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Apr. 6th, 2007 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmatonakAnd yet more...
Chapter Thirteen: Ambrose's Office
Every nerve in Ambrose's arm was screaming.
It should have worked. The spell was properly constructed and correctly empowered. It should have ripped Angel's soul away in mere moments. His wards should have kept any supernatural creature at bay for as long as he desired. But his wards were gone and his arm was a mass of pain because the cord binding him to Angel's soul had, in the end, done nothing.
He began frantically looking through his files. There had to be some explanation. As he made his panicky way around the room, he caught sight of Anya in her glass. She wasn't smirking at him, but he thought she was.
"You bitch," he said, "you told them something. What did you tell them?"
For a moment, she tried not to answer. Ultimately, she was incapable of saying no to him in her ghostly state.
"I gave them this address."
He felt panic surging to match the pain.
"They survived that?!?"
"With the possible exception of Illyria, yes." Her detached calm infuriated him. Within the glass, Anya burst into flames. She screamed. He grinned mirthlessly and drank it in.
"This will last for weeks, Anyanka. And after I've wiped every last trace of your friends off the face of the earth, I'm going to start on your real punishment. Be silent and burn!" And she did. She had to.
Cheered and calmed, Ambrose continued searching his files. Presently he began to whistle.
Chapter Fourteen: 1334 Commerce Park Road
Mitch fingered the badge on his uniform and surveyed the security desk, his little kingdom.
After sunset, when the employees showed up for the extra night shift, Mitch had split them into pairs or trios and had them circle the lot. None of them were thrilled with this idea, being opposed by nature to pointless busywork. When Mitch made it clear that Mister Ambrose had been quite vehement, they did as they were told- the long-term employees were long-term precisely because they knew not to put Mister Ambrose in a mood- but Mitch knew how they felt.
Still. He tapped his fangs with a fingernail meditatively.
Angelus. William the Bloody. The "scourge of Europe", they called 'em in the stories. Even if they'd gone squirrelly since the good old days, they were still supposed to be bad men to cross. Two real heavy hitters.
In Mitch's personal calculus, thirty employees was better than two heavy hitters.
He was looking forward to killing a celebrity tonight.
Chapter Fifteen: A Short Way Up Commerce Park Road
As it happened, they'd left a sedan parked out back. They were clustered around it now.
Gunn lowered his binoculars. "I count a couple dozen, in little groups, patrolling around. Most of 'em ain't bothering to hide the game face. We could probably sneak in if we were real careful, but I think we'd be better off just taking the patrols one at a time for as long as we can."
Angel nodded. "I'd feel better if Illyria were here."
"As long as we play it smart, we don't need her for something like this."
"That isn't what I meant."
"Yeah, I know." Gunn hefted his axe. "Well, we're not gonna get done until we start, right?" The three set off toward the nearest corner of the parking lot.
Chapter Sixteen: Fiery Falling
She should have had more time. It had taken weeks to reach this stage, before. Even as she left the hospital and stepped back outside time, Illyria felt the light begin to take her to pieces. She was glad she had sent the others back to the Hyperion before going to work on Wesley.
The cracking was painful. She was losing track of the moment she wanted, unable to focus. She pushed out, blindly.
Chapter Seventeen: Parking Lot
It was always the same, Spike reflected. Vampires sucked ass at looking out for each other. It might have been different if whatever genius had set this up paid some attention to natural relations amongst the minions. Very few vamps were truly solitary. But whoever had set all this up had thrown random individuals together with others they didn't know well, and consequently couldn't give a toss about. The three of them had polished off the first four groups on that basis alone.
"They really should know better," Angel muttered. Spike grinned. "I mean, it's lucky for us that they don't..." Angel continued.
A little ways away, the vampires were grouping up. Some of them were talking into cell phones, presumably to someone inside the building.
"...but you're a little shocked at the decline in standards since the good old days?" Spike chimed in.
"Well... yeah."
"Looks like they're gonna rush us," Gunn said.
