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

Reading through the chapters I missed after a long break. I don't quite get why the Young Justice, and specifically only four of them, were the only ones who went to Gotham and confronted Mannheim there when it was common knowledge that his motorcade was slowly driving there over presumably several hours. Why didn't they call any useful backup? Whatever any of the other (partial) Kryptonians, Speedsters or League Wizards were doing at the time specifically can't possibly have been a greater priority.

Also, what are the collective gods of Earth doing? At least some of them should, like, care, no? Hell, even Hell's denizens should care at this point. I don't even know what happens to a Justified's soul when they die.

Another thing I always get confused is the differences in membership and powers that the Young Justice Team has between the Paragon and Renegade timelines.

I also have a couple of minor questions:
  • How was Paul able to make cold guns with the yellow ring so fast and without training?
  • This yellow ring in particular is supposed to be a badly made one. How does that manifest?
  • What does it take to put software on a ring and what prevented anyone from putting one that speaks English on Paul's?
  • How can a ring provide a universal translator while also only speaking in a language the wearer doesn't understand?
  • How is the gamma gong not winning wars if all you need is an infiltrator hitting the gong three times before you assault the planet from space?

Lastly, can someone link me to the scene where Grayven kills construct Nabu? I can't remember the why of it.

Found a single typo:
but now there's no way to transport most of it now.
using now twice
 
Lastly, can someone link me to the scene where Grayven kills construct Nabu? I can't remember the why of it.
It wasn't shown onscreen. The Renegade thought about mercy killing Nabu, and then at a later point it was mentioned that it happened. Mr Zoat later confirmed that the Renegade did indeed stab Construct Nabu with the Sword of the Fallen. The Renegade only learned what the sword actually did after he did this.
 
Also, what are the collective gods of Earth doing? At least some of them should, like, care, no? Hell, even Hell's denizens should care at this point. I don't even know what happens to a Justified's soul when they die.
Since it was mentioned that Luthor is avoiding the problem by hiding in a demiplane, I am guessing that the gods and demons are mostly doing the same thing, since I think pretty much all of them should have access to demiplanes.
 
Pyrrhucy (part 18)
14th February 2013
15:44 GMT -5


"Fuck!"

Mahkent splits his focus, right hand creating an increasingly steep spiral around the shaft while the left fires upwards in an attempt to create a barrier to block the lift-.

I throw up aSpider web construct in an attempt to aid him, only to feel it snap almost immediately. Another and it breaks as well and another-.

Eiling plants his feet and punches the door into the holding section, bending the tough metal. He punches again, a thin gap appearing at the bottom of the door as the metal deforms. He then ducks and heaves upwards, door control systems utterly overpowered by his raw strength.

Kadabra tries something with the emergency controls at the bottom of the shaft but swiftly abandons it and takes a running dive under the door the moment that Eiling creates an opening.

Our guide follows him a moment later, with considerably less grace.

Another, and, ah… Construct vehicle lift to try and keep it from hitting the ground before we're out of the way. Mahkent does a staggering run off the end of his ice slide, corrects course and lunges into a slide under the door. Eiling gives it another pull and then awkwardly ducks under it and-

Transition? No.

-I fly under just as the pressure from above overwhelms my construct and shatters it.

"Okay, everyone-?"

And then the wreckage lands behind me and flame washes over us! Block block block! No, not just me, everyone!

Mahkent throws out his arms and frost coats the whole area, his eyes wide. "The fuck was that?"

Kadabra shakes as he waves his wand at his burns, slowly healing them. Eiling just pats himself out while-. Eiling prods the flash fried corpse of our escort with his right foot. Looks like Kadabra was trying to do something with the controls which put him slightly out of the line of fire, with Eiling standing next to him. What just-?

"Bomb in the elevator. Probably supposed to go off when we opened the doors to ride down. They set it off once we were underneath, and-. It split the lift in half and threw the bottom half at us. That was the air inside the lift. Kadabra, I have a healing ray in my orange rings' subspace pocket. Do you need me to try to access it?"

"No, don't worry. I've never felt better." He smiles manically. "The shaking isn't from pain, it's from opioids."

"Are you alright to heal yourself like that?"

"Ah…" He looks around. "These burns should hurt but they won't actually slow me down. We're on an alien space ship, so the chance of infection is minimal. I suppose that could stop-."

"No, that's fine then. Fix yourself up."

"Hey, ah…" Mahkent looks a little spooked, but he has it under control. "Are-? There gunna be a bunch of laser turrets popping out of the walls?"

"Probably not. Lasers make sense for anti-missile and anti-attack craft work, but on the interior you really want something that-."

