"Generation the 13th"
BtVS/YAHF(Yet Another Halloween Fanfic)/Gen 13 crossover
Note: Just something I decided to put up in honour of All Hallows Eve. Still it might make for an interesting full-fledged fanfic. Tell me what you think.
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Sunnydale High School, Hallways, AfternoonLook, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I'm the Slayer.
Although the words had been spoken by a vapid, image obsessed airhead they still struck a painful cord within Buffy that she couldn't quite shake even an hour after she'd left the washroom where Cordelia had spoken them. It hit a sore point of hers that had been there ever since she had first been told of her 'sacred calling' as the Slayer and she knew wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. Ever since she'd been approached by Merrick her social life had taken a nosedive and every time she thought it couldn't get any worse it did. To think that once upon a time she was pretty much at the same level of social status as Cordy was and now she was a social pariah or freak as Queen C called her. From social queen to social outcast was the road she'd gone down since she became a Slayer and every single time she tried to be seen as an 'okay girl' by the student body some demon would pop up forcing her to slay it and get labelled as being even weirder.
It's times like these that I wish whoever was in charge of picking the next Slayer in line had just stayed the hell out of my LIFE! She thought angrily as she mentally cursed the forces that kept her from improving her status in life.
Then it hit her.
In her mind she replayed the scene from the student lounge at lunch this morning but instead tried to see it from Xander's point of view. He had been approached by a jock, a member of the socially acceptable and admired, gotten into an argument and just when he was about to let himself get pummelled for what he believed in she stuck her nose into things and caused him to be labelled as a 'wuss' because he'd been saved by a girl. Without intending to she had done the same thing to Xander that had been done to her when some lousy higher beings tapped her on the shoulder to become the next 'Chosen One'. With this revelation she slipped even deeper into her funk because not only was she now a social pariah of the school but she had also unknowingly sabotaged a friend's attempt to get at least some respect albeit in a painful manner.
In short she had screwed up big time and unless she wanted to feel like a heel for the rest of the week she had to do something to make it up to Xander.
Hearing the bell ring signifying the end of the class and the warning to get to the next one in under five minutes she picked up her text book and notebook, stuffed them into her book bag, and walked to the classroom door to hook up with Willow. For minutes she said nothing but eventually Willow noticed this and that naturally led to the inquisitiveness mousy redhead was known for through the school.
"What's up Buffy?" Willow asked with some concern at her friend's abnormal behaviour, "You're usually a lot more with the talking about now an' everything."
"I've just found out that I screwed up big time and seriously hurt Xander." She replied as she continued to review the events at lunch hour.
"You mean with Larry and everything?" Willow asked rhetorically since they both knew that was what the blonde Slayer was referring to with her response, "Don't worry he'll get over it. You should have seen when I slipped up and told someone his middle name was LaVelle. He was totally mad at me and… nuts I did it again!"
Buffy took a moment to just stare strangely at her friend for the weird and unintentional expose before returning to her own mistake.
"Yeah but this is different. You messed up talking to one person while I slayed his manly reputation in front of the entire student lounge." She said as her mind remembered what that would have meant for some guy back at Hemery when she was Queen B, "It'd be like if I completely humiliated you by accident in front of the entire computer class. I am such a witch!"
It was then that a moment of clarity hit her and she knew exactly how she could make things up to Xander and keep Herr Snyder from gaining an excuse to give the Scooby gang a detention or something. Grabbing Willow's hand she raced to the next class where she knew Xander would be determined to put operation 'patch things up with Xander' into action.
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Ethan's Costume Shop, 3:15p.mSuddenly this idea of mine seems a lot more dangerous than I thought it'd be. Xander thought as he led Buffy, Dawn and surprisingly Joyce Summers through the aisle of costumes with Willow in tow.
