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

[Darko]

No, the wings are why he has any memories at all

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That's just more worrying.

I remember that after that whole Crisis of Infinite Pauls thing, Lan was shown to have apparently gone to Apokalips where he rescued a little girl.

I'm wondering if during his time there, Darkseid was able to implant the Anti-Life into him.

 

[Lord Ernest]

From what I remember, Angel Paul had been sent to the DCEU, since his original debut happened in Suicide Squad 2016.

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I... don't think that's true? If I recall, Angel SI first appeared as part of Task Force X in the Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay movie, which is part of the DC Animated Movie Universe.

That universe started with the Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox movie, in 2013. It was a whole thing, with an overall Darkseid plot that ended with Flash having to reset the universe in Justice League Dark: Apokokips War in 2020, because essentially the heroes had lost and a lot of people had even been turned into evil cyborgs working for Darkseid, I think? My memory is spotty on the movie itself.

My working theory is that this Angel SI got reset due to Flash's shenanigans, same as everyone else, but the presence of the wings affected his reset. Now he's an "angel", doesn't recall he's an SI but still has some of his memories, from before he came to this universe and from before the reset. I might be wrong, of course, but it's what makes sense to me.

 

[Wheenesss]

I... don't think that's true? If I recall, Angel SI first appeared as part of Task Force X in the Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay movie, which is part of the DC Animated Movie Universe.

That universe started with the Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox movie, in 2013. It was a whole thing, with an overall Darkseid plot that ended with Flash having to reset the universe in Justice League Dark: Apokokips War in 2020, because essentially the heroes had lost and a lot of people had even been turned into evil cyborgs working for Darkseid, I think? My memory is spotty on the movie itself.

My working theory is that this Angel SI got reset due to Flash's shenanigans, same as everyone else, but the presence of the wings affected his reset. Now he's an "angel", doesn't recall he's an SI but still has some of his memories, from before he came to this universe and from before the reset. I might be wrong, of course, but it's what makes sense to me.

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Op. Yeah you're right. Looking back on that snippet it was that movie, because they talk about the 'Get Out Of Hell Free' card. My mistake. Although as you said reality got reset by The Flash's shenanigans. However that shouldn't have resulted in Gunn's Creature Commandos?

The DCAMU became the Tomorrowverse, which itself died in an adaptation of Crisis On Infinite Earths. A new universe was born as a result, but we have no idea what that new universe looks like.

 

[Lord Ernest]

Op. Yeah you're right. Looking back on that snippet it was that movie, because they talk about the 'Get Out Of Hell Free' card. My mistake. Although as you said reality got reset by The Flash's shenanigans. However that shouldn't have resulted in Gunn's Creature Commandos?

The DCAMU became the Tomorrowverse, which itself died in an adaptation of Crisis On Infinite Earths. A new universe was born as a result, but we have no idea what that new universe looks like.

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I didn't follow the movies after Apokolips War, so I can't really comment. I was interested in the Crisis On Infinite Earths but didn't manage to get them. If that continuity got destroyed or reshuffled maybe it counts as the previous incarnation of James Gunn's new thing?

 

[Mr Zoat]

@itsnatatumah
You know what you did.

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Though in answer to your question, it's because at this point in history he likes what Games Workshop is doing. A certain company didn't become a shareholder in GW until 2023, whereas Kraft were trying to buy it right there and then.

 

[Doccer]

There's also the fact that Circe hired a group of incels to wage war instead of assassins to kill the one in charge. Or disguise herself as a maid or knight and kill her via poison or something.
There is also the question of where she got that armor and it's laser gauntlet.
As well as why the armor folded like paper mache against the incels guns but could apparently take on the US and the Justice League.

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th May 2013
13:33 GMT -5

"I can't help but find this a bit weird."

I hear Richard snort over the radio. "Gotham doesn't only exist at night, you know."

Nothing in here aside from some shelving. Back outside…

"No, I mean, you not being out in the field with me."

"Why? You worried?"

"No, no… It just seems like something you'd want to do."

