Chapter 28
Lightning FervorHelltanz's Notes: I've come to realize working on this that my principle problem, personally, writing this its that even with the single scenes giving some insight into people like the wizards of england, and the various goa'uld, and others that those scenes just aren't enough to properly convey what I'm try to accomplish. Basically given the timeline of the story I need to expand previous chapter substantially.
Chapter begin
-scene break-
For the Turtles they pretty much had been stuck watching the aftermath of the attack of the summit it was the sole thing occupying the news. Sitting there and just having to watch the fight on the streets of New York had bothered Raphael the most especially when the aliens had started intervening. Donatello was too busy reviewing years worth of footage from all the various invasions that had happened over the last several years.
Raphael growled, "Damn it can't believe that bastard is still poking around," Nobody had really figured out what was, what happened at the TCRI building. The whole place had started following apart, and one of the Umtrom's had showed them to a list ditch attempt to escape as everything broke away.
"Do you think that since he's poking around that maybe, may some of the Umtrom got out of the TCRI building, I mean we went into space, it'd be less crazy for them to go hide in the sewers or somewhere..."
Raphael spun his sais, "Don't get your hopes up Mikey, you saw what a mess that place was," or what was left of it. At least Master Splinter had made it out. All things considered though, what they had found hadn't seemed much better than what they had left behind on earth.
"Karai doesn't seem to think so," Raphael snorted at the response, and ground out a collection of disparaging remarks about the whole situation.
Master Splinter nodded, "I think that your friend is correct that there are things we simply cannot know just yet," Their sensei counseled, and produced a device from within the folds of his robes, "you must understand my sons that the Umtrom entrusted us with this for the betterment of this world, their legacy must be used for the good of all."
Donatello was all over the alien device, without further prompting, "its a computer of some kind." He quickly set to working on some kind of interface, "Why did you wait until now to show us this sensei?"
"He doesn't want us going up to the surface," Raphael groaned, "Lets face it we went sneaking into the TCRI building, and Shredder, and the guys in black showed up, and a lot of people died." The red turtle sat back on the lumpy couch in the lair, "Lets look at it then, we get sent into who know wheres in space, and we come back, and the world is still a mess."
Michaelango sat down besides his brother on the couch, "Hey at least the planet hasn't gotten invaded this year, no bird people from outer space like when the Thanagarians invaded, so maybe we'll have a quiet year."
"Yeah maybe," Donatello agreed prodding the computer causing it to glow, "Hey guys I think I got it working," It would definitely take some time getting used to the umtrom... he looked at the characters... oh it was english that was helpful. "This is some legacy, I think this is... this is like there whole cultural history, and I think this is the schematics for their technology." The question was who did they give it too though that was kind of important...
-scene break-
Sithis settled back onto the couch even as the mansion exploded, "Why are you just standing there!"She snapped furiously at him, We've got to do something!"
He ignored the shouting, and finally sighed watching the smoke rising, "We did do something don't you see dear, they're all," He swept his arm in a broad grand gesture to those around them, "all of them are alive." He laughed, "That was what you wanted, that was what you wanted me to do, saving the mansion was never what you wanted." He looked around at the collection of mutants it was a trifling thing. "I'm sure that Constantinos has the pantry stocked, I should hope so at least." As far as things went he had far more pressing issues to deal with than to worry about the state of food, but then he supposed it was more than reasonable for him to take the time to procure an eatary's cooking... what was it... calling out for a pizza.
"But we can actually stay here right?"
Sithis nodded, "As long as you wish,"
"Allright!"
He snorted, as it was it was probably better that way, he knew that Arkay would probably be throwing a fit. This was a mess. What mortals didn't seem to understand in this day and age is kidnapping was all well and good until you pissed off a god by grabbing the wrong person. It would certainly be interesting to watch the aftermath, or at least see how Arkay would organize his response. This was of course assuming he didn't allow the mortal authorities the honor of dismantling the offender's entire organization; SHIELD was rumored to at least be reasonably competent.
"So what about New York? I mean that robot," Rogue wasn't that worried about the Mansion, Xavier had more money than he probably knew what to do with so if everyone was safe... it was probably better to focus on the city that had been getting wrecked by all the giant robots and stuff.