"Or any other kind of guns."

Scan.

"No. There are gas dispensers in the cells and internal bastions, but they've been abandoned. We've got a clear run, unless they've got interior scan disruptors."

"And if they do?"

I generate construct armour around myself.

"I suggest staying behind Eiling and I."

Okay, the layout is… Two interior bastions just inside the section. Offices immediately on the left side, prisoner processing on the right-. No, it's been converted for prisoner processing, but it doesn't look like a dedicated facility. A store room? That would make sense… So perhaps they only put prisoners on one ship? Technology on one of the others and supplies on the rest?

As Tuvok would say, logical, if speculative.

The actual cells consist of-. Yes, the bars are attached to a raised lip front and back, which is the easiest way to stick bars in front of what would otherwise be a storage module. There's a force field generator as well, built into the same unit. If it's supposed to contain someone with Tuppence's level of strength then the field would have to be on the inside of the bars.

Ah. I'd like to be able to refer to a database, but I don't think that the Dhorians have any material that can resist Tuppence's level of strength.

"Kadabra, Eiling, please check the control office. If you can get control of the local computers, please do so. Icicle, with me."

Eiling gives Kadabra a slightly sceptical look, but rips out the office's armoured door and leads the way inside. Mahkent looks around uncertainly.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a lot smaller than Eiling."

I nod as we head through prisoner processing and out into the first level of the cell block. "You could try creating ice around your body and reshaping it as you go."

"My power doesn't work like that. I can't move it or make it go away. Once it comes out, it's just there."

"Said the bishop to the actress."

"What?"

"But you could make a shield of ice, right?"

"It's… Heavy, but, sure. Would that do anything?"

"Against laser, plasma or explosive projectile, yes. Anything else, maybe. Also, there's probably some sort of magic amulet that can improve your ability to manipulate ice. Ask about it once we get back."

"You saying they're holding out on us?"

"I doubt that the people who could help you have the time to really focus on that." I glance at him. "If that was something you wanted, you should have asked before you got sent to Belle Reve."

"Yeah, but… Still…"

There's another bastion just inside the cell block, and then we're through into the corridor with the cells. No one in the cells closest to entrance-.

"Tuppence Terror! Shout if you're here!"

I start walking, and there's… A dishevelled man lying in one of the cells.

"Sir? Can you hear me?"

He doesn't look up, his gaze focused on the deck in a way that's all too familiar. Anti-Lifed.

"Orange Lantern, the cells are isolated." I nod as Kadabra's voice come over the intercom. "A woman matching Tuppence's description is seventeen cells in and on your left."

"Thank you."

I dash past.. several occupied cells, because Tuppence might be useful while as sympathetic as I am Anti-Lifed people will be dead weight. She looks up in surprise as I draw level with her cell door, and mouths something at me. I shrug, and generate a probe construct to start working on freeing her.

"Ah, dude?"

"Yes?" He's looking behind me as I interface with the cell's computer and fear that the AI isn't intelligent enough to handle this.

"Isn't that..?"

I turn around to see Nylor Truggs waving at me.
 
Last edited:
14th February 2013
15:44 GMT -5


"Fuck!"

Mahkent splits his focus, right hand creating an increasingly steep spiral around the shaft while the left fires upwards in an attempt to create a barrier to block the lift-.
Ah, yes. Explosive in small space plus metal plating between them and the blast equals shrapnel. Never mind the no-doubt-plentiful amount of fire currently trying to find the path of least resistance in order to expand. Which is right through them.

I throw up aSpider web construct in an attempt to aid him, only to feel it snap almost immediately. Another and it breaks as well and another-.

Eiling plants his feet and punches the door into the holding section, bending the tough metal. He punches again, a thin gap appearing at the bottom of the door as the metal deforms. He then ducks and heaves upwards, door control systems utterly overpowered by his raw strength.
OL really struggling to get that construct strength going, I see. And quantity may have a quality all its own, but not when he has limited charge. No doubt these constructs are very energy-inefficient too.

Kadabra tries something with the emergency controls at the bottom of the shaft but swiftly abandons it and takes a running dive under the door the moment that Eiling creates an opening.

Our guide follows him a moment later, with considerably less grace.
The shaft must be quite large, given that the flames haven't reached them yet. Fortunate for them.

Another, and, ah… Construct vehicle lift to try and keep it from hitting the ground before we're out of the way. Mahkent does a staggering run off the end of his ice slide, corrects course and lunges into a slide under the door. Eiling gives it another pull and the awkwardly ducks under it and-

Transition? No.
Ah, good to see OL actually struggling to pull out techniques he's so used to.

