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

[Mquz]

You know what would be hilarious - though unlikely for many reasons? If it was really the anti-monitor controlling the armor - Paul might have just assimilated him. We've seen it work on very powerful beings before, so long as they want something, and who wants something more than the anti-monitor?

 

[Buggy123]

You know what would be hilarious - though unlikely for many reasons? If it was really the anti-monitor controlling the armor - Paul might have just assimilated him. We've seen it work on very powerful beings before, so long as they want something, and who wants something more than the anti-monitor?

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As hilarious as that would be, my understanding of it is the Anti-monitor almost annihilated the universe itself, and took the combined effort of a lot of the most powerful beings in existence to destroy it.

As far as no-selling goes, on a scale of 1 to "oh come on!", the Anti-Monitor probably rates at about a 80. I'd half expect it to just outright no-sell the entire universe.

 

[PrinceJonathan]

I think it was a technique he developed based on the Orange Light's assimilation.

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I thought it was a technique he developed from watching too much Little Shop of Horrors?

 

[Stsword]

As hilarious as that would be, my understanding of it is the Anti-monitor almost annihilated the universe itself, and took the combined effort of a lot of the most powerful beings in existence to destroy it.

As far as no-selling goes, on a scale of 1 to "oh come on!", the Anti-Monitor probably rates at about a 80. I'd half expect it to just outright no-sell the entire universe.

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You misunderstood.

The Anti-Monitor didn't almost destroy the universe.

He successfully destroyed every universe in the DC multiverse, back when the DC multiverse consisted of an infinite number of universes.

New Earth was basically cobbled together from a handful of universes that avoided complete annihilation like a cosmic frankenstein monster.

The JSA,JLA, Marvel Family, and Charleston heroes like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom didn't share a universe until all their universes got destroyed and a new universe was cobbled together from the pieces.

Edit: And the fifth universe merged was the Quality comics folks- Uncle Sam, Plastic Man, Max Mercury,etc.

 

[Gantradies]

Congratulations Paul, you probably just kick started the restoration of the Anti-Monitor.

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*dryly* so, in your view, the right thing to do would have been to stand back and let him go back to his carefree life of casual genocide? >.<
cmon man, you're reaching..

 

[frozenchicken]

There's nothing quite as satisfying as killing a dimension-meddling, high-narrative importance boss with potential plot links to one of the two biggest bads in the setting and a known history of faking his death. In a manner that doesn't leave a body.

We won't be seeing him again, that's for sure.

 

[Prince Charon]

Didn't it make whoever wore it crazy for some reason that they were having trouble discerning? Seems like a good enough reason to be hesitant about using it.

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They'd apparently found a counter to that, or something (it's been a while, but I recall that at some point there was no significant downside to using it, but he wasn't using it).

 

[Ngamer11]

They'd apparently found a counter to that, or something (it's been a while, but I recall that at some point there was no significant downside to using it, but he wasn't using it).

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If I remember correctly, the best version that don't mess with your head still require plugs into your head. That might have something to do with it. Or he is still trying to find a way to integrate it with his already existing armor.

 

[CTrees]

still require plugs into your head.

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He recently removed everything organic beyond his brain to minimize issues caused by an angel's curses. A few plugs in the head is comparatively minor. I mean he's back to being organic now, but it's a boundary he already crossed in the middle of a fight.

 

[IndigoAbyss]

I may be a little lost, but why are so many of you mentioning the Anti-Monitor?

 

[doug89]

Warning: power reserves at 50%.
Still on a clock as I hit 45%.

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I'm unclear on this. If I remember correctly he is rocking three rings. Is he:

At 50% total across all three?
At 50% on his last remaining ring?
At 50% on his first to be tapped ring?

 

[Coda]

What developer decided this was a fair endgame-tier fight?

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It's not. It was never meant to be. For one thing, this is a midgame fight.

99.9% all-damage-resist makes it clear that this is a puzzle boss. It's a fight you're not meant to win with overwhelming force. The game puts a major key to the puzzle in your hands at the start of the quest -- Effigy himself. OL almost hit on the intended resolution to the fight, except he min-maxed into a couple of endgame-tier abilities fairly early in the game, so he was able to sidestep part of it.

Puzzle bosses are hax like that, though. There's a reason people hate them.

At 50% on his last remaining ring?

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It's this one, since the rings report 300% power when he's at full charge.

 

[Diraniola]

I'm unclear on this. If I remember correctly he is rocking three rings. Is he:

At 50% total across all three?
At 50% on his last remaining ring?
At 50% on his first to be tapped ring?

