"The Yellow Flames of Change" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen
email: ryley[underscorebreen[athotmail[dotcom
(BtVS/Transformers the Movie(2007))
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material featured in this drabble/short. They are the property of their respective creators and associated companies. I am not making any money off of this whatsoever. I write this for the enjoyment of the readers and myself. So please take your fingers away from the speed dial buttons for your lawyers and put your cell phones back into your pockets. I assure you any amount of money you gain from me will in no way make up for what you will have to pay your legal aide just to get the ball rolling with a lawsuit.
Note: I've pretty much been dying to do something like this ever since I first saw the Transformers movie last summer. The only thing really keeping me from writing it was the fact that I was unable to locate a good pirated copy of it on the internet to download. Fortunately with the recent release of the movie onto DVD I can now do a crossover without any problems whatsoever. Keep in mind though that while I will be doing my best to make sure that the majority of my film info is in keeping with facts attached to the film I will be changing a few things here and there. For one thing while a certain autobot will have a significant role in this the transformer will not have the alternate vehicle form the people in charge of the flick had chosen to use. I'll leave it to you to figure out who this autobot is.
Now as far as when this takes place in the BtVS universe it'd be roughly during season 3 before and during the episode entitled 'The Zeppo'. However due to an inability to work things out just right with the canon episode details I'll be making it so that the episode takes place over the course of several days rather than forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Also if you notice any factual errors like 'this did not even come out that year' please suppress your inner desire to point it out. I write fanfic and these drabbles/shorts because I like telling a story not because I want to be factually correct in ever way.
Now hit the intro music (season 2 1980's version)…
The Yellow Flames of Change
Sunnydale High School, Hallways, Noon
Friends.
That one word managed to sum up why he lived and why he always tried so hard at everything he did.
However it was also the reason he was currently walking aimlessly in the hallways of Sunnydale High School wondering how he could hold onto those he called friends. Contrary to what some might think he wasn't blind, he knew what was going on with the gang behind his back, and he knew that they were seriously giving the 'fray adjacent' idea some thought. The reason for this being because aside from the few remaining skills and abilities left over from the Halloween soldier possession he really hadn't improved combat skill-wise. He was still getting pummeled by demons every other night. More often than not one of the others had to come and pull his fat out of the fire when they went nest busting. Even though he actually put some thought into his moves before throwing himself at a demon he still wound up with the Scooby with the most bruises or scrapes at the end. That was what he had been discussing with Oz earlier, he needed to find his thing, he needed to find something he could contribute to the team that would make him a valued member. He knew his strength wouldn't be in fighting hand-to-hand like Buffy and magic was definitely a ticking time bomb for him considering his past luck with it. He was still in high school so demonic knowledge of Giles' caliber was not an option and research was limited since he could only read the books written in English. So if he couldn't fight, couldn't do magic and could only research on the most amateurish level then what else could he do that would make him useful to the team.
As he was walking by the student lounge he looked at the new TV that the student council had convinced Snyder to put there so that people could watch something between classes or at lunch. It had been a fight since it was pretty much the troll's mission in life to make every teenager's high school years a perfect match to hell on Earth. Currently on the TV was a re-run episode of 'Dukes of Hazzard' showing Bo and Luke once again making the jump across a broken down bridge while the police car chasing them takes a nose-dive into the muck below. He smiled at this since a couple of good old boys showing up people in authority always managed to cheer him up and prove to him that the underdog can still win in the end. It was then, when the scene on the TV focused on the General Lee tearing down the dirt road yelling out in joy at once again managing to pull off a victory, that an solution to his problem hit him square in the face.
He could be the wheelman of the team!
After all there were only two or three vehicles available to the Scoobies and one of them would be lucky to make the posted speed limit. There was Giles' old clunker that looked like it would fall apart any second, Oz's van but that was tied up often in the transporting of Dingoes stage equipment and Cordelia's car. If he could get his hands on a half decent car he might just be able to be the Scooby gang's main means of transport when on a mission. He could see it now: dark magic ritual going on across town? Never fear Xander's here! He can get you there with time to spare so that Buffy can kick ass, take names and still be home in time to meet her curfew. Need to lure a pack of hellhounds into a trap? No Problem! Just tie a couple of juicy stakes to the back of his car and he'll lead them right into it with no trouble at all. Unfortunately just as he was getting his own personal high out of finding a way he could still contribute to the team he realized one major chink in his plan.
He didn't HAVE a car NOR did he have the money to buy one!
Due to the poor treatment of Tony and Jessica Harris his allowance pretty much consisted of whatever spare change he could pocket after going to the liquor store to get their order. The people there knew him by name and knew that he wasn't some punk kid looking to scam some booze out of them so they didn't even bother adhering to the 'do not sell alcohol to minors' rule. That combined with the odd jobs that he'd managed to do in his spare time when school or hanging out with the gang wasn't an option was barely enough to get him a change of clothes every now and then. He even pretended to LIKE those god awful Hawaiian print shirts when the truth of the matter was that they were all from a thrift store and he wore them because he couldn't afford anything else. That was the real reason why he had possessed so little money for the Halloween costume the previous year and why he usually resorted to vending machine food to eat. To even contemplate buying a car was lunacy in the extreme because even the cheapest rust bucket at a used car lot cost at least four or five thousand dollars. There was no way he'd be able to scrounge together even half that amount in time to keep the Scoobies from strapping him to the sidelines of the fight.
Then a glimmer of hope hit him as he recalled a little known fact that had been hidden from just about everyone who knew the Harris family.
Despite what some might think not everyone in the Harris Clan was a complete failure. One of them, his Uncle Rory, actually had a fairly successful business in repair and restoring of cars that rich fops sent to the junk yard because of a few dings and dents. While each job took awhile the end result was that Uncle Rory could sell the repaired or restored vehicle for quite a handsome sum. True most of the money he made went right back into buying the parts or equipment he needed to work on other cars but it was still a pretty decent occupation.
