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Go Fish

Prologue

The students of Sunnydale High are having a party at the beach. Xander, Willow and Cordelia stand huddled around a fire to keep warm. Xander thinks that the beach party was a stupid idea. “It’s officially nippy. So say my nips.”

“I think it’s festive,” says Willow. “A party with nature.”

“Well, it’s the team’s choice,” says Cordelia. “It was their victory.”

“Team? Swim team.” Xander laughs. “Hardly what I’d call a team. The Yankees. Abbott and Costello. The ‘A.’ Now, those were teams.” He spots one of the team members stumbling by with a girl on each arm. “I mean, look at that. Dodd McAlvy. Last month he’s the freak with jicama breath who waxes his back. He wins a few meets and suddenly inherits the cool gene?”

Cordelia is just happy that her cheerleading squad finally has something to cheer about. “It’s about time our school excelled at something.”

“You’re forgetting our high mortality rate,” says Willow.

Xander punches at the air. “We’re number one!” He gets a half hearted response from some of the other partiers on the beach.

Buffy sits off by herself watching the waves. She’s approached by Cameron Walker, one of the swim team members. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asks.

“Yeah,” says Buffy. “It’s just so—”

“Eternal,” says Cameron. “A true mother, giving birth to new life and devouring old. Always adaptable and nurturing, yet constant and merciless.” He sits down beside Buffy.

“Boy, I was just going to go with big and wet.” Buffy asks Cameron what he plans to do now that he has won the state semi-finals. Cameron plans to spend some time getting to know Buffy Summers. Buffy tries to dissuade him of any romantic notions, but Cam tells her he just wants to get to know her better.

Buffy and Cameron are interrupted by a cry for help.

Buffy looks up the beach and sees a couple of the other swim team members—Dodd McAlvy and Gage Petronzi—dunking Jonathan’s head into an ice bucket. They let him up for some air, and then dunk his head under again.

“Come on, Johnny, you got to hold your breath longer than that if you ever want to make the team!” says Dodd. “Hey, somebody time him!”

Buffy grabs Dodd by the shoulder, pulls him away from Jonathan, and tosses him aside onto the sand.

Dodd gets up quickly and asks Buffy what her problem is. Cam just laughs and tells him he had it coming.

Dodd doesn’t look like he plans to take this lying down, and he starts toward Buffy. He’s saved from further embarrassment by Gage, who intercepts him, and suggests that they go join some of the others for a midnight swim.

Buffy turns her attention to Jonathan, and says that they should go find him a towel.

Jonathan just pushes Buffy away. “Why don’t you mind your own business? I can handle this without your help.” He stalks off.

“See? It’s fun to hang out with me.” Buffy tells Cameron.

Dodd and Gage walk along the beach.

“I can’t believe Buffy,” says Dodd. “Man, that girl gives me the creeps.” He stops, apparently listening to something, and looks out at the ocean.

Gage doesn’t notice, and keeps walking. Then he stops too, sniffs at the air and looks around. “Oh! Dude! What is that foulness?”

Dodd has vanished. Gage looks around a bit more, before he continues down the beach toward the pier where a group of people are gathering. The sound of the waves drown out Dodd’s screams. All that is left of Dodd is a pile of skin and his clothing. A creature—half man, half fish—creeps quietly way from the site, into the outlet of one of Sunnydale’s storm sewers.

Act I

Willow is still teaching the computer science class. She walks between the rows of desks checking out the pie charts the students are producing on their computers, all except for Gage, who is playing solitaire using cards with naked girls on them. He has no interest in doing the assignment.

The class ends and Principal Snyder drops by as the students are filing out. Snyder stops Gage on his way out. “Nice work in yesterday’s meet, son. Now, let’s go for it!”

After the students are gone Snyder turns his attention to Willow. They have been unable to find a substitute teacher to take over the class this late in the term, and he asks if she can keep on teaching it through finals. She tells him that she would enjoy that. She likes teaching.

“Isn’t that nice,” says Snyder. “You’re a team player, and I like that. A team player wants everyone on the team to succeed. Wants everyone to pass.”

Willow cautiously agrees with Snyder, but she’s starting to wonder what he is really there for.

Snyder comes to his point. He understands that there is a problem with Gage Petronzi.

