Act 4
Fade In:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Dealer Room – Moments Later
Tracey strolled up to a massive, fur-covered alien standing near a poster of Han Solo at the Star Wars display. “Excuse me,” she said, pulling on a tuft of his mane. “You’re Chewbacca, right?”
The Wookiee turned to Tracey. He wore an ammunition bandolier across his chest and a bow-caster hanging over his shoulder. “Oworro rarokro worroowora,” he answered in Shyriiwook.
“Really?” Tracey said, scratching her head. “Could you elaborate on that a little bit?”
“Kraakro orrawao ararwar krorawor!” he roared, pounding his large paw to his chest. “Oworro ararwar kraawo roakrao.”
Behind him, Vi slowly unhooked the clip that held the bow-caster to his back. Unnoticed, she pulled the weapon down and backed away. After several seconds, she waved a signal to Tracey and ran off down a row of Star Wars tables.
“Wow,” Tracey said, cutting the Chewbacca off mid-sentence. “Well, I’ll see you around.” She bolted in the same direction Vi had gone.
The Wookiee watched her and let out a low grunt.
Tracey met up with Vi and looked behind her to make sure the towering furball hadn’t followed. “When Willow told us to get weapons, I don’t know if this is what she had in mind,” Tracey said to Vi.
“Don’t worry,” she answered, holding up the bow-caster. “His address is on the bottom. We can always mail it back to him. Come on. Let’s get back.”
Over at the Lord of the Rings area, Skye walked up to a display of Orc halberds. An old woman, dressed as a hobbit, approached as Skye examined them. “Lovely, aren’t they?” the old woman said. “My nephew brought them back from a long quest.”
“Really?” Skye said, examining the weapons. “What was his name?”
“Oh, he’s quite famous among us hobbits. I’m sure you’ve heard his name before,” she said proudly. “It’s –”
“Hey!” Dawn yelled from nearby, as Jeff grabbed a shopping bag she was holding. The old woman turned her attention to the commotion. “That’s mine!” Dawn insisted, but Jeff pulled the bag free of her grip and ran out of sight. Dawn followed him, shouting, “I’m telling!”
“Oh my,” the old woman exclaimed, turning back to Skye. “I wonder what all that was –” Skye and two of the halberds were gone. On the ground was a Council business card. The woman picked it up and glanced at the back. It read, “Sorry, they will be returned.”
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Office Suite – Moments Later
Willow was leaning over a set of blueprints of the building when Rowena walked into her makeshift command center, holding the faux-Callisto sword and a wooden staff. “Everyone’s outside,” she said, handing Willow the staff.
“Looks like I’m the sidekick again. How come you get the sword?” Willow complained. She paused and looked at it. “And wasn’t that thing expensive?”
Rowena blushed. “Uh…this was all I could find. You won’t tell Giles, will you?”
Willow smiled, “And rat on a card-carrying Xenite? No way.”
Rowena smiled as Willow examined the staff. “Oh, try not to scratch that up too much. I had to borrow it from a Gabrielle waiting in line for the bathroom.”
“You ‘borrowed’ it?”
“I’m planning on returning it,” she said, frowning. “I was going to get you a chakram, but I kind of maxed out the Council credit card…just a little.”
“What?!”
“You know, we should probably get out there,” Rowena said, rushing out the door. Willow stayed put for a few seconds, with a flabbergasted look on her face, until she finally followed.
She got right to business when she walked up to the group waiting outside the office. “Okay, I looked at the blueprints, and the ventilation shaft doesn’t lead outside. So our big bad is still somewhere in the building. We haven’t been able to reach the Council, so we’re going to have to search the building ourselves. We’re going to break up into four teams.” She turned to the Klingons. “This could be very dangerous. I don’t want to put you in any more danger if you don’t –”
Kor shouted something in Klingon. Willow turned to Andrew, who interpreted, “They want to help us.”