Maybe he has a car though he'd be willing to lease out to me for a monthly fee or something! He thought with that glimmer of hope growing in brightness, It doesn't have to be a top of the line model or anything! As long as it's in pretty good condition I'd be happy with that!
Right then and there he decided that tonight he'd head up to his Uncle Rory's place and see about finally getting some wheels!
With such hope inside of him he knew that his luck was going to start changing for the better.
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Space, Approaching Earth at High Speed, One Hour Later
I'm going to be late! Thought the object that looked like a cross between a metal sculpture and an asteroid, They're going to arrive on the planet a couple of hours ahead of me! Stupid launcher!!
She had been pretty much cursing like this the entire trip and the only times she stopped was when she tried to use her long range sensors to make sure she was still following the flight path set by her comrades ahead of her. She had been chosen to go with Optimus after the signal from the scout Bumblebee had been received but, due to a freak power failure in her launcher, she was now hours behind them. As it was they were just inside the maximum range of her sensors but she knew that they'd wait for her to arrive before starting anything. After all, while time was of the essence in the search for the Cube, her sharpshooter skills and long range combat specialty would be useful. If they ran into any Decepticons, she'd be able to pick them off one by one, freeing up the others to secure the Alspark. Still, she was still mad that it had taken Wheeljack so long to get the launcher back to full power so, until she was reunited with the others, she'd spend her time picturing the exploding heads of Decepticons as her shots went through them.
It was a surefire way to cheer her up after all.
Sadly it was about then that the Achilles heel of all snipers and long-range combat specialists came into play. It was a well known fact that long range fighters were not all that good when it came to close quarters combat and that was why they usually worked with someone else who was skilled at close quarters fighting. As such because her sensors and attention was focused on the distant shapes of her comrades, she missed the small cluster of meteors coming at her from the side. Slamming into her hard, one after another, she could feel the armor on that side buckling under the blows and peripherally sensed that the strikes were knocking her off course. It was only one half to three quarters of a degree each time but that could make all the difference in the world as far as where she would touch down. The worst part of it all was that she could do nothing to put herself back on course since she was essentially a metal projectile that had already been fired from a weapon. As such, she had no maneuvering thrusters, no engines of her own to fire, leaving her with nothing left to do but accept that she was going to crash land several miles from the others.
Then, of course, another complication came up in the form of one final meteor slamming into her side with an almost arrowhead-like shape and strong metal in its makeup. Where the other objects had just made a sizeable dent in her side, this one actually managed to penetrate the outer armor that was intended to protect her vital systems during entry into the planet's atmosphere. As the pointed meteor bounced off of her, she noticed that the hole itself wasn't all that big and she might luck out on re-entry. However there would be some damage one way or another, so it'd probably be a good idea to begin contemplating the different ways she could reroute things around the components that would bear the brunt of things.
I should probably shut down everything except sensors and perhaps my data banks just to make sure that interaction with the planet's E.M field and atmosphere don't interact with them poorly. She thought as one by one she began to shut down all but the two mentioned systems, This planet had better really have the cube here or else I'm gonna be in a bad mood for the next century!
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Rory Harris' Repairs and Restorations, The Back Lot, Sundown
"Come on, Uncle Rory! There has got to be something half decent on this lot that you can lease out to me or accept monthly payments for!" Xander yelled as he followed his uncle around as the man made his rounds of his business.
"I'm sorry, Xander! You're my favorite nephew and normally I wouldn't hesitate to help you out, but everything here is already spoken for by paying customers." Rory said sounding genuinely regretful that he couldn't lend his young relative a hand, "I can't just go back on my promises to them now, can I?"
"I know but…" Xander replied agreeing that it wouldn't be right of his uncle to accept a job only to do a one eighty later.
"Then again…there are those three special projects I've been working on for some Hollywood big shot way in the back. He said he'd pay top dollar for some special modifications to them, but I haven't seen any new deposits in the account aside from the down payment." Rory said as he scratched his chin in thought, "The guy looked pretty slick and official, but it's looking more and more like I'm being hustled. Come with me. I had planned to do a little work on them after doing my rounds but I suppose I can skip giving the place a once over just this once."
With a little hope in his heart, Xander followed his uncle to an area just to the left of the large garage where he did work on cars that required work done on the undercarriage. When he saw the three cars there he had to wonder who the hell would want a blue and white '57 Chevy Bel Aire, a pink and white Ford Mustang and a Mazda RX-7 with yellow flames on the hood as well as the side, not to mention three shiny steel pipes going from the front tire all the way to the bumper. The first one was alright, if a little outdated, but the other two were bizarre either because of their color combos or because of the accessories the RX-8 had added onto it.
"I bet you're wondering why the customer asked me to add that yellow flame trim and tri-pipe siding?" Rory asked once he noticed where his nephew's gaze was directed, "Well supposedly its going to be used for some sort of dare devil character for football field sized jumps in the streets of some city. Some sort of street sci-fi action thing I think he said it was. When he gave me the job for the RX-7, all he said was that he wanted it to look 'cool' and suitable for a show like that."
"Well it certainly looks…eye catching." Xander said not wanting to tell his Uncle that it looked like it belonged on the set of some hokey 80's TV show.
"Yeah. Looks like a freak show, doesn't it?" Uncle Rory asked rhetorically as though he could read his nephew's mind, "So just to make sure it wasn't a complete waste of my time, I made a few additions that will actually make the piping and flames a little more functional and a little less decorative. Take a closer look at the hood."
