Thursday, October 30th, 1997
Several weeks had gone by without too great a danger from surfacing. Xander continued his training, kept up his grades with the help of Willow and Giles, and started practicing guitar in the Library when research wasn't being done. Giles had insisted that he branch out a little from KISS, but many of the songs picked covered the same weakness in skill. He'd been seen by a few college types when playing at the Bronze, and for some front money, he'd grabbed the Dingoes, a band comprised of fellow Sunnydale High students, and in the process of getting good coverage for future college gigs, which were able to cell phone for help before breaking up the Machida ring. A quick call to his dad meant a good stock tip and some extra spending money.
"Ah, Halloween," Xander smirked at his two friends as he'd managed to avoid Snyder's conscription as he pled unavailable due to a gig at the Shelter, though only the Dingoes would be playing. "Sorry to hear you two will be guiding the little monsters and princesses around," he added with pointed insincerity, "I've been invited to a bunch of parties; want me to swing by after and sweep you off your feet."
"Might as well," Buffy sighed, "I know you don't like him, but can Angel come with us?"
"Only if I get to pick out his costume for him," Xander smiled evilly, earning an amused glare, "But I promise it won't be too bad, but it won't be black."
"Fine, but I get to pick Willow's," Buffy smirked in return.
"Hey!" Willow exclaimed in horror at what was happening, "Don't I get a say in this?"
"No," came the dual reply as they headed off to Ethan's, Buffy phoning Angel for measurements.
How may I help you?" the proprietor asked as the three entered the busy store, recognizing the Slayer from photos stolen from the Watchers archives.
"Well, I believe you have a shipment for me you're supposed to fill out," Xander said, "The name is either under Simmons or Harris?"
"Ah, yes, I have it all in back, plus a few accessories I believe add a little something to it for Halloween," Ethan smiled, being a mild fan of the group in his younger days, and watched the girls head further into the store, "Can I help you with anything else?"
"Yeah, I have a 'friend' whose social skills are a little on the 'dead' side, and I wanted to find something not dark and mysterious that I could get him to wear," Xander considered, handing over measurements.
"How old is he?"
"Looks early twenties, but acts like two hundred," Xander smiled, Ethan identically as he realized the boy must be quietly in league with an old vampire. 'This could be truly interesting if not chaotic,' Ethan considered.
"Well, let's see what we can find, shall we?"
"So Buffy?" Willow broached ingenuously, "Should we go as a theme?"
"Hmm, don't know," Buffy smirked, "We'll see what I can come up with. For you I'm thinking spandex."
"Oh, no, for that I'd have to have, you know, curves, which I don't have…"
"We'll see, we'll see."
"I still don't see why I have to be part of this," Angel complained to Xander, "This day usually is avoided by…the night life."
"So you do consider yourself to be a demon?"
"No…but I am a vampire."
"I thought you were the soul possessing your old body."
"Well, yeah, but I have all the memories…"
"Put this on…and I'm thinking the soul should be making with the 'pissing off of the demon.'"
"What do you mean…and do I really have to wear that?"
"No that's mine, hold still while I put the greasepaint on, and I'm saying this as a vampire-despiser, if you're the soul stuck with the other dude's crappy memories, you should get even and be a 'boy scout.' Be nice to people. Send a check every month to those gypsies that brought you back. Use stationery with teddy bears or hearts, I don't care…but if Angelus'll hate it, I'll be happy."
"Hmm, you have a point, what about this odd helmet, it looks…stupid."
"Merely dorky, and…if it makes her laugh…but I suppose not, it really doesn't go with the costume."
"Yeah…you still love her?"
"Not in the same way, least I don't think, there's this whole Willow maybe-thing developing. And she doesn't look at me that way, the Master's lair pretty much ended any hopes. Hmm, looks like we're done here. We'll be done with the kids around six, but we'll have a few minutes with the girls before."
"What should I do while waiting?"
"Hmm, just help Giles with things, and talk about 'the old country' or any magic known by Angelus that doesn't involve hurting people. Right now, I am the closest guy friend he has. Come to think about it, the three of us are pretty sad, even if we have to put up with each other we might just have to start hanging out so the girls don't outnumber us too much."
Xander's Car, Willow not Buffy driving
Willow is pulling into the parking lot as Buffy finishes the last touches on the costumes. Looking uncomfortable, Willow turns the car off.
"Does he know about your costume?" she asks Buffy.
"Nope, and Xander still doesn't know yours," the blonde slayer smirked, "This is a wake up call for both of them, if this doesn't get them going, nothing will."
"O-okay, but, but promise I look alright?" the red-head said
"Wills, you look hot, if I weren't straight, I'd go for you," Buffy responded with an eye-roll, "now let's get over to the Library and get the guys panting before we have to take the kids out."
"But this just isn't me," Willow demurred as they neared the Library doors.
"And it's not me, either, and that's the point. Look, Halloween is the night that not you is you, but not you. Y'know?"
"Oh! I hear them inside. Are you ready?"
