Out of the frying pan into the fire ((tag Victor and Clark))

[slayers_desire]

April gently touched her head, placing a cloth to the wound on her head. Someone had knocked her out. And wherever she was... it was dark. And she could hear chanting.

Her clothes were gone, and she was now wearing a simple white gown. Which meant her PINpoint was gone too. She had no idea where it was.

There was also a ward that negated her magical defenses, and that wasn't an option.

It had seemed such a good decision to come to her home universe... when she had to leave the Smallville universe because of the strange appearance of a twisted and psychopathic Clark Luthor in her bed. She had called for help from Victor Allen, and Victor told her to escape. And this was supposed to be her escape.

But when she appeared, she was taken aback by the disastrous sights and smells of LA. And she had gone looking for someone she knew, but instead was taken by surprise by a person who came up behind her and had knocked her out. And now... she whimpered... she was in trouble.

Typically... this was just typically...

She didn't know why she was here, but April had to wait and learn what she could. And hopefully she could find a way to get home soon.

Comments

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I understand that. I've tried protecting the people I love by keeping secrets from them too. And I do understand why you'd make that choice. But one thing I've learned is that it's better to let the people you love make their own decisions, and give them all the facts. Otherwise... things like this can happen."

[victormakesart]

Blushy-blushy-blushy, she wants to deny the 'gorgeous' bit again, but she can't find the right words for it, so she says, "You said we're goin' against someone like you. Is there anything I should know, going in? Like, weaknesses, ways to disarm without harming?"

[buffyverse_npcs]

"You you be okay with her coming here now, with all this going on, considering her current state?" Spike challenged Clark.

"We sing. The others like me hate music. Fear it."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"No. Maybe not. But from what I heard, she fled in panic. And she thought she was running to safety." Clark shows Spike her PINpoint, and the message she never sent. "If she'd known this would happen, she might have run someplace safe. Not here."

[victormakesart]

"I think Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah would bring ultimate irony to the occasion."

((Ahh, sorry! I got all wrapped up!))

[buffyverse_npcs]

"I do blame myself already Clark. I don't need your help." Spike grumbled.

"We are here." Lorne pointed to a night club.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark thinks about insisting that he's not trying to blame Spike, just answer his challenge, but maybe it's better if he thinks about it for a while. "Let's just get her back."

He scrutinizes the night club exterior, looking it over for exits and other tactical information. "How do we want to do this?"

[victormakesart]

"How does it look in there? How are they clustered?"

Victor wets her lips, tilts her head to the side. "First priority is getting her out of there. Ideally, to get between her and the vamps. Then to fight our way out from there."

[buffyverse_npcs]

"This is a vampire night club." Connor noted. "And a good night for the vampires to be out too."

"We are going to have to find the entrance to where she is being kept. It feels like she is underground." Lorne added.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I'm not using x-ray vision," Clark tells Doc. "If there's any possibility of April being in the way, I can't risk it. We're going to have to go in blind."

"Chances are there's no way we can infiltrate. I could act as bait, to distract them. Or we could go in guns blazing, so to speak."

[victormakesart]

"I like guns blazing. Maybe with Lorne and I in the back of the pack, as a tactical move. Uh... I have things in my bag that'll start shouting 'fire, fire,' and we can trust that the Cult'll keep her safe if there's a mass exodus, but that might not be a risk we can take."

[buffyverse_npcs]

"Emptying out the night club would be a good idea. The cult would mostly be in the lower tunnels with April anyway." Wes nodded in agreement.

"Vamps hate fire. But they would want to smell it. See it." Connor frowned.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I can set fires, easily," Clark says. "And put it out once everyone's gone."

[victormakesart]

"Rock and roll. Let's cause a little mayhem and make a little panic." She reaches for her bag, just for one of the little devices, one that looks exactly like a drunk up, scrunched Coca Cola can. She flicks it on the side a couple times to activate it. And it starts yelling bloody murder about a fire. She hands it off to Clark, because he could totally plant it without anyone seeing or noticing.

[buffyverse_npcs]

"Burn the place down. These vamps are a scourge that need to be dead." Connor agreed with this idea. And while it was not voices as... cocky... so did Wes and Spike.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"So long as it doesn't put you, or April, in danger." He doesn't have many qualms about torching the place either. So long as wherever April is, it's protected against the flames.

He zips in, finds a good spot to drop the device, and zips away again. He finds a few convenient locations to set spot fires, fanning the flames bigger with heat vision, enough that it will spread in short order.

[victormakesart]

"Iiiii'm not sure how I feel about murder. That is to say, I know exactly how I feel about murder, and I'm not a giant fan. I know they're bad guys, mega bad, but--I, uh."

[buffyverse_npcs]

"Sweetie... these vampires are already dead. We are not murdering them... think of it as freeing the body from the Demon." Lorne whispered. "Its how I think of it. So I can hang out with these guys."

The fire worked well... the vampires fled the night club quickly. And soon the night club is empty, and burning down.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark avoids as many fatalities as he can. Killing is not in his playbook, even if it's just vampires. April is a vampire, and her having a soul makes her special, but that doesn't justify killing those who don't.

And once the club is empty, he goes around with his arctic breath to put the flames out.

[victormakesart]

Victor reaches for Lorne's hand, gives it a squeeze. "That helps, a little. I don't think it's a thing I could do, myself... because it's a slippery slope. I'm not an executioner."

[buffyverse_npcs]

"Sweetie, you are preaching to the choir. I avoid killing whenever possible. The rest of my kind think that I am broken because of that... but when I look at life..." Lorne can't explain it.

He opens his eyes. "Let's go down. And save this beautiful girl, shall we?"

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"It's safe," Clark calls when he's done playing fireman. Some surfaces have frost over the charred remains of the club's interior, and it feels oddly cold for a place that was on fire thirty seconds ago.

And then he gets immediately to finding the entrance to the underground.

[victormakesart]

Victor waltzes right in and makes herself at home, searching for some sort of trap door, some hidden opening.

[buffyverse_npcs]

Victor will find the trap door first, it was hidden behind the bar. And she finds it by pulling the third beer spigot a certain way.

As soon as it opens, Spikes growl. "I smell fresh blood."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I'll take point," Clark volunteers. He thinks he'll be most able to take any punishment that comes their way in the form of defenders or boobytraps. And they have no idea how extensive or large this underground facility might be.