Chapter One: No Place Like New York, New York

The man in black fell like a stone and landed like a feather, never losing sight of his prey.

2007

1:14 a.m.

Johnny had been doing the vampire thing for twelve years now and every night still felt like his first. He revelled in the energy that rushed through his body as he moved in for the kill and he luxuriated in the sensation and taste of blood. It was better than sex, more addictive than crack and damn cheaper than both.

He'd spent the past decade on his act and he figured that he had worked out all of the kinks; go to some sleazy bar, find a desperate or lonely looking girl, put a few drinks in her, all the while hanging on her every word like his life depended on it and once she'd reached the bottom of her fifth or sixth drink he'd then say that it was getting a little crowded and that maybe they should go someplace a little more intimate. Four out of five times, they'd say yes. As for the fifth that would say no they would soon discover that their consent was neither requested nor required as at the bottom of that fifth or sixth drink there would always be a little surprise mixed in that would suddenly make his idea seem like the best thing ever and she would soon enthusiastically be following him outside.

That's what he's been doing for the past ten years and it had always worked without failure… until tonight that is.

The roofie wasn't working as well as usual, tonight's girl was actually still aware enough to try struggling when she saw his game face. With hindsight, that was a hint that maybe, just maybe tonight might have been better if he'd just stayed in and watched Super Nanny reruns.

The second thing to go wrong was that some guy felt like playing the hero and cutting in.

The final sign that things were about to go wrong was that this gate crasher was wearing a mask with only one eyehole.

~o~O~o~

CNN

MASKED VIGILATE STRIKES AGAIN

PRESENTER TALKING

"For the third time in the past two weeks, there has been a sighting of the black clad vigilante, this time near Broadway. Katherine Park 29, described to us a horrific account of two women attempting to assault her in the early hours of the morning."

CUT TO KATHERINE PARK TALKING WITH THE ON SEEN REPORTER

"It was horrible," she says, not looking at the camera, "They were wearing these demon mask with yellow eye contacts and they bit me." She gesture to the shallow looking bite on the side of her neck. "The detective I spoke to says that they were probably on PCP or something like that which explains how they were acting but they just kept laughing every time I screamed. I thought that this was it, I really, truly believed that I was going to die and then he showed up."

BRIEFLY CUT TO A COMPOSITE SKETCH OF THE VIGILANTE. HE WEARS A LONG SLEEVE BLACK SHIRT AND LONG BLACK PANTS. COVERING THE TOP OF HIS FACE IS A BANDANA MASK WITH A KNOT TIED AT THE BACK OF HIS HEAD BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE EYEHOLE INSTEAD OF TWO. THERE IS HEAVY STUBBLE ON HIS JAW.

CUT BACK TO KATHERINE PARK.

"He pulled them off me and yelled at me to run," she says, "At first, I didn't do anything, I was too scared but he screamed at me again and this time I kept running until I found a patrolling officer. He saved my life."

CUT BACK TO PRESENTER

"CCTV briefly caught a glimpse of a man in black fleeing the scene and the officers on scene have revealed that they were able to recover a sample of blood but they do not currently know whether it belongs to the vigilante or the assailants as it is not a match for anything that they currently have on file.

"They have also asked anyone with information about either the assailants or this man to come forward and arrest warrants have been put out for both parties.

"The New York Times recently dubbed this vigilante The Mask."

~o~O~o~

Johnny had dragged the girl into Central Park where, hopefully, there would be no witnesses. As he looked around, he realised that they were standing on the Bethesda Terrace, overlooking the fountain. He grinned as he thought of all of the movies and TV shows that had filmed where he was standing. He then grazed the girl's neck with his teeth, barely breaking the skin. The girl struggled against him despite the drug that was currently running through her system. She was strong. It would almost be a shame to kill her.

For the briefest moment, he actually considered turning her, granting her immorality and the bloodlust that accompanied it but… nah, he was hungry. Anyway, given the noise she was making, it was becoming more and more likely that someone would come to see what was going on so he would have to kill her quickly. He would have to kill her now.

"Spare some change?"

"Really?" Johnny asked in irritation, his vampire face melting away, "Can't a man murder in peace?" He turned to face the intruder and saw a man with an outstretched hand. "Beat it, ya tramp," he growled before turning back to the still struggling girl.

