T O R C H W O O D & A N G E L
P A R T O N E
An ordinary day in L.A. is an oxymoron at best. An ordinary day in the City of Angels involves, for the lucky ones, getting up, starring in a movie, being paid stupid amounts of cash and then retiring to a hot tub with three glamorous supermodels. In comparison to the average working people in Los Angeles, this wasn't ordinary. However, the average population aren't actually so average; as demons, vampires, Halflings and other strange and wonderful and terrifying creatures inhabit the city. And an ordinary day for Angel Investigations means killing said abnormal pests.
An ordinary day for a young aspiring actress turned demon hunter such as Cordelia Chase is out of the question. Especially when, as she's stepping on a bus to work, her entire skull splits open with a flashing orgy of images and screams. But then again, it is just an ordinary day for her. Cordy, as her friends call her, could see all at once a body of water and the glass tower nearby. Water flowed down the tower, which was in front of a large inscription about stones and horizons. And then the images changed to computers and the base of the tower, which extended below ground. A scream punctuated everything she could see and it was only when an elderly man tapped her on the shoulder and offered an aspirin that Cordelia came back from her vision. It was going to be one of those days.
"I can't carry on like this!" Cordelia exclaimed, raising her arms in that outraged way and following Angel around the office as he hunted for a file left in the wrong place.
"Cordy, there's nothing we can do, I'm sorry. You'll just have to…"
"Live with it?!" she screamed.
Angel found the file, picked it up and turned to face the wannabe star. He tried to think of something to make her feel better, but she should know by now that the burden of the visions was heavy, but that Doyle had believed in her enough to pass them on.
"I have a lot going on at the moment Cordy, can we talk about this another time?" Angel asked, referencing the scroll now taking priority on his desk. A prophecy was etched into the stolen scroll – once the property of Wolfram and Hart, but stolen only the day before during a case where Angel found he had to team up with Lindsay, an enemy he'd made on the day Angel Investigations was established.
"Ok, ok. But we're having that talk someday!" Cordelia said, snatching the file from Angel's hand and taking it over to the filing cabinet.
"Cancel all plans!" Wesley, the British ex-watcher, announced as he entered the office, holding up a piece of A5 note paper with various scrawlings on both sides.
"Let me guess,you discovered the delights of a computer? That or you figured out how we can make more money. Angel?"
Angel folded his arms and looked at Cordelia. She raised her eyebrows as if to goad him into an answer.
"Probably the former, wish it was the latter," the vampire commented.
"Your attitude is about to change when I tell you what's on this piece of paper," Wesley confidently told his colleagues.
He walked closer to them and the three gathered in the centre of the room. Wesley passed Angel the paper.
"What is it?"
"An old friend, know him from my Watcher's Council days, has located a pendant that will tell us the key to understanding the scroll as well as…well that is to say…as well as showing us the future,"
There was silence in the room for the briefest of moments, before Cordelia's face brightened up with excitement.
"So we can get rid of these visions?" she smiled, moving her finger up and down in the air next to her head, indicating where her head felt like a boulder had crushed it every time a vision passed through her mind.
"Well…yes, I suppose. And we'll unlock the prophecy and can probably use it to bring down Wolfram and Hart," Wesley confirmed.
"Where is it?" Angel asked, squinting as he tried to read the squiggles on the paper.
"Cardiff," Wesley replied, sheepishly as if he'd led them on.
"What? In England?" Cordelia asked, her face contorting to a mixture of annoyance and excitement.
"No, Cordelia, Wales. The only problem is if we all go, there's no way to keep you from burning up mid flight," Wesley looked at Angel, the hardest thing to factor in to a plan was his vampirism, after all.
"Cordy to the rescue," the ex-Sunnydale resident smiled and leant over her desk to pick up the phone before dialling.
"Yeah, hi, I'm calling to speak to David Nabbit, just say it's Angel Investigations. Cordelia from Angel Investigations,"
David Nabbit had been photographed taking part in activities of a dubious nature, and it was this blackmail case as well as Angel Investigations'…uniqueness, that attracted the multi-billionaire back to the team. That's why, when they needed a private jet to get them from L.A. to Cardiff pronto, he was only too happy to help.
The advantages for the team were numerous: they could get there faster and their boss wouldn't combust because they could have all the screens over the windows among other decision swaying pros.
"Nervous?"
Wesley didn't like flying and Angel could tell from his shaking hand and the ninth empty packet of peanuts falling to the floor.
"I don't get on with long plane journeys," Wesley swallowed, sweating and scared.
"I can tell," Angel smirked.
He glanced over at the sleeping Cordelia, trashy novel open on her lap and dressed like it was a holiday, with a little drool in the corner of her mouth. It still felt unusual that the spoilt, bitchy Sunnydale cheerleader was helping him to fight evil, but he put it down to her being a good person deep down. Very deep down.