-I fly under just as the pressure from above overwhelms my construct and shatters it.

"Okay, everyone-?"
Don't celebrate while you're still in the line of fire, OL...

And then the wreckage lands behind me and flame washes over us! Block block block! No, not just me, everyone!

Mahkent throws out his arms and frost coats the whole area, his eyes wide. "The fuck was that?"
Something that probably would have killed a less paranoid group of adventurers, really.

Kadabra shakes as he waves his wand at his burns, slowly healing them. Eiling just pats himself out while-. Eiling prods the flash fried corpse of our escort with his right foot. Looks like Kadabra was trying to do something with the controls which put him slightly out of the line of fire, with Eiling standing next to him. What just-?

"Bomb in the elevator. Probably supposed to go off when we opened the doors to ride down. They set it off once we were underneath, and-. It split the lift in half and threw the bottom half at us. That was the air inside the lift. Kadabra, I have a healing ray in my orange rings' subspace pocket. Do you need me to try to access it?"
Tough luck for the Dhorian. Not everyone can make their reflex save against the fireball...

"No, don't worry. I've never felt better." He smiles manically. "The shaking isn't from pain, it's from opioids."

"Are you alright to heal yourself like that?"
So, he just synthesised, what, pain-killers directly into his system? Useful, if a little concerning.

"Ah…" He looks around. "These burns should hurt but they won't actually slow me down. We're on an alien space ship, so the chance of infection is minimal. I suppose that could stop-."

"No, that's fine then. Fix yourself up."
It's doubtful that the Dhorians have any exotic bioagents likely to affect humans, after all. Especially since unleashing them might damage their captives too.

"Hey, ah…" Mahkent looks a little spooked, but he has it under control. "Are-? There gunna be a bunch of laser turrets popping out of the walls?"

"Probably not. Lasers make sense for anti-missile and anti-attack craft work, but on the interior you really want something that-."
Now, something similar to a non-physical TASER...

"Or any other kind of guns."

Scan.
Right. No need for overkill when simple kills are sufficient.

"No. There are gas dispensers in the cells and internal bastions, but they've been abandoned. We've got a clear run, unless they've got interior scan disruptors."

"And if they do?"
Cameron, I know you're worried, but please, stop pointing out the worryingly obvious concerns. :confused: Just for a minute?

I generate construct armour around myself.

"I suggest staying behind Eiling and I."
And sadly, at the moment, OL is not up to his usual Tank role. That construct armour is probably not going to prove all that useful...

Okay, the layout is… Two interior bastions just inside the section. Offices immediately on the left side, prisoner processing on the right-. No, it's been converted for prisoner processing, but it doesn't look like a dedicated facility. A store room? That would make sense… So perhaps they only put prisoners on one ship? Technology on one of the others and supplies on the rest?

As Tuvok would say, logical, if speculative.
Reasonable assumption, certainly. But best not to take it for granted that it's accurate.

The actual cells consist of-. Yes, the bars are attached to a raised lip front and back, which is the easiest way to stick bars in front of what would otherwise be a storage module. There's a force field generator as well, built into the same unit. If it's supposed to contain someone with Tuppence's level of strength then the field would have to be on the inside of the bars.

Ah. I'd like to be able to refer to a database, but I don't think that the Dhorians have any material that can resist Tuppence's level of strength.
And by the same extent, Eiling will be able to pull the bars out, then.

"Kadabra, Eiling, please check the control office. If you can get control of the local computers, please do so. Icicle, with me."

Eiling gives Kadabra a slightly sceptical look, but rips out the office's armoured door and leads the way inside. Mahkent looks around uncertainly.
Hey, Kadabra's the squishy wizard, Eiling, you're the tanky fighter. OL is the Cleric, and Cameron's... The rogue? Sorceror? Hard to categorise that cleanly when to comes to capes...

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a lot smaller than Eiling."

I nod as we head through prisoner processing and out into the first level of the cell block. "You could try creating ice around your body and reshaping it as you go."
I mean, just because he looks like DC's answer to Iceman...

"My power doesn't work like that. I can't move it or make it go away. Once it comes out, it's just there."

"Said the bishop to the actress."

"What?"
Old British joke punchline. :rolleyes:

"But you could make a shield of ice, right?"

"It's… Heavy, but, sure. Would that do anything?"
Honestly, that kind of ice armour would be overwhelmingly heavy.

"Against laser, plasma or explosive projectile, yes. Anything else, maybe. Also, there's probably some sort of magic amulet that can improve your ability to manipulate ice. Ask about it once we get back."

