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

Steelplaza · Jun 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Sunset wing-shrugs. "I can make one, but without wings, you… Wouldn't really be able to fly. And it's kinda hard to do weather work from the ground."

"So, just cloud walkin'?"

I have a vague memory of an episode where the characters visited a cloud city... (looks it up). Ah yes, in the episode "Sonic Rainboom" the characters visit Cloudsdale. Twilight Sparkle uses a flight spell on Rarity that gives her wings (dragonfly wings if I recall) but finds it too exhausting to use on everyone else, so she does a simpler spell for herself, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie that just lets them walk on clouds. (Rarity's wings come with cloudwalking too.)

So if TS can do it with spells, theoretically Sunset could build a gizmo that creates the dragonfly wings along with the cloudwalking. Of course maybe Sunset just doesn't know that spell; there must be some stuff Twilight can do that Sunset can't, just as the other way around. And the wings did genuinely seem very difficult for Twilight Sparkle to pull off. Like she was, "no way I can do that twice in a row".

WereDragon · Jun 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Despite the fact that Sunset has proven her ability to turn regular ponies into alicorns,

Did she prove that? She turned herself into an Alicorn. But given she was one of the best mages on the planet at the time she very much doesn't count as a 'regular pony'.

And the few ponies who came forwards were so self-absorbed that Sunset had a moment of self-reflection about pony society

But probably not self-reflection about herself and her own obsession with becoming an Alicorn.

"No sign of regeneration. I'll be dry-firing before I'm fifty, while still having a menstrual cycle because I'm not aging."

If you cannot solve both problems after several decades as a magical demigod then you are doing something wrong.
Also don't I recall something about New Gods (or at least Artemis) not having to deal with a period?

"'bawt a hundred alicorn Pinkie Pies?"

Ah…

She… Does sort of have a point, there.

Isn't it nice when you can decide to just kill all the people you don't approve of. This particular method takes a while but age is a very reliable execution method.

Side note has Grayven investigated the Equestrian afterlife at all?

but Celestia had concerns about Equestria having an Alicorn of War

…and they cared? When have Grayven or Sunset cared at all about what Celestia thought? If it was Luna raising concerns I might understand but as is that is very strange.

Mr Zoat · Jun 16, 2024

Blackshard said:
No. The Trident is an exclusively submarine-launched SLBM, while an ICBM would be something like a Minuteman instead. The US experimented with ALBMs and found them unsatisfactory, and attempts to strap a Minuteman onto an aircraft for air launch proved technically possible but somewhat impractical. The Russian Kinzhal is a purpose-built ALBM, but hasn't lived up to the hype thus far.

I will correct it, then.

Chojin Patriarch said:
...then walks down the central aisle to take a seat near the front.

Thank you, corrected.

No love lost there, I see. She had opinions about the Mane Six, didn't she?

No, not really. In this timeline she never fought them. She's more annoyed about them being used in combat when they have little training.

Darko · Jun 16, 2024

WereDragon said:
Did she prove that? She turned herself into an Alicorn. But given she was one of the best mages on the planet at the time she very much doesn't count as a 'regular pony'.

True.

Her special talent is magic, so she may be able to better process the transformation compared to someone that has a different talent.

WereDragon said:
Also don't I recall something about New Gods (or at least Artemis) not having to deal with a period?

Yeah, that happened, but Sunset may have been talking about when she's in alicorn mode, not New God mode.

Heck, even when she's on the Earth side it's possible that she's not technically a New God, but a regular demigod.

New Gods and regular demigods like Wonder Woman may have similar powers, but they may draw their power from different sources.

New Gods get their power from the Source, while non-New God demigods get theirs either from a connection to their divine parent, or the Dreaming, since their parents came from there.

Kinda like how one balloon can expand due to blowing air in it, while another expands because of helium.

Both are practically the same, but there is a major difference.

WereDragon said:
and they cared? When have Grayven or Sunset cared at all about what Celestia thought? If it was Luna raising concerns I might understand but as is that is very strange

They might not think much of her, but she has been ruling for a thousand years, so she does know things and they probably didn't think that a war alicorn was really necessary at the moment.

Renegade got rid of Chrysalis, and Sombra is rehabilitated, so two major threats are gone.

And the candidate for war alicorn has only recently regained the ability to safely use magic and a major change could potentially end in disaster.

Mr Zoat · Jun 16, 2024

WereDragon said:
Did she prove that? She turned herself into an Alicorn. But given she was one of the best mages on the planet at the time she very much doesn't count as a 'regular pony'.