It had all started out so nicely, Buffy coming to him full of apology, with an idea of how the blonde Slayer could make up the axe job she'd done to his rep at school. When he'd heard it he'd been overjoyed since it allowed him to live out one of his personally happy places with absolutely no chance for any backlash to hit him in the face. So it had been with a bounce in his step and a song in his heart that he'd trotted over to the Summers home to pick up both Willow and Buffy so they could head to the new costume place that opened. It had been going good right up to the point that Mrs. Summers had asked Buffy to take Dawn-patrol with them and then things got ugly. While he knew that the blonde Slayer would walk through hell in a bikini… mmmmm bikini… no… close sisters they were not. It was more along the lines of partying older sister and jealous younger sister who wasn't allowed to party like her sister. In any case Buffy had not been thrilled with the idea of Dawn tagging alone or with the added stipulation of taking the youngest Summers woman out trick or treating later. Like the stubborn young woman she was Buffy had fought tooth and nail against 'babysitting' Dawn this evening. Most likely she had a date with that walking corpse laughingly named Angel. However she made the mistake of being a little too defiant with her mother and that led him to his current situation. Joyce had insisted on accompanying them to the costume store.
So through the isles they went with Buffy glaring at her sister, Dawn glaring at Buffy, Joyce glaring at both of her daughters and Willow being careful to stay clear of the potential blast zone. Sighing to himself and hoping that the atmosphere in the shop would cool down before something burst into flames he began looking at the various items on the racks or in the bins for his costume choices.
"So what exactly is the deal here Buffy?" Dawn asked with faux curiosity in order to set her elder sister up for another lecture from their mother.
"Look half-pint, I screwed up at school and made Xander look bad, I'm just making up for that by letting him pick out our Halloween costumes." Buffy said not blonde enough to fall for such an obvious trap.
"Our costumes?" Willow asked obviously not having been consulted when she had been drafted into this 'make Xander like us again' plan.
"Well, yeah, 'cause you didn't stop me from roughing up Larry you carry some of the blame… right?" Buffy replied not entirely coherent concerning her reasons for including Willow with the Xander Compensation, "'sides we can trust him to pick something tasteful for us… right?"
"We are SO doomed." Willow said since she had a much deeper understanding of the mind of Xander Harris than her blonde battling buddy.
"O ye have little faith best bud 'o mine." Xander said with his trademarked lopsided grin in place, "Your costumes will be the epitome of good taste and coolness."
Willow just gave him a look that made clear how much stock she put in that declaration.
"Okay so the steel bikini outfit from Return of the Jedi is out." He said hoping that that would be enough to satisfy his knowledgeable redheaded friend.
The look remained.
"And no Vampirella outfits either." He said mentally mourning the loss of such excellent costume choices.
Willow looked to be about halfway to giving her permission but needed one more sacrifice from him before he'd get a nod from her.
"And they'll involve more fabric than a bikini." He said cursing his missed opportunity to see so much Slayer skin.
"Darn tootin' they will." Willow said declaring victory over the hormones of the only child of Tony and Jessica Harris.
"Well if Willow feels safe enough letting her choose her costume I guess I can let you do the same." Dawn said with a look in her eye that said she wouldn't object if he wanted her to dress like one of Jabba the Hutts dancing girls.
"Well then it looks like I've been outvoted here so you may choose mine as well Xander." Joyce said silently saying in that motherly way that there would be repercussions if the Xan-man didn't choose his costumes carefully.
"Mrs. S?" Xander asked with some shock.
"Mom!" exclaimed both of Joyce's daughters.
Willow wisely chose to stay silent both because the main reactions had already been covered and didn't want to get involved in this potentially lit firecracker.
"Well I'm holding a little costume party at the gallery as well as showing off a few pieces on loan from a friend of mine in L.A so I need a costume." Joyce explained acting as though she didn't know what was so odd about her choice, "I'd planned on going to get my costume later from Party Town but since I'm here with the rest of you I might as well get it here."
O-kay! If Giles comes in and says he wants me to choose his Halloween outfit I am officially going to wig out! Xander thought as his delightfully wonderful opportunity was beginning to take on a life of its own.
"So what've you got in mind Xander?" Joyce asked beginning to scan the costumes nearby for ones a teenage male might chose.
"Ah… j-just give me a minute to think." He replied as he tried to come up with ideas for the four females that wouldn't get him labelled as a pervert or pig.
