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

Sockmonkey got where I was heading Z000. Didn't want to be too loud because if true then it might spoil the fun for others. If true then I have to tip my hat to Zoat for playing a very looong game with something that could just be a bit of fun into a key plot point.

Detective Chimp, is a Detective, whom is also a Chimp.

Shocking I know.

But sometimes folks don't need the whole 'Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black and Mayor of a little village up the coast' level of titles when it comes to hero work.

He's a sleuth on par with the Bat, when it comes to deductive logic and reason, but tends to hang out in far stranger places, which lead to his membership in a group known as the Shadowpact. A gang of some of the C list heros from the weirder side of the tracks within DC lore.

Chimp's 'name' is Bobo T. Chimpanzee in the comics.

The Thinking Cap Test Primate that ran around Kordtech is named Bobo, and due to the experiments, is rather intelligent (8th Grade Level last I recall it was mentioned). Thus we may yet have an in universe origin for a version of the good Detective after all. We know Blue Devil exists, so that is at least 2 members of the 'Pact. With the recent showing of the mirror match versions of the other Shadowpact members (White Rabbit being Nightmaster's mirror, Sister Shadow being Nightshade's), we can infer the others exist as well.

Recent events in WTR have been poking and prodding at the Religion of Crime story lines within DC. Shadowpact and other characters (the Kane Version of Batwoman for a prime example), have a big place within those stories comics wise. However as far as we can tell, while related groups like the Intergang and the Congregation have popped up, they haven't been shown onscreen being involved in events as they played out in DC. Reading between the lines with meta knowledge, you MIGHT be able to line things up, but Zoat's being rather sneaky with his placing of such dots to connect (kudos for that).

Some characters that are linchpins in those tales are either missing, replaced by different versions, altered so as not to resemble the comic adaptation, or operating off screen unseen. But the events seem to be nosing in that direction regardless.

Some, like Detective Chimp, are too silly for the 'gritty' Young Justice universe to throw out in their original formats, thus require a new explanation as to how they come to be, if they'll appear at all. We've seen a few characters in the Renegade and Paragon storylines that Pauls shanghai'ed into the plot deliberately because he knew of them and dragged them in because they existed.

But if the Chimp is being functionally Created by Paul's actions....that's a bit strange in itself. Paul may or may not feature in Destiny of the Endless's Book, and thus his existence in the universe tends to derail things from predetermined paths. If Detective Chimp was always intended to exist, then he would appear in the book. But how does an element you can't predict create something you always knew existed?

Things to Ponder.
 
Oh Before I forget.....every time I hear OL using that thing, This is what comes to mind.
tumblr_ngv3djfJs81ts2nh1o2_400.gif
 
Would Selina make a good Lantern? She does have strong desires and she has strong morals (even if a bit grey at time, legally anyway).

I guess the question is, what exactly about the Orange light causes people to go crazy?

PS: Only 17 driven insane, that is not bad for early on. Before the major research is complete, or rather, they become the research to help people in the future. I guess they knew that could happen before they signed up.
 
Would Selina make a good Lantern?

She's been a lantern a couple of times in the comics that I'm aware of.

In Batman In Darkest Night, Sinestro/Joe Chill/Joker made Selina Kyle a Star Sapphire, and Harvey Evil Star's starbrands. For those who didn't read that graphic novel, Sinestro used his ring to assimilate Joe Chill's mind into his own, driving him insane, so making him the Joker equivalent.

And in Silver Age Giant, the Legion of Doom stole the GLC Central Power Battery, a kryptonian crystal, and the absorbascan, which they used to make their own power rings, using the kryptonian crystal as a prism to refract the color of the central power battery into other colors- Blue for Penguin, Red for Manta, Yellow for Luthor, Orange for Dr Light, and either violet again for Catwoman or indigo, I can't recall.
 
