With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Ngamer11]

Neither Starfire nor Arsenal are into men.

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I get the joke but he goes by Red Star now.

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July 2013
08:51 GMT

A handful of people -all human-looking- are moving around, offering water to those laying on blankets on the ground. It looks like the disease induces a fever, so they're not covered in anything-.

And I see one of the people doing the ministering cough, indicating that they're infected as well. Some have an oddly patchy rash, raised areas of skin that are red in colour. Coughing and wheezing indicate an airway obstruction but it doesn't sound phlegmy. One elderly woman who has people clasping her hands is shuddering-.

I transition forwards, taking a purple healing ray out of subspace as the people around me recoil in alarm.

"Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four, I'm here to help."

A.. slightly dazed-looking man stares at me. "What-?"

He sounds slightly hoarse but doesn't have any other overt symptoms.

"I'm an Orange Lantern. I was coming here for something else, but I'm happy to provide aid. This-" I hold up the healing ray. "-is a healing device from my homeworld. May I try it on your patient?"

"It-." He and the woman holding the elder's other hand exchange a glance. "It looks like a gun."

"It turns out that shape is very practical." I point it at my own face and pull the trigger. "See? Harmless."

The old woman gives out a pained moan. "Dying. Not going to-. Make it worse."

"Grandmother-." The man nods. "Do it."

I turn the healing ray around and fire it at her chest. My current patient looks like she was well-preserved. As a New God I've got no idea how old she actually is. Since she's a Primitive she might be her apparent physical age, or she could be thousands of years older.

Heh. I remember an advert I saw… Many years ago, about cultural differences. A couple of male American teenagers watched an attractive woman walk past in a bikini, and one commented that in Europe, going topless was common in some places. Practically the law. His companion found the idea rather appealing. Then the scene switched to a beach in Italy, where a couple of male Italian teenagers winced and averted their eyes as a rather rotund Italian woman stripped down. One said to the other; 'In America, they have to leave that on. It's the law.'

"Madam, is that any better?"

She blinks, struggling to focus. "A little."

"Is it any easier to breathe?"

"Lantern." Roy approaches me from behind, deploying his own healing ray. "Should I offer that?"

I move the ray's beam up to my patient's head as her breathing appears to ease. Purple healing rays can't cure diseases, but they're good at treating symptoms.

I glance at the woman on my right. "Ma'am? Could you please escort Arsenal to the most critical cases?"

She stares at me for a moment, then her gaze drops back to her elder.

"Or find someone who can?"

The old woman's eyes focus on her. "Do it, granddaughter. They can hardly make the situation worse."

"Are you well, grandmother?"

"Better than I was."

"If you could tell me where it hurts?"

"Everywhere. But my chest and head are the worst. Is this a cure?"

"No, just a palliative. I'm just treating the symptoms. I didn't realise that New Gods could get ill."

"We're not immortal. Just very tough."

Her granddaughter waves at a…. Yellow-skinned snakeman who.. is just about the only person here not in tribal dress. Which given that most of them have pale skin makes me feel a little awkward. "Sserpa, these aliens have medicine. Take Arsenal to the worst affected."

He slithers a little closer and makes a beckoning motion with his right hand. Roy nods and follows him towards a group who are coughing almost constantly.

"Head clearer?"

"Yes. Thank you."

I move the beam to her right arm-.

"Don't bother doing that. I don't need my arms or legs to live. Help someone closer to reuniting with the Source."

I turn to the man and play it over his head. "Sir, please let me know when things become clearer."

"I feel… Clear."

"Sir, if you could please try to be a little more helpful. Allowing yourself to deteriorate helps no one."

"No, no, dizziness is the first stage. I've got days before it gets bad. And it doesn't get better. I'll be fine for a few minutes and then I'll start losing focus again."

I move down to his throat. "What sort of provision do your people have for disease outbreaks?"

"The forests of New Genesis are a wonder of natural remedies. But nothing we know of works. We can't even relieve the symptoms!"

Odd. They should at least be able to make an anti-inflammatory.

"I don't suppose that you have anything like a microbiology laboratory?"

"No." He shrugs, clearly confused. "It shouldn't be necessary. This isn't a forest as you may have on your world. This is a wonder of the Old Gods; a natural cornucopia of foods and remedies."

Just not for whatever this is. Or perhaps there is a cure here, but the disease spread too fast. "Have you considered consulting Supertown?"

Three sets of eyes glower at me.