She proved it mathematically.

Side note has Grayven investigated the Equestrian afterlife at all?

No.

…and they cared? When have Grayven or Sunset cared at all about what Celestia thought? If it was Luna raising concerns I might understand but as is that is very strange.

That impacts international relations. And Celestia can fire Tempest.

Steelplaza said:
So if TS can do it with spells, theoretically Sunset could build a gizmo that creates the dragonfly wings along with the cloudwalking. Of course maybe Sunset just doesn't know that spell; there must be some stuff Twilight can do that Sunset can't, just as the other way around. And the wings did genuinely seem very difficult for Twilight Sparkle to pull off. Like she was, "no way I can do that twice in a row".

The wings had physical components. Sunset could probably sort something out, but it would use a different technique.

Clell65619 · Jun 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
The second one isn't an original model Thinking Cap, but a substantially modified one based on the original Thinking Cap.

Do they fire the same missiles?

Chiming in as a retired Ballistic Submarine Sailor: AT least from the US (and UK) perspective each weapons system is designed for its launch system and they are not mix-and-match capable.

The current state-of-the-art land-based missile is the LGM-30G weapons system (Minuteman III). They are huge beasts, liquid-fueled and using the W78 and W87-0 warheads, with each bird capable of lifting multiple warheads.

The current state-of-the-art sub-launched missile is the UGM-33A (Trident II D5) deployed on the Ohio Class subs (and eventually the Columbia Class boats). They are smaller and have shorter range than the Minute Man birds and are Solid Fueled, with each bird capable of lifting multiple Mk-5 RV/W88, or Mk-4 RV/W76-0, or Mk-4A RV/W-76-1, or Mk-7 RV/W93, or W76-2 depending on the mission profile. I have participated in the launch of two of these (test mode) weapons and with the 'end of the world' potential removed, it was cool as hell.

The current state-of-the-art Air Launched missile is the AGM-129A Advanced Cruise Missile using the W-80-4 warhead. These things are tiny in comparison with the other birds and slow as they are running on air-fed jet engines. The running very dark humor joke among the ballistic missile guys is that the Cruise birds get to target after the war is over.

rdfox · Jun 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Do they fire the same missiles?

No, but there's less difference now than there used to be.

The earliest SLBMs (like the Polaris family) would have been categorized as IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles) if they were deployed on land, limited in their range by the limited size of missile that could be fit into a submarine and the relatively limited performance of early solid-fuel rocket motors. Later developments (largely coinciding with the later Poseidon family) allowed for greater range and payload capacity, meaning that SLBMs could either carry the same size payload as an ICBM, or have the same range as an ICBM. That said, they were still limited in accuracy compared to the land-based missiles by the fact that they were on a mobile launch platform and thus their starting position wasn't known nearly as precisely as it was for a missile in a land-based silo (which tends not to move very much). Third-generation SLBMs that arrived in the late 70s/early 80s (like the Trident series) benefited from a combination of larger submarines, further improved propulsion technology, and better navigation systems to make them fully equivalent to an ICBM in terms of range, accuracy, and payload, able to hit their targets when launching tied up to their pier in home port, and only needing to leave port to make them hard to find and target.

Even so, there's still a fundamental difference in the missiles, and it comes down to a basic operational requirement. See, any ballistic missile launch releases enough thermal energy to completely melt a submarine that might be launching it, if the rocket engine fired inside the launch tube. Since this is considered rather sub-optimal, SLBMs have always been equipped with what is known as a "cold-launch" system. In that system, a small solid rocket engine (on the order of a couple of hundred pounds thrust--we're talking the sort used in an ejection seat here) at the bottom of the launch tube is used to flash-boil a tank of water. The resultant steam is then vented into the launch tube proper and pushes the missile inside the tube up and out of the tube, with enough force to actually get clear of the surface before a lanyard on the missile pulls taut and ignites the first-stage rocket motor. Thus, the submarine is shielded from the heat and blast of the rocket exhaust when launching, and doesn't melt or sink.

