Boom!!!

or How to have Season 6

Author: Cmdr. Uhura <cmdruhura[at]yahoo.com>

PG-13

Takes place immediately after the end of Season 5 of AtS

Characters from BtVS and AtS are not mine

This is my first posting


Chapter 1

Angel and the remainder of his team started towards the horde of demons coming down the alley towards them. Suddenly the sides of the buildings on either side of the demon army light up, and there is a thunderous roar that drowns out even the roars of the angry demons. A blast of hot air slams into Angel's group and causes them to take several steps backward. The light from the buildings fades away but the alley way in front of them is awash in other light coming from the massive flames that seem to encompass the entire length and breadth of the alley. From what they can see, the leading edge of the demon army is no more.

The dragon that Angel had wanted for himself, had apparently not been injured by the blast that taken out so many of its compatriots. It did appear stunned by what had happened since it seemed to have pulled up short and just hung in the air for a few seconds. It was during this time that a whoosh sound came from the shadows to the left of Angel and the others. With the sound of the previous blast still ringing in his ears, Gunn did not hear the sound and the others, with superior senses, just barely did for the same reason. However, all four of them saw something streak out of the darkness and head for the dragon. When it hit the dragon at the point where its neck met its body there was another explosion which in turn was followed by several other explosions throughout the dragon's body as it fell from the sky onto the mangled demons below.

"Hey," shouted Angel, "I called dibs on the dragon!"

A figure stepped out of the shadows dressed in combat fatigues, with a rocket launcher on its right shoulder, and an eye patch over its left eye.

"Sorry, DB, but not only would it take you too long to hack through its skin with that sword, but you would have had to make your new home in an ashtray if you had even gotten within twenty feet of that thing, and you know it," replied the figure. "Besides, it is not good tactics to allow your enemy to maintain air superiority over the battle field. It limits the types of maneuvers your ground troops can make."

"Xander!" shouts Spike.

Turning towards Angel, Spike asks, "What in bloody hell is the one-eyed carpenter doing here? Does that mean that…"

Cutting Spike's next question off Angel says so all can hear, "I needed someone with experience in killing demons with high explosives. And no, the slayers are not involved. If they were the fight would become all out war between good and evil. They are not ready for such a war, regardless of how many slayers there are now in the world. Most of them aren't even aware they are slayers and those that are haven't received enough training to be effective. The forces of good are in disarray and regrouping. Our actions tonight have done the same to the forces of evil. They will also have to pull back and regroup. The balance of good and evil will be maintained and enforced by the Powers. All out war is avoided. The only thing left unresolved is whether the Bad Guys intend to squash us before or after they regroup. I'm hoping that having a good portion of their army decimated before they even can get close to us will make them consider the cost too high right now to continue the attack. However, it will only be a temporary respite, because we will be target Number One, once they reorganize."

"That still doesn't explain why the Whelp is here," said Spike, while keeping a watchful eye on the mass of burning demon flesh in front of them.

"As I said, I needed someone with experience in the use of explosives in taking down demons. Someone I knew and could trust to get the job done right. That narrowed the list down to Riley and Xander. While Riley's ties to the government meant he would have easier access to the amount of explosives needed, it also meant that there would be more of a paper trail that could have been discovered and therefore expose the whole plan. That left Xander. Besides, Xander made me a promise once, and considering the possible outcome of our endeavors, I owed him the chance to fulfill that promise."

"Just what promise would that be?" asked Spike.

"I promised DB that when his time came that I would be there," replied Xander. "Although at the time I had hoped that I would be the one to do the deed. However, once Angel explained his plan to me, I figured that as long as I got to watch it would still be good. Plus, if we survive tonight, I still might be the one to do it one day."

Walking over to Gunn, Xander suddenly stabbed something into Gunn's thigh.

Before anyone could move, even Allyria, Xander said, "Adrenaline, morphine, and some blood clotting agents. Should help until we can get you to a real doctor." Xander added the latter as he handed Spike a field bandage kit, indicating the blonde vampire should help bind Gunn's wound.

"Thanks," was all Gunn replied rubbing the sore spot on his thigh.

Angel continued, only slightly annoyed at Xander's interruption, "Knowing that Xander was in Africa, thanks to Andrew, I figured he just might be able to get his hands on what was needed without leaving much of a trail. I had him piggy-back his shipments here to L.A. on some already set up by Wolfram & Hart for other things. He's been getting ready for over a week."

"But he's a Watcher and still tied to the Slayers, won't that mean the big evil will still have a reason to attack them?" asked a weakening but less in pain Gunn.

