Black Hat 4
Title: Black Hat
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
How the latest big bad had come up with this idea Dawn didn’t know, but it was alarmingly effective in distracting their efforts in keeping big, bad and stupid from getting control of the hellmouth. “I HATE YOU!” someone screamed out in the hall, and Buffy’s Troll hammer came crashing through the library wall. On the other side of the research table Andrew whimpered in fear.
It was either her keyness or sheer dumb luck that Dawn wasn’t affected by the curse like every other female at the school. Personally Dawn would have bet on it being the dumb luck as she was a very female Key, thank you very much. Giles, Wesley and Xander, backed up by the rest of the male staff and students were doing their best to contain the damage, but there was only so much that they could do. It was up to Dawn and Andrew to find the way to break the curse, Dawn because she wasn’t affected and Andrew because just the sight of him was enough to set off another round of continental sized mood swings.
It wasn’t like those who lived at and ran the school hadn’t dealt with slayers with PMS before. There was usually at least four or five with the condition at any given time roaming the halls, but never before had ALL of the slayers, witches, lady hunters and female Watchers had it all at the same time and magically increased by an incredible amount.
Slayers who laughed off what would be life threatening injuries to anyone else were down in the infirmary whimpering in pain from cramps and headaches. Many of the girls couldn’t stay awake, no matter what they tried, and more couldn’t leave the bathrooms. The rest seemed to swing between anger and tears as the rest of the symptoms such as bloating, pimples, food cravings, etc. were driven far beyond what was normal. To say the least it was chaos at slayer central.
As Andrew sat and stared at the Troll hammer, terrified that the next slayer tantrum was going to kill him, Dawn had finally had enough. In order to break the curse, they first had to find out what the exact wording was which meant research, but that research couldn’t be done when every five minutes they were interrupted by screams, yelling, fighting, and now Troll hammers being thrown through the walls. It was time to get out of here and find some peace and quiet where they could concentrate.
The only trouble was there really weren’t that many quiet places that Dawn knew about where they could spread out with books on magic, demons and the moon goddess (the obvious origin of the curse). Every place where she knew that the people who owned the place knew about the supernatural was usually busy and crowded. Dawn straightened up as a thought struck her - except for Jerico at this time of day. It was ten in the morning, which meant that Black Jack’s club would be closed right now.
“Andrew, pack up the books and take them down to my car. I’ll meet you there in a minute,” she ordered, and ran out of the room. She went down to the infirmary, where Wesley was watching over Faith, Buffy and Willow. The Dark Slayer was curled up on one of the beds, whimpering in pain from the cramps. Willow was crying from the pain of the migraines. Tara couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her girlfriend because of her own problems - namely keeping her temper and not blasting everything around her with her magic because Willow was in such pain.
Wes was sitting in between the two beds, helpless to stop the effects, but refusing to leave his slayer. He had made a promise to her when she’d asked him to return as her Watcher and nothing was going to make him break it. He had a stack of books in front of him, piled on the floor and a book on his lap. One hand was turning pages, while the other was stroking Faith’s back letting her know that he was still there. “Wes, find anything?” Dawn asked as she entered the long room filled with beds, women and girls crying and in pain, and the male medics trying to ease it.
Wesley shook his head. “There’s nothing yet. When I get my hands on the bloody pillock who did this…” His voice trailed off, but the look on his face said it all. There wasn’t a single male Watcher here who wasn’t ready to tear apart the person responsible apart with his bare hands, and no few of the female Watchers had already tried to leave the school in order take their tempers and their slayer’s out on the local vampire population. Fortunately for the demonic and human populations of Cleveland, Giles had forbidden any of them from leaving.
“I’m taking Andrew and getting out of here. Alice threw Buffy’s Troll hammer through the library wall.” Wes winced. Alice was only fourteen. Xander was going to have his work cut out for him when this was all done with all the repairs that would be needed from slayer temper tantrums. “We’re taking the books with us and finding a quiet spot to research. We’ll have our cell phones on, so if you find anything give us a call.”
“Of course, this place really isn’t conductive to quiet research right now. Call me if you find anything that I can help with,” he requested.
Dawn nodded and stopped by Buffy’s bed, laying her hands on her sister’s head before leaving. Buffy had insisted that Giles and the others not sit with her. They had other things that had to be done, namely finding and breaking the curse so that she could break big, bad and stupid. Dawn refused to cry as she pulled out her cell and told Giles that she and Andrew were headed out. He could have been anywhere in the school and she didn’t want to waste time trying to find him.
Andrew had filled her back seat with books and was closing the lid of her trunk when she arrived at the parking lot. “I’ve got everything from the library, including all of the dictionaries just in case.”
