False Prophecies

Starring:

Angel_icon.gif Ava_icon.gif Gunn_icon.gif Reggie_icon.gif Wesley_icon.gif

Summary: Seers in Team Gunn and Angel Investigations receive similar but different visions about trouble in LA. Unfortunately, they turn out to be a trap set by Seer Demons. The groups dispatch one and injure another.

Date It Happened: February 12th 2002

False Prophecies


An abandoned warehouse in the harbor area

The waxing crescent moon hangs low in the sky and the western horizon is still a little golden from the long-gone sun. Out in the less posh places of the harbor area are several abandoned warehouses huddled together like sleeping giants. And inside one of these warehouses, certain disaster is looming.

The Angel Mobile turns through the narrow, shadowy 'roads' between the clustered warehouses by the harbor. Angel drives (it wouldn't do if he didn't drive his own Mobile, after all) slowly, looking at the various signs to try and find one that might fit the description. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel for a moment before he glances sidelong to the passenger seat and Wesley.

"Any of this seem particularly … demony?"

"Cordelia's visions have never been wrong before," Wesley responds to Angel without taking his eyes off the warehouses. "The Powers That Be gave it to her for a reason." He reaches behind him into the backseat to grab his weapons. The question is, who are they to save. The demon or the women? Only one way to find out what's going on for sure.

The Truck. One of these days Gunn is going to name it. But right now, he's busy with the driving of it to make sure that they get to the right warehouse at the right time… or at least, in time. At any rate, weapons are packed in the back and the vehicle is pulling up towards the area of doom. "This it, Ava?" Gunn asks of the one with the sight beyond sight. Another glance is tossed around the truck's cab to make sure everyone in tow is in tow.

Ava nods. "That's what I saw in my vision." she says with certainty. She seems relieved, lately Gunn's been bothering to listen to her warnings, and she's feeling less like Cassandra. "It's purple. I mean, I know it's off, but it's really big and it's purple and it's in there."

Reggie is a little squished, but she's in tow. Distracted as she puts the last few modifications on an awesome crossbow of fiery death. Because between sticking it with a sharp and possibly deadly arrow and also setting it on fire, she's figuring that will improve the chances of potentially killing whatever needs to be made dead. Of course, since she's been fiddling with it, it means she's been muttering to herself for the better part of the trip, but hey. She runs her thumb over the flint stolen from an old Zippo, and makes a surprised sound as it almost ends very badly. But the spark is quickly contained, nothing to see here. "Big and purple narrows it down," she adds helpfully, looking up from this project.

The warehouse in question is soon very evident, because the high small windows shatter outward suddenly, scattering glass into the sand far below. A light starts to form inside. Gunn, Reggie, and Ava will hear the high-pitched screams of women — Angel and Wesley the bellow of a terrified demon.

"So, we're a demon rescue squad now," Angel mutters with disbelief in his tone, slipping out of the driver's side door. He doesn't need to gather weapons himself, he's going in unarmed as usual. When the windows shatter he steps back quickly, frowning as the glass rains down on the hood of the Angel Mobile and scratches the paint a little.

"Great. Let's go."

And he quickly rushes off in the direction of the warehouse, looking for a way in.

"Don't sound so surprised," Wesley says with a faint smirk for his Vampiric friend. "We help those in need," he cheerfully reminds as he shoulders his crossbow and pack of quarrels once he's out of the car. "That's always encouraging," he says in a rather sarcastic tone at the shattering of glass, the screaming. He doesn't need telling twice, and he's rushing off behind Angel.

The Truck gets parked and Gunn pockets the keys as to not pull a Cordelia, while the glass is raining down like Africa. "Alright. Let's… oh, just insert a cool pep-talking catch phrase here." This is where Gunn is busy with the opening of his door and getting out of the truck. He immediately moves to the back, snatches up his axe (God, he loves this thing) and starts leading the way towards the warehouse. To do the same thing Angel's doing. Trying to find a way in.

Ava nods. "I'm gonna let you and Reggie go first, if you don't mind." she says. "I can start slinging the bippety boppety boo as needed from behind." And she's nervous to be in such a predicament without Nicolae present. Not that she'd admit it.

