[Nez]

I like this chapter. Genie had some good one-liners.

[Syera]

I hereby dedicate this chapter to all those who enjoy taking everything the geekier route. For I got very geeky while explaining genie powers in this chapter.

CHAPTER 4
Genie Boot Camp


"Well, first off, you already know what you can and can't do, right?" Genie asked.

"Can't kill, can't make anybody fall in love, can't raise the dead. I know, I remember that from-"

"Actually, it's a little more complicated than that."

Aladdin raised his eyebrows. "It is?"

Genie nodded. "For example, despite what many people think, you can't actually make something out of thin air. It's impossible."

"Hm."

"For example, you could turn a bug into a soldier -" Genie quickly illustrated this - "but he might still be a little buzzy in the head, so that might not be a good idea. But you can't make a soldier out of nothing."

"Then how did you-"

Genie poofed into the attire of an old college professor. "In most cases, when a genie seems to create something out of nothing, it's actually just an extension of the genie itself."

Aladdin scratched his head. "What?"

"Watch and learn, little grasshopper." In a moment, Aladdin was surrounded by at least a dozen Oriental monks. One of them stepped forward. "All of these characters you see here are part of me. Like... sock puppets or dummies. Am I right, guys?"

The other monks unanimously agreed.

The monks then disappeared and Genie poofed back into his usual form. "Believe me," he said, leaning over Aladdin's shoulder, "it takes a lot of practice to handle that many dummies at once. But-" he stood up, "I think you should be able to handle at least one."

"You want me to-"

"Make a duplicate of yourself."

Aladdin straightened, nodding. "Okay, so how do I do that?"

"Imagine a copy of yourself standing in front of you."

Aladdin did. He jumped back in surprise when a perfect-yet-motionless copy of himself materialized in front of his face.

"Keep thinking about your copy," Genie instructed. "It'll disappear as soon as you lose concentration. Now, try to make it talk. Think of it as part of yourself. An extension of yourself."

He nodded again.

"Like this?" the copy asked.

"Good. Now, practice a little schizophrenia and talk to yourself."

Aladdin blushed, and several seconds passed. "I can't," he said at last.

"Sure, you can."

Another pause. "It's... too embarassing."

"Aladdin, nobody's watching... er, well except for the wife, vizier, monkey, and carpet. And they're not gonna tell anyone - are you?"

Jasmine shook her head.

"My lips are sealed," Safwan said stiffly.

"Uh-uh," Abu agreed.

If Carpet had eyes, it would have rolled them, because ironically, it didn't have a voice either, so who would it tell?

"Oh, all right," Aladdin groused.

"I still think-" the copy began.

"This is-" Aladdin continued.

"Ridiculous," the copy finished.

"Al, you're a natural! I could get you some scripts and you could be a one-man play!"

Aladdin shuddered. "No thanks, Genie."

"So, is this-" the copy began.

"Enough yet?" Aladdin finished.

"Yeah, that's enough."

Aladdin sighed in relief. His clone disappeared.

"Of course, you can always make dummies of other people," Genie pointed out. "All you need is your imagination."

Aladdin nodded.

"But enough about clones. Now, if, say, your current master wished for an elephant - well, you could go about it more than one way. Take notes, class - it doesn't matter how you grant the wish, just so long as it gets granted.

"If you were somewhere sparse of elephants, you could turn something else into an elephant." Genie illustrated this by turning Abu into said animal. Abu trumpeted a complaint - he'd been an elephant once, thank you very much, and that had been enough.

"Or," Genie said, quickly turning Abu back into a monkey, "you could just go a fetch an actual elephant from somewhere else. Oh, and one more thing, Aladdin - " Genie looked serious, "you only have to obey the letter of the wish, not the spirit. You are free to interpret it however you see fit."

Aladdin nodded again. "So, that means if someone did wish for an elephant..."

"You could bring them a wild bull elephant since they didn't specify what kind of elephant they wanted."

He grinned. Now that could be interesting.

"A lot of genies," Genie continued, "get jaded after a few millenia, so they'll try to mess peoples' wishes up. And believe me, it's very easy to get jaded after the three thousandth moronic wish. But that's beside the point right now. Aladdin, why don't you try turning something into something else?"

Aladdin looked around. He didn't see anything or anyone that looked especially willing - especially not Abu.

But wait - a bird alighted on the ground. Well, Aladdin thought, here goes nothing. He didn't really want to hurt the bird - but the bird was probably too birdbrained to hold it against him. So he took a deep breath and concentrated.

Nothing happened.

"Al, you've got to point and shoot."