"You saying they're holding out on us?"
No, they're just holding out on someone who was in jail until all this started. Also...

"I doubt that the people who could help you have the time to really focus on that." I glance at him. "If that was something you wanted, you should have asked before you got sent to Belle Reve."

"Yeah, but… Still…"
...Yes, I suspect anyone capable is a little distracted. Either by being affected by the Anti-Life, or being part of the efforts to stop it...

There's another bastion just inside the cell block, and then we're through into the corridor with the cells. No one in the cells closest to entrance-.

"Tuppence Terror! Shout if you're here!"
I mean, the forcefields probably make the cells sound-proof.

I start walking, and there's… A dishevelled man lying in one of the cells.

"Sir? Can you hear me?"
...Random homeless guy. That's not suspicious at all...

He doesn't look up, his gaze focused on the deck in a way that's all too familiar. Anti-Lifed.

"Orange Lantern, the cells are isolated." I nod as Kadabra's voice come over the intercom. "A woman matching Tuppence's description is seventeen cells in and on your left."
Ah, good work, Abra. I guess this guy is just a sample of 'an interesting memetic weapon'.

"Thank you."

I dash past.. several occupied cells, because Tuppence might be useful while as sympathetic as I am Anti-Lifed people will be dead weight. She looks up in surprise as I draw level with her cell door, and mouths something at me. I shrug, and generate a probe construct to start working on freeing her.
Ah, good. Alive and well, if a little annoyed by her circumstances.

"Ah, dude?"

"Yes?" He's looking behind me as I interface with the cell's computer and fear that the AI isn't intelligent enough to handle this.
An amusing way to get the Ring working.

"Isn't that..?"

I turn around to see Nylor Truggs waving at me.
...<pinches bridge of nose.> Of course it is. This day just can't get any better, can it?

Honestly, if it were me? I would just leave Nylor for the Dhorians, but we all know he'd make even more trouble somehow. The question is, how did they even get him? How did they find him, even, given that he's basically human with a slightly exotic trace of gene-mods. :confused: ...Oh, hell, did he bring them here somehow? Quick call on a interstellar comm-link, maybe? Time to interrogate him, and OL is perfectly equipped for it.
 
Hey, Kadabra's the squishy wizard, Eiling, you're the tanky fighter. OL is the Cleric, and Cameron's... The rogue? Sorceror? Hard to categorise that cleanly when to comes to capes...

I'd say sorceror.

Rogues are usually subtle and Jr. isn't subtle.

Random homeless guy. That's not suspicious at all...

He's not necessarily homeless.

After AL everyone will look disheveled.

The question is, how did they even get him?

Maybe he tried to hijack them to get off the planet.

Or they didn't get him and he just showed up.
 
Rogues are usually subtle and Jr. isn't subtle.
Though the unsubtle rogue can be a fun diversion. Leaving no witnesses counts as a successful stealth check, after all. The 5e barbarian/rogue using Reckless Attack to generate its own advantage, raging, and charging and enemy while bellowing "SNEAK ATTACK!" is just great imagery.
 
Unfortunately, Paul can't access his rings at the moment. And even if he could, there's no pressing enough reason to assimilate Truggs.

He's RIGHT THERE, presumably without anything that would let him resist assimilation. That's all the reason in the world. And assimilation is the one weapon in Paul's arsenal that can take the smug bastard out of commission for good, since resurrection exists and I doubt Paul has anything on hand capable of destroying a soul.
 
He's RIGHT THERE, presumably without anything that would let him resist assimilation. That's all the reason in the world. And assimilation is the one weapon in Paul's arsenal that can take the smug bastard out of commission for good, since resurrection exists and I doubt Paul has anything on hand capable of destroying a soul.
Even if Paul was petty enough to do it, he wouldn't use rings infected with the Anti-Life.
 
"Bomb in the elevator. Probably supposed to go off when we opened the doors to ride down. They set it off once we were underneath, and-. It split the lift in half and threw the bottom half at us. That was the air inside the lift. Kadabra, I have a healing ray in my orange rings' subspace pocket. Do you need me to try to access it?"
You mean the Subspace pocket that you just spent the better part of year trying to keep other sources out of?
 
Was planning on re-reading the story. I last stopped after they ousted Zeus. The following arc (don't remember its name) kinda dipped in quality and I gave up on this story. Has the story quality gone up since then?
 
Pyrrhucy (part 19)
14th February 2013
15:48 GMT -5

I was wondering what Light-affiliates had been doing.

