Another chapter another disclaimer and another lack of dollars


Rupert Giles sipped on his tea and contemplated what he would face this morning. He was waiting for the three defenders of the hellmouth to show themselves and wondered what kind of report that the three of them would give him. He wondered just who or what would come to him today. Would he be meeting with his slayer and her group of misfit friends, whatever costumed characters that they had dressed as, or he would they be some sort of amalgamation of the two? In his mind he could see so many possibilities that could come from Ethan's spell. He was almost afraid to find out which of the changes might have happened as he had no doubt that if the group had killed so much as one human costumed or otherwise then there would be hell to pay. He hadn't called the Council just yet as he was going to wait and see just what it was that had happened to them before he decided on his next move.

The librarian was pulled out of his musings as three figures slipped into the room just as silently as Angel did. The Watcher would never have noticed them if he hadn't been watching the big double doors. The Watcher frowned as he looked the group over. Willow and Buffy appeared to have both gone through a growth spurt they also appeared to have gone up a couple of bra sizes two the watcher noted. Willow's dress style had changed from the innocent girl next door who wore jumpers to a person confident in their appearances, her waist length hair had also been cut since yesterday to just barely coming to her neck. Buffy had changed her hair style as well the Watcher noted as her formerly bleach blonde locks were now dyed black. Xander appeared to have taken the most change though even if they appeared to be mostly cosmetic. Gone were the painfully bright shirts, instead he now wore all dark colors and a gray trench coat. His hair had been cut as well so that it was no longer a shaggy mess that he had grown accustomed to. The only other difference besides hair that the group had in common was their eyes. Giles felt his heart break as he looked into their eyes each of their eyes. There was a hardness that hadn't been there not even when Buffy was channeling the Slayer had her eyes been this hard.

"What the hell happened out there last night Giles?" Buffy demanded in a voice as cold as her eyes.

Giles shoulders sagged as he looked at the Slayer that was not the girl that he had been teaching for the past year and a half. The Buffy he knew would have pleaded for answers or screeched out demands like a spoiled little princess. She did not however make demands like this. "Yes, well um, before I do that I need to make sure that it's you in charge in your head Buffy."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Xander coolly questioned eyeing the Watcher suspiciously.

"Yes um, I was figuring I would merely talk with you and see what your personality is." The Watcher explained to Xander or whomever it was that he was talking to. "However, to best understand just what it is that has happened to you I will require for you to tell me just whom it is that you dressed as."

"Fair enough," Willow said from where she was leaning against the banister of the steps. "I went as the Black Widow."

Giles looked at her in confusion not recognizing the name that had been given to him. The only black widow he knew of was the spider and he somehow doubted that was what she was talking about. "Who?"

"We'll explain later," Xander said cutting the watcher off briskly.

"Very well," the miffed Watcher said, "how about yourself Buffy?"

"Spiderwoman," Buffy answered him.

"Really? I was unaware that you would want to dress as a superhero, I thought you got enough of that sort of thing at night."'

"Blame Xander, he's the one that convinced me into wearing that costume the other day."

"Hey you didn't seem to mind when you were posing for us, and would you rather have been the helpless girl that Harmony was?" Buffy shuddered at that before giving her friend a bone crushing hug which Xander returned.

"Excuse me Harmony?" Giles questioned, "was she changed by a costume as well?"

"Yeah sorta, she wore a noblewoman's dress," Willow explained.

"Oh well I doubt that she was able to get into very much trouble then, as I doubt a noblewoman would be able to much damage all things considered."

"Yeah she wasn't much trouble, too bad for her Larry the pirate found her ladyship last night. When we found them last night. Harmony was unconscious from the pounding that she had taken. I beat the crap out the pirate broke his arms and legs without a second thought I would have killed him to if Spike and his groupies hadn't interrupted us and we had to find a place to fight." Xander informed the Watcher angrily.

Giles paled at the thought of what might have happened to Buffy had she been wearing that dress. He had to focus on the matter at hand though he would worry about the girl later. "And who did you go as Xander?"

Xander let out that cool smirk, "I went as Frank Castle, you might know him better as the Punisher though."

"You went as who!" Giles almost yelled at the boy before him. "You mean to tell me you went as someone who kills without hesitation? What were you thinking, is that the kind of person that you want to be Xander?"

"Hey ease up Giles, we all went as spies or vigilantes with less than shining histories." Buffy defended her friend.

"What do you mean?" Giles questioned the Slayer.

Buffy rolled her eyes at the watcher before she began explaining to him."I mean that Willow went as a Russian superspy, and I went as a super powered secret agent slash assassin for a secret group of mad scientist and people that wanted to rule the world." Giles listened with growing horror at the blunt and honest way that the girl explained things. "We have more power now than ever Giles. Patrolling should be fun, although we are going to have to convince Angel to work with all of us."

"I don't know Buffy he's a killer," Xander argued, "shouldn't we kill him for what he's done?"

