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

[Mr Zoat]

26th July 2013
23:33 GMT -5

…

Send alert right now.

Compliance.

It's not just his expression. He's changed his costume. Kara.. showed me what used to pass as kryptonian formal wear, and I think this is the male version. A jumpsuit with black sides and a red strip down the middle covering the back and chest and inside leg. A line of white decoration runs down the sides of the arms and there's a pale yellow… Pattern down the right side of his chest.

Doesn't look that bad. Certainly beats external underwear, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe if it had an 'S' on his left pectoral to break up the red..?

"Am I speaking to the Eradicator Program?"

"You're speaking with Kal-El."

I suspect that Lex Luthor has nightmares like this. The posture, the disdain, the intonation… A physical god who knows it and isn't bothered by it. Adom is a little like that, but this is… Worse. Because Superman isn't like that.

"Right, but you're not Kal-El as he was a little while ago."

"I'm better, now. Properly Kryptonian, as I always should have been."

"And how did this.. change, happen?"

"I was concerned about your abduction of Sod-Yat. I asked the New God Mister Miracle to open a boom tube directly to Daxam."

I sag slightly in the air. "Of course you did. And-."

A giant plume of dust and… Rock erupts from the ground a short distance away. Scans show… Yep, Eradicator androids smashing into the ground, digging for… Something.

"And you could just load yourself into his head?"

"Exposure to the Eradicator Program changed me, but I'm still fundamentally myself. You were right-"

Oh gods, it's worse than I thought.

"-by the way; being 'Clark Kent' was a waste of my time. I'll be able to do far more now that I'm abandoning that identity."

"I thought that you'd been practicing the theta wave state."

He actually smiles, and it's horrible. "I have. But the Eradicator Program was written with that in mind; it doesn't use telepathy to correct a confused brain."

"So, what now? And -not that I'm complaining- but why are you talking to me? I thought an Eradicator-inspired kryptonian would be more aggressive towards non-kryptonians."

"Now, I will recover the command section of the Doomsday and restore the ship. Once that is done, I will begin constructing the gene labs I need to recreate the kryptonian species."

"From scratch, or do you intend to alter existing people?"

"Whichever is expedient. While I understand why Kem-El did what he did, it was short-sighted. Concentrating our people on one planet put them at risk of exactly what happened."

"What exactly did Kem-El do? I never found out."

"He's the reason why daxamites are biologically divergent from kryptonians. The change wasn't voluntary, and not all of them survived the viral organism he used to do it." He glances at my face. "Every family has black sheep."

"Okay. Well, I regard recreating the kryptonian species as a good thing, and I don't have a problem with you taking the Doomsday."

"I didn't think you would. But in the interest of honesty I think I should probably mention the parts that you will have a problem with."

"Such as?"

"Amalak. He's a clear and present danger to the reborn kryptonian species. I will kill him, and take his ill-gotten trophies back to Daxam."

"Understandable, though it makes life a little difficult for me."

"I'll also be taking Har-Zod's station with me, to serve as our orbital command until the robots have had time to build something better."

"It was only here for our kryptonian contingent anyway."

"And naturally I'm going to kill Conner and Mitchell."

"And why is that?"

"Hybridisation is ungodly. And it puts our strength in the hands of our enemies."

"Not… Keen on that. Isn't Mitchell completely kryptonian now?"

"I couldn't change everything in his brain. There's still some genomorph in there. And the gods would know anyway."

"So the daxamites are alright because they don't contain alien genetic material?"

"And because they faithfully preserve kryptonian culture."

"But genomorphs are derived from Nam-Ek's genetic material, and he's-."

"A heretic and an abomination whom I will destroy once I work out how."

"Is there any chance that I can persuade you not to do some of those things in exchange for my assistance with some of the others?"

"Such as?"

"There are probably a few psion cloning plants in the Vega Systems that no one's touched. Even if you had to reconfigure them, it would save you a lot of time. Or I could give someone a power ring or two."

His eyes narrow. "And in return, I let your friends live."

"That's what I was going for."

"I can check Vega myself. And you're not my only source of power rings."

I blink. "Excuse me?"

"You're excused. I have work to do."

"No, wait, where are you getting rings from? There's no way that Zamaron would supply you and I doubt that it's the Guardians. So, Sinestro?"

He glances back at me, then his gaze-. What's he looking at?

Oh, no.

"Why is LexCorps sending a security force here?"

"He owns the site. Don't worry, I'll give him one chance to stand down. He's in violation of Earth law by not declaring this discovery anyway, and I have the legal authority to confiscate it."

"You don't, actually. You lost it the moment the Eradicator Program propagated itself into your mind. And I'm afraid that-."

Then things get blurry.

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th July 2013
23:37 GMT -5

The scenery jumps and jumps again and my ring automatically removes me from danger.

