Phoning it in 13
"How is using the door training, when using the mirror was so much easier?" Dawn asked.
"Notice how opening the door to another place was easy but tiring?" Merlin pointed out.
"Yeah," Dawn replied, flopping back down on the bed.
"Opening a portal using a door is like throwing a bowling ball through a hula hoop," Merlin explained, "it takes muscle, but little skill. However, once you've done it a few times, you can easily shoot a two-pointer with a basketball."
"That analogy stinks," Dawn said. "Huh. You know that's the first time I've used the word analogy outside of school?"
Merlin rolled his eyes. "All I care is that it got the point across. Anyway, mirrors are not my area of expertise, so feel free to experiment and see what works best for you."
"Can I have a hand mirror, please?" Dawn asked.
Merlin reached out, smoke forming around his hand before suddenly convulsing into an ornate silver hand mirror. "Here you go."
"Thank you," Dawn replied, putting on her backpack, biting her lip as she focused on the mirror. "I gotta get back home as it's getting late. See ya later." She tapped the mirror and vanished, the mirror falling to the floor with a clatter.
Merlin laughed. "A bit showy, but an impressive exit." Feeling a trump contact, he closed his eyes and mentally reached out. "Karen?" he asked, getting an impression of endless hope and optimism along with a question. "Yes, you can come through," he said aloud, reaching out for her hand and accepting the contact.
Suddenly a large white unicorn with wings was standing in front of him, her rainbow colored mane flowing in a non-existent wind while the room practically glowed with her presence.
"Karen?" he asked cautiously.
The winged mare snickered and slowly shifted into a naked blonde girl wearing a necklace with a heart shaped jewel.
"Merlin!" Karen exclaimed, before tackling him onto the bed.
"Hey Karen," Merlin replied unfazed. "Want some clothes?"
"Sure," she replied, unconcerned. Modesty was one trait none of the robot apocalypse survivors bothered with. "I had a dress on, but shifting into a unicorn shredded it," she said as she climbed off him.
"Only skin tight clothing morphs with you," Merlin reminded her. "Your underwear should have been fine."
"Didn't wear any," Karen replied. "Finding sturdy clothing was enough trouble without trying to find underwear in my sizes, so I kinda got out of the habit."
"You can shadow shift for clothing now," Merlin reminded her, while pulling a set of camouflaged fatigues in her size out of shadow.
"It's still new to me," she admitted while getting dressed.
"You can also raid a mall," he added. "So what brings you by anyway?"
"I wanted to make sure the cards worked," she said. "Plus everyone is busy and I was bored. So what are you doing?"
"Helping people and practicing," Merlin replied. "This place is crawling with monsters, so I'm enhancing the local monster fighting group."
"Are you going to make them all shape shifters like you did us?" Karen asked curiously.
Merlin shook his head. "This time I'm empowering people based on their own natural tendencies."
"What's mine?" Karen asked excitedly.
"It's hard to tell," he replied. "If I hadn't already empowered you, I could probably tell with a single glance, but now all I see is the numerous powers I gave you. My best guess, based on knowing you, would be strengthening the mind and bodies of those around you, possibly healing them as well."
"I have a magic necklace that lets me heal people… but all my friends heal instantly thanks to you."
"You'll get plenty of chances to use it on others when I can get you guys to a populated world with some top quality head shrinkers," Merlin promised.
"I'm not complaining," Karen assured him. "I'm glad I don't have to heal my friends, because that would require them getting hurt, I just feel like I could be doing more to help sometimes."
"I understand," Merlin assured her. "Plus, you'd like the chance to meet new people, right?" He was guessing she was less damaged than the others, as she'd somehow carried a small amount of hope that none of the adversity they'd faced had managed to extinguish.
"It would be nice," she agreed, with a bright smile.
"While I plan on enhancing this group's ability to heal, I'm sure I will soon run into a situation where a little magical healing will come in handy," he replied. "And when that happens I'll ring you up."
"Okay," Karen said cheerfully, before turning to look at the air. "Oops, Kenny's calling."
"Go," Merlin said. "We can talk some other time."
"Okay," Karen said brightly, the color fading from her form as she flickered and vanished like a figure on TV as the signal faded.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"He's deliberately finding and helping groups of people in trouble," Willow said.
"How do you figure?" Xander asked.
"The comments about clothes," Buffy replied. "If a girl is concerned about sturdy clothes but not underwear, especially to the point of not caring about nudity, she's seen some really hard times."
"I can see that," Xander agreed thoughtfully.
"I always thought the whole genie thing was a bit more random," Buffy said with a frown.
"To be fair, we really don't know enough about genies to say with any authority what they do or what their patterns are," Willow said. "All we have to go on is anecdotal evidence and what we've witnessed with one genie."
"If I had a lot of power, I'd go around helping people like he is," Xander said. "I know that doing everything for someone prevents them from growing and makes them dependent on you, so giving them the power to fight their own battles is your best option."
Buffy and Willow just turned and stared at him.