The plane shook without warning and Cordelia jolted awake.
"BUFFY!" she yelled, looking around the plane, expecting demons, vampires and forces of the Hellmouth rising up. She was, however, relieved to find the only vampire was Angel but worried by the flashes outside the plane, the light of which managed to sneak through the bottom of the screens.
"Stay here a sec," Angel said calmly.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and made his way to the cockpit.
Wesley gulped loudly, panic filling his face. Cordy offered some of her bottled water the seat behind him, which the former watcher graciously accepted and sipped at the water, all the while taking off his tie and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt.
Wesley always dressed smartly and had decided on his cream jacket and trousers with his favourite blue tie and white shirt combination. Cordelia, on the other hand, kept things casual with her dark blue jeans and a red top that extended three quarters of the way down her arms and had a intricate pattern sewn into the bottom half in darker reds. She pulled her brunette hair into a ponytail and leaned beside Wesley, who was becoming greener as the turbulence accompanying the lightning became heavier.
Angel returned from the cockpit just as calmly and coolly as he had entered it.
"Says it'll be fine soon, we're about to land. Just the weather," their vampire boss assured his panicking assistants.
True to his word, the pilot landed in Cardiff within half an hour of the storm's outbreak. But there was no sign of any sort of lightning or rain in the Welsh capital, regardless of what they had witnessed in the sky. However, as the Angel Investigations team got off the plane, Angel could smell something in the air. Something…different. And it wasn't just the climate.
"It's freezing!" Cordelia remarked, pulling her black jacket on and descending the private jet's steps.
A few minutes spent being lost and then a taxi ride later and the gang found themselves at Tiger Bay on Cardiff's waterfront. Night had long since descended over Cardiff, the moon reflecting serenely on the water's surface.
"Are we close, Wes?" Angel asked, looking at his friend with some scepticism.
Everywhere around the bay was empty except for large crates and shipping containers. Wesley was looking around and glancing at a piece of paper in his hand with a crude drawing scratched onto it.
"Round about…there," Wesley said, turning 180° to find himself staring down the barrel of a webley revolver.
"Wrong choice," came a husky Welsh voice from behind the man with the long world war two coat, holding the gun.
"I…I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement here," Wesley said, voice shaking and hands raised.
Angel stepped forward and looked the man holding the gun to his friend's face up and down.
"Is that so?"
The man fired two shots into Angel – one in his arm and the other his leg – forcing the vampire to collapse. The vampire's face morphed and he looked up at his attacker, fangs bared and eyes yellow.
"Way to go Jack, piss him off why don't you?" the Welshman said.
"What are you? Half Weevil? Trust me, you looked better before," the man called Jack said.
A clapping noise echoed around the immediate area, and all five people turned to face the creator of the noise.
Lilah Morgan emerged from the shadows between to massive shipping containers, Lindsey McDonald beside her.
"Well, isn't this going to be fun?" Lilah grinned.
Lindsey held up a pendant on a silver chain, engraved with a strange rune. Jack whipped around and aimed at Lilah's head.
"If it's alien, it's ours," the Welshman said with authority beyond his ragged looks.
His black hair was greying at the side and his tan coloured coat hadn't aged as well as Jack's navy blue vintage coat. His name was Alex Hopkins and he wasn't happy waiting in the cold for something to fall out of the rift. His nose was red from the low temperature and his black stubble showed his sleepless nights recently.
"Ah, Torchwood. Nice to make your acquaintance at last," Lilah said, smiling and stepping forward.
"Don't trust her," Cordelia said, standing tensely and ready to pounce.
"How do you know us?" Jack asked.
"Alex Hopkins, the leader of Torchwood-3 and his trusty freelance assistant Captain Jack Harkness," Lindsey replied, smugly.
Angel's face had in this time returned to its normal appearance and he stepped forward, the bullets causing him pain as he moved. Alex aimed his gun at the vampire.
"Not a step closer!" he yelled.
"There's something in the air," Angel said looking around and sniffing whilst holding his leg.
"Jack, the Rift!" Alex had noted the beeping coming from his Rift monitoring device.
The ground rumbled and caused many confused looks from the L.A. rivals.
"Lindsey, what's going on?"
"I don't know! Get back to the car, we have the pendant," he said, grabbing Lilah's arm.
Lightning crackled above them and the sky rippled as golden light flowed between cracks in time and space. Angel took this as his chance and lunged at Lila, grabbing the pendant just as he felt the ground fall away from beneath him. Cordelia and Wesley ran towards him and he tried to shout for them to stay back, but the noise was too loud. It was like a tornado blowing in his ears. Angel was completely surrounded in the golden energy, floating in a limbo, save a circular window back into the bay. The last thing he saw before the light completely blinded him was Cordy and Wes being pulled into the Rift with him, screaming as they all grabbed hands and silence descended.
