Back in the Saddle: a story of Mutated Halloween
author: Lucinda
rating: pg13
main character: Percy West
disclaimer: I own nobody from BtVS or the Lone Ranger.
distribution: Twisting, Paula, anyone else please ask.
note: AU season 2 Halloween - different costumes which lead to things being utterly different.
note 2: What about some of the other costumes that people picked up from Ethan's?
Percy sighed in apparent frustration, listening as the coach went on about how a good team needed more than just lots of practice and teamwork, they needed the support of their community. He droned on about building this support through community involvement. Percy let his mind wander, thinking about the weekend. There was supposed to be a pretty good Halloween party at this converted warehouse that looked like it had been a club. Devon was organizing it, so it should be decent enough, with music, food, chicks... the works.
"... which is why you're going to be chaperoning groups of trick or treaters on Friday." Coach concluded his speech, nodding slightly.
Blinking, he tried to figure out a way to protest, to insist that he'd rather be at a party on Friday than walking all over town with a bunch of little kids. The desire to protest warred with his desire not to be kicked off the team. What finally came out was "Escorting trick or treaters? Does that mean... costumes?"
"Yes it does, Percy. You're all expected here at six o'clock, in costume to escort the kids around town. Make certain they won't be complaining about the costumes to moms and dads, alright, Donner?" There was a bit of pointed focus on Mike Donner, who'd already been suspended from school on two occasions for streaking.
Where in the hell was he supposed to get a decent costume now? This was Tuesday, Halloween was Friday, wouldn't everything be sold out by now? He knew that Partytown would be picked over, the general store's selection sucked from the start... wait, hadn't there been that new place? Something that was a name, there's been costumes in the window. It looked like that would be his only hope. "Guess I'd better find a costume."
After school, Percy dropped his homework off at the empty house, making a note to work on the math later, to read the biology. He had to find a costume. When he made his way to the shop, having parked a block and a half away, he saw that it was pretty crowded, with some of the other people from school, and parents with their kids, still hunting for the last bit of the perfect costume. Weaving his way through the crowds, he started looking at the adult costumes for something decent. He didn't want to dress as a professional athlete, God knew he was in sports wear often enough anyhow. He didn't want to wear some cheesy demon or ghost suit, especially not something with one of those big rubber masks that you could never see right out of. That pretty much ruled out most of the packaged costumes, and the matter of finding something in the right size ruled out the rest. It looked like he'd have to put something together, to be creative with the assorted spare bits and pieces that were scattered around in bins.
Searching, he found a nice looking gun belt, black with silver accenting, the sort of thing that a cowboy would wear to hold his six shooters. There was a whole rack of assorted plastic and wooden weaponry, from throwing stars and sais to swords and clubs and knives and all sorts of guns. He could feel the picture starting to form: a cowboy, maybe some rugged outlaw? He grabbed a pair of six shooters with white inlay on the handles, thinking they'd work nicely. But he'd need a hat to pull it off, and the right sort of shirt. He found a gray shirt, feeling like it was the sort of supple softness that would be really comfortable, and a red bandana. Trying not to look too excited, he moved over to the rows of hats.
There was a white hat that had been knocked to the floor, with a small black eye mask half hidden underneath it.
Percy blinked, feeling his fuzzy mental picture shift, crystallizing into perfect focus. Oh God, yes, that would be great. He picked up the mask, tossing the too small hat back on the pile, searching for one the right size. Put those together with some leather gloves, and his costume would be perfect, and not even embarrassing to be seen publicly wearing. Even better, it might score a few points for coolness with the girls, and the kids moms would be happy.
He felt pretty good about his purchases as he left Ethan's. Halloween might not be too bad after all.
end part 1.
By Friday, he'd found everything that he needed to complete the look, or at least as complete as it would get for a guy going as a cowboy without a horse. The pants were a pair of worn and faded jeans, and he'd even found a pair of boots that would go well. There had also been some practice with the bandana, so that it wouldn't look dumb.
