Angel walked into his firm. It was already nine in the morning and already the firm was booming. He paid no attention to the hustle and bustle and headed straight for his office. He opened the door and threw his papers in hand on his desk. He removed his jacket, hung it on the rack, and sat in his chair to assess the new papers on his desk that had been dropped off by the secretary. He leafed through them: new cult, new vampire on the rampage, endorsement deal? Etc, etc….

Angel looked at the papers but vaguely felt that he was being watched. Dismissing it as nothing more than paranoia and knowing that his senses would've surely picked up on it if it really were something, he kept reading his papers. After at least ten minutes of silence, he heard:

"Well I've heard of customer service being a little lousy nowadays but this is just ridiculous."

Angel started and fell back in his chair as he saw a man sitting in the chair in front of his desk.

"God!"

The man smiled, "Well I don't think we should bring him into this."

"How did you get in here?" Angel asked, thoroughly frightened that his senses had not told him of the man's appearance in his office.

"Through the door."

"Yes that was kind of obvious," Angel replied, "But…."

He thought of asking how the man had not triggered his vampire senses but deciding that he did not know if this man was an enemy or friend, he did not reveal his rather current weakness.

"What is it that you want?" he asked instead.

"Well," the man said as he reclined in his seat, "I wish for you and your team to find someone for me, a certain vampire named Mina Harker."

Angel studied the man. He looked no older than his early twenties and his face was flawless. Really, flawless. It seemed that no marks of age affected his face, no scars, no wrinkles, nothing. His black hair was as dark as pitch night, fell in long bangs on his forehead, covering his eyes enough to give him a mischievous and dangerous look. The rest of his hair was thick and slicked back to the back of his head as if smoothed back dozens of times over by his hands. A perfectly well-groomed goatee accompanied perfectly well-groomed eyebrows on his face. His eyes were as if entrances to the unknown world and could enveloped anyone who looked into them. His skin was the perfect shade that resembled that of a porcelain doll and was just as perfect as one.

His attire matched his face with just the perfect amount of style that complimented his face even more so. His gray tank-top revealed his skin quite nicely and accented his washed out black pants that gave a marvelous shade of gray to the rest of his outfit. His shoes, which looked like Dr. Martins, somehow matched the color of his pants and quite simply, perfect the outfit.

He looked just like a cool new action movie star, or that of a hero from an adventure book. To Angel, this man's appearance looked almost impossible.

"Can you do that for me?" he said, snapping Angel out of his trance.

"Um…it depends upon your circumstances," he answered.

"They are not all that demanding I should think," the man answered with a smart look in his eyes, "All I really want is to know where she is."

"And why is that?"

"She has eluded me for some time. I figured that it is better to have more than one searching for her, that way, she'll have a tougher time of trying to get away."

Angel looked up in thought, what should he do?

"Well?" the man asked.

Angel remained silent, such a sudden request was a bit different to him. He needed time to think on it.

As if reading his mind, the man spoke.

"Well, it seems you need some time to consider my request," he said as he got up from his seat and fished out a card and pen from his pocket.

"This is what I could be paying you," he told Angel as he wrote down a figure on the card and laid it on Angel's desk, "If you choose to accept it, you can contact me at that number. Goodbye."

Without a further moment spent, the man went to the rack where Angel had hung his coat and retrieved his own that Angel did not notice was there. He put it on in one swift motion and exited out the door.

Angel sat at his desk, dumbfounded. This man had suddenly turned him from being the usual calm and cool one, to the recessive person of the conversation. How had that man affected him so?

He looked down at the card that the man left him and picked it up. It read:

$1 million

846-2987

Angel's mouth dropped open and all he could think of was…..who was this guy?

Ch.2

The next day, he decided to tell his crew the news.

He had summoned them to a private meeting in the board room and told them the news. Frankly, they were astonished.

"I say we do it," Gunn said, "It's not everyday that we'd get a nice haul like that.

"For once I'm in agreement with him," Wesley said as he looked to Angel, "We're not going to get that much money ever and it doesn't seem like it's a dangerous job. It's only reconnaissance work."

