THE HALLOWEEN MANIAC
AUTHOR: Destiny's Dragon
GENRE: Horror/Fantasy
RATING: PG-13 for language and violence.
CROSSOVER: Revealed when read.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. I'm very, very, very, very poor, so don't sue me!
SUMMARY: When Xander Harris decides to dress 'creatively' this Halloween, he may regret it for as long as he lives…
NOTE: This is a short one-shot story. I haven't really read the comic but I'm still trying to get his character right from the internet sites I read. I'm not the best writer but I enjoy it enough to try it.
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Ethan's Costume Shop, Sunnydale
Alexander Harris, a 17-year-old boy known as 'Xander' to his closest friends sulked as he noticed there wasn't any toy soldier guns left in the shop.
Xander had grown up in Sunnydale, which was on top of a Hellmouth his whole life. He had ignorant, uncaring, drunks for parents. So it was no surprise that Xander had mostly grew up with his two best friends Willow and Jesse.
It was only last year he had found out monsters, demons and vampires live and kill very often in his home town when Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer came to town with her mother.
After seeing his friend Jesse turned into a vampire and being forced to stake him, Xander did his best to stick by his friends and do anything he could to protect and help them.
Being the 'normal one' was painful to his pride when his two best friends were each special; Buffy being the superhero and Willow being the witch. Even Giles was the 'Watcher' and 'Spellcaster' of the group.
Nevertheless here he was a year later, grumbling in Ethan's costume shop because he couldn't find a toy gun for his costume. He as well as the others were suckered into taking out the younger students trick-or-treating on Halloween night by Principal Snyder.
Xander began looking through a box of odds objects, before pulling out twin plastic machetes. He blinked, staring at them while an evil grin spread across his face.
This idea was perfect! He practically already had most of his costume at home and all he had to do was buy certain bits he needed. Oh Willow was going to get a kick out of this…
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That afternoon in the Harris residence, while Mr. and Mrs. Harris lay knocked out in their drunken sober, Xander stood in his room finishing his costume.
His hair was all spiked up in different directions with two oddly styled antennae of hair that stuck out from his forehead.
His clothes were black. He was wearing a pair of knee-high leather combat boots that had a lot of buckles on them.
His two fake machetes were tucked safely onto his hidden belt.
His eyes were so dark with wearing eyeliner and mascara, and his skin was very pale with skin powder.
He finished by putting on his black gloves and grinned. Halloween was going to rock!
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Summers Residence, Sunnydale
It was already dark out when Xander walked to his best friend's house and knocked on the door.
The door slowly opened and Joyce Summers AKA Buffy's mom, looked back at him in shock and perhaps a little fear.
He grinned at her, hoping to calm her down. "Hey Joyce, Buffy and Willow ready yet?"
Joyce instantly relaxed and let him in the house. She smiled at him. "Xander! Wow, you look great… I think."
He nodded, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Thanks. I hope the girls think so too. Are they ready?"
"Just finished I think. Who did you dress up as?"
He smirked. "Just a guy from a comic book series. He's called-"
However, he was cut off when Buffy dressed in her Victorian dress walked down the stairs. He gaped at her before shaking some sense into his head.
Xander grinned at her, bowing. "Duchess Buffy, Wow! I totally renounce Spandex!"
Buffy looked down at Xander with wide eyes. "Wow yourself, Xander. You look… really freaky."
Xander chuckled slightly, "Thanks, I think. Hey, where's Willow?"
"Yeah, wait till you see… Casper."
Groaning, Buffy glared sternly at her friend but Willow's attention stayed with Xander.
"Xander! Whydidyoudressashim! Youknowhecreepsmeout!"
Xander grinned evilly at her. "Aw, come on Will, it's only for Halloween."
Buffy nodded, agreeing. "Come on guys, Snyder's waiting for us to collect the savage rug-rags at the school."
Xander nodded glumly and followed her. "Joy. I'd like to see him when he gets what's coming to him…"
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Ethan's Costume Shop, Sunnydale
"Finally, it's time."
Ethan Rayne, Chaos mage, walked quickly through his shop into a back room. Then he stepped up to a curtained off area and pulled back the heavy drape in a single movement.
