18 Mechanicus In Buffy

The Buffy universe sucked a lot, the town of Sunnydale is a literal portal to hell and all the things that go bump in the night like to congregate in the town.

This is due to the Hellmouth (Portal to Hell) , the mayor being a warlock who is doing anything in his power to achieve ascension to godhood or something.

So when I was dropped into the world I was hoping to have some bad ass magic or access to something, instead I had a new shirt life as some background character, a roll of a couple hundred dollars and a note.

The note stated that if I survive till the Halloween of next year whoever or whatever dressed up as I would gain their knowledge and abilities.

There was also a condition that if I went crazy like Superman or God I would be punished accordingly.

So with that I did whatever I could do to survive in this hell hole, I never went outside after dark, and bought a large amount of UV bulbs.

Sadly with my lack of faith in gods based on my new experiences in my new life none of the religious symbols worked.

While the Scoobies (Buffy, Willow, Xander) fought the creatures of the night I stayed in the background as with my previous life of finishing college with a degree in engineering I was having an easy time….. at first.

Willow the smartest person in school saw this and my lack of friends decided that she would be my friend and while I would have normally been very welcome to the friendship, but the chaos that I knew would follow her and her friends I needed to avoid.

That of course failed as she wormed her way into my heart as a dear friend and a burgeoning crush.

Thankfully she understood that I don't want more friends and from what I expected she wanted to have more friends outside of the Scoobies.

And that is how the year passed with me studying as much as physically possible about the mundane and supernatural world while staying under the radar.

So when Halloween Finally came around I knew what I wanted to dress up as while also not pisisng off my patron.

Spending a lot of money and time I made my costume, a Forge Lord of the Adeptus Mechanicus with some alterations In hopes of expanding my knowledge if I was lucky.

Instead of using the crude and dangerous Bionics that would normally be used I based them off Cyber punk with the Synth Skin.

This was in hopes to encourage a more open mindedness in my new knowledge imprint and an outright Zellious faith in the Omnissiah.

With my outfit ready and an Omnissian Axe I headed out at night for the first time in a year and took a deep breath of the night air.

Nodding to myself I walked to the Summers house as Willow had invited to join them in escorting the kids they had been voluntold to escort.

Xander had already made up with Buffy and were talking with each other when Buffy turned eyed me up and down in her Noble Woman's dress.

Willow walked out at this time and shouted at me, "JOHN! I'm so glad you showed up! I was so surprised when you agreed. I know you normally don't enjoy this type of thing."

Willow talked animatedly under her Sheet as she normally dressed as a ghost, Xander and Buffy bearing my name as they had not recognized me under my costume relaxed.

"Greetings Imperial Citizens, I am no John I am Zagreus Kane The Fabricator General of Mars." Saying this with a voice modulator to make it sound exactly like a Tech Priest.

Seeing the confused look from Xander and Buffy I stopped the modulator and gave Willow a hug.

"It's good to see you Willow, and thank you for inviting me." I then turned to the others and stick out my hand of which I had decked out with fake prosthetics and random lights

"I'm John a Junior this year and Willow finally broke me down enough to make it out tonight, I normally don't stay out during sunset." I gave them both a smile and wave, Willow then took the reins again thankfully as I am very out of social practice.

"Yeah, John is crazy smart. He has been helping me study and is kind of a loner even among the nerds, I've been inviting him to meet all of you for months now so I'm surprised when he said yes."

Xander, who was wearing a soldier's costume, went to shake my hand and I noticed a cross barely hidden in his palm. Smart, making sure I wasn't a vampire or demon, I took his hand no problem.

We then moved as a group to the designated meeting spot to escort the kids and separate, there was Principal Snyder, a cruel and petty man who is deep in the pockets of the mayor.

He drives pleasure from humiliating and threatening the high schoolers, I had never interacted with the man before tonight but with me being friendly with Buffy I was now on the shit list.

He gave Buffy a snear, "Good you finally arrived Summers, now get to work." He then moved to another group of students and began barking orders.

Each of the Scoobies was sent off with a group of kids following them. I stayed with Willow helping manage her larger group of kids.

