Chapter 4
True Happiness
"Look! Everyone's walking away! There's no line!"
Angel, Fred, and Gunn walked forward excitedly, but Cordelia and Wesley were more skeptical.
"Sorry, the ride is closed," a park employee was saying. "It's having maintenance problems. Come back in an hour or two."
"Indiana Jones is broken?!" Cordy said incredulously. "That never happens…"
"Perhaps we could help, since the rides run by magic," Wesley said to the others, and he turned to the woman. "I believe we may be of some assistance…"
"Excuse me?" the woman said, frowning.
"Well," Wesley said, and he leaned closer to her, "I am rather experienced with spells…"
"With what?"
"I know that the rides here run by magic."
The employee stared at him like he was insane.
"Disney magic!" Cordy said suddenly, stepping forward. "He means…he means…"
"He means the magic of Disney's engineering technology," Fred interrupted.
"Yes," Wesley said.
"Our maintenance team can handle it, thanks," the employee said, backing away from Wesley.
The AI Team headed away from the Indiana Jones ride.
"Apparently not all of the park employees are informed of the magical elements in the park," Wesley said, frowning.
"Duh," Cordy said, glaring at him.
"Don't get mad at Wesley, he didn't know," Fred said.
"Man, I'm sick of this, I want to go on a ride," Gunn said, folding his arms.
Cordy hesitated. "Well, I guess we could try waiting in line for Space Mountain…"
"Maybe we could try something with a shorter line," Angel said.
"The line for the Teacups is never long," Wesley said eagerly.
Cordy sighed. "Fine, we'll do it your way…"
Cordelia grumbled all the way to the Teacups, and all the way through the line. Angel was somewhat uneasy by the fact that they were the only adults in the line who weren't accompanied by children, but Gunn and Wesley were both so excited about the ride he didn't want to spoil it.
The group split, with Wesley, Gunn, and Fred in one teacup while Angel and Cordelia took another. Angel and Cordy weren't very excited about the ride, but when it began, and Angel's vampire strength started spinning the teacup at an amazing speed, neither could keep from laughing.
The AI team got off the teacup ride unable to keep straight faces, especially after Gunn, leaning sideways as he tried to maintain his balance, eventually keeled over, grabbing onto Fred's arm at the last second and dragging her down with him.
As Wesley and Cordy helped the two up, Angel beamed at his team, and a swelling of pride grew in him; he suddenly realized just how much he loved each and every one of them.
Cordy decided they should all make a bathroom trip, and Angel stood outside waiting for them, his mind wandering to all the happy memories he had spent with his team. Just at that moment, the clouds parted, and the sun shone down on Angel's face. Already smiling, his face split into a grin, and then…
The arrival of Snow White in the vicinity distracted the nearby Disney guests, who didn't notice the beams of light erupting from the tall, pale man standing outside the entrance to the bathrooms. One woman, seeing a reflection of it in a mirror she was holding to her face, turned around, but by the time she looked back all she saw was a man standing there, apparently normal. The woman turned back around.
Meanwhile, the man started walking away from the bathrooms, first slowly, then gaining speed. He stopped in a dark area behind a building, then laughed aloud.
In an amusement park filled with tasty humans, Angelus had awoken.