascha and her friends have already met a few of the major players in town.
Pleasant Hills has a lot of well-off people. The Tanakas are to them what they are to everybody else.
The Tanaka family heads up Tanaka Corp, an international arms company. The company, as well as the family itself, has always been pretty into the supernatural stuff. Tanaka Corp employs demons and mages and about everything else under the sun.
The CEO and head of the Tanaka family shot the company over on our side of the pond about ten years ago, and recently brought his son and daughter into upper management. Since then the kids (Anzo and Snow) have been trying to one-up each other and prove to daddy they deserve to be in charge.
As daddy isn't in town that often, that leaves the two of them in charge of corporate activities in this town. And there are a LOT of corporate activities. Anzo and Snow are pretty much on anything that can make them money and prestige like a shark smelling blood.
I met Anzo when I was going after the vengance demon Laz summoned. She and I are doing a decent amount of property damage with each other outside the hospital, when all these trucks pull up. This nice looking oriental guy gets out of the lead truck and gives some sort of radio signal, and an electrified net shoots around my vengance demon!
They dragged her away, and when I went up to confront him he seemed....AMUSED that I'd have that kind of gall. He introduced himself as the son of the CEO of Tanaka Corp and said we'd be seeing each other soon enough. Not in a creepy way. In a 'we travel the same circles' kind of way.
Well I figured that was the end of that when Bastion and I raided the compound they were holding the demon in and released her (in exchange for her calling off the vendetta against Brad of course). But that just seemed to intrigue him. Since then he's shown up every once in awhile, acting all mysterious and stuff.
He seemed almost flirty, which I wasn't entirely hating. Then he started getting flirty with Opal. To say the claws came out on both our sides would be a major understatement....
Opal and I made up, but Anzo made a very good point. She, Oscar and Laz weren't ready for the big time. The stuff that Bastion and I deal with is going to get them killed someday. Or worse. So since then I've kinda kept Opal & Co. at arm's length. They're good friends, but they're not like me. I don't think they ever will be.
I can't figure Anzo out. On one hand, I just KNOW he's manipulating me somehow. Too often has something nice that he's done resulted in my being in exactly the place to see something I shouldn't have. But on the other, he really does seem to be using me to do stuff I'd be doing anways. His dad and sister are so slimy...he just doesn't seem the same type. He even helped me head off a major headache when his father came to town and wanted me OUT. Anzo put me on his payroll. I'm now on part-time as part of a special team of his that takes care of 'problem situations'. Even that though seems awfully damned.....convenient.
Recently I confronted him about everything that's happened. I mean I was NICE about it, but I don't do well with mind games. He really almost seemed HURT by it. He said he was trying to build some sort of relationship with me (something to which he's not completely accustomed) but if I couldn't trust him there wasn't much he could do to prove his intentions.
Damn his timing....I was just about to fially get the guts up to ask Bastion to tear down his Fort-Knox-like walls long enough to clue me into how HE feels.
I really like Anzo, and he seems to like me too. But is he worth alienating all my other friends for?
Here's someone I don't have to mince words about. Snow pissed me off the moment we first met, and we've kept that feeling alive ever since.
Snow doesn't like me. In fact she never did. She hates that Anzo has been spending time with me, and is either jealous or she flat out hates HIM so much she wants to make sure I'm out of the picture.
Either way It's not great for me. Apparently Snow is a little more than normal. She's FAST. Faster than I am fast. Strong too. I didn't know why, but I think I've figured it out now. Something Abe Sapien told me before he left...that there was more than one of me in this town. That raised my suspicions and I think there's only one explanation for her that makes sense.
I think Snow is a Slayer.
If she is, she's one the Council missed (not impossible for a Tanaka). She's also had a LOT better training than I have.
Sucks for me, because I damn well know eventually we're going to have our little argument out eventually. And I'm pretty sure only one of us will walk away from that fight.
Another reason to keep training I suppose. As if I didn't have enough....
Yeah yeah...I KNOW how it sounds. Shut up and listen. I'm not talking about Marvin the Martian here....
So I wake up late last Sunday and Arthur is out getting groceries. I hear this sound downstairs so I head down to check it out. I track it to the garage and see the door open. I yell and this figure turns around. I didn't get a great look at it, but I saw it was thin, wiry, tall, had these huge eyes, and claws on its hands. Not that I'd forget what I DID see very easily.
