What You Wish For
Chapter 1
Los Angeles, 2003
Fred pushed herself against the door of the Magic Bullet many of Jasmines followers had her pinned between the door and the street. They didn't speak they just stared at her intently.
"Damn get out of my way!" Fred heard and saw someone pushing their way through the crowd.
Fred's first thought was that this was finally going to be the follower that killed her. But when she saw her it was obvious she was no follower. She had black hair that went down to the middle of her back and she wore a black AC/DC shirt with dark jeans. Her eyes were the brightest green Fred had ever seen.
"Tell me." She girl started. "That you are aware there is a maggot face running this town."
"You see it too!?" Fred cried all too happily.
"I assumed that LA was going insane. Now I see it has." She said standing infront of Fred. "Let's get inside."
Fred turned and pushed the door open. The two girls entered the store and within a minute the door was opening again. The girl looked up at Fred and told her to get behind the counter.
"Max." She heard behind her. "I love you Max."
"Shut up Jasmine." Max said turning to her.
She had brought with her Angel, Connor, Gunn and Wes. Max stood her ground. She was the only thing that kept them from tearing Fred into small pieces. She put her hand behind her back and gave Fred the thumbs up.
A shot was fired and a bullet glided past Max's head and hit Jasmines shoulder then exited and went into Angel's shoulder. Ma was ready for him, he charged on them.
Max backed against the counter blocking Angel from Fred. He attempted to punch her and she grabbed him then threw him across the room. He hit the ground but jumped back up.
"Look at her Angel!" Fred cried across the room as Max went behind the counter to Fred.
Angel looked at Jasmine and his expression told the girls that he had seen the same thing.
"He's been infected Connor." Jasmine said to him. "He's dead to us."
Connor went at Angel. Max jumped up onto the counter and then down doing a front flip and landing infront of Jasmine.
"You are no match for me Maxine." Jasmine said to her.
"Well damn. Thought I was." She said sarcastically.
She punched Jasmine hard in the face making her nose bleed. She had the blood all over her hand when she ran to Gunn and pulled a knife out of her boot. She slashed him across the hand then put her hand on his.
"Come children!" She yelled turning from them.
"You got him!" Fred cried. "Gunn look at her."
But they were already out of the door. Angel leaned heavily against the counter and looked from Fred to Max and back to Fred.
"Who are you?" He asked Max.
"Max." She said looking at the door.
"Max?" Angel asked her.
"Tripp." She replied.
"Tripp?" Fred said softly. "Tripp as in the only survivor of the Melany incident?"
Max looked at Fred and then back at the door. She hated thinking about those days, she hadn't been the only survivor. Just the only one dumb enough to stick around after the whole place had gone up in flames.
"Melany incident?" Angel asked.
"A town in Texas. Just exploded, one little girl survived. I followed your paper trail after that... explosion after explosion that you survived through." Fred said softly.
"Well when you are fireproof it makes things like that easier. Now why are we still in here?" Max asked them.
"I don't know." Angel said looking at the people gathered around the door.
"Let's get out of here then decide what we are going to do." Fred said as they took the back way out.
"See mixing Jasmines blood with our blood is how we can see her true face." Fred said nodding then she turned to Max. "Why can you see her true face?"
"I saw her on TV once and she was just there all maggoty and such." Max said nodding. "But a few months ago I got into a fight with some pregnant lady who ended up being Jasmines mom or whatever. Blood was spilled guess she's got the same blood."
Fred's eyes bulged. "Cordy! Of course, they have the same blood obviously."
The three of them made their way down an alley then across a not so busy street. Before they knew it they were standing in the back of the Hyperion hotel. They began to climb, they finally reached a fire escape and made their way up to a window.
"This is Cordy's room." Fred explained to Max.
They crawled into the room and crossed it. Max and Fred stood back as Angel kissed Cordy's forehead said a few words that were inaudible then after cutting Cordy's wrist drained some of her blood into a small bowl. They were about to leave when Lorne came into the room. Angel crossed the room and put his hand over Lorne's mouth.
Max took the bowl and her knife and cut Lorne's wrist lightly then spread a small amount of Cordy's blood on his wrist.
"Now what?" Max asked Angel as the whole gang minus Connor sat in the sewers.
Max had turned into a major ally and Angel didn't want to lose her now that they were nearing what could only end up as a final battle. She looked up at Angel her bright green eyes troubled.
"Oh." Fred said suddenly. "Cordy... I almost forgot about her."
"Well you better do just that." Angel said to her. "Forget about her. This is not the time to let your heart get in the way."
They walked for a few minutes in silence. There was little to talk about besides the end of the world and all that.
"I feel empty." Lorne said to them out of nowhere.
"I miss that full feeling, you know. That everything was good and I was at peace." Gun said nodding.
"I never had it." Max said looking behind her making sure no one was following them.
"Where did you come from?" Gunn asked Max. "I mean you save Fred's ass then you come to the rescue with us when it looks like there's no way we can get out of it alive."
"I felt bad for Fred. Alone, no friends." Max said looking at Gunn.
"And you stayed why?" Gunn asked her rudely.
"Because we need her." Angel said to Gunn.