Oh sug-

I get a tenth of a second of seeing Superman fly at me fists first and-

-ar.

-then I'm in the middle of the dig site, Eradicator androids floating around the entrance to… A LexCorp facility. They appear to have just rammed their way through the entrance-.

Superman's attacking me.

Um.

Full armour, activate stealth and phasing and move.

Superman… Is-.

Warning! Energy drain detected!

Because of course the Eradicator program gave him a full working knowledge of Torquasm. Stop scanning, passive-.

Superman appears a short distance from me, looking intently at his surroundings.

Okay, so I remember from the comics that when Superman does this it's relatively easy to disorientate him with intense sound or light. But the person taking advantage of that was Diana, and she's faster, tougher and stronger than me. I'm not sure I can actually make a distraction fast enough to avoid getting pâtéd.

So, how do I deal with a hostile kryptonian?

Reasoning didn't work. He's wearing an environmental shield, so dropping off lumps of kryptonite isn't going to achieve anything. Powdered kryptonite, same problem. A kryptonite laser should work, but that would require me to phase back in and not get pasted-.

He's looking at me. I'm not interacting with the physical universe, how is-?

"There you-" Movemovemove! "-are."

And he's there, right in my face, hands… Sticking through me, but I'm phased, so while this is disturbing it's not actually dangerous.

I think.

Ah, okay, x-ionised knives? Might actually kill him if I can make an attack, which is in no way guaranteed. And I'd have to phase in. Build up kryptonite radiation inside my armour and then release it when I phase in? No good. If I overwhelmed his environmental shield he'd still be throwing a punch at me at full force. So either he'd hit at full power and then get depowered, in which case I'd explode, or he'd get depowered first in which case he'd be moving so fast that there's a reasonable chance that he would.

Desire manipulation. Okay, I'll

take a closer-.

Dddddhhhhhrrrrrrr.

"Did that hurt?" He doesn't look more than mildly curious. "Krypton didn't have a record of what happened to an alien who tried that."

I don't know what bit of his expanded skill set did that, but I don't want to try it again. Right, plot course to somewhere a mile away and transition.

The scenery skips, which-.

"Found you." Fuck. "Drawing on Orange Lantern energy like this is harder than I thought it would be."

Um.

I look up, trying to-.

"Ah, there it is."

Warning! Energy drain detected!

I can't see!

Transition upwards and west.

Okay... What? How did he?

"You know…" And he's caught up already and I have no idea how. "You're not going to get away."

I raise my right hand and make the reverse-victory sign.

"Hm. You just moved, but I can't quite tell how."

X-ionised blades inside my armour, pushing outwards. Make sure that there isn't room between them for him to strike me. Then… The environmental shield is designed to counter radiation. Generate… Super tear gas.

And… Take a moment.

The Eradicators are still working, and the relief convoy is… Doing final checks on the three suits of high quality power armour they brought with them. Kryptonite weapons, but also kryptonite-powered plasma weapons. Some sort of dimensional-shunt force field, which explains the maintenance teams. Those things are hard to keep in working order, and I'm… Kind of surprised that LexCorp has managed to develop a practical version.

Superman's looking-.

I phase in and drop the gas, manifesting sonic cannon constructs as he turns back in surprise, hit him with ultra-high and ultra-low frequency sounds at the same time. Tear the air into plasma, try and hit a wavelength that will disrupt his environmental shield while throwing out gold kryptonite dust because I'll only need to disrupt it a little-.

Superman spins, the air turning into a tornado as the gas and dust are funnelled away!

Plasma. Copy what Lex's people are-.

Green bolts punch through the tornado, striking Superm-. No, missing Superman as he blurs around them, heat vision flashing-. Their armour shimmers purple as their force field absorbs it and I'm doing nothing shoot him!

Ugh, that clearly isn't-. What Construct Lanterns would-?

Hydra heads, go!

A dozen reptilian heads shimmer into being around me and lunge for Superman, jaws snapping! That actually holds his attention for an instant, resulting in some of the plasma actually hitting him. All that causes is a small wince and then the hydras bite down! One on his right arm, one on his left shoulder, three on his torso and one goes for his head-.

Heat vision rips through that one, and the rest aren't really getting anywhere, but at least they appear to have his attention. I know it won't work, but-. Assimilate.

Identity theft in progress. One percent complete.

Superman tries to rip off the filament connecting us, only for three hydra heads to bite it and wrestle it back!

One percent complete.

I suppose that I could always get High Father Izaya to turn him back if I actually do complete it.

Two percent complete.

A beam of kryptonite plasma from the power armour units finds a gap between the hydra heads-

"Agh!"

-and actually hits him. I can see a burn-. I think my distraction efforts are achieving something-.

Then the hydra heads disintegrate as he charges me!