Title: We Can Swing Together

POV: 3^rd Person

Timescale: Episodes 17 “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Were-Lynx” and 18 “Dust Part 1: Frog on the Tyne”

Written by: Voirrey

We Can Swing Together.

Jocasta had never been more pleased when someone answered their phone than she was when Jack did. Not that the conversation had been very long, or very enlightening – ‘Hi pet, are you all O.K? I can’t talk at the minute, I’m at a Chinese Restaurant, it’s a work do. I’ll give you a ring later.’ Still, the implication was that he was fine, so were the others, and the visit to the restaurant must have something to do with the missing Sally, or the attack on Jenny’s ‘parents’. She could wait a while.

……………………

Jocasta didn’t have to wait all that long before her phone rang, and over the next couple of hours both teams of Roxettes were able to fill in the other team on what had been going on whilst they had been in two different dimensions. Those in Pittsburgh had news of success, but those in Whitby had, of course, sadder tales to tell.

Jenny’s ‘magic ring’ had brought her sorrow. Literally. Had she still been totally robotic, the death of George Ferguson would have simply been a fact to assimilate; now it hurt every one of her newly acquired emotions, and she ached for vengeance.

Sally’s ring, in a different way, also seemed to have brought her sorrow. If she had not felt more in control of her ‘other side’ she might not have started a relationship with Mark Naylor, and she probably wouldn’t have been kidnapped.

Sam and Jack had come to the conclusion that Sally was probably being held alive but drugged, in her were-lynx form, so that she could be ‘farmed’ for body products. Whilst Roxy, Jocasta and the others found this idea horrific, it made sense. The young Sally had been making life very hard for a Chinese triad who were dealing in animal parts for medicinal purposes when they had shot her, and left her for dead. Well, being honest, they had left her actually dead, but she did have fairly amazing recuperative powers! What better way for The First to wreak havoc with this particular Slayer than to point out her continued existence and her lycanthropy to them?

Although this idea was horrifying, it meant that her captors were unlikely to kill her in the next few days, and so the Roxettes who had remained in Whitby had felt they could wait a day or two to get a better fix on where Sally was being held, and get properly organized, rather than dashing in hopefully. Because there had been no way of telling when Roxy and the others were coming back from the Dungeon Dimension, it had looked as if the rescue would have to be done by the Whitby group alone, and Ross had suggested that perhaps M’selle Reynard could be asked to help, after all they had given her Ethan Rayne! He felt that with her Special Forces training she would be a good person to help with a ‘hostage rescue’, and the others, some a little reluctantly, had agreed. Of course no sooner had she been asked (and agreed), than Jack received Jocasta’s call, and they realised that by the time the rescue was properly organised they would be back to full strength, and probably wouldn’t have needed her.

Ross had expected Jocasta and James to be annoyed at the French teacher being included in in this way, but they agreed that it had been a good idea under the circumstances, but a few things were not to be revealed to her. Just little things – like Jack being a vampire, or Jenny being a robot. Particularly Jenny being a robot. Jenny’s level of technology would be a very major temptation to any government. Roxy hadn’t been overly impressed with this addition to the rescue team, but agreed that as M’selle had now been told about Sally, and her ‘special ability’ she might as well come along if she wanted to!

On the flight back from the States Jocasta had something of a ‘Watcher Moment’, when she suddenly thought that they could try asking Dominique Reynard to try the last ‘Watcher’s Ring’. After all, Robin Wood had been able to wear one, despite having no training, probably because his mother was a Slayer, and his foster father was a Watcher. Using the same principle, it was just possible that the French teacher could be their missing Watcher. After all she had been a Potential Slayer, and she had had some teaching from her own Watcher. She also had a lot of the right sort of knowledge from her membership of the French special anti-vampire unit. James thought it might just be possible, Roxy thought her Watcher was either mad, or at least severely jet-lagged, but eventually, after further phone conversations with those in Whitby from Heathrow, it was agreed that the attempt should be made. Although she still wasn’t to know Jenny’s secret!

Now the plane from Heathrow had landed at Newcastle Airport, and Jocasta, James, Roxy and Teresa were about to be re-united with Jack and the rest of the Roxettes. After hugs all round, some even more enthusiastic or heartfelt than others, everyone trooped off to the Airport Hotel where they had rooms booked. As they gathered in Jocasta’s hotel room, squeezing into every corner, it became obvious that those in the UK had spent their time well whilst the others got back from Pittsburgh.

With the use of a series of locator spells by Louise, (aided by Donna, who despite only wanting to be a Slayer had discovered that she has some degree of magical talent) they had narrowed Sally’s whereabouts down to a Chinese supermarket in Stowell Street in Newcastle. They had been observing it from a nearby restaurant when Jocasta had first phoned from Pittsburgh.