Willow nodded and continued. “Vi, Jeff and Kor will take the maintenance tunnels.” She turned to Vi. “I’ll show you how to access them on the blueprints. Rowena, Kang and I will check the north half of the dealer room. Dawn, you go with Skye and Koloth and sweep the other half of the room.”
“And me?” Andrew said, clutching his communicator.
“Andrew, you go with Tracey and Klingon Russ.” She did her best to hold back a giggle. “Check the auditorium. Now, I want everyone to be on guard. This thing could be anyone. If you think you’ve spotted it, use the communicators. Okay?” Everyone nodded. “Great. Vi, I’ll show you the plans.” She motioned to the office.
The Klingons separated into their groups and yelled, “Qapla’!”
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Dealer Room – Moments Later
Dawn and Skye scanned the dealer room, with Koloth on their heels. “How do we find this thing if we don’t know what it looks like?” Skye asked.
“Just keep an eye out for anyone who looks unusual,” Dawn answered.
“Oh yeah, that’ll narrow the field,” Skye sighed as they passed a pack of six stormtroopers, jogging in formation two by two.
“It will probably be trying to spot us,” Dawn offered, instead. “So look for anyone who’s scanning the floor.”
Skye nodded and continued looking. After several seconds she paused and looked over at Dawn, who was staring into a crowd.
“It’s weird,” she said slowly.
“What is?” Dawn asked without looking.
“Oh, you know…that it could be anyone,” Skye said, grabbing the phaser from her pocket, still eyeing Dawn. “Could be one of us.”
“Now you just sound paranoid,” Dawn said with a laugh.
Skye raised the phaser and pointed it at Dawn. “Sorry, but I have to check.” She pressed the trigger, causing the device to emit a loud screech. After several seconds, Skye put down the phaser.
“What the hell was that for?” Dawn yelled, as several of the surrounding attendees started to look over at the three of them.
Skye did her best to look innocent. “At least we know none of us is a demon.”
“Hey!” Willow shouted as she ran toward them. She split a crowd of convention-goers as she approached. “What do you two think you’re doing? You can’t just use that thing in a crowded room like this. Let me have it.” Willow pulled the phaser out of Skye’s hand.
“Willow…I’m sorry,” Skye said, her face showing embarrassment. “I didn’t think that…”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Willow said, cutting her off. “I need you two to check out the storeroom.”
“What about Koloth?” Dawn asked.
“Who?”
The Klingon stepped forward and shouted something at Willow. She eyed him for a second. “He can stay here. But I need your help now.” She motioned for them to follow.
Dawn and Skye both hesitated for a moment. Suddenly, Dawn’s communicator chirped. She flipped it open, and Willow’s voice rang through the air.
“Dawn, is everything all right? We heard a phaser go off.”
Dawn and Skye looked at the communicator and then up at Willow. What had looked like Willow then morphed to become a hulking, lizard-skinned demon, glowering at them through several eyes. It rushed at the group. Skye lifted her halberd, but was too slow. The Komimitor pushed her back into Koloth and tackled Dawn.
The creature bit Dawn on the shoulder. Koloth sprang to his feet and swung his bat’leth at the demon. The blade slashed its skin and drew several drops of blood.
Skye scrambled on her hands and knees over to Dawn, who was now feeling the effects of the venom.
“How come I’m always the one getting paralyzed?” Dawn said, through tight lips.
Skye grabbed the communicator. “We need help! It’s in the dealer room!”
Koloth managed several swipes with his bat’leth until the demon disarmed him. A crowd was beginning to form around the fight. The Komimitor pushed Koloth down, then scampered away through the onlookers.
On the north side of the Dealer Room, Willow yelled into her communicator. “We’re on our way!” She, Rowena and Kang ran past several Star Trek-themed booths before hearing screams from a nearby crowd. They stopped and saw the demon running toward the nearest wall. It crashed through a door marked, “Maintenance.”