Doing as instructed he got closer to the RX-7 and looked closely at the hood to see if there was anything special about it that his uncle would want him to see. At first it looked like a perfectly normal looking hood, albeit with a bright yellow flame design on it. However, when he looked a bit more carefully, he could see that certain areas of the hood where the flame design was had little holes grouped in rough shapes. While he was fairly certain that this was probably what his Uncle Rory had wanted him to find he was unsure as to how this could be used to any benefit.
"So you planning on making the sure the engine has air conditioning or something?" He asked not sure what else to say under the circumstances.
"That is half the reason, since keeping your engine from overheating is a definite must, especially when the driver is pushing it to its limits. However in this case I gave them a dual feature in that they will also take in air, mix with the fuel inside and then be used for an extra potent bit of combustion that will force the engine to work harder before expelling the flame out of the ends of those pipes." Rory said with pride in his voice at his resourcefulness.
"So basically you just rigged it so that it has a pair of rocket engines on the back?" he asked as he took what he'd been told and dumbed it down to simple terms.
"Well…yeah…if you want to put it in boring terms like that!" Rory replied, sounding a bit put out at his genius being reduced to such an unimpressive description, "The point is that when the car hits a certain speed, the system I made will engage and increase its speed by fifty percent."
"WOW!" he exclaimed imagining how that'd be like if he was behind the driver's seat.
"Assuming, of course, those additions I made keep the whole thing from blowing sky high of course." Uncle Rory said like it was an after thought that could easily overlooked.
That, of course, brought the coolness factor down by quite a bit since the possibility of death by explosion is something of a buzz kill.
Deciding it was probably best to move onto the other vehicles, he covertly routed the topic of conservation to the potential death machine.
"What about those other two cars? You gonna upgrade them too?" Xander asked, hoping that the answer was no.
"Nah! Those two are going to some rich brats as wedding gifts of some kind." Rory replied with obvious disdain for any vehicle he worked on going to someone for reasons like that, "Apparently they're getting married soon and the parents asked for these cars and these colors specifically." Rory shook his head and sighed, "Either the brats are big on the whole male blue and female pink thing or they're Elvis fans. Definitely!"
Xander was about to voice his own opinion of the color combos when he noticed something up in the air that looked like a shooting star or something. It was kind of pretty but then he noticed something that made him worry a little bit and that was the fact that it seemed to be getting bigger really fast. However it wasn't until it got to the size of a baseball that he began to worry that it might hit the ground nearby.
"Uncle Rory, I think it might be a good idea to move to the other side of your lot." He said, trying to sound more casual than he actually felt at the moment, "I'm not sure but I think that ball of fire up there is gonna touch down a little too close to here."
Rory looked up in the direction his nephew was looking and quickly spotted the growing ball of flame headed in their general direction. However, judging from the look of fear on the man's face, it was obvious that he thought the situation was a little more dangerous than he'd first thought. This was confirmed when he saw his uncle race for the garage only to return a few seconds later with three sets of keys.
"Xander! Quick! Use this to get the RX-7 to the other side of the lot IMMEDIATELY!" Uncle Rory ordered as he tossed a key at him while heading over to the pink and white Ford Mustang, "I think that space rock is going to touch down right HERE!"
"SHIT!" Xander's startled exclamation summed up the situation quite nicely.
Wasting no time, he raced over to the flame covered RX-7 and, after a little difficulty in getting the door open, he hopped inside. Looking at the dashboard and all the bells and whistles on the inside, he was kind of reminded of that old Knight Rider TV show with the A.I car KITT. Shaking that image out of his head quickly, he started the car up and floored the accelerator to get the vehicle away from the estimated ground zero of the ball of flame's touchdown point. He kept going until he was right up next to the blue Mustang that his uncle had gotten out of the way before shutting down the engine. Getting out, he could see his Uncle running back as fast as he could to save the one final blue car but looking up at the ball of flame that was now close enough to be the size of a wrecking ball he could tell that Rory wouldn't make it in time. With speed gained from numerous retreats from vampire hordes and determination that grew from his ever growing dislike of Deadboy, he tackled his Uncle to the ground.
"Forget it Uncle! It's too late!" Xander exclaimed as the two of them looked up just in time to see the meteorite slam into the blue and white '57 Chevy Bel Aire.
While he hadn't like the color or the model of the car he knew that this was going to cost his uncle big time when the parents of the rich brats came to pick up their vehicles. Still there was some good luck in that the meteorite didn't bounce or anything after the first hit so the rest of the lot was completely untouched. Getting up from the ground he looked to the smoking hole where the piece of space debris rested and wondered just what it looked like up close and personal. After all, he had seen countless movies and pictures of what space rocks looked like once they hit the Earth but he'd never actually seen one in person. At a curious pace, he began to advance on the big ass crater in the ground that had bits and pieces of the destroyed Chevy strewn around it. From the separate set of footsteps behind him he could tell that his uncle was also interested in seeing what had just obliterated half of his paycheck for the rich brats' job.
"So you think it came from outside the solar system or is it something that got knocked loose from the asteroid belt?" Uncle Rory asked as they gradually got close enough to look over the edge of the crater to see what lay inside.
"How the HELL should I know!?" Xander asked in annoyance at being asked something like that, "I'm barely passing basic science!"
"What? Your dad Tony told me you were doing great in school. Even said you managed to get a hold of two girlfriends at once." Uncle Rory said in confusion at the discovery of a possible contradiction in what his brother had told him.
"And you BELIEVED that! Tony was probably drunk off his arse or trying to make himself look good by bragging about his son's achievements!" he yelled back even though he knew it wasn't his uncle's fault.
It had been pretty much like this forever in that Uncle Rory always believed what his older brother told him, taking it as truth. Despite what an ass Tony was most of the time, Rory still looked up to his brother and tended to rationalize away things he didn't like or that went against his image of his brother. It was probably one of the real reasons why Rory didn't come by the house all that often and restricted his visits to holidays, even though they all lived in the same town. It wasn't that much of a surprise that his uncle wouldn't have believed any internal warnings saying that his brother was not being entirely truthful to him.
