Chapter 18
Lightning Fervor
Helltanz's notes: The last chapter was pretty important plot building, for the arc after the War with Anubis.
-Chapter begin–
Sithis hummed contentedly, all this around him was his. His fleet stood all around him, as he rested on his throne. Here above this little world. The mortals below at least recognized the massive fleets, what they were. It was a pointless show of force here, completely without purpose. Still here they were.
Seventeen thousand years ago, humph when the goa'uld had been fledgling bickering warlords even more divided than they had been. No that wasn't quite right, Sithis shrugged, knowing the fact was ultimately irrlevant but it had been some twenty four thousand years ago that Apep had assumed control. Apep who had been Ra's father, and then five thousand years later, roughly Anubis had first struck. They had driven him away in one of their few.
Apep, Sithis remembered him, the only decent goa'uld his brother Stendarr had once said those many thousands of years ago. Stendarr would know, the Aedra had been backing Apep, and then one of the Daedra had chosen to back Anubis. After that it had all went spiralling from there. It was quite understandable looking back how everything had played out.
Speaking of Stendarr the Aedra's fleet had joined them. It was pathetic grandstanding on everyone's parts. Still not bringing a fleet or bringing less of one was foolishness as well, and not worth the risks. All gleaming white, and glowing as they were. As things went of course one could hardly say they were utilitarian. Neither side cared, but one could see where ships had clearly originated, both Aedra and Daedra vessels originated from what originally had been Ayelied designs, back during the age of dreams. They still shared the influence of that common heritage.
Stenndarr's flagship, the only one Sithis particularly paid any attention to, was for humanity their glowing beacon of hope, the hammer of mankind, as it were. It was a bit of an eyesore. The wars in heaven had still managed to force some utilitarian principles onto both the Aedra and Daedra, but it didn't stop the Aedric ships from being cheerfully bright in color in the immeasurable void of space.
The discussions at Valar had been largely squandered, nothing of true significance had been achieved, but then rarely were such talks successful at anything than reaffirming the status quo of peace. Certainly the Status quo had had better decades, but certainly this hadn't been the worse that they'd seen.
Rather grumpily another of the Daedra spoke up, "Well we're all here, finally," He added the last bit rather testily.
Sithis ignored the clamoring from the others, the complaints were pointless, as were the rebuttals provided. It was true enough that there were places the collection gathered here would rather be, but then such was alwaays the case. He would be content to get this over and done with.
"Stendarr has freely admitted he to freeing the human wizard in the name of justice, he did not take efforts to hide his actions in this, as such was his perogative." That was not entirely true, Stendarra had chosen to be discreet, but then that was the Aedra. There real tangible advantage over the Daedra was that the entire whole could work together, as opposed to the fractured political factions of the Daedra
Hircine snorted, "And, what of the mortal wizard, nearly ever mewling human in the galaxy give prayers to Stendarr in some form or another, at some point or another" Also true, it made Stendarr amongst the strongest of the Aedra, and with Akatosh dead their leader figure more often than note.
"I've set him on his own way, and his own quest, to find answers to his own questions." Stendarr craned his head looking from each holographic Daedra projection to the next, "That brings us to the issues of the Goa'uld, whom should be our primary concern."
-scene break-
The second of the Rashomon class was dedicated to more sagely things that and magical training. It had turned out that the Jaffa had a natural talent for reading surface thoughts but for millennia this gift had gone unnurtured. These abilities proved a useful edge in edge in combat. Strictly speaking there just weren't enough magically talented Jaffa available to properly justify the effort... it was just a disappointment in population.
The ship contained several immense libraries cataloguing thousands of spells from numerous worlds and cultures. However for centuries, and centuries these spells had largely stacked up unusuable to anyone save to the small fraction of magic users within Raiden's empire.
Reading an old papryus was a reminder of simpler times before open war had broken out between the system lords, the scroll had been a gift from Sehkmet, if Raiden had remembered correctly. Who had been one of Ra's most loyal Lieutenants according to intelligence Ra had become exceedingly paranoid for a time around the rebellion of Earth, and Sehkmet had been exiled, supposedly for attempting to kill Ra, more than likely it was that Ra had attempted to kill Sehkmet, but the Papyrus was one in a set of several scrolls Raiden had which detailed Egyptian magic from the time. Of Egyptian magical society very little remained in this day and age. Only Ptah kept watch over the last remnants of the civilization, Sokar had had no patience for it, and Ra had been distrustful of magic.
