Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.
Anyway, enjoy.
Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been
Samyo: Much appreciated
IWRY-ALWAYS: Glad you like the sound of it so far. Oh, and believe me, if Riley gets out of this story without at least getting beaten half to death by Angel, it'll be too soon.
ElvenPrincess01: Yeah, Cole was pretty good as Belthazor, I agree. Oh, and believe me, when Riley learns about Buffy and Angel, heads are going to roll (Probably not literally, though)
sired-by-spike: Well, the Charmed Ones will be here soon, but Spike may take a while; after all, he only just got that chip, so the Scooby Gang won't exactly be ready to trust him to help them instantly, will they?
Slash-a-holic: Glad to hear it; I was a bit worried about the Cole thing. And regarding Riley… believe me, he isn't going to be an idiot, but he's going down nevertheless…
AN: I acknowledge that my portrayal of the Initiative may be all wrong, but it's been a while since I saw any episodes set around Season 4, I never liked them much in what I did see, and, quite frankly, making them nicer would make the point of this story irrelevant, in my opinion.
What Makes a Monster?
Walsh looked curiously at the two unconscious forms that were the Initiative's newest… 'captives', for lack of a better term. Personally, she always thought of it as a misnomer- 'captive' implied that these things actually had rights- but she couldn't think of any other term to use for them, and 'captive' looked better on paper.
Her eyes flicked from the vampire on one side to the demon on the other. She'd never admit it, but both of them genuinely intrigued her. Normally, she regarded every demon that came through her doors with just idle curiosity, but these two were something else.
The vampire, for one. Based on what she'd heard, it sounded like he was a fair amount old then their previous test subjects; most of them went straight down with one blast of the taser, but this one had apparently taken a normal blast with barely any sign that he'd noticed it.
Annoyingly, he also didn't have anything in the way of identification on him; the only things of interest that they'd found in his pockets were a set of car keys and an Irish claddagh ring, both of which they'd decided to just leave in there in the end; the stakes were one thing, but they doubted he could kill himself with a car key, and the ring seemed fairly harmless as well.
It was the other figure- the demon- that Walsh found really intriguing. It was tall, apparently male, with blood-red skin and black lines around its head, dressed in a dark outfit that seemed best suited for combat purposes, although Walsh had rarely seen demons wear something so… normal.
"Have we had any luck identifying them?" she asked Finn, looking over at her prize solider curiously, from where he was standing over the body of the vampire. Walsh smiled slightly at the sight; Riley always liked to make sure that everyone else knew when he'd caught a demon.
"Well, while I was checking the vampire over for any concealed weapons, I decided to check for references involving that tattoo on his shoulder; it looked fairly promising as a means of identification," Riley said. Walsh nodded, waving her hand for him to continue, and Riley picked up a book from a nearby desk and, opening it, passed it to Walsh.
Taking it, Walsh briefly scanned the book, before looking up at Riley with a smile on her face.
"The Scourge of Europe…" she said, grinning broadly as she looked back at the vampire with renewed interest. She'd heard a great deal of rumours about this vampire from some of their earlier subjects, particularly after the escape of Hostile 17; apparently, he'd been a 'grand-childe' of this… Angelus, she recalled his vampire name was.
Grinning, she looked up at Riley.
"You've done well, Mr Finn," she said, indicating the body on the table. "Get him fitted with a chip and cart him off to a cell; if he is who he appears to be, he definitely merits further study at some future date."
As Riley grabbed the trolley and turned it towards the nearby door, Walsh turned to the other figure.
"Do we have any ideas what this is?" she asked Agent Forrest, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
"Not yet," he said, sighing. "I asked around a couple of our other experts for ideas, but in the end I decided to call in Professor Delgado; he should be able to answer a few questions."
Walsh nodded in agreement. Delgado was a fairly new addition to the Initiative crew, but he had already proved his worth several times; a demonology expert, he could identify several of the rarer demons in the world within mere minutes, as well as revealing any weaknesses that could be exploited.
If he couldn't identify this demon, nobody could…
"Somebody call me?" a voice asked from off to one side.
