Chapter 9

Opened books covered almost all the available surface space in the office. Gunn blinked his eyes several times. The words were starting to hypnotize him. He looked around at his friends. At the moment, it was just Wesley and Cordelia. Angel was still upstairs, and Fred was at Disneyland with her parents who would be leaving for home in a few days. Gunn flipped through the book he was holding and came across a picture of a horned monster. He showed it to Cordelia. "This the guy?"

"What I saw was more of a horned helmet rather than that, and it was two horns not three," Cordelia said then yawned and stretched.

Wesley closed his book with a slam. "We've got to find out what we're going to be facing."

"And we will," Cordelia assured him. "The Powers That Be wouldn't have given me the vision if we weren't meant to stop it."

"Yeah Wes, we'll get the bad guy," Gunn said. He was a little surprised by his friend who wasn't normally so intense.

"It's Giles, isn't it," Cordelia said.

Wesley sighed. "I was such a prig back in Sunnydale."

"Yeah, you were," Cordelia agreed honest to the last, "but that was lifetime ago. We've all changed, and I don't just mean hairstyles. The important thing is that we saved Giles and his sister last night, and we're going to do it again tonight."

Wesley gave her a small smile. "You're right. We'll get through this."

They were distracted by someone opening the front door.

"He's early," Cordelia said as they got up to greet their visitor. They were surprised to find Lorne in the lobby.

"Hey, gang. Better saddle up 'cause there's a whole lot of trouble brewing tonight."

ooOoo

As the cab drove off, Giles walked up to the Hyperion Hotel that was the base of Angel Investigations. He went through a small courtyard, up a short staircase and into the former hotel. Two flights of stairs winged off to the guest rooms upstairs while a third descended to the impressively vaulted lobby.

Cordelia walked out and motioned to him. "Hi, Giles. We may have a lead."

Giles followed her to the office space behind the registration desk. Wesley, Angel and Gunn stood there looking a little grim.

"You have something?" Giles asked after greeting the men.

"Yes," Wesley said. "We have it from a reliable source that the Orb of Scelus is in

Los Angeles, and the Vultek are after it."

"Oh dear lord," Giles said now realizing the nature of the trouble they were in.

"We think the orb was hidden in the arena where the wrestling show will be tonight," Cordelia said.

"Which would explain why Trish and I were in your vision," Giles deduced. "So what's your plan?"

"Find the orb and return it to where it belongs," Angel said.

"How?" Giles asked.

"We found a teleportation spell," Wesley explained.

"And the Vultek?"

"In addition to being able to appear out of nowhere, they're big, strong and relentless," Angel said, "but they can be killed."

"Your usual slice and dice," Gunn said.

"What he means is to kill it, you must decapitate it," Wesley clarified. "We have weapons, but we'll need a way to get them and ourselves into the arena so we can locate the orb."

"I'll give my sister a call," Giles said.