Suddenly Angel and Wes fell through the floor. Max knelt next to floor it was obviously a trap. Gunn pulled Wes out of the hole and before Max could pull Angel out a large stick was thrust past her and towards Angel. Max grabbed the stick and pulled it out of the boys hands.
She snapped it in half and threw it across the other side of the sewer as Angel jumped up behind her landing hard on the ground behind her.
A few more teens came around them all holding weapons. Max looked at Fred who was standing rigidly her hands together.
"These guys aren't under Jasmines control." Angel said to them looking around.
"They are in a sewer. Duh Angel." Max said looking at them. "Sorry kid."
They finally followed the teens to a secured location where it looks like they had been living for a while. The kid that Max had stolen the stick from followed a rigid Angel around as Angel asked how secure the place really was.
"Is the world ending?" Max heard and looked at the young girl who asked the question.
"Not if we have anything to say about it." Wes said looking at Max who nodded at him.
"Are all of you demon hunters?" Matthew, the little boy asked them.
"We are." Fred said.
"I'm not." Max said wondering to the chain link fence.
Wes followed her and stood behind her. He put his hand on her back and looked at her. She turned to him her eyes slightly misted.
"So sue me." She said looking back out. "I know when this is all over I just get to go back to living in sewers and fighting the scum of the earth alone hoping one day one of them may have the power to kill me."
"You don't have to go back to that." Angel said behind them. "You can stay with us."
"Yeah like you really want someone like me hanging around." She said nodding. "Listen, let's go kill that demon thing."
"Max." Wes said as she pulled the little chain link door open almost breaking it.
They followed Randall to the place where Tommy was attacked. Randall was suddenly sucked up a shaft. Angel flew up the shaft after him and Randall's wounded body fell back down. The young girl went to him as Angel made his vamp face.
"Matthew!" The girl yelled as the boy ran out of the tunnels.
Fred screamed as an arm went around her. Gunn cut it off and Fred fell onto him her face lit with fear.
"Where's Wes?" Angel yelled over the chaos.
"We lost him!?" Gunn cried out.
"I'll find him." Max said her eyes locking with Angels before she turned and sprinted down the corridor.
Max listened closely. If she tried hard enough she could hear things above them so it probably wouldn't be that hard to find Wes. She listened closely pushing herself against the floor trying to hear through the vibrations. Finally she picked up a light skittering and then the sound of something slamming hard against a wall. Max pushed herself off of the floor and sprinted in the direction of the loud thud.
She reached a fork in the sewer her mind racing she took the right side. She ran as fast as she could and to her dismay she had reached a dead end. She slammed her hand against the wall and then turned back around.
"Well Wes, don't die yet." She mumbled as she ran back to the fork.
She took the left side, which ended up being the right road to take. She reached the top of landing which over looked Wesley and a way to many legged demon thing who had a vampire pinned to the wall his intestines on the outside.
She jumped off of the landing and hit the ground hard her boots thudding on the ground. She smiled as the demon came at her. She pulled her hands together right below her chin then threw them out and to Wesley's amazement they became two fiery images her hand barely visible through the flames.
Angel reached the door below a few seconds later to see Max do a windmill kick kicking the demon in the face twice before her feet landed back on the ground. As it swung at her with one of its pointy legs she grabbed it with her hands catching it on fire. It pulled its legs free slicing open both of her hands.
In pure anger of being sliced open Max began to glow. No, Angel realized, she wasn't glowing. She was on fire. Angel swooped across the room and knocked Wesley down on the ground. Wesley grabbed the orb before he hit the ground and in a millisecond an explosion of fire went through the room.
A shrill shriek mixed with clicking noises told Angel that the demon had not lived through the explosion. Angel looked up as the fire cleared. He was in shock, the walls were unmarked and there was no smoke. Max stood in the middle of the room the only mark on her was her bleeding hands.
"Talk about skeletons in the closet." Angel said pushing himself up and offering his hand to Wes.
"Sorry. I got mad. By the time it happened I was able to control it. So it wouldn't have hurt you had you been standing." Max said turning to them her eyes glowing a brighter green then ever.
"You know." Angel said looking at her. "Now that we know that we can't get let you go."
"Welcome to Angel Investigations." Wes said looking down at the orb in his hand.
"What is that?" Max asked him.
"I think it's a key to get into the world that Jasmine ruled for a millennia." Wes answered her looking down at the orb in his hand.
"How do you use it?" Angel asked him.
"I don't know." Wes said looking from Angel to Max.
Wesley began to mumble as Gunn, Fred and Lorne ran into the room and slammed the door behind them shoving their bodies against the door. The three of them looked at the other three curiously. Banging began on the door and all of them besides Wes pushed their weight against the door keeping it closed.
Suddenly from behind them a portal opened from the small orb. Wes glowed for a second.
"You guys go. I can hold this." Angel yelled over the banging.
"No Angel. Only you can go through it." Wes cried.
"Go Angel!" Max yelled. "We can take these guys."
"Yeah we can." Gunn yelled.
Angel nodded solemnly and headed through the portal, Wes through him the orb then the five of them stepped back from the door as the portal closed. It banged down to the ground and they all looked up at the armed guard that Connor had brought with him.