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

Someguy Somewhere · Dec 16, 2024

I'd say a Mk 2 Amazo?

The mohawk, lack of appropriate clothing, automation like response, along with the speed to keep up with blitzen and eye lasers would put it in that catagory of power. Augmented with anti scry wards due to well....OL pretty much.

Mr Zoat · Dec 16, 2024

1st May 2013
15:23 GMT -5

I drop a kinetic barrier in his path just in time, the shield stressing but holding as whoever-this-is slams into it shoulder first. Two rapid punches do nothing.

"Who are you? This is a mothballed site. You shouldn't-"

His eyes glow for a moment, and-. And I throw out another kinetic barrier generator as the first one explodes. This time he doesn't just charge, but rather advances slowly, watching both of us.

"-be here. Who authorised you?"

"If you don't know, then you're not authorised to know."

"Alright, what do you want from us? We can just leave."

"I'm going to detain you until a Peace Agent can decide what to do with you."

"Oh. Okay, that's fine. We're happy to wait here."

He stops. "Drop your weapons and submit to being manacled."

"You aren't carrying manacles."

His eyes glow, and there's a crackle-explosion from the bench near the cylinder. That's.. a novel form of teleportation, and I'm stuck getting indirect readings so I can't tell exactly what it is. And.. there are the manacles. Big, bulky, arm, leg and neck affairs with-.

"Is that an explosive charge?"

"Yes."

Designed to rapidly decapitate the subject. And… Oh, that's a shaped charge, too. So obliterate their heart and a large part of their chest.

"I'm fairly sure that those aren't licensed for use in this state, against any target."

"That isn't my concern. Submit, or be beaten into submission."

"Blitzen, did you ever learn to steal a target's momentum."

"No? Are we fighting, or-?"

"Talk to Max Mercury or Kid Flash about it when this is over."

I can easily hide my rings from discovery and drop convincing fakes, and neutralise the explosive and tear through the chains. But I don't have a ready way to communicate that to Blitzen, and I can see that she hasn't dropped back to a neutral mindset after my slight against her professionalism earlier. Plus, she's not used to fighting people who aren't trying to kill her.

I return my full attention to… "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"My name is classified. Surrender now."

"Right, but I need to know what to call you, even if it's just-."

His eyes glow-

I create a construct vertigo inducer and a cold gun-

-the kinetic barrier projector explodes, whatever his name is surging forwards-

-and transmute more super-hard-freezing gel, firing-

-towards us. Johanna counter-charges, coming in from his side and speed-punching him in the liver-

-to encase his head.

-at the same time and the dizziness and shock hit. He manages to sort of throw himself at me anyway, but a construct crash mat absorbs his momentum and makes him fall to the floor.

Johanna has the manacles on him a moment later, and I attach my own around them.

He's glaring at us through the frozen gel. He's probably strong enough to shatter it, but he can't move enough to grip it or strike it.

I coat the rest of him in frozen gel, then bore an air hole through it for him.

"So what did we learn?"

"Nothing of any significance. Unless…"

An x-ionised scalpel to his right forefinger gets me a drop of blood, and…

"He's not on any files. Not a Danner enhancile, so at least this is a new phenomenon. I think it's… Cybernetic, maybe?"

"He doesn't look mechanical."

"No. Microbots. Or… Modified cells? There are things in here that clearly aren't natural, and at a certain point 'organic' and 'inorganic' sort of blur together. I'm not sure what it does -other than what we saw- and… I think it receives broadcast energy?"

"What broadcast energy?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not even sure that's what it does. This really isn't my field."

"Is it infectious?"

"No. Quite the opposite; this sample is trying to self-destruct. I'd guess that he had an emitter of some sort in his body." I shake my head-. Then remember that I'm still inside my heavy armour and no one can see me do that. Back to normal armour. "I'm going to need to send an image of it to someone a lot more intelligent than me."

Dr. Metcalf, maybe? He should at least be able to work out what it does.

"Does he even have anything to do with Anarky?"

"Don't know. Ah…" I force construct filaments through the frozen gel and attach them to his skin. "Okay, it looks like the whatever's messing up my scanner doesn't do anything about direct contact. So I should just be able to make him want to talk to us."

