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

[Mr Zoat]

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"seen"

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Thank you, corrected.

And I just realised, this part really feels like those annoyingly popular sequences in action-adventure games these days. Surely you've seen the kind: Keep pushing forwards to run, stagger or otherwise roll down a narrow corridor of stability as shit happens around you. You know, like in Uncharted or the Tomb Raider reboot series? Not saying that's a bad thing, but...

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But it's great for the animators!

Both 'too' should be 'to', right?

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Thank you, corrected.

I'm pretty sure he's just really fit. Maybe he kind of has some low-level super strength in the sense that he is fitter than any human could reasonably be, but he definitely doesn't have 'true' super strength.

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Yes, just really fit.

 

[Bud-E]

Yes, just really fit.

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Is there a reason Paul never gave himself the Danner enhancement or any other kind of super power that he has access too?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Is there a reason Paul never gave himself the Danner enhancement or any other kind of super power that he has access too?

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Yes. The Danner Formula appears to work through magic means, and as such wouldn't work on him. Or at least, couldn't be relied upon to behave predictably. Other augmentations either altered the human body in a way he found unpleasant, had other side effects or just weren't worth it. The Renegade and Tangseid felt differently.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

OL, in his time off screen, has spoken to support groups for metahuman children, starting from the families at the schools that megan and conner go to, along with cassie (wonder girl) and her mother.

He's likely run into a few super powers out there that have had some pretty bad side effects (maybe not as bad as The Boys 'verse Saul has)

He ran experiments on Danner, Blockbuster and Garrick formula's on lab rats and his own blood....this was before he got a soul though. Without the magic side of things his blood was inert to danner and garrick, but (as Renegade proved) not Blockbuster. Tangsied ended up using the Evil Potion for super powers without a soul, and that worked. Seems hit and miss with what will function, with a lack of understanding on what super stuff is just magic by another vector.

With his greed and chaos powered soul all patchworked together, he might get a reaction out of those, but unlikely to be one that he wants.

He's made minor tweaks to his body, muscle improvements, better memory and sense of taste got mentioned, but those are altering mundane stuff. Stuff he understands and can reverse. Bolting on super powers he doesn't understand the underlying principles of is asking for trouble, and possibly adding new weaknesses.

I don't know if its a factor that Paul's talks and observation of Truggs and Kadabra might have put him off going for long term genetic buffs, as both of them show signs of augmentation that propagate in the gene pool, and aren't exactly stunning examples of good decision making.

EDIT:

Then there's the question of why he should go for 'built in' super powers when he has gear and constructs that can replicate most of the generic ones, and a rolldex of super powered people to call on for ones he can't duplicate.

Now I'm a bit curious as to what powers he could go for that would make sense. Power Ring Blue paul went with some mad science nanotech to supplement his less then fully charged Ring. Old World Blues Krono Paul went for Psychic Powers and a FEV based Super Serum that gave him some degree of physical buffing, due to not having a way to charge his ring.

 

[Stsword]

Now I'm a bit curious as to what powers he could go for that would make sense. Power Ring Blue paul went with some mad science nanotech to supplement his less then fully charged Ring. Old World Blues Krono Paul went for Psychic Powers and a FEV based Super Serum that gave him some degree of physical buffing, due to not having a way to charge his ring.

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I particularly liked the Suicide Squad Angel Wings theurgist alt.Paul.

Although I always thought it was a shame he didn't have a blue ring, make him the funhouse mirror of Gravy.

Gravy- New God of Conquest, orange light of avarice, works together like blue light and angel wings, I thought.

 

[GhostKing 666]

Was anyone else hearing Escape from the City while reading that chapter?

 

[BlaUSEast]

So are there any ideas who John Quinn actually is? Some sort of effort of Constantine's reincarnation/balancing act that went awry or just some street magician who got him while he was vulnerable?

 

[Windona]

If Paul could precisely engineer a metagene and control its activation to give him the powers he wants, that would be useful. But I don't think that Earth science has isolated the metagene (which I argue is a start codon for a bunch of other genes and controls gaining powers but doesn't encode all the powers itself), and precise activation would take a ton of research.

