A Hunting We Will Go

THis last chapter is dedicated to shadwslayer, and all of those who have been waiting soo patiently for me to update! :) I hope it makes the wait worth while. And I hope you all enjoy the next few stories in this series that will be coming hopfully soon.
Enough type talking-- on to the story!! :)





Ch. 11



A Hunting We Will Go





Xander took a deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate in panic at the thought of facing possibly two demons by himself.

What was he thinking?!? He can't just go off and hunt demons on his own! He had no weapons. He had no special training. The moves his brothers taught him were pretty good, but he seriously doubted they'd be good enough to keep him alive against the inhuman speed and strength most demons he encountered had.

Xander was just an ordinary guy who might of died several times the past year if it wasn't for the fact that he was best friends with the Slayer.

But the Slayer was nowhere near here. And even if Xander could somehow get a hold of her and convince her to find a way to get here, more kids would die while waiting for her.

The same went for Giles, if he called him. Giles didn't have the speed or strength of the Slayer either, but he at least had the knowledge and weapons to fight various evil.

So again, that left him alone. Xander thought of his brothers. They could handle themselves in a fight pretty well.

Dean had taken Xander to a few more Pool-halls in the past couple of nights, and half of the guys weren't very happy about getting hustled out of all their money to two complete strangers. Each time Dean had known the moment when the guys would start the punches and made short work of them. One night, nearly the whole room tried to join in, making Sam have to step in. Xander had done his best, with a pool stick as a weapon, but his brothers were a blur of fists. It was why Xander had been so willing when Dean mentioned he and Sam teaching him to fight.

But fighting humans were different than fighting demons. Would he get his brothers killed if he asked them for help?

He couldn't risk it. They were his family, his brothers. He couldn't risk getting them killed. Especially when he had just met them.

And they were finally starting to get along, so he was also reluctant to risk his brothers not believing him.

Dean and Sam could think he was some sort of nut job if he asked them to help him hunt down a pair of demons. Then not only would the demons not be stopped, but it could be the end of having brothers.

Dean especially would kick his ass, then make certain that he never even THOUGHT of contacting him, or anyone concerning him or the other Winchesters again.

And Xander could almost see the deeply worried expression on Sam's face as he thought his younger brother had gone down the deep end. And though Sam would be concerned for Xander's welfare, he too wouldn't want to have anything to do with him if he thought Xander would be a threat.

Xander thought back to when HE first found out that monsters were real. He had thought Buffy was a bit touched in the head when he had heard her and Giles talking about vampires, and her being chosen to slay them. Xander had still thought she was hot, but he also thought she was insane. So he had went to try to talk her down about how nuts it was.

Heck, Xander hadn't completely believed when Buffy had dusted a vamp in front of him that night. It wasn't until he and Buffy went to rescue one of his best friends Jessie, only to have him try to kill them that he had started to believe.

Xander didn't have the time to try to convince his brothers that the evil things that bump in the night were real. And he wouldn't even think of asking them to help unprepared.

Taking a final look at the photos of some of the missing kids, Xander took a deep breath, resolving himself to getting through this.

"I can do this. I can DO this" he said, getting up and walking out of the small room.

Xander then began the 'I think I can..I think I can' mantra of the 'Little Engine That Could', a children's book that wasn't read to him by his parents, like most children. But by the TV show 'Reading Rainbow'. This show was to blame for Xander's later interest in the 'Star Trek' series. Because the host of 'Reading Rainbow' later wore a banana clip over his eyes, playing Gordy La Forge on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'.

"I think I can. I think I can..Oh God, I'm gonna die!" Xander almost yelped when his cellphone rang unexpectedly.

"Um.." Xander began, his voice a little too high. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Hello"



"Xander, are you ok?" Came Sam's voice on the other end.



"Yeah...of course I am! Why wouldn't I be? It's not like I'm about to anything life threatening or anything." Xander stammered guiltily, feeling as if he'd been caught trying to escape the library without being seen.



"You just sounded kind of funny" Sam said, still sounding concerned.



"That's me, a laugh a minute" Xander laughed nervously. "So, what's up?"



"Dean and I are probably going to be out all night, and we wanted to see if you needed a ride back to the motel before we left" Sam answered.



Xander almost let out a loud sigh of relief, but suppressed it with a grin. He had been wondering what he was going to have to come up with, but now he didn't have to lie... not really anyway.

"That's ok. I'm actually meeting a couple of..... interesting characters myself."



"Oh, ok" Xander could almost see Sam's frown. "Just be careful and stay out of trouble, ok Xander?"



"Me? Get in trouble?" Xander asked, giving another nervous laugh.

Xander heard Sam's sigh and knew that he wasn't buying his innocent act.



"See you later Sammy, I have to go." Xander said, hanging up before Sam could ask any questions about what his plans were tonight.





Xander walked through the hall leading to the EXIT doors, and stopped as something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. Stopping, he turned to the wall to see the big red rectangle box with the red and silver axe. On the glass that encased the axe were the words

'BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY'.