Now I don't do scared that often. Something has to REALLY mess with me before I get there. This thing just LOOKED at me, and it was....it was like a scientist looking at a lab rat. I don't think I've ever been that scared. I raised a crowbar...not that I probably could've attacked it anways, and something crashed behind me. I whirled to see a gas can had fallen off of a shelf behind me, then turned back and it was gone.
Arthur came back and Bastion happened to come over (just in time to see me freak out), and surprise surprise, neither of them seemed shocked to hear my story. Apparently Arthur used to work for some British government agency and had done some research into alien appearences and abductions. Bastion had seen them before. He said they made occasional appearences around Pleasant Hills, but NEVER during the day and NEVER inside town. This was both...and it wasn't over there.
We heard footsteps upstairs as we were talking. I went up with my buddy the crowbar, and found an empty kitchen with the fridge door open. Arthur came up and looked a bit nervous. Apparently I was drinking a glass of water and left it on the table so he put it in the fridge. The glass was missing. He said something about genetic material in saliva or something and we decided to get a security system.
Whatever these things are, they seem WAY too interested in me. They've shown up outside my window at night and have been inside the building both day and night. We're hoping good ol' fashioned window locks and a big black dog who now sleeps in my room will help give them the hint. I'm not sure though. I looked on our roof and found a footprint. When I knew what I was looking for I looked around and saw HUNDREDS footprints on our rooftop.
I don't know what they are or what they want from me. All I know is that they scare the hell out of me, and they aren't going away.
Remember when I said that Pleasant Hills has more than just a Hellmouth lurking under it? We just got some evidence that the first vampire is tucked away somewhere under our feet. The. First. Vampire.... Here.
Appropriately enough, he has a cult here in town. A cult that seems VERY interested in me, both in an enemy sense as well as a convenient sacrifice.
Apparently..."inexperienced" Slayers are in high demand. Pure heroes of light make for good sacrifices. Who knew?
First night in town I met Celene. She was the high priestess...not that she initially struck me as the religious type. She wiped the floor with me. Wish that was the ONLY time I could say that...
She eventually got me to come with her by threatening Opal's life, and was going to use my blood to open up some portal to a dimension to get some book that had the secrets to resurrect their vampire god. I was cut and then taken through, where I was to spend the rest of eternity as the bride of some bug-demon as payment for the book. I managed to dupe Celene long enough to take out the bug (the axe makes a pretty good flyswatter in a pinch!) and grab a medallion that was Celene's only way out. She got the book. I hit the portal. Bad news for her.
I wish I could say that was the last of it, but she somehow got out. For her, a LOT of time had passed and she was a LOT more powerful and a LOT more pissed at me. My first night as part of Anzo's special team I walked right into a trap set by her. She needed my blood again. This time to perform the ritual that would open the seal containing their god. I tried to fight her, but she was even faster than she was before.
She performed some major demolition with my face on the stone temple houseing the seal. Even broke my arm in three places. Slowly. Bastion jumped in and got her off of me before she could bite down. I can't fault the guy for riding in on the white horse that time.
Trouble is, apparently the blood of ANY ol' pure hero of light was enough. In my defense, I had no idea Bastion was....heh. Well anyways...his blood got on the seal and it got all glowy for a second and....did absolutely nothing. That's when the entire building came down around our ears. Apparently the rest of our 'team' was finally here for backup.
I was pinned under debris and too hurt to get out when the vampire bitch clawed her way out of the rubble. She was laughing. As she stumbled into view, I could see she was riddled with pieces of wood from the building above the temple. She thanked me for freeing her god as she dusted.
That's when another figure burst up out of the mess. He started stalking towards me, and I won't kid you....I thought it was it. I actually closed my eyes and waited for him to finish the job, wondering if he was going to kill me or turn me.
The rock that was pinning me was lifted and next thing I know Bastion is picking me up, asking if I'm all right. NEXT thing I know...I was kissing him.
*sigh*
I wasn't thinking okay? I was just thrilled that it was HIM and caught up in the moment and it...happened. He looked at me stunned and said "Uh...you're welcome." and started climbing out. We...haven't spoken about it since.
Baaack to something resembling a subject...we later found out that the first vampire wasn't able to just get up after Bastion's blood hit his seal. He was awake now and called a harbinger to town to take care of the rest.
One of Arthur's old buddies showed up to help us deal with the harbinger. Some dude named Trevor Bruttenholm. He was part of some government organization and apparently they had their OWN freak squad they were bringing in to help.