He has awesome armor and backup gear in case his ring goes down anyway. Why risk it when he doesn't need it?

Though now I'm curious as to how everyone is staying together or not

 

[Mr Zoat]

If Paul could precisely engineer a metagene and control its activation to give him the powers he wants, that would be useful. But I don't think that Earth science has isolated the metagene (which I argue is a start codon for a bunch of other genes and controls gaining powers but doesn't encode all the powers itself), and precise activation would take a ton of research.

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When I watched Series 3, I imagined what his response to Bumblebee augmenting her daughter would be. "Excellent! We're back to where we were a hundred and thirty years ago.", probably.

 

[Windona]

When I watched Series 3, I imagined what his response to Bumblebee augmenting her daughter would be. "Excellent! We're back to where we were a hundred and thirty years ago.", probably.

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1890- with the Donner formula? Though honestly the Donner formula is a major improvement- we see metas in that season like Plasmius and Dolphin who have major downsides to their powers that the Donner formula doesn't have, whereas the Donner formula has consistently beneficial results and no downsides if it works.

 

[Stsword]

1890- with the Donner formula? Though honestly the Donner formula is a major improvement- we see metas in that season like Plasmius and Dolphin who have major downsides to their powers that the Donner formula doesn't have, whereas the Donner formula has consistently beneficial results and no downsides if it works.

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Very true.

Donner formula is consistent, and I'd rate it a solid A all things considered.

The metagene is however a gamble. Some people roll snake eyes, some people hit the jackpot and get powers that makes Superman look like a poser.

The thing is, there's no reason for that to be the end of that tech tree.

Son of Vulcan, from the comics, has his origins in a meta-virus. A transmissible metagene. Marvel did the same thing with the X-Gene with the character Pandemic. While Son of Vulcan probably doesn't fit into YJ without alteration for the setting, I see no compelling reason it couldn't work in YJ.

Damage goes even further. They used Martian shapeshifting to give him multiple choice DNA, so he could theoretically switch between powers like Ben 10. Never actually learned how to do that though. He could blow up real good though.

And considering that Megan could alter her blood type to give future Beast Boy a blood transfusion, I'd say shapeshifting on the genetic level doesn't seem beyond YJ Martian abilities. Since to change blood types would require producing specific molecules.

Also metagene powers randomness as shown in YJ could be attributed to the artificial activations.

It's been shown that one can manipulate the results by the procedure used to activate the metagene, at least in the comics.

For example, Firestorm has a supervillain, Tokamak. He emulated Firestorm's origin to produce the similarly nuclear powered Firehawk. He then emulated the origin again to give himself nuclear powers too.

Considering it was theorized that El Dorado's teleporting came from his father's own work in Zeta-beams, it is possible it would work the same way in YJ.

Or maybe not, since Terra, her brother, and her uncle all gained earth based abilities, so it's possible in YJ that instead of being the thing of infinite possibilities it is in the comics, that people with the metagene in YJ have predilections.

In the comics, Bryon sticking his tongue in an electrical socket could have left him the Lightning Tongue, in YJ, it might be his metagene was Earth powers or bust.

 

[Windona]

Very true.

Donner formula is consistent, and I'd rate it a solid A all things considered.

The metagene is however a gamble. Some people roll snake eyes, some people hit the jackpot and get powers that makes Superman look like a poser.

The thing is, there's no reason for that to be the end of that tech tree.

Son of Vulcan, from the comics, has his origins in a meta-virus. A transmissible metagene. Marvel did the same thing with the X-Gene with the character Pandemic. While Son of Vulcan probably doesn't fit into YJ without alteration for the setting, I see no compelling reason it couldn't work in YJ.

Damage goes even further. They used Martian shapeshifting to give him multiple choice DNA, so he could theoretically switch between powers like Ben 10. Never actually learned how to do that though. He could blow up real good though.

