Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

ka-mia2286: Trust me, I'm looking forward to writing the part where all that happens myself

Maricole: You may indeed; I'm sorry it took so long to get done myself

CharmingStar: Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long

Ant Crown: Thanks; I do what I can

Wackycavegirl: Pretty soon; Doyle just has to get in and break Angel and Cole out first

AN: Just to clarify, the link between Doyle and Phoebe that was triggered by the spell can be consciously controlled by the two of them, although it remains active. At present, Doyle has turned off his perception of what Phoebe is seeing, meaning that he only sees what he sees, but Phoebe can still see what Doyle sees.

What Makes a Monster?

Doyle smiled slightly as he walked down yet another of Sunnydale's numerous back streets. True, he was no further along in achieving what he'd set out to do in the first place, but, in all fairness, it wasn't like he was eager to get knocked out and captured by a bunch of military nutcases…

And besides, if you didn't know about the demons, this place was actually very pleasant. Nice little suburban houses, a mass of pleasant little gardens…

He could definitely see himself coming to live here for some peace and quiet.

At least, if he hadn't known that it had an average death rate of three people a night, of course; that kind of statistic was public knowledge, even if the reason for it wasn't.

He rounded another corner…

And froze.

There were three men near him. He may not have Angel's vampiric senses, but even in human form, his senses operated at a level slightly above the human norm, allowing him to hear the faint traces of the men's heartbeats, along with the faint hum of some kind of electronic weapon that hung on their belts. It sounded like they were in a nearby alleyway; they couldn't have seen him yet…

Doyle smiled.

Perfect.

Closing his eyes, he shifted into his demonic form and walked into the alleyway, his hands held up in a claming gesture as the three men turned to look at him, pointing their weapons at him.

Doyle smiled slightly at them, feeling only a slight tinge of panic as he stared at the guns. He regretted that he couldn't feel what Phoebe was feeling about this, but that was the whole point of that part of the spell; the connection had to remain limited unless absolutely necessary, otherwise something might detect it. The sisters were convinced that something in the base was deliberately suppressing Cole's powers so that he couldn't escape, and didn't want to run the risk that someone might find out about the link and find some way to stop it as well.

Doyle looked one man in the eye, and then spoke.

"I know it's a flippin' cliché line, but… take me to your leader?" he said, trying to sound casual. "I'd like to see my ol' friend Angelus."

The man stared at Doyle for a moment, and then spoke.

"You know Angelus?" he said to Doyle. "Do you know anything about his… extras?"

Doyle was briefly puzzled by that query, but then it occurred to him; this guy must be referring to Angel's soul. True, he wasn't exactly sure how they could have done that, but he officially worked as the assistant to a private detective, not as the assistant to a major scientist. Who was he to say what kind of effect a soul would have on the body?

"Yeah, I do," he said, looking at the man. "Actually, I think you'll find I've got 'em myself; care to have me checked over?"

The man raised his gun and pointed it at Doyle's chest.

"Walk," he said. "And don't try anything, or you'll be zapped."

As Doyle started walking, he could only hope that he hadn't just made a serious mistake…

"Well, that's something," Phoebe muttered, from where she was sitting on Giles' sofa staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"What?" Willow asked, looking over at her new friend. "We've got something?"

"Well, Doyle's finally found some soldiers; all he needs to do now is get to their base," Phoebe said, before she glanced over at the cupboard where they were keeping this 'Spike' and raised her voice slightly. "Which we could have done a lot earlier if someone wasn't so damn picky about telling us useful stuff…"

"Let me bloody walk and we'll talk; I'm losing circulation in my bloody legs here!" Spike yelled back at her.

"You're a vampire; last time I checked, you guys are technically dead!" Piper yelled over from where she was preparing a meal for the group, aided by Buffy; Xander and Anya had gone back to their apartment for a while, Willow was looking over some books for information, and Cordelia, Leo, Giles and Paige had gone to the Magic Box to pick up some potion ingredients and spell books that they might need. "Do you even have any circulation?"

