THREE STRIKES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created, like Jocelyn, Elaine, and Arthur.
CHAPTER 21-I HATE HOSPITALS AND THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The seconds slowly ticked away as Angel took in the horror of the sight in front of him. At his side Wesley stifled an initial reflex to vomit before tightening his grip on his sword and trying his best to classify the demon standing triumphant on the other side of the room. Anne lay on the floor up against the far wall, blood flowing freely from a wicked wound on the side of her face while what looked like Elaine lay crumpled in a heap at the demon's feet, blood pouring out of a ghastly wound in her stomach. Fred stood, frozen in terror, in a doorway some five or more feet from the demon. Gunn stood up against one of the other walls, looking like he was using the wall to stay on his feet. A few of the more unfortunate children at the shelter huddled into the corners of the room that were the farthest ones from the demon and the bloodbath in front of them.
"Gunn," Wesley shouted with a worried look on his face as he rushed to his friend's side and gave him a quick once over, looking for any life threatening injuries.
"Get them out of here Wesley," Angel shouted more into thin air than actually at Wesley as he rushed forward, leapt over a downed couch, and then ducked under the demon's first swing.
"But…," Wesley started to protest with a concerned frown on his face as a still terrified Fred rushed to Gunn's aid.
"Just do it Wesley…Anne and…Elaine need an ambulance…," Angel replied with a shout of his own before the demon got in a lucky shot and its fist connected with Angel's jaw, sending him flying back over the sofa.
"Okay," Wesley shouted back with a questioning look on his face as he took a step towards Angel and then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. As he tried to punch in the correct digits Wesley's nerves got the best of him and he accidentally hit more buttons than those that he had intended to. "Bloody hell," Wesley cursed out loud as he canceled the call and tried again. When the phone started to ring Wesley handed it to Fred and laid a hand on her shoulder. "When they answer get the paramedics over here as fast as you can, if we have any chance of saving Elaine or Anne we can't waste any time," Wesley said with a very serious frown on his face before he stepped away from Gunn and Fred and rushed to Angel's side, just as the two and a half century old vampire picked up his axe.
"I thought I told you to…," Angel started to say with an angry scowl on his face before he vaulted back over the couch and blocked one of the demon's swings with his axe.
"Fred's on it…besides, it looks like you could use some help," Wesley replied with a deadly serious look on his face as he rushed the demon also, trying his best to keep behind the demon and away from its spike.
"What…I can handle this…," Angel started to say back with a frustrated look on his face before the demon spun around and skewered Angel through the stomach with its spike, eliciting a loud shout of pain and anger from the two and a half century old vampire.
"Angel," Wesley shouted in alarm as he recovered quickly from the initial shock of what he'd just seen and drove the point of his sword straight into the demons side just below its ribs. The demon screamed in pain and spun around, backhanding Wesley across the room and up and through the wall. With a pained grimace on its face the demon pulled Wesley's sword from it body and flung it to the side, hissing at the sight of the amount of blood pouring out of the wound.
"Stupid human…you will pay for…aargh…," The demon started to growl in defiance, as it glared over at Wesley, before several gunshots rang out, striking the demon squarely between the eyes. The demon took a stagger step forwards before its eyes rolled back into its head and the demon slumped face down onto the floor.
"Ahh…what…," Angel gasped out softly through gritted teeth as he struggled back up to his feet. To his amazement at the bottom of the stairs stood a very fragile looking Lindsey, gun in hand.
* * * * * *
"I swear nothing happened here," Cordelia said with an almost frantic and terrified smile on her face as she tried to stay in front of the camera, blocking the destroyed ruins of the lobby from ever being filmed.
"Right…and that's why this place looks like a tornado went through…sorry but I don't believe you," The reporter said with an unconvinced frown on her face as she tried her best to get Cordelia out of the way.
"Who the fuck are you," Faith demanded with a very serious scowl on her face, not in the mood to mince words, as she descended the stairs and crossed the lobby.
"Nice to meet you to...," The reporter replied with a shocked and somewhat scared look on her face while the cameraman forgot what it was that he was filming and stared at Faith like she was a piece of meat.
"Whatever…and if you don't stop ogling me I'm going to come over there and stick that camera where the sun don't shine…," Faith said with a look that seemed like she could care less about the reporter's shock at her statements before she turned towards the cameraman and looked about ready to attack before Oz joined in.
"Whoa Faith, I think that's far enough…a woman in your condition shouldn't be getting all emotional like this," Oz exclaimed with a nervous frown on his face as he did his best to pull a still angry Faith away from the reporter and the cameraman.
"Her condition…is she sick…is it contagious," The reporter asked with a worried and confused look on her face as she cupped a hand over her nose and mouth while the cameraman looked completely lost, but glad that Faith was no longer seconds away from killing him.
"That's funny…last I knew being pregnant was supposed to be a blessing, not looked at as a sickness that you had to be scared of catching," Kate said with a very serious frown on her face as she walked back into the lobby from the garden, being careful to conceal her gun in the waistband of her jeans. Groo slowly walked in behind her with an odd grin on his face, as if he was lost in his own little world and didn't seem very concerned with the goings on in the lobby.