"Yeah. O-o-okay."
"Cool! I can't wait for the boys to go non-verbal when they see us!" Buffy gushed as she pushed Willow inside.
"Oh. Oh. Wow!" Xander and Buffy stared in awe as the girls met the boys, two members of KISS apparently meeting girls made up similarly. The temperature in the room soared as the ability to verbalize disappeared.
"Buffy, Willow, Goddesses to all Manly Men, we are in Awe of you! Other than leather, I renounce all fabrics except the spandex!" He moved around to look at all of Willow, gawking at what he'd not considered could be hiding under the mousy clothes, "Wooo, Willow," he gulped.
"Buffy, ah, wow," a bat-face-painted Angel finally responded, "If I knew you were going to dress like that, I wouldn't have given Xander such a hard time about this Halloween thing."
"I never expected he'd dress you like this, Angel," she laughed loudly and happily, checking him out, "This is just too cool."
"Hyena! I get it!" an exclamation from Willow came, drawing Buffy's immediate attention and a defensive stance. Xander smirked, pointed at his face paint and mock-leered at Buffy.
"Looking sexy there, Buff," he smirked, then walked over with his arm quite firmly surrounding a KISS-makeup big-haired redhead dressed in a fishnet body-stocking with a small leather two-piece and thigh-highs with 3" heels. Xander's hand seemed to be playing with the bullwhip hanging off a hook on her thin bikini. Buffy wore a matching outfit and they had black wooden knives strapped with thin silver chains all over their bodies. Only the makeup and hair color differed, Buffy white on the right side with a black star, and photo-negative the other, and Willow just the opposite. And the silver and scarlet alternating nail polish and lipsticks caused many a male heart to stop that night. Then one noticed that Willow's stars were Star of David in shape, a cute touch.
"Not bad yourself, but Hyena?"
"When the band were discussing the possible 'theme' for me if they dressed me up like them came up, it was a toss up between Snake Plissken and something to do with the Hyena."
"But your leather looks like snakeskin and your face like a hyena?"
"Coin fell on its side twice in a row, so I guess someone up there thought it would be funny to do both? Anyway, the guys came up with this, even threw in a little of their own stuff," he mused, then in a television-announcer voice self-mocked, "I guess I'm just the Fifth Knight of the Apocalypse."
"Cool, but what about the wolfy medallion?"
"The costume guy didn't have a hyena necklace, all he had was one he joked is supposed to control werewolves or something."
"Xander," Willow interrupted, not moving from Xander's arm, "A-are your guns real? They look real."
"Yep, Colt Anacondas with sights and holsters, one has a hyena on it and the other a snake on it. The guys thought it was funny, and even though it's supposed to be quiet tonight, why take the chance, and I got my swords in the duster I got at the costume shop, but it's kinda warm so I'm leaving it here. We should be back by sundown anyway. Besides, I keep getting it caught on the guitar when I hang it off my back."
The magic swept over the streets of Sunnydale as the sun began to set; the shadows were enough to allow most of the nightlife to start coming out had they been so inclined, but they chose not to…though the grapevine said the slayer would not be the slayer tonight, so many of the more aggressive demons contemplated outings.
Willow 'First-Star' moaned in something between pain and delight as she started to rise from the ground, first to her hands and knees, large tresses of hair thrown back and to the sides to allow her to see. Down the street she could Beth 'See-Tonight' similarly picking herself off the ground, and…mmm, checking her out.
"Hey, Star," the blonde called out to the red, getting to a standing position and walking as Willow mimicked her strut, "What's the What, here? And where's the boys?"
"Don't know, Star," she replied, then heard two loud gunshots further along the street, "But that sounds like 'Lex' finding some fun."
"Awesome, let's go!"
"Strange," Angel murmured to himself, "Where're the rest, they should be here by now. I guess I'll have to go find them." He looked around, "Hmm, better borrow Lex's coat in case the sun's still out."
He made it outside and down the walk, not nearly as quickly or as silently as he normally did, a steady faint thumping somewhere nearby starting to tick him off until he realized it…at least during whatever was going on…
"I'm alive again!" he shouted, "Rock On!"
Xander, writhed on the ground, the medallion morphing and then quickly melding into his skin, thin exquisite lines of a laughing hyena nearly five inches (2cm?) across on his now quite hairy chest. His wig of real hair became his own, and if he were there his father would have been awed by it. His body flexed with larger and better defined muscles, the power of the Alpha almost searing the blood with the demand for freedom and chaos before the medallion finished and the Animal faded into the man forever, but little sparks lit up his face, the silvered glitter burning, fading, burning, then fading again. Then leather skin for a moment seemed to grow, thicken, spread further around his body, but meeting the silvered energies of the medallion, retracted to its original state.
Two large demons chased a young woman in a catsuit and a single white sun and cat whiskers on black greasepaint straight toward Xander. He drew and fired one of his Colts, a shot into each monster's head as he reached over and caught the falling cheerleader in the crook of his apposite arm.