Because Sally was going to be in Lynx mode when they would reach her, and in her drugged state could attack her rescuers, they had decided that some sort of cage would be needed for transport. As luck would have it they hear on local radio that Flamingo Land, a nearby animal park, has just taken delivery of a snow leopard, and Jack decided to go along and see if he could check how they had transported it. He had hoped that if they had some sort of special vehicle he could ‘borrow’ it for the evening. However, when he asked about the vehicle, he was mistaken for a mechanic who was to collect it for service, and handed the keys! So transporting Sally would be no problem.

Dominique Reynard had tear gas grenades, and an untraceable gun, and Gabriella and Teresa also had guns, in Gabriella’s case a machine gun. If the tear gas was needed, Jack and Jenny could walk through it with no problem, although they would prefer not to tell M’selle Reynard exactly why, and only mention it in a vague sort of way in her presence.

The subject of the ‘Watcher’s Ring’ had to be mentioned to Dominique Reynard. The Roxettes had discussed it, and the general opinion was that if she was not a natural Watcher she should be told as little as possible! In the end, Jocasta mentioned the idea that Dominique might be a Watcher, and Dominique was extremely pleased at the idea, and wanted to know how they could find out if she would make a good Watcher. The answer of course was to try on the ring – no explanation why, in case it didn’t work – but it did! And so, at last, all twenty five rings were being worn, which hopefully would make rescuing Sally a bit easier.

This meant that they felt happier having her in the rescue party, but, as James and Jocasta had decided before the meeting, it was suggested that her role in the longer term might best be as a liaison point between the Watcher/Slayer set-up and her more high-tech, but less well-informed small French specialist group. She seemed happy with this, and thought that it would benefit both outfits. Gabriella and Teresa decided personally that they would still prefer not to be in the same room as her, and a weapon, without witnesses!

The rescue attempt was to take place that evening, and whilst the younger members of the group went shopping in the town, Jocasta chose to stay in her room. Jack volunteered to watch over the Watcher; after all they had agreed that no-one should ever be alone!

As she lay on the bed she found herself wondering whether she was glad that they’d got home in time to help, or not. She wasn’t scared of what would probably be quite a fight, although she suspected it might be even more of a fight than the others expected. It struck Jocasta that Sally might well be the bait to tempt them – Slayers rushing in where angels fear to tread!

But they weren’t rushing as much as might have been expected, she comforted herself. No, she wasn’t scared, but she did wish (NO, wrong word!), she did think it would be better if only they could have a rest! Just a few days, just long enough to get over the jet-lag, and the culture shock of all this gallivanting! Still, it didn’t look as if The First was going to put everything on hold, so they would just have to get on with it! One day, she promised herself, Jack and her would get at least a week with no company except each other, and possibly the chance to make love on more than one occasion without having to change continents like some giant ‘Alice in Wonderland’ game!

‘Let’s get this Apocalypse/Armageddon over and done with’, she thought, ‘because it doesn’t look as if we’ll get that time before it – so if I’m ever going to get a break, we’d better be the winning side!’

………………………

Evening, the sun is setting, the shadows are lengthening, and the Roxettes make their way to Stowell Street. James and Sam, with Grace, make their way to the same restaurant Jack had been in, with some of the others, when Jocasta rang from Pittsburgh, so that they can keep an eye on the front of the building Sally is being held in. Grace carries a number of carrier bags, as do some of the other people eating after shopping trips. Grace’s shopping looks to have been rather mundane – amongst other things she has bought a new mop!

The reconnaissance earlier in the week showed that the back of the supermarket was protected with razor wire, and security cameras. Now the non-dining Roxettes start to put the plan they had finalised in the Airport Hotel into action. Jack, hiding easily in the evening shadows, puts his jacket over the wire, and gets up by the first camera. He takes a Polaroid photo of the area the camera is trained at, and then puts it in front of the camera. Then he does the same to the second one.

Jocasta, Roxy, Manuelita and Teresa stay in the back lane, as does Dominique Reynard. They are both guarding the rear, and available as reinforcements if necessary. Jack opens the gate, and the others go into the back yard of the shop, and then into the back of the shop. The rescue is under way.

In the back store room is a trap-door. Jack and Jenny have the best hearing, and listen at it. They hear nothing, but decide to toss a tear-gas canister down any way – after all Dominique has been able to equip Gabriella, Donna, Louise and Ross with masks, and Jenny and Jack reckon it won’t affect them.