ICBMs, on the other hand, have never really had to worry about that problem. It's relatively trivial, when building superhardened reinforced concrete silos designed to withstand a near miss by a nuclear warhead, to include a layer of refractory material to protect the concrete from the exhaust heat (the blast is far below what they were already built to withstand), and while all the support umbilicals and such will be thoroughly cooked by it, there really isn't a scenario where any ICBM silo is expected to be reloaded and launch another missile during the duration of a nuclear war. Thus, the only thing needed is a way for the exhaust gases to vent out of the silo to prevent them from damaging the missile itself with overpressure; this is accomplished either by having exhaust ducts leading to the surface to the sides of the silo, or, more commonly, by just having the silo significantly wider than the missile it contains, such that the exhaust vents up around the missile as it lifts off. (If you want to see examples, the old Titan ICBMs used the diverging duct system, while the Minuteman ICBM used the oversized-silo system; there's videos of them being test-launched from silos on Youtube.)

The only time I know of that an ICBM was designed to use a cold-launch system instead of one of the two "hot-launch" systems I just described would be the Peacekeeper ("MX") missile introduced in the late 1980s. The SALT II treaty had tried to limit ICBM capacity by placing a limit on the size of the silos, but the USAF figured that meant that they could just use the existing silos and enlarge the missile to completely fill them. This, of course, meant that the missile exhaust couldn't vent around the sides of the missile like it did with Minuteman, so they developed a cold-launch system that they retrofitted Minuteman silos to use when converting them to Peacekeeper. Peacekeeper itself was retired in the mid-90s due to various reliability issues; the remaining US ICBM fleet is Minuteman III variants that all use the older hot-launch system.

In any event, though, actual ICBMs tend to be a bit longer and thinner, proportionally, than SLBMs (in technical terms, they have a higher fineness ratio) because it's a lot easier to build a submarine to accomodate shorter, fatter missiles than building one with a large enough hull diameter to accommodate a long, thin one that has better aerodynamic performance characteristics. (Indeed, the Trident missiles are so stumpy and blunt-nosed to maximize the use of the tube's volume that they actually have a retractable spike on the nose that extends after launch, solely to "split" the air and make a conical wake so that they fly more like they have a long pointy nose instead of a short blunt one.) The newest SLBMs may match them in performance, but they're a lot harder to design and build than the land-based ones, simply because of the limitations of needing to be able to stuff the damned things into a submarine...

PDV · Jun 16, 2024

Blackshard said:
No. The Trident is an exclusively submarine-launched SLBM, while an ICBM would be something like a Minuteman instead. The US experimented with ALBMs and found them unsatisfactory, and attempts to strap a Minuteman onto an aircraft for air launch proved technically possible but somewhat impractical. The Russian Kinzhal is a purpose-built ALBM, but hasn't lived up to the hype thus far.

Wikipedia notes that SLBMs are quite similar to ICBMs, and given its notes about conversion for satellite launches, it's likely that most ICBM platforms could launch most SLBMs instead. Not vice versa, though.

Blackshard · Jun 16, 2024

PDV said:
Wikipedia notes that SLBMs are quite similar to ICBMs, and given its notes about conversion for satellite launches, it's likely that most ICBM platforms could launch most SLBMs instead. Not vice versa, though.

Sure, most SLBMs could technically launch from a land-based silo, but there's no reason to have gone to the extra trouble to make a ballistic missile capable of being fired from underwater if you weren't going to launch it underwater. "Not vice-versa" was the point here; ICBMs don't fit in and can't safely launch from a submarine.

Coltsguy · Jun 16, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
"But ah guess some kinda tree-doctorin' spell could some in maghty handi."

I believe that should be 'come in'. Probably.

Doccer · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
bawt-." Applejack's eyes widen, then she gulps. "'bawt a hundred alicorn Pinkie Pies?"

Ah…

She… Does sort of have a point, there.

Well if you're not interested...

Mr Zoat said:
Ah don't. An' ah ain't sure I'd be all too keen on outlivin' everypony ah know."

You can still die long before them.

Mr Zoat said:
members of the American security services who have just about kept their cool while surrounded by cute colourful ponies.

I forgotten this. Why and when are they here? I assume training?

Radiant Knight · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Do they fire the same missiles?

They don't. They're part of the same weapon family though, but there's a lot of design considerations to being able to be fired from a submarine versus a silo.

Clell65619 · Jun 17, 2024

rdfox said:
No, but there's less difference now than there used to be.

