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

What Makes a Monster?

"Damnit…" Doyle muttered, as he fingered the collar of his military-issue suit as they walked through the corridors. He'd managed to shift back into his human form- evidently, whoever was overseeing this operation either didn't know that Doyle could do that or just hadn't been able to figure out a way to stop him changing- but he still felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb in this get-up.

Still, Doyle mused as he glanced over at Cole/Belthazor, who was walking around with the collar turned up around his face and a military cap jammed down on his head to such an extent that only his eyes could be seen, at least I'm not as obvious as some people…

They still weren't quite sure how they were going to explain Cole's appearance if anyone asked; at the moment, Doyle's only plan was to try and hit the bastard and then run like hell.

Looking over at Angel, he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous at his friend. Angel may not be quite as used to the ways of the modern world as some of them- even after nearly three months, Doyle had yet to recall a single occasion where his friend had been able to properly use his mobile phone- but he somehow managed to carry off the soldier's outfit as though he'd been born in it.

Angel had dismissed it by saying that he'd just grown used to wearing various outfits in his time as Angelus. Doyle had been a little annoyed at how casual Angel was about this, but then had realised that this was just Angel's way of coping with things. He may have been older than either of them by at least a century, but he was still scared of being caught.

Besides, Doyle had no real reason to be jealous of the ease with which Angel was handling this situation; after living through at least fourteen wars, Doyle supposed that Angelus must have had to pose as a soldier at least once to get away after one of his killing sprees…

Doyle broke off his train of thought to nod politely at a soldier who was walking past him, to which the man just nodded back briefly in response before continuing to walk.

Doyle chuckled; so, far Cole's theory about the soldiers was proving accurate. After they'd changed into their outfits, Doyle had worried about getting caught by someone who knew the staff well enough to identify the fact that none of them had been seen before, but Cole had pointed out that, given the group's low opinion of demons, they'd probably never assume that even one of them could get into the base without their knowledge, never mind three of them…

"Any ideas where the entrance is, Doyle?" Angel asked, glancing over at the half-breed, breaking his train of thought.

"Eh?" Doyle said, looking over at the vampire in confusion. "Why're you asking me?"

"Well, you were the only one of us who was conscious when you came in," Cole pointed out, his voice slightly muffled by the clothing around his head. "Surely you can recognise something?"

"Look, Cole, just because I was awake when I came in doesn't mean I was awake when I stuck in the cell, you know!" Doyle hissed back at his new friend, Angel nervously scanning their surroundings to make sure nobody overheard their conversation. "I've got no idea where we are in relation to the door, and we can't exactly ask anyone for directions, you know!"

"Um… guys?" Angel said, looking back at the two demons. "Maybe this is what we need?"

He indicated what seemed to be a floor plan of the base on the wall, and Cole and Doyle stared at it for a few moments before Doyle coughed sheepishly.

"Oh… yeah, right," he said, looking at Angel with a grin that was both hopeful yet sheepish. "Um… could we forget that I missed that?"

Angel shrugged. "We're all only human, Doyle," he said, patting his friend reassuringly on the shoulder.

Neither of the others contradicted him as they studied the map. They knew he was right; regardless of whether or not they actually were human, they had more humanity in their little fingers than anyone in this facility had in their whole bodies. At least when they fought demons, they treated them with respect; these guys just treated them as worse than animals…

"OK," Cole said, studying the map as he tapped the 'You Are Here' sign with one finger while his eyes roamed over the floor plan. "We're on the third sub-level, the main entrance seems to be located from the main 'hall'…"

"And I got in through this side entrance here," Doyle said, indicating a smaller exit point on sub-level one, just a couple of flights of stairs and (Based on the scale) a couple of hundred metres down from their current location.

He glanced over at the others. "Don't know about you, but I'd say that's our best bet; who knows what's above this place?"

Cole nodded. "True. If I've learned anything from my time with the Halliwells, it's that human secret organisations always like to leave their base entrances in public locations; less suspicious."

"OK, so we'll check out this entrance," Angel said, looking over the map again…

And then stopping and slapped his finger down on one room.

"What?" Cole said, looking at Angel curiously. "You found something."

"I think so," Angel said, tapping the room as he looked over at the others. "Check this out."

Doyle and Cole looked at the room Angel was indicating, and then looked over at the vampire in confusion.

"Uh… the Demon Surgery?" Doyle said, confused. "What's so interesting about that?"

"Well, you don't think they just beamed these chips into our heads, do you?" Angel said, tapping his skull. "This must be where they put the chips in the demons' heads. And if that's the case…"

"Angel," Cole said, glaring over at the vampire, "none of us are brain surgeons, in case you'd forgotten. How are we meant to get the chips out without rendering us incapable of motion ever again?"

"Well, we might as well check the surgery, right?" Doyle said, looking over at Cole. "Who knows; maybe we'll find something that turns these things off for a bit and you can… shine us out?"

"The term is 'shimmer'," Cole corrected. Then he shrugged. "But your point is well-made; if nothing else, I'd rather we didn't open the entrance only to have Angel get incinerated by the sun."

"Yeah, I was worried about that too," Angel said, indicating the stairs at the end of the corridor. "Anyway, let's move; if we don't get out of here soon, they'll realise we've gone."

A few minutes later, the three of them were standing in the surgery; fortunately, it was empty at the present, and there hadn't been any signs that the situation would change any time soon.

