AN: This is hopefully a one shot, but blame it on the SFA game I've been running and the fiction in the Shop sourcebook. While the characters don't really match, the names do, somewhat... This also contains a lot of spoilers for things in the Shadow Force Archer universe. For most of the info on who he's dressed as the SFA worldbook, the Archer Foundation sourcebook, and the Shop threatbooks are the ones with the most. The Hand of Glory threatbook also contains some things that are mentioned.
Alexander Lavelle Harris swirked slightly as he worked with the welder to attach the final few pieces of his costume togather. Metal and leather, something truely intimidating.
And then he noticed the time and smiled, "Just in time, and time to get dressed."
The entity moved its massive form from a crouch to standing at just over eleven foot.
His mind whirled as he tried to identify where he was, the other voices speaking to him seemed as shocked as he was about this.
John, this is place gives me the creeps, came a child like voice, Let's get the hell out of here!
This place is different, must be the Hand's fault, came the second voice, One is right, we should not remain here until we know just what the hell they did to us.
My threat still holds, if I find a way to get you out of my head, I will kill you, came a third voice.
Sorry John, but I can't allow you to do that just yet, the second voice said with a truely evil chuckle.
Damn it X, if either John or I go, so do you, the first voice said with a snarl.
A scream reached the entities ears and he turned to see a young dark haired woman running from some sort of furred creature.
"Either the Hand has lost its mind or we have a rogue element within the Shop," he muttered to himself as liquid metal moved up his arm and formed into a deadly looking axe, "Well, time to go to work."
Spike laughed as he cornered the Slayer. He'd first tried to deal with the Slayers sidekicks, but one of them was incorporeal and the other was busy laying waste to pretty much anything that threatened him with a truely terrifying ease as some sort of giant armored nutcase.
Well, that axe of his was rather neat and would be great to get ahold of, especially after it cleaved a truck in half.
He advanced slowly on the screaming girl when the wall exploded to reveal the armored psycho.
"Shit," the vampire stammered before being backhanded across the room as the figure turned on his minions.
The form seemed to blink and the laughed, a deep, booming, and yet strangely hollow laugh that poured through the synthesizer of the armor, leaving a metalic sound to it.
"Pathetic creatures, fit for nothing more than target practice," he stated before waving a hand and three of the vampires were set ablaze with a mere thought.
The others began to back away slowly as the titan's axe formed and they could feel that the one within the armor was smiling.
And then the screams began.
Later, after the spell had passed, Xander sat on the roof of the school, his armor stowed in a trio of large dufflebags. Spike had managed to escape the destruction as his other self went nuts on the demons.
His mind was awhirl with the memories of the trio of entities he had ended up with.
John Hunter, a loyal soldier and spy who had ended up possessed by an insane spirit. A noble man with the training to back it up.
One, an almost child like psychotic who hated the world. It had lived in a computer simulation until a trap downloaded him into John Hunters head.
Villain X, a madman with an agenda that would have destroyed the world. He was a fusion of the darkness within both John and One. An entity of pure destruction.
He would have to think about what he would do with the powers he had been given. John had taken steps to assure the presence of funds when he couldn't connect to any of the Shop communications systems, and left him a rather ritch man.
He slipped something out of a secured pouch inside the armor, a small, ornate key and chuckled slightly, "All doors do lead to Thule."
Months later, the mask disappeared as he heard the news about the Judge and headed home as quickly as he could. Xander knew that for survival, he would have to face his darkness once more.
With an erie calm, he walked into the room in the basement of his new house and typed in an access code to open the vault doors. With a hiss the armored doors slid open to reveal the heavy armor that his Halloween costume had become.
He typed in a code and the armor opened as he grabbed the undersuit and began to change before climbing into the unique set of power armor.
Xander didn't smile as the suit powered up, for he had become, once more, the thing that haunted his nightmares. As had been said, the world occasionally needs a dark knight, and in this case that knight was a villain.