Raiden was reading since he had free time, as a system lord it is not uncommon to accumulate a number of gifts, offerings, and other pleasant things. So many so it was not uncommon for a system lord to not even be aware of the contents of what he had simply because he hadn't gone through the various gifts.
Sehkmet though herself had been nonmagical had had a particular talent for genetic engineering, and had been greatly fond of wizards. A little too fond strictly speaking, all things considered.
Reports from earth had trickled in that some time after the Ra had abandoned Earth a Thanagarian ship had crashed on it, for a brief time bringing a new age of unity to the people. Even now the humans were clamoring all over North Africa looking for ruins, and technology. Yu considered it a foolish waste of time, given that all evidence indicated that the Tauri's search patterns were blind and were not likely to find anything of value, especially without sensors. At the same time the Tauri were picking over North Africa, their various nations were gathering as much refined material left over from the Thanagarian invasion. Obviously the Tauri hoped to salvage as much technology as possible, which was all things considered reasonable.
Raiden flicked the access control to the massive shutters covering the 'windows'. The massive armored plates rattled moving back to the side. Reports over Anubis's growing fleets was concerning, given the ancient technology involved. If that hadn't been bad enough news Sithis had warned that while indeed there was Daedric backing for Sokar, to borrow a Tauri colloquialism no shit, Anubis also enjoyed such support. It certainly explained Anubis's sudden massive rearmament program. Whoever was backing Anubis had either been doing it long enough that the exile had already completed his research, or that Anubis was being told specifically what to focus on.
Then there was the issue of Heru'ur and Cronus's various mobile armor programs to worry about.
-scene break-
Silence in space, that was all there was even aboard the shadowy vessel. The present Raiden had been by the melding of the original Goa'uld Raiden and a fragment of the soul of a being with countless names the wizards on Earth called him the boy who lived, but some and more across the galaxy, and beyond in some cases knew him by another name. Even with all his power he knew nothing about Harry Potter, knew nothing but faint rumors that he considered beneath his attention, after all surviving the curse merely hinted at divine intervention nothing particularly special. He wasn't aware that he was in fact 'the boy who lived', even though Dumbledore and Moody knew as did others.
Sithis sat in silence aboard the vessel in contemplation of recent events.
His plans were beginning to reach fruition though there were complications in any event he had already begun seeding agents who were not a part of the Brotherhood on Earth, and across countless other worlds.
However it was clearly not just his own plans that were coming together. Others were clearly settling into operation. Sirius Black was an excellent choice due to his heritage even if the Black Family hadn't been called by Mephala in recent mortal memory. Stendarr clearly had a goal in mind stealing him before Mephala could make the choice.
Sirius the falsely imprisoned wizard was useful potentially. Just as long ago another falsely imprisoned mortal had been in the slaying of not only Akatosh but Mehunes Dagon as well. The wizard was even now flitting about that little blue sphere on the occasional errand for Stendarr, he just needed to determine Stendarr's goal.
The gods were exceedingly complex entities or at least the Aedra and Daedra were. They were amongst the last of the Ayelied because after all they had been responsible for the destruction of the Ayelied's great empire. A destruction, which had ravaged the mortal plane and caused damage on a level beyond what could be seen with the eye or through the use of common scanners.
Destruction spanned the whole of the Ayelied's territories both in this galaxy and beyond and spilled into the dominions of the Alteran. Of course all that was in the past and didn't hint at the complexities of the gods who were responsible for the destruction.
The Aedra had originally set out to stop the Daedra, though the two factions of gods had quickly allied to fight the Ayelied who did not distinguish from Aedra and Daedra. This conflict had been the first War in Heaven, which had signaled the end of the Age of Dreams and the beginning of the Age of Myths. The two sides worked together again with a faction of both working alongside one another to drive the Alteran Republic to splinter and banish them nearly entirely from the Milky Way and then the gods had lashed out once this had been done against each other.
The Aedra and Daedra all knew each other, quite well even before they had ascended to their present status of godhood. It was amusing actually when one looked at it. Harry Potter had been raised by the Ayelied, the 'savior' of the Wizarding world had been the one responsible for the destruction of his adopted people. It had been his research, his hard work that was responsible for the ascension of the Daedra to godhood, and by proxy the rise of the Aedra.
