Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe, Buffyverse or anything else you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
And thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his suggestions on here.
Chapter 2- Resident ghost
"This is Stick?" Angel asked, looking at the rest of them. "The Stick?"
"Why do you call yourself 'Stick'? You don't look like one", Harmony said, hands on her hips.
"What are you doing here though?" Cordelia asked the important question.
"Yes, we would love to know", Wesley agreed, arms folded.
Stick sighed and looked at the whole team.
"You idiots are in the belly of the beast, and you thought no one would raise an eyebrow? Matt, Strange, they may trust you, but these bloodsuckers?" Stick gestured to the lawyers outside the office. "Hell no."
"Right", Gunn nodded. "And you are here because-"
Stick groaned and added. "Let's just say I've grown fond of your particularly bunch of assholes. Except him," Stick pointed at Angel, "I still don't like suckheads."
"Hey! That's species-ist!" Harmony snapped.
"And there's my reason for not liking 'em", Stick shrugged.
"So what? You're just gonna hang around here like Casper?" Lorne asked Stick.
"Whatever works for you", Stick shrugged again.
"Come on, we can take care of ourselves, we don't need a ghostly babysitter", Cordelia argued.
"First, not a babysitter, second, you need one anyway, Matty would want me here", Stick told them all.
"He sent you?" Angel then asked.
"No, but I know he'd want someone trusted looking out for you lot", Stick said, then turned to Wesley. "And I say after our little stint together, I should be trusted enough, ain't that right Watcher boy?"
"I believe it is", Wesley nodded.
"So, we now have a ghost here too? Come on!" Harmony said, turning to Cordelia. "There was one in your home too-"
Next moment Stick was right in front of her, cracking his neck. "Don't think the dumb blonde stereotype, that too a suckhead, is someone to take seriously in this shit."
Harmony glared at Stick and walked out with an 'urrgghhh'.
Fred then asked Stick. "There are many sensors here though, they'd detect even an intruding ghost like you, how'd you get past all of that?"
Stick gestured to himself. "Composed of spiritual and mental energy retained and expelled by myself when my body was dying, mix in some time harnessing and maintaining my being, and you get Matty's own Obi-Wan, with a protection spell from the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Your sensors ain't got shit on me."
The team shared looks as Gunn said. "Guess that's….comforting?"
"So, you'll stick around?" Angel asked before realizing what he'd said. "Sorry, didn't mean to pun."
"Wasn't a good one anyway", Stick said with another shrug.
A minute of them just standing there.
"Come on, do your work, stop staring!" Stick then said as all were now out of their little daze that they had gotten due to Stick's arrival.
Harmony then came in again and noticed Stick was still there. "You're still here?"
"Well, I'm more useful than you are", Stick shrugged and Harmony groaned.
"What do you want?" Angel asked Harmony.
"Just wanted to tell you, you've a meeting a 3 o' clock with a Groxlar Demon, you're welcome boss", Harmony then turned around and walked off back to her desk.
"Why am I meeting a Groxlar Demon?" Angel wondered, looking at his son who was looking at him with his big blue innocent eyes.
"To get them to stop eating babies", Gunn responded as he walked to Angel.
"Sure, and Nazis will give up their Nazism", Stick shrugged and was shot looks. "Come on, its in their nature."
"Drinking blood is in Vampires' nature and Angel doesn't drink it, Spike doesn't either, not even Harmony does it, and I hate praising her", Cordelia defended Angel.
"Pig's blood is still blood", Stick pointed out.
"Yeah but it doesn't give the same ecstasy human blood would, Casper Gramps", Lorne reminded.
"I think we should take Connor away if a Demon like that is visiting", Cordelia suggested as she took Connor from Angel and handed him to Groo.
"I will take good care of him", Groo assured as he walked out.
"When Wolfram and Hart jacked me up, they gave me knowledge of Demon laws too, these Groxlar respect leaders who take strong opening positions", Gunn explained to Angel.
"And how's that supposed to help me?" Angel asked.
"It means they'll respect you if you trash 'em, suckhead", Stick told Angel.
"What?" Angel asked. "I want to do it but that can't be right."
"Actually, it is", Gunn said and Angel was surprised.
"I imagine you'd like it, considering what kind of Demons these are", Wesley pointed out.
"Yeah, beat 'em up, earn respect, make them stop eating babies", Fred agreed with a nod.
"Good luck Angelcakes", Lorne said as Cordelia and Angel shared a kiss.
"Hope I can do it."
A while later, the Groxlar entered Angel's office and the Vampire held out his hand while the Groxlar shook it, only for Angel to pull it with the hand and punch it, then he elbowed it in a spin motion before flipping it over.