Would Selina make a good Lantern? She does have strong desires and she has strong morals (even if a bit grey at time, legally anyway).
I guess the question is, what exactly about the Orange light causes people to go crazy?
PS: Only 17 driven insane, that is not bad for early on. Before the major research is complete, or rather, they become the research to help people in the future. I guess they knew that could happen before they signed up.

I think she might, It might help make up for her losing Bruce to Talia.
 
She's been a lantern a couple of times in the comics that I'm aware of.

In Batman In Darkest Night, Sinestro/Joe Chill/Joker made Selina Kyle a Star Sapphire, and Harvey Evil Star's starbrands. For those who didn't read that graphic novel, Sinestro used his ring to assimilate Joe Chill's mind into his own, driving him insane, so making him the Joker equivalent.

And in Silver Age Giant, the Legion of Doom stole the GLC Central Power Battery, a kryptonian crystal, and the absorbascan, which they used to make their own power rings, using the kryptonian crystal as a prism to refract the color of the central power battery into other colors- Blue for Penguin, Red for Manta, Yellow for Luthor, Orange for Dr Light, and either violet again for Catwoman or indigo, I can't recall.
Indigo, apparently. The DC Database wiki has a page on it. It's from the year 2000, predating even the formation of the Sinestro Corps by a few years (though obviously long after the first appearance of Sinestro's Yellow Power Ring).
 
Supposedly? I guess that is a good point, we only have his word for it, and as far as I can remember Constantine has been AWOL since they took down Nabu, right?

Well he did visit Paul in the hospital after the fight, but after that AWOL, yes.

So Quinn could be a guy that Constantine trusted with the most powerful magical artifact on Earth, or he could be the guy who poisoned Constantine's smokes and then dissolved his body in lye, or anything in between.

It would be ironic if instead of Constantine getting Paul killed, Paul got Constantine killed....
 
Quinn could be a guy that Constantine trusted with the most powerful magical artifact on Earth, or he could be the guy who poisoned Constantine's smokes and then dissolved his body in lye, or anything in between.
Or he could be the more orderly part of Constantine that got lopped off and given the helmet by the chaotic rest of him.
 
Guys from Gotham (part 9)
16th February
23:53 GMT -5


Seriously?

I hold the slime man up in a construct-ball. While somewhat protean he doesn't actually appear to be all that strong. I could.. probably freeze him solid without killing him…

"While I'm not exactly impressed with… Whoever's in charge here's bodyguard, American law allows me to use mentally invasive techniques in order to get information on active supervillains. So you can either tell me who's doing this of your own free will, or without your own free will. You've got until the count of three."

Snotman just sneers.

"Fine. Brand."

His eyes rotate upward as his forehead glows with an orange sigil, the light turning his translucent body an odd shade of purple. Yes, this one is very much in tune with his lower-order desires. He started absorbing and digesting animals but I can see at least… Seven? People he's done the same to.

This part of the lower levels of the Breed Building has a 'modern fortification meets ancient tomb' aesthetic. Which means that it's probably a relatively young mage serving an ancient one, the worst combination as far as I'm concerned. Not that I'm exactly shivering in my armour given the power level of the help they're employing, but I think I might end up glad that John's on his way.

Brand complete.

"Snotman, you want to be helpful. Also, you no longer feel any particular drive to ingest living things."

"Strega's in charge. She's a powerful sorceress. Though, I suppose that given how powerful you are, you might not care."

"Never heard of her. Has she done anything I might know about?"

"She's killed a lot of people, but not all at once. I don't think she's done anything that made the news."

And isn't that a damning indictment of our society. I'm going to have to talk to someone about setting up a worldwide magic detection network again. I was convinced to put it on the back burner given Klarion's death and the civil liberties issues but if this sort of thing is going unnoticed...

"Does she work for someone?"

"Um. Maybe? She doesn't let us in her ritual room when she's killing them, and she's mentioned a 'lord' a few times. But I've never met them. She might just be religious."

