Rafin
Not too sore, are you?
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Then
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Then
Thank you, corrected.
'on her feet'?Hermes' spare sandals on her allowing her to fly and boosting her speed, and the misnamed 'gauntlets' of Atlas around her forearms to boost her strength and endurance.
'asari'?Much like Asari, the young women fought and the mature women raised daughters and practised professions.
'pegasus'? Since I wouldn't say 'horses riders'.She looks up, not at me but at the twelve pegasi riders accompanying us.
'me shooting'The booster ignites, sending my shooting over the forest and… Yes, there's the river, just peeking through canopy.
Thank you, corrected.'on her feet'?
'asari'?
'pegasus'? Since I wouldn't say 'horses riders'.
'me shooting'
'the canopy'?
He said earlier that subspace seemed unavailable here, which is why he had to do something special to recharge his ring instead of just bringing his lantern out.For a moment I see fur and feathers before I counter, x-ionised knives stabbing at it from subspace and provoking it into disengaging.
While riding piggyback on The Ancient One certainly has limited range, this is probably a typo.
Oh, yes. Never trust a gift horse this blatant. It might be a trojan horse in disguise. But the lack of guards is interesting. I assume Justified wouldn't last well here, or at least require the removal of their hearts... Perhaps something more local stands guard. a Minor deity, or a monster of legend...17th February 2013
17:43 GMT
It's sitting on a small stone pyramid. I can't see any blood on the stones, but it might just have been washed off. No external power source, no obvious guards.
Scan.
Not that you can really trust what the Ring senses...
You're at least resistant right now. Them? No telling how they might react to this level of proximity.I create a second layer of construct armour around myself.
"Orange Lantern to Superboy. There's an Anti-Life broadcaster. Keep everyone back."
Because this whole situation is abnormal. Let's be sure there's no sneaky tricks on the villains' part."Okay, but it's gunna take you about five seconds to destroy it."
"I want to check the setup first. I'll contact you when I'm done."
Unless something within it acts as a link direct to the mortal world... And now I'm picturing it seeming more real then the things around it, sticking out like an unshaded 3D object in a traditionally animated world."Makes sense. Superboy out."
Design appears… Standard. I drift upwards, trying to get a full view of it. Because if I understand New God technology, there's got to be something linking it to the local thaumosphere… Or, just, normal-sphere here… Anyway, we should be cut off from Mannheim, so it would have to be…
From where, though. Given this place is probably a town made for the sacrificed...
Destroying it sounds like a good idea, but not without knowing what will happen if you do.And there we are. There's a heart beat in there. Because hearts are how we power things around here, apparently.
What to do?
...Make a note to let her out later if all goes well...I mean, I'm still towing the zombie woman. Maybe I can try sticking this heart in her? Or at least get a look at what their hearts are supposed to look like here? I bring the sarcophagus closer and remove enough of it to get a look at her face. Nothing-.
And now it occurs to me that bringing her this close to a broadcaster wasn't the more intelligent thing to do. Send that-. House, grab spare stones from that house, put her inside and brick up the windows and doorway.
Heh. Second-guessing your scan data, OL? Still, this place is tricky, best to be certain.Right.
I send out a wave of orange light, trying to feel by weak kinetic impacts if there's anything invisible or otherwise dodging detection. Nothing. Repeat with tiny grains of dust. Nothing.
Or the villains have taken them elsewhere. Those undead had to come from somewhere, after all.Okay, but why would anyone put a transmitter where there aren't any people? Because there used to be people, or because there will be people in the future and you want to be ready. This is clearly an inhabited area, but there aren't any people. Why would an area in an afterlife with homes have no one there. Reincarnation? They could be working… But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a lama. Aztecs didn't commute. If they were working then I should be able to hear something.
So that would be the warriors' training grounds.I look at the waterfall, and then fly up.
Yeah, more buildings at the top, but it's more of the same. Still no people. There… Yeah, that's an exercise yard. Simple shields and clubs are stacked, and there's a roughly marked area for the pugilists. Aztecs considered reincarnation to be something earned, rather than asked for or automatic. Maybe they were levelling up?
More and more likely that they've been taken for something else. Those who use the Anti-Life tend to see all lesser beings as resources, not people, after all...Whatever it was, they're not doing it here now. So not working. And-.
Wait, what's that?
Let me guess: obsidian knife? Gold jewellery?I saw something shiny in that… Barn? Long house? I fly inside-.