It was as his eyes passed the section devoted to superheroes and comic book characters that something clicked in his head. Yes. YES! That could work! They were all strong female role models rather than brainless bimbos but at the same time these characters wore outfits that definitely showed off their toned figures nicely. Immediately he raced over to the section and began looking for the things he'd need in order to pull off his improvised master plan. Zipping around he was almost dancing with glee to find out that the store had a green and purple latex suit on hand. Of course he'd have to make a few modifications to make it look like he wanted but that shouldn't be a problem. It took him a little while longer to find the right sort of boots for Willow's outfit but once he did the rest was a piece of cake to find. Dawnie's outfit just took a quick moment for a fabric and decency check before he slung it over his arm and moved on. Joyce's outfit was a little tricky but then he remembered that the character had several variations on her uniform so he chose the one that would suit the ruler of the Summers household best. Fortunately his outfit was a little easier to come by since his character's outfit could easily double for ordinary clothing. The only real thing he needed to get was a pair of realistic looking energy pistols. He knew he was kinda breaking with the theme he'd chosen for the girls since his costume wasn't a member of their team but there was no way in hell he was wearing skin tight spandex or pretending to be a hormone driven idiot. A quick trip to the wig section and a few selections from the hair colour in a can section and he was ready to hit the cash register.
"So who're we going to be dressing up as Xan?" Buffy asked being more than a little curious since her own mind couldn't come up with any answers after seeing what he grabbed from various places in the shop.
"Uh-uh Buff'! You'll just have to wait 'til I make a few changes and put 'em on before I give you the skinny on your costumed identities." Xander said wanting to build up the suspense a little and drive them a little nuts.
"C'mon Xander! Not even a little hint?" Willow asked as she gave him the puppy dog eyes.
"Nope! Not lookin'! NOT looking!" he said as he made sure to look someplace other than into the eyes of his bestest bud in the whole wide world.
"Ahem! May I help you young man?" came the slightly annoyed but still polite voice of the owner of the shop who stood behind the register.
"I'll take all this to go my good man." Xander said silently thankful for someplace else to focus his attention besides Willow's puppy dog eyes.
"An excellent assortment of costume components if I do say so myself." Ethan declared as he scanned the barcode of each item before ringing up the total price, "That comes to sixty-three dollars and twenty-two cents."
For a moment Xander's eyes bugged out but then he recalled what had caused him to make his selections and turned to the four women behind him.
"Don't suppose I could borrow fifty dollars from you guys?" he asked using his best 'am I not worth it' face.
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Later, The Summers Home"Xander? How is this supposed to be a superhero outfit?" Dawn asked as she trotted down the stairs in the costume he'd chosen for her.
Of the character selections he'd chosen for the four women the one for the youngest Summers woman best matched his own in that it could blend in with normal people easily. It started with some Doc Martins on the feet and then went up to be joined by what could be best described as a cocktail dress made out of form fitting spandex. Fortunately she was also wearing a coat that hopefully would deaden the sexiness factor enough that neither Joyce or Buffy would go nuclear when they saw it. Topping it all off was a quick hair trim so that nothing went past the shoulders, a black hair in a can base with some pink bangs on the front. All in all he thought she looked remarkably like the character he'd thought of back at the costume shop.
Now if only the rest of the ladies are fitting as well into their outfits. He thought as he tried to picture how Buffy and Willow looked in their costumes.
"Xander! You cannot be serious about me going out looking like this!" Buffy yelled from her bedroom upstairs.
"I'm dead serious Buff'." He yelled back with a smug triumphant tone of voice, "What? You decided to go back on your promise?"
There was silence before the telltale sound of booted feet approaching the stairs could be heard and that was all he needed to confirm that he'd won the argument. Not a minute later the elder Summers woman turned the corner and his mind was hit with an instant green screen of death at the sight before him. It was a green screen of death rather than a blue screen of death because standing at the top of the stairs with strapped green boots on her feet, a latex bodysuit altered to show off the wearer's legs and artificially lengthened green elbow length gloves was none other than Buffy Summers. With her he'd gone with the wig instead of a half-baked haircut and hair spray since he hadn't believed for a moment that the Slayer would be as willing to bend to his whims as her little sister had been. All in all though she pulled off the look very well causing him to mentally take her off the 'someone to remain miffed at' list since the sight of her in the outfit alone was compensation enough for maiming his rep at school.
"Look at it this way Buffy, I could have had you dress like the character during one of her many wardrobe malfunctions, they involved a lot less cloth than this." He said both smiling at the happy place that provided and the amusing look on the blonde Slayer's face.
Dawn though looked a little displeased at the competition she now had in the form of her sister.
"So where's Willow?" he asked as he angled his head slightly to get a better look at the top of the stairs.
