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Joss
Whedon's Fray
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Melaka
Fray
In the
beginning, there were demons. They ruled this dimension as
they did so many others. Eventually, as mortal animals
evolved under protection of certain mages and loranities,
the demons left. The Demons, most of them found more
hospitable dimensions and left Earth to the mortals, for the
most part. Some remained, hidden away. Some bred within the
human community, their power weakened. Throughout
generations, some assimilated. And some infected humans. It
is not know when they first arrived, but the vampires were a
plague. The elders of several villages met, calling for
action. They invoked the strongest and most dangerous
magicks they could summon, to create a power, a power that
could fight the vampires. A power that lived in the body of
a girl. The first Slayer was born. She fought, and died, and
was succeeded by another, and another. Throughout time,
always one. Always a woman. A warrior. They were trained,
sought out and guided by Watchers, descendants of the
shamans who created the first
Slayer.
Then,
in the twenty-first century there was a battle. A Slayer,
possibly with some mystical allies faced an apocalyptic army
of demons. And when it was done, they were all gone. All
demons, all magicks, banished from this dimension. It is not
known if the Slayer lived, but the demons being gone, she
was the last to be called. The line did continue, there were
girls with the power, but they were never called, never
trained. The Council of Watchers fell to ruin, held together
only by fanatics and fools. Those that believed the demons
would return. Centuries of useless, obsessive waiting. Makes
a human go insane.
Two
hundred years had passed, and no one had been called to duty
as a slayer. But then She was discovered. Melaka Fray. Both
the ancient ones and the Watchers council had found her. The
ancient ones knowing that the watchers had gone insane, felt
they had to prevent Melaka's watcher from meeting up with
her, for fear that she would get hurt. The ancient ones sent
one of the only remaining demons, Urkonn to find her and
stop the cycle that the watchers planned to start
anew.
Meanwhile
Melaka Fray, a professional "grabber" for the underworld of
Haddyn, specifically Gunther the mutant fish, had just done
her latest job, robbing an ancient amulet from the wall safe
of a senator. Fray managed to dismantle the tracking
monitors, but not without being spotted by the underworld
boss, Ruebrin's "boys". The battle ensued leading Fray to
jump off the roof, but managed to break her fall by landing
on a flying car (ala Fifth element). Fray then continued her
battle with the mercenaries on the ground and defeated them,
warning what would happen if she crossed paths with them
again.
Fray then
joined up with Gunther, a person who was mutated either by
the sun's radiation or by his parents, he ended up turning
into a man-fish, who has been living in his headquarters in
a gigantic fish-tank for some time now. Melaka is his main
girl for getting the stuff he needs, and then he fences it
and takes care of the business end. Gunther is known as the
main underworld scourge of the West side of Haddyn (the
futuristic world of Manhattan
perhaps).
After
leaving Gunther to return home, she was stopped dead in her
tracks by the mysterious lurks. The lurks are diseased
creatures of the night, who are a mystery and an unknown
species to mankind. She's handled all sorts of trouble, but
when it comes to lurks she freezes up, not knowing what to
do, ever since that fateful day, when she went up against a
lurk several years ago. Luckily, Fray was saved by a police
officer, Erin Fray, Melaka's older sister, who scares off
the lurks with her police car. Erin reveals that she's
investigating a robbery and believes that Melaka had
something to do with it. Melaka denied having any
connections, and told Erin she didn't need someone looking
over her. That she could take care of herself. Erin reminded
her what happened the last time she tried to protect
someone, which turned the conversation sour, and then Melaka
departed.
Melaka
then returned to her home area in Haddyn, Versi, a major
hangout for drifters and people's of the sort. Upon entering
she was stopped by her little mutant friend, Loo a small
child who was missing an arm and was blind in one eye. She
told Mel, that a man was there to see her. The man was a
short person in a black suit, and was covered in some sort
of liquid. The man told Melaka that she was chosen and that
she would cleanse us all. He then lit a match and lit
himself on fire, since the liquid he was covered in was
gasoline.
Melaka
immediately charged him into the river trying to light him
out, but it was too late, he was already dead. The night
being too weird for her, she decided to go home, take a
shower and go to sleep. However her plans were interrupted
when she found a huge beast waiting for her in the
apartment. Melaka tried to run, but the beast grabbed her by
the leg and attacked her, by instinct she immediately fought
back by 'zapping' it with her gun. It didn't do any good,
and the beast knocked her out of her apartment and onto a
terrace.