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The convention did far has been to list his available charge as 300% when full, so probably 50% of his last ring. Except the load is spread across all 3 rings so it's more like 17% power per ring.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I may be a little lost, but why are so many of you mentioning the Anti-Monitor?

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Because I'm not as subtle as I think I am.

I'm unclear on this. If I remember correctly he is rocking three rings. Is he:

At 50% total across all three?
At 50% on his last remaining ring?
At 50% on his first to be tapped ring?

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The first one.

 

[Oglymogly]

Because I'm not as subtle as I think I am.

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If it makes you feel better, it went right over my head. BR549 had to literally spell it out for me.

I may be a little lost, but why are so many of you mentioning the Anti-Monitor?

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It starts with this chapter: Ways and Means (part 15)

 

[Vaermina]

Or... killed the insane, omnicidal, nigh-invulnerable researcher who was doing his best to understand it and revive it/use it's destructive power to ravage the universe?

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Highly unlikely given Zoat confirmed that's a piece of the Anti-Monitor.

 

[Buggy123]

Highly unlikely given Zoat confirmed that's a piece of the Anti-Monitor.

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No, that just confirms that the insane, omnicidal, nigh-invulnerable researcher was, infact, studying one of the most powerful beings to have ever existed, with the intent to use its destructive power to ravage the universe.

 

[gustyeagle]

Because I'm not as subtle as I think I am.

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Compared to your normal writing, this is really subtle. Normally you would have a link to the wiki page.

 

[Stsword]

I may be a little lost, but why are so many of you mentioning the Anti-Monitor?

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Just in case you'd like it spelled out directly-

The Anti-Monitor is a blue and yellow armored giant from the antimatter universe.

Traitor had a blue and yellow piece of a giant's armor from the antimatter universe.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

No, that just confirms that the insane, omnicidal, nigh-invulnerable researcher was, infact, studying one of the most powerful beings to have ever existed, with the intent to use its destructive power to ravage the universe.

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why not both?

 

[Vaermina]

No, that just confirms that the insane, omnicidal, nigh-invulnerable researcher was, infact, studying one of the most powerful beings to have ever existed, with the intent to use its destructive power to ravage the universe.

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I am guessing that you don't know that one of the abilities of the Anti-Monitors armor is self repair using nearby compatible technology...

 

[Buggy123]

I am guessing that you don't know that one of the abilities of the Anti-Monitors armor is self repair using nearby compatible technology...

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No, I didn't. I did realize that you were implying somehow that Devlos' death could somehow reawaken the Anti-Monitor, and I agree with that.

However, I would argue that a borderline invulnerable, insane researcher using a chunk of the Anti-Monitor to basically attempt to do the same thing as the Anti-Monitor... is basically only a small step below having the Anti-Monitor itself alive and kicking.

And being so invulnerable and powerful, the options for killing him are rather slim unless he comes under the attention of the sort of forces which actually killed the Anti-Monitor... and he probably wouldn't, not for decades or longer, because he went this long completely undetected, and OL and Co could hardly get a message off with all of the countermeasures and jamming in place.

So OL and Co were faced with a choice of:
A: Slam him into the force field to hopefully kill him, with unknown effects on the piece of Anti-Monitor inside the field.
B: Don't do that, and probably die within a few minutes.
C: Desperately try to run/get a message off, and possibly get chased down and killed (gimmeport can and might well have been blocked, but there's no easy way to test it).

A seems like a reasonable choice. Even in a pretty-much-worst-case scenario, where the Anti-Monitor immediately begins regenerating, OL would probably contact Hinon to try and find out what the weird thing is, the Controllers would immediately scream "OH SHIT" in unison and teleport/fly over, and then you have the forces that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time doing their best to destroy a massively diminished chunk of him within a matter of seconds/minutes.

Also, none of this touches on the fact that OL didn't know what it was, so A seemed like a even better choice.

 

[Vaermina]

No, I didn't. I did realize that you were implying somehow that Devlos' death could somehow reawaken the Anti-Monitor, and I agree with that.

However, I would argue that a borderline invulnerable, insane researcher using a chunk of the Anti-Monitor to basically attempt to do the same thing as the Anti-Monitor... is basically only a small step below having the Anti-Monitor itself alive and kicking.

And being so invulnerable and powerful, the options for killing him are rather slim unless he comes under the attention of the sort of forces which actually killed the Anti-Monitor... and he probably wouldn't, not for decades or longer, because he went this long completely undetected, and OL and Co could hardly get a message off with all of the countermeasures and jamming in place.

