Richard Castle, Watcher: New York, June 2009 - Part 4
Richard Castle, Watcher
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon Pictures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: A sword wielding, regenerating murderous demon, anda basket full of kittens. A day in the life of a Watcher in new York.
New York, June 2009
Richard Castle cursed, dropping his phone and raising his shotgun, but before he could shoot, he was hit by a basket full of mewling kittens and stumbled back two steps. Vi drew her pistol, but didn’t manage to get more than one shot off - who missed the jewel in the monster’s forehead - before she had to defend herself in melee against the demon’s sword.
Castle threw the basket to the side, prompting the little beasts to yowl in protest, and aimed his shotgun, but he couldn’t shoot without endangering Vi. The Slayer was getting driven back by the powerful blows of the demon, and Castle saw to his dismay that the sword was cutting through walls with ease - definitely enchanted. Vi was deflecting and redirecting the blows, but it was only a question of time until she either mistimed her parry, or her sword got shattered.
“Down!” Rick shouted, and pulled the trigger right after Vi had dropped to the floor. His slug hit the demon’s chest and made it stagger, and his Slayer used the opportunity to kneecap it with two shots from her Glock. That wouldn’t take the killer long to regenerate from, though. Vi rolled to the side and shoot at its head, but the demon shielded its face and jewel with its arms. Castle hit it again with another slug, but off-center - blood and bones splattered on the wall behind it, and the Mohra Demon howled, but the jewel was still intact.
Still shielding its forehead, it blindly struck out with its sword, and Vi had to duck again - only to get caught with the backswing in the shoulder. She dropped her pistol with a yell of pain, and her arm started to bleed heavily. Before the monster could strike another blow, Castle shot it again, driving it back a step, and Vi used the opportunity to get up and into a defensive stance.
Castle slipped a Dragon’s Breath round in his shotgun and fired, followed by another slug, and the demon was set ablaze and knocked down while Vi scrambled past him into the first floor’s apartment. He wanted to curse at her when she grabbed the basket of yowling kittens, almost dropping her sword in the process, but he was too busy to slam the door shut.
Then it was his turn to cry out in pain when the demon’s sword went through the door as if it wasn’t there and sliced his side open. If he hadn’t been moving away already he would have been run through. He shot twice through the door, hopefully hitting the demon, and fell back towards the window, where Vi was headed.
“Throw them out!” he shouted, and for a moment the Slayer was hesitating, glaring at him as if he was the monster here, but then she complied, and the kittens went out of the window, mewling in panic. Castle was hot on his Slayer’s heels, or as hot as he could be while bleeding and hurting, and managed to load another incendiary round into his shotgun while Vi climbed up on the windowsill.
The Monster broke through the door, bleeding from another hole in its chest. It didn’t stop when it saw the drums of chemicals Castle and Vi had prepared to fake a meth lab explosion, so it probably wasn’t that well integrated into the modern world as Castle had thought when he heard of it using debit cards and renting cars. Or maybe it was simply caught up in bloodlust.
Rick aimed his shotgun at an open drum with one hand and held his his side with the other. He was about to utter a classic line straight from ‘Predator’ when he felt Vi grip his collar and heard her yell: “Just shoot already!”
So he did. His shotgun spat fire and Vi yanked him up and out of the window, wrapping herself around him while the room blew up and flames shot out of the windows, no matter if they had been boarded up or not. The sudden movement and the recoil almost caused him to lose his grip on his gun, but somehow he managed to keep it - until they landed on the street, hard.
Both Slayer and Watcher cried out when the rolled over the sidewalk, until they came to a stop in a tangled mess of limbs against the wreck of car, bleeding over each other. Behind them the building started to burn.
“That won’t kill it,” Vi stated while she got up. Despite her wounds and a useless, bleeding arm, the redhead was still moving gracefully.
Castle managed to sit up, coughing and spitting out some blood from where he had bitten his cheek on impact. “No, but it’ll come close for a while.” When Vi started towards the house, he yelled “Stop! You’re wounded!”
She turned towards him, probably to say something about how she could still fight. Slayers were generally stubborn like that, worrying more about torn clothes and ruined shoes than torn flesh, and Vi was no exception. Before she could claim she was fine, a body flew out of the house and landed on the street. It was the Mohra Demon.
It looked like hell. Its clothes were burning, bone was visible on several spots on its skull, and what skin Castle could see was blackened and shriveled. But it was still moving. Towards them. And it still had its sword.
