The War Machine

A Buffy and Stargate SG1 Crossover

-Gargoyles

-Iron Man

-S.T.R.I.P.E.

-Warmachine

(Armoured Wars)

It's a cold, harsh night in the small Californian town of Sunnydale, and all is peaceful at least on the surface. If you took the time to look deeper, to scratch the thin veneer from the surface of this suburban town you will find a hole of scum, villainy and death unlike any city on the planet. Its 'accidental' killings and wild animal attacks bring the death toll of this small suburban community higher than most midsized cities, which should be impossible, but everything about this town is impossible and unlike anything else in the world.

Just last month in October, on old hallows eve almost every member of this community had an experience that left them fundamentally changed in a deeply personal way. You see, everyone who had shopped at Ethan's Costume Shoppe had been transformed into their costumes because of a Mystical Invocation Spell.

Yes, magic is real. It is a fundamental and universal constant and on the Hellmouth it is even more so. This spell was invoked by a chaos mage called Ethan Rayne. A duplicitous, conniving, snivelling little coward who had managed to ensure that all the other costume shops were closed by nefarious means, making it so his tampered costumes were the only ones in the town.

When the spell blanketed the town, everyone was changed into their disguises, vampires, witches and other mythical and fantastic guises became real, Dracula, Gandalf and other beings imagined by the fertile mind of man became real for one night.

When the spell had been reversed, and the citizenry were all returned to their normal human selves, there were no visible differences in anyone, at least at first, but, one by one the citizens of the town found themselves changed in one manner or another, some were more confidant, being brave and more daring, some became more considerate and caring. Everyone from the oldest of men to the youngest of children had had some change in personality or demeanour, all be it slight and not to overt, everyone but one, his name is Alexander 'Xander' Harris and this is his story.

There were allot of old abandoned factory units in the Sunnydale Industrial Park, the industrial age had come and gone and only the barest of the warehouses where left as any indication of the booming transport hub that the town was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of which were abandoned and decaying housing only the vampiric vermin that infected the town.

The warehouse district of Sunnydale was always eerily still, being formally a vampiric hot spot, the vermin had been cleared out by the Slayer weeks ago leaving the district unwelcomingly quiet and dark, dark but for a single building light are on. One building, one solitary light in the cold night.

The quiet of the factories was abruptly broken by the lowed echoing pounding of metal hitting metal ringing through the night. In one of the smaller industrial units a young man of eighteen was working hard hammering white-hot steel shaping it like clay into the perfect shape before quenching it in oil.

This piece would be the last of the extremely heavy exoskeleton, as the piece cooled giving off steaming condensation making the metal slab look almost ethereal, Xander stretched his back, he was drenched in a layer of sweat and grime, but finally, he was done.

A months' work measuring, hammering, moulding and constructing as well as a lot of money but he was done, the monster was almost finished he just needed to construct hydraulics and the fine micro transistors and the complex computing system and then he would be finished with the 1st part of the construction.

As soon as he set the hammer down, he was assaulted by math, numbers both indescribably beautiful and unfathomably terrifying. Calculations for technology that could change the world or doom it, sometimes he couldn't sleep because of it, but that was his curse to bear having four of the greatest geniuses in comic and cartoon history in his mind at all times as well as several of their alternates as well.

Anthony 'Tony' Stark, Patrick 'Pat' Dugan, John-Henry Irons, David Xanatos, Iron Man, S.T.R.I.P.E, STEEL and creator of the Iron\Steel Clan respectively. Each one of them conflicts with the other over the most innocuous of things, the Xanatos, Tony Starks and John-Henry's often argue over anything at the drop of a hat, most often about the different approaches of saving the world while Pat enjoys the show with a few of the more level-headed Starks and John-Henry's.

After a few hours they would calm down either coming to an agreement or shelving the argument altogether or changing the subject, but he didn't need it right now, if they started up again, they would not stop before next Tuesday.

The Forge was on the far side of the warehouse for safety, he turned off the gas and began to walk back to the main office at the back of the building. He walked down to the desk,it was a long object made of a combination of Iron and wood, at the edge of the metal table he picked up a small white bottle, opened the top with pop and downed three pills to kill the migraines.

The exoskeleton would be 9 foot 10 inches tall and a combination of the primitive and simple MK 1 Invincible Iron Man suit as well as the bare bones of the S.T.R.I.P.E MK 3 suit. It was designed to be a brutalist nightmare, a gigantic pig of a machine for crushing anything that the Slayer could not physically overpower or out move.

