New York, October 2009
Starfox5
Experienced.
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New York, October 2009
"So… we're going to sift through a sewer. Why can't those demons hide in a nice, sunny warm place?" Buffy complained with a sigh and pout that made Richard Castle wonder how Rupert had managed being her Watcher for years.
"Well, there was Sunnydale," Xander said.
"That doesn't count! They were hiding in yucky icky places there too." Buffy shook her head.
"Like our high school?" Dawn asked.
"Yes!"
"And yet you sent me there!" Dawn sniffed. "Forced me to attend, brutally crushed my dreams of freedom…"
"You were playing hooky. And it's still yucky."
Rick cleared his throat. "Technically, it's not a sewer. Many of the tunnels are storm drains and maintenance tunnels."
"That's hardly better! And you said 'many', not 'all'! My poor shoes!"
"You're wearing boots," Dawn said.
"Designer boots."
"No one forces you to wear them. You could wear sensible, sturdy, cheap boots." Dawn shook her head.
"What?" Buffy looked horrified.
"I hate to interrupt this wonderful display of sibling love, but… we do have a cult to stop from destroying a greater chunk of New York." Rick said.
"Including several shoe stores," Beckett said. She was snarking with the best of them - Castle was so proud.
"Right." Buffy looked at Willow. "Will, were you able to narrow the area down with your magic?"
The witch shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. I couldn't refine the detection spells enough, not without more information about the seal." She frowned, then smiled. "But I think I can track the noose demon with even miniscule amounts of blood, if I use some parts of the coffin it was locked in for so long. The residue should act like a catalyst and sympathetic link, and allow me to track it down using an adjusted detection spell, and…"
"Bottom line: Once we have dealt with the seal, we can deal with the noose demon thanks to Will's mojo." Xander grinned. "Sorry to interrupt your fascinating explanation, but we are on the clock, as Rick pointed out."
The author in question wondered who still used the word 'mojo'. Somehow he didn't think that Xander was quoting Austin Powers.
"Alright." Buffy looked at everyone present. "We'll split in three groups. Faith, Spike and Dawn are one group, me, Xander and Will another, and Vi, Rick, and Detective Bucket will be the third.
"Beckett," the woman whose name had just been mangled said with a frown. Castle was tempted to add 'with two ts'.
"Yes." Buffy pointed at the map spread on Castle's dinner table. "Faith will start with the main sewer entrance there, my group will enter through the storm drains on this side, and the locals will cover the maintenance tunnels on the other side. We'll work our way to the center. Our Wi-Phones will still work underground, so use them to alert the others once you find the seal."
"Wi-Phone?" Beckett whispered next to Castle.
"Cell phones enchanted by Willow. Perfect reception anywhere on the planet." Castle didn't think adding that the phones also could use all networks without paying was a good idea. Beckett was adjusting to the realities of demon hunting, but she might still take offense at such details.
"Any questions?" Buffy asked. "Serious questions only," she added when several hands were raised. All hands dropped quickly. "Good. Let's go! We have shoe stores and malls to save!"
"To think that the fate of the city is in the hands of a Valley Girl and her friends…" Beckett said later while Vi did her best to break as many traffic laws as possible without crashing Castle's Shelby.
"The world's fate has been in her hands several times. And as it still stands, I think it's in good hands," Castle said, a bit sharper than intended. He understood Beckett, but the Scoobies had earned more respect. Even if they did all they could to make the worst impression - the things he had heard from Rupert, back when they had started to rebuild the Council… apparently, there had been a bet running of any of the older members of the Council who had survived the First would suffer a heart attack after meeting them.
"And no matter how they act, they know their stuff. We were sent to the maintenance tunnels since we're the locals and have the most experience with them," Vi said. "Well, Rick and I, at least. You're not that experienced."
"To my great envy," Beckett said.
"At least they aren't steam tunnels!" Castle said. No one got the joke, though.
