CHP4
Connor walked into the room, smiling completely oblivious as to what awaited him. I felt bad for the kid, for everything that kept going wrong in his life. It was as if he weren't mean to be happy, like he couldn't get a break.
"What?" he chuckled seeing the bunch of us all in the room. Then he caught sight of Fred and Angel had to hold him back. "Hey! No!"
"It's gonna be OK." Angel said trying his best to be soothing though how keeping him pinned was going to help get that point across was beyond my comprehension.
"You've been lied to. We all have." Fred said still holding that big knife. I rolled my eyes standing far away from the little knot of helpless do gooders.
"Don't make this any harder."
"Let go." Connor ordered watching them apprehensively. Something about the kid was bugging me but so far his reaction was normal. I mean I'd had the same one when Fred approached me with the knif-.
"Watc-." But my warning was too late and Gunn flew back.
"Easy." Angel said struggling to keep him still.
"Don't." He said once more.
"Angel, maybe this isn't the way…" but none of them were listening and Wes took over. Knife in hand he dipped his fingers in the bowl of Cordelia's blood then sliced Connor's chest. It was a shallow cut but the fact that he did it slowly and then rubbed his bloodied fingers into the cut-.
"Aah! I'll kill you." he growled at Angel.
"It'll pass." He replied in his soothing voice.
"Right, 'cause Lord knows he's never tried that before." And I couldn't help but agree with Lorne.
"You're back with us now, Connor." Gunn took a breath watching as the kid stopped struggling. Wesley touched Connor's face trying in his way to lend some comfort because he knew what he was feeling. They all felt it, that lonely ache, the empty void which had been filled with that things lies.
"Sorry. The only way to make you see." Angel said softly, apologizing for ripping the blindfold from his son's eyes.
"What you're feeling is normal. We're all feeling it. The sadness—it gets better after a while." Fred tried, looking more like a little girl than ever. I could see the lie in her words…
"Jasmine." Connor said softly.
"You understand why we're here?" Angel asked. Conner nodded always moving to the door and that was all wrong. I stepped forward dropping my arms where I'd had them crossed over my chest.
"No-."
"They're here! Come quick! They're here." He yelled from the hallway.
"Connor, you have to listen to us." Angel tried desperately to reach him, make him understand but I knew it was too late. The boy was gone, he'd never been with us and just as I'd never been affected by the demon neither had he.
"Of course, its part of him." And his next words only confirmed what I'd just realized.
"You're wrong, Dad. About me, about her, everything. It doesn't matter anymore what you say." And from the look on his face I was pretty sure bad was just seconds from getting worse. "We're gonna tear you apart."
Angel lunged at the door, slamming it shut. He locked Connor and the lunatics outside leaning with all his force against the door. I headed to the window not waiting for them to tell me what needed doing. It was obvious our time there was up and we had to leave, fast. The others hesitated even when Angel yelled at them to get out. I slipped out the window easily using the flimsy fire escape which groaned and screeched just with my weight.
"Shit." I slowed down but the metal screeched louder as the others climbed onto it. "No, no, no oh no." looking up I could see all of them bunched up, all four of them and me? That made five people on the flimsy fire escape and looking over the side I could tell it was a long way to the ground-.
"Stone. That's stone under us…" l had the brightest idea just then. "Hey!" I called to the four still clinging to the railing. "Get over here; I'm going to get us down."
"How?" Gunn asked but they were all moving albeit at a snails pace.
"If you don't hurry it up you'll never find out." I reached a hand to Wes who was the first one and letting go of the rail I grabbed Fred pushing them both together and putting them on my left. "You're going to have to trust me on this." I said with a smile.
"You're smiling." Gunn stated with a frown. "I don't like when you smile."
"You all hold on and what ever you do, do not let go." I grabbed Lorne's hand and made sure I held onto him because I didn't think he'd hold on to me. "You really don't want to let go." I assured them and felt Wes slip his arm around my waist while Fred clutched at him. "You're gonna help me." I told Gunn who still scowled though he did grab onto my arm. "You're gonna help me push us over the edge."
"I what!" Gunn yelled wide eyed but by then I had them all clinging to each other and to me.
We went over screams and all with the wind whipping past us, ten stories down. It wasn't a long fall but it wasn't short either and having to keep four freaked out adults together was harder than I'd assumed it was gonna be.
**********
The five emerged from the concrete in the garage a tangle of limbs piled on top of each other. There were groans and curses as each tried to get up and found themselves wobbly and uncoordinated like a new born colt.