Well, if going up against two possible demons by himself, with no weapon WASN'T an emergency, he didn't know what was!

So Xander used the tiny red hammer that was connected to the box, to break the glass, then grabbed the axe and ran.









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"What's with the frown Sam? You called Xander and found out he's ok" Dean said, irritated with his younger brother.



"Something doesn't feel right." Sam frown deepened. "He sounded strange"



Dean rolled his blue-green eyes as he loaded his silver pistol and put it back in his inside jacket pocket.

"This is XANDER your talking about Sammy. When does the kid not sound strange?" Dean smirked.

When Sam just looked at Dean, Dean went on.

"I mean seriously! 'To read is good'? 'I fell asleep', and my personal favorite 'I love your cupcakes' " Dean shook his head in amusement.



"Your just happy that you finally have someone to scam girls with." Sam's disappointed frown showed his disapproval.



"You have to admit, he does have potential" Dean grinned proudly.



Sam rolled his hazel green eyes and made a disgusted sound.



"Ok, stop bitching and let's get back to the business at hand. The attacks starts in the center of town and fans out to the edges of the town from two points at once every ten years. Which suggests more than one demon. Which also means there's a whole lot of ground to cover and not damn near enough time to cover the whole fucking town." Dean snapped, grabbing his sawed off shot gun from the trunk, loading it quickly, and putting extra shells in his pockets. Dean then grabbed a few other stow-able weapons and slammed the trunk shut in frustration.

The town wasn't very big, but it was big enough that it be mainly luck if he or Sam ran into whatever creature/s that were snatching the kids. Which meant that there was a really big possibility that two more kids will become victims tonight. Even with Dean's plan to split from Sam so they could cover more ground. Because other than the center to outer edge thing, there was no real pattern to where the creatures struck.

Dean had 'borrowed' a car from another town so he and Sam could cover even more ground. Sam was going to search one side of the town while Dean searched the other. Since they were already near the center of town anyway, they thought they would work their way out from there. Hoping they could either catch the creature/s going to a victim, or coming back with the victim. Both knew that it was a long shot, but sometimes luck played a huge part in this kind of business.





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"A hunting I will go. A hunting I will go. Hi-ho the dairy-o, a hunting I will go." Xander sang softly to keep his mind off his nerves so he wouldn't run from the manhole he had just opened.

When Xander had figured that the demon's nest was in or around the center of town, he couldn't figure out why no one had come across anything between the decade attacks. Then he remembered all the tunnels running through Sunnydale's storm drains and sewer systems that the Hellmouth's demons and creatures traveled through and hid out. He thought maybe these creatures were doing the same thing.

Xander took a deep breath, then started to climb down the rust colored built in ladder, tying his jacket around his waist, with the axe tucked in to keep both hands free.

When he reached the bottom, he was glad it was a storm drain he was in, because he was ankle deep in water. He paused a moment, wondering which way to go. As since he was directly in the center, it made him in the middle of a cross section of the huge pipes.

It was then that Xander heard the muffled scream echoing from the tunnel from his right. Xander ran in that direction, not even hearing the splashing of the water over the thundering of his heart in his ears.

It wasn't long before Xander saw the huge slimy reddish white demon with a blunt nose and sharp teeth drop the twelve-year-old girl.



"Hey Slimy! Claws off the kid!" Xander yelled, running faster, and raising his axe.

The demon roared and started towards Xander, who screamed a battle cry to try to match the roar.

Xander brought the axe down just before the two met, catching the axe deep into the demon's shoulder, nearly taking it's arm off. The demon threw Xander off him, making him hit he curved wall hard. His teeth still rattling, Xander barely moved in time to avoid when the demon removed the axe and tried to use it on him.

Xander then used a move that Dean had taught him, and ended up behind the demon. He yanked the nearly severed arm. It wasn't enough to remove the arm, as it was only half way severed, but it was enough to make the demon drop the axe in pain and fury. Making the demon's more animalistic instincts to use teeth and claws to come in more dominant. As the demon charged again, Xander rolled in under the demon, not only tripping it, but also making him able to grab the axe.

The demon nearly stood, grabbing Xander's leg. Xander brought the axe up under the demon's armpit and severed the arm completely, spraying thick blue blood all over.

Caught off balance, the demon staggered back a few seconds before coming towards him again. Xander stepped forward in a stance he learned in little league back when he had cared what his step-father had thought of him. He then used his whole body in a swing as the demon rushed forward.

The axe's whirring sound was cut short by the wet crack of the axe cutting through bone like substance, also cutting short the roar of the demon. The next sounds were of the head and body hitting the water.



Before Xander could sink to the blue blood tinged water in relieved exhaustion next to the sobbing girl now hurtling herself at him, there was another roar starting where the last one's echo died off.

As the second demon came from the same direction than the first (though from a different tunnel), Xander took the girl's shoulders in his hands, looking her in the eyes.

"There's a section a little down that ends in a cross. In the middle, there's a ladder that'll take you to to the street above. Go and I'll try to keep it back long enough for you to get away."



