trans_9 | Queries and Quibbles--mind your Q's

"Yeerk or not, if you kill him you're going to answer to me." She was now fifteen feet tall and really pissed.

Being the center of attention was usually a good thing, at least in his perspective. Today.. not so much. For a moment he was truly confused; how had they shed their little infestation so quickly? No, he'd lost some time, somewhere, somehow.

"A guy decides to sleep in for one whole day and this is what happens? Damn." He was still holding his hands up in the 'don't shoot me' posture, and more people were forming a little crowd around him by the moment. Hell. They were fighting over him.

"I'm starting to feel like I'm not even here.."

Ok, she hadn't been there for the full on Yeerk infestion, but she'd seen the results and the after effects, and if the man in question indeed had one...

"Does anyone know for certain if he'd infested? And if the answer is no, is there a way to find out if he is?"

Yes, she's completely ignoring Tony at the moment, she's more focused on trying to get to the bottom of things.

"I don't know," Sam answered. He'd been unconscious when the rest of the crew had tracked down the other infested people, so he had no clue how they had tracked them...or if they had. "They destroyed the Yeerk pool, so there shouldn't even been any left alive. But I'd rather not take my chances..."

Tony had suddenly made a choking noise in the back of his throat, one of utter surprise. It was a reaction he just couldn't hide, some sort of alien shock flooding him. That was probably it. He was the last one. The expression simply drained off his face, then, leaving behind a blank and stony surface.

What, exactly, was he supposed to do next? Trying to escape seemed out of the question. He was outnumbered.

Defeated.

"Fantastic."

"You're still in there, aren't you Schmuz-44356," says Cybil. "Lirat-561 was fond of you. Said you were just a step away from the resistance--but a little too chickenshit to follow through."

"Uh. Hi, Cybil! This is.. this is exactly what it looks like, actually. I seem to be held up at tailpoint." Uh oh. Well, you know, the gig was up. Not only was he the last one, and he'd pretty much admitted it with his own reaction, the broad knew him by name. What an awesome kind of day.

His eyelids lowered halfway, then, and he glanced towards her. "This kind of shit is just too much work. We could be experiencing so much more."

Then he tapped the front of his host's forehead, grinning, faintly. "I learned new categories of curse words. Also, I wanted to try scotch."

"Alright," Jean says with a slight nod. The guy has all but said he's yeerked. "How do we get it out of him?"

Tim gave her a thin smile. "Well, if you wait a few days, it will starve to death and just fall out." He glanced back at Tony. "How long has it been since you recharged?"

"I told you, actually, I just woke up. I don't know what's going on." The oddly bland expression had returned to his face; he was no longer trying to pretend to be Tony, or using his reactions. "I left the Weapons Division in the Medical Hall.. and went to sleep. Now I'm here."

Starving to death didn't sound like a terribly pleasant way to go.

"There's an AI called GLaDOS, that said she grabbed him and Kurt. Wiped the minds of the crew so we didn't worry about them--I just spoke to her with Kurt. You must've been grabbed before everything went down. Brainy said Kurt was fine but his vitals made it clear he'd just been released from stasis. The same must've happened to you," says Cybil.

"How long, from the point you last remember, had it been since you'd fed?"

"An AI? How many are on this damn ship?" Alright, so now even the worm was feeling grouchy about it. No wonder everything had gone south.

"Uh. I'm not sure how long of that was natural sleep. I want to say about twelve hours or so.." He wasn't exactly starving to death.. yet.

"Does it matter? Or have you not got a brig to dump me in, yet?"

Kate scowled at him, partly since she could only remember him now. And getting the Yeerk reminder didn't help either.

"Mental scan will confirm it. And it's been a lot longer than that. Which means you can wait some more in the medbay secured, and get rid like the rest of us did."

She then turned to Cassie, "Alternate world, Cassie. He's barely heard of the Avengers. I'll give you the rundown later, k?"

Kate scowled at the fact she could only remember him now. Also the fact he was still Yeerked.