Quickly they follow the tear-gas in. Into a square room with all six surfaces glowing with light. There are figures in the room – Jenny and Jack had not registered them from above because they are not breathing, they have no heartbeat, they emit no heat – vampires. The vampires advance with a strange bounding movement, slashing with fingernails longer than their fingers – Chinese Hopping Vampires.

A fight. No shadows here for Jack, but he’s fought other vampires many times over the centuries, he has no big problem here. Donna, Louise, Ross and, of course, Gabriella the Slayer, have no problems. Only Jenny, the Jennybot, whose very first in-built digital memories include ‘How to be a Slayer’, is having problems. She cannot judge distance and perspective in this ‘light box’. Fortunately Gabriella notices, and comes to her aid. Room clear. But no sign of Sally.

No sign of a door either to start with, but once a few light panels were disabled it became easier to see which of them covered it. Jack and Jenny listen at the door (better hearing, and no masks). There is definitely something in there with a heart beat. Jack opens the door a chink, and peeps in. There is a brief ‘whmpf’ sound, then a metallic ‘thwack’ as something hits the door. ‘Bloody Hell’, says Jack, ‘A flying guillotine!’ ‘You mean like “One Armed Boxer 2?” ask Ross and Donna almost together. ‘Yeah, just like that,’ says Jack.

‘Mine, I think’, Gabriella says, and opens the door a chink again. She puts the barrel of her machine gun around it, and fires a whole magazine into the room. Pausing briefly, Gabriella listens, and then empties a second magazine into the room in the same way. ‘Nothing breathing in there now.’ She says. They enter, still with care, and find the remains of a Chinese man, and three more Hopping Vampires – only they aren’t hopping much, as Gabriella’s bullets have somewhat incapacitated them – staking them is not difficult.

This time finding an ‘out’ door is not difficult, although this room had also been entirely lined with light panels (‘I guess they were expecting me,’ Jack comments.). Most of them are broken. Listen again, no sound. Peep around the door – it is a small room, full of electrical wiring and seems to be where all the light panels were plugged in. Still no Sally.

…………….

Meanwhile, in the restaurant across the road, James, Sam and Grace are eating their main course. Two rather beautiful Chinese girls come out of the kitchen and approach their table. They produce small hand guns, and say ‘You will come with us.’

‘Not likely’ says James, and knocks the gun out of the hand of the girl nearest him. Grace grabs the ‘mop’ from her shopping. It is only the wooden handle, no mop head. Now it is a staff – and Grace is a very good fighter with a staff. She swings it at the other girl, knocking her off balance. Sam joins in, and soon one girl is unconscious on the floor, the other girl is making a dash for the door, Grace follows. No-one else in the place has even looked up from their meal, and a waiter apologises to James for catching his toe on the carpet as he falls over the girl on the floor and spills a drink on their table. Either everyone is part of a plot, or there is some magic going on here.

James and Sam quickly alert those in the alley – how did we cope before the mobile phone? Dominique goes to Grace’s aid, and shoots the girl that Grace is still grappling with. Inside, James and Sam try to continue their meal as nonchalantly as possible, having rolled the unconscious girl under their table. Every time she stirs, one of them hits her.

No-one in the street seems to notice either the fight, or the body of the Chinese girl. Dominique goes back to her post in the back alley. Grace pushes the body into the gutter, to stop people falling over it and looking puzzled, and then heads back to her meal, but just as she is about to go through the door, she glances back, and the ‘dead’ girl is getting up! Grace dashes back, and hits her again with her staff, the girl falls over again. Grace waits. Just over a minute later the girl starts to get up again. Grace sighs, and hits her again. ‘This could be quite a long night’, thinks Grace.

………………….

In the alleyway behind the supermarket, Dominique has just gone around the corner to the street to help Grace, when four solid looking Chinese guys arrive, one of who seems to be a swordsman, the other three have guns. Roxy takes her sword and main gauche to tackle the swordsman. ‘Not very traditional – a Chinese swordsman with two arms!’ Roxy says as she gets down to business. The trouble is that no matter how many times she strikes, he doesn’t seem to get any weaker.

Teresa has fired at the others, hitting them all, knocking the gun out of the hand of one of them – Manuelita starts to kick him. But these guys won’t lie down either. Jocasta shoots at one with her crossbow – she is using a silver tipped quarrel just in case. This seems to slow him down a bit. Teresa takes out her back-up gun, loaded with silver bullets in case they need to put Sally out of her misery, and starts to shoot. Dominique returns at this point, and Teresa shouts at her to try with anything silver as well.

