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

Rafin · Oct 1, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
"They why do none of them talk to us?

Then

Mr Zoat · Oct 1, 2023

Darko said:
Missing a threadmark.

Darko said:
"you know that"
"Then why"
"into it"

Bloodalchemy said:
Missing text for the ring answering?

moralrelativity said:
construct -> construction

Thank you, corrected.

Duke Long · Oct 1, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
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.

'on her feet'?

Mr Zoat said:
Much like Asari, the young women fought and the mature women raised daughters and practised professions.

'asari'?

Mr Zoat said:
She looks up, not at me but at the twelve pegasi riders accompanying us.

'pegasus'? Since I wouldn't say 'horses riders'.

Mr Zoat said:
The booster ignites, sending my shooting over the forest and… Yes, there's the river, just peeking through canopy.

'me shooting'
'the canopy'?

Mr Zoat · Oct 1, 2023

Duke Long said:
'on her feet'?
'asari'?
'pegasus'? Since I wouldn't say 'horses riders'.
'me shooting'
'the canopy'?

Thank you, corrected.

Mr Zoat · Oct 2, 2023

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.

No threats detected.

Yeah.

I create a second layer of construct armour around myself.

"Orange Lantern to Superboy. There's an Anti-Life broadcaster. Keep everyone back."

"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."

"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…

Sonics.

Heart beat detected.

And there we are. There's a heart beat in there. Because hearts are how we power things around here, apparently.

What to do?

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 most intelligent thing to do. Send that-. House, grab spare stones from that house, put her inside and brick up the windows and doorway.

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.

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 llama. Aztecs didn't commute. If they were working then I should be able to hear something.

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?

Whatever it was, they're not doing it here now. So not working. And-.

Wait, what's that?

I saw something shiny in that… Barn? Long house? I fly inside-.

Ah. That clears that up.

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.

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?

Then we give it hearts.

BABUM. BABUM. BABUM.

I form a construct-.

Something blurs past my vision, my outer construct armour evaporating and the inner sporting-

Fly up fly away!

-claw-slashes? Replace it and-.

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 viewed from variable angles. And add metal plating to-.

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, flash fabricated x-ionised knives stabbing 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-.

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-

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-.

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.

Grab the falling feathers. Can I at least analyse those?

Yes.

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-.

"Kuh."

The shape flies away as I stare dumbly at the spear embedded in my right lung.

And then the pain hits!

thebishop8 · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
For a moment I see fur and feathers before I counter, x-ionised knives stabbing at it from subspace and provoking it into disengaging.

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.

PDV · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
ride on a lama

While riding piggyback on The Ancient One certainly has limited range, this is probably a typo.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
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.

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...

No threats detected.

Yeah.

Not that you can really trust what the Ring senses...

I create a second layer of construct armour around myself.

"Orange Lantern to Superboy. There's an Anti-Life broadcaster. Keep everyone back."

You're at least resistant right now. Them? No telling how they might react to this level of proximity.

"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."

Because this whole situation is abnormal. Let's be sure there's no sneaky tricks on the villains' part.

"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…

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.

Sonics.

Heart beat detected.

From where, though. Given this place is probably a town made for the sacrificed...

And there we are. There's a heart beat in there. Because hearts are how we power things around here, apparently.

What to do?

Destroying it sounds like a good idea, but not without knowing what will happen if you do.

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.

...Make a note to let her out later if all goes well...

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.

Heh. Second-guessing your scan data, OL? Still, this place is tricky, best to be certain.

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.

Or the villains have taken them elsewhere. Those undead had to come from somewhere, after all.

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?

So that would be the warriors' training grounds.

Whatever it was, they're not doing it here now. So not working. And-.

Wait, what's that?

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...

I saw something shiny in that… Barn? Long house? I fly inside-.

Ah. That clears that up.

Let me guess: obsidian knife? Gold jewellery?

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.

Because obsidian as a material is surprisingly sharp, but surprisingly fragile. It is glass, after all.

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?

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.

Then we give it hearts.

BABUM. BABUM. BABUM.

After all, what heart is larger than that of an Embodiment of 1/7th of all life's emotions?

I form a construct-.

Something blurs past my vision, my outer construct armour evaporating and the inner sporting-

Bait might have worked a little too well, methinks!

