Behind Curtains of Time and Space
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A fan fiction story revolving around the world of
"Lois & Clark: The New Adventures", "Sailor Moon" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" No infringement of
ownership is meant. It is just for fun. Archived at http://www.geocities.com/supermanunbound/index.html
and http://www.fanfiction.net/~arthurhansen
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A wind blew through a cemetery while the Moon was high in the
sky. It's pale, but full light, showed that there were no kids sneaking
around illicitly. All that was there were the dead in their graves.
But this emptiness was shattered as a doorway of light appeared behind
a low stone wall near the edge of the graveyard. Out stepped a very
normal looking man with hard eyes. After a quick look around, it took
him only a moment to scramble over the short wall. No human eyes had
noticed his passage.
But that is not to say that others had not seen him. Yellow eyesstared
from a mausoleum as the door of light closed as abruptly as it had
appeared.
And those were not the only ones that noted the interloper's presence.
-
"A soldier?" Buffy asked archly with a quick grin. She was already in
her medieval nobility's dress. "What did that guy do, buy that from an
Army Surplus store?"
"There's nothing wrong with that!" Xander said with a false pout.
"But it's boring!" Buffy replied with a laugh. "We're supposed to be
different and zany! Something that will stick out!" She trotted back up
the stairs to her room. She rummaged around in her closet, opening
boxes until she finally found something that caught her attention.
Bound (demurely) back down the stairs, the Slayer threw the red cloth
to the boy dressed up as an army soldier. Xander took a look at it and
then rolled his eyes.
"Buffy... this is a cape. An honest-to-goodness dorky red super-hero
cape." He also held up a thinner strip of black cloth. Was this a mask?
"So you'll be super-soldier!" she said with a laugh.
Willow laughed from where she sat on the Summer's couch. "Well,
if we are accessorizing Xander, why don't we look to add something to
your own outfit?"
"There's nothing wrong about my outfit!" Buffy replied. She twirled a bit in the fancy dress.
"But it is so boring!" the red-head said in perfect mimicry of her
friend. "Why don't we make you a warrior princess? And that way you can
have a few weapons on you just in case of... trouble."
Buffy pouted, but had to admit that the idea had merit. Slaying was not
likely to take the night off just because she wanted to do so. "Oh,
alright," she finally said with poor humor.
The addition of one of Buffy's swords and a dagger looked a bit
odd. Buffy was looking in the mirror and trying to decide what was
missing when her mother walked in. Joyce looked her daughter over.
"Buffy?"
"Oh, hi mom! Just trying to make this costume a little less... boring!"
Buffy replied quickly and as breezily as possible. "But I think I
either have too much or too little."
Her mother looked her over and then nodded to herself. "I think you
need a bit more. A few rings and maybe a necklace." She suddenly
smiled. "Actually, a gentleman was going to put some costume jewelry on
display at my store. They are really very nice and he told me that I
could wear them occasionally as long as I told people they were his
creations." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a wooden case
and laid it on the kitchen table.
"Ooh! This I have to see!" Buffy exclaimed. She was nearly crowded out
of the way until she pushed Willow and Xander back with a little
judicious use of Slayer strength.
Looking over items, they took two rings for each hand, a stunning
bracelet and a gorgeous necklace with a fancy symbol of femininity on
it. It seemed to perfectly match her tiara that she was already
wearing.
Buffy looked at herself in the mirror. For some reason, it looked perfect. "Thanks, Mom!"
"Now hurry up! It's almost eight o'clock!"
-
Gile's old friend Ethan chanted at his altar to the chaos-god Janus. In
just a moment he would unleash his spell of transformation. It would be
exactly eight o'clock, he reckoned. He couldn't wait to see the Slayer
and her friends transformed.
-
Buffy, Willow and Xander were all laughing as they stepped
outside. Off in the distance, they heard the first bell toll. The
chaos-magic exploded from the Hellmouth as it tried to fuel the spell,
shaking the ground.
A moment later, Willow looked up. "Wow! That was a pretty intense
earthquake!" She looked over at her friends, frowning as she realized
that it must have stunned them.
Her blonde-haired friend looked at her, eyes gaping wide. In just a
moment, Buffy's sword was loosed and stabbed Willow right through the
heart.
Willow stared at the angry visage of her friend and then looked down, expecting to see blood fountaining from her chest.
What she saw was the sword being pulled out with no damage being
apparent at all, but that was because she appeared to turned intangible
and barely visible.
"Krotuc vont jerdic!" the blonde said, even as she backed up.
"Buffy?" Willow said.
"Wow! You are see through. And you don't have a heartbeat! That
is very... different, ma'am," Xander said respectfully as he stood up.
His entire demeanor had changed. He appeared to have a harder edge and
the gun was being carefully kept on his back.
"Xander?" the girl asked.
"I'm sorry ma'am. I don't know a Xander," he replied. His hand quickly
touched his face, verifying that he had his mask on. Casually, he
dropped it back at his side. "You can call me Ultra Soldier, miss
ghost."
Ghost? Wait, they must have all been turned into their costumes. Oh, crud. "Um, Mr. Ultra Soldier-"
"Just Ultra Soldier, ma'am." He held up his hand. "Excuse me. There is someone being assaulted. I'll be back in a jiffy."
If Willow hadn't already been a ghost, she would have fainted as Xander
just lifted off the ground and flew off with a wooshing sound. Just a
few short seconds later, he reappeared.
"All handled. The little... monsters are all knocked out and shouldn't be a problem."
"Tuco vlar winto!" Buffy snapped out.
"Winto nu idugi?" Xander replied in surprise.
They started jabbering at each other, stumbling over their
words.Finally, Willow snapped out, "What are you two saying? And why
doesn't Buffy understand me?"
Even under his mask, Willow could tell that Xander was mortified by his
actions. "I apologize, miss. But Princess Venus doesn't speak English.
I can kinda understand her as she speaks a really old form of
Kryptonian-"
"Kryptonian? Like SUPERMAN?" Willow almost shrieked.
"Well, yes. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I think my
Kryptonian is pretty good. Even Superman says so," Ultra Soldier said
with a smile.
"You speak... You have spoken Kryptonian to Superman?" Willow askedcautiously. "Aren't you a Kryptonian?"
"Oh, not at all ma'am. I was born in California. I just happen to have
a very good ultra-enhancement. I figure it's my patriotic duty to help
my country with my Kryptonian super powers."
"Tuco vlar twenni?" Buffy asked.
Xander replied to Buffy and finally they seemed to come to an
agreement. "Miss ghost? I think you should stay here. Princess Venus
and I seemed to be better equipped to deal with the problems that are
happening." He held up a hand. "It seems like everyone in this city has
been turned into their costumes, including us. And there are a lot of
people that need our help now."
"I... I think I'll go talk to Giles. Maybe he can figure out how to switch us all back."
"Sounds like a plan. I don't reckon that much can hurt a ghost." He
nodded to Willow and the with a woosh disappeared into the air.
Buffy snorted and then checked her rings and bracelet. With a nod, she
suddenly leaped thirty feet to the nearest roof and then disappeared
with her sword at the ready.
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Arthur Hansen
arthurATkindred.net
More of Arthur's fiction can be found at
PEN NAME Arthur Hansen