"Yeah, but there could be more to it than this guy's revealing." Amy said as she looked to Wesley from across the table, "I mean, he was pretty vague about why he wanted to find this miss…..um….who was it Angel?"

"Harker, Mina Harker," Angel answered from his seat at the head of the table.

"Yes, something about that bothers me," Spike said from his seat next to Amy, "That name, rings a bell, though I can't quite place it."

"Oh and now you're speaking up?" Wesley asked him from across the table, "Out of all the dangerous jobs we've taken thus far, you've always been gung-ho, but now, when we have a job that possibly won't take a person's life, you think otherwise?"

Spike leaned out of his chair a bit and held out his thumb and forefinger an inch away from each other, "I'm about this close to burying my fangs in your neck!"

"Then what's stopping you?" Wesley retorted.

"Both of you! Stop it!" Angel ordered.

They both did so.

"The point of this meeting is to not argue about this," he said, "It is figure out if we take this job or not."

"I say we do," Gunn repeated, "We can take the job but if it gets too dangerous, we can reconsider."

"He's right," Amy agreed, "If it does get more dangerous than just observation work, we can tell this guy that it exceeded what he told us and we can't do anymore than that."

Wesley nodded, "I can do some research on this guy, when you get his name that is. I can see if he is a threat to us or not."

Angel looked to Spike, who said nothing, but just leaned back in his chair in thought.

"Alright then, it's decided," Angel said, "I'll call this guy, confirm the details, and then we'll start up on a plan of action tonight. Till then, I'll see you all later."

And with that, everyone left, save Spike.

"I don't like this," he said from his seat.

Angel gathered up his papers form the table, "Well, now you know what I feel when certain things come up."

"Yeah, but something about this isn't right," Spike said as he got up from his seat and looked to Angel, "Mina Harker….it still gets to me somehow…"

"Maybe an old acquaintance?"

"I don't know," Spike said as he shook his head, "Maybe it's nothing. So, we have a new job now?"

"Yeah."

"Well, best be getting along now. If I sit with you too long, I'll die of boredom."

Spike grinned and left with one silent turn.

Angel sighed, now to contact this guy, and learn his name for one, figure out the exact details for another.

The phone rang…once…twice…he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Uh hi sir, this is Angel, you spoke with me yesterday," Angel spoke into the phone.

"Ah yes," the guy said on the other line, "I remember you , have you considered my offer?"

"Um, yes but I have a few questions," Angel replied.

"And they are?"

"Well, I wanted to know, who exactly are you?"

"And that is relevant how?"

"Well me and my team request that we know who we're working for."

There was a silence on the phone and Angel wondered if the man had hung up on him.

"Dorian."

"Perfect, and a last name?"

"Gray."

"Well, Mr. Dorian Gray. We've decided to accept the job. Now you want nothing more than to find this person out right? No action needed?"

"That's right."

"And when can you make your payment?"

"Today if you need."

"Well, that's fine. I'll send you our company account number and you can send it there."

"And you'll inform me immediately when you find Mina?"

"Yes absolutely."

"Good. Well, goodbye Angel."

He hung up. Angel hung up the phone in its' cradle and leaned back in his chair. Well that was a quick and to-the-point conversation.

"What'd he say?" Spike asked from his spot near the window of Angel's office.

"His name's Dorian Gray," Angel told him, "He's gonna make the payment today and seems for the most part, thoroughly bored with me."

"Well," Spike said as he turned to him, "No one can resist doing that when they talk to you."

"Very funny."

"Well, where do we start?"

"Tell Wesley and Amy to start up some research on both Dorian Gray and Mina Harker."

"What am I now, a messenger?"

"Just do it."

"Fine touchy, I'll do it," Spike said as he left the room.

He walked downstairs to Wesley's office.

"Knock, knock," he said as he leaned in at the doorway.

Not looking up from his papers, Wesley said, "It's not much of a choice for me to let you in or not when you've already done so by yourself."

"I just do it to annoy you," Spike retorted with a grin, "Anyways, Angel's got the guy's name. Says he's Dorian Gray."