He was feeling pretty confident as he arrived at the school, sauntering along in his costume, feeling pretty glad that the eye mask was cloth, and therefore less likely to slip than a plastic one. Buffy Summers was looking fantabulous in this long pinkish dress, and he could see some of the rest of the team, dressed as pirates or cops or monsters, and one guy dressed as a Klingon.
"Hey, Percy. What are you supposed to be, Billy the Kid?" Mike joked.
"Like you have room to talk… You're going as a clown." Percy shook his head, wondering if anyone actually recognized his outfit.
"Stupid…" Larry the pirate swatted at Mike's head, grinning. "He's the Lone Ranger."
Percy grinned, feeling a little better that someone knew who he was supposed to be. He'd still rather be at Devon's party, but since he had to be here, he might as well go for it. "I couldn't find Tonto, so I'm without my faithful Indian sidekick for the night."
Larry shrugged. "Tonto's probably off at Devon's party."
"Yeah. And here we are, making sure the little kids are safe to go trick-or-treating." Percy shrugged, thinking that maybe it wouldn't be too bad. He might as well try to enjoy this, since it wasn't an option. And maybe he could still go to the party after the trick-or-treating was over.
Percy made his way over towards Principal Snyder, who was not in costume. There were swarms of little kids in all sorts of costumes, some with their parents, others just sort of hanging around. "I'm supposed to be a chaperone?"
"Ah, Percy West." With a small frown, the Principal looked over his costume, giving a little sniff. "A good, safe costume. These are your charges, make certain they all come back safely."
He found himself with a group, consisting of a little witch in a pointy black hat, a short superman, a Stormtrooper, a US Army soldier, a ghost, the Riddler, and a ballerina. Hopefully, they didn't all try to scatter, he was definitely outnumbered, and the experience that he had with kids was pretty much… nothing. "Right… stay with me, and remember to look both ways before crossing the street. Now, let's go get some candy."
Percy felt a bit weird as he started out along the streets, a line of kids following after him. Sort of like a duck and a row of little ducklings… At least if anyone tried to yank his chain about this, he could say the Coach didn't give him an option. And it might not be too bad, not that he'd have to admit that to anybody.
As things got started, he realized that this wasn't so bad after all. Some of the houses even had come pretty women or cute girls handing out the candy, although the number of old ladies to cute ones as a bit high. Got to look for the bright side, right? They'd just left a little nest of duplexes when something weird happened. There was this ripple in the air, and then he felt really sick and dizzy. As Percy West collapsed, he was dimly aware of the kids making a fuss over something. He tried to open his mouth to ask what was wrong, but everything went dark.
end part 2
It was the noise that roused him. He could hear people screaming, and something growling, and the sound of feet shuffling on stone. Slowly, he sat up, touching the sore spot where his head had apparently hit the ground. Looking around, he tried to figure out where he was, and what was going on.
"Now this is a perplexing situation." The educated accent sounded oddly out of place, the voice sounding like a child of perhaps eight. He looked very solemn in his green suit, leaning slightly on a cane topped with a gleaming golden question mark, a small mask covering his eyes. "One minute I'm in Gotham, and now… well, this certainly isn't Gotham City."
"This must be some sort of training exercise." The crisp words had an odd tone to them, something he couldn't quite identify. The speaker was another small figure, in some sort of odd white outfit that looked to have bulky plates over some dark fabric, and some sort of strange rifle unlike anything that he'd ever seen before.
There were also several children dressed in very strange outfits, looking absolutely terrified as they stood on the very smooth stone of the lines walk. A strange metal thing that bore a passing resemblance to a coach roared past, leaving a strange odor in it's wake. In the distance, something that was not a wolf or a coyote howled. There was definitely something strange going on here.
"Where is this place?" The question emerged, a faint hope that with the name would come some memory to explain why he was here.
A little boy in a strange red and blue outfit with a red cape looked at him, his eyes wide and frightened. "This is Sunnydale, in California. It's Halloween…"
"Something's very wrong." That came from a small child under a sheet, who then pulled the sheet away, revealing a much more normal outfit of pants and a long sleeved pale shirt, although the brown braid was a bit unexpected. Weren't little girls supposed to wear dresses? "Something's very wrong and dangerous. I'm scared."
