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

I wish someone would dump Anarky into one of those horrible worlds where anarchy rules and everything sucks just to make him eat his words.
He is ten.
I feel the need to point out here that a ten years old child is now Orange Lanterns arch-nemesis.
I'd argue it's still the Reach. Or, I guess, that thing OL said a while ago where his nemesis is technically some Reachian commander or something he'll never personally meet.
 
9th July 2013
08:12 GMT


Oh.

Oh dear.

I look over to where Leonard and Serling are pressing buttons and twisting knobs. "How bad?"
So, something went lopsided with their nanite testing? The 'extract harmful substances from derelict buildings' concept they came up with, I assume. But from the lack of worry, it's not a grey goo scenario. Not likely with the Serling-series nanotech anyway... Let's see what it was.

Serling makes an aggressive upwards motion with her right arm. "We've got about enough nanobots left to transmute a cup of coffee!"

Leonard pulls a cold field projector off the fabricator's frame. "Stripped for parts. I guess that's how the nanobots got as far as they did."
Well, that's frustrating, but not a fatal issue for their project. It's all replaceable, given time.

"What, he built his own cold guns and… Created super cooled channels?"

"It would have to be."
Someone sending a message, then. Or taunting them...

He looks out across the city, where… To be completely fair, buildings that were scheduled for demolition… Eventually, are now decorated with the 'A' in a circle symbol of anarchy. Or -more likely- Anarky.

"I'm assuming that they haven't just gone inert or something."
Ah. Well, then. The boy is just making himself a nuisance now.

"Don't be stupid. You know that's not how they work." … "FUCK!"

He hurls the cold field generator… Housing, to the ground. It bounces once, casing deforming as it twists on impact.
Temper, temper, Leonard. You'll be needing that in one piece, after all.

Leonard then closes his eyes and holds out his left hand in a warding gesture, and I can see it as he makes use of his anger management training.

I turn to Serling. "How far did you get?"
Good to see he's controlling himself better. back before OL, he would have been reaching for tools to make a Cold Gun... Go looking for the person responsible and give them a real cold shoulder...

"We were done with the lead and the asbestos from current demolition site." I nod. I was… Surprised that he chose something like this as his target. But if he just wants to slow things down without further endangering anyone… "But it's going to take us three weeks minimum to get enough nanobots to start up again."
Ooof. they are that fragile, after all.

"When was the next demolition scheduled?"

"Tomorrow. They're planning on doing the whole block." She sags, shaking her head. "I guess we'll just have to pile all the contaminants up until we're ready. Who would do something like that? After-? Everything everyone went through."
Or force someone to take more responsibility for assisting in clean-up than he'd like to.

"Number one suspect: Lonnie Machin, also known as Anarky with a 'k'."

Leonard takes one last deep breath, then circles his shoulders and rotates his neck.
Probably with a click or two of stress-tightened joints... I can't imagine this whole project hasn't been a hassle.

"Who?"

"As the name implies, he feels that order should not be imposed from above but rather arise from consenting participants. Hates lies and deceit. I'm not sure what I've done to earn his displeasure-."
Maybe he discovered you were hiding something from everyone? Or feels you're coming off a bit dictator-ish, in the old Roman sense.

Leonard's scowl deepens. "Hey, you're not the only one here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I was. But you really haven't done anything that could attract his attention so I doubt that this is about you. From his point of view."
Big fish versus little minnow, effectively. In Anarky's view, anyway.

"So-."

Leonard just stands there for a moment, and then groans.

"This is one of those empathy things, isn't it? This is what it's like when a supervillain decides to do something and you're just there. Collateral damage." He raises his hands. "I get it. I get it. It sucks and I hate it, but I get it."
Probably remembering a few times he caused this sort of trouble for others...

"It gets worse: he's ten years old."

He lowers his hands, thinking that over. "Oh."
And now the 'desire to strangle' urge is replaced by a bit of shame and concern.