The finished concept would also have heavy elements of the Cataphractii Terminator Armour as well as the Warmachine, the main issue with the suit would be speed and mobility the thick armour plating would limit both that and noise the power pack was very loud and he had no way of silencing it enough for it not to sound like the heavy rumble a Porsche Tiger Tank.

Xander stretched out his back again, the heavy grunt work was done for now so he could rest somewhat. But the numbers danced before his eyes along with a migraine boring into the temples of his skull from another mental barroom brawl was very slow in subsiding and the boring pain was not stopping.

He cursed mentally as he finally sat down for the first time in ten hours, his legs where practically vibrating with fatigue, his gaze once again fell on the monster he was building. By no stretch of the imagination was it sleek and streamlined that most of his tenants were used to and the technology was a far, a far cry from what any of them would ever use as trying to reverse engineer from memory was quite tricky but not impossible, the Soviet Tony Stark was quite happy with it so there was that little ray of sunshine.

Musical beeping broke Xander from his musings.

"Sir you have successfully controlling interest in all the companies requested and have increased you stock portfolio congratulations sir you are one of the richest men on the planet," said the voice in a heavily upper-class English accent that sounded a lot like Giles without the stammer.

"Thank you, Jarvis and my other projects."

"Sir Knight Industries are now one of the top five technology companies on the planet and we have gained several military contracts, we are doing very well sir." came the voice again "the new scanners show that your body is adapting rapidly to cope with the new stresses being placed on it, almost alarmingly so." the voice said

"Adapting, how Jarvis?"

"It appears as though your body is going through a type of evolution sir, not too dissimilar to that of a mutant, your Biology is moving you to the next stage of human evolution, it will take time about a month to five weeks, but your body should be able to cope with the new stresses upon it especially the mind."

"Thank you, Jarvis is there any news on the new power core for the armour."

"No sir, most of the power tech we have seen won't help in this instance, and all the others seem to be in the position of a military group within Colorado Cheyenne Mountain" Xander turned to face the voice it was a hologram that looked like Giles in full holographic tweed.

"NORAD?"

"no sir, from the paper work I have been able to access it's a group with in NORAD facility with the initials SGC."

"Those initials keep showing up when we made that brake through with Iridium and plasma power systems isn't it."

"Yes, sir."

"Didn't we sell the new OSS to them?"

"Yes, sir perchance was completed through NORAD by one General George Hammond."

"What would they want all that power for anyway?" Xander pondered aloud to himself

"Insufficient data at this time sir, more information is needed before a working hypothesis can be created." Xander smiled to himself

"Thank you," he said as he rose to his feet, his legs protesting at the action "Keep working on the correct formula for a working ARC reactor's energy plasma, I need to go to sleep before school."

"Excellent sir" before a chime from a bell indicated that AI had acknowledged the orders.

It had been a long night and would probably be a long day, he sauntered past the amalgam armour he had created it had S.R.I.P.E arms steel/iron clan torso and legs Steal's shield and Iron Man's head and power core. It still worked but what he was creating now would be like The Hulk Buster Armour on Steroids, Insulin and Human Growth Hormones.

By the time he was finished the Monster, as he had dubbed it, would be the heavy artillery that the Scooby Gang needed on The Hellmouth and beyond. He intended for the suit to be used for the next ten to fifteen years, like a tank in the military, he would just continue to update and modernise aspects of it until he reached a point where total replacement was necessary.

There was an apartment complex that had been installed by one vampire or other and Xander had gone to great pains to make the entire factory inaccessible to demons and vampires alike. He had got rid of the old staircase and put a brand new one in that had been blessed by a Benedictine Monk using iron from an old church fence as the nails to hold it all together, he had also installed an elevator which was a godsend on this occasion.

He reached his midsized apartment and then collapsed on the sofa bed, his aching body not letting him take another step towards his bedroom, he pulled himself forward to a more comfortable position before fatigue and the muffled sounds of the machinery below sung him to sleep.

(Six hours later)

Xander strolled into school almost zombie-like in an exhausted stupor, he reached the library and collapsed into one of the wooden chairs outside Giles office, his body still protesting to even the most simple and easiest of motions. Xander hoped that he could rest for a few days before he did any more strenuous activities.

The warehouse was in lockdown until he returned after school, no manner of demon or anything else could break in and even the sewer access was sealed with blessed blast doors that closed in the same manner of a cameras shutter with a larger set of doors closing diagonally, the magnetic locking system was almost completely unbreakable.