Just as he was about to take his words back, Xander heard an odd sound coming from inside of the crater that kinda reminded him of a sci fi sound effect involving futuristic machinery, with the clicking and whirring and pieces of metal coming together before revving up to their optimum rotations per minute. However the biggest sign that something was up was the big mechanical hand that reached up out of the crater and slapped down onto the ground. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen and, if it wasn't for the fact that he knew no movie company would come to Sunnydale to shoot a movie, he'd have thought he was on some kind of movie set. Things only got weirder when the hand pressed down onto the ground in order to lift a head and a body out of the crater to reveal some kind of space robot with neon blue looking eyeball things. With each second more and more of the machine came out of the crater until a leg came up and allowed the robot to step out onto solid ground. Once the other leg came out, he could see that the alien android was easily three or four stories high. Hell! He barely reached the middle of its shin for God's sake!!
Sadly something happened then that made the being's height a serious problem for him.
Just as it finished standing up straight, something seemed to go boom in its right side causing it to reflexively grasp the injured area like a human would. It also unfortunately caused it to lose its balance and start tumbling towards him and would most likely have crushed him if his Uncle Rory hadn't tackled him out of the way. With all the force of a building that just had its foundation blown to bits, the machine crashed to the ground in a heap. He could hear it give out a brief shriek as though it were in pain but it was so mechanized in how it sounded that it could easily have just been one of the being's parts twisting. He watched as it tried once more to rise to its feet but this time it didn't even get halfway before it once again cried out as though in pain and fell to the ground.
"I think it hurt itself." He said, stating the obvious due to the sheer bizarreness of the situation.
He began to take baby steps around it to get a better look at where he saw the boom happen, thinking insanely that perhaps it was something that he and his uncle could fix. Personally he blamed the idea on almost getting squashed and the fact that encountering a robot from outer space was weird even for the Hellmouth. Besides which, he'd seen enough Star Trek episodes to know that First Contact situations like this were crucial and dictated how the rest of the interactions between Earth and the robots would go. The fact that he'd probably become world famous for this and rake in a ton of money from people wanting to conduct interviews with him would be a definite plus. He'd finally manage to step out of the shadow his drunken parents had him in at the moment to become someone people would respect.
"Xander! What in great Caesar's ghost are you doin'!?" Rory yelled at him from his hiding place just behind a beat up old Ford GT, "Stop moving around like that!! Are you tryin' to get yourself killed!?"
"I don't think it's going to hurt me, Uncle Rory. I think it's too banged up to do anything by lie there and groan." He said once he managed to reach the perfect spot to peek at the area where the explosion had occurred.
"It could be trying to trick you!! It's like in 'Attack of the Killing Robots 4'!" Uncle Rory pointed out referring to one of his favorite B movie horror flicks, "They act all helpless and docile right up until the co-stars let their guard down and then they impale the idiots through the head with their metal spikes!"
"Yeah, well, in Star Trek you can never tell who the good aliens are and who the evil ones are just by their looks alone. They can be positively hideous in appearance and be some of the kindest people in the galaxy." He retorted with some annoyance at his uncle, "Then there are the ones who look likes a gift from heaven who turn out to be the most vile sons of bitches you could ever come across. Either way I'm willing to take a chance with this one."
That said, he tried to get a good look into the area where the boom happened to see if he could make sense of what he saw and how it could be fixed. From what he could tell, most of the damage centered around a single component with the rest of it just being mild scorching and cracking from the blast. Looking at what appeared to be wires that probably had been stuck into the destroyed component, it was probably something to do with control systems. Maybe it was like a nerve cluster or something and that was what prevented the robot from getting up as well as the source of its pain. As far as how to fix that though he was at a bit of a loss since he was fairly certain that nothing he could get his hands on would come even close to matching the component the robot had lost.
So how the hell do I help this 'bot get back on its feet? He thought as he continued to peruse the machine's damaged spot.
Then it came to him that perhaps the robot might have some kind of auto-repair system that might allow it to repair itself on its own so long as it has enough power on hand. It might be like it was with humans and the ability the body has to repair most of its own problems on its own. Granted if this turned out to be a vital organ or something for the machine then it would definitely need a replacement since he doubted it could simply grow a new one. Then again was there really any sense in comparing human bodies to machine bodies like this? For all he knew this robot could really make a fully recovery even if it did lost some major components. Whatever the case he believed it would still need an infusion of power in order to survive never mind regenerate its missing part.
"Hey Uncle Rory? Do you still have that industrial strength portable generator here?" He asked as he decided that the power from that device would be the best he could do for the machine.
"Y-yeah! It's in the back behind the garage." Rory replied sounding a little less certain that the alien robot would kill his nephew.
Deciding he'd probably need a vehicle to move it he ran back over to the RX-7 and hopped in taking only a second to get the engine running. Eight minutes later he had the generator within ten feet of the robot's leg and figured that that'd be as good a place as any to attach the cords. The machine seemed to be taking notice of what he was doing but for some odd reason didn't seem to think what he was doing was a threat to it. Then again if he encountered something that didn't even come up to his knee then he probably wouldn't feel all that threatened either. Still he decided he'd try to convey that he was just trying to help it out as best he could so that there'd be no misunderstandings.
"Look I don't know if you can understand me or anything, but I'm just going to hook you up to this power generator and turn it on okay?" Xander asked tentatively as he started walking towards the side of the generator where the controls were located, "I'm doing this because I think that if you receive a steady flow of power you might be able to heal your injuries on your own."
