Daniel leaned back against the bulkhead of the holding cell, smoothing the folded page of the London Times and looked down at the crossword revealed before him.

He tapped his pen against his bottom lip, then smirked as the answer to ten across came to him.

"North African Theocratic Cow, six letters… Third letter being a T… Simple!" he muttered, scribbling away with the pen.

"H-A-T-H-O-R" Daniel transferred his pen into the other hand as he reached down to pick up his steaming mug of coffee from beside him.

"Pretty apt really in the parlance of the English. She was a real Cow," Daniel mumbled, sipping carefully from the hot mug.

It was amazing how useful the formula was for producing essential supplies like coffee and exceedingly good when it came to getting a copy of tomorrow’s paper. Maybe when he’d finished the crossword he might get around to reading the rest of the paper.

Sipping the coffee and carefully trying not to burn himself, Daniel glanced around the cell and wondered why it always seemed to be him that got captured by the Go’auld.

At least this time the Go’auld in question wasn’t a God of the Underworld like Sokar had been. It made a change to come face to face with a God of War.

But this time was different; Montu thought he’d captured a mostly harmless scholar, what he didn’t know was going to cause him no end of trouble.

This mouse had grown an impressive set of fangs and wasn’t going to wait around to be rescued by the military.

The thud of marching feet could be heard faintly through the door and they came to a halt outside the cell.

Daniel decided to leave any ‘spell’ to providence and see what would inspire him when he was face to face with the Go’auld.

He smiled as he remembered the fun he’d had in the Briefing Room with ‘that’ spell… Their reactions had been worth every moment of aggravation since that day.

Jack O’Neill felt the need for hysterics start to fade as he looked around the table and saw startled expressions on the faces of everyone sitting there.

He came to the conclusion that Teal’c had been on Earth too long. He was starting to show signs of Americanisation as his comment had shown. The urge to look around the room hit him again, just to make sure there was no one else standing behind him.

"Yeah, ‘Oh Crap!’ is the right comment for the entire situation," he said, fiddling with the pen in front of him. He perked up as an idea hit him. "Uh Carter, do you think if we break out the T.E.R’s they might just spot this thing?"

"Yes, sir, the Trans-Phase Eradication Rods worked with the Reetou and again with Nirrti, so there is a possibility they might work this time as well," Sam said thoughtfully.

"Well, General, it looks like we have part of a plan; find the giggle and we find our culprit!" O’Neill commented, eager at the prospect of action.

"Err, Jack, so far there’s only been good results," Daniel said, trying to make a point and digging his pen into the paper anxiously.

"So…?" Jack queried.

"Yes, please explain, Dr. Jackson?" Hammond asked authoritatively.

"Well, so far the results of the Stargate shrinking seems to be beneficial in that we have a lot more down time, therefore we’ll be more alert and rested when we go back through the Gate," Daniel explained.

"There can’t be any advantages to being freaked out by our snacks!" Jack grumbled.

"There’s a big advantage there too, Jack," Daniel enthused.

"Explain?" Hammond commanded.

"Well, think of the weight of the packs we carry off world. If we only had to carry a small amount of food and drink we could actually carry fresh food instead of MRE’s." Daniel said, almost drooling at the prospect.

"But, that’s not helping us get the last laugh on our little problem, is it?" Jack complained, feeling the need to go out and blow something up.

"No, Jack, it isn’t, but there’s also no evidence that the noise we heard had anything to do with our problems!" Daniel said, trying to keep an innocent from getting injured.

"Oh, God! Two of them!!" Jack muttered as the urge to blow things up drained from him, just leaving him feeling cornered.

"Explain, O’Neill," Teal’c said, a rising eyebrow adding emphasis to his question.

"Well, if Daniel’s right and the Invisible Giggler didn’t do anything, that means there’s something else around here that’s doing these things!" O’Neill said, glaring at the archaeologist sitting opposite him.

Daniel rubbed his eyes with his left hand, feeling a headache start up as he tried to think of a way out of his situation. The sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach told him that the game was up and if he didn’t want someone or something else blamed for his mischief, he’d better come clean.

"Okay, you want to know what’s doing all this," he said, leaping to his feet waving his arms in the air. "Well, it was me causing all the problems. I used a piece of alien technology to shrink the Gate and mutate all the food in the Mountain." Daniel leaned forward with his hands flat on the table and glared into Jack’s eyes, trying to conceal a hint of mischief behind mock indignation.

Jack leaned forward to match Daniel’s stance over the table. "And what’s this piece of alien technology called?" he said, being his usual sarcastic self.

Daniel glanced down at his pen, brought the formula into the front of his mind and turned it into a small frog. "Magic!"

The Trainee Mage stood back from the table and studied the stunned faces around him. Daniel stepped back to lean against the glass partition between the briefing room and the Gate room, the pole axed expressions warming the depths of his heart.

Jack looked down at the little green frog that was peering up at him and, trying to control the new twitch in his right eye, looked up at Daniel. "This still doesn’t find us the invisible giggle!"