Willow is glad that Snyder knows about it. Besides not doing any of the homework, Gage hasn’t shown up for any of the tests.

That wasn’t the problem Snyder had in mind. He wants to know why Willow is giving a failing grade to a key member of the Sunnydale High swim team. A grade which will force Gage’s removal from the team. Willow says she is just trying to grade fairly.

“Gage is a champion. He’s under more pressure than the other students. And I think we need to cut him some slack.” Snyder starts to walk toward the door.

“You’re asking me to change his grade?” asks Willow.

Snyder turns back. “I never said any such thing. All I’m suggesting is…that you recheck your figures, and I think we’ll find a grade more fitting to an athlete of Gage’s stature. Perhaps something in a ‘D.’”

Willow tells Xander and Cordy about her conversation with Snyder. Xander is incensed. “That is wrong, a big, fat, spanking wrong. It’s a slap in the face to every one of us who studied hard and worked long hours to earn our ‘D’s.”

“Xander,” says Cordelia. “I know you take pride in being the voice of the common wuss, but the truth is, certain people are entitled to special privileges. They’re called winners. That’s the way the world works.”

“You know what really grates my cheese?” asks Xander. “That Buffy’s not here to share my moral outrage about swim team perks. She’s too busy being one of them.”

Buffy arrives at school, driven by Cameron Walker in his Mustang. She really isn’t enjoying herself. It seems that the only thing Cameron can talk about is swimming, and he can talk about that for hours. Buffy is having trouble staying awake. “You know what, Cam? Thanks. I’d forgotten how nice it is to just talk, or, in my case, listen, without any romantic pressure.”

“Hey… I’m not about pressure,” says Cameron. “I just want you to be comfortable.”

“I’m comfy!” says Buffy. “I’m so comfy, I’m nodding off actually, which is why—”

Cameron suddenly switches subjects. “Are you wearing a bra?”

Buffy is taken aback. “What?”

Cameron leers at her. “Come on. I mean, tell me you haven’t been thinking about this ever since last night.”

Buffy reaches for the door handle. “What I’m thinking about is that I should probably get out of this car.”

Cameron uses his power door lock button to lock the door on her. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Oh, it’s not me I’m worried about,” says Buffy.

Cameron laughs. “You like it rough!” He reaches toward Buffy.

Buffy grabs Cameron’s wrist and twists it. She grabs him by the back of the neck and slams his face into the steering wheel. Buffy looks up and sees Principal Snyder looking at her. Cameron holds his nose while crying out from the pain, and says she broke it.

Principal Snyder does not look happy. He frowns at Buffy, and crooks his finger at her, indicating that she should come with him.

Nurse Greenliegh prepares an ice pack for Cameron’s nose in her office, and puts it on his face. Buffy and Snyder are there too. Snyder isn’t believing Buffy’s version of what happened in the car. Cameron is claiming that she led him on, and then went psycho on him.

Coach Marin comes in, and Snyder asks him how badly Cameron’s hurt. The good news is that Cameron’s nose isn’t broken, and his wrist is only sprained. Snyder wants to know if Cam will be back in shape in time for the next swim meet.

“I’m going to need Cameron back at a hundred and ten percent,” says the coach. “He’s my best swimmer, now with Dodd…” He shrugs.

“What happened to Dodd?” asks Buffy.

“That’s none of your concern,” says Snyder. “You’d better hope that boy’s nose heals before the meet this Friday.”

Coach Marin tells Cameron to go to the steam room, and tells Buffy that she should dress more appropriately from now on. This is a school, not a dance club. He and Snyder leave the nurse’s office.

As soon as the coach and Snyder are gone Cameron laughs silently at Buffy.

Buffy goes to the library to complain to her friends about what happened. “So I’m treated like the baddie just because he has a sprained wrist and a bloody nose. And I don’t have a scratch on me, which, granted, hurts my case a little on the surface, but meanwhile he gets away with it because he’s on the ‘aren’t we the most’ swim team, who, by the way, if no one’s noticed, have been acting like real jerks lately…”

Buffy winds down when she notices that Giles, Willow and Xander aren’t really paying that much attention to her. They are all deeply into hitting the books. “So, anything new with you guys?”

Giles is glad that Buffy’s taking an interest. Dodd McAlvy’s remains were found on the beach that morning. Nothing left but his skin and cartilage.