"I never accepted a position as a Watcher, too much reading involved," responded Xander. "I went looking for newly arisen slayers as an independent. I felt that seeing that a normal person could survive the evil things out there that they might be more inclined to not feel overwhelmed by their calling. I set up some 'schools' where the girls could go and had some of the experienced surviving Watchers as Head Masters and teachers. My job was to demonstrate to them the world that most everyone else tries to ignore so that they could at least know in case anything came looking for them, and where they could go if they wanted a better chance at defending themselves and their loved ones. Therefore, even though I work for the Good Guys, the Powers will not sanction any direct attacks on the Slayers or the New Council at this time because of my involvement here. I double checked with some Oracles near Victoria Falls and Mt. Kilimanjaro. BY the way DB, you are so lucky that Andrew never saw that original information packet you sent to Giles about leads to possible Slayers that you were able to obtain through Worfram & Hart resources. His Klingon is much better than mine and he would have told Buffy and the rest before you could blink."

Angel said, "I only put the Klingon on the report for Africa, the rest just had doodles in the margins that meant nothing but looked consistent with what in the margins of that report. Since I had the originals sent by courier direct to Giles that for security reasons he would send the pertinent copies only to the people who needed them for the areas of the world where they were working. So I took a chance that Andrew would never see the ones for Africa. My only concern was whether he would send exact copies of what I sent him or if he would only pass on the info about the Slayers. Obviously he sent exact copies."

Xander only nodded.

"You really have a death wish, don't you?" asked Spike, glaring at Angel. "You realize that if the forces of evil don't get you that Buffy will if anything bad happens to the Whelp while he's doing you a favor. One of the things I learned during my time in Sunnyhell was that you don't mess with the Bit, the Witch, or the Whelp as long as the Slayer was alive unless you want to be on the receiving end of a lot of pain. That point was driven home very well by what she did to Caleb after what he did to Xander here. And I'll bet it seemed like the pain lasted a million years to him."

"I'm counting on them being too mad at us to worry about any support personnel. Especially if said personnel leave before they are identified," said Angel looking at Xander.

"OK," said Xander after staring at Angel for several seconds. "I'll go right after I brief you on the rest of the surprises I've set up, just incase they want to continue coming after you. And so you know what to clean up if you survive so no innocents are hurt."

Xander pulls out a remote control unit with twelve sets of toggles on it and explains what each toggle is for. There is apparently another set of charges that can be set off to cover the alley way where the current demon casualties are, with two other similar sets of charges at the other end of the alley should they be attacked from that direction. Booby traps can also be armed to cover any of the five exit routes they might use from the alley, as well as if those same routes are used by the enemy to try and attack them from. He shows them a couple of more rocket launchers, some white phosphorous grenades, three combat shotguns with lots of ammo, and even a flame thrower they might want to use. Although he tells them, that since DB and Spike are vampires to be careful with the latter. He also produces a TV monitor that has feed signals from several surveillance cameras he has set up around the area so they can determine if the Bad Guys have decided it is not worth it or are going to attack again tonight.

When Xander was through, Angel turned to Gunn and said, "Gunn, I want you to let Xander get you to a hospital. We already lost Wesley and it would be nice for at least one of us to get out alive if they decide to take us out now. You've been underground before and would be able to continue the fight once you've healed. I know you volunteered and are committed to stay to the end, and that is why I'm asking you to do this instead of knocking you out and giving you to Xander to carry out of here. Another thing to think about before you make your decision is that I know you would want to go out fighting but even if they do attack us again tonight, it might not be until after you have become too weak to fight."

Gunn glared at Angel, not because he was mad at him, well maybe just a little, but mostly because he was right.

Gunn turned to the one-eyed man whom he had never met but had heard about from Cordy and even grudgingly from Angel on occasion, although not as fondly but with respect. He saw a bit of himself in that one eye.

"You really think you can sneak past the Bad Guys out there?" Gunn asked Xander.

"I can get us past all the booby traps along the escape route with no problem," replied Xander. "Also I have a couple of Glamors that should allow us to waltz past any groups of demons that we might encounter on the way out. So we don't have to worry too much about fighting and concentrate on running. After seven years of fighting on the Hellmouth, I got to be very good at running when the situation called for it. Plus I have hideouts and extra weapons stashed along the route in case they are needed."

"OK," agreed Gunn, "I go with you but I have to tell you that I don't waltz too well and I'm used to leading when I dance."

Xander smiled, "If you knew where the booby traps were, I'd let you go first but you'll just have to be the girl this time around and follow my lead. Besides if you don't like the waltz, we can always tango. It worked for Jim Carey in the Mask"

Rolling his eyes, Gunn allowed Spike to help him over to the manhole cover that Xander went to. Cander descended into the blackness first then signaled for Gunn to come down. Even with the pain killers Xander had given him, it still hurt quite a bit as he made his way down the twenty foot ladder to where the sewer tunnel was.

Once they were sure he was down and alright, the three remaining members of the Fang Squad replaced the manhole cover and armed themselves with the weapons left them by Xander. Angel grabbed himself one of the rocket launchers, vowing that the next dragon would be his. They then settled into defensive positions and studied the images from the surveillance cameras to see what the demon army would do next.

The End