KnightofTempest
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Chapter 69
🕑 Added 2024-07-17 13:47:49 +0000 UTCI slept the sleep of the dead for the next two days, only waking up to eat or go to the bathroom. I was woken up by Cordy sometime Friday evening of the first week of March so Amy could shove a Potion of Health into my hands. Apparently, she, Sheila, and Xander had one left each that hadn't been used during the Oxnard Operation. I didn't question it when I was told to drink up, I just did, all while Amy, Cordy, and Sheila stood and watched me do so. I had no intention of invoking the wrath of the three Women who were, at this point, probably the closest female friends I had.
Amanda didn't count, she was more like a slightly annoying, slightly flaky older sister than an actual friend. That was what I told myself, at any rate.
Regardless, as I downed the first potion, I felt some of my wounds heal. Then a second was pressed into my hands, followed by a third after that. By that point, I'd been healed enough that my natural regeneration was able to cut down the recovery time from a couple of weeks to a couple of days. I was certainly feeling well enough to handle moving around on my own recognizance at this point, anyway. I even felt like I could do a bit of light spellcasting and training, though when I mentioned that, Amy, Cordy, and Sheila all got looks on their faces like they were considering checking me into a mental hospital for a seventy-two-hour evaluation or something.
Instead of training, I stuck to analyzing the equipment I'd grabbed from Jyoti Singh and doing a bit of Guitar and Language Practice, as well as a bit of spell research, over the next few days while my body healed fully. Fortunately, Amy seemed to realize that it was my body that needed to finish healing, not my mind, so she convinced Cordy and Sheila to allow me the use of Memory Enhancers and my Training Circlet for that.
I managed to get started on learning Pashto thanks to that, though I was a ways from being conversational, as well as turning my Sonomantic Magic toward something a bit more inspirational.
I'd been inspired to try that after reading an account of a scuffle over Terpsichore's Lyre in ancient Greece, during which several armies claimed the power of the mystical Lyre for themselves and sent forth musical champions to enforce that claim with their magic. It reminded me of the tale of Nero's Fiddle and the Demon Sweet, in which a powerful Song Demon was summoned by the Roman Emperor Nero only to lose control of the Demon, who would wind up causing the Roman Mob to burn down part of their own city with his singing.
While I wouldn't be able to reach the same level, I found that my Sonomantic Magic could be turned towards more subtle effects than the reality warping that occurred in either of those tales. Things like inspiring allies who heard it to rally when flagging or to stiffen their resolve when frightened. That was about the extent of what I could do with it in the time I had to practice, though thankfully between all my various multipliers for learning and training, I was able to get at least that much done. It helped that I was also a pretty good musician, to begin with, and had also previously learned the Danse Macabre spell after hearing about the Halloween Incident from Salem Massachusetts that happened a few years ago.
Aside from that, I was able to figure out that while the Ruby Pendant was a standard Amulet of Fire Protection, likely one of Dave Gustafson's Making, and the Off-Hand Scimitar was a well-crafted, slightly enchanted, blade of Meteoric Iron, the Main hand Scimitar she had was something special.
It was forged of True Damascus Steel alloyed with Atlantean Orichalcum by a supernaturally skilled smith, which gave it that extra bit of oomph. My mystical senses provided no real clue who the smith was, save that it was no human. Honestly, that was scary in and of itself. I was lucky that the blade wasn't actually enchanted beyond the method of forging and the materials used to make it because if it was, it likely would have penetrated even my enchanted, bulletproof, Wyvern Scale and Owlbear Leather vest.
Hell, blades made completely out of Atlantean Orichalcum were supposed to be capable of killing even gods if the Orichalcum was pure enough. My downloaded information provided the knowledge that those tended to be in the possession of the sorts of Eldritch Beings that are best left alone. Apparently, they're all extremely powerful and extremely old. That sort of power isn't exactly something you should tangle with.
In fact, the last known time that such beings were seen, they were able to kill most of a German Expedition to the island ruins of a suspected Atlantian City somewhere in the South Atlantic that consisted of four Type-Nine U-Boats and two-hundred-twenty-three men in the Summer of nineteen-thirty-seven. The only reason the Black Dragon knew about any of that was thanks to one U-Boat managing to limp away from the encounter with the minimum amount of crew required to sail away and serious battle damage. The Survivors reported the only reason they escaped had nothing to do with them. Supposedly, Doctor Henry Jones Junior, who they'd chased to the site, had managed to hide while all this was going on and activate some sort of device that forced a volcanic eruption and destroyed the Island, killing the Eldritch Beings and allowing them to escape.
