TITLE: Whiskers Of Fury
AUTHOR: BulldogPhilbo
RATING: For safety's sake, let's call it R. Just in case.
FEEDBACK: See, it's this thing where you read someone else's fic, then you tell the person what you thought of it. The person gets enough good feedback, they keep writing. Everybody wins.
DISCLAIMER: Joss Whedon? Yes. Me? No. Enough said.
DISTRIBUTION: You want it? You can have it. Just let me know where to see it.
SUMMARY: BtVS/Angel crossover. The Scooby Gang and the Angel Investigations crew are brought together to face their toughest enemy yet. And it's an enemy that none of them ever would have expected ...
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Consider this fic set at some point after Buffy season 5/Angel season 2. A few months, maybe. None of the new season stuff has happened. Also, this is a repost. I wrote the first 4 chapters to this story a few months ago, and I wanted to clean them up a bit and repost them before I started writing the next chapter. So if you happened to read these chapters before and are a bit confused, now you know why.
DEDICATION: To Spikmeister. Bring on the army of kitten minions. And also to my "Whiskers" feedbackers: Amelia, chalkdusty, Cheryl, Christopher Marlowe, cile, cyberwulf, elizabethdarcy, gyrlfriend, JJ, Katherine, Kelley and Shelley, Levi Truelove, MattyMatt, Shadowfang, and Sweet Kitten. It's you guys who keep me writing.
***
CHAPTER 1 - She Will Scratch You
***
Night time in Sunnydale.
It was a little after midnight. Main Street was deserted, and eerily silent. If you listened hard, you could just make out the sound of two dogs barking in the distance, but aside from that, not a sound could be heard.
Then, the sound of footsteps, shuffling along the sidewalk. Under the bright glare of the streetlights in the otherwise darkened street, a figure could be seen moving along the path beside the road. It was a young man, early twenties from the look of him, walking at a mildly slow pace. A half- smoked cigarette dangled from between his lips. He had a set of headphones over his ears, and he listened to a CD that was playing on the portable disc player that rested in a pocket in the inside of his jacket.
As the young man passed an alley that ran down the space between the magic shop and the butcher shop, he heard a noise coming from the alley. It sounded like something being knocked over. A trashcan lid, perhaps, or a stack of packing crates. The sound, whatever it was, was loud enough to register in his ears over the music coming from his disc player, and it startled him. He stopped walking abruptly, took his headphones off and stuffed them in his jacket pocket, and turned his head to look down the alley.
He heard nothing.
Dismissing it, he was about to start walking again when another noise got his attention. It, too, came from the alley, but this sound was different. A strange, unfamiliar, unsettling hissing sound that created a disturbing feeling of unease in the pit of the young man's stomach. This sound wasn't like anything he had ever heard before. There was a frightening quality to it that he didn't like in the slightest.
The young man stood frozen to the spot. The ugly hissing noise had registered within him a level of irrational fear he hadn't even known he was capable of feeling.
However, that fear was nothing compared to the terror he felt during what happened next.
***
Night time in Los Angeles.
Cordelia Chase was in the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel, seated behind her desk, struggling to stay awake. She had been to a glamorous Hollywood party the night before, and had been up most of the night. She had finally arrived back at home a little after five in the morning, and had gone straight to bed, only to be woken again at seven by the ringing phone on her night table by the bed. She could have sworn she told Dennis to take it off the hook before she fell asleep. It was Wesley, calling her in to work.
And now, she had been called in again. Angel, Wesley and Gunn were on the other side of the town at the moment, fighting off a particularly nasty pack of slime demons, and Wes had asked Cordy to come in and hold down the fort in the meantime, and deal with anyone who happened to come by. Wolfram & Hart lawyers, for instance.
So, here she was. Sitting in her desk chair behind her desk, and re-reading the latest issue of "Excruciating Headaches Monthly" in a feeble attempt to alleviate her boredom.
Feeling hungry, Cordelia started to get up to go and grab a snack, but quickly fell back into her seat and grabbed her head, as the full force of a vision hit her like a thunderbolt.
***
Willow and Tara were headed back to their dorm room. Willow had to support Tara as they walked. The two of them, along with Buffy, Xander, Spike, and Giles, had gone to a dorm party that night, and Tara had gotten more than a little drunk. Willow had to take Tara back home with her, and leave the others behind early. She realised this when she turned around to see her lover standing on a table, wearing a lampshade on her head, and singing "We Will Rock You" at the top of her lungs, while a large group of college students gathered around her, cheering.
As the two girls walked into their dorm room, only Willow noticed the mess the room was in. Tara staggered across the room, giggling, and crashed down onto the bed, where she promptly passed out. Willow, meanwhile, stared in shock at the sight before her.
