After The Storm
Chapter 3
By Vixen
Far away sirens could be heard as Connor scrambled down the fire escape numbly. There was nothing he could do now; he'd been too late. He couldn't even take on the rest of the demons; there were dozens of them, he'd never be able to fight them all. He gave a fleeting glance at the hordes of creatures, all of different sizes and grotesque shapes; they'd be free to attack the city now. There were no more heroes to keep them in line, only himself. That wasn't enough. Even the Destroyer he had been was no match for all of them.
Instead, he began walking. He wasn't sure where he was headed; he didn't feel like going back to his fake home. They were probably worried about him, when he left he said he'd be back in a few hours. Just enough time to work on the resume and have a cup of coffee. That was before the evening had taken its strange turn of events.
Luckily, nothing had followed him from the ally. The demons probably thought they won. Hadn't they? The city was now theirs, theirs and the senior partners. It belonged to the darkness now. The ambiance had changed somehow, the air now held a sense of fear. Riots had begun; he could hear them a few blocks away. Probably humans who were striking out instead of dealing with their own panicked feelings. Part of him wished he were one of them again, hitting things and causing chaos to escape, but it had never worked before and he was different now. Wasn't he?
A fire truck passed him, the noise of it temporarily waking Connor from the numbness that had enclosed around him. He blinked and watched it go by. It was too late; they were all too late. The city was going to fall to the hands of those who wanted it destroyed. Easy pickings.
He remembered the last time Los Angeles had looked like this. Right after Jasmine had shown her true face, after peace had been lost. It was just one more memory he didn't want, but all the previously forgotten moments had been coming back to him lately. Connor tried everyday to push what had been out of his thoughts, consider it all one wacky nightmare he'd luckily woken up from, but it was impossible. Especially now, faced with such destruction.
Walking down the road, he noticed a woman with obviously dyed blond hair holding a younger girl by the throat, pushing her against the side of a building. On a closer examination of the scene, he saw that the blond wasn't human. "Vampire," he said in a low voice. "Vampires I can handle."
Darting across the street on light feet, unseen and unheard by the attacker, Connor raced towards the incident. While he might not have been enough to take care of the mass gathering of evil demons from the alleyway, one vampire would be a piece of cake.
He could hear the girl sobbing, begging for her life, praying to God to let her live. Poor thing just wanted to get home, back to her parents. Quickly, Connor kicked a wooden box that had been sitting on the sidewalk with his foot, breaking it into pieces. Picking up one particularly jagged shard, he stood to face the vampire.
She had already heard him, and was standing with one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around her victims neck, "Do I bother you when you're trying to eat? I mean, like, don't you have an elsewhere to be?"
"Do I know you," He asked as he fell into a fighting stance. He found it incredible the way his body moved into perfect position, as if it had never forgot how to fight, or how to win.
"Probably not," The blond grabbed the struggling victim closer. The girl's eyes were filled with tears, as she was shoved closer to the blond's torso. "I rarely talk to nobodies. But if you must know, I'm Harmony, the big bad around here. Now scram."
"Sorry. Can't." Connor punched her in the stomach, trying to avoid hitting the girl. He could have sworn he knew the vampire from somewhere. Her voice sounded so familiar, he just couldn't place it.
Harmony came back swinging, but her fighting skills were not as good as his. Besides, she might break a nail trying to punch the kid, and she couldn't let that happen. She'd just had them manicured. Instead, she switched to kicking him, landing her first one hard against his shoulder, "This isn't what it looks like anyway. I was just walking her home," Harmony looked down at the girl, still clutched tightly with one arm, "She was all scared and junk and I said I'd look after her. I just got kinda hungry on the way."
"Cravings," he nodded sarcastically, "They're a bitch." There was only one thing he was craving at the moment though, a little violence and a little death. The Destroyer was coming up to the surface, and he struck out with faster moves. The vampire was unable to block all of them, and after two successive punches she fell on her ass. With one hand, Connor grabbed for the girl, moving the victim behind him. Then, while the vampire was still on the ground, Connor took his stake and jammed it into her heart. Dust swirled up from her body as she died. It blew away on the wind and then the blond bimbo was no more.
Connor looked at what he had done for a moment, letting the pride of a battle fought and won flow through his veins. The girl was crying behind him, and her quiet sobs broke him from the dazed amusement. Turning back to the victim, the first thing he noticed was how young she was. She shouldn't have been out on her own in the middle of the ruckus and riots that had broken out in the city that night, "Are you going to be alright?"
