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?

Half an hour later, the large group was standing in the grounds of Sunnydale University, with everyone going over the weaponry they'd taken from Giles' apartment to help mount the attack. Giles, Phoebe and Leo had decided that swords were their weapon of choice for this fight, Paige, Cordelia and Willow were armed with daggers, and Spike and Xander had selected axes as their weapon of choice for this attack.

Buffy, Angel, Doyle, Piper and Cole had declined weapons; Piper and Cole could naturally defend themselves fairly easily, and Buffy, Angel and Doyle had decided they'd prefer to rely on their own natural strength rather than any extra weapons. Spike was only taking the axe so that it gave him a bit more choice in his now-limited options of murder; without the ability to kill humans, he seemed more comfortable with having a longer reach than most of his opponents.

"OK, so, once more; everyone's clear on the plan?" Buffy asked, glancing around at the team, after making sure there was nobody nearby who could see the odd assortment of people armed with medieval weaponry in the middle of the campus.

Piper was currently standing in the middle of the group holding a map of the facility that Angel had sketched from memory; he acknowledged that it probably lacked some of the finer details, but he was confident that he had the essential aspects recorded accurately. As Buffy spoke, the group gathered around Piper to study the map once more.

"Yep; think so," Paige said, looking back at Buffy. "We take out the power, and then Angel, Cole, Spike and Doyle track down that… thing that seems to be in the basement, while the rest of us create as much fuss at the entrance as possible; correct?"

"Precisely, Miss Matthews," Giles said, nodding briefly at Paige in confirmation of her assessment.

"Right then; let's get going," Piper said, nodding at the group as she folded the map up and tucked it into her back pocket.

"Too bad we couldn't have quizzed Fish-Boy more about what we're dealing with," Xander added, sighing slightly in annoyance.

"Hey, you heard the guy; even under the truth spell, he hasn't got the foggiest idea what they've got down there," Phoebe said, looking over at Xander as the assorted people split up into their groups for the assault. She was already standing with Piper and Paige, above the area that, according to their best guess based on the information they'd gathered, was pretty much directly above the centre of the Initiative facility; from there, the spell to knock out the power should have a fairly immediate effect. "We can't get information from him if he doesn't know it in the first place."

"Besides," Willow added from off to one side, "you saw how hard it was for us to even get that much out of him; it looks like these soldiers have been somehow conditioned to resist mind control, so even if he did know it, we might not have been able to get the information from him."

"Let's just get this over with," Phoebe said, as she raised the paper on which she'd written the spell, allowing Paige and Piper to see it as the two of them began to speak.

"By the power of electric
Are contained the Old Ones;
Let this power the bucket kick,
And shut down our opponents' guns!"

As the spell finished, there was a brief surge, as though something had just exploded without actually destroying anything, and then the whole campus was plunged into darkness.

"What the…?" Leo said, looking around in surprise. "I thought we only wanted to shut down the Initiative's power source?"

"They must have been tapping into the college's power supply to get their power," Willow said, looking over apologetically at the other witches. "Sorry; I didn't think of that earlier."

"On the topic of not thinking earlier, you really didn't spend much time on that spell, did you?" Buffy said, looking over at Phoebe, who just giggled sheepishly. "I mean, 'let this power the bucket kick'?"

"Well, what's done is done," Cole interrupted before the conversation could proceed any further. "Let's just get this over and done with."

As he spoke, the half-demon had already reached over to clasp Angel and Doyle's shoulders; Spike had a hand on Angel's shoulder already. "Let's just get down to business and stop these guys; if we have the time, we can apologise for the mistake and discuss the bad poetry later."

He closed his eyes, focused…

And the four of them were soon standing inside the facility that all of them had, albeit briefly, been imprisoned in, each of them itching to start tearing the place apart.

Glancing around, Angel smiled and nodded approvingly at Cole.

"Nice job," he said, as Cole removed his hands from his friends' shoulders and, grinning, transformed into the red-and-black form of Belthazor; it may attract more attention, but right now they wanted power rather than stealth.

"You're welcome," the former assassin said, nodding at Angel as he glanced over at Spike and Doyle. "We'd better transform; the more firepower we've got on offer when we find this… thing… the better, if you want my opinion on the matter."

"All for that," Spike said, grinning as he shifted into his vampire face, Angel doing the same as Doyle's skin became green and black spines burst from his face and hands. For a moment, as he looked at his friend, Angel smiled to see Doyle look so comfortable in his demon form; it was as though, with Cordelia's acceptance of him, Doyle had finally learned to accept himself…

Angel shook his head; there'd be time to dwell on Doyle's new apparent acceptance of himself later. Right now, they had to find-

Suddenly, several loud crackles and sparks, much like the sound made by a defibrillator- albeit significantly louder- echoed through the corridors. As soon as the first burst of 'electricity' had reached their ears, the four part-demons (Spike may not have a soul, but vampires still weren't regarded as demons in many cases, so Angel felt the phrase still counted as accurate) spun around in the direction of the noise.