And considering that Megan could alter her blood type to give future Beast Boy a blood transfusion, I'd say shapeshifting on the genetic level doesn't seem beyond YJ Martian abilities. Since to change blood types would require producing specific molecules.

Also metagene powers randomness as shown in YJ could be attributed to the artificial activations.

It's been shown that one can manipulate the results by the procedure used to activate the metagene, at least in the comics.

For example, Firestorm has a supervillain, Tokamak. He emulated Firestorm's origin to produce the similarly nuclear powered Firehawk. He then emulated the origin again to give himself nuclear powers too.

Considering it was theorized that El Dorado's teleporting came from his father's own work in Zeta-beams, it is possible it would work the same way in YJ.

Or maybe not, since Terra, her brother, and her uncle all gained earth based abilities, so it's possible in YJ that instead of being the thing of infinite possibilities it is in the comics, that people with the metagene in YJ have predilections.

In the comics, Bryon sticking his tongue in an electrical socket could have left him the Lightning Tongue, in YJ, it might be his metagene was Earth powers or bust.

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I did mention that it research could get more specificity, but we haven't seen that in YJ canon or this fic. But even among those consistently doused with Tar, we see a wide range of powers. Though I guess the speedster formula does count as being specific- even Wally doing it out of a garage didn't have major downsides.

(Sidenote, at twelve Wally West successfully replicated the speedster formula and activated his metagene using whatever his twelve year old could grab and that is incredibly impressive)

Comics!Brion didn't have a metagene so much as the Markovs all having a connection to the Earth, which with some experiments gave Tara her powers and Brion his comics powers which were way more OP than YJ gave him (gravity manipulation, geothermal energy, combine the previous two to fly, healing factor when buried in dirt, super strength, whatever else the writers gave him because they forgot if he was invulnerable or could channel electromagnetic force as well, ect). Though the downside was that when he went on an extended space mission, he started to lose life force and disrupting his connection to the earth would disrupt his powers. That might explain why in the show they have similar powers. (Comics!Bedlam got powers through the same process Jace used on the Markovs, but because he wasn't a Markov his powers faded and he couldn't get them again or else he'd die)

 

[Stsword]

(Sidenote, at twelve Wally West successfully replicated the speedster formula and activated his metagene using whatever his twelve year old could grab and that is incredibly impressive)

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I am amused that you think I need basic lessons in DC lore.

DC has in fact implied two more specific origins for the Markov powers.

In Team Titans Terra was attacked by para-elementals because Earth already had an Earth elemental. Which implies a direct elemental connection to the Melt ala Phantasmo's slyph descent, or post flashpoint the Arcane familial connection to the Rot.

The Terra series starring the Stratan Atlee introduced the underground civilization of Strata, who live in the spacesuit/corpse of an ancient Space Astronaut. The Astronaut God left behind Quixium which alters DNA and gives some people Earth powers. Quixium gave Atlee Earth powers so they turned her into a human and set her topside to be the newest Terra.

Despite looking the same, she was in fact genetically identical to Terra.

So Quixium Earth powers DNA = Tara Markov DNA, which implies a familial connection to Strata. Perhaps a Markov was exposed to Quixium in the past, or perhaps the Markovs are descended from a Stratan transformed into a human who went native on the surface.

Secondly, there is no evidence that any of the Flashes have a metagene in YJ. It seems unlikely.

The Metagene in YJ is rare, otherwise the Light wouldn't need to go to such extreme lengths to find potential metahumans.

The speed formula worked with a 100% success rate on three biologically unrelated individuals. Wally is Barry's nephew by marriage, after all.

While certainly not impossible, that would be quite the coincidence, that both of the people who decided to duplicate the lab accident that gave Jay his powers both had the apparently rather rare metagene potential to make it work.

 

[Windona]

I am amused that you think I need basic lessons in DC lore.

DC has in fact implied two more specific origins for the Markov powers.

In Team Titans Terra was attacked by para-elementals because Earth already had an Earth elemental. Which implies a direct elemental connection to the Melt ala Phantasmo's slyph descent, or post flashpoint the Arcane familial connection to the Rot.

