Who’s there?

The noise in the room was becoming unbearable. There were now nearly thirty potentials staying at the Summer’s house and all of them seemed to be speaking at once.

“We can beat them if we attack now!” yelled out Kennedy from her spot near the front door.

“No…we can’t! There aren’t enough of us!” someone else yelled back.

A chorus of voices jumped in…each arguing their own stand on the subject. The atmosphere in the room echoed the one outside. Thunder suddenly boomed so loud that the windows in the house shook.

“Will everyone just SHUT UP?” screamed Faith at the top of her lungs.

Silence. “That’s better. Now… one at a time. And raise your hands before you speak!” Faith commanded.

“What…are we a bunch of school kids now?” questioned Rona.

“Umm… yeah most of you are,” joked Faith.

The small joke seemed to be what was needed to ease the tension that had permeated the room. Faith looked around at the potentials and directed her next question to Kennedy. “OK…so what were you saying about attacking now?”

“Well… I just think that if…” Kennedy’s words were cut off by a loud knock on the front door.

“Man… Not another one…” mumbled Faith. “Ken, could you get that?”

Kennedy moved over to the door and opened it to the elements. Suddenly, lightening struck, outlining the figure that stood in the doorway. It was obviously a woman… her long dark hair drenched by the rain.

“Hi. Can I help you?” Kennedy asked.

“Doubt it.” The woman said as she pushed her way into the already over-crowded house. “Where are the slayers?” she asked as she dropped her bag and began to remove her rain soaked coat.

“That depends… who’s asking?” asked Faith as she approached the woman.

Everyone in the room was silent as the woman raised her eyes to meet Faith’s. “Someone who was told to drop what she was doing and get to the Hellmouth to do some serious ass kicking… that’s who.”

“Really?” mused Faith as she stepped closer to observe the stranger. The woman was slightly taller than her and obviously had the same taste in clothing as Faith. Her sleeveless shirt revealed tattoos of oriental black dragons and well-muscled arms. With the tattoos were scars…several of them. Her eyes moved down the woman’s body to the form fitting black leather pants and biker boots. ‘Nice.’ she thought. Faith looked at the woman’s face. She was obviously older than all of the other potentials and Faith guessed her age at about thirty. Her thick black hair was curling as it lost its moisture and her blue eyes were so intense that Faith had a hard time keeping eye contact. “Aren’t you a little old to be a potential slayer?”