There was nothing there; just the corridor…

And, now that Angel looked closer, he could see a door at the end of the corridor, labelled 314.

He glanced back at his friends and… associate, for lack of a better means of describing Spike… and tilted his head to one side in an enquiring manner.

"Shall we?" he asked.

"Well, we've got to start somewhere," Belthazor said, as he flexed his fingers eagerly as he began to walk towards the door, followed by Angel and Doyle. Spike was at the back of the group, lagging a few feet behind them, fuming slightly as he glared at the heads of the other three and constantly glanced at his axe.

If it wasn't for the fact that at least two of the three people in front of him could move significantly faster than he could- or at least move fast enough to dodge his attack- he would've tried to decapitate them all already and take his chances.

But, as it was, they were, so he couldn't.

He'd just have to wait and hope that he got the chance to kill something soon; if he didn't kill something soon, he might just kill himself in frustration at having nothing else to attack…

Then the small group reached the door that the sound was coming from.

Glancing back at the others, as though for permission, Belthazor nodded grimly as he placed one hand on the door handle and opened it.

The sight on the other side of the door was enough to horrify even Angel, who had been witness to (And indeed, committed) some horrific acts during his time as Angelus. The room at first appeared to be nothing more than a laboratory, albeit one that seemed to have been used as a dissecting lab judging by the boxes that (If the labels were accurate) had once contained organs, both human and demon. As one studied the scene further, they realised that several of the organs had been cut up, parts left lying around while other parts appeared to have been moved to somewhere else.

The 'somewhere else' in question, Angel thought to himself, being, presumably, the guy on the table in the centre.

He hated it when he was right about stuff like this; just once, he wanted to be wrong and have an easy time of it.

He was prepared to bet that similar thoughts were flying through the minds of the other three; the figure lying in the middle of the room looked like it would be a formidable opponent if matters ever came down to a head-on fight between it and any of them.

The figure's main body was a disturbing amalgamation of man, demon, and machine; its right eye and most of the upper right side of its head was that of a human male, but the rest of his head was a demonic-looking green; his left cheek even had a large metal plate on it. Similar plates adorned the left side of his chest, and he had a large device that resembled a gun on his right arm, while the rest of his body resembled something that had been thrown together by Doctor Frankenstein; a deranged, random mix of human, demon and machinery. The only clothing the creature wore was a pair of grey combat trousers, revealing the full details of the 'surgery' it had been subjected to clear to all who looked at it.

It was asleep (Or maybe 'deactivated' was the proper term, given that it was partly a machine) at the moment, but even unconscious, the evil surrounding the creature alone could almost be tasted in the air. Why the Initiative hadn't destroyed it the second they created it (Which they must have done; no demon would have the resources to do something like this) Angel couldn't guess; maybe they'd just grown accustomed to ignoring their common sense.

No matter how horrific this creature was, it was the figure standing behind the table, arms outstretched as blue lightning crackled from his fingers around the body before him, that really made Angel, Doyle and Belthazor feel afraid.

It was the Source.

And if what he was doing to that thing would turn out to help the world, than Spike had just become a born-again Christian and was no longer swearing every second word.

"STOP!" Angel, Cole and Doyle roared, glaring at the Source as the three of them entered the room; Spike just stood at the back and, as always, fumed slightly as he waited for the chance to hit something.

Annoyingly enough, the Source did nothing to obey the 'order'; he just lookd casually at them as lightning continued to crackle around his fingertips and onto the body of the 'creature' lying in front of him.

"Oh, you're back," he said, as though they were all friends of his who'd just gone out to get a snack for watching the movie. "I thought you'd have the sense to stay away."

Angel laughed harshly. "What, just because you tried to kill us?" he asked, glaring angrily at the Source. "If I avoided everyone I encountered who wanted me dead, how would I ever finish you guys off?"

"Plus, in all fairness, you really didn't give us much of a reason to run for the hills last time," Doyle added, as Belthazor raised one hand to summon an energy ball, Spike already toying eagerly with his axe. "Just talked a bit about what you were doing here and then got thrown back when Cole intercepted your attack with our stolen gun. If you'd blown up the gun, I might have been intimidated…"

He shrugged. "As it is, I'm just seeing you as a hot air balloon's power source; you're all gas and no real action."

"Oh, really?" the Source retorted, glaring back at Doyle. "Well, maybe you have a point about me not being that intimidating- I do tend to avoid taking on opponents who lack the right kind of punch, so I might be a bit out of practice- but trust me; Adam is more than dangerous enough to make up for it."

"Who?" Spike interjected.

