Title: Aquadisiac
Author: Judyku
Email: Miss_.uk
Rating: NC-17
Category: Smallville/Angel crossover
Genre: Humour/Romance
Summary: A random kiss from a pretty brunette leads to romance, demon auctions, and ugly gray blobby things.
Pairing: Cordelia Chase/Arthur Curry
Disclaimer: I own nixies
Distribution: Here, AO3, and anyplace else that will accept this.
"Watchtower online." Chloe spoke into the communicator and waited.
"Arrow online."
"Impulse online."
"Stargirl online."
"Cyborg online."
"Open comm."
"Copy that, Tower."
"Match has been found, Watchtower." Mia alerted. "Sculpture by Van Gieson. Maiden With Urn. Sold in '82 to the Ramsey Hotel Chain. Twelve in the chain between here and San D."
"Impulse, object is in one of twelve Ramsey hotels."
"On it... No sign, Watchtower. I repeat no sign. Double checking... Still nothing."
Chloe ground her teeth in frustration.
Of all the things Arthur Curry had to get them into, it was looking for an... "Ugly gray blobby thing." She murmured, her mind instantly conjured the image of the brunette who had pounced on AC earlier.
Chloe sucked in a breath.
That girl had seen this coming in a very literal way and it jump started her brain quicker than the red alert AC gave twenty minutes before. There was obviously a helluva lot more to that girl than any of them realised and to get answers, she needed to be found.
"Keep searching. We find that, we find Brunette and Aquaman." Chloe made sure that by her tone, they all understood the way this sudden mission was now also a manhunt.
"Anything for you."
"Knock it off, Impulse."
Chloe's green eyes rolled. "Cyborg, Stargirl, status report."
"Both on site."
"Hold your position and wait for my mark. Arrow?"
"Going in, thank God. Sewers are gross."
Chloe smiled at the disgust that would be on Ollie's face right about now. "I'm sure you'll live. Stargirl, Cyborg. There's an executive office opposite the front door, both an elevator and staircase to the right. Take the stairs."
"Impulse to Watchtower. Still no statue."
"Copy that, Impulse. Head to main target."
"On site."
"Arrow to Sidekick. Aquaman and Brunette MIA. Tracker's on the floor."
"Damnit." Chloe hissed and clenched her hands in frustration.
"Impulse to Watchtower. This place is a ninjas wet dream."
"Put the axe down, Impulse."
"I was only playing."
Chloe shook her head. "Stargirl, get your boy under control."
"Done."
"That hurt!"
"Good. Arrow, there's blood on the floor."
This was going from bad to worse, she thought angrily. "Watchtower to Cyborg, fingerprints if you please."
"Sent."
"Fingerprint analysis underway." Mia informed, her gaze not once straying from the screen in front of her. "Cordelia Chase, nineteen years old." She looked at Chloe then. "She's just nineteen."
"We'll find her, Arrow Two. We'll find em both."
"Whoa. Who's the big dude?"
Chloe and Mia exchanged identical expressions that spoke of sheer unease that lasted until the younger girl got ready to dial Clark. "Talk to me, Impulse."
"Papa bear's come home."
"Who the hell are you and where is Cordelia?"
"Oh my... Are you wearing tights?"
"They're not tights!"
"I won't ask again. Where. Is. Cordelia?"
"Easy there, big fella. We have common interests."
"Is that right?"
"Will somebody please talk to me?" Chloe hollered down the comm.
"I don't know who you are, but if you've hurt her or her friend, I'll snap your neck myself."
It took a second for Chloe to figure out that by friend, the man meant AC. "Watchtower to Papa Bear. If my hunch is correct, then your girl and my guy are in one of twelve hotels. Object to find is Maiden With Urn. Van..."
"Gieson. I know it."
"It was seen, but can't be found."
"She's right. I checked like fifteen times and nada."
"Hidden."
"Hello, sorry to interrupt. My name is..."
"No names, English. Don't know who's listening."
"Of course, of course. This is all very James Bond if I may say. You're looking for the hotel holding an auction."