Angel snorted, "Right, because circling around behind is too complicated. Jesus Christ."
"Thought you guys couldn't say things like that," Gunn said. Angel just goggled at him, where have you been? written all over his face. Before Gunn could recover the conversational fumble, the vampires charged.
Chapter Eighteen: Security Desk
Mitch rose to his feet and began looking through the top drawer of his desk. He didn't bother with the gun, but the cleaver looked decent. God bless carbon steel, he mused happily.
Chapter Nineteen: Parking Lot
At first, even the rush was pretty easy to deal with. They did it assembly-line style. Angel or Spike would grab an enemy. The other of the pair would keep the enemy vamps off Gunn. Gunn would chop away. One, two, three.
The vamps got wise to this eventually, of course, and started using sheer weight and numbers to force them into bad positions. A couple of them did eventually circle around back, and that made things pretty bad. Once Gunn was disarmed, that was pretty much it. Now all three of them were being literally held up by pairs of enemy vamps, one on each side.
One of the vamps made eyes at Gunn's neck for a minute, stepped in close, and then got a weird look and backed away. Angel wondered about that.
A new guy, a blandly-handsome beefy fellow in a security uniform, sauntered up. His name tag said MITCH.
"Hey," Angel called out. "You were what, maybe thirty-three, thirty-four when you got turned?"
"Thirty-three, yeah," Mitch said.
"Played high school ball?"
"Yeah."
"Did you spend the next fifteen years colonizing a barstool and yapping about the time you scored three touchdowns in the big game?"
Suddenly Mitch was in game face.
"Big talk from a guy who eats rats." He looked around. "Or is this guy," tilting his chin at Gunn, "your picnic basket? He don't smell much better than a rat himself."
Gunn glared.
"I bet he is. Tell you what- I always wanted to see one of you guys in action. The boss was a little vague in his instructions, and I think I only gotta kill one of you. Whichever one of you eats this guy, we'll kill the other one."
"Deal," Spike said. Gunn's glare got even meaner. "Sorry, Charlie-boy, but you see how it is."
"Spike, what the hell are you doing?" Angel said. Before Spike could respond, Angel morphed into game face. "This kind of thing goes by seniority. You know that."
Spike lunged for Angel. His two minders pulled him back.
"I heard you boys were souly joes these days," Mitch said. "I'm beginning to think you might be putting me on."
"Maybe I'm just not the wide-eyed innocent I was when I came to the city," said Angel, "with all those dreams of making it to the big time. Move him over here and we'll see if I'm putting you on."
The two holding Gunn dragged him over and positioned him before Angel. Angel made as if to grab Gunn's shoulders, and Mitch said, "Uh-uh, no hands."
Spike said, "I can't believe you're really gonna do it." He sagged a little.
Sure enough, the one on Angel's left stopped paying attention to his grip and leaned forward to see the show. So Angel threw him at Mitch, who yelled, "I knew it! Get him!" And then Spike's two weren't paying attention either.
Things got confusing for a minute. Angel and Gunn had each other's backs. Mitch was hollering orders about Angel, so Spike had a relatively free hand going after Mitch himself. Mitch brandished the cleaver when he saw Spike coming.
Spike grabbed the cleaver-bearing wrist, kicked Mitch in the kneecap, and said, "Shiny." He saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.
The flat of Illyria's hand came out the front of Mitch's neck and Spike let go in a hurry.
"Oi! I wasn't through playin' with that!"
Illyria grabbed a vamp, raised him over her head, and tore him in two. The dust sparkled a little as it fell down.
"Pet, you... don't look so good." She didn't. Light was shining faintly through tiny cracks in her face.
"We should hurry," Illyria said flatly.
As the vampires scattered around them, the four crossed the parking lot.
Okay, I've seen issue 2 now.
Chapter Thirteen: Ambrose's Office
Every nerve in Ambrose's arm was screaming.
