Morlun backhanded Spider-Man as the hero leapt at him in mid air. Cyclops trained his optic blasts on Morlun knocking him off balance, allowing the combination of Buffy and Spike to each do a sweep on one of his legs. Morlun fell face first. He began to stand when Spider-Man slammed the taxicab Dawn had just pulled Xander out of (and luckily had managed to get him to an ambulance that was helping civilians) onto the villain.
"That was for hitting me with that car earlier, chuckles. And who says you can't get a cab in New York when you want to?" Spider-Man quipped.
Morlun, who seemed to be losing his composure, pushed the cab off of his body and swung at Spider-Man. Spider-Man smiled under his mask.
"Hey guys, we're wearing him down! He shoved the car off instead of throwing it!" Spidey said as he unloaded the last of his web cartridge into Morlun's face, "All yours one-eye!"
Cyclops focused hard and fired on Morlun again. Morlun was sent flying into the pavement. He got up, albeit more slowly. The mutant was really the deciding factor in this fight. Those blasts were the weapons that were wearing him down more than anything else. They just stung when the fight had begun. Now they hurt, causing the hunter to scream in pain. He would have to do something about this one. He drove his hand down hard into the pavement cracking it. Gripping one of the fragments, Morlun quickly turned and threw the small piece of concrete. It struck Cyclops in the chest with a sickeningly wet thud. The mutant hero fell.
"SCOTT!" Buffy screamed as she ran to her cousin. Spider-Man additionally rushed to Cyclops's aid. Spike on the other hand tore a fender off the cab and began trying to hold Morlun off with it.
"Scottie, please be alright. Please." Buffy said holding her cousin's hand. He was breathing, but just barely. He hacked and coughed up blood. He was conscious but it seemed like he didn't know where he was.
"Ah jeez. Hang on guy. Just hang on." Spider-Man added his concern for his ally.
"Spider-Man, you have to get him to a hospital." Buffy said, with tears in her eyes.
"Maybe we can get him to an EMT or something." Spider-Man thought aloud looking around for an ambulance.
"There's no time! The whole area is congested and he's hurt worse than anyone else here! You've got to get him away from here!" Buffy explained.
"If I leave here then you and Billy Idol over there are going to be killed by that guy! Besides, he may just follow me anyway since I was his original target." Spider-Man reasoned as Morlun slammed Spike's head into the ground again and again.
"You're the only one who can save my cousin! We'll hold him off, I swear. We can handle ourselves. Trust me, get him out of here and then call the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and get a hold of his wife Jean! Please, he's my cousin. I don't want him to die." Buffy said sadly.
Spider-Man looked at Cyclops, then Buffy, then Morlun brutalizing Spike. He made his choice.
"I'll be back. Stay alive. I have enough people's lives on my head as it is." He said as he began to reload his one working web-shooter. Spider-Man hefted Cyclops and fired a webline, swinging him to safety. Buffy looked to Morlun and saw the damage he was doing to Spike.
"If you hurt anyone else I care about today I swear I'll kill you." She said almost calmly.
Morlun smiled at her and dropped Spike. He calmly strode forth towards Buffy. Buffy welcomed him and cleared her mind. This would be brutal. She couldn't win this fight. And she knew it. She charged anyway. Punches, kicks, elbows, they all melted together. Time lost all its meaning. She was operating on sheer Slayer instinct. Block. Block. Kick. Block. Punch. She ducked a vicious right hook and delivered one of her own to Morlun's jaw. His head snapped back, which was an improvement as far as she was concerned. She threw another kick, which Morlun caught. He smiled at her and began to raise his hand to bring it down and snap her leg in half. He hadn't expected what came next.
In wrestling terms, the move was known as an inseguri. When an opponent grips a kick in the manner Morlun had, the other wrestler uses their other foot and jumps swinging said foot into the side of the head of the opponent. Needless to say with Morlun's injury at Spike's hands, it was effective. He backed away screaming in pain. He gritted his teeth and glared at her.