"She's a little busy at the moment trying to decide whether or not she wanted to leave my room in that outfit you gave her." Buffy said making it clear that she had already tried and failed to coax the still low self-confidence teenage girl out for everyone to see.
"Willow! C'mon down! It can't be that bad." He yelled up the stairs in his best voice of encouragement impersonation.
"Wanna bet!" Willow yelled back with her own insecurities and image issues in firm control.
"Look! If it makes you feel any better the character you're dressed up on is feminist to the hilt, is not afraid to stand up for causes he believes in and can kick some serious ass!" he said trying to point out all the attributes the character had that might make his best friend more amiable towards leaving the house in costume.
"R-really?" Willow asked and sounded a little closer to the top of the stairs than she had been before.
"Positive. Now c'mon or we're going to be late and you know what that'll mean for Snyder!" he said and sighed in relief as the regular solid footfalls reaching his ears told him he'd convinced his friend enough.
As she came down the stairs he was just as satisfied with how Willow's costume had turned out as he had been with the others. Starting off with Native American style books with the streamers or whatever at the tops then connected to the rest of the costume by the leg of the computer wizard's green-red bodysuit that left the arms and one leg bare. Metal knee pads went well with the gauntlets she wore on each hand and a good sized black wig managed to complete the costume quite nicely. He had heard both Buffy and Willow debating the use of some girly product to change the redheaded genius' skin tone but eventually they'd decided against it. Probably because it'd be too messy to put on or that the colour might get smudged with all the trick or treating that they'd be involved with tonight.
"Okay Xand', we're all in costume, now please tell us who the heck we're supposed to be?" Buffy asked clearly not looking forward to some of the reactions she'd no doubt get once people got a good look at her.
"You three are the superheroines known as Fairchild, Freefall and Rainmaker." Xander replied with quite a bit of showmanship, "Three fifths of the team known as Gen 13!"
"Who of the what?" Buffy asked with her mind drawing a dismal blank at the names her friend had just given her.
"Sigh What do they teach you kids in school these days?" he replied in the typical 'when I was your age' disappointed parent voice, "I'll explain on the way to school okay?"
"Sure but one question first." Dawn said as they all walked out the door, "Is your character a member of this team too?"
"Nope. He's a lot older than the kids on that team and has his own crew that he hangs with." Xander replied as they hit the sidewalk and turned in the direction of the school, "I'd considered going as one of the guy members of the team but one involved wearing spandex and the other required I lower my intelligence level to just above caveman level."
"Doesn't sound like such bad choices to me." Dawn said with a smile clearly liking the idea of either a spandex clad Xander or an easily charmed Xander.
"So who are you dressed as exactly?" Buffy asked wanting to move away from her sister's growing crush on her Xander-shaped friend.
"Just call me Grifter." He replied pulling down the red strip of cloth over his face until the black highlighted holes for his eyes were in the right spot.
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Hours Later, Inside a Warehouse in the Industrial District of Sunnydale"What the…" Xander said as awareness returned to him and he found himself inexplicably pointing the two laser guns he'd bought at the costume store at Spike.
Looking around at everyone else in the room he found that aside from a few of Peroxide Boy's minions everyone else that had been transformed into their costumes had become normal people again. The goblins were now kids and Willow was no longer moving with that 'little miss protester' attitude that Rainmaker was so well known for in the comic books.
"I'm scared! I want my MOMMY!" cried one of the kids and like a dam had burst every other kid did the same.
It was only with that change in the status quo that the Billy Idol vampire noticed that something was not as it had been before. Obviously intending to do what he came to do before things turned against him the vamp tried to yank Buffy, who despite becoming Caitlin Fairchild for the night had still taken something of a beating, up to eye level with him so he could kill her. Xander almost laughed at the comical scene since instead of a head with some hair Spike just got the orange wig he'd gotten at Ethan's to complete the blonde Slayer's costume. However it was definitely Buffy who proved that things were back to normal since a smile and a quip later Spike was scurrying away as fast as he could back to whatever sewer he'd crawled out of.
Walking up to her he said "Hey, Buff'. Welcome back."
"Yeah! You too." She said a bit distracted since she seemed to be a bit puzzled by the amount of lift she'd gotten out of that one punch she'd given Spike.
"You guys remember what happened?" Cordelia asked with some surprise.
"It was creepy. It's like I was there, but I couldn't get out." He said as he remembered the past couple of hours when Cole Cash was in the driver's seat of his body.