Fray kept
trying to fight it, but eventually it pinned her to the
ground and told her that it was not trying to kill her. He
revealed that he only attacked her because she tried to flee
from him. It then revealed that it was supposed to prepare
and train her for the upcoming battle against the vampires.
Melaka realized that it meant the lurks, when it said
vampires. It said that it was her destiny because she was
the slayer. It told her that she had dreams where she was
someone else. A girl. In every dream she has a great power;
where she fought them: the lurks. Melaka revealed that she
never had those dreams unlike all the other slayers, and she
had no clue what it was talking
about.
The beast,
who revealed itself to be called Urkonn, continued to bother
her about her slayage duties, but Fray refused to listen to
him. Their conversation was interrupted when a carrier
pigeon was sent to Mel's apartment, robotic device, which
told Mel she had a new job for Gunther. While breaking into
a museum to do a grab, Mel was stopped when an alarm went
off, she was convinced it wasn't her, but she still needed
to get out to avoid the cops. Heading for the nearest exit,
she found a lurk covered in blood, the security guard's
blood. It looked as if the lurk had bitten him. Freezing up
again from remembering her painful past of an encounter with
a lurk, gave this lurk the advantage and jumped her. After a
brief fight, Mel picked him up and tossed him into a glass
display case. The lurk was unconscious and Mel didn't know
to kill it, so it was in her best interest to run
away..
Upon
returning home, she decided to let Urkonn educate her and
train her. On their supposed first night of training, Mel
had to stop so she could give the item she stole the night
before to Gunther, so Urkonn decided to tag along. Urkonn
found it very strange that Mel had no remembrance of her
past so he decided to reveal the secrets of the history of
the slayer.
After
meeting with Gunther, Melaka decided to pick up her training
with Urkonn. The first thing they worked on was dexterity...
Urkonn would throw things at her and she would avoid them.
20 seconds later, she had already been knocked off her feet
by the first object that had been thrown at
her.
Deciding
to take a break from her training, Urkonn continued his
story of the slayers. Urkonn finished its story by saying
that Mel had met her watcher the day before, the one that
had set himself on fire. Urkonn did say that they were
insane, but they were also right, the monsters did come
back.
When Mel
and Urkonn returned to her pad, they found a "scareded" Loo
waiting for her crying her butt off. She told Mel that
Kettie Rawls called her a freak and that he threatened to
her hurt her badly. Mel decided to bring Loo back home to
the Tav, and grab a drink before she left. While at the bar,
Mel ran into Kettie Rawls, which then led into a bar fight,
causing the entire place into havoc. One of her opponents,
Lacey had a robotic arm, which increased her strength by ten
times. Punching her as hard as she could, Mel was sent
flying out of the bar. Not wanting to miss the fun, Mel
decided to go back in and join the fray (go figure). However
Mel was stopped in her tracks by a lurk she had not seen in
quite.
Several
years ago, she ran into this lurk with her brother Harth.
The result ended with Mel getting her famous scar on her
right cheek, a broken arm and a dead brother. Back in the
present, Fray was frozen again remembering the horrible
nightmare, while the Lurk beat the stuffing out of her. The
lurk almost killed her, had it not been from the
interference of Urkonn. The lurk ran away and Fray fainted
from the shock of seeing her brother's
killer.
Returning
Fray to her pad, Urkonn left to report to the ancient ones,
Vrill and Boluz, to tell them that there were problems with
the new slayer. She had no sense of her being the slayer.
The dreams, the instinctive, the heritage... none of it was
her. Plus she feared the vampires. The ancient ones defended
her by saying that this world was a world of no magic. She
would fear something otherworldly. They told him that they
didn't have enough time to find a new girl to replace Melaka
Fray. They needed her fit and strong to go up against the
One Who Will Lead. She is needed to stop it, before havoc is
unleashed on all the worlds. The ancient ones then started
to have their doubts, but Urkonn told them not to worry, he
would make her ready.