Chloe frowned, as did Mia. "Papa Bear, explain."
"There's a demon collecting powers. Healing hands, poison tongue. The physical source has been forcefully removed."
"Oh my God." Mia breathed and stared at the blonde woman next to her.
"Not the time for culture shock."
"No, Papa Bear." Mia exclaimed. "Your friend had a vision. Her eyes. They're gonna bid on her eyes and they're gonna take them. That's what she said earlier. That something was gonna take her eyes out. You have to find her and Aquaman."
"Tower to Impulse. Do your thing, but don't and I repeat, don't enter. This isn't our usual ballgame. Understand?"
"Copy that, Watchtower... Found it. It's the one down on Fourth... Erm, Tower?"
Chloe held her breath. "Go ahead, Impulse."
"We need Boyscout."
"No we don't. Papa Bear and English have already left the building."
"Arrow, Cyborg, Stargirl. Follow the breadcrumbs. Tower out."
"Copy that and keep open comm. League out."
Chloe was about to take a few moments to get her head together when Mia spoke up.
"Erm, Watchtower?"
Olive green eyes slowly looked at the brunette who was sporting one unreadable expression while pointing to the large laptop screen in front of her. "What is it?"
"I set the laptop away with the second set of fingerprints Cyborg sent and had to use the hacking virus."
Chloe shifted her chair so she could see what Mia seemed unable to tell her. She took in the first photograph, which was a dark haired man who had a gaze that seemed to go right through her. The second photograph showed the same man standing in front of a small blonde female, the third photograph was the man with the brunette AC kissed and a smaller dark haired man.
She continued down the file and her lungs ceased to work as she read. "1753, Liam killed and turned by Darla. 1753, Liam slaughters his way through his village of Galway in Ireland, starting with the cemetery groundskeeper. He took on the name Angelus after his sister, Kathy, mistook him for an angel after he returned from the dead."
"Keep reading." Chloe heard Mia half squeak.
"1860, Angelus meets Drusilla and kills her family before he drives her insane and turns her on the night she takes the vows to be a nun." The file went on and on with atrocities Angel committed. Atrocities that came to a halt in the year 1889, where it said. "Darla gave Angelus a gypsy girl as a birthday present and the gypsy tribe took their revenge by cursing Angelus with a soul."
After that, there was a list of good deeds right up until Angelus lost his soul after having sex with a girl named Buffy Summers. Following that, there was another list of bad deeds that began with a woman called Jenny Calendar and ended with something called Acathla, a statue that would have sucked the world into a hell dimension if it hadn't been stopped by Buffy Summers.
Numbly, Chloe called for attention. "Watchtower to Arrow. Do not turn your back on Papa Bear, you hear me?"
"Arrow to Tower, sounds like we need a debrief."
"No joking, Archer."
"Gotcha. Back to open comm."
Chloe inhaled a good, long deep breath and slowly exhaled. "This information came from a law firm?" Instead of waiting for Mia to answer, she did the job herself and found the law firm had something to do with the auction.
"What the hell have we gotten into?"
XXX
Pain pricked hot and hard behind his eyelids and AC groaned when that same pain shot down the back of his neck. He groaned as he used what strength he had to roll onto his side and despite the heavy throb in his skull, looked to see where he was.
What appeared to be various mutilated parts lay on cushions, sat in jars, and propped up so they looked their best. Horns, hands, feet, a beating heart...
Bile filled his throat as he saw the parts belonged to humans and demons alike, and not one came without a tag. A tag with numbers.
What sort of place tagged things with numbers?
The fog clouding him made it difficult to think, but it eventually dawned on him that it could very well be an auction. If this was an auction and he was here, then she would be here too.
He'd promised to protect her, to take care of her and he'd spectacularly failed. Hell, she'd taken matters into her own hands and attacked while he'd fell to the floor like a jackass.
Seriously, what kinda guy did that to his girl? So what if Cordelia wasn't his girl, he'd still promised she would be okay and her eyes...
Oh God.
An auction.
That's why they were here, that's why Cordelia was here. He'd give ten dollars to say that ugly gray blobby thing was around here somewhere...