I look-.

"What the f-? Flip?"

"What?"

"His desire network has been pruned right now. I'm not sure that he even has desires for me to redirect. I-. This is messed up."

"Do you think that something we did made him come and look?"

"Ah… Since he had super speed-."

"No. That was not super speed. That was very fast reflexes. The human body can move faster than the human brain. Trust me: at super speed the difference is obvious."

"In that case he must have been close. Probably in the building. So-."

"Check his pockets." I frown and she shrugs. "Either he has his keys with him or his door is unlocked."

I suppose that's possible. I cut through and…

"Huh."

Johanna snatches them from me. "Number twelve. I will check."

Ngamer11 · Dec 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
"I'm going to detain you until a Peace Agent can decide what to do with you."

The Global Peace Agency? I guess some aliens have realized humanity's capacity for bringing harm on a cosmic scale.

Ardy · Dec 16, 2024

So I just looked up the Global Peace Agency.

It reminds me of when red teen titans SI arrested the bounty hunters for illegally trespassing on earth.

They didn't get government permission, they're still here intentionally, their agents are going to jail

iamnuff · Dec 16, 2024

"You don't have any authority here. Go to jail, dumbass."

Chojin Patriarch · Dec 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
1st May 2013
15:23 GMT -5

I drop a kinetic barrier in his path just in time, the shield stressing but holding as whoever-this-is slams into it shoulder first. Two rapid punches do nothing.

"Who are you? This is a mothballed site. You shouldn't-"

His eyes glow for a moment, and-. And I throw out another kinetic barrier generator as the first one explodes. This time he doesn't just charge, but rather advances slowly, watching both of us.

Okay, smart enough not to keep pressing the attack when it's clear he can't make it. Especially when those he's attacking aren't taking aggressive action, merely dodging and dropping barriers in his way. Perhaps that means he'll be willing to talk...

"-be here. Who authorised you?"

"If you don't know, then you're not authorised to know."

Oh, that's a convenient answer, isn't it? "Nope, if you don't already know, I ain't telling."

"Alright, what do you want from us? We can just leave."

"I'm going to detain you until a Peace Agent can decide what to do with you."

Huh. A quick wiki-walk fins me Checkmate. AKA The Global Pace Agency. And look at that, they have connections to a form of OMAC.

"Oh. Okay, that's fine. We're happy to wait here."

He stops. "Drop your weapons and submit to being manacled."

Yeah, that'll be a big 'no' to that, buddy.

"You aren't carrying manacles."

His eyes glow, and there's a crackle-explosion from the bench near the cylinder. That's.. a novel form of teleportation, and I'm stuck getting indirect readings so I can't tell exactly what it is. And.. there are the manacles. Big, bulky, arm, leg and neck affairs with-.

It's certainly intensive. More like forcing something into existence at a location, existing matter bedamned.

"Is that an explosive charge?"

"Yes."

Designed to rapidly decapitate the subject. And… Oh, that's a shaped charge, too. So obliterate their heart and a large part of their chest.

Designed for extremely strong or tough beings, clearly. Like, say, kryptonians?

"I'm fairly sure that those aren't licensed for use in this state, against any target."

"That isn't my concern. Submit, or be beaten into submission."

Now, see, you say that, buddy, but you evidently don't know much about Lanterns.

"Blitzen, did you ever learn to steal a target's momentum."

"No? Are we fighting, or-?"

"Talk to Max Mercury or Kid Flash about it when this is over."

It's a neat trick, and if taken to extremes can freeze someone outright. Fortunately, the good guys limit it to movement.

I can easily hide my rings from discovery and drop convincing fakes, and neutralise the explosive and tear through the chains. But I don't have a ready way to communicate that to Blitzen, and I can see that she hasn't dropped back to a neutral mindset after my slight against her professionalism earlier. Plus, she's not used to fighting people who aren't trying to kill her.

In other words, she's keyed up for action, and playing nice is not on the cards.

I return my full attention to… "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"My name is classified. Surrender now."

So what isn't classified about you, buddy?

"Right, but I need to know what to call you, even if it's just-."