It should have worked. The spell was properly constructed and correctly empowered. It should have ripped Angel's soul away in mere moments. His wards should have kept any supernatural creature at bay for as long as he desired. But his wards were gone and his arm was a mass of pain because the cord binding him to Angel's soul had, in the end, done nothing.
He began frantically looking through his files. There had to be some explanation. As he made his panicky way around the room, he caught sight of Anya in her glass. She wasn't smirking at him, but he thought she was.
"You bitch," he said, "you told them something. What did you tell them?"
For a moment, she tried not to answer. Ultimately, she was incapable of saying no to him in her ghostly state.
"I gave them this address."
He felt panic surging to match the pain.
"They survived that?!?"
"With the possible exception of Illyria, yes." Her detached calm infuriated him. Within the glass, Anya burst into flames. She screamed. He grinned mirthlessly and drank it in.
"This will last for weeks, Anyanka. And after I've wiped every last trace of your friends off the face of the earth, I'm going to start on your real punishment. Be silent and burn!" And she did. She had to.
Cheered and calmed, Ambrose continued searching his files. Presently he began to whistle.
Chapter Fourteen: 1334 Commerce Park Road
Mitch fingered the badge on his uniform and surveyed the security desk, his little kingdom.
After sunset, when the employees showed up for the extra night shift, Mitch had split them into pairs or trios and had them circle the lot. None of them were thrilled with this idea, being opposed by nature to pointless busywork. When Mitch made it clear that Mister Ambrose had been quite vehement, they did as they were told- the long-term employees were long-term precisely because they knew not to put Mister Ambrose in a mood- but Mitch knew how they felt.
Still. He tapped his fangs with a fingernail meditatively.
Angelus. William the Bloody. The "scourge of Europe", they called 'em in the stories. Even if they'd gone squirrelly since the good old days, they were still supposed to be bad men to cross. Two real heavy hitters.
In Mitch's personal calculus, thirty employees was better than two heavy hitters.
He was looking forward to killing a celebrity tonight.
Chapter Fifteen: A Short Way Up Commerce Park Road
As it happened, they'd left a sedan parked out back. They were clustered around it now.
Gunn lowered his binoculars. "I count a couple dozen, in little groups, patrolling around. Most of 'em ain't bothering to hide the game face. We could probably sneak in if we were real careful, but I think we'd be better off just taking the patrols one at a time for as long as we can."
Angel nodded. "I'd feel better if Illyria were here."
"As long as we play it smart, we don't need her for something like this."
"That isn't what I meant."
"Yeah, I know." Gunn hefted his axe. "Well, we're not gonna get done until we start, right?" The three set off toward the nearest corner of the parking lot.
Chapter Sixteen: Fiery Falling
She should have had more time. It had taken weeks to reach this stage, before. Even as she left the hospital and stepped back outside time, Illyria felt the light begin to take her to pieces. She was glad she had sent the others back to the Hyperion before going to work on Wesley.
The cracking was painful. She was losing track of the moment she wanted, unable to focus. She pushed out, blindly.
Chapter Seventeen: Parking Lot
It was always the same, Spike reflected. Vampires sucked ass at looking out for each other. It might have been different if whatever genius had set this up paid some attention to natural relations amongst the minions. Very few vamps were truly solitary. But whoever had set all this up had thrown random individuals together with others they didn't know well, and consequently couldn't give a toss about. The three of them had polished off the first four groups on that basis alone.
"They really should know better," Angel muttered. Spike grinned. "I mean, it's lucky for us that they don't..." Angel continued.
A little ways away, the vampires were grouping up. Some of them were talking into cell phones, presumably to someone inside the building.
"...but you're a little shocked at the decline in standards since the good old days?" Spike chimed in.
"Well... yeah."
"Looks like they're gonna rush us," Gunn said.
Angel snorted, "Right, because circling around behind is too complicated. Jesus Christ."
"Thought you guys couldn't say things like that," Gunn said. Angel just goggled at him, where have you been? written all over his face. Before Gunn could recover the conversational fumble, the vampires charged.
