"Get down!" Xander called and tackled Paige against the wall, narrowly getting her out of the path of the freezing blast.
"Oof!" she groaned. Raising an eyebrow, she teased, "My, my. Are you this close to all your charges?"
"You'd be surprised," he shot back tightly, whirling around. He orbed in mid-turn and appeared next to the ice demon. As he completed his spin, he sent a solid right punch into the side of the demon's head, sending him stumbling and spinning.
The demon howled, more in surprise than pain, and snarled, "Whitelighters aren't supposed to-..."
"New Elders, new rules," Xander interrupted with a follow-up one-two combo. "Now, will you vanquish him already, Paige?"
"Oh, right! Potion!" she called, reaching out toward the ice-encased figures that were her sisters. The vanquishing potion in Phoebe's hand teleported to Paige's, and she hurled it at the demon's feet.
As the demon died, Phoebe and Piper suddenly thawed.
"H-h-holy... th-that's c-c-c-cold!" Phoebe stuttered, wrapping her arms around herself.
Piper was too busy shivering to say anything, but her chattering teeth said enough.
Xander walked up and frowned, "Hang on, Piper, you've got a touch of hypothermia here." He placed his hands near her and healed her.
"I d-don't f-feel any w-warmer," Piper complained, still shivering.
Holding up his hands, Xander shook his head, "Hey, I do healing, not heating. C'mon, I'll get you girls home, fix up some chicken soup, wrap you up in a few layers of blankets, how does that sound?" He gathered the two shivering sisters into his arms and orbed away, presumably to the manor.
"Great," Paige murmured, slightly irritated. "Just because I can orb myself doesn't mean you should just leave me behind like this, you know."
Gripe over, she sighed and orbed home.
"Oh, my God," Phoebe stared, stunned at the sight before her. She whipped her head around and shot Xander a look. "What on Earth did you do?!"
"Exactly what I said I would," Xander with a shrug. What was the big deal?
"You said you were going to turn it into a training room."
"Yeah, and I did."
Phoebe was still staring at the transformed basement. Mats lined the floor and walls, and flourescent lights banished the darkness. A heavy-duty punching bag hung from sturdy chains near the corner, while another corner was home to a padded tackling dummy and a free- standing mook jong. One wall sported a large, wooden cupboard, and the open double doors revealed racks holding weapons ranging from knives and swords to axes and crossbows.
"This is... this is amazing!" she finally sputtered.
"I have to admit," Piper said, "this is impressive. Are all Whitelighters handymen?"
Paige found she had to agree with her sisters. This was absolutely amazing. Everything looked to be of professional quality. But still...
"What's with the arsenal?" she asked, pointing at the armory cupboard.
Xander blinked, "Oh, that? You'd be surprised how many demons can be killed without magic. Hell, there are a few out there who are immune to magic. Hence, weapons."
"Oh," Paige nodded in understanding, then frowned. "Wait. Immune to magic? Really?"
"Yeah," Xander replied absently. "Most of them are tainted demons rather than the human-based ones Leo tells me you usually deal with, so they tend to get attracted to Hellmouths."
"Whoa, wait," Phoebe said. "What are you talking about? Different kinds of demons? What's a Hellmouth?"
Xander blinked, then sighed and tried to recall what the Elders had told him, "Okay, back before recorded history, true demons roamed the Earth. Basically, we kicked them out of this dimension, but traces of them remain. The tainted demons are descendents of true demons that got tainted with humanity, but the human-based ones are humans tainted with, uh, demonity. Or descendents of humans who were. The tainted demons have a closer connection to the hellworlds, which is why they're attracted to Hellmouths, areas where the dimensional barrier is weaker."
Damn, Giles would be proud.
"So, what's the difference between the two kinds of demons?" Piper asked. "In a practical sense, I mean."
"Well, you've mostly been facing the human-based ones. Unlike those, tainted demons can't pass for human. Also, they tend to be stronger, tougher, faster, and they're not part of the whole secrecy conspiracy either. Most of them don't serve the Source. Not directly, anyway."
"Okay," Phoebe nodded. "So what's with the wooden stakes?"
"For vampires," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Which it was. To him anyway.
Phoebe looked at Paige, "I thought all the vampires were vanquished when you...?"
"Yeah, so did I."
Xander groaned as he launched into another explanation.
It was amazing how the so-called Source's conspiracy combined with the Hellmouth's attractive forces to keep the Charmed Ones in the dark about the other things that go bump in the night. The ones that had bitten Paige were the descendents of a vampire who had attained a considerable amount of demonic powers, enough that she had created a divergent line.
He had just finished up his explanation when the doorbell rang.
Lieutenant Darryl Morris waited impatiently, case file in hand.
He hated coming here with a case (without a case was a completely different story; he liked the Halliwells). It was against every reg in the book, and the captain always gave him strange looks whenever he saw him around one of the Halliwells.
When the door opened, he was relieved to find all three of them there. "Glad I caught you. I don't know what's going on, but..." his gaze caught the new guy, and he frowned, "...who's he?"
"Xander Harris," the man said, sticking his hand out.
"Darryl Morris," Darryl said, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"He's, um, he's Leo's replacement," Piper said. Darryl raised an eyebrow, and Piper smacked his arm, "Not like that! In the other sense."
"Oh, okay," Darryl nodded in understanding. "So... he knows?"
"Yes," Paige said impatiently, "he knows. What's wrong, Darryl?"
"Maybe we should take this inside," Phoebe suggested.