AC knew he wasn't the brightest spark, but he could add two and two together.
Cordelia's vision hadn't been about Barney, it had been about her. About what she saw before her eyes were taken.
He tried to make a sound, but the gag in his mouth muffled the noise and so he struggled to sit up, but he was weak and it was a weakness he knew only too well.
Dehydration.
He needed water and a lot of it. The four glasses he'd had at the office was less than a drop in the ocean compared to what he truly needed to sustain himself, but she was here and she would need his help.
A very small, very feminine noise was heard and damn if it wasn't music to his ears. She sounded somewhere behind him, which meant he had to turn over.
Dehydration and lack of strength or no, he was going to get her out and save her eyes.
AC started to rock a little, slowly gathering enough speed to give the momentum needed to get onto his other side. It took three attempts, but he finally made it in time to see Cordelia open her eyes. Apart from a forming bruise on her face, she appeared just fine and relief coursed through him.
She also seemed to be pretty comfortable, what with laying on a pink satin cushioned sofa or something. Sure she was tied up and a white gage in her mouth, but either way, she could be in a worse position than what she already was.
He closed his eyes only to open them when she made another noise and he watched her head shake. He tried to convey he didn't understand, but his energy was rapidly depleting and all he wanted to do was sleep. If he did give in to the weakness, she would be left alone to face the fate of having her eyes take pride of place among the stolen parts.
She shook her head again and worry flashed in those irises.
At first, AC thought she meant his possible sickly appearance, but her head gestured up and he enough strength to turn his head to follow her line of sight.
A statue was what he saw and not just any statue, but a gray one with three lumps that was the real life version of her depiction.
AC turned back to Cordelia, only to see hands roughly grab her and haul her off the floor.
"Do you mind?" She snapped.
"Put the gag back in."
"Are you serious? You've already bruised the merchandise."
"Merchandise?" AC heard her ask with a hiss in her voice and he almost felt sorry for the people who had her.
"Your pretty eyes are up for sale and after you, we have the meta."
Crap, crap and double crap with crap on the side.
"In case Barney here hasn't already figured it out, the meta and I are a team." Cordelia stated with confidence. "Oh yeah. I'm sure Barney here wanted to keep you in the dark about this one. After all, a vision girl and a man who sails the seven seas isn't to be sniffed at. I see the locations of buried treasure and Aquaman finds it."
AC swallowed as much as he could as an argument occurred right above his aching head.
"Is that true, Barney?"
"Who are you gonna believe? Your partner for five years or a filthy human whose due for extraction?"
"I don't care which one of you believes it." Cordelia yelled loudly. "AC is with me. He's the yang to my ying. I see, he go finds and we splits the profits. See the locket I'm wearing? It's Tiffany's. They made it for me out of horse hair from my Keanu. The diamonds are full Tiffany diamonds."
AC made a mental note too beg Ollie to get her a horse.
"No, don't you dare.. Don't you dare... " She shrieked in outrage. "That was my pendant, you asshole. They took my Keanu and you took my necklace which is all I have left. You're worse than the IRS. Yeah. That's right. You have filthy human counterparts."
Arthur saw her triumphant smirk and he made a mental note to beg Ollie to get her Keanu back.
"AC, I'll get us out of this, I swear it... Hey! Get your hands off me, you pervert!"
The swimmer struggled against his bonds as he watched Cordelia as she fought against hers.
Water, he knew. He needed water and lots of it. Once water came his way, then those who had her would pay a hefty price.
He started to work his jaw up and down, moving his lips and using his tongue to get the gag out all the while trying to loosen the rope around his wrists. It wasn't working because he was too weak and the sledge hammer in skull wasn't letting up.
AC roared against the gag when he saw Cordelia get dragged off someplace.
"I told you! AC and I are a team! I see the treasure and he... Ow! I mean it! You want me, then you bring him, too. How many times do I have to tell you he's my partner? Yes, I'm serious! What, you're gonna take Barney's word over your own?"
"She's not gonna shut up until we bring the meta."
"Damn right I won't. AC? AC!"