He wasn't sure if the movement the robot made was meant to be a 'go ahead and do it' or a 'what is the Earthling doing' but he decided that there was only one way to find out. Switching on the generator, he ramped the power level up to about half power since he was unsure if he'd overload the 'bot by going to full power. As the power coursed through the cords connecting the generator to the giant robot, he could see the occasional arc of electricity jump around the point of contact. Looking up at the robot, he couldn't really see any sign that the electricity was either helping or hurting the alien machine but he took the fact that it wasn't thrashing about screaming as a good sign. However it was when he looked back at his uncle that he realized that there was one problem that needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
"Uncle you're going to need to shut down this area of the lot for awhile." He said as though telling someone to avoid a weak spot in the floor.
"Ye—WHAT!? WHY!?" Rory exclaimed as he caught himself before actually verbally committing himself to anything, "We should be report this to the authorities or the military or something!"
"Why? So we can get shoved into some unknown prison facility for the rest of our lives or be lobotomized so we don't tell anyone what we saw?" he asked as though it was all too obvious that telling the government or the local P.D would be suicide.
Naturally, this news caused his uncle to look as though he couldn't believe the stupidity of his earlier suggestions.
"Alright. I can tent off the area around the alien for awhile under the pretense of doing a custom paint job and not wanting the fumes to get out." Rory said as he decided to actually be of aide to his nephew rather than an enemy, "But problems are going to crop up when that rich couple come by looking for the cars they want to give to their bratty kids."
"Well hopefully it won't take long for the robot to get back on its feet and then you can tell Mr. and Mrs. Moneybags that a meteor came down from the sky and smashed the Chevy." He suggested since he figured it'd probably be safest to stick close to the truth, "After all, they can't possibly blame you for an act of nature or God, right?"
"I suppose not. Still what do you plan on doing when this thing is all better?" Rory asked sounding a little uncertain about that part of things.
"I dunno. Maybe help it learn English or something?" Xander replied, trying not to look like he hadn't thought that far in advance yet.
"Somehow I have the feeling this is either going to be one of the best ideas you've ever had or something parents will use to scare their kids at bedtime with." Rory said as he shook his head in disbelief at his nephew.
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Two Days Later, Sneaking Away from the Home of Tony and Jessica Harris, Evening
Looks like I might have to come up with a plan B sooner than I thought. Xander thought as he hopped another fence to put some distance between himself and his home, There has been some progress in regenerating the missing part, it's going way too slow and I can tell the 'bot is getting impatient.
He had been checking up on the robot both before going into school and afterwards to see if there'd been any progress but even with the generator pumped up to maximum regeneration was going at a snail's pace. As of this morning he could see the signs of an outer casing coming into existence at both connection ports but nothing else as far as he could tell. The energy from the generator was definitely helping but it wasn't putting out enough power to aide her regeneration to satisfactory levels. He had suggested to his uncle that they try and hook the robot into the city's power grid but that idea had been vetoed because of the attention it could bring their way as well as the possibility of overloading it. The next idea had been to get more generators to hook up to the alien robot but that had fallen through when his uncle had informed him of the price of a generator these days. By that time he had been forced to make a mad dash for the school in order to make it in time for first period but as the day went on he replaced his happy places during history and science with new 'save the robot' plans. None of them were particularly brilliant since he was neither a mechanic nor someone who excelled in the sciences. A few times during the day he had made an attempt to bring Willow in on the situation but she'd just made one pathetic attempt after another to flee the area.
Something big is definitely happening and they're deliberately trying to keep me out of it!! He thought angrily at the idea that his so-called friend would take his freedom of choice away from him, Fine!! If they don't want to let me in on their secret then I won't let them in on mine!!
The fact that his final plan, the one he was most confident in, required that he 'borrow' a few things from Giles' personal stash of magical stuff just meant that he'd have to be extra careful not to let the cat out of the bag. It had been a bit twitchy for him to consider using magic to solve something technological, but he'd participated in enough research sessions to retain some knowledge of how spells worked. While the vast majority of them did require that the person casting them have some innate ability, there were a few that just about anyone could do. One of them was the ability to take energy from the natural ley lines that spider webbed across the planet and channel them into life giving energy for the purposes of healing. True, he recalled that most magic users refrained from using this spell because it had a high probability of addicting the caster to the surge of energy, but he figured since he wasn't a natural magic user he should be fine. Besides which, he figured he'd have just enough time to perform the spell and get the alien robot on its feet before Giles came barging in with the others to stop him from doing something 'bloody foolish'.
Whether or not it did turn out to be something 'bloody foolish' remained to be seen.
Seeing the school getting larger in the distance, he quickly recalled what he had overheard the others talking about during school when they thought he couldn't hear them. Apparently those weird lady demons they'd tackled a few days ago had friends and the gang was going on a recon mission to figure out what was going on. Thankfully that would mean that the library itself should be completely empty, allowing him to get what he needed without anyone being the wiser.
Slipping through the hallways, he made sure to keep his senses on alert since there was always the chance that Snyder might still be prowling the halls. That or some new demon that decided to show up along with those demonnesses the gang had left to investigate. While it was true that most threats that the Scooby gang faced obeyed some weird law of fairness in that they usually only came at them one at a time, there were a few exceptions to that law that occurred occasionally. Considering the sort of luck he tended to have, it would be no surprise at all if some big scary demon crossed his path and tried to tear him to shreds. Therefore he peeked around every corner and did his best not to make a sound with every step that he took. It took a bit longer than he would have liked, but ten minutes later he was inside the library and making for G-Man's office. Fortunately with The Judge, Angelus and Acathala last year, he had a good idea of exactly where the more valuable texts were located along with the rare ingredients. Giles was probably so proud of the floor safe that he had managed to install without Snyder being the wiser but it'd take him less than five minutes to crack it.
In truth it took him four minutes and fifty-two seconds, but it still counted as less than five.