"He doesn't," Buffy put in, from where she was searching for a decent pot in the cupboards. "They don't even have body heat; to all intents and purposes, a vampire's just a walking corpse that often has a demon in it. Angel's the only exception…"

She stopped what she was doing for a moment and sighed.

"Bad memories?" Piper asked, looking inquiringly at her new friend.

"More… annoying, really," Buffy said, as she looked back at Piper. "I mean, Angel and I had something so good… and then he just left me at graduation without even saying goodbye to me."

She groaned as she looked up at the ceiling. "Bloody curse…"

"Curse?" Piper asked, looking over at Buffy curiously. "Leo mentioned it on the way down, but was that really the only reason you two broke it off?"

"Yeah…" Buffy said, as she looked over at Piper curiously. "Why?"

"Just, if that was the only problem, maybe my sisters and I could have a look at it for you?" Piper suggested.

Buffy blinked in surprise; evidently, that thought had never occurred to her.

"You… you could do that?" she asked, looking at Piper inquiringly. "I mean… make his soul permanent?"

"Probably," Piper said, nodding at the Slayer. "After all, the whole thing sounds a bit stupid to me; a curse that causes a champion for good to turn evil when he gets the chance to relax? Somebody needs to sort that out, right?"

"I'll drink to that," Buffy said, smiling at Piper. Then her face fell. "Or at least, I would drink to that, if I was old enough to do so…"

She shuddered briefly.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Had a bad beer-related experience recently," Buffy explained. "Some guy was slipping drugs into the beers that made anyone who drank them revert to a caveman-like mentality. I got over it, but still, not exactly a pleasant experience."

"I'll bet," Piper said, smiling sympathetically at the younger woman.

Walsh looked at the spine-faced demon standing in front of her, his arms held back by two of the other Initiative soldiers as he glared at her. He almost seemed to think that he was better than her, no matter how stupid that idea was…

"So, you claim to be acquainted with Angelus?" she asked the demon, raising an enquiring eyebrow. "If I may ask, how do you know each other?"

"We've worked together once or twice," the demon said, shrugging casually. "I've got some extras, he has those same benefits, we get along well."

Then his face grew even harder as he glared at Walsh. "Anyway, can I see my friend, or have you already killed him like the monsters that ye are?"

Walsh rolled her eyes; it seemed that, whatever else these three had in common, they all shared a common obsession with trying to convince Walsh that she was wrong for experimenting on these freaks of nature.

"He's still alive," she said, rolling her eyes as she glanced over at Riley, who was standing behind the new target fingering his gun. "Get a chip installed and toss him in with Hostiles 42 and 44."

"Um… 'chip'?" the demon said, looking at her in a suddenly nervous manner. "What chi- ARGH!" he screamed, as the taser gun struck him in the back and he collapsed to the ground.

"Bloody hell…" Doyle muttered, as he staggered weakly onto his feet, blinking rapidly to try and clear his vision. "Did anyone get the number of that bloody truck…"

"Doyle?" a voice said from off to one side, almost sounding worse-off than he did.

"Angel!" Doyle said in joy, leaping to his feet and looking over at his friend, the last traces of his earlier pain gone in an instant. "Yer alive!"

"Yeah…" the vampire said, as he staggered to his feet and looked dazedly at his friend. "But… what are you doing here?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry about th-" Doyle began, before his eyes fell on the red shape lying beside them both, who was only just starting to stir. "Ah, Cole Turner, I presume?"

"Ugh…" Cole muttered, as he blinked his eyes open and slowly began to stagger back onto his feet.

"What?" Angel asked, looking at Doyle in confusion. "How'd you know that?"

"His girlfriend and her sisters showed up to try and track him down, ran into us, and one thing led to another," Doyle said, smiling at his friend.

"Phoebe?" Cole said, looking at Doyle with sudden eagerness, although he still didn't seem to be firing on all thrusters. "She… she's here?"

