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

[DrThoth]

To be fair, he'd be far from the first guy to forget a date that is important to his significant other, it's just that forgetting Valentine's Day is an unusual and extreme outlier compared to 'the anniversary of our first date' or whatever (which is sometimes disputed as to which one counts as the first).

Click to shrink...

I think Paragon's established himself as an 'unusual and extreme outlier' in most other ways, so Jade might be fine with it. I'm having a hard time picturing her being that sentimental though, at the risk of presuming- she's definitely warmed up to him and in general but she's still ex-assassin now training as a space-spy in possibly life-or-death scenarios. (Forgetting) Valentine's day doesn't seem like it would be one of her priorities.

Speaking of dates and timing, is there a scheduled trial date for Paragon-Satanus? I don't think his situation has been mentioned since the episode he got taken down.

 

[Massgamer]

Yeah, certainly should call in League since a large populated area is at risk from mind controllers.

Send in those like Major Adam who are unlikely to be controllable with their biology.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Sending in Green Arrow, and he gets taken over, and the worst you have is a pointy stick launcher.

Sending Adam, and if they don't take him over but still puncture his metallic hide, you get a nuclear detonation.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Sending in Green Arrow, and he gets taken over, and the worst you have is a pointy stick launcher.

Sending Adam, and if they don't take him over but still puncture his metallic hide, you get a nuclear detonation.

Click to shrink...

Only on Earth 12. On Earth 16 he'd just bleed.

Also, Redhawk: you know what you did.

 

[Redhawk]

Only on Earth 12. On Earth 16 he'd just bleed.

Also, Redhawk: you know what you did.

Click to shrink...

Sorry, I'm new here and I don't really know the etiquette.

 

[Ardy]

"I can't appraise it until I know what it does. Also, I'm authorised to complete the documents required to confiscate supervillain equipment legally and you're not." She pouts. "How much do you want?"

Click to shrink...

So, Mr. Zoat, what did he end up paying her for that?

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th February
12:19 GMT -6

I'm moving at a jog on the grounds that -given the armour I'm wearing- me ramming into anything is going to be far worse for it than it is for me. While it wasn't obvious at the entrance, this far in it's pretty clear that someone has been visiting recently. And frequently. The dust on the floor is disturbed, there are traces of blood on one sharp piece of rock jutting out slightly from one wall, and I just saw a crisp packet from far more recently than this mine was closed.

I don't really know mines, but I'm a little surprised that a mine from this period of history is this large. The cuts in the rock don't look recent. Ring, what's up with that?

Data not found.

I skip that step and try and feel the internet through the ring. Nothing. A slight change in the focus of my desires and I easily access the ring's database, and a flick of my left hand shows that I can still make constructs…

"Area effect ward. Magic user."

"Good show. I've never seen a sheeda wizard before."

"Didn't think you had much to do with magic."

Beryl's hanging back a little while Dr Sivana is only a little behind me. He presses a button and his cupola moves from the middle of his mechanical assemblage to the rear, rotating so that he can look Beryl in the eye.

"Oh, you don't put any faith into that silly 'irreconcilability of magic and science' business, do you? Science isn't machinery, it's a wonderful process of examining, theorising and testing. Granted, physics is more my focus than sorcery, but I'm passingly familiar with a dozen magic traditions."

He holds up his right hand and… Conjures a small fireball for a moment, before closing his hand and snuffing it out.

"I've even summoned up the occasional demon. And dissected them, thus disproving my earlier theory that they were merely aliens from a parallel universe. Or at least, not in the sense that I'd imagined before."

Ring scans are working, but they become fuzzy and indistinct more than ten metres away. Area ward, and a fairly clever one. If I was setting something like this up I'd need runic markers throughout the area, while here there's nothing. I try a sonic scan, but-. The ground-penetrating system isn't picking up anything beyond the ten metre cut off, but there's a faint…

"…wasn't at all. It was smooth and things just flowed together…"

I know that voice. Nigel. He must have come almost straight here. He didn't exactly look like he was built for speed. Taking into account the echoes around the passageways I.. think he's this way.