But it was slower now, much slower. And not as graceful - even for a demon it was hard to move with half its muscles burned off, Castle guessed. He was struggling to get up himself but his body was hurting all over, and his side...
Vi snarled and hefted her sword, her left arm still hanging down uselessly, and met the demon’s attack. Castle, panting, could see it was a more even fight now - but the demon was visibly healing and Vi was not. Slayer healing was good, but not even close to the regeneration Mohra Demons had. They had to beat this monster now.
“Get clear!” he shouted, and Vio dove to the side. He fired, aiming low, at the demon’s feet. His first shot missed, but Vi was clear now, and he racked another round into the chamber, yelling and cursing at the pain that caused to his side, and fired again. That one hit, and the monster went down, screaming with a mangled foot. He fired again, and again, until his whole side was covered with blood and the monster’s feet had been turned into hamburger. Probably - it was getting hard to see what exactly he was shooting at.
Suddenly someone - Vi - ripped the gun out of his hands. He protested, but she was already turning away, aiming. Two more shots rang out, causing it to stop thrashing around. A short pause, then a third and fourth followed.
He was still blinking when Vi returned to his side. “I got the jewel then blew its head off. If we get the right coroner, we can cover… Rick!” She rushed to his side.
“Throw it into the house… we’ll think of a story later…” Perlmutter could handle a burned demon corpse… couldn’t he? It was hard to concentrate with his side hurting like that.
Then he heard sirens, coming closer. Vi pushed his jacket back to check his side. He yelled in pain again when she touched his wound. Nearby, tires squealed - someone was braking hard.
“Castle! What the… oh my god! We need an ambulance!” A short pause. “Two ambulances!” Beckett really had a nice voice, even when she was shouting and under stress.
“Keep the pressure on it, I’ll get the kit from our car!” Vi yelled.
“What? You need help too!” Beckett had to be gaping, Castle thought. It was her first time with a wounded Slayer doing the Terminator routine. “Esposito! Ryan! Don’t stare at the flames, we need help here!”
“It’s just a flesh wound!” Vi claimed, and was already halfway to the Shelby.
Castle laughed - she finally said it! - then grimaced at the pain that caused.
“Hold still you damn fool!” Beckett all but screamed at him.
“I am not moving, just breathing,” he responded, hissing through his clenched teeth. Maybe he should start carrying some pain killers with him… but the kind he’d need would lead to trouble if he was arrested, or searched. Another thought hit him. “Are the kittens alright?”
Beckett stared at him. “What?”
“My family would kill me if anything had happened to the kittens,” Castle explained.
The detective was laughing incredulously and shaking her head. “I think you’ll live if you can worry about cats.”
“You haven’t met my family yet,” Castle retorted. “You’d worry about them too, if you had.”
*****
“That was absolutely foolhardy! You almost died! You almost got Vi killed!”
Furious Beckett hadn’t a nice voice at all, Castle decided. And no manners - he was a patient in a hospital. He should be treated with more care!
“It was just a minor flesh wound,” Vi, leaning against the wall, cut in. “Didn’t even scar, see?”
“What? You were bleeding all over the street!” Beckett stared at the Slayer’s arm, which had just a faint line left.
Figures, he thought - he had a dozen stitches and what felt like a galleon of blood and plasma poured into his veins, and the detective was fussing over the girl with supernatural healing. Males always got the short end of the stick.
Apparently, the redhead was convincing enough for Beckett to believe her, and the detective turned back to him. “What possessed you to try and catch the killer by yourself? How did you even find him?”
“We didn’t find him, he found us. We had visited Ray to ask about swords, and heard of a sword a guy was trying to pawn off online. Ray said it had looked like an antique, but he wasn’t about to check personally in that area. We were discussing the price with the druggie when the masked madman walked in. That set the meth head off, and in the ensuing firefight, someone must have shot through the door into what I think was a meth lab, and boom went the building. We managed to get out, but got cut up in the process. That guy was crazy, stabbing and slashing everywhere,” Castle smiled weakly and tried to sound as honest as he could. The coroner’s reports should cover them - as long as no one looked at the corpses and other evidence before it got disposed of - or replaced.
Beckett stared at him, her mouth forming a thin line. “I see. You were very lucky.” Doubt was dripping from her words.
Castle nodded. “I’ll promise, I won’t do that again.” Next time he’d do it differently. He didn’t add ‘mom’, but judging from her expression, she suspected he had thought it.
The detective shook her head and scoffed, and Castle just knew this wasn’t over yet.