Reggie doesn't look too sure about this whole 'leading the charge' thing, but she shrugs it off after a moment of peering up through the windshield at the falling glass. She quietly opens the passenger side door and slips on out, holding the crossbow at her side as she comes around the vehicle to join Gunn, slip in behind him. "So, uh, what's the plan, Boss?" There is a plan, right?

The warehouse doors are barely fastened shut with a decrepit, rusted chain and an equally decrepit, rusted padlock. Shouldn't be any trouble for a vampire. Or a bald black guy with an axe. The double doors appear to be the only means of accessing the warehouse's interior.

As Angel arrives at the door on their side of the building, he weighs up the chain on the door with a glance and promptly reaches out to tear it in half with some good, old fashioned super strength. He might be all about rushing into a dangerous situation, but he remembers in time that Wesley is decidedly more squishy than he is. He holds out a hand to indicate slowness as he opens the door as quietly as he can, disappearing inside.

Wesley is in fact, easily squishable. Yet this doesn't stop him from roughing around with beings stronger than he is. It's a nasty job, and one he's happy to do. At Angel's instruction, he slows his steps, proceeding with more caution than he was using before.

"Sounds good. Just… be careful. I need you." Gunn utters to Ava, while even looking at her over his shoulder. Yes, indeed, this is something akin to what leaders say when they may or may not be walking to their deaths. And he's turning back around at his doors. "The plan's simple, Reg." And that huge axe is brought down to slice through the damn chain and Gunn pulls an Angel to kick the doors open! BAM SUCKAH! "We kill things." And he's off to lead the way inside. Not worried about the careful route that other dead men might be taking.

Ava pats her handy back of supplies, slung crossways via a strap along her torso and resting against her hip. "The All Magical Shop is open for business, boss." she tells her Fearless Leader. "Just listen if I tell you guys to get out of the way. I hate magical friendly fire."

Reggie seems to accept this semblance of a plan, since she just nods an then steps back a step to give him room to kick open the door. She takes a moment to peer inside before she starts heading after him, bringing the crossbow up from her side to a more battle-ready position, just in case.

There's not really a case. In fact, there's … not much of anything. Because the warehouse is empty.

… well, except for the would-be heroes, that is. There isn't even a light, despite what may have been seen from the windows. There's no sign of a fight, nothing. There are some rotted wooden crates that contain a few empty bottles, some of which have cracked and emptied, leaving dark stains on the floor beneath them. The warehouse seems to be abandoned.

Angel immediately stands up when the need for stealth is gone, immediately noticing the complete lack of … villainy. He glances over his shoulder at Wesley.

"I'm not saying Cordy's visions are wrong but … "

He just sort of waves a hand towards the empty warehouse, glancing up in time to hear the other door getting kicked down. He watches the arrival of Gunn and Co. for a moment before calling across the empty space to them.

"Nothing."

"Oh bollocks," Wesley mutters, getting a view of the inside of the warehouse. This is not good, not good at all. It's worse than actually finding what was in the vision. Finding what you're supposed to be looking for, that's do-able. That's easily handled. But when thrown a curveball and finding nothing? One gets a baaad feeling about this. "No.. I would say this is a first. But why?" What is the point of a vision and there's nothing there? "There's not even a sign that someone was here."

"…" Gunn just looks around. Spots Angel Investigations across the way and gives them a bit of a nod. "Guys." The greeting is tame, because he's with Team Gunn this night and that's where his focus should be. After a bit of looking around himself, Gunn considers this a bust. "False alarm. Let's roll." And his guard is let down as he lets his axe hang from his fingertips as he turns to find the door he came in through.

Ava blinks. "No, wait. Gunn, you heard the screaming coming from here…and my visions don't go sideways." Ava seems…miffed, if anything. Something is really wrong here. "Are you sure you don't want to look around?"

Reggie looks a little confused herself, looking between Gunn and Ava as they seem to disagree on the next move here. She hefts the crossbow up a little higher, but chooses to stay out of the debate, just peering around into the space, at the others, trying to puzzle this out in her head.

Oops. There doesn't appear to be a door there anymore. Nor is there a door behind Angel and Wesley. They've just … vanished, it would seem. Hmmm.

