"I can't believe you intentionally walked me into doors," Benji complained. "Bad Rommel."
*If you used your ears more you would have heard they were closed, I won't be around forever you know,* the telepathic dog replied with amusement in his mental voice.
"How am I supposed to hear a closed door?!" Benji demanded.
*Same way you learn anything else, practice,* Rommel replied smugly.
"I think he'd need more training than trial and error, though it does work," Xander agreed.
"What, seriously?" Benji asked.
"Sure, walk up to a wall, close your eyes, and slowly turn around while whistling," Xander said, "you can easily hear the difference."
The young boy walked over to the wall of the parking garage and tried it. "It works," he said in disbelief.
"With practice you can get a pretty good sense of a room without looking," Xander said, "it's part of the basics of blind fighting."
Several other gang members stepped over to various walls and gave it a try as well.
"How much fighting experience do you have?" Julian asked Xander.
"No formal training, but I've been fighting vampires for over a year now and I'm still alive," Xander replied. "My senses are a little sharper because I was once possessed by a primal hyena spirit and I picked up some decent lung capacity when I was almost turned into a fishman. I remember a lot about how soldiers are trained from being turned into one last Halloween. My recent empowerment has really brought all my skills and memories to the front of my mind. I'm a mix between a Dungeons and Dragons fighter and a Ranma class anime martial artist now, but I haven't had any real training."
"Did you grow up in a comic book?" one of the younger men asked in disbelief.
"I grew up on the Hellmouth," Xander said, "reality is kind of fuzzy there."
His statement caused a burst of conversation from the table with the crippled fighters who were quickly rummaging through the leather tomes in front of them.
"Reality is kind of fuzzy anyway," Julius said, "the more you look into things the crazier it is."
Stillman returned with a load of books. "Monique will want these back," he warned them, "she has a game scheduled Wednesday."
Julius chuckled. "We can have someone buy us some copies before then, we just need hands on them now to get a feel for things."
"We have the TV set up and a couple of tapes of Ranma ready, my Shogun," one of the female gang members reported. "Subtitled, not that dubbed crap."
Julius nodded. "While we're watching that, see about running Xander through the gauntlet, he needs the experience."
"Gauntlet?" Xander asked.
"Fighting one fighter at a time until you fall out," Julian explained. "It'll give us an idea of how good you are."
Xander nodded, smiling at the idea of a fight that wasn't life or death.
Several Hours Later
"Ok, I think I've got the gist of it," Julius said, "How about you?"
Leroy nodded and turned off the TV as the Ranma 1/2 movie ended. "I am not sure which empowerment provides more growth potential, but both of them together are frightening."
"Are they really?" Julius asked, a thoughtful look on his face.
"You have a thought," Leroy said and waited patiently to hear it.
"Yeah and frankly I'm surprised I'm not hearing it from you first," Julius said, setting down the Fighter's Handbook.
"We arrived at the same clearing but even if we took the same amount of steps to arrive our paths were different," Leroy replied.
Julius glanced over and saw he was on his third can of beer so he simply nodded. "I got ya. Well one of the differences in our paths was that The Glow was where you were told the path ended."
Leroy's eyes widened and he even stopped breathing as the thought struck him. "You arrived without that belief until I told it to you."
"Yeah," Julius said, "and it doesn't jive with something Master Splinter told me."
"What's that?" Leroy asked.
"Perfection isn't a goal, it's a journey," Julius replied. "We haven't stopped moving completely, but since we reached the clearing we've stopped reaching for the path forward."
Leroy nodded, determination in his eyes. "We will train harder," he said, "we will push beyond what we thought we knew to be our limits."
Julius grinned and cracked his neck. "We will," he agreed.
"Some of those anime training techniques looked like they might be possible, if one worked their way up to them," Leroy said.
"I was thinking the same thing myself," Julius agreed. "I'm gonna guess you were thinking of that Chestnut Fist thing while I was looking at the Breaking Point."
"Which means we should each do the other instead," Leroy suggested.
"Trying to beat each other in our own specialties," Julius agreed.
The two turned their attention to where Xander was running the gauntlet to see how he'd done and were a bit surprised to see two dozen of the gang's fighters sitting to one side showing they'd been defeated while Xander faced off against Big Barry, a six foot four mountain of muscle who was complaining that Xander wasn't taking him seriously.