"Civilians do not belong in the middle of a training exercise. There must be some safe point where they'll be safe for now, until an official investigation can explain their presence." The person in the white outfit spoke again, lifting the strange rifle in a confident manner.
"California is one of the Spanish territories, there should be a mission somewhere nearby. Those are fairly defensible, and should be a safer than the street." Possibly the priest would be able to explain this… it was almost enough to make him believe in evil spirits.
The group started down the street, following the little girl that had been wearing a sheet towards the nearest church. The child in the suit kept muttering riddles to himself, but quietly, so as not to disturb the others. The little ballerina was crying now, large tears and ragged sobs that tore at his heart.
There was a loud snarl, and a large hairy shape was running towards them. It wasn't broad enough to be a bear, and was moving on two feet like a man, but there were these sharp teeth… The white clad small soldier dropped to his knee, firing the strange looking rifle. A flash of red light shot forth, striking the shoulder of the hairy thing, which roared and kept coming. The man in the mask pulled his own guns, firing a shot from each at the creature, both shots hitting the chest of the thing. It fell to the ground, no longer moving.
Maybe there was something to Tonto's belief that silver bullets would be better than lead.
"I think you're right, little girl. There is something very wrong and very dangerous going on here." His voice didn't shake as he reholstered his guns, but he could feel the urge to shake, to tremble in his muscles. He swallowed, acknowledging the taste of fear. "We should get to the church as soon as possible."
The masked man wasn't surprised to find the church already had a good number of people inside, frightened, uncertain and every single one of them strangely dressed. Nobody seemed to know what was happening or why. The frightened children gratefully took seats among the pews, as did the now quiet child in the suit.
"There are no blaster shields, and the walls are simple wood and stone… hardly durable against serious attack." The small soldier in the odd helmet spoke again, his voice filled with dismay. "Someone must stay and keep the civilians safe."
"Isn't that the job of a soldier? To keep the citizens safe and protected?" He spoke to the small soldier, his voice soft as he remembered another time, another life. Before he wore the mask, before his bullets were silver.
The small soldier nodded, the strange helmet rendering his face unseen, unreadable, the visor giving an ominous cast to him. "I can't keep the entire church covered. There are too many directions."
"I will stay as well, and perhaps between the two of us…" He volunteered, knowing that he couldn't turn away from people in distress. That was what he did, after all, he helped people.
The night stretched long, with more monsters coming to the church Some of them fled at the signs of resistance, others had to be chased away by fire, either from his own silver bullets or from the shots from the strange weapon of the small soldier, something called a Blaster Rifle. One attacker, with yellow eyes and sharp fangs just crumbled to dust after being hit by the blaster.
A vampire. That had been a vampire. If vampires were real… how many other legends? Skin-walkers? Demons? Witches? No, surely not everything could be real, there had to be a limit, didn't there? He promised himself that if he survived the night, he would try to learn more about vampires, about what other monsters of myth might not be so mythical.
If he lived through the night.
End part 3.
Percy blinked, wondering why he was leaning against the inner door of a church. He felt horrible, bruised and stiff, and tired, as if he had stayed up all night playing football without the protective pads. There were grass stains on his clothing, and places where it looked as if something with claws had ripped at his arm. There were makeshift bandages that had a small pumpkin print wrapped around them, and he could feel a bruise on his eye. His hands felt cramped as he held the plastic six shooters.
What had happened last night?
Slowly, bits of memory flickered, images of monsters, of frightened kids in costumes, of a Stormtrooper with a real blaster-rifle. Something that looked like a werewolf had been attacking, and he'd shot it. He'd… he'd really thought that he was. The Lone Ranger, and… and the guns had been real, had really shot bullets. People had changed, had become what there had dressed as, or at least some of them had.
Lurching a bit, Percy staggered into the church, putting away the plastic guns, taking the hat from his head. He left the mask on, not feeling quite right about removing it. People were asleep all through the church, curled or stretched on the pews. Slowly, the priest moved among them, muttering prayers as he did. Percy just wasn't certain if they were prayers for the safety of the people here, or for explanations.
"I think… I think it's over now. Whatever it was." He spoke slowly, his tongue feeling thick and heavy in his mouth. "The sun is up, and it should be… safer."