"I would, but… With everything that's happened with Batman… I get it. What you said about efficiency. It didn't really matter when the world was working, but if I can do more good telling other people where to go… I think that's what I need to do."

I carefully open the door of the next warehouse, tumblers rotating at my ring's direction.

"Heh."

"What?"

"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."

"That's not gunna happen. I still get out into Gotham. But some of us can't move at the speed of light. And… If I wanna help make the whole world a better place, I need to affect other places. I guess… I mean, this is what Batman's been doing."

"Are you just dodging your mother?"

The lock clanks open, and I use a pair of spreader constructs to open it fully.

…

"No?"

"Robin, it's perfectly normal to-."

"Yeah, I-. Already had this talk. But talking about it doesn't mean that you don't feel it. And she's…"

I think this facility used to do paint mixing? Some of the smaller machines have been removed, but the larger pieces are still here. I'm not sure if the owners just did a runner or if they were planning on opening it back up if the demand ever materialised.

"She's what?"

"I never really thought her relationship with Batman would work, you know? I get that she's attractive, and… Yeah, I've heard the jokes about who he dates. But she's the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. The head of an international assassin cult. And she was fine with all that. I never thought she'd actually switch sides for real."

I scan the interior, searching for-. Huh. It's amazing what you miss by over thinking things, but I did learn from Richard finding Richie Simpson before me or Wallace. Don't just scan for hidden spaces, look for power lines, patterns in the dust, an air current where the architectural plans say there shouldn't be one…

"I apologise. I didn't think it would get this far either. Found it."

I drift up and over the rim of one of the mixing vats. You wouldn't think that a supervillain would have the skills to hide a false bottom in one of these. It's basically a solid piece of steel with an arm for a mixing paddle. But…

I deploy a construct crumbler arm and a construct suction cup, applying the cup to the middle of the vat before crumbling a circle around it. And lift…

A small basement with an electronics workshop, bits and pieces of circuitry arrayed in… Places which presumably make sense to the person who put them there.

I notice that I've already deployed a construct electronic components rack and started sorting them properly, and-. And I stop, and set my ring to put them back where it found it.

"Confirming the presence of a workshop. And…" I take a closer look at one of the helmets on the desk. "What's either an Apokoliptian Justifier helmet, or a very close replica. No occupants discovered yet."

"I doubt that we'll get that lucky, but keep looking anyway."

"Will do."

Regular crime is way down. Even supervillains… With the economy toast, stealing just isn't an effective way to gather resources, not compared to being hired to do something productive. But rational arguments don't matter much when you're insane.

In theory, all examples of Apokoliptian technology should have been handed in. In practice… I understand someone who got stuck as a Justifier for a month wanted to keep their helmet. Just as a memento of something horrible which they survived. Something to show the grandchildren. So when we find someone who's done that without nefarious intent, we just take out the circuitry to render it permanently non-functional before handing it back.

Now, in theory, without a way to project Anti-Life, the helmets are pretty harmless. The only other source of Anti-Life I know about is Darkseid… And possibly Despair. And if either of them start messing around on Earth then we'll have bigger things to worry about than one guy in a helmet.

But.

Earth is weird. There are probably ways to project other things through the system. There are probably people other than New Gods who can modify them and use them for… Something untoward. So we need to find out who's playing around with them.

Checking the airflows again-.

"Mmmmpgh!"

"Found someone."

It's-. It's slotted into the floor. I guess… Someone built a slot with some sort of… Restraint frame built into it, which they can raise or lower at will. It-. I check the mechanism as best I can, but Apokoliptian technology disrupts ring scans and I'm reluctant to try anything else just in case it's booby trapped.

But okay. If it's something the site owner is working on, they're going to need to test it fairly regularly. The deployment system isn't going to be that complicated, because it would create a problem for them. The control to raise the prisoner compartment is a button on a box connected to the wall by a thick cable. I can just press it, but there's a hole for a key… And the key's attached to it by a piece of string, which is lazy…

Too lazy.

