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The Business District of Sunnydale
Willow's POV
"This is the place." Hellboy said putting the chain swinging artifact into a pouch on his waist, "Whatever brought us here is inside."
"'Ethan's Costume Shop'." She said reading the sign over the door, "You think that's how people were changed? They dressed up as something and then the spell made it more real?"
"Assuming your story about trick or treat costumes and magic is right? Probably." Hellboy replied sounding skeptical of that possibility, "Personally I'm betting on some mage trying to summon people of power to be his minions only he screwed up somehow. Might make it easier to hit the reverse switch or it might make it harder. Won't know for sure 'til I get a look inside."
"Then let's get this over with!" Ryoko said before teleporting short range to the front door of the shop and reaching out for the doorknob.
"No! Wait! It might be-" she exclaimed raising a hand to stop the sea blue haired woman.
BZZZZ!
"AHHHH!" Ryoko cried out in pain as purple electricity leapt from the door and into her body.
Before any serious damage could be done Hellboy, who she believed was really Giles, darted forward to grab hold of the young woman before pulling her off the doorknob. Some of the purple electricity leapt to strike at him but he didn't even flinch and once the chain of contact was broken between the door, Ryoko and Hellboy the defensive ward ceased its work.
"Did you really think it'd be that easy?" Hellboy asked Ryoko once she'd recovered from the magical shock she'd received, "Anyone trying for something big like this is gonna be smart enough to protect themselves."
"And they probably know we're here now." She said figuring that the light from the arcane electricity would've been enough to be noticed by anyone inside.
"Maybe not." Morrigan, who was probably Miss Calendar, said striding forward with tame sensuality, "I doubt we were the first ones to come by here or to try and open the door. Whoever's inside might just ignore what just happened entirely."
"Who cares!?" Ryoko growled rising into the air and gathering energy above her right hand, "No one tries to fry me and gets away with it."
Then like a pro baseball pitcher the blue haired woman threw the amassed energy at the door and for a moment it looked like an invisible barrier might stand up to it.
Then the projectile of energy detonated shattering the front door as well as the surrounding doorframe.
She had to sigh a bit at this since in her experience the element of surprise was far too valuable to just throw away especially when going up against an unknown that had a lot of power.
STEALTH IS VALUABLE BUT CAN PROVE COSTLY WHEN TIME IS A FACTOR.
Angitia had a point and time was a factor in what they were trying to do.
From the moment the spell was cast changing everyone into their costumes countless people were put in harms way. If what she'd seen so far was any indication not everyone chose to dress up as a hero for Halloween and even those that had put on the outfit of a benign person was turned into someone or something else. Both those that had been changed as well as those who had not dressed up for Halloween were in danger of encountering someone who would not hesitate to kill. Those who wound up turned into villains or into monsters known for their lethality would not hesitate to strike if an appealing target presented itself. The normal citizens of Sunnydale would likely be overcome with fear when confronted with threats that until tonight had been fictional and use whatever methods seemed effective to protect themselves.
Too bad terrified people had a tendency towards overkill when it came to combatting the source of their fears.
She shuddered at the thought of how many people were either dead or in need of hospital level medical care.
IS IT NOT CUSTOMARY FOR TRICK OR TREATERS TO DRESS AS HEROES AS WELL? IF SO THEN THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT THEY WILL DO ALL THEY CAN TO HELP THOSE IN NEED.
True.
Depending on what the spell criteria was there could be a great many heroes helping people throughout Sunnydale. Captain America could be somewhere flinging his colorful shield around to keep those in danger safe!
Still the sooner they brought all this to an end the better.
Watching as Hellboy and the robot that'd identified itself as Cayde-6 went in first guns at the ready she did her best to prepare herself for whatever would come next. More booby traps for sure and maybe some guards if the spell caster wasn't especially proficient in combat magic. With Angitia she had options for both offense as well as defense but inside a building there wouldn't be a lot of room to move around.
"Maybe…maybe some of us should stay out here." She proposed trying to sound more confident with her words, "There are a lot of us and the store doesn't look that big from the outside."
"She's got a point." Hellboy said after looking the group over, "Cayde, Sara and Michael stay out here. The rest follow me in. That way if something happens it only gets some of us."
"Makes sense." Cayde said not sounding too disappointed at being told to stay outside, "I'm guessing we're the cavalry if something goes wrong."
"You got it." Hellboy said with a nod of confirmation.
None of the others looked like they'd fight to be in the group that'd be going inside but being left with nothing to do was definitely going to make them antsy. Hopefully they'd be able to figure out the spell being used and shut it down so things would go back to being as normal as things ever got in Sunnydale. It wasn't that the changes done to each of them were bad or anything, not really, but hitting the off button on the spell would probably be easier than selectively changing certain aspects like giving Buffy and Xander control of their bodies back.
Entering the building behind Hellboy she looked about to find that the place looked like pretty much every costume shop with outfits hanging on hooks and accessories in bins scattered about the store. It was only when she detected movement from behind the curtain on the other side of the room that she focused so when it parted to reveal a man she was able to take in every detail.
He looked to be in his mid-forties with short black hair wearing a dress shirt and pants smiling like he found something amusing. However when he took in their collective group he stumbled a bit both mentally as well as physically as though they were not who he'd been expecting. The man scrutinized each of them for a few seconds but it wasn't until he gazed upon Hellboy that he paused to look even harder.
"Something you find interesting?" Hellboy asked sounding somewhat irritated.
It was only a moment later that the man reacted but it was definitely not how she'd been expecting the stranger to behave.
Laughter.
Very amused laughter!
"Hahahahahahahaha! Well I have to say this night's worked out better than I'd thought it would." The man said once he got control of himself, "When you and your group came into my store I was worried it'd all be for nothing but here you are! The new look suits you Ripper. Much better than that wimpy Watcher charade you had going on."
"Don't know who this Ripper guy is but thanks for admitting to being behind all this." Hellboy said not recognizing the nickname 'Ripper', "Saves me the trouble of trying to figure things out myself."
"Oh it's not that complicated a spell really." The man said playfully ignoring the potential danger he was in, "A bit of enchantment placed on every item in the store, some careful chalk work drawing all the right lines of power and then opening the door for Janus to pour his power into it all."
"Then it shouldn't be hard to shut down." Hellboy said taking a few steps towards the curtained off back room.
"Oh no need for that." The man said dismissing the idea of ending the spell early, "The spell is designed to end naturally at sunrise which should be in…a little under nine hours."