He couldn't quite stop the next words that came from his mouth, they just felt right. "My work here is done, and now I must go."
Walking down the street, he felt the strangest urge to call out 'Hi-yo Silver, Away!', but since he didn't have a horse named silver, that would have been rather pointless. And it would have looked stupid.
He didn't catch the soft question of the priest. "Who was that masked man?"
Percy West made his way home, letting himself into the quiet house. His parents weren't home, having gone out of town for something or other. A visit to his aunt and uncle in Washington, maybe? But for once, that might be a good thing. For once, he didn't have to worry about how to explain coming home past curfew. Considering the fact that he didn't understand what had happened, he was glad that he wouldn't have to try to explain. The closest that he would be able to come up with was 'Last night, people suddenly turned into their costumes, and I had to help a Stormtrooper protect a church full of people from monsters.' Like anybody would believe that.
Maybe it would be best to not speak of this again. Ever. After all, if it sounded crazy to him after he'd lived it, how much worse would it sound to someone else? He could get kicked off the team, locked up in a nut-house. The whole mess just seemed so crazy… but it had happened, he remembered everything, and he had the bruises and the slashes on his arm to prove it.
He was just certain that he'd never be able to forget that. It was too strange. Especially the part where he didn't just remember being the Lone Ranger last night, he remembered the whole life of the man who had eventually become the Lone Ranger. Remembered his childhood, his life, his near death and rescue by Tonto, remembered riding around helping people… Except that the Lone Ranger wasn't real, was just a television character, right? So how could he have become him, how could he remember him like that?
He had the oddest feeling that if he had a real revolver, he would still have the crack-shot accuracy of the man in the mask, would still be able to ride a horse, still track someone across the desert. He could remember the words in Spanish, and the language of Tonto's tribe.
Percy stripped his clothing off, letting it fall to the floor in a trail to his bed. He ached, and was far too tired to think about this, about what it would mean. Right now, he just wanted to sleep. Tomorrow would be soon enough to think about it.
End Back in the Saddle: a tale of Mutated Halloween.
author: Lucinda
rating: pg13
main character: Percy West
disclaimer: I own nobody from BtVS or the Lone Ranger.
distribution: Twisting, Paula, anyone else please ask.
note: AU season 2 Halloween - different costumes which lead to things being utterly different.
note 2: What about some of the other costumes that people picked up from Ethan's?
Percy sighed in apparent frustration, listening as the coach went on about how a good team needed more than just lots of practice and teamwork, they needed the support of their community. He droned on about building this support through community involvement. Percy let his mind wander, thinking about the weekend. There was supposed to be a pretty good Halloween party at this converted warehouse that looked like it had been a club. Devon was organizing it, so it should be decent enough, with music, food, chicks... the works.
"... which is why you're going to be chaperoning groups of trick or treaters on Friday." Coach concluded his speech, nodding slightly.
Blinking, he tried to figure out a way to protest, to insist that he'd rather be at a party on Friday than walking all over town with a bunch of little kids. The desire to protest warred with his desire not to be kicked off the team. What finally came out was "Escorting trick or treaters? Does that mean... costumes?"
"Yes it does, Percy. You're all expected here at six o'clock, in costume to escort the kids around town. Make certain they won't be complaining about the costumes to moms and dads, alright, Donner?" There was a bit of pointed focus on Mike Donner, who'd already been suspended from school on two occasions for streaking.
Where in the hell was he supposed to get a decent costume now? This was Tuesday, Halloween was Friday, wouldn't everything be sold out by now? He knew that Partytown would be picked over, the general store's selection sucked from the start... wait, hadn't there been that new place? Something that was a name, there's been costumes in the window. It looked like that would be his only hope. "Guess I'd better find a costume."
