"Well I just spoke to Cordelia upstairs. She couldn't tell me anything the entire group here doesn't know." Willow frowned as she walked downstairs. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since she and Doctor Strange put in their big entrance at the Hyperion Hotel. As she stepped back down into the plaza she looked at old friends, a few acquaintances, and an entirely new face.
Doctor Strange was by the front desk speaking to Wesley. The Brit was engaging the good Doctor in a conversation about all the methods of soul restoration he knew about. The two of them barely paid Willow any notice as she walked back in.
Fred was more receptive. Her reception was a frown, but the young genius was at least glad Giles had forwarded her message to Willow. When Angel and the others had rescued her from the other dimensional world of Pylea nearly two years ago, Willow was one of the first people she had met upon her return. She had confidence that the witch would help them solve their problem.
The man known as Gunn was a little less enthused. He'd seen his fair share of bad shit go down when it came to magick in his time at Angel Investigations, but he also knew it was helpful. If it got Angel's soul back, then the former gangbanger was appreciative. Angel was after all a friend.
Sipping a martini and wearing a garishly horrible yellow three-piece suit, the horned, green skinned demon known as Lorne was relaxed. He couldn't read Willow's destiny without her singing (a neat little trick he knew) but he could sense the power flowing off of both she and Doctor Strange. He believed that between the two of them, Angel's soul would be restored by sundown. Not that he was afraid. I mean it's not like Angelus would wake up and escape his prison in the basement. Lorne paused. Angelus knew he couldn't die by decapitation, so he'd probably do evil things to his disembodied head if he escaped. Lorne laughed slightly and loosened his collar. And got another drink.
Sitting on the far side of the room was Angel's son, Connor. Connor was essentially termed a Daywalker, meaning he had several attributes of a vampire but none of their weaknesses. He was very strong, fast, and agile and additionally had incredible fighting and tracking skills. He also had a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest. He hated his father. He didn't even consider him his father to be honest. His father was Daniel Holtz, a vampire hunter who raised him in an other-dimensional hell. Angel was a monster, plain and simple. And he was trying to keep Connor away from Cordelia.
His fist clenched. Cordelia was his mate now. Angel couldn't have her, and he'd be damned before he let Angelus, his father's evil side harm her. Or their baby. But that was a secret that only he and Cordelia shared. The others would know in time.
"Alright Wes, run through it for me one more time." Willow sighed, "I'm still a little fuzzy on the details."
Wes excused himself from Doctor Strange and took center stage.
"Recently, Cordelia returned to us from a higher dimension. At first she was amnesiac, not even recognizing any of us. Lorne luckily found a spell that restored her memory and upon regaining it she saw a vision of the Apocalypse. Soon after a powerful demon we called the Beast arose and proceeded to create a rain of fire, slaughter the offices of Wolfram and Hart, defeat us easily at every turn, in addition to killing aspects of the sun god Ra effectively blotting out the sun in Los Angeles. The darkness spreading, Cordelia somehow received not another vision, but a memory that belonged to Angel. It was of him speaking to the Beast some two hundred years ago." Wesley began.
"When he was evil?" Doctor Strange asked, making sense of the situation.
"Yes. When he was Angelus he knew the Beast. Angel however claimed not to remember any of that so we were left with one option. Angel and Gunn created a cage down in the basement while I contacted a dark mage I knew. With Angel safely restrained, the mage removed Angel's soul." Wesley continued.
"Not his soul." Willow sighed.
"What?" Wesley asked, confused.
"Sorry. I'll tell you later. It's a whole psychology thing. Go on." Willow responded.
"Err yes. Angel's…err…soul was placed in a mystical jar and placed in our safe. While we prodded Angelus for information an unknown, unseen assailant stole it from us. Angelus's information proved to be less than adequate so we had to try a new method of restoring his soul. We used…black magick. At first we thought it succeeded. But we proved wrong. Angelus escaped and killed…killed a lady friend of mine. We were backed into a corner, so I went to the only person I felt could stop both Angelus and the Beast short of coming to Sunnydale. I went to the only other Slayer on earth, Faith. After explaining the situation, she immediately escaped from prison and we came back here to hunt both Angelus and the Beast. In the meantime we also discovered that the Beast had a master.