"A lot of people could die waiting for that to happen!" She objected not even entertaining the idea of waiting for the spell to end naturally, "We need to end it NOW!"
"As if anyone would notice a few more dead atop a Hellmouth my dear." The man said showing a complete lack of empathy, "It'll only get dismissed as something 'normal' and just like all the other unusual deaths it'll be covered up or forgotten."
"That doesn't mean we can just let them happen if we can stop it!" she said marching past both the man and Hellboy to throw aside the curtain blocking the view of the back room.
Taking in the scene before her she was quick to spot the clay bust of Janus in the center of an arcane circle if only because its eyes were glowing green. Looking at the circle she did her best to recall what she'd read in Giles' books on magical spells and ceremonies in order to understand how it all worked. If she could understand how it all worked she'd know how to shut it down and bring an end to the chaos going on outside. Sadly despite how voraciously she'd read every book on the subject that Giles would let her look at there were too many holes in her knowledge base. She could recognize parts but not enough to make her confident about tampering with it even a little.
"You make anything out of it?" Hellboy asked coming up from behind her.
"A little. Not enough to shut it down though." She replied turning to look at him, "You?"
"Probably more than you. The guy's not lying about it ending at sunrise. It's all there in the symbol configuration." Hellboy replied casually giving it a once over, "As for shutting it down I find it's usually best to go with the direct approach."
Then, without any warning, Hellboy pulled his hand cannon out of its holster and fired a round that shattered the clay bust into many, MANY pieces.
With its destruction came an explosion of emerald energy expanding in all directions and this was all she had time to comprehend before being both physically as well as mentally overwhelmed. She tried to remain conscious, to endure, but whatever forces were at work went beyond what even a human with an alien symbiote could handle and so unconsciousness took her.
Only time would tell what sort of world she would wake up to…
…assuming she woke up at all.
The Roman Mount Olympus
Janus' POV
"Well. That…didn't quite go according to plan." He said watching as the energy released from the bust focal point rolled over Sunnydale a ripple in a pond.
It'd been his original intent to let the spell run its natural course until sunrise with the intent of letting the changes made to his 'special people' set like concrete. After all if he was to get what he wanted out of Rayne's bit of fun he needed to make sure that the alterations couldn't be undone very easily if at all. He knew that the moment those celestial busybodies found out that the changes done by the spell hadn't vanished with the end of the spell they'd try to 'fix things'.
And by 'fix things' he meant put things back to the way they wanted them to be for their pathetic plans.
With how he'd originally intended things the changes done to his 'special people' it would've been impossible for them to change things back because there'd be almost nothing to change back to. Whether it was biologically or mystically there wasn't enough of the original's essence, their DNA, to lead those he hated back to what existed before. That of course would lead to the next best way to solve things namely eliminating the changed either by killing them or simply making them someone else's problem in another dimension.
Given the abilities that'd been bestowed upon the changed by him he believed it'd take more than the usual thugs and enforcers those high and mighty assholes usually sent to 'deal with things'. They'd need to dig extra deep into their armies for operatives strong enough for the job but he didn't believe that that would happen. By the rules handed down at The Beginning to the forces of Light and Dark additions to the board needed to be proportional to one another in order to ensure Balance. This was both to ensure that the Earth wasn't destroyed should one side gain an overwhelming advantage over the other. If the Light sent agents strong enough to kill the changed then it would permit the Dark to transport evil operatives to Earth for however long it took for the changed to be killed. THAT would only lead to more of their precious 'plans' being damaged if not completely ruined so they'd refrain from doing so until it became worth the damage that'd ensue.
As for making them someone else's problems he'd covered that in two ways.
First he contacted everyone he could prior to Halloween night in other realms to let them know in advance what might be dumped in their backyard in the next few days. While the busybodies might be supreme in this dimension their jurisdiction didn't extend any further than that and so it'd cause trouble if their counterparts in other dimensions were provoked. It could lead to a new front being opened up on Earth or even the direct intervention of The Voice in order to restore proper balance to the realms.
It was never good when the boss' right hand got involved regardless of which side of the dispute you happened to be on at the time.
The second thing he did in order to block transference to another realm was to lace their bodies with the chaos aspect of his domain. Now some might think that this would result in a favorable outcome since the combination of chaos magic and displacement magic would result in the destruction of the changed. The only problem though was that due to the level of alterations done to the changed, the energy some now possessed and the amount of the chaos energy in their systems the destruction would be on the level of the most powerful non-nuclear bomb known to mankind.
Considering the number of changed as well as where they'd choose to live triggering a detonation on that level would risk opening the Hellmouth as well as killing a great number of humans.
Taking action when you knew the outcome would be bad would look very bad when the entire matter came up for review afterwards.
So all in all if those that led the Light's forces on Earth somehow managed to pull a metaphorical rabbit out of their hats to turn things back he'd be VERY impressed.
"And what exactly was that plan Janus?" a voice asked that instantly put him on edge.
Carefully and with as much composure as he could manage he turned to greet the very busybodies he sought to defy.
"Why to prepare a contingency of course for 'them' of course." He replied making it sound perfectly logical and prudent, "You do know that there's a bit of a…disagreement going on back home for them. My powers over time and space indicate that in as few as twenty years they'll begin their 'preservation' efforts. If the Earth is to be saved then their efforts must be stopped."
"Steps have already been taken in that regard." The central figure of the group opposite him said with confidence, "By the time your 'preservation effort' begins the humans will have allies strong enough to discourage 'their' efforts."
"Ah yes. I remember when you dropped those little hints in the ears of Professor Langford that led him to the Ring at Giza." He said recalling that it'd sparked a debate amongst the Egyptian pantheon, "However one has to wonder if it'll be enough. My connections to time and space tell me that by the time 'they' begin their preservation efforts the humans at best will have seven ships at their disposal."
"Seven ships and the ships of their allies. While it is unclear who they will be at that time they will have them." The member to the far left said sounding optimistic, "The Asgard at the very least along with the Jaffa if all goes according to plan."
Plan.
The favorite word of this group of know-it-alls and the best indicator of their foolishness because even the humans knew that no plan was absolute. You could plan to the smallest detail and micro-manage everything until you were sick of it but that didn't necessarily mean that they were guaranteed to succeed. In every plan, in every action, there was the possibility of failure no matter how small.
Given how Xander Harris had broken one of their prophecies less than six months prior you would think they'd have learned by now.
