trans_9 | Meanwhile, back at the ranch [Closed to Iniss/Tom]

Sam felt the spell drop into place as he turned, which at least gave him one person involved.

< I thought you said the wizard was going to be busy with other things! >

< Well I thought she WAS, okay? It didn't cross my mind that she'd follow me. >

And then he completed the turn, gun up and looking--

--at Dean.

< Well fuck. >

< My sentiments exactly. >

Still, Sam dropped the gun to his side. Didn't know where the spell--probably a shield, Rhiow liked defensive stuff--was meant to contain, but he wasn't going to let Dean keep aiming at Iniss, either.

"Right. This is...umm..." Sam shifted over, moving between Dean's gun and the kid. "Will you drop your stance, Dean? I'm not going to let you hurt him."

Dean kept his gun up, but he tensed further at what was wearing his brother's face. God, the expression looked like Sam too, one of his many bitchfaces.

"You get the hell out of my brother and we'll see. C'mon Sam, wake up, don't let this son of bitch control you."

Rhiow settled back on her haunches, curling her tail around her paws. She released the barrier between Dean and Sam and flicked her tail as a new circle of characters laid themselves out on the floor. "This is a solid matter rejection barrier, to repel dense-matter projectile weapons and contain dense-matter organic material, powered from the personal power supply of one Rhiw'aow-" she finished her name and the new barrier sprang into place.

"Might as well settle in for the wait," she said as an aside to Iniss. "They'll be at this for a while. D'hean is a stubborn thing when someone threatens his pride. Don't bother trying to go anywhere, nothing organic can pass through the barrier from this side."

Raising her voice, she called to Dean - "Will you watch where you're pointing that thing, I'm over here too you know!"

There was a temptation to state that the cat was talking, but he decided against it, sinking back into his cover. "Sam, what exactly is going on?"

So the cat could do what, Magic?

< Fictional characters. Bah! I bet we just ran up against something from one of those children's cartoons. >

< Well, Superman and Batman are here. >

"Are you with him? What does he want?" He could guess, Sam had addressed him as Dean. Must be the big brother. "I'm going to side with the talking cat and Sam and vote that you put the gun down." He offered helpfully.

"Rhiow, meet Iniss. And Tom. Tom, Iniss. The cat is Rhiow and yes, she is actually talking." It was pretty common response, after all.

"As for what's going on...this is my brother." And they'd talked about what was likely to happen if they ran into Dean. "Dean, it's not in control right now. Not that I have any way to prove that to you and no reason for you to trust me right now."

God, they were screwed. "That said, I'm not moving. I'm not going to let you hurt them."

Dean briefly flicked a look toward Iniss, "You can shut your damn piehole for all I care."

He stared back at Sam, and his gun hand lowered to his side, flipping the safety back on. He then started to approach him.

"You're right."

His other hand clenched to a fist as he brought it up to punch Sam's cheek.

"I don't."

"Irh's balls," Rhiow said. "It doesn't matter how old they are, it doesn't matter what species they are, toms are always - always - heaps of trouble. It makes my head hurt."

She began to wash, to all appearances ignoring the fist fight that had erupted on the other side of the barrier. "Of course they do this when we don't have the time for it." She fixed Iniss - Tom - Iniss, she supposed - with a severe look. "It is Iniss in control at the moment, yes? You'll vouch that Ssam has possession of his own faculties when he freely chooses?"

< It's nice to meet you. > Tom Chirped in his head space.

The look Iniss tossed at the back of Sam's head was closer to 'are you shitting me' than blind accptance.

Though the cat was still talking.

And now the brother's were fighting.

"Are you JOKING? We have two hours to get rid of eight bombs and you're fighting?! HUMANS!"

He glanced at the cat, apparently the only sane person in the room. "Yes. Yes it is. And yes *HE* is, the yeerk can't fight, Sam can, Nightwing advised me to ask the yeerk to yield control and he did. He wants to get out of this alive as much as we do. Though at the moment, I think 'in control of themselves' is far too generous for EITHER of them."

Sam rolled with the first punch, ducking under the follow up. Twenty-some-odd years of living together at least gave some insight into how Dean fought. He grabbed Dean's hand on the follow up, using it to push him to the side.

"Hey! I'm perfectly in control of myself!" Sam shouted back, kicking at Dean's knee. Not hard, just enough to knock him off balance. "And he started it!"