Angel blinks and the door over yonder is gone. He frowns, turning about to look at the door they came through. That one is gone, too. Fantastic. He glances back towards Wesley, speaking to him although his voice is loud enough for everyone present to hear.

"Well, now that we've walked right into some sort of trap … things're looking demony after all."

"Not so fast Gunn," Wesley advises, not meaning to make his bald friend look bad in front of his crew. "Ava's right. There was screaming, and the windows blew outwards. Something is definitely amiss here." He turns his gaze upwards, looking to see if there's a secondary level to the warehouse. "So it would seem," he says in a ponderous manner. "We've been drawn here by two different people, being given a similar vision." But /why? That's the question. "Prepare for anything," Wes states needlessly.

The lack of a door is what stops Gunn more than the words. But when he realizes that AI's door is missing too, that's when it starts to dawn on him that Angel may be right. "Whatever happened to the good ol' days? Back when traps were simple." Just something to say as he gets into a bit more ready fighting stance, holding the axe with both hands and poised to spring into action. If needed. "Ava? Can you work a little something to see what's goin' on here?"

Ava works her jaw a little. "I know how to make a demon show their true form, but I'm not sure about seeing anything else hidden by illusion. I know a spell that's supposed to work against faerie glamour, but this might not be the same."

Reggie looks nonplussed when the door disappears. Make that both doors. Her attention stops wandering around quite so much and comes promptly back to the matter at hand. She glances back over to Ava, though is clearly trying to also keep an eye on the room about them, with her weapon at the ready, just in case the trap turns trap-ier.

The warehouse is only one story and the ceiling is rather tall. However, as Wesley stares, something appears to shift in the shadows cast by the rafters. Almost immediately afterward, something small hits the ground next to his foot and bounces off: it's a bright red rubber ball, and it continues bouncing on its merry way, slowly losing height until it finally rolls — right into the hands of a small boy of about six or seven. He has bright blonde hair and a pair of mismatched eyes — one blue, one brown — and is dressed in a plain white shirt and black jeans. He grins at the group impishly, then giggles. "Hello," he greets warmly. "What are you all doing in here?"

"The doors disappear and we're supposed to believe we're actually dealing with a regular little kid?"

Excuse Angel if he's a little suspicious given the whole situation. He folds his arms over his chest and looks down at the kid with the ball, murmuring 'good question' before he turns about to take another look at the walls and ceiling.

Wesley lowers his crossbow, arming it with a quarrel, readying it for use. Just in case. "Can it hurt to try, Ava?" he asks across the warehouse floor at the witch, not taking his eyes off his continued surveillance of the interior. That is.. until his gaze settles onto the bouncing ball, and its trajectory towards the child. "We could be asking the same of you. It's a little late to be out and on your own," he speaks kindly to the boy, even as he doesn't lower his guard. He may be equally suspicious as Angel, but he's not going to snap at the 'child'.

"You're the one that's got us trapped in here. You tell us." Gunn is on Angel's side on this one. Especially, well, since this kid and his ball just seem to come out of nowhere. He's more relaxed, though, with no reason to be swinging his axe at the little bastard. Not yet, anyway. "Or you can do us one better and let us outta' here. I'm missin' Nick At Nite…" Maybe Ava can work some mojo while he's talking the little brat up.

Ava watches the kid, and begins to whisper very softly. "Ihr Goetter, ruft Euch an…verbergt Euch nicht hinter falschen Gesichtern…" If the kid's a demon, he should be forced to revert to his true form if he's shapeshifted or using an illusion.

Reggie glances back over at Ava, a little uncomfortable, as always, around this shows of magic. But even she has to admit it's warranted in this instance. So she just clears her throat quietly and turns her attention back to the boy, not feeling any particular guilt about levelling her modified crossbow at a little boy, juuuust in case.

The boy looks surprised at Gunn's accusation. "I'm not keeping you trapped here," he says with great amusement. "I'm only pla— "

Ava's spell works, all right, but the boy is not the only illusion dispelled. As he flickers like a bad TV signal and disappears in a cloud of smoke, the doors reappear — and standing in front of them are a pair of large, ugly demons who have been slowly advancing on the group. They're at least six inches taller than the tallest of Team Gunn or Angel and Wesley and have long snouts with dangling rope-like tongues. Two pairs of eyes peer out of each red-hued skull and long rows of spines sprout from their backs.