“In other words, this was no boating accident,” says Xander.

“So something ripped him open and ate out his insides?” asks Buffy.

“Like an Oreo Cookie,” says Willow, “Well, except for, you know, without the chocolatey cookie goodness.”

Giles tells Buffy that Principal Snyder has asked the faculty to keep it quiet, to avoid upsetting the students.

“For ‘students’ read ‘swim team.’” says Xander.

Buffy doesn’t think the killing makes any sense. Xander agrees. The skin is the best part.

“Any demons with high cholesterol?” asks Buffy.

Giles doesn’t dignify that question with any sort of reply. He just looks at Buffy.

Buffy looks back. “You’re going to think about that later, mister, and you’re going to laugh.”

Cameron sits in the steam room. He feels his nose, and groans. He hears something moving outside. He looks, but he can’t see anything through the fogged up windows. He ignores the sound and takes a deep breath.

The door slams open. Cam is startled, and looks up to see Coach Marin standing in it. “Okay, son, I think you’ve had enough. Time to hit the shower.”

Xander takes a break from researching to head for the lounge soft drink machine to get himself a drink. He checks out his change supply as he starts to cross the corridor intersection. Cameron runs into him, knocking Xander’s change onto the floor. Cam tells him to watch where he’s going.

Xander genuflects to Cameron. “Oh, forgive me, your Swim Teamliness,” and bends down to pick up his change.

Cameron turns to go. “Loser!”

“Liking the nose, Cam!” says Xander. “Good look for you.”

Cameron turns back to face Xander. “Meaning what?”

Xander steps up to him. “Meaning Buffy must not be on your list of privileges after all.” He chuckles. “Man, I love it when you guys mess with her.”

“You’re lucky I’m hungry,” says Cameron.

“Oh, the cafeteria’s closed,” says Xander in mock sympathy.

“Not to me.” Cameron turns and walks away.

Cameron walks into the empty cafeteria. He stops and sniffs the air. He smells something foul.

Xander stands in front of the soft drink machine trying to decide between an orange or a grape drink. He hears Cameron scream, and the sound of crashing furniture.

Xander turns and runs to the cafeteria. Inside he finds some overturned tables and chairs, and a steaming pile of skin and clothing. While Xander struggles not to lose his lunch he hears something behind him. He turns around and sees the creature. It’s over six feet tall, and covered with blue-green scales.

Act II

Xander describes the creature he saw to Cordelia, who prepares a fairly accurate sketch based on his description. Giles asks Xander if Cordy’s sketch is what he saw.

“Yeah! I think so. Pretty much.” Xander looks at the picture again. “It was dark! And the thing went through the window so quick, and I was a little shocked when I saw it, and—”

“Go ahead. Say it,” says Cordelia. “You ran like a woman.”

“Hey, if you saw this thing, you’d run like a woman, too!”

Willow and Buffy come into the library. They have been looking up Dodd and Cam’s records. As Buffy suspected they were the number one and two swimmers on the team. It looks like this creature is targeting the swim team for some reason, and Gage Petronzi is likely to be the next victim.

“God, this is so sad,” says Cordelia. “We’re never going to win the state championship. I think I’ve lost all will to cheerlead.”

“Raise your hand if you feel her pain,” says Xander.

The rest of the group just ignores them. “If you’re saying these killings aren’t random,” says Giles, “it would suggest someone’s out for revenge.”

“And raise the possibility that someone brought forth this sea monster from whence it came to exact that revenge.” Buffy stops and considers what she just said. “‘From whence it came?’ I’m spending way too much time around you.”

“Who would hate the swim team that much, though?” asks Xander. “Besides me, I mean.”

Willow thinks maybe it’s Jonathan. Dodd was bullying him on the beach the other night, and he did say he could take care of himself. Buffy agrees that Willow should question him. She is going to go keep an eye on Gage.

“What about me?” asks Xander. “What can I do?”

“Well, you could go out to the parking lot and practice running like a man,” says Cordelia.

Buffy finds Gage in the student lounge where he is playing with a Gameboy. She picks up a magazine and sits down nearby, but she looks at him, not her magazine. Gage seems to sense Buffy’s eyes on him, and looks her way. Buffy quickly looks away from him and at her magazine, which she notices is upside down.