Point and shoot? What? Oh, yes - what Genie did when using his magic. So Aladdin raised his hand, pointed at the bird, and concentrated.

Aladdin had never seen a sheep attempt flight before. But it was definitely an interesting sight. And a funny one. He could hear everyone giggle (or try to hide their giggling) as the animal tried in vain to use its forelegs as wings. He hastily changed it back into a bird and it flew off in a discombobulated huff.

"You can also change your own shape, too, you know," Genie said, changing into assorted shapes and characters that Aladdin couldn't recognize - first, a white-haired pale blue-skinned human-like creature in a red-and-black uniform of some kind, then something that put him in mind of an extremely plush and brightly-colored carriage sans horses, and finally something that looked like an abnormally huge hare with an absurdly long tail. "But let's stick with what you know," he hastily added, seeing that Aladdin had very little idea about anything he'd just turned himself into. "So, think of something or someone. Anything."

Aladdin was just as vain as the next man, which is a lot more vain than the next man (or most men, for that matter) would like to admit. So, he willed himself to become a handsome Arabian stallion.

And very suddenly, he was a horse. A blue horse, to be sure, but a horse all the same. He noted with some satisfaction that Jasmine seemed impressed.

"Very nice," Genie commented.

Aladdin changed back - but with one slight discrepancy. Instead of forming his lower half into a smoke tail, he formed a pair of legs. Not that there had been anything wrong with the smoke tail, really, but he felt a little less... conspicuous. (Not that the blue skin wasn't obvious enough, but still...)

"Well, I guess that covers the basics," Genie said. "Mainly, all you need is your imagination. Everything else is hamastasch."

"Okay," Aladdin said, nodding. Then something occured to him. "Hey, what about going from one place to another instantaniously? Like when Jafar had everybody imprisoned?"

Genie took a deep breath. "Teleporting? That's a little harder. It takes a lot of power, plus you have to know exactly where the thing you are trying to teleport is, and exactly where it's going. I wouldn't recommend it for your average every-day parlor tricks."

"Oh," Aladdin said, a little disappointed.

"However, you can take off your hand as many times as you like, and you can take off your head!" Genie illustrated this step-by-step. "The girls love it!"

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "And precisely which girls are those?"

"But, like I said, all you need is a little imagination, and POW!" Genie abruptly exploded in a flash of light.

"Pow," Aladdin echoed, shrugging. Somehow, that particular trick didn't have a whole lot of appeal.

"Well," Safwan said with a yawn, "as interesting as this has been, I think I've figured out what my first wish will be. Aladdin, I hope you can pull this one off."





Aladdin followed Safwan inside the library. "What I wish for," Safwan said, "is for the library and all the books in the library to be restored to their new condition, complete with the print."

Aladdin swallowed nervously. He wasn't sure how he'd do that. "Er, Safwan..."

"Yes, Aladdin?"

Something - was it genie instinct? - took over. He knew exactly what he needed to do. This, he thought briefly, might explain why Genie seemed to know so much. He pointed at a book. The information that had once been on its pages flashed through his mind - and out his finger onto the newly-forming paper.

"Never mind."

Several books which had settled comfortably years ago suddenly found their spines stiff all over again. Paper and parchment was rewound about the scrolls as they once again became majestic pillars of literature.

Then he conjured various cleaning supplies, which oddly enough, wouldn't be invented for over twelve hundred years. It was amazing how the information came to him - if the wish required that he knew something, he knew it.

Since the cleaning supplies were, after all, just an extension of himself, he could easily control them. It was much like controlling the clone, only it required a little more concentration. Since it was rather easy to lose focus and thus control if he had too many going at once, he was careful not to overdo it. It would, he thought, merit practice in the future, just in case he remained a genie long enough to have to do something similar.

Overall, it was a novel experience. He regretted slightly having to call it quits - but the library couldn't have possibly looked better even new. He conjured a few lights so he and anyone else who cared to look could see it better - and was it magnificent! He glanced over at Safwan. The vizier appeared to be in complete bliss, entranced by the literary wonders before him.

Aladdin picked a scroll off the shelf and opened it. Naturally, he couldn't read a word of it, so he quickly put it back. As far as he was concerned, the symbols in the books looked like chicken scratches. "So, what are you looking for?"

"Surely the people who operated the machine wrote something about it," Safwan said. "It's very possible that I could discover something that could help us."

"Ah."

The rest of the day was stunningly dull. Safwan sorted through books and scrolls, sometimes finding something that interested him, but more often he didn't. "I wouldn't mind," he said presently, "reading 1001 Uses for Tea Leaves, but..."

