Chapter Two: Forgotten Heroes a BtvS/Slingers cross

AN: I had a feeling very few people would recognize these characters, but I felt that using them would allow me to accomplish two things: doing something with Buffy characters that was original (more or less) and to do so with humor and good taste (again, more or less). Commentary is appreciated to improve my writing style.

I also take this time to apologize for the delay in the uploading of this chapter, work has been a wench to the Nth degree.

After gathering more sharp pointy sticks to use as weapons, Prodigy and Ricochet started patrolling the area, using Ricochet's danger-sense and the odd cramps that Prodigy kept getting as indicators of what to slay and what to knock out. Speak of the devil- Ricochet's danger sense started to kick in and it pointed him in the direction of a girl running away from a Yeti- like beast. Must have dressed as a werewolf or something. thought Ricochet. He turned to his partner, who nodded and they both moved in to save the ?cat-girl?.

"You know, this is somehow all your body's fault, right?" quipped Prodigy

"WHAT?! Why is it suddenly my body's fault? What did it ever do to yours?"

"......REPHRASE THAT NOW! RICOCHET!!!!"

"..." Smirked Rico.

Rico looked around for something to bounce a disc off of, finding very little, he opted to get physical with Sparky. He jumped into the air and executed a drop kick that would make most ninjas frown with shame - but it got the job done. The kick staggered the Yeti, opening it up for Prodigy to deliver a good shot to it's jaw. The Yeti staggered backwards again and fell into the clutches of the girl dressed in the cat getup, who decided to smack the Yeti over the head with an abandoned bat, knocking the Yeti out cold.

"Good work, Miss," Rico said in his best Charlton Heston voice, indicating he'd like a name for the shapely cat-girl.

Cordelia looked at the two spandex clad weirdos and recognized a voice. "XANDER!? Xander what the hell are you doing running around here in SPANDEX?! AND WHY ARE YOU TALKING LIKE CHARLTON HESTON?" She looked at the she-Prodigy and did a double-take. "IS THAT BUFFY IN THAT GET UP!?

Ricochet burst out into laughing while Prodigy grimaced indignantly. Rico recovered fast enough to pinch himself, in case he was dreaming. "You mean to tell me that the body that Ritchie's stuck in is named BUFFY.?"

"Yeah, Buffy, little Miss Likes To Fight, vampire slayer gal. Do you mind telling me what's going on Xander?"

Ricochet was rolling around on the ground in a fit of laughter as Prodigy tried to save face. "That is not your Xander who you are talking to, his name is Ricochet, my name is Prodigy. Someone cast a spell to cause this chaos and while we are in these bodies, we will help stop it. You should go home and stay inside."

"Oh NO WAY BUSTER!" Cordy fumed. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers!"

Rico and Prodigy looked to each other, both gave a mutual shrug. "Ok, where is the nearest place we can go for some peace," Rico's danger-sense flared and he hurled a makeshift stake at the real vampire lurking to their side, dusting it easily. "And quiet?"

"Ok, definitely not Harris, that was cool..." muttered Cordelia. "I think Buffy lives around here." She took a quick reference look and marched off in the direction of 1630 Revello Drive.

During the walk, Prodigy asked: "You said this girl is a Vampire Slayer?"

Annoyed, Cordelia answered, "Yes, what does it matter?"

"Is she a mutant of some kind, or a magical being."

"Magical Chosen One: One girl in all the world with the power to slay the vamps, demons and to REALLY ANNOY ME!"

Prodigy was not phased by that and offered a small "Huh". That explains why the suit and cape are not working right. The magic of the spell plus the slayer magic must be interfering with the suit's magic. I must be cautious and only rely on my skill, for now I am trapped in a powerless form.

AN: While it's not said in so many words in the comics that the Prodigy Suit is a magical armor, it's hinted at and it is the only really viable explanation that explains Prodigy: Ritchie Gilmore is just a normal obscenely athletic guy, not capable of lifting over 10 tons over his head. In the Prodigy suit, he can. Just wanted to clear that up

Once they had arrived to the Summers residence, the two teammates scanned the area for any immediate threats, finding none they entered the household to be greeted with a wall of pictures of Buffy, Dawn and Joyce in multiple family poses. Ricochet found a picture with his body, This 'Buffy' girl's and the body who Dusk was trapped in. He picked it up and brought it over to their air head hostess. "Who is this girl?" Pointing to the cute redhead.

"Do this LATER, Johnny."

"She's Willow. Her and you, I mean Xander, are usually attached to the hip together. Where is she anyways? Book girl should know how to fix this."

"Waitwaitwait, back up. You mean that this really cute redhead and my body are always together? We're dating right? Tell me this body is dating that right?"

"Nope. Loser-boy hasn't noticed that Willow's a girl."

