Making a House…

By
Kate R.


AN: Thanks to Chajo and MoonHawke for the help with dialogue, the flashback and the use of Phantom and Aurora and Krysten


Jon watched as the next morning they began to get the base in order.  Ethan and Giles were effective in removal of some things.  He suspected it was their magic.  He'd been told Ethan and Giles could do banishing spells easily.  Across the room, he noticed Angelus was hanging upside down polishing some of the metal mirror dishes for getting good images in.  Billy would make a better system of that soon.  They'd found and reactivated Tally hawk.  He seemed to like Jon.  Jon looked over at Spike and Buffy next.  Spike was also climbing the walls getting the grime down.  He looked over at Aurora who was being kept away from Angelus by her manager Steven and sighed.  He wasn't sure about this but Darius said she was a fighter and he'd need her.  Jon sighed and let his thought momentarily drift to when he and Mike had met her.  That was an interesting night.  He remembered:

Mike and Jon worked their way through the crowds at the edge of the ring. The General had sent them out into the streets that night with one mission: find and recruit the street-fighter known as "Star."

"So why her?" Bluegrass asked as they shoved closer to the front.

"What?"  The shouting of the crowd, calling for blood, was deafening.

"Why?  Her?"  Bluegrass shouted.

"I'm not sure," Jon shouted back.  "But from what I can tell, the General's got the best people he can find.  There must be a reason."

They were abruptly forced forward through a narrow gap, and found them suddenly at the edge of a balcony, looking down into the ring.   A dark-haired girl in black shorts and a tank top was squaring off against a larger male opponent.  He must have weighed twice what she did, but the fight seemed firmly in her grasp.  She danced around him, ducking his heavyblows, and moving within range to strike him almost at will.  And the blows she landed, while nowhere near the power of his, were carefully chosen, aimed at soft spots, weaknesses in her opponent's defenses, and joints he was sorely in need of.  Within minutes, she had him on the ground, collapsed over two disjointed knees and a hyper extended elbow that seemed to bend like a universal joint now.  Jon winced as she paused in front of him and lined up a perfect shot, driving the toe of her combat boot into the point of his chin, sending him sprawling on his back, unconscious.

"Well, if nothing else," Jon noted as she left the ring, "she kicks ass."


The tracked her down a few blocks away, watching as she and her tall blond companion entered a dilapidated shack that seemed the shake with the beat of heavy music.

They followed the pair in, only to be engulfed by another sea of bodies writhing and jumping to what must have been passing for dance music.

"So how do we find her now?"

"Split up," Jon said.  "Find the guy who was with her.  If I understand the situation right, we won't talk to her until we talk to him first."

Bluegrass shot him a look of disbelief, then started working his way toward the bar, trying to skirt the edge of the crowd packed like sardines onto the dance floor.  He kept one eye on Jon as he combed the bar, slipping through a series of gaps when his CO waved as the crowed milled between numbers.

They were at a table in the back corner, as far from the main door as possible, the blond man seated with the corner at his back.

"If you gentlemen are looking to set up a match, I need to see your contender fight first," he was saying.

"That's not-" Bluegrass started.

"If you're thinking of some kind of private entertainment, the answer is no, flat out."

"You her manager or her pimp?" Mike asked angrily.

"No.  She says who, when, and how much.  And I happen to know the answer would be not you, never, and not for all the money in the world.  Anything else?"  His gaze moved passed them to the dance floor, then back to them.

"We're not interested in anything like that," Jon said hastily.  "We're here from the General."

The blonde's eyebrow went up.  "What's the Old Man want now?"

"He's putting together a force to take out Mon*Star and rescue Commander Stargazer."

"Stargazer's dead," said a smoky voice behind them.  "Bury his memory and go on."  Star, the girl from the fight and owner of the voice, slid around them and slinked the other side of the table, throwing a leg across her companion's chair and settling in his lap, facing him.  "I'm lonely, Steven," she said in a pouty voice, swaying to the music.  "Come keep me company?"

He stilled her moving body with a hand on her back.  "The Old Man's looking for him, Aurora.  He's not one to go off on wild goose chases."

They heard her sigh in exasperation, and she stood, the slutty façade dropping in an instant, as though the low-riding leather pants and midriff-baring halter she'd changed into were no more than window dressing.  "You're fighting a losing battle, boys.  Mon*Star's unbeatable.  Give in to the inevitable."

"I just ain't made that way, ma'am," Bluegrass said.

She studied him for a minute, and then shrugged.  "Your loss.  Hope no one's being left behind to count on you."

"We were sent here specifically to get you," Jon informed her.

"You're getting popular if the Old Man wants you, Sweet," Steven said.

