Hellmouth Heroes

FIC: Hellmouth Heroes (14/?)

“Does anyone else think dressin’ in costumes is a really, really bad idea?” Faith queried as they returned to base at the end of a patrol, conversation inevitably returning to the Halloween party in two nights’ time. “I mean we could lose our powers, gain new ones, or actually permanently become them.”

“Well I have done some considerable research,” Giles said. Wesley coughed. “That is to say Wesley and I have. From what little we can find, it appears that the spell was cast by a chaos mage of my youthful acquaintance,” Giles’ sudden scowl even frightened her a little, “called Ethan Rayne. The permanent effect of the spell were far beyond Ethan’s ability to the point some higher being of considerable power must have hijacked the enchantment. While we’re,” Giles looked towards Wesley, “not entirely happy with that revelation, the odds are strongly against such a thing happening again.”

“See, you sound just so sure, I’m so reassured,” Faith commented.

“We could always go dressed as super-heroes again, just in case,” Jonathan commented.

“Hey yeah,” Faith nodded. “Not a bad idea.”

”Excellent,” Giles agreed. “Then should anything happen, your powers would only be increased.”

Faith shot Giles a playfully accusatory look. “You just wanna get rid of us for a night.”

Giles smiled back at her. “That too.”

“Whoa!” Faith winked saucily at Jenny. “Someone’s gettin’ lucky!”

“And on that note,” Gunn looked towards Xander, “you’re sure we can get in?”

“Not a problem,” Xander replied. “A) Oz is putting up the sound system. B) we’re going with babes, babes are always welcome at parties.”

“I didn’t realise I was arm candy to get you into parties,” Alana pouted.

“Oh,” Xander kissed Alana’s forehead, “you have so many uses.”

”That’s my sister you’re talkin’ about Harris,” Gunn warned.

Xander gulped. “Point taken.”

* * *

Oz looked around the Alpha Delta Fraternity house. They’d really gone all out this year, pools of what he profoundly hoped was theatrical blood were splashed on the floor, arcane symbols etched into the woodwork, and cobwebs dangling from the doorway, spiders also dangling from the ceiling.

“The sound system is not going to cut it. Nothing but lame.”

“Lucky I’m here,” Oz walked into the lounge to see a man drawing a pentagram on the floor, something every party should have.

“Hey Oz!” One of the guys walked over and pumped his hand. “Thanks for the loan, man. Our sound system sucks.”

”No problemo,” Oz pointed at the pentagram: “Well, that’s an interesting little design. What does it mean?”

The guy grinned. “Doesn’t mean anything. Just got it out of a book on the occult.”

Oz nodded. “Atmospheric.” He smiled as shrieks and wails started through the speakers. “And so is that -.”

“Owww!” the youth carving the pentagram pulled his hand away. “I cut myself!”

Oz nodded, his sensitive nose had already picked up that fact. “Blood always adds to the scariness.” He looked towards the frat house leader. “So my buds are in?”

“For this sound system, you bet.”

* * *

Xander’s lips were pursed as he strode through the brightly-lit costume shop, struggling to decide on just what costume to wear for the party. Then he had it, stopping at a tuxedo, he grinned. “James Bond.” Bond had all the skills Castle had with the massive bonus of his own sanity and a massive line in womanising. “Just perfect.”

”Hey Xander.”

The hairs prickled on the back of his neck at a long since last heard but still familiar voice behind him. Turning to face its lithe blonde owner, Xander scowled. “Heidi.”

His fellow former hyena possession victim’s face paled at his cold reply. “Please, Xander, you’re the only one I could talk to-.”

”No,” Xander shook his head, eyes hardening. “I’m not someone you could talk to at all.” The blonde flinched at his hard voice. “I don’t care what problems you have, you brought them on yourself by preying on people from day one, that hyena didn’t possess you, it just found a welcome home.” Xander bared his teeth. “Well I’m a predator now, and you’d be wise to remember that.”

The girl’s tanned face turned ashen grey as she backed away. His good temper now evaporated, Xander cut up a guy heading for the same costume as he’d picked, grabbed it off the rack and marched to the counter.

* * *

“Good lord,” Wesley gaped as she walked into the lounge, “where’s the rest?”

“The rest of what?” Faith’s brow furrowed in confusion, both at her Watcher’s apparent embarrassment and his determined stare at the wall to her left.