"Mental scan will confirm it. It's been a lot longer so you can wait a few more days secured in the Medbay. Get it starved out like the rest of us." There was something more in her expression, haunted and haggard but only briefly.

She then added to Stature, "Alternate world, I'll fill you in later."

< If I may make a suggestion, we could...offer it another option, > Elfangor said, approaching the gathering as soon as he heard the word Yeerk. Considering where Aximili's tail was, it wasn't too hard to tell who had it.

And he looked quite nervous.

< Letting anyone with a Yeerk be around, even while bound, is a dangerous thing. Especially one who knows he is going to die eventually. He might try to go out with a bang if he does somehow manage to escape. > Oh, he knew about suicide runs and how dangerously effective they were. Not that Elfangor particularly liked Yeerks, but it did strain his honor just a bit to have one just wake up and be instantly surrounded after the battle had passed. He had no chance. Prisoner seemed better than execution, if the option would be taken. < And the sooner he's out, the sooner this young lady can relax, > he added, gesturing to Cassie. Why she was so angry, he missed, but she definitely seemed to be angry more at his brother than the Yeerk host.

He looked at Tony. < As you've just proven, Yeerks survive in stasis. You could return. Without your host. >

You know, Tim. If you don't want to have that talk with Dick? You probably shouldn't say stuff like that. Because even behind his mask, Dick is totally giving you that look that says you're going to be talking later.

"I have absolutely no idea what's going on here," he says after a moment, "other than this guy seems to have a parasite on board." And that Tim was really, really not happy about it. Enough to seem more than a bit out of character. "I'm not generally an advocate of killing, so the stasis idea has a fair bit of merit to my thinking. If...Schmuz is willing to accept it, of course. It's far better than dying of starvation, though if anybody has any other ideas, I'm certain we'd be willing to hear them." A pause. "Ideas that don't end with anybody dead, thanks."

"Oh, it's going to leave Tony one way or another. But we are not letting it live," Sam said through gritted teeth.

"Easy, kid.

"If we can get rid of the thing without killing... Tony, then let's just do that."

"There's stasis, and also Brainy had come close to building a portable kandrona generator for any that surrendered last time. It's just...none did, and he didn't quite have it made in time. Maybe we could make some kinda...slug tank. Thing. Second option," Jaime chimes in, and...

Suits up. Wait a second, why is the business face on?

"As for the whole killing him option--" Yes, he referred to it as 'him,' rather than 'it.' "--I know this is going to make everyone hate me, but if he surrenders, rather than starves, I'm sorry, but killing thing is not going to happen. I don't even mean we shouldn't do it, like I'm just suggesting it--I mean I won't let you kill a sentient being giving themselves up as prisoner, even if that's what the group decides. I don't want to, but I'll do what I have to do to keep someone from being murdered, even if they've committed a horrible crime."

Please, guys, don't make him try to fight you, 'cause it's in his code, man. He's fought the freakin' Spectre to save Death Row inmates, and tried to save the alien that nearly blew up his family. Jaime Reyes' code of honor is a somewhat extreme kinda thing, when it comes to mercy.

"Between myself, my counterpart and the rest of the engineering team, we could indeed build a stasis unit or complete a small kandrona habitat, yes. I was quite close to completing the generator when the last Yeerk died. As for the other option..."

Of all people to echo Jaime's sentiment, Brainiac 5 sighs, and adds:

"Unfortunately," seriously, guys, he would rather let the little bastard starve, after what the Yeeks did to him, "I must echo Blue Beetle's sentiment. As a Legionnaire, I am sworn to protect sentient life--all sentient life. This has extended in the past even to prisoners and criminals, and does not exclude lifeforms just because they're parasitic in nature, or because they've exerted control over someone's mind. That was why I'd been endeavoring to save the life of my own Yeerk and started building what I hoped would be an appropriate prison habitat in the first place."

In his universe, there are criminal telepaths, after all, that control people. They go to prison and everything, pretty much forever, but people can't just up and kill them.