After school, Percy dropped his homework off at the empty house, making a note to work on the math later, to read the biology. He had to find a costume. When he made his way to the shop, having parked a block and a half away, he saw that it was pretty crowded, with some of the other people from school, and parents with their kids, still hunting for the last bit of the perfect costume. Weaving his way through the crowds, he started looking at the adult costumes for something decent. He didn't want to dress as a professional athlete, God knew he was in sports wear often enough anyhow. He didn't want to wear some cheesy demon or ghost suit, especially not something with one of those big rubber masks that you could never see right out of. That pretty much ruled out most of the packaged costumes, and the matter of finding something in the right size ruled out the rest. It looked like he'd have to put something together, to be creative with the assorted spare bits and pieces that were scattered around in bins.
Searching, he found a nice looking gun belt, black with silver accenting, the sort of thing that a cowboy would wear to hold his six shooters. There was a whole rack of assorted plastic and wooden weaponry, from throwing stars and sais to swords and clubs and knives and all sorts of guns. He could feel the picture starting to form: a cowboy, maybe some rugged outlaw? He grabbed a pair of six shooters with white inlay on the handles, thinking they'd work nicely. But he'd need a hat to pull it off, and the right sort of shirt. He found a gray shirt, feeling like it was the sort of supple softness that would be really comfortable, and a red bandana. Trying not to look too excited, he moved over to the rows of hats.
There was a white hat that had been knocked to the floor, with a small black eye mask half hidden underneath it.
Percy blinked, feeling his fuzzy mental picture shift, crystallizing into perfect focus. Oh God, yes, that would be great. He picked up the mask, tossing the too small hat back on the pile, searching for one the right size. Put those together with some leather gloves, and his costume would be perfect, and not even embarrassing to be seen publicly wearing. Even better, it might score a few points for coolness with the girls, and the kids moms would be happy.
He felt pretty good about his purchases as he left Ethan's. Halloween might not be too bad after all.
end part 1.
By Friday, he'd found everything that he needed to complete the look, or at least as complete as it would get for a guy going as a cowboy without a horse. The pants were a pair of worn and faded jeans, and he'd even found a pair of boots that would go well. There had also been some practice with the bandana, so that it wouldn't look dumb.
He was feeling pretty confident as he arrived at the school, sauntering along in his costume, feeling pretty glad that the eye mask was cloth, and therefore less likely to slip than a plastic one. Buffy Summers was looking fantabulous in this long pinkish dress, and he could see some of the rest of the team, dressed as pirates or cops or monsters, and one guy dressed as a Klingon.
"Hey, Percy. What are you supposed to be, Billy the Kid?" Mike joked.
"Like you have room to talk… You're going as a clown." Percy shook his head, wondering if anyone actually recognized his outfit.
"Stupid…" Larry the pirate swatted at Mike's head, grinning. "He's the Lone Ranger."
Percy grinned, feeling a little better that someone knew who he was supposed to be. He'd still rather be at Devon's party, but since he had to be here, he might as well go for it. "I couldn't find Tonto, so I'm without my faithful Indian sidekick for the night."
Larry shrugged. "Tonto's probably off at Devon's party."
"Yeah. And here we are, making sure the little kids are safe to go trick-or-treating." Percy shrugged, thinking that maybe it wouldn't be too bad. He might as well try to enjoy this, since it wasn't an option. And maybe he could still go to the party after the trick-or-treating was over.
Percy made his way over towards Principal Snyder, who was not in costume. There were swarms of little kids in all sorts of costumes, some with their parents, others just sort of hanging around. "I'm supposed to be a chaperone?"
"Ah, Percy West." With a small frown, the Principal looked over his costume, giving a little sniff. "A good, safe costume. These are your charges, make certain they all come back safely."
He found himself with a group, consisting of a little witch in a pointy black hat, a short superman, a Stormtrooper, a US Army soldier, a ghost, the Riddler, and a ballerina. Hopefully, they didn't all try to scatter, he was definitely outnumbered, and the experience that he had with kids was pretty much… nothing. "Right… stay with me, and remember to look both ways before crossing the street. Now, let's go get some candy."
Percy felt a bit weird as he started out along the streets, a line of kids following after him. Sort of like a duck and a row of little ducklings… At least if anyone tried to yank his chain about this, he could say the Coach didn't give him an option. And it might not be too bad, not that he'd have to admit that to anybody.