"I know you can hit harder than that!" Barry complained.
"Yeah, but you aren't a vampire I'm trying to shatter the ribs of," Xander said.
"I can take a punch, man," Barry said.
Xander sighed. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." He darted forward and slammed a right straight into Barry's stomach, dodging the puke that shot out of his mouth before the big man fell to his knees. "You okay?"
"No... feels like I just got kicked by a mule," Barry groaned out.
Xander winced. "Yeah... I avoid hitting normal people as hard as I can because people are breakable, ya know?"
"I'm going to be pissing blood for a week," Barry complained as a couple of men helped him up.
"Gotta be careful what you wish for," Julius said, clearly amused. "You tired yet?"
Xander shook his head. "I get a chance to catch my breath with each new fighter as they feel me out. I'm kinda thirsty though."
"That's some impressive recovery time," Julius said.
"I've got real good lungs," Xander said, "it helps with all the screaming and running away."
Laughter rang out from the group.
"No, seriously," Xander said, "sometimes you gotta lead off a demon or two to herd them into a trap."
"Vamps are two to three times as fast as a human, how do you outrun that?" one of the fighters asked.
"Two to three?" Xander asked, surprised and saw the nods. "On the Hellmouth they are four to five times as fast and strong."
"Four to five?" Leroy asked.
Xander nodded. "Vamps are stronger on the Hellmouth, they feed off its energy. Thankfully they are also very stupid and like to play with their food, so they don't go all out to start."
"Their cruelty is their weakness," Leroy said confidently.
"You been playing on hard mode," one of the younger gang members told Xander.
He couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, but we also got a cheat code. Most nights I just gotta keep the vamps distracted and annoyed so the Slayer can take them out."
"The Slayer?" Julius perked up. "Like Niki Woods?"
"Don't recognize the name," Xander admitted, "but if it was a young woman who woke up suddenly stronger and faster than a vamp, she was probably a Slayer."
"It was back in the seventies," Julius said, "I was just a boy from the ghetto, but she saved my mom and me. Heard some bastard named Spike took her out on the subway."
Xander winced. "William the Bloody awful poet, member of the Scourge of Europe. I heard he had a couple of Slayer kills under his belt. His girlfriend Drusilla took out the Slayer Kendra a couple of weeks ago."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Leroy said, laying a hand on Xander's shoulder.
"She wasn't my Slayer, though she was a friend," Xander said. "My Slayer is still alive, a vampire drowned her but with some CPR she was up and around again. Her death is what called Kendra into service, but no one said she had to stay dead."
"So there are two Slayers now?" Julius asked. "How does that work?"
"One falls, another rises," Xander said with a shrug. "Maybe the Slayer Spirit can empower any number of girls, I don't know, I'm not a Watcher. I do know our Slayer just keeps on getting stronger and more skilled."
"Normal humans aren't going to be much of a challenge for you," Julius said with a frown.
"Actually, challenge or not, your guys and gals are more skilled than I am," Xander admitted, "I've been learning a lot fighting them."
"And Big Barry's learned not to let someone get a free shot," someone called out, causing a wave of laughter and cheers from the gang.
Julius chuckled. "Gotta control your ego, unless you're as bad as I am of course."
"Sho' nuff!" the gang chanted, as Leroy just shook his head.
"He's not kidding about learning from us," an older woman said, limping a little as she stepped over to Julius, "he sees a move more than once and he starts using it."
"That would fit with Ranma," Leroy said.
"Ain't far off us neither," Julius added. "Someone get the man a gatorade, then back at it. Double em up, he can take it."
"Can't we just hunt down some vampires?" Xander asked. "I don't like taking the risk of hurting humans when I'm still trying to get a handle on things."
"You give Benji some healing mojo?" Julius asked.
"Of course," Xander said. "It's one of the most useful powers around."
"Then they'll be fine," Julius said confidently. "I'll scare up some vamps for you to spar with, but we don't let those cockroaches live long enough to breed in our neighborhood."
Xander smiled widely as he accepted a Gatorade from a young girl wearing the gang's colors. "Man after my own heart." He opened the bottle and downed it in one go before absently throwing the bottle into a trashcan twenty feet away without looking. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this!"