His eyes glow-

Welp, he's taking that as resistance. Time to fight.

I create a construct vertigo inducer and a cold gun-

-the kinetic barrier project explodes, whatever his name is surging forwards-

Somehow, I don't think the vertigo device will affect him much, but the cold gun...

-and transmute more super-hard-freezing gel, firing-

-towards us. Johanna counter-charges, coming in from his side and speed-punching him in the liver-

Probably a bit painful, if he's super-tough as he appears to be.

-to encase his head.

-at the same time and the dizziness and shock hit. He manages to sort of throw himself at me anyway, but a construct crash mat absorbs his momentum and makes him fall to the floor.

And fight over. Total net time, all of three seconds?

Johanna has the manacles on him a moment later, and I attach my own around them.

He's glaring at us through the frozen gel. He's probably strong enough to shatter it, but he can't move enough to grip it or strike it.

Let's hope he doesn't have any thermal tricks, gel or not.

I coat the rest of him in frozen gel, then bore an air hole through it for him.

"So what did we learn?"

"Nothing of any significance. Unless…"

Time for a deep analysis, ideally via the nostril?

An x-ionised scalpel to his right forefinger gets me a drop of blood, and…

"He's not on any files. Not a Danner enhancile, so at least this is a new phenomenon. I think it's… Cybernetic, maybe?"

OMAC, then. An early model, lacking the full-conversion look of the mass-production unit from Infinite Crisis-era DC.

"He doesn't look mechanical."

"No. Microbots. Or… Modified cells? There are things in here that clearly aren't natural, and at a certain point 'organic' and 'inorganic' sort of blur together. I'm not sure what it does -other than what we saw- and… I think it receives broadcast energy?"

Nanotech. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other in terms on the divide between technology and biology.

"What broadcast energy?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not even sure that's what it does. This really isn't my field."

"Is it infectious?"

Fortunately, very little Nanotech is great at surviving outside its intended environment. In this case, it's probably injected in large quantities.

"No. Quite the opposite; this sample is trying to self-destruct. I'd guess that he had an emitter of some sort in his body." I shake my head-. Then remember that I'm still inside my heavy armour and no one can see me do that. Back to normal armour. "I'm going to need to send an image of it to someone a lot more intelligent than me."

You... You could just do that now. Send a mission update with the scans to Mister Atom and let him handle the techno-forensic assignments.

Dr. Metcalf, maybe? He should at least be able to work out what it does.

"Does he even have anything to do with Anarky?"

I mean, how likely is it that Lonnie got involved with Checkmate, if that's who's behind this?

"Don't know. Ah…" I force construct filaments through the frozen gel and attach them to his skin. "Okay, it looks like the whatever's messing up my scanner doesn't do anything about direct contact. So I should just be able to make him want to talk to us."

I look-.

"What the f-? Flip?"

Not that easy? Also, nice self-censoring, OL.

"What?"

"His desire network has been pruned right now. I'm not sure that he even has desires for me to redirect. I-. This is messed up."

Interesting. I'm guessing because of the nanotech coursing through his body. Presumably it's doing most of the thinking for him, hence his either/or demands earlier.

"Do you think that something we did made him come and look?"

"Ah… Since he had super speed-."

There's a difference between super-speed and merely being quick-moving, OL.

"No. That was not super speed. That was very fast reflexes. The human body can move faster than the human brain. Trust me: at super speed the difference is obvious."

"In that case he must have been close. Probably in the building. So-."

An on-site minder for whatever was going on down here, then. Probably not privy to whatever it was, but could provide clues.

"Check his pockets." I frown and she shrugs. "Either he has his keys with him or his door is unlocked."

I suppose that's possible. I cut through and…

Since it appears to be regular clothing rather than super-spandex, that might work. OL does sometimes miss the easy option for the clever ones.

"Huh."

Johanna snatches them from me. "Number twelve. I will check."

One short elevator ride away, of course. Let's hope there's not a booby-trap in there.

All the clues definitely point to this being some form of OMAC counterpart. Whether it's Buddy Blank or some other nobody under the super-body remains to be seen. The concerning thing is that he exists now. Checkmate, or the Global Peace Agency or whoever's responsible, usually only busts out the OMAC series when things get really bad for Earth.

