12530/Scoobies meet a Zombie-Girl.

Scoobies meet a Zombie-Girl.
Date of Scene:	06 December 2020
Location:	Church of du Lac, Sunnydale, Haven, Bludhaven
Synopsis:	A demon worshipping cult is interrupted by the Scoobies, and a new potential member.
Cast of Characters:	Buffy Summers, Zombie-Girl, Thomas Raith, Mercy Thompson

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Buffy Summers has posed:
The sun is just starting to set when the small group of black robed figures gather in the cemetary in the back of the burnt down church, forming a ring around a bonfire and chanting. Although the grounds had been purchased by a new order, construction had been slow going, and there had been a few accidents and mishaps for some reason.

Buffy somehow felt drawn to the cursed church although she didn't quite know why. It was almost as if she were under some sort of trance, moving slowly towards the chanting group..

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl walks through the cemetery and trying to draw as little attention to herself as she can manage. To this end she swiped some flowers from someone's garden and wrapped them up in some newspaper. It would give her an alibi of visiting a grave if anyone questioned the dusk visit. With her hood of her jacket up and her head down she walks toward the sound of the chanting. She doubles her pace when the sound of the eldritch words carry over the air. She grinds her teeth together and pulls her free hand reflexively into a fist.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith is following a ways behind Buffy. His lover had been acting strangely for the last few hours and had inexplicably left work early heading this way. And when you date someone who is so frequently possessed, dominated, brain washed, replace with demonic dopplegangers, ect... One learns to take a few extra precautions when one's significant other starts acting abnormally.

Buffy Summers has posed:
The chanting gets louder and more rapid, the robed figures all staring upwards, towards the glowing runic symbols that have formed a column of light in the bonfire. A low, snarling voice grumbles from within. "I...Hungerrrrr...!" it growls in a low snarling voice. A chilling wind has started to pick up, whipping around the long robes of the six figures, their faces still hidden beneath their cowls, and one of the figures steps forward, bowing to the great horned figure in the flames.

"Ohh great Chadarook, we have brought a sacrifice, the slayer, which will sustain you for many years..Here she comes now, bound by the necklace I gave her." it's a girl who speaks, not much older than Buffy, probably a college peer of hers.

As for Buffy, she does seem possessed or something, maybe sleep walking or in a trance, still moving stiffly, ever closer to the flames. And Thomas may notice a strange glowing pendant about her neck. Where did that come from?

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl kneels down behind a large tombstone and peers around the corner. "Damnit," she whispers to herself when she sees the group. Definitely not the group that she was looking for. That group is less robes and necklaces and more basketball jerseys and glocks. Still, these guys don't exactly seem to be on the up and up, so she can't exactly let them go out all willy-nilly. When she hears the name of the entity in the fire she can't help but snerk, and not exactly a quiet snerk either. Realizing her mistake she claps a hand over her mouth. Whoopsie.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Do try to keep it down, I'd rather my girlfriend not get caught in a crossfire." Thomas says from about a foot behind Zombie girl, having moved quietly behind her position, though his eyes are focused entirely on Buffy. "Now where did you get that little bit of pretty Buffy?" he asks himself as he pulls a kukri knife from behind his back. He glances at Zombie Girl. "This is about to get messy, just so you know. I'm Thomas by the way."

Buffy Summers has posed:
As Chadarook stands up to his full 8ft tall height and roars loud enough to nearly extinguish the bonfire, some of the college students freak and take a step back. One student glances over his shoulder nervously, peering towards the bushes where Thomas and Zombie Girl are hiding. "We're being watched!" "Hush! You're breaking focus!" "Ack! What is that thing?"

Too late..The circle is broken. The demon roars again as it steps through the flames and grabs a screaming student. Some of them scatter as the demon starts to rampage through the area, stomping on headstones, tearing through trees, sending people flying.

Then he sees the Slayer and grins wickedly, "Slayer!" he licks his lips, reaching out a Gnarled, muscular arm towards her, "I've been waiting a long time for this.."

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl jumps, if she still had a heartbeat she is sure that it would stop. She was so focused on the robbed idiots that she didn't even notice the other two sneak up. She holds up the crappy bouquet toward Thomas to reinforce her cover story of being an ordinary late mourner. But when the roar cuts across the field the pretense, along with the flowers, are dropped.

"Aw hells," Zee says and peels her hood back, revealing more of her gray skin. Next the jacket is unzipped and shucked out of entirely. Finally off come the wrap-around goggles that hide the infernal flame that constantly pours from her sockets. She places her pinky fingers in the corners of her mouth and lets out a shrill whistle to distract the creature. "Ey, yo! Tiny!" she waves her arms around.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
It must be a sSunday. That's how Mercy got caught up in all this. Seriously. She's out for a stroll, and this happns. Really, Mercy, trouble magnet, Thompson's at it again. This time she's on four paws, thankfully. Mercy needs the run in her canine form...and oh, great. Circles, demons and...yeah, nope.