Angel sighed as he stared around the room. He had to admit, it was a good thing that this place had probably never been intended for use by actual patients; it was hardly a pleasant environment to recover from injuries in. The walls were dark and depressing, the beds were unmade and looked like they hadn't been cleaned for ages, and the scalpels and other surgical tools were dirty and covered in blood. The doctors here evidently weren't concerned about the possibilities of transmitting infections to their subjects.

"Glad I wasn't conscious when I was in here," Cole said, looking around the room with a sigh. "Probably would have felt even worse than I would have otherwise."

"I know what you mean," Doyle said, looking over at the other half-breed. "Getting your head cut open'd be bad enough, but getting your head cut open in this environment…"

He sighed. "You'd probably want them to much up; it's so darn bleak…"

"Well, we didn't come here to criticise the decoration; we came here to find out something about these chips," Angel said, as he looked around the surgery once again. There were some boxes to hold the surgical equipment, and the beds for the 'patients' to lie on while the chips were put into their heads, but that seemed to be about it. Nowhere that the chips could be being kept in…

"Well well; so you got out then?" a voice said from behind them.

The three figures spun around in shock, raising their weapons as they did so…

And their eyes fell on a man standing there who seemed oddly out-of-place with their surroundings. Unlike everyone else they'd seen so far (Baring the scientist woman Doyle had met upon his arrival who they were assuming was the person in charge), this man wasn't wearing a military uniform. He was wearing a black business suit, with a black tie, black shoes, and even a black shirt, and appeared to be in about his late fifties or early sixties. He had pale brown hair that was almost white, a neatly trimmed beard of the same colour, and a pair of half-moon glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose.

Cole's eyes widened in horror at the sight before him.

"YOU!" he yelled in rage.

The man smiled. "Me… Belthazor," he said, looking back at Cole with contempt blazing in his eyes. "I owe you, you know. That energy ball you hit me with last time took a lot out of me; I'm still not back to my full strength."

He chuckled as he looked around the surgery. "Of course, even at my weakest, I'm still strong enough to keep this place going. Honestly, if there's one thing I love about humans, it's that, at heart, they're so predictable; they'll always fear what's new to them, or what they don't understand."

"What are you?" Doyle asked, looking at the man curiously. He knew that the man wasn't human- the way he discussed humans was enough of a hint for anyone- but what he was couldn't quite be identified. He wasn't a demon- at least, not of the kind that Doyle was acquainted with- but then, what was he?

"Well, the name I go by at present in Professor Delgado, but that isn't what you're asking me specifically, is it?" the man replied, as he looked over at Doyle's new friend, who seemed to be fuming with anger as he stared at this new arrival. "Belthazor knows who I am, don't you, my old friend?"

"Yeah, and I wish I didn't," Cole said, glaring at the man in anger, his eyes briefly flicking to Angel and Doyle as they turned to face him. "Angel, Doyle… this is the Source himself."

"The Source?" Angel said, his eyes widening in horror as he looked at the 'man' before them. The Source may not bother with vampires much- they weren't his 'type' of demon, for lack of a better term- but he'd heard enough about him to know that any situation involving him would be bad news…

"But… but what does all this accomplish?" he asked, indicating the facility around them with a sweeping gesture. "Why go to all this effort to immobilise your own kind?"

"Correction; your own kind," the Source said, pointing at Angel with a mocking grin on his face; the kind of grin that suggested that all this was funny and none of them had quite gotten the joke… "My own kind is the magic-based offensive demons; the demons this facility examines rely more on brute strength than any actual magical abilities. I am eliminating the competition, and giving my kind the chance to claim the position that we should have claimed over these fools long ago…"

The he chuckled as he looked at the three of them. "Of course, the fact that it also allows me the chance to eliminate Belthazor and the vampire with a soul were very welcome bonuses."

He raised his hands before him and blue lightning energy began to crackle between them. "Now, it's time for you three to die, I feel."

Cole shook his head and raised his stolen gun.

"Not today," he vowed, as he squeezed the trigger, jamming the gun towards the Source just as the Source fired a bolt of 'electricity' towards the other demon. The two blasts met in between the two adversaries, sending massive bolts of energy flying back towards their originators, knocking both demons back against the nearby walls as they crackled with electricity.

"COLE!" Angel and Doyle cried, spinning around to look at their friend; naturally, neither of them could care less about the Source.

"Are you OK?" Angel asked, looking nervously at his friend.

Cole looked back up at Angel, his face slightly charred black by the explosion and burns, and…

Smiled?

"I'm better than OK," he said, as he glanced over at Doyle. "You mentioned that Phoebe had cast a spell that links you two together so that you can see what she sees? Can you tell me where she is at the moment?"

Doyle closed his eyes for a moment, and then looked back at Cole in slight confusion.

"She's… uh, still in Giles' apartment," he replied, puzzled at his strange friend's radical change of topic.

"Right then," Cole said, as he reached out and grabbed Angel and Cole's wrists. "Hold tight; even if I'm right, this might not be pleasant…"

He closed his eyes, concentrated hard…

And then, to Angel and Doyle's astonishment, they were standing in the middle of Giles's apartment, with Phoebe, Piper, Buffy and Willow staring at the three of them in shock.

Noting the baffled faces looking at him, Cole shrugged as he looked at Angel and Doyle.

"I thought there was a good chance that the chip had been shorted out by the blast, so I took a chance, and here we are," he said, before turning to look at Phoebe with a smile on his face. "Hello, Phoebe; I'm back."