“Your bloody costume,” gurgled the Watcher, face reddening. “Where’s the rest of it.”

“I’m goin’ as Wonder Woman,” Faith spread her blue silken cape, “of course, ‘cause I am. Think Johnny will like?”

“He’s male and also straight, so I’d wager a large sum of money he will,” Wesley snorted. “Oh and a comic book geek, his dreams will come true.”

Faith shot her Watcher a hard glare, which probably didn’t have its usual effect thanks to her costume of blue and white starred spandex hotpants, and red and god bustier. “You’re nowhere near as funny as you think you are.”

”Oh,” Wesley began giggling, “I entertain myself.”

Faith’s mouth opened only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. “This ain’t over!” she warned before striding out to answer the door. “Hey,” she forced a smile at her boyfriend’s bulging eyes, “you dressed as Wolverine!”

“Wolverine got me you,” Jonathan said as drool formed at the corners of his mouth.

“No baby,” Faith murmured as she leaned in for a kiss, “you got me all on your lonesome.”

* * *

“Who you going as sis?”

Alana looked up at her brother’s shout from the hallway. “Storm again, I like her powers. You?” Alana groaned as her brother walked into the lounge wearing brown suede pants and jacket, and a tell-tale afro. “On second thoughts, don’t tell me.”

Gunn grinned. ”He’s hotter than Bond and cooler than Bullit, he’s Shaft!”

“I said,” Alana shook her head in dismay, “not to tell me. I’m so ashamed we’re related”

* * *

“I’m going as Lyta Alexander,” Willow announced as she walked out of her dorm room to greet a patiently waiting Oz, “Babylon 5’s resident telepath!”

“Can you tell what I’m thinking?”

Willow blushed and giggled. “You’re always thinking that!”

“True,” Oz half-smiled before pointing at the sticker on his turtleneck’s chest. “I’m god it says so there.”

”God?” Willow’s eyes widened as just what it meant hit her. “If some sort of spell hits -.”

”I like to think big.”

* * *

The haunted house reverberated to the sound of shrieks and wails as a guy led his girl to the buffet table. “Okay, Rach, what’s in the next one?”

You guys are sick!” Rachel giggled, the house was meticulously decorated, set out in a combination homage to the slasher flicks, Hammer horror, and mythology. Her boy-friend took her hand and guided it into the bowl before. “This is gross!”

Her boy-friend laughed. “Eyeballs, Rachel, they’re eyeballs! Muahaha!”

Rachel giggled as her boyfriend took her blindfold off and she looked down. Time seemed to slow as an eyeball stared back at her. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

* * *

“Hey Lehane, looking choice, how about ditching the dwarf and getting with a real man?”

”With one, thanks!” Faith snarled as the familiarly-sleazy Warren Meers came up behind her and Jonathan as they walked up to meet the others and cupped her ass, her elbow snapping back to connect with the socially-illiterate nerd’s jaw, the force of the blow lifting the cupper from his feet and dumping him in a near-by bush. “Damn,” she cast a dismissive look over her shoulder, “years pass but you’re still a fuckin’ asshole ain’t you?”

Warren glared up at her. “You’ll pay for that, you bitch!”

“Watch your mouth or I might fill it with foot,” she warned. “Come on, Johnny.”

Faith blinked as she reached the park they’d agreed to meet the others at. Alana she recognised as Storm from last time, Gunn had to be Shaft, Oz’s costume was wicked funny, Faith guessed Xander was either a waiter or more likely James Bond, but Cordy’s costume of top hat, tails and extremely skimpy blouse and pants underneath was a mystery though. “You goin’ to a weddin’ after this Cor?” Faith’s full lips parted in a widening smirk. “A real kinky weddin’?”

“Ah, ah, this is my costume, I’m going as Zatanna, DC’s premier witch,” Cordelia tartly replied. “And where did the rest of your costume go, Ms. Whiplash?”

Faith’s mouth opened in a retort. “Hey Harris, is it true, once you’ve ridden black you never go back?”

The entire gang turned to face Kyle DuFours and Tor Hauer. “What the hell?” Faith drawled. “Are we like fuckin’ invisible, ‘cause we must be if you two dick-wads think ya can get away with get away with sayin’ crap like that.”

Kyle’s grin didn’t falter. “Nice costume, Lehane. Be seein’ you guys around.”