It would be interesting to meet an evil magic user who was religious without actively making pacts with the object of their reverence. But not so interesting that I'd actually want to do it.

I take a giant crumbler gauntlet construct to the stone door ahead of me and erase it, a brief crackle of red light flickering out and then dying as the spell fails to find me.

For a moment I consider shouting something. Maybe… 'Avon calling!' But it just feels inappropriate and… A bit sexist? Oh well.

I walk forward, Snotman floating along behind me in his bubble. The flagstones down here have a clear pattern of wear between the exterior door and the interior, as if someone has been walking the exact same route for a very long time. The carvings on the walls appear to be decorative, though my knowledge of magic inscriptions is almost entirely modern rather than historical.

I create two construct railguns and load mageslayers.

"Strega, you're under arrest! I will warn you now that I am carrying lethal ordnance and am authorised to use it!"

The big stone doors at the end of the room are probably concealing her ritual space. Not like there's anywhere else for her to be. And I don't just mean because of the lack of visible exits; there's only so much subbasement space you can purloin in a city like Gotham before someone notices.

Ah, hang on.

FEED ME!

Stone abrades and fades, Snotman loses physical cohesion in his construct ball and a puff of red mist gets sucked away from an apparently empty part of the room, revealing a half-mask wearing woman with red hair wearing a red costume. Her hands are raised in a stereotypical casting-pose, so perhaps she's not as modern as I thought?

I point my railguns at her. "Last chance."

"How did.. you..?"

The railgun round hits the air in front of her, another puff of red bursting as it strikes a rapidly erected barrier spell. The second one strikes her in the left thigh, blasting through meat and bone and only just failing to tear the leg off entirely. The force spins her around and she collapses bonelessly to the ground, moaning faintly as she does so.

I take another suppression chain out of subspace and attach it to her… Well, there's not much point attaching it to her left leg, but her arms, right leg and neck are solid attachment points. Blood loss and shock have already caused her to lose consciousness and…

I take a quick look at her desire-structures. Ugh. That's unusual. Far older than a normal human lifespan should allow but actually not all that powerful. But I've seen enough to destroy any desire I might have to actually heal her with my rings. Instead I take an x-ionised blade out of subspace, neatly amputate what's left of it at the hip and then carefully seal off the leaking blood vessels. That will keep her alive and I don't feel any further obligation to her.

Now, what's behind the door?

I generate another construct crumbler gauntlet and move to strike the door when a golden ankh flares into being in the air next to me. It flickers for a moment and then stabilises, allowing John Quinn to step through with the helmet on his head.

He takes a quick look around and his gaze fixes on the severed leg.

"Bit of a bloody mess."

"Try reading her aura."

"Not with that chain on-. Oh the leg, yeah." He kneels down next to it in the direction away from the blood pool and reaches out to it. "Ooh. Nasty. Lots of fatal blood sacrifice." He looks up at the door. "What's through there?"

"Let's find out."

I swing the crumbler construct and erase the door. There's a flicker of red light again, but once again the spell fails to find me. Inside the room… Pillars, carvings and a stone sarcophagus a different colour to the stone of the rest of the structure.

"Recognise it?"

"Not really, mate. All these ancient sarcophaguses start to look alike after a while."

I turn up my empathic vision-.

Green mist flares into life around the sarcophagus… Not sure what that's supposed to be doing.

Spell eater temperature increasing.

I add another from subspace and then send the original there to discharge.

"John?"

"Some sort of defence-piercing life drain spell. Don't get any closer than you have to."

"Would you be willing to testify that whoever this is represents an existential threat to Gotham City?"

"That's impossible to know for sure. Yes, they're powerful enough to threaten the city, but that's not the same as knowing that they would actually choose to threaten it."

"Fine." I load another set of crumbler rounds and shoot through the spell, destroying the sarcophagus lid. "Let's ask them directly."
 