She sobbed, wiping her eyes, and nodded, "I was just going to my friend's house. My parents grounded me, but I snuck out, I didn't mean to.. oh, god.. I didn't mean to.. wander so far off."
"We never do," Connor said under his breath, then to the girl he said, "Go home. Your parents are probably worked sick."
She nodded furiously, still shaken from her experience, "Right. I will. I promise. Thank you.. thank you so much." She started to cry again, while Connor spotted a taxi driving down the street. While she was preoccupied with trying to calm herself, Connor called over to the taxi. When it stopped for them, he explained to the cabbie that the girl needed help, and that her parents would most likely pay him if he drove her back home. As luck would have it, the guy actually agreed to Connor's deal.
"Don't do this again," Connor told the girl as she got into the car. She smiled briefly at him through a face stained with tears. The car drove off as Connor watched it go. He had to admit; it felt good to be a champion, if he could call himself that. So far he was still just balancing the scales, making up for the past.
Connor continued walking through the city streets, not really looking where he was going. He was concentrating on the vampire's voice. He knew it, but from where? Then the gaps started to fill in. She'd been the receptionist at Wolfram and Hart. When he visited the office the first time, with his fake parents, she'd greeted them with a big fake 'I'm so happy you're coming to us with your business now let me go back to enjoying my coffee break' grin.
She had also been, if he recalled correctly, the one working with the guy Angel had fought before the building collapsed. Before he had joined the fight, Connor had waited out of sight in the hallway. The battle with Sahjahn had taken a toll on him emotionally, and he had hoped he wouldn't have to get into another one. Hidden from view, he had heard the whole conversation between Harmony and Angel, heard how she betrayed him. His father's own personal Judas. Remembering it now, he squeezed the stake he was still carrying tighter, feeling all the happier for having dusted the vamp.
Suddenly, his feet stopped and his pace came to a halt. Connor glanced to his side, where an old fashioned hotel was standing. The Hyperion. He had just been walking blinding; following no real path, yet he'd wound up here. "How very ironic," he said as he walked towards the hotel. He gave a short laugh to the fates of the universe, and made his way to the front door. It was locked, closed and abandoned, but he managed to manipulate the lock and pick it. The door swung open, revealing the dusty insides of a lobby that hadn't been inhabited in months. He stepped over the threshold, closing the glass door behind him. It was dark inside, and lonesome. Still, at the moment it was the only place he could think of to go. Things were too jumbled in his head, his emotions going haywire. He couldn't return home, not like this. Not when there was so much going on.
It was dark inside the hotel. The electric bill probably hadn't been paid since people had regularly lived there, but his eye quickly adjusted to the lack of light. Quor-toth had been like this, he remembered. Very dim and dark. His eyes were highly trained for night seeing.
The place brought back so many memories for him. Jasmine, Angelus, Cordelia.. but there were the good things as well. Fred and him eating her home cooking during the summer he'd spent with her and Gunn. Angel and him singing karaoke together. Sure, it had a little goofy and in homage to a hell goddess bent on world domination through drugged-up peace and love. Connor still missed the short-lived good times though. He only wished there had been more of them.
The stairs creaked as he climbed up to the second story. He walked to the second room on the left and opened the door. It had been his bedroom when he had stayed there a year ago. It hardly looked lived in now, but the memories were still there, floating around in the dust. All the things he had done, all the ways he had been wrong. Stepping back outside the room, he slammed the door shut, a little harder that he had wanted to. Locked away, he wouldn't have to look at the same four walls from before and all the moments contained between them. He took another step back, trying to shake off the feeling of regret. "Lighten up.. come on," he muttered to himself, "That was then. This is now." If only he could convince himself of that.
He walked down the hallway, looking through each of the other rooms, remembering all the people who had once filled them. Gunn, Fred, Wesley, Cordelia. They'd all stayed at the hotel at one time or another, some lived there on a permanent basis. He'd wronged them all in so many ways. Hurt them. "Man," he softly said, passing by another bedroom, "I was a real dumbass."
He stopped at the last room, opening it and walking inside. This had been his father's room, he could recall standing in the same spot two summers ago, and hoping no one would find out he'd sent Angel to the bottom of the ocean. How times had changed. Connor walked over to the window. After pushing heavy curtains away, he opened it and let a cool breeze flow through the room. Outside, he could still hear sirens going off through the night. Taking off his shoes, he chucked them on the floor and then climbed into the big bed that occupied the room. Listening to the sirens, he let them lull him into a restless sleep.
.........................................
Give me feedback, or give me death! Well.. okay, not so much death. Death bad. But feedback still good. Very good.
