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

[Mr Zoat]

18th June 2013
19:25 GMT -5

I bow immediately, and Jade's quick enough on the uptake that she does the same an instant later.

"That is not necessary."

I look up as Morpheus sort of… Changes how he interacts with the world, going from being a sovereign on his throne with all of the ideal form imagery that implies to 'just' being a white-skinned man in jet black period appropriate Middle Eastern dress standing just in front of us. The Caliph is content to watch us, though his expression shows obvious curiosity.

"You recently had an encounter with my brother and sister."

"Yes. Ah. I didn't intend to bring that trouble to your door, and I'm.. sorry if I have."

"I am more concerned for you. Despair is patient."

"Um."

Why is..? Morpheus concerned for me..? I don't.. think he owes me in any way that might make him worried about his inability to pay me back. If anything I'd say that I owed him.

"I am aware of the harm that interacting with my family can bring. I recognise it as a failing in myself that I have been indifferent to it in the past."

"Gamemnae got the worst of it, and while I can't say that she didn't have some of that coming... If I could ask for a boon, it would be that you would allow her to occasionally dream of a flourishing Atlantis."

He looks mildly disquieted. "She caused that situation to occur by trying to leech power from my sister. Why should I extend my mercy to her?"

"Oh, she doesn't deserve it. When we finally finish unbinding her spells and let her wake up, it's quite likely that King Orin will have her executed. And… I won't argue against it. But I'm… I've long been of the opinion that inflicting suffering for its own sake diminishes the one who inflicts it. It makes the object of your ire supplant your own self-derived objectives on your mind, makes you… Something other than yourself."

He looks slightly thoughtful. "Perhaps you are right. I will make no promises, but I will… Consider her case."

"Thank you, O Dream King."

"I have done nothing which you need to thank me for. Though perhaps in exchange for my consideration you could tell me a tale of the ship you sailed through my realm."

"Yes, certainly, it's a rather nifty piece of thaumic engineering. The lead designer tried to send you messages about it, but they may have arrived during your… Absence."

He smiles faintly. "I will speak with my housekeeper. But since you are here, you may provide an explanation yourself."

"Ah, well, short version, some magicians manipulate the Dream to create a Dream-ship, then another spell makes the ship become the Dream-ship, it sails through the Dream until it gets to wherever they want, and then there's another spell for emerging back into reality. Now, I checked, and as far as I can tell it doesn't cause any damage to the fabric of the Dream, but Queen Artemis and I both appreciate that you might not be happy with having your realm turning into a bypass. If you wish to forbid it, we will of course comply with your order. If you wish to study it, I am sure that Queen Artemis will be happy to receive you."

"And if I did forbid it, what would you do?"

"There are other realms we could travel. The same basic design would work just as well. Or I… Had an idea for artificially extending or merging thaumospheres. Once we work out how, that would probably be easiest." Uh… "Though I suppose it would depend on why you forbade it. If there was a practical problem that we could solve, I'd probably just ask if we could resubmit our proposal once we'd solved it."

Morpheus… Appears to be thinking about it. He isn't human enough to look away from me and his body language is… Barely there, but there's a certain added stillness that suggests that he's focusing inward rather than outward.

Then he focuses again, small changes in the form he's wearing appearing in the corner of my eyes. A shift in the cut of the robe, moving it away from 'Middle East formal wear' and towards 'Wizard formal wear'. "I will visit Queen Artemis and hear her explanation before I make a final decision."

"Thank you. Do we.. owe you anything for the journey we already took?"

"I will decide that when I understand better what you actually did."

"Rightoh. Did you-? Oh, there was something I wanted to ask."

"You may do so."

"Would you have a particular problem with it if I turned Delirium back into Delight? It would be near the end of a very long list of jobs and I have only the vaguest idea how something like that could even be attempted, but I recognise that someone is hurt and that things aren't as they should be. And I think, eventually, I'm going to like having a problem like that to work on."

He's staring at me, and for a moment I feel paper-thin, spread out, like… Like a character in a comic book someone is flipping through.

"Show me what you plan to do once you have a method. I do not object, but Despair almost certainly will."

I nod. "I will, and I'll make it the last thing that I do." I smile, relaxing my body slightly. "Do you want to stay for the story? I understand that you're a busy man with a plane of reality to run."

He… Makes it so that he's now sitting, his throne replaced by a simple bench next to the Caliph's throne.

"I can hardly pass up the opportunity to hear a novel story, especially since it concerns my realm."

The Caliph regards him from the corner of his eye for a moment, before deciding that he's finished and focusing his attention upon me. "Orange Lantern! Sage of Avarice! You have returned to my court!"