"You alterations of Slayer Summers and the others however threaten those plans." The member second from the right said angrily, "Both in what they've become and how they might affect 'them' should an encounter occur."
"I am well aware of your concerns my august guests." He said attempting to be soothing and reassuring, "However as far as what Slayer Summers and the others have become I've already made the necessary alterations. You need not worry about matters becoming…overly complicated."
"Explain." The central figure ordered making it clear that the next few words spoken would be crucial.
So he spoke plainly and with no room for misunderstanding as he detailed the alterations he'd made to each of the changed so as to ensure that his solutions didn't become future problems. Any possibility of their condition spreading had been minimized. Only if rare and specific variables were present in a human they tried to 'convert' would it be successful and only if those same variables were present in ex-Slayer Summers' lover would her new heritage be capable of fulfillment. On and on he listed the precautions he'd taken with the changed in order to ensure that the beings before him would be less inclined to immediately act as they usually did when wrinkles in their plans appeared.
"You have been quite thorough Janus." The central figure said with a modicum of respect, "Somewhat unusual considering your habit of 'letting the chips fall where they may'."
"Even I can recognize an unreasonable risk when I see one." He said with complete honesty, "While your efforts with Langford are respectable enough they fall short in the area of sentient-to-sentient combat. Major Schaefer was an impressive soldier to be able to defeat one of 'them' on his own but he would be the exception not the rule when it comes to trained military soldiers. Humanity will need those I've changed tonight to even the playing field or else we're going to have a lot of dead human soldiers."
"Humans die everyday Janus and they'll continue to die regardless of what we do." The central figure said treating this like a long known truth, "What is important is the overall struggle, the fight against the Darkness, not the fate of every individual involved."
Typical.
These idiots were so focused on winning the war against 'the enemy' that they couldn't see that even if they won the war the callous disregard for those 'individuals' would spark a revolt. Humanity would look at the deaths of the past and ask 'did these people really need to die' and he somehow doubted that they would accept a simple 'they were a necessary sacrifice' excuse. They'd want to hear that each death had meaning, purpose, instead of finding out that the individuals died simply because their leaders didn't care about them all that much.
"Perhaps but that's no reason to be callous with the body count." He said trying to sound concerned but not defiant, "If it grows too large no one will be willing to fight regardless of what you promise them. They do have perfectly functioning survival instincts after all and an aversion to highly probable death."
"History has proven that there are many things that can cause humans to disregard their own personal survival Janus." The member second from the right said not sounding concerned in the least, "Phrased properly they will have no hesitation in doing whatever we ask of them."
"You know as well as we do Janus that we are fighting against an enemy that has no lines they won't cross and only abide by rules set down by the Almighty." The central figure said attempting to instill understanding, "If we want to keep them at bay, if we want to WIN this war, we cannot let them use our own honor against us. We have to be willing to bend rules, to skirt as close to the edge that we can, for the greater good to be served."
That was another favorite of the group before him.
'The greater good'.
It was used to justify so many decisions that if the humans ever learned of them and understood the context of those decisions he was fairly certain they'd object LOUDLY.
"However I will admit to being intrigued by your efforts." The central figure said bringing things back to the matter at hand, "Therefore I am willing to allow your 'pet project' to continue for the time being. However it will be closely monitored and should your precautions prove not to be enough to keep matters under control we will intervene directly."
"I understand." He said quite frankly not really expecting anything better.
With that the group teleported away with the usual fanfare that quite frankly had gotten old a millennia ago but he kept himself from rolling his eyes at the act. The fact of the matter was that he'd come out of the encounter better than he thought he would and with only one member of the group showing obvious opposition to his project it'd take a serious screw up to put things in peril.
He'd have to start preparing for the inevitable debriefing with ex-Slayer Summers and her group since one guaranteed way for things to go south was to piss them off. One way to do that would be to leave them in the dark about their new circumstances and to not inform them of the potential consequences of throwing a tantrum or doing something ill-advised to vent their anger. He hoped that once they realized what was on the line and took the time to find the silver lining of their new circumstances they'd be, well, less inclined to try to kill him.
That being said he'd DEFINITELY be using a remote controlled magical construct to conduct the debriefing because no WAY was he foolish enough to actually show up in person.
Outside of Ethan's Costume Shop
Xander's POV
~What…the…FUCK!?~ He thought as he pushed himself off the ground into a sitting position.
He didn't know what sort of experience he was coming back from but it was something he could just feel was going to take a good while to recover from. His body felt off and try as he might the only comparison he could come up with was the one time he'd been in the hospital and the nurse had given him painkillers strong enough to numb the body. However he could tell immediately that his body wasn't hindered like it'd been back then by the numbness but feeling he had right now was just as thoroughly distributed. Pushing himself to his feet he looked about in the hopes that it'd clear up precisely what'd happened between his last clear memory and now.
The first thing he spotted was something he could only describe as a robot cowboy wearing a hooded cape with an impressive looking hand cannon holstered at his side. There was a bit of flickering in the light coming from the eyes and the mouth but it wasn't enough to make him think that the machine was suffering a major systems failure or needed a tune up. It was more like the TV cable cutting in and out for a few seconds at a time. A person would either put up with it or they'd make the call to the cable company to come to the house to fix the problem.
It was when he looked a few feet to the right though that concern spiked within him because he saw Buffy on the ground with her elf costume seriously torn up as well as covered in blood of many colors one of which matched human blood. Racing over to her without really thinking about it he immediately grabbed an arm before checking the wrist like they'd been taught in First Aid class. It wasn't a class you were required to take but when it'd been posted on the bulletin board he'd managed to convince both Willow and Buffy to sign up with him. His reasoning had been that if they were all going to fight the good fight then it only made sense that they'd know some First Aid in case one of them needed to hold on for the ambulance to arrive.
He was relieved to feel a slightly fast but still strong heartbeat meaning that while she might've been beat up a bit it didn't look like it was life threatening. Feeling her begin to move he figured his indelicate efforts to check her vitals must've stirred her but worried that she might still feel as out of it as he did at the moment he helped her rise into a sitting position. Once settled she turned to look at him, likely trying to get her bearings just like he had, but there was a look in her eyes that he couldn't say he'd ever seen before. Before he could ask her what was wrong she reached out with both of her hands to grasp his head then pulled him towards her.
One second later she was laying a hot and heavy kiss on him just he'd dreamed of her doing up until that whole strip pole routine at the beginning of the year.