* * *

“The joint’s not jumping.“ Xander looked around as they entered the silent haunted house. “Where is everybody?”

“Ho! Ho! Ho!” A skeleton dropped from the ceiling, jiggling as it danced manically.

“Terrifying.” Faith smirked. “If I were Abbott and Costello this would be fairly traumatic.”

“I just knew you were a Bud and Lou kinda girl,” Xander grinned.

”Nah,” Faith looped an arm around Jonathan’s shoulder. “Just gettin’ in touch with my other half’s inner nerd.”

”What’s tha-,” Oz blurred forward, slapping at a tarantula on her shoulder, knocking it off. “A tarantula!”

“Okay,” Faith stamped the spider into the carpet, “anyone else thinkin’ this place just isn’t-.” Her voice trailed off as she crouched over a spot on the carpet. “Blood, as in the real stuff.”

“They’re really going the extra mile for this party,” commented Gunn.

“No,” Oz shook his head. “It’s something else. I hear it, too. Something like...”

“Yeah,” Jonathan exchanged a look with the rock guitarist, “something like bats!”

All of them looked up and screamed, covering their heads as bats dropped from the ceiling, slapping against the floor and then lying still. “They’re rubber,” Xander picked one up.

”They weren’t a minute ago,” Oz said firmly.

”Their smell’s changed,” agreed Jonathan.

Faith scowled. “What the hell is goin’ on?”

* * *

Tara giggled. “I can’t believe you dressed as a Valkyire!”

“Well I can’t believe you dressed as Joan of Arc,” Amy responded.

“I like strong women,” Tara replied.

”Why do you think I chose this costume?” Amy laughed softly at her blush.

”Wait,” Tara came to a stop outside the Alpha-Delta fraternity house, its welcome mat lying in front of a solid wall. “Where’s the door?”

“It should be here,” Amy stepped back and looked up, craning her neck to look up to the upper floors. “Oh no, look at this!”

Tara hurried over to her friend to see a screaming girl banging against one of the upper story windows. “Help me! Help me!” Even as they watched the stones surrounding the windows expanded around to cover them.

Tara looked towards Amy. “We need Giles.”

* * *

Xander looked around. “Where are the stairs?”

“I’ve got a better question,” Alana replied. “Where is the door?”

Gunn looked around. “This is the way we came in, right? We just went in a circle?”

“Hey, I have a neat idea: lets get out of here!” Willow cried.

”And y’all wanted to do somethin’ special for Halloween this year,” Faith drawled. “I said no, but since when does anyone listen to me, I’m just the Slayer?”

Willow shook her head. “I’m serious, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

“As soon as we start dealing with it we’ll find out what it is we’re dealing with,” Faith edged towards a closet door. “Do you hear something?” Faith yanked the door open to find a kid their age sat in the closet’s bottom rocking back and forth.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Oz crouched down in front of said nut job. “This is Chaz.” Oz raised his voice. “Chaz, what’s happening?”

Chaz looked up, eyes panicked. “It’s alive. It’s alive.”

“Oh shit!” Faith grabbed Chaz as the skeleton came to life, the suddenly real knife in its hand slicing down.

* * *

“So I had said to Maclom, ‘listen McLaren you ponce-.” Giles cursed at the sound of impatient knocking on the door. “Bloody hell!”

Jenny chuckled. “Relax Rupert, it’ll just be a couple of kids wanting to trick and treat, that’s who this vacation was invented for after all,” Jenny leaned back, an impish smile on her face, “I’ll be here when you get back.”

“Oh very well,” Giles leapt up and hurried to the door, grabbing the bowl of sweets on the hallway table and swung the door open. “Happy Hall...”

Tara and Amy strode past him, although not before each grabbing a handful of candy. “The gang are in trouble,” Tara announced. “Hi Jenny!”

“Hello-.”

Amy spun to face him. “We’ve got to do something, right now!”

“I think we need a little more information.” Jenny prompted.

Tara let out a babble. “Uhm, ah, we were supposed to meet at this house, and I got there and there was no door where a door should be. And then I see this girl standing in a window, and then poof! She’s gone.’

Giles exchanged bemused glances with Jenny. “She vanished from the window?”

“Keep up, Giles!” Amy shook her head. “No, the window vanished from the house.”

