1.1 DISCLAIMER: They ain't mine. I'm not delusional enough to think that. If they were, would they be on UPN where I can't see 'em? 'Course not.

Author's Note: Reviews wow! *sigh* those felt good. Keep it comin'. Okay, I'm running out of things to say in these Author's note/disclaimer thingies. I'm gonna shut up now.

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1.5 CHAPTER NINE

"Is it time yet?" Maria asked, impatiently. She was pacing back and forth wringing her hands and shaking her head. Faith seemed to be in a similar state.

"No, not yet," Wesley said for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the past ten minutes, "Does everyone know what they have to do?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Faith said, "We've discussed this lots of times."

"I don't see why we can't go now," Maria insisted.

"You told them an hour, they won't expect it," Wesley said.

"Well, I can tell them now," she stated, "It won't matter."

"Well, she just got Michael's impatience," Max mumbled.

"I heard that, Maxwell," she said, "You know, you wouldn't be so calm if it was Liz."

"Maria, do you want to sniff some cedar oil?"

"NO, I don't want to sniff some cedar oil," she mocked, "I want to do something, damn it! Can we stop with the sit and wait crap, fearless leader?"

"Okay, let's go," Isabel said, getting tired of the fighting, "It won't hurt."

They all agreed. Maria, Faith, Isabel, Alex, Gunn, Buffy and Max left the hotel to execute their plan. Spike and Angel had to sit it out because of Wolfram and Hart's vampire sensors. Maria threw open the door, literally ripping it off its hinges. It landed behind her.

"Ooops."

"Uh, we'll fix that when we get back," Isabel said as they walked out the door. Angel sighed.

"I'm not gonna have a hotel when this is over am I?"

"At least they clean up after themselves," Giles said.



"Everyone have everything?" Max asked.

"Yes, mom," Maria said sarcastically.

"Let's go," Faith said, jumping out of the car.

Faith, Maria, Isabel and Gunn got out of the car and headed for an alley across from the building. Gunn opened a manhole cover and jumped in. Faith jumped in next. Isabel was more than a little reluctant. She had her patented 'ew' face on. Maria climbed down after Isabel, covering the hole behind her.

They walked silently down the sewer, armed with crossbows, stakes and axes. The sewer smell only bothering Maria and Isabel.

"Maybe you should try contacting them," Isabel told Maria quietly. She nodded and went into her trance.

'Spaceboy?'

'I know, I can feel you. Rath feels Faith, too.'

'Is it a good feeling?'

'You know it, baby,' he thought back to her, 'Spaceboy, over and out.'

'That's my line.'

'Yeah, yeah, I know,' he said, 'too lazy to make up my own.'

"Okay, they know we're here," she said to them.

"Are they okay?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Okay, here we are," Gunn announced as they came up to a rusted gate. Isabel used her powers to unscrew the grate and Maria ripped it open. They were greeted by five big demons of the ugly nature. Gunn shot one in the forehead with the crossbow and went after another one after it keeled over. Maria kicked one in the stomach and her foot came out on the other side.

"Ew, now I have demon guts on my shoe," she complained.

"I'll fix it later," Isabel said, while tripping another demon.

Faith was pummeling her demon easily. She snapped his neck as he went down.

"That was lame," she commented as they made their way down a long, dark hall. As if on cue, another door opened to reveal ten snarling demons. They surrounded them, baring their yellow teeth. Maria looked around.

"Okay, this is getting annoying," she said. She promptly swung her ax around, beheading three of the demons in one blow, and then she ripped the head off another that was coming after her. Isabel punched and kicked one of the bigger demons, leaving him in pain before she chopped off his head with her sword. Faith was having little trouble with the two smaller demons she was fighting. She stabbed one with her sword while elbowing the other one in the nose. Then, she spun on her heel and broke his neck. Gunn had a little more difficulty, but still held his own. Isabel waved her hand over herself, cleaning off the green demon blood.

"That, was cool," Gunn said, finally.

"It's nothing," Isabel said as she cleaned off the other three. They walked until they reached a junction.

"Which way?" Gunn asked.

"This way," Maria said, pointing to the right. They walked down that corridor, looking out for doors that might lead to more demons. Maria and Faith lead them down the maze that was Wolfram and Hart's basement until they reached a door at the end of the tunnel. Isabel put her hand on the lock on the door and concentrated. Sweat began to pour down her forehead before she opened her eyes. She glared at the offending door and then turned back to Maria.