He walked to it but was kicked back as it got up and punched, and tried to punch again but Angel blocked and head-butted it before punching it thrice and hurled it against the wall, knocking it out.
"Snap its neck now", Stick said as he appeared.
"What? No! I'm supposed to negotiate!" Angel snapped at him.
"Fine, I'll do it myself", Stick walked towards the unconscious Demon.
"No, no one's killing anyone", Angel said firmly.
"Suckhead to corporate suckhead", Stick groaned as he faded away for the moment.
Angel and Gunn were later talking in his office.
"Caught an associate we laid off trying to smuggle this out of the voodoo division", Gunn held up a voodoo doll that was dark-skinned and was wearing a suit just like Gunn's.
Angel took the doll. "It's a nice likeness.
Stick then walked in. "This place just goes on and on, doesn't it? Like its shitty Disneyland."
"I'm in a meeting", Angel pointed out.
"Am I supposed to care about that?" Stick asked and got groans in response.
Gunn told Angel. "Look, we're ruffling a lot of dangerous feathers out there. There's gonna be a backlash. Count on it."
Angel agreed. "Well, we'll just have to ride out the ripples for a while."
Gunn looked at the door. "I'm sensing a ripple on its way now."
A man wearing a blue dress shirt and a spotted yellow tie walked in the room.
"Yes, uh...Novac, sir. Uh, what's this about you shutting down the Internment Acquisitions Division?"
Angel turned to Gunn, puzzled. "Internment Acqui—"
"Grave-robbing."
"Hmmm", Stick thought, since grave robbing was technically how the Hand had gotten Elektra's corpse. "Now who'd be behind it?"
Novac addressed Angel and Gunn directly. "Listen, I know you fellas are in charge now, and you're doing a bang-up job. I'm with you 110%, but that department brings in mucho revenue to this company."
Angel wasn't going to compromise more than he already had. "Well, Novac, we'll just have to tighten our belts and do without."
"No, you're not getting it... sir. I.A.D. is under contract to provide fresh bodies to Magnus Hainsley. You know who he is, right?" Angel looked at Gunn again. "OK. He's one of our oldest clients. Big potatoes. We stop delivering, and he is not gonna be... thrilled."
Angel was still firm. "Then he's probably not gonna like it when you advise him that he's no longer our client."
Novac was scared. "Me?"
Angel walked towards Novac. "You got it, counselor. You tell Mister—" Angel cleared his throat.
"Hainsley."
"Hainsley that Wolfram & Hart is under new management and out of the grave-robbing business. Now, run along and go argue your case."
Novac was still unsure. "Me?"
"Go."
Novac walked toward the door, shuddering at the thought of his assignment, when Stick addressed him. "What? Scared of what he'll do to you? Get outta here you pussy!"
Novac quickly rushed out as Stick looked at Angel and Gunn. "Just need a little harshness."
"I thought that was a bit much", Gunn told him.
"Right? I thought the same", Angel agreed as Stick walked off.
Later, Angel was sitting with Cordelia and Wesley as the latter asked. "So, you're unsure now?"
"Well, I mean, look at the people we're dealing with? Baby-eaters, grave-robbers", Angel pointed out to the two. "We're supposed to be taking them down, not making deals with them."
"You should have thought of that before you took the deal", Cordelia shrugged.
"We all took it", Wesley said.
"No, you all did, I was in a coma after being body-jacked", Cordelia reminded with a little smirk, and she wasn't wrong, she hadn't taken the deal, the others had, she had decided to stick with them for their own good.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Angel asked.
"Can't say much to be honest, I did agree to come with you", Cordelia sighed. "Best thing is to keep it this way for now at least, fire employees and cut off the worst ones."
"Maybe cut off their heads", Stick suggested as he came back in.
"Come on, stop with the violent suggestions, this is a law firm, not your Chaste", Cordelia said to Stick as she turned to him, annoyed.
"Yeah, they wouldn't have hesitated to do this", Stick shrugged, looking lost in memory before coming back to the present. "Either way, best option."
"Uh, boss?" Harmony knocked on the door. "That Novac lawyer you sent over to dump the client... well, he's back."
"OK, send him in."
"Mmm, OK."
Two men in suits walked into the room carrying three buckets full of a sloppy red liquid, one with a bright yellow spotted tie hanging over the edge, covered in blood.
"What is..." The men placed the buckets on Angel's desk.
"Oh my God!" Cordelia said, speaking for the whole team.
Stick commented casually. "Huh, bucketed remains of a messenger. Been awhile since I saw that one."
