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

Ngamer11 · 2026-06-07T08:06:18+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Their militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was the destroy it from orbit. And yet, the local Green Lanterns appear to be happy just leaving them to it. Now, I'm not planning anything, but I was wondering how they were under the threshold for Green Lantern intervention."

I think that should say 'They're'.

Mr Zoat said:
"No, we're clear. Everyone's peaceful or primitive We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."

Missing a full stop after that word.

Duke Long · 2026-06-07T08:08:33+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Their militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was the destroy it from orbit. And yet, the local Green Lanterns appear to be happy just leaving them to it. Now, I'm not planning anything, but I was wondering how they were under the threshold for Green Lantern intervention."

'to'

Nice to see some disaster relief stuff. Presumably a bunch of this sort of thing goes on offscreen, though I imagine usually on Earth.

boo600 · 2026-06-07T08:09:49+0100

Hm. It would be good if Grayven could communicate that the Thanagarian Empire - driven by desperation from fighting their Grayven or not - tried to destroy Earth without them even being their enemies. Heck, they were practically allied with Earth as they tried to destroy it - and it happened to non-Justice Lords versions, according to the cartoons.

It would serve as a decent warning to watch out for these morons, if the Seven Devils cultists aren't enough.

timeForced · 2026-06-07T08:12:12+0100

I mean I give it even odds the High Mor either willingly goes the Seven Devils route or he gets couped and someone else does.

BlackCoat13 · 2026-06-07T08:15:04+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Their militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was the destroy it from orbit.

"They're

Mr Zoat said:
"No, we're clear. Everyone's peaceful or primitive We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."

primitive. We're

Darko · 2026-06-07T08:15:51+0100

Mr Zoat said:
We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."

That's true for both a comic book setting and the real world.

Mr Zoat · 2026-06-07T08:18:15+0100

Ngamer11 said:
I think that should say 'They're'.
Missing a full stop after that word.

Duke Long said:
'to'

Thank you, corrected.

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-06-07T08:34:57+0100

Mr Zoat said:
12th September 2013
22:32 GMT

A flood.

Not caused by building on a flood plain, or global warning, or having a country that's below sea level Netherlands. No, it looks like they… Mined into an aquifer, resulting in thousands of gallons of water gushing out of the mines and deluging down the slope onto the town.

A disaster by any other measure, but largely a quick day's work for one Lantern, much less two. There were probably some deaths in the mine as they flooded, but the village's population can still be saved.

Lantern Stewart glances up at me as we dive down. "Can you stop the water?"

"Yes, easily."

"I got the town. Get to it."

It's lucky John is here. He might well be able to quickly reconstruct the village safely, since it's probably a write-off where it is.

I transition forwards-. Ugh, the rock's somewhat porous and a large chunk of this mountain face is starting to give way. Just sticking a bung construct in the mine entrance isn't going to be enough. Instead, I create a giant water tank construct and attach it with a hose to the opening-.

Redirecting the water away from the village, since the mine's entrances no doubt face it.

Yeah, that a lot of pressure.

And then… Extend an orange aura through the rock, reinforcing it as I go… That'll… Do…

Mining it might be a little tougher, but they might not want to return to that after this disaster.

Behind me, John's hoiking people out of the water and dropping them off on dry land. Unfortunately, the town is located in a depression in the valley floor. It might keep the wind off a little, but it means that the water isn't going to flow away.

It's basically a growing lake, for now.

And then-. Ah, I see. Geothermal energy in the rock, melting built up ice from beneath, which isn't visible from the top because that's all still frozen. Nasty. But with a cold gun construct I can at least freeze the water in the tunnels… Gradually, so that the expanding water doesn't rupture the tunnels. Not much I can do about the… Still somewhat active volcano, but they're almost certainly going to have to relocate the town anyway now. They can just shift it up the valley a little, dig a drainage channel and then let the water flow away.

John can manage that part of it. And who knows, maybe the villagers can adapt, maybe they'll move on...

Need to check what's downstream first, but given how the water cycle works there's almost certainly a river not too far from here.

Or-.

The depression had to come from somewhere. Likely an old flow that dried up as the glacier formed?

My ring shimmers, and John's face appears.

"How's it look?"

"The mountain's a weakly active volcano. They dug through it and inadvertently created a channel to a glacier aquifer that had been on the boil."

Like pouring water onto a hot stove. Lots and lots of pressure with nowhere to go but out.

"I wondered why they weren't freezing. Can you make it safe?"

"Give me about thirty seconds."

And isn't that just such an OL thing to say. About to calm down an unstable geothermal vent and stabilise an aquifer, and all he says is 'Thirty seconds.'

"I'll check the town, then do a survey to see if it's safe to make a drainage channel to get rid of the sitting water."

"Right. I'll do what I can to seal the mountain."

I doubt they'll rebuild in the same place, but without the water, they'll at least be able to recover their property and reclaim some of the materials.

Because aquifers are temporary if you poke a hole in it. And removing the giant heat sink from the active volcano could do all sorts of things to the local environment, and given, A, that I don't intend to hang around and, B, the technology level of the locals doesn't look high enough to do serious monitoring, it's probably best that I leave it as close to as it was as possible.

Like any mass of water, it'll empty to the highest stable level. Good call on the geothermal angle. Don't want a pressure build-up or sudden loss of heat.

And I can't risk just collapsing the tunnel in case it causes a landslide. And while I'm perfectly capable of transmuting ice to rock… It's not exactly going to be fast going.

"What brought you here?"

Not the slightest concern for Ring charge, of course, Elemental transmutation is so easy for him now it's an inconsequential drain.

"I wanted a word with you, actually."

"So you.. didn't know this was happening?"

Sometimes you come across things in the wild, you know?