Once inside, he looked for the book that had the odd golden inlay design on the cover, the one that looked like a planet, since that was the one with the spell he needed. It was buried about three layers deep beneath some old journals, but eventually he found it and took it out. From there it was much easier to find the ingredients in there as well, although the jar with the sand he needed looked a bit whiter than he remembered. He supposed that the stuff he saw before was close to its expiration date or something. Once he had everything safely stowed in the tool box he brought along, he put everything he had taken out of the safe back in exactly how he had found it. A closed door here, a twirl of the dial there and lastly the floor planks put back into place, thus making it look as though no one had touched it at all. Of course if Giles had some kind of secret way of knowing if someone tampered with his personal stash then he might have even less time than he'd originally thought. So, without further delay, he exited from the library and made a mad dash for the nearest entrance/exit so as not to risk bumping into anyone in the hallways.
Little did he know that at least one person had seen him both enter and exit the library.
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Rory Harris' Repairs and Restorations, One Hour Later
"How's our robot doing?" Xander asked once he entered the curtained off area that his uncle had set up for him.
"Still looking pretty impatient for her part to grow back, but otherwise I'd say she's grateful for our help." Rory replied, sounding like he was no longer all that uncomfortable with that they'd been doing.
"She?" He asked, since it was pretty much impossible to determine gender at all from the collection of metal and wiring that made up the robot.
"Oh yeah! Just like I can tell whether a car is meant for a man or a woman, I can definitely say that this robot's a woman." Rory replied with some cockiness in his voice, "The way she moves, the tone of her voice and most of all the way she fidgets when she's impatient. All classic signs of femininity."
"Are you sure it's not a guy robot with some screwed up wiring?" Xander asked both because he didn't want his uncle to get a swelled head and because he considered the man's observational skills suspect.
"That's a pretty odd question, Xander. Anything you want to say to me?" Rory asked with a somewhat suspicious look in his eyes.
Naturally this brought back flashbacks of that whole locker room incident with Larry the linebacker when they were trying to find out the human identity of the werewolf. Ever since then he had been a little jumpy whenever someone asked him how he was getting along with another guy or if he thought the guy was good looking. Basically any question that veered a little too close to his sexual orientation made him edgy. So while in previous situations he had blurted out a vehement denial of anything even approaching him liking another guy, in this case he simply ignored the question.
"I think I might've figured out a way to get the she-bot back on her feet sooner rather than later." He said as he set down the tool box carrying what he'd use to the side of the tent, "What do you think of the nightlife in Sunnydale, Uncle Rory?"
"What do you mean? You know I spend most of my time here at the lot working on cars." Rory replied a little too perfectly and sounded more like he was reading from a cue card.
"What would you say if I told you that magic and demons were real?" he asked, hoping that there was at least one person in Sunnydale besides him that knew the truth aside from the bad guys and the Scooby gang.
"I'd say 'what took you so long' followed by 'I have known about it all for years'." Rory said back without missing a beat.
Of all the responses Xander'd thought he'd get from his uncle, this was definitely not one of them.
His, on the other hand, was a bit more predictable.
"Huh?" he squeaked in surprise.
"Despite what you probably thought, there are more people who know about what goes on in this town than you might think." Rory said with some amusement at the expression on his nephew's face, "The only reason they, like me, have not done anything about it is because we don't think there is anything that can be done about it. This town has existed here for decades and not once has it changed from what it is right now; a cesspool of demons and darkness where normal people survive through luck and ignorance."
"But if enough people got together and fought—" Xander began to say before being cut off by his uncle with a gesture.
"It still wouldn't change anything. All it would mean is that there'd be a fresh batch of demons moving in to replace the ones that had been slain." Rory said with a regretfully accepting shake of his head, "The bottom line is that unless the planet as a whole decided to take up the fight against the demons, all you'd be doing is fighting a battle you could never win. Add to that the fact that there are a number of people who would probably sell their souls for the right price and you'd have trust issues all over."
"So you just plan on sitting back and doing nothing!" Xander exclaimed in outrage that someone who knew what was going on was chickening out.
"I plan on fighting the battles I can win! The ones that let me protect the people I care about!" Rory yelled back angrily but with some understanding, "Look! Let's argue over the merits of fighting the good fight later. Right now I'd like to hear about your idea."
He growled for a moment but agreed that the robot's well being took priority over some personal debate.
"It's something I came across once while I was helping some friends kick demon ass. It's a spell that allows the caster to channel energy from Earth's ley lines to a person to help the healing process," Xander replied as he began taking out ingredients and placing them in the proper order for the spell.
"Don't you need to be a wizard or something to cast a spell?" Rory asked, sounding like he comprehended what the spell did but now how his nephew would be able to cast it.
"Most spells do, but there are a few that all you need is the right amount of concentration and knowledge." He replied as he began to flip through the pages of the book for what he was looking for.
"Well, you have one of the two at least." Rory muttered at just the right volume for his nephew to hear him.
"We need to get this spell going soon, though, since I don't think we have much time before G-Man notices something's amiss." Xander said as he picked up the first ingredient container and took it with the book towards the femme 'bot.
"'Notices something's amiss'?" Rory asked with a suspicious look on his face, "Didn't you ask him if you could borrow these things?"
"If you mean 'ask' as in speak with and 'borrow' as in with his knowledge, then I'd have to say… no." he replied, feeling slightly guilty about pilfering Giles' personal stash without the Watcher's knowledge.
Fortunately recalling how the gang were trying to shove him out of fighting the good fight and how his best friend since pre-school was going along with it quickly squashed that feeling of guilt.
"But don't worry. I've read enough of his dusty old books and been around when they've cast enough spells that this one will go off without a hitch." Xander said, doing his best to sound completely confident in his words, "Casting a spell is like preparing a meal: as long as you follow the directions, there's no way you can mess it up."