Aladdin wouldn't have minded, either. It would have given him something to do.

Several hours later, the vizier found what he was looking for. "We must go back to Tarisia immediately," he said excitedly, triumphantly brandishing a parchment scroll. "Where's that carpet?"



Coming Soon: Chapter 5 - Tarisia



There are eleven chapters in all, by the way.

I've always felt that it doesn't work to say "Genie turned into an Andorian Starfleet officer." Because for whatever reason, describing what Genie turns into makes you suddenly realize that you're reading a story - you're suddenly yanked from your imagination's perspective of being in there with the characters. At least, it always does that to me.

I've found that it works better to describe what Genie is turning into from someone else's point of view, or simply use a well-known quote. The reader's imaginations can fill in the blanks, I believe, and it doesn't make you suddenly feel like you're being told a story as opposed to being shown a story.

Annnnnnyway... since, as the author, I'm just dyin' to know...

What are your impressions of Safwan and General Zaki thus far?

[Hourglass]

I LOVE FANFICS W/ PICTURES!!!

I hope you continue with that!

[Syera]

Sorry, not the next chapter, but rather a picture.

Y'see, I found this coloring page online. If you looked at the thumbnail, it was slightly... ambiguous. A little erasing and re-drawing took care of that problem completely.

http://www.springhole.net/pics/al_genie.jpg

[IRideAladdin'sCarpet]

girl, u got me hooked! this is really good! genie boot camp?! i'm excited!

[Nez]

It's good. Can't wait to read the rest.

[Syera]

*Sings* Weeeeeeee will quibble it awaaaaaaaaay...

But I'm bettin' my story'll have something that other people's stories don't have: political drama!

I've decided to go ahead and post this chapter today, since in my opinion, it's a bit of a slow chapter.



CHAPTER 3
Lost & Found

Jasmine hadn't expected to wake up in a tree.

Actually, she hadn't been expecting to wake up anywhere in particular. But waking up in a tree was certainly more surprising than, say, waking up under a tree.

Looking around, she could see that she'd been moved at least a half-mile from the mountain, and as far as she could tell, was completely alone. She considered calling for help, but if General Zaki's men were anywhere in the area, well, that wouldn't be so good.

No, she'd have to get down from the tree herself. Admittedly, living in Agrabah didn't give her much opportunity to go around playing monkey, but how hard could it be?

She carefully picked her way downward. Fortunately, her experience riding a flying carpet had given her a pretty good head for heights. After about thirty minutes of sorting and picking her way through the branches, she reached the ground. Whew.

She listened. She heard animals and water somewhere off, but no people. With nowhere better to go, she began walking in the direction of the mountain. It didn't seem especially likely that Zaki would still be hanging around.

She thought she saw Abu from the corner of her eye, but it turned out to be a wild monkey. Well, she thought, Abu probably wasn't lonely, wherever he was.

Then Jasmine was faced with another problem.

A river cut through the terrain, down in a gorge about ten feet tall. Logic suggested that there must be a bridge nearby - otherwise, General Zaki couldn't have crossed. Looking around, she saw the footprints of horses - yes, it seemed that he had been through recently.

She followed the trodden path until she came across a rope bridge. Or what was left of it. It seemed that on their way back, somebody had taken the caution of cutting the bridge to prevent anyone from crossing later. It now dangled like a dying snake from the other side of the gorge.

Jasmine sat down and pondered. She had to get across somehow, but couldn't see any ready option. The gorge was about ten feet across - too far to jump. Unless...

She smiled. She had an idea.

There was a nearby patch of bamboo. The plant was tall and strong - exactly what she needed. She pulled one of the plants down to the ground, stepped on it so as to snap it off, found that didn't entirely work, pulled out her hunting knife, and in a few moments had the thing cut from the ground. Perfect.

She backed away from the gorge several yards, took a running start, planted her pole in the ground, and vaulted over the gorge. So much for Zaki's efforts!

That out of her way, she continued on.








The carpet found itself in a tight spot. Quite literally.

When it came to its senses, it realized that it was wedged tightly between a horse and a saddle - a saddle which was topped off by a rider. How had that happened?

Well, no time for pondering that now. The carpet began working itself out from under the saddle. It pulled and wiggled, slowly making headway. Hopefully, its delicate weave wouldn't get caught on something. That could hurt.

After about an hour, the carpet finally suceeded in freeing itself. By some lucky chance, the horse it was on happened to be one in the back, so nobody noticed a thing.