Sithis shrugged, "I'm sure Oscorp will get a hefty contract to handle rebuilding, or maybe LexCorp," He shrugged again, such things hardly mattered "I'm sure things were surprisingly civilian friendly, like one of those children's cartoons on your television on saturday mornings." The Daedra commented, "On the plus side at least they all looked mildly military, can you imagine your news response if your largest city got wrecked by machines painted in what your society considered the epitome of feminine colors." Truth be told the idea amused him immensely. The no doubt massive outrage from the humans could be a useful tool to provoking them to action.
"Thats not what I meant, and you know it." She growled finally taking the proffered seat on the couch, "I mean Scott was here, Boom boom too," Sithis thought the nick name was stupid, but didnt' comment at least Cyclops was reasonable, "And so were the others, but Wolverine got kidnapped by that nutzo."
The Daedric lord shrugged, "I think you should relax, that is something that Arkay will settle. In his own way, and none of the gods will disagree with whatever course he chooses to pay Bolivar Trask back for that insult."
"Why?" She glanced back at him, "Hold on what?"
Sithis spared a glance back at her. He seemed to have lost her again; he was growing increasingly annoyed with the modern world. "I've known Arkay since we were young, but know this what Trask had done is an unforgivable slight, had he stolen you, the Armies of the Dark would march on earth's streets, and all of Trask's bloodline, and the whole of his allies would cease to exist within a day and a night."That was not exaggeration either, he'd done such before no doubt he'd do it again.
-scene break-
For medieval subsistence farming droughts were simply a part of life. Famines were unfortunately a simple part of reality, throughout the galaxy in goa'uld domains that survived on medieval levels such things also happened. It was just the way of things.
Phobos had not had a pleasant night, actually the entire season had been a miserable experience. It was troublesome enough that, there was a drought, which had dramatically harmed food production, which negatively of course effected peasant moods. The truth though it was the guardians, and the hunt for his sister that was weighing on him.
There was simply too much at stake to leave this matter unaddressed, but this generation was strong. It wasn't as if Phobos was lax in some way, but the Heart of Kandrakhar that was too much of a boost to the five for him to hope to counteract, even sealed as it was by the blood of five. If he hadn't been so distracted by his current situation then Phobos likely would have hoped to meddle in Dakota, as it was though even with his pride slighted by Elijah he knew he needed to deal with the rebels and the guardians.
That though was the problem. The rebels had no way of defeating his castles, or his guards in bulk, but he had no way of finding them either. They were like dust in the wind, near in possible to track down. Coupled with the fact that there were only so many portals, and how diligent the guardians seemed in closing them he was very concerned with how things looked to play out. With the heart he knew that they would certainly be able to overpower his guards, even with out it the guardians should have that strength. He knew he needed to do something, just not what. "How is the situation?"
"We caught some of the farmers in the dale, sire smuggling grain and foodstuffs to the rebels, should I have them hung sire?"
To support enemies of the realm, traitors to the crown, was like in all societies of feudal base rarely well received news, but Phobos for the moment had cause to be lenient he needed all the farmers he could. "No increase their taxes, and put them back to work, station some guards, and additional workers at the farm," He needed to keep the crop yield as high as feasibly possible. Goodness he'd be glad when Cedric got back from Earth. "And leave me!" Phobos snapped irritably.
It was the Guardians they'd revitalized the rebellion with their appearance. It wasn't fair sure he'd known a fresh set would be chosen, but they were sill a nuisance. If they didn't have the heart he knew for sure he could beat them. He had to he was the Prince of Meridian, and more than that they were new to their tasks. Raw power or not they certainly shouldn't be doing near this well.
No what really burned was the Dread Father's lackey took such amusement from all of this. Elijah thought it was hilarious; thrice the ebon giant had mocked him, and it was all the more infuriating.
-scene break-
"I tell you what Rich, its good be back on the block." Static swerved around the corner it was a fairly average patrol so far. Just one breaking and entering was all he'd had to stop tonight, which was good given the school work he still had to do. He swung side ways as he caught something on the roof, "hold on Rich call you back in a minute, might have something going down."
Elijah lifted his head, his hands resting on the pommel of his sword, a long saber. It was a monstrous looking thing. Once upon a time it'd been an 1840 heavy cavalry saber as plain as any of its lot, today it was solid black save the runes glowing along it blade. "Good evening, boy."