"Who had no control Castle," Buffy argued, "in a way he was possessed or under the control of another. I'm not saying you have to be best friends what I want you to do though is to work with him." The pair locked glares on each other before Xander stiffly nodded though he obviously still disliked it. Personally Giles was glad to see that Xander's animosity toward Angel was still there it allowed him to see the real person the young man was. Buffy gave her friend a knowing smile, "besides this way you can determine just how much of a threat to us he is without any of us having to get hurt. Try not to be too trigger happy with your though."

Xander nodded he didn't like this one bit but he knew that Buffy was trying to work out a compromise for all of them and this way seemed to be the best. The fact that she was leaving him to judge the vampire rather than allowing herself to be swayed by her personnel wants and desires of the vampire. "Sounds fair, I'll do my best to not judge him just for the sake of judging." He promised his friend.

"Thanks," Buffy said flashing her friend a smile.

"Ah Buffy, I need to know a few things about your new abilities. Also the personality test needs to be done."

"Oh yeah I thought you might want something like that so I brought you these." Xander said, his eyes alight in amusement as he handed Giles something.

"You can't be serious," Giles said as he looked at the small stack of comic books that was being offered to him.

"Well, how else did you think that you were going to learn about the skills and abilities that we now have Giles?" Xander mocked the Watcher. "You can't exactly look into a three thousand year old 3rd edition book that can help you with this. You have to go with something a bit more modern."

"Well isn't there a decent book about all of these foolish things?"

"Not unless you want to look on the internet," Xander said with a smirk taking the comics they all knew that Giles wouldn't dare go for that option unless he had no choice at all though.

"Oh very well give me those infernal things," Giles said snatching the comics from Xander.

"Hey be careful with those," Xander exclaimed, "do you have any idea what some of those are worth? Those are rare comics, altogether that pile is worth around $1200."

"$1200!" Giles spluttered as he looked at the pile of books that weighed less than one pound." How in the world could someone be bothered to actually pay that much money for these things?"

"It's called taste Giles." Xander said with a horrible fake British accent that was obviously supposed to be a mimic of Giles.

The Watcher thought that the boy was butchering good speech even more than he usually did though as he eyed the comic books with disgust. "Very well if this is the only way," Buffy smiled as she held her hand out to her friends who each placed a small handful of bills to the girl. "Do I even want to know?"

"Just a friendly bet on how long t would take you to give in." The Slayer explained with a smirk. "It's good being your Slayer sometimes oh Watcher of mine."

Giles shook his head a this. "I'm glad I can help you make some money Buffy. I don't suppose that you plan on putting your winnings towards slaying now do you?"

Buffy smirked at this. "Sorry Giles so not happening."

The Watcher shrugged unsurprised by her response. "It was worth a try, now then I believe you lot have classes after that is done I want all of you to come here and we shall see just what it is that you are capable of now that you seem to have all of the abilities of some made up characters at least you believe yourselves to that is." Giles couldn't help but hope that the power would fade and they would be back on the correct path once again.

"You know this could mean that there are realities that they do exist though Giles just because we don't have people like them in our reality doesn't mean that they don't exist."

"A very good point Willow, I will consider that but for now the whole lot of you need to get going and get to your classes with your new maturity I hope I no longer need to tell you the importance of keeping a low profile."

"We'll try Giles," Willow said before the other two could make some sort of sarcastic comment to the Watcher about how they didn't exactly fit in anywhere or that when it came to maturity as a teenager Giles really had very little to talk about considering that it was Giles childhood friend that had performed the spell that changed them all. There was no telling what else they had thought as fun when they were younger if last night was what Ethan did as a way to remember the good old days or to simply amuse himself. Giles nodded to the group as they slipped out just as quietly as they had entered. The Watcher frowned each movement was being unconsciously made but it was obvious to anyone that knew the signs that the group was possibly one of the more if not the most dangerous group of people on the planet right now. Sighing he looked at the comic books with distaste before heading to his office it appeared that he had research to do never before had he been so uneager to investigate the source of something he mused to himself.


Harry and Ron woke to find their friend Hermione paging through a book or at least they presumed it was their friend. Their friend was now a mixture of her costume from the night before and her natural self. "Hell, what happened?" Ron asked as he looked at his friends. Ron's eyes widened as his once heavy British accent didn't come out but a cross between an American and Arabic accent popped out instead.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Hermione said distractedly. "Off-hand though, I would say that whatever spell that was used on us changed us in more permanent ways than we originally thought. We all seem to have gained some of the physical attributes of the characters that we dressed as well." She continued in a slightly lost voice. "Ron you may have notice that you are now much taller and fit than you were last night. Harry while your hair has always been a bit uncontrollable you've never had sideburns."

Harry unconsciously raised his hand to the side of his face and felt the hair on the side of his face that had grown overnight. "Any other changes?" Harry questioned doing his best ignore the fact that his accent sounded more like an American one with the deepness of Kingsly and the low growl that Hagrid had. Out of the corner if his eyes he noticed that Ron was flexing his muscles experimentally.