Chapter 3
By Vixen
Far away sirens could be heard as Connor scrambled down the fire escape numbly. There was nothing he could do now; he'd been too late. He couldn't even take on the rest of the demons; there were dozens of them, he'd never be able to fight them all. He gave a fleeting glance at the hordes of creatures, all of different sizes and grotesque shapes; they'd be free to attack the city now. There were no more heroes to keep them in line, only himself. That wasn't enough. Even the Destroyer he had been was no match for all of them.
Instead, he began walking. He wasn't sure where he was headed; he didn't feel like going back to his fake home. They were probably worried about him, when he left he said he'd be back in a few hours. Just enough time to work on the resume and have a cup of coffee. That was before the evening had taken its strange turn of events.
Luckily, nothing had followed him from the ally. The demons probably thought they won. Hadn't they? The city was now theirs, theirs and the senior partners. It belonged to the darkness now. The ambiance had changed somehow, the air now held a sense of fear. Riots had begun; he could hear them a few blocks away. Probably humans who were striking out instead of dealing with their own panicked feelings. Part of him wished he were one of them again, hitting things and causing chaos to escape, but it had never worked before and he was different now. Wasn't he?
A fire truck passed him, the noise of it temporarily waking Connor from the numbness that had enclosed around him. He blinked and watched it go by. It was too late; they were all too late. The city was going to fall to the hands of those who wanted it destroyed. Easy pickings.
He remembered the last time Los Angeles had looked like this. Right after Jasmine had shown her true face, after peace had been lost. It was just one more memory he didn't want, but all the previously forgotten moments had been coming back to him lately. Connor tried everyday to push what had been out of his thoughts, consider it all one wacky nightmare he'd luckily woken up from, but it was impossible. Especially now, faced with such destruction.
Walking down the road, he noticed a woman with obviously dyed blond hair holding a younger girl by the throat, pushing her against the side of a building. On a closer examination of the scene, he saw that the blond wasn't human. "Vampire," he said in a low voice. "Vampires I can handle."
Darting across the street on light feet, unseen and unheard by the attacker, Connor raced towards the incident. While he might not have been enough to take care of the mass gathering of evil demons from the alleyway, one vampire would be a piece of cake.
He could hear the girl sobbing, begging for her life, praying to God to let her live. Poor thing just wanted to get home, back to her parents. Quickly, Connor kicked a wooden box that had been sitting on the sidewalk with his foot, breaking it into pieces. Picking up one particularly jagged shard, he stood to face the vampire.
She had already heard him, and was standing with one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around her victims neck, "Do I bother you when you're trying to eat? I mean, like, don't you have an elsewhere to be?"
"Do I know you," He asked as he fell into a fighting stance. He found it incredible the way his body moved into perfect position, as if it had never forgot how to fight, or how to win.
"Probably not," The blond grabbed the struggling victim closer. The girl's eyes were filled with tears, as she was shoved closer to the blond's torso. "I rarely talk to nobodies. But if you must know, I'm Harmony, the big bad around here. Now scram."
"Sorry. Can't." Connor punched her in the stomach, trying to avoid hitting the girl. He could have sworn he knew the vampire from somewhere. Her voice sounded so familiar, he just couldn't place it.
Harmony came back swinging, but her fighting skills were not as good as his. Besides, she might break a nail trying to punch the kid, and she couldn't let that happen. She'd just had them manicured. Instead, she switched to kicking him, landing her first one hard against his shoulder, "This isn't what it looks like anyway. I was just walking her home," Harmony looked down at the girl, still clutched tightly with one arm, "She was all scared and junk and I said I'd look after her. I just got kinda hungry on the way."
"Cravings," he nodded sarcastically, "They're a bitch." There was only one thing he was craving at the moment though, a little violence and a little death. The Destroyer was coming up to the surface, and he struck out with faster moves. The vampire was unable to block all of them, and after two successive punches she fell on her ass. With one hand, Connor grabbed for the girl, moving the victim behind him. Then, while the vampire was still on the ground, Connor took his stake and jammed it into her heart. Dust swirled up from her body as she died. It blew away on the wind and then the blond bimbo was no more.
Connor looked at what he had done for a moment, letting the pride of a battle fought and won flow through his veins. The girl was crying behind him, and her quiet sobs broke him from the dazed amusement. Turning back to the victim, the first thing he noticed was how young she was. She shouldn't have been out on her own in the middle of the ruckus and riots that had broken out in the city that night, "Are you going to be alright?"