That report had been one that had been forwarded to the IJN Command in Tokyo so they would stop poking around potential Island Ruins in the South Pacific. That was why the Black Dragon knew about it, even though nobody else did, since apparently the destruction of Kriegsmarine Headquarters during the war had seemingly destroyed the reports. Regardless, it meant I had something special on my hands with this Scimitar. I had no idea how a two-hundred-seventy-five-year-old Vampire like Jyoti Singh had gotten her hands on this, but I didn't much care. It was mine now and I was going to enchant the crap out of it.
First, though, I needed to call a meeting with everyone to talk about what my Patrons had shown me. I was fully healed by Monday, thanks to being force-fed Xander, Sheila, and Amy's leftover Potions of Health. Unfortunately, I was the only one of us who didn't need to worry about school, which meant that the meeting was going to wait until Saturday. I passed the time training and enchanting my new Scimitar to the best of my ability. With the enchantments I had put on top of the base weapon, it was now even more potent a weapon than the Green Destiny.
Aside from that, I spent the next few days adapting a sword style for use with the Talwar-style Scimitar. I didn't have any Indian Styles of Swordsmanship downloaded into me, so I was essentially adapting one of the other styles I had learned to go with it. I chose Polish Sabre since the basic shape and weight of the blades matched better than they did for Shaolin Dan Dao. The week passed quickly enough doing that and soon enough, I found my living room crowded with various people and my table piled high with food from Teriyaki Donut, Big Kahuna Burger, Little Nero's Pizza, and Taco Yummo.
Once everyone was seated and had eaten some, I began to lay out what I'd found out about the upcoming threats of the Judge and Acathla as succinctly as I could. That included what I knew about the time frame we were dealing with and the potential ways to handle the threats. Interestingly, Xander spoke up with something he found odd.
"So, no weapon forged by man, huh? Gotta say, not a lot of stuff gets forged these days. I wonder if we can't just shoot this guy or something?" Pointed out Xander.
"I'm afraid not even blessed silver will work on the Judge. He's considered to be on the upper end of Middle-Ranked Demons. It is likely that any attack not capable of destroying say, a small building, wouldn't even scratch him unless it was backed by the right sort of mystical power." Refuted Giles.
"Like, this maybe?" I questioned as I pulled the Scimitar out of my expanded duster pocket.
"Is that what I think it is?" Blinked Wesley.
"It's an alloy of it and True Damascus Steel, but yeah. That's Atlantian Orichalcum in there." I nodded.
"Good Lord!" Exclaimed Giles, removing his glasses before gazing at me questioningly.
"Leftmost cabinet in the Kitchen above the fridge." I answered Giles' silent plea for a strong drink. When he returned, he had a glass of McCleary Scotch that he downed in one gulp.
"Should he be drinking during all this?" Queried Oz.
"It's Ulysses, he does this sort of crazy stuff a lot." Huffed Willow.
"You get used to it." Shrugged Amy.
"That or you drink, apparently." Chuckled Sheila.
"Hold on, can we back up a second? I don't even know what Atlantian Oricallium is or why that's a big deal?" Asked Buffy.
"Atlantian Orichalcum is an extremely rare, extremely mystically potent metal that is usually either found in pure form or alloyed with less potent metals. The alloying requires either certain rituals that have since been lost to time or skill that is quite literally inhuman." Answered Wesley.
"Indeed! I should bloody well hope you didn't sell your soul for that." Scowled Giles.
"Not a chance, G-Man. Ulysses knows better than to make that sorta bargain." Insisted Xander.
"Yeah, the very first lesson he taught me was why selling your soul or even pieces of it for mystical power is a bad idea." Agreed Amy.
"Right, so can anyone translate from Stuffy British-Person Speak?" Questioned Buffy.
"Sword kill Judge good." Smirked Sheila.
"Right, so what do the rest of us do in the meantime?" Queried Willow.
"It sounds like we need to keep an eye on the Sunnydale History Museum too. If that Crusades Exhibit has this Athkatla thing, we can't hyper-focus on just the Judge." Mused Buffy.
"Acthla, Buffy. Athkatla is something completely different." I pointed out, thinking about the Major City in the Dimension of Toril.
"Right. Whatever it's called it needs watching." Shrugged Buffy.
