Gunn stepped forward. “Guess I’ll save the big guns for last,” he grinned, nodding to Buffy and Angel. Taking the few steps that would put him face to face with the demon, he spoke. “I’ve been tossing some ideas around in my head, stuff I’d like to change. Maybe if I’d been better in school, joined a team and made the big play or something. What if I’d been there when my grandma moved on…or if I’d been able to save my sister. But the more I think about it, the biggest change in my life has come recently. When I left everything I knew to hook up with these guys.” He jutted a thumb backwards, to Angel, Cordelia and Wesley. “I used to run with this group of guys. Took it upon our selves to clean up the streets. Drugs and gangs weren’t so much the problem in our neighborhood as vampires were. I left them for the career I got now. So, what I want to know, is what if I hadn’t?”
Jackter nodded.
Cinder and ash, flame and fire, ‘Tis the other’s life to see we desire Two roads before us, but one to take Show the other, the choice not made.
*FLASH!*
Los Angeles
October, 2000
“Get down!” Gunn cried, pushing Nico’s head onto the pavement. “There’s more behind that dumpster, waitin’ on us.”
Nico shifted uncomfortably while Gunn scoped out the situation. “They knew we was comin’, man, they knew!”
Gunn gave a short nod as his keen eyes hunted around for more signs of danger. “What you packin’?”
Nico, flat on the ground, held up a hand, revealing a single stake.
“Damn,” Gunn muttered under his breath. He weighed his homemade battle ax in his right hand, rapidly trying to figure out how to get out of the situation he and Nico were currently in.
“Ok, here’s how we’re workin’ this. I’m backing up, you go right, stay low. Let ‘em see me. They’ll rush, you come in behind. Can’t be more than three or four of ‘em back there.”
Nico nodded and moved to his hands and knees.
“You ready?” Gunn asked, looking his friend in the eye. Nico nodded. “Ok…go.”
Quickly Gunn moved backward, allowing himself to be seen. As predicted, the vampires behind the dumpster were watching him, and they followed. Two came out at once, followed by a third, then a fourth.
Gunn grinned at them easily. “Don’t want no trouble,” he told them, the ax safely pressed to his back with his right hand. He held up the left as a peace offering.
“We’re sorta made for trouble,” one of the vamps quipped as they pushed Gunn further back in the alley. A few more feet…just a few more feet.
Gunn nodded appreciatively and stopped his retreat. “Yeah, well…you’re in the right neighborhood for that.” With those words, Nico burst from his hiding spot and dusted one of their members as Gunn swung the ax over his head, whirling his body and bringing the weapon up, decapitating another.
The two remaining vamps let out angry snarls and rushed the two men, one of them barreling low and taking Gunn in the stomach, knocking him back to the ground. The ax clattered on the cement and knocked loose of his hand, forcing Gunn to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Which was fine with him. Letting loose with a flurry of punches, he disoriented the vamp and rolled, jumping to his feet and grabbing the ax at the same time. Casting an eye to Nico, he found his friend backed against a brick-wall, the vampire he was fighting struggling in vain to find his neck.
“Nico!” Gunn shouted, forgetting his own battle and hurrying to his aide his friend. Taking a stake from his back pocket he dusted the vampire, letting go of the stake. Nico, free of the demon’s grip, dropped to his knees and caught the stake as it fell in a flurry of dust, bringing it up and thrusting at the other and final vampire. Dust, poof. Gone.
“Nice work!” Gunn beamed, holding his hand up for a high-five. The two men congratulated themselves, then returned to the street.
“That guy get away I guess?” Nico asked, looking around.
Gunn glanced left, then right, and shrugged. “Save a guy from a mugging and a body bag and you get no love.”
“That’s not entirely true,” a voice came from behind them.
The two men whirled. “Oh…you stuck around, huh?” Gunn asked.
The man stepped up and straightened his tie. “I have to say…I thought the most unfortunate part of my day would be the flat tire.”
Gunn’s eyebrows went up. “In this neighborhood?” he smirked.
The gentleman gave an appreciate laugh. “It’s one of my biggest problem areas, I know. The vampiric activity dwarfs the amount of regular theft and such performed by mortals.”
Gunn and Nico exchanged glances. “Come again?” Gunn asked.
The man smiled. “You don’t know who I am. My apologies. My name is Mackenzie James. I’m the Mayor of Los Angeles.”
Gunn and Nico exchanged another glance. “You’re the who?”