I change directions, accelerating to a run and linking my scans straight to my armour's motor controls. I still don't know what's happening, but… He's talking to someone. Someone I strongly suspect to be either in control of the Spine Riders, or at least responsible for them. From what the witch-hunters told me, there's no way that Melmoth himself would live somewhere like this, but Nigel clearly came here in the belief that his contact would be here.

"Fret ye not, boy. Even with a power such as yours, there are ways to confound it."

That's a Witch World accent, though there's a rasping tone to it that the witch-hunters lacked. When Beulah ranted hellfire and damnation at me over the whole 'bringing people back from the dead' thing, she included a short soliloquy about the sort of evil magicians they usually went after. Since they end up as outcasts pretty darn quickly there isn't an underground society, but Columbia doesn't cover the whole of their world and there's plenty of room for them to flee to. Would one.. voluntarily work with their universally reviled grandfather?

…

If there's one thing I've learned in this job, it's that there's nothing so stupid or revolting that someone won't do it.

Wait a.. second. I remember… Something like this in the Seven Soldiers comic. Nigel… Could be the.. telepathic boy who fed his classmates to the sheeda thingies. But that was interrupted by Frankenstein and.. wherever he ended up it wasn't here. I don't remember why Melmoth was in town there… And there weren't any Mind Destroyers in that part of the comic.

"But that means that I can't know anything! I might as well not have this power!"

And the comic version didn't behave anything like that. I don't.. remember it well, but I think that he was confident and domineering. Nigel didn't appear to be that when we spoke earlier. Earlier in his personal timeline? Something else? Don't know. But unless I get good evidence that he's irredeemably compromised, I'll try and talk him down. The Witch Worlder on the other hand, he's going to have to talk fast or he's getting a ticket home. Where they burn people like him.

"You're becoming hysterical, lad! Even if one man is as you say, there are still-."

A wooden door set into recently worked stone, runes carved into the stonework. I create a railgun construct and fire once, the mage slayer easily wrecking whatever protections there were on the door a second before my fist wrecks the door itself, exploding the wood around the hinges into splinters!

The room beyond is… Decorated, if stone age barrow is your idea of decor. A man dressed in a smock and breeches sits on a stone chair, a strange maggot-like creature laying next to his right arm. His features remind me of Klarion in monster-mode, though his skin maintains the blue tint I remember from the witch-hunters. Long fingers splay out like crane fly legs across the ends of his seat's arm rests, his head is taller than it should be, the hair on top of it unnaturally solid. His eyes are human in proportion but compound, the pale blue clearly visible even in the low light.

Nigel clasps his hands to his chest, backing away from the entrance towards the corner of the room.

"You were not invited here."

"You're under arrest for offences relating to immigration violations and supervillainy. It may result in a more lenient punishment if you recall all of the Spine Riders and Mind Destroyers and set them to inactive."

"I could not, even if I wanted."

"Then I'm afraid that it's extradition back to Witch World. Do you know Beulah Bleak?"

"A quaestor, mayhap? A witch-hunter?"

"Got it in two. Last chance. Stand down or be stood down."

"Know you then the name of my master?"

"There are a few possible candidates, but I'm going to guess that you've sworn yourself to Melmoth. She called witch-men like you 'warlocks', because you broke the oath not to use the fey parts of your magic."

"A foolish commandment. As well to tell us to cut out our own eyes."

"Which I see that you've done."

"A side effect of this foolish curse." He shifts his weight slightly. "Know you then the name of the foe against which King Melmoth would lead us?"

"The sheeda. His people, who ravage the past to sustain themselves."

"Then why do you interfere? The time of their assault draws near, and the King applies the whole of his cunning into building weapons with which we may fight them."

"If that were true then he'd have introduced himself openly to the local superheroes. Or governments."

"Bah!"

"Fine. Explain yourself in Belle Reve."

I take suppression chains out of subspace and advance-.

His maggot hurls itself at my face!

 

[Mr Zoat]

So, Mr. Zoat, what did he end up paying her for that?

Click to shrink...

$50,000

 

[Handlewithcare]

Okayyyy...I am really curious for the explanation why setting Mindkillers on random people helps with building weapons. Unless they were testing countermeasures on the vctims?