"Angelus lured Faith to a secluded warehouse and allowed the Beast to well, humiliate her in a rather one sided fight. However, Angelus then turned on the Beast and managed to slay it. Luckily for us, killing the Beast brought back the sun. We later tracked Angelus down, and he fought Faith. He defeated her and then began to drink her blood. Faith however is very sly. She had her blood "spiked" with a mystical herb. Now both of them are unconscious, Faith upstairs, Angelus down, and they seem to be sharing some psychic bond. So, we need Angel's soul restored immediately. That's where you come in.", Wesley finished.
"And if we can't restore his soul?" Willow asked.
"We kill it." Connor finally spoke up.
"IF it comes to that." Wesley glared at the teenager.
"And it will." Connor glared back.
"Goddess, were the Scoobies as obnoxious as that back in high school, Wes?" Willow smirked.
"Possibly Xander." Wesley replied.
"See. This is why I don't like this world. You people stand there joking and coming up with plans that will just end up failing, when the answer is obvious. We kill him." Connor growled.
"Jeez kid, lighten up." Gunn said with Fred nodding in approval.
"He needs to die." Connor reiterated.
"No, he needs his soul back. He's my friend. I've restored it before and now I have Doctor Strange's help. It can be done. And if you can't contribute anything other than death threats and brooding that seems to run in your family, I suggest you go elsewhere because we don't need to hear that. OH, and if you so much as even try to kill Angelus before we can save Angel, I will personally kick your ass from here to the Hellmouth and back again, understand?" Willow seethed.
Through all of that Connor didn't so much as flinch. He could smell the power radiating off of Willow and still he was unafraid.
"He tries to hurt anyone else, and he dies." Connor explained glaring at Willow before walking out of the hotel for some fresh air.
"Goddess he's arrogant. And hard headed." Willow growled.
"Reminds me of Namor." Strange said with a smile.
"Teen Terror's confidence in our abilities aside, how do you plan to restore Angel Cakes' soul?" Lorne asked.
Doctor Strange looked at Willow.
"Yes Willow. Tell us." Doctor Strange said with a smile. He knew exactly how to go about it. He was testing her. He'd see just how capable she was and whether or not he was wasting his time.
Willow thought for a moment, "Well, the "soul" restoration I can do in my sleep. It's the jar it's in that's the problem. That's creating a barrier preventing the "soul" from being summoned."
"That is the rub isn't it?" Doctor Strange added.
Willow's eyes lit up, "Well hey, I've got it! The barrier just has to be broken. The jar may be mystical in nature but it's still just glass. If I can get a bead on it with a tracer spell I can break it with magick. Then it's as easy as 1-2-3 to restore Angel's soul!"
Upstairs, Cordelia Chase watched the group and smiled evilly as she thought to herself.
"That's what you think."
Spider-Man leapt outwards away from the building, horizontally. As he flew through the air he fired a webline at the building across the street and reeled himself in with an audible groan. He landed on the side of the building and stuck to it. Instants later, Morlun impacted the building as well and dug his fingers into the concrete to hold on. Spider-Man simply fired a webline back at the same building he just leapt away from and swung towards it. Morlun silently leapt after following behind Spider-Man as he swung. Spider-Man's spider sense went off as planned.
Spider-Man simply let go of the webline as Morlun gained on him in mid-air. Spidey fell then twisted around sticking his hand to Morlun's leg. With a powerful shrug Spider-Man flipped up behind Morlun and using both feet pushed him towards the street, stories below. Then he grabbed his webline and waved.
"Have a nice fall ugly!" he quipped.
Morlun impacted the pavement and left a small crater in the shape of his body. For a moment all was still. But only for a moment. Morlun began to rise, no expression of pain on his face. Spider-Man impacted on top of him mere seconds later pushing him down into the pavement again. Spider-Man proceeded to rabbit punch the back of Morlun's head with all the strength that was in his limbs.