“The Mayor. Perhaps you’ve seen my campaign posters hung around the city.”
The two men glanced down the dark and deserted street. “No,” they said simultaneously.
Observing the condition of the neighborhood, Mackenzie gave a short laugh. “No, I suppose you haven’t. That’s one of the things I’m working on. Getting away from all the high-society people in the suburbs and working on the inner-city. Cleaning it up.”
“Why are you down here at this time of night?” Gunn asked. “For that matter…and more importantly…how do you know about vampires?”
The Mayor looked surprised. “You don’t really think that people in top positions in this city don’t know that the majority of theft and murder in this area doesn’t rest on the shoulders of mortals, do you?”
Gunn shifted his stance. “The way they arrest one of us for just about anything? Can’t say I’m inclined to believe that, Mr. Mayor.”
“Please, call me Mac. Everyone does. My friends, at least.”
“We friends now?”
“I hope so…because I have something to offer you…and I think it just might be, excuse the pun, right up your alley.”
*~*~*
*FLASH!*
“So he just offered you guys, straight up, to be part of some huge task force around the city?” Melinda asked them as she settled herself onto the arm of the couch Gunn was lounging on.
The entire crew was holed up in the abandoned warehouse that was their Fort Knox. As was nightly tradition, Gunn and Nico, and the rest of their group, had headed back there once their night of demon-hunting was finished. Body count scored points.
Gunn nodded, leaning back on the old recliner someone had rescued from the trash years ago. “Yeah. Mac’s the Mayor…and part of his campaign promise was to free up our ‘hood from all the evil. He words stuff real careful…probably said exactly that to the big city folks and they just assumed he was talkin’ ‘bout people like us.”
“But he weren’t,” Nico chimed in. “He knows. Knows about vampires and demons. That’s what he wants to stop, like us.”
Jay looked uneasy. “You two spent twenty minutes with this guy and you’re already sold on the idea of joining up with him?”
Gunn shook his head. “Nah, man, I told you. I’m here. For good. This is my neighborhood.”
“Yeah, but you almost left once, for that vampire and the biscuit,” Jay pointed out.
“Man, that was months ago!” he looked disgruntled for about ten seconds, then burst into a grin. “She was a hottie, wasn’t she?”
Melinda smacked the back of his head. “I don’t get it. What’s in it for him?”
“Seems simple. We keep doin’ what we do. He points us out, to the public, as being good, up-standing citizens, and gets the cops off our backs so we can keep on keepin’ on,” Gunn told her, kissing her hand.
“I knew she always had a thing for me!” Gunn cried happily. “Damn! I coulda had Melinda!”
“So all this guy wants us to do is exactly what we’ve been doing. No different. He scratches our backs, we scratch his,” someone from the back asked.
Gunn nodded. “I know…I get ya. I’m not sure I trust this either. And I’m not sure I like the idea of being public. I mean, he’s not going to go up there and scare all the kiddies in their beds by telling the world we got vampires lurkin’. We’ll just come off as street thugs with heart,” he grinned again. Sitting up he picked up a rock on the floor and tossed it from hand to hand thoughtfully. “But…having those cops off our back would be pretty nice.”
“Like a cakewalk, then. We got more trouble with the cops than with the vamps,” Nico agreed.
“We just get up in front of some TV cameras every once in a while, he gives us all some medals, maybe a nice dinner somewhere, we shake some hands and have all those rich-bitch Beverly Hills folks tell us what nice boys and girls we are…then we come home.” The idea was warming on Gunn as he repeated it to his friends.
“You want this, don’t you?” Jay asked suspiciously.
Gunn stared at him levelly. “I think we go about this carefully. That’s what I think. If it gets too much, we just tell him. We’re done.” Looking around at his group, friends he had for years, he noted the skepticism. “We’ll think about it, okay? Talk it over some more. I don’t got to get back with him for awhile.”
“Look, man. I know you’d never do us wrong, that ain’t what I’m saying,” Jay told him. “I just wanna know more about this guy. He’s the Mayor. Big deal. That ain’t nothin’ to me. What if he comes back later and tries pinning all this crap on us? Turns the tables around and we come off bad. I ain’t going to jail just for protecting my people.”
Gunn’s head bobbed. “No, that’s cool. Good idea to know who we’re dealin’ with. And I think I know where we can go to find out just who this Mac guy is.”
*FLASH!*
“So that makes, what…two Sempi demons and a run-of-the-mill vamp for the last night?” Cordelia asked, walking to the dry-erase board and marking off the kills.
