Halloween, Part 2
A/N: Once again, this is not a story about wacky costumed crossovers and hijinks. Once Ethan's spell is activated, Jon will be referred to as Jack. Everyone else will retain their names.
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Halloween: Ethan's Shop
Ethan closed the shop an hour before the trick or treating was due to start. He knew he'd probably miss one or two very last minute costume shoppers, but it couldn't be helped. He needed the time to prepare. Half of the hour would be given over to a few simple tricks to slow down anyone who might attempt to stop the spell, and his offering to Janus.
Ethan first placed all of the failed attempts at totems around the shop and the back room. One or two were visibly malformed, but most of them had been failures for less obvious reasons, which would make it harder to discern the real totem from the fakes visually. Ethan had, early on in the planning for this caper, placed harmless runes on each of the failures so that they radiated just enough magic to seem like they might be the control totem. He'd been aware he'd need ways to stall or stop attempts to break the spell even at that early stage and had done what he could to prepare beforehand.
Some of the statues he placed in plain sight. One of the totems that, while a failure, had turned out better than the others even sat in an apparently proper altar at in the back room of the shop. The second - best failure he'd locked into the shops' small safe, a place that would seem 'best' to hide such a thing. The others he hid carefully around the shop and back room. The true control totem was tucked under a floorboard - that Ethan had then re-secured so it did not give itself away - under the floor mat just inside the shop door.
This setup would significantly slow down anyone other than Ripper who attempted to interfere. Most people wouldn't know enough about magic in general, never mind chaos magic, to know how to stop the spell in the first place, never mind being able to tell a real control totem from a fake. But that wasn't the only thing Ethan did to protect the totem. Largely because he knew he did have to take Ripper into account.
Sadly Ripper knew enough about chaos magic that he'd find the true control totem really fast if Ethan just hid it and left it at that. That is, if Ripper bothered to listen to the part of him that was Ripper, and not the proper, starched Watcher. Not that Ripper was all that proper and starched, Ethan was willing to admit. Which made the chances of him finding the totem a lot higher.
Unfortunately, there was nothing Ethan could do to prevent Ripper from ending the spell if he stormed the castle, as it were. The totem had to be within a certain distance of himself, as he was the one making the offering to Janus. He could, however, slow him down. So Ethan wove several additional spells into the shop to make things difficult for Ripper.
The first one disorientated anyone entering the shop, putting their sense of balance and direction on an uneven keel. The second muddled their thoughts, making it difficult to remember what they'd come here for or concentrate. The third was an illusion spell that would distort the true dimensions of the shop, and as a beneficial side effect, further confuse an invader's sense of balance and direction. The fourth was a spell to impregnate the whole shop with a magical aura, which would make it difficult to pinpoint the magical auras of the spells Ethan had cast and the location and magical aura of the totems. That would make breaking the security spells and finding the right totem just that much more difficult.
Once his preparations were finished, Ethan waited, keeping an eye out the door for trick or treaters. He'd start the spell about fifteen or twenty minutes after the official beginning of the trick-or-treat hours, to ensure that as many people were in costume as possible.
(_)(_)(_)
Halloween: Sunnydale High
Jon was not overly thrilled with the whole having to wear a costume thing for Halloween. It had been a very, very, very long time since he'd done such a thing. Despite the fact he was in a kid's body, he just couldn't get into the spirit of the thing anymore at this late date.
It really didn't help that this time of year (and Christmas, and ... oh, who the hell was he kidding? Every. Fucking. Day.) brought bittersweet memories of Charlie to the surface. His grief over Charlie's death was no longer as devastating as it had once been - time, if nothing else, had seen to that. Still, he got sucker-punched from time to time, and there were days and dates when the grief was worse regardless.
He hadn't told any of them about Charlie, not yet. Well, not by name, and not specifics at any rate. He had talked to Willow and Xander about dealing with losing someone close to them to a violent, unexpected death. So they knew he'd lost *someone* like that, but he hadn't given specifics. More because the discussion had been about them and *their* grief and pain over the death of their friend Jamie, not about him and his grief over Charlie. Which, it would have become about Charlie at least a bit because Jon still couldn't say his son's name without his voice cracking, never mind actually talking about how he'd died.
He suspected they'd figured it out, though. Combine what he'd told them during the summer with his being a bit more tetchy than normal the last few days and the fact that neither Willow nor Xander were stupid, and they had very probably pieced it together. Them figuring it out explained the really bad attempt at unobtrusive hovering Xander was doing. Willow was a bit more successful at it, but not by much.
Either way, Jon had been in no mood to dress up. He could probably have gone for something other than fatigues as a costume and not felt ridiculous, but his heart hadn't been in it. So fatigues it had been. Xander had happily joined him.
Because the trick-or-treating would last past sundown - a fact that had pissed Jon off massively - they were all packing at least one weapon. Jon didn't want to know where Buffy was hiding hers, given that her cheerleader costume didn't really have much in the way of room to hide things. Willow was better off than Buffy - her outfit provided quite a few places to hide things. Jon and Xander, thanks to their costumes, would be carrying entire arsenals. Not only did they have the room to hide things, but 'soldiers' openly carrying 'weapons' wouldn't raise eyebrows.