Flying overhead the soldiers, the carpet looked about for any prisoners. None. It mentally frowned. If Zaki's men didn't have everyone, where were they? Was it possible that they were somewhere in the jungle?

Yes, that seemed possible. It wouldn't take too long to look, either. So he quickly zipped over and through the trees, looking for any familiar faces.

It found one.

The carpet gently tapped Abu on the shoulder. The monkey shrieked and jumped into the nearest tree. The carpet, meanwhile, smiled inwardly. It loved doing that.

When Abu realized that the tapper was indeed a friendly party, he dropped back down to the ground. "Aladdin?" he inquired.

The carpet signed no.

With a disappointed grunt, Abu hopped onto the carpet's surface.

One down, four to go.







Jasmine continued on through the jungle. She'd been bitten by several mosquitoes, and so was feeling quite itchy. "Don't scratch," people would warn. Well, she wondered, how could you not scratch?

She heard voices. Two voices. Listening carefully, she determined one of them to be Aladdin, and the other was probably Safwan. "Aladdin?" she called. She picked up her pace.

"Jasmine? Is that you?" one of the voices called back.

She stumbled into a clearing. Safwan was there, all right... and so was Genie, apparently very poorly disguised as Aladdin.

"Genie?" she questioned.

He shook his head. "No, it's me, Aladdin."

She crossed her arms. "I'm not laughing."

"Neither am I."

Jasmine's arms dropped and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth, but found herself speechless.

"It really is Aladdin, Princess," Safwan said.

"How?" she asked once she'd found her voice again.

"That, Princess, was just a small sampling of the potential power of that device General Zaki stole," Safwan said. "And believe me, it can do much more than turn people into genies."

"But if it's that powerful, then how can we stop it?"

Safwan smirked. "When I told Zaki he really didn't want to activate the machine... well, I wasn't joking. According to the sources I read, the machine had to rest for a time after being used, depending on how large and complicated its task was. No-one will be able to activate it for a few days, at least. And that will hopefully give us time to do something."

Jasmine sat down on a log. "So, are you alone, or do you know where anyone else is?"

Aladdin shook his head. "We were trying to find everyone else."

The princess nodded. "I was going to go look back near the cave, but..."

Safwan slapped himself in the face. "Near the cave! That's it! Jasmine, it's very possible that the others had the same idea as you. Why don't we all go back there?"






Near the mouth of the cave, Aladdin slid to the ground and leaned against a rock. So, I'm a genie, he thought. He'd discovered pretty abruptly a few minutes ago that he couldn't get very far away from his lamp. It seemed that some kind of intangible chains bound him to the lamp, giving him limited space to move around in. And boy, did that get old fast!

Earlier, they'd discussed building a signal fire. This had seemed like a good idea, but Safwan had pointed out that General Zaki might be able to see it, wherever he was. So that idea was scrapped.

"Why don't you just wish for me to get the machine back?" Aladdin asked eventually. "Or take it to Agrabah? Or someplace where General Zaki can't get it?"

Safwan rubbed his chin. "I could," he said. "But I don't think we should."

"But why not?" Jasmine asked.

"Right now, that machine is a liability, not an asset," Safwan said. "It'll be inoperable for a few more days at least. As long as Zaki's men are carrying it-"

"They'll be slowed down!" Aladdin finished.

"Exactly. You see, if I can, I don't want to just stop the Zahirians from using the machine again. No, I think there are bigger fish we can fry."






The carpet finally located the genie. He was, it seemed, attempting to find the others by using some complicated contraption from the future. And, the carpet ventured, it hadn't worked out yet. Oh, well. They had to be around somewhere.

"'Zat you, rugman?" the genie asked upon seeing the carpet.

The carpet simply motioned for Genie to follow along.

Two down, three to go.

"I just had an idea," Genie said. "Maybe somebody's still back at the cave."

Good idea! Why hadn't carpet thought of that itself? The rug made nodding motions to show it understood, and zipped off in the direction of the cave. One thing it prided itself in was its perfect sense of direction - a sure sign of a flying carpet of the highest quality.

When the carpet reached the cave, its brain reeled. For a second, it thought it saw Genie sitting on the ground. But no, the genie was behind it (and it looked to make sure) - what was going on?

"Aladdin?" Abu squeaked, and promptly fainted.

Carpet puzzled over the fallen monkey for a half-second, then looked around. Then it saw Aladdin. It took it a moment to fully realize that this was Aladdin, and not some prank of the genie's.

Aladdin was a genie, no doubt about that. How interesting.

