Chapter II: Viewing The Scenery

The "set of wheels" turned out to be a minivan large enough to fit up to seven people, but not too large to get on the road. Bryce explained that his mother had lent it to him in the belief that he was going on a tour of potential future colleges, and Connor accepted the explanation. As long as it worked, they could've told him it had dropped out of the sky as a gift from the God of Minivans and he couldn't have cared less.

"All right – so all we've got to do is clean this place out before we leave. It shouldn't take too long. In the meanwhile, you might want to get some packing done."

Connor thought briefly about challenging the tone Bryce had taken – a tone that bordered on commanding – but then realized that it would be useless, since Bryce didn't even seem to realize how domineering he'd sounded. Probably used to getting his own way, Connor concluded.

Well, that was definitely going to have to change.

When he got there, the Hyperion was empty. Connor called out a few times, but no one answered and the place seemed dead; the lights were off and most of the doors were locked, which wasn't much of a problem since Angel had already graced Connor with a couple of spare keys.

There was a note lying on the lobby desk, but Connor ignored it – he already knew that it would only contain some brief words from Wesley telling him where everyone was and how he could reach them.

They're probably at the office, he decided. They all called it "the office" now – no one wanted to refer to it directly as Wolfram & Hart. The more vague they were about it, the easier it was on everyone.

In his room, Connor quickly located a backpack that he had tossed underneath his bed – a gift from Gunn as a preparation for college – and tossed into it the few clothes and items he found scattered around the room. It only took him a few moments to finish, and in three minutes he was already out the door.

"So, we're all set," Bryce said, sliding behind the wheel of the van. Tyrone slid in beside him and Connor took a backseat near the window – strange as it would have sounded to anyone who knew him, he didn't want to miss watching the scenery flit by.

"Whoa… Check out the air rush," Tyrone grinned, pushing his head sideways out of the window so that the air blasting past him – Bryce was just over the speed limit by a few miles – whipped his dreadlocks around his head. Bryce shook his head and Connor almost had to laugh; at first sight, Tyrone looked like a real fighter; now Connor realized that in many ways he was still just a child.

"How long does it take to get to Sunnyvale?" Tyrone asked, eventually bringing his head back in through the window.

"Sunnydale," Connor corrected him absently.

"Whatever, man. How long?"

"A few hours," Bryce answered. "It isn't very far, but there aren't a lot of highways near that area."

"Why do you guys want to go to Sunnydale anyway?" Connor didn't really want to hear the answer – he was just remembering everything that Cordelia had told him about it. Apparently, one of Angel's old girlfriends lived there – she was supposedly a Vampire Hunter, or something in that direction. But with all the girlfriends he's had, she might be eighty years old by now.

But no, Cordelia had said the relationship was quite recent. And there had been something else – something important about Sunnydale… What was it?

"What do you mean, why go to Sunnydale? Every demon on the coast goes to Sunnydale – it's California Demon Party Central!"

Bryce rolled his eyes and turned to Connor. "It's otherwise just known as the Hellmouth."

Oh, right… Now he remembered.  Connor sat silently for a few moments.

"And again - why do we want to go there?"

Author's Note: This chapter is a little shorter than the last, but I think it's better if I end them in appropriate places than if I just stopped at the end of every page. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it – and yes, the Sunnydale crowd is involved in all this. They should be showing up in the next chapter, hopefully along with any action that seems to be missing in the first chapters.