I don't wave back. Instead, I turn around and focus on infiltrating the security of the cell. Doesn't appear to be designed to resist construct infiltration, but since I don't know a thing about their computer security I just feel out the connections until…

There it is. A small pulse of electromagnetic energy and the field shuts down, a faint shimmer at the back of the cell showing me that it affected all six interior surfaces.

"Are you in one piece,-"

She stalks towards the bars, grabs two of them and pushes them apart!

"-Tuppence?"

"Yeah." She crouches slightly and twists aside to fit through the gap she just made. "Ah'm good."

"I'm glad to hear it. Any residual affect of-?"

She walks past me, though I notice a certain lack of her usual anger in her steps. It's more like she's actually having to make an effort to move.

"Tuppence, if you're injured, we need to know."

"Ah don't like bein' locked up, is awl." She looks around the cell block, taking everything in. "How we geh'in out?"

"That's a work in progress."

"Dude..?" Mahkent nods towards Nylor's cell. "I think that guy's trying to get your attention."

"Most likely." Tuppence tense but not angry? Not sure what's going on there, but I can worry about that once we're out. "I'm going to need to manually open each cell unless Kadabra can work something out and I'm not sure how much time we have. Tuppence, did you see anyone who might be useful, or is it all-?"

Tuppence punches the control unit for the cell next to hers, which causes the force field to lock in the 'active' position.

"Please don't do that."

"Why didn' that shut it awf?"

"Because that's not how anyone designs their cells."

I extrude a filament and try poking the surviving circuitry. Yes, she's tripped the safety feature and I'm not entirely sure how to reverse it. I don't recognise the person inside, but they're coherent enough to have perked up when they saw me. Good, they'll be able to move under their own power.

"Dude, I think he's signing something."

"Ignore him."

"If he takes off his pants, I'm gunna go hang out with Kadabra."

Could I create a crumbler device without a copy of the schematic? I've used it a lot, but it's a good deal more complicated than a cold gun.

I exhale, walk over to Nylor's cell and deactivate the force field.

"What?"

"Ah, if yah don't open the doors, the cell autamatically gasses the guy inside."

"I'm sure that you'll live. Do you know something useful?"

"Y'got Abra Kadabra with you?" He shrugs. "I know how he can jam the teleport scanner with his wand…"

"Tuppence, please break his bars."

"Oh, y'all suddenly fergot how yewer rings work?"

Nylor points at my hand. "Yellow. Not orange. They use your clones to Anti-Life ya?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Only reason yah'd take 'em off. The clever part's how I knew about the clones."

"Truggs, we-."

"Nylor." He grins.

"We're on a hostile spacecraft with an indeterminate number of prisoners we need to-"

"Twen'y seven."

"-rescue, thank you, and the Earth's still Anti-Lifed. Please, just… Stop. Wind me up later if you must."

"But you can fix it. You wouldn't be back if you couldn't."

"That doesn't mean it's alright to dick around while human society keeps collapsing."

"Nah, at this point-" he shakes his head. "-it won't make much-" Tuppence plants her feet and rips a bar out. "-difference. Thank you. That paralysis gong thing was pretty weird, huh?"

Tuppence glares at him for a few moments, then jerks her right hand so that the bar whistles through the air and stops next to Truggs' head.

"Bein' trapped, no bein' able ta move at all-."

I wrap my right hand around the bar as Tuppence draws it back. She could easily overpower me, obviously, but the feedback appears to snap her out of the impulse.

"We get it, Truggs. Kadabra is in the office at the entrance. Let me know when you're jamming the teleporter, because splitting my attention with an unfamiliar ring is actually a bit tricky."

He grins, nods to Tuppence and then turns and strides away.

"Ah…" Mahkent looks confused. "What was that?"

"Truggs and I share a personal philosophy, but have very different approaches to fulfilling it. I find him rather aggravating."

Tuppence grimaces. "He's an asshole."

"We'll need to talk about that later in private, but I'm afraid that if I feel compassionate right now the teleport jammer would turn off."

I walk over to the cell she damaged and start rooting around for the power supply. I can… Actually feel the fear of the prisoners, fear of captivity and their captors, and, in a few cases, a fear of being released. And I can feel how much easier that's making it to punch through the armour around the cables powering the force field. For a non-dedicated space this is pretty well designed.

There's a faint hum as the force field deactivates.

"There you are. Tuppence?"

She tosses her bar aside and rips the door out of the cell. I smile at the woman inside.

"I'm Orange Lantern, with the Justice League. Please join our colleagues at the cell block entrance. I'll be with you once the rest of the cells are evacuated."
 

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