Barney rolled his eyes as he shoved Cordelia into the arms of his partner. "Watch her while I get her boy."
Arthur didn't have time to sigh in relief before he was hauled up off the floor and the gag pulled out of his mouth. "Cordelia?"
His neck was suddenly surrounded by two slender arms. "I knew you'd be okay. How's your head? What did they do to you? Lemme see."
AC was about to push her away and make sure she was okay, but her lips started to move against his cheek.
"Angel will come. We just have to buy some time."
"Alright, alright." Barney pulled Cordelia from him. "That's enough for the love birds. Bring em both along. You never know, she might be right. They might bring us double and remember. No more bruising, especially around the eyes. We get an extra thou if the seer's eyes are fully intact."
His partner glared. "I wasn't the one who bruised her in the first place."
"Shouldn't you be cataloguing gypsy flesh?" Barney asked in a huff, then gave a swift nod to someone else who came along to grab the swimmer.
Though he was pulled back, AC tried to keep as close to Cordelia as he could and it was a blessing when they were both pushed onto a stage in front of a roomful of...
Well, he didn't know what.
"Testing, testing." Barney said and earning himself one or two laughs. "Now do I have a treat for you. On one side, I have the beautiful eyes of a human seer and on the other, I have the meta-human known as Aquaman. Lets start the bidding at four thousand dollars."
AC was horrified to watch someone raise their paddle. This was one of the sickest things he'd ever been involved in.
"Five thousand dollars." Barney stated happily. "They come as a team... Ah, six thousand dollars. Six gets me seven. Do I hear seven?"
No-one responded.
One glance from her was all it took for him to understand they had to keep the bidding going.
"Oh, come on, guys!" Cordelia half yelled, irritated. "You pay twice this for cataracts. I mean look at us! I'm a hottie and he's... Pretty muscular actually."
AC puffed up his chest and flashed a grin full of arrogance. "Check these babies out..." He flexed his pecs for the crowd.
"Eight, nine, ten..."
She stared at the audience in disbelief. "He gets bid on and I get nothing? Come on, people! Where's your taste?"
"Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen."
Cordelia shot AC a look that was pure triumph. "Much better."
He snorted. "You got the mouth, lady, but I can take off my top. Hey, Barney dude. You want the figures, then get some scissors."
"You wouldn't dare!"
AC simply grinned. "Naturist here, honey. The nude is my thing."
"Oh my God! You can't let him do that, Barney. It's not fair!"
The demon gave her objection no consideration whatsoever. "Hank get the scissors. Don't worry, Cordelia. I always play fair when it comes to money. Her top, too."
AC gave himself a mental smack to the face when panic washed over Cordelia's face.
"Oops?" He offered lamely.
"Oops? OOOPS? My all is gonna be drooled over and masturbation fodder and all you can say is oops?" She looked at Barney. "Please don't cut my top off."
"You were the one who mentioned fair." He replied and smiled. "We wouldn't to disappoint the good folks in the audience, would we?" With that said, he took the scissors to Cordelia's top first, speaking in a voice just low enough for her and AC to hear. "Keep up that smiling."
The ruined top was taken away and Cordelia chase felt the full onslaught of a mortification only had when two dozen eyes were focused on her person. "Angel will come and he'll make you pay for this, you ugly creep." She hissed, then turned back to the audience with a large fake smile on her face.
AC tried, honestly tried, not too look at her chest, but he was a red blooded male whose twelve month drought made his effort pointless. Breasts were full and round, encased and enhanced in a bra that probably matched her panties. Her skin was tanned a rich, deep gold and was beautifully flawless, all bar a scar on the left side of her abdomen.
She must have saw where his attention now lay because she looked away for a moment before she met his gaze, silently daring him to comment on it.
He closed his eyes in yet another attempt at being a gent, but the image was burned onto his brain. God, he just knew she'd be a handful.
He forced his eyes to open so he could see what his stalling plan brought.
Her expression was unreadable as she stood there, arms tied behind her back, wholly unable to keep any shred of dignity and it was all his stupid fault.