Fly up fly away!

-claw-slashes? Replace it and-.

Some manner of conceptual attack, maybe? The idea of RIPPINGTEARINGSLASHING!

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-.

And if they have utter invisibility? Or the air itself is attacking you?

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-.

Fur and feathers? Interesting. A beast-themed deity of some sort? The feathers might be from decorations, after all.

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-

Hmm... They must be moving damn fast to be no more than a blur that unidentifiable.

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-.

Okay, that gives more of a lead...

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.

Far too much bias on that front. A shame, though. All too often, forgotten history leads to something important going missing.

Grab the falling feathers. Can I at least analyse those?

Yes.

And at least you managed to damage it, even if it;s only a feather or two. So it's not indestructible.

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-.

-To force it into the gas? Smart, but given it's so fast, it could outpace your planned vectors.

"Kuh."

The shape flies away as I stare dumbly at the spear embedded in my right lung.

And then the pain hits!

...Ow. Somehow, I suspect they can win a battle of attrition better than you can, here.

Huh... So far all these hints are pointing towards Huitzilopochtli. The 'left-handed hummingbird'. Which might explain their airspeed. And the savagery in their attacks, being a war god... Though if I'm wrong, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Let's just hope whoever it is doesn't have any nasty attacks that can prevent OL from healing. Or this will be over painfully fast.

Lord Ernest · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a lama.

Actually, it's llama(s). And besides that, they didn't ride animals, that wasn't a thing as far as I'm aware.

Edit:

Chojin Patriarch said:
Huh... So far all these hints are pointing towards Huitzilopochtli.

I disagree, the Illustres would probably notice if that was his foe because it would be shining as much as Kon was back in Bast's city, I think. At the same time, I can't say who it is or if maybe it's a DC or Mr. Zoat interpretation.

Duke Long · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
They could be working… But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a lama.

If you're referring to the genus, I think it should be 'Lama'. If the species, 'llama'.

Mr Zoat said:
Non-perfect optic camouflage will cause slight ripples if view from variable angles. And add metal plating to-.

'viewed'

moralrelativity · Oct 2, 2023

thebishop8 said:
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.

His rings were TOTALLY drained. Doesn't zero power mean zero access to subspace?

moralrelativity · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
Don't get a good look at the face.

Don't -> Didn't
I think past tense works better here.

Mr Zoat · Oct 2, 2023

thebishop8 said:
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.

PDV said:
While riding piggyback on The Ancient One certainly has limited range, this is probably a typo.

Duke Long said:
'viewed'

Thank you, corrected.

moralrelativity said:
Don't -> Didn't
I think past tense works better here.

I think it works.

Darko · Oct 2, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
wasn't the more intelligent thing

"the most intelligent"

Mr Zoat said:
They could be working… But there's only so far it's practical to ride on a llama.

Unless it's a magic llama.

Mr Zoat · Oct 2, 2023

Darko said:
"the most intelligent"

Thank you, corrected.

Coda · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
I would ruin my chance

It would

Mr Zoat said:
"I smell smoke. And water."

*guitar riff* Fire in the sky!

Mr Zoat said:
breaking hard as I see

braking, I think

Mr Zoat · Oct 3, 2023

Coda said:
It would

No, that's fine.

braking, I think

Thank you, corrected.

Mr Zoat · Oct 3, 2023

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!

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.

"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.

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-.

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.

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-.

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-!

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.

Ah. The vacuum has finished sucking out my obsidian-enriched lung matter and now I can finish regenerating myself.

Okay.

"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?"

"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."

"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 him are, but I can still see most of him and my construct can grip him just fine. The mask… It's an elaborate Aztec 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…

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.

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.

"Can you understand me?"

"Khkhkhkhkh!"

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-

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.

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…"

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."

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.

The blade goes down, and it looks like neither jaguar nor eagle have made him more resilient. Right, cut down the middle, use 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.

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 clamp them to my armour, 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.

"So tell me, are you a man again, or still a beast?"

Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!

Tzeentch · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!

Aww, he wants a hug!

Vaermina · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!

Congradulations.

Your attempting to play god in the middle of a fight has made the super zombie even stronger.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
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!

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.

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.

So more than likely the material's enchanted. Possibly divinely so, if he's having this much trouble with it.

"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.