There was a table with a bust on it. The bust of Janus; the multi headed Roman god.
Ethan knelt before his statue of Janus and started the ritual by his palms with a small knife.
He pressed his hands together and winces in pain. He then pulled them apart, his palms bled freely.
"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit." Ethan dabbed the blood from his hand over his right eyelid.
"The peace that ignores thee…" then he dabbed some over his left eyelid, "…thou corrupt."
Then he quickly made the sign of the cross on his forehead.
"Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
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Power flowed through the night spreading across the town, working chaos's will. The trouble with true chaos is that it's totally unpredictable.
It's magic turned every costumed child, teen or adult into whatever they dressed as.
Warlocks ran down the streets. Demons attacked every person in sight. Vampire children broke into shops. Everywhere was in rampage of monsters.
Buffy Summers, 16-year-old Vampire Slayer wavered when the spell hit her and her mind was over come with a Victorian noble lady's conscious.
Willow Rosenborg fell to the ground as the power passed her. As she struggled to get back up, she noticed her body below her in horror.
However, as the chaos magic hit Xander and he fell to the ground in a faint. The magic not only corrected his physical state, making him taller and thinner than before but his mental state was being affected too…
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Johnny C growled as he got to his feet. Damn how did he get here? Where was his blasted wreck of a car?
He quickly gazed around the area, taking in the screaming monster children with ease. He put his hand under his chin and hummed to himself, rocking on his feet.
He wasn't anywhere near home or anywhere else he could remember. It looked and felt like he was in California. Well one thing was for certain, he wasn't in Hell but since when did that make a difference in his life?
"Xander!" A teenager girl's voice shouted at him.
More than annoyed, Johnny turned to face a red haired punk staring at him with wide eyes.
He squinted his eye at her in anger and screamed at her. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING TOO? THERE'S NOBODY HERE BUT ME AND THESE FREAKS!"
The girl froze in shock than of fear. She sputtered. "You're not-t X-Xander."
Johnny snarled at her. "Glad you noticed that! I'm Johnny C but you may NOT call me 'Nny. Now EXCUSE ME but I don't want to talk to YOU anymore!"
With that, Johnny slipped his machete from his belt and jumped at her, cutting her throat.
-Or he would have, if his machetes hadn't passed through her.
Johnny blinked. He looked at his bloodless machete then at her and then back looking at his knife in confusion.
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Willow gaped in silent horror at the knife and the face of her best friend that would of killed her if she had not become a ghost tonight.
She shook herself out of her frozen state and tried to use Xander's confusion to get him to listen to her.
"Look," she tried to explain, "Tonight's Halloween and everyone's become their costumes! Those are not real monsters; their children being possessed by a spell. I even became a ghost because I dressed up as one!"
Johnny looked up at her and put his hand through her stomach ignoring her protests before putting his hand back out.
He frowned, turning his head to the side.
"Maybe. Maybe you're right. Or it could be the aliens! They could be doing this! THEIR EVERYWHERE! DAMN THEM AND THEIR MIND TRICKS!"
Willow protested. "No! Everyone's become their costume because of the characters they dressed as. Like I know you Johnny C and er… Nailbunny! Oh and Squee too!"
He looked at her in shock. He yelped aloud in disbelief.
"You mean someone dressed as ME!"
Willow had enough. She shouted at him. "YES! NOW PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE UNLESS WE FIND BUFFY!"
Johnny stared at her, wanting to protest but one of the voices in his head spoke up. Sounding different and quite sane from the others, the voice urged Johnny to help her.
He glumly nodded, putting his machete back in his belt.
Willow sighed in relief. All she had to do now was find Buffy, she'll know what to do.
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In Sunnydale Library, Rupert Giles, Watcher and librarian, spat his tea over the desk as Willow waltzed through the wall like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
"Willow, what the devil..."
"No time," Willow cut in with uncharacteristic sharpness. "Everyone has been turned into their costumes for the night," she said curtly, "We NEED to stop it now."
"Calm yourself for a moment, now how did you come to this conclusion?" Giles said.