Meanwhile Roxy is still duelling with her opponent. Finally, fed up with him healing in front of her eyes, she swings the sword and cuts off his head. ‘Yes!’ she punches the air. The body starts to grope around for the head; the head is rolling towards the body. Roxy looks at this not so much in horror as in down right annoyance. ‘Oh fuck this!’ she says. (Jocasta thinks ‘Must remember to remind Roxy about her language – her parents wouldn’t like that.’) Remembering the way Ross had drop kicked a demon’s head into the harbour at Whitby, Roxy considers how far they are from the Tyne – too far. She looks down near her feet at a manhole cover, lifts it, and kicks the head down into the drain below. ‘Now get back together with it!’ she shouts at the body. (Only of course it probably doesn’t hear, as its ears are making their way towards the distant water treatment works, where a workman may well get a nasty shock tomorrow!)

…………………

Below them, in the complex under the supermarket, the underground party is moving on. This time they can hear voices through the door into the next room. They consider throwing another teargas canister in, but decide against it, as those in masks are now far enough from the first one to be able to take them off, and it’s easier to fight without them. Instead they burst through the door, and find themselves in the largest room yet, lit more normally, and looking a bit like a school biology lab, or possibly Frankenstein’s place. There are nine people in the room, and two large cages. One contains a large feline, lying down with tubes going into and out of its body; the other contains a Mohra demon in a similar situation.

One of the occupants is a somewhat older Chinese guy than the others – he is moving his hands in a ritual-like way. ‘Sorcerer!’ thinks Gabriella, and shoots him with a three bullet burst. There are two unarmed guys who look like scientists or similar, three big guys, and three more Hopping Vampires. Jack recognises one of these as having been Mark Naylor. Jack lunges for him and after quite a scuffle stakes him. Donna, Louise and Ross tackle the other two hopping vampires, with equal success. Jenny has gone straight for what appears to be the senior Heavy – he shoots her at point blank range, but misses her vital components, and she simply pounds into him, and hits him, and hits him, and hits him – then she pushes her arm in through his chest, grabs his still beating heart and pulls, yelling ‘See how you like having YOUR heart broken!’

Gabriella has shot the other big guys, and although they keep getting up again they are getting slower. Jenny’s guy has stopped moving – his heart is on the other side of the room. One of the scientist type guys is approaching Sally’s cage with a syringe, when Jenny spots him. She throws herself across the room and starts to punch him. Gabriella targets the other one.

What feels like ages after they entered the room, but is probably only a minute or two, with judicious use of silver on the ones who wouldn’t lie down, the fight is over, except that Jenny is still punching at what used to be the head of the guy with the syringe, and shows no sign of stopping. Feeling slightly queasy, Louise goes over and gently tells her she can stop now, and Jenny does.

They check out this room, and find that it is the last in the line. It is probably safe now for those in the lane to come in, as there is no chance of being caught between two forces, and it will be easier to decide what has been going on here, and what to do about it.

Jenny reads Chinese – she had learnt it over the internet a few days ago by downloading the contents of a translation site. She can probably make sense of all the bottles and vials around the place. What do they do about the Mohra Demon? What do they do about Sally? The decision is to first remove the ‘out’ tubes – it will not need a lot of care, as both Sally and the Demon heal themselves very quickly, until Jenny points out that one of the components of the drips they are both attached to is silver nitrate – designed to slowly poison them, and prevent instant healing. Rethink – remove ‘in’ tubes first, there is probably still enough sedation in Sally to keep her down for a few minutes whilst the ‘out’ tubes are removed.

Soon both Sally and the Demon are detached from all tubing. Jenny has deciphered most of the bottles and vials by now, and says that there are potions of invulnerability, containing Mohra blood and were-lynx products, potions of healing, and also vials with the components in separately. Jack is looking rather ‘far away’ but after a couple of nudges from Jocasta admits it is the presence of the Mohra blood – he could become human, he has been distracted by the thought ever since he saw it in the cage – it even distracted him whilst he was fighting the vampiric Mark Naylor.

The Demon is stirring already, and a quick decision must be made – slay it or free it? It somehow seems wrong to slay it whilst it is still drugged, and in the end they wait until it is alert and talk to it – Donna cuts to the core of the matter ‘How long does your blood last?’ The Demon looks a bit confused – Mohra Demons do not need transfusions and so have never had to keep any of their own blood – they just heal!

So – slay it now? It feels wrong to rescue it and then slay it, and so Jocasta tells it that they will allow it out of the cage so that it can perform the ritual that will take it back to it’s own dimension if it will promise not to attack any of them in the future. The Demon says that it would have to obey orders if it was sent to kill any of them by name, but it will promise not to kill them if it just comes across them in the heat of apocalyptic battle, and they settle for this, and open the cage.