"Inaction on my part would, unfortunately, be just as unacceptable as participating, regardless of my...personal feelings on the matter."

Which are that every Yeerk ever can shrivel up and die. He was relieved when his did before he'd finished the kandrona generator.

Brainiac snaps his omnicom shut with a very decisive little snap and puts it away. He just seriously doesn't look happy about it--he hates these tricky moral situations with sentient rights.

"You don't know what those things did to me. What they did to all of us. What they made us do," Sam retorts, his jaw flexing in rage as he narrows his aim on Tony's head--right where the slug should be--ready to shoot if it tried anything.

"I nearly drowned Brainy. I tried to bash Nathan's head through building. I had to listen to Paco and Xander and Tim and all the others screaming while that thing made me hold them down and put those slugs back in their heads. That thing could have helped us. It could have let us go when our Yeerks were feeding. It could have told someone what was going on. But it didn't. It helped them.

"Now, it's either coming out on its own, or we starve it out but either way, it's going to die and I'm not letting it take Tony or anyone else with it. If you don't like it and you wanna get morally superior, Reyes, then I suggest you get out of the way...or you kill me. But that thing is not staying."

< There are those who know the Yeerks better than you, > Elfangor said, looking at Sam. < Aximli and I are from the same universe as the Yeerks. We know what horrors they have wrought. I assure you, I hold no love for Yeerks. And I know it's dangerous to let one live. > Oh, he knew. He knew what sparing Yeerks could mean. He also knew what not sparing Yeerks could mean.

< However, he has no chance to survive if he chose to fight us, > Elfangor said. < If he is willing to surrender, it would not be honorable to kill him. > And honor is very, very, very important than Andalites. < If we become merciless, then we would be getting dangerously close to how Yeerks act. Kill for only hate is a step closer to killing parts of an innocent race to kill them and another step closer to taking advantage of another race because we think it's better for them, and then simply because we think we deserve too. The excuses merely build up until one becomes as bad as their enemy. If he chooses to take mercy, then it would be wrong to deny him. > Something Elfangor reminded himself could happen if Andalites became too desperate. Which is why he always made sure to act with honor. < Of course, if he refuses to leave his host, then he gives us no choice, but to starve him out. But that is his own fault. >

< I would advise putting something in the kandrona ray that would make it blow up in case it is taken if he manages to obtain a host somehow. > Elfangor said. Because, really, giving the Yeerk a viable option to be FREE and LIVE was something he was not comfortable with. < Though I still believe stasis would be better. He would want to stay in there to survive and would not cause us trouble. >

"Sam, listen to me. I know how you feel right now, a hell of a lot better than you think. We have something similar to the Yeerks on my world, and I've had the displeasure of crossing paths with it."

He had his hand near Sam's gun, but not on it.

"You've got every right to be pissed over what happened, but getting revenge isn't the priority. Saving Tony is the priority. He's still innocent in all of this. The fate of the Yeerk is still a distant second; we'll cross that bridge later."

Jamie, Brainy, that last bit may have been directed at you.

"Sam? I need you to put the gun down..."

Sam is breathing heavily, his chest heaving, and it's clear that it is taking all his will power not to shoot the thing right then and there. The only thing stopping him was, of course, the fact that doing so would possibly kill Tony. Tony was innocent in all of this, just like Leon said. Just like Sam had been. And Connor. And Murphy. And Xander. And Paco. And Tim. And Kate. And Leela. And everyone else that he had helped to infest.

After several intense moments, Sam finally relented and lowered his Beretta. "It's not staying," he said again, then turned and stormed--as best he could anyway--out of the observation deck.

Sam was pissed. Furious. If anyone questioned whether he had any issues left over from infestation, they wouldn't now.

Cassie shrank in response, not back to normal size but she went back down to seven feet. "I don't know exactly what all is going on but I'm not letting you kill whatever it is either. I know how tempting it might be but it's not right."

Queries and Quibbles--mind your Q's

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