"I swear, if you ever do something like this again-!" Gunn gasped falling onto his side.
Wes fared no better though he did manage to get Fred untangled from Lorne. There was a muffled groan from Phade and as she moved to get up her muscles spasmed. She sat a moment wiping at her face while Wes got the car. A moment later the engine growled to life and tires squealed as he pulled up next to the group. They piled in with Phade slipping into the back seat with Lorne and Gunn.
"God that was... awful!" Fred mumbled wiping at her eyes.
"Love you to bits precious," Lorne said to Phade patting her head where it rested against his shoulder. "But don't ever do that again."
"Not a problem." Phade muttered feeling the pain in her head begin to recede. "I don't plan on ever taking anyone for a swim in stone again." and she meant it.
The tires screeched as the car came to a stop behind the fire escape they had just jumped out of.
"This is all wrong. There has to be a way we could—." Fred began looking at them for support.
"We could cut the power, create a diversion." Gunn offered.
"No, she has hundreds of followers in there all acting with a single, focused will. We can't risk going against that. Not now. Someone—." Wes was cut off mid-sentence as the car bounced. The loud thump jerked Phade from her light doze. She watched as Angel pulled Connor off the hood of the car and out of the way as he slid in next to Fred.
"Drive." He ordered grim faced.
"Angel—."
"We can't just leave him, he's your—." Fred looked frightened.
"I know what he is. Wes, drive." Angle cut through their protests and as the mob approached with Jasmine in the lead, Wes put the car in gear. All that was heard was the screech of the tires as the small group left.
**********
The trials are set before the Chosen.
Fire.
Water.
Air.
Earth.
Stone.
Metal.
The elements, each more powerful alone and a terrible force to contend with combined. Time is needed to unite the Fury with her element. Time that stands still is only found within the Light…
Flames danced around, the stone burned, glowed white hot and still she walked. The earth shook; the ground trembled and cracked leaving a glowing abyss quickly filled with flowing fire. The flames rose high, a flare of red, orange and yellow the tips white. She fell, silent, arms open she fell into the abyss…
The beast's maw snapped missing the floating woman by millimeters. She writhed unable to breathe the water then it began to glow around her. Blue-green and her hands webbed, sharp finned scales lined her arms jutting out in sharp points at her elbows. The beast attacked again and using her arm the Fury severed the tentacle. The water fizzled, the color darkening, turning black…
Cold wind blew against the figures, whistling past their defenses. The sky and the earth separated by the nothingness between, the empty spaces filled with the clear, crisp wind. It cut, tore into the winged creatures. Blood, feathers everywhere…
The ground shook and the Fury stood as the demons rose from the ground. The earth pulled itself closed only to be torn open once again. Bending down she dug her fingers into the soft dirt, light pulsed down her arms and the trees sprouted before her. The roost wove, entwining themselves until they covered the wound in the earth…
Spires of stone rose from the ground, the sharp points jutting through the beasts as they charged. There were too many and as one the five stood, hands clasped. The ground shook, more demons accumulated and then the single slab of stone sliced out of the earth cutting into the horde. Limbs were severed and the rest were contained…
Shimmering pools bubbled up from the ground. The liquid bled up between rocks and dirt and as the Fury's cupped the liquid in their hands it shaped into what they willed. Round spiked spheres, long sharp spears, weapons of every sort imaginable. The demons clawed on them only to howl as their nails were broken. The Fury's skin bubbled each time slicing into the demon as it held onto her. One arm shimmered melting until a slender spike replaced the appendage. It sunk into the howling demon before easily cutting it in half…
***********
"Man, never seen so many cruisers."
"Technically, we're the only criminals left."
"There's no way we're drivin' out of this. It's time we disappeared."
I heard their voices before as if from far away but they called to me, not that they actually said my name but I felt as if I had to go there, to be present and offer what help I could.
"Ok so what have I missed?" I asked sitting up and rubbing at my face. It was difficult to focus on one face or even an object. I kept seeing the mirage, the wom-Fury's, I couldn't help but feel awed by them. They each shone with their inner power, their fury and more than a few of them could wield over one element. It was amazing, what they could do, what they did.
"Hey, sleeping beauty is finally awake." Gunn retorted much grumpier than I remembered.
"What crawled up his butt and died, Lorne?" but the green demon wasn't smiling so the joke was wasted, not that I was joking. The car started moving again, into the city with very little by way of conversation. I had too much time on my hands just then, to think on the dream. I'm assuming it was a dream because I wasn't reading the book; I'd left that back in my suite.