"I'll take that job." Offered Oz.
"By yourself?" Frowned Giles.
"Indeed, how will you get around?" Pressed Wesley.
"I have a van." Explained Oz.
"That's another point, actually. Oz's van is a weak point for you guys. It's the only vehicle you guys have that isn't Giles' Citroen." Frowned Amy.
"And just what is wrong with my Citroen? I'll have you know it's a classic." Demanded Giles.
"No offense meant here G-man, but there's only so much wear and tear you can put on a vehicle before it's run through its lifespan. Your jalopy looks like it reached that point a decade ago." Pointed out Sheila.
"What exactly are you guys trying to say?" Asked Buffy, trying to keep the peace. I wasn't going to let her do that on her own, so I spoke up next to reinforce the pivot back to the original topic of conversation.
"It seems to us that if Oz's Van is disabled, then none of your group has a reliable method of transportation. Willow's mom barely let her have her license, Giles' Citroen has already been covered, you need to borrow your Mom's Car to drive, Buffy, and Wesley? Do you even own a car?" I summarized.
"I ride a Bicycle or take the Bus." Admitted Wesley.
"This isn't Europe, Wes. You're gonna need a car." Retorted Xander.
"So how do we fix that?" Questioned Willow.
"By giving you each a new car." I responded.
Going over to the kitchen, I grabbed a quartet of keys from the bowl of miscellaneous Vehicle Keys which went to vehicles pilfered from various Vampires or Demons during hunts. I came back and started passing them out.
"These all go to cars in a garage out on Cedar, across from the Lucky Pint. Willow, you get the Bug." I began as I tossed Willow the key to a Volkswagon Beetle that we'd looted off a pair of German Vamps who'd tried to roll into town a few weeks back.
"Neat!" Grinned Willow.
"Giles, you'll never believe this, but we hit a Vamp Lair whose owner was some British Vamp that got turned in the sixties. After we dusted him and his four minions, we made off with his Jag. It's yours if you want it." I said.
"A Jaguar? Of course I bloody well want it." Huffed Giles. I tossed him the keys and turned to Wesley.
"Unfortunately, you don't get the same sort of ride as Giles does, Wesley. Consider it perks of seniority on his part. You get the Impala." I intoned, tossing him the keys to a Chevy Impala that we'd taken off a couple of Vamps that looked like they'd been turned in the seventies and had rolled into town from Los Angeles.
"Shame. One must make do, I suppose." Sighed Wesley.
"Oz. I don't know what sort of van this is, except that it has a Wizard painted on the side and we took it off an actual Sorcerer. Well, I say we took it off him, but really we took it off the pair of Vamps that killed him." I said, tossing Oz the keys to the Wizard Van.
"A real Wizard Van?" Queried Oz.
"Yeah. Guy thought he could impress a pair of local chicks with a bit of real magic but didn't realize they were Vamps. He got one of them with a fire bolt, but the other bit his jugular out. We killed her and claimed the van in the process." I nodded.
"Is it clean?" Asked Oz.
"Magic makes cleanup easy." I grinned.
"Bitchin." Nodded Oz.
"Finally, Buffy. We've had this one in storage for a while. Took it off some Mercenary Vamps a while ago. It's an H-One so even you driving like you won't wreck it." I pointed out, tossing Buffy the keys to a Hummer.
"Free car, I'm not complaining." Shrugged Buffy.
With that, we settled on a plan of action going forward. My group would handle the Judge while Buffy's group kept an eye on the Sunnydale History Museum in case Angelus felt like getting sticky fingers when it came to the Acathla Statue. I wanted to try mixing the groups up, but Buffy insisted that Angelus was her responsibility so she should handle the Angelus plot herself. I did manage to wrangle the concession that she would contact us if she got in over her head, but that was about it.
For the rest of March, I did little more than train. I needed to be at least as good with my Talwar-style, Orichalcum-Alloy, Magic Scimitar as I was with the Green Destiny before facing the Judge. When I wasn't doing that, I was getting my Turkish Pilaf Rice and my Gujarati Undhiyu Curry recipes to the same level the others were, brewing Potions of Health to replace the stockpile that had been depleted in Oxnard, finishing learning Pashto to a conversational level, and finally getting the hang of the Senkugoshoha of the Ansatsuken. The Senkugoshoha was a Chi-powered, sliding, lunging, strike that would damage the internal organs of an opponent as well as hit them externally. It wasn't that useful against the undead, except as a move to close with the enemy. In that regard, it ignored most Chi and Magic-based ranged attacks up to a certain level.