"Miss Kitty, always good to save a fan…" Lex purred behind his face paint, winking, "If you could sing as well as you run, I'd let you play with my yarn…"
"Only if we get to pet the kitty, Lex," a certain redhead half-moaned, half-complained as the two all-out KISS girls approached the scene.
"Especially if you're breaking out the Big Gun," the blonde smirked. Cordelia, equally affected, found herself unknowingly moved by the pheromones the chaos spell had activated of the world's most powerful potential witch, a very uninhibited Slayer Spirit released through the embodiment of a real rock super-groupie, and a healthy teenaged male with his pheromones off the scale from Alpha activation. Only Angel's timely arrival kept something pornographic from breaking out in the street then and there.
"Lex, nice shooting," Angel smiled, "Leave something for me?"
"Maybe a little something, Dea—Liveboy…Cool, man, but how?"
"Some kind of spell, I not only seem to be your…band mate," he shook his head, holding up a pair of drumsticks that'd been in his pocket, "But I seem to be human with all that means."
"You're human!" Buffy cried, leaping over and wrapping her legs around his waist as Lex moved his arms to encompass Cordelia and Willow. Xander sighed deeply and very begrudgingly.
"As much as I really want to do something else," he said, squeezing the girls in his arms, "We better find Giles fast to see if we need to be worried about this, and if ending it will cause all this craziness," he let go of the girls and proceeded to use both Colts to smartly, and loudly, dust the heads of four actual vampires before beginning the topping off of his ammo. The others, seeing how unchanged kids had nearly been eaten, nodded begrudgingly.
"Giles!" Buffy called out as they burst back into the Library, interrupting what he'd hoped was quiet time. Regaining himself, he listened to the apparent affects on them and others by some type of changing magic.
"Good Lord, we need to find a way to end this," he considered, "hopefully Angel will retain his humanity when it's over." The two looked stricken at the possible alternatives and embraced each other even more closely. "What do all of the costumes have in common, after all, you mentioned some children were unchanged."
"Well, the only thing I got that matches what Lex and Red have, costume-wise, is the face paint and collar (she shows them the KISS logo)."
"So that means we got it from Ethan's, where he'd held the stuff Dad sent me," Xander said in a deep, clear and firm voice, turning to a paling Giles, "Rupert, are you alright? Does that name mean something?"
"Oh yes, it does, and I'll take care of this," the older man asserted.
"Angel, you and Star-Bright do a quick blitz of the popular spots where demons might take advantage of things, just settle for rescues and move on, we'll try to end the spell as soon as possible."
"What about us, Lex," the other Star asked, Cordelia nodding along while rubbing closer against the now very manly teen.
"You better come with us, but stay in the car when we get there, I know guns and stuff, and Rupert knows this fellow," he replied confidently, then grabbed his coat from Angel, "Here, you and Sunburst take my coat, it's starting to get a little chilly…and I don't have time to warm you two up just yet."
Lex and Rupert left the car running, the heater going, so the younger man accepted his coat back and rolled it over his arm as they entered the costume store.
"Hello!" Giles calls out as Xander pulls out a Colt and looks around the front room, "Anyone home?" The young man points to the curtain to the back room. They slowly go in and see the statue of Janus there. Its eyes glow green."
"Janus," Giles remarks, "Roman mythical god."
"Not so mythical, Ripper," Ethan purrs, "Just the thing actually, who's your musical friend?" Giles stares at Ethan as though he's seen a ghost.
"What? No hug? Aren't you pleased to see your old mate, Rupert?"
"Why? And how do we stop it?"
"Because I can. Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but it's genius. The very embodiment of 'be careful what you wish for'."
"It's sick, brutal, and it harms the innocent."
"Oh, and we all know that you are the champion of innocents and all things pure and good, Rupert. It's quite a little act you've got going here, old man."
"It's no act. It's who I am."
"Who you are? The Watcher, sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the
Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know
what you're capable of. But they don't, do they? They have no idea where you come from." Xander smiles evilly, his face paint returning.
"Actually, you've provided me with just enough blackmail now to where he'll have to tell me of 'the old days' to keep me from telling others about 'the old days,'" Xander smirked as he started to put on the duster. Ethan smiled as he started to see a flash in the boy's eyes and just enough confusion as the paint disappeared and a brief wincing of pain was seen as green light flashed around the waistline.
"They told me you died," Ethan deadpanned, confusing Giles, who ordered him to break the spell.
"I hear that a lot," young-seeming man replied, getting his bearings and pointing guns at both men, "But some how I'm still here." Giles started to turn back toward Xander. Ethan was mentally minutes ahead of the game.
"I'll give you two thousand dollars to knock this ruffian unconscious," Ethan asserted. Giles only had enough time to look surprised as a Colt struck him just enough to send him into darkness.
"I'll take my money now," the younger, scruffy man mentioned, guns still drawn. Ethan nodded and moved to the cashbox and handed over the promised funds. Snake grunted and pointed to the back door, "That a way out of here?" Ethan nodded and the young man left.