They seem taken aback when they're suddenly revealed, but soon the sneaking turns into all-out attack — and their main focus appears to be Ava. The demons emit sharp whistles and clicks — apparently some kind of communication.

The boy looks surprised at Gunn's accusation. "I'm not keeping you trapped here," he says with great amusement. "I'm only pla— "

Ava's spell works, all right, but the boy is not the only illusion dispelled. As he flickers like a bad TV signal and disappears in a cloud of smoke, the doors reappear — and standing in front of them are a pair of large, ugly demons who have been slowly advancing on the group. They're at least six inches taller than the tallest of Team Gunn or Angel and Wesley and have long snouts with dangling rope-like tongues. Two pairs of eyes peer out of each red-hued skull and long rows of spines sprout from their backs.

They seem taken aback when they're suddenly revealed, but soon the sneaking turns into all-out attack — and their main focus appears to be Ava. The demons emit sharp whistles and clicks — apparently some kind of communication.

Ah, yes. Evil, spiny demons from Hell. These'll be much easier to beat the tar out of than the illusion of a little kid playing with a ball. As the attack begins, Angel's game face appears in an audible crackle of cartlidge and bone. Decidedly more fierce looking, he leaps forward towards the nearest demon and attempts to tackle it to the ground - no pausing to discuss tactics.

"That's definitely /not/ good," Wesley says in a rather calm manner. Or at least it's an outward calm. Well practiced from worse scenarios than this. "Right, well then! You take that one, we'll handle the other then. Good. That's decided," is the quip as he wastes no time in aiming and firing his crossbow on the other across the floor.

"I really shouldn't be smiling about this. Should I?" Gunn is smiling, indeed, whilst he makes a line towards the other huge demon of death in the Room of Doom. While he's not quite sure on its intentions, he does know that it needs to be killed and he's certainly got the weapon for it. "Wes? You and Reggie hit it from both sides. You got range. Ava? Don't get too close. But see if you can bind it? ANything to make this easier to kill!" Hopefully, the demons aren't well versed in Gunn-ese. "Me? I'm in the paint." And the basketball reference has some merit as he's moving in close to give a swing of that axe at the creature.

"Binding spells take time, Gunn." replies the gypsy, skirting further back. You won't throw me in that briar patch, br'er rabbit. Instead, she tries to focus her telekinetic power, reaching out with her innate magical energy for any loose objects to fling at the demons.

As she's given her marching orders, Reggie brings her crossbow up to send another bolt flying to follow Wesley's. Thanks to her modifications, the release of the bolt causes the flint to spark, which ignites the sharp thing as it flies out of the weapon. Whether or not it stays lit depends on whether she calculated enough fuel to last the whole trip there. "Be careful," she offers, not clearly to any one person in particular.

The demon Angel goes for is hit from the side and tackled, however it seems to move smoothly with the momentum and sends the both of them into a roll, crashing through boxes of glass bottles as they go. Its aim is to land on top of Angel whenever they come to a halt, but it's anyone's guess who will make it.

Gunn's demon seems aware of the axe and moves quickly not to dodge, but to intercept it with one powerful hand, aiming to grab the handle. It is extremely strong, able to stop and hold the weapon still — and then its rope-like tongue snakes out straight for the black man's face. It looks like it's trying to … go up his nose? Ew. Thankfully, he's saved from a good cleaning by convenient flying objects: a box of bottles and two crossbow bolts. Reggie's flaming bolt hits, but the flame does not appear to be doing much damage. It snuffs out almost immediately upon burying into the demon's ribs. The creature lets out a high-pitched shriek of pain.

As Angel rolls across the floor with the demon, the shattered glass from the boxes leaves some noticable scratches on the back of his coat. Good thing he has a dozen more just like it in his closet. He is the Fred Flinstone of the modern era in terms of clothing.