She sobbed, wiping her eyes, and nodded, "I was just going to my friend's house. My parents grounded me, but I snuck out, I didn't mean to.. oh, god.. I didn't mean to.. wander so far off."
"We never do," Connor said under his breath, then to the girl he said, "Go home. Your parents are probably worked sick."
She nodded furiously, still shaken from her experience, "Right. I will. I promise. Thank you.. thank you so much." She started to cry again, while Connor spotted a taxi driving down the street. While she was preoccupied with trying to calm herself, Connor called over to the taxi. When it stopped for them, he explained to the cabbie that the girl needed help, and that her parents would most likely pay him if he drove her back home. As luck would have it, the guy actually agreed to Connor's deal.
"Don't do this again," Connor told the girl as she got into the car. She smiled briefly at him through a face stained with tears. The car drove off as Connor watched it go. He had to admit; it felt good to be a champion, if he could call himself that. So far he was still just balancing the scales, making up for the past.
Connor continued walking through the city streets, not really looking where he was going. He was concentrating on the vampire's voice. He knew it, but from where? Then the gaps started to fill in. She'd been the receptionist at Wolfram and Hart. When he visited the office the first time, with his fake parents, she'd greeted them with a big fake 'I'm so happy you're coming to us with your business now let me go back to enjoying my coffee break' grin.
She had also been, if he recalled correctly, the one working with the guy Angel had fought before the building collapsed. Before he had joined the fight, Connor had waited out of sight in the hallway. The battle with Sahjahn had taken a toll on him emotionally, and he had hoped he wouldn't have to get into another one. Hidden from view, he had heard the whole conversation between Harmony and Angel, heard how she betrayed him. His father's own personal Judas. Remembering it now, he squeezed the stake he was still carrying tighter, feeling all the happier for having dusted the vamp.
Suddenly, his feet stopped and his pace came to a halt. Connor glanced to his side, where an old fashioned hotel was standing. The Hyperion. He had just been walking blinding; following no real path, yet he'd wound up here. "How very ironic," he said as he walked towards the hotel. He gave a short laugh to the fates of the universe, and made his way to the front door. It was locked, closed and abandoned, but he managed to manipulate the lock and pick it. The door swung open, revealing the dusty insides of a lobby that hadn't been inhabited in months. He stepped over the threshold, closing the glass door behind him. It was dark inside, and lonesome. Still, at the moment it was the only place he could think of to go. Things were too jumbled in his head, his emotions going haywire. He couldn't return home, not like this. Not when there was so much going on.
It was dark inside the hotel. The electric bill probably hadn't been paid since people had regularly lived there, but his eye quickly adjusted to the lack of light. Quor-toth had been like this, he remembered. Very dim and dark. His eyes were highly trained for night seeing.
The place brought back so many memories for him. Jasmine, Angelus, Cordelia.. but there were the good things as well. Fred and him eating her home cooking during the summer he'd spent with her and Gunn. Angel and him singing karaoke together. Sure, it had a little goofy and in homage to a hell goddess bent on world domination through drugged-up peace and love. Connor still missed the short-lived good times though. He only wished there had been more of them.
The stairs creaked as he climbed up to the second story. He walked to the second room on the left and opened the door. It had been his bedroom when he had stayed there a year ago. It hardly looked lived in now, but the memories were still there, floating around in the dust. All the things he had done, all the ways he had been wrong. Stepping back outside the room, he slammed the door shut, a little harder that he had wanted to. Locked away, he wouldn't have to look at the same four walls from before and all the moments contained between them. He took another step back, trying to shake off the feeling of regret. "Lighten up.. come on," he muttered to himself, "That was then. This is now." If only he could convince himself of that.
He walked down the hallway, looking through each of the other rooms, remembering all the people who had once filled them. Gunn, Fred, Wesley, Cordelia. They'd all stayed at the hotel at one time or another, some lived there on a permanent basis. He'd wronged them all in so many ways. Hurt them. "Man," he softly said, passing by another bedroom, "I was a real dumbass."
He stopped at the last room, opening it and walking inside. This had been his father's room, he could recall standing in the same spot two summers ago, and hoping no one would find out he'd sent Angel to the bottom of the ocean. How times had changed. Connor walked over to the window. After pushing heavy curtains away, he opened it and let a cool breeze flow through the room. Outside, he could still hear sirens going off through the night. Taking off his shoes, he chucked them on the floor and then climbed into the big bed that occupied the room. Listening to the sirens, he let them lull him into a restless sleep.
.........................................
Give me feedback, or give me death! Well.. okay, not so much death. Death bad. But feedback still good. Very good.