"Feeling a bit less murderous?"

He looks up at the graffiti. "I-." … "Yeah. And a.. bit impressed. Ten?"
Even he didn't get started until his twenties or so.

"Yep. As far as I can tell, he started doing this sort of thing after we got rid of the Anti-Life."

"Powers?"

"No. Just intelligent, as far as I know."
Yeah, jut a little terrifying, isn't it? What one disturbed little mind can accomplish even at that age.

Serling huffs. "Leonard, are we getting back to work today?"

"I already ordered the parts." He shrugs. "I can't really do anything else until they get here."
Honestly surprised he didn't have some manner of backup plan. Then again, they didn't really expect this kind of trouble.

She looks at him incredulously. "Oh, so you don't keep even one cold gun around that you could strip for parts so we can at least make a start."

He gives me a quick sidelong glance. "Of course not. That would violate my parole."
And these days, he's being very careful about that sort of thing, now that he has a legal goal to work towards.

I shake my head. "It's okay. I don't really care. If we let you control a machine that could produce a gallon toxic gas in a few seconds, letting you have a gun isn't really that big a deal."

"It would still violate my parole."
Very careful about it.

"Well remembered. Cyclotrons, isn't it?"

"Yeah? You got some lying-"

I raise my right hand, transmuting a crate full of the model of cyclotron he designed for the nanoforge.
Power Ring, remember, Leonard?

"-around… Hr."

"But don't cancel your order; I suspect that this isn't going to be a one-time thing."
I suspect that if it happens again, Leonard won't be as willing to consider his parole, ten-year-old or not.

"Yeah, we wanted to make another one anyway. I'll ask Dubbilex to-." Leonard frowns. "Wait. Your ring can transmute matter. You could just fix the nanoforge."

"Yes, but the whole point of this is to field test a device that isn't dependant on someone with a power ring being around to fix things. Because once we've done that, you and Serling can make hundreds of the things and set them to work without me."
And he can't hang around here all day, putting your wonderful gadgets back together.

"Alright, testing, sure, I get that, but I'm going to have to spend the rest of the day putting it back together again."

"And I'm going to have to spend the day doing a manual inspection of the entire city to make sure that there aren't any booby traps."
Since Lonnie can and has used concealment magic to hide stuff form his scans, after all.

He doesn't exactly look happy, but he nods. "Fine. Is that something Anarky does?"

"I don't know that it's Anarky, he just seems like the most likely culprit based on the images. Once you've got control of the cold guns and nanobots, drawing that symbol isn't hard."
Could just as easily be someone trying to frame him. Though who even knows he exists outside of the League's command group, and for what reason. No, more likely he's up to something.

He nods, bending down to pick up the case he bent. He runs his fingers over the bend, winces faintly, then looks hopefully at me.

"Fine."

A beam of orange light and it straightens out, and I'm rising off the ground towards the nearest cluster of graffiti.
Saves him a few hours of banging it back into shape, at least.

I try scanning, and… I can't scan the As with a basic scan, though visual scans work just fine. Thermal imaging… Some parts of the concrete are a bit too cold, but between the sun and the wind and basic conduction there isn't much difference between the paths that I suspect the cold beams took and the surrounding area.
Impressive. I bet part of the design is tiny warding seals all over the pattern.

Okay, first thing: fly up and make sure that someone hasn't drawn the symbol for a ritual sacrifice or something, because that's one obvious application for this methodology. Looking down-.

It's an arrow.
...Well, that was anticlimactic. Now to see where it points.

So, Lonnie's trying to point something out to OL in his usual unhelpful way, I see. Wonder what he's got a bug up his butt about this time, and whether it's actually a bigger problem gone unnoticed or just something he thinks is important? And seriously, kid, you could just have sent an e-mail or something if you wanted attention... 😒
 
Anarky is either a child and should be put in a bag and handed over to social services / whatever the league can use to put someone like him or is a super intellectual ready to face the music like an adult. Why is he still running around.
 
