Halloween, Part 3

A/N: One last reminder - this isn't a story about Halloween costume crossovers. Also, Jon will be referred to as Jack until the spell is broken - the 'real' Jack has NOT come to Sunnydale.

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Halloween: Willow

When the spell hit, Willow was, perhaps, the most fortunate in the alterations that occurred. Goths, after all, are not truly all that different from any other random person, so not all that much changed for Willow. Save, unfortunately, for a lack of awareness as to what the heck had just happened, or that anything was, in fact, wrong. At least until she noticed the several ... not-humans running around.

Unfortunately for Willow, several of the tykes in her group had been dressed as various monsters, their costumes supplied by Ethan. They no longer looked human, nor did they act it. Willow, with no memory of her recent training in how to fight and survive in Sunnydale, nor of what she'd been doing prior to the spell's activation, reacted rather understandably. To whit, she screamed and ran. Two of the 'monsters' took off after her, while the remaining two went after their fellow children, scattering them to the four winds.

Willow didn't stop running until she lost the 'monsters' about two blocks down the road. Not because she outran them, but because they got sidetracked by other potential mayhem and quit chasing her. At that point, Willow glanced around and frowned.

"Where's Xander?" She asked thin air. Then, more worriedly. "Where's Xander? I have to find him. He'll get hurt." Then she grimaced. "Or I will. Better try to keep an eye out."

It was perhaps a great mercy that Jesse wasn't brought to mind for whatever reason.

Willow headed instinctively towards Xander's house. Meaning where Tony and Jessica lived. She decided to check there just in case, then start trying to find Xander if he wasn't at home.

First, though, she had to figure out where she was. Fortunately, that didn't take long, as she spotted the familiar bulk of Sunnydale University just on the other side of the block she was on. That told her she was pretty close to Xander's place, since he didn't live all that far from the university. Reoriented and with a plan in mind, Willow immediately headed south.

Sadly, the route to Xander's wasn't smooth sailing. Willow ran into several packs of 'monsters' on the way, and had to run from them. At one point, she'd been forced up a tree for lack of anywhere else to go out of their reach before they got distracted and ran off. This of course resulted in more than a little backtracking as she was forced from her intended route.

All the lights were out at Xander's house when she finally reached it. That meant Xander wasn't there. If he had been home, the lights would have been on somewhere in the house. His room at the very least. But there was nothing. Now what? Xander could be anywhere! Willow lurked outside Xander's house for a bit, trying to decide where to start looking.

After several moments of debate, Willow decided to try the Bronze, then the high school. If Xander wasn't in either place, Willow would figure out what to do at that point. Staying at the school or going to her own home would probably be the best bets, as Xander would look for her in those places.

Oh. Crap. Maybe Xander was already at her place? Willow immediately turned and headed for her own home. It was worth a look.

(_)(_)(_)

Halloween: Jack

Jack did more than a little cursing when, between one step and the next, he went from his Air Force barracks to ... Where the hell WAS he? Hell if he knew.

He started moving on automatic, years of soldier instinct driving him to a place where he had solid brick at his back and a good line of sight on anything that approached his position. Once he was as secure as he could manage, he patted himself down to check both his condition and what tools he had on hand. He was relieved to find himself both unharmed and armed. He was very confused at the type of weapons he had on his person however. The KA-Bar was to be expected. The small crossbow and accompanying arrows? Not so much. Ditto the several other knives and daggers he was sporting, all of them looking far too delicate to be military gear. No gun of any description. No grenades, even. Nor did he have about ninety percent of the things that he generally packed in the pockets of his camo gear. Interestingly, he did have some basic first aid items.

What. The. Hell.

That assessment taken care of, Jack quickly assessed his surroundings. Some town somewhere, or maybe a suburb, it was hard to tell. The street corner, about thirty feet to his left, provided him with a street sign in English. That narrowed his choices down as to where he was at to ... well, somewhere in an English speaking country. So not all that helpful.

More worrying were the ... things ... running around. Various sizes and descriptions, but none of them friendly, and quite a few of them were working together to harass a bunch of kids in costumes.

Wait, Halloween costumes? That couldn't be right. It'd been mid-May just an hour ago. Shit. What the fuck was going on?

Ah, to hell with it. There were kids in trouble. He might not know what the hell was going on with how he got here, or much of anything else, but he could do something about kids in danger. Once he got that squared away, he could try to figure out what the hell was going on.

He debated his options, but quickly decided that just grabbing kids would probably work best. Panicking kids weren't likely to obey if he called for them to do something.

He managed to secure three kids, dragging them to a covered porch on the apartment building he'd been plunked down in front of when he'd arrived (however the fuck that happened). In two of the three cases, he'd had to kick attacking ... well, monsters, he supposed, away from the kids. Surprisingly, the monsters had gone away willingly enough, evidently not willing to face off with someone who wasn't an easy target.

The fourth rescue ... well, that one shook Jack. Because one of the odd sorts he passed - one who was, for a miracle, not attacking anyone - looked disturbingly familiar. Bright yellow skin, red shirt, blue shorts, blue shoes. In other words ... Bart Simpson.