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Cordy said looking at her costume to indicate what she was talking about, "This outfit's totally skintight."
Ignoring Queen C's trivial comment he watched as Angel and Buffy came together to make sure both of them were alright and unharmed. Shaking his head in disappointment he turned away from the sight and began to both calm the kids down as well as organize them so that they could be taken back to the school. He had been so upbeat and excited when the night had started out but now a combination of both the 'turning into your costume' thing and seeing his hero get snuggly with a vamp had pretty much killed whatever positive feelings he might have had.
Over the course of the next hour they all managed to find their respective kids as well as any strays they came across back to the school. Snyder looked like someone had just stolen his favourite snack cake since he was deprived of a chance to levy some kind of punishment on the Scooby gang. From there the quartet headed to the Summers home to see if Joyce had been affected by the same bit of magic that had transformed them. The elder Summers woman was found to be in bed with the light out so with a chance to delay the potential side effects of the night for at least a few hours Buffy let her mom sleep in peace. Unfortunately when he and Willow were about to leave both were hit with a 'bout of vertigo and nausea so Buff' offered to let them spend the night at her place rather than risk them getting into trouble walking home. Thankful for a way to take some of the strain off their under the weather bodies both he and Willow accepted without further prompting. He took the downstairs couch while Willow slept on an air mattress on the floor of Dawn's bedroom.
Tonight has definitely been the worst Halloween I've ever been through and considering who I'm forced to live with that's fuckin' saying something. He thought as he began to drift off to sleep, Well at least it's over now.
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The Next Morning, Buffy's RoomOooohhhh! Whatever Willow and Xand got last night must've been contagious 'cause I feel like I just got a sewer poured down my throat! Buffy thought as she sat up in her bed with sunlight pouring over her.
Sick, nauseous, dizzy or crappy.
Pick one of those and you come a step closer to describing how she felt right at that moment and yet still many steps away. Getting unsteadily to her feet she forced one foot in front of the other, determined to make it to the washroom to empty the contents of her stomach which had turned against her, to get some Tylenol so that the sicky feelings would go away. Pushing her door opened she took little notice of the fact that she had tore it off its hinges with minimal effort. When she let go of the doorknob all she heard was the sound of the door hitting the floor and blamed it on either Xander or Dawn slamming a door somewhere else in the house. With a few slight stumbles she managed to make it into the washroom but that was where her good luck came to an end as her symptoms quadrupled in strength causing her to drop to her knees. A headache like an unending big bang, nausea potent enough to quickly bring her to the point where she wanted to toss her cookies and a fire in her body that left her shaking was all she knew for several moments. Then the episode was over and while she still felt way weird it was a definite improvement over what she'd experienced a few moments ago.
An improvement, that is, until she noticed a distinct draft below her waist as well as a tightness around her chest that hadn't been there before. Puzzlement quickly turned to shock before approaching panic as she noticed that somehow her sweatpants had been reduced to the equivalent of short-shorts and her tank top was essentially a bikini top now.
A bikini top that looked about two sizes too small for her chest at the moment.
Getting to her feet as quickly as she could she was unprepared for the sudden overkill of strength from her legs since instead of just quickly standing she actually leapt into the air. Fortunately the ceiling stopped her from going too far but she knew the repairs for the damage would be coming out of her allowance for the next three months at least. When she felt she had a stronger grip (no pun intended) on her abnormally strong Slayer body she looked in the direction of the mirror to get a more complete picture of what had happened to her only to receive three shocks at once. First was the fact that she actually had to stoop a bit in order to actually look at herself in the mirror since for some reason someone had lowered it from its original place on the wall (at least that is what she told herself). The next shock was the fact that the body she was looking at right then was NOT the body she'd gone to sleep in the previous night. After all she'd remember having a body that would make every famous female fashion model in the world look like an anorexic bimbo. Toned muscles, long legs, a chest that was a C cup at least and a face that was blemish free with none of the changes looking like they'd come from a plastic surgeon. The final shock happened when she grabbed a hold of the sink to steady herself after taking in shock one and two crush it like it had been made out of toothpicks and chalk.
Wha-what the HELL is going on here!? She thought as she tried to come up with some feasible reason why she had pulled a She-Hulk all of a sudden.