On my bed.
In plain sight.
"Aww man." I groaned slumping in the seat.
"Problem cupcake?"
"Not particularly unless you consider leaving the only piece of information I've got so far on what I am in plain sight in the bad guys lair. So, nope no problem…" but it was a major huge problem! All I could do was cross my fingers and hope none of those loonies went into my suite.
"You put up the wards like I said?" I glanced at Lorne sharply trying to remember if I had set the wards. "You only have to do it once, hon and after that they go up all by themselves. It's an automatic reflex kind of thing."
Reflex? Was he shitting me? But the green guy's face was very open- not an ounce of teasing or deceit-.
"You're brilliant!" I exclaimed with a hug for the green demon. Now it didn't matter whether I'd forgotten to do it myself. They went up anyway, with no help from me, yay!
"I have my moments." Lorne grinned sheepishly when the car came to a stop. There were helicopters all over the place and now that we weren't moving their sound was clearer and much closer than I'd thought.
"So what's the plan?" I asked.
***********
"Remind me never to ask you what the plan is." I grouched following behind Angel as he led us through the sewers. Man did it smell down there! "So… pod people?" I asked looking at Lorne. He was lagging behind just like the others though they were trying their best to keep up with our fearless leader.
"Yup, plenty of them while you were taking the nap." He puffed with a faint smile. "Fredikins bopped one in the face too."
"Wow," I looked at Fred who blushed, embarrassed by the comments but I gave her a thumbs up. "'Bout time we had another girl kicking ass in the group. I was feeling lonely."
"You've been kicking ass since day one." Gunn muttered.
"Aww you still feeling that?" I asked with fake sympathy. It was this thing we did, Gunn and I, try and get on each others nerves. It really didn't bother me, usually and most of the time we were actually nice to each other but I guess right now this was better, this kept him from thinking too much on how fucked up our world was and how much bad was being shoveled down our respective throats.
Lorne was panting, definitely exhausted.
"Yeah, I'm movin', Angel cakes. Might not look like it, but inside, where it counts, I'm runnin'. Full speed ahead, believe me."
I couldn't help the snort of laughter at that. I mean inside running full speed? He really does have a funny bone.
"It won't take them long to figure out—." I gave him a meaningful look but it wasn't needed since he could see for himself that they needed a rest.
"One minute."
"Hey I got a question." Gunn said from his slumped pose against the dirty sewer wall. "How come she aint breathin' hard?" he hooked a finger in my direction. "How come she aint even tired?"
"That's cuz I'm a girl." I winked at him knowing that would get him huffing and puffing. "I got more stamina." And right then I meant it in more than just the regular everyday kinda way. I was talking kinky-get-my-way-sex-kind-of-way. His eyes bugged out just a bit and I did laugh.
Still the moment didn't last because everyone wanted to know what the plan was and Angel had no idea. After everything that had happened I couldn't blame him for feeling out of it but as long as we all agreed we weren't eating rats I was good with whatever else they decided.
"Cordelia." Wesley's voice was low; I didn't think anyone else had heard it.
"I can't believe I almost forgot about her."
Way to go Fred, bring down the troops just when they start getting some hope.
"Do it." Angel was unusually harsh. "Forget about her. We all have to now. We don't have a choice."
I count myself among those looking at him like he'd grown an extra head. I mean he left Connor behind but that was the kid's choice and he leaves Cordy behind but she's not easy to sneak out of the Hyperion especially in her condition but now he's telling them to forget she even existed.
Where'd the love go?
"Minute's up."
Once again we were on the move and I doubted Angel didn't hear the conversation his followers were having just a couple of paces behind him.
"I know, kitten. It's strange, but under that blood-feeding creature of the night facade, he seems a bit heartless lately."
"Hey-."
"Hearts get in the way."
"Hearing as good as ever, though, boss!"
I just rolled my eyes and let it slide. But Angel had other plans and I'm guessing it was time for another 'pep talk'. God, I really hoped this would be better than the last one. Still, he was asking them to forget about those they loved and I couldn't help but think of Ryan, Bastían, my Dad… would I be able to leave them behind? Forget about them, pretend they'd never existed? How did you erase the memories?
"Still, I miss her. I miss the warmth and the knowing what's right and that you're doing it just by loving her."
"Tough drug to kick cold turkey."