Of course the memory of that time at The Bronze pretty much killed whatever lust and pleasure the sudden act might've produced causing him to grab hold of her in order to push her away. Even if, IF, he still had the hots for her he knew that this was way out of character for her and if he gave into his naughty bits she'd make him pay for it when she came to her senses. A gentle push didn't do the job so he put more effort into it even though he figured that with Slayer strength he would need to strain himself to budge her an inch.
So he considered it a spot of surprising luck when his greater effort proved to be enough to separate the two of them but wrote it off as whatever feeling that'd been motivating her vanishing. When he looked her in the eyes again for a moment the odd expression was there but in the blink of an eye it was gone to be replaced by confusion and fear before she crab crawled away from him. He let her be figuring it was safer to let her sort through all the strangeness herself before he added to the pile he figured was growing in her brain at that very moment. In the meantime he decided he'd try to figure out what was going on so he could fill in some of the blanks for Buffy later.
He remembered getting into his surgeon costume, meeting the others at the school to pick up their group of kids for trick or treating and then having the run in with Larry and his goons. However when he tried to remember how he got from there to being in front of some costume shop all he got was a batch of vague feelings and images that never stuck around for more than half a second. Maybe if he slept on it for the night he'd remember more but for the time being he just jotted 'Hellmouth wierdness' down since it was a pretty reliable possibility.
"Soooo…what? She's a bad kisser?" the robot asked trying to make light of an awkward situation.
"I think it's a little more complicated than that Cayde." A floaty lightbulb thing said materializing out of nowhere, "I don't know what that energy wave was but I think it hit them harder than us."
"Uh…yeah…I'd go with a solid 'definitely' on that one." He said as he got to his feet only to find out the hard way that he wasn't wearing anything above the waist.
Naturally he felt a little self-conscious since he'd never been one of those muscled jocks that all the pretty girls at school fawned over. Even with all the effort he'd put into helping Buffy fight the good fight he still wasn't chiseled enough to feel comfortable being this exposed. Unfortunately no matter where he looked he couldn't find anything outside of the costume shop that'd do him any good so he decided he'd enter the shop for something to wear. He'd grab something for Buffy too since he doubted that she'd want to go home with her costume reduced to bloody tatters given how little it probably concealed now.
"Have a nice life Ripper!" a voice he recognized as the store owner said with a mocking tone, "See you…WHENEVER!"
A second later there was a flash of blue light from within the shop followed by a roar that could NOT have come from a human being and an explosion of energy that turned the building from windowed to windowless. Obviously whoever this 'Ripper' was didn't much like the sarcastic goodbye he'd received and had decided to vent his fury. For a moment he wondered if perhaps he should just suck it up and endure being shirtless or risk venturing inside for some sort of shirt. Turning to see what Buffy had to say he froze for a moment since at that precise moment the Slayer was standing up to reveal precisely how little her elf costume now covered.
~Yep. Definitely needs a shirt…nightgown size if possible.~ He thought turning back to the entrance to the shop, ~Hell at this point I'm sure a big enough cape would be enough!~
Walking quickly inside it didn't take him long to spot the four people in the room with only two of them looking human for the most part. The strange thing was that both of them he recognized immediately even with the differences from when he'd seen them last. The green haired woman wearing the black and purple outfit was without a doubt Miss Calendar but by his reckoning she looked at least five years younger. That and the fact that while she'd easily gained the title of 'most attractive female teacher' at Sunnydale High within a week of her arrival she was now firmly in the running for 'most attractive educator in North America' as far as he was concerned.
The other one that was very close to being human was also easy to recognize as none other than Cordelia Chase but with a wild head of neon blue hair, ears bigger than the human norm and golden cat-like eyes. When added to the fact that she was floating off the ground with amber energy crackling around her fingers and he had serious concerns about his future considering how much they sniped at each other. There was no sign of any age progression or recession though so it left him with more questions than answers but he decided to shove them aside in favor of keeping an eye on the remaining two…people…in the store.
The first looked like someone had taken black slime, mixed it with something and then molded it into a loose female form with two white eyes along with a mouth FULL of pointy teeth. He'd definitely hate to be the dentist that had to take care of those pearly whites but he'd hate more being on the receiving end of them should the being get a case of the munchies. Still the being didn't look like she was planning on dining on anyone in the room at the moment so he took that as a possible sign of neutrality.
The other one looked more like something Hollywood would've come up with
"Um…I don't know what pissed you all off but…please don't go off on a rampage…please?" he asked as politely as he could but with his legs primed to make a run for it.
"Rampage? What are you talking about?" the slime being asked in a voice that caused an itch to develop in his brain, "Oh right! Just a second."
He wondered what it could mean but then the most surreal thing he'd seen in a while happened when the thing's mouth seemed to peel back before receding to reveal a very recognizable face.
"WILLOW! What the hell!?" he exclaimed in shock at what had happened, "Anyone want to tell me what's going on 'cause this is turning out to be way weirder than normal even for Sunnydale."
"I am afraid we are still in the process of determining the particulars Xander." The red skinned demon said with a voice that belong to only one person.
"G-Man?! Is that you!?" he asked his mind having trouble matching the muscular red demon with a stone right hand with the tweed wearing Brit.
"Indeed and it is a most discomforting situation." G-Man said sounding like he was experiencing weird sensations at the moment, "I plan on making my displeasure clear to Ethan the moment we track him down."
"Any idea where he went?" he asked completely in favor of tracking down the butthead responsible for turning a 'quiet night' into something that he had a feeling was anything but quiet.
"From what I saw it was only a short range teleportation spell so at most he would be five to seven blocks away." Giles replied sounding like he was considering the options, "Anything more would've required decidedly more preparation than there was room for in the back room."
"Then let's get after him!" he said ready to start scouring the streets for the shop owner, "We split up in all directions and haul ass to make sure he doesn't get away. I've got a few questions I want answered plus I'd think you'd want a refund on the 'new you'."
For a solid minute Giles seemed to be lost in thought, probably trying to figure out the best pursuit method, but then something happened that he never thought he'd see.
Giles shaking his head 'no'.
"What do you mean no?" he asked unable to comprehend the man's refusal, "If he gets away we'll lose our best chance to fix things."
"I…knew Ethan when I was younger. A little older than you actually." Giles replied raising his gaze to look him right in the eye, "If there was one thing he was good at it was making a getaway once he knew that consequences were heading his way. Likely wherever the teleportation spell took him there'll be a car waiting for him with his most precious possessions. By the time we found out where he reappeared he'll likely be out of Sunnydale anyway."
