Chapter One

BtVs by Whedon & M.E.; Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain belong to Steven Spielberg and the WB

Dedicated to CousinMary. She's giving us Tears in Our Cheerios and (so far) has asked for only one Power-Switching Challenge in return. - Glad to take her up on it. :)


12/25/06 Rewrote entire fic in past-tense. ;)


A very cute box of baby wipes wandered into the Magic Box one day.

No... That's not right.

The cardboard box was upside-down and, from the two voices coming from underneath, probably wasn't moving under its own power.

Unless it did impressions.


"Watch it, Pinky! That's the second time you've nearly touched the artifact!"

"But Brain! I want to be the evil genius for a while. What does it do again?"

The deeper voice released a very put upon sigh. "As you just said, Pinky, it switches the powers of any two beings who touch it. We have come here because I want to steal the healing factor and speed of the one human who has the most acceptable rate of powers per lack of restrictions. The Slayer."

"But that's a female-only line... Zoinks, you aren't-"

"No, Brain. This will allow me to take her powers directly, working around even that little restriction."

Anya wandered by, going about her business in the shop she ran.

"Why do you want to do that, Brain?"

"To win the blasted contest and rule our world, Pinky."

"And why am I here?"

He sighed again. "Comic relief."

Anya wandered back and actually paid attention to the cute cardboard box.

"Please, oh please, oh please!"

"No!"

"C'mon, now, Brain," shouted the wheedling member of the pair. "Just one little rub?"

The suddenly terrified Anya jumped forward and grabbed the box before it could scamper away.

There was nothing underneath, so she flipped it over.

There were two little white mice on bicycles strapped to the inside of the box through a complex harness of rubber bands. She'd just turned them on their backs and they didn't look too happy about it.


"Oh, good," Anya sighed, relieved. "I was afraid you were... You wouldn't happen to be rabbits in disguise, would you?"

"I don't know. Brain, are we?"

"No, Pinky. You'd have noticed by now. And you, whoever you are, put us down now!"

"Oh, right," said Anya, rolling her eyes. "Like I'm about to let two rodents run around a magic shop without some very serious truth and anti-gnawing spells in place. It'd be different if you'd come in as customers, but no, you had to be sneaky about it."

"My dear," Brain began, in a polite drawl. "With all due respect... Bugger off! We're looking for the Slayer and you, whoever you are, are not her!"

"I don't think so," she said, turning the box at angle to get a better look at the shiny thing strapped to the back of the shorter mouse. "What do you have here?"

"No!" he yelled in vain. "Don't touch the-"