Next, Sally. Whilst Jack, Jocasta and Ross ponder how to move the cage up to their vehicle Roxy looks at them for at least a minute with a ‘How stupid are you?’ look on her face, then says ‘Why don’t you just give her one of the potions of healing, or a straight dose of Mohra blood or something? Then she can probably just walk up the stairs!’ Good thinking. Sure enough, a quick injection into her rump (pity someone took all the ‘in’ tubes out before Roxy’s suggestion!) and Sally sits up in her cage, shakes a little, and morphs back into a dentist. A very grateful dentist.

By the time Sally has some clothes on (her own stuff that had been taken from her house to make it look as if she’d gone on the run), James and Sam have also arrived – Grace was still keeping the girl in the street down until they collected both her and the girl on the way past! Anything and everything that looks useful is gathered up, books, potions and so on.

The two young women from the restaurant are both conscious now, and a few questions elicit the information that all they knew was that they had been told to bring James, Grace and Sam here, that the sorcerer had cast a spell which would mean that no-one would notice them and that they had been given an injection that would mean they couldn’t be hurt. Louise thinks that she can cast a ‘forget’ spell on them, and then leave them in the street. Everyone agrees that this is a good idea.

What to do with the bodies? The non-vampires are still lying around both in here and in the lane. Bring in the bodies from outside and set fire to the place, the Watchers decide. Fortunately whilst Louise and Donna poke around in the actual supermarket store room they find the explosives. Blowing up half the street and the people therein, would not have been a good, or cool, thing to do!

In the end the decision is to simply make sure that nothing magical is left, and nothing that might have Roxette fingerprints on. The bullets are fairly non-traceable, and just the sort that would be used in an inter-triad argument, so not likely to incriminate anyone, no need to try and collect them – thank goodness.

There is a public call box in the actual shop. Jack waits until everyone else has left, then walks through the shop, totally invisible to anyone passing on Stowell Street, and rings the ‘Crime Stoppers’ number to report a fight. Then he leaves.

…………………

Within minutes the Roxettes are in an assortment of vehicles, and heading south to Whitby. Sally sits in the front seat of the Flamingo Land van, and as they cross the Tyne, she looks out of the window, at a train going into Central Station. Suddenly in her mind she is back on a train very like it, heading into this very city, and her first encounter with Jack of Shadows.

Sally remembers being sent up here by her Watcher because of reported vampire activity, and following her Slayer Sense down towards the Tyne. She remembers finding a young girl, drained of her blood, in an alley and the scent of vampire leading her to a small club. A Scottish rock band was playing, people were swaying and dancing, most of them seemed to know every word, even though Sally had never even heard of ‘Runrig’.

In amongst a crowd of humans she spotted her quarry, a male vampire in jeans and a T-shirt, chatting with those around him as if they were his friends. They seemed to be a bit worried about someone not turning up. As the set went on, and the floor became more crowded, Sally made her way around, until the singer announced what was to be the last song – ‘How appropriate’ thought Sally, stake at the ready. The name of the song was ‘Dust’.

Suddenly, just as she was about to plunge the stake into the vampire, he whirled around, grabbed her by the wrist, and said ‘Not in here Slayer – if you have any problem wi’ me meet me outside – after!’ Not wanting to create a scene, she did just that. But, without the benefit of surprise, sometimes you have to talk to the vampire, and this one demanded to know why she was picking on him when he’d not touched a human in months. ‘Liar’, Sally spat out – I’ve found your last kill, poor girl.’ ‘Where, show me,’ he demanded, so insistently that instead of staking him she did as he asked, and took him to the corpse. The vampire looked shocked, and told Sally this was the friend who hadn’t turned up at the gig – her name was Tania, and there was no way that he had killed her.

Before they had time to argue the point, two other vampires appeared out of the shadows, it was an ambush. But Sally soon discovered that the target was not her, but the vampire she had met in the club – ‘Jack’ one of the others called him, in a French accent. In the end, Sally and Jack had fought side by side, and one of the attackers was staked, but the other one escaped, after losing an arm, by jumping into the river, swearing that this was not the end of the matter.

Sally remembered now how they had checked out Tania’s body to make sure there was no sign of any attempt to turn her, and then Jack had melted away, and Sally had reported the death to the police. The next time she had seen Jack Robson, she was a different person, Sally the Slayer was dead. ‘But how your deeds find you out,’ thought Sally, ‘the vampire I fought beside is now beside me because he helped save my life! It’s definitely true what they say - what goes around, comes around!’

………………………

Watcher’s Tales Part 2

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