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

Chojin Patriarch · 2025-07-27T07:34:01+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Common Sense (part 18)

2nd October 2010
14:53 GMT -5

"…very kind of you, Detective." I make an amused exhalation. "I'm not a big drinker -because if you've seen what someone drunk in charge of a car can do, imagine what someone drunk in charge of a power ring can do- but if I'm in the area I'll certainly take you up on that. Thank you."

...Is that you, Harvey?

Did he call in to say that if he ever met OL, he'd happily buy him a drink for dealign with the Joker? But regardless, That's a very good point about a drunk Lantern. Never mind other powersets and hardware...

"No, thank you."

There's a click as the caller hangs up. It's not really surprising that the Gotham Police Department are very happy with me right now, even if enthusiasm from their senior officers is considerably more muted. I don't think City Hall has released a statement yet, but I… Can't honestly say that I've been paying them much attention.

I suspect the men at the top, Commisioner Gordon and the like, are keeping any happiness to themselves, and putting on a stern face for the media. Don't want to encourage people going after capes and freaks on their own...

Leslie looks curious. "So what does happen if you get drunk?"

"Uuh. Well… Alright, power rings are empathic tools. You need to be thinking the right sort of thoughts to use them well. Green power rings require the person using them to concentrate on the shape they're trying to create. If their focus is good, it's stronger than steel. If they get distracted, it's as strong as jelly."

And I suspect getting drunk would make it quite hard to manage that level of focus.

"So if they're drunk, they can't focus."

"Not.. usually. Not on anything complicated."

"So what's the difference between green and orange?"

Wonder if this line of conversation will bring people to think about what other colours there might be. Yellow is kind of known, because Sinestro, right? Violet (or 'Pink' in the public belief) because of Star Sapphire...

"Rather than focusing on the object, I have to focus on… How much I want to achieve the thing I'm.. working towards. Last time I got drunk I mostly just wanted to crawl into bed, but there's a chance I could end up doing full-powered free-associating without any sense of restraint, and… That would be bad."

And all it would take is a slight annoyance at being drunk and he'd be sober instantly.

She frowns. "Can't you just take it off?"

"Sure. Would you?"

...Yeah, if you had a Power Ring, would you not be wearing it all the time? Even if you knew it had bad drawbacks like avarice overload...

That hits her, causing her to sit back for a moment. She opens her mouth to answer, then closes it again with a frown. Then her eyes light up.

"You got a second one of those?"

Also a question most people would probably ask if they could.

"Ah… There are others. Unfortunately, they're on a planet called Okaara, and while that's not too far away from here as these things go, they're also guarded by an army of ghost Lanterns and the second most dangerous being in this galaxy. So it's… Not really practical."

"Ah, damn it!" She chuckles quietly. "Guess that's me out of luck."

What's more dangerous than Larfleeze? Darkseid? At any rate, I doubt most people would hear that and go 'I can take them'. Those that would and could get there? Well, they get to join the army...

"I had to borrow a charger just to keep using it. Tech support for power rings is terrible."

"Okay, that's my dreams of galactic domination crushed. Next caller is… Gretchen from Coventry. You're on, Gretchen."

Eh, it'd be too much hassle anyway. you think the paperwork for world conquest is bad? Try the paperwork for conquering a galaxy.

"Hey, Orange Lantern?"

"Hello Gretchen. What do you want to know?"

"At the start… Ah, I watched the recording, and.. right at the start, you dropped some missiles?"

Wow, he put all that in there? So, what's the likelihood people are asking what happened with Black Adam or what?

I nod. "Taiwanese Brave Wind anti-ship missiles."

"So they weren't… They weren't something you made with your ring? They were actual missiles?"

And now some folks will be wondering where he got Taiwanese missiles from...

"While I could make missiles -actual physical missiles- with my ring, in this case I had them left over from a mission in Taiwan. Construct missiles are a bit pointless for me, because they don't have any actual explosives in them. It's all construct. For a Green Lantern, using a familiar shape like that makes it easier to focus, but I use either orange energy pulses because they're.. simple and easy, or a construct railgun which I use to shoot physical projectiles."

That's why guys like Hal use stuff like boxing gloves. simple shape, they're boxing fans so they know the shape well... A rookie Lantern would be well served by a basic knowledge of geometry, using the equivalent of children's blocks when they start off.

"Do you have a.. lot of missiles?"

"No, that's it. I'm completely out, and I'd like to thank the Taiwanese government for not asking where they went after that thing in September. Ah, is there something you're working up to asking me about them?"

"Sept-? Oh, the peace conference attack, right. Ah, sorry, yeah, I was wondering… How much missiles, and… Weapons in general do superheroes have?"

I mean, if it went down similar to the Paragon timeline, and he caught them moments from impact, they might have assumed he disintegrated them or something.

