"Absolutely not Colonel." Hammond nearly shouted his reply, cutting O'Neill off in mid sentence.

"We should be out there General, using these armbands to do some damage to the snakes, not cooped up in here." Jack countered, trying to bring General Hammond around to his way of thinking.

"And what about long term effects?" Hammond asked, making O'Neill pause and consider this. "We still don't know what effects those armbands are having on your body, and now that Anise has left we most likely never will."

"We just shouldn't be sitting around wasting this stuff. We ought to be out kicking some Goa'uld butt! I mean look at this." Jack paused; his eyes flicking around the room before he swung out with a punch which connected with the wall nearest him, carving a hole clean through into the adjoining room where Buffy and Faith jumped in surprise before moving over to examine it. "Sorry." Jack muttered, pulling his hand back through the hole and smiling at the two girls he could now see.

"Nice strength," Faith muttered. A bit bemused by the show of force that Jack had just used.

"Thanks," Jack shook his head. "We should be out there, doing damage to the snakes, not in your office, sir." He added the last, remembering his place in the hierarchy of the base.

"Colonel, I'm just not fully convinced you are in complete control of your new abilities." Hammond explained.

"I'll say," Buffy muttered from where she and Faith were still watching through the hole.

"Come on, we can be ready in three seconds." Jack pleaded, really wanting to get off the base and really cut loose.

"Colonel..." Hammond made the single word a warning.

"Two seconds," Jack pleaded, bouncing on his feet.

"Jack, please, just get the hell out of my office!" Hammond shouted, now eyeing the hole where he could see Buffy and Faith watching Jack in amusement. "And have Siler call maintenance."

"Yes, Sir," Jack muttered before snapping off a crisp salute and walking out of the office.

--=/^\=--

"What's up with those armband thingies?" Buffy asked as she moved back to sit at the table with Faith while they waiting for Xander to return.

"Dunno," Faith shrugged. "Xander's dad isn't normally like this, well, ok, maybe he is, but he's not normally punching holes in walls or arguing with the General like that."

"Some sort of alien mind control thing?" Buffy asked, at first joking about it and then actually considering it seriously.

"Don't think so, Sam and Daniel seemed like themselves, maybe it just gets worse the longer they've had them on, the Doc did say that Jack was the first one to get one." Faith explained, rapping her fingernails on the table, bored with waiting.

"Right, not mind control," Buffy accepted. "Drugs? Maybe it's giving them some sort of alien alcohol that's making them act like this."

"Could be," Faith smiled. "Xander didn't look too happy with Anise though." Faith said, quickly switching the conversation onto the one thing they had avoided talking about ever since Xander left to blow off some steam.

"Can you blame him?" Buffy asked. "First she does experiments on people, including Xander's dad, then she tries scanning us and the rings so she could make her own, and she completely ignored Xander's request for alien whatsits for earth."

"It's not like she ignored it, she asked her government people, they just said no." Faith said, not wanting to side with Anise over this but finding herself agreeing more and more with her as time went on. "Where did Xander say he was going anyway?"

"Just said to blow off some steam," Buffy shrugged, "Whatever that means." Buffy smiled as they were interrupted by a knock at the door and General Hammond walked in.

"I believe I know where Mister Harris is," General Hammond explained. "I've just received reports from SpaceCom at NASA of several explosions in the asteroid belt just beyond the orbit of Mars."

"Right," Faith drawled out. "So he's blowing off steam by blowing up space rocks."

"Better than punching holes through walls," Buffy grinned then turned serious as Hammond looked at her. "How is Jack?"

"I've confined him to one of the diplomatic rooms on level nineteen along with the rest of SG1, until Doctor Fraiser is sure that the armbands have no negative side effects I'm going to keep them confined." Hammond explained.

"Good luck with that," Buffy smirked. "They're at least as strong as a slayer; if they want out I don't see walls stopping them." Buffy nodded to the hole the in wall as a reminder of what they were now capable of if angered.

