Amanda the Vampire Slayer: Training Day
by GPN
Training Day

Three weeks had passed since Vi’s visit and Amanda had yet to hear from Slayer Central except for a few e-mails from Andrew, who apparently had really taken a liking to her since their game of Dungeons and Dragons the night before the Hellmouth battle.
It was a Thursday morning and she found herself waking up at around 11 to a firm knock on her door. After dragging herself out of bed and lumbering toward the door, she opened it to see a woman with blonde, curly hair around her mid forties standing outside. She was wearing a red coat over a grey blouse and skirt and holding a rather large black bag. She looked very professional, as if she was on a business trip.
“Can I help you?” Amanda was wary, unused to getting visitors up to her room that weren’t part of Gideon’s gang.
“I should certainly hope so,” the woman said with a thick British accent. “I am looking for Amanda Reed, the Vampire Slayer.”
“Um, I’m her.” She said, still not sure what the woman wanted and how she knew she was a slayer.
“Are you just getting out of bed my dear?” The woman demanded.
“Yeah, I kind of had a long night…” Amanda started to defend herself.
The woman “tsked tsked” her. “No, no, that won’t do. And why are you hunched over dear? Stand up straight!” she said with a tone of authority in her voice, which caused Amanda to immediately do what she said, despite the fact that she didn’t know who this woman was.
“E-excuse me, b-but…” Amanda started, a bit worried about enraging the woman.
“Yes? What is it? Come on now dear, spit it out!”
“Who are you?” Amanda finally asked.
“Ah, I suppose I did get caught up in the filth where my new pupil is living and completely forgot my manners. My name is Angelina Morgan; I am your new watcher.” She said, walking into Amanda’s room, despite not being invited.
I guess that means she’s not a vampire… darn, Amanda thought, and giggled at the thought.
“I’m sorry Amanda; I think I completely missed what was so funny? Is there something humorous in what I just said? I am your new watcher. Mr. Giles sent me here to train you.”
“Giles?” Amanda said, “You know Giles?”
“Indeed, Rupert and I are former… colleagues.” The woman said, walking into Amanda’s hotel room and putting her bag on the guest bed. “I was one of the few who escaped the council building explosion. I was invited by Rupert to take part in training the new slayers, now that there are so many of you.” She said, not turning around.
“What’s in the bag?” Amanda asked.
“Oh, just my belongings, I suppose I will be living here with you now. I have another bag in my car full of training equipment as well as a weapons crate. Is this all there is? I was told you lived in a bigger area.”
“Well, the hotel is just one part of the structure. There is a large sewer system underground where most of the gang members live and work…”
Angelina turned and looked at Amanda with shock in her eyes. “Gang members? Sewers?” she said in a startled voice.
“Yeah, Gideon is a demon hunter. He and his group live here. They gave me a place to stay.”
“I… see. I shall have to have a talk with this ‘Gideon.’” She said, laying out clothes on “her” new bed. “Now,” she said, turning around after finishing putting her clothes on her bed. “I am strict but fair, I have trained three potentials in my life and only one became a slayer. Two of my girls died because they would not listen to me. One of them was the Slayer. She had a very short career; I would prefer there not be a repeat of that, understood?”
Amanda nodded, biting her lower lip and slouched again, not realizing it.
Angelina shook her head. “I can see that this is going to be a lot of work.”
“What?” Amanda asked.


“I assume you are already familiar with the stake and long stake, so I will start you off a little bit more advanced,” Angelina said. They were in an exercise room in the interior of the hotel. Amanda wore a green leotard that Angelina had brought for her to wear. A table sat near the entrance of the room with several weapons spread out across it.
“Oh, I can use a long sword too,” Amanda said, watching Angelina Morgan pick up a mace from the table. She stopped at Amanda’s words and put the mace back on the table. “Can you now?”
“Yeah, Gideon’s been showing me…” she started, hoping to impress her new Watcher.