Smiling, Walsh turned to look at the figure that had just entered the room. Professor Delgado was a tall man, traditionally dressing in a black business suit, with pale hair that was almost white, a neatly trimmed beard of the same colour, and half-moon glasses that were constantly perked on the bridge of his nose.
"Yes, we did, Professor Delgado," Walsh said, stepping back to let him see the demon in question. "This… thing… recently came into our possession after it took down a newborn vampire in the nearby graveyard. Can you tell us what it is?"
Delgado looked at the demon for about five seconds before smiling and turning to Walsh.
"Congratulations, Maggie," he said, his grin practically splitting his face in half. "You've just captured Belthazor himself."
"Who?" Walsh asked, blinking in surprise.
"A demonic assassin," Delgado explained, as he turned around to look at the still red form on the table once again. "Supposedly, he serves a demon known as 'the Source', that claims to be the most powerful being of evil 'magic' in the entire world." He shook his head, smiling as he studied the still figure for a few seconds. "Of course, that's almost certainly nonsense, but if even a fraction of the stories are true, than this being is one of the deadliest killers our world has ever known…"
He looked back at Walsh. "Get some surgeons ready to insert chip Z-7 into his head," he said to her.
Walsh blinked. "What?" she said, looking at him in confusion. "Z-7? Why do we need that one?"
"Because, my dear Maggie, Belthazor is capable of transporting himself from place to place at will," Delgado explained, smiling slightly as he spoke (That was the only thing Walsh disliked about him; he sometimes talked down to her like she was just a child). "So, unless you wish to have an empty cell when you go to get him later on, you'd better install that chip in his head."
Walsh was about to protest, but then just sighed and nodded.
As Belthazor was wheeled towards the surgery, Walsh sighed. She still remembered the arguments about the construction of that chip; it was designed to monitor the cells in the demon's body and generate blinding pain whenever something about the cells attempted to change, along with the usual features that prevented the demon harming humans.
She'd been uncertain about whether or not it was actually worth the effort and time that had been needed to construct it, but Delgado had been very insistent, and it had been made nevertheless.
Walsh sighed.
This was going to be a long day…
"You're sure he hasn't called back?" Cordelia asked Doyle, as she looked up from her filing once again.
Doyle sighed.
"'Delia, believe me, if he'd called me on my cell phone during the ten seconds I was out there getting that folder, despite the fact that he doesn't have my number OR that you'd probably have heard the ringing anyway, you'd be the first one I'd tell, OK?" he said.
Slumping down in a chair, he sighed and looked over at her. "Was it always like this in Sunnydale?" he asked her. "You know, when there was more of you to rely on, and some of you had to stick around at the back while the supernaturally-powered guys did the hard work?"
"You know, it wasn't always like that," Cordelia said, looking over accusingly at Doyle. "I mean, there was that time-"
"GAH!" Doyle yelled, his hands suddenly flying up to his head.
Cordelia blinked in surprise.
A vision? She thought to herself. But the visions are for Angel; why are we getting this one when he's not here…
Doyle looked up at her, the vision apparently over.
"Angel's been captured," he said.
"WHAT!" Cordelia yelled, leaping to her feet. "What do you mean, he's been captured?"
"Some guys in a military outfit of some kind," Doyle explained. "Dunno what they wanted; all I've got is some people attacking him, hitting him with some kinda electric weapon, and then him lying in a room beside some bald guy with red-and-black skin."
"Ah," Cordelia said, sighing. Then she looked back at Doyle. "He's still in Sunnydale, right?"
Doyle nodded. "I think so, anyway," he added. "Kinda hard to be sure, since I've never been there meself, but, well, it seems a fairly safe guess, given that he was going there…"
"Right," Cordelia said, shutting the filing cabinet and turning to her computer. "You see what cash you can find; I'll find the earliest bus to Sunnydale. We've got a brooding vampire to save."
And a Slayer to contact… she added thoughtfully to herself.
She wondered how Buffy was going to react to seeing them all again…
"C'mon, c'mon, where is he, where is he?" Phoebe Halliwell muttered to herself, pacing anxiously up and down the main hall of Halliwell Manor, constantly glancing at her watch as she spoke.