I'd argue it's still the Reach. Or, I guess, that thing OL said a while ago where his nemesis is technically some Reachian commander or something he'll never personally meet

Yeah, and that guy has done things that would actually make him a nemesis.

He's working for a group Paul finds reprehensible and he even killed Paul that one time.

By comparison, Anarky is more of a nuisance.

Why is he still running around.

Because he hasn't done that much damage yet.

He stole data from Lexcorp and abducted a guy, has some connection to that OMAC thing and now damaged a construction project.

The League is incredibly busy fixing the world, so they may not have the time to seriously put in the work needed to capture him since they have hundred of other things to do.
 
And seriously, kid, you could just have sent an e-mail or something if you wanted attention... 😒
While Mr. Atom is running the world? Even for a superbrain I doubt he'd manage anonymity.
He's also a super genius extremist. An extreme solution that is effectively an exaggerated scared straight experience would hopefully be the least violent way to get him to stop messing around with things.
Scared Straight does not work and in fact is actively counterproductive.
 
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In that case, maybe we can say it's a way for him to see that what he thinks will cause what he wants doesn't actually achieve the result that he want.
I'm going to be real. I just think it's messed up to dump a pre-teen in some anarchy hellscape like you're suggesting.

Also, this does feel like a problem that Paul of all people would be pretty ok at solving. Guy seems like he'll just genuinely engage in a conversation with Anarky while disarming whatever junk he's got going on. Probably with whatever help he has with him.
 
I don't give a F what age Anarky is, he is and will continue to be an arrogant little shit, preaching a utopic take on a frankly naive political philosophy and trying to enforce it through terrorism. Because that's how he is in the comics and he's more than stubborn enough to keep that same mentality.

I've never liked the character and unfortunately now he's making a nuisance of himself. If he hadn't survived Klarion's world separation, I wouldn't be sad.
 
I'm going to be real. I just think it's messed up to dump a pre-teen in some anarchy hellscape like you're suggesting.

Also, this does feel like a problem that Paul of all people would be pretty ok at solving. Guy seems like he'll just genuinely engage in a conversation with Anarky while disarming whatever junk he's got going on. Probably with whatever help he has with him.
I know, but a person can dream. Also, I don't think Anarky is the type to listen to anyone unless he realizes for himself how foolish he's being. Unfortunately, he's both smart enough and arrogant enough to disregard most arguments.
 
I'm going to be real. I just think it's messed up to dump a pre-teen in some anarchy hellscape like you're suggesting.
And honestly, he's already alone in a post-antilife Earth. Hub City might be better for the experience, but before that it pretty much qualified on its own. Unless it's like, Qward, the only real difference in dumping Lonnie on a different planet is that he'll have to spend a week learning the local language.
 
It feels weird seeing Serling and not seeing her in a relationship with Jacob 'Edge' Rodrigo.
I have no idea who that is.
I wish someone would dump Anarky into one of those horrible worlds where anarchy rules and everything sucks just to make him eat his words.
The first time I read Anarky I thought it was deep and interesting. Now, I realise that despite his obvious intelligence and honest desire to help his fellow man, he's massively arrogant.
 
The first time I read Anarky I thought it was deep and interesting. Now, I realise that despite his obvious intelligence and honest desire to help his fellow man, he's massively arrogant.
You saying this makes me hopeful Anarky will be massively humbled in the future. Trauma is optional.
 
That's the name of an SI in a YJ fanfic called A Subtle Knife.

Has Jack Slash's power and started dating Serling.
Agh, and I actually read that, too. It was good until he got put in Belle Reve for no reason.
You saying this makes me hopeful Anarky will be massively humbled in the future. Trauma is optional.
He's ten. Gently prodding him in the right direction would be more appropriate.
 