Even so, there's still a fundamental difference in the missiles, and it comes down to a basic operational requirement. See, any ballistic missile launch releases enough thermal energy to completely melt a submarine that might be launching it, if the rocket engine fired inside the launch tube. Since this is considered rather sub-optimal, SLBMs have always been equipped with what is known as a "cold-launch" system. In that system, a small solid rocket engine (on the order of a couple of hundred pounds thrust--we're talking the sort used in an ejection seat here) at the bottom of the launch tube is used to flash-boil a tank of water. The resultant steam is then vented into the launch tube proper and pushes the missile inside the tube up and out of the tube, with enough force to actually get clear of the surface before a lanyard on the missile pulls taut and ignites the first-stage rocket motor. Thus, the submarine is shielded from the heat and blast of the rocket exhaust when launching, and doesn't melt or sink.

Fun story: On an old 640 class Submarine we were doing an Nuclear Weapons inspection. Google tells me that's now called an 'NWTI (Nuclear Weapons Technical Inspection)' but I don't remember that name. I recall NWPI, but may well be wrong, I've been retired for 30 years now. Anyway, I was heading aft for some reason, passing through Middle Level Missile Compartment. One of the Inspection Team (An Air Force 'Major' wearing O-3 bars because there is only one Captain on a shit. The guy was doing his joint tour) stopped me and said, "The missile in tube 7 has auto-ignited, what do you do?"

I waited for the punch line and he said "Well?"

"Well, sir," I said, "Considering the tube would slag before the high-temperature alarm could sound, I'd die."

"How would you fight the casualty?"

"I'd probably try to run to the fire fighting station, back inboard Tube 1, and if I was really fast, I'd probably make two or three steps before I died."

"How would you put the fire out?"

"Put out a rocket motor going full blast that would flash any water sprayed on it to steam and runs just fine in the absence of Oxygen? No one is going to put that out."

I got a down check for my response. Then all the Missile Techs agreed with me. The Navigator told me that when the XO heard about the exchange, he asked the inspector if he was a moron.

Good times.

Prince Charon · Jun 17, 2024

Clell65619 said:
I got a down check for my response. Then all the Missile Techs agreed with me. The Navigator told me that when the XO heard about the exchange, he asked the inspector if he was a moron.

Good times.

I would have doubted that someone that ignorant and/or stupid got put on an inspection team, if I hadn't already read similar stories and recognized that it is absolutely possible for complete idiots to skate through even high-importance military careers as long as they have luck or someone in power on their side.

Mr Zoat · Jun 17, 2024

Coltsguy said:
I believe that should be 'come in'. Probably.

Thank you, corrected.

Doccer said:
I forgotten this. Why and when are they here? I assume training?

Sunset and Circe are teaching basic magic skills to members of the American security services, but Americans are always interested in getting more equipment.

Mr Zoat · Jun 17, 2024

11th April 2013
19:12 GMT +5:30

I don't know if India had any kind of genetics database before the Broadcast, but it definitely doesn't have one now. Closed circuit television cameras are also limited to wealthier areas. There are no road cameras at all, Indian road safety being the worst in the world. It would be like installing smoke detectors in Hell. The base did have cameras, but they've been destroyed, as has the server they transmitted back to.

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower. Given what I'm seeing in India, I'm going to suggest that it might be worth taking at least some strategic weapons out of peoples' hands until their countries are functioning properly. India lost at least one nuclear bomb under a week ago and I only found out today because someone detonated it."

"Understood." Batman this time. "Continue your investigation. Watchtower out."

"Should we be doing that?" Kara floats alongside me, scanning the ground with her eyes for anything that might be warded against my ring. "That sounds like stealing."

"It's more like finding a wallet on the street and taking it to the nearest police station. Imagine what the one that went off earlier would have done if we hadn't been there."

She purses her lips for a moment, then nods. "It wasn't much fun watching human bodies catch fire like that."

"You could see-? Oh.. gosh, Kara, I didn't realise."

"I know it only lasted a fraction of a second and they probably didn't feel anything, but my memory is really good. I'm always going to remember it. People just evaporating." She pauses for a moment. "Do you think it was like that on Krypton?"

"U-um." I only really know what killed the people of Krypton in broad terms. Specific causes of death? Pressure waves? Radiation? Most of Krypton's mass stayed in roughly the same place, but the air might have been thin enough to cause them to die from suffocation. Blunt trauma from pieces of flying planet? "I.. can't be sure."

"I assumed that was how my parents died. The ground shook for a moment, then 'poof', gone. It's a shame they couldn't build a bigger ship."

"Yes-yes, it.. was."

I float closer to her, trying to get some sort of idea-. Her voice didn't waver, her expression didn't change, and… I'm not seeing anything in particular with empathic vision. Even if she was using black humour after having processed her grief, she should-.