Willow questions Jonathan. She sits him in a chair, with a reading lamp pointed at his face. Under her grilling Jonathan admits that he resented the way the swim team members treated him, and yes, he did want to get revenge.

“So,” says Willow, “you delved into the black arts and conjured up a hell beast from the ocean’s depths to wreak your vengeance!” Jonathan just gives her a blank look. Willow becomes less certain. “Didn’t you?”

“What?” asks Jonathan. “No! I snuck in yesterday and peed in the pool.”

“Oh!” says Willow. “Eww!”

Snyder and Coach Marin come into the student lounge quietly discussing the situation.

“It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy,” says Snyder. “I don’t know two finer boys than Cameron and…that other one.” With two members gone, they don’t have enough swimmers left on the team to qualify for the next meet. They have to find a new swimmer by this afternoon’s tryouts. The coach doesn’t think he can come up with someone that quickly.

“You’ll find someone,” says Snyder. “All he has to do is wear a bathing suit, right?”

They continue through the lounge past Xander, who turns to watch them go.

Buffy follows Gage to the Bronze that evening. She sits at the counter sipping on a drink while she watches him playing pool. He’s getting tired of her shadowing him around, and he confronts her. He wants to know why she’s been following him.

Buffy tries to tell him she’s a swim team groupie. “Oh, yeah. You know, there’s just something about the smell of chlorine on a guy. Oh, baby.”

Gage doesn’t believe her, and turns away.

Buffy moves to cut him off. “Okay, okay. Obviously, my sex appeal is on the fritz today, so I’ll just give it to you straight. There’s something lurking out there, and it’s making fillets of the populace, and I think you might be next.”

“Uh, huh,” says Gage. “And you think that because?”

“Well, it’s already attacked,” says Buffy. “It’s already killed some people.”

“You’re one twisted sister, you know that? Cam told me about your games. Go find someone else to harass.” Cam leaves Buffy and walks toward the exit.

Gage walks out of the Bronze. “What a psycho bitch!” he mutters to himself.

Angel steps out of the shadows. “Man, you have got to be talking about Buffy!”

“How’d you know?” asks Gage.

“She and I had this thing once,” says Angel. “Biggest mistake of my life.”

Gage walks toward the alley. “Yeah. My condolences, dude.”

Angel follows Gage. “She’s a real head-tripper.”

“Tell me about it,” says Gage. “Girl acts like she’s god’s gift or something.”

“Who is she?” asks Angel. “The Chosen One?”

“Exactly.”

“You know, what she really needs is for someone to really knock her down off her notches.”

“Yeah, that’d be sweet. Anyone in mind?” asks Gage.

“You’re in luck, my friend,” says Angel.

Gage turns around to look at Angel, but he’s disappeared. Gage looks around for him.

“Just so happens, I’m recruiting.” Gage spins back around and sees Angel, in full vamp face. He grabs Gage and bites him.

Buffy hears Gage scream for help as she’s coming out of the Bronze. She runs around to the alley and sees Gage lying on the ground, and Angel spitting out blood. She kicks Angel in the head and pulls out the thin stake which had been holding up her hair. It falls down around her shoulders.

“Why, Miss Summers! You’re beautiful!” says Angel. He picks up Gage and throws him at her. Buffy gets knocked to the ground, and Angel runs away.

Gage and Buffy get back to their feet.

“Was that the thing that killed Cameron?” asks Gage.

“No,” says Buffy, “That was something else.”

Gage is confused. “Something else?”

“Yeah, unfortunately, we have a lot of something elses in this town.” Buffy says goodnight to Gage and turns to go, but now Gage doesn’t want her to leave now. He asks if she’ll walk him home.

Next morning Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia watch the swim team practice. This seems to be a favourite activity of the Sunnydale High girls, several more of them are seated in the bleachers by the pool. Gage spots Buffy and gives her a wave. Buffy waves back discretely and tells her friends about Angel spitting out Gage’s blood. She wonders if maybe there might be something in it that vampires don’t like, such as steroids.

“That would explain all their behavioural changes,” says Willow.

“And their winning streak,” says Cordy.

Willow also thinks it might be what is attracting this creature to them. Buffy asks Cordelia if they’ve had any luck identifying it yet.