The one thing that Jon really hated about this whole mess was that the four of them would be separated. He wasn't worried about Buffy - she could handle herself. But Willow being on her own concerned him. She was the least capable of defending herself of the three teens. Being forced to let Xander walk Sunnydale after dark alone made Jon's hackles rise and had him clenching his jaw until his teeth started grinding. It felt wrong on a fundamental level, and Jon had a feeling he would be having his group of kidlets tailing Xander's group if at all humanly possible.
Eventually, they were all dressed and ready, and they headed over to the high school. The gym, when they arrived about an hour before the start of the trick-or-treating, was a madhouse, as was the parking lot. There were kids *everywhere*, from barely ambulatory toddlers to high school seniors. The parking lot was mostly full of adults who had agreed to drive groups to different areas of Sunnydale, so that the trick-or-treating got spread out. Snyder and several other teachers from the high school were attempting to keep things calm and organized without much success.
"This is nuts!" Xander called, raising his voice in order for Willow and Buffy to hear him over the bedlam. "How they think they're going to get this organized, I don't know."
"Agreed." Buffy said, eyeballing the mass of kids. "This is going to end in tears."
Surprisingly, about a half hour later, Snyder and the teachers did in fact manage to get things somewhat calmed down. At least enough to find the chosen escorts and give them each a list. The list had names on it, of the kids who'd be in their group.
Once Jon had his list, he walked over to the bleachers and climbed halfway up them. From there, he gave a piercing whistle that, if it didn't shut everyone up, got them to quiet down a bit.
"Ok - if I call your name, come up here by me!" He yelled, then started reading off names.
That got everyone else started, and one by one the escorts found a corner to park themselves in and started reading off names. Within five minutes the crowd in the gym had been divided into their groups.
"Right." Jon said once he had all of his group. "Everybody got something to put their loot in?" He wanted to know.
He got a ragged chorus of agreement, and more than a few of the kids - his group was all in the six - to - eight range, waved pillowcases at him.
"Excellent. Now, for the rules." Jon grinned at the whines. "Don't worry, there aren't a lot of them. Rule one - stay with the group at all times. Rule two - the group does not stray more than two houses away from me at any time. Rule three - no stealing anyone's candy. Rule four - no destroying property. And that's it. Not that bad or that hard."
And the kids actually seemed to agree, though some of the older ones seemed less than thrilled about having to stick with the group and stick close. Fortunately his group was young enough to not do more than whine about such a restriction. Some of the older kids would doubtlessly try to bolt if their escort laid down such a rule.
His group in hand, and with a bit to go before the trick or treating started, Jon glanced around. Buffy was at the far end of the gym, surrounded by a group of preteens. Willow and her group, comprised of four and five year olds, were only a few feet away from Buffy. Xander, who had another group of six to eight year old kids, was closest to Jon, and grinned at Jon when they caught each other's eye.
Willow got her group moving towards the door, evidently wanting to take her group further from the high school than they could comfortably walk. Buffy headed out with her group a minute later, as did a couple of the other escorts and their groups.
That left four groups who'd be casing the area closest to the high school. Jon, Xander, and the other two escorts got together to agree on who would start where, and where they'd go. That was more so they'd know who a stray kid belonged to if they ran across one than for any other reason.
Jon got his own group moving, as he planned to start near where the beach, cliff, and woods converged and the apartment buildings there, and work his way back towards the high school. If all went well, they'd about get back to the school right about as the trick or treating hours ended. Xander planned to swing past the Pine Grove cemetery, past Buffy's place and up towards Giles' house, then back around towards the high school, so they'd be fairly close to each other. That helped with Jon's unease at being so far from Xander for so long. The other two escorts that were sticking close to the high school had their preferred routes worked out too.
Jon had decided on the apartment buildings because they provided a certain amount of cover and security from attack. While there might be demons in one or more of the apartments, he'd be able to steer the kids clear of those doors hopefully, and the fact that there would be human residents all around would lower the chances of anything bad happening. Or so he hoped.
The kids were, of course, all in high spirits and more than a little hyper, looking forward to all the candy they'd score tonight. There was more than a little bouncing, yelling, running and laughing going on, but as long as they stayed close, Jon let them get it out of their systems.
(_)(_)(_)
Halloween: Ethan's Shop
Ethan glanced at the clock and smiled. It was time.
He got to his feet, then knelt to one side of the shop's front door where the real totem was hidden. He put one hand directly over the totem and began a brief chant/prayer to Janus, alerting Him that the event was about to begin, and an offering to him.
Once the prayer was done, Ethan gathered his magic to him and focused it on the totem under his hand. He then began the incantation that would trigger the spells on the costumes now wandering Sunnydale. As soon as the final syllable was out of his mouth, an enormous wave of magic rolled over the town.
Seconds later, the screaming began.