"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try!" he exclaimed unwilling to give up so easily, "We fan out in all directions! The second we find him we find a way to let the others know then do everything we can to keep him from getting away!"
"And how do you plan on doing either? I will grant you that we are not the same people we were yesterday but we are FAR from prepared to pursue a chaos mage." Giles said pointing out the newness of our situation, "If this were the Ethan I once knew I would be more confident but I have not seen him in almost two decades. Time enough for him to have learned more than a few new tricks that will almost certainly be unpleasant to be on the receiving end of. Then there is the most important reason: we can do more good here."
"What do you mean?" he asked not quite connecting the dots.
"The spell might be over but the damage done while it was active remains." Giles replied before walking towards the front door of the shop, "Heroes, villains, monsters and creatures of myth walked the streets of Sunnydale tonight. While those transformed individuals might have had powers or abilities to cope with serious injuries during the time the spell was active that is no longer the case. If any are still injured, if any are still trapped, they are going to need help."
In an instant this truth snapped into place in his mind and he realized that unlike all the other Hellmouth craziness that tended to happen this wasn't confined to a specific location in Sunnydale. In most of the previous cases the trouble didn't spread further than a block or so from ground zero. The few exceptions of course being end of the world events like the Master rising and opening the Hellmouth. However if the bits and pieces Giles had dropped thus far were true then this Halloween night people became whatever they were dressed up as and chaos was unleashed in Sunnydale. It was one of the great truths he'd come to know after learning that there really were things that went bump in the night.
What looks cool on the big screen is scary as hell in real life and had much bloodier consequences.
As much as he might want for them to immediately pursue the person responsible for tonight's craziness he couldn't ignore the fact that people who could've been saved would die as a result.
He couldn't let that happen.
That's the sort of thing Tony would do so that automatically meant he'd never do it.
"Fine but only the ones that looked completely human or close enough should do search and rescue." He said after a moment of thought, "People're gonna be freaked enough with the chaos out there. Plus we all know that Sunnydale Syndrome only works up to a point. If they stare at you or Miss C close up they'll know you're not wearing costumes. That kind of attention's only gonna make helping people hard."
"True enough." Giles conceded with a nod, "Miss Calendar and I will go to the library and make an effort to track Ethan down. Given how little time has passed since the spell ended he will likely have residual chaos energy in his body. Hopefully we can use that to track him down or at least learn in which direction he fled."
"Good. We'll swing by there after helping everyone we can." He said heading towards the door, "You comin' Willow?"
"Sure. Just a minute." Willow said and then a moment later the mass of black slime that covered her body seemed to flow into her body before vanishing entirely.
Sadly he didn't think that Willow had thought things all the way through and on reflex alone he looked away from her feeling himself blush at the memory of what he'd seen.
Suddenly walking around without a shirt or anything on wasn't so bad.
The Streets of Sunnydale
A Short While Later
Buffy's POV
~It's wrong! It's ALL WRONG!~ She thought even as she used her strength to hold up the back end of a car while Xander pulled a young boy that'd been pinned out from under it.
From what they'd been able to tell no serious damage had been done to the boy, a broken arm at most, but he'd still been crying his eyes out. Still it'd been better than some of the things she'd seen on the way that she, Willow, Xander and 'Cayde' had been forced to leave behind. She'd been shocked when she'd seen just how much damage one spell could do if it affected the right a large number of people. Up until tonight she'd never really seen anything so widespread happen because even the demons and vampires knew better than to attract attention beyond a certain level. Giles had told her about how the greatest advantage that the forces of Darkness had was that the world believed all of them to be fiction.
The demons and the vampires knew that so long as this status quo remained they could get a lot done but if one of them made too big a commotion it risked the 'truth' getting out. As a result they policed their own as best they could leaving the ones smart enough to evade the traps and stay one step ahead of pursuit for Slayers to deal with. Giles did say that unofficially some factions in the supernatural community let some of their loose cannons have a longer leash than others. If there were any expendable members of the factions they were often sent on high risk high reward missions that if they were caught or killed could be disavowed without consequence.
This…this though was different.
This was what happened when someone ignored the rules entirely and did whatever they wanted.
"Okay he's out." Xander said before turning to the rest of them, "We need to splint the arm and then get him to the hospital so they can put it into a cast."
"Got it." Willow said still blushing off and on like she had been since they'd left the costume shop.
The redhead broke off two branches from a nearby tree before kneeling by the boy's side.
"This is gonna hurt a bit but I need you to be strong." Willow said looking at the crying boy, "Can you do that for me?"
With a sniffle the boy gave a shaky nod of 'yes' but it was still with extreme care that Willow did her best to feel where the break was before setting it. Then she took the two branches she'd acquired and placed them just right before doing something that was very freaky indeed. Black ink or something that looked like it seeped out of the pores to partially cover the back of Willow's right hand before a patch of white manifested. Then with all the speed of an arrow fired from a bow two wads of something that looked a lot like spider webs. The wads acted like tape binding the two branches together immobilizing the broken arm without making things worse. True she didn't know what the doctors would do to get past the webbing later on but it was more important to deal with the immediate than the future.
"Think you can get him there?" she asked 'Cayde' who was guilty of something was only marginally okay with given the circumstances.
Picking the lock on a car and using his floaty thing to hotwire it.
It wasn't like the light bulb lady had hands but then again she didn't seem to need them. A few energy blasts and random disappearing acts was all the light bulb needed to get the car going. However the biggest concern was whether or not Mister Roboto could actually drive the car well enough to get the boy to the hospital. Judging by how he'd reacted to the cars lining either side of the road the only time he'd ever seen one before was in a scrap yard.
"No problem! I got this!" Cayde said with complete confidence, "He'll be there before he knows it."
"And you remember the directions?" Xander asked as he eased the boy into the front passenger-side seat.
"If he doesn't I do." Sundance said hovering near Cayde's shoulder, "We'll get there."
"See you in a few minutes then." Xander said with a nod accepting that the duo could be trusted.
The departure of the car was…shaky…but eventually things smoothed out and on the bright side Cayde was SOMEHOW driving on the correct side of the street. Hopefully this meant he had a basic grasp of the rules of the road so he wouldn't get pulled over by the Sunnydale P.D or wind up hurting the boy even more. She felt uneasy about trusting Mister Roboto because unlike the rest of them he hadn't gone back to normal in the head once the spell ended. He still thought he was Guardian Cayde-6 instead of John Smith or whoever he'd been before the Hellmouthiness had kicked in ruining her quiet night. She could tell from the looks in their eyes that both Willow and Xander had been tempted to do something about it but she'd shaken her head 'no'.
