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

Chojin Patriarch · 2025-06-20T07:01:37+0100

Mr Zoat said:
18th July 2013
14:25 GMT -5

I appear

in the hospital as Kara-. Kara frantically paces while the casualty doctors work on-.

Ah, I see. She disabled her opponent, and hauled him here for medical aid. Since she'd have to have battered through the protective shell the hard way, and that would leave a lot of damage on the otherwise-squishy human inside.

I envelop the man in an orange aura, and scan… Broken bones, battered organs, fractured skull… Fixed. The doctors pulled back when I grabbed him, but are now looking up towards-.

"Kara-?"

Yeah, if the extremely powerful magic ring guy wants to lend a hand, I'd let him.

Her right eye and part of her nose are.. missing, and from the way she looks-.

I walk forwards purposively, grab her right shoulder and push her towards a seat.

Ouch. Has OL looked into how best to perform medical care on Kryptonians? Because how would you patch this up? Red-sun lamp, reconstruct and yellow-sun-bath?

"Sit down." She doesn't move. For an instant I consider gold kryptonite, but… No, that's extremely unpleasant and would risk exacerbating her injuries. "Sit down now."

"I-I ow' eed-?"

Either she's concussed, or that's Kryptonian. Either way, it sounds like she's asking about the man.

Ring, Kal-El's voice.

Compliance.

"Kara, sit-" She immediately starts moving. "-down, thank you."

Oof, telling. Especially that his voice would cut through everything and get her to focus.

Ugh, kryptonian grafts are a problem. Her powers are working to minimise the effects of her injury but they also make fixing her up a pain. Unlike when I used the Danner Formula on Kon's human tissue I could probably push through, but none of this is actually life-threatening and I need to grab Dr. Tetch.

...So, what, quick fix-time, or...

There's a rush of displaced air as Kara Two flies in.

I point to her with my right hand. "Kara, take this purple healing ray and keep it on Kara."

Ah, delegation time! At least they have kind-of matching damage, too.

"Can do!"

I set a sun lamp down on the floor between them. "I'll be back shortly."

I suspect both of them are going to be hungry, especially Local Kara. Having to regrow an eye and a chunk of face will definitely burn her reserves.

Okay, damaged kryptonians hors de combat but receiving treatment. I need to lecture Kara about why she shouldn't bring people who are being controlled to hospitals, but that needs to wait until she's recovered. Plus it was probably something she did on automatic anyway. I transition back to Kord Industries and-.

Even if they're badly wounded and unable to take action? Then again, what if it were some sort of psychic plague?

Yikes. It's a good job that he can just have me repair the place because otherwise his insurers would love him. Premium increases like that don't come along every day.

I scan-. That won't work-.

I'm guessing looking like a typical modern Battlefield game after an explosives-heavy battle...

It works.

Ah.

Heh. Easiest way to immediately realise Tetch is gone, then.

I fly into the building quickly but not so quickly that I'm not aware of everything going on around me. And… The globe is gone, Tetch is gone-.

"Orange Lantern to Ted Kord."

Ah, to be the bearer of bad news, eh?

"Yeah? Hello?"

"Did Bobo evacuate?"

"No? I said-."

Ah, but we know what happened to him. This will be fun, watching him sherlock his way into that info.

"After that."

"No. Why?"

"He's not here now. Tetch and the globe are gone. I'd guess Tetch took him with him, but it's not impossible that he snuck out."

I mean, he might well be craving beer and smokes. And around here, I bet the local bars wouldn't blink at a 'talking' chimpanzee...

"If Tetch is gone then I'll get some people to go around the site. He's been complaining about not being allowed to drink alcohol, so it's… Possible. How'd he get it out?"

"The same way he got in, I assume. Some sort of stealth boom tube." Finger prints… Bobo swung down there, which would put him… On top of the globe, or next to it. No foot prints, which means probably on top of it. "No sign of violence-."