I can't tell if it's internet tough guy syndrome or the fact that people online can't empathize with kid characters, but wishing the worst or for excessively bad things to happen to a ten-year-old kid is vindictive and honestly weird. I understand getting annoyed (as I am) as he's an arrogant extremist, but some of these comments really rub me the wrong way.
 
I guess I'm just used to guys like Anarky being adults people would be happy to see humbled instead of arrogant kids that need guidance. I honestly hope we figure out what he's doing so that we can see whatever shadow war is going on while the Justice League is rebuilding Earth.
 
Idk whats with all this 'Do x bad thing to Anarky'. Not only is he ten years old but I'm fairly sure OL wouldn't be the vindictive type to excessively punish/hurt children over being an arrogant nuisance. OL would probably just try to talk Anarky into doing something else that Anarky would also want. Mainly because he's done that multiple times. Like the Terror Twins.
 
"Yes, but the whole point of this is to field test a device that isn't dependant on someone with a power ring being around to fix things. Because once we've done that, you and Serling can make hundreds of the things and set them to work without me."
'dependent'
Glad to see more Anarky, I thought the previous plot with him was pretty interesting. Looking forward to seeing what the conspiracy he seems to have discovered is doing. I think Oh El managed to gain his trust to an extent?
 
The idea of Anarky as the SI's "nemesis" interests me in that the term has been brought up several times in this story as having a specific meaning and application.

"Are you familiar with the concept of nemesis?"

"Colloquially, a person's greatest enemy. Traditionally, it was the source of destruction the hero of a story created by their actions. Anger the gods and you make enemies. Eventually, one of them bests you. It exists to remind even the powerful that they can be brought low and that they should remember the virtues even if they can maintain their position without needing to."

"Classically, a nemesis should arise directly from the hero's own actions and failings, which means that mine is probably some Reach politician whose name I'll never know. In the modern context, a nemesis is someone who the hero fights, whose nature is related to theirs in some way, either similar or as a sort of reflection of it."

"Oh, I'm his nemesis."

That actually gets a response, as Mr. Crock… Well, the Crock-shaped blur, appears to cross his arms. "Like Hell you are."

"No, no, seriously. Classically, a nemesis is a countervailing force that comes into being in response to the actions of the primary actor. Your harshness and criminality have alienated everyone in your life, while my heroism is why I'm dating your eldest daughter, and have a better relationship than you with your younger daughter, ex-wife, mother, father, brother, nephews and ex-mother-in-law." I smile insolently. "It's a matter of contrast; by existing I repudiate your entire personal philosophy."

So the key thing here is that "nemesis" is not necessarily a reciprocal relationship. Person A can be Person B's nemesis without Person B being the nemesis of Person A.

So did Anarky arise from the SI's own actions and failings? No.... well, mostly no. Lonnie was always going to be Lonnie, but I think the way the SI keeps carefully not talking in public about the Justice League conquering the world has helped draw Lonnie's attention to Orange Lantern in particular. That and the fact that OL obviously has a vision and willingness to act on how he thinks the world should be, in a way that most superheroes don't.

Is Anarky in some way a reflection of the SI, or are their natures in some way related? I think we're on stronger ground here. Both of them have strong feelings about the way the world should be, but we can go deeper than that. Both of them are strongly influenced by reading they did as children- OL is frequently quoting some formative work of fiction or occasionally history he read. Both of them are obviously extremely arrogant without that arrogance blinding them to the limits of their own capabilities. (Say what you like about Lonnie in this story, but he's been quite clever about evading capture even with some massively powerful people looking for him.) Both are willing to seek out meanings of empowering themselves. OL says that Anarky doesn't have any powers, but that may well be out of date information. We know that Anarky was fooling around with some sort of augmentation technology and with magic.

Bottom line, I think it might be too early to call Anarky OL's nemesis, but he is definitely showing some nemesis-like qualities as a replacement for Truggs. (You remember Nylor, the guy that "Silver Age Supergirl" claims vanished in a puff of smoke and then the only other contact was a call shortly after where the guy claiming to be Nylor used a computer-generated voice. But I digress.)
 