He hadn't spent much time with his friends, the number of projects he had going on had taken a large portion of his free time, along with the emancipation lawsuit which freed him from his parents.

Xander was just about asleep when the strong voice of an English gentleman stirred him from Morpheus grasp.

"Xander, it's good to see you," said Giles to the almost catatonic teen, he looked visibly shattered and in no shape to be in school.

"Not now Jarvis sleepy" he murmured

Giles being concerned for the boy shook him slightly witch startled the young man awake and almost off the seat.

"I'm up, I'm up," he said looking around seeing Giles

"Are you ok my boy you were calling me Jarvis, who is Jarvis?" he asked

He examined the man who in all intense and proposes was like a father to him; he could feel the concern for him coming from the man. He immediately wondered if he should tell him.

"I'll tell you later Giles, after school, I want to show you what I've been doing all this time," he said with a tired grin. "just you, not Buffy or Willow I'm not ready for them to know yet."

Giles nodded in agreement, but, unbeknownst to them the two in question were listening in on them hidden in the bookshelves as the two men made their arrangements. They would be following the two, to the warehouse district and the home of the new fortune 500 company Knight Industries.

School dragged along as it usually did, class after boring class with teachers who barely taught anything and never strayed from the arranged books that they never seemed to look up from. They wrote diagrams on the black boards as the books instructed and taught the approved syllabus only, and it seemed like for ever before the final bell rang and Xander made his way to the Library to speak with Giles.

The two made conversation on the merits of Giles choice in Car and weather or not the Citroen DS was a classic car or weather it was in Xander's opinion an old rust bucket that needed to be put out of its misery. Later as Xander and Giles arrived in his "classic" car outside the warehouse Xander used a remote control to open them.

"Giles, I'm glad you decided to come," he said in an eager tone that Giles had not heard from the boy in some time.

"Xander, why are we here?" he asked in a suspicious voice.

"Patience, Giles patience, I'll show you in a moment just bring your car through, and we will get started."

Giles entered the facility the large blessed steel doors sealed behind them with an ominous heavy metallic boom, sealing the factory from the outside world. But not before two very suspicious girls snuck out into the compound just as the doors were closing.

"What is going on Buffy?" asked the red-headed beauty, Willow very nervous as Xander had been getting increasingly distant having spend around an hour at the most in Xander's company since Halloween.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out," stated the blond bombshell, Buffy had been upset that Xander would keep secrets from her as they were friends and that was something that friends do not do but she had also been relived in a small portion of her mind that he was out of the fight that had been forced on her.

The heavy doors of the main factory opened as Giles and Xander entered the gallery of finished and future projects, Xander had created many devises and for a vast amount of purposes all different.

"Giles, let me welcome you to Knight Industries," he said with a grin as the factories lights suddenly blazed on illuminating everything in a clinical and clean light that reminded Giles of a hospital.

"Isn't that the new company that supplied the school with all new top of the range computers?" answered the Englishman as he walked up to a very strange looking crossbow that held the name "Duster MK2" on a small card beside it on its pedestal.

"Yes, it is my company." he said drawing the older man's attention, "I provided the school board with a better alternative and all free of charge."

"Your company?" he asked astonished, he gently pulled the glasses from his face and looked to the young man with a sense of profound bewilderment.

"Yep, my company built from the ground up in under a month." Xaner was understandably proud his company had only had his one month anniversary a few days ago and already they were becoming a contender for the top spot of the technology industry for both hardware and softwear.

"How in the name of the all that's holy did you create this Company in only a month."

"Thank you for asking Giles." He smiled before giving his answer "It all started on Halloween, you see I went as an amalgamation of four separate yet like-minded men. Anthony 'Tony' Stark, Patrick 'Pat' Dugan, John-Henry Irons and David Xanatos. All of whome in one form or another were brilliant men, builders of technology and equipment that changed there worlds but I think you would know them by other names."

"What names would I know them as?" he asked

"you would know them as Iron Man, S.T.R.I.P.E, Steel and creator of the Iron\Steel clan respectively" Xander could tell that Giles had absolutely no idea who he was talking about, that wasn't too out of the ordinary Giles had never really gotten exposed to American pop culture "Each one of these men alone were geniuses, no special powers or abilities just men who used what they had to make a difference in the world in which each inhabited and when they sis they stood among and fought with the Gods themselves"

"What does that have to do with this?" he said waving his glasses at the sight around him

"The personalities never really left when the spell was broken, but because of that, I now have several geniuses running around in my head. Most of them were masters of the stock market and they built from the ground up an economic empire that spanned the globe."