"Yes," Hermione said as she finally stood up and the boys had to work on keeping the eyes from wandering as they saw that overnight their friend had filled out in all of the right places putting all of the various other girls that they had known to shame. Yet as the pair focused on her face they saw other changes to their friend while her face was still in the same general shape there was a difference to it more chiseled and imperious her once chocolate brown orbs were now a lavender, her hair had changed from bushy and brown to lavender with curls in it then there was her skin tone which had changed to a dark Asian tone.

"Um…" Ron said unsure what to say as he eyed the goddess that his friend had turned into.

"Not a word Ron, not a word." The witch growled, not sure she could take any of her friends less than diplomatic responses. Another side affect seems to be that I am now half Japanese. This shouldn't be possible though, I've never heard of magic changing someone's ancestry; if it were possible Voldemort would have used parts of someone besides his father to resurrect himself. We have to find out just what happened to us."

"We also need to figure out if any of the changes to us include abilities." Harry said reminded her, "You do remember everything we did last night right?" He questioned her nervously.

"You mean you haven't realized it yet Harry, or would you prefer the name Logan? Take a deep breath and tell us what you smell."

Harry nodded and inhaled smelling scents that he knew and could identify he was in fact nearly overwhelmed at the intensity of the scents that he was bombarded with it was as if his face was right next to everything he was smelling. "What hell is that?" He growled out.

"That was your powers going through all of the various scents in the room Harry." Hermione explained to her friend. "We appear to have gained all of the abilities of our costumed selves." She explained nodding to the three costumes that she had set up on a trio of mannequins. "Try and pop your claws Harry."

Harry swallowed nervously and held his hand up he clenched his hand into a fist nothing happened and he stared at it for a moment and felt his muscles twitch and with a loud scrapping snikt sound three claws appeared coming out of his hands. "What the flaming heck is going on Mione?" He growled as he stared at the claws.

"I'm not completely sure Harry, I'm researching it still but I don't know everything yet but it appears that we have all of the memories and abilities of these costumes that we wore the other night I went to a nearby pay phone and attempted to call the costume place however no one appears to be answering which could mean a number of things."

"Well the last thing that I remember is that we left that fight in the warehouse after we finished emptying our stomachs." Ron grimaced, "Then we came here and went to bed."

"So any ideas how this happened Mione, was it accidental magic, something we did maybe?" Harry asked as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was now capable of doing. These claws flashing through the bodies of various beings last night coming back to him.

"I don't know yet Harry there is still so much for me to examine before I can tell you what has happened." The witch said in annoyance.

"Yeah well while you do that I think I'm going to see if I can't find a way to make some quick money and then buy some guns I feel naked without any." Ron said.

"Yes I suppose so," Hermione said wincing as the pureblood pronounced the word correctly, "do try and stay out of trouble though."

"Hey, I have all of Marc Spector's memories," Ron said with a confident smirk that he rarely displayed anywhere except for chess. "I think I can figure this out, I'll get us some money and then get us some weapons after that we can figure out what were going to do next."

"Ron we have enough money right now," Harry interrupted. "I think it would be better if you found some bars where you can get information from. You work this side of town and I'll work downtown. Between the two of us we ought to be able to come up with something." Ron nodded in reluctant agreement. "You don't mind looking through all of the books while we do that do you?" Harry questioned the third member of the group.

Hermione shook her head at this. "I may have all of the powers abilities and memories of Betsy Braddock but I'm still me at the core though I wouldn't be all that surprised if over the next few days we find that there are other things that we aren't prepared for from this."

"So these new versions of us could just be something we'll have to get used to and wonder where we start and they begin?" Harry said trying to wrap his mind around what had happened.

Exactly or they could disappear in a few hours and just be some left over magic from the spell. If they are permanent though we'll have to be careful we don't know for sure that these powers and abilities won't try and overwrite our own personalities. Can you imagine if these personalities were to try and completely take our bodies over and only make us the memories? We all have to be extremely careful in what we do now." Hermione lectured at her friends.

"Alright just be careful." Harry replied to his friend as he tried to slip his jacket on. He grumbled a bit as he looked down noticing that the shoulders of the jacket that had fit his slight frame was not very good for dealing with his now muscular and broad shoulders and arms. Grumbling a bit the wizard cast an engorgio spell on the jacket before he could get it on. He then slipped out of the room.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she picked up the smug thought that Harry now had as many if not more muscles as Charlie. She really hoped that she would be able to get a hand on the powers and abilities before they drove her mad. The mind reading power in particular, she had been tempted to use a psychic knife on Ron when he had first looked at her. She growled to herself and opened one of her books on possessions seeing if she could find anything on their kind of possession that might help them out of the mess that they had currently found themselves in this time.


Sunnydale High Library

Giles looked up as he saw a flash of light looking up he saw that each of the teens had slipped into the library without him noticing and had snapped a picture of him surrounded by the various comic books that Xander had left him. Giles glared at the trio as they began placing the cameras into their hiding spots. The Watcher groaned as he realized the potential teasing material that the trio of friends now had at their disposal. The watcher contemplated demanding the cameras but didn't as he doubted that any of them would surrender the devices and the way he had been done meant that there was still the three of them with core personalities over that of the personalities of their costumes so he would let it slide for now.