Angel walked out to Harmony's desk in the lobby. "Harmony, get me Novac's contact list, close relations, next of kin, and let's be discreet about this for the time being, OK?"
"Discreet?" Harmony asked before realizing. "Oh, you mean like not tell anyone about bucket-o-lawyer."
"Harmony, contact list."
Gunn walked off the elevator, handing a file to Angel. "Hey, got word you wanted the file on Magnus Hainsley. Dig this. He's a sorcerer, big time. Rich with old money and older mojo. Owns a respectable block of shares in Wolfram & Hart and he's connected up the wazoo. Carries influence with power players in the entertainment industry, politics—"
Angel flipped through the file. "He's a necromancer."
"Power over the dead. That explains the bodies Wolfram & Hart's been providing him", Wesley realized.
"And looks like he doesn't plan to give those up", Cordelia noted with a shake of her head.
Angel walked into his office, followed by Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn. "Doesn't explain what he's been doing with them", he saw Stick in his chair. "Out of my chair."
"Like it too much", Stick shrugged.
"What's in the buckets?" Gunn asked as Angel sighed.
"Bucketed remains of the messenger, what was he called? Novac", Stick told Gunn, shocking him too.
Angel informed Gunn. "It's a message from Magnus Hainsley, and I'm gonna reply to it personally."
Wesley pointed out. "You can't take Hainsley on yourself."
Angel walked toward his private elevator. "I'm not gonna risk him turning somebody else into chowder."
Wesley again tried to explain. "Angel, you have a multi-billion dollar company at your disposal with armed and trained personnel."
"They cramp my style", Angel walked into his elevator.
Wesley pointed out. "Your style's not gonna cut it with a necromancer. We should probably avoid an eye-for-an-eye escalation here."
"Not going for his eyes, Wes."
Cordelia was annoyed and asked Angel. "Hello! A dead guy meeting a guy who controls the dead? Are we missing something here?"
"A brain, by the looks of it", Stick quipped in response to her but Angel ignored him.
"I know what you should go for", Angel stopped the elevator doors before they closed, looking at Gunn. "It'll hurt him. Bad."
Angel walked out of the elevator into the garage. His cars were lined up along the wall. He walked toward a black Viper, opening the door, and got inside.
"Would have preferred the Camaro."
Angel jumped on seeing Stick next to him. "Stop doing that!"
"Force of habit."
Angel started the car and they rode off into the night. There was an awkward silence between them.
"So how are Matt and Faith?"
"Sickeningly sweet."
"Good. That's good."
Awkward silence again.
"How's ghost life?"
"I can actually see, which isn't as great as I thought it would be."
"Oh."
More awkward silence.
"There's gotta be something you like, right?"
Stick then looked at him.
"I'm dead. Not much to get the blood pumping, especially since I have none."
And then awkward silence for the rest of the drive.
Later, the butler let Angel and Stick inside Hainsley's house.
"Do you have an appointment with Mr. Hainsley?"
Stick replied. "Let's just say he sent us an invitation in a bucket."
Angel gave his introduction. "We're—I'm from Wolfram & Hart."
Stick added. "I'm his dad." Angel rolled his eyes.
"Mr. Hainsley is with a customer at the moment. I'm afraid he does not suffer interruption lightly."
Angel wasn't going to let Hainsley off. "Not so worried about his suffering. Go ahead and interrupt."
"As you wish. Please wait here, gentlemen", the butler exited.
"So, how does it feel living among the power elite now?" Stick asked Angel with a smirk. "Ellie did it too but it was to get under her enemies' noses."
"Well, that's what I'm doing too", Angel argued.
Stick looked to the other room. "These enemies are just plain disgusting and shitty." He walked into the adjacent room and Angel followed.
The room was decorated like a Victorian parlor, complete with a few dozen people standing around posed, as if it were a wax museum.
Stick scoffed. "A showroom of bodies. At least the Hand dug up Ellie for a reason, as disgusting and wrong it was, this guy is just fucked up in the head."
That was when the butler returned.
"Mr. Hainsley has asked that I send you back to Wolfram & Hart, gentlemen", the butler revealed that he was holding butcher knives behind his back. "In a manner of speaking."
The butler played menacingly with the knives trying to intimidate Angel and Stick.
"Guess you are the one with the talent for sending invitations in buckets, pretty tame I must say, just like your knife play", Stick taunted as the butler glared in anger.
Angel reached for a tiny teaspoon being held by a posed person beside him. He threw the spoon at the butler, and it landed in his forehead. The butler screamed.
"A spoon?! That's just..." the butler reached up to his forehead, pulling the spoon out, and turned toward Angel angrily. "Well, OK, that's more..." the butler collapsed. "Disappointing, really."
