After the Storm
Chapter 7
By Vixen
Spike sat with his head resting against the wall of the prison, singing to himself, partly to entertain himself and partly to piss everyone else off, "Oh, I'm looking over my dead dog Rover who I've overlooked before. One leg is spinning, the other is gone, the third leg is scattered all over the lawn. No need explaining, the one that's remaining is spinning on the carport floor.. oh I'm looking over my dead dog Rover who I hit with the power mower."
"Man, I guess that's better than when you were singing 100 bottles of beer," Gunn commented.
"I can't help it," Spike said, pacing the floor. He ran a hand over his hair, "There is nothing to do in this bloody holding cell. I'm going out of my mind." Looking out through the bar of the cell, Spike couldn't see anyone coming so he banged on the door again. The hundredth time might be the charm, he supposed. It hadn't worked so far though, and he'd been trying to bash it open every few minutes since he'd woken up.
A woman from Fiyara's tribe had come down to see them about an hour ago. She had told them that the tribe's elders were willing to talk to them that night, to see if they could work out a deal. Though they hadn't heard anything about it after that. So now Gunn was stuck there, bored out of his minds, with only Spike's singing to keep him company. He had tried having a conversation with Angel, but the vampire seemed too far into brood-mode to say much of anything. He now appeared to be deep in thought, but whatever he was going over in his mind he wasn't sharing.
Gunn had also given up trying to talk to Illyria, who only seemed content while talking about her glory days. Those days were far behind her, but when her spirit had been crushed she returned to the old reminiscences. Days like things like this didn't happen to her. Days when she didn't have the feelings she did now for those she used to think of as an inferior race. She had said she felt grief when Wesley died. Of course it all made sense for Gunn now, well not a lot of sense, but the pieces fit together now. She had fallen in love with Wesley before he died, if that was even possible, and Gunn severely doubted that it was. Still, there had been the brief moments at Wolfram and Hart when he thought something odd might be going on between the two of them. Now though, without Wesley would she continue to fight on their side? So far she had been loyal to them, but Gunn would never trust her completely.
Once more to everyone's dismay, Spike began humming softly, pacing the small area in front of the door.
Suddenly, Angel stood up craning his neck listening to something, "Be quiet." The other vampire gave him an indignant glance and continued, louder this time. This only made Angel yell louder, "Spike, shut up!" He then continued in a lower voice, still listening to sounds coming from above them, "I think I hear something.. fighting, screaming, something's going on."
"And we should care why?" Spike questioned, "Need I remind you that they're the ones that stuck us in this cage, mate? Blow the lot of them up. Won't mind a bit."
Ignoring him, Angel pulled out two bolts from the door and pushed it aside. The metal door fell to the ground with a heavy thud that thundered through the cavernous hallway. Moving past the doorway, Angel made his way out into the hallway. The others quickly followed behind him. It might not look good for their innocent non-offending reputation, but if there was a battle going on, there was work to be done.
Spike stared after Angel, confounded, "You knew! You knew this whole time how to break out. Why didn't you tell anyone, you stupid git?"
Angel stopped for a moment. After asking Gunn which way to go, since he seemed to know his way around the place, more than anyone else did at least. Turning to Spike he answered, "I only figured out the weakness in the door's hinges when the girl came down here to talk to us an hour ago."
"And you still didn't say anything?" Spike followed at Gunn led the way down one pathway, apparently making up his mind on the right direction to go. By the slope of the cave's rocky bottom, they seemed to be heading upward. "Mind telling me why you didn't share that with the rest of the class?"
"I had hoped we wouldn't have to break out. It wouldn't look good in front of the tribe."
"Oh, the hell with them." Spike saw a faint light in the distance, sunlight. They were almost at the mouth of an opening of the cave. The sounds of fighting were louder now, mixed with the sounds of people in pain. Upon smelling the blood from the battle, a surge of adrenaline coursed through him. The fight was what he lived for, the sensation of beating an opponent senseless, crushing their bones, hearing their last final breath. It was like a drug. He might be working for the side of good now, but death was still a large part of who he was.
"Spike, if we can get in good with these people we might have a chance to learn from them. We're all clueless in this dimension, we need help." As an afterthought Angel added, "Well, you're just clueless in general but—"His voice cut off as they came to the edge of the cave's mouth. Outside, a yellowish demon about ten feet tall was making a massacre of a bunch of humans, warriors by the looks of it. It then occurred to him that they had no weapons, and they'd be fighting barehanded. Damn.
Fiyara was standing by the opening. She was looking at the scene helplessly as it played out before her. Angel walked over to her, "I'm guessing the big one is the bad guy?"
Turning sharply at the sound of his voice she asked, "What are you doing up here?"