"I take it that class is out then?" He questioned the group.

"Yeah Giles it is," Buffy agreed as they each dropped a folder down in front of the Watcher on his desk.

"And these are?" Giles questioned with interest as he eyed the folders with relief as he placed the comic books under the folders with relief.

"After action reports," Xander said carelessly yet with a certain authority that made you want to listen. "We figured if we did that it would save us all a bunch of time and aggravation of telling you everything if we were to write all the things down that we remembered from last night."

Giles stared in disbelief as he opened Xander and Buffy's folders and looked at them and saw clear and concise writing. "How is this possible?" He questioned them in disbelief. "I expect this sort of thing from Willow, but from the two of you it's unbelievable."

"We're not that bad," Buffy grumbled while giving the Watcher a glare.

"Yeah sure Buffster, I happen to take pride in having always been a slacker." Xander said while smirking at Giles. "Anyways, since all of our new personalities are from the military or military trained," he said nodding to the two girls, "we figured we could use those skills to get all the information that you were going to bug us about out of the way."

"That and they wouldn't let us sharpen any of our knives while we were in homeroom." Willow added with a grin.

"Knives?" The watcher asked tiredly wondering what the group had done this time he was used to Buffy performing stunts with her Slayer abilities without realizing it, but if the others also started doing it as well he would have a number of problems.

"Hey its not our fault that the teachers were completely unreasonable about the weapons we were carrying on us." Xander said, "Besides it did make O'Toole and his goon squad back off when they saw the way we could make our blades appear and disappear without the teachers even noticing."

"Yeah, it was amusing watching him try to do the same thing with that bowie knife of his." Willow said with a smirk.

"He deserved to be caught, the fact that his wannabe Rambo pig sticker cut him cause he was trying to copy us is in no way our fault." Buffy said which caused the three to chuckle at the memory of what the older boy had done to himself.

"Could you please contain your antics for a while?" Giles pleaded as he began scanning the reports which all seemed fairly accurate and agreed when they were put together. "I am actually more interested in the fact that there were three others that were fighting with you at the end."

"Yeah Wolverine, Psylocke, and Moon Knight were all there as well." Xander said in agreement.

"What were they dressed as?"

"Um… Wolverine has a yellow and gold costume with a half mask, Psylocke has purple hair and a purple swimsuit, while the Moon Knight wears an all white outfit with a full mask and cape."

"I see you wouldn't happen to have seen the group before they bought those costumes by any chance?"

"Um yeah, sure in fact it was cause of them that we chose the costumes that we did." Willow said, "Buffy and the girl kind of had a bit of a confrontation at the Halloween store."

"Really? Well I'll need you to tell me everything about them that you can think of it could be extremely helpful."

"Why," Buffy asked suspiciously, "what happened that you need to track them down?"

"The three of them broke into the library before the spell took effect." Giles explained to them. "The three of them appeared to be some kind of wand using magic users though I've never seen anyone using wands like that to cast magic. Most of the wands I know of are much longer and thicker than what they were using and are usually only used for certain types of spells. However I observed the three of them using multiple different types of spells with their wands and they seemed extremely familiar with the wands."

"So we got teenage magic users that broke in here that cast with magic wands. Do we know what they want?"

"Unfortunately we don't, they were interested in a Dark Lord of some sort and they were also extremely curious about an enchanted tattoo that I have."

"You have a magic tattoo?" Buffy said with a grin.

"Yes, unfortunately it does not give me any extra strength or skills though." Giles told the Slayer, "it was something that I acquired before I became a Watcher."

"Fine, do you have any ideas who they might be?" Xander questioned they could come back to the tattoo if it became important.

"Not really, however there is a rumor in the Watcher's Council that might explain it all."

"Really and what is that rumor?" Xander pressed.

"Well, about every twenty years according to my father and grandmother there is always rumors of a magical society that uses wands for magic focuses." The Watcher explained to them as he recalled what he had been told. "According to what is known, these wand users are extremely rare and powerful and can perform spells that most wiccans need to focus to perform with just a wave of these sticks of theirs. They were reportedly seen sometime during World War II and then about twenty years ago. However whenever a group of Watchers goes to investigate these rumors they either disappear or come back with no memory of their hunt and all of the research equipment that they had with them gone or sometimes a combination of the two. One of the more humiliating times was when an entire group reappeared in nothing but their underwear."

"Travers wouldn't happen to have been in that group by any chance would he?" Buffy asked with a vicious predatory smile on her face. She had only ever heard the man mentioned a few times, but he sounded like a desk jockey who was completely by the rules except for when it made his life easier another little petty tyrant. In other words she was expecting a cross between Snyder and Merrick.

Giles chuckled at this. "No, I wish it had been, it might have given him some humility. Instead he was the person that took over for that team's leader in magical research division before he made his way up into the higher echelons of the Watchers Council."

"Sounds like a great guy to be running the Council then." Willow said with a dry sarcasm.