“Zippo,” says Cordy. “We couldn’t find any sea demon that matched the description that Xander gave us. Not that Chicken Little’s much of a witness, but—” She stops. Her attention has been arrested by the appearance of a new member of the swim team.

“Oh,” says Cordy, her examination of him starts at his feet, and works its way up, past the rather small speedo swim suit. “Oh! Oh, my! Now, that, girls, is my kind of—” She reaches his face.

“Xander?” exclaims Willow. She, Buffy, and Cordelia are all shocked to see him. Xander is extremely embarrassed by the way they are all looking at him, and grabs a foam kickboard off a nearby stack to cover himself up a bit, as the girls move over to talk with him. They wonder what the heck he’s doing there.

“Shh!” says Xander. “I’m undercover.”

Buffy smirks. “Not under much.”

Cordelia thinks Xander should get out of there before someone catches him impersonating a swim team member.

“I don’t do impersonations,” says Xander. “I tried out for the team last night. I made it. I figured I can keep an eye on Gage and the others when Buffy can’t.”

“When you’re nude?” asks Willow. “I meant to say ‘changing.’”

Coach Marin spots Xander, and calls him away from the girls. He can flirt with them on his own time. Xander moves off to join the rest of the team.

“I’m dating a swimmer from the Sunnydale swim team!” says Cordelia proudly.

“You can die happy,” says Buffy. She asks Willow how things went with Jonathan, if he was involved.

“Oh, no,” says Willow. “He just, sort of, peed in the pool.”

“Oh,” says Buffy. She watches Xander dive in. “Eww!”

Xander joins the rest of the team in the steam room after the practice. He tries striking up a conversation, but no one really wants to talk to him, and his jokes fall flat. A pair of clawed hands lift the grate off the drain in the locker room floor.

Xander comes out of the locker room still drying his hair, and meets up with Buffy. It’s her turn to take over watching Gage. “He was right behind me, putting his sneakers on, but it’s not the Velcro kind, so give him a couple of extra minutes.” He walks off.

Gage smells something awful as he finishes tying his shoes. He sniffs at his underarms, but they aren’t the source of the odour. He starts looking around for where the stink is coming from, checking out the lockers.

Buffy hears Gage scream. She runs into the locker room, and finds him confronted by the creature. She pushes Gage out of the way and turns to face it.

Gage falls to the floor and continues to scream in agony. He pulls at his shirt, and then he grabs onto his chest, and pulls the skin open, revealing the green scaly skin beneath it. He continues to scream as he sheds his skin, and is transformed into another of the creatures. Buffy now has one of them on each side of her.

Act III

Buffy kicks one of the creatures away, and then spins quickly and kicks the second. She grabs a trash can and throws it at the first one as it starts to come at her again. She grabs a broom to use as a weapon. One of the creatures grabs her, bites her on the arm, and tosses her aside. Coach Marin arrives and pulls Buffy out of the locker room, while the two creatures escape through the grate in the floor.

Nurse Greenliegh bandages up Buffy’s arm in her office. She doesn’t think Buffy will need stitches, but it would be a good idea if she has a doctor look at it.

Giles is there too. “Well, the good news is that it would appear that none of your team actually died,” he tells Coach Marin.

“But the bad news is: they’re monsters,” says Buffy.

“How could this happen?” asks the coach.

“Are you saying you don’t know?” asks Giles.

“You work so hard, you start to win suddenly,” says Coach Marin. “You think it’s just you. You’re inspiring the boys to greatness. But in the back of your mind, you start to wonder.”

“You never asked any of the boys if they were taking anything?” asks Giles.

“Maybe I was afraid to.”

Willow digs into the missing team member’s medical records. There is lots in them which is consistent with steroid abuse.

“But is steroid abuse usually linked with ‘Hey, I’m a fish?’” asks Xander.

Willow thinks there must be something else in the mix. Buffy’s lead suspect at the moment is Nurse Greenliegh. She has been treating all the team members. She must have known what was going on.

“If steroids are that dangerous, why would they do that to themselves?” asks Willow.

“They needed to win,” says Buffy. “And winning equals trophies, which equals prestige for the school. You see how they’re treated. It’s been like that forever.”

“Sure,” says Xander. “The discus throwers got the best seats at all the crucifixions.”

“Meanwhile,” says Buffy, “I’m breaking my nails every day battling the forces of evil, and my French teacher can’t even remember my name.”