"Oh, I know exactly why he wants me."  She appeared thoughtful for a moment.  "Is Vicious with him on this?"

Jon looked confused.  "Yeah.  Why?"

She turned back to Steven.  "Set it up.  But I don't want to lose money by leaving the ring."

"If money's all you want, we can arrange that," Bluegrass sneered at her.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, then stormed off into the crowd.

"Tell the Old Man I'll call.  She'll be there in the morning.  And I'm coming along to hold her leash.  Got that?"

"Yeah."

"Good."  He stared at them for a minute, and then flapped his hands.  "Now, gentlemen.  Go.  Get to work."


After that, Jon and Mike had gone outside where they found Spike starting a brawl so no one noticed the group going in and robbing the rich people.  The next night Aurora had been where Darius was and Darius had offered her the money form Hades.  She'd taken it.  He was a tad unsettled by her lust for money but if Darius said she was needed….

"JON!  Heartbeats!" Mike's voice called.  Jon's head snapped up and he followed Angelus to where the heartbeats were located.  Opening a door revealed two people crouched defensively.  One looked no older than 15 or 16, the other was about twenty or so with green hair.  She looked up at them and watched in fascination as Angelus' face reverted to human from vampire.

"Well, now," Angelus began.  "Who are ye?"

The girl looked at him as he spoke.  He remembered a time where he would have simply grabbed and fed off them and sighed.  Some days he missed the good old days.

"Angelus," Jon called.  "Can we please get them out and something to eat?  They look a little hungry."

Angelus nodded and backed away from the door area so the two people could get out.  Jon led them to a quieter area than the work place where Billy was replacing what once had been glass with an unbreakable, adamantium, and two-way mirror type substance.  He had to admit the kid was good.

"So, whatcha hidin' from?" Jason asked as he came to give Jon Billy's new designs for weapons.  Jon nodded at them in approval of them and Jason gave Billy the nod.  Billy grinned, he liked to build things and these things would help out.

"Uhm…we're hiding from the Planet Master," the girl said.  He went crazy a while ago.  He keeps losing to this one guy on Earth…"

"The General," Quicksilver said.  "He's better at strategy than the Planet Master.  Thinks he has quite and ego too."

"He thinks it's only an ego? Mon*Star has killed hundreds…" the girl began to say

"So have I," Angelus said.  "So has the General and Death has killed more than hundreds, he killed thousands and thousands when he was being Death on a Pale Horse 3,000 years ago.  Hundreds is nothing to us.  To the General and Death, Mon*Star is just posturing.  He's being a bully and picking on those who can't fight back.  We're here t' change that."

"You're going to try to take him on?" the boy asked.

"We're going to do more than try kid," Ethan said as he set a braiser of tea on the table.  "We're going to do."

"Right, you and what army?" a new, smoky voice asked form behind them.  Ethan growled bringing up power as the rest of the group reacted to the voice. Swords, knives and other weapons appeared in hands before Blade spoke words Darius had gotten directly from his God.

"'An army is only needed if a few people fuck up.'  Ares, God of War," he said.

"And when the army fucks up you sed in the crazies who have nothing to lose and everything to gain, been there, done that War-Boy," she replied.

"The crazies are already here," Angelus said as he leaned against the wall.  The woman looked at him up and down and sideways.

"Maybe," she said.

"No maybe about it ducks," Spike said.  "This 'ere be 'Mr. Lets suck the world into hell cause I want my best friend back and can't get him any other way.'  We're all a bit off key.  Ain't none of us got much in the way of things and people.  We're the team they sent cause the army fucked up."

"Sold out you mean," the woman said.  "And don't call me ducks.  My name is Phantom.  I'd love to chat but I've got planet masters to piss off.  Can I have my lost sheep here?"

"Why? We ain't gonna bite.  The General sent us here to give Mon*Star the smack down for him.  He's sick of the kid gloves."

"The General?" Phantom asked.  Blade nodded.

"Darius.  I think by the power you give off you may have heard of him.  He's…less than pleased about Mon*Star attacking Earth and he sent us up here to deal with him.  Have a seat, have a meal.  We got plenty."

Phantom looked at the girl and boy and noticed they were hungry so she sat down.

"You guys are really going to do this?" she asked.

Ethan nodded again as he and Giles went over a spell.  "This is what we do, lady," Giles said as he lit a cigarette.  He laid out more spell component as he and Ethan prepared for some heavy duty scrying.  They knew Stargazer wasn't dead because Hades had said no afterlife had him.  Hence he was in limbo somewhere.  Giles and Ethan, being the most powerful scryers were looking for him now.  Jon had faith they'd find him.  They found everything else the scryed for.

To Be Continued...

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