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

I'm moving at a jog on the grounds that -given the armour I'm wearing- me ramming into anything is going to be far worse for it than it is for me. While it wasn't obvious at the entrance, this far in it's pretty clear that someone has been visiting recently. And frequently. The dust on the floor is disturbed, there are traces of blood on one sharp piece of rock jutting out slightly from one wall, and I just saw a crisp packet from far more recently than this mine was closed.

I don't really know mines, but I'm a little surprised that a mine from this period of history is this large. The cuts in the rock don't look recent. Ring, what's up with that?

Data not found.

Click to shrink...

Oh, that's not good. Not good at all.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I skip that step and try and feel the internet through the ring. Nothing. A slight change in the focus of my desires and I easily access the ring's database, and a flick of my left hand shows that I can still make constructs…

"Area effect ward. Magic user."

"Good show. I've never seen a sheeda wizard before."

"Didn't think you had much to do with magic."

Click to shrink...

Beryl, Clarke's Law and its' crollary/inverse. Magic and science are just two sides of a coin, especially in this universe.

Beryl's hanging back a little while Dr Sivana is only a little behind me. He presses a button and his cupola moves from the middle of his mechanical assemblage to the rear, rotating so that he can look Beryl in the eye.

"Oh, you don't put any faith into that silly 'irreconcilability of magic and science' business, do you? Science isn't machinery, it's a wonderful process of examining, theorising and testing. Granted, physics is more my focus than sorcery, but I'm passingly familiar with a dozen magic traditions."

He holds up his right hand and… Conjures a small fireball for a moment, before closing his hand and snuffing it out.

Click to shrink...

As if a multi-disciplinarian scientist like Sivana wouldn't have a passing knowledge of nearly everything?

"I've even summoned up the occasional demon. And dissected them, thus disproving my earlier theory that they were merely aliens from a parallel universe. Or at least, not in the sense that I'd imagined before."

Ring scans are working, but they become fuzzy and indistinct more than ten metres away. Area ward, and a fairly clever one. If I was setting something like this up I'd need runic markers throughout the area, while here there's nothing. I try a sonic scan, but-. The ground-penetrating system isn't picking up anything beyond the ten metre cut off, but there's a faint…

Click to shrink...

Someone likes their privacy, it seems.

"…wasn't at all. It was smooth and things just flowed together…"

I know that voice. Nigel. He must have come almost straight here. He didn't exactly look like he was built for speed. Taking into account the echoes around the passageways I.. think he's this way.

I change directions, accelerating to a run and linking my scans straight to my armour's motor controls. I still don't know what's happening, but… He's talking to someone. Someone I strongly suspect to be either in control of the Spine Riders, or at least responsible for them. From what the witch-hunters told me, there's no way that Melmoth himself would live somewhere like this, but Nigel clearly came here in the believe that his contact would be here.

Click to shrink...

So, in the end, Nigel was involved, just not in the way many of us thought.

"Fret ye not, boy. Even with a power such as yours, there are ways to confound it."

That's a Witch World accent, though there's a rasping tone to it that the witch-hunters lacked. When Beulah ranted hellfire and damnation at me over the whole 'bringing people back from the dead' thing, she included a short soliloquy about the sort of evil magicians they usually went after. Since they end up as outcasts pretty darn quickly there isn't an underground society, but Columbia doesn't cover the whole of their world and there's plenty of room for them to flee to. Would one.. voluntarily world with their universally reviled grandfather?

Click to shrink...

For power? Of course!
Correction: 'voluntarily work with'

If there's one thing one thing I've learned in this job, it's that there's nothing so stupid or revolting that someone won't do it.

Wait a.. second. I remember… Something like this in the Seven Soldiers comic. Nigel… Could be the.. telepathic boy who fed his classmates to the sheeda thingies. But that was interrupted by Frankenstein and.. wherever he ended up it wasn't here. I don't remember why Melmoth was in town there… And there weren't any Mind Destroyers in that part of the comic.

Click to shrink...

Guess who's playing Frankenstein's role today, OL?