Ah. That clears that up.
Because obsidian as a material is surprisingly sharp, but surprisingly fragile. It is glass, after all.There's no blood, because why would the dead bleed? If they bled, the gods could take their nourishment from them and then just have them reincarnate. But there is skin, and discarded flesh, and damaged obsidian blades. And I think that's… Ectoplasm?
But no hearts. And no Aztecs.
My guess is that Mannheim acquired the heart of a deity in the real world, forced entry here, and let an automated process of integration run.There used to be people here, wherever 'here' is. And now there aren't. The broadcaster was probably used to control them, which means that the heart was probably installed first.
If I knew more about Aztec culture, I could probably learn a lot from this place. But as I don't, I just fly back down the waterfall to the plunge pool area. This place responds well to hearts?
After all, what heart is larger than that of an Embodiment of 1/7th of all life's emotions?
Bait might have worked a little too well, methinks!I form a construct-.
Something blurs past my vision, my outer construct armour evaporating and the inner sporting-
Some manner of conceptual attack, maybe? The idea of RIPPINGTEARINGSLASHING!
And if they have utter invisibility? Or the air itself is attacking you?It's gone again.
Alright, replace immediately, evasive flight pattern, detail optic scan of my environment. If they're pushing off a surface using super speed then there'll be a depression where their feet impact the stone, or an explosion if they're pushing off sand. Non-perfect optic camouflage will cause slight ripples if view from variable angles. And add metal plating to-.
Fur and feathers? Interesting. A beast-themed deity of some sort? The feathers might be from decorations, after all.My outer armour fails and this time pressure continues and my inner construct parts in front of my helmet! For a moment I see fur and feathers before I counter, x-ionised knives stabbing at it from subspace and provoking it into disengaging. And it's gone, gone from my sight, gone from scan, no obvious sign of its passage.
Okay, try something else. Leave the knives, add wire to the construct in case the attacker is using construct disruptors specifically and fill the air with locally-sourced dust. An extra fraction of a second's warning from the particulates moving-.
Hmm... They must be moving damn fast to be no more than a blur that unidentifiable.Thereparry!
Two knives are on target, one hitting nothing but feathers, sending the cut ends spiralling towards the river below. The other hits the torso, causing the-. Figure to abandon their swoop and pull to the side, missing me-
Okay, that gives more of a lead...I get more details. Humanoid with wings. More than one set. Talons on the hands and feet. Don't get a good look at the face.
-as I form a cold gun and take a shot-.
Far too much bias on that front. A shame, though. All too often, forgotten history leads to something important going missing.It doesn't work, and the figure disappears again, accelerating out of my dust cloud.
It's not as big as Tlaltecuhtli, but I don't know if all Aztec gods maintain avatars that big. Gaea walks around in a body the size of an unusually but not impossibly large woman. So I could be fighting a god. I'd assume that I was fighting some sort of supernatural creature but I don't know enough about Aztec myth to identify it. Emperor Itzcoatl destroying their early written records didn't help, and relying on Spanish monks for information regarding the supernatural wouldn't be a good idea anyway.
And at least you managed to damage it, even if it;s only a feather or two. So it's not indestructible.
-To force it into the gas? Smart, but given it's so fast, it could outpace your planned vectors.Eagle feathers. Some sort of eagle monster? No special counter for Eagles-.
Disruption again, switch to knock-out gas and pump it out. Move the knives-.
...Ow. Somehow, I suspect they can win a battle of attrition better than you can, here."Kuh."
The shape flies away as I stare dumbly at the spear embedded in my right lung.
And then the pain hits!
Huh... So far all these hints are pointing towards Huitzilopochtli.
If you're referring to the genus, I think it should be 'Lama'. If the species, 'llama'.They could be working… But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a lama.
'viewed'Non-perfect optic camouflage will cause slight ripples if view from variable angles. And add metal plating to-.
His rings were TOTALLY drained. Doesn't zero power mean zero access to subspace?He said earlier that subspace seemed unavailable here, which is why he had to do something special to recharge his ring instead of just bringing his lantern out.
Don't -> Didn't
He said earlier that subspace seemed unavailable here, which is why he had to do something special to recharge his ring instead of just bringing his lantern out.
While riding piggyback on The Ancient One certainly has limited range, this is probably a typo.
Thank you, corrected.
I think it works.
They could be working… But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a llama.
Thank you, corrected.
It would
*guitar riff* Fire in the sky!
braking, I think
No, that's fine.