"Oh yeah," Doyle said, smiling at the red-skinned demon. The guy may look vicious, but there was something about his manner that Doyle found appealing.

Besides, after all the stories he'd heard from Phoebe, he found he kind of sympathised with the guy…

"Actually, she cast a spell that links her left eye to mine so that we see what the other sees for the moment," Doyle explained, smiling at Cole's gleeful expression. "Figured we might need so they know if things go badly down here; they should be available if things go badly."

"So, we've got the Charmed Ones, the Slayer, two demons, and an extra witch batting for our team when we get out of here?" Angel asked, smiling eagerly at his friend.

"Oh yeah," Doyle said, nodding casually at the vampire.

Angel casually dusted his hands together and turned to look at the energy field between them and freedom.

"Well, let's get down to business," he said, as he turned to look back at Cole. "I have an idea, but I'm going to need your he-"

He froze. The other two didn't need to ask why; they could already hear the footsteps coming down the corridor towards their cell, although whether they were coming for them or a demon in one of the other cells was a mystery at the moment.

"So, Riley, any plans regarding the delectable Miss Summers?" one of the soldiers said, as they got closer to the cell.

Angel froze.

Buffy…

"Well, y'know, I'm thinking I might ask her out for a coffee tomorrow night…" 'Riley' said, as they walked by the trio's cell.

Angel clenched his fists. He recognized Riley; he was the relatively average-looking man she'd been talking to with every appearance of enjoying the conversation. He nearly growled at the man, but then smiled as he came up with a better idea.

"Would that be Buffy Summers?" he asked casually.

'Riley' froze and turned to look at the vampire in the cell.

"What do you know about Buffy?" he said.

Angel shrugged. "Oh, I know that she's the Slayer… and a really good kisser," he said, grinning. He knew that the last comment was a bit of a low blow, but, quite frankly, he couldn't help it.

He chuckled at the shocked expression on Riley's face as he turned to look at the vampire. For the first time since he'd arrived in this base, Angel had control. He could pull Riley any way he wanted…

And God, he liked that.

"What!" both Riley and the other soldier said simultaneously.

"He said she's the Slayer, you idiot," Cole put in, chuckling as he realised what Angel was planning. "We knew you were stupid, but we didn't think you were deaf, too."

"Um, Cole, I think he was asking about the other thing," Angel said, before turning back to look at Riley. "Yeah, good kisser, great in bed."

Riley looked like he was going to faint, but, to his 'credit', he maintained his composure.

"Buffy would NEVER do that with you," he said flatly, as he stared at the vampire.

"Wanna bet?" Angel said, grinning evilly at the young man.

Riley stepped forward, reaching out to the button that opened the field…

And as soon as the field separating the two groups had gone down, Angel had grabbed Riley's gun and, despite the brief, blinding agony in his skull that the action caused, kicked Riley back as he tossed the gun over to Cole.

Cole turned the weapon back on the other soldiers, and fired it rapidly three times, all three of them instantly collapsing to the ground from the sheer force of the electric power that spread through their bodies.

Angel and Cole glanced over at Doyle with smiles on their faces.

"Looks like these chips in our heads only work if we actually hit the other guys," Cole said, grinning as he stared at the gun in his hand. "Give us a few of these to fight with, and it'll be all plain sailing."

"Oh yeah…" Angel said, grinning as he glanced down at the unconscious bodies before him before looking back at his allies. "Well, now that we've sorted that out, shall we escape? We'd better take the guns to fight with until we can get these chips out of our heads; I take it they installed one in you as well?" he asked Doyle.

Doyle nodded. "Think so, at least; they were definitely talking about it when I was knocked out," he said.

Angel kicked the guns over to Cole and Doyle, and then smiled slightly as his eyes fell on the bodies of Riley and the other soldiers.

"Actually, forget the idea of fighting our way out," he said, as he looked thoughtfully from the bodies to those of his friends, "I may just have another idea…"