...Oh, wait, right...

Darko · Dec 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
barrier project explodes

"projector"

Mr Zoat · Dec 16, 2024

Darko said:
"projector"

Thank you, corrected.

haralo99 · Dec 16, 2024

Hey, can anyone recommend some stories on this site? I come every day to read the new update on this story, so I'm curious what else is on this site. But I don't like what I have found, so if you can recommend some, I'd appreciate it.

Chaoswind · Dec 16, 2024

haralo99 said:
Hey, can anyone recommend some stories on this site? I come every day to read the new update on this story, so I'm curious what else is on this site. But I don't like what I have found, so if you can recommend some, I'd appreciate it.

What are you searching for?

haralo99 · Dec 16, 2024

Chaoswind said:
What are you searching for?

Anything good, mostly stories or quests, no discussion threads please.

Bud-E · Dec 16, 2024

I just noticed Paul doesn't swear is there a reason for that?

Mr Zoat · Dec 16, 2024

Bud-E said:
I just noticed Paul doesn't swear is there a reason for that?

It's impolite.

He's done his best to turn himself into an idealised version of himself; he looks better, his accent is sharper and he doesn't do things he doesn't like doing.

Bud-E · Dec 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
It's impolite.

He's done his best to turn himself into an idealised version of himself; he looks better, his accent is sharper and he doesn't do things he doesn't like doing.

When you say his accent is sharper, do you mean he has better diction/pronunciation or does he speak with a slightly more refined/upper-class accent than he did before? Also I didn't realize changing his body in the first chapter changed his accent did he ever comment on it cause I don't remember?

Mr Zoat · Dec 16, 2024

Bud-E said:
When you say his accent is sharper, do you mean he has better diction/pronunciation or does he speak with a slightly more refined/upper-class accent than he did before?

Both.

Also I didn't realize changing his body in the first chapter changed his accent did he ever comment on it cause I don't remember?

It didn't. That part has been a gradual thing, but using the orange light makes you what you want to be.

Mr Zoat · Dec 17, 2024

18th January 2000
00:36 GMT -5

I look around the… Medical unit. Deployable walls have been put into place to give us privacy and I've got a bed to put my 'host' on…

"I really wish you hadn't picked me."

The nox woman -Lya- turns her head to the side, an expression of… Disturbingly genuine bewilderment on her face.

"Why?"

"It's… It should be-. Fine, but goa'uld are genetically predisposed to integrate well with certain hosts. Depending on how generous our mothers were feeling, we might be able to handle most things -My Queen can use both sekhmet and human hosts- or we might be limited to a single ethnic group in a single species."

Lya looks unimpressed. "Is that the real reason why she changes hosts each year?"

"Ah… Don't know." I frown. "I don't think so; there wouldn't be any advantage in switching from one bad host to another. But I don't know any other goa'uld who used sekhmet as hosts, so I suppose it's not impossible."

"What happens if you are not compatible?"

I shrug. "It varies depending on the degree of compatibility. At the low end, there's a slight disconnect in the senses…" I frown, staring at her-. And getting nothing useful. "Why are you asking? You aren't primitives; you only choose to pretend that you are. Your species knows ours well. You should know this."

She looks at me-. Is that supposed to be stern? "Your species does not like telling other people things that are actually true."

"And? There are plenty of means at your disposal for finding things out that don't involve asking us. Heck, you used to be friends with the Ancients, and they certainly knew."

"You mean find out as you did when you read our database?"

I look at her for a moment. And then smile.

"You spotted that. I'm glad to see that you're not completely indolent. Though if it makes you feel any better it will be at least two hundred years before I can actually use any of the technological information I acquired. But I do thank you for the maps."

"Why?"

"Why..? Take it? Because it was there to take. And that whole thing you do of convincing other goa'uld that there's some sort of invisible animal there is hilarious."

"No." She shakes her head. "Why thank me?"

"Ah… Because they're really useful and getting charts that good from other places would take ages. I hadn't realised how much exploring your people used to do-. Did. But, ah… In my language, phrasing thanks like that is more of an insult than a genuine way of expressing gratitude."