"I'm going to guess you're not a bang baby," Static guessed warily, earning a loud but brief laugh from the larger man, "just had to check. So is there a reason you're up here, or did I miss a memo about-"
The man laughed again, and cut him off, new super heroes were always a fun thing to deal with, "You know about Alva's hand in the big bang event," That cut Virgil's banter short, and set him to stammering, "Don't fret so much. I am Elijah, Edwin Alvin has perhaps five years," He paused "up to nine if the experimental treatment he's been taking pans out you see. Its cancer, and the man wants a legacy. Yet every year an invasion on earth has been mounted at least once."
"Yeah well, I knew about the bang baby gas," which was true, It'd been one of the first things he'd found out after becoming a super hero, and obviously about the invasions of the Earth over the last couple years. What he hadn't known Alva had cancer though, that was a bit of a shocker, and obvious, "So Earth got invaded, you think its going to happen again."
He nodded, "I know so, the batman made an agreement with the Dread Father to lay the Thanagarians low, and the Justice League has been expanding since."
"Yeah I don't get the feeling your from the League." Virgil tilted back a bit on his electrified manhole cover, "uh no offense sword man."
A snort, "I serve a more profound calling, no I have more pressing issue. The league is expanding to better deal with threats, and with my divinely appointed task to guard this city I should think that should help. I am offering you an agreement." Elijiah held out a opaque waterproof plastic bag with a security mark on it. It was the information about the bang baby background all of it. Amongst that of course included where the mutagen had originated from, and the company Alva had gotten the precursor from, and the speculation of what that had meant. "You should read it, and not underestimate it, in their own way both Alva and Osborne are hard men."
"Uh thanks..." Virgil gave a pained grin taking it, and nearly lost control of his levitation when Elijah vanish in a glow from his light, "Geez things get weirder and weirder in Dakota," He reached for his cellphone and hit redial, "Yeah Ritchie... we have a problem I'm coming over." He considered opening but decided to go ahead and head over and read it at Richies house.
Richie was sprawled out on his bed staring at the tv. It was yet another of those ancient astronaut theory specialists going on about aliens on Earth. "Can you believe they have this clown on with Vandal Savage of all people?"
Virgil nodded, he knew the hulking dude in the monkey suit looked familiar. "So is that big mouth Godfrey still railing on Martian Manhunter?"
"You betcha." Glorious Godfrey was one of the big names in news talkshows since the Thanagarian invasion, he'd been big before then, but now his vitriolic anti alien rhetoric had a more main stream base. The guy didn't have a problem with supers, just aliens, it was always just aliens. It did make him a critic of Superman, and Martian Manhunter, and from time to time the Green Lanterns, but most everyone else was fine even if Bruce Wayne had been catching a lot of flack recently from Godfrey. On that though everyone pretty much agreed the Wayne lawyers would shut that noise down if it got out of hand, or if the billionaire stopped being in good humor about it. "Did you hear him this morning whining about the launch of the Freedom I space lifter?" Richie asked muting the tv.
-scene break-
There were not many rogue Asgard at least as far earth was concerned. The most famous of these was of course Loki of Asgard, but he was not the only one. These asgard ruins told Bill that much as he looked around with Hermione, even if he hadn't known that specifically.
"These are computers, but I've never seen anything like these," She remarked, that was to say she knew they were computers, and she knew aliens existed, and such. She also knew from Bill's evidence that there had been Thanagarians on ancient earth, and such but it was still a hard pill to swallow. It was still a fascinating topic, especially when Moody had introduced them all to one of Stendarr's sworn. Moody had said that whatever was going to happen this era was going to end soon. For whatever that meant Moody was calm, he said the Aedra said that it had been in the works for ages.
"Glad Mad Eye has relaxed," Bill remarked, "We might need his help with this, I am not seeing anything obviously cursed," Which was surprising for him, generally ancient ruins were crawling in magic.
Bill's speciality had always been the near east, sure he'd covered the basics of the Northmen and the celts in school, but it'd only been recently, for the Order, he'd started going more indepth. Hermione was a bit of a help if only for the sheer book knowledge she retained, if you needed something translated or referenced she could probably handle it. "It says Utgard-Loki, who was a giant," In the Asgard language the word for the norse giant was actually more descriptive than that. The Asgard referred to themselves as Aesir, one faction of an ancient civil war, but Jotun were a different 'people' within Asgard context, as were the vanir. The elves had been the ancients. Hermione tapped the the stone. Bill cursed, and jerked his wand as the glowing started. It didn't matter, "its the galaxy, well the galaxies," She amended as the projection spread outwards. The Milky Way, then Pegasus, and Idun and beyond. The Asgard had at one point been, like the Ancients multi galactic, or rather their predecessors had been. Today the Asgard's genetic problem precluded such, and it had only compounded with the issue of the Replicators.
