Buffy grimaced as she popped her shoulder back into place. Dislocations weren't fun, especially in the middle of combat. Even more so when you were in a 'Mech. She stood her Phoenix Hawk up and fired off a medium pulse laser in the direction of the enemy 'mech, but it had disappeared. She glanced up at her 360º display and saw the Guillotine charging at her from behind. She ignited her jump jets and spun her Hawk around to face the attacker and fired down at him. One large laser cut into his right leg, while the rest of her weapons centered on the center of the 'Mech. It shuddered as she came down from her jump, which had taken her about 150 meters from the enemy.
She started running to her left, but the Guillotine stood there, shaking. The it started to fall to it's knees, but the torso began to glow. Suddenly the massive fusion reaction occurring in the 'Mech's torso went out of control and surged outward, destroying the Lancelot and sending Buffy crashing to the ground. Buffy screamed out as her shoulder dislocated again. She was glad this wasn't a school night.

Giles paced the library, looking over to Buffy, holding a bag of ice on her left shoulder. "So, what was the Jaguar after this time?"
Buffy shook her head. "It didn't act like a Jaguar, it was much more careful of civilians and fought with some really odd tactics. Not like a Clanner. And it was painted white."
"White?" Giles asked, his Federated Suns accent distorting the word slightly. "Any distinct markings?"
Buffy frowned and looked over to her friends. Willow and Xander were sitting across the table, out of sight of Giles. Xander sneaked a pair Gobstoppers out of his pocket and handed on to Willow. Then he smiled and winked at Buffy then tossed his back. "An ax head!" she suddenly cried out.
"What?" asked Giles.
"Maybe it was the Tin Woodsman," Xander remarked.
Giles turned to him and frowned. Then he frowned a little more. "Would you please have a little respect for the library? All I need is for you to leave some candy in here and some rodent come seeking it and eat away at these precious tomes."
Buffy, ignoring Giles' lecture, continued. "Yeah, it was a like an inverted ax, sort of like a crescent moon, and it had a spike on top. But it didn't have a handle, just the ax head. That was the marking the 'Mech had on it."
Giles put his chin in his hand. "Well, I've never heard of such an insignia. There was Broonhilda's BattleAxes, but they had pair of crossed axes as their symbol. I'll have to research that."
Willow smiled, "You do that Giles, we have a party to attend."
Giles raised an eyebrow.
Buffy nodded, "Yeah, gonna be fun, Kinto Gunderson is graduating from the Sun Zhang academy, it's gonna be so! Elemental Corpse will be playing."
Xander shook his head. "I've got to get into a band. It's a business-class ticket to cool with a complimentary mojo after takeoff."
Willow smiled, "You keep dreaming and when you grow up, you can be anything."
Giles shook his head as the threesome headed out the door. A watcher's job was never done.

Oz joined the gang as they walked out of the library. Willow gave a him a big hug and a peck on the cheek.
"Purple. That's a new one."
Oz smiled as he ran his hand through his hair, "Yeah, I'm celebrating our newest song, 'Grape Ape Shit'. I got to write the solo for this one."
Xander shook his head, "So you gonna go to the party and enjoy some one else playing?"
Oz raised an eyebrow, "Well it would be nice to hear someone who has talent, so ye…"
"You're not going anywhere!" a voice yelled from behind them. Everyone spun around.
Buffy was the first to break the silence. "Principle Sniderhama, we were just…"
"I know what you were doing! And I need volunteers to set up the welcoming decorations in the gym for Omi Kurita. That should keep you trouble makers out of the way for a while."
They all bowed their heads dejectedly.

Kinto Gunderson was a big man who could move. And since it was his party, his was moving in a big way on the dance floor. The music was loud and the people beautiful. Then the song ended and everyone applauded. A cake was carried out by two servants.

