[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

27th May 2013
13:33 GMT -5

"I can't help but find this a bit weird."

I hear Richard snort over the radio. "Gotham doesn't only exist at night, you know."

Nothing in here aside from some shelving. Back outside…

"No, I mean, you not being out in the field with me."

"Why? You worried?"

"No, no… It just seems like something you'd want to do."

"I would, but… With everything that's happened with Batman… I get it. What you said about efficiency. It didn't really matter when the world was working, but if I can do more good telling other people where to go… I think that's what I need to do."

I carefully open the door of the next warehouse, tumblers rotating at my ring's direction.

"Heh."

"What?"

"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."

"That's not gunna happen. I still get out into Gotham. But some of us can't move at the speed of light. And… If I wanna help make the whole world a better place, I need to affect other places. I guess… I mean, this is what Batman's been doing."

"Are you just dodging your mother?"

The lock clanks open, and I use a pair of spreader constructs to open it fully.

…

"No?"

"Robin, it's perfectly normal to-."

"Yeah, I-. Already had this talk. But talking about it doesn't mean that you don't feel it. And she's…"

I think this facility used to do paint mixing? Some of the smaller machines have been removed, but the larger pieces are still here. I'm not sure if the owners just did a runner or if they were planning on opening it back up if the demand ever materialised.

"She's what?"

"I never really thought her relationship with Batman would work, you know? I get that she's attractive, and… Yeah, I've heard the jokes about who he dates. But she's the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. The head of an international assassin cult. And she was fine with all that. I never thought she'd actually switch sides for real."

I scan the interior, searching for-. Huh. It's amazing what you miss by over thinking things, but I did learn from Richard finding Richie Simpson before me or Wallace. Don't just scan for hidden spaces, look for power lines, patterns in the dust, an air current where the architectural plans say there shouldn't be one…

"I apologise. I didn't think it would get this far either. Found it."

I drift up and over the rim of one of the mixing vats. You wouldn't think that a supervillain would have the skills to hide a false bottom in one of these. It's basically a solid piece of steel with an arm for a mixing paddle. But…

I deploy a construct crumbler arm and a construct suction cup, applying the cup to the middle of the vat before crumbling a circle around it. And lift…

A small basement with an electronics workshop, bits and pieces of circuitry arrayed in… Places which presumably make sense to the person who put them there.

I notice that I've already deployed a construct electronic components rack and started sorting them properly, and-. And I stop, and set my ring to put them back where it found it.

"Confirming the presence of a workshop. And…" I take a closer look at one of the helmets on the desk. "What's either an Apokoliptian Justifier helmet, or a very close replica. No occupants discovered yet."

"I doubt that we'll get that lucky, but keep looking anyway."

"Will do."

Regular crime is way down. Even supervillains… With the economy toast, stealing just isn't an effective way to gather resources, not compared to being hired to do something productive. But rational arguments don't matter much when you're insane.

In theory, all examples of Apokoliptian technology should have been handed in. In practice… I understand someone who got stuck as a Justifier for a month wanted to keep their helmet. Just as a memento of something horrible which they survived. Something to show the grandchildren. So when we find someone who's done that without nefarious intent, we just take out the circuitry to render it permanently non-functional before handing it back.

Now, in theory, without a way to project Anti-Life, the helmets are pretty harmless. The only other source of Anti-Life I know about is Darkseid… And possibly Despair. And if either of them start messing around on Earth then we'll have bigger things to worry about than one guy in a helmet.

But.

Earth is weird. There are probably ways to project other things through the system. There are probably people other than New Gods who can modify them and use them for… Something untoward. So we need to find out who's playing around with them.

Checking the airflows again-.

"Mmmmpgh!"

"Found someone."

It's-. It's slotted into the floor. I guess… Someone built a slot with some sort of… Restraint frame built into it, which they can raise or lower at will. It-. I check the mechanism as best I can, but Apokoliptian technology disrupts ring scans and I'm reluctant to try anything else just in case it's booby trapped.

But okay. If it's something the site owner is working on, they're going to need to test it fairly regularly. The deployment system isn't going to be that complicated, because it would create a problem for them. The control to raise the prisoner compartment is a button on a box connected to the wall by a thick cable. I can just press it, but there's a hole for a key… And the key's attached to it by a piece of string, which is lazy…

Too lazy.

I send a filament into the key hole, checking for-. Yes, that's a detonator. Which matches the key on the string. So either there's another key here somewhere or they have it with them. Why did it have to be the one Gotham criminal who's actually good at electronics?

Look around, where could it be? If he was working at the bench there, he's shorter than me, so-.

A construct filament pulls out a key that was sellotaped to the underside of the bench. Check the pattern of the teeth… Looks like it should work. Alright, but set up constructs to detect electrical impulses and another to slam shield constructs down to protect the victim just in case. All in place? Okay, insert the right key and press the button…

The vertical… Tray, rises out of the floor, a man in a stained white t-shirt and boxer shorts handcuffed to the frame with… An ersatz claymore strapped to his side and a ball gag in his mouth. I put a safe construct around the mine as the man manages to focus on me and realises that I'm not his captor.