Coming to a stop underneath the demon, Angel doesn't let the unfavorable position affect him. He's still got fists and he's still going to use them. He punches over and over in the direction of the demon's head, attempting to pummel it into distraction so he can get to his feet again.

"We're on it Gunn," Wesley calls out as he expertly and quickly reloads his crossbow. He trusts Angel to say something if he needs assistance with his demon. All the same, he asks, "Alright there, Angel?" Just so he knows which demon he may have to aim his crossbow at next, once he's finished reloading.

Hoping that the shrieking means that this thing is getting pained, he ends up holding onto his axe for dear life. Both hands and everything. He's not exactly willing to just let this thing go like that. And he's out of witty banter for the moment as he seems to be quite focused on the fact that it just tried to do something to his nose. If he can just keep a hold of his axe, Gunn actually tries to step backwards, backtracking out of the paint (so to speak) to put some room between the demon and himself. The crossbowers are going to have to keep it busy while he comes up with a new line of attack.

Shards of glass? Ava can totally work with shards of glass. They're light and numerous, and while her bag of tricks doesn't exactly include a pocket full of knives, shards of glass are just as light and numerous. Ava turns her attention and focus onto several shards, lifting them up into the air with her telekinetic witchpower and flinging them toward the demons.

Reggie's unruly hair falls over her face as she ducks her head to hastily reload the crossbow with another bolt, dug out of the pocket of her jeans. She's definitely not as expert as Wesley with the thing - she designs weapons, she doesn't tend to spend that much time actually using them, but still, need drives her forward with more nimble haste than she might have otherwise, and so shortly, another flaming bolt is heading for the dread beast.

Just as its friend had with Gunn, the demon on top of Angel snakes its tongue out, aiming for his nose — but then it gets a fist in the face and murbles and hisses in anger. Another punch to the face. Another. The second and third are caught in its hands, however, and then it attempts tongue-up-the-nose again.

SHNKSHNKSHNK. Glass shards bury into the side of its face, and it squeals, releasing one of Angel's hands and attempting to swipe the shards out of its flesh.

Gunn's demon swings its arm, attempting to use the axe as a means of flinging the man away, weapon and all. It has no use for an axe, after all. This just leaves it open for another bolt to the ribs, this one also flaming out as soon as it hits and getting another howl of pain.

Angel attempts to lean as far back as possible when the tongue starts moving towards his nose, although the fact that there is just warehouse floor at his back means he only has so much room to move. He isn't about to tell Wesley that he doesn't have things entirely under control, though, and he simply grunts the affirmative when he hears the question from the Englishman.

But then the hail of glass provides just the distraction he needs and he attempts to leap to his feet, a hand reaching out for that wagging tongue that appears to be the weapon of choice for the demons guys. What do you do with an armed demon? You disarm them. He attempts to grab at the tongue, yanking a clenched fist back with all his might should he get a grip on it.

Wesley raises his crossbow, this time not aiming blindly at Gunn's demon. If he gets a clear shot of someplace vulnerable, preferably an eye, he's taking it. If not, the next best bit of the demon that looks especially painful.

Ava keeps herself scurried back, away from any further dealings with the demons, at least not while Angel is tongue yanking and Wesley is doing a Robin Hood impression. Out of the way, she cannot help but wonder how each group seem led to the same place.

Reggie loads another bolt into her crossbow and then levels it to take another shot. That she's a little slower at it may not be the worst thing, since her ammunition is somewhat limited. She might be trying to aim, but her main goal right now is to just keep sticking flaming sharp pointy things into the demon, since that at least is distracting it from doing something gross to Gunn.

WHOCK!

Another of Reggie's bolts buries itself into the creature, this time hitting the shoulder. Another bellow of pain that is very quickly silenced when Wesley's well-aimed bolt hits true, burying deep into its eye. The demon wobbles, arms waving weakly and confusedly — then it teeters forward and comes crashing onto the floor. Dead? Hopefully.

The demon still remaining has no time to react. Angel not only gets hold of its slimy tongue, he manages to rip it right out of the demon's face with a sickening shlearp. The piercing scream that follows is absolutely horrifying and, without another glance, the monster turns around and lights out of the warehouse on all fours, moving at an incredible pace and leaking purple goo from its tongueless snout. It's gone.