Or maybe she hasn't at all and she's not responding physically because she's having some sort of flashback. I cautiously lay my right hand on her shoulder.

"Ah, are-?"

Kara blinks, returning her vision to normal as she turns her head to look at me. "Are we not searching for clues?"

"I was-. You.. were talking about something really personal and horrible and I was concerned."

"Was I not supposed to?"

"Nono, you.. can. If you want to, if you feel that you need to."

She blinks, turns to look at my hand on her shoulder than turns her head back to me. "Were you going to hug me?"

"I.. was going to offer to, if-."

Kara's arms blur as she wraps them around me, chin on my left shoulder and head pressed against mine. "Yay, hugs! They're the thing about Earth I like the most!"

I hug her back, still concerned. I know that our Krypton was anti-tactility, but I didn't realise that was true for her Krypton as well. I'd just sort of assumed that hers was more pre-Crisis than that.

"Kara, if you ever want to talk about your family, or Krypton in general, or anything like that, I'm happy to do that. Okay?"

"Why would I do that?" She pulls away slightly, her face a few inches from mine. "They're all dead. Ooh!"

She darts down to the ground, into the scrub outside of the base, then flies back up with… Part of the bomb casing.

"I spotted this! This is the casing, right?"

I take it from her hands with a construct grapple, and start examining it in detail. "Yes.. it.. is. Well done."

Alright, they wouldn't really need an outer casing designed to not impede the airflow around the plane, but it still seems that it would be easier to leave it on. The wards are… Yes, the same Atlantean design that gained popularity in America, rather than something out of Hindu traditions. Someone copying what they saw somewhere else? I don't think that Lady Eve would do something like that, for the sake of her pride if nothing else. But it's not like I can claim to know the woman after one short conversation.

Finger print analyser? Partial prints acquired. Eliminate the prints from the corpses. Three-. Well, probably three sets. It's not like they wiped the casing down with alcohol and then carefully pressed their fingers against it. Hundreds of people have probably touched this over the years. File it just in case. No blood, no, that would be too easy. Skin samples? Yes, some of which are from people on the base and…

Okay, two have genetics that I wouldn't expect to see in an Indian. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I'll bear it in mind-.

Scan.

No, nothing. Alright, that's a bit more promising. Unless it was a suicide bombing, in which case that's because most of their genetic material was vaporised.

Bleez's ship zooms through the sky, coming in to hover over the base. "Found anything?"

"Some things. Not enough to actually learn anything."

Too many footprints in too many different directions to learn anything about who went where when. Same with vehicles. Sure, I can read tyre tracks, and I can eliminate the ones from military vehicles already at the base, but so what? Nothing stops Kobra agents acquiring military vehicles, especially now. Nothing stops a soldier driving their own car to work, at least as far as the outer gate. Or getting picked up by someone else. What was it Terry Pratchett wrote? 'The scream in the night was most likely to be someone stepping on an upturned hairbrush'? Lots of data and little actual information.

On.. the other hand… If the warhead design is standard -and it should be- then… All we need to do is-.

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower. Uploading preliminary findings. Request a few minutes of Doctor Mist's time to track any outstanding bombs via their warded cases."

"Do humans steal fusion bombs a lot?"

"No. And this is the first time that someone has successfully detonated a stolen bomb."

"He's available."

I generate a zeta tube. "Send him through."

"Recognised, Doctor Mist, Two Five."

Dr. Balewa walks through, raising his head to look at Bleez's ship with a slight raising of his eyebrows. I drop down, holding out the case to him and generating a map of India with the 'official' nuclear explosive locations marked.

"I'm looking for more of these in the wrong places."

He nods, waving his right hand at the case and then again at the map.

"There." Part of the map construct ripples. "But I do not think thet it is a bomb. I belief thet it is a settlement of some kind."

"Then that's where we're going next."

Darko · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
moment, the 'poof', gone

"then poof"

Lord Ernest · Jun 17, 2024

Ok, seriously, what's up withthis Kara? Does she have a mental issue? I wouldn't think it's an alien characteristic, considering Kara 16 doesn't behave like that. But maybe Kryptonians from their parallel can behave like that?

I can't believe I'm going to say this but... I'm missing the Nazi Supergirl.

néocorvinus · Jun 17, 2024

Lord Ernest said:
Ok, seriously, what's up withthis Kara? Does she have a mental issue? I wouldn't think it's an alien characteristic, considering Kara 16 doesn't behave like that. But maybe Kryptonians from their parallel can behave like that?