"Well if you say so." Rory said sounding convinced for the most part, though still possessing a trace of doubt in his voice.
Turning his attention completely to the robot, Xander could tell it had been trying to follow the conversation but he wasn't sure if it understood English or was just guessing at what was being said based on body language. Probably the latter, since he figured that if it knew English it would have tried to communicate with them somehow by now. In any case, he decided he'd at least try and explain what it was he would be trying to do just in case it could understand English but hadn't figured out how to reply in it yet.
"Look femme 'bot! I think I've figured out a way for you to get enough energy to get back on your feet quicker than relying on that generator." He said as he unscrewed the top on the jar he held, "It's a little out of the ordinary but I think it's the best chance you have for getting out of here anytime soon. So just stay still and try to put up with any unpleasantness."
With the explanation and cautionary warning given, he began to arrange ingredient number one like the book said by placing it in and around the damaged area. He checked every once and awhile to make sure that he wasn't putting the equivalent of salt in an open wound, but from what he could tell the first ingredient wasn't having any noticeable effect on the female robot. Once the contents had been emptied, he moved onto the second, third, fourth and then final ingredients and, aside from perhaps a little reluctance to let the white stuff get dumped on her wound, the alien robot didn't put up much of a fuss. Once he was satisfied that the necessary patterns had been drawn on the alien being he put himself the prescribed distance away from the target of the spell as prescribed by the book.
Okay! Here goes EVERYTHING He thought to himself as he raised his gaze to the first line of the spell.
Word for word, phrase for phrase, he spoke the spell, making sure that he said each word perfectly and with the proper tempo for each sentence. As he reached mid-spell he could sense a building of power beneath his feet and figured that by using the book to cast the spell, he was establishing a connection between him and the ley lines. He had to admit that it was something of a rush feeling all of it but he didn't let it ensnare him like it probably had so many magic users. He was only going to use this spell once and that was that!
As he neared the end of the spell, Xander could feel the power reach to burst from beneath his feet and got ready to use his willpower and his mind to direct the energy towards the femme 'bot. He'd have to take care to regulate the flow and rein it in when it looked like she was getting more than her systems could handle. Then, in a flash of light, energy leapt up from the ground beneath his feet surrounding him in a pillar of golden light.
Then it vanished and all was silent.
For a full minute all was silent.
"What the? I know I followed the directions perfectly." He said as he flipped through the book one page back then three pages forward, "It's in English so there's now way I could have misread something. Even though I have no idea what coadunation mean—"
That was as much as he got out before tendrils of energy that looked and acted like arcs of electricity shot up from the ground, ensnaring him in their grasp before unleashing a blast of energy right at the alien robot. The unexpected surge of energy caused a shockwave to explode outwards that completely obliterated the tent set up around the alien and sent his Uncle Rory flying a good twenty feet away. The only thing that probably saved the man from some serious injuries was that he landed in a pile of seat padding that he used in his restoration jobs. For one Xander Harris, though, things were a little more serious and would turn out to be a lot more permanent than anyone could have expected.
This came from the fact that while the spell was written out in a form of English that Xander could read easily enough there were a few words in it that were a bit beyond his vocabulary. Words like coadunation, transmogrification, configuration and antithesis might as well have been ancient Babylonian as far as he was concerned. If he had bothered to take a thesaurus with him or a dictionary, he never would have cast the spell in the first place. After all, while helping out a being in need was perfectly honorable and nice, it wasn't worth literally losing your humanity over.
However that is exactly what happened.
As soon as the area was cleared by the shockwave, arcs of electricity that had once been wrapped around his rigid body now sought out the strongest metals they could find in the immediate area. Piece by piece, ranging from silver dollar size to that of a manhole cover, metal flew from its previous home amongst the cars Rory Harris worked on and formed a funnel around the youngest Harris that reached high into the sky. If one were to look into the center of this funnel one would expect to see young Xander Harris still being bombarded by arcs of golden energy. However in the few seconds since the spell began to look for components amongst the surrounding cars, his body had already been broken down at the sub-atomic level. All that existed where Xander had once been was a collection of dusty balls of energy that occasionally came together to form a roughly humanoid shape.
Then, as though stretched by some special effects computer, the flight paths gained easily thirty feet in height and became as thick as two telephone poles. Then, as though being assembled by unseen hands, the pieces of metal that the spell had collected began to join together and form mechanical parts one after another. However they were unlike any part or component known to mankind, yet they became as one with such precision and complexity that one might think it a work of engineering art. Bit by bit, a form began to take shape from four different directions, all converging towards the center that was quickly located after a close look at the emerging construct. If Rory Harris had been awake, he would have immediately been able to identify certain similarities between the alien robot his nephew had persuaded him to aid and the new being that was taking shape. This one was stronger looking, whereas the other one was slimmer as though built for speed or agility but they were definitely built with noticeable similarities. It could easily be said by an observer that they were designed by the same person or at least built by the same company.
It took about fifteen minutes from the moment the spell leapt up to ensnare Xander to the moment it completed its work, both on him as well as on the intended target of the spell. While the former human's attention was pretty much centered on recovering his senses, anyone else who was around would now see no signs of damage whatsoever on the alien robot. The spell had indeed done what he had wanted it to do in that it provided the robot with enough energy to repair itself as well as facilitate the process by quite a bit. For Xander, though, he had just learned a rather permanent lesson about why it is important that you read AND understand what you were trying to do, especially when it came to magic. After all, anyone can just read a spell and implement ingredients, but unless one understood exactly what it is they're doing as well as what's going to happen, then they were literally playing Russian roulette with their lives.
