THREE STRIKES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I create.
Author's Note: Sorry about the Lindsey Doyle part everybody, I've seen so much about Doyle lately that I had Doyle on the brain; it'll be Lindsey McDonald from here on out and thank you to everyone for correcting me. When I started watching Angel Lindsey was on his way out so I didn't get to see very many episodes with him in them. As for the three people, they're all people we've seen before; one though isn't from Angel, and no one's back from the dead.
CHAPTER 2-ONE HELL OF A NIGHT
They hit the demon bars with a vengeance, hoping to catch the right someone off guard or in the middle of something important. Angel interrogating his contacts while Faith and Wesley filtered through the bar, trying to see if anyone got nervous at their presence, before they'd then meet up by the door to discuss their findings. Throughout the night more than one demon had ended up with more than one broken finger, courtesy of Faith after she caught them ogling her. Wesley was almost out of bullets after blowing off an ever increasing number of demon's heads and other body parts, mostly to get his point across to a demon that was being difficult. All through the night Faith had been able to suppress her familiar urges, greatly thanks to Angel as he had on more than one occasion shaken her out of a lustful stupor. The rest of the times Faith had been able to get out of it by herself, as a few vampires had made advances on Wesley. By the end of the night Angel had come to the conclusion that come hell or high water Wesley and Faith would always be there for each other, and God help anyone that tried to get in between them.
"We've been out here all night and we still haven't found a thing," Angel grumbled with a frustrated look on his face as he, followed by Faith and Wesley, slipped out of the latest bar that they had combed through.
"Maybe we're on the wrong track, going to bars I mean, maybe we should check out the less…respectable demons, like the one I clued you onto while you were searching for Cordelia," Wesley replied calmly before he kicked a puddle and splashed some muddy water onto Faith's pant leg.
"Hey…," Faith shouted in both shock and anger as she stopped suddenly and looked down at the muddy water on her leg.
"Oops," Wesley mumbled softly as he tried to keep from laughing at the look on Faith's face. Before he knew it Faith had spanned the short distance between them and grabbed him by the front of his coat, pulling him close with an angry glint in her eye. For a split second Angel expected to have to get in between the two but then his fears were allayed.
"Oops…I'll show you oops…," Faith growled angrily at first for a second before Angel realized that as Faith continued to growl he recognized the change in its meaning, and so he wasn't completely shocked when Faith pulled Wesley down to her level and stopped him speechless by first planting a light kiss on both cheeks and then capturing his lips with hers.
"You two going to do this all night….the sun will be coming up in a couple of hours and I'd like to visit a couple of places before then," Angel asked with a bored frown on his face as he tried his best not to stare at Wesley and Faith, unlike a few passersby who began to stop and stare. When they finally split apart, mostly to catch a breath, Faith and Wesley both noticed that they were being stared at and tried their best to hide their embarrassment.
"We should probably get going," Wesley said after a few moments of trying not to make eye contact with either Faith or any of the pedestrians that had stopped and begun staring at them.
"Yeah…got more work to do," Faith added with a slightly embarrassed look on her face that she tried to hide from Angel as she quickly made her way to Wesley's SUV.
"I just hope Gunn and the others aren't getting into to much trouble without us," Angel said with a frustrated scowl on his face as he slipped into his seat behind Wesley and stared out of the window.
"I have a bad feeling that pretty soon that'll be the least of our worries," Faith said with a slightly worried look on her face as she looked back over her shoulder at Angel while Wesley pulled out into the street and tore off towards the next bar.
* * * * * * * *
The day after the technicians had brought in the beautiful blonde woman the man found that moving wasn't as painful as it had been the day before. He still hurt all over but the pain had been reduced to more of an annoyance then debilitating. He waited until the technicians had left for the night before he fully sat up and looked around the room. The beautiful blonde woman was still lying in the bed next to him and the red headed man had stopped moaning hours earlier and was now looking around the room with only his eyes. From he could see the man noticed that neither one of the other two people in the room seemed to be that injured, although the red headed man did seem to have his fair share of small scars all over his body. Risking being found out the man slowly swung his feet out over the edge of the bed and took a deep breath before sliding off of the bed, rejoicing silently when he discovered that his legs were still strong enough to hold his weight. Reluctantly he cautiously made his way over to a desk that sat on the other side of the small room. Sitting upon the desk he found a small basket that apparently had been filled with what he decided was odds and ends taken from himself and the other two people in the room as he saw a guitar pick and a police badge, both next to a picture of the woman that he still had strong feelings for, Cordelia Chase.