Giles blinked at her tone which was quiet different than her usual kind tone even with people she didn't like. The Watcher adjusted his glasses as he gathered his thoughts before fixing each of them with a look. "The inner workings of the politics of the Watcher's Council are not up to discussion at the moment, but rather what level of skill and power that you three now possess we will worry about these wand wavers if they show up again sometime." The Watcher then fixed the dark haired young man with a look. "Xander, I want you to compile a report on the known skills and abilities of each of these others so that I have some idea on what to expect from them if they should show up here again."

Xander groaned as he realized that this was Giles punishment for making him read the comic books to learn about their new abilities. Next time remind me to hold out on the report until after I manage to get you the comic books." The teen grumbled as he realized he had three reports to write down now.

Giles smirked at the boy. "Now then we shall start training?

"Um, I hate to say it but I don't think there's enough room here to train." Willow pointed out to the man.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles said in surprise wondering what the redhead was talking about he and Buffy had trained here enough that he was certain that he would know whether or not they could train here.

"She's right Giles," Xander said with a smirk, "it's one thing when it's just you and the Buffster training, or her using you for a punching bag, but there's now three people training here there's no way that we'll all be able to train here like this. You may not be aware of it but it takes this entire area for just you to train Buffy and that's only for up close combat with knife and stake throwing. Now that we have all the knowledge of long distance weaponry we're going to need to find a place with a real shooting gallery and a place big enough to train us all in at once."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Giles asked, "Finding the space to train is not exactly easy."

"Well there are all of those abandoned warehouses that the bad guys like to use." Buffy pointed out to her mentor. "They would give us the space that we need to work in and it would be easier on us that way. We can go through some basic sparring and weapon throwing here but do a majority of our work in someplace like that. Besides we should be allowed to use those warehouses just like them."

Giles nodded in reluctant agreement with her argument, he had reservations about training in some of the same areas as they were supposed to be patrolling but until someone else could come up with a better suggestion he realized that they didn't have a whole lot of choice. Who knows, with some work they might be able to set up some sort of base of operations though it would take time and money to set something like that up. Perhaps he could convince the Council that they could benefit from some sort of stronghold here on the hellmouth in which to wage their war from he would have to consider that. "Very well, I'll think on it now then back to training though. Willow, Xander let's see how well the two of you are now capable of fighting before we begin making plans for you to join the front lines." Giles knew they had some of the memories of their comic selves and were physically capable but this would show how they had and hadn't changed. Besides he doubted that there would be that much improvement despite the skills they had exhibited the other night.

The pair shrugged as if they had expected something like this. It was at this moment that Giles noticed that both of them had removed everything from their pockets already in anticipation of his request. Except for the cameras; those had handed over to Buffy for safe keeping Xander even had the nerve to smirk at him on that one. The two stepped toward the middle of the room and eyed each other up and down as they slowly began moving into crouched combat positions. Giles eyes narrowed as he eyed the paired comparing their combat stances. The stances they were using were both meant for speed, Xander's style depended largely on military style combat that relied more on his larger body weight being able to knock Willow over while Willow's form was a combination of various ninjutsu styles some of which he had tried to drill into Buffy but had yet to take into the Slayer's combat style. It was actually disturbing to see the pair as they circled changing styles as they moved to counter the moves of what the other might be using. They charged and Giles just stared as he watched the pair go at it. Xander had tried to bowl his friend over and pin her ending the match quickly. Willow had easily sidestepped the attack though and raised her leg high and spun cracking her foot against Xander's shoulder blade Xander rolled with the blow though and came up and lunged again. Willow smirked and back flipped away from her friend not even hesitating Xander leaped after her and his fist caught her in the small of the back causing Willow's perfect jump to be off. Willow performed a one handed handspring though and bounced back into the air and propelled herself at Xander feet first. Xander took the blow with a grunt and wrapped his hands around her ankles and spun her once before releasing her and sending her flying back the way that she had come from. Wilow tucked her legs and made herself into a ball as she sailed across the room before landing in a crouch with one leg extended.

"Alright enough stop!" Giles commanded the pair before they hit and broke something in here. The pair stopped and the Watcher was surprised that despite the blows that they had taken they were only sweating and breathing a little harder than before. "I knew that the spell changed your minds but I never imagined it changed your bodies to the extent that it has." Giles spluttered as he eyed the pair as they each casually caught a water bottle that Buffy had thrown at them. "I mean, I thought you would only be able to do some of the moves that you knew not have both the mental muscular memory to actually be able to perform at that level." The Watcher was in complete shock over the changes that had overcome his charges.

"In other words, you thought we were still us with just a few minor cosmetic enhancements and memories." Buffy said with a chuckle. "Sorry Watcher man, but I have all the memories and skills of working as a secret agent for S.H.E.I.L.D, H.Y.D.R.A, a bounty hunter, and working as a private investigator. We have these skills Giles and we have the ability to use them. I don't know what that all means for us personally and it may be a while before we figure it out but these powers and abilities could be used to do a lot of good."

"Or a lot of destruction," Giles countered his student; "remember that the sources of these powers and abilities are the result of human sacrifice and chaos magic. There is no telling what might happen if you use these powers to stop death and destruction you could even create more troubles by using them."