Wesley nodded. “I’m still not sure what the Sempi are doing here. Traditionally they stay on the East Coast.”
“Probably wanted to be actors,” Cordelia joked as she wrote.
“We’ve got a better climate,” Angel added, walking behind the counter of the Hyperion.
Cordelia gasped. “Was that a joke?”
Angel gave her a pained look and nuked a bag of blood. Running a hand through his hair he sighed heavily.
“Didn’t sleep well again?” Cordelia asked sympathetically.
Angel barely heard her. Murmuring a “no,” he retrieved the blood and bit into it, drinking deeply. He hadn’t been sleeping well for weeks…all his dreams revolved around…her… He shook his head, bringing himself back to the present.
“So, no word on the Sempi, huh guys?” he asked, trying in vain to sound cheerful.
His coworkers were looking at him oddly, but, being used to this unusual behavior from their boss, they breezed past it.
“Someone say Sempi?” a voice came from the lobby.
“Gunn?” Cordelia asked, walking around the counter. “Hey! Guys! It’s Gunn!”
“Hey,” Wesley and Angel said in unison.
“’Sup, y’all?” he grinned. “Still fighting with the best of them?”
“You know it,” Cordelia informed him.
“Haven’t seen you around lately,” Angel said, leaning on the counter and watching the man carefully.
Gunn shrugged. “Been busy. You know how it is.” He looked at the dry-erase board, covered in Cordelia and Wesley’s handwriting. “I guess you do.”
“Oh, yeah…just some routine stuff, you know,” Cordelia said nonchalantly.
“What brings you here, Gunn?” Wesley asked kindly.
Gunn got down to business. “Need to know some stuff about the mayor. What side he plays on, that kinda thing.”
“Is he a snake?” Cordelia asked, bolting upright.
Gunn wrinkled his nose at her. “Uh, no…not that I saw.”
She dropped the books in her hands and rushed over to him. “But that’s the thing. You don’t know he’s a snake until the Ascension.”
“Cordelia,” Angel said gently, laying a hand on her arm. “He’s not a snake.”
She squinted her eyes at him but said nothing.
“What’s with the mayor?” Angel asked Gunn.
“Met him the other night. Saved his Armani-clad butt from some vamps. Seems he’s wise to what goes on, in the demon-sense of things, offered to help out me and my buddies by getting the cops off our back.”
“What’s he want from you?” Angel asked.
“Exactly,” Gunn agreed, nodding. “Says all he wants is to sorta promote us. Put us on TV, give us a community award or something, spotlight us. He shows us off, and gets the cops to start leaving us alone, ‘cause they’ll realize we’re on their side, and he gets to look good by promoting these inner-city kids in their community clean-up project.”
“Winners all around,” Wesley said, off hand. “You’re right to be suspicious, but I can’t remember hearing anything too bad about the mayor.”
“Can you look into it for me? Might makes some things easier on your front as well.”
“Only if he can extend the good-Samaritan clause from cops to lawyers,” Cordelia muttered.
“Still havin’ problems with them? Man…I heard you took off that boy’s hand. What was his name?” Gunn directed to Angel.
“Lindsey,” Cordelia supplied. “Cutie, but psycho. They all seem to turn out that way.”
He smiled again easily. “’Cept me.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, but you left,” she flirted before Angel cleared his throat.
“We’ll look into it for you if you want, see what dirty laundry this guy has, what his motivations are,” the vampire told him. “How soon do you need to know?”
Gunn shrugged. “You know the deal, I needed it yesterday.”
Angel nodded tiredly. “Cordelia can get on it.”
“Sure…no problem, bossy,” Cordy said, wrinkling her nose at being volunteered for the job.
“You okay man?” Gunn asked, glancing at Angel. “You look sorta…”
“Peaked?” Cordy supplied as she crossed to the computer.
“I was gonna say trashed.”
Angel nodded again. “Just not sleeping. I’m fine.”
“Anything you guys need my help on? You were a big help to me last year…I owe ya, for that and for this,” he told them, waving a hand to indicate Cordy’s work on the computer.
The vampire shook his head. “No, we’re fine. We’ll call you when we get something.” With that Angel walked out of the office and headed to his room.
Gunn exchanged an uneasy glance between Wesley and Cordelia. “What’s up with him?”