The room was a shambles. Objects had been knocked to the floor, the curtains had been violently torn and now hung in strips, and a familiar glass cage was lying on the floor, smashed and broken open.
Amy's cage.
Quickly, her heart in her mouth, Willow dashed over to where the remains of the cage lay beside the bed. Tara grunted, and rolled over on the bed. Amy was nowhere to be found. Willow squatted down on all fours, and started looking across the floor for any sign of the human-turned-rat. Her breath caught in her throat when she spotted something long and thin under her bed. Reaching under the bed, she picked it up, brought it close to her face, and looked at it. Then she threw it away with a disgusted and sickened expression on her face when she realised what it was.
It was a rat's tail.
Willow had yet to notice who should have been in the room, but wasn't.
***
Angel, Gunn and Wesley entered the lobby of the Hyperion, where they saw Cordelia sitting slumped in her chair, her hands at her forehead. Quickly, the three of them jogged over to her.
"Cordy, what is it?" Angel asked her.
"You okay?" Gunn asked her.
"Was it a vision?" Angel asked her.
Cordelia didn't answer right away, and Wesley motioned for the others to move away and give her some space. Angel and Gunn moved back a few steps, but no further. Then they stood still, watching Cordy with matching looks of deep concern.
Wesley squatted down next to Cordelia, and put a hand on her arm. "How are you feeling?" he asked her, speaking quietly. "Did you see something?"
Cordy nodded.
"What did you see?" Wesley gently prompted.
"A man," Cordy answered after a moment. She spoke in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. "An alley."
She lapsed into silence again, and Wesley grew more concerned when her face showed an expression of pain. "Are the visions still hurting you?" he asked her.
"That's not the problem," Cordelia replied, her voice still almost inaudible. "This time, anyway. It ... it was what I saw." She shuddered.
"That's quite alright," Wes assured her. "Just take your time."
Cordy nodded, looked up at him, and gave him a small smile. Wesley could see the anguish behind it, though. "This guy," she said slowly. "He looked young, maybe early twenties. He was ... he was on his back. Something was attacking him. There were claws ... and blood ... oh, God." Cordy started to shudder again, and Wesley patiently waited for the shudder to pass. He put a comforting hand on her back.
When she had calmed again, Wesley spoke. "What was attacking him?"
Cordy looked up at him again, and Wesley was shocked by the look of unbridled terror in her eyes. The words she spoke next sent a chill up the ex-Watcher's spine.
"It was a kitten."
T.B.C.
AUTHOR: BulldogPhilbo
RATING: For safety's sake, let's call it R. Just in case.
FEEDBACK: See, it's this thing where you read someone else's fic, then you tell the person what you thought of it. The person gets enough good feedback, they keep writing. Everybody wins.
DISCLAIMER: Joss Whedon? Yes. Me? No. Enough said.
DISTRIBUTION: You want it? You can have it. Just let me know where to see it.
SUMMARY: BtVS/Angel crossover. The Scooby Gang and the Angel Investigations crew are brought together to face their toughest enemy yet. And it's an enemy that none of them ever would have expected ...
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Consider this fic set at some point after Buffy season 5/Angel season 2. A few months, maybe. None of the new season stuff has happened. Also, this is a repost. I wrote the first 4 chapters to this story a few months ago, and I wanted to clean them up a bit and repost them before I started writing the next chapter. So if you happened to read these chapters before and are a bit confused, now you know why.
DEDICATION: To Spikmeister. Bring on the army of kitten minions. And also to my "Whiskers" feedbackers: Amelia, chalkdusty, Cheryl, Christopher Marlowe, cile, cyberwulf, elizabethdarcy, gyrlfriend, JJ, Katherine, Kelley and Shelley, Levi Truelove, MattyMatt, Shadowfang, and Sweet Kitten. It's you guys who keep me writing.
***
CHAPTER 1 - She Will Scratch You
***
Night time in Sunnydale.
It was a little after midnight. Main Street was deserted, and eerily silent. If you listened hard, you could just make out the sound of two dogs barking in the distance, but aside from that, not a sound could be heard.
Then, the sound of footsteps, shuffling along the sidewalk. Under the bright glare of the streetlights in the otherwise darkened street, a figure could be seen moving along the path beside the road. It was a young man, early twenties from the look of him, walking at a mildly slow pace. A half- smoked cigarette dangled from between his lips. He had a set of headphones over his ears, and he listened to a CD that was playing on the portable disc player that rested in a pocket in the inside of his jacket.
As the young man passed an alley that ran down the space between the magic shop and the butcher shop, he heard a noise coming from the alley. It sounded like something being knocked over. A trashcan lid, perhaps, or a stack of packing crates. The sound, whatever it was, was loud enough to register in his ears over the music coming from his disc player, and it startled him. He stopped walking abruptly, took his headphones off and stuffed them in his jacket pocket, and turned his head to look down the alley.