She actually looks disappointed. "Oh."

"And yes, I meant like that. If I had scanners like yours that I could deploy en masse… But you're not me and I'm not you. And that's the other thing I don't like about this."

"You will not become me. You will just be in my body."

"Your thoughts will forever be in my memories." I shudder theatrically, then pat the bed. "Lie down here."

She climbs up as I pull a chair over, putting it as close as I can to the head of the bed. Then start strapping myself to it as she lies down next to me. That actually gets a puzzled look from her. I suppose her people haven't encountered power rings before, and it obviously isn't goa'uld technology.

"Okay, this will hurt a bit, but hopefully not all that much. I'll have to dig through the back of your throat to access your brainstem, but my mouth is designed for that. Connecting myself to your brain will be more disorientating than anything else. It shouldn't hurt, but it will be disturbing."

"You said that being a host wasn't that bad."

"Most humans adapt eventually. I have no idea what nox do, and it's still disturbing at the beginning."

"How will you get out?"

"The same way that I got in. I'll try to make sure that you don't fall over, but you should get control of your body back almost immediately once I disconnect. Ready?"

She nods, so I lean forwards and face down so that my mouth is over hers.

Right. Deploy filaments, because this isn't going to be fun. Go limp, and push Mammon Two out of my mouth. Use the filament to extend my minimum strength aura around the bed and her back so that I've got a connection to the unalive goa'uld that she hopefully can't see. Use the filament connection to animate it and go completely limp as the goa'uld enters her open mouth.

Do I still have a connection, or have I just stuffed a dead lamprey into her throat-?

Yes, yes I do. Okay, I know how this goes. And if it all goes wrong, the nox can resurrect their dead, so no long term problem. Cut the hole and push Mammon Two through, and… Draw on Am-heh's instincts to hook him up, adding just enough biological activity through my filament connection to connect my mind to her brain through his body..

U-ugh.

And shut down my own senses because dealing with two people's sensory equipment isn't something the human brain is designed for.

And…

My/her eyes blink. My/her right arm lifts, and I turn… Ah, no, her hand around and look at it.

And…

Oh… Gosh. Back to nature. Of course they don't bathe regularly. No, no, just accept it.

Hello?

"Hello Lya." Her voice, my manner of speech. I'm hearing what she's 'saying' by Mammon Two's connection to her… I don't know what it's called in the nox brain, the bit that controls her speech. I lower her right hand and use it to push her body into a sitting position. "Try doing something."

Impulses from her brain meet with Mammon Two's tail and get nowhere. Meanwhile I turn sideways, her legs hanging over the side of the bed.

Oh.

"In theory, I should be able to use your exotic abilities as well. But since I don't know how to, I'll leave that be."

I cannot sense your evil.

"And I'm not plumbing your mind for the locations of Ancient settlements, laboratories and shipyards. Unless you actually want me to be rough with you, I won't be."

I need to.

"Excuse me?"

I need to understand what being a host is like. Not just for a little while. I need you to show me what it is like for Skaara.

"I can't. I'm just not as malevolent as Klorel is. Even back before my… Rebirth, I was more self-absorbed and indolent than aggressive. But if you really want…"

Connect the genetic memories to… That bit.

"That should-."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Neruz · Dec 17, 2024

If it was any other species I'd say that a valuable lesson has been learned here.

But given that it's the Nox, there is a real non-zero chance that after it's all over she will actually be very happy to have gotten the full undiluted Goa'uld genetic memories experience. They do very much seem to value experience in all forms, even the bad ones.

Chojin Patriarch · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
18th January 2000
00:36 GMT -5

I look around the… Medical unit. Deployable walls have been put into place to give us privacy and I've got a bed to put my 'host' on…

"I really wish you hadn't picked me."

The nox woman -Lya- turns her head to the side, an expression of… Disturbingly genuine bewilderment on her face.

Oh course not, Mammon. You aren't exactly the typical Goa'uld host, nor is your partner a typical Goa'uld symbiont. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly why she selected you to do this little experiment: Curiosity.

"Why?"