—————-

In a Halloween shop an idiot of a man who was stuck in his glory days cast a spell in the name of a god he truly did not understand as the god Janus was not one of chaos rather doors.

And many know when a door is opened many things can come flying in, so when he finished casting his spell a lot more power came through than he originally wanted as with himself acting as a conduit like any over charged wire he was burned.

————

Then a wave of power flooded Sunnydale, everyone wearing a costume was suddenly changed to embody that character.

Then chaos reigned as people attacked one another, children tore apart their parents.

But in one group a girl drops dead and the body of a man is changed on a fundamental level, no piece of flesh was unchanged or saved as the metal spread and altered his form till the only thing of flesh was his brain.

When John/Zagreus willed their eye implants to awaken a start up sequence appeared with the sigil of the Mechanicus as a watermark.

In but a nanosecond his implants awoke and entered combat as swarms of monstrous children began charging him.

Not wanting to kill these children as John's personality was in the pilot seat so to speak, he spun his ax for the blunt part and with the help of his Gorila Implant arm sent the Miniature Minotaur flying into the air.

Willow now in ghost form began to panic, "John! What's happening, why am I a ghost!" As a kid dressed as a pirate shot straight through her and pinged off my reinforced robes.

Zagreus instincts took over when I saw her, as with Willow wearing revealing clothes and looking like a ghost he immediately thought her a warp ghost or a Slaaneshi Daemon.

I swung my Omi-ax at her which connected as it was sanctified in the forges of Mars making it a holy weapon.

"JOHN! Calm down! It's me Willow." The two sets of memories in my head were conflicting as both of them had a Willow of some kind but the Willow of Zagreus had joined the Dark Mechanicus.

"No! You are a warp tainted facsimile of her." I tried to reason internally with Zagreus about the situation and got him to slow for a moment. She then floated off to find the Scoobies for help.

With her fleeing and us both seeing her in guarded form, we decided to take her body with us as we both cared for her.

Looking around the area we formed a plan on maneuvering through the various fights and mobs that were now dotting the streets.

Grabbing a downed motorcycle and ripping the siding off a car with a series of mechadendrites that came out of our back and built a slap dash sidecar for Willow's body.

Mounting it we made a B-Line for Ethan's Halloween Store, as with my memories and Zagreus warp sensors we quickly identified the cause of the spell.

———

While the two in one form of John and Zagreus went to solve the problem, Willow floated above the Chaos trying to find her friends but quickly realized it would be much more difficult than she realized.

But she got lucky as spotted Angel fighting off some spelled people, "Angel! Help!" Looking up Angel was very confused at seeing Willow as a ghost but ignored that for now.

"Willow I think someone cast a spell to turn everyone into their costumes, I need to know what Buffy dressed as."

Willow, if she could gasp at the moment would have, "She is a noble woman or something like that."

"FUCK, she is defenseless then." Angel shifted into full vampire mode and ran off into the night looking for his underage girlfriend.

Willow then decided to head for the school and talk to Giles; maybe he had an idea to break the spell.

———-

Dodging and weaving through the streets of Sunnydale John/Zagreus made their way. Avoiding killing the costume people but killing quite a decent chunk of demons taking advantage of the chaos to feed freely.

Pulling into the parking lot of Ethan's store we dismounted and put Willow on our shoulder not trusting something wouldn't try and feast on her.

Approaching the store we shifted our vision to see the flows of the warp/magic around the store, there we saw the various wards and symbols that were hidden just below the surface.

Not even bothering for stealth as the longer it takes the more people die, just as I am about to kick the door in Willow and Giles appears running down the road ignoring them I kick the door and with ax in hand.

With a bellow of "PSYKER!" We began to tear apart the shop looking for Ethan, as our sensors were going nuts as the chaos magic that filled the room.

Heading to the back room I find Ethan and his ritual, he was dead already as it looked like he life force was sucked out of his body leaving him a mummy.

Locating the bust I raise my ax into the air as Giles enters the room and smash into millions of pieces.

My consciousness fades as I drop to the floor and my mind is taken somewhere far from my body.