By the time the first week of April came around, I was as prepared as I was going to be. It was a good thing too, because when Friday the Third of April came around, I got the call that the Judge was terrorizing the Sunnydale Shopping Plaza from Amy, Sheila, and Xander who were keeping an eye on the situation. I jumped in my Camaro and headed down to the mall to confront the Judge.
True to form, the big blue Demon was frying several civilians, gesturing at a mother and daughter electric bolts flew from his outstretched hand, streaking forward to fry the pair even as the mother stepped in front of her daughter to try and shield her. Fortunately, I was able to conjure a shield that could block the bolts, which exploded against my magic, dissipating but also bringing my shield down with it.
"Sorcery? Who dares to challenge the cleanser of this dimension? I smell arrogance on the wind!" Scowled the Judge as he turned to face me.
"That'd be me." I intoned.
"You? I sense the stink of the divine on you, whelp. Something else as well, something not quite so weak as the rest of the mewling wretches infesting this dimension. Come closer, I will burn the taint of humanity from you so that only the strength within you remains, cleansed from the filth of mankind encrusting it." Offered the Judge.
"No thanks. I think it's time you left." I refused, drawing my Scimitar from my Expanded Duster Pocket and taking up a stance.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Ye don't get it do ye boyo? No weapon forged by man can hurt the Judge!" Cackled Angelus from a balcony.
"Daddy, that's no manly claw! The nasty Man of Light's gone and found a loophole again!" Sing-songed Drusilla.
"Oi, ain't that one of Jyoti's bloody Scimitars?" Frowned Spike.
I paid them no mind, Sheila, Xander, and Amy were making their way toward the three of them right now as it was. I focused instead on the Judge. The Blue Demon's eyes widened as he saw what I had in my hand. Only momentarily, but the fear was there, I saw it.
"I see. You have a powerful weapon. Can you get close enough to wield it with enough skill to slay me before I burn the taint of humanity out of you, I wonder?" Sneered the Judge.
"I'm not sure. Let's find out, shall we?" I grinned.
As I said that, Sheila and Xander pounced on the Whirlwind while Amy bracketed them with spellfire. Their battle had started, and now I had to start mine as well. With a shout, I charged for the Judge, enhancements snapping up and into place even as the Judge charged a bolt of his searing lightning between both hands. As I closed, he let fly with the bolt, forcing me to leap up into the air. The bolt sailed underneath me, exploding against a display case showing the latest pagers. I flipped about in mid-air, dodging another, weaker, bolt sent my way, before kicking off the bottom of the concourse floor above the ground floor and rocketing toward the Judge at speeds fast enough that most people wouldn't be able to follow it.
As I rocketed down at the judge, I cut out at him with a cross-cut from the wrist, hoping to carve open the Front of his head like a melon. Unfortunately, he backpedaled away from the strike in time to avoid taking more than a glancing cut across his face from the right part of his forehead down across his nose to the left side of his mouth. My blade even took a chunk out of one of his nubby little horns.
Unfortunately, it was just a graze, and as I landed, he fired a bolt at me that I was forced to block with a Barricade Spell, pulling a metal hot dog cart in front of the bolt with my magic that exploded into shards of magically heated metal and charred hot dogs. One of the metal shards cut across the meat of my left thigh, but I shoved the pain aside in favor of spewing out an Ahaooah Castiga at the Judge. He was forced to shoot a bolt of searing lightning at the spell to detonate it prematurely, but I used that as cover to charge in with a Senkugoshoha.
The judge fired a second, weaker, bolt at me as I charged in with my Technique, only for me to slip past it as if I were gliding. My strike smashed into the Judge's torso unexpectedly, knocking him back even as he attempted to fry me from the contact with a cloak of demonic electricity. I immediately flared my Chi, stomping as I did so to deflect the last-second contact bolt with a Kongoshin Technique from the Ansatsuken Style. Even with that supernatural, Chi-based, defense, my fist still caught some of the searing electricity, burning into my palm with the smell of burning flesh.
I could see the Judge moving back toward me, gingerly. Clearly, I'd done some damage with the Sekugoshoha. Not nearly enough to put him down, and I was going to avoid touching him with my bare hand again if that was the sort of defense he could put up even through my Kongoshin technique. Still, I wasn't immolated entirely from it, so I could still fight.