"It won't unlock." She nodded.

"Nicholas must have brought some locks from home or something to go with the antipower serum."

"What do we do now?" Gunn asked, examining the metal door.

"We'll knock it down," she stated simply.

"Uh, sure. How are we gonna do that? That's steel."

"We have two slayers, a Czech and a man," she said, "I think we can pull it off."

"Okay," Faith said, "Definitely."

"Okay, on the count of three everybody kick, okay," she said. They nodded. "One, two, three!"

They all kicked at the door. There was a loud bang as their feet came into contact with the cold steel. They were surprised when it fell but didn't make a sound. It lowered to the ground quietly.

"Man, y'all are noisy criminals," Rath said, smirking.

"Shut up," Faith said as she walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss through the bars of the cell. Isabel waved her hand over the lock but again, it didn't budge. She growled in frustration.

"It won't open!"

"Stand back, I'm gonna try to blast it open," Michael said.

"I thought you had no powers," Gunn said.

"No, I said they blocked the effect the sun has on my Antarian cells," he said, smirking, "but they can't stop the DNA."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Isabel said, "Our powers don't work on this metal. I think it's uranium. Remember what Nasedo said? We can't manipulate this."

Maria walked up to the bars and grasped two of them. She grunted in exertion as she tried to bend the bars. They groaned in protest, but started to give way. Michael grabbed the sides of her face and loaned her some of his energy, as he could see she was starting to tire. Soon, there was a gap wide enough for Rath and Michael to fit through. They squeezed through and went to their respective girlfriends.

"We better get out of here, guys," Gunn warned. They nodded and bolted out of the room.

Around the first corner of the corridor were about fifteen demons of a variety of shapes and sizes. They all looked at each other, then the demons before them. Michael raised his hand and blasted the first line of demons. They exploded into yellow demon goo. This left them with about ten demons.

"Ew, Michael," Isabel complained. He shrugged.

A particularly huge demon came after Michael. He ducked a punch and hit him in the gut. He then spun around, tripping it, taking out two others at the same time.

"Ax!" he yelled to Gunn. Gunn tossed him another ax before pulling out a sword and beheading a demon. Michael spun around and stabbed his big demon where he assumed the heart was, taking out the other one that was trapped beneath him.

Maria was punching and kicking two demons while mutilating another with her sword. A big demon came at Isabel from behind while she was fighting another slime demon. Just as he was about to pounce on her, he exploded, sending slime everywhere.

"Ew," Isabel complained, after the last demon was killed, "Why can't they turn to air or something, no, they have to come with slime."

They ran through the corridors, hoping to get out before they sent more slime demons after them. Thirty was quite enough. They had to run out sometime, didn't they? No such luck around the fourth turn was a whole band of vampires. About thirty of them blocked the hallway.

"Aw man," Maria complained, "Haven't we had enough exercise for the day?"

"Izzy, help me," Michael said, holding out his hand for her. He then turned to Rath. Rath, understanding where he was coming from, put his hand on his shoulder. Michael held up his hand and released the combined energy of the three of them on the vampires. Within seconds the vampires were all dust and they were running down the hall again. They ran down the sewers and climbed up to the street. Max, Alex and Buffy were waiting in the van at the corner of the street. They jumped in. Max stepped on the gas and they pelted down the street, well, as fast as they could pelt in a minivan.

"That, was cool," Gunn said.

"Total rush," Faith added.

"Incredibly gross," Isabel complained as she cleaned herself off with her power.

"Man, Cordy would kill for that," Gunn said, watching as Isabel worked her magic on Faith. Isabel shrugged.



"You let them get away!" he screamed, angrily. He blew up a desk.

"We're sorry, sir," Lilah said nervously as she watched the figure pacing in front of them.

"What did you do to prevent this?"

"We set up thirty demons and thirty vampires, we were sure it would hold them."

"Well, it didn't," he sneered, "Now get out of here before I really do some damage on you."

"Yes, your majesty," she said, with a bow, before scurrying out of the office.

"And you!" he said, turning to Nicholas, "Nikaid, you have failed me too many times." He raised his hand. A red glow appeared and Nicholas fell to the floor holding his head and screaming. After five minutes of torturing Nicholas, Khivar dropped his hand. Nicholas collapsed chest heaving and head bent. His face was still contorted with pain.

"Get out of here, I don't want to see your face around here anymore."

Nicholas nodded and ran out of the room. Khivar laughed. Power was good.