Stendarr was amongst the most powerful of the Aedra. He was a god of men but more than that the 'younger brother' of Sithis, and the one being outside the Daedra that Harry Potter had allowed access to the information regarding becoming a god. The two had been raised in the same Ayelied household raised as brothers for as far as they both knew they were. Sithis the god of death was ultimately responsible for both Aedra and Daedra. He had his own agendas to pursue but as Death he was connected to everything.
The Aedra had and still were a force against any major change, a force of stasis, by contrast the Daedra were a force of change. Both sides were capable of immense patience and neither side were eager to start another war in Heaven any time soon. That wouldn't be necessary though as long as things went to plan. Sithis was moving agents around seeking to expand his influence without violating the delicate rules that both sides had bound themselves by in an attempt to stave off another War in Heaven and besides finding loopholes was the fun part of the game. He was hardly the only one expanding his envoys.
There was a Daedra backing the goa'uld Anubis, he needed to find out who. Emerald eyes glittered dangerously, and the game, he mused, is approaching its next round. Time was something that he had in great abundance, still there was a great deal of work to do on earth in the coming century, as well as in the universe at large. As it was he had a great things to do in that span of time. "Lucien you may dispatch who you like to deal with things," He ordered to the nearest listener who bowed. He needed answers, and the most direct was was typically the best. The listener departed leaving Sithis to his own affairs, and the collection of brotherhood officers.
The meeting with the others had been as a waste of time as usual. No one had admitted to backing Anubis, and then there had been the whole Gordannian discussion as well. Arkay had tabled a number of other issues as well, most critically the issues of Kandrakhar, and the portals forming on Earth. Kandrakhar's barrier was always the issue, Mehunes Dagon, and Akatosh were dead, and Kandrakhar's barrier had the power of them behind it. It was precisely the reason the realm existed still.
"I have the tasks for the rest of you," Sithis ordered shattering the silence, "There are things to do, Anubis skirts the rules of nonintervention by scavenging the Alterans ruins, the humans of Terra do the same."
-scene break-
The Ancient Construction Facility Bairn featured the many jutting towers rising from the central disk, but it was the Command tower, which was the tallest. It was here Raiden was observing things, the vast combination of different classes. Progress was slow the war had yet to begin save for a few minor border skirmishes, which were actually common amongst the System Lords even if they hadn't been on the brink of open war. For the time being the system lords were busy consolidating their territories in preparation for what was sure to not be an easy war.
Reports had indicated that Anubis had vastly improved the Close in Weapons Systems on his ships to try and counter the mobile suits, and mobile armors he had encountered. He had even gone so far as to begin developing a new type of Fighter, or deploying it, called the Moebius, which while no were near as effective as a Mobile Suit in combat brought the odds to Five Moebius needed to destroy a Ginn as opposed to the eight death gliders. For the moment it meant Heru'ur's new fighters, were a better model yet. Still the Mobile Armors were fast and quite maneuverable and their command variant a totally separate model called the Moebius Zero. As far as names went it was something which annoyed Raiden to no end but alas the name was not unfairly taken the Moebius Zero was vastly superior to its mass produced counterpart and in the hands of one of Anubis's Aces it could defeat even a group of mobile suits. Additionally the Moebius Zero was capable of traveling through the stargate. The appearance of these mobile armors had made it much easier to consolidate the territories, even with his lack of allies.
One of the Jaffa bowed to the system lord. "My lord there is an incoming transmission from Saki-sama."
"Main screen." The Shinto Kami commanded stepping away from the tower window, and taking the seat he had vacated several hours previously.
Saki's face appeared on the rippling three dimensional holographic projection, "Raiden-sama. The evolution activity I informed you of I believe you may wish to witness this." He announced presenting the data files in a two dimensional format for review in a large font.
"Prepare the Shinku Rai Tatsu for flight." The System lord ordered after he had finished reading through, this was interesting, very interesting. He stood up and was headed towards the transport beam.
"Yes lord Raiden." A jaffa responded hastily speaking into the communications device on his throat.
The system lord pressed the command panel vanishing in a flash of light. He reappeared the Shinku Rai Tatsu, and moved to take his seat upon command dais surrounded by advanced controls of the warship. In a minute the dark red Battleship pulled away from the massive Alteran Construction facility at a genial pace after all there was no real need to rush at this particular time.
