Chapter Fourteen:
Gwen

A condominium's lights flared suddenly, bathing the surrounding area with a bluish light. Inside of an apartment on the fifth floor an attractive woman bolted into a sitting position from a dream of her possessing extreme power. She screamed and the lights went out. Light bulbs and televisions and radios and walkmans and so many other electronic devices exploded. Fragments eviscerated at least twenty innocent occupants of the condominium. It was midnight and most of them were torn apart in their sleep. At least thirty others died from the smoke that was thrown up by the suddenly blazing fires in their apartments.
The woman's apartment is large and well-furnished from years of burglary. It had a few cameras positioned here and there along with a panic room where she could watch what the cameras displayed. She would never again store a person of possible importance in a room like that, not after that unfortunate incident with Manny, a totem that was being hunted down by a big, mean demon with a couple of horns and a lot of blood on its hands two years ago. She looked around herself. She didn't feel awake. She felt… odd. She felt like she was floating, a bystander in what was going on rather than a participant, which she was… in a way.
She hadn't wanted to go out of her bedroom when she had heard her name called from right outside the door.
"Gwen," it called. The voice sounded familiar. "Gwen!" it reiterated, slightly impatient this time. So Gwen went to the door. She paused and slipped on her long, black gloves before she touched the metal handle and turned it. Outside she saw a figure standing in the shadows. The figure was tall and slim and holding a wine glass in its right hand. Gwen reacted by flipping the light switch and pulling off her gloves. Unfortunately the expected light did not come.
"I wouldn't step forward if I were you," the familiar voice said from the shadows. Gwen heard two footsteps on the red, plush carpet of the hall. "You're barefoot and there's a lot of broken glass lying about." Gwen held her hands up, ready to electrocute this man, this familiar-sounding man.
"I have a question for you: why are you a cat burglar? You should just march into a restaurant of some kind with a gun pointed and shout at the customers and employees to keep cool and no one would get hurt. No one will give a shit, really. There's the waitresses who, as sure as the sun will rise, wouldn't take a bullet for the cash register… or the wallets of the customers." Gwen had heard a speech similar to this in a movie before. Her eyes widened as she realized who was speaking to her.
Quentin Tarantino held up a finger which then burst into brilliant light. His odd-looking, aging face stared at her with a smile. That's when Gwen understood she was dreaming.
Quentin Tarantino held out his left hand with the lit finger for a hand-shake. Gwen had removed her gloves and wasn't about to electrocute this genius filmmaker.
"Shake my hand," Quentin Tarantino ordered. "I won't bite." "Maybe I will," Gwen replied, understanding that this was from the same movie that the restaurant-robbing speech had been from, except a bit different.
"Bites I can handle." Gwen reluctantly shook Mr. Tarantino's hand. "My name's Richard," the thing in the form of Quentin Tarantino stated. "My friends call me Dick." Richard then withdrew his hand with the lit finger that reminded Gwen of E.T. and laughed. Suddenly Uma Thurman is standing in front of her with a yellow, blood-coated suit and a motorcycle helmet in her right hand instead of the wine glass Tarantino had been holding. "Do you remember a certain vampire who's just so chock-full of soul?" An image of the handsome vampire whose heart she had once shocked into pumping popped into her head immediately. Shortly followed by it was the Beast. She winced and Uma Thurman chuckled.
"You don't need to worry about that guy anymore, Gwen," Thurman informed her. "He's long-gone. Anyway, you need to get your ass over to Los Angeles quick, quick, quick. You're missing all the fun! Just this morning before the sun rose you missed Toby getting killed and yesterday you missed a Venacklondage getting killed by Bob, another Venacklondage stealing Lindsay from the base, and Lorne, Oz, and Toby entering the base! You even missed Riley's death. Don't you wish you had been there for Riley's death?" "Bob?" Gwen said, still a bit shocked at having seen two of her idols and having conversations with them.
Tim Roth howled laughter. His tuxedo was soaked in blood and his face was pale. He held an empty pistol in his right hand. He then spoke with his English accent fading in and out. "You also missed Connor getting kidnapped and Drusilla's boobs. Right now you're missing Drusilla, Connor, and Bob all going to the base. Then you'll miss a flashy battle and some death. Do you want to miss that?" Gwen stood there silently, not certain of how to respond.
Tim Roth smiled. "Didn't think you did. But you will. Los Angeles is more than a day or two's drive away." Gwen, like Toby, was residing New York. She, however, was living in the city rather than a town east of the city like Toby had been.
"I need to go to Los Angeles?" Gwen inquired.
"Yes," Richard replied. He was now in between forms, choosing who to appear as next. What was left behind was a humanoid blob of jelly-like material, white in color. His voice was like that of an automated answering machine's.
"Tonight?" Gwen asked.
"If you don't want to miss out on all of the fun," Richard was now Sigourney Weaver in a spacesuit. In Richard's right hand was now a harpoon gun. Richard then clapped twice and Gwen sat up in bed. She was undressed and sweating profusely. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her brown hair was sticking to her head.
Gwen got up and walked across her bedroom. The lights were still destroyed and fires were raging in many rooms. Only Gwen's encounter with Richard had been a dream. Richard had seeped into her brain to tell her what he wanted to tell her. He hadn't wanted to go into detail about what she was supposed to do to help stop the Apocalypse when she got to Los Angeles because that would take too long and she might miss out on some of the fun that would take place before her part in the Apocalypse was over.
Gwen shrieked as she stepped barefoot onto a burning hot shard from her alarm clock. She leapt back and fell to the carpeted floor. She tried to look at her foot but couldn't see due to the lack of light. She knew she was bleeding; she could feel the blood flowing down her foot. She also felt the shard sticking into her foot.
She reached to her foot and grabbed the darkest part of her foot and found it to be the shard. She screamed as she pulled the large portion of her alarm clock out of her skin, releasing more blood.
That's when she realized that there was a surge going through her system that felt much like adrenaline. She felt powerful. Much more powerful than she had before falling asleep.
Then every ounce of strength left her body. She fell limp to the floor, unable to even blink or think. It was all gone. Every bit of her power.