The recording was in ancient norse, phrased in what would have been traditional song it chronicled events thousands of years past, long before even the Terrors of Sokar.
"... uh?" Unfortunately for what would probably be the height of poetic tradition back in the day neither Bill or Hermione happened to speak ancient Norse, which kind of precluded translating. The map though, the star map that though was significant, even for the wizarding worlds. As an expert on the Egyptians, and the near east in general Bill recognized some of this, "We need to get Dumbledore, and... Sinistra here." The Asgard star map was a massive, which was saying something given the size of the room three dimensional image filled with countless rotating stars, but what most filled it out were the massive glowing auras around regions of space.
-scene break-
The Senate subcommittee that was for amongst other things responsible for the SGC's budget oversight were settled into their seats. Originally there had been a lot of pressure for Homeland Security to handle Homeworld Security, but that had gotten shot down quickly. Right now they were still poking through the latest SGC report. Jack was stuck sitting beside colonel Wilson, who had just joined the SGC and gotten command of the Army's new Stargate Combat Platoon. This was despite the fact that Wilson was very clearly missing an eye from a gunshot wound.
In the aftermath of Nirti's arrest on Earth by the System Lords, Moloc had managed to sweep up the bulk of her domain. It was a move that had greatly strengthened his position amongst the system lords. The SGC was rather worried about it, but the Senate had other concerns they wanted addressed.
The senate had other issues they thought more important to discuss with the assembled personnel from Stargate Command, "Reviewing the data," The texan began, "Your intelligence reports indicate that the largest of the GO'auld," He ennunciated, looking at the spreadsheet table in front of him, "Fleets is commanded by the First emperor of the Chinese, uh Yu Huang Shang Ti? That is correct isn't it Doctor Jackson, I said that right?"
"Yes senator," Daniel nodded, if that ever got out to the general public well certain political factions had a rampant fear of a growing yellow peril to the east due to the growing economic power of the PRC. For now though the Stargate was still classified from the general public, and well most everyone else.
The senator nodded flipping pages, "Good, just wanted to make sure," He was rather large man, and thankfully rather open minded about the whole Stargate program, "Well after him is," He read down a bit, "Ah He-ru'ur, Her'uur uh,"
"Heru'ur, Senator,"
Another nod, "Right him, his fleet is the next largest, says uh, big on carriers, and space fighters and such. Then Sokar is the next largest on number of ships," This placement was a result of how Heru'ur domain had grown as result of territory shifts, and losses Sokar had taken against Cronus, and other system lords. "followed by Cronus, is that right?" After another confirmation the Senator nodded, "Well I see the SGC's report does... things look in order, the war of the Goa'uld seems to have all their attentions. Sounds like its a good time to build up our own fleet." That was actually the whole issue, the Senate wasn't so keen on continued humanitarian missions, or anthropological research, especially given that there was a war going on between the decidedly hostile powers that ruled the galaxy.
The last time they'd been invaded Earth had been able to get free, it had been with Alien help yes, before the SGC's own ships could arrive. Even given the inferiority of the ships, and technology of the Thanagarians the wreckage had been carefully hoarded with hopes to learn from them. In fact the multi kiloton Thanagarian anti ship weapons had other tactical purposes, and their, the Thanagarian, other energy weapons had applications that the military expected to be useful. The shields for cities were a particular interest. That once piece of technology had a lot of public support to implement.
Then there were the discussions with NATO, but the main thing remained fleet construction, and research and development. "The development of systems for the Daedalus," The second senator, this one from Washington, began "should be your priority."
"That in addition to the Freedom Star Space station should be your priority," The third Senator spoke up, geez it was nice not having to deal with Kinsey anymore in these meetings. The USAF had the mandate for space technology, though the Navy was already contesting that by expanding their research into directed energy and other technologies. The back engineering of Thanagarian technology had been a boon for that, particularly the invader's antigravity systems.
-scene break-
Chapter Conclusion
Helltanz's Notes: