Dylan had been busy. Very busy. He was glad to be male again and determined to stay that way.
So that meant giving Medea what she wanted.
There was a part of him that felt a little bad. For his own security, he was vamping a number of young men into vampires, and now sending them in small groups of two or three in an effort to bait Friday into turning them into girls for him. Dylan had no way of knowing how many Medea wanted, but he also knew that Friday didn't always do the gender change thing when she fought, so he had to provide a lot of possibilties for her.
That was the other thing - some slayers did the same patrol routes, but Friday often switched between groups, so trying to predicts who she was with was difficult at best. Another reason for having so many.
"Hold," said Friday, and turned to face the three young girls she was with.
It was their first time on patrol, and as one of the more experienced girls, Friday was leading them.
"Can you sense that?" she asked them.
The three looked at each other. One of them nodded, and the other two followed suit.
"Where?"
"There," said the first girl, pointing.
"Good. Remember, if you can sense them, they can probably sense you."
"Only two," muttered one of the other girls.
"Yes. Very good," Friday interupted.
"We're four. No big deal."
"Even one vampire can cause grave injury, no matter how great the number of slayers," Friday rebuked her. "I don't want to hear 'only' anything. Now, quiet."
The four separated slightly, and headed in the direction of the two vampires. The girls each drew the stakes sliently, although Friday sat back a bit to allow the girls to initiate, choosing to only step in if she had to. After all, they had to learn to patrol on their own eventually.
Dylan, telepathically lurking, bristled in annoyance. That be right. The first night he has everything ready and she's out teaching other slayers how to kill his kind. The nerve! Still... perhaps if he called in all his people and had them attack the girls all at once, Friday would have to step in? It was a risk - he had to be able to get his boys, err, girls, out, and make certain that no one realised their escape.
He considered for a moment, then decided.
*Everyone meet at this location,* he ordered his childer. *We shall attack en mass.*
It took awhile for all his vampires to regroup, while Dylan fussed that Friday might decide to turn in early. Fortunately, this was not the case, and he managed to have his vampires surround the girls before they were in sensing range of each other.
Friday stifened.
"Stakes out girls," she said softly. Stand back to back."
The girls looked at each other, then at Friday, but did what they were told.
"What's wrong?"
"We've being surrounded by vamps."
"We are?" frowned one of the girls, straining to sense them.
"My range is slightly longer than yours," Friday informed her. "Benefits of being a hybrid. You'll sense them in a minute."
One of the girls swallowed, and chewed her bottom lip in nervous anticipation. Another shifted her weight from foot to foot. Then the vampire came into range.
"How... how many are there?" one girl whispered.
"I... I... a lot..." another girl replied uncertainly.
"Fifteen," Friday replied, sounding a lot more calm than she felt.
There was more tonight than there were the night Lily died. These girls had experience in the dojo - but was their previous year's education enough?
"If you lose your stake, remember that there are other things which will substitute quite well. A stick on the ground will be sufficient."
"Are... are we going to d-"
"Don't even think the question, let alone voice it."
There was no more time for questions, for the vampires charged towards them. Friday immediately turned the three headed towards her into girls, which distracted them enough for her to take them out easily. Her sai-stakes sliced through the vampires like cheese, and she was quick to look out for her younger companions, determined not to loose them too. As soon as she noted there were too many on one, she dove in to help.
The battle was over surprisingly fast, and the four girls all dropped to the ground to catch their breath. Not one of them had escaped unscathed. Cuts, bruises, one girl had a nasty gash down her leg, another's arm was sitting wrong, and Friday thought it looked broken, although adrenaline was clearly preventing the girl from feeling the pain just yet. Piles of vampire dust littered the ground around them, some scattered by the fight, and other being scattered by the cool night breeze.
"Okay," Friday said. "We'd best be getting back."
Slowly, the girls stood, and they walked carefully back to the school. The trip back was mercifully uneventful, and Friday reported in while the girls made their way to the infirmary.
"What happened?" John asked with a frown.
"We were surrounded by fifteen vampires."
"Fifteen?" John repeated.
"They formed a circle around us before they got into range. Didn't know they were there until it was too late," Friday replied. "Otherwise you can be certain I would never have lead them in to attack that many. Not on their first patrol, and certainly not without backup."
"Of course."
Friday sat down on a nearby chair, shaking her head.
"The whole thing felt wrong," she said. "I've never encountered that tactic before, and some of the vampires died awlfully quickly. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. A quick fights' a good one, especially when no one on my team dies. It just... felt wrong."
John nodded thoughtfully.
Meanwhile Dylan was looking over the only two survivers. Two of the vampires that Friday had turned into girls. He tried to retrive the third, but Friday killed him before he could implant the memory of already killing him. These other two he had managed to do that for, and at the same time, implanting the memories of having fought the whole battle and killing the four slayers. Implanting memories was a tricky business. He really had to take copies of older memories and merge and edit them together to create the new memories.
"Don't worry," he assured them. "I know someone who can change you back into boys again."
She just didn't want to.