Dammit the thing was good, tapping into Sam's memories of previous fights to counter him. He tried to block the kick, and came around to grapple with him.

"No you started it by wearing my brother! Let him go!" He tried tackling him to the floor.

"D'hean you're being an idiot, would you stop that for five seconds and listen to reason? And Ssam, you're not helping!"

She slanted a sardonic glance Iniss's way and sighed. "I understand that your host was... unwilling," she said. "You and I will have words about that, at a more appropriate time."

"I can think of many times I'd be willing to get a moral lecture from a cat. This is not one of them, with all due respect. We're somewhat short on time."

He slanted a glare at the scuffling brothers. "I don't care if he started it, you're acting like a child! And you, Moron, I can let you talk to Nightwing, that's your brother you're punching!"

Wrestling, Sam was used to. Unfortunately, it was also a place where his height and reach did jack shit to help him out.

He reached out and whacked Dean with one hand across his ear. "I AM SAM," he shouted back, trying to get some leverage. "The Yeerk Shiva took from stasis? Is a technician. Dumb bastard knows as much about fighting as Cas does about kissing, period."

And, frankly, the former angel would have better luck.

< I'd be insulted, but... >

< Yeah, I know. No time to be insulted. >

Dean yelped, and then paused at that. Completely flabbergasted at the image.

"Dude, Sam, I could have lived without that."

He then paused and stared back in utter shock. His hands came up, but to clutch at Sam's cheeks.

"...Sammy? That really you? You got him?"

"Queen bless, I think we've gotten a connection!" Rhiow said to Iniss, her ear rotating all the way around backward. "And I did say I would wait for another time - but know that I've vouched for one of your kind already tonight - the one of there." She nodded in Sam's direction. "There is a reason for every kind of life the One created, including yours, and it's my duty and Oath as a wizard to preserve it."

"Finally. By the first Kandrona are you children done? We do have the small *issue* of the bombs on the ship."

He glanced thoughtfully at the cat, inclining his head to show that he understood.

"I will look forward to the discussion then."

< Why do they like you anyway? >

< I have no idea, I think it's curiosity. I don't get the impression she likes me. Just wants to know my intentions. >

"Are we ready to stop behaving like lower life forms?"

"Dude, you're the one trying to get Cas laid." Still, he was grinning a bit when he said it. Which pulled the muscles in his cheek and made him realize he'd split his lip. Or, really, Dean had done it for him.

He shook his head once. "The Yeerk's still in here. All said, it's safer and we may still need him--it--." He paused, frowning. "I'm not even sure if they HAVE a gender."

< I think most of us tend to identify by the gender of the host, > Schmuz supplied. < In general, though, we can be either, so...>

Sam's eyes went slightly unfocused as he listened, then he rolled them. "Anyway." Only Rhiow might have heard it, even if Sam didn't realize. "Like I said, Schmuz is a technician. And we'll probably need him for any major technical shit because a lot of this stuff is beyond me being able to understand. But he's absolutely shit at fighting and doesn't know which end of a gun to point where, so given what we might be going up against, it's safer if I'm in control."

A pause, then, "Though if you'd rather hear it from him--it--the Yeerk, we can switch for a few minutes. And I keep telling you, Iniss," he said, lifting his voice but not turning around. "There are eight bombs and about two hundred people on the ship, at least. Given what Stacy was looking for when picking people to bring on board, there's probably at least three dozen people with the skills to take the bombs apart. We're better suited to helping make certain Shiva is taken care of first."

"Yeah, but he needs it."

Sam was getting a quick manly hug, "Thought I lost you, little brother."

Then Dean remarked, "I don't care how much a techie whiz he is, the second we can get you out of this arrangement the better." Because he really wasn't liking the setup, it still reminded him too much of other times his brother's been possessed.

"So sure, what's good for taking this Shiva out? Thinking usual methods ain't gonna work this time."

Rhiow sighed, switching her tail. She dropped the barrier with a simple thought and leapt down from her shelf, trotting over to the two brothers. "There's still the not-so-small matter of the host," she said. "And the hostage. No-one thought to fill the rest of the crew in on the specifics, probably because the Captain wasn't certain who he could trust. Understandable, given the circumstances. As far as the parasite - is it similar to your species?" she asked, directing the question to Iniss.