Seriously. What the FUCK was going on around here?

(_)(_)(_)

Halloween: Buffy

Buffy did more than a little screaming.

For one - not home anymore. Not anywhere in Hemery, come to that. At least, not anywhere she recognizes, and she knew Hemery pretty well. For two, there were monsters all over the place and one of them had started trying to gnaw on her ankle. She kicked it off with a shriek, then scrambled away from the rest of the 'monsters'.

Unfortunately, Buffy was not going to be as lucky as Willow and Jack. Ethan's spells might have changed some things, but they couldn't change the fact that Buffy was a Slayer, and that as such, she tended to attract demonic attention. REAL demonic attention.

While most demons kept to their lairs on Halloween, others did not, relishing the chance to walk in the open without truly being 'noticed'. Two fairly young vampires, some of the last surviving minions from before Spike's takeover of Sunnydale, were among those having a bit of fun in the open. One of the pair spotted Buffy, and the hunt was on.

Buffy might not have been able to remember that she was a Slayer at the moment, but like a pretty good percentage of people, she was instinctively aware of being in danger. Whether that was just natural tendency, being wigged out and hyper alert thanks to having been dropped here by means she didn't know, or some of the Slayer in her escaping from under Ethan's spells would be a matter for much debate. Whatever the cause, Buffy started to move away from the (apparent) too-pale teenagers that were coming down the street.

They started moving faster. So did she. Unfortunately, they seemed to be faster than she was, and caught up with her.

Lucky for her, they might have been minions, but they weren't criminally stupid. That they had survived Spike's purge was testament to that much. They were bright enough to realize that a pair of minions didn't have much of a chance against a Slayer, even if she wasn't acting Slayer-ish at the moment. So they circled her, careful to keep her between them and stay out of easy grappling range, and taunted her.

"Well lookiee what we got here, Stu." One said to the other. "We got us a tasty little bird."

"Yep." Stu agreed. "Right tasty indeed." Stu flashed into game face, which made Buffy shriek in alarm and almost stumble into his compatriot as she backed away from Stu. Stu blinked at her, then gave his compatriot a delighted, fang-filled grin. "I do believe we got us quite a catch here, Ed. Don't think she know's what's what."

"I think you're right." Ed said, eyeballing Buffy. He'd backpedaled hurriedly when she'd stumbled towards him, wary of a trick. It was beginning to look like that wasn't the case. It didn't look like the Slayer remembered what she was. Or what they were. Master Spike would ... oh. Master Spike. "Stu ... reckon we should bring her to Master Spike. You know he's wanted a go at her."

Stu frowned down at Buffy rebelliously. "Why? We found her. She's rightfully ours. Master Spike wanted her, he should've got to her first."

"Good point." Ed said, then lunged at Buffy.

Unfortunately for him, while Buffy didn't remember being a Slayer, she still retained Slayer strength and abilities. A wild, instinctive swing at Ed sent him flying backwards and left an opening that Buffy could take advantage of.

She ran.

(_)(_)(_)

Halloween: Xander

Xander's alterations were the most extreme. He was not reverting to an earlier version of himself, or a mildly altered version of himself. The 'soldier' came out of nothing, so in the end, there was very little of Xander in the soldier that found himself on the streets of Sunnydale.

His initial reaction to his displacement was very similar to Jack's - namely, get himself somewhere relatively safe-ish, then check his gear and himself before attempting to figure out where the hell he was and what the hell was going on. That done, he too tried to decide what the hell to do next.

The most obvious answer was find someone who might know what the hell had happened. So, ignoring the chaos around him, he started out. He was on what looked like a fairly major road, which helped. At least he wouldn't have to find his way out of tangled back streets or worse, unmarked bush of some variety.

By chance, he ended up heading east, and eventually came to a major crossroad ... across from which was a school. Better yet, the school gave him what he was betting was the town's name - Sunnydale. Not that he could do anything with the information at the moment - not when he had no way to contact his superiors, but it was a start. And where there was a school, there might be computers. And where there were computers, there would be information.

So, now he had a plan. Get into the school and find either a computer or better yet the Principal's Office - his chances of finding a computer there were pretty high, and he'd also find other sources of information in such a place.

Weirdly, despite it being after dark and there not being more than one or two cars in the lot, the school's doors were unlocked. Xander shrugged and started to make his way through the building. He didn't get very far before he was confronted by a short, balding man who was quite frankly puffed up with his own importance.

"Harris! What the hell are you doing back here? I'll see you expelled for this! You're supposed to be out tailing the brats while they get their candy!"

Xander regarded the man with blank incomprehension. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about sir. I assure you I have better things to be doing than escorting kids on candy runs. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to arrange to get back to my unit." And Xander brushed past the man.

"Harris, GET BACK HERE!" The man howled, but Xander ignored him and kept going.

Xander might have been tempted to ask the man what the hell was going on, but the man's antagonistic attitude discouraged it. Xander doubted he'd get any sort of answer from such a man. Better to seek out that computer, or a less antagonistic person to question.