Thank you, corrected.
Aww, he wants a hug!
Congradulations.
Don't be fooled, OL. In the right conditions, such a weapon could be horrifyingly effective. And the Aztec's armour of choice would prove remarkably resistant to their own weapons, so it could have offered some protection from long-range musket fire.17th February 2013
17:46 GMT
"Uh!"
And it's a shitty Aztec spear with a head made of obsidian and resin rather than metal! This is why Cortés wiped out your civilisation!
So more than likely the material's enchanted. Possibly divinely so, if he's having this much trouble with it.Dodge!
This time the spear skims my power armour, scratching a line across my side. Pain's ebbing a little but for some reason I can't regenerate myself or disintegrate it. Knives, move the knives faster, keep up the defensive pattern. The spears don't redirect themselves once thrown, so dodging is a better option than when whoever this is was just swooping at me with their claws.
Yeah, those sucking chest wounds will get you quick."Un-hu-hu."
Can I manually kill the nerve endings? Yes? Okay, kill ninety percent, I still need some idea of what's happening. Manually close the blood vessels. Crumbler construct on my own armour at the impact site… Can I pull it out? Because I can oxygenate my blood by ring but I don't like the way I can taste my own blood in my mouth right now.
To put it mildly. Glass weapons are nasty shit. But also fragile and expensive these days.It's not coming out.
Why isn't it coming out? Because obsidian isn't supposed to come out. It's supposed to splinter in wounds and make them bleed and get infected. So I-.
At least the guy's got to run out sooner or later, right?Frantically viff because that's another spear! I twist and it skims my faceplate rather than gouging my eyes out!
Disintegrate my own numb flesh-. And there, it's free and finally out and… And parts still aren't healing because there are tiny bits of obsidian still in the wound, but it's still progress. Feel the bits I can't alter and use construct tweezers.
Oof. Yeah, definitely going to need a strong dose of Wholeness Rightly Assumed after all this is done.My tweezers snap a small piece, fragmenting the obsidian still further.
Alright, construct vacuum cleaner, I can replace lung tissue but I need the obsidian out! I-.
Careful, OL. A cornered, wounded animal is all the more dangerous.There.
I spin the spear and all available knives at the space with a slight disruption in the dust, and get to see the bird/cat thing frantically try to dodge away! Can't be precise, so I just stab-. Got the main right wing! Try flying now! Got the left leg with his own stupid spear! Got a bunch of minor wounds with the knives! I-!
Okay, so not a deity. Looks like someone wanted to make the names 'Eagle Warrior' and 'Jaguar Warrior' literal.He's actually bleeding. Not a heartless zombie, and that snaps me out of deciding to kill him immediately because if this is a stupid misunderstanding then that-. That would be a bad thing. Grab with a construct fist, shove him up against a wall and pin him there. Rip off his spear quiver and set it aside. He's strong but it looks like his strike-power mostly comes from his feet talons and finger claws. And those aren't gloves or boots, some sort of giant eagle talons have replaced his feet and claws have replaced his nails.
Careful, OL. Be sure to watch that Ring Charge. Messing with this enchanted stuff will burn through it fast, remember?Ah. The vacuum his finished sucking out my obsidian-enriched lung matter and now I can finish regenerating myself.
Okay.
Oh, right. The reason you came looking down here. One of them, anyway."Orange Lantern to Superboy. Just got attacked by a.. jaguar/eagle man. I'm fine now and will attempt to interrogate."
"Is the Anti-Life broadcaster still working?"
Mostly likely this guy was the only guard they thought they needed. Who would expect people to drop out of the sky, after all?"Yes. I think I should try and find out if anyone's watching before potentially alerting anyone."
"It's your call. I haven't seen anything up here."
...I get the feeling that's not a mask."Call you back when I've got something. Out."
The man in my construct-grip has… He's trying to go invisible, and parts of his are, but I can still see most of him and my construct can grip him just fine. The mask… It's an elaborate Aztek headdress with added mask component. The.. mask itself is an odd mix of jaguar and eagle: eagle upper and beak, with jaguar whiskers and teeth. Is it..? No, thank goodness, it's not attached to his face. Take it off…
Admittedly, said tactics consisted of 'go fast, hit hard.' Which isn't necessarily all that hard to program in.It wasn't attached because his face isn't much different. His eyes are eagle eyes and there's a clear line where his lower jaw has been torn off and replaced with that of a jaguar. As a result I'm having trouble understanding his expression and I'm not sure he could talk if he wanted to.