Vi turned another corner, right into an alley and stopped in front of a locked metal door. "Vi, remind me to tell you to drive through a car wash on the way home," Castle said, after he had stepped into something right after leaving his car. "This alley looks like it wasn't cleaned in decades."
"The door's hinges are oiled, though," Beckett said. "Someone's been maintaining them."
Vi sniffed the air, then the door. "I don't smell demon."
"Homeless people like to seek shelter in such locations too," Castle said, pulling his Ack Pac out of the trunk and handing Beckett a shotgun. Vi wa already armed. "Although only the inexperienced ones - the older ones know that it's dangerous, even though they might not know about demons prowling the tunnels."
"Do they avoid the maintenance tunnels still in use?" Beckett asked while Castle opened the door with one of the keys he had acquired for such occasions.
"No, they generally avoid the workers, though - those would be missed." Castle pushed the door open, and Vi slid inside. "Although the urban legends of albino crocs living in the sewers are not entirely unfounded."
Beckett sighed. "Next you'll telling me the tooth fairy is real too."
"Oh, no - that demon was dealt with by a Slayer in Kent in the 18th century," Castle said. She stared at him, and he shrugged. "Apparently, the demon liked to rip the teeth out of the children's mouths to make necklaces. Don't ask me why the legend claims it'll leave a coin for a tooth."
Beckett muttered something Castle didn't catch, but Vi snickered. "Onward!" he said. "We have malls to save, as our fearless leader said."
Thanks to his maglite, he could see Beckett glare at him. Nothing like a little joke to relieve the tension.
"I would have thought you'd use night vision gear instead of a maglite," Beckett said an hour and a dozen tunnels later. They hadn't found any demons so far. The other groups hadn't had more luck either, though Faith's group had wiped out a vampire nest.
"I do, on occasion. But since you're not trained in its use, we couldn't use the gear anyway." Castle was almost certain the detective would ask for such training at the next occasion. Which meant, he thought with a grin, laser tag in dark tunnels! Alexis would love it. "Besides, it's mounted on the barrels of the guns, so it's quite handy." Though finding a way to mount the thing on his flamethrower's nozzle had been a pain.
Vi, who was on point, suddenly stopped and held her fist up. Castle hissed and checked his flamethrower.
"I smell demons," the redhead said. "Several of them, and I've smelled them before."
"Like a bloodhound," Beckett muttered.
"That sounds, I mean, that smells like the ones we're looking for," Castle said. He thumbed his phone and informed the other two groups that they had a probable contact. "We're checking this out. Lead the way, Vi!"
His Slayer moved forward, disappearing in the shadows. Castle and Beckett waited so their lamps wouldn't betray their presence. A few minutes later, Vi returned. "I haven't seen the seal, but there's about a dozen of demons hanging around in large room up ahead. The seal could be behind a few doors."
Castle nodded. "I'll call the others." They could take a dozen with Vi and surprise on their side, but if there were more hiding nearby, this could get dicey. It was better to wait until the rest was here as well.
A scream interrupted him right when he was sending the coordinates to the other groups.
"They've got a hostage!" Vi said.
Castle and his Slayer exchanged a glance. His plan to wait for reinforcements had just been shot. If they waited, the hostage might be killed. He nodded. And Vi took off running.
Rick and Beckett followed, not quite as fast. "I thought they didn't sacrifice people to open the seal."
"They don't. But they might still want dinner," Castle said.
Screams and yells from up ahead told them that Vi was engaging the demons already. Then they reached a small door, squeezed through - Castle almost got stuck with his flamethrower - and faced a large room full of demons. Vi was in the midst of a dozen of them, trying to cut her way to a screaming girl bound next to what looked like an industrial grill. Dinner indeed.
While he was still trying to find a way to use his Ack Pack without frying either Vi or the girl, one of the other doors opened, and more demons rushed in.