As things got started, he realized that this wasn't so bad after all. Some of the houses even had come pretty women or cute girls handing out the candy, although the number of old ladies to cute ones as a bit high. Got to look for the bright side, right? They'd just left a little nest of duplexes when something weird happened. There was this ripple in the air, and then he felt really sick and dizzy. As Percy West collapsed, he was dimly aware of the kids making a fuss over something. He tried to open his mouth to ask what was wrong, but everything went dark.
end part 2
It was the noise that roused him. He could hear people screaming, and something growling, and the sound of feet shuffling on stone. Slowly, he sat up, touching the sore spot where his head had apparently hit the ground. Looking around, he tried to figure out where he was, and what was going on.
"Now this is a perplexing situation." The educated accent sounded oddly out of place, the voice sounding like a child of perhaps eight. He looked very solemn in his green suit, leaning slightly on a cane topped with a gleaming golden question mark, a small mask covering his eyes. "One minute I'm in Gotham, and now… well, this certainly isn't Gotham City."
"This must be some sort of training exercise." The crisp words had an odd tone to them, something he couldn't quite identify. The speaker was another small figure, in some sort of odd white outfit that looked to have bulky plates over some dark fabric, and some sort of strange rifle unlike anything that he'd ever seen before.
There were also several children dressed in very strange outfits, looking absolutely terrified as they stood on the very smooth stone of the lines walk. A strange metal thing that bore a passing resemblance to a coach roared past, leaving a strange odor in it's wake. In the distance, something that was not a wolf or a coyote howled. There was definitely something strange going on here.
"Where is this place?" The question emerged, a faint hope that with the name would come some memory to explain why he was here.
A little boy in a strange red and blue outfit with a red cape looked at him, his eyes wide and frightened. "This is Sunnydale, in California. It's Halloween…"
"Something's very wrong." That came from a small child under a sheet, who then pulled the sheet away, revealing a much more normal outfit of pants and a long sleeved pale shirt, although the brown braid was a bit unexpected. Weren't little girls supposed to wear dresses? "Something's very wrong and dangerous. I'm scared."
"Civilians do not belong in the middle of a training exercise. There must be some safe point where they'll be safe for now, until an official investigation can explain their presence." The person in the white outfit spoke again, lifting the strange rifle in a confident manner.
"California is one of the Spanish territories, there should be a mission somewhere nearby. Those are fairly defensible, and should be a safer than the street." Possibly the priest would be able to explain this… it was almost enough to make him believe in evil spirits.
The group started down the street, following the little girl that had been wearing a sheet towards the nearest church. The child in the suit kept muttering riddles to himself, but quietly, so as not to disturb the others. The little ballerina was crying now, large tears and ragged sobs that tore at his heart.
There was a loud snarl, and a large hairy shape was running towards them. It wasn't broad enough to be a bear, and was moving on two feet like a man, but there were these sharp teeth… The white clad small soldier dropped to his knee, firing the strange looking rifle. A flash of red light shot forth, striking the shoulder of the hairy thing, which roared and kept coming. The man in the mask pulled his own guns, firing a shot from each at the creature, both shots hitting the chest of the thing. It fell to the ground, no longer moving.
Maybe there was something to Tonto's belief that silver bullets would be better than lead.
"I think you're right, little girl. There is something very wrong and very dangerous going on here." His voice didn't shake as he reholstered his guns, but he could feel the urge to shake, to tremble in his muscles. He swallowed, acknowledging the taste of fear. "We should get to the church as soon as possible."
The masked man wasn't surprised to find the church already had a good number of people inside, frightened, uncertain and every single one of them strangely dressed. Nobody seemed to know what was happening or why. The frightened children gratefully took seats among the pews, as did the now quiet child in the suit.
"There are no blaster shields, and the walls are simple wood and stone… hardly durable against serious attack." The small soldier in the odd helmet spoke again, his voice filled with dismay. "Someone must stay and keep the civilians safe."
"Isn't that the job of a soldier? To keep the citizens safe and protected?" He spoke to the small soldier, his voice soft as he remembered another time, another life. Before he wore the mask, before his bullets were silver.
The small soldier nodded, the strange helmet rendering his face unseen, unreadable, the visor giving an ominous cast to him. "I can't keep the entire church covered. There are too many directions."