I can't believe I'm going to say this but... I'm missing the Nazi Supergirl.

Nazi Supergirl was a normal woman who could realize she was wrong. This Supergirl was possessed by a demon and forced to murder a shitload of people. That she can act like a child is already a massive improvement.

Mr Zoat · Jun 17, 2024

Darko said:
"then poof"

Thank you, corrected.

néocorvinus said:
Nazi Supergirl was a normal woman who could realize she was wrong. This Supergirl was possessed by a demon and forced to murder a shitload of people. That she can act like a child is already a massive improvement.

No, you've got your Supergirls confused there.

Prince Charon · Jun 17, 2024

néocorvinus said:
Nazi Supergirl was a normal woman who could realize she was wrong. This Supergirl was possessed by a demon and forced to murder a shitload of people. That she can act like a child is already a massive improvement.

I thought this one was the Silver Age Supergirl? EDIT: Ninja'd

Anyone remember the wiki we had for this fic? I think we need a page there to list all the Supergirls who appear, and when each showed up.

Chojin Patriarch · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
11th April 2013
19:12 GMT +5:30

I don't know if India had any kind of genetics database before the Broadcast, but if definitely doesn't have one now. Closed circuit television cameras are also limited to wealthier areas. There are no road cameras at all, Indian road safety being the worst in the world. It would be like installing smoke detectors in Hell. The base did have cameras, but they've been destroyed, as has the server they transmitted back to.

Seriously, Indian traffic laws seem to only be suggestions as far as everyone is concerned, from what I've seen online. Then again that's probably a tiny fraction of the interaction of millions of vehicles... Still, very telling...

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower. Given what I'm seeing in India, I'm going to suggest that it might be worth taking at least some strategic weapons out of peoples' hands until their countries are functioning properly. India lost at least one nuclear bomb under a week ago and I only found out today because someone detonated it."

So in the end, they still have to 'confiscate' the world's nuclear weapons for Humanity's own good. Sure, it might only be in a few danger spots, but people won't see it that way.

"Understood." Batman this time. "Continue your investigation. Watchtower out."

"Should we be doing that?" Kara floats alongside me, scanning the ground with her eyes for anything that might be warded against my ring. "That sounds like stealing."

More like making sure a loaded gun is safely disarmed and put away. Before someone foolish gets their hands on it and creates trouble.

"It's more like finding a wallet on the street and taking it to the nearest police station. Imagine what the one that went off earlier would have done if we hadn't been there."

She purses her lips for a moment, then nods. "It wasn't much fun watching human bodies catch fire like that."

...Oh, right. Kryptonian senses. Her eyes probably tanked the flash-pulse and she...

"You could see-? Oh.. gosh, Kara, I didn't realise."

"I know it only lasted a fraction of a second and they probably didn't feel anything, but my memory is really good. I'm always going to remember it. People just evaporating." She pauses for a moment. "Do you think it was like that on Krypton?"

Oh, boy... She is gonna need some therapy once this is sorted. Hopefully someone more professional than Black Canary, though...

"U-um." I only really know what killed the people of Krypton in broad terms. Specific causes of death? Pressure waves? Radiation? Most of Krypton's mass stayed in roughly the same place, but the air might have been thin enough to cause them to die from suffocation. Blunt trauma from pieces of flying planet? "I.. can't be sure."

I suspect if the mantle cracked, the air would have suddenly had enough heat dumped into it to burn even kryptonian flesh. And then the earthquakes would have hit...

"I assumed that was how my parents died. The ground shook for a moment, the 'poof', gone. It's a shame they couldn't build a bigger ship."

"Yes-yes, it.. was."

...Boy, talk about mood whiplash for her. From happy-go-lucky to casually talking about remembering seeing her parents disintegrated...

I float closer to her, trying to get some sort of idea-. Her voice didn't waver, her expression didn't change, and… I'm not seeing anything in particular with empathic vision. Even if she was using black humour after having processed her grief, she should-.

Or maybe she hasn't at all and she's not responding physically because she's having some sort of flashback. I cautiously lay my right hand on her shoulder.

Maybe she's really good at compartmentalising emotional stuff? Heck, if her Krypton had the same level of gene-modding other ones did, it may well be an integrated biological trait of the Science Caste.

"Ah, are-?"

Kara blinks, returning her vision to normal as she turns her head to look at me. "Are we not searching for clues?"