"I know that you don't have good relations, but are relations so bad that you're willing to die over it?"

The old woman scowls. "We have had no contact with anyone who has not been here before. No new plants or animals have been sighted. Supertown is the one place this may have come from."

"I doubt that they care enough about you-" I turn off the beam, getting a nod of gratitude from the man. "-to create a disease to target you, especially as it could infect them as well. Next most urgent?"

He stands, beckoning me to follow him. "This way. And there is no one else that it could have been."

I follow him across the camp towards a primitive looking building. "Apokolips? Bugs?"

"The bugs have even less ability to create something like this than we do. And if Apokolips has such a disease then they would use it on Supertown before us. And we keep watch for their Boom Tubes."

"Ships?"

"None have landed. And if they have, we have not met their crew."

"Alright. I'm not a physician or virologist, but I'll do what I can to help. Who do you have in-?" I step in after him, seeing…

Of course. The children wouldn't be immune, would they?

 

[Darko]

sounds slightly horse but doesn't have

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"hoarse"

able to make anti-inflammatory.

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"inflammatory medicine"

This isn't a forest as you may have on your world. This is a wonder of the Old Gods; a natural cornucopia of foods and remedies."

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True, practically every plant could be magical.

And if Apokolips has such a disease then they would use it on Supertown before us.

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Unless they want to test it out on you.

 

[Vaermina]

23rd July 2013
08:51 GMT

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You forgot to add a part where he scans them with his ring and can't detect any disease.

 

[Zig]

I get the joke but he goes by Red Star now.

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I don' t believe that happened in this fic since no one else is using Starfire like in mainline DC

 

[Mr Zoat]

"hoarse"
"inflammatory medicine"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Wivk]

You forgot to add a part where he scans them with his ring and can't detect any disease.

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Yeah seems like aiming the ring at them and needing them to not be sick really hard would be the go to solution after the purple healing cannon.

 

[Duke Long]

I transition forwards, taking a purple healing ray out of subspace as the people around me recoil in alarm.

"Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four, I'm here to help."

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It shouldn't be surprising, but it's sweet to see him so ready to help people he is so contemptuous of.

I turn the man and play it over his head. "Sir, please let me know when things become clearer."

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'to the'?

"I doubt that they care enough about you-" I turn off the beam, getting a nod of gratitude from the man. "-to create a disease to target you, especially as if could infect them as well. Next most urgent?"

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'it'

If they're immortal they probably don't have many children, right? Or do they have high mortality rates from predation/lots of children don't attain New Godhood?

 

[Darko]

You forgot to add a part where he scans them with his ring and can't detect any disease.

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Why did you write this?

Zoat has you on Ignore so he wouldn't see it.

And New Gods tend to be resistant to power rings, so his ring would not be that useful.

And even if he didn't scan them he can very easily see that they're not okay.

Granted, you don't actually read the story so it's understandable that you'd miss that part.

Yeah seems like aiming the ring at them and needing them to not be sick really hard would be the go to solution after the purple healing cannon.

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As I said, New Gods aren't that easy to manipulate with a ring, and anything that can harm them would probably be resistant to it, but a purple ray is basically similar New God tech, so it may actually help.

 

[jaelin910]

"I doubt that they care enough about you-" I turn off the beam, getting a nod of gratitude from the man. "-to create a disease to target you, especially as if could infect them as well. Next most urgent?"

He stands, beckoning me to follow him. "This way. And there is no one else that it could have been."

I follow him across the camp towards a primitive looking building. "Apokolips? Bugs?"

"The bugs have even less ability to create something like this than we do. And if Apokolips has such a disease then they would use it on Supertown before us. And we keep watch for their Boom Tubes."

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As things stand, they're all dying, right? So what's the worst that can happen? Either they die, or they die and also the people of supertown laugh at them for trying to ask their enemies for help.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

23rd July 2013
08:51 GMT

A handful of people -all human-looking- are moving around, offering water to those laying on blankets on the ground. It looks like the disease induces a fever, so they're not covered in anything-.

And I see one of the people doing the ministering cough, indicating that they're infected as well. Some have an oddly patchy rash, raised areas of skin that are red in colour. Coughing and wheezing indicate an airway obstruction but it doesn't sound phlegmy. One elderly woman who has people clasping her hands is shuddering-.