"Abu! Genie! Carpet!" Aladdin called, seeing the newcomers. "I - uh, er, I guess you can see for yourselves."

"Al, what happened?" Genie demanded.

"That machine happened, that's what," Safwan cut in. In a few moments, he gave everyone (whether they'd heard it before or not) a recap of his and Aladdin's adventures, plus a rough outline of his own plans.

Genie looked skeptical. "I'm telling you, if you do force Aladdin to do something he doesn't want to, you will pay."

"Look, Aladdin's genie powers are the only thing that will and can stand between us, the Zahirian army, and that blasted machine," Safwan said, a little hotly.

Aladdin cleared his throat.

"What?"

"Er, well, you keep talking about how my genie powers are going to save everybody... but..."

"But what?"

"I'm not so sure I'd even know what I was doing."

Carpet knew precisely how to remedy that. He pointed out his longtime friend, the Genie.


Coming Soon: Chapter 4 - Genie Boot Camp

[Hourglass]

[Nez]

Good, though the Aladdin-gets-turned-into-a-Genie plot bunny was used once in another fanfic. That's my only quibble about this story.

[Syera]

Because I have an irrational phobia of all fanfiction archives that are not run by moi, that's why.

Brace yerselves... things get wierd from here on out.


CHAPTER 2
Those Magic Changes

It was well into the night when they reached their destination. It was decided fairly quickly that whatever it was they had to do could very well wait until the next morning - no sense in looking for something they didn't know what looked like if they were falling asleep while doing it!

The next morning, Safwan drew a map from his personal belongings and quickly located their position. "What we are looking for," he said, "is in a cave just north of here, under that mountain there."

Aladdin felt a hint of deja-vu. "It is a normal cave, right? It doesn't talk or collapse, does it?

"As far as I know," the vizier answered.

He nodded. "Okay. Are there any other death traps?"

"None mentioned. But that's good thinking on your part. Important items aren't usually left unguarded somehow."

They soon set off toward the cave. As they approached, Aladdin found himself looking not at the mouth of a cave, as he'd expected, but at a large doorway that been carefully carved out and braced with stone supports. Rising about twelve feet high, it opened out of a cliff of sheer rock on the side of the mountain. Unusually convenient, Aladdin noted as he walked inside.

"Looks like an ordinary cave inside," Genie remarked.

As Aladdin's eyes adjusted to the dim blue light coming from the genie's body, he had to agree. Despite the ostentatious doorway, there didn't seem to be anything worth noting.

"So far, at least," Safwan said dryly.

About a hundred feet later, he stopped. He now faced another doorway carved neatly into the rock, surrounded by unusual symbols and designs. This one was much smaller than the outside doorway - about half the size, Aladdin estimated. At one point, there had been an actual door made of wood, but it had long rotted away "Hey, guys, there's something over here."

The vizier was by his side in a half-second. It took another half-second for him to find what Aladdin had seen. "So there is. It's a very old form of Chinese - can we have a little more light?"

A spotlight materialized behind the genie.

"Death to all intruders," Safwan read aloud.

At that moment, Aladdin heard a sound from behind the group. He jumped slightly, glanced back, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He mentally chided himself for getting a little nervous from the grim warning on the door - that sound could have started anywhere. It was probably just an echo from something else. Taking a deep breath, he walked through the door.

The doorway led into something that appeared to be a decrepit temple of sorts. No, more like a library, Aladdin thought to himself. He could see scroll-holders, the papers and parchments they once held long rotted away. A few vermin ran this way and that, avoiding the intruders.

"What a pity," Safwan remarked.

"Pity?" Jasmine echoed.

"All these scrolls, ruined. They might have contained useful information. That, and..." the vizier sighed, "I hate to see the written word destroyed."

Several yards later, they reached the end of the room. They passed through another doorway and into more cavern. There wasn't anything of any real interest or use - there would be the occasional skeleton and maybe a piece of treasure, but that was all.

After traversing through twisty passage after twisty passage, they came upon another door. Unlike the previous doors, however, this one was made of metal, and was mostly intact. It was, however, badly rusted. Aladdin gave it an experimental kick. Nothing happened. He kicked at the latch. It broke off.

He slowly pushed the door open and let Genie go first.

Stepping in himself, he could see that they were now in a much larger cavern. The ceiling was probably thirty feet high, and the far wall was about twenty feet away.

It was on the wall that caught his attention.

At first, Aladdin thought that somebody had stuck a mirror to a large amalgamation of metalworks. But it couldn't be a mirror, he rationalized. For one thing, it wasn't nearly shiny enough. For another, what purpose would a mirror serve?

