Fic: Shanshu 18 - The Play's the Thing

[dragonyphoenix]

Title: The Play's the Thing
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 448 - Rabies
Rating: PG
Summary: Part 18 of Shanshu
Word Count: 1718

Wells was proving to be a difficult target. Not in terms of tracking, which had been as straightforward as Mona had expected, but he was never alone. He'd remained at the Jenkin's school until shortly before dusk. Unexpectedly he'd driven off with an entire busload of girls, students presumably but, if they were students, then the school didn't have any kind of a dress code. A number of the girls were in shorts and one even seemed to think she was Daisy Duke. It wasn't what Mona would have expected from a purportedly upper-class institution. It also had a more international flavor than Mona had been expecting. Even from two streets down she could identify mannerisms from Africa, South America, and East Asia. What was this school?

As the bus pulled out, Mona got a good look at its logo, a pointy stick crossed against a knife. She shook her head as she trailed the van and was equally dumfounded when they pulled up to what appeared to be an old motel. Wells didn't seem to be going anywhere, so she rang up Millay. “Hey, no chance to get him alone. I tracked him to some hotel, the Hyperion.” She waited while Millay pulled her Internet tricks.

“He lives there. Almost the entire school staff – and there aren't as many of those as there should be – as well as the students live at the hotel.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Mona replied. “Gotta go. There's movement.”

Wells had pulled around with another school vehicle – it had the same logo painted on the side – but this was more of a Mom mobile than an actual bus. About a half-dozen girls poured in, two of them scuffling for the front seat, before the van drove off. Mona pulled her car out after it.

After about twenty minutes, Mona found herself pulling to a stop on a street outside a strip of buildings, everything from doctor's offices to crystal healing based on the signs. They were fairly nondescript: brick, two stories. The parking lots were empty outside of the school's van. Leaving her car on the street, Mona crept along the footpaths and peered around the edge of one brick wall for a clear view of an open area in the center of the buildings.

Wells had donned a black dress. From the bulk of it, he'd put it on over his other clothes. His face seemed to have a greenish tinge, although it was difficult to be certain given the limited lighting, and there was a witch's hat on his head. “Fly, my pretties, fly!”

One of the girls – from the Valley based on her Versace dress and mannerisms – crossed her arms. “We are not winged monkeys.”

“Oh, come on, please,” Wells whined. “Can't you just go with it? I've always wanted to be the Wicked Witch of the East.”

“No,” Valley girl replied. “Padawans was one thing. Monkeys is quite another.”

“Besides,” another girl, British, from south London based on the accent, added, “once Diana gets a whiff of that wicked witch crack, your ass'll be toast.”

“Diana doesn't scare me,” he replied. “You won't tell her, will you? Please say you won't. We can stop for ice cream on the way back.”

Mona's feet scrambled for purchase as she rose from the ground. Someone, someone damned strong, was lifting her, pulling her back and up. As she fell into the body behind her, Mona jabbed her elbow back. It should have loosened his grip, at least a little bit, enough for her to work with, but he merely laughed. She slammed her fist down, going for a groin strike, but he blocked it with a leg. Damn he was fast.

“Home delivery.” The voice was slurred, almost as if he had a mouthful of marbles. She'd never heard anything quite like it. “Our lucky night.”

Mona slammed her head back and heard the crunch of cartilage as the strike broke his nose. She pulled his arm down and of off her and took a step back as she spun out of the hold. The kick to his head did less damage than she'd expected but he was holding a hand over his nose. Blood poured down from behind the hand. “You bitch.”

Stepping back into a fighting stance, Mona took in the three men. Their clothes – blue jeans and brightly colored shirts – marked a style that hadn't been in for almost a decade. Something off. Bloody nose, the biggest of them, was also the maddest. But that wasn't … What the hell was wrong with their faces? She didn't scream until she saw the teeth.

As bloody nose came running, she kicked out at him, but he grabbed it – how could he be that fast? –, pulling her off balance, sending her slamming to the ground, and knocking the breath out of her. By the time she could roll over, arms and legs raised to ward off her attackers, the men were gone.

The girls, all six of them, stared down at Mona, presumably taking in the jeans, Firefly t-shirt, and, damn, she'd lost the glasses. They must have flown off in the fight. Not that she needed them other than as a prop for her geek-friendly persona. “What the hell was wrong with those guys?” Oops, so much for the helpless girl image. “I mean,” she added, waving her hands, “their faces.”

As she finished speaking, Wells came running around the building, still in the black dress and, yes, his face was definitely green, but he'd lost the hat. “They certainly weren't vampires,” he blurted out.

“What?” One of the girls offered Mona help up from the ground. She was stronger than Mona had expected.