"I apologise for the delay, O Caliph. Things have gotten rather desperate on Earth, and it has required my full attention. May I present my betrothed, Jade Nguyen."

Jade bows again, though more shallowly than she did for Morpheus.

He considers her for a moment, before clapping his hands. A servant darts in, hunched in pre-genuflection.

"Fetch my wife to join us. And bring refreshments!"

The servant genuflects fully, backing out before scurrying off.

"Come! Sit! I have waited for your return since I discovered that you did not die during your crossing! You must tell me of that, and of your visit to Heaven! Hah, and I am certain you have other stories besides!"

"I have a farce about the first time I was in your former kingdom. I behaved poorly, but in my defence I was fairly new at the time."

"Then I will hear that too! It will return your modesty to you after the other tales. And you, Jade." He turns to her. "What stories do you have?"

"I have one about a madman seducing an assassin while she tried to kill him."

"Is it any good?

She gives me a sidelong glance. "He seems to like it."

"Then I'm certain that it will be excellent."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd June 2013
19:32

Oliver smiles at me as we head upwards towards the mountain's living area. "Nervous?"

I shrug, then shake my head. "No, no, I don't mind making a fool of myself. If they don't laugh at me then I'll be worried."

"They're not an entirely representative audience. I know the marketing industry took a real beating, but we can still get hold of enough people to do regular test screenings."

"Is there some problems I'm not seeing?"

"British commercials can be a little… Unique. I think it'll work well in Britain, and maybe in Europe, I just don't know… Oh hey, Arte!"

Artemis looks away from the microwave where she's heating popcorn. "Hey Ollie. Paul, when did you find time to shoot a commercial?"

"It wasn't that hard. Pinewood Studios isn't exactly over-employed at the moment, and the script was mostly off-the-cuff. And… Cadbury's is an increasingly large part of international trade, so I do actually.. keep more track of it than you might assume."

The microwave beeps, and she pulls out the bag and pours it into a prepared bowl.

"I'm not sure it's… Worth that. I mean, it's only a couple of minutes."

She shrugs as she bins the bag and picks up the bowl. "We can catch a movie after. And if your commercial is really stupid I can just throw it at you."

"My board representative had to sign off on it too."

Oliver grins as he raises his hands. "Oh, don't try blaming this on me. You're the one who decided to direct and star in his own ad campaign."

Artemis frown. "Wait, how many are there?"

"Four, but they all have the same structure with a couple of differences in the scenes."

"'Scenes'? How long are they?"

"Just a couple of minutes." I shrug. "Shot differences. I don't know; I didn't do media studies."

She shakes her head as we move into the living room, head turning to greet us.

"Thank you everyone for coming. I'll be handing out samples of the product at the conclusion of the viewing-."

"So if we run early-" Richard grins. "-we don't get anything."

"There are no flies on either of us. And given some of the missions we've been on, I'm sure you can put up with me making a fool of myself for a few minutes."

Wallace shifts over as Artemis plonks herself down next to him, wrapping one arm around her and grabbing popcorn with the other without looking. "Do Cadbury's sell Christmas cake?"

"Yes, but only seasonally." I take a data stick out of subspace as Oliver takes position at the rear of the group, arms folded across his chest. Then I walk forwards and plug the stick into the rear of the television before retreating to the side. "If whoever had the control pad would be so good?"

Kaldur raises it, moves the cursor to the new file and presses play.

The first thing on the screen is a full-colour recreation of a Cadbury's factory from the 1900s, when the company first started using condensed milk and their chocolate actually started tasting nice. It's not taken from a living museum or a coloration of old footage, just something I made using old technical and architectural plans and my ring, but it makes the point well.

My voice over starts immediately.

"In nineteen oh four, Cadbury's began using condensed milk in place of powdered milk, resulting in a chocolate of a far smoother consistency."

Nothing for two seconds, then the screen switches to me in my hastily redecorated office in Bourneville. I'm standing in front of my desk, just off centre of the shot.

"Meanwhile some of our American colleagues couldn't quite get the hang of the process of creating condensed milk, and managed to induce increased levels of bacterial growth and an increase in the levels of butyric acid. Other sources of butyric acid include…"

Those amongst my colleagues who have heard this rant before don't react as still images of a pool of vomit and a dog's posterior briefly flash up on the screen, while the others make expressions of disgust. Then the camera pulls back to reveal that both images are framed images on my desk… With a Hershey's bar resting between then.

The me on the screen looks down at it for a moment, then turns his head to the camera, looks awkward for about a second, and then without looking back picks the bar up and drops it off-camera, where it lands in a metal bin with a microphone-assisted thunk.

