This story, as the set-up, would be a cross with characters from the Wild Wild West episodes The Night of the Poisonous Posey and The Night of the Big Blast.
Since almost all of Lucrece Posey's gang was killed off during the former episode, and I am highly entertained by them and this whole idea was sparked by them, I needed to revive them. And what better way than with the canonical mad scientist who's already made a practice of bringing back the dead?
Dr. Faustina and Miklos would resurface either in Justice, Nevada, or somewhere else. If in Justice, they would have to invent a lightning machine, since storms are not prevalent there. But wherever they turn up, they have been reviving Posey's gang members one by one and turning them loose.
The proposed idea is that Cyril the firebug would be the first, and that he would be responsible for some assorted fires and explosions that Jim West and Artemus Gordon are called to investigate.
One concept was for Jim to be nearly killed and thought dead in one of the blasts, and for Arte to be unable to deal with it. And yet it seems like this idea is pretty self-contained and should be entirely separate from this crossover.
Another way to work it might be for that story to be first of all, and then for this story to be second. Jim might return at the end of the first one or sometime in the second. I have a scene in mind where Arte is so distraught he goes to Dr. Faustina and demands to know why she can't revive Jim when she's bringing back all these crooks.
And yet it still feels to me that the ideas should really be separate. I would like Jim there with Arte when Posey's gang starts returning, which he wouldn't be if he doesn't return until this story. But I wouldn't be able to have the scene with Arte and Dr. Faustina if Jim came back beforehand. So either way, it's a frustrating dilemma.
Other possibilities for this story are that we might meet both blackmailer Ray Norman, revived in the present day by Dr. Alice Portman and tortured for two years, and Coley Rodman, an outlaw who is the double of Little Pinto, one of Posey's men. Coley, however, is much different and more well-rounded than Pinto, who thinks of torture and little else. Coley would be unhappy and unfulfilled, brooding and perhaps on the run after escaping from prison.
The story might end with the incident that sends everyone to the present day. Perhaps it's a malfunction of Dr. Faustina's that causes it; perhaps something else. Coley is the first to be sent, arriving in the present several months before anyone else. Posey's gang and Jim and Arte would follow, and the story would be TO BE CONTINUED.
This story has been re-titled The Night of the Lazarus and has been written. Jim is apparently killed early on and taken prisoner by Dr. Faustina to witness her resurrections. Arte ends up teamed with Coley Rodman for the investigation, as Arte suspects Coley of being involved with the explosion and Coley wants to prove he wasn't.