“Good,” Dawn said, as she got in and started the car. Andrew scrambled around and got in the passenger seat. Once he was in and buckled up Dawn left the parking lot. Andrew retrieved the book he had been going through from the dashboard and dove back in. “First things first Andrew.” He looked up. “You are not to tell anyone who my friend is, or so help me I will transport your entire collection of action figures, comics and boxed sets right into the sun. Do you understand?” Andrew gulped and nodded vigorously.
“Good,” she said, and then called Black Jack. “Black Jack, I’ve got an emergency on my hands and I need a quiet place to research. Can I use the club before it opens?”
“Sure, not a problem. When will you get here?” he asked sleepily.
“About ten minutes,” Dawn told him.
JERICO
A woman leaving the club kissed Jack on the cheek before getting into her car and leaving as Dawn pulled into the parking lot. “Girlfriend?” she asked as she loaded his arms full of heavy books. She had noticed that he was just wearing a pair of blue jeans, (kind of hard not to, it bumped him up to a full nine) although the pattern of scars across his chest was rather interesting in a researchy, not important right now kind of way.
“Dinner,” he said with shrug. He wasn’t going to hide how they kept Black fed. It wasn’t like any of the women meant anything to them more than that. “So what’s the emergency?” he asked, leading the way into the main room of the club. The lights were all on and a couple of tables had been pulled together.
“The most recent apprentice to the forces of darkness, following in Darth Sidious’ foul footsteps has struck a terrible blow against the mighty amazons of the light!” Andrew began.
“ANDREW!” Dawn snapped. “No geek, he doesn’t speak it!” She turned to Black, who had taken over the minute they were out of the sun as he was stronger. “The latest person to try and take control of the hellmouth cursed every girl and woman at the slayer school with a magically enhanced case of PMS. Buffy, Faith and Willow are incapacitated. We need to find out how to break the curse before a) whoever it is does whatever he needs us out of commission for and b) the slayers destroy the school from the continent sized mood swings.”
Black shuddered. “You two stay here and get to work. We’ll get the rest of the books from your car.” Dawn handed over the keys and Black left, shaking his head.
“You’re dating Glory guy?” Andrew wanted to know the minute the vampire had left the room. “And why did his evil alter ego leave the woman alive if she was his dinner?!” he squeaked.
Dawn glared. “We are not dating, we’re just friends. Black doesn’t kill the women whose blood he drinks because it makes Jack sick to their stomach.” She sat down and opened the book that was in front of her. “Now get back to work.”
After Black had set the last of the books down on the table, he reached and dragged another chair over to the table. He sat down and picked up a familiar looking book. He looked over the first page and then dragged one of the dictionaries over, checking to see if he was right. “I can read this,” he told Dawn. “I wonder what other languages we might know.”
Dawn looked up to check which book Black was looking at. “That one is Latin. Good, we need another set of eyes.” They weren’t upset at Dawn’s brusque tone. One slayer with PMS was something to avoid at all costs, all of them with it was an emergency of the highest order and Black was glad to be able to help her beyond giving her a place to research.
Two hours passed with little sound other than pages turning and huffs of frustration. “Mageling, I think Black’s got something here,” Jack said, passing over the book his brother was looking at over his brother’s protests.
“Damn it Jack, it’s not the right one.”
“The curse sounds a bit flowery I’ll admit, but that’s still a good description of PMS.”
While two argued, Dawn examined the page. “Hemet is the older Egyptian name for Hecate, the moon goddess who was depicted as the maiden, the mother and the crone. More specifically, she’s the patron goddess of a group of vampires called the Empusae. If there is any moon goddess who would go against a slayer, it’s her.”
“See, I told you,” Jack said.
“The curse is fairly straight forward. I’ve got to get it back the school. Thanks so much guys!” Dawn said, jumping up from her chair. She kissed Jack on the cheek. “Remember Andrew, one word about any of this and it’s off to the sun for your stuff!”
They didn’t know what Dawn meant about the boy’s stuff, but it was obvious that he did because he turned the palest shade of white they’d ever seen on a human. “Leave the rest of the books here, and get the slayers back out doing what they do best,” Black said. Dawn kissed his cheek as well, gave Andrew the book, and dragged him out of the club, already talking to Wes on her cell.
“You know, I really don’t envy those vampires once the slayers get a hold of them,” Black said.
“Well they only have themselves to blame,” Jack said as they began gathering up Dawn’s books. “I mean, come on! It’s one thing to try and take over the hellmouth. It’s stupid to try and set yourself up like that, but most master vampires try something like it at least once. But for them to go and deliberately piss off every single slayer in the city where their main headquarters are located?”
“Yeah, we’d better call everyone and tell our crew to stay home tonight. If the club is open tonight it’ll probably get wrecked when the slayers go after them,” Black said. “And I think we should both order our meals in. Doesn’t the Chinese Garden have that one delivery girl?”