"I remember the first time she took me aside at that fight at the bowling alley. Me, pale, frail Winfred Burkle, sitting with a goddess, and she was asking me what her name should be. "
"Seems strange now. A being of her immeasurable age. You think she'd already have a name."
"Well, maybe it was embarrassing, like Hester or Peanut."
"Would you all stop feeling sorry for your selves? Beating the bitch is going to be hard enough as it is but if you're all down in the dumps moping over the loss of- of lies then you might as well go back up right now and leave the fighting to those who can do it." I glared at them, the whole bunch of whiny-.
"Like you?" Gunn glared.
"Hey, I'm not the one un-able to suck it up." I snapped. Maybe it was harsh-hell, I know I was harsh by saying that but they were no good if they kept longing for the lies. "You wanna feel sad about not being lied to anymore go ahead. I prefer the harsh reality even if the truth does hurt li-."
"Angel!"
The loud crash as the floor gave way had all of us running to the large hole where Wes was hanging on for dear life.
I didn't wait for the others to check for Angel I just hopped into the abyss looking in of course. It wasn't that far and I managed to land in a half crouch just to Angel's left. That's when the group of kids surrounded the others pointing sharp sticks.
"Wes?" Angel called up, one hand reaching for mine as I stood and moved to his side. I couldn't take my eyes off the kids. I heard Wes call down that he was ok when the older of the boys jabbed his stick towards us and the others.
"No. You're not alright 'till I say you're alright. Holly, you good?"
"Yep." The blond girl replied and I just kept wondering if these kids had something to do with Jasmine but they didn't do that weird Jasmine voice and they looked normal.
"Trip, that ugly-ass beastie so much as breathes wrong, you stick him." The boy ordered.
"Ugly ass—hey!" apparently Lorne wasn't taking to the kids especially when they kept insulting him but he did look just a bit scary only I knew better, now.
Suddenly Angel leapt up and yanked the stick from the boy.
"That's my cue." The floor opened up under my feet sucking me into the stone a lot faster than before and then I was looking up at the fight… if it was even that. One of the kids came close; all I had to do was stick out my hand and…
"Aah-!"
'Gotcha.' He struggled like a drowning child. 'Hush, it's alright. This is normal…'
"Enough! Enough. Phade?"
Once again that was my cue and taking the boy with me we stepped out of the wall.
"You ok?" he asked the kid in front of him, extending a hand to help him up.
"Yeah." He stood looking at me warily because I was still holding the boy to me but if I let go he'd fall and it was my fault he was all wobbly.
"It's ok. They're not under her power."
Questions abounded and most of them- the ones having to do with me- weren't asked I couldn't be sure but I thought it had to do with fear. There was a time when I didn't mind being feared but these were just kids. I didn't like having them afraid of me, not kids…
As it turns out one of the boys knew Gunn and Gunn knew his older brother. Golden, the boy who'd started the fight led us through some tunnels to their hidey-hole. It was funny to think a little twelve year old boy had stolen Gunn's ride but that's what'd happened. As it turned out we weren't the only ones in the sewers. Something else was taking these kids out one by one and I for one wanted to get it and make it pay for what it had done so far.
The alcove was grated and fenced off. I followed Angel around as he checked the grates looking unconvinced as to their stability.
"I'll re-enforce them." I whispered and stepping around him stuck my hand into the wall around the grates. Bringing my hands together made the stone swirl over the metal grate until it was completely covered.
"It's ok. All the other ways in are grated off. We checked." Golden said to our backs.
"Well, now I'm checkin'." Angel ground out. He ignored my slight frown and kept walking with me trailing until all the grates were re-enforced. I heard the conversation going on; these kids had been fighting when the sun was down. The whole time I was worrying over Guy getting bit, turned or killed these kids were dying. They'd been fighting and dying…
'Their light extinguished for ever…'
"They're your crew, aren't they? You're the leader. I'm Matthew." I looked over my shoulder seeing the little boy I'd taken for a swim. He kept glancing at me nervously and kept his distance. I offered a soft smile hoping it didn't scare him away. He really was too young for this…
While Angel washed his hands, washed Connor's blood from them I listened to the kids talk about how they fought as log as they could, trying to hold their ground, keep people safe. They set traps and check them everyday which is how Tommy got taken out by that thing. The only food they had was from a store that miraculously hadn't been burned down. They found Mathew in La Brea about to get sucked by the vampires who'd decided to have a picnic by setting up a pile up. The boy had seen too much for his age. His parents killed in front of him…
Sebastián… how would he deal with my choice if I should die? I hadn't even spoken to him or my Dad. Ryan would be angry, he'd probably want to kill me all over again if I died trying to fight those other ones. Come to think of it they didn't have a name; at least I hadn't found one. The books just referred to them as They.
