Fray, Future Slayer by Quicksand

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Fray, Future Slayer

POSTED BY: QUICKSAND
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 3, 2004 15:42
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VIEWED: 2177
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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:13 PM

So I had to order the complete graphic novel from my local bookstore.

HOLY FREAKIN' SWEEET!!!! It's pure Joss, I loved this thing. Tough talk, unique slang, and great characters. And hey, that axe looks familiar....

Anyone else manage to pick this title up? If not, I highly recommend it, at least as a way to tide you over until 4.22.05 ... read slow.

___\_o_/___
--------------- (Qs)

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:21 PM

TIGER

Actually, I just ordered it and I'm waiting for delivery as we speak. I'm glad to hear it will be worth the wait, since I too wanted some Joss to tide me over until April.

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:21 PM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by Quicksand:

And hey, that axe looks familiar....

Anyone else pick this up?

Yeah, I bought the Fray comics as they originally came out...and I loved seeing the Slayers' Scythe before Buffy ever got her hands on it...

Someday Joss will have to tell the interveening story...
about how all the many slayers around the world died off without replacements,
and how the knowledge of the Watchers' Council was kept in a special library even tho there were no Watchers left....

Joss has a lot of work to fill in all the gaps!

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:24 PM

QUICKSAND

I like the work my brain does to fill in the gaps, better.. I don't want to spoil it for folks like the one guy above, who haven't read it.

But I'd like to think, yeah, those loose ends REALLY could have been tied up during a 6th season of 'Angel.'

Muah-hah.

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:34 PM

NESS

Yeah, Fray is amazing. At least you don't have to wait, like a year, between some of the parts. And that was the cool thing. Even if some of the parts were late because Joss was so busy, people were still interested in the story and patiently waited.

When I saw Fray's scythe on screen for the first time, I think I shrieked. It was a great reference for the comic book fans, but it also helped to fill in the blanks as to where the scythe came from. And yes, it's a scythe, not an axe as so many Buffy fans insisted on calling it.

One thing to look out for: the use of "rutting". It was first used in Fray, not Firefly.

"Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing." - Zoe

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 3:42 PM

CREVANREAVER

Here is a massive spoiler filled summary of the entire Melaka Fray storyline!

Select to view spoiler:

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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