"We have to take the chance though Giles," Willow said with a hard resolve face, "we have just as much right to fight the things that go grr during the night. It may be Buffy's destiny and all but this is our hometown."

Giles sighed as he heard the girl talk to him, a part of him knew that she was right but he also knew the kind of price that chaos magic could cause. He had the mark of demon branded on him and would someday die because of it he didn't want them to find themselves with a similar problem. "Very well, I still have my reservations however if you can keep that level of skill then I see no reason that you may not continue in what it is that you are planning particularly since you would do it whether I gave you permission or not."

"Good, your learning," Xander said with a smirk as he began stuffing the various odds and ends into his pockets. He looked up at his friend.

"Hey Willow, have you figured out how to copy your costume yet? Cause you might grow out of it since your still a teen now and I would hate to see you outgrow that form fitting outfit."

Willow shook her head at this. "No, I'm still back engineering the Widow Bites I have they're based on taser technology though, so it shouldn't take much after that there's the gas bombs, widow line, and I need to work on upgrading my belt with some basic demon hunting equipment besides the normal spy gear that is added into it."

"Couldn't you put some holy water in your gas bombs?" Buffy questioned with interest. The way that those things spread out over large areas they'd let you hurt or at least distract vampires quite a bit."

"Yeah, and some vamps still like to pretend their real boys and girls," Xander said, "and since they need to breathe to talk the gases might affect or slow them down as well."

Willow nodded at her friends suggestions. "I'll start working on those, add on to the bombs and then start on the suit so I can copy it's design."

"Umm pardon me, but what is so special about this uniform?"

"Her uniform is made of a special type of suction cups that allow her to cling to walls and things a lot like I can do without the need for a special outfit." Buffy explained then leaped into the air and clung to the ceiling as she rested for a moment much to the amazement of Giles

"Show off," Willow grumbled to her up at her friend who smiled down at them.

"Oh come on you know you were going to do the same thing the moment you had your costume on." Buffy shot at her friend before dropping back to the ground, once there she shook her hands and legs and grimaced slightly. "Remind me to go through all of my basic moves for a while before I do that again though Slayer powers and Spiderwoman powers means that I'm a lot stronger than either side of me remembers and I'll need to relearn how to moderate my strength."

"Is that why you let me get your soda out of the machine today?" Xander questioned.

"Yeah, cause we all know that Snyder would have loved it if I had gone and done something like breaking a vending machine," Buffy admitted to her friends who nodded in agreement with her assessment of the tyrant principle that loved to blame them for everything that went wrong real and imagined.

"Speaking of costumes, ever think of changing your costumes colors? It doesn't exactly blend into the night very well." Xander pointed out to his friend.

"Don't I know it," the Slayer grumbled as she thought of the scarlet and canary yellow costume with splashes of white. "Course when you want the bad guys to focus on you it's a good thing and it's not like I can't take a few hits." The Slayer mused aloud as she considered the pros and cons of wearing the Spiderwoman costume. She had to admit that the other two had costumes better suited for the type of combat that they would be engaging in and would be able to slip through various places in the town with a lot less notice than her own outfit would allow her. Besides she did look good in black.

"Yes, well I suppose we should go outside and you lot can go through training there." Giles said amazed that the three of them could spend so much time discussing suitable patrolling clothes although he had to admit from what he had read of those comic books they were right Spiderwoman's uniform was hardly the best thing to wear during patrolling unless she was trying to make herself a target. The group nodded and gathered their gear before they headed outside to work on their training or in Buffy's case the amount of power that she used.

As they walked ahead of Giles the trio began a quick whispered conversation. "So we hit Willy's tonight and get some weapon contacts from him and then go on a shopping trip right?"

"Yeah with some of the money you girls have, and my road trip stake we should be able to pick up some basics that we need a few different guns, ammo, and knives. We'll leave the swords off the list for now though who knows maybe the stuff Giles has can be used to find what we need in that regard." The others nodded in agreement with this suggestion, though from the pouting look Buffy shot him she let him know she was sacrificing for the group.


Harry and Ron came back that night each of them nodded to each other as they slipped into the tent. Each boy carried a duffel bag on their shoulders holding unknown goodies that they could use for the war now that they had the skills and abilities to use them. The pair looked up at Hermione who was experimenting with her powers by summoning her psychic knife around her fist before making it fade away while she skimmed a text in front of her. She nodded to the pair as they let the tent flap close behind them.

"Find anything of interest?"

"Little bit here, and a little bit there," Harry said, "found a snitch that would make Dung look like a model citizen."

"So you met up with Willy then?" Ron questioned, "I heard about him, he's supposed to run this crappy little demon hangout."

"Yeah it wasn't much more than a place to sit and drink though." Harry informed them, "although the guy did lead me to a couple of weapon and book dealers that turned out okay."

"What did you find books on?" Ron questioned with interest.

"Soul magic, evidently there's quite a bit of knowledge on soul magic out there." Harry told his friend. "It may take time to go through it all though," he admitted, "some of these texts are in Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"That'll be a cinch to translate," Ron said as his eyes scanned one of the books. The other two shook their heads in disbelief as they watched their friend as his eyes intently roamed up and down the book translating the book in his mind.