They ran to the door, but stopped when Willow’s communicator chirped. “Willow!” Skye yelled. “Dawn got bit by that thing. She can’t move.”
Rowena shot Willow a frightened look.
“Skye, stay where you are. I’ll be right there.” She turned the knob on her communicator. “Vi? It’s in the tunnels. Rowena and Kang are on their way.”
Rowena and Willow shared a quick look, before the blonde woman nodded and hurried toward the broken door with Kang. Willow turned and ran back onto the floor.
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Maintenance Tunnels – Same Time
“Copy that,” Vi said into her communicator. She held up her bow-caster. Behind her, Jeff clutched his phaser. They moved through the tunnel for several steps until Vi came to a stop.
“What is it?” Jeff asked. Kor tightened his grip on his bat’leth.
She held up her hand for silence. After several seconds of listening to the seemingly quiet corridor, she answered, “Something’s just ahead of us. It’s moving fast.”
“How can you –?” Jeff began to ask.
“I just can. Slayer skills.”
Jeff smiled, mildly impressed.
The tunnel was very dark. The area was lit by a single light, hanging just over Vi’s head. She motioned with her hands and the three of them moved against the stone wall, into the shadows.
Vi steadied her weapon. Suddenly, Rowena and Kang emerged from the darkness. Vi sighed. “I thought you two were the demon.”
“So much for slayer skills,” Jeff said with a grin.
“Hey, I’m working on it, okay?” Vi answered.
“I don’t understand,” Rowena said with a frown. “This path is straight. If you were coming towards us, we should have cornered it. How could it have gotten away?”
A small drop of green blood fell to the ground, hitting Rowena’s shoe. She looked up and saw the demon clinging to the ceiling. “Uh oh.”
Vi raised the bow-caster and fired a shot at the creature. The creature jumped down, narrowly avoiding her arrow. It landed on Kang and quickly bit his arm. Kor let out a loud roar and tackled the creature.
The Komimitor tossed Kor into a wall and darted back down the tunnel. Vi and Jeff chased after it, while Rowena checked on the Klingons. She opened her communicator. “Will, we need you in the maintenance tunnels.”
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Maintenance Door – Seconds Later
Vi and Jeff reached the maintenance door just as it swung closed. On the floor in front of them was a steaming pile of demon skin. Vi pushed the door forward and looked around. “There!” she said to Jeff, pointing. “It’s back in Seven’s form.”
They ran after a particularly speedy Seven of Nine. She stopped in front of the auditorium and darted inside.
Vi grabbed her communicator and adjusted the dial. “Andrew! It’s in the auditorium!”
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Auditorium – Same Time
Andrew ran down the aisle of the packed auditorium, his head swiveling frantically. He spotted Seven running to the left aisle of the auditorium and pointed the way for Tracey and Russ.
The Komimitor sprinted down the left aisle and reached the same stage door that Jeff and Andrew had entered earlier.
Vi and Jeff burst through the auditorium’s outer doors. Vi spotted Seven as she disappeared inside the left stage door. The slayer immediately ran down the right aisle to the opposite stage door.
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Backstage – Same Time
Seven reached the left wing side of the stage and stopped. She looked onto the stage, where Jeri Ryan addressed a packed auditorium. Andrew, Tracey and Russ rushed through the left stage door behind her. Seven spotted a ladder near the back wall of the stage and quickly began to ascend it.
Across the stage, Vi and Jeff burst through the other stage door. Vi saw Andrew climbing the ladder on the other side and looked up. She found the corresponding ladder on her side of the stage and hurried over.
Seven reached the top and climbed onto a catwalk that overlooked the stage. Below, Jeri Ryan answered a question from the audience. Seven had reached the center of the structure when Vi appeared in front of her, bow-caster in hand. Behind Seven, Andrew blocked the path.