...Yep, definitely good at putting things like that aside in an instant.

"I was-. You.. were talking about something really personal and horrible and I was concerned."

"Was I not supposed to?"

Well, there is such a thing as 'oversharing', but...

"Nono, you.. can. If you want to, if you feel that you need to."

She blinks, turns to look at my hand on her shoulder than turns her head back to me. "Were you going to hug me?"

I mean... If you think you need one?

"I.. was going to offer to, if-."

Kara's arms blur as she wraps them around me, chin on my left shoulder and head pressed against mine. "Yay, hugs! They're the thing about Earth I like the most!"

Man, and right back to bright and bubbly. That can't be a natural part of her brain doing that...

I hug her back, still concerned. I know that our Krypton was anti-tactility, but I didn't realise that was true for her Krypton as well. I'd just sort of assumed that hers was more pre-Crisis than that.

"Kara, if you ever want to talk about your family, or Krypton in general, or anything like that, I'm happy to do that. Okay?"

Eh, who knows with Silver Age-y timelines?

"Why would I do that?" She pulls away slightly, her face a few inches from mine. "They're all dead. Ooh!"

She darts down to the ground, into the scrub outside of the base, then flies back up with… Part of the bomb casing.

So, they cut the warhead out of the shell? Would have made it marginally easier to transport, I guess.

"I spotted this! This is the casing, right?"

I take it from her hands with a construct grapple, and start examining it in detail. "Yes.. it.. is. Well done."

No doubt there are fingerprints and DNA samples to be had.

Alright, they wouldn't really need an outer casing designed to not impede the airflow around the plane, but it still seems that it would be easier to leave it on. The wards are… Yes, the same Atlantean design that gained popularity in America, rather than something out of Hindu traditions. Someone copying what they saw somewhere else? I don't think that Lady Eve would do something like that, for the sake of her pride if nothing else. But it's not like I can claim to know the woman after one short conversation.

I see he's pegged the Kobra cult as the prime suspects. Just don't let that shape your assumptions, OL.

Finger print analyser? Partial prints acquired. Eliminate the prints from the corpses. Three-. Well, probably three sets. It's not like they wiped the casing down with alcohol and then carefully pressed their fingers against it. Hundreds of people have probably touched this over the years. File it just in case. No blood, no, that would be too easy. Skin samples? Yes, some of which are from people on the base and…

As would be expected if they'd just loaded it, presumably for transport.

Okay, two have genetics that I wouldn't expect to see in an Indian. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I'll bear it in mind-.

Scan.

Could be a useful lead... Especially if they're not traceable to other local ethnic groups either.

No, nothing. Alright, that's a bit more promising. Unless it was a suicide bombing, in which case that's because most of their genetic material was vaporised.

Bleez's ship zooms through the sky, coming in to hover over the base. "Found anything?"

"Some things. Not enough to actually learn anything."

Merely things that could confirm something if they had anything else to go off. As it is... It's circumstantial. Largely irrelevant.

Too many footprints in too many different directions to learn anything about who went where when. Same with vehicles. Sure, I can ready tyre tracks, and I can eliminate the ones from military vehicles already at the base, but so what? Nothing stops Kobra agents acquiring military vehicles, especially now. Nothing stops a soldier driving their own car to work, at least as far as the outer gate. Or getting picked up by someone else. What was it Terry Pratchett wrote? 'The scream in the night was most likely to be someone stepping on an upturned hairbrush'? Lots of data and little actual information.

A bad case of 'where the hell do they look next?', isn't it?

On.. the other hand… If the warhead design is standard -and it should be- then… All we need to do is-.

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower. Uploading preliminary findings. Request a few minutes of Doctor Mist's time to track any outstanding bombs via their warded cases."

Clever. Identify them by the absence of information they represent, thanks to the wards.

"Do humans steal fusion bombs a lot?"

"No. And this is the first time that someone has successfully detonated a stolen bomb."

And made one hell of a mess in the process. They also painted a big old target on themselves, if OL and team could just find any hints...

"He's available."

I generate a zeta tube. "Send him through."

Good, no time wasted here.

"Recognised, Doctor Mist, Two Five."

Dr. Balewa walks through, raising his head to look at Bleez's ship with a slight raising of his eyebrows. I drop down, holding out the case to him and generating a map of India with the 'official' nuclear explosive locations marked.

Can't be the first spaceship he's seen, of course. Just a case of 'huh, one of those' or not.