Anger literally burned in his veins as AC let Barney in on what he was gonna do. "When I get out of this, you and I are gonna go for a nice, long swim."
The threat had little to no effect on the demon.
Barney made a final snip of the scissors before he gave a grand gesture to the interested crowd. "There we have it, my fine fellows. The last bid stood at fourteen thousand dollars. Will there be more?"
"Eighteen." One demon spoke up.
"Twenty." Another.
"Twenty two thousand for the meta. I have no interest in the seer."
This time the panic belonged to AC when silence followed that particular bid. He had to keep it up to buy more time. "Hey ladies, I can breathe under water." He waggled his eyebrows to get the message across.
"Twenty five thousand!"
"Twenty six."
A well dressed woman wearing glasses rose from her seat. "Sixty thousand for the pair."
"Sold to the lawyer from Wolfram and Hart." Barney slammed the gavel down.
"Oh no." Cordelia muttered. "And this couldn't get any worse."
XXX
Cordelia felt evil, like Angelusy sort of evil.
Sure, AC might not be of the human variety, but that didn't mean he deserved to be dragged into the demonic soap opera that was her life. All she'd wanted was to get rid of the visions and the killer pain that came with them, and go back to her world of no fame and slightly more than average pay check.
It wasn't until her conversation with AC that she saw the proverbial light and to say it sickened her was an understatement.
"I don't believe that for a second." He'd said and he was right, but had that stopped her from turning into a well moisturised version of Buffy?
No.
I didn't ask for it blah blah blah. I don't want it blah blah blah. I want it out of me blah blah blah. Whiny much? And wasn't just this very morning I was whining about Doyle not having a special coffee mug? Which is it, Chase? You want something to remember him by or you want it all gone? Besides, it wasn't as if Doyle had anything else to give you.
Now because of her whining, the poor none human had just been bought for sixty thousand dollars.
Sixty thousand for the both of them, which meant a paltry thirty thousand for each and how insulting was that? Seriously, thirty thousand?
The lawyer worked for Wolfram Hart. Surely they knew decent goods when they saw it. After all, it wasn't everyday a vision girl came up on the block accompanied by...
Whatever the hell AC was. Fact was, he was a nice guy or seemed like a nice guy, so he didn't deserve any of this, but then again who did? And what was to say he hadn't gotten into trouble worse than this? Which, given his circumstances, he probably had.
"The eyes are to be extracted. We don't need the body." Lawyer's voice brought Cordelia out of her thoughts.
What?
"No!"
"That will be an extra thou."
The lawyer rolled her eyes. "Please, extraction is always included in the price."
"Ah, but there's never been such a thing."
Satan's evil toady huffed. "Fine."
She shot a panicked stare at AC, who was grinning for some reason. The first thing that popped into her head was he was in on the whole auction thing, but then he winked at her.
Actually winked a full on, teasing little wink which made her jaw drop. She was about to get her eyes taken out and he was playing the cocky Romeo?
Cordelia had no time to question it when a body came flying through the air and oh, she had never been so happy to see Angel in her life. Seconds later the sprinkler system kicked in and seconds after that, a guy decked out in green leather crashed through the window.
"Sorry I took so long." Green Guy said, voice distorted. "Allow me, Miss."
Her bonds were instantly sliced and freedom was bliss.
The ruined material of AC's shirt was draped over her and she found herself staring at AC, somewhat surprised. He'd looked a little pale, almost sickly, five minutes ago, but now he looked...
"Wow."
Cordelia felt herself dragged out of the line of fire, which meant all she could do was watch as violent mayhem turned the room upside down with Angel and AC right in the thick of it.
"Excuse me?"
She blinked as she faced a girl in costume. "Hi."
What else could she say?
The girl smiled apologetically. "Sorry about what I said earlier. You know, about your..." Her hands gestured to her chest.
"Oh. Sure. Forget about it."
Sometimes, she had the weirdest conversations with the weirdest people.
XXX
Arthur knew Angel was some sort of demon or whatever, but he never gave it a second thought until he watched the guy perform a roundhouse kick. The sheer brutal, raw power behind it almost took his breath away. Hell, even Ollie and Bart gaped as the dude left a trail of unconscious bodies in his wake.