"Ah… Well, I've got a few thousand slugs for my railgun constructs; solid, incendiary, and… A few other things. Ah, I've got a couple of handguns as holdout weapons, they're pretty conventional. Most superheroes I know about don't have a huge arsenal, because… Not blowing my own trumpet here, but unless it's a tactical nuclear device or something, I'm almost always better off just using the ring. With the Injustice League I dropped missiles because they'd be harder to spot, but I could have done something very similar with a big rock. Even a neophyte Lantern like me could… Destroy, say, a city, in a few minutes with a little preparation. Other high-power superheroes are in a similar position; guns just aren't worth it, and larger ordnance is a distraction. So if you weren't worried about me having the ring, there's no point worrying about me having anything else."

Not particularly reassuring anyone there. 'Yes, anyone who's worn a Ring for a few minutes could level a city if they're clever about it.'

"Uh. Uh. I… Uh, I guess that makes sense. Ah… Thanks."

There's another click as the call ends. Leslie frowns at me. "What was that about Taiwan?"

I get the feeling she wasn't exactly happy to hear about all that.

"Oh, I got called in to help with the security at a North Rhelasia/South Rhelasia peace conference. Some unpleasant people decided to disrupt it by stealing some Taiwanese missiles and firing them at the hotel. I caught them. It wasn't that big a deal."

"I don't know. I think after sixty years it'd be kind of embarrassing for them both to get blown up by someone else."

Worst case, they'd both be pursuing the person who did it, and probably arguing over who has the greater claim to them when they're caught.

"Hah! Yeah, you're right. Ironic, certainly. Ah, as far as I could tell, the conference didn't really progress things, more… Reduce the level of mutual antagonism to the level it was a month before?"

"You think it woulda gone better if you'd let the missiles hit?"

Eh, that's the sort of thing that would raise international tensions.

"No, no. It's not two people causing a problem. It's two incompatible social systems with mutually exclusive goals. They can't reconcile, and with nuclear weapons and social fanaticism they can't conquer one another. Letting the missiles hit would have interfered with intergovernmental communication, and… The envoys they sent were probably the most reasonable people they had available, so the replacements would be worse. And, yes, we'll all be back there in a year or two, but that's a small price to pay for not having a nuclear war."

Which most people would agree is a bad thing.

"I guess… Okay, next up is… Keith, from the Bowery. You're on, Keith."

"Orange Lantern? Ah, thank you for stopping the Injustice Assholes and… Like, doing it permanently."

Bet a lot of callers were 'boring' ones like that. Just 'good work!' and bye.

"You're welcome."

"I was wondering..? Given how you stopped this attack basically single-handedly, do you think you'll be joining the Justice League?"

A bit simplistic. He wasn't even the only cape at the fight, though I doubt Aqualad garnered much notice given the focus on the missiles and exploding supervillains.

"While it's true that I fought the… 'Assholes' myself, finding them required a magic ritual that I couldn't have performed by myself. And the Justice League and dozens of unaffiliated superheroes and… Hundreds of police and medical personnel were all involved as well. With them… And in the case of the doctors, their ongoing efforts, then death toll would have been much higher than it was."

Good, remind people it wasn't one city getting hit, or even one country.

"Yeah, I-. I didn't mean to insult… Them, but the actual fighting was you."

"Justice League membership is conferred by the unanimous vote of all current members. I think I'll be a good candidate eventually, but I've only been doing this a few months and I've got a lot to learn. So, not any time soon, but it the future… Maybe. Really, you'd have to ask every current Justice League member."

And good luck pinning some of them down for an interview.

"Well, I totally think you should."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence."

Another click, then Leslie looks at me curiously. "And none of them will have a problem with you killing people?"

Ah, now that's a good, meaty question.

"It's not like it's a habit. And… Yes, some will. But Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, Hawkman and Hawkwoman have all killed people before, and I suspect that one of the Green Lanterns has. I doubt it will be an automatic black balling offence unless I start making a habit of it, which I don't intend to do."

Good move, reassuring people that he's not a killer and permanent solutions won't be his go-to for super-crime.

"You're not? 'cause there's a lot of bad guys out there I wouldn't mind never seeing again."

"Then vote for an expansion of the death penalty. Write to your congressional representatives. Write to the president. Because the thing is… Not all supervillains are murders. It doesn't make any sense to treat Catwoman or Captain Cold -both of who have a body count of zero- in the same way as the Joker. This was a product of a very extreme type of attack and level of danger, and I doubt it will be repeated. If you think the law needs to change… Change it."

Cold has zero bodycount? With his freeze-ray?

No-one's ever suffered fatal complications from freezing? I suppose the Flash is quick enough to rescue folks who get hit bad, they only end up with light hypothermia...

I wonder, if Klarion pulls the same shit he normally does (Splitting child and adult worlds) will CS!OL go for the kill on him?

Given his tempting of fate about 'I doubt it will ever be repeated' there... Anyway, I suspect this will see legal repercussions somehow, people calling for harsher punishments for extreme crimes or the like. It was good to see some of the callers, anyway, and some good answers on CS!OL's part...

Someguy Somewhere · 2025-07-27T07:41:14+0100

Wonder what subtle difference the peace conference encounter with Lex was like here. The fight itself seems to have been identical since he subspaced the missiles.