If there was an equal and total opposite to the party, it was in the school gym. Oz and Xander were up on ladders putting up a banner. Willow and Buffy were folding table decorations.
"This really stinks," Willow said.
Buffy scowled, "I wish Sniderhama would bet squished by a big snake."
"Buffy, I sense some hostility in you. Let us know your true feelings," Xander cracked.
Oz continued to work, but spoke up. "You know, if you guys would mope less and work more, we could finish early and attend the party."
Buffy frowned and whispered to Willow, "Does he always have to think like that?"
Willow smiled, "I know he make sense, but I love him any way."

Kinto laughed as he stood in front of the crowd.
"I am a true warrior now! I will protect the Dragon from all it's enemies. Why, in our last training mission, we arrested a bunch of subversives. Of course, not all of them came willingly."
Everyone laughed. "Kinto, Kinto!" they chanted.
He pointed to a speaker. "Music!"
The speaker exploded in a shower of sparks and screams filled the air.

"I'll bet there was cake," Buffy said with a long face.
"Chocolate cake," Willow commiserated.
Xander put on a smile, "Maybe there's some left over!"
"You haven't seen Sun Zhang trainees eat, have you?" Oz popped a chocolate ball in his mouth. They turned the corner and his jaw dropped, the half melted ball of chocolate rolling out oto the floor, the dark brown mixing with the deep red of the blood on the floor.
Buffy bounded forward, a handful of bodies scattered around. A man stood over a bloodied but still breathing Kinto. He raised a sickle above the bruised body.
"No!" cried Buffy as she jumped up to the stage.
The man looked at Buffy and growled, "All people are equal, the oppressors must be served justice!"
He brought the sickle down into Kinto's neck, its blade curving back up into his skull. Blood sprayed all over the man's hand. He let go of the sickle and raised his hands as Buffy knocked him over with a jump kick.
He rolled in a somersault and stood up as Buffy landed and punched at him. He blocked her punches and kicked her. She took the kick below the ribs, spun and smashed his left arm. He and Buffy backed off, she leaning to her right, his left arm hanging uselessly.
"You mustn't stand in our way," he said through clenched teeth.
He lunged at her and she dodged to the side and crushed his knee with a kick and knocked him back with a punch to the gut.
"Sorry, these people may not be perfect, but it's not your job to carry out judgment on them." She kicked the kneeling man in the jaw, with and awful crunching sound. He fell back and faded in a blue glow.

"A blue glow? And he used a contraction?" Giles was pacing the library, confused by this whole matter. "This makes no sense. He's undead but he's not a Jaguar, this makes no sense. Perhaps this is some sort of splinter group."
"Hey Giles, we'd love to chat," Buffy started, "But we want to go see a woman with empowerment. Omi Kurita is my hero."
Willow nodded. "Mine, too."
Xander absentmindedly chimed in, "Mine too."
Fortunately for him, no one noticed as Giles took of his glasses and looked up with surprise. "Omi Kurita! Here?"
"Yeah, haven't you seen the banners and stuff?" Buffy asked.
"Uhhh, no, I haven't. But you best get there quickly. If anyone can been seen as an oppressor, it would be a member of the Kurita line." He shook his head as the teens left. This did not make sense at all….