"I read comics," Xander reminded them. "And that's one of the first lessons they give anyone with power. Anyway! Giving people the power to help themselves sounds like a good medium from doing too much or too little."
"Makes sense to me," Buffy agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Did you hear something?" one vampire asked another, as he paused to glance back down the sewer tunnel they were walking in.
"Statement: He didn't hear a thing."
"That's a relief," the vampire said before turning around. "What?!"
An impossibly sharp blade swept through the vampire's neck, dusting him instantly.
"Statement: That was enjoyable on a level usually requiring thermal detonators to experience." The droid retracted the blade back into its forearm housing and moved back into the shadows.
The next morning…
Merlin checked on Murphy, but he was still asleep, apparently he'd been up all night working on his Kill-bot.
He wondered what he should do. School was in session, so he couldn't go out wandering the streets and looking about, the internet was still in its infancy and he'd seen everything that was on TV for the next decade or so. He almost smacked himself in the forehead as he realized how stupid he was being and quickly stripped down.
Shifting into a large raven, he took to the air, using the rising heat from the early morning sun on the city streets to gain altitude. He lost himself in the sensations of flight as he considered the best way to empower the Scooby's without alarming them, as simply gaining powers without warning could be stressful, especially on the Hellmouth.
He decided he'd start with Xander first, as he was the most adventurous and then he'd empower Willow while using Xander's form to cover his tracks. Mind made up, he spent the next few hours performing aerial stunts and learning to navigate Sunnydale from the air.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Xander opened up his bag and pulled out an orange, a bag of chips and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"I thought your mom didn't make you bag lunches," Buffy said, as she sat on the grass next to him.
"She doesn't," Xander replied, as Willow pulled out an identical lunch.
"Ah," Buffy said, as she noticed Willow's handwriting on both bags.
A crow squawked in the tree above them drawing the three teen's attention to it and the gold ring it had clutched in its talons.
"I wonder where he got that from," Xander said.
"Around here?" Buffy replied. "No telling."
"Wanna trade for some chips?" Xander joked, shaking his bag of chips at the bird.
"He's not going to –" Buffy began before the bird transferred the ring to its beak and leapt off the branch, gliding down to land next to Xander. "But, I could be wrong," Buffy admitted.
"Crows are scary smart," Willow said, as the bird stared at Xander's bag of chips.
Xander slowly set the bag next to the crow making sure not to alarm it. "Here are the chips."
The crow darted forward and slowly set the ring on Xander's knee as if trying not to startle him, before hopping back to peck at the bag of chips.
"Did it just mock me?" Xander asked. "Because I feel like I was just mocked," he said amused.
"I don't think they're that smart –" Willow began, before the bird definitely made a bird like chuckle noise.
"You were mocked and they are that smart," Buffy said with a grin.
Xander slipped on the heavy gold ring. "Ruby," he noted, as he examined it, Willow using it as an excuse to lean in close to him.
"The way the sunlight sparkles in it, it almost looks like there's a flame inside of it," Willow said.
"Yeah!" Buffy agreed impressed.
The crow dropped he unopened bag of chips on the ground in front of Xander and hopped up by his knee.
Xander yawned as the crow laid a wing on his arm like it was trying to get its attention.
"Flamare," the crow said, as it pulled back its wing, surprising the three.
"Flamare?" Xander repeated, a small spark of red shooting out of the ring, clipping the bag and setting it on fire along with the grass behind it.
The crow quickly hopped over and flapped its wings wildly, putting out the burning chip bag, while Buffy stamped out the grass fire.
"What was that?" Xander exclaimed, staring at the ring while the crow ate the chips through the hole in the bag.
"A magic ring that sets things on fire," Willow said.
"And a well-trained crow," Buffy added.
The crow, seeing the three looking at him, grabbed the bag and flew off.
"I thought I was supposed to get the power to set things on fire," Xander said.
"He also mentioned slowing exposing us, so we could get used to it," Willow reminded him.
"So it's like a set of training wheels?" Buffy guessed.
"That works for me," Xander said, running his thumb along the ring with a grin. "Plus, free magic ring."
The girls laughed and the bell rang.
"And once more unto the breach," Xander said.
"I'll be in the library," Willow said with a grin as Xander gave her a pleading look. "Sorry, but my English project required a lot of reading, so you two will have to go without me today."
"We'll make do," Buffy said, dragging Xander off.
"Help! I'm being repressed!" Xander called out.
Willow laughed and gathered her stuff.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Merlin finished off the bag of chips on the roof of the gym, before shifting back to human and reaching through the shadow for a pair of black spandex bicycle shorts and a thin cotton T-shirt. Normally he'd use his shape shifting powers, so tight clothes were something to be avoided, but morphing was a lot more convenient for shifting in public and not ending up naked.
Using the Xander morph he'd acquired, he found himself naked once more and stretched and moved about, getting used to his new form so he could shapeshift into it rather than morphing.
"Harris?!" a voice behind him exclaimed in shock.
Merlin turned around and found Amy Madison standing in the open door to the roof with a cigarette and a lighter.
Typed by – Sitheus Maximus