"Ron reading something that intently that isn't sport related that'll take some getting used to." Harry commented to Hermione who nodded her head in agreement of the statement as they watched their friend read through the book. "Well?" Harry finally asked impatiently. "Does that thing say anything that'll help us"?

"Hmm? Oh sorry mate not that I noticed." Ron admitted slightly embarrassed. "This thing mainly talks about some of the basic history of Horcruxes and how they're made."

"Anything useful like on how to destroy them?" Hermione asked hopefully.

Ron shook his head. "Fraid not, this guy was only interested in the theory of living forever he wasn't interested in how to undo the things that he did ruddy shame if you think about that."

"Great, so another dead end." Harry grumbled as he began leafing through a book not even paying attention to the fact that it was written in another language as he casually read over the lines. "Did you find out anything at Ethan's?"

"Nah, the guy made a quick retreat it looks like someone had gotten at him before I did though, the back room was pretty messed up maybe that librarian stopped him."

"Speaking of the librarian, I think we need to talk about when we're going to try and go back to the library again." Hermione looked at her friends tiredly noticing how neither of them seemed overly happy at the prospect of returning to that particular place. "Face it you two, we're going to have to go back to that library and find out what we can about You-Know-Who that's the only place that I can think of that might have the information on horcruxes and You-Know-Who all of the other places are just desperate stabs in the dark."

"I don't know Mione, remember the last time we went in there we came out of there a little bit different than when we went inside." Harry drawled popping his claws reminding them of their changes that they had taken since Halloween.

"Well unless you can come up with a better idea then I don't think that we have a whole lot of choice." Hermione huffed at her friends crossly as she glared at the pair of boys in annoyance. "That place is the only place that we know of that has all the information that we need and we know that the librarian has some kind of connection to the mystical world if that stack of magic books and enchanted weapons were anything to go by."

Ron sighed before looking at his friend. "As much as I hate to admit it she's got a freaking point."

"You better bloody well believe I do." Hermione growled at her friends. "Now I figure we should try and slip in during the day instead of a night, it means that they won't be able to pull anything if they want to keep their cover if there are really dark wizards there."

"And if they are, we're just going to be giving them a lot of hostages to use against us." Harry grumbled.

Ron nodded at this. "What about going in just after school is out there should be enough confusion during that time for us to slip in without anyone being the wiser and with Psylocke's telepathy we can slip in without anyone noticing us."

Harry nodded in agreement though he still didn't look overly happy about what was happening. "Fine, let's do a weapons a wand check then, cause I doubt that we're gonna get the drop on him twice. If he's smart he's either got the place set against us or has already left town, we probably should have hit the place this morning.

"Right, and how would we have done that with my telepathy trying to take over my head and your senses on overload? Ron would have been the only one of us capable of doing anything other than being sick we would have been easy marks before we managed to get a hold of ourselves."

Harry grunted at his friend and glared. "Fine, get some rest tonight though cause we got us some work to do tomorrow hopefully this guy will have the answers we need and we can get back to England soon."

"Sooner the better." Ron said getting nods of agreement from the other two. They had left their homes as scared teens who knew basic combat but when they returned they would come back as real fighters that would give the people that they had been having nightmares about nightmares of their own.


Buffy stalked into Willy's her two friends covering her back as they walked in. Everyone in the bar froze as they saw the way that the Slayer and her friends were moving. There was something different about the way the group of demon hunters held themselves, as if they were a new breed of themselves. "Willy," The Slayer greeted the bartender with a smile.

"Slayer," Willy greeted nervously wondering what the Slayer wanted information on this time. There was no plan to end the world that he knew of so he wondered what the group could be after. As he was wondering this he became aware that the backup had taken up positions in the bar that allowed them to cover most of the place. Since they were both carrying old Chinese repeating crossbows it meant that they would be able to get off a couple of shots before they were swarmed. The other various patrons of the bar seemed to become aware of the change in the group as every demon or vampire began to make sure that their hands, claws and talons were visible on their tables or the bar. The group had never entered like this and the bartender didn't know what to expect. He wondered if this could get any worse when Angel appeared in the doorway and leaned against the doorway. The bartender swallowed as he realized that they now had the entire room boxed in.

"What's with the show Slayer?" The small man whined as he looked around wondering what was going to happen.

"Just a reminder of what could happen if you ever double cross me or my people." The Slayer said with a smile that sent shivers down the bartenders spine. "Now then, I need these things and I need to know where I can get the best quality tonight." The Slayer handed a list to the man.

Reluctantly the man took the list and nearly choked as he saw the pair of Benjamin's that were hidden inside. The Slayer it seemed was finally learning the way that the world worked money greased things so much easier than blood and broken bones. "Yeah, there's a guy I know of that deals in the kind of stuff that you're looking for Slayer." Willy said as he quickly wrote down an address. "Funny thing that you should ask about this sort of stuff today though."

"Really, why is that?" The Slayer questioned him with interest.