The Terra series starring the Stratan Atlee introduced the underground civilization of Strata, who live in the spacesuit/corpse of an ancient Space Astronaut. The Astronaut God left behind Quixium which alters DNA and gives some people Earth powers. Quixium gave Atlee Earth powers so they turned her into a human and set her topside to be the newest Terra.

Despite looking the same, she was in fact genetically identical to Terra.

So Quixium Earth powers DNA = Tara Markov DNA, which implies a familial connection to Strata. Perhaps a Markov was exposed to Quixium in the past, or perhaps the Markovs are descended from a Stratan transformed into a human who went native on the surface.

Secondly, there is no evidence that any of the Flashes have a metagene in YJ. It seems unlikely.

The Metagene in YJ is rare, otherwise the Light wouldn't need to go to such extreme lengths to find potential metahumans.

The speed formula worked with a 100% success rate on three biologically unrelated individuals. Wally is Barry's nephew by marriage, after all.

While certainly not impossible, that would be quite the coincidence, that both of the people who decided to duplicate the lab accident that gave Jay his powers both had the apparently rather rare metagene potential to make it work.

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Ugh, hated the Strattan origin. But the question was about Brion so I did Brion related.

Hey, I never know what lore people do or do not know. I'm well versed in Beetle lord but my Captain Atom lore isn't the best.

For the metagene, the Reach said Impulse had one so I do believe it is a speedster origin. We also don't really have a solid percentage for metagene rate. While we could judge from the number of corpses in the s3 opening, we have no idea how many successful metas were sent off to Darkseid nor how many died from an imperfect process.

 

[Stsword]

For the metagene, the Reach said Impulse had one so I do believe it is a speedster origin. We also don't really have a solid percentage for metagene rate. While we could judge from the number of corpses in the s3 opening, we have no idea how many successful metas were sent off to Darkseid nor how many died from an imperfect process.

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Impulse didn't take the speed formula.

If El Dorado's metagene could make him a teleporter because his father worked with zeta beams, then Impulse could be a speedster because he's from a family of speedsters. The metagene was theorized to be "opportunistic" after all by Dorado Sr.

Actually the huge piles of corpses included people who had the metagene and died anyway instead of getting superpowers. "Tar activates the metagene...if you survive."

But anyway, we can tell that people with the metagene are rare from the scale of the effort and the lack of vast armies of metahumans.

Using the comics numbers, 12%, for example, the average high school in the USA would have 102 potential metahumans.

Global epidemic levels of effort at that rate would quickly see Earth-16 having enough metahumans to populate their own continent.

So I think it's safe to say that potential metahumans in the USA do not outnumber Asian Americans on Earth-16.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Expression of the meta-gene could be Epigenetics. The gene is passive until environmental changes activate it. The environmental change could alter how the gene expresses itself leading to people with the same gene having different powers.

Also there is the argument for having multiple meta-genes, or multiple meta-gene interactions. After all, while Eye Colour is a relatively small segment of the gene to express a simple change, something more significant like blood type would be a more complex expression requiring a larger chunk of the genome.

And of course there is the ambient magic effecting souls on earth that has direct impact on genetic expressions. Homo Magi is a thing in DC, with a separate gene for magical ability.

How many Meta's are Magi, or Psychics. After all, Gravyen's side has pointed out that there's plenty of telepaths without physical differences in their brains tend to be magical, where as those with physical differences tend to be genetic.

Then there's the Charles Atlas grade superheros that Mundane So Hard it's practically super powers....

 

[Darko]

So are there any ideas who John Quinn actually is? Some sort of effort of Constantine's reincarnation/balancing act that went awry or just some street magician who got him while he was vulnerable?

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From what's been said in the story, he may be something like the Demon Constantine; a golem filled with traits from the original Constantine.

However, Quinn has his best traits.