“Ah, Gideon has been training you has he?” She said, and took a long sword off the table. “Than by all means, please demonstrate what you’ve learned.” She held the sword out for Amanda as she approached. Angelina than picked up a second long sword and turned to Amanda. “Please assume whatever fighting stance you’ve learned.”
Amanda took a few steps back, and then placed her back foot to the side, pointing horizontally toward the wall, while pointing her front foot forward toward her watcher and bending the knee slightly. She held the sword hilt with both hands and kept the tip of the blade at Angelina’s eye level.
Angelina kept both legs straight and held the sword with only one hand. She bent back and forth briefly, stretching out her legs. “Alright then, come at me, as hard as you can.”
“Is that… is that safe?” Amanda asked meekly.
“I assure you we will be perfectly fine.” Angelina assured her new student. “Now attack!”
Amanda sidestepped forward, swinging her blade, which Angelina caught easily with her own sword. Amanda struck from one side, then the other, hitting Angelina’s sword almost randomly. She thought she was finally gaining an edge on her new teacher when Angelina thrust, struck Amanda’s blade hard, then pushed it around in a full circle, twisting the blade out of Amanda’s hands.
The blade clattered to the floor while Amanda looked at her hands in shock where her sword had just been. Angelina lowered her sword and raised a brow. “Just as I thought; sloppy. Your form needs work, as well as your attack and defense. Do not swing wildly! I am not a piñata! You need to learn style and finesse! As I said before, this is going to be a lot of work!”
Amanda looked down, ashamed that she was unable to impress her new teacher.
“Now don’t look sad, I’m sure you tried. This ‘Gideon’s’ methods are quite barbaric. I do not know how he plans to fight demons with such sloppy work…” Angelina said, putting the sword back onto the table.
“Well… actually, a lot of that wasn’t what Gideon taught me…” Amanda said, bending over to retrieve her sword.
“Oh?” Angelina said, narrowing her eyes. “Then what was that?”
“Well, it was kinda… me trying to impress my new watcher…” Amanda admitted, smiling meekly.
Angelina turned and once again retrieved the long sword from the table. She turned and faced Amanda again. “I see… would you like to try again then?”
Amanda nodded.
“Alright,” Angelina said, getting back into her fighting stance. “Come at me again!”
Amanda once again swung at her teacher, but this time when Angelina’s blade caught her own she circled the tip of the blade underneath the watcher’s sword and tapped it from the other side. A hint of a smile appeared on the watcher’s face. “Much better!”
Amanda grinned; glad she had finally pleased her teacher.
“What are you smiling for? We’re not done yet.” Angelina said before slapping away Amanda’s blade with her own.
Amanda dropped her smile, nodded and swung the blade again; this time when she tried to circle under the blade, Angelina spun her blade to counter it. They practiced the same maneuver again but this time Amanda tried to circle her blade under Angelina’s counter, but the older woman caught it again. They tried the move several times, each time Amanda was pushed into the defensive.
“After seeing how you truly fight, I must say you have good form,” Amanda smiled at the compliment, “But we still have a long way to go. Learning smaller weapons will increase your skills with larger weapons.” She said, and stretched out her hand, beckoning for Amanda’s sword. She replaced both swords on the table.
“Now, I would like to get a feel for how you fight hand to hand.” She said and took two pads off the table and put them on her own hands. “I will call out the name of a punch or a kick, and you will strike the pads. Are you ready?”
Amanda nodded and got in a basic fighting stance.
“Jab.” Whap!
“Thrust.” Whap!
“Jab.” Whap!
“Double punch.” Whap! Whap!
“Basic kick.” Whap!
“Roundhouse.” Whap!
“Side kick…”
One hour later…
“Double roundhouse!” Amanda struck the pad once and than spun to hit it again with her long spandex clad legs.
“Good!” Angelina said, turning from her and replacing the pads at the table. She turned to her pupil, shaking her hands, which were now beet red. “You may not be a lost cause after all!” She said.