"It's… It should be-. Fine, but goa'uld are genetically predisposed to integrate well with certain hosts. Depending on how generous our mothers were feeling, we might be able to handle most things -My Queen can use both sekhmet and human hosts- or we might be limited to a single ethnic group in a single species."

Did we ever see these Sekhmet folk in the series? Because I'm picturing animalistic cat-people. Interesting that she's adapted for them, though.

Lya looks unimpressed. "Is that the real reason why she changes hosts each year?"

"Ah… Don't know." I frown. "I don't think so; there wouldn't be any advantage in switching from one bad host to another. But I don't know any other goa'uld who used sekhmet as hosts, so I suppose it's not impossible."

Doubly interesting. Maybe a biological preference against them, maybe because Bastet didn't like to share her cat-people?

"What happens if you are not compatible?"

I shrug. "It varies depending on the degree of compatibility. At the low end, there's a slight disconnect in the senses…" I frown, staring at her-. And getting nothing useful. "Why are you asking? You aren't primitives; you only choose to pretend that you are. Your species knows ours well. You should know this."

Not surprised he can't scan her beyond the surface. They do seem to have impressive obfuscation shielding effects.

She looks at me-. Is that supposed to be stern? "Your species does not like telling other people things that are actually true."

"And? There are plenty of means at your disposal for finding things out that don't involve asking us. Heck, you used to be friends with the Ancients, and they certainly knew."

A big part of that is the Goa'uld's inborn arrogance, I suspect. That and the paranoia.

"You mean find out as you did when you read our database?"

I look at her for a moment. And then smile.

Heh. Busted, though she doesn't seem that upset. Merely... Disappointed?

"You spotted that. I'm glad to see that you're not completely indolent. Though if it makes you feel any better it will be at least two hundred years before I can actually use any of the technological information I acquired. But I do thank you for the maps."

"Why?"

The technology is that advanced, I see. then again, he's barely pushing past Industrial Revolution-era technologies right now. It'll be a while before he gets as far as mechanical computers, much less integrated circuits.

"Why..? Take it? Because it was there to take. And that whole thing you do of convincing other goa'uld that there's some sort of invisible animal there is hilarious."

"No." She shakes her head. "Why thank me?"

Because he's honestly thankful? That saved him a hell of a lot of work.

"Ah… Because they're really useful and getting charts that good from other places would take ages. I hadn't realised how much exploring your people used to do-. Did. But, ah… In my language, phrasing thanks like that is more of an insult than a genuine way of expressing gratitude."

Ah, backhanded compliments and sarcasm. Something the Nox don't employ very often.

She actually looks disappointed. "Oh."

"And yes, I meant like that. If I had scanners like yours that I could deploy en masse… But you're not me and I'm not you. And that's the other thing I don't like about this."

Having to put up with the whole charade? Remember how annoyed he was when that whole debacle happened on Earth?

"You will not become me. You will just be in my body."

"Your thoughts will forever be in my memories." I shudder theatrically, then pat the bed. "Lie down here."

No need to make it sound so terrible, Mammon. I bet you're imagining what you could do with the control codes or whatever it is for their tech... Though that stuff is probably well-partitioned away.

She climbs up as I pull a chair over, putting it as close as I can to the head of the bed. Then start strapping myself to it as she lies down next to me. That actually gets a puzzled look from her. I suppose her people haven't encountered power rings before, and it obviously isn't goa'uld technology.

And it's visibly not Ancient or Nox technology either. I bet she'll be as curious about the ring as he is about their tech.

"Okay, this will hurt a bit, but hopefully not all that much. I'll have to dig through the back of your throat to access your brainstem, but my mouth is designed for that. Connecting myself to your brain will be more disorientating than anything else. It shouldn't hurt, but it will be disturbing."

Presumably with a small amount of local anaesthetic neurotoxin or similar involved. Because having something several inches thick crawling around under the skin would be weird as.

"You said that being a host wasn't that bad."

"Most humans adapt eventually. I have no idea what nox do, and it's still disturbing at the beginning."

Admittedly, some hosts adapt by getting their higher reasoning interfered with or overridden by the Goa'uld... I wonder what Bastet's former hosts remember of the experience?