"Hate fighting like this, but Morlun damn near killed me the last time we tangled. I don't want him to get that chance again." Spider-Man thought, right before Morlun violently threw him off his back, "Of course with my luck…"
Spider-Man landed on his feet and the quickly dodged as the incredibly resilient Morlun was already closing in on him, throwing powerful punches that Spider-Man barely avoided at every turn. Spider-Man then cart wheeled backwards sticking his hand to a manhole cover.
"God he's as fast as ever!" Spider-Man said raising the solid steel manhole cover as a shield. Morlun's fist ripped through it like it was Styrofoam, "Strong too."
Spider-Man backed away as Morlun tore the manhole cover from his arm and threw it into an oncoming taxicab, slicing through the front and back windshields. It would have decapitated the driver had he not ducked in time. Latka was lucky to have such reflexes.
Silently, Morlun approached Spider-Man again. Spidey had no plans to let this psychopath get his hands on him so he jumped fifteen feet into the air. Morlun however jumped twenty and came down on top of Spider-Man slamming him into the pavement, knocking the breath from him. His hands glowed as he reached for Spider-Man's throat to feed on the power within him. Spider-Man held Morlun's hands at the wrists and barely kept them back. He also managed to get his feet up on Morlun's stomach and flip him high into the air. Twin weblines hit Morlun and stuck fast to him.
"Hey Morlun, ever play crack the whip?" Spider-Man smirked under his mask. Spider-Man used every ounce of strength he had and brought Morlun down to the ground hard, then lifting him into the air again and slamming him back to earth again, "Guess not."
Spider-Man's advantage was short lived however as on the fourth trip down, Morlun gripped the street with one hand and jerked Spider-Man's weblines with the other, pulling Spider-Man right into a powerful shoulder block. Morlun then stomped Spider-Man's face dazing him.
"That all you got?" Spider-Man said weakly.
"No." Morlun finally said as he slammed a car down onto Spider-Man hard. He lifted the car and went for it again but Spider-Man rolled out of the way. Spider-Man fired a webline into the air. He was hurt and needed at least a few minutes breather. Morlun's hand grasped Spider-Man's left wrist and heard the crunch of his webshooter being destroyed under his costume. He also felt extreme pain as Morlun began draining his life energy.
"If you stop struggling it ends quicker." Morlun said calmly as Spider-Man writhed and tried to break free, punching Morlun full force with his free hand. Spider-Man was growing weaker and had one desperate move left. He kicked Morlun in the groin as hard as he could. That broke Morlun's grip, but before he could follow up Morlun hit him so hard he flew for three city blocks before crashing into the top of a car.
"Ow." Morlun growled as he calmly walked to where Spider-Man had fallen and reached out to the downed hero to drain his life again.
"Excuse me?"
Morlun turned to the voice and was hit by what could only be described as concussive force. He was thrown back into a thankfully empty bus, tearing it up.
"C-Cyclops?" Spider-Man asked weakly.
Scott Summers and his cousin Buffy gently lifted Spider-Man off the crushed car.
"Friend of my cousin here saw you getting your butt kicked.", Scott, otherwise known by the code name Cyclops said, helping Spider-Man to his feet, "Figured you could use the help."
"T-thanks. Didn't know that was in the union contract." Spider-Man replied.
"There's a superhero union? Why was I uninformed?" Buffy asked.
"He was joking." Cyclops replied to his cousin.
"Oh. Hi, I'm Buffy. Or should I say I'm the Slayer in situations like this? Do I need a codename?" Buffy asked again.
"Spider-Man. I'd shake your hand but I think he broke my wrist." Spider-Man replied.
Morlun stood up and looked at the three of them, "Did someone mention a Slayer?"
"Yeah. I'm the Slayer. You're the Slayee. Comprende?" Buffy questioned.
"Marvelous. I haven't killed a Slayer in centuries." Morlun smiled sadistically.
Spider-Man looked at Buffy, "If it's any consolation at least he doesn't consider it personal."
"Not really helping." Buffy groaned. Why did the cute ones always want her dead?