Andrew and Vi began to close the gap. In desperation, Seven charged Andrew and pushed him sideways over the rail. She ran by him and back towards the ladder. Andrew barely managed to get a hand on the catwalk as he fell. He held on for dear life, swaying precariously thirty feet above the floor, too scared to even scream.
Seven was three quarters of the way down the ladder when Russ swiped his bat’leth at her feet. It connected, but did very little damage. She snarled, slid through the rungs of the ladder, and landed on the floor.
Meanwhile, Andrew’s grip on the catwalk was slipping. He squealed in terror as he lost his grip, but just as he began to fall, Vi grabbed his wrist. She looked around and spotted a rope, about a foot away, tied to the rail of the catwalk.
Below, Seven moved back towards the left stage door. Tracey fired her phaser, releasing the ear-splitting noise, and Seven grabbed her ears. In an attempt to escape the sound, she ran right on stage and found herself face to face with a very surprised Jeri Ryan. Jeff, Tracey and Russ moved onto the sides of the stage, blocking any escape. Tracey hit her phaser again, and Seven screamed.
Most of the audience covered their ears as the phaser’s high-pitched screech mixed with the sound of Seven’s screaming. She fell to her knees, hands still over her ears, and as she did her form changed to that of a Klingon.
Suddenly the phaser stopped screeching. Tracey smacked it a few times, but the sound did not come back. “Not good,” she said, turning to Jeff.
From above, Vi and Andrew, still hanging from her arm, could see the action. “Get ready,” Andrew told Vi.
On stage, the creature was furious. It looked at Tracey and charged. Tracey dropped the phaser and ran to the back of the stage, the creature hot on her trail. She stopped at the wall and closed her eyes, steeling herself for the attack.
“Now!” Andrew shouted. Vi let him go, sending him falling to the stage Just as the creature was about to reach Tracey, Andrew landed on it, breaking his fall. He stood on top of the demon and said proudly, “Resistance is futile!” Vi reached the ground seconds later, releasing the rope she had used to repel down.
The demon crawled to its feet and punched Vi solidly in the face. She quickly countered and sent the demon reeling to center stage. As it snarled at her, the crowd began to cheer wildly. This distracted the demon long enough for Vi to land a roundhouse kick to its chest.
Jeri Ryan began to move toward the side door, but in the process she stepped on Tracey’s discarded phaser. The weapon screeched loudly for several seconds before it quieted. The demon, now enraged, morphed again into its true, hulking form and made a bee-line for Jeri. The actress screamed as the demon leapt into the air, its claws extended. At the last moment, Jeff tackled her out of the creature’s path.
Rowena crashed through the stage door just in time to see the creature soaring over Jeff, its claws scraping his back, before it collided with Russ. The Klingon and the beast slammed into the ground with a loud thud.
Rowena sprinted towards them across the stage, brandishing Callisto’s sword. With one swift motion, she decapitated the Komimitor and sent its head flying into the crowd, along with a generous amount of green goop. Everyone present just stared for a long moment at the demon’s headless body. With a wet thud, it fell over onto the stage.
Before anyone else could recover, Rowena turned back to Russ. “Are you all right?” she asked.
He grabbed her arm, “You must perform the Klingon death howl.”
“What?” she demanded.
“The howl…let the dead know…a Klingon warrior is coming.” He grabbed his chest dramatically and yelled at the rafters. “Kahless, lead me on to Sto-Vo-Kor.” With that, he collapsed onto the stage.
Rowena rolled her eyes and helped him up. He looked at her with wide eyes. “What is this sorcery?”
“You may have some bruising on your chest, but you’ll survive.” She picked up his bat’leth and tossed it back to him. “Nice blade.”
“Back atcha,” he said casually, before walking away. Rowena looked confused and surprised to hear Russ’s normal, non-Klingon voice. As he walked away, she just shook her head and headed over toward the others
Jeff was still lying on top of Jeri Ryan, seemingly in a daze. He stared into her eyes as she looked around uncomfortably. Vi pulled Jeff off and then helped Jeri to her feet. “Thanks,” she said to Vi.