Giles sunk down onto the sofa. “Hmm. Matter and reality distortion. Like a summoning spell’s temporal flux. I need to get some supplies together.”

* * *

A girl screamed from somewhere, the skeleton crashing to the ground before them, its bones returning to plastic and its knife’s metal doing the same. Chaz crawled back into the closet and closed the door. “Cowering in a closet is starting to look real smart,” commented Oz.

”Yeah,” Faith inhaled sharply, “only what freakin’ closet?” Faith pointed at the suddenly blank wall. “We need help. We need the only person that can make sense of what’s happening.”

“What we need to do is-,” Faith trailed off when she realised every one had gone. “Where did everyone go?”

“Why would anyone want to hang around a worthless bitch like you?”

Faith’s stomach hollowed as she recognised the approaching man as ‘Curt’, one of Mom’s boy-friends from just before she was taken into care, a man who’d always made her skin crawl. He seemed impossibly tall and broad, almost a Paul Bunyan like figure. “Oh yeah, I can think of one reason. Give me some sugar, Faithie.”

”Go to –aaaaah!” Faith hit the floor as the man caught her with a casual back-hand to the face.

“Girlie, you’ve got to remember,” she sobbed as the man grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, “you’re just like your mom. There ain’t nothin’ special ‘bout you-, oooof!”

Faith’s right leg snapped back, her heel crashing into her attacker’s right thigh, knocking him back. Faith gasped as her attacker’s grip released on her hair. A half-sob escaped her lips as she stumbled to her feet and started running through the darkened hallways. She thought she’d never be powerless again.

* * *

Gunn looked around, brow furrowing as he realised his friends had suddenly disappeared. “What the hell?”

“Hey bro, where you gone?”

Gunn half-smiled as he heard his sister’s voice. At least they still had each other, he stepped in the direction of the voice, then stumbled backwards in horror. “Alana!”

“Oh baby,” the vampire who stepped out of the shadow chilled in a way no vampire had ever managed before, “don’t you like my new look?”

”Alana,” he croaked.

”Bro, you always looked after me,” he ducked out of his sister’s sudden lunge at him, “now its my turn to look after you!”

* * *

Jonathan blinked as he looked around, finding himself not in the frat-house but back in school. Bemused, he started down the deserted corridor, trying to zero in on the sound he could almost discern.

Then he finally heard it, coming through the vault, Harmony’s mocking laughter. “Have you seen Jonathan?” the ditzy blonde laughed. “Thinks now he’s with Lehane he’s somebody. How long does a dork like him think he’ll keep her? I mean she’s a slut and all, but even so!”

Jonathan crossed his arms and hugged himself, head shaking as his stomach gnawing. “Not true,” he mumbled, “Faith loves me.”

* * *

“What happened?” Cordelia looked left and right, bemused to find herself stood in corridor, her friends mysteriously disappeared. Cordelia licked her lips as she approached the nearest door and creaked it open

Her eyes widened as she looked inside the candlelit room dominated by a king-size four-postered bed with silken drapes hanging from its left and right side.

However she barely noticed the drapes, her eyes fixed on the bucking beauty straddling her man. “Oh yeah! Oh yeah!” Faith’s full mane snapped from side to side, sweat glistening on her naked body, every muscle rippling as she bobbed up and down on the man beneath her. “So good!”

Then both of them shuddered in simultaneous climax, the air filling with the pair’s panting. Then Faith chuckled. “Bet the ice princess never rode you like that.”

Gunn chuckled back. "Oh you've got moves she ain't dreamed of, girl."

Cordelia fell against the wall, tears misting her eyes. Her best friend and her boy-friend, the two people she cared for most in the world, betraying her like this, how could they? Did they really think she was so cold or heartless this wouldn't hurt?

* * *

The rain splattered down on Xander, but he hardly noticed the icy raindrops rolling down his neck as he stared at the horrific sight before him. Rupert Giles, Faith Lehane, Cordelia Chase, there was a gravestone for every one of his friends, laid out in a neat row that failed to deaden his pain. A thousand questions flew through his head. Why wasn’t he still in the frat-house? How had this happened? When was this? Why hadn’t he been there to help them?

“Oh look,” his chest tightened still further at the uncomfortably familiar voice behind him, “it’s my son. Looks like you failed your buddies too. But then you’ve always been a failure, haven’t you?”