"But that means that I can't know anything! I might as well not have this power!"

And the comic version didn't behave anything like that. I don't.. remember it well, but I think that he was confident and domineering. Nigel didn't appear to be that when we spoke earlier. Earlier in his personal timeline? Something else? Don't know. But unless I get good evidence that he's irredeemably compromised, I'll try and talk him down. The Witch Worlder on the other hand, he's going to have to talk fast or he's getting a ticket home. Where they burn people like him.

Click to shrink...

And a more deserving fellow, I have no doubt he will prove to be.

"You're becoming hysterical, lad! Even if one man is as you say, there are still-."

A wooden door set into recently worked stone, runes carved into the stonework. I create a railgun construct and fire once, the mage slayer easily wrecking whatever protections there were on the door a second before my fist wrecks the door itself, exploding the wood around the hinges into splinters!

Click to shrink...

Ah, the Fighter's Lockpick. Classic technique. Good show.

The room beyond is… Decorated, if stone age barrow is your idea of decor. A man dressed in a smock and breaches sits on a stone chair, a strange maggot-like creature laying next to his right arm. His features remind me of Klarion in monster-mode, though his skin maintains the blue tint I remember from the witch-hunters. Long fingers splay out like crane fly legs across the ends of his seat's arm rests, his head is taller than it should be, the hair on top of it unnaturally solid. His eyes are human in proportion but compound, the pale blue clearly visible even in the low light.

Nigel clasps his hands to his chest, backing away from the entrance towards the corner of the room.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'd be a bit surprised too, after that entrance.

"You were not invited here."

"You're under arrest for offences relating to immigration violations and supervillainy. It may result in a more lenient punishment if you recall all of the Spine Riders and Mind Destroyers and set them to inactive."

"I could not, even if I wanted."

Click to shrink...

So, he's not able to control them. Yet he allows them to breed here? Foolish.

"Then I'm afraid that it's extradition back to Witch World. Do you know Beulah Bleak?"

"A quaestor, mayhap? A witch-hunter?"

"Got it in two. Last chance. Stand down or be stood down."

Click to shrink...

Methinks the good warlock does not grasp the full magnitude of his opposition...

"Know you then the name of my master?"

"There are a few possible candidates, but I'm going to guess that you've sworn yourself to Melmoth. She called witch-men like you 'warlocks', because you broke the oath not to use the fey parts of your magic."

Click to shrink...

Yep, this guy has no idea what he's in for...

"A foolish commandment. As well to tell us to cut out our own eyes."

"Which I see that you've done."

"A side effect of this foolish curse." He shifts his weight slightly. "Know you then the name of the foe against which King Melmoth would lead us?"

Click to shrink...

Love how Bugeyes' acting like he's in charge here. Not very quick on the uptake is he?

"The sheeda. His people, who ravage the past to sustain themselves."

"Then why do you interfere? The time of their assault draws near, and the King applies the whole of his cunning into building weapons with which we may fight them."

Click to shrink...

Oh, if he only knew...

"If that were true then he'd have introduced himself openly to the local superheroes. Or governments."

"Bah!"

"Fine. Explain youself in Belle Reve."

Click to shrink...

Cue resisting arrest.

I take suppression chains out of subspace and advance-.

His maggot hurls itself at my face!

Click to shrink...

Ha! Sneak attacks only work if the target isn't expecting them!

This guy really has no idea what he's about to experience, isn't he? I foresee a total villianous breakdown as OL counters everything. And it'd be no less than he deserves...

 

[Ganurath]

Okayyyy...I am really curious for the explanation why setting Mindkillers on random people helps with building weapons. Unless they were testing countermeasures on the vctims?

Click to shrink...

It sounds like the warlock was trying to convince Nigel that all of humanity was horrible, to turn him into a weapon.

 

[Queshire]

Presumably they don't have a choice about the mind killers. Like was previously explained; 1)The Mind Killers were there because of traces of Melmoth having once been there. Probably due to this guy. 2) Not finding anything on their priority target they fell back to their base programing which was to infect any group of seven.

So, they're here because of the weapons program, not as part of the weapons program.