Clark Kent, and to a lesser extent Victor, all had extra strength, but they held back where Angel did not. Cordelia's boss was obviously on a mission of revenge and he tore through the crowd, throwing punches and kicks without breaking a sweat.
If this was a demonstration of a demon's capabilities, then he didn't feel so ashamed of having his ass kicked by Barney.
"Wes, get Cordy out of here." Angel snarled and AC saw a bespectacled man in a tailored white suit.
Crap.
Cordelia.
He'd been too busy watching Angel's fighting prowess that he'd given no thought to her safety. If he'd felt like a jackass earlier, then he felt like a total dickwad now.
Movement was caught out the corner of his eye and he saw Barney trying to weasel a way to safety. Yeah, he really didn't think so. "Hey, bitch. Come n get it."
The demon glared hell before he barrelled right into him, the impact sending them both slamming to the ground. AC gave a wide grin then oh so happily smashed his fist straight into Barney's jaw and relished in the replying crack. "That was for Cordy..."
The swimmer swiftly got to his feet and hauled the demon up by his collar. "This is for everyone you've killed." A knee into the abdomen. "And this is just cos I feel like it."
He let the falling water power him up just that little more and literally threw Barney halfway across the room, where Cordelia finished what he started. "Feel this feeling, creepo."
AC watched, satisfied, as Barney's life force was sucked out of him, leaving a gray and crackled corpse.
He was about to go get her when he found himself face to face with the female lawyer who made the winning bid of sixty grand and then tried to get Cordy's eyes extracted for free.
She looked almost surprised at the fact she was caught and that might have stopped him, but she smirked and went to hand him a business card.
"Give me a call." She said and Arthur Curry felt something inside him snap.
He was angry. No, scratch that. He was furious.
It was a type of fury that boiled and curdled the blood, made him think of things that had no place in the Justice League. Pictured himself taking her for a swim and holding her down under water, imagined himself listening to the sound of someone drowning and enjoying it.
This woman negotiated over the extraction of somebody's eyes and it sickened him.
"You stand for of everything I hate." AC heard himself say, unable to take his gaze off her.
The human body was seventy five percent water and he focused, manipulated those molecules so they moved faster, made them expand and double in her lungs. He vaguely saw terror on her face as pressure increased in her veins, but he didn't stop.
Couldn't stop.
Wanted her feel what Cordelia would have felt, what all those victims had to feel as they maimed and mutilated. He kept going, kept all those watery atoms increasing, forcing them to fill her lungs.
"Holy shit..."
"He's killing her."
"Aquaman!"
"Did anyone know he could do that? I didn't know he could do that."
"Oh for the love of..."
A hand slapped his face sharply before he was pushed away. "Snap out of it."
AC blinked once, twice and that... that fury began to dissipate as he stared up into two stunning hazel eyes that were safely in their proper place. Someone was choking and gasping for breath and hitting their own chest.
He looked around to see the evil lawyer on her knees, coughing up water as she stared at him in something akin to absolute horror.
"Leave her." Cordelia's voice penetrated through what remained of his anger. "She was gonna take my eyes. She deserves it."
"She's human. We don't kill humans." AC couldn't tear his gaze off the woman and what he'd done to her.
Cordy waved off his words with a pfft. "Like that'll ever happen. It's Wolfram and Hart. Those folks have a kink on for this stuff."
He frowned again at the woman. Leaving her like that seemed so wrong and yet, everything in him screamed to do just that.
"Cordy's right." Angel said as he approached them and knelt down, forcing the lawyer's head up by her hair. "Take a message. You ever come for Cordelia again. You deal with me. Got that?" He let her head go.
"And me." AC joined.
"And me."
"And me."
"Follow my leader isn't my thing, but count me in, too."
"Great!" Cordelia plastered a smile on her face as she clapped her hands with sarcastic enthusiasm. "Colour me with an entourage of people in costume. Can we get out of here now? I'd really like to get some clothes on. Preferably dry ones."