Cordy shrugged, turning back to the computer monitor. “Got us. He’s sleeping weird, that’s all he’ll say.” Turning to him and leaning in conspiratorially, she whispered. “If you stand outside his door, while he’s sleeping? Funky sounds.”
“Like what?”
“Groiny sounds.”
“Angel got a girl in there?” Gunn grinned.
She glared at him. “No.”
Gunn stared at her, not understanding until..“Oh. Oooh.”
“Exactly. I heard him just once and that was enough. What he does on his own--”
Wesley interrupted. “May I be the first to say, this is by far the most disturbing conversation I’ve yet witnessed in my months in Los Angeles.”
Cordy grinned. “Getting the imagery there?”
Wesley closed his eyes. “Not until now, thank you.”
She and Gunn grinned.
“I gotta go,” he told them. “You still got my numbers?”
Cordy nodded. “We’ll call you soon.”
“Thanks. I owe ya.”
“What’s with Angel?” Willow whispered to Buffy.
“I’m really sure I don’t want to know,” she whispered back, wrinkling her nose.
“Darla was appearing in his dreams,” Cordelia informed them.
Buffy looked back at Willow. “Really, really sure.”
“Nothing. He’s clean, I’m telling you.”
“But how do you know?”
“’Cause these guys are the best. You know them. It’s Angel. He does good work. If there’s dirt on someone, he’ll find it. And the man came up with nothing more than some parking tickets and a bounced check twelve years ago,” Gunn told his friends as they gathered back at the warehouse a few days later.
“So…what does this mean?” Nico asked.
Gunn looked around. “It means we’re a family. And family works together. I say we vote.”
There were murmurs of agreement.
“All in favor?” Hands went up. “Not?” More hands.
He grinned. “Where we making the mayor take us for our first big dinner?”
*FLASH!*
February, 2001
“…Johnson, Melinda Brown, Jay Bowman, Nico Juarez, and Charles Gunn. For their continuing service in cleaning up the East River division of Los Angeles. Crime in that area has dropped significantly lower in the past few years of their service, and for that, we present these 27 individuals with awards for Upstanding Citizenship, and Community Aid and Defense. Let’s welcome these fine citizens!” With the end of Mayor James’ speech, the crowd gathered at City Hall roared in applause. Gunn grinned, as did most of the other members of the crew, as they went up to receive their awards. Mac shook their hands and smiled, then the camera bulbs started to flash.
“Hey, man, how’s it feel to be famous?” Nico joked. Gunn grinned.
“Damned fine, Nico. Damned fine.”
*FLASH!*
Mark Twain Middle School, Los Angeles
April, 2003
“You have to understand that the police can’t always be everywhere at once. L.A.’s a big city, and they’ve got a lot of stuff to deal with. Communities have to bond together, and work together, to keep crime low. Things ain’t gonna get better unless we make them better. That’s why community crimewatch programs are so important. If you help make things easier on the cops, then they’ll have time to make things easier on you.” Gunn looked out over the classroom he was speaking to. The junior high class looked a little bored, but receptive. Gunn felt his heart swell. He was really making a difference. He was helping people. And it felt good. “Anybody got any questions?”
One girl, about 13 years old, raised her hand quickly. Gunn nodded to her, and she grinned at him flirtatiously. “You seein’ anybody?” she asked.
Gunn laughed, blushing a little. “Yeah. I’m married, actually, and my wife’s name is Melinda. Anybody got any questions about the community programs I’ve been talking about up here?” Gunn smiled at the three hands in the air. These kids were going to make a difference, and all because of him.
”Wow,” Gunn said, a grin on his face.
“Hey, how come he gets the nice one?” Buffy pouted good-naturedly.
Wesley and Angel were looking disappointed.
“Well, I think I know what I’m gonna choose. I wanna make a difference with the kids, man.”
“Wait!” cried Cordelia.
“What?” Gunn asked. “Cordy, look at what I’m doing there! I’m talking to kids, helping to make the neighborhoods safer…”
“And?” Cordy replied, arching one perfect eyebrow at him.
“What do you mean, ‘and’? There is no ‘and’. That’s what I wanna do.”
“And you can’t do that now?”
Wesley grinned and joined in. “Yes, Charles, really. You can easily become involved in various community outreach programs, and still help us. We need you as well as those children.”
Gunn was silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. “Yeah. Guess you’re right. Who needs Melinda, anyway?” He grinned, then turned back to Jackter. “Guess I’m stickin’ around, man.”
“Very well,” Jackter replied. “Three left. Who would like to go first?”