"How will you get out?"

"The same way that I got it. I'll try to make sure that you don't fall over, but you should get control of your body back almost immediately once I disconnect. Ready?"

She nods, so I lean forwards and face down so that my mouth is over hers.

Such a compromising position. Though now I see why he strapped himself into his chair.

Right. Deploy filaments, because this isn't going to be fun. Go limp, and push Mammon Two out of my mouth. Use the filament to extend my minimum strength aura around the bed and her back so that I've got a connection to the unalive goa'uld that she hopefully can't see. Use the filament connection to animate it and go completely limp as the goa'uld enters her open mouth.

What's the bet she can vaguely sense the filaments, especially where they come near her skin?

Do I still have a connection, or have I just stuffed a dead lamprey into her throat-?

Yes, yes I do. Okay, I know how this goes. And if it all goes wrong, the nox can resurrect their dead, so no long term problem. Cut the hole and push Mammon Two through, and… Draw on Am-heh's instincts to hook him up, adding just enough biological activity through my filament connection to connect my mind to her brain through his body..

Talk about complicated. And if they were separated, the illusion would fail instantly, I bet.

U-ugh.

And shut down my own senses because dealing with two people's sensory equipment isn't something the human brain is designed for.

True. Some barely manage one body's worth.

And…

My/her eyes blink. My/her right arm lifts, and I turn… Ah, no, her hand around and look at it.

Good to see he's keeping it straight now.

And…

Oh… Gosh. Back to nature. Of course they don't bathe regularly. No, no, just accept it.

Ah, living life without the protective filtering of the Environmental Field.

Hello?

"Hello Lya." Her voice, my manner of speech. I'm hearing what she's 'saying' by Mammon Two's connection to her… I don't know what it's called in the nox brain, the bit that controls her speech. I lower her right hand and use it to push her body into a sitting position. "Try doing something."

It's a surprisingly complicated bit of brain, really.

Impulses from her brain meet with Mammon Two's tail and get nowhere. Meanwhile I turn sideways, her legs hanging over the side of the bed.

Oh.

Probably a very peculiar experience for her.

"In theory, I should be able to use your exotic abilities as well. But since I don't know how to, I'll leave that be."

I cannot sense your evil.

Gee, how insightful of her. To be fair, most goa'uld probably are quite quantifiably evil...

"And I'm not plumbing your mind for the locations of Ancient settlements, laboratories and shipyards. Unless you actually want me to be rough with you, I won't be."

I need to.

What she wants him to do that to her? To what, test her defences? learn how to develop defences against it? ...Or maybe it's a bit of a kink of hers.

Whatever works for her.

"Excuse me?"

I need to understand what being a host is like. Not just for a little while. I need you to show me what it is like for Skaara.

Ah, increasing her empathic perception towards Skaara.

"I can't. I'm just not as malevolent as Klorel is. Even back before my… Rebirth, I was more self-absorbed and indolent than aggressive. But if you really want…"

Connect the genetic memories to… That bit.

'Rebirth' Good way to put it, Mammon.

"That should-."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

...Either it hurts like hell or that's quite the excited reaction.

Well, she did ask him to do it, so he's morally in the clear, I guess? Hopefully he doesn't do too much damage in the process, mentally or physically. If nothing else, he now has a better idea of how it all works, and may even learn a bit about the Nox in the process, while she gets the full 'bad Goa'uld brain-hug' experience. Let's just hope no-one busts in to interrupt their experiment.

"The same way that I got it.

"The same way that I got in.

Fallen Gods Rise · Dec 17, 2024

So is this going to be evil Nox, just like it was an evil Daniel when he got the Goa'uld genetic memory.

BR549 · Dec 17, 2024

And today, a Nox learns the meaning of 'be careful what you wish for'.

Darko · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Lya looks unimpressed. "Is that the real reason why she changes hosts each year?"

"Ah… Don't know

It's possible that she does it as a precautionary measure.

If she's attacked then she could just slip into a new host and get away while the previous one is mistakenly killed.

And if it's known that she regularly switches hosts, she can more easily gain the allegiance of other warriors and not have to worry about them thinking that she's a fake.

