"Volunteered."
Rupert Giles blinked at the sudden voice and looked down to find its source scowling up at him. Principal Snyder, the tyrant of a mid-sized high school and Giles' nominal boss.
"I-I beg your pardon?" He stuttered as the other man narrowed his eyes.
"I said, you've been volunteered." He said, crossing his arms. "I need a member of the faculty to watch the drop off for the trick-or-treating event tonight. Some parents can't handle the idea that their gremlins would be watched by teenagers even a handful of minutes sooner. Not that I can blame them. So, I'm volunteering you for the job."
"I, why me?"
The other man snorted, "Because you'll be here anyway. Scurrying in your library, fretting over some book. A few moments away from… that won't gather too much dust on the shelves."
While that was a fairly decent point Giles was quite sure he did not enjoy the phrasing. And while he would like to refuse he couldn't think of an immediate excuse. Not one that wouldn't risk his cover within the school.
"Very well." He sighed, resigning himself. Suffering another one of the many trivial tasks being a school librarian forced upon him. "When will I need to be here?"
"Five PM, on the dot. I want you and the other volunteered to be here before those hooligans can start anything." The little man moved as if to leave, allowing for the library door to slowly ease open. Then quickly shut as he spun around. "And costumes. You need a costume, it is a holiday after all."
He seemed to get a cruel kind of joy at watching the grimace on GIles' face form. When he finally walked away, far down the hall and around a corner, the library door opened to a beautiful woman letting out a large sigh of relief.
"I thought he would never leave." Jenny Calendar muttered, sweeping back her hair and giving him an apologetic smile. "Sorry for leaving you behind like that but-"
"Oh, I completely understand." He assured her, smiling as she laid a hand on his arm. "Wouldn't want to get entangled with any extra school events now would we?"
"Not after that Valentine's Day fiasco last year, no." She gave a mock shudder as he went to lock the doors behind her. "Speaking of, what are you going as?"
"I'm, uh, not sure. Something low effort I'm sure." He said, hesitating as they walked down the hallway and looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I do own a leather jacket. Perhaps I could go as that Malcolm fellow from that movie we watched. Ah, Jurassic Park?"
"A leather jacket? My, how scandalous." Jenny teased, "Were you a bad boy once upon a time Rupert?"
"I believe the colloquial term is 'I plead the fifth."
She barked out a laugh and his heart skipped.
"Glad to see you're getting used to the local lingo, English." She said before giving him a considering glance. "But, that's a no on Malcolm. I see you more as an Alan."
Giles gave her a wounded look, "I do believe I could pull off a Malcolm."
"Nah, not enough of a fuddy duddy for you. The smart dad figure on the other hand…"
"I'll have you know I'm not always a 'fuddy duddy', as you say."
"I'm getting you the hat. There's a cute little costume shop that just opened up near me, I can grab one there."
"I'm going as Malcolm."
"Sure you are."
-0-0-0-0-
Buffy watched her mentor walk away, arm in arm with the attractive computer teacher. Which was simultaneously cute and ew. It was also beside the point.
"Looks like the coast is clear Will." She said, edging around the corner with her friend. They had been waiting there since their troll of a principal stomped towards the library. He had already cornered them once, forcing them to be chaperones for a bunch of elementary schoolers. She didn't want to even guess what he'd try if he saw them again.
"It also looks like he locked his doors." She muttered as she gave the door an experimental pull. Now while she could break the lock, with a literal flick of the wrist, she didn't want to go that far. Giles would get irritated at her, then he'd lecture her, which was no fun.
"We could wait until later?" Her red-haired friend offered with a rather weak smile.
Buffy pouted, thinking it over before shaking her head. One, Giles looked like he was probably going to be busy for a while, again ew. Two, she didn't want to waste any more of her costume buying time waiting for a chance to look at some stuffy old Watcher Journals. Who needed them anyway! If she needed to know more about Angel she'd ask him!
And if he wanted to turn his head at some vampire floozie then she would turn it right back. She'd show him just what he was missing!
"C'mon Wills, we got some shopping to do!"
-0-0-0-0-
When Xander found the girls there was already a small pile of costumes starting to build up. Buffy seemed in the process of picking up each costume off the wrack, examining it, and tossing it back with not so faint disgust. Willow, meanwhile, stood off to the side, a ghost costume held close to her chest as she watched Buffy with a wary eye.
When Willow saw him her face lit up with relief.
"Xander, hey!" She exclaimed, waving him over and perking Buffy's attention. He took a breath and decided to rip the bandaid off. His pride still hurt but Buffy was still his friend. So he could do this, probably.
Heedless of his discomfort Willow bowled her way through the pleasantries and got to the heart of the holiday. "What'd you get?"
He held up the toy rifle he found in the discount bin.
"That's not a costume," Buffy said flatly, giving it a bit of a glare before directing it to Willow's own choice.
Xander bristled a little bit as she turned away from him. The sting to his pride singing again even as he plastered on a smile for Willow. "I got fatigues from an Army surplus at home. Call me the Two-Dollar Costume King, baby!"