They need to talk with Nurse Greenliegh, but Buffy figures she’s probably left for the day. That can wait until tomorrow. She wants Xander to see if he can find out how the guys on the team are getting the drugs. Giles has loaded up the tranquilizer gun. He and Buffy are going fishing.

Buffy and Giles find nothing but rats as they search the sewers. One of the fish creatures sees them though.

Xander joins the rest of the team for another session in the steam room. He not too subtly tries to find out where he can get a little something to improve his performance. None of the guys are taking his hints however, so Xander comes right out and asks them where to get the steroids.

The rest of the team just laughs, and one of them takes a deep breath. “Aroma therapy. It’s in the steam!”

Nurse Greenliegh and Coach Marin enter the pump room beside the pool. She tells him she’s had enough. It has to stop. The coach doesn’t think so, they just have to adjust the mix a bit. His boys are going to be winners.

“They’re going to be monsters!” says Nurse Greenliegh. “Carl, please. Don’t make it any worse. You’ve already lost three.”

“Lost? They’re not lost.” Coach Marin grabs Nurse Greenliegh and shoves her into the open hatch into the sump beneath the pool.

Nurse Greenliegh splashes into the water. She gets to her feet and stands with the water up to her waist. She looks up at the coach. “Carl! What are you doing?”

Coach Marin looks down at the nurse. “I’m just looking after my boys. They may be out of the game right now, but they’re still a team. And a team’s got to eat.” He closes the grate over her head. “You quitter.”

Nurse Greenliegh isn’t alone in the sump. Something grabs her, and pulls her under the water.

Act IV

Xander tells Giles and the others about the steam. He is scared. “We have to find an antidote, don’t you think? The clock is ticking, people!”

“I wouldn’t break out the tartar sauce just yet,” says Buffy. “I mean, it’s not like you were exposed more than once.” She sees the look Xander gives her. “Twice?”

“Three times a fish guy,” says Xander. “What am I going to do?”

“You, you, you!” says Cordelia. “What about me? It’s one thing to be dating the lame unpopular guy, but it’s another to be dating the creature from the Blue Lagoon.”

“Black Lagoon,” says Xander. “The creature from the Blue Lagoon was Brooke Shields. And thank you so much for your support!” He sits down beside her.

Buffy quietly tells Willow and Giles that she thinks it might be a good idea to find the rest of the team and get them locked up before anyone else gets in touch with their inner halibut. Giles agrees that’s a good idea, and they need to find out exactly what’s in the gas so that the hospital can develop an antidote. Willow volunteers to have a talk with Nurse Greenliegh.

“You’re really getting into this interrogation thing,” says Buffy.

“The trick is not to leave any marks.” Willow leaves to look for the nurse.

Buffy wants to have another talk with Coach Marin. She doesn’t think he’s as innocent as he pretended to be the other day.

Buffy finds the coach in the pump room, and tells him what she thinks. He tells her she has some imagination.

“Right now, I’m imagining you in jail,” says Buffy. “You’re wearing a big orange suit, and oh look, the guards are beating you up.”

The coach isn’t impressed. Buffy doesn’t have any proof.

“Tell me what’s in the steam!” demands Buffy.

Coach Marin stops and considers for a couple of seconds, and then he tells her. After the fall of the Soviet Union he came across records about their experiments with fish DNA in their olympic swimmers. But they couldn’t make it work.

“And you did, sort of,” says Buffy. “Why?”

“What kind of question is that?” asks the coach. “For the win! To make my team the best they could be! Do you understand we have a shot at the state championship?”

“Do you understand that I don’t care?” says Buffy. “It’s over. There’s not going to be any swim team.”

“Boy, when they were handing out school spirit, you didn’t even stand in line, did you?”

“No. I was in the line for shred of sanity,” says Buffy.

Coach Marin turns around and reaches into the drawer of a workbench. When he turns back he’s holding a pistol, which he aims at Buffy.

Buffy looks at the gun. “Which you obviously skipped.”

The coach gestures toward the open grate on the floor, and tells Buffy to get in the hole.

Buffy doesn’t have much of an option, so she moves toward it. She sits down on the edge, and looks up at him. “This isn’t over.”

“In!” says the coach. Buffy jumps down into the sump.