"I see your point," Hammond conceded. "There isn't really anything we can do though, they are stronger and faster than anyone on the base and are getting restless not doing anything."

"I'm like that," Faith interrupted. "Need to burn off energy or I'd go crazy."

"Me too," Buffy agreed.

"How to you cope with it then?" Hammond asked, a bit curious to learn more about the two slayers, coupled with the fact that SG1 were now more like slayers than normal air force personnel.

"Slaying." Both girls answered at once with a grin. "Nothing better than a good fight to burn off energy." Buffy continued.

"Yeah, though after slaying you've gotta cope with the two H's." Faith grinned. "So let them have a fight, then get a lot of food ready and a cold shower." Faith laughed as Buffy blushed at the confused look General Hammond was sending their way.

"General Hammond, sir, SG1 are missing." Siler reported as he walked through the still open door. "I went to check on them and see if they needed anything and the room was empty sir."

"Have you checked the cafeteria?" Hammond asked, remembering how each of SG1 had developed a sweet tooth and a high metabolism rate because of the armbands.

"Or the gym," Buffy pointed out, "Maybe they went to burn off some energy."

"Showers." Faith grinned.

"Yes sir, they're not on base, the elevator cameras recorded them leaving the base but topside didn't report anything unusual." Siler explained.

"If they're as fast as us too, then the guy's at the exit wouldn't have seen anything anyway, not to mention Jack's black op's training." Faith explained.

"I want them found, send cars to each of their homes." Hammond barked his order out. "We can't have people running around with alien technology, not with their strength anyway."

"Hey," Buffy and Faith muttered, feeling a bit offended there.

"Sorry," Hammond apologized; completely forgetting who else was in the room with him. "But you understand what I mean."

"We can help," Faith said with a smile, standing up from the table. "Colorado Springs isn't that big; we'll do a sweep and keep an eye out for them."

"Yeah, would feel better than sitting around doing nothing." Buffy agreed.

"Be careful," Hammond said, "And try and keep a low profile, we don't need any more UFO nuts getting pictures of unidentified lights flying over the base."

"Gotcha," Faith grinned. "Low profile, slayer special." Buffy nodded in agreement before the two moved to leave the room and head to the elevator.

"This isn't going to end well," General Hammond muttered as he watched the two girls leave before heading into his office to have his usual aspirin after dealing with SG1's anticts.

--=/^\=--

As Sam leans over the pool table she can almost see the pool balls moving in her mind, her thoughts are racing so fast she can perfectly predict how the balls are going to play out, the angles of incidence and refraction from the cushions are easily accessible to her and she knows just how hard to strike the cue ball to get the perfect spin.

Lining up her cue she aims perfectly, striking it with just the right amount of force as everyone around the table watches as the white ball streaks off round the table in an almost impossible arc, pocketing one, two then a third ball directly in a row before coming to rest in perfect alignment with the black ball just next to the corner pocket nearest her.

"How the hell did you do that?" The man who was playing her, who had yet to even strike a ball asked as he stood up and eyed the table.

"Wanna go double or nothing?" Sam asked with a smirk, picking up the fifty dollar bill from the table and waving it in front of him.

"No, I think I'll cut my losses!" The man muttered, downing his beer and dropping the cue onto the table where it clattered against the balls still resting there.

"Smart move." Daniel grinned from his table where he was watching with a drink.

"What are you laughing at geek?" The man asked, turning to sneer at Daniel as Jack and Sam just watched on with a smile.

"Excuse me?" Daniel asked, standing up from the table, finally happy to know that he can actually fight back against bullies like this for the first time.

"Just let it go Daniel." Jack muttered, his brain a bit cloudy from the alcohol and adrenaline rushing through his system but he can still remember what they are now capable of doing if they got into a fight with the armbands on.

"No," Daniel smirked, taking of his glasses and putting them on the table next to his pint. "Not this time." As two of the man's friends moved to stand next to him he just watched as the man picked up the pool cue from the table and twirled it in his hand. "Is that supposed to scare me?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Take the offer," A new voice came from the entrance to the room behind everyone. "You don't want to do this tonight."