 

[Sockmonkey]

If Paul could precisely engineer a metagene and control its activation to give him the powers he wants, that would be useful. But I don't think that Earth science has isolated the metagene (which I argue is a start codon for a bunch of other genes and controls gaining powers but doesn't encode all the powers itself), and precise activation would take a ton of research.

He has awesome armor and backup gear in case his ring goes down anyway. Why risk it when he doesn't need it?

Though now I'm curious as to how everyone is staying together or not

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He has several humans with TK and telepathy, plus the martians that he could scan and figure out how to give himself those abilities. Aside from that, there are purely mundane improvements that he could make.

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th November 2012
19:08 GMT +3?

His sand undulates and The Demon Constantine pops free-. Left a litt-. Got him, pull up, keep running. Okay. Holding him bridal style. His eyes-. He's not focusing.

"Ready?"

"No, hang on. Constantine?"

"Mrhmrhm."

"Can you give me a hand without stopping?"

"Maybe? What are you trying to do?"

Been a while since I practiced emergency carrying someone, but I can remember how it works.

"I need to move-"

In the corner of my eye I catch sight of pink mist because I'm not focusing on moving any more. A fireman's carry should work, but then I'll only have one arm to support Sanderson. I've got.. some spare rope, so-. If I tie Constantine's arm to his leg rather than holding it, or tie Sanderson to him…

"-him over my shoulders so his legs are on my right. Then I'll hook my right arm around his right leg and grab his right wrist."

"Is that stable?"

"Should-" Darn it, I can see the end of the desert coming up. "-be. Getting you on as well will be tricky, but that will work for him."

"Okay. How?"

"I'll hoik him up, you make sure he doesn't go flying. Ready?"

"Yeah. Go."

Now, in theory, a man of John's weight should be easy for me to handle. And certainly, I can lift far more weight than he carries. The Demon is lighter than I remember John being, but straighten arms out duck head raise arms roll-

Sanderson grabs him to balance the load.

-arms back to get him into position right arm around and he's on and stable-ish.

And my eyes flick down and I see pink.

"Run!"

"Running!"

We both accelerate, the extra weight-. I'm feeling it, but it's manageable, and his own weight is mostly keeping him in place. Can I use my ring to make extra ropes or straps manifest-?

"Aghjad!"

Sanderson staggers and I don't do that again, but I don't dare slowing.

"MOVE!"

He gasps, but manages to keep running, managing to pull up alongside me.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I think? What happened?"

"I tried to use my ring. Sorry." We're seconds away from the edge. "Any idea where next?"

He shimmers for half a second, then nods.

"Aim left."

"Aiming-"

We run out of ground, and I-. Glowing rings floating in the air. I sight the one on the left and leap for it.

Now we need to get a bit of space before Sanderson can get on board and do his dream vision thing. If-.

"Can you-?"

Through the ring, Sanderson right behind me, and-. Brighter colours, physics-defying track, and I think I can hear-.

And then we're running down and gravity isn't correcting quite as much as it usually does and things are flying past faster than they should be but that's fine. That's fine, I just need to focus on moving.

"Can you see Alan or Mist?"

"Not someplace-" There's a weird arrow on the floor and suddenly we're hurtling through the air. "-like this!"

We land on skateboards which zoom off along a straight towards a curved wall. On the right there's a spiral leading upwards-.

"Dismount right!"

"Huh?"

I jump off the skateboard, which almost certainly wasn't helping with the 'keep moving forward' part of The Demon making a path… Though do we really need to do that when he's right here? No, we do, of course we do, the dream storm would just flow back in when the dreams we took from the gourds were all consumed. There's a time limit-

Sanderson makes his jump, clears that part of the course but trips on landing. He turns it into a roll, rising to his feet and pumping his legs all the harder to catch up.

-to how long we can do this.

"Constantine, how about a path out of here? We're trying to get to the Tower of Fate, remember?"

We ascend the spiral track, and I can hear Sanderson coming up behind me. Might actually be interesting-.

"Sanderson! Can you attach yourself to me in your sand form?"

"No-." I hear him panting as he continues gaining on me. "No. I just-. Come apart."