“No,” his legs buckled, sending to his knees in front of Alana’s grave, the mud squelching under him. He wasn’t, he shook his head, he wasn’t a failure, a loser.

He wasn’t his dad.

* * *

Sweat soaked Faith as she stumbled onto the landing to find her friends also falling onto it. “Thank fuck!” she gasped.

“What is happening?” a wild-eyed Xander.

“The house separated us.” Willow gapsed. “It wanted to scare us.”

“Well it fuckin’ worked!” Faith tried to ignore the furious glare Cordelia was sending her way. “But we got away, right?”

“No. “ Gunn shook his head. “We were brought here, but why?”

Oz shook his head and pointed at the pentagram on the floor: “I saw them painting that. They were copying it out of this book.”

Willow took the text. “I think it’s Gaelic.”

“Can you translate?” Faith queried.

“Release me!” Boomed an invisible voice. “Release me!”

Faith looked to Willow. “Will, give me something.”

Willow nodded. “Okay, uhm, uhm, the icon’s called the-the Mark of Gachnar. I-I think this is a summoning spell for something called..”

“Taking a wild guess, Gachnar?” Xander commented.

Willow flushed. “Well, yes. Somehow the beginning of the spell must have been triggered. Uhm, Gachnar is trying to manifest itself, to-to come into being.”

Faith: tapped her foot impatiently “Cut to the chase, Red?”

“I-it feeds on fear,” Willow replied.

“So our fears are feeding it,” Faith scowled. “We need to stop.”

“Gee,” Cordelia sniffed. “Have you got any bright ideas to stop that, Ms. Bad-Girl?”

Faith ignored whatever issues Cordy seemed to have with her, chalking them down to whatever the house had done. “Release me!” the demon’s voice boomed out.

”Ah, shut the hell up!” Faith yelled at the voice before looking at the gang. “’Kay, if our fears are feeding it, we need to starve it.” Faith sighed at the others’ blank looks. “Get everyone out of here.” Faith shook her head at the gang’s ‘aaahs’. Jesus, she was workin’ with a bunch of idiots.

* * *

Xander started when the walls began shaking. “Any one got a departure time?” he queried as he started towards the door only to fall back when Giles came bursting through it wielding a chainsaw. “Jeez! I thought I was the one carrying a nut in my head! What year did you come as Jason!”

Giles shot him an irritated look before looking towards Faith. “The walls closed up behind us. “ Giles glanced at the book. “Gachnar, of course. Its presence infects the reality of the house, but it’s not managed to achieve full manifestation. We can not allow this to come into being.”

“But if it does I can fight it, right?” asked Faith.

Giles walked and flipped open the book. “Faith, this is Gachnar.”

Faith shuddered. “I’m voting for breaking the spell.”

“I have it, I have it. Uhm, “ Giles began reading from the book “The summoning spell for Gachnar can be shut down in one of two ways. Destroying the mark of Gachnar,”

Faith walked over to the pentagram and put her foot through the centre of the pentagram. “That was easy,” she smirked.

Giles glared at her. “Is *not* one of them and will in fact immediately bring forth the fear demon itself.”

Faith gulped. “Oops?”

The floor rumbled as they all stared in horror, Gachnar leapt out of the centre of the pentagram, revealing his half a foot height. Faith snorted. “This is Gachnar?”

”Like a Dingos shows,” Oz chuckled when they all looked at him. “Big overture. Little show.”

Gachnar preened himself. “I am the dark lord of nightmares! The bringer of terror! Tremble before me. Fear me!”

Xander crouched down before the demon. “Who’s a little fear demon? Come on! Who’s a little fear demon! Chooice coo!”

Giles sighed and shook his head “Don’t taunt the fear demon.”

Xander kept one eye on the demon as he looked up at the Watcher. “Why, can he hurt me?”

Giles shook his head. “No, it’s just tacky. Be that as it may, Faith, when it comes to slaying...”

“I never thought I’d say this.” Faith laughed. “Size doesn’t matter?”

“They’re all going to abandon you, you know.”

Faith shook her head and grinned, her foot stamping down on the tiny demon. “My crew don’t work like that.”

* * *

“You bitch!” Warren scowled as he looked at himself in the mirror. “Think you can get away with hitting me, Faith?” Thanks to his healing factor, the bruise on his jaw had already gone, but the humiliating memory remained. “Think you can get away with hitting Deadpool?!”