"That's some stamina," a young woman told her friend with a grin, before she hefted a bo staff and stepped into the taped off circle where they were fighting, her friend pulling out a billy club.
"Start!" Julius called out and the girl with the staff attacked Xander while her friend circled around to try and get him from behind.
Xander stepped into the swing of the staff, grabbing it and swinging the girl into her friend, sending them both rolling out of the 'ring' as he tested out the weight and balance of the staff to get a feel for it.
"Fuck, I didn't expect that," the now weaponless girl complained as she helped her friend to her feet.
"Right there with you, sis," she replied, retrieving her billy club from the ground.
"Next two," Julius called out.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The three Scoobs sat across from each other on the hard dirt floor, sweating heavily in the small wooden lodge Oz had tossed together, breathing deeply of the fragrant smoke that rose from the fire in the center.
"We live strange lives or maybe we don't," Willow said slowly, "I mean... how would we know if our life was strange when it's the only one we know?"
"Strange is just a measurement of change," Oz offered.
"It's only kinky the first time," Cordelia agreed.
"Huh?" Willow asked, confused.
"Everything is strange until it's not," Oz explained.
"Huh?" Willow repeated.
"Strange just means not normal... average... mundane," Cordelia offered, "and if you do something a lot, well then it's not strange anymore."
Willow reluctantly peeled off her sweater and set it aside, having been too body shy to strip down to her undershirt and underwear like they had, but the heat and the smoke from the herbs caused her to relax enough to get rid of it. "I think I mean... strange as in different than others," she said, wiping sweat from her forehead.
"Everyone is different from each other, you've got to be yourself," Cordelia said with a lazy smile.
"All the other positions are taken," Oz agreed.
"You guys... are different," Willow decided. "Not hugely, but more... you?"
"We are more what we wanted to be than who we were," Cordelia said, "not sure it's who I would have become, but it's who I am now and I'm pretty happy with that."
"Same," Oz said, before adding another pinch of herbs from the basket beside him to the fire, sending up even more smoke to fill the tiny room.
"I'm less..." Willow said with a frown, drawing the two's attention. "Not worth less, just... less finished."
"We're nowhere near finished, just further along," Cordelia decided. "Decades worth of knowledge and skill in an instant."
"Are we diluted?" Oz asked.
Cordelia considered that for a moment before scratching under her right breast where sweat was pooling and nodded. "Yeah, we are somewhat diluted."
"That sounds bad," Willow said, before standing up and unbuttoning her jeans, the heat making her give up on trying to be modest.
"Not really bad, just strange," Cordelia said with a giggle, while Willow stripped off her pants.
Oz chuckled a surprisingly deep sound that drew their attention to the young man who was looking a bit larger and far more hairy.
"Should we be worrying about that?" Willow asked, pulling her underwear sideways so she could fan her bush which was feeling really swampy from sweat making her uncomfortable.
"Druid," Oz offered.
"Yeah?" Willow asked, confused as to what that had to do with anything.
"Oh," Cordelia said as if something had just occurred to her, "I think he means Druids can control wild animals and such, even if he can't break the curse yet."
Willow threw her panties at him, landing on one of the horns that had started to sprout from his forehead. "Should have warned us," she said firmly, eyes unfocused.
"It's not a full moon," Oz offered with a shrug, his shirt ripping as he gained at least a foot in height.
"Getting in touch with your inner spirit... and that spirit is a werewolf," Cordelia offered, before standing up and removing her own panties as she was no more a fan of a swampy crotch than Willow was. With a flick of her wrist she landed her panties on Oz's other horn. "Balance," she told Willow who nodded in understanding.
Oz took another pinch of herbs from the basket, paused, and took a smaller pinch as his hands were now enormous and covered in fur, before tossing it in the fire.
The three all took a deep breath, inhaling the smoke deep into their lungs before coughing it out a couple of seconds later.
"What were we talking about again?" Oz asked, having to slouch a little so his horns didn't stick in the log and sod roof overhead.
"Inner self, core of who we are," Willow said, "well not 'we' but each of us separately."
"We have a lot in common, we probably are a we if you go deep enough," Cordelia sang, causing a sparkling rainbow to dance across the walls surrounding them.
"Take off your shirt," Willow told Cordelia.