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A plague of some sort, then. Arsenal had better keep his armour sealed tight if he doesn't want to catch it, because anything strong enough to make a New God this sick isn't going to be troubled by a human immune system. ...Unless it can bypass all of his defences...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I transition forwards, taking a purple healing ray out of subspace as the people around me recoil in alarm.

"Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four, I'm here to help."

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...I wonder, have people ever heard that spiel and assumed his name was Too-Ate-Wan-Foor? I mean, the Ring is probably translating in such a way that it's clearly a badge number equivalent, but still...

A.. slightly dazed-looking man stares at me. "What-?"

He sounds slightly horse but doesn't have any other overt symptoms.

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Lightly affected, or simply more recently infected, then. So it's progressive. How long ago did this start, I wonder?

"I'm an Orange Lantern. I was coming here for something else, but I'm happy to provide aid. This-" I hold up the healing ray. "-is a healing device from my homeworld. May I try it on your patient?"

"It-." He and the woman holding the elder's other hand exchange a glance. "It looks like a gun."

"It turns out that shape is very practical." I point it at my own face and pull the trigger. "See? Harmless."

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Yeah, especially guns that follow the curve of the hand naturally. Ones that make aiming as natural as pointing your index finger, basically. There's a reason 'bent stick' is such an iconic shape for pistols...

The old woman gives out a pained moan. "Dying. Not going to-. Make it worse."

"Grandmother-." The man nods. "Do it."

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Better a quick death and hopefully painless, than this, eh?

I turn the healing ray around and fire it at her chest. My current patient looks like she was well-preserved. As a New God I've got no idea how old she actually is. Since she's a Primitive she might be her apparent physical age, or she could be thousands of years older.

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And her physical appearance is no indicator of her constitution, either.

Heh. I remember an advert I saw… Many years ago, about cultural differences. A couple of male American teenagers watched an attractive woman walk past in a bikini, and one commented that in Europe, going topless was common in some places. Practically the law. His companion found the idea rather appealing. Then the scene switched to a beach in Italy, where a couple of male Italian teenagers winced and averted their eyes as a rather rotund Italian woman stripped down. One said to the other; 'In America, they have to leave that on. It's the law.'

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There are times when fan service becomes fan disservice, yes. And few people are going to look that great at their age and sick.

"Madam, is that any better?"

She blinks, struggling to focus. "A little."

"Is it any easier to breathe?"

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I assume the gun is breaking down built-up mucus in her lungs, a common result of respiratory infections.

"Lantern." Roy approaches me from behind, deploying his own healing ray. "Should I offer that?"

I move the ray's beam up to my patient's head as her breathing appears to ease. Purple healing rays can't cure diseases, but they're good at treating symptoms.

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Two guns are better than one, especially if the locals are reluctant to use any spares they might have themselves.

I glance at the woman on my right. "Ma'am? Could you please escort Arsenal to the most critical cases?"

She stares at me for a moment, then her gaze drops back to her elder.

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Hesitant because he's an outsider, I see. Or is it just that the lady is the most critical who's still alive...

"Or find someone who can?"

The old woman's eyes focus on her. "Do it, granddaughter. They can hardly make the situation worse."

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She already sounds a lot better, for sure. At least until her lungs fill up again.

"Are you well, grandmother?"

"Better than I was."

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In other words, not feeling the hand of the Source reaching out for her, or facing a chat with the Black Racer just yet.

"If you could tell me where it hurts?"

"Everywhere. But my chest and head are the worst. Is this a cure?"

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Huh. Like some sort of super-flu. Surely that can't be all it is, if they're this badly hit.

"No, just a palliative. I'm just treating the symptoms. I didn't realise that New Gods could get ill."

"We're not immortal. Just very tough."

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In gaming terms, this thing has a save DC way higher than they can easily roll. Suspicious, but not impossible.

Her granddaughter waves at a…. Yellow-skinned snakeman who.. is just about the only person here not in tribal dress. Which given that most of them have pale skin makes me feel a little awkward. "Sserpa, these aliens have medicine. Take Arsenal to the worst affected."

He slithers a little closer and makes a beckoning motion with his right hand. Roy nods and follows him towards a group who are coughing almost constantly.

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As in full-on lamiaform? Some New Gods are strange expressions of the Source's will, it seems.

"Head clearer?"

"Yes. Thank you."

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I bet her voice even sounds clearer. Not out of the woods yet, though.

I move the beam to her right arm-.

"Don't bother doing that. I don't need my arms or legs to live. Help someone closer to reuniting with the Source."

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Certainly realistic about her condition, though.