Ricochet went slack-jawed and started rubbing the back of his head. He had to fix this. His only evident solution to this would be to leave Xander a note exclaiming his stupidity for not dating this girl, Willow. Rico finished writing the note and left it in the wallet in his jacket pocket. Rico returned to the two bitchy women. "So, think we should make with the super hero thing?"

Prodigy nodded in agreement and delivered a nerve pinch to Cordelia, knocking her out. He/she placed Cordy on the couch in the living room. While this Cordelia did know the area, she was not at all suited to fight the forces of evil tonight, in a cat leotard no less. Being knocked out on the Summers' couch was the lesser of two evils.

Suddenly both heroes hear someone walking in through the back door. As Ricochet's danger-sense goes off, he grabs a disc, Prodigy grabs a stake and they both move to see who and or what it is.

The figure looks at them, perplexed then sniffs the air. "Buffy? Is that you?" Angel gives her/him a once over and swallows, hard. "Nice costume, you didn't tell me what you were wearing." trying not to stare "Spandex." he whistled softly. Oblivious to the death glare that She-Prodigy is giving him through his/her helmet, he continues. "It's like a living hell out there. We need to get out there and find a way to stop this." Captain Hairgel finally notices the stake aimed at him and realizing his predicament, he summed it up nicely: "Oh crap. You're your costumes aren't you?" Raising his arms in the universal 'I come unarmed' approach, he tried to explain himself, but he was cut off when Ricochet's foot found itself in Angel's mid section, sending him backwards into the door. Prodigy moves in for the staking but Angel manages to scream out. "I have a soul! We're on the same side!"

Ricochet checks his danger-sense again, noticing that this vampire did indeed feel different from the rest he had met that night, dangerous, but currently inert. "Ritchie, let go of him, he's tellin' the truth."

Prodigy backed off, lowering the stake and continued the glare. "Look at me like I am Jenny Macarthy again and you will be dust faster than you can say Kirby. Understood?" Angel nodded. "Good, you'll have your girlfriend back soon enough, but for now, avoid staring at my chest." The two males and one she-male left the residence to combat the darkness after locking up.

Hornet and Dusk were faring about as well as usual: things have devolved into a complete S.N.A.F.U. Dusk had been trying to track this obscure feeling she had been getting since the activation of the spell, but something else was jamming her long range sensors/magic-sense/radar, whatever. She was able to indicate which were the real monsters running amok the town and which were the trick or treaters. She passed this information onto Hornet and he proceeded to spank their undead asses with his gauntlet stingers. A moment of enlightenment hit Hornet and he touched down in front of a phone booth, taking off his gauntlets to reveal two aged, but completely whole hands. Eddie could not help but flex his right hand experimentally, testing it, relishing the thought of being whole for once. Time to get back to work, Hornet. Eddie chastised himself and started thumbing through the phone book, looking for costume shops in the yellow pages. He quickly found the pages he needed and ripped them unceremoniously out of the book. He tossed on his gauntlets and let fly out of the booth, finding Dusk fighting with some peons who thought it wise to dress as a trio of RPG characters.

After Dusk successfully knocked out the Dark Elf, Gnome and Halfling she tossed them into a roomy, yet comfy dumpster. Dusk walked back to where Hornet was waiting for her.

"Note to self: We now take down D&D characters with maximum prejudice."

Cassie smirked underneath her mask. "Funny, Eddie, really funny. Which dweeb did you think was the cutest?"

That caught Hornet completely off-guard as he tried to stammer off a defense. Deciding that shutting up would be the best bet, Eddie whisked Cassie off her feat and started flying to the address he got from the phone book for the last shop they had yet to check out. Ethan's.

"According to the phone book, Ethan's is new and will beat all other costume shops. Perfect for selling costumes that would turn everyone into their alter egos for the night."

As they grew closer, Cassie confirmed it with her odd magic-sense. "This is the place alright. It's oozing a weird energy."

Eddie righted them to their normal vertical standing and landed. They looked into the shop to see a few lights still on at this hour.

Ethan was enjoying a fag and a brandy, oblivious to the heroes approaching his establishment. He gazed into his crystal ball (which was tacky, he would admit, but it made one hell of a closed circuit TV) and watched the chaos unfold. To keep things interesting, he made sure to sell several hero costumes along with his demon ones. Currently he saw a grossly overweight Spider-Man look outside at the chaos, trying to not completely break down at why he was suddenly an overweight short kid. Eventually Spider- Man closed the door to his home and proceeded to turn on his Playstation.

AN: Good god, this didn't take so long because of lack of muse, but I NEED A NEW JOB! If anyone is looking for a multitalented skilled labor dude in the maritime provinces of Canada, IM me and you'll have a new best friend. I'll try to get the next few chapters up as fast as I can get my sleep deprived hands to type 'em.

Later. JehutyRunner

.