"She's pregnant…oh, well that explains a lot," The reporter said through a hefty sigh before she smiled and shook her head while the cameraman shook some mental images out of his head and refocused the camera on the reporter.
"Keep it up lady and…," Faith started to say with a very angry scowl on her face as she started to take a step forward towards the reporter but was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing.
"I'll get it," Arthur said with a nervous smile on his face as he walked out of Angel's office, shutting the door behind him. As he did so Cordelia was able to catch sight of Connor and Jocelyn sitting on the floor with their backs up against the wall, the empathy seer asleep in Connor's arms. "Hello…oh hi Wesley, you don't know how…," Was all that Arthur could get out before Faith spun around on her heel faster than anyone was ready for and used the counter as a springboard to get to the other side of the counter.
"Wesley…what the…," Faith started to shout into the phone, after almost ripping it out of Arthur's hands, before her anger abruptly resided and a very worried expression cast itself upon her face.
"Faith…what is it, what's wrong…," Cordelia asked with a very worried look on her face as it seemed that the former rogue slayer had gone into a trance. "Faith…fine…Wesley what…," Cordelia exclaimed loudly with an annoyed frown on her face before she took the telephone away from Faith and got the news straight from Wesley. "Okay…thanks Wesley…Memorial General Hospital, we'll be right there," Cordelia said with an almost hollow look in her eyes, as she nodded her head, before she hung up the phone and turned back towards the rest of the group in the lobby.
"So…what happened," Oz asked with a confused and somewhat worried look on his face as he shrugged his shoulders.
"That was Wesley…a demon somehow tracked Lindsey and Elaine to the shelter, it scratched up Anne pretty good and Elaine…well they're not sure about her yet," Cordelia said with a very emotionless look on her face before she bit back a tear.
"They were supposed to be safe there weren't they…how did the demon track them down," Kate asked with a confused and angry frown on her face as she walked up to a still nervous Cordelia.
"You're asking me…you realize that's like asking Angel the difference between…," Cordelia started to say with a startled look on her face before Kate threw her hands up in frustration and turned away, walking back towards Groo.
"Perhaps the demon tracked them there by their scent, just like…," Groo started to say with an optimistic smile on his face, as he seemed happy to help, before the reporter interrupted him.
"Wait a minute…a demon…are all you guy's high on something…," The reporter asked with a wary smile on her face as she took a step back away from those assembled in the lobby while her cameraman did the same.
"I wish…then at least we'd be able to forget that any of this ever happened," Faith replied with a sarcastic frown on her face as she had finally snapped out of the daze that she had seemed to sink into.
"Wait…you live in L.A. and you've never seen a demon…," Cordelia asked with a look of disbelief on her face as she cocked her head to one side and stared oddly at the reporter.
"Well I didn't believe in demon's and the whole realm of the supernatural until I started working with Angel, I had no idea about all of the demon's and vampires that were running around this city, let alone how much they influenced what was happening," Kate added with a very serious and somewhat angry look on her face as Groo slowly nodded his head.
"The whole world of demons and vampires can be a lot to handle if you're not ready for it…I should know," Oz said with a nervous frown on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and smiled weakly.
"You guys are crazy…," The reporter said with a totally confused and scared look on her face as she swept her gaze around the room before a nervous Lorne slowly walked down the stairs.
"No…not crazy, just very overworked," Lorne said with a cheeky smile on his face before the reporter turned towards him and screamed like an actress from an old horror flick before fainting.
* * * * * *
After the ambulances had come and taken Anne, Elaine, and Lindsey to the hospital, with Gunn having refused any medical help, Wesley had parked Angel's car a few blocks away in a back alley before calling Cordelia and delving into the sewers. Angel had just gotten the demon's body down into the sewers and finished cleaning up its green blood when the police had arrived and sealed off the area. Wesley had climbed down into the sewers a few minutes after that.
"Is Elaine going to be okay," Angel asked with a worried look on his face as he knelt down beside the body of the demon in his attempt to figure out what type of demon it was.
"It's still to early to tell, this demon did a bloody good job of trying to kill her…," Wesley replied with a nervous and angry frown on his face before he walked around the demon's body and knelt down, directly opposite Angel.
"We should never have allowed this to happen Wes…I should have stayed…," Angel started to say with a guilt ridden look in his eyes before Wesley broke in.
"It happened Angel…and no amount of beating ourselves up about it is going to change that fact, right now we should focus all of our energies on discovering if this was the only demon that Wolfram and Hart sent after Lindsey and Elaine or if they're in danger at this moment," Wesley interjected with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he slowly began to examine the demon. He wasn't sure if he had seen this type of demon before but if living and working in Los Angeles had taught him anything it was that he should always expect the unexpected. When he had told Faith about that discovery she had laughed at his use of the old cliché. He remembered had initially tried to stop her from laughing by yelling at her, but she had only laughed harder. He had next resorted to try to physically stop her, but all that ended up doing was entering the two in an awkward game of cat and mouse, with Faith running around the couch and Wesley chasing her. When he had finally caught up to Faith, as she had slipped on one of the rugs, the two had fallen onto the couch where Wesley had started to try to tickle the laughter out of her. That attempt had failed miserably as her laughter only increased, at least until Wesley had gotten a brainstorm and kissed her. The next morning he had woken up naked beside Faith in bed with the mother of all hangovers. Faith had remembered little of that night except to say that they should do it again sometime.