The me on-screen smiles awkwardly as the camera zooms in on my face.

"How did that get there?"

Me nods expectantly at the camera and it pulls back, and me walks past the image tableau.

"But over the years it seems that our friends across the Atlantic have grown to rather like the flavour of butyric acid, and the first rule of business is 'don't make it hard for people to give you money'. With that in mind-"

Me stops at a display, showing a standard Dairy Milk bar on a stand with Union Jacks and a similar bar on a stand next to it with Stars-Spangled Banners both on the packet and decorating the stand.

"-we've created this new bar-"

Me reaches down, hesitates to touch the transatlantic chocolate, opts to put a white glove on his right hand and only then picks up the Americanised bar to display it to the zoomed-in camera.

"-to appeal specifically to the American pallet. Such as it is."

Me looks exceedingly awkwardly at the bar, then raises an eyebrow at looks back at the camera.

"And we won't judge you at all for preferring it." … "Externally." Me looks a little sad. "Internally? We're judging you. We're judging you a lot."

The closing image uses the decoration on the American display box as the background, with the actual open box as the central focus.

"Cadbury's Dairy Milk America." There's a sound of me sighing. "If you really must."

The image freezes, and my colleagues continue to gape.

M'gann's head is the first to turn back to me. "Ah? What was that?"

Wallace shakes his head. "You putting that on T.V., Oh El? Like..? For real?"

"Yep."

"'cause if you run to the T.V. company's offices real fast they might give you your money back."

Robert looks around the seating. "I thought it was alright?"

Oliver raises his hands. "Save your final judgements to the end. There's still three more to go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th March 2025
09:21 GMT -5

"Mark, honey?" Deborah Grayson looks up in surprise as Invincible walks into her house. "What's going on?"

"Ah." He stops right where he is, freezing up. "H-hey."

I spotted that the recently-rebuilt house on the other side of the road is still a G.D.A. observation post. Omni-Man's wife could easily become a target, and then there's the fact that the local Invincible and his brother live here most of the time. The people there have almost certainly sent a message to their superiors, though whether they've notified the local-.

Oh, they have. And Atom Eve too, by the looks of things. And they are not hanging around.

"Is that all I'm getting?"

"N-. No. No, ah… Okay, ah, a bunch of different versions of me from parallel universes are invading-."

"Is it Angstrom?"

"Yes! Yes. And-."

"I thought you… I thought you killed him? You… Said…"

Oh. That's news. "Ah." Invincible isn't acting well, but he was so overtly discomported anyway that it looks like a natural continuation of how he was behaving from the moment he opened the door. "I thought I did, too. He's got a big scar across his face and a bunch of cybernetic implants, so I guess someone stuck him back together again. It's not like we understood everything about what his power can do." She nods. "But I want you to get somewhere safe before I go out and fight them."

Mrs. Grayson takes a moment to control herself, then nods. "Okay. I'll call Cecil-."

"No. They're going after the G.D.A. and the Guardians of the Globe first. So unless they put a secret bunker in the place across the street, the safest thing to do is head out of the city. Get somewhere remote, and stay there until there's an all-clear. Okay?"

She's already grabbing her car keys. "Okay. What about Oliver?"

Because this Invincible has a younger brother, and Invincible isn't used to taking him into account.

"I'll pick him up and…" He sighs to cover up the fact that he's trying to think of something. "I can't… Keep him completely safe, but I can tell him to stick with one of the recovery teams while I handle the other Invincibles."

She nods as she heads for the door.

"Alright. I don't like the idea of him seeing all those bodies, but I know that he'll refuse if we just-."

Invincible wraps his arms around her in a side-hug. "I love you, Mom."

Mrs. Grayson is momentarily surprised by the change in tone, then briefly hugs him back. "I love you too, Mark. Now-."

There's a sort of fizzing, crackling noise-

"Incoming!"

-as the local Atom Eve shoots through the space I was occupying, violet construct knives outstretched!

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!"

The local Invincible is staring down at Invincible, fists balled but not daring to attack in case Mrs. Grayson gets hurt.

"Mark-?"

The fizzing and crackling increases as… I haven't seen Atom Eve fly that often. Apparently, she has to apply thrust through her feet, which seems inefficient. Pink energy bolts shoot towards me-.

I evade and shield, because I need to know how strong they-

Atom Eve comes to an abrupt halt in the air. "What?"

-are. Detonation… Cracks the construct but doesn't breach it. Good to know.

Invincible spreads his arms out and steps away from Mrs. Grayson. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt Mom."

The local Invincible walks closer to Invincible. "She's not your mom!"