Returning
to Fray's apartment, Urkonn revealed that the lurk she faced
was called Icarus. Fray revealed that she had faced Icarus a
couple of years ago. Her brother got killed and she went to
the hospital with a bunch of cracked bones. She told Urkonn
that her brother's name was Harth, and that he was her older
brother by about twenty minutes. They were twins. Urkonn
wondered if Harth had maybe shared any of Mel's slayage
powers, since never before had a slayer had a twin sibling.
Mel reassured him that he wasn't strong enough to open a
pickle jar. Mel didn't know of Icarus' name until now, so
she wondered how he knew her name when they fought the night
before.
Fray
decided to return the favor to Icarus and went to Gunther
for information on where he could be. Her meeting with
Gunther didn't exactly go smooth, since Gunther had ratted
her out to the cops and was taken by surprise at Gunther's
headquarters by her sister Erin and several other
cops.
While
putting Fray under arrest, the cops were interrupted by a
band of lurks. During the fray, Mel was knocked unconscious
by a Lurk. She woke up, to find Icarus looking back at her.
He had delivered her to his master just as Icarus' master
had wanted. Looking up she found the master staring back at
her, her own brother Harth, now a
vampire.
While
Melaka is being held hostage by her own brother, Harth, now
a vampire / lurk, lil' Loo is playing "Melaka the Vampire
Slayer" with her friend, but when her friend gets tired of
playing the game, he abandons Loo, leaving her to run to
Fray's apartment all alone and in the
dark.
Back at
Harth's lair, Mel is shocked beyond belief. She hasn't seen
her brother in four years, and now here he is, standing
right in front of her, looking exactly as he did, when
Icarus had killed him. Harth decides to be generous and
fills Mel in on what happened to him when he was
bit.
During
that infamous night, Mel had traded blows with Icarus, but
when it was done, Icarus threw the now-scarred Mel off the
building and then fed on Harth. The pain was unbearable, but
somehow, Harth knew what to do with perfect, rigid clarity.
As Icarus fed off Harth, Harth took a bite out of Icarus'
cheek and then fed on him. Harth then died and once
returning as a vampire, Icarus and his gang were staring him
i the face, not knowing how Harth knew what to do n order to
become a vampire. Harth replied that he knew much more than
that... he knew what they were and what they will become.
Since Mel and Harth are twins, the slayer's powers were
split between the two. Harth gained the knowledge and the
dreams. Harth always saw a girl in his dreams, and each time
he killed the girl (the slayer). Harth never told anyone
about his dreams, afraid that people would have thought he
was "spun", but he knew that he was the One Who Will Lead.
Harth
proceeds to explain that the world belongs to the demons,
but they were banished, exiled by one of Mel's predecessors.
Now they're back and they will reclaim the world as their
own, and Harth promises Mel that everyone she loves will die
screaming when that time comes. Harth then explains how he
used Melaka in her 'grabbing' profession to grab the items
Harth needs to open the gateway. Mel refuses to allow Harth
to go any further and tries to stop him, but Harth beats the
snot out of her and sends her flying into an old rotting
wall, which crumbles on Mel sending her crashing through the
floor and into the sewer.
Harth
decides not to retrieve her and let her escape, knowing that
she is no threat to his plans. Mel manages to crawl out of
the sewer and manages to get to Erin's pad, and alter she
explains to her sister that she is the chosen one, Harth's a
lurk, and she has to save the world. Erin, having a hard
time believing any of her story, promises to stay out of
way, and then Fray meets up with Urkonn and fills in the
demon, as she returns to her apartment. There she finds the
place trashed and Loo's broken dead body under some broken
furniture.
Mel brings
Loo to the Tav to her grieving parents. Urkonn then explains
that Mel must become a leader and lead her people to
victory. Urkonn then gives her a weapon forged eons ago: a
slayer scythe. A battle ax-attached with a stake, and
probably the only existing piece of wood existing at the
moment. Mel tries to explain to the people that a war is
coming, but they refuse to listen, seeing her only as an
irresponsible selfish
thief.
Meanwhile,
Vrill and Boluz discuss whether Fray is capable of stopping
Harth from opening the gateway and awaken the beast and if
they should send a cadre of demons to... well, it hasn't
been revealed. Send demons to kill Melaka Fray or help
her?