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I can see OL getting a lot of publicity for this. Superhero foils evil sorcerers who have been killing people in Gotham for years/decades. How would Batman react to learning this was happening under his nose the whole time? Would the police start trusting OL more than Batman? Is this part of what makes Batman and OL's relationship estranged in the future?
 
And isn't that a damning indictment of our society. I'm going to have to talk to someone about setting up a worldwide magic detection network again. I was convinced to put it on the back burner given Klarion's death and the civil liberties issues but if this sort of thing is going unnoticed.
There's no way you are winning that argument given the fundamental rights issue at stake and how few people actually end up as ritual sacrifices every year.

"Fine." I load another set of crumbler rounds and shoot through the spell, destroying the sarcophagus lid. "Let's ask them directly."
Paul... This is stupid even for you...

For all you know that could be the Horseman Famine or some other being that could instantly turn you into giblets.
 
"Fine." I load another set of crumbler rounds and shoot through the spell, destroying the sarcophagus lid. "Let's ask them directly."
DOCTOR GOTHAM: Sunnuva-! DOES NO ONE IN THIS GODS FORSAKEN CENTURY HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR ANYONE'S PROPERTY?! Granted, the sarcophagus was something that technically kept me imprisoned these past forty-something millenia, but IT WAS MY PRISON! I mean, look what you did to the ritual-carvings and binding-sigils on the stonework! That was REAL craftsmanship you destroyed there, you know!
 
Seriously?

I hold the slime man up in a construct-ball. While somewhat protean he doesn't actually appear to be all that strong. I could.. probably freeze him solid without killing him…
Ugh, oozes. Worst kind of critter to fight cleanly. Intelligent ones? Even nastier.

"While I'm not exactly impressed with… Whoever's in charge here's bodyguard, American law allows me to use mentally invasive techniques in order to get information on active supervillains. So you can either tell me who's doing this of your own free will, or without your own free will. You've got until the count of three."

Snotman just sneers.

"Fine. Brand."
Welp, Hard Way it is.

His eyes rotate upward as his forehead glows with an orange sigil, the light turning his translucent body and odd shade of purple. Yes, this one is very much in tune with his lower-order desires. He started absorbing and digesting animals but I can see at least… Seven? People he's done the same to.
Ugh, like a humanoid Gelationous Cube? Nasty, nasty, nasty.

This part of the lower levels of the Breed Building has an 'modern fortification meets ancient tomb' aesthetic. Which means that it's probably a relatively young mage serving an ancient one, the worst combination as far as I'm concerned. Not that I'm exactly shivving in my armour given the power level of the help they're employing, but I think I might end up glad that John's on his way.

Brand complete.

"Snotman, you want to be helpful. Also, you no longer feel any particular drive to ingest living things."
Not that that's likely to stick. It may well be that he was made in such a way that consuming organic matter is how he survives. No great loss either way.

"Strega's in charge. She's a powerful sorceress. Though, I suppose that given how powerful you are, you might not care."

"Never heard of her. Has she done anything I might know about?"

"She's killed a lot of people, but not all at once. I don't think she's done anything that made the news."
Well, at least he's not the dumb one. And this is definitely shaping up to be the villianous counterparts of the Shadowpact.

And isn't that a damning indictment of our society. I'm going to have to talk to someone about setting up a worldwide magic detection network again. I was convinced to put it on the back burner given Klarion's death and the civil liberties issues but if this sort of thing is going unnoticed.

"Does she work for someone?"

"Um. Maybe? She doesn't let us in her ritual room when she's killing them, and she's mentioned a 'lord' a few times. But I've never met them. She might just be religious."
Ugh. Let's hope she's not crazy and loud too.

It would be interesting to meet an evil magic user who was religious without actively making pacts with the object of their reverence. But not so interesting that I'd actually want to do it.

I take a giant crumbler gauntlet construct to the stone door ahead of me and erase it, a brief crackly of red light flickering out and then dying as the spell fails to find me.
The Lantern equivalent of the old ten-foot-pole.