Angel is left standing there with a severed tongue in one hand, looking as though he may give chase to the creature for a moment before he realizes it is doubtlessly too far away. He finally tuns around to look at the rest of the group, giving them that nod that signifies a job well done. It is only at that point that he glances down and realizes he is holding a demon tongue in one hand. He pulls a face and drops it to the floor, stepping away from it.

The tongue slithers and twitches as though still alive.

Well. That's something you don't see everyday. Not even in this line of work. Not about to let his guard down, Wesley reloads his crossbow. Can't be too careful. After the initial ambush, he definitely doesn't want to get taken again. "Is everyone alright?," he asks around as he cautiously approaches the felled demon that's still here, looking at it in a studious manner.

Ava scowls at the still squirming tongue, and with a wave of her hand, the shards that had been embedded in Angel's jacket dislodge themselves, and whip it a short, sharp flight toward the tongue on the floor in an attempt to pin it down and kill it, if by its squirming it is still alive.

Reggie finally lowers her crossbow slowly and a little breathlessly as things seem to die down - and just plain die. She's definitely not at ease though, remaining tensed, her jaw set as she just tries to keep an eye on everything. She brings a hand up to attempt the impossible task of taming her hair back from her face. "Yeah," she answers Wesley as an afterthought, "I think so."

The demon on the floor is indeed dead, it would seem. It is not moving, not breathing, perfectly still. And if that weren't enough, it starts to give off a very rancid scent, like the freezer went bad in a butcher shop during the middle of July. Doesn't waste any time getting down with the smelly part of death, does it?

The tongue writhes in apparent pain, but continues to twitch even as it's pinned to the floor by glass. The occasional jerk and twitch now and again. Unlike the corpse, it is not giving off a scent.

Angel, wiping his hand on the outside of a still in-tact crate, looks over towards Wesley. A jerk of his head is made towards the corpse of the demon as his face reverts back to normal and he scowls at the bad smell, "Look familiar?"

Wesley gets as close to the demon as he dares, looking it over carefully. "It's a Seer Demon. Which explains how Ava and Cordelia were given false visions." Crouching down at the thing's side, he lays his crossbow down before straightening his glasses. "The tentacle like tongue here.. Once they've lured the seer to them, they use it to, for lack of better terminology, suck out their brains." He looks over and across at Ava as he says this last part. As she's the only seer along for the ride. "That would explain why it targeted her."

Ava backs the hell up. "Eww." she says distinctly. "I'm all for the going now, then. But those things are still out there…" Nicolae will be distressed to hear that there's something out there targetting her. Again. For a change.

Reggie wrinkles her nose a little as she leans over to peer without moving from her current spot, as Wesley crouches before it and explains just why it is they're here. No good ever comes of that stuff. She finally lets the crossbow fall to her side and glances towards the door. "Getting out of here sounds good," she agrees.

The tongue on the floor continues to twitch.

Angel nods his head to Wesley, apparently satisfied with what seems to be a decent explanation pulled out of thin air, "Alright. Well, looks like we better get back to the Hotel and see if we can track down the other one. Even without it's brain … sucking tongue thing it could still do damage from the look of it."

Wesley rises to his feet, taking his crossbow with him. "Good idea. Don't act on visions by yourself, obviously." He doesn't mean to tell an intelligent witch what to do. "We'll need to see what's brought them here. I doubt it was just for teatime." It's almost tempting to ask Angel if they have anything they can use to contain the tongue on the floor for the ride back to the hotel. "Right, back to the hotel, and we should warn Cordelia."

Ava holds up her hands. "I just get them. Believe me, I've no interest in being brain slurped by some demon." She looks over. "Reggie, you ready to roll?"

And so the merry band of heroes are off.

Back in the more central areas of LA, the Hyperion is quiet and the lobby is empty. The lights are on, but it would seem like no one is home. The Angel crew seem to be all out helping those helpless in the mean streets of LA. That is until a piercing shriek rings out through the lobby. It sounds like it's coming from Wesley's office. The sound is short-lived but gripping as if someone just got the fright of their life.


TO BE CONTINUED…?

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