As his grip on his senses finally solidified, Xander noticed a few things that had him scratching his head in shock. First was the fact that the ground seemed a lot farther down than he remembered it being. The second was that there was no longer a tent around the alien robot that looked to be back at one hundred percent. The third thing he noticed was that every time he scratched his head he heard the sound of metal scraping up against metal. That was weird. Bringing his hand down, he expected that some piece of metal or something got wrapped around his hand and was scraping against a hubcap that had probably landed on his head. However when his hand should have come into view, he instead looked down to see a mechanical hand come into his field of vision that looked like it belonged in a sci-fi flick. For a moment he thought that a pal of the alien robot had snuck behind him so he turned around only to see nothing and to once again be reminded that the ground seemed quite a bit farther down than he remembered.
Once again he tried to bring his pink skinned fleshy human hand into view but, once again, the only thing that appeared was the mechanical robot hand. For some reason his brain just couldn't come up with a reason why this was happening so he decided to look for a reflective surface in the hopes that he could get a better idea of what was going on. Looking around, he managed to spot a rather odd looking car that had its entire surface rendered so that it could perfectly reflect everything just like a mirror would. He had no idea why some idiot would want a car that was so reflective but it was convenient for him given the current situation. Moving over to get a better look, he lasted all of three seconds after seeing his reflection before proving that it was possible for alien robots to faint.
For that is what the spell he had cast had turned him into thus, as a forty foot alien robot, he fell face first into reflective car, smashing it completely.
His Uncle Rory would later admit that it was probably for the best that such a car never saw the outside of the lot.
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One Hour Later, Rory's Repair and Restoration
"Wakey! Wakey! Time to get up!" Came a female voice that pierced through the darkness of unconsciousness.
"Mmmmm…five more minutes please." He mumbled out as he tried to roll away from the person who was tapping him in the forehead in order to wake him up.
"Sorry! No can do! There are a few things I think we need to talk about and the sooner the better." The woman said but with an odd digitized quality to her voice.
He tried to roll away from her again so he could go back to the warm embrace of sleep but the sound of metal getting crushed and glass shattering filled his ears. This struck him as weird, since he was pretty sure his room didn't have anything that could make those sounds. He decided to open his eyes to see what was going on but, instead of the world being revealed to him like it normally was, it snapped into place with ultra high definition. This sent the first shudder of dread down his spine, since it rang a fairly unpleasant bell in his mind. The next was seeing the alien robot that had crash landed in his Uncle Rory's lot standing over him, looking none the worse for where and when he looked to where the damage had been before, his eyes did the strangest thing. They outlined the area in a green box and then zoomed in until it filled his field of vision then enhanced so as to make it look that his head was right up next it. This caused an even bigger shock for him as a side portion of his mind noted that every last bit of damage had been undone, causing the area to look as good as new. Trying to will this weird change of vision out of place, he closed his eyes and, once again, instead of a gradual or perceivable closing of the eyelids, the view before him snapped off.
It's not what I think it is! It's impossible! That wasn't what the spell was supposed to do! He thought as he tried to deny what he had just experienced and what his memories were telling him of the moments before he fell unconscious.
"While I might not know much about spells and magic, I can safely say that what you remember did happen," said the femme 'bot, trying to sound understanding and honest.
"Huh? You know about magic?" He asked before realizing two more important facts, "You can speak English and read my mind?"
"Hahahahaha. Well, in order the answers would be: yes I know about magic, yes and yes. That's how I learned your language and about magic." She replied with what he thought was a smile, "Apparently, thanks to the spell, we share a special connection of sorts between our minds. Also, a fair bit of your memories were transferred over as well so I know quite a bit about you, Alexander LaVelle Harris."
This caused him to become distinctly embarrassed, since some of what was in his head could get him into serious trouble with a member of the opposite sex.
"Don't worry! I haven't looked at everything I received from you yet and what I have seen tells me you're a good guy." She said, trying to reassure him that she wasn't going to do the typical woman thing when a female finds out about the improper thoughts of a man, "In any case, we need to get going soon. The others will have already touched down and will probably be waiting for me at the original landing co-ordinates."
"Huh? We?" He asked, not able to figure out how he got roped into going anywhere with her.
"Of course. My Commander, Optimus Prime, will at least want to meet you. Also, you'll probably need at least some help getting used to the new you." She explained, speaking with great respect towards her Commander, "It's not too hard, but you'll probably get used to it quicker if you have someone telling you how to transform yourself."
"But this might not be permanent!" Xander exclaimed, not liking anything that implied he might stuck in his current state for the rest of eternity.
"Maybe. But considering that you didn't fully understand the spell or expect things to turn out this way, it'd probably be a good thing to at least learn the basics." She pointed out, making it clear that she was volunteering to be the person to teach him.
As much as he wanted to deny the truth of what she was saying, he could not lie about how well he knew the spell or about what happened after it had been cast. He had known going in that there were a few words that he didn't know the meaning of even, even though he could pronounce them easily enough. He had just come to believe that because he could understand most of the spell, that a few big words wouldn't make a difference. Now, though, it seemed that not only were those big words important but they completely turned the true purpose of the spell on its head. He'd have to ask Giles…
Ask Giles! Like this?! He thought as he sat up and looked down at his new form and imagined what would most likely happen if the gang saw him as he was now.
Buffy would probably come at him with an axe and the rest would also come at him with all the weapons they had. He was just glad that the rocket launcher that he'd stolen from the military base only had one shot to it, otherwise he had no doubt he'd have the launcher aimed at him in front of the school. Maybe it would be a good idea to take some time away from the gang and learn how to use his new body a little bit better. It would give him time to formulate the proper way to break the news to the gang and especially to Giles. He had no doubt that the Watcher would be less than pleased to learn his personal stash had been pilfered behind his back.
It was a basic rule among men: you don't touch another guy's tools. Xander thought before turning to the alien robot and saying "I guess that would be the smart thing to do. By the way, what's your name?"
"My friends call me Arcee." She replied and extended a hand to help him up onto his feet.
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