"What about you?" the girl asked, still holding tightly to her rescuer as she was afraid to leave the one who saved her life to go out alone. Especially as she wasn't sure there wasn't more out there in the sewers.



"Just go, before it's too late!" Xander detached the girl, and gently pushed the girl towards escape as the demon dropped it's screaming fourteen year old victim so it could get to Xander without the struggles coming from the young boy.

The demon was nearly a third to them, and he was afraid that if the girl didn't leave now, neither of them would. He was determined to get the girl out of here so at least one of them had a chance to get out alive. Xander would;d have ran too, if it wasn't for the boy on the other side of the demon.

He was relieved when he finally heard the girl behind him start running through the water towards safety.











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Dean screeched his tires, nearly hitting the dripping wet girl who popped out in the middle of the street.

"What the fuck?"

Dean ran out of the car as the girl saw him and waved her hands at him, screaming. The girl slammed herself into him, hugging him so tightly her words were muffled and unrecognizable. Dean gently detached the girl enough to kneel in front of her and look her in the eyes.

"What happened Honey?"





"M-m-monsters!" The girl screamed, sobbing hysterically. "There's monsters down there! And the guy who saved me and a boy are still down there with them! The monsters gonna GET them!!" The girl ended, screaming louder.





"Listen to me" Dean said firmly to get the girl's attention, then continued in a more soft and reassuring tone "It's gonna be ok sweetie, do you hear me?"



When the girl nodded, looking with tear streaked fear filled eyes, Dean briefly hugged the girl before looking her n the eyes again.

"I need for you to run down the street and bang on the store doors. There's a couple of them that still had people in them"





"Don't leave me!" the girl screamed, sobbing harder.





"Your safe now sweetie." Dean said reassuringly, trying to keep his voice soothing even as he knew precious time was slipping away from helping Sam, who must have tracked the demon down the sewer. "I need to help the man that saved you down there. He might be my brother. And you said there was another kid still down there as well, right?"

The girl nodded, trying to be brave and stop crying.

"Ok, run! I'll stay up here until you reach the first store with the lights still on, ok?" Dean asked the girl. Because he couldn't in good conscious leave the kid alone when he wasn't sure both creatures were in the sewers. So he wasn't quite as sure the kid was as safe as he had told her she was.

So even though it was killing him to be standing so near the hole that led to the place his brother could be fighting for his life, he waited. Unconsciously holding his breath, Dean listened for any signs of a fight coming down from below as he urged her on in his head.

True to his word, Dean waited until she started to bang on the store's door. Luckily it didn't take long for someone to open it, despite the late hour.

When Dean reached the bottom, he went slowly to each of the branches of tunnels.



"Sam! Where are you?" Dean yelled, bringing out his silver pistol.

He then heard a demon's roar, as well as water splashing and a human cry of pain. The sound of pain made his caution go all to hell and he started to run towards the sound.

"SAM!!!"

Dean nearly tripped over the decapitated demon, and ran faster as another roar and cry of pain was heard off to the right.

Surprise turned to an almost blinding rage at the sight of the the second demon holding not Sam, but Xander by the throat up against the curved wall. Xander's legs was kicking and dangling in air and the demon's blood stained clawed hand was about to strike his youngest brother again.

Without hesitation, Dean fired bullet after bullet into the demon until it dropped the wounded Xander and turned to him. That lower calaver of bullets not doing enough damage in Dean's point of view, he then whipped out his sawed off shot gun and blew a hole in the demons chest. He then shot the demons head, making it explode as if someone had blew up a watermelon, making chunks of demon fly all over.

Dean then rushed over to Xander, who was getting unsteadily to his feet. Concern and fury pushed overwhelmingly over Dean as he saw the gash across his face.

"You ok?" Dean asked, checking for other injuries.

The rage that was inside Dean that something dared to hurt his little brother grew as he saw the marks on his neck, and the claw marks under his ribs. Dean looked at the demons corpse for any sign of life so he could kill the damn thing again, even harder!

"I'll be fine once the walls stop spinning" Xander gasped, nearly falling over.

Dean caught him, barely able to support him as the boy Xander stayed behind to save chose that time to rush over and hugged the two, thanking them over and over.

Dean put one of Xander's arms around his shoulders. "Come on, let's get the fuck out of here"



When they got to the first decapitated demon closer to the center, Dean looked down at it, then looked at Xander.



"We're totally gonna have to have a LONG talk when we get back to the motel."





"I don't suppose you'll believe that we are both asleep, and that none of this really happened." Xander said weakly.



"I hope for your sake that that isn't what your planning on saying Xander" Dean said, a dangerous edge to his voice as he glared hard at his youngest brother. "Because if it is, hurt or not I will - "





"Kick my ass" Xander finshed Dean's sentence wearily.





"Damn straight." Dean glared again.














To Be Continued In The Next Story In The 'Alexander Winchester Verse'

"Tale Of Two Spirits"