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

sired-by-spike: Here you are, but don't feel obligated to send the cookie

mysticallove: Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long

lady marauder: Yeah, I know what you mean; I've always wanted to see a fight between these guys myself.

pinkyblue-ice: Here you are

Magic-Amethyst80: Yeah, I know, and I'm going to be trying to explain those in the course of the story.

Maricole: They only know each other by reputation, which is the main cause of the problem…

Aussiehottiemjm: Just because Cole hasn't met any vampires doesn't mean he doesn't know of them; it's like us not having personally met any celebrities, but we still know of them nevertheless

TygerC: Thanks for asking; here you are

What Makes a Monster?

As the four strangers entered the room, the newly-expanded Scooby gang (Minus Spike, who Buffy and Xander had transferred to a closet to avoid any awkward questions) could, for the moment, only look at them and wonder who they were. None of them exactly looked like Giles's normal kind of company; the women all seemed a bit younger than the usual kind of people that were associated with the Watcher's Council, and the man certainly didn't look like any of the other men from the Council that they'd met in the past.

For one thing, he wasn't wearing a suit; he was dressed casually in jeans and a red-and-white checked shirt, and had a pleasant, young face, apparently in his mid- to late thirties. Cordelia- the only woman who actually would be interested, Willow still recovering from her recent break-up while Buffy was just worried about Angel- checked his left hand, and was only mildly disappointed to see a wedding ring there; even if he hadn't been single, he was a bit old for her.

The other half of the relationship was evidently one of the three women in the group; specifically, a fairly short, beautiful woman with long brown hair and an authoritive stance, dressed in cream trousers and dark green pullover.

The other two women were each just as breathtaking as… well, the Scoobies could only assume they were the first woman's sisters; there was a distinct family resemblance, but that could be only a coincidence.

One, apparently the youngest of the three, had shoulder-length dark hair and skin that was so strikingly pale she could have been taken for a vampire if it wasn't for the fact that she was in the sunlight, dressed in black trousers and a white blouse.

The other had darker skin than either of her 'sisters', as well as slightly shorter brown hair with some blonde highlights, and was wearing a pair of red leather pants and a black wide-necked T-shirt.

After a few seconds of awkward silence as the two groups looked at each other, Xander broke the silence.

"So, G-man, care to tell us who these guys are?" he asked, briefly staring at the women before Anya gave him a polite tap on the shoulder to remind him of her presence.

"Well, um…" Giles began, before the darker-skinned sister stepped forward and began to talk.

"I'll make this simple," she said, looking around at the others. "My name's Phoebe Halliwell, my sisters are Piper Halliwell-Wyatt and Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt's Piper's husband, my sisters and I are witches, and we need your help to find my boyfriend who we believe is being held captive by some military organisation somewhere here."

Buffy blinked in surprise at that.

What are the odds? She thought to herself. I've got a boyfriend who may be in trouble with the Initiative, and now we've got a witch looking for her boyfriend in the same situation…

She stood up from her seat and walked over to stare at the group, crossing her arms to assume a more authoritive stance.

"Firstly, any chance you could tell us a bit more about yourselves?" she asked, looking 'Phoebe' in the eyes. "Not that I don't trust you; I'd just prefer to know a bit more about you before I form any opinions about you."

"Right," Phoebe said, looking back at Buffy. "Well, as I said, my sisters and I are witches. Specifically, we're the Charmed Ones."

There was a sudden smashing noise. Looking around, Buffy, along with the other Scoobies, were surprised to see Giles standing in the kitchen area of his apartment, looking at the three women with a sudden expression of awe on his face, apparently not registering the hot tea that was suddenly pooling around his shoes from the shattered cup he must have dropped.

"The… the Charmed Ones?" Giles asked, looking at Piper for confirmation. "But… but I thought you were only…"

"Legends?" Paige asked, smiling at him. "Yeah, we get that a lot from our non-hostile magical associates, but there you go."

"Um, could we have this with subtitles for those of us who haven't spent decades researching the occult?" Xander asked, raising his hand.