Meanwhile…

Every single building in New York City was affected. Every single electronic device. Thousands died as the devices overloaded and blew up.
An infant named Max Fergundson was killed as his baby monitor detonated. His parents were killed as the baby monitor in their room blew up as well.
An apartment building crumbled as all of the cars in the parking garage exploded, killing everyone in the building except for a lucky few rescued the next day.
Ellis Island's few buildings were destroyed. Roosevelt Island suffered a hundred deaths and two collapsed buildings. Manhattan Island was the worse, of course. Seventy thousand died. A hundred or so buildings collapsed.
Rodney Remus, seventeen years old, had his throat slashed by his demolished television's shards. His girlfriend, to whom he had just lost his virginity, woke up to his dead body seconds later.
A toy store was wiped off the face of the Earth as every single one of its five hundred electronic toys blew up. One half of a tall building across the street fell to the ground. The sewer systems backfired and toilets and sinks began to explode as well. Shelia Ramsie, nineteen and home to visit her parents for her summer away from college, was about to lift up the seat of a toilet when it was propelled upwards by an ungodly amount of force to decapitate her.
Every plane at every airport was destroyed. Those just passing by New York City suffered a total loss of passengers. The airports themselves were filled with fire as monitors and security systems overpowered.
Beatrice Delmond, thirty-four, was talking to her sister in Africa on a cell phone when the cell phone destroyed half her face.
Those using or near phone booths were killed by flying debris as the phones detonated.
Sean Berds was typing a story on his computer when the monitor's shards lashed out and eviscerated his face.

Meanwhile…

Gwen's apartment building was surrounded by explosions and debris. She sat up screaming as power beyond any she had ever dreamed of having rushed into her mind. Her mind adjusted quickly to this new power… if it hadn't, then her head would've been on the walls and ceiling. Blood dribbled out of her nose in a lazy river.
Then her power left her again.

Meanwhile…

Millions were dead in the morning. In Albany buildings collapsed and phones blew up. Light bulbs threw glass in all directions and children up late watching TV knew nothing more.
Harry Vega was checking his wrist watch at his friend's request and his arm and face were destroyed. He lived for three hours before blood loss killed him. His friend, Kevin Nerg was blown in half by his walkman, walkie-talkie, and cell phone, all in his pockets.
Zachary Xylophone was out on Chautauqua Lake, listening to Korn when the radio blew up and sunk the boat he was in along with slashing his ear and his stomach.
Quentin Desmond was micro waving some Chef Boyardee when his microwave blew up and killed him.
Bill Derrick had insomnia and had just replaced an old light bulb when it overloaded in his face.
Jack Frierson was listening to the couple in the apartment next to his have sex when his camcorder, television, CD player, alarm clock, overhead light, VCR, and DVD player all conspired to kill him.