He was really dreading her visit to his home now.
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon Pictures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: A sword wielding, regenerating murderous demon, anda basket full of kittens. A day in the life of a Watcher in new York.
New York, June 2009
Richard Castle cursed, dropping his phone and raising his shotgun, but before he could shoot, he was hit by a basket full of mewling kittens and stumbled back two steps. Vi drew her pistol, but didn’t manage to get more than one shot off - who missed the jewel in the monster’s forehead - before she had to defend herself in melee against the demon’s sword.
Castle threw the basket to the side, prompting the little beasts to yowl in protest, and aimed his shotgun, but he couldn’t shoot without endangering Vi. The Slayer was getting driven back by the powerful blows of the demon, and Castle saw to his dismay that the sword was cutting through walls with ease - definitely enchanted. Vi was deflecting and redirecting the blows, but it was only a question of time until she either mistimed her parry, or her sword got shattered.
“Down!” Rick shouted, and pulled the trigger right after Vi had dropped to the floor. His slug hit the demon’s chest and made it stagger, and his Slayer used the opportunity to kneecap it with two shots from her Glock. That wouldn’t take the killer long to regenerate from, though. Vi rolled to the side and shoot at its head, but the demon shielded its face and jewel with its arms. Castle hit it again with another slug, but off-center - blood and bones splattered on the wall behind it, and the Mohra Demon howled, but the jewel was still intact.
Still shielding its forehead, it blindly struck out with its sword, and Vi had to duck again - only to get caught with the backswing in the shoulder. She dropped her pistol with a yell of pain, and her arm started to bleed heavily. Before the monster could strike another blow, Castle shot it again, driving it back a step, and Vi used the opportunity to get up and into a defensive stance.
Castle slipped a Dragon’s Breath round in his shotgun and fired, followed by another slug, and the demon was set ablaze and knocked down while Vi scrambled past him into the first floor’s apartment. He wanted to curse at her when she grabbed the basket of yowling kittens, almost dropping her sword in the process, but he was too busy to slam the door shut.
Then it was his turn to cry out in pain when the demon’s sword went through the door as if it wasn’t there and sliced his side open. If he hadn’t been moving away already he would have been run through. He shot twice through the door, hopefully hitting the demon, and fell back towards the window, where Vi was headed.
“Throw them out!” he shouted, and for a moment the Slayer was hesitating, glaring at him as if he was the monster here, but then she complied, and the kittens went out of the window, mewling in panic. Castle was hot on his Slayer’s heels, or as hot as he could be while bleeding and hurting, and managed to load another incendiary round into his shotgun while Vi climbed up on the windowsill.
The Monster broke through the door, bleeding from another hole in its chest. It didn’t stop when it saw the drums of chemicals Castle and Vi had prepared to fake a meth lab explosion, so it probably wasn’t that well integrated into the modern world as Castle had thought when he heard of it using debit cards and renting cars. Or maybe it was simply caught up in bloodlust.
Rick aimed his shotgun at an open drum with one hand and held his his side with the other. He was about to utter a classic line straight from ‘Predator’ when he felt Vi grip his collar and heard her yell: “Just shoot already!”
So he did. His shotgun spat fire and Vi yanked him up and out of the window, wrapping herself around him while the room blew up and flames shot out of the windows, no matter if they had been boarded up or not. The sudden movement and the recoil almost caused him to lose his grip on his gun, but somehow he managed to keep it - until they landed on the street, hard.
Both Slayer and Watcher cried out when the rolled over the sidewalk, until they came to a stop in a tangled mess of limbs against the wreck of car, bleeding over each other. Behind them the building started to burn.
“That won’t kill it,” Vi stated while she got up. Despite her wounds and a useless, bleeding arm, the redhead was still moving gracefully.
Castle managed to sit up, coughing and spitting out some blood from where he had bitten his cheek on impact. “No, but it’ll come close for a while.” When Vi started towards the house, he yelled “Stop! You’re wounded!”
She turned towards him, probably to say something about how she could still fight. Slayers were generally stubborn like that, worrying more about torn clothes and ruined shoes than torn flesh, and Vi was no exception. Before she could claim she was fine, a body flew out of the house and landed on the street. It was the Mohra Demon.
It looked like hell. Its clothes were burning, bone was visible on several spots on its skull, and what skin Castle could see was blackened and shriveled. But it was still moving. Towards them. And it still had its sword.