"Oh… right," Giles said, looking at Xander. "The Charmed Ones are, essentially, the subject of a prophecy made by the witch Melinda Warren over three centuries ago, when she was burnt at the stake. She foretold that, in the future, three sisters would be born, each one possessing one of her three powers- telekinesis, premonitions, and freezing time- and, together, the three sisters would be the most powerful witches in all of recorded history, battling demons and all kinds of other magical evils."

He looked back at the three sisters again. "If you don't mind my asking, which of you has which power?"

"Well, I can freeze time- and also make objects explode," Piper said, smiling slightly at Giles's almost boyish enthusiasm at meeting them (The key word, of course, being almost), "Phoebe has visions and can fly, and Paige… well, she technically has telekinesis, but her unusual parentage makes it work a bit differently from the norm."

"Wait a minute; what do you mean, 'unusual parentage'?" Doyle asked, looking between Paige and Piper inquiringly. He hoped his enthusiasm didn't show through too much; he'd practically never met human/… something hybrids since discovering his demon side, and was always eager to learn more about any he might meet.

"My father was our mom's Whitelighter- kind of a guardian angel for witches," Paige explained, looking over at Doyle with a smile on her face. "Relationships between them were forbidden at the time, but they still had me."

Then her smile fell. "Of course, I had to grow up away from everyone else, but hey; I'm not bitter or anything."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Doyle said, nodding understandingly at Paige. "I never really knew my family either; me dad left me before I was even born." He sighed. "Mum never even told me why he did it until I hit twenty-one…"

"What?" Paige asked, looking over at Doyle curiously. "Why'd she leave it so long?"

Doyle seemed about to reply, but then he just sighed.

"Trust me, lass; you don't want to know…" he said to her. Then he looked over at Phoebe and raised a curious eyebrow. "So, what's your boyfriend doing in the Initiative?"

"Well, he's a demon-" Phoebe began.

"A WHAT!" Cordelia said, looking at Phoebe in shock. "I thought you lot killed demons!"

"And, as we understand it, you're working with a vampire?" Phoebe replied, looking over at Cordelia critically.

"Well… yeah… but Angel has a soul!" Cordelia protested, looking at Phoebe with a defensive posture.

"Well, so does Cole!" Phoebe yelled back.

Buffy blinked in surprise.

Well, that had been unexpected.

"Um… I'll take it that isn't the norm for demons as well?" she asked Giles, looking over at her Watcher curiously.

"No, not really," Giles said, nodding at his Slayer. "In most cases, souls are strictly a human-only thing; demons are normally just… well, demons."

"OK…" Buffy said, before looking over at Phoebe curiously. "So, if souls aren't normal for demons, how does… Cole, right?… have one?"

"Oh, well, his father was a human but his mother was a demon," Phoebe said in an off-hand manner. "It left him a human soul, and, well…"

She smiled slightly. "Not meaning to sound self-centred or anything, but his love for me managed to wake up his soul and make him defy his demon side."

"Oh," Buffy said, nodding in understanding. "So…"

"GAGH!" Phoebe and Doyle suddenly yelled, both of them clutching their heads.

"What the…?" Piper asked, looking at Doyle in surprise before glancing up at Cordelia. "He has visions?"

Cordelia nodded, just as Doyle and Phoebe looked up at each other, the pain having passed.

Phoebe spoke first. "Um… does Angel normally dress in an outfit that would make Batman look like a bright light?"

Doyle nodded. "Does Cole have red skin in his demon form?"

Phoebe nodded as well, and the two of them turned to look at their confused friends.

"We've got a problem," the two of them said.

"What?" Buffy and Piper asked, looking curiously at their new friends (and sister, in Piper's case).

"Well, it looks like Angel and Cole don't know they're meant to be on the some side, and somebody down there felt like having a bit of a contest," Phoebe said, looking nervously around at the others.

"What?" Xander said, looking at Phoebe in confusion. "What do you mean, a contest?"

"Oh, fer crying out loud, Alex," Doyle said, looking over at the teenager. "Angel and Cole are flipping fighting with each other!"