For a moment I consider shouting something. Maybe… 'Avon calling!' But it just feels inappropriate and… A bit sexist? Oh well.

I walk forward, Snotman floating along behind me in his bubble. The flagstones down here have a clear pattern of wear between the exterior door and the interior, as if someone has been walking the exact same route for a very long time. The carvings on the walls appear to be decorative, though my knowledge of magic inscriptions is almost entirely modern rather than historical.
So, this lot might not be the first to use this area.

I create two construct railguns and load mageslayers.

"Strega, you're under arrest! I will warn you now that I am carrying lethal ordnance and am authorised to use it!"
Warning given. I doubt she's sensible enough to give up...

The big stone doors at the end of the room are probably concealing her ritual space. Not like there's anywhere else for her to be. And I don't just mean because of the lack of visible exits; there's only so much subbasement space you can purloin in a city like Gotham before someone notices.

Ah, hang on.

FEED ME!
Om nom nom.

Stone abrades and fades, Snotman loses physical cohesion in his construct ball and a puff of red mist gets sucked away from an apparently empty part of the room, revealing a half-mask wearing woman with red hear wearing a red costume. Her hands are raised in a stereotypical casting-pose, so perhaps she's not as modern as I thought?

I point my railguns at her. "Last chance."
Probability of being sensible, low.

"How did.. you..?"

The railgun round hits the air in front of her, another puff of red bursting as hit strikes a rapidly erected barrier spell. The second one strikes her in the left thigh, blasting through meat and bone and only just failing to tear the leg off entirely. The force spins her around and she collapses bonelessly to the ground, moaning faintly as she does so.
Ouch. Any other situation, that's a fatal wound...
Correction: 'as it strikes'

I take another suppression chain out of subspace and attach it to her… Well, there's not much point attaching it to her left leg, but her arms, right leg and neck are solid attachment points. Blood loss and shock have already caused her to lose consciousness and…

I take a quick look at her desire-structures. Ugh. That's unusual. Far older than a normal human lifespan should allow but actually not all that powerful. But I've seen enough to destroy any desire I might have to actually heal her with my rings. Instead I take an x-ionised blade out of subspace, neatly amputate what's left of it at the hip and then carefully seal off the leaking blood vessels. That will keep her alive and I don't feel any further obligation to her.
Ow. Nice triage, and a good way to deal with the 'don't want to heal' aspect.

Now, what's behind the door?

I generate another construct crumbler gauntlet and move to strike the door when a golden ankh flares into being in the air next to me. It flickers for a moment and then stabilises, allowing John Quinn to step through with the helmet on his head.
Ah, backup arrives, after all the hard work is done.

He takes a quick look around and his gaze fixes on the severed leg.

"Bit of a bloody mess."
You know Constantine, this is nothing.

"Try reading her aura."

"Not with that chain on-. Oh the leg, yeah." He kneels down next to it in the direction away from the blood pool and reaches out to it. "Ooh. Nasty. Lots of fatal blood sacrifice." He looks up at the door. "What's through there?"
Heh, must've been a lot, to be that easy to pick up on from her aura.

"Let's find out."

I swing the crumbler construct and erase the door. There's a flicker of red light again, but once again the spell fails to find me. Inside the room… Pillars, carvings and a stone sarcophagus a different colour to the stone of the rest of the structure.
Definitely not part of the extant decoration, then.

"Recognise it?"

"Not really, mate. All these ancient sarcophaguses start to look alike after a while."
Ah, DC, where you quickly grow jaded with the marvels of magic.

I turn up my empathic vision-.

Green mist flares into life around the sarcophagus… Not sure what that's supposed to be doing.

Spell eater temperature increasing.

I add another from subspace and then send the original there to discharge.
Not something friendly, then.

"John?"

"Some sort of defence-piercing life drain spell. Don't get any closer than you have to."

"Would you be willing to testify that whoever this is represents an existential threat to Gotham City?"
I like that OL's covering his legal bases here.