Twirling round everyone saw Faith and Buffy stood in the entrance way, they were leaning up against one of the walls and seemed to be quite happily enjoying the show. "General Hammond sent us to find you," Buffy explained. "The new fashion accessories give of quite a bit of energy, easy to track down if you know how." She smirked as she saw Jack, Sam and Daniel raise their hands to the armbands automatically, the fight now forgotten for the moment.

"Trust me, you don't want to do this." Faith said, stepping forward and getting in the man's face, she could see him calculating the odds and the fact that a military officer had been mentioned had thrown the fight out of him a bit.

"Whatever," The man sneered, throwing the cue across the room where Daniel deftly snatched it out of the air and brought it to a stop under his arm with a flourish.

"Always wanted to do that," Daniel smirked as Jack chuckled at him while the three men left the room.

"So, coming back to the base or do we have to take you back?" Buffy asked, hoping they would choose the former as she wasn't looking forward to going up against Xander's dad and two of his friends, especially when they were hopped up on alien super technology and had military fighting experience behind them.

"Come on, back to the base campers." Jack muttered, rolling his eyes at being caught for this.

"But..." Both Sam and Daniel tried to interrupt with their objections.

"Now." Jack said, his voice not leaving any room for argument.

"Sir," Sam snapped off a sarcastic salute before moving to get her coat while Daniel just glared at him.

"You coming?" Jack asked, eying Daniel carefully.

"You can't order me back Jack," Daniel said calmly. "I'm not military."

"No," Faith said, moving to stand between them. "But you're playing with fancy toys and General Hammond wants them back, so we can do this the easy way..."

"Or we can take you back in a cage," Buffy finished off, moving to stand by Faith, her ring glowing slightly as a reminder to Daniel of what they could do.

"Right," Daniel muttered, fetching his glasses before moving to get his coat. "Whatever."

"I liked him more before he got that armband thingie," Buffy whispered to Faith.

"Mind control," Faith whispered back with a laugh as the two slayers followed SG1 out of the restaurant and back to Jack's car.

--=/^\=--

"Look, all I'm saying is that we need to find a way to get these alien thingies off of them, I mean Daniel was about to start a bar fight." Buffy explained as she sat down at the table where General Hammond, Faith, Doctor Fraiser and Teal'c were discussing their options.

"I concur, their behaviour has been most erratic of late." Teal'c announced, his deep voice making everyone at the table pay attention to his words.

"I gotta agree with the big guy," Faith nodded, smiling across the table. "This isn't like them, we need to get those arm bands off."

"We've tried everything we have," Doctor Fraiser explained, flicking through a wad of test result print outs in front of her. "The armbands seem to have bonded to their arms at the molecular level, aside from amputation I don't see a way to physically remove them."

"We'll leave that as a last resort," General Hammond nodded. "What about the Tok'ra, surely they must have the resources to remove these."

"I doubt it General," Doctor Fraiser said. "The armbands aren't compatible with the naquadah in their system, much the same reason why they wouldn't work for Teal'c, if they had tested them on someone else they wouldn't have needed SG1 for the tests."

"So they used us as guinea pigs, gotta say, they're not getting in my good books any time soon." Buffy smirked.

"Would Anise be willing to share her research on how to remove them?" General Hammond asked, a bit wary of sending anyone to ask the Tok'ra for assistance after Xander had just sent Anise back through the 'Gate with a stern warning.

"All of her notes are still here," Doctor Fraiser explained. "From what I can translate, there isn't anything about removing the armbands themselves, but Doctor Jackson would be better at translating it." She paused, glancing at the alien data device in front of her and the weird symbols that were scrolling across its screen. "It's still linked to the medical scanner's that SG1 are wearing, I've only been able to understand bits of it, but they all seem to be running a high fever and have varying metabolism spikes, but I can tell you that the human body was not designed to run at this level, I can't be sure without further testing, but I believe that they would all be suffering from extreme tachycardia with the rest of their internal organs being pushed to keep up."