Willow smiles at him but he could tell that she knew something was up. It was probably obvious, he wasn't so good with the whole 'hiding his feelings' thing, not around her at least. Not around either of them apparently as Buffy's eyes focused on him, like a hawk spotting a mouse. He felt about as pinned.
"Hey, Xander? Look…" She paused as he turned towards her, toy gun pointed in her direction. "About this morning, I'm really sorry."
Xander grimaced, "Do you mind? I'm trying to repress here."
"Okay, how about this? Next time I'll just let you get pummeled." She offered, even giving a hug to seal the deal.
"Thanks." He said with a roll of his eyes but returned the hug. "Maybe keep that promise to guys who can get a suntan? I'm pretty sure I can take them."
"Uh-huh." She said, smiling up at him as they ended the hug.
"What? I totally could! I've got some muscles now, see?" He flexed a bit to show that, yes, he did in fact have some muscles there. He was no bodybuilder, but it was there!
The girls gave him his proper appreciation. Between their giggles, but credit was given. And all was well, until Buffy snagged their costumes.
"Hey!" They yelled in unison, trying to swipe their costumes back. Unfortunately, her Slayer reflexes made it an unfair match.
"Nuh-uh." She said, zig zagging her prizes away from her friends' reaching hands. "You guys aren't doing Halloween right! I'm not allowing this!" She waved a finger at them both, the ghost costume swinging in her grip. "Halloween is 'come as you aren't' day not 'let me get the cheapest and most boring choices'. A soldier and a ghost? Really?"
"Some of us like cheap, thank you very much." Xander said stiffly before pausing, "Wait. Rephrase that."
"And ghosts are a classic choice! It's spooky. Like Halloween!"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "And that's all Halloween is about? That certainly explains all the clown and Power Ranger costumes I see every year." She pointed a finger, cutting off his 'clowns are evil' comment before it could form. "The point is, Halloween isn't JUST about being scary. It's a part of it, sure, but the costumes are more than that. They let you be what you're scared of being. Be a little goofy, be a little sexy, get into character, have fun! Be what you want to be, not what's convenient!"
There was a beat of silence before someone said "Wow, that's a good point."
The three friends turned to stare at a small grouping of familiar looking nerds who scurried off. Though not before dropping some of their off-the-rack costumes back on the shelf. A few other people seemed to be taking their example. Putting back what they had in hand, and wandering further into the store.
The guy at the register seemed ecstatic about the whole thing. Probably the owner or something.
"Anyway," Buffy said, drawing her friends' attention back to her. "You are not going as… these."
"Oh, and what are you going as Miss Smarty Pants?" Xander asked, arms crossed and giving a bit of a scowl.
"Something sexy and wild." She said with a grin that became a bit teasing as she saw his scowl start to morph into something intrigued. "Have to show Angel what he's ignoring."
The scowl returned but he was still interested, very interested. "I recommend spandex."
Buffy snorted before jerking her captured ghost costume out of range of a creeping Willow hand. The redhead tried a few more swipes before she let out a whine of "Buufffy!"
"Nope. I'm putting my foot down here." She said, going so far as to toss the costume at the top of a shelf, two aisles over. "No ghosts."
Willow's face started to match her hair, a mix of embarrassment and frustration with more than a hint of anger. "But I like ghosts! And, and, I can't do the sexy thing" Her voice became quieter with every word, painfully so. "I'll just end up looking like a spaz."
Xander looked between the two girls, feeling very much confused and starting in on worried. He thought he was going to have to say something to help his Willow out of her funk but Buffy acted quicker.
She reached out, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and forcing them to meet eyes. "You don't have to do sexy." She said gently, "I'm going to be doing enough of that for both of us, but you are going to be adventurous. For me if not for you? Aim for… cute?"
Willow chewed at her lip, obviously torn but she did give a nod. And Buffy beamed at her, even hugging her. A hug where she gave Xander the 'I'm watching you' gesture over her shoulder.
He held his hands up in surrender, he knew a losing battle when he saw one. "I'll find something cool, jeez!" As long as it was under twenty dollars, he needed the rest for twinkie supplies.
They shopped around a bit more and Buffy, despite her speech, ended up taking the longest. Xander quickly found a faux NASA jacket that he instantly fell in love with. Willow meanwhile kept trying to sneak a ghost costume. Right up until Buffy forced a rather conservative witch costume into her hands.
"No ghosts." She said, digging through another bin for something. "You are at least showing your face tonight. Ah!"
She smiled as she pulled out a wrapped costume, faux leopard print obvious even from a distance. The image on the front promised a costume with a bare midriff and a plunging neckline. Xander wasn't sure if it was okay by school rules but he approved and, apparently, so did Buffy.
"Perfect!"
-0-0-0-0-
Cordelia did not stomp through the halls of Sunnydale high, she was too grateful for that. Ask anyone.
What she did was stride aggressively.