She knew that she'd gone to bed in her normal body because she didn't remember any difficulty in getting into her sweats or tank top the night before. Her sleep clothes had also been okay after she had woken up so that meant that the change had happened during her war of the sickness symptoms she'd experienced a few minutes ago. As she lined up all the facts in a row she was hit with a sudden case of déjà vu with the events of the past few minutes feeling really familiar for some reason. It was not until she pursued that line of thought further that she hit the jackpot and remembered how Caitlin Fairchild's powers manifested themselves. Once that possible explanation fell into place every odd things since the spell had been broken made sense. That however was not necessarily a good thing since it caused her to ask the next obvious question: did Xander, Willow or Dawn undergo a change like just had?
Running as quickly, yet carefully, as she could she went to her sisters room and whipped open the door taking that one off the hinges just as she had her own and cursed at yet another thing her mother would probably make her pay for to be repaired. Shelving that problem she looked in the direction of her sister's bed to find the youngest Summers girl looking at her elder sister like most people would look at someone who had woken them up way too early.
"Hello! There is such a thing called knocking you know!" Dawn snapped at her sister as she mentally debated the merits of trying to back to sleep, "It's right there along with the concept of privacy… and…"
Buffy could tell that it was right about then that her little sister had finally clued into the changes she'd undergone.
"Okay who are you and why do you look like a super sexy version of my sister?" Dawn asked with a mixture of annoyance and a little fear.
"Dawnie it's me!" Buffy said as her mind scrambled to think of ways to prove it, "Remember when you were five and you wanted to make mom and dad breakfast and—"
"Don't say another word! You're Buffy alright but if you ever speak of that again I'll make sure everyone hears about your 'Jem and the Holograms' phase." Dawn quickly said interrupting her elder sister before the embarrassing facts were potentially passed onto to an awakening Willow.
"My lips are sealed!" Buffy quickly promised not wanting to let anyone know about her pink hair phase.
"They'd better be and what's with the sudden ascension to supermodel?" Dawn asked as her annoyance level began to rise as she completely took in her sister's new body, "As if I didn't already have enough trouble being compared to you beforehand! Now people will look at me and say 'looks like the babe gene skipped her'!"
This ranting went on and on but unknown to the junior Summers woman her rising anger was not the only thing to go up. For Buffy and Willow though they had no trouble seeing that as he temper got hotter Dawn herself floated higher into the air.
"Um, Dawn, you might want to calm down a bit." Buffy said to her sister in an attempt to reverse her little sibling's ascent.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" Dawn growled as she gave 'the look' to her sister, "You have no idea what its like to be the sister of someone with your reputation!"
"Your right. I don't know what it's like." Buffy said deciding that if anyone was going to calm down it had to be her first before her little sister would follow, "But that's not the point right now."
"Then what is the point?" Dawn asked with her anger/annoyance decreased a bit as she tried to figure out the reason for her sister's sudden change in approach.
"That you're floating about five feet above your bed and don't know it." Buffy replied plainly pointing at the bed located beneath the young Summers woman.
That little fact proved to be enough to shatter the focus and momentum of Dawn's little rant but had the side effect of also turning off whatever it was that had caused her to float herself up towards the ceiling. Dropping like the proverbial stone the now raven haired Summers girl bounced once on the bed before being catapulted off of it and onto the floor.
"Owwww!" Dawn groaned as she got to her feet while rubbing the part of her ass that she'd landed on.
"So… um… any idea what's going on Buffy?" Willow asked as she split her attention between her best female friend and her little sister.
"I got a theory but I need you to help me with a test to make sure." Buffy said not liking the empirical test the memories of Caitlin Fairchild, which she found were still in her head now that she actually looked for them, but knowing it would be the least destructive of the possibilities.
"Sure thing." Willow replied with a slight smile at the thought of taking part in any kind of test.
"Okay I want you to close your mind, clear it of all thought, of everything." Buffy said as she watched her friend obey her instructions, "Now, while there's nothing there, open your eyes and say the first thing that come to mind."
"Mmmmm, nice!" Willow said when she opened her eyes to see Buffy's now ample chest in her direct line of sight.