"My lord we are ready to jump inputting coordinates we will come out above the Hinotama research facility." They were fortunate, very much so that Raiden's domain was between Yu's territory, and the Tauri homeworld, and not vice versa.
The system lord nodded, "Make it so." With the order given the battleship moved forward accelerating and before the prow of the ship a hyperspace window opened.
-scene break-
The Shinku Rai Tatsu had not taken long at all to reach the entered coordinates given that its engines were on par with all but the more recent Asgard built had quickly moved to take up its customary position in high orbit over the Tauri's New York city.
"Receiving transmission," The jaffa announced, "main screen." He proclaimed from his console and transferred the incoming encrypted subspace communication to the forward central display of the ship's peltak.
The leader of the Foot Clan's visage appeared on the screen. "My lord as instructed I have set up the appropriate surveillance devices over and around Bayville. My surveillance has thus yielded some impressive findings."
He paused before responding that certainly was interesting. "Ikazuchi will be accompanying me." He remarked before he vanished in a bolt of lightning.
Rin Ikazuchi was a Hok'tar, one of the few which Raiden oversaw creation of himself, which was exceptionally rare for this era given how busy the system lord had been over the last few centuries.
The teen was average height for a boy of fifteen summers, though as a Hok'tar could match the average adult Jaffa in martial combat, and was an exceptional pilot. "Lord Raiden I do not understand my presence in accompanying you."
"Simple the possibility is we may need to send someone undercover," By we of course the system lord was referring to himself in the plural, but really it didn't matter that much. "I would rather avoid sending a shinobi or Ashrak." Just as Sithis would no doubt prefer to avoid dispatching on of his agents or the Dark Brotherhood.
Saki bowed formally. "Lord Raiden thank you for coming I have several files you should personally see as soon as you are prepared for such." Saki remarked activating a video projector. It was more primitive than the goa'uld technology the man had used earlier attached to one of the Tauri's 'modern computers'. "We will begin with what was the first incident." A computer readout appeared, which presented an exacting location, and time stamp. It read: Sol, Earth, North American continent, United States of America, New York, Bayville, Bayville High School Seven PM Eastern Standard Time.
Quite obviously these had been taken by observation drones equipped with stealth camouflage, that could be a potential problem if the SGC decided to enter the one of the various other Tauri organizations that were mucking about.
Interestingly the two humans the camera focused on were identified with the Goa'uld symbols for Hok'tar. Off to the side were a pair of student records listing their names, and various biological, and academic data courtesy of Tauri records. It would seem that 'Jean, and Scott' were attending a Bayville High football game. Jean was busy taking pictures while Scott was watching the game from the stands.
The drone took the time to alter its position. Raiden had never quite understood the interest of Football, then again he didn't quite understand the fascination with sports in general. The drone continued shifted as it showed 'Scott' focus in on another mutant, that the drone identified by the drone as Todd Tolansky, was busy picking pockets. Scott looked like he'd been moving to stop the smaller mutant, ended up getting there just in time to save 'Toad' from three football players who plan on beating him for stealing.
Strictly speaking it would have been an appropriate punishment, though Raiden did not quite understand why Saki was showing him this, and then Scott lost control of his powers after his glasses were knocked off. The ruby beam of energy caused an explosion.
The drone started gaining altitude, and that was when things got interesting. Two new mutants arrived identified as respectively Charles Francis Xavier, formerly US Army Major in genetics, biophysics, psychology, and anthropology, and an M.D. in psychiatry, and Ororo Munroe show up soon after to smooth things over.
It was the prior that Raiden was more concerned about. Xavier "adjusted" some thoughts and then headed off, the drone following, to the local train station to pick up yet another mutant identified as Kurt Wagner, who's come to join the school.
Footage from another drone cut in rather abruptly, as a second projector booted up and identified another pair of 'mutants' these in particular caused some pause for the system lord. Both drones showed a convergence on the mansion that Saki had shown him some time earlier, and the first drone took to floating outside a window, as the second projector shut off.
Doctor Xavier was taking the time to introduce Jean and Scott to Kurt, before talking to Scott about the explosion he caused at the high school with his powers, before taking the time to show Kurt to his room and gives him an images inducer to make him look human, Aurora Monroe dropped what she called an 'X-man' uniform off with Kurt as well.