If the guy's brain had gotten messed up so bad that he was stuck thinking he was someone else then she wasn't going to risk him going psycho by telling him he wasn't who he thought he was. That was a job for professional head shrinkers AFTER he'd been fitted for a straitjacket of some kind and on a multicolored pill diet.
Assuming either the jacket or the pills would do any good now that he was apparently a robot. Maybe his hard drive just needed a good debugging? A reboot? That's what Miss Calendar usually told them to do when the computers in class started acting funny.
Now bereft of something to distract herself with she once more found her up to her metaphorical waist in a feeling that something was wrong. Wrong with the environment around her and within her own body but for the life of her she couldn't put a word or familiar definition to what she was feeling. All she did know with absolute certainty was that the whole thing was driving her crazy and she wanted it gone as soon as possible. That meant helping as many people as possible before circling back to the library so Giles could figure out what happened and how to get rid of whatever traces were left in Sunnydale generally and the Scoobies specifically.
"Where to now?" she asked looking about for some sign of where they should go.
"We follow the smoke." Xander replied pointing to a plume generated by something only a few blocks away.
Without a word they began running for the source of the smoke and her mind working to predict what they'd find distracted her partially from the wrongness. Was it just a simple bonfire or was it something more horrific like a car crash? She almost didn't want to know. This…all of this…was not something she was used to and would've been very happy to NEVER experience even once never mind get used to.
When she turned the corner to finally lay eyes on the source however a surge of disgust quickly gave way to an almost primal rage.
Her earlier prediction of a car crash wasn't far off the mark and it was the source of the fire but there was no one in need of saving. This was because the family that the car belonged to had managed to survive the crash with only a few scrapes to worry about. However the fact that had her furious was the fact that the family, while not killed by the car crash, was in the process of being devoured by a trio of demons. The only one still alive was a little girl no more than six years old curled up against a fence watching with wide eyes filled with fear as her parents were eaten.
How dare they!?
HOW DARE THEY!?
Without a word to either Willow or Xander she broke into a sprint towards the demons letting the power of the Slayer come forth in all its glory. The fouls beasts sensed her approach raising their bloody mouths from their victims and turning her way but it was far too little too late for them to do anything. Allowing the instinctive combat skills of the Slayer guide her she lashed out at the demon that came within range first her fingers curled into hooks that carved bloody gashes into its face. Her mind awash with fury and a desire to make the demons pay for what they'd done she did not long think on the methods she was using preferring to focus more on achieving the desired results. When one of the demons tried to attack her from outside of the reach of her arms but instincts saved her once more as three blue segmented tendrils shot forth like spears piercing its body completely. As soon as the life faded from its unholy eyes the tendrils withdrew back out of sight and she looked about for further targets to vent her rage upon only to find no one but the girl and her friends still present.
Feeling her rage begin to fade like fog being burned away by the morning rays of sunlight she began to walk over to the girl to reassure her that the monsters were dead.
Only the girl recoiled from her, scampering away so she could get no closer, fear still in the child's eyes as well as on her face. This puzzled her somewhat for while she knew that the young girl had been through unbelievable trauma it should've been obvious who the savior of this encounter was. Surely there should've been at least a little gratitude or at least a desire to seek safety in the physical embrace of someone older. Raising her arms in a manner that she hoped would be non-threatening she opened her mouth to say soothing things to the fear filled girl but the words died before they could be spoken.
How else could she react when she saw not tanned Californian skin but rather inhuman segmented pieces of dark blue shells expertly assembled to form a humanoid arm. Every finger tipped with a deadly looking talon instead of a relatively harmless looking human fingernail that even now dripped with the blood of the demons she'd just brutally slain. The more she looked at them the more inhuman attributes she could make out causing her to instinctively back away from them only for the limbs to remain at a fixed distance from her eyes.
These were not HUMAN arms.
They couldn't be HER arms!
Yet even as she thought this she watched as the inhuman chitinous flesh transform like some sort of surreal time lapse video back into the tanned flesh that had been hers all her life. This should have come as a sort of relief for her but instead it set in place a lingering fear of whether or not it would happen again except in reverse. Would she transform once more? What had she become? HOW had she become like THIS?
"Buffy? Buffy I know this is WAY beyond freaksome but you need to hold it together." Xander said from her right causing her to turn her gaze towards him, "Freaking out won't help anyone. Head back to the library."
"Wha…but people might… need me." She said her desire to help those not completely submerged beneath her fear.
"Your minds a mess Buff'." He said firmly pushing his words into her consciousness, "You're in shock and if things're as bad as I think they are you'll do more harm than good coming with us. Head back to the library. Hopefully G-Man'll have a better idea of what the hell happened by now."
Taking a moment to examine her own mindset she had to admit that her brain wasn't working right and if she had to fight again…
"Okay. I'll head back." She said immediately averting her mind from the immediate past and the possible future, "Be careful."
"Don't worry." He said with his usual lopsided grin, "Even I'm not crazy enough to push my luck when I don't know all the rules. We'll help out until the police, fire department and ambulances can take over then head back to the library."
Yes.
That made sense.
Even if the police and the ambulances had been slow to respond in the past she found it hard to believe that they'd stay in amidst all of this. The chaos of whatever spell had been cast had shattered the 'quiet night' Halloween was supposed to be and demons were poking their heads out of their holes to see what was going on. While she'd like to think the monsters with more than a few brain cells would stay in it'd already proven that the more primal types had been lured out from their lairs. Probably the smell of blood, smoke and the random loud noises drew them out like fish guts in the water luring in a shark. Still even the dimmest demon would know to crawl back into their holes when too many ambulances and squad cars started flooding the streets.
If the animal demons didn't the ones with brains would likely take action to get rid of them in order to preserve the lie that there weren't any monsters in the world.
Not real ones anyway.
Bringing her right hand up to look at though she couldn't quiet the fear that tonight monsters the world had never seen before had been born.
Born to do what though?
She very much hoped she'd never have to find out.
A Street Corner in Sunnydale
Awhile Later
Cayde-6's POV
"I thought you said you could drive one of these things." Sundance said looking at the car they'd used to drop the kid off at the local hospital.
"I can! It's this junk heap's fault!" he complained before turning away from the smoking vehicle, "How come you didn't tell me the brakes on this thing were crap?"
