Chapter 12

Smecker watched the way the people in the bar reacted to each other and came to a few conclusions. The waitress wearing leather had a strong connection to the bartender, so she was probably his girlfriend. The body language was all wrong for a sister. 'You don't flirt that much with a sister. Too bad, he's hot,' Smecker thinks. The bartender was the son of the older man talking with the Duke according to the short, joking discussion that occurred when the father refused to name a drink when he wanted a refill. The father was also a good friend of the McManus trio from the easy way he and the Duke were exchanging information on weapons dealers who handled medieval weaponry.

Smecker was aware that the father could be a collector but he didn't think so from the way they were talking. In fact he was more inclined to believe that the father was crazier than the Irish lunatics because he was asking if the weapons dealers handled functional weapons or 'that movie prop crap'. He didn't want to know if the reason they were exchanging the information was because they were in the same 'business'. One small family of killers was all that he could handle.

The twins were giving the bartender a hard time but Smecker could tell that it was all in fun, one of the twin's favorite sports. Sometimes he thought that they spent as much time pulling pranks as they did killing evil men. Spike and Xander were getting in on the act as well, although Xander was coming in on the bartender's side and Spike was giving everyone who gave him an opportunity grief. Smecker wasn't sure if Spike was simply an equal opportunity type or if there was something else going on. Xander on the other hand, definitely gave off a sense of solidarity among family against friends in his reactions to the twins. He wasn't related by blood though, that was obvious. Smecker thought that either he was adopted officially or he was a chosen member of the bartender's family. There was an equal chance of either choice being true.

He had just turned his attention to the rest of the room, profiling the customers and waitresses, when the waitress in leather ducked a punch from a customer dressed up like a fake and not very good sea monster. 'He picked a really bad day to pull this shit,' Smecker thought. He pushed himself further back into the corner between the bar and the wall and prepared to enjoy the show.

There were three McManus males, two of whom were itching for a fight from the grins on the twin's faces, new guy and his bartender son, who both moved like predators as they prepared for trouble, and Spike and Xander, who Smecker already knew could handle themselves in a fight, all ready to take care of business. When Smecker added in the fact that there were five very lovely ladies, most of them on the small side, to be protected into the equation, he started hoping that the bar had a video surveillance system. This was bound to be one hell of a brawl.

The Slayers hadn’t needed Faith’s hand signal to pay attention, although they were a bit disappointed to learn that they would need to capture at least one of the demons. They much preferred to kill the demons to capturing them. Demons were a pain to keep alive. They had known that something was up for the last hour or so. At least fifteen demons and vampires had come in, (the usual crowd for a single night was about thirty) and most were still on their first drink.

While that might not have been unusual in one or two customers, fifteen was pushing it beyond coincidence and into conspiracy. The poker game in the corner, (with stakes of everything from kittens to adult magazines to some actual cash) should have gone through at least a keg of beer by now. The five blue demons by the door hadn’t even made a pass at Jennifer, their waitress, which was something that happened at least once an hour every shift she worked, more often when the crowd got really drunk.

So it came as no surprise to them that one of the demons, (a blue and green fish type covered in slime and scales; Faith knew she was going to end up looking through a ton of musty old books when Wes got it out of her that she didn't recognize the species) threw a punch at Faith when she carried a tray of drinks back to its table. Faith ducked the punch easily and used her tray like a saw blade to remove the demon’s head. The tray didn’t have a sharp edge, but her Slayer strength more than made up for it. That punch had to have been a signal because fists and other appendages were suddenly flying everywhere.

Demon Identification 101 was a required class for those who worked at the Pit. It covered the most common demons, both hostile and friendly, as well as the best ways to deal with them. Starting a brawl in front of a Tarkal demon was never recommended. Demons couldn't afford to look weak in front of other demons. Those demons who demonstrated that sort of idiocy soon found themselves as toys, slaves, prey or worse all three, for any demon who caught them at it. For demons that relied on an aura of innocence and fragility to catch their own prey, the situation was a perfect catch 22.

Tarkal demons, who looked remarkably like small, innocent bunny rabbits, (Xander and the rest of the Scoobies upon learning about the species had finally understood Anya's fear) dealt with the situation by having a reputation as being completely insane, berserker fighters who attacked anyone who and everyone around them the moment they became involved-in/saw a fight of any kind. The lone Tarkal demon, a regular who usually stopped in once or twice a week, looked up from the bowl it had been drinking its Slayer's Fist from at the smell of the blood from the demon Faith had killed and joined in the fray. It bounded up onto the table, charged right through its drink and launched itself onto the nearest demon's chest where it burrowed through using teeth and claws. Then it went onto the next demon unlucky enough to get in its way.