 

[thebishop8]

If there's one thing one thing I've learned in this job,

Click to shrink...

You repeated "one thing" here.

 

[Hell's Razer]

Mr Zoat, permission to sig this?

"Oh, you don't put any faith into that silly 'irreconcilability of magic and science' business, do you? Science isn't machinery, it's a wonderful process of examining, theorising and testing."

Click to shrink...

 

[theaceoffire]

Aren't maggots like... an inch long or less?

Not much of an attack.

 

[Stsword]

Aren't maggots like... an inch long or less?

Not much of an attack.

Click to shrink...

You're thinking of insect larva.

Sheeda maggots are big enough to shop at the child's section of a clothing store. Since Sheeda maggots grow into Sheeda...

Spoiler

 

[DrThoth]

$50,000

Click to shrink...

The fact that Paragon is probably one of the richest people on Earth (and I don't think he particularly hides that fact) comes up surprisingly little; I'd expect the uber-rich of Earth or the governments of minor or weaker countries, at the very least, to have been constantly be clamoring for his attention almost ever since he went public.

The whole denseness when first encountering Nigel is just exasperating, a bit reminiscent of when Olympia showed up. It's funny in the moment but it's happened so many times when you'd expect a greater appreciation for what is functionally the law of narrative causality at this point (I'm perfectly fine with him being romantically dense since those situations are less potentially threatening and also generally less interesting to me; I'm self-aware enough of my wishful thinking for the Mother of Mercy-illusory polyamorous relationship to become reality down the line).

 

[TheMidnightRook]

voluntarily world with their universally reviled grandfather

Click to shrink...

Voluntarily world-travel? Or something? Considering world isn't a verb I'm having a little trouble working out what exactly is meant by this bit.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Correction: 'voluntarily work with'

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

Mr Zoat, permission to sig this?

Click to shrink...

Sure.

Edit: Ugh. I usually jokingly refuse permission when someone asks something like that. Just completely forgot this time.

 

[DrThoth]

Mr Zoat, permission to sig this?

Click to shrink...

It's definitely a great quote that echoes both Paragon's (and Renegade's) view of the common magic-science conflict; I don't think it's the case here but the notion in some comics continuity of the Starheart being the magic of the universe that the Oans gathered and disposed of so that logic and science could assert themselves in the universe was always very irritating to me. Paragon-Kid Flash has his anti-magic skepticism anymore but it would have been fun to see the old him's reaction to one of the premier super-scientists in the world saying this.

 

[Buggy123]

It's definitely a great quote that echoes both Paragon's (and Renegade's) view of the common magic-science conflict; I don't think it's the case here but the notion in some comics continuity of the Starheart being the magic of the universe that the Oans gathered and disposed of so that logic and science could assert themselves in the universe was always very irritating to me. Paragon-Kid Flash has his anti-magic skepticism anymore but it would have been fun to see the old him's reaction to one of the premier super-scientists in the world saying this.

Click to shrink...

There are huge differences between magic and science AKA physics, though. The biggest is that magic is anthropocentric, and science isn't. In other words, magic is centered and defined in human terms, and physics aren't at all.

This means that you can use magic to do human-relevant things by doing other, appropriate human-relevant things. Being more determined can make some types of magic stronger. Life and good and evil are far more important to magic than, say, hydrogen and photons. Whereas a toaster doesn't care the slightest bit how you feel when you use it, and has no concept of good or evil.


This can be a good thing, on one hand, because humans generally think that human-relevant things are necessary to do other human-relevant things and prefer it that way.

But on the other hand, it can be a bad thing. Technology being completely divorced from human concepts mean that, once it's understood well enough, you can do stuff with it that would be mind-bogglingly difficult to do with magic. Achieving immortality with magic generally requires something like sucking the life out of orphaned kittens or something, because it's a very significant human-relevant thing. Achieving immortality with science requires figuring out a bunch of stuff once, and then once you do, you pretty much just mix a few vials together.