"Mruh?"

"I'm here to rescue you. Please indicate any traps that I haven't noticed as quickly as possible."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th May 2013
13:39 GMT -5

"Cutting now."

My construct shears snip through the handcuff around his right ankle, and his weight transfers to my support construct. He's been here a while, and his captor hasn't been generous with the food or water.

Or the toilet visits, but I cleaned up the mess without making reference to it.

Chnk!

The thin strip of plastic explosive around the handcuff goes off, but my construct box easily contains it. And-

Boompf!

-the claymore goes off a moment later. Seeing no other threat, I offer him my hands and help him out of the frame and onto his captor's chair. Having already checked it for explosives or switches.

"Thank you. Thank you."

I nod, smile professionally, and take an isotonic drink out of subspace and offer it-. I remove the lid, stick a straw in and then put it on the workbench within convenient reach.

"You've been through a rather unpleasant experience, but I have questions for you the moment you're capable of answering."

He nods, then reaches out with his right hand to take the drink. But his hand's shaking, and he has trouble getting a grip as his fingers refuse to cooperate. He then moves both of his hands around the base to stabilise it before leaning in and sucking on the straw. A suck, then he pulls back and needs a couple of tries to swallow successfully. Another suck, and this mouthful goes down a little easier.

I leave him to it. "Robin, can you hear me?"

"I didn't go anywhere, Oh El. You just stopped talking."

"One kidnap victim-. Is there anyone else here as far as you know?"

"N-. No. He said-. He said, 'one at a time'."

I nod. "One kidnap victim. Should make a physical recovery in a couple of days. Some booby traps, but it's all mundane stuff. Reasonable impressive engineering. I didn't think that was his thing."

"You'd be surprised what skills they pick up. And I think there's some sort of freelance henchmen build crew somewhere."

"And they're still operating?"

"Nothing definite, but there's no reason why they couldn't have built it before. Maybe for someone else."

I nod to myself. "Is it worth notifying the police?"

"In Blüdhaven?"

How best to describe the place that has been called Gotham's evil twin? It's like, you see Gotham, and then you find out that there's a city that Gotham doesn't mention in polite company. Well, how about mentioning the fact that Gotham actually had a pretty good survival rate during the Anti-Life period. Being under sporadic threat made its people resilient, and having Batman looking after them gave them the capacity to keep hoping.

Blüdhaven pretty much just laid down and died. It's basically a ghost city now. I half-joked about letting Swamp Thing have it and… No one argued against it.

And the half part was that I didn't say that I'd clear the site first.

"The local F.B.I. office is up and working, isn't it?"

"No jurisdiction. He hasn't committed any federal crimes."

"Gotham police?"

"Not their beat."

"Congregation? Green Arrow told me that Big Barda's expanding their repertoire."

"They don't have any scene of crime people. They can do security if you can think of a reason for maintaining the site."

"No, I-. I guess not." I look around. "I guess we don't even need this as evidence, really."

"No, we do. Just not to get a conviction. Your recordings, testimony and the victim's testimony will be plenty."

"And he's just going back to Arkham anyway, so there's barely any point bringing a.. case."

"Kinda takes the shine off it, huh? We still need to know exactly what he was doing, though, so make sure you drop off the helmet and any other Apokoliptian technology."

"Will do. Orange Lantern out."

I return my full attention to the man, who has finished the drink and is.. doing simple stretches to try and get his limbs back under control.

"Feeling a little better?"

"A little." He looks me in the eye. "You haven't got the little fuck?"

"I'm afraid not. Ah, I'm sorry. I'm Orange Lantern."

"Ah…" That makes him look away. "I'm Kai. Uh. What do you need to know?"

"Who took you?"

He frowns. "You don't know?"

"I need to hear it from you."

"Mad Hatter. Crazy leprechaun mother fucker. Got the drop on me, stuck one of them-" He glances at the partially-dismantled Justifier helmet. "-on me, and I was just-. Doing whatever he said."

"His standard behaviour involves him kidnapping girls and forcing them to take part in tea parties. I assume that he didn't do that to you?"

"He gave me tea. Just… Poured it on me, while I was…"

His eyes are drawn back to the frame he was cuffed to.

"Did he mention any sort of reason?"

He shrugs. "Something about nicer hats? I didn't-. I kind of tuned him out after a while. I guess it's…" He looks down. "I was a Justifier."

"Yes. I know. But did he say that, or-."

"It's my helmet. So either I'm the unluckiest guy in the world, or he knew."

I nod. "A few other people known to have been Justifiers have gone missing recently. Now, despite the Justice League's pronouncements, some people have been taking what happened out on them. But this is… More focused. I don't know if you're in contact with the others, but I strongly suggest that you get a warning out if you are." He nods. "Is there anyone at home? Anyone I can leave you with while you recover?"

His head droops, then he shakes it.

"Okay, well… I guess I can stick around for a few minutes. You..? Lived in Gotham long?"