"You see? I can burn the weakness of the Human Spirit that clings to the purity in your core with just a touch! Come, embrace me, and let your pretensions of humanity be scoured away!" Called out the Judge, opening his arms as if to offer a hug.
"Shut up and fight!" I spat.
"So be it. I know what lurks within your blood, I know that stubbornness runs deep within you. I shall help purge you of it, that you might be forged anew!" Snarled the Judge.
I didn't respond verbally. Instead, I charged back at the Judge, scimitar flashing out in a Polish Quarte, cutting up from underneath on a diagonal that would disembowel him if it hit. Unfortunately, he skipped backward in time to avoid having his guts spill out onto the linoleum tiles of the Mall Floor. It was another graze, even as black, ichor-like, blood oozed out from beneath the gray robe he wore.
With a shout, the Judge moved to grapple me, to pull me into a bear hug from which I'd be unable to escape his lightning. In response, I blasted out a Scream Spell, shattering windows for several yards and bursting the Judge's eardrums. The Judge stumbled in his charge as his too-sensitive, inhuman, ears were just hit with a spell that not only bypassed his natural toughness but was also seemingly designed to inflict sonic damage directly into his brain. Momentarily weakened, I hit the Judge with a Muscovite cut, a descending diagonal slash with a full arm movement. In a panic, the Judge did the only thing he could. He raised his arm to ward off the cut and it went flying off into the smoking remnants of a pretzel stand.
Black Ichor flowed from his stump and I realized I'd just gotten the upper hand in this fight. I launched at him, intending to finish the fight once and for all with a single, descending, vertical, cut to the top of his head. As I did so, he lashed out with his fist. We both connected at the same time, his fist crackling with searing lightning that arced through my Wyvern Scale and Owlbear Leather Enchanted vest, searing into my flesh like hellfire. My scimitar, carving open his head like a melon, the inhuman nature of the weapon bypassing his protections entirely and killing him.
I was blasted back by his punch into a fountain, arcs of flame playing over my form, using my emotions as a conduit to burn further into me. Then, blessedly, I landed in the mall fountain, and the touch of water shocked me back into focus. I was able to, using the Waveform Spell and a touch of Cryomancy, to put out the flames before they could burn my humanity out of me. Instead, they only burned my flesh. I was sure that under my vest and duster, my chest and shoulders were a mess of raw, smoking, bloody, flesh. I was keeping things together thanks to my powers of focus and my natural regeneration, but it was enough to reach into my expanded duster pocket and pull out a Potion of Health. After downing two of those, I was right as rain.
The same could not be said for the Judge. He lay slumped down on the floor, my Scimitar lodged in his head. I walked over to the corpse, grabbed hold of the hilt, twisted, and pulled. The Judge's head exploded, falling apart in a spray of ichor and demonic brains. Turning to the ongoing fighting on the upper concourse, I realized that Xander, Amy, and Sheila were still fighting.
With I grunt, I headed up the nearest staircase to help them out. . .
XXXX
Spike had to admit, the Bloody White Hats had well and truly scuppered this plan. He might've gotten cocky based on how they hadn't all been showing up in force like this for a bit. Hell, last time they'd been evenly matched in numbers even before you added in the sodding zombies. Mind you some of that might've been the whole having the Judge on their side thing.
Honestly, with a bloke like that on your team, how could you lose? By having a sodding weapon that could bypass all those nifty protections about not having a weapon forged by man, that's how. Sodding magic, what good was it? All they were left with now was a stonking great bug-zapper. The worst part was, it might actually bloody well be his fault.
Mind, he'd never known what that stuff in Jyoti's blade was. He just knew that it clearly hadn't been enough to deal with the Slayer, the Gods-Botherer, and their pet Werewolf. Apparently, it was enough to deal with the Judge, though.
Now, he was facing down three of the Gods-Botherer's little minions. They were loaded to the gills with some sort of magic equipment and it was making them hard to deal with, even with Angelus and Dru here with him. It didn't help that the Red-headed Bint was some sort of Sorceress. Every time they seemed to get the upper hand, she would strike out with her bloody magic and they'd be back to square one.
Spike swore that if the Gods-Botherer showed up here too, he would knock out Dru and head for the bloody hills. Angelus could piss right off if that happened, he didn't care how far he'd have to run. Nothing in the world would get Spike to stay on a sinking ship.
