Authors note: I don't own any thing in this, even the idea for this story is not mine it came from Texaswookie's Back Burner: Relic Hunters Halloween through the Gate, though I will say I was trying to think up an Indy story when I read this, I'm just changing it to fit my idea of how it should work. I'm also working with some ideas found in Tenhawk'sAlexander Harris and the Archeolojst's Fedora again with my own ideas added.
Indiana Harris and Buffy Croft and The Mage's Curse
It was his history teacher's fault that Xander Harris did not dress as a soldier for Halloween; she could tell the boy was smart but he lacked both the confidence to truly succeed and the interest in the subject needed to truly try. She could do very little for the first problem; she had her suspicions about his home life, but without any kind of proof there nothing she could do for him. But perhaps she could do something about the later, and maybe just maybe if he tried then he could gain the confidence to succeed. Her plan was simple, give Xander an extra credit project, he would read a biography on Doctor Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. and write a report on him. The plan worked; stories of adventure, romance, honor, and a deep love of the past started fire in the boy's mind and his grades began to improve accordingly. So it came as no surprise that when his friends Buffy and Willow were gushing over a 16th Century Noblewoman's gown at Ethan's costume shop while looking for a costume to were to the Trick-or-Treat safety program they had been forced into, Xander was able say something more impressive than a comment about women in spandex, "Oh please, weren't you two paying attention last week, Noblewomen of that time were barley educated, highly dolled up baby making machines, who's only goal in life was to crank out as many kid as possible for whatever Nobleman who they ended up stuck with. That's such a great thing for woman's lib isn't it?" That touched a nerve.
"Oh," Buffy said acid in her voice, "and just what would a modern liberated woman wear, Hmm Xander?"
Xander smiled, "How about a Noblewoman who can take care of herself, one who doesn't need a man to save her, a world renowned archeologist." He pointed, Buffy turned and saw costume that consisted of a green tank top, khaki short shorts, hiking boots, and a utility belt with grenades on the back and a pair of large hand guns on the sides, a Tomb Rader costume, "I was planning to go as Dr. Jones, you know the guy I told you about, that's why I got the whip and the gun, I have the rest of the costume at home, if you wear that we could be a team and stuff." That did sound nice but Buffy looked back at the dress and thought about her plan to impress Angel with how lady like she could be, it was a great plan but at the same time she had to admit Xander had some strong points, and she could hear the hope in his voice, she could tell that it would mean a lot to him if she went in the same theme as him, and she really wanted to do something to make up for saving him form Larry, and Buffy knew she would never be able to buy that dress anyway, and even if she could she didn't feel all that comfortable with acting like some submissive peace of fluff even for Angel. So that night Buffy Summers would go as Lady Lara Croft.
The night of Halloween came and Buffy found herself guiding a group of surprisingly well behaved kids, right now she was waiting for them by the Davis house, "So what did Mrs. Davis give you?" She asked as they gathered around her, they pulled out tooth brushes, "She must be stopped," she told them in a serious tone, "Lets hit one more house, we have a few more minutes before I have to get you back," she lead the children on oblivious to the fate Chaos Mage Ethan Rayne had in store for her.
Meanwhile in the backroom of the shop he had rented, Ethan was preparing for the ritual to put his plain into place, the statue was in place, he now wore the appropriate red robes, he kneeled down in front of the statue, cut his palms and began, "The world that denies, the thou in habit" as he said this he ran some blood along his forehead, just over his left eye, "the peace that ignores the," he did the same over his right, "Thou corrupt." He smeared a line of blood down the middle of his forehead. "Chaos, I remain as ever your faithful, degenerate, son." He finished with a smile. Continuing, he began to chant in Latin, "Janus, evoco vestram animam. Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas." (Janus, I invoke your spirit. Hear my plea. Seize the night for your own reason. Come, appear and show to us that which is infinite power.) He called to the god whose powers he intended to use to his own ends, "Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!" (The mask transforms itself into flesh and blood. Your holy presence curdles the heart. Janus! Take the night!) As the spell took hold of his victims Ethan raised his head with a wicked smile and summed up the darkness that would soon follow in one word, "Showtime."
Willow's first clue that something was wrong was when one of the children she was watching attacked the old woman who was handing out candy, she was saved when another child, this one also dressed as a monster attacked the first, before Willow could intervene she felt herself grow weak and she collapsed. The next thing she knew she was standing outside of her body, at the sight of herself on the floor she started to panic, "Oh my God, I'm a real ghost!" Just then she heard the sound of semiautomatic weapons fire and fallowed it to, Buffy! Her friend was blasting away at anything that moved in a threatening manner, "Buffy!" she called out as she got within hearing range.
Lara Croft was no stranger to strange things; her mother's disappearance had been just the first in a string of strange things that included the loss of her college friend Amanda Evert in Peru and that whole mess with the Scion, but suddenly finding herself in the middle of a small town during a pint-sized monster attack with no idea how she got there was a whole new level of strange even for her. She was just taking aim at a really ugly one when an American accented voice called out, "Buffy!" she spun around and aimed at the red haired young woman that was running up to her, the girl was dressed in cloths that were even less modest than her own tank top micro cargo shorts, her lower half was clad in a form fitting fake leather miniskirt, black pantyhose, and cheep leather boots, her shirt would have classified as a bra had it not been for its long sleeves, the mix of provocative and cheep, added with the slightly over the top make-up made it fairly clear that this girl was probably a prostitute, though she was a far deal prettier than most working girls Lara had run into in her travels. Lara aimed her H&K USP Matches at her as she came closer. "That's far enough." Willow stopped stunned by the fact that Buffy was acting like she didn't know her, aiming guns at her, and talking like Giles. "Buffy?" she asked.
"I'm sorry," 'Buffy' said, her noble English accent etched with concern and sympathy, "but you must have me confused with someone, my name is Lara Croft." That set Willow's brain into babble mode. "Oh-my-God-you-turned-into-your-costume-too."
"Excuse me but what did you say?" Lara asked, she knew over a dozen languages but even she could not follow what this girl had said regardless of the fact that she had spoken in her native tongue.
Willow figured that it was probably not a good idea to go into what was going on until they got out of the street and into somewhere so she said "look it's hard to explain we need to find Xander."
"Xander?" Lara asked, just as a group of monsters came in looking for a kill, "Look out!" Lara stepped in front of the girl.
"No Buffy! Their children!" Lara paused for just a second at that which was all the children-turned-monsters needed moving with inhuman speed they closed the gap with the Tomb Raider knocking her guns away, Lara growled in frustration and swung into action blocking and dodging she knocked out two but the last one came up behind her and tried to grab her, it would have succeeded had a bull whip snapped out at it, wrapping around his head a pulling it off balance. Lara and Willow looked in the direction of the whip's wielder; he wore khaki pants, a work bag, a leather jacket, and his face was covered by the brim of a worn brown fedora, as he stepped forward his head came up revealing his rugged face, dark brown eyes, and cocky grin, "That's no way to treat a lady," he said.
AN: So this is my first chapter of my new story, a.k.a. the result of my love of Texaswookie's and Tenhawk's stories and writers bock on the Village Hidden on the Mouth of Hell, real quick I'll let you know that those two just scratched the surface of stories and crossovers you can do with this idea so I'm going to do at least a few more, this is a the first of serial series multi-crossover stories, you'll see where I plan to go soon, see you.