He was still talking. “ … but they could have had rabies because I saw this movie and it was really scary.” He paused to glare at one of the girls. “And there was this rabies virus, only it wasn't quite rabies but something like rabies, and it turned people into zombies, the fast and powerful 28 Days Later kind, not the slow and stupid Dawn of the Dead kind.”

“Rabies don't do that to faces,” Mona said.

“What do you think you saw?” It was Valley girl, smarter than she looked, who spoke up, cheerful and helpful as if nothing odd had just gone down.

Think? Oh, yeah, helpless persona. “Their faces were … distorted, sort of bumpy maybe, and their eyes were yellow.”

“Rabies,” Wells said. “Yellow eyes are a sure sign.”

“Ow,” he added, glaring at the girl who had punched his arm.

“Maybe it was masks?” asked a Texas drawl. “I know in the heat of battle, I mean, I uh, I got mugged once and I definitely thought the demons … uh, guys, were much bigger and uglier than they were, well not uglier because they were butt ugly but …”

“Janet,” Valley girl snapped.

“Thank you for your help,” Mona said. “I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along …” She allowed her words to slow as if the thought were just occurring to her, “ … out here where everything is closed and empty.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Whatever they were, they weren't particularly professional. Not one of them had a cover story ready.

“A play,” Wells blurted out. “We're practicing a play. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. There's this battle scene and we sort of needed and outdoor open space because it's the Ewoks, you see, and have you ever noticed that nobody likes the Ewoks? People call them cute. And weak. People say they're weak all the time, but they aren't weak. They're bloodthirsty warriors. When we first see them, well not the absolutely first time, but sort of near the first time, anyway, they were all ready to kill and eat Luke, Han, and Chewbakka. That's not cute. Nobody would call that cute. And they'd taken down Luke, and he was all big with the Jedi powers, which you could see when he raised up C-3PO …”

“Andrew,” Valley girl interrupted.

“A Star Wars play,” Mona said. “But you're dressed as the Wicked Witch of the East.”

“Well, uh, you see,” Andrew started.

“It's a cross-over,” Texas said. “Both Star Wars and Oz.”

“It's avant garde,” Valley girl added. “And what are you doing here, given that everything's closed and all?”

See how it's done, girls, Mona thought. “I have a doctor's appointment, in a couple of days, but it's my first time here. I thought I'd drive up ahead of time to make sure I could find the place.”

“So you found it, right? Maybe it's time to head home.”

She thought about making a play for Wells, to see if she could get him alone, but Valley girl, at least, would pick up on what she was trying. Better to retreat and try again later.

“Janet, Pat,” Wells said, pointing to Texas and another of the girls. “Why don't you two escort her back to her car? You do have a car nearby, don't you?”

Clever of him. The girls could check out her license plates and pull up info on her. If she'd actually used her own car. “Yeah, out in the street.”

“The street?” Texas asked, as if the short walk might do her harm.

“Exercise,” Mona said, raising her jeans just enough to show off her pedometer. “Ten thousand steps a day.” She couldn't count how many scrapes that line had gotten her out of.

She let the girls escort her back to the car. “So, you all go to the same school?”

“Yep.”

“Your teacher, Andrew I think the name was? He is your teacher isn't he?”

“Sure.”

“He seems a bit eccentric.”

“He's okay.”

They'd reached the car and the girls hadn't given away any info. Not bad. Looking back in the mirror, she could see that they watched her car until it was out of sight. That was not at all what she'd been expecting from Andrew Wells.

Mona pulled into a Golden Arches, more for the parking than the food, and dialed Millay on the cell. “Yeah, Mona here. Contact but I couldn't get him. I'm not sure what's up. He's either completely oblivious or a cunning mastermind.”

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Andrew the cunning mastermind? He really needs to overhear that conversation!

Still love this story!


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it totally amused me to have Mona think that Andrew might be a mastermind. ;-)

Thanks, I'm so glad you're enjoying it.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Did I tell you how much I love Mona's POV? Nevermind, I tell it again =)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Since this is the first time we've met Mona, no, you hadn't. ;-)

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant it as "POV of your OC's", but Mona is especially great here =)
And unrelated note - you helped me to figure out why I love reading first couple of chapters of crossover fics, but often drop reading them afterwards, when introducing of character (aka "outsider's POV") is over.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'd been thinking of how I have two OCs whose names start with the same letter: Millay and Mona. I've been told you don't do that because it can be confusing, so I was wondering if I'd confused you.

So does this mean you're going to dump my story if I have no new outside PoV? ;-)

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can do anything to make me dump your story, there is no easy way out :P

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Thanks. That made my day.