I send a filament into the key hole, checking for-. Yes, that's a detonator. Which matches the key on the string. So either there's another key here somewhere or they have it with them. Why did it have to be the one Gotham criminal who's actually good at electronics?

Look around, where could it be? If he was working at the bench there, he's shorter than me, so-.

A construct filament pulls out a key that was sellotaped to the underside of the bench. Check the pattern of the teeth… Looks like it should work. Alright, but set up constructs to detect electrical impulses and another to slam shield constructs down to protect the victim just in case. All in place? Okay, insert the right key and press the button…

The vertical… Tray, rises out of the floor, a man in a stained white t-shirt and boxer shorts handcuffed to the frame with… An ersatz claymore strapped to his side and a ball gag in his mouth. I put a safe construct around the mine as the man manages to focus on me and realises that I'm not his captor.

"Mruh?"

"I'm here to rescue you. Please indicate any traps that I haven't noticed as quickly as possible."

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

27th May 2013
13:33 GMT -5

"I can't help but find this a bit weird."

I hear Richard snort over the radio. "Gotham doesn't only exist at night, you know."

Click to shrink...

Though it probably looks a lot less fancy in the daytime. All that gothic architecture probably doesn't have the same atmosphere when it's in full sunlight, rather than the glow of the streetlights below...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Nothing in here aside from some shelving. Back outside…

"No, I mean, you not being out in the field with me."

Click to shrink...

Huh, playing 'guy in the chair', is he? what are, they going to start calling him Oracle soon?

"Why? You worried?"

"No, no… It just seems like something you'd want to do."

Click to shrink...

And, to be fair, his powerset is very useful in the field. Especially after his Dannering.

"I would, but… With everything that's happened with Batman… I get it. What you said about efficiency. It didn't really matter when the world was working, but if I can do more good telling other people where to go… I think that's what I need to do."

I carefully open the door of the next warehouse, tumblers rotating at my ring's direction.

Click to shrink...

So he's serving the same role for the junior operatives? Respectable enough.

"Heh."

"What?"

"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."

Click to shrink...

Eh, with his metabolism, they'd have to be big snacks. Danner enhanciles do need more calories to stay healthy. I have to wonder if he's been eating enough these days?

"That's not gunna happen. I still get out into Gotham. But some of us can't move at the speed of light. And… If I wanna help make the whole world a better place, I need to affect other places. I guess… I mean, this is what Batman's been doing."

"Are you just dodging your mother?"

Click to shrink...

Heh. Cutting right to the heart of the matter, eh?

The lock clanks open, and I use a pair of spreader constructs to open it fully.

…

"No?"

Click to shrink...

Don't sound all that sure of yourself, Robby.

"Robin, it's perfectly normal to-."

"Yeah, I-. Already had this talk. But talking about it doesn't mean that you don't feel it. And she's…"

Click to shrink...

Still feeling suspicious of her, after all this time?

I think this facility used to do paint mixing? Some of the smaller machines have been removed, but the larger pieces are still here. I'm not sure if the owners just did a runner or if they were planning on opening it back up if the demand ever materialised.

"She's what?"

Click to shrink...

Heck, some of the parts may well have been looted by someone or other. Industrial mixers have some strong motors.

"I never really thought her relationship with Batman would work, you know? I get that she's attractive, and… Yeah, I've heard the jokes about who he dates. But she's the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. The head of an international assassin cult. And she was fine with all that. I never thought she'd actually switch sides for real."

Click to shrink...

Would you prefer Catwoman? Bruce isn't a monk, he does have needs, even if he mostly subsumed them into his work.

I scan the interior, searching for-. Huh. It's amazing what you miss by over thinking things, but I did learn from Richard finding Richie Simpson before me or Wallace. Don't just scan for hidden spaces, look for power lines, patterns in the dust, an air current where the architectural plans say there shouldn't be one…

Click to shrink...

Those warding spells proving an annoyance even now. Or apokaliptian technology, which is more likely if they're looking for Anarky.

"I apologise. I didn't think it would get this far either. Found it."