What was that world that lantern chance came from? Hell hole or something? Send the kid the files on that and ask him if he can solve it. It's pure anarchy but also, you know, a hell hole.

Bottom line, I think it might be too early to call Anarky OL's nemesis, but he is definitely showing some nemesis-like qualities as a replacement for Truggs. (You remember Nylor, the guy that "Silver Age Supergirl" claims vanished in a puff of smoke and then the only other contact was a call shortly after where the guy claiming to be Nylor used a computer-generated voice. But I digress.)


We saw him in person on the alien ship during the return to earth during the anti life. He was caught by one of the aliens grabbing people and then worked with the league to bring lexcorp people onto the ship. He also admitted to being part of the lights effort to lure the damn ship there during the anti life in the first place
 
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. (You remember Nylor, the guy that "Silver Age Supergirl" claims vanished in a puff of smoke and then the only other contact was a call shortly after where the guy claiming to be Nylor used a computer-generated voice

Not sure why you think she "claimed" that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Paul saw him disappear and we know that Truggs is working with Circe.

What was that world that lantern chance came from? Hell hole or something

It's official name is Garnet, but everyone calls it Hellhole.
 
Thank you, corrected.
Glad to see more Anarky, I thought the previous plot with him was pretty interesting. Looking forward to seeing what the conspiracy he seems to have discovered is doing. I think Oh El managed to gain his trust to an extent?
Previous?
What was that world that lantern chance came from? Hell hole or something? Send the kid the files on that and ask him if he can solve it. It's pure anarchy but also, you know, a hell hole.
It's not anarchy in the political sense. Armed groups enforce a sort of order around wherever they make money. As far as Anarky is concerned, that's the same as government.
 
It's not anarchy in the political sense. Armed groups enforce a sort of order around wherever they make money. As far as Anarky is concerned, that's the same as government.
Does he even know what he wants? Or will he think anything that even hints at one group giving another group orders as a government? He's reminding me of Havik from Mortal Kombat, who says he wants to free people from order but is seen mostly as a crazy mass murderer. Anarky isn't as bad as that, but he also similarly doesn't understand that what he says and what he does aren't exactly the same thing.
 
Not sure why you think she "claimed" that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Paul saw him disappear and we know that Truggs is working with Circe.

No, Paul did not see him disappear. He asked Supergirl what happened to the guy (having missing Truggs disappearing during to being distracted by native Kara's exposure to Black Kryptonite), and that is what she told him happened. "He disappeared in a puff of smoke because Circe or some other magician rescued him," is a possible explanation, sure.

Though Ardy did correct me that Truggs appeared again during the anti-life storyline.

Though....

😭😭😭😭

Sad that people only interested in engaging in the casual aside about my ongoing Supergirl conspiracy rather than the meat of my post exploring the concept of "Nemesis" in With This Ring. Shame, shame, shame.


Anarky appeared "on screen" during the "Mitchel gets an internship at LexCorp"storyline when he stole Enginehead.

Does he even know what he wants? Or will he think anything that even hints at one group giving another group orders as a government? He's reminding me of Havik from Mortal Kombat, who says he wants to free people from order but is seen mostly as a crazy mass murderer. Anarky isn't as bad as that, but he also similarly doesn't understand that what he says and what he does aren't exactly the same thing.

Let's be fair, the version of Anarky in this story has not yet really had an opportunity to fully explain himself and his philosophy. The SI is assuming that it's pretty close to what the comic book version thinks, but it's possible there are nuances or that he has some idea of how to achieve the society he wants to see. For instance, I found his empowerment experimentation pretty interesting. What if what he has in mind is some sort of mass empowerment, where every human would be able to provide for themselves without requiring infrastructure, so all association would be voluntary? Kind of like how Malthusians work among themselves.
 

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