“Fast food it is, after a nap though. I’m exhausted,” Jack agreed. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had rice for breakfast.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
How the latest big bad had come up with this idea Dawn didn’t know, but it was alarmingly effective in distracting their efforts in keeping big, bad and stupid from getting control of the hellmouth. “I HATE YOU!” someone screamed out in the hall, and Buffy’s Troll hammer came crashing through the library wall. On the other side of the research table Andrew whimpered in fear.
It was either her keyness or sheer dumb luck that Dawn wasn’t affected by the curse like every other female at the school. Personally Dawn would have bet on it being the dumb luck as she was a very female Key, thank you very much. Giles, Wesley and Xander, backed up by the rest of the male staff and students were doing their best to contain the damage, but there was only so much that they could do. It was up to Dawn and Andrew to find the way to break the curse, Dawn because she wasn’t affected and Andrew because just the sight of him was enough to set off another round of continental sized mood swings.
It wasn’t like those who lived at and ran the school hadn’t dealt with slayers with PMS before. There was usually at least four or five with the condition at any given time roaming the halls, but never before had ALL of the slayers, witches, lady hunters and female Watchers had it all at the same time and magically increased by an incredible amount.
Slayers who laughed off what would be life threatening injuries to anyone else were down in the infirmary whimpering in pain from cramps and headaches. Many of the girls couldn’t stay awake, no matter what they tried, and more couldn’t leave the bathrooms. The rest seemed to swing between anger and tears as the rest of the symptoms such as bloating, pimples, food cravings, etc. were driven far beyond what was normal. To say the least it was chaos at slayer central.
As Andrew sat and stared at the Troll hammer, terrified that the next slayer tantrum was going to kill him, Dawn had finally had enough. In order to break the curse, they first had to find out what the exact wording was which meant research, but that research couldn’t be done when every five minutes they were interrupted by screams, yelling, fighting, and now Troll hammers being thrown through the walls. It was time to get out of here and find some peace and quiet where they could concentrate.
The only trouble was there really weren’t that many quiet places that Dawn knew about where they could spread out with books on magic, demons and the moon goddess (the obvious origin of the curse). Every place where she knew that the people who owned the place knew about the supernatural was usually busy and crowded. Dawn straightened up as a thought struck her - except for Jerico at this time of day. It was ten in the morning, which meant that Black Jack’s club would be closed right now.
“Andrew, pack up the books and take them down to my car. I’ll meet you there in a minute,” she ordered, and ran out of the room. She went down to the infirmary, where Wesley was watching over Faith, Buffy and Willow. The Dark Slayer was curled up on one of the beds, whimpering in pain from the cramps. Willow was crying from the pain of the migraines. Tara couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her girlfriend because of her own problems - namely keeping her temper and not blasting everything around her with her magic because Willow was in such pain.
Wes was sitting in between the two beds, helpless to stop the effects, but refusing to leave his slayer. He had made a promise to her when she’d asked him to return as her Watcher and nothing was going to make him break it. He had a stack of books in front of him, piled on the floor and a book on his lap. One hand was turning pages, while the other was stroking Faith’s back letting her know that he was still there. “Wes, find anything?” Dawn asked as she entered the long room filled with beds, women and girls crying and in pain, and the male medics trying to ease it.
Wesley shook his head. “There’s nothing yet. When I get my hands on the bloody pillock who did this…” His voice trailed off, but the look on his face said it all. There wasn’t a single male Watcher here who wasn’t ready to tear apart the person responsible apart with his bare hands, and no few of the female Watchers had already tried to leave the school in order take their tempers and their slayer’s out on the local vampire population. Fortunately for the demonic and human populations of Cleveland, Giles had forbidden any of them from leaving.
“I’m taking Andrew and getting out of here. Alice threw Buffy’s Troll hammer through the library wall.” Wes winced. Alice was only fourteen. Xander was going to have his work cut out for him when this was all done with all the repairs that would be needed from slayer temper tantrums. “We’re taking the books with us and finding a quiet spot to research. We’ll have our cell phones on, so if you find anything give us a call.”
“Of course, this place really isn’t conductive to quiet research right now. Call me if you find anything that I can help with,” he requested.
Dawn nodded and stopped by Buffy’s bed, laying her hands on her sister’s head before leaving. Buffy had insisted that Giles and the others not sit with her. They had other things that had to be done, namely finding and breaking the curse so that she could break big, bad and stupid. Dawn refused to cry as she pulled out her cell and told Giles that she and Andrew were headed out. He could have been anywhere in the school and she didn’t want to waste time trying to find him.
Andrew had filled her back seat with books and was closing the lid of her trunk when she arrived at the parking lot. “I’ve got everything from the library, including all of the dictionaries just in case.”
