AN: This is just an idea that smacked me over the head and made me wonder just what I could do to really mess with the timelines of the series, this is set in an alternate universe that I will somewhat explain in the fic, but it diverges at the beginning of the first season, Buffy comes later, just before Halloween costumes which is when this takes place, but basically, Joyce couldn't find a job in Sunnydale and thus found something elsewhere, Giles had his contract trapping him there while without a Slayer, a wondering Time/Space/Dimension hopper called the Doctor ended the harvest after a malfunction with the TARDIS and ended up appearing on top of Luke and vaporizing all of the Vampires present in a half instant, the same malfunction trapped him there for most of the year, managing to leave just prior to Buffy's arrival.
But with everything going crazy, Angel dies when they fight the Master, mainly just because most of the Cordettes spotted him and he couldn't manage to sneak out of town. Spike and Dru showed up right on the Slayers heels as Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce finally move to Sunnydale. Buffy had met up with Ethan Rayne when he'd been double crossed in New York, and the Chaos Mage changed, somewhat, when he met Joyce in a very strange turn of events.
How will Sunnydale react to the strangest bunch of Mages, Mad Scientists, Inventors, and Genius' to ever walk the multiverse? But as the day of fun and chaos approaches, things get a little weirder, even for the Hellmouth. But this part will be rather short, but it's more of just a way to open up the things for the story itself.
xXx
"We have to pick a theme?" Jessie screamed from his perch on the counter.
"Bingo," Xander mumbled as he sat on the steps, "Why the hell does Quark get these ideas?"
"Any ideas what we should dress as?" Xander asked as he took another drink of the Mountain Dew.
"Fictional right?" Buffy asked as she leaned back,
"Well," Willow commented, "Why not let Giles pick the theme, he's stuck with us, the little troll doesn't want us 'contaminating' the other students."
"G-man?" both Jessie and Xander asked with a glance at the Brit.
"Erm..." the Watcher commented as he looked up from his book, "Scientists, like Einstein or Bell, whatever it is, just get me something, I really don't care I have to send this blasted report in by tomorrow!"
The group just stared at him with an evil smile and he gulped audibly.
xXx
"How did you talk me into this?" Giles, dressed as Q of Q branch, moaned as he walked with the group, Snider basically stuck a handful of students under each teacher before breaking them up to handle the little kids.
"You suggested Genius' and Inventors, but the rules said they had to be fictional," Xander responded from his costume of Carl from VanHelsing, "So stop griping G-man!"
"Yep," Oz said, dressed, for some reason as R from Q branch.
"Well, Willow and Buffy have okay costumes," Jessie said as he leaned back in his costume as Merlin, "Willow dressing as Washu from Tenchi and Buffy as Shion from Xenosaga, although Buffy's choice was made for her by her sister dressing up as KOS-MOS."
"Don't rub it in!" the slayer huffed.
"Question?" Jonathan, dressed as Artemis Fowl, grumbled as he entered, "Just what did I do to get me stuck here? Especially when Cordelia was stuck with us, but never showed?"
"Snyder sent her home."
xXx
"Spike," the mad vampiress Drusilla commented as she danced around, "The night will change, and the slayer's gone away!"
"Sounds like fun!" the other smiled as he headed out.
xXx
Magic flashed through the city and costumes became reality.
xXx
"Where am I?" Q asked his heir in training, "And why do I have the feeling that 007 is somehow responsible for this mess?"
xXx
Dru was in a panic as the red headed girl she was about to attack changed into something else that yelled something about a guinea pig and dragged her off.
Washu cackled as she began her experiments.
xXx
"KOS-MOS wait up!" Shion yelled as she chased the android girl through the street as she laid waste to the creatures all around with the weapons she materialized.
Finally it seemed that either there weren't any more enemies or they had learned to steer clear of the crazy chick with large weaponry, blue hair, and a helmet.
"Thank god that's over," Shion stuttered as she cleaned the dust off her glasses while surveying the total wreckage around them.
"Shion, visual parameters down to 98.5," the robot stated, "Shion, I need a cleaning."
The scientist face faulted.
xXx
Carl frantically dug through his pack for something, anything, to help him at the moment.
The holy water pistol didn't kill these things, though it did make them fall on the ground smoking.
"Ah," he said with a slight stutter when he pulled out a bowling ball sized, glass sphere from his robes, "This...this could do!"
Then he tripped and it rolled into a sewer grate and he heard a shattering sound,
"Uh-oh!"
There was a bright flash of light as every sewer lid in the city was blasted skywards, and the young man barely got clear before that section of the street collapsed.
"It seems I miscalculated a bit," he stammered, "Far more than enough to flash fry a herd of buffalo."
xXx
That Merlin was ticked would have been an understatement, that he was raging would have been down playing it, he was annoyed almost to the point that a Death Star would have been a better sign if it showed up in space when you were in a Rebel base.
"Whoever the thrice damned necromancer who decided to give you abominations life will live forever in torment at my hands," the penultimate mage roared as he vaporized dozens of vampires with a wave of his hand, a literal rain of fire called down from the sky, "Reigeki!"
xXx
Where the bloody hell am I, the pale, Irish criminal mastermind thought, this didn't involve the People, it did involve magic of some sort, and this was totally insane!
"When did my life decide to take a spin through an asylum?"
xXx
Spike was running for his life as the crazy cat-girl fired another at him.
He managed to grab one and look at it and blinked...
...and blinked again...
...and again.
"Peebo!"
An explosion dusted him.
xXx
In the morning Ethan smiled as he leaned back, it had been a fun night. Part of him was happier that he'd controlled they types of costumes he'd sold, making sure to attempt to keep only the 'good' guy ones there, sure, parts could make some villains, but it was funny watching the night.
He'd only kept the spell going for a few hours, but the effects would be reaching, only a few of them had costumes that would have a longer effect, after all, he had to keep his dates kids and his old friends allies alive.