Summary: Yet another Halloween fic.
Disclaimer: I own... hmm. I own nothing. The bank owns any money I make, at the moment.
Feedback: Why not? It helps me write more and better...
Pre-fic Comments:
I'm surprised I haven't gotten any flames about this... maybe I'm not trying hard enough.
Telepathic speech is written using tildes, rather than speech marks. ~Like this.~
* * *
"Yeah, Mrs S," Xander yelled down to Buffy's mum. "We'll walk there ourselves!"
"Okay," Joyce replied. "Come down here so I can take some photos of you!"
The three looked at each other in panic.
"Oh crap," Xander groaned.
"Ummm... we blame it on Snyder?," Willow asked.
"Works for me," Buffy said. "Let me do the talking."
The three went down, Buffy first.
"Hi, Xander... good grief!," Mrs Summers shrieked. "What on earth are you dressed as?!"
"He's going as... an incubus," Buffy said. "Principal Snyder made it a theme night. Demons and vampires."
"Really?," Mrs Summers said. "Well, you are at the age for rebellion, and according to the books I'm supposed to be supportive. So I encourage you, but I also want it noted that I don't approve of Xander going shirtless."
The three grinned in relief.
"You're walking, then? Xander, are you sure you're okay going barefoot?"
"Sure, Mrs S," Xander grinned.
"Well, okay," she said, taking photographs of the three. "Have fun!"
"Bye!"
* * *
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!," Principal Snyder shrieked. "DETENTION! Detention for the rest of your unnatural lives!"
Xander grinned. "Thanks!"
"Don't be insolent to me, Harris! I'll make sure that your parents hear of this!"
Big deal. His parents were as good at parenting as Homer Simpson was at being a safety inspector.
"And as for you, Summers! You'll be out of here so fast your head will spin!"
"Watch me weep, Snyder," Buffy said.
The short man turned to Willow. "Rosenberg, you've been an exemplary student up until now. I'm going to assume that these two have dragged you down with them. I'm quite frankly disappointed."
He drew himself up to his full five feet of height. "Now, I don't want to see your misshapen hides for the rest of the night! Out! I'll find someone else to escort the children!"
"Fine, fine," Xander said. "I can tell when I'm not wanted. You have no... appeal... at all."
Snyder just about popped a vein at this. "GET! OUT!"
The three sauntered down the hallway. Cordelia, in a cheap cat costume, stopped them along the way.
"My God, who are you three?," Queen C asked.
"Take a guess," Buffy grinned.
"I have no idea... where DID you get those costumes?"
"I'm X," Xander said, "she's B, and she's W."
He hugged his two friends around their waists. Cordelia's mouth dropped.
"I can't believe that I think that Xander Harris is HOT!"
Willow pushed Cordy's jaw back up. "We were planning on kinda crashing your party, but it looks like you're stuck with looking after rugrats. We'll go partyseeking elsewhere."
"I heard that the Engineering postgrads've got something set up," Buffy said. "Later, /Queen/ C!"
Cordelia screamed as the three left her standing in the hallway, a gathering crowd of Cordettes watching. "I'VE BEEN UPSTAGED!"
A velvet cat costume doesn't hold a candle to leather pants, batwings, and horns.
Especially when your once-followers are drooling over the shirtless, leatherclad demon.
* * *
Xander put his thumbs in his pant's beltloops as they walked along.
"Man, did you see his face?," Xander asked. "Buffy, we should have borrowed your mum's camera."
"What about our records?," Willow asked. "I don't know if we should have done it..."
"Well, it's too late now to worry about that," Buffy pointed out. "Let's go have fun and crash that party."
* * *
It was about then that Ethan Rayne completed his spell to Janus, causing people to transform into their costumes.
One thing that must be understood about Rayne is that he was a worshipper of chaos, and as such had no real interest in the repercussions of his actions. He put a random amount of energy into each costume, save the three he sold to Xander, Buffy, and Willow.
Normally, the person dressed as the incubus would be a rather young incubus, unpowerful and insignificant. Xander transformed into a millenia old demon, aged and still appearing youthful. Power radiated from his every pore, attraction and charisma flowing like water. His wings flapped themselves once, settling into a more comfortable position. Round pupils slit themselves down the middle, irises lightening to amber.
Willow's change was only mildly more powerful than normal. All she had bought from Ethan's was the false fangs, and the hair dye.
Buffy, on the other hand... her bodypaint covered her entirely from head to toe. She fell to the ground, writhing in agony. Normally, the body was unaffected by the spell, but the hundredfold empowerment by Rayne changed that. Four extra arms grew from her torso, her bikini breaking and falling off. The Slayer's legs fused together, melting into a long snake tail.
As one, the three beings rose from the ground and looked around distrustfully.
* * *
Ethan collapsed, gasping, to the floor. His hair went pure white as he reached for a chair, pulling himself back up.
"That... that was invigorating. Must've put more power into those three than I'd anticipated.
* * *
Mayor Wilkins got up from his desk, moving to look out the window. He'd just felt a burst of immeasurable power, and could feel that two True Demons had been summoned by some fashion.
"Well... someone hasn't been playing nicely."
Now he'd have to banish the two new demons. Bother.
* * *
~Where am I?,~ the six-armed Marilith demanded telepathically. ~Who dared summon me?~
"I could ask the same question," the incubus groaned. He managed to look sexy even when disorientated. "Vampire? Did you?"
The blue haired elf shook her head. "No, not I. I have been banished to the Abyss for a year, and this town... I have never seen it's like.
The Marilith was greatly annoyed. She had been enjoying a rest in her palace, a brief reprieve from her duties as a General of Hell. Now some impertinent, two bit sorcerer had disturbed her. She immediately decided to take control of the situation.
~Incubus, do you wish to come with me, as consort?,~ she asked. Normally, she would flat out demand his fealty, but one did not order a millenia old Demon like a peasant, or even a Knight.
As for the incubus, he had no illusions of surviving the Marilith's wrath should he refuse. There was also the bonus that the energy that she would expend in sex would supercharge him, and empower him for a long time.
"I will," he said, daring to touch the Greater Demon. She appeared a moment as if she would destroy him where he stood, before his skilful fingers caressed her bosom and torso. "If you would have me."
~Excellent,~ the Marilith said. ~We need to establish a base of operations, first, then consolidate my grip of the area.~
The elf turned away.
"I search for flesh," she said, running her hands up and down her body. "Some mortal to warm mine."
The Marilith looked at the incubus. "Do you want her?"
"No," the incubus said, shaking his head. "She has no life to her. Go, vampire. Corrupt to your heart's content."
* * *
Giles' head shot up. His fingers spasmed in shock, sending index cards flying as his almost atrophied magic senses went haywire.
"What in Hell..."
The only thing he could think of that would set his alarm bells ringing so was a demon of some sort, and a highly powerful one. He ran out the door, to see two foot tall demons running around. The sharpwitted watcher instantly recognised the images to be those of the masks that the children had been wearing.
"Who would have the nerve to..."
He stopped talking, making a mental connection. Xander had said, 'I'm off to Ethan's Costume Shoppe.'
Ethan.
Ethan Rayne, Giles was prepared to bet. This whole thing stank of his old friend.
He picked up a bat from the weapons cage, then took a business card to the little shop. Time for a little chat with his old friend.
* * *
Post-fic Comments:
Hopefully, this revision came out better.
Mayor Wilkins isn't aware that the two demons he senses are True Demons -- he thinks that they're mohrans or something.