His chest features a chest wound… But the chest has been closed up and… There's a heart beat. No, two heart beats. Strange. I'm increasingly getting the feeling that someone tried and succeeded in turning this man into a super zombie. Basic pattern recognition suggests that it will be a jaguar heart and an eagle heart, but… If I remove them both that might cause him to devolve to heartless status, and he was intelligent enough to use both tools and tactics.
With your luck, this guy was probably around for Cortez's expedition, and has plenty of reason to hate the pale-skinned men.I send my helmet into subspace and look him in the eyes to see if there's any sign of recognition. There…
I can't tell.
...Yeah, about as articulate as you'd expect with an animal jaw.
...Let's not do that last thing. No telling what that kind of combination would produce.Something like the hissing growl of a big cat. Not promising, though I suppose I could fabricate some catnip.
Or I could crack open his chest and add in a newly-fabricated human heart. Or I could use the heart from the Anti-Life broadcaster-
...Probably a safe bet something bad would happen.No.
-or I could use mine. I mean, the orange light can push blood around my body perfectly well and that enlightened Red Lantern version of me didn't seem to miss theirs. But this is a magic place and I don't want to take the risk of losing something permanently by giving it up.
Really hopeful of you to assume he's not completely feral, OL.Lowest risk solution is a new heart, so let's try that. If it doesn't work I can always cut it out and try something else.
"I'm going to open up your chest and implant a replacement human heart. I'll try and numb the pain, but I'm not sure if my techniques…"
And what does it say to you that that is not the strangest phrase you've had to utter this week?Wait. Did the Aztecs have access to coca leaves? I know that some tribes use it as a pain killer, and if injections don't work… And he doesn't appear to be responding to spoken words…
"Okay, I don't think you can double-die, so I'm just going to try to numb the pain as best I can, then I'm going to try replacing your human heart. Sorry in advance."
At least on a personal scale, anyway.I pull the spear out of his leg and close the wound as best I can. Connect the blade to a chirurgeon engine, brace the subject, then inject them with painkillers and coca while they're staring at the blade.
Cutting open someone's chest to give them a heart. This is just about the most un-Aztec thing possible.
I'm sure things like tissue rejection won't be a concern around here.The blade goes down, and it looks like neither jaguar nor eagle have made him more resilient. Right, cut down the middle, used a probe… Eagle heart is at the top and jaguar heart is at the bottom. There's nothing in the location where a normal human heart should be.
Can I analyse his genetics? No. Clearly this is a dead Aztec. So… Use genetic records, clone a best-match for an Aztec heart, prepare cloned blood to pump in and… Imbue this heart with the desire to beat and enough orange light to make it happen, to become a man once more.
...Not the smartest idea, OL. But then, this hasn't really been your day, has it?Then wince quietly as I crack a couple of ribs and enlarge the hole and… Put the heart in his chest, hook up the blood supply-. The heart is already beating, good. Now remove my knives and send them to subspace, reposition the ribs and knit them back together. Drop the spear off to the side and seal up the chest.
And then sit back, reducing the hand-construct restraining him until it's something that he could probably break if he put his mind to it.
...Answer ambiguous, please try again later."So tell me, are you a man again, or still a beast?"
Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!
his -> him
used -> use
No, he deliberately reduced the restraint to something that Jaguar Man could "probably break if he put his mind to it", thus his breaking it to prove he is a man again, I guess.Congradulations.
Your attempting to play god in the middle of a fight has made the super zombie even stronger.
Looks like he wants to give Paul a huug!
And it's a shitty Aztec spear with a head made of obsidian and resin rather than metal! This is why Cortés wiped out your civilisation!
Pain's ebbing a little but for some reason I can't regenerate myself or disintegrate it
As a result I'm having trouble understanding his expression and I'm not sure he could talk if he wanted to
His chest features a chest wound… But the chest has been closed up and… There's a heart beat. No, two heart beats. Strange. I'm increasingly getting the feeling that someone tried and succeeded in turning this man into a super zombie
-or I could use mine. I mean, the orange light can push blood around my body perfectly well and that enlightened Red Lantern version of me didn't seem to miss theirs
Wait. Did the Aztecs have access to coca leaves? I know that some tribes use it as a pain killer
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Fled the country.I wonder what happened to the hitlers, they were in Brazil so are they working for euanthe now?