Scooby Gang

Air Date: 6/11/2000

5 Aug 2000, Saturday

Jayde dreams. Chaotic dreams. Being chased, indistinct images and feelings, culminating with the sensation of the needle being injected into her leg and she wakes in a panic. The bed is wet with blood - there's a cut on her wrist like she's been straining against a handcuff. She screams.

Gemma hears a scream and turns to place its direction. "Jayde?" When she turns back to face Leda she finds herself alone.

As Gemma cleans and dresses Jayde's wound, Jayde tells her about her dream. "Seems to have been a night for bad dreams then. Me and Mum had them too." She tells Jayde about her own dream, the fact that she's seeing auras and the conversation with Leda, including the fact that Faith is alive and that Conrad knows. Jayde is dubious and both girls agree they should talk to Dr Grey. They are discussing the relative believability of ghosts versus vampires when David wanders in. "I thought I heard a scream?" Jayde tells him she must've cut herself on the bed frame in her sleep and got a fright from the blood. He seems satisfied with that, they got down to breakfast and the girls arrange to meet with Alex later in the morning. They agree to tell Alex everything but to not say anything to Conrad until they can work out if they can trust him.

Alex says that Gemma's abilities are unusual but not unheard of, there is much literature dealing with auras and the like. Stories of ghosts are reasonably common although holding conversations with them is incredibly rare - she'll research it. She is intrigued by the information about Conrad, especially coupled with his transparent appearance in the dream of two nights ago. As for the handcuff mark on Jayde's wrist, if this is the effect on Jayde as the slayer, perhaps the other slayer was also affected? The girls go off to the gym while Alex calls a few people to see what she can find out.

When they return Alex tells them that Conrad is a high up in the Watcher's Council and is known for his patience and dedication to his research. In the last few years there has been internal conflict in the Council regarding the role of the Council in dealing with slayers - it is possible that Conrad is caught up in the conflict or that he's being made to do something he disagrees with. As for Buffy, according to Giles she also has been having dreams of Faith being alive but has not been marked by the experience. She is convinced of the truth of her dreams and has gone to Los Angeles to investigate the prison where Faith was being held. Jonathan slinks in. Gemma notices that his aura is orange - fear perhaps? The girls go off while Alex talks to Jonathan but agree to be back later in the evening.

Alex talks to Jonathan about using camera's to possibly detect vampires. "Oh sure! That's easy. What you need is a S544 night scope, although a Sony V20 would also..." and before he knows it, Jonathan is part of the group. Alex explains to him that fighting vampires means being able to spot vampires and if he could build something to help spot them then that would save peoples lives. Jonathan seems a little uneasy about it, until Alex tells him that he wont be at the front line.

Jayde spends the afternoon making apologies for her absences at the last few nights of parties and catching up on the gossip.

Gemma heads to the library to do a bit of research of her own and is halfway through a book on aura reading when she bumps into Mary who's been visiting her cousins in LA over summer. Gemma acts all strange and defensive when Mary asks what she's been up to lately and Mary interprets this as Gemma meeting a guy. Mary probes a bit deeper and Gemma, knowing she can't lie for shit, answers as best she can without actually telling Mary anything. Mary is left with the impression that Gemma met a guy much older than her in a park, it is now over between them and the break-up was somewhat traumatising for Gemma. Gemma races off as soon as possible.

Mary heads back to her dorm room feeling somewhat confused. Do girls often meet guys in parks? Why parks? Was it always traumatising? Did everyone know something she didn't? She asks a few girls around the place and they have no idea what she's talking about.

Mary runs off to the park to try and find Casey. Someone said they saw him sluming it in the parks, so Mary heads off to investigate.

Back at the office Jayde is training with Alex. Alex's style is as though its been learned by rote and she's never had to really apply it. Conrad takes over with Jayde and presents much more of a challenge. Jonathan is sitting off to one side surrounded by old books and hight tech camera equipment, surreptitiously watching Jayde. Alex explains to Gemma how most people don't really perceive the vampires but Jonathan did and is now doing some work for them. The three go off to review Jonathan's video - the vampires don't appear as bright as the living. Looks like Jonathan is onto something.