Angel turned to Stick in annoyance. "Are you on my side or not?"
"Well, I thought I'd see a good fight", Stick shrugged as Angel rolled his eyes and walked to Hainsley's door, breaking it down, and walked inside with Stick following.
A woman was lying there in the middle of a pentagram painted on the floor with Hainsley standing over her chanting eerily, with a Demon lying on the ground.
"Aha, transference", Stick realized. "That's what the showroom is for, letting Demons pick out human bodies."
Hainsley said to Angel. "Come in. It's open."
"Hainsley."
Hainsley left the woman and dried his hands. "Didn't know it was the head cheese himself. I thought for sure you were another lackey. You should show more respect."
The woman now sat up. "Oh, uh, I can see you guys have a thing going on." She walked to the door. "Don't wanna get in your way. I'll let myself out."
Angel grabbed the woman by the arm as she walked by him. Her eyes glowed red and she snarled at him. Angel punched her out.
He turned back to Hainsley. "So how much do you charge, huh? Installing the average demon in a human body? I'm sure a lot of them would love to pass as people. You know, walk amongst the sheep."
"Believe me, friend, the average demon can't afford it", Hainsley laughed
"I'm cutting off your supply, Hainsley. As of now your body shop is—" With a flick of his wrist, Hainsley took control of Angel's body, freezing him in place. "Aah!"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Hainsley turned his hand, causing Angel pain; Angel groaned; Hainsley pulled Angel toward him. "I eat the dead for breakfast, son. And you're just another plate o' bacon and eggs." Stick showed up behind Angel. "A ghost, huh? You brought a ghost as your backup, Vampire?"
"Actually, he's my backup", Stick shrugged.
Hainsley turned back to Angel. "I can turn you inside out, like a shirt. I could dust you right now, boy. Wouldn't even need a stake." He let go of Angel, who grunted from the pain he was in. "But that would be too big an insult for the Senior Partners to overlook. Seems that they've got plans for you."
Angel exhaled sharply. "I've got plans of my own." He dialled his cell phone. "Gunn, do it."
Hainsley asked. "And what was that? Just call in an air strike?"
Angel revealed what it really was. "I just froze all your bank accounts, terminated your paper assets, and turned your books over to a very motivated contact we have at the I.R.S. 5 minutes from now, you'll have nothing but this house. 10 minutes from now, that'll go into foreclosure."
Hainsley frowned. "You can't do that."
"I'll let myself out."
"It's not legal. You think you can get away with that?" Hainsley chuckled scornfully. "I'll sue you to hell."
"Good luck. We're your lawyers", Angel started walking out.
"This isn't over, Vampire."
"Actually, it is, shithead", Stick spoke up.
"Oh shut up", Hainsley snarled as he flicked his wrist but to his horror, nothing happened, and Stick smirked and walked forwards.
Hainsley held out his palm. Still nothing. Stick marched.
The necromancer held out both palms and still failed while Stick continued marching.
"But you're a gho-"
A punch to the face cut him off, and then Stick punched him two more times before decking his abdomen thrice, making him groan in pain while Stick felt some excitement from beating him up.
He then spin kicked Hainsley, sending him to the floor where he groaned, and then Stick grabbed him in a chokehold and snapped his neck.
Angel looked at him in shock as he'd made physical contact. "How did you-?"
"I ain't a normal ghost, or have you not been paying attention?"
"Why did you do it then?" Angel asked.
"You don't hurt a guy like that by taking away his cash, you hurt him by actually hurting him. I put more than my share of boneheads like that in the ground, or the furnace in some cases, I know the type."
Angel groaned as Stick said. "But looks like you don't like this, and I'm bored by you, so I guess I'm leaving."
With that he faded away as Angel walked out.
Later
"So, Stick killed him", Wesley noted.
"Yeah, he said people like these can only be hurt by hurting them", Angel repeated what he'd heard. "And then he killed him."
"Well, as much as I hate to say it, he does have a point", Cordelia said, and Angel realized she was right.
"Besides, it does send a message", Gunn pointed as they looked at him. "Don't mess with the new boss. This guy threatened you, the CEO, now he's dead, you know what that means, right?"
"Huh?" Angel realized that was true. "Guess we can make a difference."
"Sucks he went away", Cordelia sighed.
"Yeah", Angel noted. "His method was right I guess."
Then Stick suddenly appeared in the middle of them all.
"Guess what, nimrods, I've decided to stay."
All of them were frozen, gaping at Stick.
Then Angel groaned loudly and slammed his head on the desk.
Another one done, Stick seems to work so far I think, and unlike Spike he shall remain a ghost too.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his suggestions again.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.