I turn the man and play it over his head. "Sir, please let me know when things become clearer."

"I feel… Clear."

"Sir, if you could please try to be a little more helpful. Allowing yourself to deteriorate helps no one."

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More likely he's in better shape. Either healthier in general or at least a much stronger constitution. I doubt whatever's affecting them didn't hit them all at once.

"No, no, dizziness is the first stage. I've got days before it gets bad. And it doesn't get better. I'll be fine for a few minutes and then I'll start losing focus again."

I move down to his throat. "What sort of provision do your people have for disease outbreaks?"

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No doubt avoiding anything more outright technological, for a start. But just because they live without technology doesn't mean they live without knowledge.

"The forests of New Genesis are a wonder of natural remedies. But nothing we know of works. We can't even relieve the symptoms!"

Odd. They should at least be able to make anti-inflammatory.

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Sounds more and more like an alien intrusion. And since they'd have divine immune systems, nothing less than a divine illness would affect them... Or a super-powered one...

"I don't suppose that you have anything like a microbiology laboratory?"

"No." He shrugs, clearly confused. "It shouldn't be necessary. This isn't a forest as you may have on your world. This is a wonder of the Old Gods; a natural cornucopia of foods and remedies."

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BE that as it may, if someone or something unleashed this against you, it's not unreasonable that they took precautions to make it proof against any tincture or potion you could make.

Just not for whatever this is. Or perhaps there is a cure here, but the disease spread too fast. "Have you considered consulting Supertown?"

Three sets of eyes glower at me.

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I'd say that's a hard 'No', both to the question and any suggestion of asking for help.

"I know that you don't have good relations, but are relations so bad that you're willing to die over it?"

The old woman scowls. "We have had no contact with anyone who has not been here before. No new plants or animals have been sighted. Supertown is the one place this may have come from."

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Just because no-one saw anything, doesn't mean it didn't exist somehow. Even dumping a little dose of killer microbes in their water supply through a Hush Tube would do the job.

"I doubt that they care enough about you-" I turn off the beam, getting a nod of gratitude from the man. "-to create a disease to target you, especially as if could infect them as well. Next most urgent?"

He stands, beckoning me to follow him. "This way. And there is no one else that it could have been."

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Don't be quick to jump to conclusions, friend. Sometimes that can land you on shaky ground.

I follow him across the camp towards a primitive looking building. "Apokolips? Bugs?"

"The bugs have even less ability to create something like this than we do. And if Apokolips has such a disease then they would use it on Supertown before us. And we keep watch for their Boom Tubes."

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If they wanted to test a weapon without giving Supertown warning, they might have. Knowing that neither Primitives nor Supertowners would speak to each other would make it likely no word would be passed...

"Ships?"

"None have landed. And if they have, we have not met their crew."

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Again, there's options for long-range deployment...

"Alright. I'm not a physician or virologist, but I'll do what I can to help. Who do you have in-?" I step in after him, seeing…

Of course. The children wouldn't be immune, would they?

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Oh, that just makes this so much worse.

This could be a grim few hours of treatment. And spending time working here means not investigating the cause or source of the illness. Still, better to alleviate suffering than to ignore it. Let's just hope whatever it is doesn't jump species barriers, or Roy could end up very sick (OL being soundly protected by environment field... And halfway to New God Equivalent anyway.)

 

[Kurai]

Back to serious mode, I see . . .

A disease - nothing and no one springs immediately to mind, but Fourth World stuff was never my strong suit. Unexpected and intriguing, though. Thank you for your efforts!

 

[Darko]

things stand, they're all dying, right

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Seems that way.

So what's the worst that can happen

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They all die and New Genesis will have a god-killing disease on it.

Either they die, or they die and also the people of supertown laugh at them for trying to ask their enemies for help.

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What are you talking about?

Paul and Arsenal aren't their enemies.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Yeah seems like aiming the ring at them and needing them to not be sick really hard would be the go to solution after the purple healing cannon.

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Purple healings rays have never had an adverse reaction to anyone. The orange light on the other hand can very easily have adverse effects, and New Gods can have rather strange physiologies and energy interactions.

It shouldn't be surprising, but it's sweet to see him so ready to help people he is so contemptuous of.

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If you're not prepared to help people you hod in contempt, you're probably not going to stay a superhero for very long.

'to the'?
'it'

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Thank you, corrected.

If they're immortal they probably don't have many children, right? Or do they have high mortality rates from predation/lots of children don't attain New Godhood?