"This individual here," the Source explained, reaching down to affectionately ruffle the man/demon/cyborg's hair as though he were a small child. "I felt Adam worked as a name; after all, he is the first of a new species, much like the Adam of the Book of Genesis."

Still smiling, he looked back at the others, although there was no warmth in his gaze whatsoever. "And trust me; he's more than capable of handling you four."

Raising one hand, the Source clicked his fingers, and vanished in a burst of white light just as Adam's eyes opened.

Oh crap… Angel thought, as the 'triborg' (For lack of a better term) sat up and glared over at the four of them.

They were in trouble now…

Glancing anxiously at her watch, Buffy finally nodded and glanced over at the four witches accompanying her.

"It's time," she said, indicating the fraternity house before them- the one that, based on Angel's diagram and Doyle's information about his earlier entrance, seemed to hold the main entrance to the facility. "We're all ready?"

"Yep," Willow said, smiling brightly as the other three merely nodded; they may have the same amount of experience, but Willow was still some years younger than the others.

"Good," Buffy said, as she turned back to face the house. "Let's go."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Piper had stepped forward, flicking her hands at the door and blowing it off its hinges. As the five of them walked into the house, Buffy was glad to note that nobody seemed to be here; the Charmed Ones assured them that Leo could erase the memories of anyone they encountered, but she'd still rather not start mucking around with innocent peoples' minds.

"Willow?" Paige asked, glancing back at the young wicca.

"On it," Willow smiled, as she pulled out a small bag filled with various herbs. Opening it, she waved one hand over the bag, muttering a few Latin phrases under her breath, and then tipped the bag upside-down. Instantly, the ground herbs flew from the bag into the air, swirling around for a few moments before they finally dashed towards a nearby wall, spreading out to form a door outline for a few moments before they finally collapsed to the ground.

"That's it?" Piper asked, glancing over at Willow. She still wasn't entirely sure about letting another witch take charge of some of the spells. It wasn't that she was arrogant about it or anything, she just felt more than a bit uncomfortable in allowing anyone else to perform a spell for them…

But it had been decided that this was the quickest way; Willow's 'branch' of magic didn't need to speak to cast a spell, and Phoebe hadn't really had the time to come up with an effective spell before the attack anyway.

Besides, Piper thought, as Willow nodded at her and she raised her hands to strike, I can't argue with the results, can I?

As she flicked her hands, destroying the door to reveal a staircase leading down to an elaborate white room, filled with soldiers and scientists who were looking in shock at the sudden destruction of the entrance, she smiled.

She wouldn't actually be killing any of them, but after what they'd done, for no reason other than that their subjects were 'different', this was still going to be good…

As soon as the soldiers had pulled out their guns, Piper had raised her hands, ready to act. As the guns fired, Piper stepped up to the front, Phoebe, Buffy and Willow hiding behind the door while Paige stood beside her, and rapidly flicked her hands at the approaching bullets, freezing them in mid-air. Her wrists quickly got sore from all the flicking, but Piper kept on freezing and freezing until their opponents finally stopped firing.

"Bullets!" Paige yelled, holding out her hand and calling all the bullets over to her, where they collapsed to the floor in a heap of glinting metal, useless.

Before anyone could reload, Buffy had leapt over the edge of the staircase, spinning rapidly as she fell before finally landing on her feet, glaring up at the shocked soldiers. As Buffy charged into the mass of soldiers, punching and kicking, often knocking them out with a single punch- evidently they relied mainly on stealth when attacking demons- Phoebe leapt into the air, spinning around as she dived towards the soldiers in a manner that almost resembled Superman, punching two of them directly on the chin before kicking a third in the side of the head. Up on the landing, Paige grabbed Piper and Willow's hands and orbed them down to the floor, before the three of them launched into action themselves, albeit less efficiently than Phoebe and Buffy.

With the advantage of surprise on their side, coupled with Piper and Paige having single-handedly stopped the soldiers' bullets with minimal actual effort, the soldiers were quickly eliminated; in a matter of moments, the only people still conscious in the main entrance of the Initiative were either witches or a Slayer.

Glancing around, Buffy smiled at her friends before looking at the nearest soldiers.

"And that's kickin' your ass!" she said, grinning widely.

"Indeed," a voice said from off to one side. "Now, it's my turn."

Spinning around, Buffy, Willow, Paige, Piper and Phoebe saw themselves staring at the face of a man that none of them could immediately recognise, but all instinctively knew.

It was the Source.

Oh crap, Piper thought to herself. I thought we'd have more time than this before he showed up…

As it was, all they had to rely on were a bunch of crystals in Phoebe's pocket and a spell the three of them had come up with in the last couple of hours.

If that didn't work…

Well, she'd rather not think about what would happen then, to be honest; the risks were just too great.