"Well exxccuuusse ME! This vehicle is over five hundred years old!" Sundance replied with annoyance her plates reconfigured to show this, "Do you have any idea how much was lost in the Collapse? How much information was turned to ash, fried or just plain died with the person who remembered it? I did the best I could."
"Well I'm definitely not going to try driving one of these things again until I'm sure I can trust them like I trust my Sparrow." He said turning away from the car and beginning the walk to where Xander, Willow and…heheheh…Buffy were going to be waiting for him.
They'd outlined early on the search pattern they'd be using to look for people in trouble and given the time that'd passed since he'd left them he had a good idea of where they'd be. Hopefully they wouldn't be doing S&R for too long because as much fun as he was having in a place that looked like it was very early twenty-first century Earth he needed to get home. Sure he had tons of confidence in his newest and favorite Hunter to handle sis-com prince and his group of mutant Fallen that didn't mean he wanted to miss out on getting payback up close and personal if he could help it. Fighting those assholes had been dangerous but that's what made it exciting as well and if it hadn't been for that sniper taking out Sundance he could've taken them all down himself.
Speaking of which…
"Any idea what kind of mess we've gotten ourselves into?" he asked willing himself to be uncharacteristically serious for once.
"Not a clue. I remember us at the bottom of the Prison of Elders, you getting multiple dents put in your body and then when I was about to get you back in respectable shape…nothing." Sundance replied floating close to his left shoulder, "I'm guessing someone shot me?"
"Yep. A sniper." He replied regretting how careless he'd been, "With you gone and me in bad shape I knew what was going to happen. Had a belly full of regrets but I did have one thing going for me. I was going to see my son again."
"And now we're here." She said sounding like she'd done some thinking, "I've done some basic scans and the pollution along with the tech level does support early twenty-first century. But when I direct my scans to Mars I can't pick up even a whisper of the Traveller's power."
"Say what now?!" he exclaimed like someone had just told him that sand was wet, "But it came to the solar system around this time right? First to Jupiter, then Mercury, then Venus and finally Mars."
"According to historical records and the few Guardians who remember their past lives that's what happened." She said confirming what he'd learned over the course of his life as a Guardian, "So either we're in a time period before The Traveller arrived in the solar system or we're in a dimension where it never came here at all."
"But I've still got my mojo." He said letting a little of the power Solar manifest in his right hand, "And you're firing on all cylinders. That couldn't happen if The Traveller didn't exist and wasn't in the system."
They'd all learned firsthand what it felt like to suddenly be without the Light when Gaul put his cage around The Traveller cutting off its power from those it'd chosen to revive through its Ghosts. If the Light had been something new, something they'd only had for a few years, they might've been able to shrug it off but most Guardians had lived with the power for decades if not centuries. When it vanished it'd felt like someone had made all the energy one gained from a good night's sleep and a satisfying meal vanish in the blink of an eye leaving them to run on willpower alone.
The list of all that'd been taken from them, everyone he'd never speak to again, had been motivation enough for him to infiltrate Vex territory.
His plan had been as simple as it'd been bold: steal some Vex teleportation tech, get it within range of Gaul's flagship, head on up and put a bullet in the Red Legion leader's head. Without the light and no guarantee that he'd survive the assault he couldn't aim for something more ambitious like tearing the cage off of The Traveller. He'd have to be content with taking the head off the Legion and hoping it raised enough hell for Zavala and Ikora to do what they did best.
Too bad Vex tech wasn't as intuitive as he'd thought it would be what with the machines being all logical in how they did things and as a result he'd gotten stuck in their teleportation network. Fortunately his favorite Guardian arrived to get him out and improved his day big time not only but getting the Vex tech but also telling him ZAVALA needed him. He was only slightly disappointed that neither the Guardian or his Ghost had thought to record the statement so he could rub it in the face of his fire team leader but he'd gotten over it.
Bottom line: he still had his power and to his mind it meant that The Traveller had to be out there if not in the solar system then close enough for the Light to still reach him.
Though given how quickly the Golden Gun had run dry and vanished the connection was weaker than he'd like.
"I know and that's what's driving me crazy!" she exclaimed sounding like it'd been driving her up the wall, "I scanned you twice and everything I'm getting back says it's the Light. So either I've got a bug in my systems or we knew less about The Traveller than we thought."
It was a possibility.
Even with all the time that'd passed since The Traveller had first entered the system what they knew about the big white ball could barely fill a single book never mind a library. The Collapse didn't help any since it destroyed almost all the records of what came before leaving only scattered databases that they pretty much had to trip over to find most of the time. Plus just about everyone in The Last City saw The Traveller as a god so sending eggheads up to the big ball to do some poking around was a surefire way to get lynched.
As for Sundance having a bug in her systems he'd never heard of a Ghost catching a virus or anything like it so he'd prefer to think she was onto something about not having all the facts.
Having a Ghost with a few screws loose did NOT fill him with confidence.
He was about to ask his partner what she thought of the locals when something exploded a few blocks away in a way that demanded a person's undivided attention. He thought that things were going to quiet down now that the 'spell' was shut down or at least that's what the brain in charge of Big Red's body had told him. Apparently someone hadn't been told that the party was over and it was time to go home to bed. Pulling the Ace of Spades from its holster he made his way to ground zero figuring that Lady Luck had chosen him for one more bit of hero work.
Considering how little action he usually got to see he wasn't complaining.
As soon as he figured he was close enough to eyeball the action he ducked behind cover, priming himself for a fight, before peeking around it to see what he was dealing with.
What he saw hadn't been in his top ten list of possibilities but it wasn't quite enough to make him decide that discretion was the smart move.
The source of the explosion turned out to be another one of the primitive twenty-first century land vehicles spouting smoke even now. However it was the most likely source of that explosion that had him wondering if this was what it would look like if a Guardian focused all their Solar power to their head. The only way to describe it was a human skull wreathed in flame and dressed in clothes that would look right at home on one of Mara Sov's Royal Awoken Guards. It was fighting something that kinda reminded him of that story about a bull monster and a maze that The Speaker had told him once. The flaming skull was using a fiery chain as a weapon but it didn't look like it was doing as much good as you'd think it should because it was definitely hitting its mark.
"Looks like Horn Head has some decent regenerative power." Sundance said from her place within his body, "The chain's tearing out chunks of flesh but not enough to do a fatal amount of damage."
"I hate it when they can heal like that!" he whispered not quite willing to let anyone know he was there just yet.