This guy said he had a prophecy they dredged up from some book that said that this harbinger needed to kill an agent of light to awaken the first vampire. Basically they needed to kill an angel. Bruttenholm said there was an angel in Pleasant Hills right now. An old colleague of his.
It just clicked. I knew the moment he said it who the angel was. Hell he'd been MY guardian angel enough times. And he'd never said a word.
I found Bastion in his usual warehouse hovel, and confronted him about it. Other than looking very uncomfortable he didn't have much to say, but wasn't denying it. Bruttenholm's name, however, he knew. Apparently he and the old man had some sort of falling out....about forty years ago.
Also apparently...Bastion was a LOT older than he looked.
One of Bruttenholm's agents had followed me, and she showed up then. Her name was Liz, and I could tell right away she and Bastion had a past. Something that didn't sit too great with me, given recent circumstances.
She and I talked him into coming back with us, and he walked off to think by himself for awhile. I asked her what Bastion had against the old man. She just said they had a moral difference of opinions that forced them to part ways.
I felt bad. I didn't want to cause the big guy any pain. So I bestowed upon him the rare and beautiful gift of me being sensitive. I walked over and laid a hand on his arm and apologized. I told him he didn't have to come, but he he was already involved in this so he might as well see it through. I asked him who SHE was and he got real sad looking and said "And old friend. A good friend. You actually...remind me a lot of her.". You know, I told her that later, and she got the same far off sad look and said "I'm sorry."....
I met the rest of the squad later. One was a demon. Big guy. Stone arm. Called himself Red. We did NOT hit things off well. He mentioned something about babysitting, and I called him amateur hour. Sadly he seemed to have my social tendencies.
Then there was Blue. He was some fish-guy who introduced himself as Abe. He was nicer, but weird. He got this screwed up look when he met me and wouldn't tell me why. He was also the one who was researching the prophecy. He said the vamp we were going in to take out was called Kurzan, and he had killed (and scalped!) three Slayers, and had their hair tied to his belt. He suggested something...he said he could tap into some Slayer shared memory thing and show me how the other Slayers lost to him. I didn't like the idea, but didn't really have a choice, so we started the trip down memory lane.
I saw three of them. All fought him. All looked like they were winning, and with all of them he took them out when they went in for the kill. And with all of them, he promised them softly that he was going to turn their family and friends into his servants.
I didn't freak out. I didn't even get mad as much as I just got...cold. I knew I needed to take this guy out, or Opal, Laz and Oscar would pay the price.
And I had a plan.
I stopped off and Laz's house and talked with his mom, who was able to give me a set of magic necklaces that would allow someone else to take a hit for me. I was going to fall into the same trap the other Slayers did and let him sucker-punch me. Then while he was standing over me gloating I was going to put a hole in his heart. All I needed was the demon to take the hit.
Before it was done, Kurzan almost killed me. He threw me around the mall where he was holed up, threw knives into Bastion's legs so he couldn't walk, and then we started the dance I'd seen three times before....
I hit him hard. He went down. I jumped on top of him and straddled his chest I made a great speech, and he looked all scared. I prayed Red had put the damn necklace on as i struck, he caught my hand and hit me so hard I went through the concrete ceiling.
I didn't feel a thing...not that I thought I would either way. But I was ALIVE. I fell back down through the hole (THAT part hurt) and he grabbed me and said something about how much he hated weird-colored hair. He brought up my own stake to kill me with and a big stone hand grabbed his. He looked back just in time to not see my second stake shove between his ribcage.
And he started laughing. Why do they always DO that?
Turns out, the 'Agent of Light' part of the prophecy was more 'Agent of a Higher Power'. Bastion wasn't the one who needed to die. It was Kurzan. And a Slayer had to kill him. He thanked me as he crumbled.
Bruttenholm and his people had to head back afterward, so they headed out. Liz saw me watching Bastion being wheeled out, hugged me goodbye and whispered "He's worth it" into my ear.
Huh...
Now I've got a vampire god who is about to break out, a stupid idea thrown into my head that is REALLY complicating my wannabe-relationship with Anzo, and an invalid angel staying in my room until he heals. I was the only one who went in not that hurt, so I decided to walk home. It had been too long since I did a good old fashioned patrol, and I was in the mood to stake some bad guys.
Being the Slayer in Pleasant Hills gets more fun every day....