Yeah, those sucking chest wounds will get you quick.

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-.

To put it mildly. Glass weapons are nasty shit. But also fragile and expensive these days.

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.

At least the guy's got to run out sooner or later, right?

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-.

Oof. Yeah, definitely going to need a strong dose of Wholeness Rightly Assumed after all this is done.

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-!

Careful, OL. A cornered, wounded animal is all the more dangerous.

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.

Okay, so not a deity. Looks like someone wanted to make the names 'Eagle Warrior' and 'Jaguar Warrior' literal.

Ah. The vacuum his finished sucking out my obsidian-enriched lung matter and now I can finish regenerating myself.

Okay.

Careful, OL. Be sure to watch that Ring Charge. Messing with this enchanted stuff will burn through it fast, remember?

"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?"

Oh, right. The reason you came looking down here. One of them, anyway.

"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."

Mostly likely this guy was the only guard they thought they needed. Who would expect people to drop out of the sky, after all?

"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…

...I get the feeling that's not a mask.

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.

Admittedly, said tactics consisted of 'go fast, hit hard.' Which isn't necessarily all that hard to program in.

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.

With your luck, this guy was probably around for Cortez's expedition, and has plenty of reason to hate the pale-skinned men.

"Can you understand me?"

"Khkhkhkhkh!"

...Yeah, about as articulate as you'd expect with an animal jaw.

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-

...Let's not do that last thing. No telling what that kind of combination would produce.

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.

...Probably a safe bet something bad would happen.

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…"

Really hopeful of you to assume he's not completely feral, OL.

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."

And what does it say to you that that is not the strangest phrase you've had to utter this week?

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.

At least on a personal scale, anyway.

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.

I'm sure things like tissue rejection won't be a concern around here.

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.

...Not the smartest idea, OL. But then, this hasn't really been your day, has it?

"So tell me, are you a man again, or still a beast?"

Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!

...Answer ambiguous, please try again later.

So, then. Evidently Mannheim, or whoever he put in charge of this little operation, has been indulging in some mad science. I wonder if the animal parts were surgically attached, or transformed via magic? Eh, that's a concern for later. Right now, the question is whether this little lunge is more of that animal instinct, or the action of a man slowly coming to his senses in a strange situation with an unfamiliar 'attacker'.

moralrelativity · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
and parts of his are

his -> him

Mr Zoat said:
Right, cut down the middle, used a probe…

used -> use

koya · Oct 3, 2023

Vaermina said:
Congradulations.

Your attempting to play god in the middle of a fight has made the super zombie even stronger.

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.

Old Knife · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
Eagle eyes lock onto me, and he lunges through my restraints!

Looks like he wants to give Paul a huug!

Darko · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
The vacuum his finished

"has finished"

Mr Zoat said:
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!

It could be a magic spear, so don't underestimate it.

Mr Zoat said:
Pain's ebbing a little but for some reason I can't regenerate myself or disintegrate it

Yep.

Mr Zoat said:
As a result I'm having trouble understanding his expression and I'm not sure he could talk if he wanted to

He may be able to talk using magic.

Mr Zoat said:
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

Maybe Mangeim hired a local and gave him some upgrades.

Mr Zoat said:
-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

He also had a ring that was made using blood magic, so it's a good bet that blood related things are something that he should just stick to.

Mr Zoat said:
Wait. Did the Aztecs have access to coca leaves? I know that some tribes use it as a pain killer

Hmm, and they be better than modern painkillers.

This thing may be immune to chemicals, but if you jnject it with something significant to the Aztecs and their culture then it may have the necessary metaphysical power to work.

Mr Zoat · Oct 3, 2023

moralrelativity said:
his -> him
used -> use

Darko said:
"has finished"

Thank you, corrected.

Profipfreely · Oct 3, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
"It's your call. I haven't seen anything up here.

Missing quotation

Ardy · Oct 3, 2023

I wonder what happened to the hitlers, they were in Brazil so are they working for euanthe now?

Mr Zoat · Oct 3, 2023

Profipfreely said:
Missing quotation

Thank you, corrected.

Ardy said:
I wonder what happened to the hitlers, they were in Brazil so are they working for euanthe now?

Fled the country.

PDV · Oct 3, 2023

Hearts ready for harvesting:

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

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