Buffy pushed her Pheonix Hawk faster. She had to reach the school before these "Clan Battle Ax" guys got there and tried to kill Omi. 'How many were there? Were they any good? Did those boots go with her coolant vest?'
A white Stinger interrupted her reverie with a medium pulse laser. He 'Mech tottered a bit as armor evaporated. She returned fire, her two extended range long lasers cutting the smaller 'Mech almost in half. She looked at the damage readout. The laser had only done enough damage to be an Inner Sphere pulse laser. 'Who were these wackos?'
Another white 'Mech showed up, this a Lancelot. She took hits from it's laser and PPC to her left arm and right leg and snapped off a pair of mediums and a large in return, hitting her jump jets before it could respond. She landed behind some buildings and ran around the corner, heading for the rear of the Lancelot. She entered an intersection and saw it to her left. However, it realized she might be trying to do something like that and was turning around towards her. Rather than run at it, she aimed her left arm at it and fired, all the while running across the intersection.
Artificial lightening and searing light flashed behind her. She again triggered her jump jets, landing on the massive city jail. She walked to the edge and fired down on the unsuspecting Lancelot, searing off his right arm, causing it's PPC to miss. It's other weapons, unbalanced by the shift, missed as well. The 'Mech then shuddered and stopped moving. It glowed almost as white as it was painted when she glanced at her IR display. She aimed at it's leg, severing it at the knee. 60 tons of metal crashed down and it's head exploded in a fiery ball. Apparently they didn't take to being 'bondsmen' very well.
Buffy glanced to her right, toward the school and caught a few glimpses of more white 'Mechs moving toward the gymnasium. She jumped down and sprinted, hoping to manage to stop them. It wasn't going to be easy, there were at least a half dozen more of them. She tapped into the town's defense feed and it showed 11 enemy 'Mechs., six near the school and five other approaching. 'What was their weakness?'
She didn't have time to find an answer, as a King Crab rounded the corner. She ignited her jump jets, but a blast from one of it's mighty autocannons knocked her Hawk backward and the jump jets sent her careening into a building behind her. She struggled to rise, but she seemed to be moving in slow motion. In front of her she saw the massive King Crab flanked by a Masikari. She blinked and realized that the Masikari was painted in Smoke Jaguar colors. Somehow they must be in League. The Jaguars were going to kill Omi.
Light flared and Buffy clamped her eyes shut. And squeezed tighter. And still squeezed tighter. And then opened them. The King Crab stood like a dried husk, a whole in it's back still steaming evaporated metal and wiring. The Masikari had turned and was firing upon a white Flashman. Buffy shook her head and stood her 'Mech up.
"Giles?" she asked through the com system.
"Buffy? Are you all right?" came the crisp Davion accent.
"Yeah, but the Jags are fighting the Battle Ax guys," she responded. "Take a look." She opened her video feed back to Giles' house.
"Buffy, zoom in on that King Crab's leg!" Giles asked, exitement in his voice.
"Uhh, sure," she responded, complying as she noted the Flashman and Masikari will still going at it.
"Of course!" Giles announced. Buffy watched the Flashman collapse at the same instant the left arm of the Masikari exploded in a ball of flames, knocking the Jaguar 'Mech on it's side. As it struggled to rise, Buffy melted it's other arm into slag. "That's not a battle ax!"
"Then what is it?" she asked as she strode over and stepped on the Jagaur's cockpit.
"It's the state of Minnesota!" Giles responded, as if that would clue her in on what the odd librarian had uncovered.
She started running for the school. "What's that, Giles?" she asked.
"It's a geo-political grouping from an ancient country on Earth, called Amer…oh, that's not important right now." She rounded a corner, headed for the school. "It was a symbol used by Clan Wolverine when they fled the Clans.
"I take it they and the Jags don't get along?" she asked.
"Not in the least," he responded.
She slowed her 'Mech to a walk as she saw six destroyed 'Mechs littering the edge of the school. A Jaguar Ryoken, it's right arm gone, fired it's massive autocannon at a battered, white Champion. The Wolverine 'Mech blew into steel confetti as the Jaguar kept pumping depleted uranium slugs into the last of the hated enemy. The bits of the Champion finally settled as the Ryoken's gun ran empty. It slowly turned around and lowered it's arm, ready to meet it's fate. Buffy obliged it.

"Summers! Rosenberg! Harris!" Buffy cringed as Sniderhama's whiney voice filled the air of the quad. The three turned to face the rat-like man. "You somehow felt above her royal highness, Omi Kurita? Didn't want to take time out of your day to pay her a visit like the rest of the school did?"
"But Princ-" Buffy started.
"I don't care what mischief you three were up to, you three can clean up the gym. Tonight." He turned and walked off."
Buffy frowned. Somewhere there must be a party she was going to miss. Hopefully that one wouldn't have party crashers."