"Thought you could use our help." Without skipping a beat he asked, "How do we kill it?"
"Take this," Relenting to Angel's desire to assist them, she chucked a sword over to the vampire. It was then that he saw she was bleeding from a gash in her thigh. She'd probably been out there as well, before coming back when she saw there was nothing her tribe's warriors could do to fight the demon off. What chance did four champions from another dimension have then? With a cold glance at the demon she gestured towards the sword, "Jam it through its brain."
Well, that seemed simple enough.
If only the demon wasn't so big, even reaching its head was going to be a challenge.
"Hey, don't the rest of us get sharp pointy things too?" Spike pouted as the group began to prepare to go once more out into the breach. He shook it off; he could handle it with his bare fists. He did have his vampire strength after all, and a good bit of experience with these types of things. It looked just like a Yarowl demon from back home, and they were pushovers. He had killed a few in his time.
Illyria also looked ready. Her eyes were locked on the demon, already searching out its weakness, looking for a common thread in its attacks. "I want to make it squeal in pain," was all she said before beginning to climb down the few rocks that led out of the cave. Spike followed her, apparently having the same agenda.
Gunn was about to join them when Angel pointed at him, "Stay here."
"But—"They both knew he hadn't healed completely yet, but staying out of the fight just didn't seem right to Gunn. It felt like a cop out. He wasn't about to let his friends down, or show any weakness on his part.
Angel seemed to understand the need to keep up the brave façade. Gesturing towards Fiyara, whose pain was becoming more evident and pronounced, he told Gunn, "Help her." Then brandishing the sword, he nodded, "We'll be fine."
Gunn watched the beginning of the fight, the demon was strong but he knew his friends could take care of it. They'd seen worse, and always came back alive. Well, most of them did. Wesley hadn't. Shaking the grief out of his thoughts, Gunn did as Angel had said and helped Fiyara.
Wrapping one of her arms around his neck, he helped to support her weight. She stumbled a bit as he escorted her down to find a doctor. Wincing in pain, she told him, "Your friends are very brave."
"Yeah.." Gunn replied in a confident tone, "They're champions, all right. No need to worry about them." Though he did. Death had always been accepted in his life, it was just the way things went. Back in the day, he had sold his soul for a pick-up truck just because he thought he would have been dead long before anyone ever came to collect on that bargain. Now though, when he finally had people who mattered to him, death began to loom in front of them, an unwelcome visitor.
Outside, the battle still raged on. The warriors from Fiyara's tribe had pulled out a bit; they stood on the outskirts of the skirmish with Angel, Spike and Illyria replacing the wounded. For humans, the warriors had put up a valiant fight, but it was still an unfair fight pitting a demon of this strength against those with no supernatural abilities.
Illyria kicked the demon in what looked like its shin, it couldn't be certain if it was exactly with its strange anatomy. It didn't matter though, as long as it hurt it. From the looks of things, when the demon cried out in pain, it had. She smiled, and threw another kick at its other leg-like part.
Spike joined her, but the demon tossed him aside easily. When he landed hard on a bunch of rocks he groaned, "Bollocks." He got to his feet once more, stomping back to the evil thing, "That thing's just not fighting fair." It would only make the victory that much sweeter.
For his part, Angel was hacking away with the sword, but he was unable to get anywhere near the head of the thing. For one thing, the demon kept swatting at him relentlessly, and for another, well it was really very tall.
The demon kicked Illyria, making her jump backwards and crash into Spike. They landed in a pile together. She picked herself up, brushed off her catsuit, and glared at him. A derisive sound escaped her lips, "Insufferable vampire!"
While they were preoccupied, Angel planned out his next attack with the help of a dozen of the tribe's warriors. The thing turned to see what he was doing, but missed the planning session. With an almost animalistic sound in its voice it asked the vampire, "I will crush you."
"You can try." Angel dared it on. Then he shot a look between the thing's towering legs, to the gathering of humans behind it. He nodded, "Now!"
At once the humans rushed the creature. Spike and Illyria sensed what Angel had in mind and joined the massive stampede. The demon tumbled downward, unaware of the attack from behind until it was too late. When it's full weight came careening towards Angel, who still stood in front of it, he began to think this might possibly be a bad plan. He had intended to be the bait, to lure the demon's attention away from the other assault. Being the bait really sucked, Angel realized when he had no time to get out from under the thing before it fell on him. He held the sword upwards when it came crashing down, the tip of it slicing through the creature's brain as it fell.
It took a moment to get the creature off of Angel; its weight had nearly knocked him out. When he rolled out from under it, Spike was grinning at him in delight, "That was your plan, have it fall on you?"
"Hey, it worked."
.......................................