Back in
Haddyn, Mel continues her quest to try and convince the
people to help her. Over countless days, Fray finally does
what she's born to do... kick some tail. Slaying the dozens
of lurks, Harth finally realizes that she could be a glitch
in his plans and sends Icarus off to kill her, while Harth
starts the incantation to breach the
gateway.
Though
she's slain dozens of lurks already, in no way is she
prepared to fight her brother's killer. Even with a shiny
new axe, Mel knows she is beat if she goes up against
Icarus. But before she can find out if she's right or not
about her theory of "getting her ass killed", Erin drops out
of the sky, smashing Icarus to dust with a hovercraft. With
Icarus coming after Mel, it could only mean one thing --
that the event of the century is about to take place.
Mustering up an army of the citizens from Haddyn and a
cavalry of officers, Fray played the role of general,
leading her people into the heat of
battle.
With
hundreds of soldiers on both sides, countless lurks are
dusted, but many lives are lost on the human front as well.
And just as Mel thinks the war might be lost, she finds out
it hasn't even begun. Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a
plane
it's Harth
riding one helluva a
snake-demon-hybrid-thingie with its womb playing the role of
the gateway. If not stopped, it will birth legions of demons
into our world. Hopping on Erin's hover-cycle, the two
sisters rush through the air to reunite with their brother
atop the gateway, but one of its legs kicks the hover,
knocking Mel off the vehicle and into the dragon's
mouth.
In the
mouth of the beast, the teeth cut through her body and the
saliva's eating through her clothes. With a tongue the size
of a skyscraper tossing her around like an earthquake, Mel
finally thinks her number is up. Not able to escape through
the mouth, Mel picks the next best thing -- the
brain.
Anger and
vengeance running through her veins, Erin makes a last ditch
effort to take out her brother and aims her hover-cycle
straight towards him, but unfortunately for her, he is more
than prepared. Throwing her off her vehicle and onto the
back of the beast, he grabs her throat, prepared to send her
to join their sister. As Harth reminisces over their dead
sister, moments away from snapping Erin's neck, the beast
cries out in pain, throwing the Fray family off its back. As
it plummets to the ground along with the Frays, Mel smashes
out of its eye, having taken out the beast from
inside.
Too weak
to get up for the moment, Mel watches helplessly, as Harth
approaches her. Taunting her for her heroic efforts, Harth
treats her for one last surprise before running off to into
the shadows &endash; a big fat smooch on the lips! Go ahead,
say it: Ewwwwww!!!
With the
Warren in flames and one gigantic dead beast for the count,
Urkonn relieves Mel in the fact that Harth cannot muster
this kind of force for years at best. For the moment, it's
over. Heading over to Gunther's HQ as the laws flush out the
streets of any remaining lurks, Mel and Urkonn confront her
boss as to why he betrayed her. Confronting him in his
aquatic floor, Mel turns the tables around when she reveals
that she set this all up to take out Urkonn! Since, Mel had
never invited lurks into her home nor was Loo fed upon, Mel
knew that Urkonn had snapped her neck in order to push her
into fighting in order to win the war. Mel also concluded
that Urkonn couldn't swim on account that Urkonn never went
into the river to give Mel a hand against the lurks nor he
ever try the sewers to find Harth's hideout. And with that
said, she plunged the sharp end of the scythe into the
floor, causing the floor to shatter and the two warriors to
plummet into the waters, trying to kill each other.
Following Gunther though a secret door into another
water-room, Urkonn smashes the glass wall, allowing them to
get out of the water and back on dry land where he could
fight. But before he could even get up off the floor, Mel
plummeted the scythe into her mentor's brain, making it
quick for her friend.
As time
goes by, Mel heals as does her friends and city. Continuing
her old and new lives as a grabber and slayer, she is ready
for whatever comes at her. Meanwhile, Vrill and Boluz
discuss the outcome of the latest fight for the world. Harth
lives for the moment but his plan to open the gateway
between worlds has been stopped. As for the Slayer herself,
Urkonn's mission to erase her was a failure, resulting in
his memory being unremembered in the demon world, but the
Slayer will have to be watched. Seeing her to be useful tool
in preventing future apocalypses, only time will tell if
they will send another demon assassin to finish off the
slayer line. But when one falls, there will always another
to take her place. She is the
Slayer.

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