Xander eyed himself in the mirror, the costume fit perfectly and it looked great. He carefully settled the plastic necklace around his neck and the look was complete. He glanced at the other two accessories, the miniature of the hero's home and a book he didn't recognize. It was styled to look old and about the size of a reading book he'd find in any library. He set the miniature on his dresser, he had no need to carry it and and tucked the book into his pocket. One last look and he was ready to go.
It didn't take long to arrive at Buffy's, where he was picking up both girls and he knocked on the door, it was answered by Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers, who was dressed as Cleopatra for a costume party of her own she was attending.
"Wow, Mrs. S, you make a great Queen of the Nile, I almost didn't recognize you with the wig, but the dark color looks good on you." He complemented the attractive older woman.
"Thank you, Xander. I must confess I don't recognize who you're dressed as."
"I'm a comic book geek, Mrs. S. I'm dressed as Dr. Stephan Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, Earth's Defender against mystical attacks, a superhero from a comic book."
"Mystical? Like Magic, sort of like Merlin?"
"Something like that, yes." Xander nodded. "Are the girls ready? Snyder's always trying to find ways to bust kids and give detention, so being late for kiddie escort duty will not go over well with him."
"They should be down any minute, Buffy's been trying to convince Willow to go with a different costume. I don't think she's having much success."
"I wish her luck, I gave up on trying to get Willow to wear something other than a ghost costume years ago." Xander shrugged. "She's been wearing a ghost costume since she was five." He noticed a shadow cross Mrs. Summers' face. "Mrs. S? Is everything okay?" He asked cautiously.
"Oh, it's just...Buffy went as a ghost when she was five as well. She believed she had an imaginary friend that only she could see and she thought dressing as a ghost showed solidarity with her friend. The thing is, she called her friend Dawn. She didn't realize it caused some pain for her father and I, because for awhile we thought she was going to have a sister and we were going to call her Dawn. Buffy doesn't remember that and it's probably for the best." Joyce had no idea why she'd just confided that to her daughter's friend. "Please don't say anything to Buffy. I shouldn't have said anything."
"Not a word, I promise." He assured the woman who was more motherly towards him than his own. He glanced up as he heard someone coming down the stairs. "Well a Queen and a Princess, makes sense since you're mother and daughter. Buffy, Princess of Storybook Land, I guess, since you look like a Disney Princess."
"Buffy, Princess of Storybook Castle sounds better." Buffy smiled at her best male friend and examined his costume. "I can honestly say I don't recognize who you're dressed as."
"The Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Stephan Strange, a former neurosurgeon. After an accident made practicing medicine impossible he apprenticed with the Ancient One, a title held by a very old, as in centuries old woman, who looked young, who trained him in the Mystic Arts. Now he's the Sorcerer Supreme, Earth's Defender against magical attacks. Not the most famous superhero, but he's often worked with the very best of them."
"Well it looks good on you and wait until you see Willow, you're not going to believe -." She turned to the stairs and watched, disappointed, as Willow walked down the stairs wearing her ghost costume. "Oh, Willow."
"Hey, Will, great Boo." Xander complimented his oldest female friend on her ghost costume, a white sheet, with two eyeholes and the word Boo on it. "Time to go, ladies, we don't want to be late." The two girls followed him and they made good time getting to the High School where a disappointed Snyder was only able to scowl at them because he had nothing to complain about. He assigned them the kids they'd be escorting and the three friends led them out trick or treating.
About an hour later the wind began to stir and some instinct had all three looking around, wondering what was happening. Children began to transform, one attacked an old woman and Willow yelled at him to stop. She found herself having trouble breathing and stumbled back, away from the little monsters and fell to the floor of the porch, gasping for air that never reached her lungs as her body died and a ghost version of her stood there, terrified.
Buffy's wig suddenly wasn't a wig anymore as she became Buffy, Princess of Storybook Castle, a Disney Princess come to life.
Joyce Summers fortunately didn't transform. But she did faint when a little girl appeared in front of her and twirled around, wearing an adorable fairy costume with wings. "Do you like my costume, Mom?" Dawn screamed as she tried to catch her falling mother.
A miniature house sitting on a dresser disappeared and reappeared outside town, becoming the Sanctum Sanctorum, the home of the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Stephan Strange, who found himself on a strange street, in a strange town, surrounded by mini monsters.
Ethan Rayne passed out himself as the spell he was working forced him to draw more power than he'd anticipated from a second source, rather then just the god, Janus. To his shock, he realized he was drawing power from the Hellmouth itself and he wasn't sure he would even wake up as his mind went blank.