"For that I'm going to make your death slow and painful." Morlun said holding his head.
Spike leapt on Morlun's back.
"You know I've said the same thing to her before." He quipped before burying his teeth into Morlun's neck. Morlun roared in pain and anger as Buffy charged again attacking him as Spike drank from him. He had had quite enough of this. Morlun sent his foot out and nailed Buffy right in the stomach, flattening her. Then gripping Spike by the neck, he pulled the vampire's vice-like mouth from his neck stretching his neck's skin as the teeth refused to give way. With Spike finally pulled away, Morlun threw him into the nearest building. Spike exploded through the large wooden doors of the establishment and crashed onto the windshield of a white hearse parked inside. Spike groaned in pain and rolled off the hood. He then saw an insignia on the hearse's door.
"Heh. Christmas has come early."
Outside Morlun was brutalizing Buffy. Blood splattered from her nose as she fell backwards. Morlun then grabbed her by the throat and chokeslammed her violently onto the pavement. Then he stomped her stomach. She coughed in pain and tried to sit up. When she did, Morlun grabbed her by her hair and swung her around letting go and sending her flying a good twenty feet. She crumpled to the ground and glared up at the approaching Morlun. She sent out her foot and nailed him as hard as she could right in the stomach. He backed up. She stood and sent a hard right jab to his eye. Then a left. Then another right. She saw him as her new punching bag and using every bit of her strength began beating Morlun's face in with her fists. Blood, some her own some Morlun's, accumulated on her knuckles. She used every ounce of strength, speed, and endurance she had to batter the larger man's face. To her credit, she was heavily bruising him. She screamed in rage as she kept her assault up. Unfortunately, it couldn't last.
One of her punches was caught in the open palm of Morlun. His hand closed around her fist and she winced in pain a cracking sound played in the air. She was forced down to her knees. She had no strength left to resist. He was going to kill her. Already his hand began to glow and suck away her life.
"You have made me proud, Slayer. You have fought harder than any other Slayer I have killed in my long life. And now your life will feed me, repair me, so I can take the spider and the girl and go on my way. I will always remember you." Morlun said as the energy kept flowing into him and his wounds began to heal.
Suddenly orange lightning crackled and struck Morlun's arm, shearing it off at the elbow. Morlun screamed in pain and fear as he looked at the stump where his arm had once been. More orange lighting hit him, boring through him and setting him ablaze. His screams grew louder as his body became more and more engulfed in flame. The lightning traveled up his body to his head. Flesh melted, hair burned away, bone became charred. A mere instant later, the lightning stopped. Morlun stood for another moment, and then fell backwards. His charred skull turned to the dust when it hit the pavement.
Across the street, Spike lit a cigarette with the device that produced the lightning, which was not really lightning at all. It was a concentrated stream of protons. He slid the device's pack off of his back and sat it on the ground before looking up at the sign of the establishment he had been thrown into. It was a simple white ghost surrounded by a red circle with a line through it.
"Who you bloody gonna call?" Spike laughed as he inhaled his cigarette. He then ran to Buffy's body and cradled it, "Luv? Slayer, you okay?"
Buffy looked up at him dazedly, "I'm feeling woozy. And I ache all over. Did we win?"
Spike picked her up a bit and showed her the remains of Morlun.
"Okay, safe to say we did." Buffy said wide-eyed.
Spike admired his handiwork and then looked around
"We have to go." He said.
"Why?"
"Buffy, aside from a huge fight right in the heart of Manhattan I just shot a guy with a particle accelerator. That ain't legal." Spike explained.
"Where we going?" Buffy asked. Spike merely sat her down and pulled open a manhole cover.
"In here." Spike said.
"What about the CHUDs?" Buffy asked.
"What you're afraid of a little CHUD or two?" Spike smirked.
She smiled at him, amazed at how good he could make her feel when she let him, even if she was racked with pain. Together they fled into the sewers, leaving the remains of Morlun to be scattered by an evening breeze.