"Did you not SEE me walk through the wall?"
Giles narrowed his eyes, "That I did, there is however no need to be quite so rude about it."
Willow took a few long breaths, "Sorry, it's just that Xander in his current guise is driving me insane!"
"Who did he go as, and for that matter where is Buffy?"
"Buffy is out for the count after Xander floored her after she insulted him. He wasn't happy," she shivered. It had taken a lot of talking to convince Xander not to kill Buffy.
Giles blinked. "And who did he dress up as?"
Willow winced, "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac."
Giles gaped at her. "WHAT!"
Willow nodded, annoyance on her features. "I know already Giles! It took me long enough to persuade him to help me, that I was NOT one of his delusions, that he could NOT kill Cordelia because she was a cheerleader and for him to stay and help Angel protect the house."
Giles nodded, "That's true, now; where did you get you're costumes?"
"Ethan's," Willow replied. "Except Cordelia, she got her's from Party town."
"Is she her costume?"
Willow shook her head, "No, she's still Cordelia." Willow said and added, "Unfortunately."
"Ethan's..." Giles said trailing off his face becoming set, "Where, perchance is this shop?"
Willow looked a little worried at the expression on his face but otherwise ignored it, "I'll show you."
"No!" Giles said sternly, "Just tell me and get back to Buffy and the others."
Willow nodded and set out to do just that.
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Johnny was pissed off, he didn't like the red head ghost but he liked her better than the moping idiot called Angel and that bratty cheerleader.
It was because of that moping idiot that the air-head that might as well be a cheerleader as far as Johnny was concerned, ran from the house, making Angel declare they follow and protect her.
Johnny finally had enough as they entered a warehouse. Turning to Angel who moped and moaned about poor Buffy, Johnny put his machete in a butterfly arc at his throat.
He growled angrily at Angel's shocked face.
"WILL YOU EVER SHUT UP? CAN'T YOU SEE I DON'T CARE! THAT I WOULD BE EVEN HAPPY TO ATTEND HER FUNERUAL THAN LISTEN TO YOU ALL NIGHT!"
Before Angel could reply, Buffy ran screaming into him, knocking him back from Johnny's blades.
Johnny however noticed she was being followed by a blond haired vampire with monster children around him.
Spike smirked at them. "Well isn't this a happy sight? The Slayer turned into air headed idiot and my poof of a sire here all in the one place…"
Johnny felt the same voice from earlier on, screaming at him to kill this moron.
He grinned and stepped in front of Spike, keeping him away from Buffy.
He twirled his blades and introduced himself, smiling.
"I'm Johnny C but you can call me 'Nny since you won't be living long to use it."
Spike snarled at him. "Get out of the way, droopy."
Looking very psychotic, Johnny lashed out his machete at Spike's head.
Spike, surprised at this attack only managed to back away in time. Spike fumed, he nearly got killed by this puny human!
Enraged, Spike tried to grab him but every time he came close, he hands seemed to blocked by an invisible force.
Johnny glared at him. Spinning his blades around, he kept slashing out, drawing blood but not stopping Spike from trying to kill him.
Spike roared in anger. "WHY CAN'T I TOUCH YOU!"
Johnny snarled, hitting him in the face. "BECAUSE I AM THE WASTE LOCK AND I CAN NEVER DIE! I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING TO END MY PAIN AND EVERYONE ELSES BUT NO! I'M DOOMED TO SUCK ALL THE BAD THINGS IN LIFE INTO ME!"
Spike spat at him. "Your more mad than my girlfriend, you wanker."
Johnny growled, "You're going to HELL!"
Before they could get much further a flash of light blinded them for only a moment before they gained back their sight.
Spike had used this distraction to run off and the children around them were crying and screaming, wondering how they all got here.
Cordelia was looking dazed as Buffy and Angel comforted each other while talking.
Xander however, had gained extra height, a thinner physical, real blades and a bunch of voices in his head for his trouble.
Buffy walked over and gazed at him worriedly. "Are you okay Xander?"
He groaned, rubbing his head. "This is gonna cost me a lot of therapy…"
FIN.