Coach Marin looks down through the opening. “You think I don’t care about my boys. But I do. They count on me.”

Buffy sees Nurse Greenliegh’s partially eaten body float past her. “So, what, you’re just going to feed me to ’em?”

“They’ve already had their dinner,” says Coach Marin, “But boys have other needs.”

Xander and Cordelia check out the pool area looking for the rest of the swim team. They don’t find anyone. Xander’s skin is itching, and he decides he has to go check for scales. He leaves Cordy and heads into the locker room.

Cordy continues to walk around the pool. A creature comes running out of the locker room behind her.

Cordy starts to turn around. “Any gills yet?”

The creature dives into the pool before Cordy sees it. “Xander?” she asks, looking at the splash, “What are you doing? Xander?”

The creature swims clear of the bubbles from its dive and Cordy gets her first look at it. “Oh, my God! Xander!” Cordelia walks along the edge of the pool as the creature swims under water. “It’s me, Cordelia? I know you can’t answer me, but— God, this is all my fault. You joined the swim team to impress me. You were so courageous. And you looked really hot in those Speedo’s. And I want you to know that I still care about you, no matter what you look like. And…and we can still date. Or not. I mean, I understand if you want to see other fish.” She kneels down by the edge of the pool. “I’ll do everything I can to make your quality of life better. Whether that means little bath toys or whatever.”

“That’s not me,” says Xander from behind Cordelia. She screams and jumps back as the creature lunges out of the water at her.

Giles and Willow have gotten most of the swim team rounded up, and locked in the library book cage. Giles tries to tell them to stay calm, but he doesn’t sound very convincing. Willow consults her team list and tells Giles that everyone is accounted for except for Sean.

Cordy comes into the library with Xander. “I think we can safely say we’ve found Sean,” says Cordy. “He was in the pool skinless-dipping.”

Xander notices that Buffy isn’t back yet.

Buffy is still in the sump. “Great! This is just what my reputation needs. That I ‘did it’ with the entire swim team!” The creatures are swimming around her in the water, which is chest high on her.

Coach Marin is watching through the hatch when he’s surprised by Xander. He turns around when Xander asks him what’s up, and he asks how Xander’s feeling.

“Little dry,” says Xander. “Nothing a lemon butter sauce won’t cure. Where’s Buffy?”

The coach glances toward his gun, which he left lying on top of a barrel, beside Xander.

The creatures attack Buffy. The water hampers her ability to fight back, while they are in their element.

Xander and the coach hear the noise, and Coach Marin lunges for his gun. Xander grabs his arm, knocks the gun away, and punches the coach, who goes down.

Xander looks into the hatch and sees Buffy. He calls out to her and reaches down into the sump as far as he can. Buffy leaps upward, and grabs Xander’s hand. He lifts her out of the hatch with the creatures grabbing at her feet.

Buffy and Xander sit beside the hatch, catching their breaths.

“Thanks!” says Buffy.

“Just doing my part for our team,” says Xander.

Coach Marin hits Xander in the head with a wrench, and moves toward Buffy. She knocks his feet out from under him with a leg sweep, and he falls into the hatch. Buffy grabs his foot, but she can’t hold onto it. The coach slips from her grasp and falls down among the creatures. Buffy tries reaching down to him, but it is no use. Her arms are shorter than Xander’s and the coach can’t jump nearly as high as she can. The three creatures surround him, and then attack while Buffy and Xander watch helplessly.

“Those boys really love their coach,” says Buffy.

Epilogue

Buffy and her friends sit in the student lounge. Xander has an appointment later that afternoon at the hospital for a plasma transfusion. Willow tells him Giles seems confidant that the treatments will work.

“Well, turning into a creepy-crawly wasn’t on my top ten list of things to do before I turn twenty,” says Xander.

“I want you to know that you’ve really proven yourself to me,” says Cordelia. “And you don’t have to join the new team next year if you don’t want. I’d be just as happy if you played football.”

Giles arrives with the news that the animal control people have just left. They have searched the sewers under the school but they have found no sign of the creatures.

“Does that mean we’re going to have to hunt them again?” asks Willow.

“No, I don’t think so,” says Buffy. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing them anymore.”

“Where do you think they’ll go?” asks Giles.

“Home,” says Buffy.

Just off the beach, the creatures swim out to sea.

Death Toll