Because he's only gotten back to normal life recently, and probably isn't at full fitness yet. And I can't make a construct container without hurting him. Does he need to just take it? Don't know, not enough information!

Okay, we need Alan and Balewa, then we need a path out. But this technique should only make one path. If they've-. It they're still alive, they have to come-.

"Paul!"

I look up as Alan's boat hits the top of the spiral and starts sliding down towards me.

"Alan! We're going to put Sanderson in the boat, then pick it up and run with it!"

"What? Ah, okay?"

"Sanderson, get ready to jump in."

As Alan's boat rounds the corner in front of me I stop, turn and start running down to match velocities, grabbing its carry handle with my one free hand. A thump and a glance sideways shows me that Alan's mirroring-.

Sanderson comes up fast, jumping and turning to sand as he does so.

And then I see the pink mist consume the arena's stands.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Okay, this is actually tense. To see Paul scared is scary

Well done, Zoat

 

[Darko]

but trips on landing

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"on the landing"

 

[Prince Charon]

"on the landing"

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Probably a 'British English' thing.

 

[mastermenthe]

I appreciate the bookends used here.

They arrived together via dream boat, and they will now depart together via dream boat.

 

[Cherico]

Probably a 'British English' thing.

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Any more english and we would be visiting a Pontins, and if were firmly into the realm of fantasy the water gun game at said pontins would actually work for a change.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

8th November 2012
19:08 GMT +3?

His sand undulates and The Demon Constantine pops free-. Left a litt-. Got him, pull up, keep running. Okay. Holding him bridal style. His eyes-. He's not focusing.

"Ready?"

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Oh, boy. this is going to be a fiddly transition between carriers. Lugging a full-grown man is hard enough, but shifting him around while running? Forget it. And they've got the time pressure of their safe zone slowly deteriorating if they slow down. If this were a video game, people would complain about 'fake difficulty'...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"No, hang on. Constantine?"

"Mrhmrhm."

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Still dozing. At least it means he isn't trying to cheat his way to freedom...

"Can you give me a hand without stopping?"

"Maybe? What are you trying to do?"

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Not both carrying him, of course. It's a challenge just to walk in time with someone else when carrying things. Just imagine trying to run.

Been a while since I practiced emergency carrying someone, but I can remember how it works.

"I need to move-"

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Good thing you're in peak physical condition, huh?

In the corner of my eye I catch sight of pink mist because I'm not focusing on moving any more. A fireman's carry should work, but then I'll only have one arm to support Sanderson. I've got.. some spare rope, so-. If I tie Constantine's arm to his leg rather than holding it, or tie Sanderson to him…

"-him over my shoulders so his legs are on my right. Then I'll hook my right arm around his right leg and grab his right wrist."

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Or maybe get both of them lined up, and let Sanderson manage some of that. You don't have to do it all yourself, OL.

"Is that stable?"

"Should-" Darn it, I can see then end of the desert coming up. "-be. Getting you on as well will be tricky, but that will work for him."

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Uh,oh, time to get back on the rollercoaster!

"Okay. How?"

"I'll hoik him up, you make sure he doesn't go flying. Ready?"

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Ah, the wonders of English terms. Though I always like the Terraria application of it.

"Yeah. Go."

Now, in theory, a man of John's weight should be easy for me to handle. And certainly, I can lift far more weight than he carries. The Demon is lighter than I remember John being, but straighten arms out duck head raise arms roll-

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Ah, awkward manoeuvring at it's finest. Like trying to juggle your house keys, shopping bags, a bag of fast food (and a drink cup in the other hand,) while holding something under you arm... And they don't have the option of putting something down.

Sanderson grabs him to balance the load.

-arms back to get him into position right arm around and he's on and stable-ish.

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Yay, dexterity check successful. Now for the second bit.

And my eyes flick down and I see pink.

"Run!"

"Running!"

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Gonna be tough, moving at double-time while encumbered is no easy task.

We both accelerate, the extra weight-. I'm feeling it, but it's manageable, and his own weight is mostly keeping him in place. Can I use my ring to make extra ropes or straps manifest-?