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Chapter 7
By Vixen
Spike sat with his head resting against the wall of the prison, singing to himself, partly to entertain himself and partly to piss everyone else off, "Oh, I'm looking over my dead dog Rover who I've overlooked before. One leg is spinning, the other is gone, the third leg is scattered all over the lawn. No need explaining, the one that's remaining is spinning on the carport floor.. oh I'm looking over my dead dog Rover who I hit with the power mower."
"Man, I guess that's better than when you were singing 100 bottles of beer," Gunn commented.
"I can't help it," Spike said, pacing the floor. He ran a hand over his hair, "There is nothing to do in this bloody holding cell. I'm going out of my mind." Looking out through the bar of the cell, Spike couldn't see anyone coming so he banged on the door again. The hundredth time might be the charm, he supposed. It hadn't worked so far though, and he'd been trying to bash it open every few minutes since he'd woken up.
A woman from Fiyara's tribe had come down to see them about an hour ago. She had told them that the tribe's elders were willing to talk to them that night, to see if they could work out a deal. Though they hadn't heard anything about it after that. So now Gunn was stuck there, bored out of his minds, with only Spike's singing to keep him company. He had tried having a conversation with Angel, but the vampire seemed too far into brood-mode to say much of anything. He now appeared to be deep in thought, but whatever he was going over in his mind he wasn't sharing.
Gunn had also given up trying to talk to Illyria, who only seemed content while talking about her glory days. Those days were far behind her, but when her spirit had been crushed she returned to the old reminiscences. Days like things like this didn't happen to her. Days when she didn't have the feelings she did now for those she used to think of as an inferior race. She had said she felt grief when Wesley died. Of course it all made sense for Gunn now, well not a lot of sense, but the pieces fit together now. She had fallen in love with Wesley before he died, if that was even possible, and Gunn severely doubted that it was. Still, there had been the brief moments at Wolfram and Hart when he thought something odd might be going on between the two of them. Now though, without Wesley would she continue to fight on their side? So far she had been loyal to them, but Gunn would never trust her completely.
Once more to everyone's dismay, Spike began humming softly, pacing the small area in front of the door.
Suddenly, Angel stood up craning his neck listening to something, "Be quiet." The other vampire gave him an indignant glance and continued, louder this time. This only made Angel yell louder, "Spike, shut up!" He then continued in a lower voice, still listening to sounds coming from above them, "I think I hear something.. fighting, screaming, something's going on."
"And we should care why?" Spike questioned, "Need I remind you that they're the ones that stuck us in this cage, mate? Blow the lot of them up. Won't mind a bit."
Ignoring him, Angel pulled out two bolts from the door and pushed it aside. The metal door fell to the ground with a heavy thud that thundered through the cavernous hallway. Moving past the doorway, Angel made his way out into the hallway. The others quickly followed behind him. It might not look good for their innocent non-offending reputation, but if there was a battle going on, there was work to be done.
Spike stared after Angel, confounded, "You knew! You knew this whole time how to break out. Why didn't you tell anyone, you stupid git?"
Angel stopped for a moment. After asking Gunn which way to go, since he seemed to know his way around the place, more than anyone else did at least. Turning to Spike he answered, "I only figured out the weakness in the door's hinges when the girl came down here to talk to us an hour ago."
"And you still didn't say anything?" Spike followed at Gunn led the way down one pathway, apparently making up his mind on the right direction to go. By the slope of the cave's rocky bottom, they seemed to be heading upward. "Mind telling me why you didn't share that with the rest of the class?"
"I had hoped we wouldn't have to break out. It wouldn't look good in front of the tribe."
"Oh, the hell with them." Spike saw a faint light in the distance, sunlight. They were almost at the mouth of an opening of the cave. The sounds of fighting were louder now, mixed with the sounds of people in pain. Upon smelling the blood from the battle, a surge of adrenaline coursed through him. The fight was what he lived for, the sensation of beating an opponent senseless, crushing their bones, hearing their last final breath. It was like a drug. He might be working for the side of good now, but death was still a large part of who he was.
"Spike, if we can get in good with these people we might have a chance to learn from them. We're all clueless in this dimension, we need help." As an afterthought Angel added, "Well, you're just clueless in general but—"His voice cut off as they came to the edge of the cave's mouth. Outside, a yellowish demon about ten feet tall was making a massacre of a bunch of humans, warriors by the looks of it. It then occurred to him that they had no weapons, and they'd be fighting barehanded. Damn.
Fiyara was standing by the opening. She was looking at the scene helplessly as it played out before her. Angel walked over to her, "I'm guessing the big one is the bad guy?"
Turning sharply at the sound of his voice she asked, "What are you doing up here?"
"Thought you could use our help." Without skipping a beat he asked, "How do we kill it?"