Heck, if he can sniff the aftertaste of D.C.'s desires, he'd pick up on the motivations.

"Huh?"

"With Bobo I mean. Tetch isn't particularly violent and his bodyguard were gone. I think he went voluntarily."

And if D.C. were in the mood to hurt Tetch, there wouldn't me much of him left.

"Why? I thought we got on pretty good?"

"Could be the alcohol, could be the mystery. Doctor Tetch is acting extremely out of character." I sigh. "I'll inform Batman."

Ah, so even he realises that this basically is Detective Chimp's origin story moment. Surprised he hadn't pushed Ted to allow him more freedom in that case.

"So..? That's it?"

I roll my eyes. "I'll fix the place as well, Ted, but something that Mannheim was using-."

"No, I get that part. I mean… This isn't just the first part of an evil plan?"

If it is, then they'll find out when Tetch enacts it. Not like OL can read his playbook from there.

"From what he said, and the fact that he didn't hack the J-. The Peace Operative network immediately, he either can't or doesn't know how to. He couldn't have predicted that I'd find the globe or be able to repair it, so I'm reasonably confident that this was a purely opportunistic thing."

Which makes me wonder what he might have been doing if he hadn't felt the Globe come back online. Besides taking a train out of Gotham like a smart person.

"Are you sure? Because some of these people can do, like, multi-part plans where they predict you like they're reading your mind…" … "That sounds more stupid when I say it out loud."

"I've never repaired New God technology like that before, which means that he'd have to predict that I could do it with no information suggesting that was even possible. It's… Not impossible, but based on his pre-Hatter personality I'd say that it's very unlikely. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to find Canis and then deal with two hospitalised kryptonians."

Ah, yes, Canis. Where the hell did he get off to, then? Distracted by some unfortunate researcher who got 'jackson-pollack'ed onto a wall?

"Oh-. Ah, right. I'll, ah… Get started on the cleanup."

I end the call, and-. Oh.

He's probably shuddering at the paperwork by now. Fortunately, OL can fast-track that by saying 'League business' now.

I transition through to the back of the building where Canis was and still is, a nasty-looking hole in his chest. Brut's not doing much better.

"Canis?"

"No' finished yet."

Huh, must have gotten caught by a stray shot, then.

I-.

He's drawing on the concrete with his own blood, and what I'm slightly worried is Canis meat paste.

...Well, when the inspiration hits... Might want to just carve that chunk out wholesale when you come back to fix things.

"You have a hole in your chest." I take another purple healing ray out of subspace. "Let me-."

"No-! Need-. Finish first." He frantically jabs at the concrete. "New Gods don't… Die to.. things like this."

He's not wrong, but it must hurt like hell. No doubt his inspiration for this little display.

I look over to where Brut… Isn't whimpering. I suppose that instinct was probably beaten out of him during training. "Can I heal Brut at least?"

He nods, and I shoot his dog with the ray.

And Brut's tail just wags cutely as the hurt stops, I bet.

"Why were you delayed?"

"Hah. You didn't notice." He shakes his head. "I wasn't. You were all moving… Fast. My eyes could barely keep up. I was shot before I even reached the workshop."

Ah, right. He's the only one here without some form of superspeed...

Huh. "You sure that you're going to be alright?"

He pulls a slightly pained expression. "If I am alright I will just shoot myself. It won't be quite the same… I will manage."

"Okay." … "Okay. Orange Lantern to Batman. We have a problem."

Bloody artists. <rolls eyes>

At least OL is doing the smart thing and calling this in to the person best positioned to organise a defence against any prospective hacking Tetch might do. Honestly amazed no-one's noticed the AWOL Peace Agents, but given the odd level of compartmentalisation involved, everyone is probably assuming 'they had special orders'. Bats might have to rework their authentication process...

Vaermina · 2025-06-20T07:25:01+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Okay." … "Okay. Orange Lantern to Batman. We have a problem."