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It's probably something like that.

 

[Wivk]

Fair enough

 

[Signaller]

The only thing we've previously been told affects New Gods is Radion, in the form of energy weapons. But what is it? E.g. is it a specific frequency of energy, or an element that could be aerosolised?

 

[Chaoswind]

Thank you, corrected.

That would depend on kryptonite's attenuation coefficient, and since kryptonite is a radiation source I imagine that it actually gives them a mild boost.

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So they get hurt and are allergic to most "non radioactive" elements with a high atomic number IE gold, tungsten, lead, etc?

I don' t believe that happened in this fic since no one else is using Starfire like in mainline DC

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It was mentioned in the fic that the name starfire polled badly in Russian social media or something similar, so the director changed it to Red Star.

Paul even made an internal comment about it in the fic, I think it was pre Sheeda.

 

[Mr Zoat]

So they get hurt and are allergic to most "non radioactive" elements with a high atomic number IE gold, tungsten, lead, etc?

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Lead, definitely. Other things, probably. It won't come up for a while, if at all. I just needed a vagulely plausible reason for why lead was a problem.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Purple healings rays have never had an adverse reaction to anyone. The orange light on the other hand can very easily have adverse effects, and New Gods can have rather strange physiologies and energy interactions.

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Out of morbid curiosity, effects like what?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Out of morbid curiosity, effects like what?

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Going mad with avarice, turning into a construct, the Ophidian ingesting chunks of our soul...

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Spoiler: To Cure Your Ills, Try New, Blue, Zinthos Today!

View: https://youtu.be/9o7OxqhZYYk

 

[Brainwasher-Boy]

A thought just occurred to me: Paul's long term plan is to just solve problems Forever, but as a Hellenist, is he even allowed to imagine that Sisyphus is happy? That feels like blasphemy.

 

[Mr Zoat]

A thought just occurred to me: Paul's long term plan is to just solve problems Forever, but as a Hellenist, is he even allowed to imagine that Sisyphus is happy? That feels like blasphemy.

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdCUy1oFlso

With Zeus deposed and Hephaestaean in charge, there's nothing stopping Hades decreeing that he's served his time.

 

[RoninSword]

To my recollection Hades had long since released all those from the punishment fields well before Paul got involved at all.

 

[Ardy]

To my recollection Hades had long since released all those from the punishment fields well before Paul got involved at all.

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He didn't have the authority to release those who were put there by Zeus until he was overthrown

 

[Darko]

He didn't have the authority to release those who were put there by Zeus until he was overthrown

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I think Zeus just ordered people he disliked to be put into Tartarus, but the punishment fields were empty.

 

[Bolo]

But most likely he won't because he's super super busy with a massive back log of tons of stuff. I doubt its on his radar unless someone brings it up.

 

[RichardWhereat]

Could a pomegranate seeds from the tree of knowledge give a psychopath, compassion as it did Blaze?

 

[Ardy]

Could a pomegranate seeds from the tree of knowledge give a psychopath, compassion as it did Blaze?

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Is the psychopath human? I'm not sure if it works on aliens.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th August 2000
09:55 GMT

Senior Agent Blaze glances back at me as we fly over Northern Ireland, a mild frown on her face.

"Sir?"

"Oi'm not used to being paired up with someone else who can fly."

I nod. "As far as I know, it's just the two of us. May I ask you a question?"

"You just did. But you can ask another too."

"Do you want to visit the banshee homeworld?"

She thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "Can't say I really thought about it. Even if Queen Mab was willin' t' get everyone together just to open a portal, if would be one way. And oi wouldn't know anyone there."

"Ah. No. Since Sir Percival was able to give me the relevant star charts, I'm perfectly capable of flying there myself. It's not much more effort to take passengers. Since Earth's banshees are at peace, I was thinking of offering… I.. don't know how to phrase it… Advertising? Amongst the people of your homeworld for additional colonists. A few males, for example."

"We don't need 'em. Humans work perfectly well for siring the wee ones. Why'd you think Bláthnaid was showin' an interest in yew?"

"I thought she was trying to establish dominance. Do… Most banshees on Earth have human fathers, then?"

"Some o' the younger ones. Mab has a banshee sire. Oi never asked the others."

"You?"

She shrugs indifferently. "My mother never said. I would have said 'yes' 'til I found out who Sh'rain's sire was. Now oi jus' don't know."