* * * * * * * *
Gunn and Fred had taken Connor out for ice cream earlier in the night and afterwards the quartet had visited the pier and were all standing at the edge looking out over the ocean. After some initial hesitation, and more than one headache, Connor had taken to ice cream like a fish to water, wanting to order as much of it as he could. With a small amount of fear and trepidation in his voice Lorne had reminded Connor that it wasn't good to eat to much ice cream. To that Connor had begun to say something in anger but Fred had quickly come up with the idea to go to the pier and relax for a bit before returning to the Hyperion and the tedious hours of research that were most likely ahead, broken up only by as much sleep as they could get. Lorne had taken his shoes and socks off and had pulled up his pant legs before he slowly began to walk through the shallows while Connor walked along the beach, slinging rocks and shells alike back into the ocean when he came upon them. Fred and Gunn sat down on one of the benches on the pier and just watched the two on the beach as they relaxed as best they could.
"What do you think they're doing…my fa…Angel and…," Connor asked solemnly as he leaned down and picked up a small cream colored shell before hurtling it back into the ocean.
"I don't know kid…but knowing those three they'll probably hit every bar in the city before they give up…then they'll be back at it the next night…there's something special about those three," Lorne said with an unhappy frown on his face as he waded back out of the shallows and onto the beach as he let his pant legs down.
"They're special and I'm not…is that it," Connor replied with a subdued look of anger in his gaze before Lorne swallowed hard before responding.
"Oh no kiddo…you're special alright…but just in a different way, you have a destiny of your own…separate from theirs, that's all," Lorne said with a hopeful smile on his face that quickly turned to a frown because of the confused and not to excited look that he was getting from Connor.
"Separate, what's that supposed to mean…stop speaking in riddles," Connor exclaimed angrily as he picked up another shell and used all of his strength to hurl it back out into the ocean.
"Sorry…force of habit…," Lorne said while shrugging his shoulders in slight embarrassment before he continued. "I'm still not exactly sure what your destiny is…apart from Angelcakes', all I can tell you is that you're a champion to…you just need to find something to be a champion for…like Angel is the champion here, in Los Angeles…the city of angels," he said with a serious look on his face and tone to his voice as he set his shoes and socks down beside the beginnings of a sidewalk that led away from the beach.
"Then what about Wesley…and Faith…what's their destiny," Connor said with a confused scowl on his face as he sat down on the first step of the stairs that led up to a lifeguards chair.
"Well those two…they've already begun living their destiny, but they've got a long way to go before they're done…and it's quite possible that sooner or later they'll be bidding this town a fond farewell, possibly never to return," Lorne said back with at first an excited and happy smile on his face that quickly changed to a sad one, prompting Connor's next question.
"You mean they're leaving…for good," Connor said with what looked like a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"It's a good possibility…that their destiny lies elsewhere, just as Angel's destiny most likely will keep him away from Buffy and Sunnydale…," Lorne said with a sad tone to his voice as he squished some sand between his light green toes.
"What about Cordelia…what," Connor said with a fearful look on his face as he stood up and turned to completely face Lorne.
"I don't have the vaguest idea what her destiny is…it keeps changing…it's like Anne Heche on vacation in the Hamptons," Lorne said with at first a sadly confused look on his face before it changed to a humorous one.
"Then what the hell are you good for," Connor exclaimed angrily as he stood up and stormed off down the beach back towards the pier, leaving an extremely shocked Lorne to try and stumble through some sort of response that never seemed to congeal.
* * * * * * * *
What they had determined to be the last bar of the night that they would visit turned up no new clues. Angel had hours earlier abandoned much hope of getting anything out of his contacts, but Wesley and Faith had persuaded him to try them all. Much to Angel's chagrin he discovered that by the end of the night both Wesley and Faith seemed to have consumed enough alcohol to make them, if they got pulled over, legally drunk. He hadn't remembered them drinking too much at first but then he had remembered that the two had consumed a little alcohol at each bar, slowly building the amount in their system until it began to show. And after silently cursing his enhanced sense of smell Angel had to almost physically force Wesley to park the SUV and then do the rest of the search on foot. Even though it was nearing sunrise Angel thought it best that neither Faith nor Wesley was behind the wheel in their condition. But Angel was thankful for one small thing; neither Faith nor Wesley really seemed to be showing their level of intoxication. Hoping to make something out of the night Angel slowly guided the trio through a few back alleys before then prying open a manhole and slipping silently into the sewers, with only a small complaint from Faith about the smell.
"Remind me again why we're down here…in this…instead of back in that last bar enjoying…ourselves," Faith started to say with a disgusted look on her face before she started to feel the affects of the alcohol running through her system.
"We're down here…looking for something that…might not even be here," Wesley slurred through with a very bored look on his face before he dropped his axe and had to stop and fish around for a bit in the murky water before he found it, much to Faith's delight as she couldn't stop a fit of giggles.
"Great…guess all the alcohol that you two have been slamming down all night finally caught up to you," Angel said with a very sarcastic scowl on his face as he shook his head before turning around and faced away from Wesley and Faith.