"English please?" Faith asked, looking a bit bemused at the medical terminology. "You know, for those of us who don't speak doctor."

"They're burning out." Buffy said, grasping the simple concepts of what Doctor Fraiser had said, even if she didn't understand the terminology used.

"Simply put, yes." Doctor Fraiser agreed. "The human body just wasn't designed for this, if we don't get the armbands off of them, well, the prognosis isn't good, but my guess would be multiple organ failure, then the rest of the body would shut down to try and regain a normal rhythm."

"Right, then we need to get these things off of them, without cutting their arms off," Faith caught on, now that she understood how desperate the situation was. She wouldn't like to be Anise if Xander's dad died, not after only just finding him. "I could go and talk to Anise, see what she knows, see if she'd be willing to help."

"Agreed," General Hammond nodded.

"I will accompany you." Teal'c announced.

"Glad to have ya," Faith grinned over at him.

"I'll go see if I can find Xander, see if I can get him to come back and help." Buffy explained, thinking that he would be the best person to help with this. "Where did you say he was?"

"The asteroid belt, just beyond Mars orbit." General Hammond explained.

"Right, which way's that?" Buffy asked a bit sheepishly.

"The asteroid belt is about one point six AU from Earth," General Hammond explained, trying to calculate that into a distance that Buffy would be able to grasp.

"Right, what's that in kilometres?" Buffy muttered, trying to figure it out in her head, she figured it would be far away, if its past mars and not visible in the night sky, then it had to be quite far away."

"The distance between your current position and the outer edge asteroid belt between Sol four and Sol five is one hundred and fifty eight million, five hundred and seventy three thousand, eight hundred and eighty kilometres." The almost mechanical tone seemed to come from everywhere in the room at once as it announced the answer to Buffy's question.

"Who said that?" Buffy asked, darting out of her chair and looking around the room for someone she hadn't spotted before. "You got a Hal computer in here or something." As soon as she finished the sentence she frowned, shaking her head. "I've been spending too much time with Xander, 2001 references just aren't me."

"Uh, Buff, the know it all voice came from the ring." Faith said with a grin, ignoring Buffy's comment as she eyed her ring warily as Buffy did the same.

"You can speak?" Buffy asked, raising the ring up and trying to talk into it. When no response came she tried again. "Anyone there?" Shaking her hand violently she looked over at Faith. "You sure?"

"It glowed when the voice gave you your answer; it only does that when it's being used." Faith explained with a shrug why she thought it was the ring. "Makes sense to me."

"Uh, repeat that please?" Buffy said, focusing her voice and thoughts on the ring.

"Repeating queried answer: The distance between your current position and the outer edge asteroid belt between Sol four and Sol five is one hundred and fifty eight million, five hundred and seventy three thousand, eight hundred and eighty kilometres." The almost mechanical tone came again, this time everyone was watching Buffy's ring as it glowed faintly when the voice rang through the room.

"Ok, it can talk," Buffy muttered, staring at the ring now like a new toy. Just when she thought she had seen everything the rings could do, something like this surprised her.

"Makes sense I guess, I mean, in the comics they could talk, run scans, anything you needed really, as long as you could think of it and focus on it." Faith smirked, thanking Willow mentally for lending her all those Green Lantern comics.

"Right, um, can you locate Xander for me?" Buffy asked, feeling a bit stupid as she talked into the ring before realizing that people here were used to much weirder things. As the ring glowed she awaited an answer before a beam of light shot out of the ring and displayed a top down view of the Solar System with a bright green dot in the asteroid belt, along with two green dots on earth and a third green triangle further down.

"Now that's cool," Faith grinned, standing up and walking around the image to get a better view. Even General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser seemed impressed, while Teal'c had just stood up, one eyebrow raised and was looking at the projection with interest. "Guess that one's Xander." Faith muttered, poking at the green dot in the asteroid belt before pulling her hand back as it passed through the projection.