"Level 26 clear!" could be heard from the radio. The voice echoed down the corridor as SG1 swept into the Briefing Room. This was the last place to be checked for the mysterious giggler. They pointed the T.E.R.'s towards the corner of the Briefing Room and a pair of small blue eyes appeared floating in mid air.

"It's a vatch…" Jack said in disbelief, watching the giggling vatch blink out of existence.

"O’Neill, what is this ‘Vatch’ you speak of?" Teal’c’s voice rumbled almost next to his ear, making Jack jump with surprise.

"Well, according to the book a vatch is a sentient energy field with a warped sense of humour," O’Neill answered, checking the room with the T.E.R. to try to spot the now missing vatch.

The rest of the team turned to look at O'Neill in awe.

"OK, so I read 'The Witches of Karres' when I was a kid! So what?!!" Jack announced defiantly.

Daniel studied O’Neill thoughtfully, wondering how an author who’d died nearly twenty years before could come so near the truth.

Carter swept the T.E.R. around the briefing room, into the corners and under the table just in case the phantom giggler had friends.

Hammond shook his head at their antics and leaned back into his chair to watch his number one team while he pondered the possibilities of a trainee Mage at the SGC.

Daniel looked up from where he sat leaning against the wall of his cell at the noisy entrance of Montu’s First Prime and a pair of Jaffa warriors. He folded his newspaper carefully, finished his coffee and set both items down on the floor beside him.

The First Prime of the War God stepped forward and kicked Daniel’s outstretched legs. "Rise! Your God commands your presence," the Jaffa ordered.

Daniel studied the First Prime then looked over at the Jaffa standing just inside the doorway. Sighing, he shook his head and climbed to his feet. Bending down he picked up the newspaper and the now empty mug and straightened up. Daniel tucked the paper under one arm and clutched the mug in his other hand as he ambled toward the door.

"Well, don’t just stand there, let’s not keep the false god waiting," Daniel muttered under his breath, walking past the Jaffa warriors and into the corridor.

The thud of armoured feet echoed through the pel’tac as the First Prime and the two Jaffa on either side of Daniel swept through the entranceway into the forbidding room.

Seated on an ornate throne was a figure dressed in Egyptian style robes of black and gold. The Go’auld’s eye’s flashed as he looked up at Daniel and his guards. "Kneel, before your God!" The First Prime cried out, sweeping his staff weapon into the backs of Daniel’s knees.

Daniel staggered as the impact unlocked his knees, but he kept his balance and saved himself from landing with some force on the ground.

"I do wish you wouldn’t do that," Daniel said glaring at the Jaffa, then removed the newspaper from under his arm and held both it and the mug in one hand as he squinted at a point in mid air and thought of the formula. The hand holding the paper and mug suddenly thrust forward and vanished up to his elbow into nothingness, then it withdrew back towards his body leaving the paper and mug behind.

Daniel hoped nobody went into his office and noticed the date on the paper on his desk before he could get back and hide it. There was no way he was going to leave a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper in the hands of the Go’auld; there was no telling what they’d do with it.

The Jaffa warriors shrank back against the walls; icy fingers of fear sending chills down their backbones.

"Heka!!" Montu’s General cried out in fear. He could face the Jaffa of other Gods without flinching, but the unknown could rob anyone of courage.

Daniel smiled as he heard the word ‘heka’ and mentally translated it into English. "Yeah, that’s right. It’s magic"

The Go’auld’s eyes flashed as the War God rose to his feet and approached Daniel, raising his hand device as he came. "You will tell us of this magic or we will have you destroyed," Montu ordered, the sight of the smiling Tau’ri starting to unnerve him.

"In the words’ of one of my colleagues, ‘Ya think’?!" Daniel smirked as he thought rapidly.

"Seize him," Montu ordered, waving his warriors’ forward.

The Jaffa warriors reluctantly shuffled forward toward the suddenly very dangerous Tau’ri scholar.

Daniel flicked his fingers over towards the Jaffa and heard faint moans of horror as they froze into position.

The archaeologist looked into Montu’s eyes. He searched deep within the host’s body to find the original owner and then gave the Go’auld an evil grin.

"You’re going to be hopping mad about this, but who cares? Not me!" Daniel said concentrating hard on what he wanted the formula to do this time.

He reached out a hand and a fully-grown symbiote appeared out of thin air and writhed in his grip. No sooner had it appeared than it disappeared again and a small green frog suddenly sat on the palm of his hand. "Yep, I bet you’re really hopping mad about this!" Daniel said, walking forward to put the little frog on the seat of the throne.

Daniel glanced down towards the unconscious body of the host that lay at his feet.

"I think we’re going to make a short diversion to Abydos. I’m sure my father-in-law, Kasuf, will welcome you to his village if I ask him. You will feel right at home there," Daniel said softly to himself. He glanced towards the frozen First Prime and his men, grinned mischievously, and spoke to the sweating warriors. "You’ll be free to move when I’ve left the ship. I’m sure I’ve left you plenty to think about, you have to be so careful when you worship false gods," he said cheerfully.

Daniel then reached down and pulled the still unconscious man up in to a fireman’s carry. The Jaffa could only watch as the Magician flickered then faded away, until there was only a wisp of mist winding through the air.

The End (…so far!)