"Um, Phoebe, you wanna cut back on the pacing before you wear a hole in the floor?" Paige asked her sister, looking up from where she was relaxing on the stairs reading a book. "You're not doing anyone any favours if you owe us the cost of all those panels of wood, you know."
"Well, I think I'm entitled to be a bit nervous, Paige!" Phoebe said, turning to look at her sister. "I mean, Cole promised he'd be here tonight, and-"
She suddenly threw her head sharply back as a vision hit her.
"Phoebe?" Paige said, putting the book down and looking curiously at her sister, who was now blinking rapidly. "What just happened?"
"Cole," Phoebe said, looking at Paige with evident fear on her face. "He was in a graveyard- I think I saw a sign for somewhere called 'Sunnydale'-, tackling some… thing that came out of a grave… He turned into Belthazor, and then got attacked by…"
She stopped, her face clearly showing her confusion. "By the… military, I think…"
"What?" Paige said, staring at Phoebe. "Are you saying Cole's been captured by the army? What, now they've got a branch that targets demons?"
"He's not the only one they've found," Phoebe added. "There may be more, but there was at least one other guy taken in at the same time as him; tall, pale, wearing more black than Batman…"
She shook her head and looked at Paige. "Where are Piper and Leo?"
"Down at P3, I think," Paige said.
"OK then; we'll just to go down there ourselves," Phoebe said, She began to turn around to head for her car, but stopped and turned back, raising a curious eyebrow at Paige. "How's your orbing coming along?"
"Um… good, I think," Paige said, curious as to why Phoebe was asking such an apparently random question. "I mean, I still need a bit of work going very far, but if I know the area well, then…"
"Perfect," Phoebe said, grabbing Paige's arm. "Get us to P3."
"What?" Paige said, looking at Phoebe bemusedly. "What do you-"
"Move!" Phoebe yelled in her sister's face. She made a mental note to apologise later, but right now, she had to get moving to save Cole.
"OK, OK…" Paige muttered. She closed her eyes, focused…
And suddenly, they were in a storage closet.
Opening her eyes, Phoebe tried a nearby door, and noted with relief that they were in P3; Paige had been right on target.
She smiled at Paige.
"Nice work," she said simply, before opening the door fully and walking out, followed by Paige.
"Phoebe?" a voice said from beside them.
"Leo!" Phoebe smiled, giving her brother-in-law a quick hug before pulling back. "Where's Piper?"
"At the bar," Leo said. "Why; what's the matter?"
"Somebody's captured Cole," Phoebe explained. Before Leo could say anything, she raised her hand. "It's not a demon; they're human, they're from somewhere called 'Sunnydale' they've targeted Cole for no real reason that I can see, and they've captured somebody else."
"Wait- Sunnydale?" Leo said, raising one hand. "The Elders sent you a vision about Sunnydale?"
"Um… yeah, apparently?" Paige said. "Is that a problem?"
Leo sighed. "Sunnydale has its own supernatural defender, Paige," he said, looking over at his friend. "If the Elders are sending Phoebe a vision, then that can only mean that there's something going on in Sunnydale that their team can't handle on their own."
"And that's a bad thing?" Phoebe asked.
Leo looked over at her. "Given that they've averted at least four apocalypses, to my knowledge, I'd say it qualifies as an emergency if there's something they can't handle on their own."
Paige nodded.
"Good point," she said. "So, I'll assume we should get there as soon as possible?"
Leo nodded. "I'll get Piper and let her know the situation. Paige, you'd better call your boss and let him know you'll be away for a few days, and Phoebe, check over the Book of Shadows for anything relating to the Hellmouth; we're going to need it."
"The what?" Paige asked, looking at Leo curiously.
"A direct doorway to Hell," Leo explained. "Sunnydale's built over one; it's the reason for all the mystical activity in that area."
Noting Paige and Phoebe's incredulous expressions, he shrugged. "I'll explain more on the way; right now, we have to get going if we want to help Cole."