"Ok, so that's Xander, here's us, so what's this?" Buffy asked, pointing to the two green dots that she was guessing were her and Faith, and then looking at the green triangle.

"Unknown power ring energy signature." The voice responded.

"Ok, unknown, I thought you knew everything." Faith muttered.

"Unknown power ring energy signature." The voice said again, this time Faith's ring glowed slightly as the voice answered.

"Right, must be linked somehow." Faith muttered, looking at her ring as it had just given the answer to a question she had posed to Buffy's ring.

Before they could ask any more questions, the red lights around the base started flashing again before the heavy metal shutters on the other side of the glass windows dropped down, covering their view of the gate room.

"What the hell?" Buffy asked, the projection over the table fading out from view as she whirled around, trying to figure out what was going on.

"What in blazes is going on down there?" General Hammond barked his question into the phone he'd just snatched up from the wall. "We don't have any teams going off world."

"Uh oh." Faith muttered, hoping what was happening wasn't what she thought was happening.

"I'm not getting any response from the dialling room." General Hammond announced before moving out of the room and heading down to the room beneath where the dialling computer was housed, followed by Teal'c and then Buffy and Faith to see what was going on.

--=/^\=--

"The base is in lockdown." General Hammond explained as they reach the base of the stairs, seeing the blast shield down over the 'Gate room and the blast doors surrounding the entrances and exits to the dialling room made it obvious what had happened. "See if these men are alright." He nodded at the three unconscious technicians on the floor before moving over to the computer.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, flashing into her 'work uniform' as Faith did the same, if the base was under attack the Goa'uld were about to learn that Earth wasn't as undefended as it once was.

"P4X-992." General Hammond muttered as the distinctive sound of the Stargate activating could be heard echoing through the room. "SG14 just returned from a recon mission there, Apophis is building some sort of new battle ship, the other side of the 'Gate was heavily defended, they barely made it out alive."

"Ok, suicide mission then." Faith muttered as the sound of the 'Gate deactivating was heard.

"SG1." Teal'c said calmly. "I believe they have gone to destroy the new ship."

"Makes sense," Faith nodded. "They're stronger and faster, could probably do it without any problems." Then she paused as something registered with her. "Wait, Apophis, isn't that the guy that lost his arm when he attacked Xander?"

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded slowly. "I believe this ship was designed specifically to attack Earth and combat the new threat that..." Teal'c paused as the unfamiliar name passed over his lips. "Xander now poses to the Goa'uld reign."

"We've got to help them." Buffy said flatly.

"Wait, they need our help?" Faith asked, thinking back to how fast and strong SG1 now were.

"Doctor Fraiser?" General Hammond asked as the Doctor finished examining the unconscious men on the floor.

"They'll be fine sir; it looks like they were all injected with a fast acting sedative. They'll be out for a few hours but after that they should be fine." Doctor Fraiser explained. "The last blood tests I ran on SG1 showed signs of multiple organ failure; I don't know how long they have left."

"See, they need our help." Buffy said in a 'told ya so' tone of voice.

"Alright, I'm authorising a rescue mission, just go in, bring SG1 home, don't try and do anything dangerous though." General Hammond said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"I will accompany you." Teal'c's low voice echoed through the room.

"Sorry T, this'll be quicker if we do it from the sky." Faith said as Buffy nodded in agreement with her.

"Neither of you are familiar with Goa'uld technology or writing; you will need my help to effectively find SG1." Teal'c explained.

"He's got a point." General Hammond said. "Neither of you have been off world before, Teal'c would be a valuable asset."

"Alright," Faith conceded the point. "Grab your stuff, dial the gate, let's go and get them."

As General Hammond started tapping away on the keys with Doctor Fraiser's help, Faith and Buffy turned to leave the room while Teal'c just waited patiently.

"Um, can you open the doors first?" Buffy asked shyly as they came to the exit of the room and found a heavy blast door blocking their exit.