Amanda gave her a strange look.
“That’s high praise coming from me, you’d better accept it!” Angelina said, folding her arms over her chest.
Amanda burst out laughing and was surprised to see Angelina laughing as well.
“Your fighting style is still a bit sloppy, but we’ll work on that, also I want to see how well you do on patrol. Normally I would never send a new pupil on patrol so soon after taking them on, but Vi says you’re more than capable.”
“It’s kind of early for vampires to be out, isn’t it?” Amanda asked.
“Is it? You’re asking me? My dear, I do not like obvious questions. What do you think? It is 1 pm, are there vampires out right now?” Angelina asked, a scolding tone in her voice.
Amanda shook her head immediately. “No, of course not. They don’t come out to feed until nightfall.”
“Of course they don’t! What I meant was that tonight you and I would go patrolling. Right now I would like to meet some of your… friends.” She said, and almost spat at the final word.
“May I ask why?” Amanda said, still a bit annoyed the way this woman was walking into her life and taking charge. But she didn’t deny she needed guidance.
“You may.” Angelina said, nodding. Apparently, this was not a stupid question. Amanda thought. “I would like to meet this Gideon fellow. I would also like to make it clear that you are this town’s Slayer and you will protect it. They needn’t put their people at risk for what is essentially your job. Does this bother you?”
Amanda shook her head. “No, in fact, I’m glad you’re going to talk to him about that because he won’t listen to me. Though I have been doing a lot more of the brunt of the fighting since I arrived…”
“I’m glad you approve. Though I would do it whether you like it or not.” Angelina said, turning toward the door. She stopped when Amanda didn’t immediately follow. “Well, aren’t you going to introduce me?”
Amanda walked past Angelina Morgan and led the way to the sewer entrance.


Amanda led the watcher down a long flight of stairs that led into the sewers. She finally came to the door that was the entrance to the secret hideout. She knocked. A piece of metal slid back and a young woman’s eyes could be seen. “Who is it-oh, hi Amanda.” The eyes went from Amanda and landed on Ms. Morgan. “Um, who’s your friend?”
“She’s my-“Amanda started but was interrupted when Ms. Morgan walked in front of her and looked into the hole.
“I am her new Watcher, now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to meet with your leader sometime today…”
“Um, sorry, but I can’t let you in unless Amanda says its okay…” The girl on the other side of the door said.
Ms. Morgan glared at the eyes behind the door while Amanda laughed. “It’s okay Rachael, she’s with me.”
“Alright then…” Rachael said, unlocking the large door and pulling it open.
“Welcome to our little hideout, ah…” Rachael began, searching for a name.
“Morgan, Angelina Morgan, but you would do well to call me Ms. Morgan.” Angelina said, pushing past the young woman with Amanda following right behind. They were now in a large open space surrounded by large boxes and various pieces of furniture. It was the same entrance Amanda had seen when she had first arrived.
Several of Gideon’s gang sat on the chairs and boxes and all eyes were on the middle. In the middle Gideon, and another young man, Amanda knew him as Fred, were sparring while everyone else watched, cheering.
Both combatants wore pads on their hands and head as they threw punches and kicks, trying to overwhelm one another. They fought furiously, as if it were a real fight, blocking and swinging and kicking. Finally, Gideon knocked his opponent to floor while the spectators clapped. He reached out his hand and Fred took it, using it to pull himself to his feet.
“Okay, who’s next?” Gideon asked as Fred removed his pads and went to sit down. Another member got up and took Fred’s pads and walked over to the middle of the fighting circle.
“My, you are quite the fighter, aren’t you?” Ms. Morgan said. Gideon turned from his new opponent and saw Ms. Morgan standing beside Amanda.
“It just comes naturally miss.” He said, then turned to the new student approaching him, whispered something, and turned back around to Angelina Morgan as the gang member walked back to sit down with the rest of the spectators. He walked over to where she was standing and looked at Amanda. “Care to introduce your friend?”