"Wow, you are truly dedicated to eating," said the man, "Most people notice the mask and crack a joke about superheroes or… you know… notice the mask. I know it's dark and everything but come on!" Johnny immediately turned back to the man the second he heard the word "mask" pass his lips.

"You!" he hissed with fury, not even noticing the girl slipping free of his grasp and running away from him, screaming. The man, no, The Mask smiled.

"Me," he said softly, "It's always nice to be recognised."

"You're a dead man," Johnny promised, once again vamping out and snarling.

"I'd be more scared if you weren't like the third or fourth guy to say to me this week," he said nonchalantly. With a wordless scream of rage, the vampire charged at the man in back but before he could even take three steps he had collapsed onto the stone floor, wildly convulsing. "Taser," said The Mask by way of explanation, "It's amazing what you can get on eBay these days." Howling in pain, Johnny tore the cables out of his chest.

"If this was a fair fight, you'd already be dead," he growled, waiting for his vampire regenerative abilities to kick in so he could climb to his feet and painfully end this bastard.

"Well then I'm definitely not going to fight fair," said The Mask, "Besides, you're a vampire, I'm a human, any notion of a fair fight went out the window the second you gave up tanning." He tossed the stun gun to the ground before reaching into his pocket and producing (of all things) a water pistol.

"You're kidding me," Johnny deadpanned.

"Not at all," The Mask replied before squeezing the trigger. Johnny howled as soon as he realised that he was being sprayed with holy water.

Feeding was definitely out of the question, painfully killing this psychopath was also now out of the question. At this point, Johnny would settle for just surviving but he knew that he couldn't just turn away and run. Given the two attacks that he had just experienced, along with the confirmation that The Mask was a normal human with no magical abilities, it was highly likely that he had another ranged weapon. His only chance would be to do something unexpected.

So instead of running away from his attacker, he leapt to his feet and charged towards him, pushing him to the ground and leaping off the Terrace and sprinted towards the Fountain. Only momentarily surprised by the boldness of the move, The Mask climbed to his feet and leapt off the terrace in pursuit. The man in black fell like a stone and landed like a feather, never losing sight of his prey, charging with single minded determination. As Johnny was still weakened from both the stun gun and the holy water, The Mask was easily able to catch up to him, tackling him into the Fountain, soaking them both. Johnny slugged his opponent hard in the face before putting all of his weight on the other man, forcing his head underneath the water. The Mask struggled for a few seconds before changing tactics and elbowing the vampire in the groin, causing him to let go. Johnny briefly keeled over in pain before righting himself when he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. The kind that didn't squirt water. He laughed.

"A gun? Really?" he asked, not even trying to hide the scorn in his voice, "Bullets can't kill me you moron." The Mask smiled, or rather, he showed his teeth and lowered the gun so it was no longer pointing at Johnny's face.

"They can if they're made out of wood," he said quietly before pulling the trigger. Johnny had just enough time to go "Huh?" before being reduced to nothing more than some dusty water as the wooden bullet tore through his heart. The Mask climbed out of the fountain and collapsed, rolling over so he was now lying on his back. He laid there for a few seconds, just breathing.

"You look like you had fun," said a voice from behind him. The Mask forced his weary body to rise to his feet before immediately freezing in his place.

He knew that voice.

"How did you find me?" he asked, not turning around.

"Well," came the reply, "It's not exactly like you were hiding. I mean, come on, a one eyed man saving people from vampires. It wasn't difficult to figure it out. Although, if you're curious, it was actually Dawn that told us about the first story. The Mask. I like it. Nice, simple, single syllable words. Hey, it's catchy."

"I didn't pick the name," he said with the merest hint of defensiveness in his voice, "It just stuck." With a sigh, he finally turned around to face the source of the voice. With her blonde hair, green eyes and a figure that just dared the imagination, Buffy Summers had not changed a bit since he had last seen her. She smiled (somewhat sarcastically) at him.

"Take off the mask," she said simply, "We both know who you are so it's not like it's actually serving any purpose at this point." He chuckled darkly, ceding the point. He reached for his face and after a moment of hesitation, he pulled the mask off, his single brown eye locking with her two green ones.

"Hey, Buffy," said Xander, "What brings you to New York?"

"Something big is coming," she said, "So I'm putting the team back together."

~o~O~o~

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. I've been sitting on this idea for a while but I think it's ready now. Please review and let me know what you thought of it.