I drift up and over the rim of one of the mixing vats. You wouldn't think that a supervillain would have the skills to hide a false bottom in one of these. It's basically a solid piece of steel with an arm for a mixing paddle. But…

Click to shrink...

Now that's an impressive piece of work. I suppose he figured if it's disused...

I deploy a construct crumbler arm and a construct suction cup, applying the cup to the middle of the vat before crumbling a circle around it. And lift…

A small basement with an electronics workshop, bits and pieces of circuitry arrayed in… Places which presumably make sense to the person who put them there.

Click to shrink...

And that probably looks like an explosion in an electronics store to most people, I bet.

I notice that I've already deployed a construct electronic components rack and started sorting them properly, and-. And I stop, and set my ring to put them back where it found it.

"Confirming the presence of a workshop. And…" I take a closer look at one of the helmets on the desk. "What's either an Apokoliptian Justifier helmet, or a very close replica. No occupants discovered yet."

Click to shrink...

Worrying. I wonder if they were taking bits out, putting bits in, or both?

"I doubt that we'll get that lucky, but keep looking anyway."

"Will do."

Click to shrink...

I'm guessing Lonnie has been making these boltholes all over the place, using hacked Zeta Tube access?

Regular crime is way down. Even supervillains… With the economy toast, stealing just isn't an effective way to gather resources, not compared to being hired to do something productive. But rational arguments don't matter much when you're insane.

Click to shrink...

And they probably end up back in jail quickly.

In theory, all examples of Apokoliptian technology should have been handed in. In practice… I understand someone who got stuck as a Justifier for a month wanted to keep their helmet. Just as a memento of something horrible which they survived. Something to show the grandchildren. So when we find someone who's done that without nefarious intent, we just take out the circuitry to render it permanently non-functional before handing it back.

Click to shrink...

That would be a morbid-as-hell momento, but a rad one.

Now, in theory, without a way to project Anti-Life, the helmets are pretty harmless. The only other source of Anti-Life I know about is Darkseid… And possibly Despair. And if either of them start messing around on Earth then we'll have bigger things to worry about than one guy in a helmet.

Click to shrink...

Damn straight...

But.

Earth is weird. There are probably ways to project other things through the system. There are probably people other than New Gods who can modify them and use them for… Something untoward. So we need to find out who's playing around with them.

Click to shrink...

I suspect Lonnie has been doing just that. Learning how they're put together, and working out how to modify them...

Checking the airflows again-.

"Mmmmpgh!"

"Found someone."

Click to shrink...

Hopefully in decent shape. I wonder how long ago Lonnie was here?

It's-. It's slotted into the floor. I guess… Someone built a slot with some sort of… Restraint frame built into it, which they can raise or lower at will. It-. I check the mechanism as best I can, but Apokoliptian technology disrupts ring scans and I'm reluctant to try anything else just in case it's booby trapped.

Click to shrink...

Logical, really. What's a foot or two out of the floor when you've already dug underground? And as long as you don't interfere with underground lines...

But okay. If it's something the site owner is working on, they're going to need to test it fairly regularly. The deployment system isn't going to be that complicated, because it would create a problem for them. The control to raise the prisoner compartment is a button on a box connected to the wall by a thick cable. I can just press it, but there's a hole for a key… And the key's attached to it by a piece of string, which is lazy…

Click to shrink...

To borrow a line: "That's bait." Presumably he's hoping whoever found this would be dumb enough to take things at face value. Too bad they got OL.

Too lazy.

I send a filament into the key hole, checking for-. Yes, that's a detonator. Which matches the key on the string. So either there's another key here somewhere or they have it with them. Why did it have to be the one Gotham criminal who's actually good at electronics?

Click to shrink...

On the upside, now that you've found it, it's child's play to disarm, or simply remove the explosives by tracing the wiring.

Look around, where could it be? If he was working at the bench there, he's shorter than me, so-.