When he saw the Bix throw a punch at Faith, Spike was thrilled. A brawl was much better than sitting around looking up old Egyptian demons. He jumped to his feet and howled, "BRAAWL!" The only humans in the Pit was the Slayers and the men at the bar, which meant that as long as he didn't hit anyone he recognized, he could have as much fun as he wanted. Out of the corner of his eye Spike could see the twins pulling their rosaries out from underneath their shirts and Dean and John pulling out weapons.

Satisfied that the secondary line protecting the Hellmouth was ready he checked the Slayers to see where the best fight would be. Faith was at the center of the room handling the four Bix that were left. Junior Slayers One and Two, (Spike couldn't remember any of the junior Slayers names because he'd been too busy playing undead punching bag for the Mini Slayers to get to know the ones over the age of eighteen) were taking on the six demon poker players. Junior Slayer Three was handling the four demons near the front entrance while Junior Slayer Four handled the vampires between Faith and JS3.

As the Tarkal was tearing apart everything between Faith and the abandoned poker game, Spike threw himself into the group of vampires trying to kill JS4. He wasn't stupid enough to get anywhere near the Tarkal. They were just plain vicious little beasts. As he jammed one of his favorite railroad spikes into the eye of a Borrik who tried jumping him from behind, Spike was reminded of the time he had been forced to distract his dark princess when she wanted one of the little buggers as a pet.

She had been thrilled to sense the violence beneath the soft, cuddly bunny rabbit form. He had known that she wouldn't understand that the Tarkal wasn't a bunny, so he had taken her to a doll shop where they had played tea party with the dolls and corpses of those Humans who had been in the shop. That had been close but she had been distracted enough to forget about the Tarkal. He still hated tea parties. Killing the shop keep and his customers had been fun but sitting around playing with them afterwards had taken far too much sitting still. Spike ignored the fact that he had done the exact same thing earlier in the week with one of the small Potentials, only with stuffed animals rather than corpses.

Spike and the Tarkal were the only demons fighting on the side of the Slayers, although in the Tarkal's case that was more a matter of the Slayers staying as far away from it as possible. The demons that weren't fighting the Slayers were very busy getting out of the way and betting heavily on the outcome of the various fights.

An Illillook won two kittens when Faith dropped the tray she'd been using as a shield and gutted two Bix at once with the long and short daggers she'd been hiding in sheaths along her spine under her top and hair. A Stalden lost a watch and a lighter when Xander and John dusted two vampires that had JS1 pinned to a wall for one of the poker demons to kill by shooting them with crossbows. She didn't hesitate a moment to take advantage of her unexpected release and kicked the demon in front of her back while scooping up the short sword that she had dropped. As it lunged back towards her, she took its head off with a single stroke. JS2 tossed another vampire towards JS1 before she took out a Freyal and that was the end of the poker game.

The dealer, a Braken demon, (the one poker player who had gone under the table and away from the fight with the Slayers,) popped up and grabbed the stakes for the game. He knew that the two Slayers who had killed those he had been playing with would ignore him and go to back up their sister Slayers. As long as he stayed quiet and away from the Tarkal, he would go home with the entire pot. JS1 scooped up the Tarkal and dumped him in a pitcher of beer before joining JS2 in backing up JS3 and JS4. Faced with the choice of drink or drown, (the pitcher was full and deeper than it was tall) the Tarkal proceeded to forget the fight in favor of getting drunk.

When the two Slayers reached the other side of the room, the demon bookies began paying off the bets and refusing new ones. It was easy to see where this fight was now headed. Five Slayers and one vampire verses three vampires and four demons wasn't enough of a challenge to bet on and they wanted to be gone before the end of the fight. They had no desire to be an available target for Slayers hopped up on adrenaline.

Spike was fighting two vampires at once when JS1 and JS2 staked them from behind on their way to backing up their sisters. "HEY!" he yelled in protest but both women were already gone. JS3 and JS4 each had a demon she was fighting but trying not to kill. With JS1 and JS2 coming into the fight to help, those demons were easily overwhelmed and captured. Spike huffed in annoyance at the end of the fight. Then he looked over at Faith. She had a vampire and the last of the Bix. Grumbling he went over and ripped the head off of the last vampire before helping her pin the Bix to the ground. The fight was over and now it was time to find out just what it had been all about.