And science scales exponentially, while human-relevantness is pretty static. In ye olden days, a lot of people would think that you'd have to sell half of your soul to get safe food and a warm bed, and magic would gladly oblige. Nowadays that's considered a bare-minimum standard for a huge portion of the world. And long-term predictions of the future of science often involve phrases like 'stellar enclosures', 'million-year lifespans', and 'Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism'.

And who knows how much determination you'd need to muster up to get any of that with magic?

 

[Simonbob]

There are huge differences between magic and science AKA physics, though. The biggest is that magic is anthropocentric, and science isn't. In other words, magic is centered and defined in human terms, and physics aren't at all.

Click to shrink...

Science is a process.

In a very real sense, science is one thing. Finding out what is real.

In DC, Magic is real. So, you can Science it.


It's just that simple.



Physics is not science. Physics was found through science, and we use it, because it's awesome, but it's not even close to the same thing.

 

[Buggy123]

Science is a process.

In a very real sense, science is one thing. Finding out what is real.

In DC, Magic is real. So, you can Science it.


It's just that simple.



Physics is not science. Physics was found through science, and we use it, because it's awesome, but it's not even close to the same thing.

Click to shrink...

Ehh, yes and no. Science is a process, but it's interchangable with 'physics' and 'engineering' in common vernacular. And it deals mostly with physics at some level of abstraction.


The problem with Science-ing the shit out of magic is that magic really doesn't seem to want to be Scienced. I honestly can't tell if the wild and all-over-the-place depiction of magic in DC is because it's magic or because it's DC.

But I see little in the way of rules overall. Within a type of magic, maybe, but there are countless types of magic each with their own arbitrary rules, especially rules which seem to violate what are apparently core limitations of other types of magic. And some of magic is sentient, and it hates being scienced. The book of destiny seems to be a eternal curse on literally the entire DC universe, forcing it to stay a ridiculous comic book universe where the only science you'll get is mad. And not to mention that one of the larger sources of deity-based magic was steathily ruled by someone who avowedly sought to maintain that status quo.

 

[Stsword]

The problem with Science-ing the shit out of magic is that magic really doesn't seem to want to be Scienced. I honestly can't tell if the wild and all-over-the-place depiction of magic in DC is because it's magic or because it's DC.

Click to shrink...

In one Vertigo title they literally spelled it out- Magic is religion. Every spell is a prayer.

Magic requires energy.

Faith provides energy.

Which means, to a certain extent, magic works because people believe it works.

And provides a reason for why religion and magic have been intertwined so much in human history, which DC acknowledges.

Dr Fate calls upon the Egyptian gods. Wotan was taught by a shaman. Wizard was taught by a Buddhist priest in Tibet. Houngan uses Voodoo, as his nom de guirre implies. Ramban uses Kabbalah.

Naturally, something being faith based is going to be an issue when applying the scientific process, which requires replication and in which bias is a bad thing.

Barring another source of power like being genetically gifted (nephilim, cambion, homo magus, demigod, changeling, etc) or a place of power, magical relic, or whatever, a typical scientist isn't going to be able to cast a spell unless they had faith that they can cast the spell. So only the biased will be able to duplicate the spell.

Now if a Gifted scientist tried it, it would be far more successful. Levi, in addition to being a pioneer in techno-alchemy, self-publishes an ezine about it.

 

[Aeess]

In one Vertigo title they literally spelled it out- Magic is religion. Every spell is a prayer.

Magic requires energy.

Faith provides energy.

Which means, to a certain extent, magic works because people believe it works.

And provides a reason for why religion and magic have been intertwined so much in human history, which DC acknowledges.

Dr Fate calls upon the Egyptian gods. Wotan was taught by a shaman. Wizard was taught by a Buddhist priest in Tibet. Houngan uses Voodoo, as his nom de guirre implies. Ramban uses Kabbalah.

Naturally, something being faith based is going to be an issue when applying the scientific process, which requires replication and in which bias is a bad thing.

Barring another source of power like being genetically gifted (nephilim, cambion, homo magus, demigod, changeling, etc) or a place of power, magical relic, or whatever, a typical scientist isn't going to be able to cast a spell unless they had faith that they can cast the spell. So only the biased will be able to duplicate the spell.