The group goes off to patrol. Not much happens for a while but then they hear a rustling in the bushes, Jayde prepares herself with her stake, Gemma and the two watchers pull out crucifixes, Jonathan trains his camera on the bush, Jayde is just about to pounce, and out from the bushes walks Mary with a big pair of binoculars. Mary starts talking about bats and Casey going missing and are they here to meet guys and gee Gemma was odd this afternoon and.... etc . Jayde pipes up that they are on a field trip. To look at bats like Mary said. Jonathan agrees, yes, psychology of bats. Mary asks if Alex and Conrad are biology teachers then. They confer briefly and respond "Yes. Yes we are." Mary explains that she is looking for Casey, then spots him asleep under a tree, dressed normally but really grubby. She wakes him, he is bleary and doesn't recognise her and staggers off. Jonathan notices he looks a little odd through the camera. Not really vampire odd but definitely strange. Mary chases after him, everyone follows and eventually he gets to the edge of the park and crosses the road. Gemma calls out his name, he turns and suddenly recognises Mary. He says he was at a party on Monday and doesn't remember anything since. He looks ok on video now, perhaps it was just poor lighting. Mary takes him home for a shower, the rest of patrol passes without incident, Jayde goes out partying and redefines the social order while adding a bit of mystery to her whereabouts for the past few nights, and Gemma goes home to read.

Mary goes back with Casey, who is freaked out by this lost time. Casey goes and gets a shower while Mary hits the web to find all she can on Alex. Strangely enough she finds that she is a psychologist from England who had a practice in LA. She hasnt published much in recent years, although her origional publications seemed to be goverenment sponsored (some anti criminal group in the English police). Mary is confused as they said they were biology teachers. She decides to go investigate. Grabbing Casey and some stuff, Mary heads off and starts to watch the psychology building. She see's Conrad, Gemma, Jayde, Jonathan and Alex go in and out.

6 Aug 2000, Sunday

Mary and Casey see everyone go back into the psych building and she knows thats weird. Jayde would never work on sunday. Especially not get up early. With Casey on lookout, Mary heads into the building air conditioning system to take a look inside.

Conrad and Jayde are training, Jonathan is shopping for equipment (and a slinky), Alex is making notes and Gemma is reading and practicing seeing auras - Conrad appears bright blue (calm), swirly green and brown. She gets a sensation of being watched and notices a faint light up in the ceiling vent. She fakes a mild asthma attack and comments on "dust in the vents" to alert the others. Jayde calls out to see if Gemma is ok and Conrad gets in a good hit, spoiling Jayde's make-up. The fight continues with renewed vigour and Jayde strikes out in retaliation, throwing Conrad across the room. Mary, hiding up in the vent, is too busy watching Jayde to notice Gemma pulling up a table directly below the vent. She realises and is starting to wriggle back as Jayde comes bounding up and tears the vent from the ceiling in one move. Jade pokes her head up into the vent, is temporarily blinded by a flashgun, recovers and spots Mary. "Come out now!" Mary realises she's in big trouble, gestures to Casey to run away, goes to climb out and is pulled out by Jayde. They put her in Alex's office while they discuss what to do with her. Realising they won't be able to throw her off without some sort of explanation (and that she's a player character and as such needs to be involved) (:-P) they agree to show her vampires and see if she can perceive them using the excuse that its an experiment in psychology and perception. They also tell her they'd like to test Casey at some point but telling him anything would bias the data so she can't involve him.

That evening all 6 are walking through the park. Gemma gives Mary a crucifix pendant "to apologise for being weird the other day" and tells Mary that there was no guy, it was just she was doing this experiment and wasn't allowed to say anything about it. They get to the end of the park to a wall, jump over it into a graveyard and cross to a fresh grave. A crack is heard in the branches behind them as though something is approaching. Jonathan, twins and watchers pull stakes and crucifixes out from under their coats. A hand reaches up through the soil on the grave, followed by an arm and a head. Mary is freaking. Jayde is eager to go and find the approaching thing and pulls the grave vamp halfway up out of the ground by his hair and stakes him. The second vamp gets within a few meters, spots the well armed group and runs off. The twins chase him. He has just about reached the wall, Jayde leaps on him as he goes to vault it and he goes smacking into it instead. He lands on his face, Jayde pins him and stakes him from behind. Mary is very greatly disturbed.

Back at the office Mary describes both vampires in graphic detail. Gemma asks Mary if she thinks its possible they set it up for the purposes of the experiment. Mary disagrees. Welcome to the scoobies! Intro to vampirology again. Conrad leaves. Mary goes to learn about Jonathan's experiments.

Alex and the twins discuss Conrad. Alex is getting a weird feeling from him too, not in a supernatural sense but like she's not sure if she trusts him. Alex mentions that she read that it is some people have abilities that allow them to get sensations, images and feelings from items that are connected to people and perhaps Gemma could try it, perhaps on Conrad's cane next time he's sitting down or training with Jayde. Gemma tries it out on a small key of Alex's. Nothing. Try in a darkened room with no other input. Its warm and relaxing and there's a flash of sensation like being a bit older and hiding under a desk with someone, giggling, hiding from someone with a torch, blue (love) and violet colours. Then nothing again, then feelings and colours that seem to be emanating form the key itself - silver (sadness) and grey and brown.

Lawyers take note: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel and all characters related belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and fox.