These kids thought it as worse up top and right now they weren't half wrong. "But the world isn't coming to an end. So it does matter where you go."
"It doesn't matter." Golden cut in. "Whatever that evil son-of-a-bitch is, it killed our people, killed my brother. We're gonna kill him right back."
"It's weird, really, us running into you like this. I mean, we—we're professional monster killers." Fred looked around looking sad. "Or we were."
"Are, Fred. We are." Angel said picking up a sword. Funny thing to just have lying around but since it belonged to Golden's brother maybe it wasn't so weird.
"Well, now it belongs to me. Let's go get professional on this evil son-of-a-bitch's ass." Angel growled in a harsh voice. Seeing him with the sword and the kiddies with their sticks I kinda thought we weren't evenly matched.
"Heard that..."
And just to make things a little more even…
"Anyone want one for themselves?" I asked sticking both hands into the wall and coming back with my own version of stone swords. They were a little nicer than the one Xyne made back at the cave in Monte Rio. Thinking about that little side-trip had me wondering if the Winchester's were ok. Were they still hunting or were they under Jasmine's all peace and love spell? Dean would be royally pissed off once we got rid of it but it would be fun to see him being all goofy-lovey.
"How-." Gunn shook his head and just accepted the stone sword I handed him. I made a couple of lighter ones for the kids and Fred.
*******
We were looking for Wes. Yup, the kiddies had their fight and seeing Angel in vamp face had Mathew running. I couldn't blame him, not since he saw his family killed by vampires and having Angel come after him in full vamp mode didn't help get the boy to stop. We still hadn't heard from Fred and Gunn who took off after him.
Maybe I could find them… I mean swimming through stone was like when you swam in water and sound carried in water… it made sense that sound would carry through the stone and hadn't I heard voices when I'd been in there before.
"Uh-uh, Dracula. Not ok."
I turned with a frown looking away from the stone wall to find Golden holding his sword to us. That was not why I gave it to him.
"Hey, you've got the wrong evil beastie here. Angel's a champion for the Powers That Be and that sword I gave you was meant to be used on a non-Champion. Either you put it down or I take it away."
"I'd like to see you try." He snarled obviously pissed off at what he thought was our betrayal.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." My eyes flashed silver gray, I could tell because he yelped in shock and everything around me was washed in a silver light. The stone sword crumbled in his hand, the grains floating about as if carried by a breeze. They swirled around him twice before they pooled over my palm until I had a nice sized baseball, made of stone of course.
"Aah!" the boy exclaimed moving back a pace and pointing. His mouth worked but no words came though his eyes bugged at sight of the three of us. Lorne the green demon, Angel the vampire with a soul though Golden didn't know that and then me, only he had no idea what I was.
"You think I didn't see that back there? You're one of 'em." He finally got out.
"Uh, Golden, it's not like that." Angel tried though he was doing a bad job of not looking guilty.
"Yeah, he's telling the truth." Lorne jumped in while I stood and tossed the stone baseball up watching them try and explain this.
"Excuse me. Not talkin' to horned demon, talkin' to vampire. Thank you."
"Alright, what you saw, yes, I can't deny that, but—."
"But he only drinks pig's blood!"
"Lorne..."
"Well, it's true! You gotta give an undead fella points for that, right, huh? I mean, unless you're into the whole kosher thing, but, I mean, you're not— well, you don't look—." Just then Golden pushed a sharp pointy stick towards Lorne.
What?
I can't do shit about sticks, had it been made of stone then….
"OK, horned demon shutting up."
"Look, I don't blame you for feelin' this way, but I'm not gonna justify my existence to you. I wouldn't be able to. But what I can do is take that spear away from you and snap it into kindling and break your neck in half the time it would take for you to give it a good push. Or you can step aside and let me go help my friend."
Wow, Angel was on roll today.
"Good visual, really helps the 'I'm not a big bad vampire' image." I couldn't help the answering smile as Angel threw a glare at me over his shoulder.
"We need to look for Wes."
"Don't forget Fredikins and Gunn." Lorne added with a small wave for the kiddies.