Cordelia whipped her shirt off in a single move, using it to wipe away the sweat that had pooled underneath her breasts before tossing it atop Willow's pants before thinking to ask, "Why?"
"I wanna see your breasts," Willow said honestly, "also I need help getting my bra off. I feel all floaty."
"Makes sense," Cordelia agreed, leaning over to help Willow finish stripping.
"Her breasts are nice," Oz agreed.
"I'm allowed to like breasts, right?" Willow asked curiously as she took off her bra and vigorously scratched under her breasts.
"Obviously," Cordelia assured her as Oz gave her a confused nod, the red and blue panties hanging from his black horns swaying in agreement.
"Good," Willow said, a bit relieved. "My mom said you were only allowed to like one thing or the other, otherwise you were being indecisive."
"She's very wrong," Cordelia told her. "I've been noticing breasts myself lately and I have to say I'm a fan. Of course I still like the stick, but breasts are just so round and soft, ya know?"
"A lot of study has been done, but no one has written a thesis yet," Oz said, his deeper voice like the purr of a lion carrying his obvious confusion as to why a serious scholastic paper had never been written on the subject.
"It's almost a crime," Cordelia said.
Oz added another pinch and the three leaned forward to inhale the smoke.
"The stick is nice," Willow said after she'd finished coughing, "it's firm and fills things."
"That is what it's for," Oz agreed.
"I wanted Xander to use his on me first, because we've been friends a long time... but I think I was just being possessive," Willow admitted. "He's part of me cause we filled bits of each other growing up, the parts our parents were supposed to help fill, not the parts I want Oz's help with."
"I poked you both enough and vice versa growing up to have you both fill a little of me too," Cordelia admitted. "It's probably why I'm here today and not... Well, actually I would have died if not for you guys, but without that I'd be a more empty person."
"Xander filled you both a bit," Willow said thoughtfully, "not exactly with bits of him, but with stuff flavored or tinted with bits of him."
"That... is a good point," Oz said thoughtfully. "Everything we've gained... carries a bit of him, but I don't think that's a bad thing."
"Yeah," Cordelia said, her smile actually lighting up the tiny room for a moment, "it really isn't."
Willow looked a bit sad. "It's a little scary," she admitted. "He knows me... but not me. I've hidden a lot and tried to make him see me as the girl he'd want to fill for the rest of his life, and not... all that I am. So if he fills me like he filled you two... Would I become more like the me he thinks he knows that isn't the real me?"
"Then we have to show him the real you first," Oz said. "If he sees the real you he'll make sure his Xander flavoring has the right Willow taste."
"We can do that?" Willow asked. "Cause I'm not sure I like the real me, she can be judgy and a big old stupid head, not loyal and smart like she's supposed to be."
"We all have our flaws," Cordelia assured her, "we're still growing into who we want to be."
"We see more of you than you realize," Oz said. "We've talked."
"You and Xander?" Willow asked, surprised.
OZ nodded, his horns bumping into the ceiling with a thump. "Had to."
The two waited but it became obvious that was all he was going to say about it.
"So... I didn't fool him about who I really am?" Willow asked.
"He has Willow tinted glasses about you... but still sees things you tried not to show," Oz said.
"And he still loves me?" she asked. "Because I find it hard to love that ginger bitch sometimes and I'm her."
"He does," Oz agreed, "and so do I."
"I'm even fond of you," Cordelia told her, "and I have the least reason to be out of all of us, so maybe you're being a little too judgy about her."
"Maybe," Willow admitted with a shy smile.
Oz tossed in another pinch of herbs and they all inhaled deeply.
After the coughing stopped, Oz spoke up, "Xander turned me into the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, didn't he?"
"Yep," the two girls chorused.
"Thought so," he replied with a small smile.
Typing By: Abyssal Angel
Beta By: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows
TN: Wearing... a sweater... in a sweat lodge?... Does Oz hate his girlfriend? Cordelia I sorta get, but that has got to be the stupidest most foolhardy dangerous thing I've ever heard. Like stupid on a level of wearing a pair of pants on your head while it's on fire.
TN2: "That sounds bad," Willow said, before standing up and unbuttoning her jeans, the heat making her give up on trying to be modest. Abyssal Angel laughed and commented, "Spoken like a true Floridian." He laughed for a few moments before sobering up to continue typing.