"No." Not… Picking up any sort of beacon. "Did you?"

He shakes his head. "Just doing a patrol of the Sector and picked it up." I see him go for height and scan the surrounding area. "What did you wanna talk to me about that you couldn't do over our rings?"

...It occurs to me that this may not even be on Earth, given that.

"Thanagar. And…" I look at the partially submerged town. "Other places."

"I got Lantern Guarn's report. Did you really need to kill the admiral?"

I'm guessing because OL was involved, and he's a Sector 2184 concern. John may be an Honour guard at this point, but he is still linked to Earth's Sector.

"No. I could just have left. I might have been able to drag the fleet… Maybe, but I know that the Thanagarians have at least some construct-disrupting technology and those things have a lot of attack craft. I could have punched through some other part of the hull, but he was the commanding admiral. It was his decision. Why should I take it out on other navy personnel? The only other thing to do would have been to try to get hold of the High Mor myself, and the problem there is that I don't have a fast way to do that. I could have gone back to Thanagar and forced my way into government buildings to his bunker, but that wouldn't have stopped the fighting."

A fine sentiment, but I doubt the ship's bridge crew would agree with it. Still, it worked.

"And did you really need to say 'they've got other admirals' to Hawkman?"

"Lantern Stewart, I feel that I've been acting under a mistaken impression of what the Green Lantern Corps actually does."

"Oh yeah?"

Ah, you can hear the 'oh no, what's he gonna say now?' tone of John's voice.

"So, I get the Reach. The Green Lantern Corps couldn't sustain the war without crippling itself, and the treaty at least slowed their expansion. Similar problem with the Dominion and the Spider Guild, and Apokolips flat out won last time your Corps tried to invade them. But what about Thanagar? Or the Antares war, for that matter?"

It's a matter of scale, I suspect. Sectors are very large, and even with two Lanterns to a Sector, they can't hang around a single polity for long to make sure they're playing nice...

"You planning on picking a fight with Thanagar?"

"They're militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was to destroy it from orbit. And yet, the local Green Lanterns appear to be happy just leaving them to it. Now, I'm not planning anything, but I was wondering how they were under the threshold for Green Lantern intervention."

For one thing, their atrocities were mostly internal. For another, Nth Metal gives them a bit of leverage. But I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

"If they had destroyed Alstair, things might have changed. Fact is, interplanetary civilisations fight sometimes. You see how they treat their slaves?"

"No mass executions, they don't get worked to death and they get at least basic medical attention?"

Tolerable, but hardly fair.

"I don't like it, but it's a whole lot less bad than it could be."

"Same with downside?"

Surprised it isn't capitalised, but I guess most Thanagarian cities have a downside district.

"Downside of what?"

"No, that's what they call their slums. They're quite big. As far as I can tell, the only path for advancement for most thanagarians there is military service."

Now, to mention Shayera or not. Probably not, as she probably hasn't shared her origins with the League.

"Who do you think paid for my college degree?"

"No, I mean, that's literally the only legitimate career available and I think they've set it up like that deliberately. So given that their government oppresses other species, their own species and was planning genocide…"

Again, mostly internal matters, and the Greenies stay hands-off with that kind of matter, annoyingly.

"I'm not exactly sure. Being incompetent isn't enough. War usually just results in a mediation attempt, so long as they're mostly focusing on military targets. But with everything that got reported about Antares I'd be surprised if Lantern Guarn wasn't getting orders to start paying them a lot more attention."

Poor kid's going to be a lot busier around there, him and his partner.

"Is there anyone we're keeping an eye on in this Sector?"

There's a flash of green as Lantern Stewart uses construct drill to create a drainage channel.

Fortunately, outside of Earth, 2814 is fairly peaceful, from what I remember.

"No, we're clear. Everyone's peaceful or primitive. We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."

I dismiss my construct, and nod as the new rock takes the strain. I'll dump the water back at the summit, and then I'll be done.

Well, until someone hits a load-bearing mystical linkage and suddenly it's everyone's problem.

"Would you mind keeping me appraised? I feel rather involved, now, and I'd like to make sure that things don't get worse."

"Sure. I can do that."

Though I expect the extent of that involvement will remain at 'monitor reports' level, hoping that his 'Don't make me come back here' implied threats will be enough to keep the peace for a while...

Nice to see some classic hero work, saving lives and casually discussing other things. It really helps sell that these two are damn good at their jobs that they did all that disaster-recovery stuff without a single bit of stress. The discussion of the Green Lantern Corps' relatively light treatment of stuff like Thanagar and Antares was interesting too...

BR549 · 2026-06-07T08:42:36+0100

Mr Zoat said:
uses construct drill

'uses a construct drill'

Chojin Patriarch said:
I'm guessing because OL was involved, and he's a Sector 3184 concern.

Earth is Sector 2814.

BlueMangoAdea · 2026-06-07T08:59:45+0100

Hmmm. Is Paul going to clean up the local sector?

But as John states, the sector is more or less fine. Other than Earth, that is.

Lord Ernest · 2026-06-07T09:12:15+0100

BlueMangoAdea said:
Hmmm. Is Paul going to clean up the local sector?

But as John states, the sector is more or less fine. Other than Earth, that is.

It would still be a good idea to keep an eye on it and check for developments. That crazy guy that had armor made from the Anti-Monitor (Ungol something or other?) was from Sector 2814 and rampaged around, and the criminal syndicate that Amon Sur was a part of is in the same sector I think. So even while being generally calm, the local sector could have any number of skeletons or plots around.

Zelred · 2026-06-07T09:22:32+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"Is there anyone we're keeping an eye on in this Sector?"

I think that's supposed to be "Is there anyone you're keeping an eye on in this Sector?"

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

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