"I'm looking for more of these in the wrong places."

He nods, waving his right hand at the case and then again at the map.

Helps that he'd be able to pick out the ward's signature more easily than most wizards, given his experience.

"There." Part of the map construct ripples. "But I do not think thet it is a bomb. I belief thet it is a settlement of some kind."

"Then that's where we're going next."

Might be related, might not. But it bears investigating...

So, then. A possible lead or two. A mysterious hidden village, a couple of unusual DNA traces... The question is whether they're connected, and if they are, how? At least it looks like there's no other devices gone walkabout... Yet. Hopefully the investigation won't turn violent when they show up unannounced to whatever this place is.

Lord Ernest · Jun 17, 2024

néocorvinus said:
Nazi Supergirl was a normal woman who could realize she was wrong. This Supergirl was possessed by a demon and forced to murder a shitload of people. That she can act like a child is already a massive improvement.

The possessed one, from Earth 666, got exorcised and is back in her world, trying to rebuild together with Green Lantern Michael Holt. I think the black people from Nazi Earth and the Amazons also went there? Or at least I recall that there was talk of something like that?

This Supergirl seems to be a Silver Age version that... honestly I don't remember where she came from. A bunch of Supergirls just started showing up prior to be Crisis of Infinite Pauls and this appeared out of nowhere?

Prince Charon said:
I thought this one was the Silver Age Supergirl? EDIT: Ninja'd

Anyone remember the wiki we had for this fic? I think we need a page there to list all the Supergirls who appear, and when each showed up.

Off the top of my head, there's Kara 16, but I don't think she has taken a Superhero identity; then Nazi Supergirl aka Overgirl, and I think she might have returned home? After that is Linda Danvers, she got involved in a demon plot and got fused with the memories of a fire angel that hunted the Illustres during the angel invasion, she goes by the identity Supergirl (no effing idea why, honestly). The aforementioned Demon Supergirl, she got transported to Earth 16 by Truggs, whom was raiding Earth 666 for tech and stuff. And finally this Silver Age Supergirl that, again, I don't recall where she came from.

Notable mention to the Kara 16 from Renegade, that unfortunately spent more time in the Kryptonite asteroid and had to be healed/fixed/repaired with an Eradicator and so might be slightly cyborg-like and a bit xenophobic, I think? She's helping Karsta raise a bunch of little Kryptonians.

Vaermina · Jun 17, 2024

Lord Ernest said:
Ok, seriously, what's up withthis Kara? Does she have a mental issue? I wouldn't think it's an alien characteristic, considering Kara 16 doesn't behave like that. But maybe Kryptonians from their parallel can behave like that?

I can't believe I'm going to say this but... I'm missing the Nazi Supergirl.

Silver Age kryptonians are massively more powerful than their Earth 16 counterparts.

In the two seconds Paul was concerned Kara could have spent several months working out her issues using mental super speed.

Coltsguy · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
I don't know if India had any kind of genetics database before the Broadcast, but if definitely doesn't have one now.

'it', I'm betting.

moralrelativity · Jun 17, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Sure, I can ready tyre tracks

ready -> read

Darko · Jun 17, 2024

Lord Ernest said:
The possessed one, from Earth 666, got exorcised and is back in her world, trying to rebuild together with Green Lantern Michael Holt

Technically she wasn't possessed.

She just had a bunch of Hell energy in her system that made her violently feral.

Lord Ernest said:
. I think the black people from Nazi Earth and the Amazons also went there? Or at least I recall that there was talk of something like that

I remember that 666 Diana was taken to Nazi Earth where she was healed using Gaia magic, but I don't remember any mention of the Amazons going there, or any of the enslaved African population going there.

Lord Ernest said:
she goes by the identity Supergirl (no effing idea why, honestly

Well when she started out there wasn't anyone else using the name, so I guess she didn't care to change it to something like Holyfire because she didn't care about it.

Mr Zoat · Jun 17, 2024

Coltsguy said:
'it', I'm betting.

moralrelativity said:
ready -> read

Thank you, corrected.

Wheenesss · Jun 17, 2024

I hope we eventually get an explanation as to how Silver Age Kara ended up here.

If it's like what happened in the comics with Linda Danvers of New Earth meeting her, then Kara eventually needs to go back to Earth-One so she can die in Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Mr Zoat · Jun 17, 2024

Wheenesss said:
I hope we eventually get an explanation as to how Silver Age Kara ended up here.

You will. Not soon, but you will.

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