Atom Eve isn't attacking. She's just floating in the air, staring at me. "Who are you?"

"Invincible thought that it would be a good idea to have backup, and I was privileged to be called upon. I am Orange Lantern, Janissary of the Viltrumite Empire. From our… Parallel."

"I know." Invincible pointedly walks away from Mrs. Grayson, opening a clear route to her car. "But in my universe, my mom's… Dead. I just want her to get somewhere safe. And I… I wanted to see her again."

He shrugs, a.. little helplessly. But that doesn't seem to win him any points with his doppelgänger.

"Look, I'll help you fight the others. And I-." He looks up at me. "Lantern, get Mom out of the city!"

"Certainly." I tether Mrs. Grayson to move her into the car's driving seat, and then tether the car and lift it. "Hold on tight, Missus Grayson."

And accelerate.

She doesn't actually need to hold on tight. It's just something to say.

I could try transitioning out of the city, but there are technologies which can disrupt that and I don't want to get myself killed. I also don't want to get Mrs. Grayson killed. Looking down, it appears that news of the attacks is starting to spread. Roads are getting filled. Not clogged. Not yet. I'm not sure if that's due to some people being slow on the uptake, the belief that this will be over quickly and it's best to shelter in place, or if they've got experience with supervillains attacking road convoys.

Hm. Okay, this should be far enough. An out of town shopping centre with a large car park. Not in the countryside, but far enough from the city centre to be safeish and far enough ahead of the rush that she can drive safely. I descend, setting the car down gently.

"Good luck, Missus Grayson."

And then I fly back, focusing more easily now that I don't have a weight to carry. And-.

Oh dear. I've seen a lot of inhabited buildings knocked down over the years, but I had hoped that part of my life was over. Apparently not.

The Invincibles are in the air. Invincible's body language is a little more relaxed, while the local Invincible is… Maybe a little less hostile.

"…recruited Sinclair to build more of his zombots for the G.D.A.."

Local Invincible nods. "Yeah, he did the same here. And yeah, I'm angry about it, but that doesn't make conquering the Earth for the Viltrum Empire okay!"

"Not even if they killed Mom?"

Local Invincible jerks back slightly in the air. "What? How?"

"When Dad went… Active, Cecil tried teleporting all the zombots Sinclair had made to where Dad was. Except Sinclair was smarter than him. They appeared for, like, a second, then they hacked the teleport system and teleported right back to G.D.A. headquarters. Cecil and Mom died right away, and… By the time any reinforcements got there, their entire command team was dead."

Local Invincible hesitates, then nods. "And that's… Why? Because William and Mom were dead? And that's..? Justified? All the people you killed?"

Invincible floats there for a moment, then shrugs. "Hey, you asked why, I told you. But the other usses are wrecking your world right now, not mine. Why don't we go deal with them first?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th June 2013
10:13 GMT -5

Uuurgh… Yeah. It's a reasonable question.

With Queen Artemis confirming that she's prepared to order the creation of Dolmen Gate workshops, and with Atlantis agreeing to provide the technical documents and instructors, that's now something I can rely upon happening. Which means that Helmut needs me to make a decision on exactly how I want the city's layout to work vis-à-vis the Gates.

Gates capable of allowing two-way travel for heavy goods vehicles aren't exactly small or light. And while they don't have to be a circle, it's a lot easier to make them circular. So do we just assume that they will be slotted into place when the factories are set up, or do we site them in public squares, or… Cul-de-sacs set aside for the purpose? I mean, we can mount them on cranes but it's not really practical for us to stick giant cranes in the city on a permanent basis. Maybe some sort of anti-gravity lifting unit that could fly them around as needed? I mean, Helmut can draft up designs for a variety of possibilities, but he doesn't know what technology I'm prepared to-.

A… Kite flies in front of me, with… 'Look down' written on it.

I look down.

Ah, a news crew. I'm a little surprised that it took this long, but with… Things being what they are, advertising revenue is way down. Private broadcast television has mostly died off, leaving public television and internet-based services, though neither industries are exactly in a healthy state. The air time that's left is so cheap that even I'm getting sick of my chocolate advert monopolising the airwaves. I think… I think the League is funding information broadcasts of some sort, but I didn't look into it beyond confirming that it's happening. Who is-?

Ah. Of course.

I descend through the air, the skivvy holding the kite reeling it in now that it's job is done.

Much like a gun, every microphone and camera are live until it's confirmed otherwise.

"Ms. Grant. How may I be of service?"

She smirks broadly at me. "Are you taking over the world one city at a time?"

"I'm afraid that I can't talk about the Justice League taking over the world, but I can tell you anything you want to know about Hub City."