Then she came forward to twine around Sam's ankles affectionately. "It's good to know you're all right, Ssam," she said.

"We don't really have a gender, at least not until we're given a host that does. I tend to think of myself as male primarily because of Tom."

Iniss snorted. "I'm aware the size of the ship, Sam, and the people on it. That doesn't mean I have any more faith that the powered won't charge him all at once and get ground into the floor."

Iniss looked not unlike he had swallowed rotten milk at the cat's question, the answer was very obviously 'no' and perhaps 'not in this universe or any other universe'. "No!" he managed to say, vehemently denying any and all kinship. "My species is egotistical, but even we're not that bad! I don't know what they are, they're not something I've encountered before. I can't even tell you if his host still lives under his influence."

Sam accepted the hug, giving it back just as hard before he knelt and greeted Rhiow with a scritch behind her ears. "We're definitely thinking about the host," he noted to the wizard. Or, at least, he was. "I may not be in contact with the rest of the crew, but I'm sure that Leon's doing everything he can. We'll really need to contact him and find out what the plans are right now."

He kept his head down, trying not to show any laughter at Iniss' vehemence. This wasn't a laughing matter, even if his reaction was kind of hilarious. "I can't tell how different they are," he said once he had his expression back under control. "I know that they name themselves after gods of various Earth religions. Ba'al is of the same race, though he's not exactly onboard with Shiva's plan." The idea that Ba'al had a plan of his own had definitely crossed Sam's mind, though. "Whatever they are, you can generally tell when the...whatever is in charge because their eyes glow yellow and their voice drops down into Barry White range."

Dean nodded at that, and kept close to his brother in case he needed help after being roughed up, "I can try getting a hold of him, I'm Security and he trusts me. Bet he'd be thrilled that he's only got one to deal with now." He made a note about Ba'al as something to file away to pursue later. He wasn't the threat right now, so he was going to the back burner.

"So what are they? More aliens who get their kicks by having a God complex? Your new buddy know where Shiva's holing up?"

Rhiow tilted her ears back. "Unfortunately, since I've never worked with the host or the parasite before, I can't find him in the same manner that I found Ssam." Let Sam worry about the fact that she could find him whenever she chose. She honestly didn't know why the brothers thought it was such a big deal.

"However, once I'm in range it may be possible to use the same spell I used to negate Haku's corruption - the spell I wouldn't use on Ssam." She licked her nose a couple times. "If there's a question about how much of the host remains, I'm not sure if it wouldn't be more of a mercy to simply use my matter dispersant."

For someone well-versed in technobabble - like, say, Sam's Yeerk - 'matter dispersant' would translate into 'blowing up Kawalsky into meaty chunks.'

"I'm not certain if that means they're in charge or just showing off." Iniss offered helpfully. "When Shiva first approached me, Ba'al spoke normally and sounded human until Shiva tried to show off. I get the impression that Shiva is...younger. But I'm still not sure what they are, merely that they are something that I have no encountered before."

Iniss glanced at Dean, then snorted faintly. "I contacted Nightwing the moment we were away from Shiva. I've been motioning the situation. They know most of what I know. Schmuz knows more, perhaps, about the technical aspects of the situation than I do. I'm not tech, or fighter like you and your brother, I'm a recon agent."

"And recon, honestly, is probably where we're still best suited," Sam pointed out. "The guns were for defense if Shiva decided he wasn't up for sharing any more, mostly, or if we got caught out by him. And..." He trailed off, tilting his head. Since, well, he had a hard time talking and trying to listen to the Yeerk at the same time.

< The wizard can create a matter dispersant? That's impressive. >

< ...Okay, I'll bite. What's a matter dispersant? I know the words, but I'm not sure I like how they sound together. >

Schmuz made a considering sound and Sam had an unpleasant moment while he practically FELT the Yeerk flicking through his memories. Just when he was almost comfortable with the whole thing. < Hmm. The best analogy I can find is something about 'crossing the streams'. Though it's most likely not to the atomic level. >

"Crossing the streams?" He didn't realize he'd said it out loud until a moment later. Hopefully somebody else would pick up on the Ghostbusters reference. Sam blinked, then shook his head. "I think we'll save that for a last resort, Rhiow. Not until we know for certain there's nothing of Kawalsky left."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch [Closed to Iniss/Tom]

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