--=/^\=--

"Ready?" Buffy asked as they waited in the 'Gate room as Teal'c made his way into the room, holding his staff weapon tightly in his hand.

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded as he moved to stand beside them.

"Remember, bring SG1 home, I don't want you girls facing any unnecessary dangers." General Hammond's voice came over the speakers as he watched from the dialling room.

"You got it," Faith grinned as she bounced on the balls of her feet, ready for a fight at last.

"Come on, what can be out there that's scarier than a demon?" Buffy asked with a grin before it faltered. "They don't have space demons do they? Alien demon type things?"

"Guess we'll see." Faith smirked as the Stargate started spinning round and the first chevron locked.

"I have heard tales of the Mar'toun, the stories Master Bra'tac told me as a child likened them to the vampires you fight here on Earth." Teal'c explained as the Stargate continued to spin.

"Alien vamps, great." Buffy muttered sarcastically.

"The Mar'toun have not been seen in many generations though, it was believed they were wiped out by the Goa'uld when they first took Unas for hosts." Teal'c finished his explanation as the Stargate vortex exploded outwards, almost punctuating his final words.

"Right, we'll fly through and take to the skies as soon as we come out the other side," Buffy explained her plan. "You get Teal'c in a bubble or something, I'll keep an eye out for Jack and the others."

"Sounds good," Faith grinned, cracking her knuckles before turning to Teal'c. "Not afraid of heights are ya big guy?"

Teal'c just stared at Faith in response, not even dignifying her question with a response.

"Didn't think so," Faith smirked as a green line shot out of her ring and enveloped Teal'c in a protective emerald bubble. "Ready when you are B."

"We shouldn't keep them waiting then." Buffy grinned before hovering up to about six feet off the air and shooting off through the open Stargate in a green blur.

"Hold on." Faith grinned over her shoulder to Teal'c as she lifted herself and the bubble off the ground.

"To what?" Teal'c asked in complete seriousness.

"See your point." Faith grinned before darting forward into the event horizon of the Stargate, the green bubble holding Teal'c following her a few seconds afterwards.

--=/^\=--

"Whoah," Buffy muttered as she hovered in the sky above the Stargate, upon exiting the other side she'd shot straight up in the air in the hope of getting out of range of any of the weapons on the ground, turns out she didn't need to though as she stared at the battalion of unconscious Jaffa on the ground. "You seeing this Faith?" She asked as Faith came up beside her carrying the bubble containing Teal'c behind her.

"Yeah, guessing Jack wasn't messing around here." Faith said, a bit uncomfortable with the sight of all the unconscious Jaffa and knowing it was Xander's dad that had done it.

"They will survive," Teal'c said stoically. "Their symbiotes will heal them; we should use the time to retrieve SG1 before they awaken."

"Gotta go with the big guy here," Faith nodded. "Don't really want to fight our way through these guys to escape."

"Right, take it that's the ship." Buffy nodded to the distance where they could see the giant shape of the new Goa'uld battle ship Apophis was constructing, it was easily three or four times the size of the ships they had seen before when he attacked earth, if he had a fleet of these at his disposal then Earth would be in serious trouble if Xander was occupied at the time.

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded.

"Any weapons or defences we should know about?" Buffy asked, thinking about a strategy of getting in and retrieving SG1 with minimal fighting.

"No, the weapons will be offline at this stage of construction; the internal shields will be activated though." Teal'c explained.

"Sweet," Faith grinned. "Zip in, get the guys then zip out, no muss no fuss."

"Sounds like a plan." Buffy agreed.

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded. "If SG1 wished to do the most damage they would head for the power core and set explosive charges, I believe our best option would be to meet them there."

"And if the ship gets a little damaged in the process, not our fault." Faith grinned.

"Or if we didn't find SG1 in time and they'd already planted the explosives, we just got them out before it blew." Buffy agreed, seeing the size of the ship Apophis was building she definitely didn't want it finished and used against Earth. "Let's go then."

--=/^\=--