So OL and Co were faced with a choice of:
A: Slam him into the force field to hopefully kill him, with unknown effects on the piece of Anti-Monitor inside the field.
B: Don't do that, and probably die within a few minutes.
C: Desperately try to run/get a message off, and possibly get chased down and killed (gimmeport can and might well have been blocked, but there's no easy way to test it).

A seems like a reasonable choice. Even in a pretty-much-worst-case scenario, where the Anti-Monitor immediately begins regenerating, OL would probably contact Hinon to try and find out what the weird thing is, the Controllers would immediately scream "OH SHIT" in unison and teleport/fly over, and then you have the forces that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time doing their best to destroy a massively diminished chunk of him within a matter of seconds/minutes.

Also, none of this touches on the fact that OL didn't know what it was, so A seemed like a even better choice.

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The force that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time was a combination of exploding central power battery to crack his armor and Superboy Prime...

Meaning short of another Zoat nerf he's pretty much unstoppable.

 

[Mquz]

The force that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time was a combination of exploding central power battery to crack his armor and Superboy Prime...

Meaning short of another Zoat nerf he's pretty much unstoppable.

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I don't think exploding power battery is better than Ophidian + some other embodiments working together at full force though.
Also, he probably needs time to regen.

 

[Buggy123]

The force that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time was a combination of exploding central power battery to crack his armor and Superboy Prime...

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Not necessarily in Zoat's universe:

"The Anti-Monitor, what do you know of the Anti-Monitor?"

"DC wanted a way to merge the superheroic setting of the golden age comics of the thirties with the setting of the silver age comics of the fifties. They wrote a storyline where a being empowered by eliminating parallel universes attacked all of their settings, destroying everything and leaving a single universe that was an amalgamation of what had gone before. The Anti-Monitor. Historical events and personal timelines were altered and individuals' memories were rewritten, except that some things didn't quite fit. For some unfortunates, their history changed as they lived it as the universe tried to accommodate irreconcilable events. And some remembered the whole thing, immune to the event which reformed the universe."

"I take it that's not actually what happened?"

She takes a deep breath. "A child's fairy story of it. Any number of beings with more knowledge than sense might be allowing corrupted records to slip into your home parallel."

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And I seem to remember a line that went something like "do you know how many of us died trying to stop it?!" but I'm not having any luck finding it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th January
21:14 GMT

I rotate the urn in front of me. As far as anyone knows, Devlos Ungol wasn't married. Though.. he might have been, at some point before he put on that armour. Records from his homeworld weren't in a great condition after the wars resulting from his empowerment. Given that he was perfectly happy to talk about himself, I imagine that was simply as a result of his personal information being classified when he volunteered and the widespread destruction, rather than any sort of precise cover-up. Certainly, he was never seen with a paramour or offspring afterwards. So I can't depict-.

"What's that supposed to be?"

I can't depict him with the family he had in life. Perhaps a.. shrouded outline?

"A funerary urn."

Obviously I can't wash or anoint his body, and… I never thought to ask what the alternative was when a physical body wasn't available. A wreath I can do, though exposure to vacuum swiftly leaves it brittle. Two Themysciran coins-.

"What?"

I turn my head to look at the clearly bemused Mr van Wyck.

"A funerary urn. When did you leave Earth?"

"Last October."

"Then if you've heard of me, you should know that I'm a Hellenist. The Themysciran funeral tradition-."

"Dude, there's no body. You can't bury anything. And no way's anyone mourning that psycho."

"I know there's no body."

The coins and wreath go into the urn, the wreath crumbling to dust as it brushes the rim of the opening. And I add the handful of organic Tartarathian cells I found in the wreckage of the station. They might not be his, but… I mean… If.. the rest died here… This can be for them as well.

"Souls exist. Ghosts exist. The performance of proper funeral rites prevents the formation of angry ghosts by promptly sending souls to an afterlife."

"Oh, you're making sure he goes to Hell." He shrugs, and I note that the damage to his face has mostly knitted itself back together. "I didn't think you did that sort of thing."

"Does he deserve to go to Hell?"

"Ah, yes? You said his fleet murdered billions of people. And he tried to kill us."

"His government trusted him enough to give him their experimental super armour. After putting it on, he decided to go on a universe-wide rampage. So either they didn't do any psychological screening, he faked it really well, or he-."

"Something was controlling him. Or… Messing with his head."

"It's a possibility."