Amanda opened her mouth to speak but found herself once again interrupted by Ms. Morgan. “This one seems a bit slow when it comes to those issues of politeness, so I shall do it for her. My name is Angelina Morgan; I am Amanda’s new Watcher.”
“New Watcher?” Gideon asked.
“Yes, I will be training Amanda from now on. Your methods, though sometimes useful, are crude and barbaric, as I soon found out during the training session we just had.” Angelina explained.
“Training session?” Gideon asked, than raised an eyebrow at Amanda. “When did all this happen? Are you just now telling me?”
“Well, I, the thing is…” Amanda started again.
“Well I am very sorry if we haven’t gotten around to informing you yet, Mr. Gideon-“
“Gideon will be fine Angelina.”
“-And Ms. Morgan will work for me, Gideon, but we have been quiet busy this morning, haven’t we Amanda?” She said, turning toward her new student.
“Well, she just kind of showed up and I wanted to start…”Amanda tried to explain.
“Yes dear, of course we have.” Ms. Morgan finished explaining for her. “I would like you to know that Amanda is the Slayer of this town. Your help and board is appreciated, but should you need someone to fight, you will come to me and my Slayer, I’ll not have innocents being hurt because they got in the way of something my pupil was called to do. Is that understood?”
Gideon narrowed his eyes toward her. Amanda could tell he disliked her immediately.. “Shouldn’t we let Amanda have a say in this?” He finally said.
“Very well,” Morgan turned to Amanda. “What do you think Amanda? You can handle yourself well enough, and with my help, you will be one of the greatest Slayers ever known. How would you feel if some of your friends here were hurt hunting something you were called to destroy?”
Amanda slowly nodded. “Ye-yeah… sorry Gideon, but I would feel much better if I didn’t have to worry about you guys during a fight. I mean, you can fight, and so can Cooper, and Tillian and a few others… but a lot of people here would just get in the way. I hope you’re not mad at me.”
Gideon shook his head. “You’re right, I suppose. This is your destiny, you didn’t ask for it, but you have embraced it. More demons and vampires in this town have been destroyed than ever before since your arrival…” He said, and sighed. “Alright, since this is your calling, we support you however we can.”
Amanda started to respond but Morgan interrupted again. “We appreciate that, and sorry for being so rude. I am sure several of you are experienced demon fighters, and maybe someday we will call upon you to help us fight, but right now, I would like to see the extent of my student’s abilities.”
Morgan turned and began to walk out of the sewer and beckoned Amanda to follow. Amanda looked at Gideon, giving him an apologetic look. Gideon shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.” He mouthed. Amanda nodded and turned to follow Ms. Morgan out of the sewers.
As they climbed the stairs Morgan continued talking. “Now I would like to test you out with a variety of weapons. I know we’ve practiced for a few hours but I’m still not sure what kind of style we have to work with…” She said as they reentered the training room.


Amanda walked through the graveyard cautiously, holding her stake close to her chest. There were four major graveyards in Brasepoint, and this one had seen the most supernatural activity in recent months, according to Gideon’s sources. It was just after nine, and the sun had finally dropped below the horizon, leaving the graveyard in darkness.
She had worked for several hours with Ms. Morgan before heading toward the graveyard for her nightly patrol. While training she had demonstrated use in the crossbow, halberd, short sword, axe, mace, knives, and throwing stakes. There were many weapons Morgan said she still had to learn, including the ones she had just demonstrated.
Now she was walking alone in the graveyard. Morgan told her she’d be watching her, and then disappeared into the dark, Amanda hadn’t seen her since. She was wearing a white sweater she was hoping would attract vampires, though she wondered about the wisdom in that as she continued to walk between graves.
She heard movement ahead of her. She stopped and put her right hand, which held the stake, behind her back; she didn’t want whatever was coming toward her to know she was armed. She stopped and began looking around randomly, like a lost girl. A tall man walked out of the shadows wearing a torn suit. He was covered with clumps of dirt, making it rather obvious he had just crawled out of the ground.