Did he seriously already forget the whole Brother Eye thing Batman has going on?

m_d · 2025-06-20T07:56:20+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"With Bobo I mean. Tetch isn't particularly violent and his bodyguard were gone. I think he went voluntarily."

Ngamer11 said:
That should say bodyguards.

Not necessarily. 'Bodyguard' in British and Canadian usage can be a collective noun, in the way that, for instance, 'police' can. So just as one could use it in the form "The police were gone", 'bodyguard' would also work. Not sure about American usage, but given who is speaking, that's not a problem.

Duke Long · 2025-06-20T08:30:39+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Are you sure? Because some of these people can do, like, multi-part plans where they predict you like they're reading your mind…" … "That sounds more stupid when I say it out loud."

It sounds stupid, but this is comic book land. Unfortunately you have to take that sort of thing seriously.

Mr Zoat said:
"Hah. You didn't notice." He shakes his head. "I wasn't. You were all moving… Fast. My eyes could barely keep up. I was shot before I even reached the workshop."

Haha, I didn't think of it but of course that'd happen. That's superspeed for you. Especially when belonging to people who have the power to match the speed. These OMACs really are something, come to think of it. They'd easily beat probably 99% of heroes and villains when they're in combat mode. Even outside combat mode they're damn good. And Batman has what, hundreds at least?

I suppose Canis will just have to wait for Oh El to do something awful to him. Still hoping for something cool from that.

Mr Zoat · 2025-06-20T08:34:41+0100

Ngamer11 said:
That should say bodyguards.

No, I think that's alright. As a group, not as a collection of individuals.

m_d said:
Not necessarily. 'Bodyguard' in British and Canadian usage can be a collective noun, in the way that, for instance, 'police' can. So just as one could use it in the form "The police were gone", 'bodyguard' would also work. Not sure about American usage, but given who is speaking, that's not a problem.

What (s)he said.

BlackCoat13 · 2025-06-20T11:57:50+0100

Mr Zoat said:
you like they're reading your mind…" … "That sounds more stupid when I say it out loud."

Got double ellipses and quotation marks.

Steelplaza · 2025-06-20T12:34:31+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Her right eye and part of her nose are.. missing, and from the way she looks-

Mr Zoat said:
"Hah. You didn't notice." He shakes his head. "I wasn't. You were all moving… Fast. My eyes could barely keep up. I was shot before I even reached the workshop."

This fight really upgraded the threat level on these Omacs. They were taking chunks out of local Kara, and even the more powerful Kara 2 was getting hit hard enough to have her skin severely burned. They can fight at hyper speed too. (I recall Buddy Blank was able to deal with a speedster pretty well.) OL himself was on the backfoot the whole fight, though granted some of that was reluctance to hurt the mind controlled victims inside. But some of it was just the sheer power of his opponents!

Their only real weakness is the ability to remove their power recieving equipment and shut them down that way,

Mr Zoat said:
"With Bobo I mean. Tetch isn't particularly violent and his bodyguard were gone. I think he went voluntarily."

OL came to the correct conclusion and his chain of reasoning is basically correct, but it overlooks that Tetch is most famous for his rapidly deployable, extremely powerful, mind control technology. I don't know if his normal 'hats' would work on a chimpanzee, though I don't know they wouldn't, and of course now Tetch is putting New God magic into everything anyway.

Mr Zoat · 2025-06-20T13:15:05+0100

BlackCoat13 said:
Got double ellipses and quotation marks.

Yes, he trailed off and then paused.

CrazyNoVa · 2025-06-20T14:50:06+0100

Vaermina said:
Did he seriously already forget the whole Brother Eye thing Batman has going on?

No, he didn't. But right now, Tetch is the more urgent issue, because he's going to act out on his plan before Batman starts acting out on his.

Plus, think of it like this: If OL makes it look like he's still reporting to Bruce, Bruce will be less suspicious of OL and will believe that OL is still loyal. I would have done the same to avoid arousing suspicion until I was ready to rebel against Bruce too.

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

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