A construct filament pulls out a key that was sellotaped to the underside of the bench. Check the pattern of the teeth… Looks like it should work. Alright, but set up constructs to detect electrical impulses and another to slam shield constructs down to protect the victim just in case. All in place? Okay, insert the right key and press the button…

Click to shrink...

Man, tricksy little brat. And paranoid.

The vertical… Tray, rises out of the floor, a man in a stained white t-shirt and boxer shorts handcuffed to the frame with… An ersatz claymore strapped to his side and a ball gag in his mouth. I put a safe construct around the mine as the man manages to focus on me and realises that I'm not his captor.

Click to shrink...

I'd ask where he got a claymore, but slipping into a military armoury is probably not difficult for Lonnie at this point.

"Mruh?"

"I'm here to rescue you. Please indicate any traps that I haven't noticed as quickly as possible."

Click to shrink...

Of course, that's hoping that he'd know of any. Still, easy enough to ask.

So, the hunt for Anarky continues, I see. And amusingly, reinforces the logic of the title. Lonnie is fleeing and hiding from the authorities... The Man. Why do I get the feeling that if they don't find him soon, he'll do something really troublesome, like a super-terrorist attack on a government site? In which case, the sooner they find him the better.

 

[Darko]

"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."

"That's not gunna happen

Click to shrink...

Even if he does eat like that, his Danner biology may be able to prevent him becoming fat.

 

[Duke Long]

**Then-** Her forms shifts once again, from sharkwoman to star conqueror. **-I'm fairly confident.**

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'form'

Send ship status and… Short term directive: repair ship, long term direction: repair Federation.

Ave, Lanterna.

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'long term directive:'?

Robert and Zatanna wince, and-

"There's more of them!"

-the illusions sheltering us drops. But at least we know where we're going.

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'illusion'
or
'drop'?

"Tfel!"

-narrowly miss us as they go flying passed us and into the pursuing soldiers, forcing them to evade. The initial pressure wave having died down I dismiss the anchors and power onwards.

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'past us'

"We got attacked by a blood mage earlier, who could leach our abilities by biting things. He didn't resist the mind control, so-."

"Reves noitcennoc!"

"Thank you. It-." She looks nervous. "What?"

Click to shrink...

'leech'?

Ah! Indirect, that's clever. Doesn't help me because my tattoos mean that the spell can't find me, but it should help everyone else. I expand my filament into an insulated cable and pour electricity into it. Not a good attack in salt water, but it it's only conducting where he's bitten into it-.

AAAGH-my leg!

Click to shrink...

'if it's'?

Keep working on the darkness, try-. Binding the ones who are already bleeding, and… Expend my awareness further, becauZ-Z-Z-Z-!

Because my leg's gone again and my constructs just weakened and a couple of sharks just bit through their chains and I don't know if they're lower level magicians or if my main target did that for them.

Click to shrink...

'Expand'?

Ah. Okay. Giant rectangular construct, to suck the sand out of the water as it moves through. Another large construct, keeping more to be drawn from the sea floor. Expanded awareness, and-.

Click to shrink...

'keeping more from being'?

I'm wearing a tau empire gue'la space suit, lightly armoured and unarmed aside from the ring. Mr. UR-025 came as he was, his right fist scratching off the remains of what the discoloured patch on his chassis suggests was a Mechanicus skull-cog. His left arm mounts a rotary cannon of some sort. Looks a little chunkier than a modern assault cannon, particularly from this angle, but it's nothing that my construct barriers can't survive.

Click to shrink...

'Tau Empire' for consistency.

"Do not call me human technology. I am a free being."

"I don't mean it as in property. You're an intelligent being in your own right. I understand and respect that. The… Re-emergence of serfdom is one of the… Many things I don't like about the Imperium."

Click to shrink...

Another possibility is that he might've been designed by another AI. I imagine they were better designers than most humans, though the gap might be closed by help from the 'Omnissiah', if you're going with that.

"Popular fiction is not why I feel the way I do about your species. Though my archival record indicate that I disliked that episode when I watched it."

"So you don't have it stored on you?"

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'indicates'?