"That's impossible to know for sure. Yes, they're powerful enough to threaten the city, but that's not the same as knowing that they would actually choose to threaten it."

"Fine." I load another set of crumbler rounds and shoot through the spell, destroying the sarcophagus lid. "Let's ask them directly."
Hoo-boy. Vaermina's actually right here, kind of reckless to kick the door in... Or off, as the case may be.

I'm guessing OL's just getting bored with these low-level quests. This is like mashing the Interact key on anything glowing, just to get things over with faster.
 
Rule 8 - No Politics
There's no way you are winning that argument given the fundamental rights issue at stake and how few people actually end up as ritual sacrifices every year.
Ironically, the low numbers of surface-worlders who practice magic, and high numbers of people who are afraid of it, especially after Roanoke, might make it possible. It's like firearms in every civilized nation on Earth (no I didn't miss any): everyone knows that leaving them unregulated only facilitates crime, so it's better for everyone to have a national registry and strict regulation of who has access to them.
 
Rule 8 - No Politics
There's no way you are winning that argument given the fundamental rights issue at stake and how few people actually end up as ritual sacrifices every year.
Hah! Good one.




Wait, you're serious? I mean, without going into nigh-political detail, the U.S. has done and is doing plenty of that stuff (way farther back than 20 years), China is China, India is... I have no idea what India is, a lot of the next few down the population list aren't exactly known for being huge sticklers about human rights... And by that point you have a lot of the world's population covered.


If you're doing it through the UN instead, you basically just need the permanent members onboard. China, the U.S., and Russia are a given (possibly with a stipend that lets them exempt their government-sanctioned magic from detection), and i'm not sure how France would take it. The U.K. might be opposed, given that in paragon-verse they're a demon cult in entirety, but they might find a way to use it to their advantage if they get pressured into it.


And need I remind you that OL has the relatively-recent Roanoke incident to use as justification, among other things? Seriously, there are lots of examples of countries doing more than this with less justification than that. Both in recent can't-be-discussed history and not so recent history.
 
Rule 8 - Comment in the context of the story
Ironically, the low numbers of surface-worlders who practice magic, and high numbers of people who are afraid of it, especially after Roanoke, might make it possible. It's like firearms in every civilized nation on Earth (no I didn't miss any): everyone knows that leaving them unregulated only facilitates crime, so it's better for everyone to have a national registry and strict regulation of who has access to them.
Wait, you're serious? I mean, without going into nigh-political detail, the U.S. has done and is doing plenty of that stuff (way farther back than 20 years), China is China, India is... I have no idea what India is, a lot of the next few down the population list aren't exactly known for being huge sticklers about human rights... And by that point you have a lot of the world's population covered.
Keep your commentary to the context of the story only; bringing real-world politics into this will not end well for you.
 
Keep your commentary to the context of the story only; bringing real-world politics into this will not end well for you.
Aren't details like that sort of unavoidable, here? Earth-16 is based off of the real world, so a lot of things that are true for Earth-16 are true for the real world as well. This plot point is a significant aspect of the story, and you can't discuss the point without touching on topics that apply to the real world just as much as Earth-16.


I mean, as another example, the Justice League is at least nominally under the authority of the U.N., and the limitations and rulings set upon the League has come up repeatedly. And it's, more-or-less, the same U.N. as the real world.
 
That isn't a new rule Buggy. The thread's run into it before. Anything more recent than 20 years ago is a no go.
Yes, but none of the stuff I brought up was a within-20-years thing. It may or may not still be true, but all of it was true as of 20 years ago and farther, unquestionably.

And it's all immediately plot-relevant points, as well.

And, okay, if it's still not allowed even though its arguably 20+ years ago and immediately plot relevant, that's fine, I won't do it. But then why are other people allowed to bring it up in the first place? I wasn't the one who brought up this plot point, I was just responding to someone else with a counterpoint.
 

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