"Good lord," he said moving his hand to take his glasses again before realising that they were already in his hand, so he pulled out the cloth from his blazer internal breast pocket and began rubbing them clean.

"Yes, now let me show you around," he said as he led Giles into a place that looked like the inside of the Hall of Justice Museum from the 60s Justice League cartoon.

Every completed invention was sat on a pedestal. The hall was furnished with royal blue carpets, the walls and foundations each were white marble in colour. Each device had James Earl Jones styled voice that narrated what each device was for and its application in wider production.

They passed through the currently sparse weapons section and through the engineering section and finally into the recreation section with each Invention prominently displayed.

All of which fascinated Giles, he could see the applications of each in practical demon hunting terms and knew that the council will want to invest in some of the more concealable weapons, there hunter killer teams often had to rely on arms dealers in the country they were operating in and the weapons were often not ideal for dealing with demonic incursions.

Finally, after an hour of looking through each section, they came to the workshop. The two sneaking girls shadowing behind just as amazed as there older mentor at the work Xander had done in such a short amount of time.

"This is what I wanted to show you, Giles, my workshop."

Xander led him through, and they came face to face with The Monster, Giles looked at the high armour with a sense of awe and horror, even though it had not had its armour attached, yet he could see something of the beast that was before him.

"That's a work in progress," he said to Giles gaining the man attention, " I need a new power core for it nothing so far has been able to power it" he said with a sigh " I also need to install the more substantial weapons, and I have to finish installing the computer components targeting computer S.I. core for remote piloting"

"S.I.?"

"It means Simulated Intelligence, like a more basic artificial intelligence" he said

"Is this what you wanted to show me?" he asked running his hand over the exoskeleton that was still under construction.

"Yes and no, I wanted to show you the presents I'm designing for Willow and Buffy," he said pulling a cloth of two feminine designed armour each slightly different from the other. They were sleek and were obviously designed for smaller and slighter build than either Xander or Giles "may I present the Valkyrie and the Amazon" the two were unfinished. Still, they looked deadly even though they were unfinished they looked intimidating. "What do you think?" he asked with a hopeful tone

"They're amazing," he said, looking closer at them.

"Willows Birthday is coming up so hers will be finished first." Smiled Xander "she'll get a 10% increase in overall strength, the armour is designed to be airtight and waterproof, it has a backpack jet boost that can allow for limited flight and grater jumping ability." He said as he indicated to the armour, he lifted the wrist gauntlet, "the gauntlet here has a stake launcher and an ejection able micro flame thrower, and I have a few more goodies to install"

Suddenly feminine gasp came from the door causing both men to turn to the sound.

"you can come out guys, I knew you were there the moment you entered the building."

Two beautiful girls went through the door looking slightly ashamed of themselves

"Well, explain you two," he said looking at them in faux anger

"Well, we were worried about you so."

"So, you wanted to check on me?" they nodded, and he smiled and chuckled at their downtrodden reactions

"Well this was going to be a surprise for your birthday but now" he turned to look at the unfinished armour "what do you think?" he asked

"Wow" was the only reply from Buffy, but Willow ran and jumped onto him, hugging him tightly for all she was worth.

"They're not finished yet," he said, as the red head slowly let him go, he pulled out the blue prints looking over them intently for a second with Willow on one side and Buffy on the other "there for patrols you know just in case we run into something big."

They spent the next few hours talking about his company, the projects he was working on, financing the whole thing. By the time they finished Xander had agreed to hire Willow and Buffy to help Buffy's mum and Buffy and Willow for job opportunities later in life.

(Two Weeks Later.)

It had taken hard work, long hours and essentially crafting parts himself but finally the Monster had been finished ahead of schedule. This was thanks to the watcher's council making several bulk purchases of the Duster MK2 stake launcher and a new product that he had made with the aid of the local Churches both protestant and Catholic.

It was a universal demonic repellent that contained white oak, holy water, garlic, and silver shavings all of witch were atomised and placed into a high pressure mace can, once the pin was pulled they were able to spray the concoction five feet in distance and it would destroy any demonic entity on contact or failing that incapacitate them long enough for the operator to either run or kill the entity.

This and the working examples of the technology with in his Amalgam suit had allowed Xander to cut down on the time it took to construct the more esoteric technology's that allow the suit to move. Jarvis had created enough of the ARC plasma to build the larger power core for The Monster. Which was fortuitous because a crisis was just around the corner, a crisis called The Judge.