Mercy can claw at it, bite ankles, and annoy the demon with a squeaky dog toy. That one's atop her silly ideas list, the other two, serious.

And yes, Mercy's trouble, and a trouble magnet. Thankfully, no squeaky dog toys are in her jaws as she peers carefully at the demon from a good few hundred yards aaway. She's smart enough to hide. And stay quiet. And all that stuff, even though she wants to join in the fight...and when the demon....thing spies the Slayer and roars, Mercy comes running in at full, 60mph or thereabouts, speed. Incoming four pawed trouble seeking mechanic missile...somebody have, literally, Mercy. That whistle gets Mercy to howl in response, and coyote howls are not exactly quiet...

Thomas Raith has posed:
A Zombie, a Slayer, a demon cult, an Incubus and a werecoyote all walk into a cemetary... it sounds like the start of really weird joke. As things start going to hell Thomas goes into motion. Nearly as fast as the Coyote, he closes the distance not with the demon but with the slayer. He swings his kukri up and, tries to hook the necklace off of her neck, either snapping it or snatching it over the top of her head with the motion.

Buffy Summers has posed:
"RRAWRR!" The massive demon roars, but something catches its attention. It turns towards the sound and charges towards Zombie girl instead, unleashing balls of flame at her. And then coyote is charging for Chadarook and he snarls, whipping out an arm to bat her out of the way with its tremendous strength.

As Thomas rips off the necklace, the pendant glints and fizzles out, once separated from Buffy's life force. She blinks and stumbles, rubbing her eyes, glancing around, confused. "Hmmm...? What just happened? What's going on..?" wasnt she just heading home and about to relax? How'd she end up here?

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl yells, "Get some Chad!" She runs at the demon as it runs toward her. Rather than avoid the fireballs she instead decides to tank them. She's engulfed in flame, and the sizzling of her skin sounds not unlike when the waiter brings out a skillet of fajitas at a restaurant. Just when it looks like she's going to collide with him, the crispy zombie instead goes into a baseball slide with her foot aimed at the ankle of the beast.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Coyotes don't usually slalom. Mercy's the daughter of /that/ Coyote. And hey, she's sliding to a halt and changing direction as quickly as she can once she spies the arm and is scampering off. No need to be a fiery coyote right now. Mercy flattens her ears and stills her tail, just watching for now. Buffy though gets Mercy to howl again, more a warning of hey, over there, flaming zombie trying to steal third...

Yes, Mercy's a strange one. But she's also not averse to running some interference for them, because...she's starting to think of this bunch of misfits as an extension of her pack, really. Alright so they don't shift and don't growl and snarl at little fuzzy house pets but...

Mercy likes them. That's the point, as Mercy stares at the demon/zombie imminent collsioncollision. In her mind she's cheering for the zombie. Oh screw it. Five bucks of imaginary money on the fiery undead that Mercy's met once before, and Thomas gets a paw lifted off the ground in a kind of sort of canine version of a wave.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith smirks just a little bit as he sees Buffy coming back to herself. He reaches behing his back and pulls out a pair of wooden tonfa and gives them a gentle toss in the Slayer's direction in what should be an easyy catch for her. "You got yourself brain washed. I'll pick on you for it endlessly later. Right now bad guy doing bad things to nice dogs." he says gesturing towards the demon and Mercy. "Not sure whose side that one is on, but she hasn't given me reason to kill her yet." He adds indicating Zee.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Chadarook charges blindly towards Zombie girl, not even suspecting her ruse as she goes in for a low slide..And you know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. The demon roars as his massive form crashes to the ground, thrown off-balance. Oh it didn't hurt much, but he's now at a disadvantage, if only for a few moments.

Still the horned fiend whips out a long spiked tail towards Zombie girl, attempting to snag her by the leg and slam her into a nearby tree. At the same time it snarls as it turns to face the other three, spewing out more flames towards them.