Heck, she could potentially go undercover around Lo'Taur and no Goa'uld would be suspicious why they sense naquadah in her since they know she regularly changes hosts.

Mr Zoat said:
Why are you asking? You aren't primitives; you only choose to pretend that you are. Your species knows ours well. You should know this."

Lya might not know that much about the Goa'uld.

Mr Zoat said:
Oh… Gosh. Back to nature. Of course they don't bathe regularly

With their tech it's possible that any health hazards that come from a lack of hygiene have been removed.

Neruz · Dec 17, 2024

Fallen Gods Rise said:
So is this going to be evil Nox, just like it was an evil Daniel when he got the Goa'uld genetic memory.

Probably not, given how advanced and old the Nox are. But it's certainly not impossible, seeing as how the Nox are also kind of stupidly naive even at the best of times.

Darko said:
With their tech it's possible that any health hazards that come from a lack of hygiene have been removed.

They probably form symbiotic relationships with the microbiomes that grow in and on their bodies, and engineer them into being cellular fusion reactors or something similarly absurd. This is the species that was able to power a Stargate by growing vines on it after all.

Mr Zoat · Dec 17, 2024

Chojin Patriarch said:
Did we ever see these Sekhmet folk in the series?

No, they're RPG only.

"The same way that I got in.

Thank you, corrected.

Fallen Gods Rise said:
So is this going to be evil Nox, just like it was an evil Daniel when he got the Goa'uld genetic memory.

Except that didn't actually happen. Oma just showed him exactly what she needed to in order to make him reach the conclusion she wanted.

WereDragon · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
snip

Power Rings truly are the most versatile tool in the universe.

"And I'm not plumbing your mind for the locations of Ancient settlements, laboratories and shipyards.

Which is a shame, the ant-arctic outpost is a compelling reason to go annex an uninhabited chunk of Earth.

Dur'id the Druid · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
.

Just One technical thing here, I'm surprised you didn't go into why the Jaffa were created. I mean one of the points of their creation was to train infant gold to be able to more handle the human brain and body. Before that there was a 50% failure rate.

Mr Zoat · Dec 17, 2024

Dur'id the Druid said:
Just One technical thing here, I'm surprised you didn't go into why the Jaffa were created. I mean one of the points of their creation was to train infant gold to be able to more handle the human brain and body. Before that there was a 50% failure rate.

Oh, I hadn't heard that. Where's that from?

The Slumbering Crocodile · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Oh, I hadn't heard that. Where's that from?

I also recall it being mentioned in SG-1, though I can't give you a episode.

Chaoswind · Dec 17, 2024

Dur'id the Druid said:
Just One technical thing here, I'm surprised you didn't go into why the Jaffa were created. I mean one of the points of their creation was to train infant gold to be able to more handle the human brain and body. Before that there was a 50% failure rate.

It's been decades, but I don't remember that being a thing and it would certainly be remembered if the lore ramifications were so drastic.... An one in two failure rate is simply ridiculous and extremely improbable considering all the times a Gould taking over someone and not failing to take over is plot relevant in the series and they sure go out of their way to attribute the failures to something else.

Heck I even remember Gould regenerating from just pieces of their heads left behind after removal surgery... That is why I think Mammon II is about to wake up after being actually linked to a host brain and his memories are going to be a scrambled mess of his genetic memories from actual Mammon and the memories from Paulmon that were downloaded into his cloned lamprei brain by the ring as an attempt to trick Bastet.

Silveraith · Dec 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Oh, I hadn't heard that. Where's that from?

Article:

A special class of Goa'uld are the Queens which are responsible for producing new larval Goa'uld for implantation into Jaffa. When encountering a new tribe of Humans or a different race, the Queen needs to first sample the DNA, or "code of life" as the Goa'uld refer to it, from the species intended to be a host. This is to ensure that there is no rejection during the process between host and larva. (SG1: "Hathor")

Source: https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Goa%27uld#Overview

Whenever Possible · Dec 17, 2024

I think Lya is getting the Euanthe character arc of being exposed to extreme evil and subsequently becoming radicalized and more proactive and aggressive in dealing with it.

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