"Agreed…but we'd better do this fast…how'd Cordelia take the news," Angel asked with a nervous and slightly scared frown on his face as he imagined how Cordelia had acted when Wesley had told her what had happened.
"She handled it pretty well I have to admit, Faith wasn't to happy with me since I hadn't called her back…," Wesley answered with a slightly cheesy smile on his face before he shook his head and looked back up at Angel. "I don't know what type of demon this is, if we had more time I could probably go back to the hotel and research it in one of my books," Wesley added with a concerned frown on his face as he lightly shrugged his shoulders.
"Forget it, what we should do now is try to make sure that Lindsey and Elaine are safe while we find and then destroy the totem that Wolfram and Hart is using to control the zombies, because if we don't then what happened to Anne and Elaine is only going to be the beginning," Angel said with a very serious look on his face and tone to his voice as he slowly stood up and began to dust his hands off as best he could.
"You're right, but we still don't have even the slightest idea as to what the totem looks like," Wesley said with a somber and worried look on his face as he stood back up and crossed his arms.
"Well we know that whatever the totem is it has to be big…huge even, to control all of those zombies, so I'd say that things like the sculptures in the parks are a no go…," Angel said with a deep in thought frown on his face as he slowly began to pace around the sewer.
"A building…," Wesley muttered softly to himself with an unsure look on his face as he brought one hand up and put it under his chin in a pose reminiscent of the statue The Thinker.
"What," Angel asked softly as he snapped out of his train of thought and turned to Wesley.
"I was just thinking about what you said, that the totem would have to be extremely big to be able to possess enough power to control all of the zombies…what if we've been going about this all wrong, what if the totem is actually a building of some sort, we would drive or walk right past it without even giving it a second thought, but it'd be right under our noses," Wesley continued with an almost fed up scowl on his face as he imitated Angel's earlier actions and began to slowly pace back and forth around the sewer.
"But what building would be big enough to…Wolfram and Hart…the building that you mentioned, would the law firm itself be big enough to be used as a totem to control the army of zombies," Angel started to say with a deep in thought look on his face before he seemed to get an idea and noticeably brightened up.
"It's possible…but then they'd be using up enormous amounts of power to keep the totem functioning properly," Wesley added with a grim frown on his face as he stopped pacing back and forth and looked down at the dead demon.
"We could have Cordelia hack into the California Department of Energy's database and check to see if Wolfram and Hart's power usage has spiked lately," Angel said with an optimistic smile on his face as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Are you sure that she can…hack in…maybe we should give Willow a call, possibly even have her come to L.A. and do the hack for us, it'd save us time…and Cordelia could then stay with Elaine, we could say that she's Elaine's twin sister or something like that to get around the visitors policy at the hospital," Wesley questioned with a serious look on his face as he jammed his hands into his pockets and stared down at the demon for a bit before looking back up at Angel.
"Good idea…I'm sure that Oz won't mind about seeing Willow again, maybe she can even help him figure out what Wolfram and Hart did to him while they held him captive, because something's telling me that it wasn't to help him with his problems…," Angel replied with a nervous look on his face as he slowly nodded his head back up towards the street.
"I'm on it…are you coming," Wesley said with a positive look on his face as he walked to the nearest ladder and started to climb.
"Not yet, I'm going to stay with our friend here a bit longer before I check in with a few of my sources, see if they know anything," Angel replied softly as he shook his head before Wesley nodded his head and pushed the manhole cover out of the way and climbed back up out of the sewers. "Looks like it's just you and me now pal…," Angel said with an almost mocking smirk on his face before he knelt back down to further examine the body, never noticing a dark figure watching him from the shadows.
* * * * * *
"S…stay away from me," The cameraman shouted with a scared look on his face as he quickly began to back away from Lorne, who seemed completely uninterested in anything but a stray bit of stitching on his collar.
"He's not going to hurt you, I doubt that he could even if he wanted to," Kate said with a sly grin on her face before doing her best to stifle a laugh.
"This is all getting way out of hand, what are we supposed to do now," Arthur asked with a worried look on his face as a nervous Connor and Jocelyn walked out of Angel's office and stood beside Faith.
"Simple…we get the gruesome twosome over there back to wherever it was that they came from and then get to the hospital to make sure that Wolfram and Hart doesn't have anyone on the inside," Faith said with a very serious look on her face as she slowly walked around the end of the counter and then leaned back up against it.
"That could be hard, if someone sees us carrying her out of here like that they'll call the police…and then we won't be able to help anyone," Connor said with a frustrated look on his face as he shook his head and pulled Jocelyn closer.
"Then I guess that we will just have to do it quickly and quietly," Groo said with a nervous smile on his face before he smiled at the cameraman and then knocked the shorter man out with one punch.
"Or we could just do that," Oz interjected sarcastically with an impatient frown on his face before he hurried to help Groo.
END OF CHAPTER 21