"And why can't you talk about it?"

I land and put on my best dealing-with-journalists face. "Because Batman told me not to, and I don't want to make his life even harder than it already is."

"Why do you think Batman told you not to talk about it?"

"Because I was making his life harder than it already was. Would you like to talk about Hub City at all?"

"Alright. What made you prioritise it?"

"I happened to be here when I had an idea. And it clearly needs help even more than most places."

"And what was your idea?"

"With international trade at an all-time low and sea and air trade being almost extinct, there's a shortage of agricultural vehicle production in America. Hub has a lot of land no one's using, and it used to be a manufacturing centre which means that some of the people who used to work in the industry are still around."

And we've found… A few, and they've got symbiotes now so they're in theory ready to get back to work. Just… Have to actually build a complex… I think that if I do one as a proof of concept then I can leave the rest to mundane construction techniques… Probably? I'll check the timelines with Helmut-.

"Isn't Hub a byword for crime and drug use?"

"As far as I know, it-" I nod. "-is, yes. But I already destroyed all of the drug caches, the most significant criminals are either dead or fled and with Accalacan occupying most of the land where cocaine used to come from, I think they stand a decent chance of making it work."

Because this isn't just the best chance they're going to get, it's probably the only one.

"What happens if the criminals who moved away come back?"

"The Genomorph Collective has kindly leant a brood of g-gnomes to the Hub City Police Department. It shouldn't be too difficult to find them."

"G-gnomes?"

I point over to where a site manager has one perched on his shoulder.

"The small telepathic relay genomorph type."

"They're going to eliminate crime by reading everyone's minds?"

"No, of course not. The police force is nothing like big enough to do something like that. But being able to eliminate people from their enquiries and make sure that their testimony is honest will save a great deal of time."

"What about privacy concerns?"

"G-gnomes aren't human. They barely count as intelligent beings. They don't have any interest in things that a person might find embarrassing, or things that would be commercially sensitive."

"Still…"

"Outside of a situation where there's an immediate and significant danger to life, a person could just refuse to consent. That would probably make them the target of investigation when compared to someone who had just let them do a scan to eliminate themselves from enquiries, but that's a choice they can make. Personally…"

I stop, because despite what my colleagues have alleged I do remember my media training.

She tries to raise her eyebrows, but is defeated by her botox. "I thought it was just the Justice League taking over the world that you couldn't talk about."

"Okay, so do you know why the Third Amendment exists? Why not having troops quartered in your home was rated behind only free speech and weapon ownership in importance by the Founding Fathers?"

She nods. "Because the British had a habit of forcing people to let soldiers stay in their homes without paying them."

"Right. Because there was a brief period where there was a lot of that, and it was an immediate concern for a lot of people in America at the time. But when you think about it objectively, is it really more important to fundamental human dignity than the right to a jury trial? Particularly considering that there's no amendment preventing eminent domain? They can't take your house temporarily but they can take it permanently? Does that make sense in relation to an ideal form of individual-state relations, or was it just current affairs pandering?"

"So you think the right not to incriminate yourself is 'current affairs pandering'?"

"No, but it doesn't reflect the changes in reality. A-um… For example, Britain used to have a law against trying someone for the same charge twice. Double jeopardy. It was meant to cut down on frivolous lawsuits and prevent the state just repeatedly trying someone until they got the result they wanted."

"You're saying Britain got rid of that law?"

"Yes, because we discovered genetics. Suddenly it was possible to guarantee that a particular person was in a particular place. That a.. semen sample, say, came from a particular person. But if they'd had a trial based on witness testimony and the.. limited physical evidence that was available at the time and the accused had been acquitted… Even if now you could prove with complete certainty that they were guilty with a genetic match, you couldn't try them again. So, hooray for not having a constitution, a Bill went through Parliament which allowed the Court of Appeal to allow new trials where the prosecution had significant new evidence, like genetic test that didn't exist at the time of the original trial and so couldn't have been used."

I pause to let her and her audience digest that one.

"I don't know how many criminals in America have remained free despite the fact that their guilt can now be proven. Maybe you could check that yourself. But I doubt that it's none give how many Britain had. The American constitutional right against self incrimination exists so that police couldn't use confessions gained through torture. G-gnomes don't torture people. And if that's unsettling, Atlantis has spells which prevent lying. Technically, compelling people to accept either would be unconstitutional in America, but… Why? What's wrong with preventing people from lying in court?"

She nods. "On that note, have you had any input into the Bill being put before Congress relating to the Justice League reconstruction efforts?"

"I didn't even know there was one. Do you have the draft text with you?"