Meanwhile…

Gwen sat up again. This time blood was gushing through her nose. She was screaming but she couldn't hear anything but a very loud ringing. Her brain was taking more time to adjust now. This power that she didn't know existed. Had never dreamed existed in her wildest dreams. While she didn't have as much power as Bob, she still had much more than the United States army. This was enough power for her. She didn't want anymore. Richard wanted her to have more, though.
All her power left once again…

Meanwhile…

Angel was walking down through the base after a hard day's hibernation. Before sunrise he had been in the medical tent and from there he had busted his ass to get to his own tent before the sun peaked over the horizon at him to smite him.
He had just left the medical tent after waiting for ten minutes for Gunn to wake up. No luck yet. Now he was just walking aimlessly, looking for a purpose to be alive. Dawn and Illyria were getting to be good friends. They had just walked by Angel talking. Dawn had been smiling while Illyria had been expressionless. Xander was eating with Willow and Kennedy in the mess hall tent. Faith and Robin were out hunting the remainder of the Mochlackdangodenacks while Giles was with Lorne, Oz, and Toby, researching the Apocalypse in his musty, old text books. Angel tried to evade the thought of Giles because Giles reminded him of Wesley too much.
Buffy was sleeping in her tent, which--oh, so lucky for her--was devoid of electronics. She was probably dreaming of Riley and the times they had spent together fighting demons. She was probably dreaming of the time that they couldn't speak, the time that they had found out about each other, about the time that they had defeated the Gentlemen together.
Spike's location was unknown to Angel. Spike was traveling through the city with a big-ass axe, hunting any demon for him to kill.
Also unknown to Angel was the fact that Lindsay was standing on top of a building and looking down upon Venacklondages and Jarlkarlones alike. His mind was being poisoned and he held all of these demons under his control.
Angel was thinking about how Cordelia had looked the last time he had seen her. Not the last time he had seen the real Cordelia in the flesh, but the last time he had seen the real Cordelia at all. He wanted to be angry with Connor because he had destroyed what Angel and Cordelia might have had, but he didn't want to be angry with Connor because he didn't know whether or not it was Connor's fault. Not to mention Connor was his son.
Speaking of Connor, he, Drusilla, and Bob were all halfway across the city, floating on air. They would've reached the base within fifteen minutes and began a massacre, but what happened next stopped their progress.

Dawn looked up curiously as the lights began to grow bright. Music blared through dead windows and deserted buildings. Television programs screamed their jokes and threats and violence out into the night.
When a dozen computers in the building next to Dawn and Illyria overloaded and blew, a large, wooden beam skewered Illyria. Dawn was nearly killed by flying glass and a few bricks.
Gunn, Monique, and a few other soldiers in the medical tent had their gurneys and beds tipped over by the explosions. Those closer to the medical equipment were shredded to ribbons.
Buffy's tent gave out and she was covered in the thick blanket.
Xander lost his arm as a table propelled by a large explosion of machinery slammed into him and severed most of his muscles and nerves in his left arm.
Willow reacted quick enough to keep anything from hitting her, but a fourth of a coffee-maker smacked Kennedy in the face, putting her in a coma.
Angel was impaled by a pole that barely missed his spine. He was stuck up on the side of a building by that pole.
Exploding light bulbs and buildings killed nearly half of the Initiative army that remained. Faith and Robin survived the explosions with no scratches or bruises.
Three Venacklondages and a dozen Jarlkarlones were killed. Two-hundred Mochlackdangodenacks were reduced to nothing more than piles of blood and guts and armor.
Lindsay was unaffected.
Connor was hit by a dozen bricks and fell to the ground. Bob turned back and shielded himself from flying debris. He then repaired Connor's broken body with his mind. His attention given to Connor was punished with Drusilla getting impaled by a wooden sliver that penetrated her heart. Her dust collected on the street.
Spike hit the deck when the explosions began and escaped injury.
In Washington, D.C., the President was obliterated by the cameras that were trained on him as he was giving his speech about why Los Angeles had been evacuated. His lie.
Everyone in the country--except those in Hawaii, who were too far away to be affected--who was watching was killed. The death toll soared sky-high. Nearly seventy percent of the country was dead in the morning.

Meanwhile…

The pain was too much for Gwen to feel when the power came back. No one had ever felt the pain that Gwen did in that moment. Billion… shit, octillions of messages of pain were being registered by her brain every second. Blood poured down her nude body from her nose in rapids.
She nearly died. When she emerged alive and well, she was more powerful than Illyria had been back in her day. And the United States of America was in ruins.
Richard, as Quentin Tarantino, smiled at her. "That's it. You're ready."

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Hey, MorbidMan here. I was gonna save this for a chapter or two, but I had to post it right away when Charming Slayer inquired about Gwen. The answer to your question, Charming Slayer, is quite obviously 'yes… with a vengeance.' Sorry for the short, pathetic chapter thirteen and long time between updates. See you next chapter.

"Nobody ever robs restaurants. Why not?" - Ringo (played by Tim Roth in a movie by Quentin Tarantino that stars Uma Thurman as well) "Pulp Fiction"