As Angelus lunged for the Knife-Wielding Bint, Spike saw an opportunity. Moved to pincer her, forcing the Harris Boy to move to back her up with that bloody great poleaxe of his. As the Harris Whelp moved to ward Spike away with the blade of his weapon, Spike gave ground, drawing him further away from his Teammates' position. That opened her flank for Dru.
True to form, his Dru came in at the Knife-Wielding Bint from the rear, catching her in the side with a big ol' boot that sent her reeling. Spike grinned as he'd heard something pop from that. Unfortunately, before Dru could move to Capitalize, the Magic Bint lashed out at her with a gout of flame, forcing Dru back and away from her fallen opponent.
Then the Knife-Wielding bint grabbed a bottle of something from a pocket and downed it. Spike could practically hear her busted rib mending itself back together. As the Knife-Wielding Bint stood up, Spike realized she wasn't moving like she'd just been kicked in the ribs by a two-hundred-year-old Vampire. They were back to square one.
"That just ain't fair! Ye've got all sorts o' tricks to work with, while we're just Vampires!" Protested Angelus. What the bloody hell was he on about now?
"You wanna talk about fair, Leech? That's rich." Scoffed the Knife-Wielding Bint.
"Aye, ain't that always the way it goes? Ye get one leg up on the ladder and suddenly yer knocked back down. It's anti-Irish discrimination is what it is!" Bemoaned Angelus.
Oh, Spike remembered this play, it was a classic. Baffle the bleeding hearts with the poor Irishman routine and while they're trying to think of how to respond, hit 'em in the bollocks. For some reason, it seemed to work out most of the time.
"What? That's not even. . .I mean. What?" Sputtered the Knife-Wielding Bint, dropping her guard.
"Ah, made ye look!" Smirked Angelus as he rushed up to her and smashed an Elbow into the Bint's face. Spike heard the crack of a broken nose even as the Bint was bowled over the rail of the balcony. If there was any bloody sense of symmetry in this world, she'd crack her skull on the tiles down there.
Dru rushed forth to try and capitalize, only for a Wall of Fire to be put up by the Magic Bint, blocking off the White Hats. Just in time too, because the Gods-Botherer managed to make his way up the stairs right at that second, Jyoti's scimitar covered in black ichor. Right, this was probably their cue to bloody well scarper. Fortunately, Angelus seemed to think so too.
"Ye think ye've won, but ye ain't won yet! We'll be back, don't ye think we won't!" Spat Angelus.
Then, he turned tail and ran, Spike and Dru following after. . .
XXXX
AN: All right, here's the rest of March, including the Judge encounter. This one's a long one, but I promised there'd only be a certain number of chapters left until we could move on to other parts of the crossover as the main focus for a while. I've tried to keep that promise, but it resulted in a super-long chapter.
On the Judge, he went down so easily largely because of the Scimitar being able to bypass his resistances. In canon, they managed it with a rocket launcher pilfered from the Sunnydale Armory. Here, they don't have access to the armory but they have the Scimitar instead. As to how Jyoti Singh got a hold of something like that, she practically ran the Criminal Underworld running from the Khyber Pass, south to Karachi, and east into Punjab in India. That sort of position brings with it the sort of power and influence that can be used to assassinate, say, a British Colonial Governor in the late nineteenth century and pilfer his estate. I'm sure there are a lot more artifacts stashed away in various bolt holes she set up over the centuries that we haven't seen.
Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of Atlantis, Atlantian Orichalcum, and the Eldritch gribblies found there from Conan the Barbarian who in the nineties had a couple of video games, several novels, and a TV Show before fading away until the Early two-thousands, the Nazi Expedition to Atlantis after Indiana Jones from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the Incident with Terpsichore's Lyre is from Xena, while the Salem Massachusetts Halloween Incident is a reference to Hocus Pocus. Big Kahuna Burger, Teriyaki Donut, and McCallister Scotch are from the films of Quentin Tarantino, while Little Nero's Pizza is from Home Alone, and Taco Yummo is from Beavis and Butthead. Athkatla, Toril, the Waveform Spell, Shout, Potions of Health, and the Pendant of Protection from Fire are all from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons. The Ahaooah Castiga is from Samurai Shodown, the Green Destiny is from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and the techniques of the Ansatsuken Style are from Street Fighter.
At any rate, the next chapter will be the rest of April and then we'll have one last chapter before wrapping up this section of the Buffy side of things.
Stay tuned. . .