#

(Sunnydale High School Library)

Giles just broke the news that no weapon forged by man can kill the Judge, which piled on the bad news for Buffy who was still reeling from the whole Angle situation, that left her hart broken and questioning herself when she needed to be strong.

She was contemplating her next move when the room started shaking violently, Giles was panicking hoping nothing happened to open the seal under the school and open Hell on Earth, when he realised that it wasn't coming from below the sound was coming from above. Then the glass skylight above them opened and down came the Monster armour which landed on the floor. The wood was creaking in protest to the excessive weight.

The suit was still gunmetal grey but had a knight white cloth tabard over the top on one shoulder was a giant Gatling gun on the right was a missile launcher further back on the shroud above the head was a UV cannon, the stake ammunition for the Gatling gun was belt fed and ready for launch. On the palms were the energy pulse cannons that acted like flight stabilisers on the forearm were sections that opened for more weapons to open out or attach.

"Guys." Even with the heavily distorted voice they knew who was inside the walking tank before them, "it's finally finished armed and operational." The gigantic suit did a short fist pump.

"Xander?" came the sound of Willow as she looked at the monster of steel before them; she couldn't believe they had forgotten about him and his armour.

"Yep" came the distorted voice, making him sound much older with a slight New York twang that coloured the voice changer.

"I think you just solved our dilemma," said Giles

"What dilemma Giles," he asked

The elder Englishman smiled the helmet tilted slightly to show confusion.

"Now we have the means to defeat The Judge we just need to find him," said Giles

"Well, the Bronze is out it is still getting repaired from last time."

"I just picked up a call from the Police, there are gang members on PCP, there in the mall," said Xander before blasting off, before they could properly fill him in on the crisis that he was charging into.

The journey was short and fast, but what he found shocked him, he landed heavily outside the Mall in the parking lot, his armour not letting him run at all he charged through the front of the building damaging the all glass entryway effectively making it impassable for anyone behind him.

Sighing he walked through the Mall his heavy foot falls cracking and buckling the tiled floor, he only hoped that Buffy Willow and Cordelia wouldn't kill him for destroying the Mall especially because it was Buffy's favourite destination when not at school or Slaying.

#

Angelus was having a ball; he hadn't had this much fun in centuries. There was blood, there were screams of terror and the smell, oh how he missed the scent of anarchy in the evening. The Judge was doing its job, of burning the humanity out of the dinner, Drusilla was dancing and giggling in joy, even William was smiling which was no small feat, the only thing that could be better, the only thing that would make this perfect moment complete would be Darla at his side and Buffy drained at his feet. A sinister smirk spread across his handsome ashen face. That was until he heard the THUMP, THUMP of extremely heavy footsteps coming from behind him.

Turning to look his eyes widened in horror at what he saw, a walking tank was coming right at him, each step it advanced was another step he took back and the level of terror he felt grew and grew. He saw the gun on his shoulder begin to spin, having been around for many Wars, from Waterloo to the Bulge, he knew a Gatling gun when he saw one, as well as the pants wetting sound of one spooling up to unleash hell.

Jumping to cover behind a wall, he covered his head with his hands and shrank down as best he could; Spike had never been around war until the First World War had never seen this particular gun. Still, knowing that whatever spooked the poof enough for him to run for the cover of a thick wall was enough to get him to do the same, grabbing Drusilla by the waist, he ran them behind the stone wall and away from danger.

Turning at the sound of heavy footfalls The Giant Demon known as The Judge looked upon the newcomer with relish, this was the first true warrior he had seen in centuries, not since the Catholic Church had launched an army of Templars to destroy him, and it took almost a score to even bring him to his knees, he was confidant that he could deal with any threat.

"No weapon forged by the hand of man can destroy me" he boasted with a smile showing off its jagged and sharp carnivorous teeth.

"Let's test that theory," said Xander as he launched a hefty punch to the demon's face. The blow rocked the creature enough for Xander to successfully attack the vampires with, his shoulder-mounted Gatling Gun roared as it began to open fire of the army of vampires, every other projectile was a wooden stake followed by a projectile that had incendiary core, that explosive white phosphorus core would incinerate any vamp or demon they would penetrate.

Once the closest few vampires were dealt with the Judge was back upon him, its chain mailed fist impacting the armoured torso like a war hammer on plate armour denting it and lifting Xander a foot off the ground.

Xander responded with a powerful kick that forced the demon away, the beast began to back up knowing that this fight was just getting started.