Of course when she realized both what she had just said, and that might actually mean it, her face went tomato red and little discharges of wind and electricity began to manifest within her personal space. From Buffy's point of view that pretty much validated her theory that somehow the effects of last night's costume transformation spell had not only stuck around but also had altered all three of them just like Caitlin, Sarah and Roxy had been when their Gen powers manifested. Why the spell hadn't ended for them like everyone else in town she didn't know but with these changes came a whole slew of new problems not the least of which was going to school in the hope that Sunnydale blindness would kick in.
"Buffy! What're we going to do!?" Willow exclaimed with the electrical discharges she was generating getting worse as the redhead's anxiety rose, "I can't go home like this and if I go to school do you know how hard it's going to be not to chew Cordy and those vain bimbos for all the damage their doing to independent women everywhere… ohmygod!"
"Look first thing we gotta do is calm down." Buffy said wanting to stop her best friend's anxiety attack before her sparks of lightning set fire to something, "We'll go to Giles and explain everything and then he'll fix us."
"Perhaps daughter but first you will explain to me the many suspicious incidents that you've been involved with since we moved to Sunnydale." Came a voice that was authority personified and yet still had that motherly quality to it.
Looking in the direction of the door Dawn, Buffy and Willow found one Joyce Summers standing there giving them a look that made all three of them decide to obey the woman promptly and efficiently. The thing was that while they knew it was Joyce the woman before them most certainly did not look like the Joyce Summers of last night. Instead of seeing a woman in her mid-to-late forties with a fairly trim figure they saw Joyce as she must have looked fifteen or so years ago before she'd had either Buffy or Dawn. Not only that but as evidenced by her sleeveless nightgown the matriarch of the Summers clan definitely had some muscle now that had not been there the night before. It was only when she noticed the twin crimson slashes of red on either of her mother's cheeks and the single red dot in the middle of the older woman's forehead that Buffy was hit with the truth. Her mother had gotten her costume at the same place as the rest of them had and if the changes in her mom were any indication then she likely had retained the abilities of her character as well.
Oh shit! She thought as she recalled Xander's description of her Mom's character yesterday when they were all walking to the school to pick up the kids assigned to each of them.
Zealot. Lady Zannah. Co-founder of the Earth branch of the Coda sisterhood of assassins. A warrior with literally centuries of combat experience and insanely skilled in the use of just about every weapon of war she could likely name. In short the epitome of what a female warrior should be and her mom was looking at her like she'd employ a painful brand of 'discipline' on her daughter if she didn't get some answers fast.
Fortunately though Xander chose that moment to arrive and from what she could see there was now a complete set of magically altered people in the room because the Xan-man definitely had more muscle to his body now than he had last night. Add to that a little bit of stubble on his face and the militaristic way he carried himself without, as far as she could tell, knowing it and it was clear that Grifter had left her friend some parting gifts.
"Can you ladies keep the fuckin' noise down?" Xander asked crankily in a way that would make John McClane seem polite, "Man! What's a guy got to do to get a decent night's rest in this house?"
He's standing in the presence of four examples of women that would send most guys' hormones into overdrive and he's worried about getting some more sleep!? Buffy thought incredulously even as she respected her friend for being better than your average male.
For a moment Xander just stood there, taking in the scene before him, and then he turned around as though everything was normal and fully clothed and started back down the stairs.
"You want waffles for breakfast Wills?" he asked after the first three steps.
"Um, sure." Willow replied not quite sure how her best friend since pre-school could miss Buffy or even Joyce given the changes they'd undergone.
"Buffy? Dawn? Mrs. S?" he asked clearly inquiring whether they wanted waffles as well.
"Sure Xander."
"Thanks Xan."
"That would be acceptable Alexander." Were the answers that came from each of them respectively as the young man who had been the Grifter for a night vanished from sight.
For a moment they looked at one another, wondering if Xander had gone blind or at the very least gay overnight, before simply shrugging (well Buffy, Willow and Dawn shrugged while Joyce raised an aristocratic eyebrow) before setting off to start their morning routines. If any of them had been telepathic and had taken a peek inside Xander's mind during the moment he had been looking at them all of them would have laughed at his thoughts and perhaps be a bit miffed at his estimate of their self-restraint.
Want to know what he was thinking?
Back away slowly, do not react or say one word! Xander had thought before turning around to head back downstairs, 'Cause I might be crazy but I sure as hell ain't stupid! No way am I gonna ogle Buffy's Fairchild chest or remark about how much of a babe Joyce is right now! Contrary to what some people might think I am not that stupid!