Buffy sighs, stretching her stiff arms, cranking her neck and reaches up to effortlessly catch the tonfa tossed towards her. "Great, I knew I shouldn't have trusted Candy..Well, may as well finish this off so I can get back in time for dinner.." she winks at Thomas before rushing towards the demon, giving out a warcry as she leaps several feet into the air, landing on the demon, twisting to dodge the flames and starts hacking and slashing and ducking and dancing around the monster as she dishes out punishment with powerful blows.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl grins as her trick payed off. Mind you she doesn't have much of a choice other than to grin right now. With the skin of her skull burnt down to nearly the bone she has no lips, thus revealing a wicked skeletal smirk. She spends a fraction of a second too long feeling smug, letting the tail snake around her ankle like a bothersome anaconda. The small gal is easily picked up off the ground. There is an audible sound of bones breaking when she collides with the tree. Now not just a cajun blackened zombie, but a burnt zombie with a broken arm and several broken ribs. "

"Ugh," is her reply when she is dropped to the ground. Despite not feeling pain in the way that a living person does, such damage still doesn't feel exactly pleasant.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Dogs? What, is Mercy the goodest girl now or, or...something? She's the quickest on four paws at least. Mostly since...well...she is in her coyote form and skitters in a turn, claws digging in as she runs again. She's angling to try to lead the big demon thingy to Thomas and co, and in her head she's using the sort of language she reserves for people who put aftermarket pars that won't fit, wedge them on anyway then demand /more/ get put on. Or, the air would be neon blue around her if she could color it with her mental tirade.

And still, she runs. She's up to freeway speed now, and she's running steady. Ever seen a 'yote run faster than traffic?

That skeleetal smirk's going to haunt her nightmares however...

Thomas Raith has posed:
Now that Buffy is in the fight properly, Thomas puts his second weapon in his free hand... A shotgun sawed off to the point not only is it illegal but it possibly breaks some laws of common sense. He levels it at the face of the demon and squeezes the trigger with a deafening roar of lead shot, flame and sound.

Buffy Summers has posed:
As Mercy dances circles around the demon, it snarls and attempts to swat at her some more, clearly too distracted to pay attention to Buffy as she continues to leap at it and pummel it senselessly some more. She leaps back quickly enough for Thomas to blast it in the face and it roars and shrieks in fury, staggering back into a tree, clutching at its bloody face.

"Now, while it's distracted, let's finish it off!" she drives the sharp meteal tip of her tonfa into its heart, or whatever might constitute as its heart, putting some super strength in there to push through its armoured chest. The demon staggers to its knees but isn't quite dead yet..

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl gets back to her feet, her left arm dangling loosely "Dooth tthhurn ur baccttth on me!" she says through her lipless mouth. She pulls her fist back sends a haymaker with all of her considerable inhuman strength behind it at the spine of the demon, square in the lower back. The effort drives her feet into the earth as she leans into the punch.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Mercy's not a physical sort. Sure, she's been known to club things with wrenches and sink her teeth into throats every once in a while. But.

She's more smarts, not brawn. And she's keeping on running cirles. The others can fight. Mercy'll be over here, keeping watch. Mostly since, well, Mercy's not wanting to ruin her fur with demon goo. Nope. It'd take forever and wreck the plumbing.

Which doesn't sit well with her at all. So she's hanging back, waiting, watching, ears pricked and tail still, lips pulled back ready to snarl.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Once he fired his shotgun, Thomas drops it and moves in quickly, risking life, limb, and his amazingly good looks to close into melee distance behind the beast. He brings his kukri knife around the demon's neck hard, trying to decapitate the thing.

Buffy Summers has posed:
"RRRAWR!" the demon shrieks again as the combined might of the Scoobies bring it to its knees..And then Thomas effortlessly slices off its head and its all over. The creature falls to the ground, motionless. Then it's body crumbles as if made of molten rock, falling to pieces until there is nothing left but a pile of rocks and burnt embers.

Buffy wipes a brow, wiping dust off her pants and peers around. "Phew, everyone ok?" she peers the longest at the burnt and badly wounded Zombie girl and gapes, not even sure if she's human, "Woah! how are you still alive and standing? Should I call an ambulance?"

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl falls down on her butt hard and wipes her charred brow with her arm. She doesn't sweat, so it's largely a muscle-memory action from when she was alive. "Not.. alive..." she says haltingly. It's still difficult for her to speak. "No ambulance. Will be okay... minute," she adds. Though she is no longer burning from the demon's fire she is still covered in flame. This flame looks almost spectral, but gives off no heat. This flame seems to be coming from where she is the most injured. In those spots her flesh is slowly regrowing. Even some patches of her golden blond hair have begun to grow back.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers blinks slowly as she gets a better look at the strange girl and frowns a bit. Oh yeah, her supernatural sense is probably going off by now. "Hmm, you aren't exactly..Human, are you? I mean, even I can't heal that quickly."

She peers at the flames curiously, "So what are you, exactly?"

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl flexes her hand, watching the bare tendons work in her wrist as she continues to heal. "P-post human," she manages to say. "Undead. Not sure what I am, though I call myself a zombie. Not sure if there's been anything like me." She pulls her broken left arm out straight in order to reset the bone in order to help along the healing.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers blinks slowly, eyeing the girl with a morbid fascination as she knits herself back together. "Zombie..? That doesn't sound right, I mean, I've fought zombies before, and they're mindless, brainless slaves, hardly capable of a single intelligent thought. How'd you end up this way?"