Castle greeted them with a burst from his flamethrower.
"So… we're going to sift through a sewer. Why can't those demons hide in a nice, sunny warm place?" Buffy complained with a sigh and pout that made Richard Castle wonder how Rupert had managed being her Watcher for years.
"Well, there was Sunnydale," Xander said.
"That doesn't count! They were hiding in yucky icky places there too." Buffy shook her head.
"Like our high school?" Dawn asked.
"Yes!"
"And yet you sent me there!" Dawn sniffed. "Forced me to attend, brutally crushed my dreams of freedom…"
"You were playing hooky. And it's still yucky."
Rick cleared his throat. "Technically, it's not a sewer. Many of the tunnels are storm drains and maintenance tunnels."
"That's hardly better! And you said 'many', not 'all'! My poor shoes!"
"You're wearing boots," Dawn said.
"Designer boots."
"No one forces you to wear them. You could wear sensible, sturdy, cheap boots." Dawn shook her head.
"What?" Buffy looked horrified.
"I hate to interrupt this wonderful display of sibling love, but… we do have a cult to stop from destroying a greater chunk of New York." Rick said.
"Including several shoe stores," Beckett said. She was snarking with the best of them - Castle was so proud.
"Right." Buffy looked at Willow. "Will, were you able to narrow the area down with your magic?"
The witch shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. I couldn't refine the detection spells enough, not without more information about the seal." She frowned, then smiled. "But I think I can track the noose demon with even miniscule amounts of blood, if I use some parts of the coffin it was locked in for so long. The residue should act like a catalyst and sympathetic link, and allow me to track it down using an adjusted detection spell, and…"
"Bottom line: Once we have dealt with the seal, we can deal with the noose demon thanks to Will's mojo." Xander grinned. "Sorry to interrupt your fascinating explanation, but we are on the clock, as Rick pointed out."
The author in question wondered who still used the word 'mojo'. Somehow he didn't think that Xander was quoting Austin Powers.
"Alright." Buffy looked at everyone present. "We'll split in three groups. Faith, Spike and Dawn are one group, me, Xander and Will another, and Vi, Rick, and Detective Bucket will be the third.
"Beckett," the woman whose name had just been mangled said with a frown. Castle was tempted to add 'with two ts'.
"Yes." Buffy pointed at the map spread on Castle's dinner table. "Faith will start with the main sewer entrance there, my group will enter through the storm drains on this side, and the locals will cover the maintenance tunnels on the other side. We'll work our way to the center. Our Wi-Phones will still work underground, so use them to alert the others once you find the seal."
"Wi-Phone?" Beckett whispered next to Castle.
"Cell phones enchanted by Willow. Perfect reception anywhere on the planet." Castle didn't think adding that the phones also could use all networks without paying was a good idea. Beckett was adjusting to the realities of demon hunting, but she might still take offense at such details.
"Any questions?" Buffy asked. "Serious questions only," she added when several hands were raised. All hands dropped quickly. "Good. Let's go! We have shoe stores and malls to save!"
*****
"To think that the fate of the city is in the hands of a Valley Girl and her friends…" Beckett said later while Vi did her best to break as many traffic laws as possible without crashing Castle's Shelby.
"The world's fate has been in her hands several times. And as it still stands, I think it's in good hands," Castle said, a bit sharper than intended. He understood Beckett, but the Scoobies had earned more respect. Even if they did all they could to make the worst impression - the things he had heard from Rupert, back when they had started to rebuild the Council… apparently, there had been a bet running of any of the older members of the Council who had survived the First would suffer a heart attack after meeting them.
"And no matter how they act, they know their stuff. We were sent to the maintenance tunnels since we're the locals and have the most experience with them," Vi said. "Well, Rick and I, at least. You're not that experienced."
"To my great envy," Beckett said.
"At least they aren't steam tunnels!" Castle said. No one got the joke, though.