“Huh, who are you?” He said, walking toward Amanda. “I just dragged myself out of the ground and I have no idea what is going on! But I feel so hungry… you are making me hungry….” He said, beginning to walk in large strides toward Amanda.
As soon as he was within two feet of her he reached out both hands to try to grab her by the shoulders, but she took a quick step back, causing him to miss and briefly lose his balance. Amanda wasted no time and did a standing front kick straight into his ribs. He fell back, snarling in pain as his face contorted to its demonic visage.
He got to his feet and charged as Amanda calmly removed her right hand from hiding and plunged the wooden spike into his heart, turning him into dust. She coughed gently as some of the dust flew into her lungs, but then continued walking right through where the vampire had just been. She playfully tossed her stake in the air and caught it several times, waiting for more vampires to show themselves.
She saw a particularly large gravestone and sat on it, listening to the wind rustle the trees as she contemplated how interesting the day had been. She bit her lower lip and looked down at the gravestone. She wondered what the person had died from, whether they left any family behind, or if they had died alone. She got off her depressing seat and began to wander through the graveyard again. She had friends, or at least she thought she did. Everything had changed so much in the passed few months. One day she was picking on the boy she liked at school, the next she found she was part of some huge “destiny.” She trained, and fought, and finally took part in the biggest battle of her life, only to die. Then for some reason she woke from death and was running for her life.
She wondered what happened to her family. She didn’t know if they had left town in time. They were most likely waiting for her… No, she said to herself I won’t give in to that kind of thinking… I’m sure they made it out in time. She continued walking, wondering where her parents would have gone. She had spent her entire life in Sunnydale, and so had they. She had no idea where they would have run.
A branch cracked and she snapped out of her thoughts. She turned and saw a vampire walking toward her from her right. She heard more movement and turned to the left. Two more vampires. She found herself surrounded. She cursed at herself for not paying attention.
“Hey there girlie,” the one on her right said. “I saw what you did to Arnold over there. Did you know I sired him?” He closed him on her. “Yeah, I bet you didn’t know that, I sired these two as well.” He said, nodding to the other two vampires who were also closing the distance between them. The other two were one male and one female.
“So I guess you were just one big happy vampire family?” Amanda asked, once again casually tossing her stake in the air and catching it.
“That’s right,” the first vampire said. “We were here to help welcome him to the family, but you killed him. When you staked him, it was like you were staking my child.” He said, and pointed to the other two. “And their new baby brother.”
Amanda shrugged. “Sorry, it’s kind of my job now.”
The first growled. “There’s a price on the head of you slayers.” He explained. “Armand will reward us greatly for each dead slayer we bring him.”
“And how many ‘dead slayers’ have you brought him so far?” Amanda asked.
The vampires stopped in their tracks. The first vampire regarded her for a moment. “Well, you would be the first. But once we bring you in, we’ll be set for life!” He chuckled. “Well, unlife anyway.”
“Well,” Amanda argued. “You haven’t killed me yet…”
“We’re tougher than you think, girl. Don’t underestimate us!” He said as the three closed in closer.
“Stop talking, just fight already. I hate it when you guys stand there and yap…”
The first howled and charged her while the other two ran up behind her. Amanda squatted down then propelled herself straight up through the air, causing the vampires to run into each other. The first was surprised to suddenly run into the second two. It was equally surprised when Amanda landed on his back, pressing down with all her might. A sickening crack could be heard and the first fell face down.
“Daddy’s hurt! Kill the little whore!” The female vampire shouted, and they both charged her. Amanda did a summersault off the fallen vampire and landed on her feet. The two vampires continued to run at her, but she swung her foot in a full roundhouse that knocked both vampires back.
Amanda ran forward to the first vampire, who was just getting up, groaning in pain, and shoved the stake through his back, turning him into a cloud of dust. She then felt two strong arms grab her from behind, trying to pull her in a full nelson. She was forcefully turned around and saw the female vampire closing in on her.