Most of the tiny fragments of his armour that survived go in the urn as well, then I seal the lid over the opening.

"Or maybe he was always an evil bastard and the armour just gave him the opportunity to act on it. Either way, when I take this to Themyscira then Lord Hades can add him to the docket and find out."

Assuming this works. I don't want Mother of Mercy coming near that… Device.

"Huh."

I use constructs to attach the urn to myself. Shouldn't be any problem just taking it to Themyscira directly. I can ask Hades about Mother of Mercy's request at the same time.

"Orange Lantern to Controller Hinon."

"Any reason for me to stick around?"

"You don't work for me, Mister van Wyck. You're free to come and go as you choose. However, I recently gained a map of pirate hideouts. If you'll agree to put yourself under the command of the senior Lantern on-site, I'll include you in our operations."

"And if I don't?"

"You'll be limited to your own resources, and my own research shows me that the pirates are mostly using sites that weren't discovered immediately after Devlos Ungol's defeat. However, it is your decision."

He thinks for a moment.

"And what about afterwards?"

"I will probably suggest to Lantern Xor that he remain on semi-independent anti-piracy duties. If you have made yourself useful, I would invite you to join him. Your heart appears to be in the right place, but your lack of basic training is going to impede your effectiveness."

"I should probably check with my boss first."

I nod. "There's no real rush, b-."

"What have you done now?"

I smile as Hinon's face appears over my ring. "Devlos Ungol was alive. He's dead now, but his armour was made of something that made it proof against just about everything I could throw at it."

"Do you have samples of the material?"

"Yes, and the device his people copied to make it. My ring is having trouble analysing it."

"Well try harder. Honestly-."

"I'm getting error messages, Hinon. Devlos was using what my ring thinks is a Bleed-based energy-actualisation weapon-."

"The device, describe it."

"Blue metal with yellow cables. It appears to be stationary relative-."

Thirty metres in front of me space explodes in a surge of orange light as Hinon warps to my location, looking around in alarm. She raises her arms and the broken pieces of space station float away to give her a clear path to the device.

She hesitantly lowers her hands. "No…"

"Hinon?"

"Do you know what this is?"

"If I knew what it was, then I wouldn't have called you."

"It's a fragment of the Anti-Monitor's armour."

"Okay?"

She wheels to scowl at me. "Do you not-?" She stops herself. "No, no, of course you don't."

"I know that the Anti-Monitor is very dangerous, but how bad is a single piece of his armour?"

"It's not the armour. None of him is supposed to exist any longer. I thought we were-." She takes a moment to calm herself. "We should destroy this fragment, before the Qwardians hear about it."

"I'm not arguing. Do you need my help?"

"No, I need other Maltusians. Go, go and.. check the other sites. I'll call you back to watch once we're ready."

I nod. "Mister van Wyck, if you'd like to accompany me?"

 

[Gazing Eye]

ah......well that's bad news.

 

[Buggy123]

"The device, describe it."

"Blue metal with yellow cables. It appears to be stationary relative-."

Thirty metres in front of me space explodes in a surge of orange light as Hinon warps to my location, looking around in alarm. She raises her arms and the broken pieces of space station float away to give her a clear path to the device.

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Called it:

... OL would probably contact Hinon to try and find out what the weird thing is, the Controllers would immediately scream "OH SHIT" in unison and teleport/fly over, and then you have the forces that managed to kill the Anti-Monitor the first time doing their best to destroy a massively diminished chunk of him within a matter of seconds/minutes.

Click to shrink...

Unrelated, correction:

Obviously I can't wash or anoint his body, and… I never thought to ask what the alternative was when a physical body wasn't available. A wreath I can do, though exposure to vacuum swiftly leaves it brittle. Two Themysciran coins-."

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There's a excess quotation mark here. This is just inner monologue, not speech.

 

[Vaermina]

"Okay?"

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Paul... You've read DC comics... You know exactly how bad the Anti-Monitor is...

"I know that the Anti-Monitor is very dangerous, but how bad is a single piece of his armour?"

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Let me answer your question with a question of my own... Do you like your Universe?

"I'm not arguing. Do you need my help?"

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No, they need the help of a Black Lantern if they actually want to kill him since that's the only thing that ever has.

 

[DrThoth]

On the admittedly small bright side, maybe this can be an opportunity to foster better relations between Malthusian factions, if Hinon reaches out to the Guardians and Zamarons as well. It would be sensible to have some emergency protocol that would override any of the communications bans the latter two factions seem to have.