Vi turned another corner, right into an alley and stopped in front of a locked metal door. "Vi, remind me to tell you to drive through a car wash on the way home," Castle said, after he had stepped into something right after leaving his car. "This alley looks like it wasn't cleaned in decades."
"The door's hinges are oiled, though," Beckett said. "Someone's been maintaining them."
Vi sniffed the air, then the door. "I don't smell demon."
"Homeless people like to seek shelter in such locations too," Castle said, pulling his Ack Pac out of the trunk and handing Beckett a shotgun. Vi wa already armed. "Although only the inexperienced ones - the older ones know that it's dangerous, even though they might not know about demons prowling the tunnels."
"Do they avoid the maintenance tunnels still in use?" Beckett asked while Castle opened the door with one of the keys he had acquired for such occasions.
"No, they generally avoid the workers, though - those would be missed." Castle pushed the door open, and Vi slid inside. "Although the urban legends of albino crocs living in the sewers are not entirely unfounded."
Beckett sighed. "Next you'll telling me the tooth fairy is real too."
"Oh, no - that demon was dealt with by a Slayer in Kent in the 18th century," Castle said. She stared at him, and he shrugged. "Apparently, the demon liked to rip the teeth out of the children's mouths to make necklaces. Don't ask me why the legend claims it'll leave a coin for a tooth."
Beckett muttered something Castle didn't catch, but Vi snickered. "Onward!" he said. "We have malls to save, as our fearless leader said."
Thanks to his maglite, he could see Beckett glare at him. Nothing like a little joke to relieve the tension.
*****
"I would have thought you'd use night vision gear instead of a maglite," Beckett said an hour and a dozen tunnels later. They hadn't found any demons so far. The other groups hadn't had more luck either, though Faith's group had wiped out a vampire nest.
"I do, on occasion. But since you're not trained in its use, we couldn't use the gear anyway." Castle was almost certain the detective would ask for such training at the next occasion. Which meant, he thought with a grin, laser tag in dark tunnels! Alexis would love it. "Besides, it's mounted on the barrels of the guns, so it's quite handy." Though finding a way to mount the thing on his flamethrower's nozzle had been a pain.
Vi, who was on point, suddenly stopped and held her fist up. Castle hissed and checked his flamethrower.
"I smell demons," the redhead said. "Several of them, and I've smelled them before."
"Like a bloodhound," Beckett muttered.
"That sounds, I mean, that smells like the ones we're looking for," Castle said. He thumbed his phone and informed the other two groups that they had a probable contact. "We're checking this out. Lead the way, Vi!"
His Slayer moved forward, disappearing in the shadows. Castle and Beckett waited so their lamps wouldn't betray their presence. A few minutes later, Vi returned. "I haven't seen the seal, but there's about a dozen of demons hanging around in large room up ahead. The seal could be behind a few doors."
Castle nodded. "I'll call the others." They could take a dozen with Vi and surprise on their side, but if there were more hiding nearby, this could get dicey. It was better to wait until the rest was here as well.
A scream interrupted him right when he was sending the coordinates to the other groups.
"They've got a hostage!" Vi said.
Castle and his Slayer exchanged a glance. His plan to wait for reinforcements had just been shot. If they waited, the hostage might be killed. He nodded. And Vi took off running.
Rick and Beckett followed, not quite as fast. "I thought they didn't sacrifice people to open the seal."
"They don't. But they might still want dinner," Castle said.
Screams and yells from up ahead told them that Vi was engaging the demons already. Then they reached a small door, squeezed through - Castle almost got stuck with his flamethrower - and faced a large room full of demons. Vi was in the midst of a dozen of them, trying to cut her way to a screaming girl bound next to what looked like an industrial grill. Dinner indeed.
While he was still trying to find a way to use his Ack Pack without frying either Vi or the girl, one of the other doors opened, and more demons rushed in.
Castle greeted them with a burst from his flamethrower.
*****
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