Paths cleared for her as she met the various eyes around her with a painted smile. She looked good, she knew it, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with it. Especially because she was in the wrong costume!
Everyone was changing their costume up last minute and her desired sexy cat outfit. Instead, she had to go to some run down startup and get stuck with a sexy cop costume. A faux uniform of navy blues and pink trims that relied more on exposed legs than curves to be 'sexy'. It was a complete waste of her figure but it's what she had to deal with.
She was going to show that no good idiot Devon what he had stood up. Just because he was the lead singer of some small town band didn't mean jack, not in the face of Cordelia Chase. The Ingrate!
She paused and sniffed at the thought, staying still long enough for her eyes to take in the crowd at the front of the school. The usual set of dorks was around, each in their own cheesy little costumes.
A jungle woman, really? She thought Summers was \better than that. Even if she turned out to be a freak. Probably trying to get Angel's interest back, good luck with that. Rosenberg seemed to have branched out with a flowy witch's costume, still plain. The librarian didn't look too bad with his black button down. Though the image was completely ruined by a red handkerchief around his neck and a straw hat. Harris wasn't worth mentioning.
She stiffened as she felt a tug at her skirt, fury starting to boil up from her gut as she whirled around. Said fury sputtered out as she stared down at a little teary face holding up a wristband for her. "My friends don't want to play with these anymore. Do you want one?" The little kid asked, snot threatening to leave his nostril.
She bent down, by the knees so she didn't jump start his puberty, and looked him in the eye. "What is it?"
He sniffed, "I made them for our costumes but they changed their minds. We're going as the Village People now." Which did explain his firefighter costume. "But I didn't want to go as the Village People so I made these but they don't want to but yesterday they said it would be a cool idea."
"Okay, okay. Calm down." She said looking at the offered wristband. It was an ugly gray thing made of rubber bands of painted bottle caps. "What is it again?"
He told her and she snorted, but she still took it because she wasn't a monster. "Y'know who would love these? See those four over there? They'd be thrilled to have them."
"Really?"
"Really." With that, the little munchkin made his way to the loser squad and Cordelia tucked the bracelet into one of her many pockets. Seriously, the skimpy costume had more pockets in it than most of her daily wear.
With her good deed done for the day she continued her stride into the school. Devon's stupid bandmate was probably still lazing around somewhere. If she couldn't find the snake she might as well yell at his puppy.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Willow adjusted her dress as another gust of wind pulled it much too tight. Buffy had said it would be cute but she found she was showing more of her nonexistent curves than she was comfortable with. Yes, she was wearing a t-shirt and shorts underneath but that didn't stop the embarrassment.
Pulling at the brim of her witch's hat she pointed the way to the next house with her wand. "Let's." She started, trying to think of something cleverly Halloween-y to say before giving up. "Let's head over there, please."
They trailed after her, bouncing from sugar and excitement. They technically shouldn't have eaten any of their candy yet, razor blades and all that, but Willow couldn't keep an eye on all of them at once.
"C'mon guys." She said, waving them along up to the door.
"Trick or Treat!" They screamed in unison as the door opened. The old woman on the other side gushed over them as she dug into the bowl of her candy.
Then Willow blinked and Madison opened her eyes. Dazed and confused she looked around a town that very much wasn't Briarwood. It felt disgusting. The air here was a bowl of tar compared to her hometown's misty tingle.
She jumped as someone screamed, literally right next to her. Spinning around she found an old woman scrambling away from a pair of battling… imps? They certainly didn't look like any Morlocks she had ever seen.
Still, she kicks them apart, more out of instinct than anything else. "Hey! Stop that!" She even raised her wand as a threat, the glowing blue tip more than enough to send the pair scurrying away.
"Hmph." She harrumphed, satisfied the fighting was over. Until she looked up and down the street where dozens of such fights were sparking. People were running, screaming, away from various monsters of all kinds. Some of them even looked a bit familiar. "Um, ma'am I think you better get-" the door slammed shut and a half dozen locks sounded behind the thick wood. "Do that… okay then."
Madison made her way to the street, unsure of what to do. Well, more than try and scare away the creatures chasing after the screaming humans.
Her wrist started to speak, a crackling sound from a bracelet she doesn't remember wearing. "This is Andros the Red Space Ranger. I'm here with the Yellow Galactic Ranger. Does anyone else hear me?"
There was a pause, then a series of beeps.
"Black Dino Thunder Ranger here." A voice eventually responded. "Man, it's been forever since I've used one of these."
Then another voice, "SPD 5 Pink Ranger responding. Does anyone have a clue on what's going on here? Or where here is? Or even when?"
Madison fumbled a bit as she pressed the button on the side, "Uh, Blue Mystic Ranger. I think there's a spell going on but everything is so chaotic, I can't get a good read of it. What are we going to do?"
"Meet up," two voices said at once, both of the men from earlier. Though the older ceded to the younger. "We'll meet up and make a plan then. Until then gather information on your way and stay safe.
That seemed easier said than done but she would do her best. This night may look crazy but there were Power Rangers there to set things right.