The bartender smiled and held his hand out, the Slayer rolled her eyes and slammed her fist into the bar causing him to flinch when she moved her hand a twenty was resting there. Better than nothing he thought as he made the bill disappear so fast that some might thought that the bartender might know some magic. "It seems that there is some out of town talent wanting to stock up on ammo, one of their people was here this afternoon short guy but had lots of muscles. Word is that there was someone else asking around other parts of town for a lot of the same stuff."

"So either a new player, or someone who wants to up the game." The Slayer said nodding her thanks to the bartender before walking away.

"Let's go," the blonde ordered her friends who nodded and followed their friend out Angel was the last to leave and followed after the group Willy sighed as he leaned against the bar there had definitely been something different about the group tonight and that didn't count the fact that they hadn't just come in here swinging and demanding answers like they usually did. No they had acted like people who understood the way of the world and how to work it. That was actually scary because the Slayer was easy to predict if something had happened to change her tactics to a more deadly sort then things could go good for the angels very quickly. There was also the kind of stuff that the slayer had wanted to make it worse. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, body armor, explosives, tasers, grenades, and enough ammo for those guns to wage a war. The Slayer had talked about someone upping the game it sounded as if she and her people knew just who it was and were prepared to follow their example. Sunnydale might become a hot spot if they started adding in all of that equipment to the fight. The bartender shook his head at this and went to pour himself a drink and see if anyone wanted to buy this tidbit of information or if they would wait and see what had happened.

The group of scoobies wondered the streets for a moment as they left Willy's. "So what do you think?" Xander questioned Buffy, "Think that someone realized what happened to us and is getting prepared?"

"Either that or someone new in town, and he did say he didn't recognize them," Angel said, "I think we should approach this carefully."

"Agreed," Buffy said, "did you hit that crypt with all of that money like you said?"

"Yeah," Angel said as he pulled a small sack out of his jacket and showed off the small pile of golden coins to the group. "This should be enough to cover whatever we have to buy, and there is more left over if we need it." The group nodded as they headed to buy the gear that they would need, their minds though were on the fact that there was someone else gearing up just like them which side was this group on, in the war for keeping the hellmouth safe.


The three magic users had watched the school the entire day watching as people walked in and out noting the positions of the various people and the schedule that they seemed to keep. Harry sighed as he looked at his uniform it had felt right to slip the outfit on for what they were getting ready to do. His eyes scanned his friends who had like him placed their own respective costumes on. The uniform felt both familiar and odd at the same time, he wondered if there would come a time that he would be completely comfortable with the way this costume felt. Shrugging his concerns away for the time being Harry reached into a pocket and pulled out one of the nastier habits he had picked up from his possession. He popped a claw and cut the end of the cigar he had lifted off of a couple of demons he had fought at Willy's when they had tried to rough him up. After his display of beating the crap out of them the bartender had answered every question he had wanted the best part though was that Harry had paid the man for the information with the wallets of his opponents.

"Wolverine are you ready, the last bell just rang." Psylocke's voice echoed through his head.

"Ready and able." Wolverine said as he pushed the cigar against the wall. The three each dropped to the ground and slipped in amongst the crowd of students rushing out of the building. Thanks to Psylocke no one noticed the fact that three people were not any different than others as they slipped through the crowd.

The three found the library doors once again and looked them over. "He in there?" Moon Knight questioned his friends.

Psylocke and Wolverine nodded as they used their various senses to find the man. "he is but there are at least three others in there as well," Psylocke assured Moon Knight before she frowned as she concentrated. "I can't get a very good reading on them though it's like they have some kind of psychic shielding that's stopping me from getting a decent reading."

Moon Knight looked at his friend at this. Did they have anything like that the other night when you first got your powers?

Psylocke shook her head. No he didn't have any mental defences that I can recall of course they could have been put up since that night to. we should try and be careful there's no telling what might happen in there.

Wolverine grumbled at this development. "I knew we should have hit the place yesterday." The other two nodded at their friend. "I got four scents in there, though one of them smells off almost like its dead or something kind of like a vampire but it has something extra to it. Some of those other scents smell familiar to though I can't place em its like I should know em but they're different somehow." He looked to his teammates hopefully "Ideas?"

"The fourth one might be a demon or something else magical." Moon Knight suggested which caused the other two to grumble if the room had those kind in the room it would make things a bit more difficult.

"And the other scents?"

"Something left over from Wolverine's memory?" Psylocke suggested, Wolverine nodded at this suggestion. "Try not to get distracted," the mutant ninja told her friend. They had to get the job done and right now that was on the other side of the room, they pushed the doors forward and came face to face with several guns.

"Come into my parlor the Spider said." A redhead that looked like the Black Widow said that was holding a pair of matching Smith and Wesson Sigma's. Along side of her was Spiderwoman and Punisher each of them holding a gun of some sort ready to fire if they should need to.

"Welcome back." Rupert Giles said from where he was working on something beside him was another dark haired man that was surrounded by several glowing stones.

Shit. The three wizards thought wondering how they were going to get out of this one.


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