Whatever it was, it was encased in a rounded square frame about four inches thick. Two gemstones adorned the frame - one on the left, and one on the right.

And what it was attached to was just as interesting. Aladdin couldn't quite make heads or tails of it, but he could tell that it was probably made of brass and was finely wrought. It was twice as tall as he was, and four times as wide. The whole thing was topped with flawless orb of crystal.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Safwan whispered.

"I wish we knew what it did," Jasmine said.

Safwan gingerly touched the machine, tracing the reflective surface's frame with his fingers. As his hand touched the lower-left crystal, something happened.

The surface began to glow, very faintly. A shape began to form - the head and bust of an attractive young woman. Aladdin stared. Was this machine powered by a spirit of sorts? Like a genie?

"Please state your command," the face said.

Well, they didn't need to be stating any commands, as far as Aladdin knew. "How do we get it out of here?" he asked. The face still stared from the glass, unmoving and emotionless.

"My men'll haul it out. Shouldn't be too big a problem."

Startled by the new voice, Aladdin whirled around and found himself staring at a lean, muscular man in military clothing, who appeared to be somewhere around forty. "Who are you?"

"General Zaki, under command of King Imad of Zahiria," he answered amiably. "What about you?"

"I'm Aladdin."

General Zaki took a step forward. Aladdin tentatively stepped in front of the machine.

"Out of my way, Aladdin," Zaki ordered. "You're impeding royal business."

"No."

Zaki frowned. "I am in no mood for games." He drew his scimitar. "Get out of my way."

Aladdin took a fighting stance.

"Are you incredibly stupid or am I missing something?"

Zaki lunged forward with his blade. Aladdin dodged. The general almost crashed into the device, but caught himself in time.

"Please state your command," the machine repeated.

Aladdin realized that he was not in a good situation. Back in Agrabah, he could take care of himself well enough - but that was because he could usually find something with which to defend himself. Here, he was in a cave empty of anything save for a talking machine.

"Genie, do something!" Aladdin ordered.

A wall materialized between Aladdin and Zaki, effectively separating the two.

"Please state your command," the machine repeated.

Aladdin realized that General Zaki was on the side of the wall with the machine. "Genie, get rid of the wall!"

The wall disappeared. Zaki stood next to the machine. "You fought well, but I'm afraid I don't have the time to continue," he said. "Now, you wanted to know what this machine does - well, you'll find out."

"Zaki, you don't want to do that," Safwan said warningly.

The general blinked. "Vizier Safwan, is that you?"

"No, it's your Great Aunt Lillith. Of course it's me, Zahirian filth."

"Fancy meeting you here. Machine, do something to Aladdin. Put him somewhere he can't bother me. And do something with the rest of these people."

"Confirm order?"

"Confirm! Do it!"

Aladdin stared as the sphere crowning the machine began to glow. Its light intensified until it became blinding - then he blacked out.

Ironic.







Aladdin opened his eyes.

He saw nothing.

He squinted and blinked a few times in a futile attempt to bring the world back into view, but he still couldn't see anything.

"Hello?" he called.

Judging from the way his voice resonated, he was in a very tiny space. He swallowed nervously, suddenly feeling rather claustrophobic. He frantically felt his way around - no doubt about it, he was in a very small area. The walls, which arched smoothly about a foot and a half above his head (while he was sitting) seemed to be made of something hard... not quite stone, but rather more like metal. In one side, he found what seemed like a very small tunnel, but it was too tiny for anything besides a small animal.

Machine, do something to Aladdin. Put him somewhere he can't bother me.

That, it seemed, was precisely what the machine had done. So much for stopping the Zahirians, he thought. And what about the others? Were they in the same predicament? How long was this going to last?

Suddenly, he felt something. It was a peculiar on-again off-again vibration, but mostly on. And suddenly, he found himself being pushed, pulled, and otherwise forced through the mole-hole he'd found earlier.

It didn't exactly hurt (to his surprise) but it was uncomfortable. The air was forced out of his lungs and he found himself wondering how many ribs he'd crack. (Probably all of them.)

Suddenly, light hit his eyes, and he found himself staring blearily into the jungles of south-western China. He took a deep breath - no pain. He was fine. Except... except for the fact that he felt peculiarly light.

"Aladdin - what a peculiar twist of fate!"

Aladdin whirled around and found himself looking at Safwan. Whatever had happened to the vizier, he didn't look much worse for the wear. "What do you mean?"

"The machine - what it's done to you. This could be the miracle Tarisia was looking for!"

"What it's done to me?" he echoed, venturing a glance at himself. "I'm... blue."