Now if a Gifted scientist tried it, it would be far more successful. Levi, in addition to being a pioneer in techno-alchemy, self-publishes an ezine about it.

Click to shrink...

I mean even in Young Justice Kent Nelson outright said that Wally is an improper host for Nabu, because hes aligned to science not Sorcery.

 

[DrThoth]

Just to clarify, do the Sheeda have any connection to the Sidhe or Faerie? Or are the forbidden 'fey-based' aspects of Witch Worlders' magic just an inexact description? Before the most recent updates I was under the impression that the Sheeda didn't use magic at all. Is it just that everything magical about the ones in the town stems from the renegade Witch Worlder?

Thinking about all the disparate magic traditions reminded me of the Thanagar episode, which prompts me to ask, will the Renegade visit and interact with the government or the cult(s) at some point?

 

[Stsword]

Just to clarify, do the Sheeda have any connection to the Sidhe or Faerie? Or are the forbidden 'fey-based' aspects of Witch Worlders' magic just an inexact description? Before the most recent updates I was under the impression that the Sheeda didn't use magic at all. Is it just that everything magical about the ones in the town stems from the renegade Witch Worlder?

Thinking about all the disparate magic traditions reminded me of the Thanagar episode, which prompts me to ask, will the Renegade visit and interact with the government or the cult(s) at some point?

Click to shrink...

That depends on what you mean by connection.

The Queen of the Sheeda is the Wicked Queen, her stepdaughter is Snow White, Qwewq the Nebula Man is the Huntsman.

Or rather, they are a Wicked Queen, a Snow White, and a Huntsman.

Stories replay given enough time. Camelot has risen and fallen multiple times- DC has a Shining Knight from Camelot who is Sir Ystina of 8000 BC, and a Sir Justin from Camelot from the 6th century AD.

Being time travelers from the future, Sheeda can both be inspired by the myths of faerie, and have contributed to those stories arising in the first place.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th February
12:22 GMT -6

My construct net briefly slows it, but the witch man gestures and the construct evaporates. I use my armour's flight systems to dart sideways and evade it but fortunately Dr Sivana is there, an appendage which looks disconcertingly like a butterfly net briefly surrounding it before a force field bubble forms to contain it. It squelches against the bubble's interior, then slightly extends its disturbingly wide mouth and tries biting at it.

For a moment I consider mocking the effort, but then I remember that I'm a professional with a job to do.

The witch man gets to his feet, the purple-glowing fingers of his right hand intercepting a grabbing arm construct and reducing it to orange smoke. The filament I sent after him at the same time tags his right boot but immediately meets the same fate. Alright, we're doing this the harder-.

Rock bulges and breaks as more maggots squirm their way free from the floor, walls and ceiling…

And I'm underwhelmed. Or, sure, these things are probably nasty, but…

I raise my right foot and stomp, the head of the maggot I've targeted bursting apart in a spurt of yellowy green ichor. I don't think there is any bone in there, though I'll leave the autopsy to Dr Sivana. One attempts to drop on me from above but a slap from my left hand is more than enough to smash it aside.

Railgun, mage slayer, target the witch man. Right arm.

Compliance.

Dr Sivana's mech frame fires an electrolaser at him as my construct gun forms, burning through his smock and revealing the carapace-like armour underneath. Then a maggot lands on it from above and bites into the mechanism, the force field shimmering for a moment and then buckling and failing. He shifts position, coming fully into the room and using his weapons to clear the maggots off his frame before they bite into something important.

He can handle himself. Fire.

The railgun round launches at the witch man with a small flare of plasma, im.. pacting at a fraction of the force it should have against his upper right arm. He winces faintly in pain, then wiggles his fingers.

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

Okay, not sure what happened there. Solid shot, increased power, continuous fire.

Compliance.

The first shot causes him to jerk his arm back, the purple fires now expanding to cover his entire body. The second I direct at his chest, and it hits hard enough to make him stagger back a pace as he waves his left hand and destroys my railgun construct with a flare of purple. A maggot lands on my faceplate and I grab it before it can try digging in with its teeth and hurl it at him as the third railgun shot hits home. The railgun round causes him to stagger back again, the backs of his legs bumping into his chair. The maggot-.