"I will stay as well, and perhaps between the two of us…" He volunteered, knowing that he couldn't turn away from people in distress. That was what he did, after all, he helped people.
The night stretched long, with more monsters coming to the church Some of them fled at the signs of resistance, others had to be chased away by fire, either from his own silver bullets or from the shots from the strange weapon of the small soldier, something called a Blaster Rifle. One attacker, with yellow eyes and sharp fangs just crumbled to dust after being hit by the blaster.
A vampire. That had been a vampire. If vampires were real… how many other legends? Skin-walkers? Demons? Witches? No, surely not everything could be real, there had to be a limit, didn't there? He promised himself that if he survived the night, he would try to learn more about vampires, about what other monsters of myth might not be so mythical.
If he lived through the night.
End part 3.
Percy blinked, wondering why he was leaning against the inner door of a church. He felt horrible, bruised and stiff, and tired, as if he had stayed up all night playing football without the protective pads. There were grass stains on his clothing, and places where it looked as if something with claws had ripped at his arm. There were makeshift bandages that had a small pumpkin print wrapped around them, and he could feel a bruise on his eye. His hands felt cramped as he held the plastic six shooters.
What had happened last night?
Slowly, bits of memory flickered, images of monsters, of frightened kids in costumes, of a Stormtrooper with a real blaster-rifle. Something that looked like a werewolf had been attacking, and he'd shot it. He'd… he'd really thought that he was. The Lone Ranger, and… and the guns had been real, had really shot bullets. People had changed, had become what there had dressed as, or at least some of them had.
Lurching a bit, Percy staggered into the church, putting away the plastic guns, taking the hat from his head. He left the mask on, not feeling quite right about removing it. People were asleep all through the church, curled or stretched on the pews. Slowly, the priest moved among them, muttering prayers as he did. Percy just wasn't certain if they were prayers for the safety of the people here, or for explanations.
"I think… I think it's over now. Whatever it was." He spoke slowly, his tongue feeling thick and heavy in his mouth. "The sun is up, and it should be… safer."
He couldn't quite stop the next words that came from his mouth, they just felt right. "My work here is done, and now I must go."
Walking down the street, he felt the strangest urge to call out 'Hi-yo Silver, Away!', but since he didn't have a horse named silver, that would have been rather pointless. And it would have looked stupid.
He didn't catch the soft question of the priest. "Who was that masked man?"
Percy West made his way home, letting himself into the quiet house. His parents weren't home, having gone out of town for something or other. A visit to his aunt and uncle in Washington, maybe? But for once, that might be a good thing. For once, he didn't have to worry about how to explain coming home past curfew. Considering the fact that he didn't understand what had happened, he was glad that he wouldn't have to try to explain. The closest that he would be able to come up with was 'Last night, people suddenly turned into their costumes, and I had to help a Stormtrooper protect a church full of people from monsters.' Like anybody would believe that.
Maybe it would be best to not speak of this again. Ever. After all, if it sounded crazy to him after he'd lived it, how much worse would it sound to someone else? He could get kicked off the team, locked up in a nut-house. The whole mess just seemed so crazy… but it had happened, he remembered everything, and he had the bruises and the slashes on his arm to prove it.
He was just certain that he'd never be able to forget that. It was too strange. Especially the part where he didn't just remember being the Lone Ranger last night, he remembered the whole life of the man who had eventually become the Lone Ranger. Remembered his childhood, his life, his near death and rescue by Tonto, remembered riding around helping people… Except that the Lone Ranger wasn't real, was just a television character, right? So how could he have become him, how could he remember him like that?
He had the oddest feeling that if he had a real revolver, he would still have the crack-shot accuracy of the man in the mask, would still be able to ride a horse, still track someone across the desert. He could remember the words in Spanish, and the language of Tonto's tribe.
Percy stripped his clothing off, letting it fall to the floor in a trail to his bed. He ached, and was far too tired to think about this, about what it would mean. Right now, he just wanted to sleep. Tomorrow would be soon enough to think about it.
End Back in the Saddle: a tale of Mutated Halloween.