"Alright, I'll get right on it," Wesley said as he shifted to his computer and typed in a search for the name, "Tell Angel I'll call him as soon as I get any information."

"Right, right," Spike said getting angry at yet another message for him to run and give, "And by the by, Amy will be working with you, bye."

"Right," Wesley called after him.

Spike walked across the whole firm and walked downstairs further to Amy's lab. He sauntered down the steps and stopped to see Amy hunched over her lab table, mixing chemicals of the sort. He sniffed the air and picked up on an unmistakable scent, blood.

"Yes, that is blood that your smelling," Amy said, not turning around, "And no, it's not mine."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Spike said, "So what is it?"

"A new blood serum for Angel," she explained, "He's says he's getting tired of pig's blood."

Spike sighed, "I don't see why he can't just feed like normal vampires."

"Because he's not as heartless as normal vampires," Amy said as she turned towards him, "Now what is it that you want?"

"I would say a kiss, but you'd only slap me in the face, so I'm here to deliver a message. Angel wants you and Weasel-"

"It's Wesley."

"Whatever, he wants you and him to start up some research on Dorian Gray and Mina Harker, get it?"

"Fine," she said with a sigh, "I'll get to it as soon as I'm done."

"On the double," Spike said with a grin and left.

Amy shook her head and turned back to her chemicals.

Ch.3

Wesley sat at his computer, rubbing at his temples from overstraining his eyes, watching the computer closely. Different articles, pieces, and pictures were searched as they flashed by on the monitor. After five minutes of searching, the computer stopped. It had come up with 400 matches for pieces with the name 'Dorian Gray' in it.

'Here we go,' he thought as he started to search through them, page by page.

The first piece was nothing, just a piece about an executive producer on a film named 'A New Shade Of Gray' nothing he needed, the second was an article about a dog named Dorian that saved a small boy from a fire, nope. The third followed in this suit, as did the fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on until he hit the 258th article he had. This one, was an article about a murderer escaped from jail.

'Berlin-July 28,1826. Murderer Dorian Gray Escapes From Jail

Authorities say they have no idea how he did it, but Dorian Gray, who was charged for murder and to be put on trail, has escaped from jail. It seems that he killed one of his guards, stole the key to the cell, and ran off, killing three more guards and injuring two in the process. When asked how he got through all of the security, the guards said that he was unstoppable. That when they shot their pistols at him, he didn't stop or bleed, and just continued to kill the other guards. Authorities are now searching for Mr. Gray, but no result has come of it yet.'

'Well, there's one in the bank,' Wesley thought as he saved it, 'Maybe he's a vampire?'

He continued to find more and more articles dated in the 1800s until he came to a rather interesting document. Not an article or written piece, but a record, dated back to 1899, the turn of the century.

'1899-The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Recruits- Ability-

Rodney Skinner Invisibility

Alan Quartermain Adventurer

Captain Nemo Advanced Technology

Mina Harker Vampire

Dr. Jekyll Transformation Formula

Dorian Gray Immortality

Importance-To stop the terrorist known as "The Phantom" from starting a world war. Use each person to the best of their ability, with Mr. Quartermain as the leader. All are to go to Venice to find the Phantom and stop him from attacking the major countries' leaders.'

Wesley leaned back in his chair. Now what exactly was this? He had just acquired some information about Dorian Gray, but he was more curious in finding out what this document was for. It was obviously a list of sorts, but to whom?

After thinking this, he decided he would work backwards. He searched the year 1899 for articles about war. He found thousands of articles about potential war and different attacks on certain countries made by an anonymous terrorist. So this was the reason this "league" was made. Apparently, they did there job, because war did not break out at that time.

He kept these pieces and searched the rest of the "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" document for a picture of Dorian. He finally found one, an old black and white photograph, of him. He routed the description onto another search to find characteristics like that and the results came pouring in. More and more articles of murder, robberies, and even a kidnapping charge. All of these he was accused, but never found to be put to trial, he always escaped the authorities somehow.

After six hours of straight searching, Wesley picked up his phone, and called Angel.