“Good,” Dawn said, as she got in and started the car. Andrew scrambled around and got in the passenger seat. Once he was in and buckled up Dawn left the parking lot. Andrew retrieved the book he had been going through from the dashboard and dove back in. “First things first Andrew.” He looked up. “You are not to tell anyone who my friend is, or so help me I will transport your entire collection of action figures, comics and boxed sets right into the sun. Do you understand?” Andrew gulped and nodded vigorously.
“Good,” she said, and then called Black Jack. “Black Jack, I’ve got an emergency on my hands and I need a quiet place to research. Can I use the club before it opens?”
“Sure, not a problem. When will you get here?” he asked sleepily.
“About ten minutes,” Dawn told him.
JERICO
A woman leaving the club kissed Jack on the cheek before getting into her car and leaving as Dawn pulled into the parking lot. “Girlfriend?” she asked as she loaded his arms full of heavy books. She had noticed that he was just wearing a pair of blue jeans, (kind of hard not to, it bumped him up to a full nine) although the pattern of scars across his chest was rather interesting in a researchy, not important right now kind of way.
“Dinner,” he said with shrug. He wasn’t going to hide how they kept Black fed. It wasn’t like any of the women meant anything to them more than that. “So what’s the emergency?” he asked, leading the way into the main room of the club. The lights were all on and a couple of tables had been pulled together.
“The most recent apprentice to the forces of darkness, following in Darth Sidious’ foul footsteps has struck a terrible blow against the mighty amazons of the light!” Andrew began.
“ANDREW!” Dawn snapped. “No geek, he doesn’t speak it!” She turned to Black, who had taken over the minute they were out of the sun as he was stronger. “The latest person to try and take control of the hellmouth cursed every girl and woman at the slayer school with a magically enhanced case of PMS. Buffy, Faith and Willow are incapacitated. We need to find out how to break the curse before a) whoever it is does whatever he needs us out of commission for and b) the slayers destroy the school from the continent sized mood swings.”
Black shuddered. “You two stay here and get to work. We’ll get the rest of the books from your car.” Dawn handed over the keys and Black left, shaking his head.
“You’re dating Glory guy?” Andrew wanted to know the minute the vampire had left the room. “And why did his evil alter ego leave the woman alive if she was his dinner?!” he squeaked.
Dawn glared. “We are not dating, we’re just friends. Black doesn’t kill the women whose blood he drinks because it makes Jack sick to their stomach.” She sat down and opened the book that was in front of her. “Now get back to work.”
After Black had set the last of the books down on the table, he reached and dragged another chair over to the table. He sat down and picked up a familiar looking book. He looked over the first page and then dragged one of the dictionaries over, checking to see if he was right. “I can read this,” he told Dawn. “I wonder what other languages we might know.”
Dawn looked up to check which book Black was looking at. “That one is Latin. Good, we need another set of eyes.” They weren’t upset at Dawn’s brusque tone. One slayer with PMS was something to avoid at all costs, all of them with it was an emergency of the highest order and Black was glad to be able to help her beyond giving her a place to research.
Two hours passed with little sound other than pages turning and huffs of frustration. “Mageling, I think Black’s got something here,” Jack said, passing over the book his brother was looking at over his brother’s protests.
“Damn it Jack, it’s not the right one.”
“The curse sounds a bit flowery I’ll admit, but that’s still a good description of PMS.”
While two argued, Dawn examined the page. “Hemet is the older Egyptian name for Hecate, the moon goddess who was depicted as the maiden, the mother and the crone. More specifically, she’s the patron goddess of a group of vampires called the Empusae. If there is any moon goddess who would go against a slayer, it’s her.”
“See, I told you,” Jack said.
“The curse is fairly straight forward. I’ve got to get it back the school. Thanks so much guys!” Dawn said, jumping up from her chair. She kissed Jack on the cheek. “Remember Andrew, one word about any of this and it’s off to the sun for your stuff!”
They didn’t know what Dawn meant about the boy’s stuff, but it was obvious that he did because he turned the palest shade of white they’d ever seen on a human. “Leave the rest of the books here, and get the slayers back out doing what they do best,” Black said. Dawn kissed his cheek as well, gave Andrew the book, and dragged him out of the club, already talking to Wes on her cell.
“You know, I really don’t envy those vampires once the slayers get a hold of them,” Black said.
“Well they only have themselves to blame,” Jack said as they began gathering up Dawn’s books. “I mean, come on! It’s one thing to try and take over the hellmouth. It’s stupid to try and set yourself up like that, but most master vampires try something like it at least once. But for them to go and deliberately piss off every single slayer in the city where their main headquarters are located?”
“Yeah, we’d better call everyone and tell our crew to stay home tonight. If the club is open tonight it’ll probably get wrecked when the slayers go after them,” Black said. “And I think we should both order our meals in. Doesn’t the Chinese Garden have that one delivery girl?”
“Fast food it is, after a nap though. I’m exhausted,” Jack agreed. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had rice for breakfast.