"Don't worry about Fred and Gunn." I said moving to the wall. I touched it and the tips of my fingers melted in. I trailed them in the stone leaving ripples all along the wall listening.
"Matthew! You sure he went this way?"
"Definitely heard splashin'. It's gotta be him."
"Unless it was another one of those skittering creatures."
"Yeah, well, it better skitter its hindquarters outta my way, 'cause I ain't in the mood."
"Or it could just be rats."
"Now what did you have to go and say that for? Damn!"
"Sorry, I wasn't— I'm sure if it's not Matthew then it's probably some horrible monster, but definitely not—."
"He doesn't like rats." I mumbled with a half smile.
"You heard Angel. Feelings don't enter into it anymore."
"That the world we're fighting for? The right to be heartless, an uncaring shell? To be dead inside?"
"We're gonna be dead, period, if Jasmine gets a hold of that kid. We're fightin' for our survival."
"That's not enough, Charles, not for me. May-maybe you can turn off your feelings like Angel can, leave the people we care about behind."
"Yeah, well, you had no trouble turnin' off your emotion chip when—."
"When what?"
"Nothin'."
"What were you gonna say?"
"Forget it."
"Personal…" I frowned not wanting to hear their break up fight and moved away from their tunnel still looking for Wes. I could hear Lorne in the background talking to the kids like they were, well kids only not so bright. I wondered how he got started on his little lecture on why they shouldn't use mean words like ugly-ass and beastie…
"He's not far." I turned to Angel and almost forgot what I was going to say. He was just… there was so much light… I had to squint in order to get a glimpse of his face and then Lorne- he wasn't as brightly lit as Angel but there was an inner light coming off him as well and the kids.
'The Light…'
"He's… in trouble." I said pushing the words past as I tore my eyes away from them. "Take the sword, watch out for the demon."
"Phade?" Lorne took a step in my direction but I held a hand up for him to stop. I went back to the stone and listened to the demon.
"Other world. Older world. You go. Go on. Use my key. Visit. What we breathing there burn out little mouse lungs before you can make a peep."
I got a glimpse of it, flashes of empty gray skies. Mountains and rocks with an abyss you couldn't begin to measure and then… more like it. Every where, they were everywhere-.
"Mmm, this blood magic. Flesh magic. Older than words. More much power. This magic she will hear. She will hear and remember her true ones… No words. She gives no care about words. Word magic."
"Aah." I clutched at my head with both hands feeling the silver fade but the bloody images were blindingly clear.
'Ish takedi og vai meld'in. Ahsahd vai'me lign it raihgn!'
"It will die." The words hissed past my throat, anger boiling in my veins at the dead Fury's this thing- things had killed in order to give praise but before I could leave, the conventional way, to tear this thing to bits both Gunn and Fred arrived with Matthew.
"Gunn, I'm not liking what I'm not hearing. What did you do to my boy?" Golden yelled.
"Son, there's a whole new world of bad going on upstairs, and your boy was walking into it blind. Now, we did what we had to, and frankly, I ain't interested in your opinion on the subject!"
"We need to go." I had that sick feeling again but it wasn't as bad. "Now-."
Matthew chuckled then laughed out loud, but it sounded more like a woman's laugh. The little blond girl moved towards him tentatively.
"Matty? Honey?"
"That's not him." I growled grabbing Fred's arm.
"Oh, no."
"Yeah." I tugged her towards the exit when that nauseating voice filled the sewer.
"I see you! Holly, look what they did to Matthew. They hit him again and again until he lost all consciousness. He just wanted to see the sun."
"Fred, Lorne, time to go." Gunn pushed us further away grabbing Lorne as he went.
"Golden, my love, don't you want to hit them? Don't you want to kill them?" Jasmine's voice prodded and the pounding in my head intensified.
"You know... that just might make my whole damn day."
"Now!" I yelled grabbing onto Lorne while Fred kept a death grip on Gunn's arm. We sank into the stone as the kids lunged towards us.
"I know I promised but this was an emergency." I could feel their annoyance though it was mostly fear but I brought them out falling to my knees just as soon as the last bit of them left the stone.
"Thought we told you never to do that again." Gunn grouched leaning on the cold stone.
"Drastic measures," I panted. "For drastic times."
"We gotta move." Gunn said pushing off and looking in each direction. We were at an annex with four different choices.
"Ennie, meenie, mynie…" I mumbled getting to my feet. Trying to swim with four wasn't much easier.
"Moe." Fred pointed and with heavy sighs we entered the tunnel.