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl offers Buffy a strange sort of smile as some skin has come back to her face. "Well it's a long and weird story. Long story short; Died. Went to Hell. Decided that I didn't care for it so I left. Stole a little of their power along the way and used it to "possess" my own corpse. Kind of like how some vampires are a demon possessing a human corpse, except it's my own corpse." She takes an unneeded breath. "I don't know if I'm explaining it right." The moment is spoiled by a crack of bone from her torso as the ribs begin to set themselves.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers quirks a doubtful brow at that. "Umm...Seriously? I mean, I don't think you really have a choice once you die. It's not like it's just a destination vacation where you can just decide you don't like the place and check out at anytime..Unless.."

She bites her lip, considering, "Unless some powerful Wizard reanimated your corpse and somehow managed to snatch your soul back before it crossed over. Even then, that would take tremendous power. Maybe we should have Giles check you out.."

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl arches a brow and says, "Well I don't know who Giles is, but you helped me out so I'm game. Though I don't know what to tell ya except what I remember. I didn't like it in Hell, so I punched a lot of demons in the face. I pushed open I giant lead door, then next thing I knew I was digging out of my grave."

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers hmms, nodding slowly as she tries to process this. "That must have been pretty darn traumatic..But in any case, glad to see you're healing up already. Do you have a name? I'm Buffy and this is Thomas, and.." oh, it looks like the 'yote already took off, "Huh, guess she'll be alright."

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl knits her brows together, "Yeeeeah, I mean everyone has a name, but in this game names have power. As I'm trying to keep a distance from my post-death life I don't use that name very much. People usually just call me the Zombie-Girl. But that don't really roll off the tongue, so just call me Zee." She holds out a hand that is at least partially healed, though there are still some pretty terrible burns on it. At least it's better than the burnt smell currently wafting off of the girl.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers grins, "Zee? I like that! Nice to meet you Zee. Do you live around these parts? Havent seen you around here before, but if you're ever in the area, feel free to pop by the Magic Box or the Blue Lady anytime. It's where me and the gang usually hang out. And in Bludhaven, it's good to stick together, given all the things that go bump in the night."

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl shakes her head, "Not these parts. I'mma Bronx girl. I was actually following a lead on a cult." She adopts an expression of thought and says, "Not these chumps. A cult of demon possessed gang bangers. They're trying to unite Hell and Earth. It's a whole... thing. It's another long story. But anyway, heck yeah I'd like to hang out. I haven't had much hanging out with anyone since, you know, the whole death thing. People get real weird when a gray-skinned chick with flaming eyes pops into a coffee shop."

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers shrugs and laughs, "Heh, well, I'm friends with werewolves, wizards and witches, oh and vamps too. To be honest, I've seen just about everything out there." she does frown a bit though at what she hears, "Wait, what? Trying to unite heaven and hell? That can't be good. I need to do some research.. Again Giles needs to hear...Ohh.." she sighs, "I guess he's still out of town. Better talk to Constantine I guess. What else can you tell me about this cult?"

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl says, "Well they perform ritual murder to earn a personal demon. They also tag buildings with graffiti using demonic script which weakens the barrier between Hell and Earth, allowing more things to slip through. I know that their whole thing is "Whoah, having an inner sense of right and wrong really makes me feel bad. If I let a demon take the wheel of my body then I wouldn't have to be responsible for my actions" or some stuff. Basically once they become possessed they are no longer burdened by guilt. It's the main selling point of their "religion.""

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers sighs and shakes her head, "Geez, is that totally messed up or what? I dunno but that sounds pretty masochistic. Okaay, do you have a picture of these demonic scripts? We could start from there. I suppose there are a few cults out there too so it'll take a while to narrow em down, guess I'll have to keep a closer eye on usual cult haunts.." she smirks, "Let's see, graveyards, uh..Where else? Parks? Ghettos? I dunno.."

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl nods, "Yeah, my friend Father Owen has them. The problem with the script is that once you copy it down then you have another active piece of script. But he knows how to keep them contained after I write them down."

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers arches a brow, "Father Owen? Is he like, a priest then?" Okaay, that's an unexpected twist. "Hm, so even taking a picture is dangerous? Well either way, it's a start." she yawns, "But in all honesty I think it can wait til another day. Oh, and maybe we should get you some make up or something so you can blend in better." she winks, "But for now I think I'd better head home. Nice meeting you, Zee!"

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl nods as she stands up, her body nearly healed. "Yeah, you too Buff. Catch ya later," she responds.