What followed was a series of clips from the drones over the next two days primarily focusing on what appeared to be two seperate factions in the town. The leader of warn with a personal notification warning placed by the Dark Brotherhood, though no explanation as to why; typical as such was. There were also Brotherhood notifications on the two hok'tar that the second projector had shown footage for, again no reason given for the flagging.
The probes kept watch on both the school, and the mansion largely from the outside. Carefully watching as Xavier took the time to try and explain the Xmen concept to Toad, and Kurt. Both the mutants ended up running off, and Xavier took the time to welcome the mutant identified as James Logan Howlett home even as the drone flagged the latter mutant with a Dark Brotherhood warning designation.
Another drone this one at the high school recorded the principal freaks out about Toad running out on the X-Men. She threw him out of the office and then morphs into her true form. Magneto, id'ed by the sensors as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, arrives and tells her not to be so hard on him, and to 'Remember this is only the beginning.' The projection ended displaying the various clips time frames. "So it appears we have to watch for other factions, and is there any indication of knowledge of the Stargate?" He knew that there were various Tauri intelligence agencies that were poking about as it was, which was sure to be problematic.
"No my lord, but given the abilities he has demonstrated it is possible," The Shredder remarked "Though at the same time give his ties with the US Military one would think they would have brought him in already if he did officially know."
He nodded, that was true, "If he becomes a nuisance eliminate him." The system lord ordered icily the US Military had potential but having them bring a powerful Hok'tar psychic into their ranks would be too troublesome.
"As you wish." Saki once again activated the projector.
Again the drone's recorded superimposed the location. Sol, Earth, North American Continent, United States of America, New York, Northbrook, Pryde family household. Time of initial recording Four AM.
Xavier apparently had developed some kind of psychic amplifer which had used to detect mutant signatures. He had proclaimed that it was called Cerebro, which using it linked to computer networks seemed to function a effectively the same manner as the probe employed by the Shredder on behalf of the System Lord. Kitty Pryde was from Northbrook, and age 15.
The projection fast forwards to the next morning, with the grand arrival of Xavier and Jean in the Blackbird to see the young Hok'tar. The attempt appears largely fruitless. The projection switches to another probe, this one monitoring the manor.
At the mansion Logan catches Sabretooth's scent. He suits up and takes off after him on his cycle. He blazes by Scott and Kurt. The two younger mutants decide to follow after him.
Kurt and Scott, accompanied by the cloaked probe, track Wolverine to a parking garage. An all out brawl breaks out between Sabretooth and Logan. Sabretooth slams a car into Logan, and while he's got him pinned he says, "One shall fall by the other's hand."
Wolverine responds snarkily to the declaration that he didn't take Sabretooth as the philosophical type.
Scott blasts Sabretooth off of Wolverine, and Kurt tries to teleport in and help. Sabretooth is about to attack Kurt when Logan slams him into an elevator. Sabretooth quickly ran off. Wolverine tells Scott and Kurt to stay out of his battles.
The recording ended, and Saki spoke up. "The one that the doctor was attempting to talk to her ability involves molecular phasing, we monitored a disturbance at the high school, involving another mutant." He played the footage from the incident in question, and then clicked the stop key, "Our current indication is the mutant involved is probably affiliated with the principal."
Raiden frowned admittedly the power was replicatable not only with magic but technology as well. "Another useful ability," He paused, "though the evolution seems extremely random."
"We believe that this is because the mainstay of the Hok'tar are first generation," The shredder commented, "we believe after a few generations powers will stabilize and become hereditary not unlike our existing Hok'tar program."
He nodded, "I should hope so the chance of the Tauri wielding a bunch of Hok'tar with extremely random powers could lead to a great deal of problems." If the Tauri military began to deploy Hok'tars en masse against the system lords it would draw far too much attention from the goa'uld making it very difficult to defend the planet and enforce the protected planets treaty. Not with the goa'uld divided between burning the planet, and trying to take such valuable resources for themselves. Of course the chances of such occurring in the immediate future given the presence of the Hok'tar was unlikely at best. As it seemed the advanced humans… the 'mutants' as they called themselves were new for the most part, which raised questions.
They were not dissimilar to another who had existed during the Goa'uld occupation of Earth millennia prior, particularly in the case of Egypt. Earth really was quite fertile no wonder the ancients loved it so. As it stood though the diversity of sentient human life that this world possessed was both an asset and a potential bane should it draw the attention of others.
-Chapter Conclusion -
Helltanz's notes: This is another of the "weak" rewrites.