Well, at least his skin was. A most striking shade of sky blue at that. Further investigations revealed that both wrists had somehow aquired golden bracelets. And perhaps most shocking was that where his legs had been, a column of blue smoke trailed toward the ground. He looked back at Safwan. The vizier was holding a lamp in one hand.

Two and two made four. Four equalled panic. "It... it turned me into a genie! How? Why?"

Safwan shrugged. "It was simply following orders, I suppose. General Zaki specified that it do something to you and put you somewhere you couldn't bother him. This seems to be the best way it could find to carry out its command."

Aladdin, meanwhile, bent down beside a stream in an effort to catch his reflection. Except for the fact that his ears had aquired a pointed shape, nothing about his features had changed. He stood - no, floated back up. "What about the others?"

Safwan shook his head. "When I awoke, I was alone somewhere outside the cave. I went back inside to see if I could find anything. The machine was gone, but I found a lamp. Now, I knew it hadn't been there before so I thought it prudent to pick it up."

He swallowed and took a deep breath. "So, you rubbed it on the off-chance that a genie might be inside?"

Safwan nodded. "Well, I had a wild notion that at least one of us might have been imprisoned inside... though I hadn't been expecting you. Well, shall we get looking for the others?"

"Okay. And what did you mean by this could be the miracle Tarisia was looking for?"

Safwan began walking into the forest. "Aladdin, with your genie powers, Tarisia may stand a chance. If I use my three wishes wisely-"

"Wait, who said anything about three wishes?"

"It's simple. Since I rubbed your lamp, you have to give me three wishes."

That was it. His day had been bad enough without the added bonus of suddenly being obligated to grant wishes. He zipped in front of Safwan and grabbed the vizier by the robes. "No, you're going to set me free."

"Aladdin, please, listen to me for a moment," the vizier implored.

Aladdin turned loose and narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"With only three exceptions, a genie must obey any command given by its master," Safwan said. "It seems that bound genies have more power than freed ones, presumably so they may fulfill this directive. Believe me, Aladdin, I have no intention of abusing your power. I will make wishes as necessary, and when I have finished, I will give your lamp to your wife. How does that sound?"

He considered for a moment, then nodded. "Fine."

"Besides, it's very likely that this may only be a temporary situation for you. If the machine could change you into a genie, then it should be able to change you back."

They resumed their journey. Every now and again, Safwan would stop and look for signs that anyone had been by recently. But it seemed no-one hand. "It's always possible," he said at last, "that your friends were less fortunate than us, and were found by General Zaki's men. But let's hope not."




Coming Soon: Chapter 3 - Lost & Found

[Calluna]

[Hourglass]

Why not post on the LIBRARY OF AGRABAH?

[Nez]

It's off to a good start.

[Syera]

No, I'm not going to post this on Fan-Fiction.net. Nevernevernevernever. I hate FF.net.

The fanfiction is already finished, so you don't have to worry about me getting bored. No, I'm not going to release it all in one swoop. I'm going to keep you in suspense, ha-ha!

I'd give this a PG-rating. No swearing, a bit of flirting, and some thematic material. But nothing worse than you'd see on SG-1.

Comments and criticism are appriciated.



CHAPTER 1
RENT-A-HERO

The horse raced through Agrabah's main street.

The rider was exhausted, barely able to stay astride his mount. Yet he made no effort to slow the horse's pace. His robes, which had been a fine sight of green and gold before, were dusted and smattered with the grime of a long ride.

Only when the horse reached the gates of the palace did the rider stop. He slid off the horse, grabbed the bridle to steady himself, and took a few deep breaths.

"Someone, let me in!" he wheezed. "I am Vizier Safwan, on behalf of King Nasir!"

That said, he slumped to the ground.




"What is your business in Agrabah, Vizier Safwan?" the Sultan inquired.

The vizier,a middle-aged man of average height and weight, sighed. "That... is a very long story, your highness." Though he'd had a night's rest since he'd arrived the previous evening, he still looked tired and worn.

"I'm listening."

"I come from Tarisia," he began. "I have served as vizier under King Nasir for the past seventeen years, as my father served his father.

"As you have undoubtedly heard from the travellers passing through your great city, we have been at war with the neighboring kingdom of Zahiria. Three weeks ago, my king informed me that the Zahirians learned of an artifact of great power that could turn the tide in the war. We spent many hours discussing what the best course of action would be, and we at last decided to ask for Agrabah's help.

"So, I set out from Tarisia, and after three weeks of hard riding, arrived in your fair city. On behalf of King Nasir and Tarisia, I beseech you to help us."