The flames go out where the maggot hits him, then it starts to fall-.

I shoot the maggot, its internal fluids spraying out across him and causing his spell to weaken and fail.

Then I shoot his right arm again and this time the shot strikes at full power. For a fraction of a second there's a clear hole through his flesh and bone, then he jerks again as his blood begins to pour out. Another shot repeats the process with his left, leaving them both hanging limply at his sides.

"Yield."

Beryl's ducking and weaving around Sivana's mech frame, luring the lunging maggots into its fields of fire. I fire three solid rounds, each shooting a maggot squirming after her through the face and pulverising them.

"NYREGH!"

Purple light spills outward, rocks crumbling, the chemicals in the air decaying as he somehow pulls energy into himself! Through the guttering purple flame I see the flesh of his face become.. slightly translucent, blood vessels and bones becoming easier to see. His eyes glow brilliantly-.

I use a construct scoop to throw the remains of the maggot-corpses littering the floor at him and then shoot him in the throat!

He collapses back into his chair, air wheezing through the hole in his oesophagus as his purple lights go out.

Nigel has collapsed to the floor gasping for breath. I extend a filament to him, giving him an environmental shield while checking him over for injuries. Some damage to his lungs from trying to breathe what was briefly a non-Earth atmosphere, but nothing serious. The maggots appear to have been avoiding him, probably directed away by his telepathic abilities. I take a few steps closer as Dr Sivana's frame finishes off the remaining maggots.

"That was invigorating."

His samplers deploy once more from their housing, jabbing into maggot corpses and scraping up samples of goo. I walk towards Nigel and Beryl checks her goo-covered costume for a moment before deciding that it isn't worth attempting to clean it.

"Nigel? You with us?"

He looks up, nodding a little frantically. He's never seen a serious fight before, and I doubt that the fact that he can't read my mind is making this easier for him.

I can have a talk with him later.

"Squire, escort Nigel outside."

"Er, yeah."

She moves to take possession of him while I walk over to the witch man. He's still desperately gasping for air, his arms limp at his sides and… He does not look well, and not just from the blood loss. That last spell did something to him.

I take another set of suppression chains out of subspace and clamp them in place before patching his oesophagus with a construct. He gasps as his lungs suddenly regain access to air, and I send a filament inside him to patch up some of the internal damage.

"That construct is keeping you breathing. If you disrupt my construct, you will finish suffocating. Do you understand me?"

A weak nod. A bit impressive that he's still conscious, given the amount of blood he's lost. I fabricate a small device to allow blood flow to resume without allowing him to regain any strength or motion. Right, immediate medical attention applied.

"Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. Do you understand? Just nod."

Another weak nod.

"Orange Lantern to Tempest. Status."

"We've gotten most of them, but the ones which have landed on people are going into hiding."

"We're finished here. We'll come and help you hunt them down shortly." I turn-.

Dr Sivana is right behind me.

"Doctor?"

"Are you taking him back to my laboratory, or shall I do it? If you're going to be busy I'm confident that my rocket-plane can still bear the load. I've signalled my Sivanadroids to come here-."

"Doctor, I'm sorry, but as long as you're a wanted man it's only possible for me to cooperate to a certain degree."

He scowls. "Why on Earth is that?"

"Because while you and I know that the sheeda are coming, most people would want a clear and present danger before they would tolerate me working with someone with your reputation and history. Beryl and I are heading into Kennedy with Nigel and our prisoner, and while I will share our discoveries with you just leaving him here isn't on the cards."

He leans back slightly.

"I… Grudgingly concede your point. Your contacts are far too valuable to burn over one living specimen. Would it be-?"

"Tissue samples are fine, body parts aren't, you've got twenty seconds."

 

[RichardWhereat]

Aww, its not like he needs arms or legs to stand trial. The courts surely won't begrudge you a flesh wound.

 

[Ganurath]

Aww, its not like he needs arms or legs to stand trial. The courts surely won't begrudge you a flesh wound.

Click to shrink...

With the laws he pushed through to protect nonhumans? They'll totally begrudge him.