"Take this," Relenting to Angel's desire to assist them, she chucked a sword over to the vampire. It was then that he saw she was bleeding from a gash in her thigh. She'd probably been out there as well, before coming back when she saw there was nothing her tribe's warriors could do to fight the demon off. What chance did four champions from another dimension have then? With a cold glance at the demon she gestured towards the sword, "Jam it through its brain."
Well, that seemed simple enough.
If only the demon wasn't so big, even reaching its head was going to be a challenge.
"Hey, don't the rest of us get sharp pointy things too?" Spike pouted as the group began to prepare to go once more out into the breach. He shook it off; he could handle it with his bare fists. He did have his vampire strength after all, and a good bit of experience with these types of things. It looked just like a Yarowl demon from back home, and they were pushovers. He had killed a few in his time.
Illyria also looked ready. Her eyes were locked on the demon, already searching out its weakness, looking for a common thread in its attacks. "I want to make it squeal in pain," was all she said before beginning to climb down the few rocks that led out of the cave. Spike followed her, apparently having the same agenda.
Gunn was about to join them when Angel pointed at him, "Stay here."
"But—"They both knew he hadn't healed completely yet, but staying out of the fight just didn't seem right to Gunn. It felt like a cop out. He wasn't about to let his friends down, or show any weakness on his part.
Angel seemed to understand the need to keep up the brave façade. Gesturing towards Fiyara, whose pain was becoming more evident and pronounced, he told Gunn, "Help her." Then brandishing the sword, he nodded, "We'll be fine."
Gunn watched the beginning of the fight, the demon was strong but he knew his friends could take care of it. They'd seen worse, and always came back alive. Well, most of them did. Wesley hadn't. Shaking the grief out of his thoughts, Gunn did as Angel had said and helped Fiyara.
Wrapping one of her arms around his neck, he helped to support her weight. She stumbled a bit as he escorted her down to find a doctor. Wincing in pain, she told him, "Your friends are very brave."
"Yeah.." Gunn replied in a confident tone, "They're champions, all right. No need to worry about them." Though he did. Death had always been accepted in his life, it was just the way things went. Back in the day, he had sold his soul for a pick-up truck just because he thought he would have been dead long before anyone ever came to collect on that bargain. Now though, when he finally had people who mattered to him, death began to loom in front of them, an unwelcome visitor.
Outside, the battle still raged on. The warriors from Fiyara's tribe had pulled out a bit; they stood on the outskirts of the skirmish with Angel, Spike and Illyria replacing the wounded. For humans, the warriors had put up a valiant fight, but it was still an unfair fight pitting a demon of this strength against those with no supernatural abilities.
Illyria kicked the demon in what looked like its shin, it couldn't be certain if it was exactly with its strange anatomy. It didn't matter though, as long as it hurt it. From the looks of things, when the demon cried out in pain, it had. She smiled, and threw another kick at its other leg-like part.
Spike joined her, but the demon tossed him aside easily. When he landed hard on a bunch of rocks he groaned, "Bollocks." He got to his feet once more, stomping back to the evil thing, "That thing's just not fighting fair." It would only make the victory that much sweeter.
For his part, Angel was hacking away with the sword, but he was unable to get anywhere near the head of the thing. For one thing, the demon kept swatting at him relentlessly, and for another, well it was really very tall.
The demon kicked Illyria, making her jump backwards and crash into Spike. They landed in a pile together. She picked herself up, brushed off her catsuit, and glared at him. A derisive sound escaped her lips, "Insufferable vampire!"
While they were preoccupied, Angel planned out his next attack with the help of a dozen of the tribe's warriors. The thing turned to see what he was doing, but missed the planning session. With an almost animalistic sound in its voice it asked the vampire, "I will crush you."
"You can try." Angel dared it on. Then he shot a look between the thing's towering legs, to the gathering of humans behind it. He nodded, "Now!"
At once the humans rushed the creature. Spike and Illyria sensed what Angel had in mind and joined the massive stampede. The demon tumbled downward, unaware of the attack from behind until it was too late. When it's full weight came careening towards Angel, who still stood in front of it, he began to think this might possibly be a bad plan. He had intended to be the bait, to lure the demon's attention away from the other assault. Being the bait really sucked, Angel realized when he had no time to get out from under the thing before it fell on him. He held the sword upwards when it came crashing down, the tip of it slicing through the creature's brain as it fell.
It took a moment to get the creature off of Angel; its weight had nearly knocked him out. When he rolled out from under it, Spike was grinning at him in delight, "That was your plan, have it fall on you?"
"Hey, it worked."
.......................................
See that little box down there that says 'submit review'. Yeah, you get karma points if you click on it.