"It had to happen sometime…guess this means that you're the designated driver," Wesley said with an amused smile on his face as he steadied his axe and slipped past Angel before disappearing around a corner.
"Wonderful…just what we needed to make this night a total bust," Angel muttered angrily as he trudged off after Wesley, leaving Faith to stare off after him in silence before running to keep up.
"Don't worry Angel, we'll find something down here…if it doesn't find us first and rip us to shreds," Faith exclaimed with an excited smile on her face as Angel could see the fight wheels begin to turn in her head.
"Thanks for the visual Faith…," Angel replied with an emotionless look on his face as he continued to trudge through the sewers, keeping his enhanced senses attuned to his surroundings.
"Anytime Angel…you know…," Faith started to say with an amused smirk on her face before a low moaning sound caught her attention. Ahead of them Wesley kept walking on for a few more feet before he stopped and began to slowly lean from side to side, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
"What's that," Wesley asked with a confused and concerned look on his face as he turned around readied his axe. Angel squinted his eyes a bit and crouched down, trying to discern the sound above the low din of the trickling stream that flowed through the sewer.
"I'm not sure…but I smell blood, lots of it," Angel said as calmly as he could while he stood back up before he flipped his sword up in front of him in a defensive stance. Beside him Faith repeated the action as she took a few steps back the way that they had come to check for anything.
"Is it fresh…the blood," Faith asked with a growing look of concern on her face as she tilted her head up a bit and caught Wesley looking at her with the same look on his face.
"Very…and it's close," Angel said softly as the moaning became louder and Faith, thanks to her slayer senses, suddenly became aware of another foul stench wafting through the air.
"Ew…what the fuck is that…," Faith asked wrinkling her nose to try and keep out the offensive odor as best she could while she shook her head in slight disgust.
"Bloody hell…," Wesley replied with a shocked and very upset frown on his face as Angel noticed that the former watcher suddenly seemed instantly prepared for battle.
"Not the best time to use the accent Wes…I need to know what's coming…and now thanks to you all that I can think about is…," Faith started to say with a sarcastic look on her face as she turned around and started to slowly back towards Angel and Wesley.
"Not now Faith…wait…I know that smell to…," Angel exclaimed harshly before he glanced over at Wesley and mouthed a single word, an action to which Wesley only nodded his head in silent agreement. From her vantage point Faith could only see Wesley shaking his head with a look on his face that Faith hated to see because it meant that trouble was coming. It was the kind of trouble that was the stuff of nightmares and horror movies, the kind that Faith hated to be involved with more than anything else.
"What's going on…you two know what's coming don't you," Faith asked with a strong hint of anger in her voice as she hated to be left out of anything.
"Yes…we do, the fresh blood…the moaning…the smell of dead flesh, it can only mean one thing…zombies," Wesley replied with a dead look on his face as he kept slowly looking down ever sewer tunnel that led away from their position.
"Zombies…you mean like the brain-dead flesh eating kind," Faith asked suddenly not so sure that she wanted to be there. Vampires and the average demon were one thing, but ever since she was a little girl Faith had always been slightly scared of zombies. It wasn't that she was scared silly by them, but just the thought of them gave her goose bumps. The fear sprouted from an incident in her childhood that she had never told anyone else about. She had been out with some friends going from house to house getting candy on Halloween when what she thought was a man in a costume stepped out of the shadows and growled. She remembered how the rest of her friends first shrieked in fear and then started laughing as the person in front of them seem to be startled and began staggering back into the shadows. But somehow Faith had a sinking feeling in her stomach that something was wrong, and only seconds after the man slunk back into the shadows she remembered that she had recognized the man. The realization brought had brought tears to her eyes and audible gasps as she tried to cry out in alarm, because the man that she had recognized the person in front of them as was her grandfather. A man that had been dead for a good five years, and had been buried in the local cemetery next to her grandmother, as Faith had remembered getting out of school that day to go to the funeral.
"Exactly…and from the sound of it more than one…," Wesley said with a very serious scowl on his face before suddenly the moaning became very loud, shocking the trio out of their initial stupor.
"I'm thinking a lot more that one Wes…I'm hearing it from all around us now…," Angel added with a very dark look on his face as he joined Faith and Wesley in peering through the predawn darkness of the sewer tunnels.
"You mean…," Faith started to say with a very grim look on her face before a sound behind her made her spin around with her sword in front of her, completely ready for battle.
"That we're completely surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered," Wesley answered with a very grim look on his face that was tinged with a rapidly growing amount of true fear. It was a look that made Faith's blood run cold as she glanced back over her shoulder at him at his words.
"Here they come," Angel shouted in alarm as from every tunnel that the trio could see bloodied and mindless zombies limped towards them with murderous intent.
END OF CHAPTER 2