"Yeah. Why can't they just die like all the rest when you shoot them?" she asked rhetorically and with a bit of sarcasm, "What're you going to do?"
"Well normally I'd say sit back and enjoy the show but I can see this fight's going nowhere fast so I guess I'll introduce the big guy over there to my hand cannon." He said stepping out from behind cover, "See if that spices things up."
"If that skeleton's chain didn't work what makes you think the Ace of Spades will do any better?" she asked sounding doubtful that he'd accomplish anything by shooting the horned monster.
"Have you so quickly forgotten I took down an Ogre with this hand cannon?" he asked a little hurt that she didn't have more confidence in his abilities.
"After more than half an hour of shooting it in the head while it tried to kill the both of us." She replied pointing out that the victory was hardly an achievement.
"Look everything dies if you destroy the heart or the brain." He said completely ignoring her point while taking careful aim with his hand cannon, "I just need to keep hitting both points until it falls."
"Here's hoping I've got enough glimmer stored up." She said reminding him that ammo for his weapons didn't come out of thin air.
To get something you often needed to make it out of something else.
He adjusted his strategy to go for quality rather than quantity.
Glimmer didn't just make the ammo for his hand cannon but it also formed the basis for the other weapons he owned and it cost him every time he summoned them. As much as he'd like to just write it off as a given that he'd be heading home soon the practical side of himself that he OCCASIONALLY listened to convinced him that the trip home might be awhile coming. With that being the case he'd either need to ration his Glimmer usage or find something that could do the same thing but was available locally.
Focusing his mind he kept his hand cannon trained on the head of the horned man thing waiting for it come to a stop for two seconds to be sure he'd hit his mark.
Too bad for him someone else wasn't as patient.
Off to the right obscured by a large bush a volley of crossbow bolts shot through the air turning the horned man thing's chest into a well used dart board after piercing its flesh.
~Nice grouping.~ He thought complimenting the accuracy given that whatever had launched the bolts couldn't have been very technological.
Too bad this probably wouldn't do anything more than annoy the monster since if flaming chains didn't kill it no way were pointy sticks going to do anything.
When the horned man thing looked down at the bolts before keeling over to the ground he found himself reevaluating that assumption.
"What the hell!?" he asked rhetorically as he tried to figure out how what'd happened had happened.
"When it comes to demons blessed silver is usually a safe bet." A voice said as a young woman roughly the same age as Buffy walked out from behind the bush, "When you don't have blessed silver though you have to improvise as best you can. I hope Missus Thompson wasn't too attached to her silverware."
"She probably was dear." The flaming skeleton head in leather said even as the flames began to die off, "But I'd say she was probably more attached to her life so we did the right thing."
"Here's hoping." The young woman said before turning to look right at him, "So what's your story? Halloween make a new person out of you like me and mom?"
"Mom?" he asked a bit confused looking at the flaming skeleton.
He got his answer a few moments later when the flames finally went out and then out of the smoke he began to see something that creeped him out even worse than Petra's floaty knife trick. Little by little, from the bottom to the top, he watched as flesh began to regrow on the skull and MAN did the skin not cover up the facial muscles quickly enough for him. It did eventually and then came the shoulder length blonde hair that oddly enough was naturally curly leaving him with a fierce a desire to NEVER be near the woman in her early thirties whenever she got her blaze on.
"I know. I just needed a moment to put my face on." The woman said proving she had a sense of humor even if it needed a bit of work, "So who're you?"
"Me? Just a friendly neighborhood Guardian doing some search and rescue." He replied deftly avoiding specifics, "The Brit said there's probably a lot of cleanup that needs doing after whatever happened tonight so me and a few others decided to rack up some good karma."
"Brit? You mean Mister Giles?" the woman asked sounding pretty sure of her guess.
"Didn't get a name and I'm guessing saying he was a big red skinned guy in a long coat wouldn't mean much after a night like this." He replied letting his optics pass over the surrounding area.
NO WAY was he letting someone or something else blindside him and Sundance again!
"It's gotta be him Mom." The teenager in the fedora insisted as she put her fancy looking crossbow on her back, "I mean how many other Brits are there in Sunnydale?"
"I'll admit that I can't think of any others but that doesn't mean there aren't any." Skull Mom said doing the whole no decision in absence of proof thing, "We need to head back to the high school. If Buffy and the others are anywhere it'll be there."
Buffy?
What're the odds there was another young lady with that name in this town?
Probably worse odds than Eris forgiving and forgetting what happened to her ship.
~You'd think she'd have been proud that her ship played such an important role in taking down Oryx.~ He thought with some annoyance at Eris' nitpicking obsession.
"Buffy wouldn't happen to be this short blonde girl with a weird vocabulary and a habit of winning arguments with her fists would she?" he asked remembering what he'd seen of the Buffy he knew.
"You've seen her?" Skull Mom asked instantly in inquisitive protective mode, "Where is she?"
"Right now? About eight blocks that way." He replied pointing in the direction of where he expected the trio to be by now, "Her, Willow and Xander were the 'others' I was talking about when I said we were doing some S&R."
"It's them! We're coming with you." Teen Fedora said making it clear where she was going next, "The sooner we all hook up the more people we can help and the sooner we can figure out what happened tonight."
"YEAH! It'll be a party!" he exclaimed using his skills of levity to keep them from figuring out that he knew a little about what'd happened tonight from Giles.
Just because he knew a little didn't mean he knew it all but he did know how whiny people could get when a little wasn't nearly enough for them.
He had NO desire to listen to a nagging Nancy for the next twenty minutes.
End Note 1: Just in case some of you haven't figured it out here are the costume pairings for who the Scoobies and others turned into.
Buffy Summers wound up turning into the character Sara from the movie 'Species 3'
Willow Rosenberg wound up getting a multiversal combo version of Venom
Xander turned into the hybrid Michael Corvin From the 'Underworld' movie series
Giles turned into the version of Hellboy played by Ron Perlman
Miss Calendar turned into Morrigan Aensland from the game 'Darkstalkers'
Dawn turned into a female version of Van Hellsing from the move starring Hugh Jackman
Cordelia turned into Ryoko from the Tenchi Muyo OVA anime series
As for Cayde-6 I just threw him in a short while after they killed off the character in the game 'Destiny' in order to give him a second chance. That's why I didn't bother to hint or explain who had dressed up as him.
End Note 2: Yes that bit with Janus and the PTBs near the end hinted at a future crossover but it'll be awhile before characters from that show officially make an appearance. Until then nothing but vague hints and references to whet the appetite.