“This is for Daddy!” She yelled, and hit Amanda several times in her belly and chest. Amanda gasped with each blow, but finally gathered her strength, held on to the vampire that held her, and lifted herself up to kick away the female vampire, using the momentum to land on her feet, bend forward, and propel the vampire that held her into his “sister”.
She picked up her stake that she had dropped during the beating and moaned. Her belly was sore. “And this is for my tummy!” She said, before staking the female vamp that was trying to get up underneath her “brother.”
The final vampire got up and turned the other way, trying to flee. Amanda grabbed him roughly by the hair and pulled him back, slamming him against a gravestone. The vampire trembled in terror as Amanda approached him, knelt down in front of him and removed the cross from around her neck.
“Answer me and I’ll make this quick!” Amanda said. “Who is ‘Armand’?”
The vampire shook his head. “I’ll never tell you! It wouldn’t be respectable to Dad!”
Amanda shrugged and pressed her cross to his forehead. The skin around the cross began to crackle and burn, smoke rising from the cross and into the night. The vampire screamed in pain. “Alright! Alright!” He cried, and Amanda removed the cross. The crosses imprint was burned into his forehead. “He’s a necromancer. That’s all I know I swear!” The vampire said, almost crying.
“What do you know of the bounties on the heads of slayers?” She demanded, holding the cross threateningly close to his face.
“Ah! No more! No more!” He screamed. “He has offered a great deal of money to any being, vampire, demon, or human who brings him a dead slayer! It’s very big in the underground at the moment! He has bounty collectors set up all over the country!”
“What else?” She demanded. “Why does he want the slayers dead?”
“I-I don’t know! I swear! Please, no more…” The vampire begged.
“Thank you.” Amanda said, put the cross back around her neck, picked up her stake and calmly plunged it into the vampire’s heart. He let out an inhuman howl before turning to dust on the gravestone. Amanda got up, brushed herself off, and turned around. She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw almost ran into Morgan who was now standing right behind her.
“A little sloppy, but you got the job done.” Morgan said, she had a notepad out and was writing furiously while speaking.
“How did you…?” Amanda started to ask.
“Never mind that, did your last kill give you any useful information?” Morgan interrupted, looking up from her notepad at Amanda.
“He told me that someone named Armand was responsible for a lot of the supernatural activity around town…” She explained. “He said he was a… umm… necra-dancer?”
Morgan narrowed her eyes. “Necromancer?”
“Yeah! That’s it…” Amanda said. “He also said that this Armand guy was offering money for anyone who brought him a dead slayer.”
Morgan seemed a bit shaken by this news. “You’re… you’re sure?” She said.
“Yeah, they wanted to bring me to him.”
“This is troubling news; I shall have to contact the Slayer Council at once. Good job tonight Amanda.” She said and Amanda smiled.
“Should I stay behind and patrol some more…?” Amanda asked.
“No…” Morgan said, than seemed to consider it. Finally, she shook her head. “No, we should regroup and plan. We don’t know what this means. I shall contact Mr. Giles at once.”
Amanda nodded and the two walked back to the hotel.


Amanda lay in bed that night, contemplating the things she had just experienced. Her new watcher snored loudly in the bed next to her, making it easier for her to stay awake and think. This man had put a price on the heads of her and her friends. Once again, she was singled out and being hunted like an animal. She began to whimper softly. She was a Slayer, and she was scared. She didn’t want any of this. She didn’t want to die. She should just be entering her senior year in High School, but instead she was in a strange town full of monsters that she wanted her dead.
The burden on her shoulders never seemed to be heavier than it was now. Sure, it was different now that there were so many other slayers, but she was alone in Brasepoint, surrounded by beings that either wanted her dead or wanted to use her because of her power. Amanda grabbed her pillow and squeezed it tight, crying herself to sleep.


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