"Aghjad!"

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Okay, problem noted. Let's not try that again!

Sanderson staggers and I don't do that again, but I don't dare slowing.

"MOVE!"

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Woo, parade ground volume.That'll get anyone moving.

He gasps, but manages to keep running, managing to pull up alongside me.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I think? What happened?"

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A bad interaction between power Rings, Dream-space and your perceptions, it seems.

"I tried to use my ring. Sorry." We're seconds away from the edge. "Any idea where next?"

He shimmers for half a second, then nods.

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Well, at least he doesn't need to stand still for that. Bane of many a video game, when you need to stand still to use abilities.

"Aim left."

"Aiming-"

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I hope there's not a 'your other left!' incoming.

We run out of ground, and I-. Glowing rings floating in the air. I sight the one on the left and leap for it.

Now we need to get a bit of space before Sanderson can get on board and do his dream vision thing. If-.

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And now they're in a racing game! Keep the pedal to the metal, OL!

"Can you-?"

Through the ring, Sanderson right behind me, and-. Brighter colours, physics-defying track, and I think I can hear-.

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Let's hope it's one of those tracks where you just take your hand off the accelerator and let it flings you about...

And then we're running down and gravity isn't correcting quite as much as it usually does and things are flying past faster than they should be but that's fine. That's fine, I just need to focus on moving.

"Can you see Alan or Mist?"

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And apparently it is! At least it gives them time to gather their thoughts.

"Not someplace-" There's a weird arrow on the floor and suddenly we're hurtling through the air. "-like this!"

We land on skateboards which zoom off along a straight towards a curved wall. On the right there's a spiral leading upwards-.

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From Trackmania to Tony Hawk! Man, this storm is just chock full of gamer ephemera, isn't it?

"Dismount right!"

"Huh?"

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Keep up, and think quick!

I jump off the skateboard, which almost certainly wasn't helping with the 'keep moving forward' part of The Demon making a path… Though do we really need to do that when he's right here? No, we do, of course we do, the dream storm would just flow back in when the dreams we took from the gourds were all consumed. There's a time limit-

Sanderson makes his jump, clears that part of the course but trips on landing. He turns it into a roll, rising to his feet and pumping his legs all the harder to catch up.

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God, worst part of earlier Tony Hawk games. I always struggled to get stuff done in under two minutes. Free roam is so much more pleasant, especially for Gap finding...

-to how long we can do this.

"Constantine, how about a path out of here? We're trying to get to the Tower of Fate, remember?"

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Not sure how well he's going to respond, given how badly he's tripping balls right now...

We ascend the spiral track, and I can hear Sanderson coming up behind me. Might actually be interesting-.

"Sanderson! Can you attach yourself to me in your sand form?"

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It might also help with that burning sensation he's probably feeling in his legs. Lactic Acid buildup is a pain in the ass.

"No-." I hear him panting as he continues gaining on me. "No. I just-. Come apart."

Because he's only gotten back to normal life recently, and probably isn't at full fitness yet. And I can't make a construct container without hurting him. Does he need to just take it? Don't know, not enough information!

Click to shrink...

And OL's in possibly the worst position right now, fleeing by the seat of his pants with no plan...

Okay, we need Alan and Balewa, then we need a path out. But this technique should only make one path. If they've-. It they're still alive, they have to come-.

"Paul!"

Click to shrink...

Oh, hey, speak of the... Well, the devil's right there, but here's Alan!

I look up as Alan's boat hits the top of the spiral and starts sliding down towards me.

"Alan! We're going to put Sanderson in the boat, then pick it up and run with it!"

Click to shrink...

...That's one way to do it, I guess. Good luck keeping pace with each other!

"What? Ah, okay?"

"Sanderson, get ready to jump in."

Click to shrink...

No time to argue, just do it. Definitely not in OL's comfort zone, is he?

As Alan's boat rounds the corner in front of me I stop, turn and start running down to match velocities, grabbing its carry handle with my one free hand. A thump and a glance sideways shows me that Alan's mirroring-.