But it was slower now, much slower. And not as graceful - even for a demon it was hard to move with half its muscles burned off, Castle guessed. He was struggling to get up himself but his body was hurting all over, and his side...
Vi snarled and hefted her sword, her left arm still hanging down uselessly, and met the demon’s attack. Castle, panting, could see it was a more even fight now - but the demon was visibly healing and Vi was not. Slayer healing was good, but not even close to the regeneration Mohra Demons had. They had to beat this monster now.
“Get clear!” he shouted, and Vio dove to the side. He fired, aiming low, at the demon’s feet. His first shot missed, but Vi was clear now, and he racked another round into the chamber, yelling and cursing at the pain that caused to his side, and fired again. That one hit, and the monster went down, screaming with a mangled foot. He fired again, and again, until his whole side was covered with blood and the monster’s feet had been turned into hamburger. Probably - it was getting hard to see what exactly he was shooting at.
Suddenly someone - Vi - ripped the gun out of his hands. He protested, but she was already turning away, aiming. Two more shots rang out, causing it to stop thrashing around. A short pause, then a third and fourth followed.
He was still blinking when Vi returned to his side. “I got the jewel then blew its head off. If we get the right coroner, we can cover… Rick!” She rushed to his side.
“Throw it into the house… we’ll think of a story later…” Perlmutter could handle a burned demon corpse… couldn’t he? It was hard to concentrate with his side hurting like that.
Then he heard sirens, coming closer. Vi pushed his jacket back to check his side. He yelled in pain again when she touched his wound. Nearby, tires squealed - someone was braking hard.
“Castle! What the… oh my god! We need an ambulance!” A short pause. “Two ambulances!” Beckett really had a nice voice, even when she was shouting and under stress.
“Keep the pressure on it, I’ll get the kit from our car!” Vi yelled.
“What? You need help too!” Beckett had to be gaping, Castle thought. It was her first time with a wounded Slayer doing the Terminator routine. “Esposito! Ryan! Don’t stare at the flames, we need help here!”
“It’s just a flesh wound!” Vi claimed, and was already halfway to the Shelby.
Castle laughed - she finally said it! - then grimaced at the pain that caused.
“Hold still you damn fool!” Beckett all but screamed at him.
“I am not moving, just breathing,” he responded, hissing through his clenched teeth. Maybe he should start carrying some pain killers with him… but the kind he’d need would lead to trouble if he was arrested, or searched. Another thought hit him. “Are the kittens alright?”
Beckett stared at him. “What?”
“My family would kill me if anything had happened to the kittens,” Castle explained.
The detective was laughing incredulously and shaking her head. “I think you’ll live if you can worry about cats.”
“You haven’t met my family yet,” Castle retorted. “You’d worry about them too, if you had.”
*****
“That was absolutely foolhardy! You almost died! You almost got Vi killed!”
Furious Beckett hadn’t a nice voice at all, Castle decided. And no manners - he was a patient in a hospital. He should be treated with more care!
“It was just a minor flesh wound,” Vi, leaning against the wall, cut in. “Didn’t even scar, see?”
“What? You were bleeding all over the street!” Beckett stared at the Slayer’s arm, which had just a faint line left.
Figures, he thought - he had a dozen stitches and what felt like a galleon of blood and plasma poured into his veins, and the detective was fussing over the girl with supernatural healing. Males always got the short end of the stick.
Apparently, the redhead was convincing enough for Beckett to believe her, and the detective turned back to him. “What possessed you to try and catch the killer by yourself? How did you even find him?”
“We didn’t find him, he found us. We had visited Ray to ask about swords, and heard of a sword a guy was trying to pawn off online. Ray said it had looked like an antique, but he wasn’t about to check personally in that area. We were discussing the price with the druggie when the masked madman walked in. That set the meth head off, and in the ensuing firefight, someone must have shot through the door into what I think was a meth lab, and boom went the building. We managed to get out, but got cut up in the process. That guy was crazy, stabbing and slashing everywhere,” Castle smiled weakly and tried to sound as honest as he could. The coroner’s reports should cover them - as long as no one looked at the corpses and other evidence before it got disposed of - or replaced.
Beckett stared at him, her mouth forming a thin line. “I see. You were very lucky.” Doubt was dripping from her words.
Castle nodded. “I’ll promise, I won’t do that again.” Next time he’d do it differently. He didn’t add ‘mom’, but judging from her expression, she suspected he had thought it.
The detective shook her head and scoffed, and Castle just knew this wasn’t over yet.
He was really dreading her visit to his home now.