BR549 · 2025-07-27T07:58:08+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Because the thing is… Not all supervillains are murders. It doesn't make any sense to treat Catwoman or Captain Cold -both of who have a body count of zero- in the same way as the Joker. This was a product of a very extreme type of attack and level of danger,

'murderers' and 'whom', I believe.

Darko · 2025-07-27T08:35:59+0100

Chojin Patriarch said:
I suspect the men at the top, Commisioner Gordon and the like, are keeping any happiness to themselves, and putting on a stern face for the media. Don't want to encourage people going after capes and freaks on their own

I remember in Judiciary Misadventures after the MC killed the Joker everyone in Gotham was celebrating, but Gordon was worried since this could mean that other supers would wmfollow his example and there's no telling when they're going to stop.

Renee agreed since they really do not want to see what the likes of Superman and Martian Manhunter can do when they don't hold back.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Wonder if this line of conversation will bring people to think about what other colours there might be. Yellow is kind of known, because Sinestro, right? Violet (or 'Pink' in the public belief) because of Star Sapphire

I think it was once mentioned that Sinestro only showed up twice on Earth.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Cold has zero bodycount? With his freeze-ray? No-one's ever suffered fatal complications from freezing? I suppose the Flash is quick enough to rescue folks who get hit bad, they only end up with light hypothermia

It's comic book super science, so he can probably manipulate it so that the worst they get is a cold.

Duke Long · 2025-07-27T09:05:26+0100

Mr Zoat said:
She frowns. "Can't you just take it off?"

"Sure. Would you?"

Is he being serious here, or is it just a lie because he feels it'd be silly to advertise that he doesn't always wear it?

Mr Zoat said:
"While it's true that I fought the… 'Assholes' myself, finding them required a magic ritual that I couldn't have performed by myself. And the Justice League and dozens of unaffiliated superheroes and… Hundreds of police and medical personnel were all involved as well. With them… And in the case of the doctors, their ongoing efforts, then death toll would have been much higher than it was."

'Without'
'the'

Mr Zoat said:
"Justice League membership is conferred by the unanimous vote of all current members. I think I'll be a good candidate eventually, but I've only been doing this a few months and I've got a lot to learn. So, not any time soon, but it the future… Maybe. Really, you'd have to ask every current Justice League member."

'in'

Mr Zoat · 2025-07-27T09:12:19+0100

Ngamer11 said:
This should be moved up to connect with the paragraph.

Darko said:
The previous Common Sense chapters had something similar.

Though part 17 and 18 aren't bonded in a darker color like the rest.

Thank you, corrected.

BR549 said:
'murderers' and 'whom', I believe.

Thank you, corrected.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Cold has zero bodycount? With his freeze-ray? No-one's ever suffered fatal complications from freezing? I suppose the Flash is quick enough to rescue folks who get hit bad, they only end up with light hypothermia...

That's the thing: he doesn't freeze them. He encases them in frozen gel. There isn't enough water in the air to cause ice formation like that.

Duke Long said:
Is he being serious here, or is it just a lie because he feels it'd be silly to advertise that he doesn't always wear it?

He only takes it off for meditation and excreting.

'Without'
'the'
'in'

Thank you, corrected.

NightmareWarden · 2025-07-27T11:34:19+0100

I'm not crazy, right? This was about… well, this execution was less disruptive to most than the angel incident where Zauriel mentioned Jesus. But in terms of how disruptive this interview will be for Paul's life? Three to five times worse. Paul has basically told the American government to really investigate the alleged kills made by the justice league, presumably against their citizens. And when this digging hits paydirt, they'll decide to investigate Superman and the rest, just because of how easily he could get away with disappearing a body.

This is bad. And I bet it could upset Black Canary specifically, if the injured elementary students incident gets some time on every station.

With that said? This was pretty funny, and it was a fun scene. Certainly dark overall, this is the kind of thing that could ruin someone's idealistic image of the American public.

Mquz · 2025-07-27T13:51:29+0100

NightmareWarden said:
I'm not crazy, right? This was about… well, this execution was less disruptive to most than the angel incident where Zauriel mentioned Jesus. But in terms of how disruptive this interview will be for Paul's life? Three to five times worse. Paul has basically told the American government to really investigate the alleged kills made by the justice league, presumably against their citizens. And when this digging hits paydirt, they'll decide to investigate Superman and the rest, just because of how easily he could get away with disappearing a body.

This is bad. And I bet it could upset Black Canary specifically, if the injured elementary students incident gets some time on every station.

With that said? This was pretty funny, and it was a fun scene. Certainly dark overall, this is the kind of thing that could ruin someone's idealistic image of the American public.

Not really - the alleged kills are when they were serving in the army and the US probably knows exactly who they killed

CrazyNoVa · 2025-07-27T14:22:27+0100

Ah, so I was right. Paul really is trying to encourage citizens to put pressure on the government to execute supervillains.

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

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