Sanderson comes up fast, jumping and turning to sand as he does so.

And then I see the pink mist consume the arena's stands.

Click to shrink...

...Wait, are they on a track from the Speed Racer movie? Sweet. Just watch out for the racers.

Well, it's a plan. not a great one, but they don't have time to stop and think. Let's hope Doctor Balewa catches up, while Sandman gets them on the right path. I'd have for OL to explain to Batman how a member of the League got lost in a dream storm. But then, this whole thing has been like one giant Indy Ploy, hasn't it? No time to think, just keep moving and worry later. Though if a giant boulder shows up...

---

Darn it, I can see then end of the desert coming up.

Click to shrink...

Darn it, I can see the end of the desert coming up.

 

[mastermenthe]

Let's hope Doctor Balewa catches up,

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The rate of the fog encroaching actually sped up after Paul was saved by Doctor Mist, I think Doctor Mist is using vision quest tricks to correct for the "objects in mirror may be closer than they appear" effect, in order to stop Paul from overthinking himself to death, which also results in Doctor Balewa being hidden.

It's very much a story trope trick as well, the mentor figure secretly interfering in his student's tests to save them from learning the wrong lesson by cheeseing the gauntlet of challenges with a technically correct results and loopholes.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Darn it, I can see the end of the desert coming up.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Windona]

Oh, the ring doesn't work at all. Fun.

At least Alan is on board. Now to escape...

Expression of the meta-gene could be Epigenetics. The gene is passive until environmental changes activate it. The environmental change could alter how the gene expresses itself leading to people with the same gene having different powers.

Also there is the argument for having multiple meta-genes, or multiple meta-gene interactions. After all, while Eye Colour is a relatively small segment of the gene to express a simple change, something more significant like blood type would be a more complex expression requiring a larger chunk of the genome.

And of course there is the ambient magic effecting souls on earth that has direct impact on genetic expressions. Homo Magi is a thing in DC, with a separate gene for magical ability.

How many Meta's are Magi, or Psychics. After all, Gravyen's side has pointed out that there's plenty of telepaths without physical differences in their brains tend to be magical, where as those with physical differences tend to be genetic.

Then there's the Charles Atlas grade superheros that Mundane So Hard it's practically super powers....

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Yup! That's why I argue that the metagene is an operon or promoter, that when activated goes on to activate other genes depending on environmental conditions in order to create the wide variety of powers. Though there are only four genes that determine blood type by the A/B/O scheme because it's just encoding two types of antigens or a lack thereof, compared to the pigments in the eye.

...I absolutely hate homo magi but yeah. There is an inherited magic ability.

 

[AverusBlack]

Paul isn't just a lantern, is he? He's some kind of avatar of the Ophidian. In both the sense that he's sort of the Ophidian's mortal rep and the idea of a fusion between him/her. They never actually separated, did they? He just made the Ophidian understand the general concept of wanting-to-not-want in regards to other values besides wanting. But the link is still there and he's slowly turning into some kind of New God version of the Ophidian where he's Paul, but the Ophidian is sort of his god-name while at the same time existing in the orange central battery. I don't think he got a soul of orange light, he got a soul of Ophidian and the Ophidian just happens to also be made of orange light. Formatted as closely as possible to her.

All of this is just supposition though. Also, nnnnnnnneat.

 

[Stsword]

...I absolutely hate homo magi but yeah. There is an inherited magic ability.

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If it makes you feel better, in Young Justice, apparently "homo magi" are just metas whose metagene superpower is being superhumanly good at using magic.

Which actually has some support in the comics.

When Invasion! happened, and the gene bomb went off, the superheroes who were affected included Dr Fate.

Plus the explicit existence of magical metahumans in DC, such as the Texan street gang the Posse, who all had inherited latent magical superpowers which were activated when Spectre killed all those Lords of Order and Chaos. They showed up in Blue Beetle, they thought he might be a fellow magical metahuman whose power involved cosplaying as Guyver.