The Sultan looked thoughful. "What kind of assistance do you require?"

"King Nasir believes that it would be prudent to find the artifact before the Zahirians do, your highness."

"Do you know where the artifact is?"

The vizier nodded. "Our intelligence gave us a very good idea as to its location. And I will tell you this - if the Zahirians aquire the artifact, they won't stop with Tarisia. They will be after Agrabah eventually."

"Very well. And how do you propose we search for this artifact?"

"Your highness, we had heard in Tarisia that Agrabah was the home to a hero. We had been hoping that perhaps he would be gracious enough to lend us assistance."

Beside the throne, Aladdin shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "So, what's this war all about?"

The vizier sighed. "Oh, the usual."

"The usual?"

"Greed. Discontent. The usual."

Aladdin nodded.

"Your highness, may I be so bold as to ask the identity of this young man?" the vizier inquired.

"This is my son-in-law, Aladdin," the Sultan answered. "The man whom you seek."

Safwan bowed politely. "Know then, Aladdin, we would be greatly honored if you would help us."

He nodded again. "So, what does this thing the Zahirians want actually do?" Aladdin inquired.

The vizier shifted uncomfortably. "To tell the truth, we aren't very sure," he said. "The texts that referred to it were very vague. They did, however, mention that the device had almost infinite power."

"So the Zahirians probably don't even know what they're playing with. Sounds like a problem."

"Exactly," Safwan agreed. "Will you help us?"

"No problem," Aladdin said. "Where are we going?"






It was the most infuriating thing.

Genie could only watch helplessly as the flying carpet smugly (and oh so smugly) captured his last checker. Whatever that rug was made of, it must have been high quality, for when it came to games of brains and skill... well, the carpet was a formidable opponent.

"All right, you win," Genie grumped.

The carpet looked smug.

Genie was debating on whether or not to reset the game when Aladdin burst into (and indeed, halfway through) the room. "Al, what's the rush?" he inquired.

"I'm going to China," Aladdin replied.

"China?"

"China."

"I know of some great vacation spots in China," Genie supplied helpfully. He conjured the illusion of a small Chinese village. "Great fishing, friendly - well, sort of friendly people, and their saki is excellent - you'd like it."

Aladdin chuckled. "Sorry, Genie, I'm not on vacation."

The illusion disappeared. Genie frowned. "Then what are you doing?"

"Trying to stop a war, more or less."

"In China? But their next war isn't due until-"

"The war's between a couple of counties called Tarisia and Zahiria," Aladdin explained.

"Then why go to China?"

"Because the Zahirians are after an artifact in China."

"Er, so who's side are we on?"

"The Tarisians."

Genie was about to ask what kind of artifact they were after when Princess Jasmine walked into the room. "Aladdin, I hear we're going to China," she said slyly. "When are we leaving."

"I told Safwan I'd be ready to leave this evening," Aladdin said. "I was just on my way to get ready. Carpet, are you ready?"

The carpet made motions to show that it was.

With that, Aladdin continued his mad dash through the room, Jasmine following behind. Genie, meanwhile, began another game of checkers. He'd beat that rug someday...







"My boy, where did you manage to get a flying carpet?" Safwan asked as he stepped upon the carpet's ornate surface.

"Actually, I just found him," Aladdin answered, sitting down behind the vizier. He had to scoot a little as Jasmine sat herself down on his lap and Abu climbed onto his shoulder.

"Found? Where?"

"Oh, just some old cave."

"The same cave in which you found your genie's lamp, no less?"

Aladdin waited before the carpet was aloft to respond. "How do you know so much?"

"Oh, the stories get around," Safwan answered. "Why, I've heard there's a merchant in Agrabah who'll try to tell anyone who cares to listen. Then he tries to sell merchandice that he claims is related to the story somehow. My, but this carpet travels fast! How fast is it, anyway?"

"Well, let me think... one time, Jasmine and I visited Egypt, Greece, and China all in one night. Not long after that, I travelled on it from somewhere in the Himalayas, I think. But I'm not sure how long that took."

"Amazing! I never knew such speeds were possible!"

A period of silence followed afterword. "What are we going to do with this device when we find it?" Aladdin asked presently.

"Capture it, destroy it, anything but let the Zahirians have it."

Aladdin nodded. "What's it look like?"

The vizier shrugged. "We don't know for sure."

"So, we're looking for something with no idea as to what it looks like."

"I think we'll know it when we see it."


Coming Soon: Chapter 2 - Those Magic Changes