He heard nothing.
Dismissing it, he was about to start walking again when another noise got his attention. It, too, came from the alley, but this sound was different. A strange, unfamiliar, unsettling hissing sound that created a disturbing feeling of unease in the pit of the young man's stomach. This sound wasn't like anything he had ever heard before. There was a frightening quality to it that he didn't like in the slightest.
The young man stood frozen to the spot. The ugly hissing noise had registered within him a level of irrational fear he hadn't even known he was capable of feeling.
However, that fear was nothing compared to the terror he felt during what happened next.
***
Night time in Los Angeles.
Cordelia Chase was in the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel, seated behind her desk, struggling to stay awake. She had been to a glamorous Hollywood party the night before, and had been up most of the night. She had finally arrived back at home a little after five in the morning, and had gone straight to bed, only to be woken again at seven by the ringing phone on her night table by the bed. She could have sworn she told Dennis to take it off the hook before she fell asleep. It was Wesley, calling her in to work.
And now, she had been called in again. Angel, Wesley and Gunn were on the other side of the town at the moment, fighting off a particularly nasty pack of slime demons, and Wes had asked Cordy to come in and hold down the fort in the meantime, and deal with anyone who happened to come by. Wolfram & Hart lawyers, for instance.
So, here she was. Sitting in her desk chair behind her desk, and re-reading the latest issue of "Excruciating Headaches Monthly" in a feeble attempt to alleviate her boredom.
Feeling hungry, Cordelia started to get up to go and grab a snack, but quickly fell back into her seat and grabbed her head, as the full force of a vision hit her like a thunderbolt.
***
Willow and Tara were headed back to their dorm room. Willow had to support Tara as they walked. The two of them, along with Buffy, Xander, Spike, and Giles, had gone to a dorm party that night, and Tara had gotten more than a little drunk. Willow had to take Tara back home with her, and leave the others behind early. She realised this when she turned around to see her lover standing on a table, wearing a lampshade on her head, and singing "We Will Rock You" at the top of her lungs, while a large group of college students gathered around her, cheering.
As the two girls walked into their dorm room, only Willow noticed the mess the room was in. Tara staggered across the room, giggling, and crashed down onto the bed, where she promptly passed out. Willow, meanwhile, stared in shock at the sight before her.
The room was a shambles. Objects had been knocked to the floor, the curtains had been violently torn and now hung in strips, and a familiar glass cage was lying on the floor, smashed and broken open.
Amy's cage.
Quickly, her heart in her mouth, Willow dashed over to where the remains of the cage lay beside the bed. Tara grunted, and rolled over on the bed. Amy was nowhere to be found. Willow squatted down on all fours, and started looking across the floor for any sign of the human-turned-rat. Her breath caught in her throat when she spotted something long and thin under her bed. Reaching under the bed, she picked it up, brought it close to her face, and looked at it. Then she threw it away with a disgusted and sickened expression on her face when she realised what it was.
It was a rat's tail.
Willow had yet to notice who should have been in the room, but wasn't.
***
Angel, Gunn and Wesley entered the lobby of the Hyperion, where they saw Cordelia sitting slumped in her chair, her hands at her forehead. Quickly, the three of them jogged over to her.
"Cordy, what is it?" Angel asked her.
"You okay?" Gunn asked her.
"Was it a vision?" Angel asked her.
Cordelia didn't answer right away, and Wesley motioned for the others to move away and give her some space. Angel and Gunn moved back a few steps, but no further. Then they stood still, watching Cordy with matching looks of deep concern.
Wesley squatted down next to Cordelia, and put a hand on her arm. "How are you feeling?" he asked her, speaking quietly. "Did you see something?"
Cordy nodded.
"What did you see?" Wesley gently prompted.
"A man," Cordy answered after a moment. She spoke in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. "An alley."
She lapsed into silence again, and Wesley grew more concerned when her face showed an expression of pain. "Are the visions still hurting you?" he asked her.
"That's not the problem," Cordelia replied, her voice still almost inaudible. "This time, anyway. It ... it was what I saw." She shuddered.
"That's quite alright," Wes assured her. "Just take your time."
Cordy nodded, looked up at him, and gave him a small smile. Wesley could see the anguish behind it, though. "This guy," she said slowly. "He looked young, maybe early twenties. He was ... he was on his back. Something was attacking him. There were claws ... and blood ... oh, God." Cordy started to shudder again, and Wesley patiently waited for the shudder to pass. He put a comforting hand on her back.
When she had calmed again, Wesley spoke. "What was attacking him?"
Cordy looked up at him again, and Wesley was shocked by the look of unbridled terror in her eyes. The words she spoke next sent a chill up the ex-Watcher's spine.
"It was a kitten."
T.B.C.