At that moment, everyone’s faces turned out towards the audience, suddenly becoming aware that they were all being watched by several hundred people. Andrew quickly grabbed Tracey and gave her a big, romantic, we-saved-the-day kiss. The crowd roared its approval, and slowly she pulled away. “Andrew!” Tracey chided with a smile. “Not in front of the Klingons.”
Andrew took a big bow and yelled, “Goodnight, everyone!” He took another huge bow, and soon the others followed his lead.
Cut To:
Int.
Cleveland Convention Center – Hallway Outside Auditorium – Moments Later
Willow rushed to the entrance of the auditorium, just as the crowd began to file out. She attempted to push her way through, but found herself pushed backward.
“Wow,” said a young man in a Cardassian costume. “That was the best presentation I’ve ever seen.” Some other aliens nodded. “Did you see the way that thing’s head flew? Special effects were awesome.” He gave a teenager in a Starfleet uniform a high five.
Willow glanced at them before she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the Council. Her eyebrow went up when someone finally answered. “Faith? I’ve been trying to call all afternoon.” Willow nodded as she listened, then continued. “We need a clean-up team over at the convention center…I’ll explain later.” She hung up the phone.
Willow frowned. “Looks like I missed a good show.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Kitchen – Morning
Two Weeks Later
Willow and Rowena came into the kitchen as Andrew took a container of eggs out of the refrigerator. “Good morning, ladies. Can I interest you in some scrambled eggs? I was just about to whip up a batch.”
“Andrew, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times –” Rowena answered. Before she could finish, though, he put a bowl of cereal on the table.
“I know, egg allergy. I was talking to Willow,” he clarified.
“Oh,” Rowena said with a growing smile. “Thanks, Andrew. Is there any coffee?”
“Sure,” Andrew said, turning towards the cabinet. “Let me grab some cups.”
Willow and Rowena each grabbed a chair as Andrew brought over two cups of coffee. Just then, Giles walked in, examining a folded piece of paper. “This can’t be right,” he said irritably.
“What can’t be right?” Willow asked, grabbing a muffin from a basket on the counter.
Giles scratched his forehead. “This credit card bill. There’s fifteen hundred dollars in charges from some place called Spectrums, Inc.”
Andrew nearly dropped the cup he was holding, but steadied it at the last second. “That’s odd,” he said, as he poured Giles a cup of tea.
Giles took the tea and stirred in some milk. “This is bloody ridiculous,” he complained. “I’m not paying it.”
“Giles, calm down,” Willow reasoned. “What was charged to the card?”
He unfolded the paper and held it up. “Four Cosmo’s replica phasers. Eight S.T.O.S. communicators. I’ve never even heard of the brand ‘S.T.O.S.’…A chakram? And an eight-hundred-dollar sword. An eight-hundred-dollar sword?! Do any of you remember Faith ordering new weapons?” He pulled down the paper to find an empty room. “Hello?”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Same Time
Willow, Rowena, and Andrew hurried down the hall, away from the kitchen. Willow shot Rowena an angry look. “I thought you were going to return that sword.”
“I tried, but he wouldn’t take it back,” she said. “All sales final. Besides, I didn’t know that Komimitor blood would stain metal. It’s not my fault it’s made so cheap.”
“Quiet,” Andrew whispered. “He might hear you.”
Rowena folded her arms and then looked at Willow. “What I’d like to know is, who bought the chakram?”
Willow chewed on her lip long enough for Andrew to also strike an accusatory pose, similar to Rowena’s.
“Andrew was right,” Willow said, with a definitive nod. “Let’s not discuss it.”
She quickly turned and darted down the hallway.
Black Out
End of Get a Life
Next on Watchers…
When Willow’s past misdeeds come back to haunt her, the other members of her Coven will risk everything to save her.
Click here to read “Rack and Ruin” now!