I'd be fascinated to see the effect on her D.N.A.. Comics and Star Trek have encouraged me to assume that the result of a fertile human-alien pairing would be a hybrid, but I haven't seen any real difference between Senior Agent Blaze and the elder banshees. I suppose it could be more like asari, where the partner is used to induce parthenogenesis. Or I suppose that banshee could be altered humans themselves, with their exotic abilities engineered into their bodies by a smart virus… So it wouldn't matter whether one or both parents were banshees because the foetus would be infected either way.

Unfortunately, reading a person's D.N.A. with a green power ring is a bit more difficult than that, so…

"Have you considered having your genetic code analysed? Obviously, nowhere on Earth has any records of male banshee, but if your father was human we could narrow down which part of the world he came from."

She frowns. "Oi hardly t'ink that matters."

"Well, it could be a little awkward if it turns out that he was one of Senior Agent Logan's antecedents."

"That doesn't seem loikly. We didn't leave Ireland all that much."

"The Irish Potato Famine was a hundred and fifty years ago, and that caused a significant wave to emigration from Ireland to America. The name 'Logan' is Gaelic in-."

"Oi know it's Gaelic." She rolls her eyes at me. "My mother didn't have me a hundred and fifty years ago."

"That statement could be taken two ways, sir."

"If oi'm not tellin' Nick me age I'll certainly not tell the likes o'you."

"Sir, according to him, Sir Percival is pushing a billion. All the centuries he's been on Earth are the proportional equivalent of me spending an hour at a café. And if Her Majesty doesn't mind that, I doubt that you've got anything to worry about."

"Oi'm not worried. It jus' shouldn't matter."

"If you're hiding it, then it clearly matters."

"Oh? Want to know how old Bláthnaid is, do yeh?"

"Sir, we haven't even been on one date yet. You and Senior Agent Logan have been together for far longer. Though I admit, I am curious as to whether she'll duck the question in the way that you do."

Her eyes narrow. "Oi t'ink oi loiked yew better when you talked with yer hands."

I smile, tap both index fingers against my chest and then tap the tips against each other.

"Psh."

And there's the coast, and… Senior Agent Blaze is turning off and descending towards… Yes, there it is. The circle of stones is clearly broken, but I can see the faint glow as Sh'rain and her attendant conduct their repairs, gradually reforming the stone and… Whatever else their magic requires. Ahead of me, Senior Agent Blaze takes a moment to observe their progress and then changes direction from towards them to straight down.

"Best not surprise them. That's delicate work, so it is."

I descend, landing lightly on the ground alongside her. "Is there any significance to this location?"

"Oi don't t'ink so. But standing stones make the land feel… Better."

"Feel better to banshees, or is there a tangible effect on plants and animals?"

"Why would it matter?"

I shrug. "I was just thinking that integrating banshees into Irish society would be easier if there was something your people could offer in trade."

She folds her arms across her chest. "Loik all those vampires you convinced t' join the Alliance?"

"Ah-. The principle's the same, but I'm not sure that would be safe for banshee, considering…" Hm. "Though I suppose that sticking standing stones in isolated places might make keeping in contact with the more isolated extraterrestrial populations easier. Particularly those who aren't willing to trust the Alliance yet."

"Maybe they're happy where they are."

I nod. "They might be, but banshees used to live in a far wider variety of places. You can't be the only one interested in the rest of the world."

She snorts. "I t'ink yew'll find oi can."

"So I should take dinner to Bláthnaid?"

She hesitates, carefully watching the build team as the rock repairs itself faster and faster as they near completion. "Y'could try takin' her to a cabin in the woods. A restaurant in a town's a bit o'a risk."

"How about an isolated service station along a motorway? It's not exactly fine dining, but it would be a change of pace for her."

She gives me a sidelong glance, but looks slightly amused. "Feelin' cheap, are ye?"

"No, just… Like you said, I don't want to overwhelm her, either with industry or strangeness."

"Oi'd say you've got.. five seconds."

"Huh?"

"Four seconds!"

Hair's up eyes glowing fuck! I armour up, grab her and fly towards the standing stones!

Sh'rain and her assistances have their hair up too, though they look a bit more functional. They raise their hands for a moment before they confirm who I am and lower them again.

"Three seconds!"

Grab them-

"What'd'yeh t'ink yer doing!"

"Two seconds!"

-armoured globe and head upwards-

"One second!"

-as a big robot appears, crouched over the standing stones.