Chapter Eighteen: Security Desk
Mitch rose to his feet and began looking through the top drawer of his desk. He didn't bother with the gun, but the cleaver looked decent. God bless carbon steel, he mused happily.
Chapter Nineteen: Parking Lot
At first, even the rush was pretty easy to deal with. They did it assembly-line style. Angel or Spike would grab an enemy. The other of the pair would keep the enemy vamps off Gunn. Gunn would chop away. One, two, three.
The vamps got wise to this eventually, of course, and started using sheer weight and numbers to force them into bad positions. A couple of them did eventually circle around back, and that made things pretty bad. Once Gunn was disarmed, that was pretty much it. Now all three of them were being literally held up by pairs of enemy vamps, one on each side.
One of the vamps made eyes at Gunn's neck for a minute, stepped in close, and then got a weird look and backed away. Angel wondered about that.
A new guy, a blandly-handsome beefy fellow in a security uniform, sauntered up. His name tag said MITCH.
"Hey," Angel called out. "You were what, maybe thirty-three, thirty-four when you got turned?"
"Thirty-three, yeah," Mitch said.
"Played high school ball?"
"Yeah."
"Did you spend the next fifteen years colonizing a barstool and yapping about the time you scored three touchdowns in the big game?"
Suddenly Mitch was in game face.
"Big talk from a guy who eats rats." He looked around. "Or is this guy," tilting his chin at Gunn, "your picnic basket? He don't smell much better than a rat himself."
Gunn glared.
"I bet he is. Tell you what- I always wanted to see one of you guys in action. The boss was a little vague in his instructions, and I think I only gotta kill one of you. Whichever one of you eats this guy, we'll kill the other one."
"Deal," Spike said. Gunn's glare got even meaner. "Sorry, Charlie-boy, but you see how it is."
"Spike, what the hell are you doing?" Angel said. Before Spike could respond, Angel morphed into game face. "This kind of thing goes by seniority. You know that."
Spike lunged for Angel. His two minders pulled him back.
"I heard you boys were souly joes these days," Mitch said. "I'm beginning to think you might be putting me on."
"Maybe I'm just not the wide-eyed innocent I was when I came to the city," said Angel, "with all those dreams of making it to the big time. Move him over here and we'll see if I'm putting you on."
The two holding Gunn dragged him over and positioned him before Angel. Angel made as if to grab Gunn's shoulders, and Mitch said, "Uh-uh, no hands."
Spike said, "I can't believe you're really gonna do it." He sagged a little.
Sure enough, the one on Angel's left stopped paying attention to his grip and leaned forward to see the show. So Angel threw him at Mitch, who yelled, "I knew it! Get him!" And then Spike's two weren't paying attention either.
Things got confusing for a minute. Angel and Gunn had each other's backs. Mitch was hollering orders about Angel, so Spike had a relatively free hand going after Mitch himself. Mitch brandished the cleaver when he saw Spike coming.
Spike grabbed the cleaver-bearing wrist, kicked Mitch in the kneecap, and said, "Shiny." He saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.
The flat of Illyria's hand came out the front of Mitch's neck and Spike let go in a hurry.
"Oi! I wasn't through playin' with that!"
Illyria grabbed a vamp, raised him over her head, and tore him in two. The dust sparkled a little as it fell down.
"Pet, you... don't look so good." She didn't. Light was shining faintly through tiny cracks in her face.
"We should hurry," Illyria said flatly.
As the vampires scattered around them, the four crossed the parking lot.
Okay, I've seen issue 2 now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 04:05 pm (UTC)I bought 2, but they were out of stock on 1. SHould I wait to get 1 before reading 2?
Are you reading Runaways (by Joss)?
Also, part 5 is not tagged with your fic tags.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 04:08 pm (UTC)I intend to start getting Runaways, but haven't yet.
I'll fix the tags on part 5. Thank you!