[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:31 G.M.T.

Darn-.

I transition as the beta club swings through where my head used to be-. And come up short, because the yellow crystals are deploying. Right, tether a slab of concrete, pull it into my hands before the tether fades away-.

Purple energy erupts from the end of the club-! My kinetic barrier flares, and I feel a weak tingling in my hands as a small amount of the nerve beam bleeds through, but that's about it. Throw the concrete at his face-

"Ragh!"

-and use my armour's flight system to fly upwards before-.

Uh-?

BOOF!

"RRAH!"

Oof!

Right… Kalibak's fast and agile. Right leg armour is buckled, though my actual leg feels more or less alright. Back… Ah, yeah, kinetic barrier doing a hero's work there. Brick's a bit shredded-.

"Hshhahhkhakhk!"

Oh, I've got yellow crystal dust inside my armour. And now I've got no translation.

"Do you feel fear, Lantern?!" Kalibak shoves what's left of the wall aside with brute force, grinning at me as I pick myself up. "Do you see that you cannot stand against a New God?"

And… I can smell my environment, just about. Mould, burned petrochemicals, and… Just faintly, rotting flesh.

I trigger my armour's radio. "Gaart, head out. I'll hold Kalibak's attention."

"Hkhhkskkkhshh!"

"Is your spirit so weak?" Kalibak points the end of his club at me. "Or will you meet your end on your feet?"

Fine. Fists raised, march towards him. He grins, turning his club to the side a little, clearly indicating that he'll use it as a melee weapon rather than a ranged weapon. Set crumble field to maximum intensity and minimum range, and brac-.

Ooohf!

He bull rushed me! He's pinned me to his -ohf!- chest, charging -ohf!- through the walls! My kinetic barrier doesn't -ohf!- know when it's supposed to trigger!

I bring my fists around and smash them into his ears!

"Mnrh!"

I see the smoke emerge as the crumbler -ohf!- field starts eating through his flesh and hair! Can't reach his eyes from -ohf!- here-. Lower the right one to his neck-

"Gah!"

-and deactivate the left, deploy a x-ionised knife and stab-.

OOF!

"RRAAAAAGH!"

And pick-. Oh dear. Can't see the rear of my armour, but my power assistance appears to be acting up. Kalibak's sort of twitching from the knife I jammed into his skull, hands trying to reach-.

I'm not sure if it's the effect of having a bit of metal in that part of his brain or if he's just that muscle bound, but it looks like he's having trouble reaching it. Okay, is the armour's flight system working? Yes, sort of-. Okay.

Fzzzm!

Ah, right, the parademons. They fell behind a little in Kalibak's charge, but they're trying to get line of sight-.

Oh, he dropped-.

I lunge clumsily forward and grab Kalibak's beta rod. He manages to focus on me a little as I raise it up, but he can't coordinate his hands well enough to block it as I swing it down…

"Nuuuuugh!"

Right onto the knife. Which sinks further into his head, the handle flattened against his scalp.

Okay, good. Can't work out how to switch it to ranged mode and I can't risk crumbling it in case it explodes…

Toss it aside, turn and run!

Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm!

Armour might not be working properly, but its mass is alright at preventing the shots from the parademons hitting anything vital.

"Gaart, I don't know where I'm going. Can you throw up a sign?"

"Hshhks?"

I crumbler-punch my way through a wall, then flick my eyes upwards. A few parademons are perched on the walls above me, but it looks like they weren't expecting me to come in this direction. Slow off the mark. Okay, is the stealth system working..? Uh, sort of. Phasing is a pipedream, but the holographic system is… Kind of working? Might give me a few extra seconds. Add in the kinetic belt's flight system… Alright, jump system, it's letting me go a little faster without drawing fire.

And then I see a shot from one of the parademon's weapons going straight up… Good work, Gaart. Okay, I'm running along… Some sort of old… Loading dock? Cover's a bit sparse, but nothing's trying to shoot me right now-. Ah! I see! There's where I came in, and there are the scattering slaves, who aren't fleeing so much as taking cover. No guards-.

Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm!

They're swarming, but they're just guessing at my location.

"Hk-kk-ksk?"

"Sorry, translation system is still out. I saw the shot-" I jump down, back onto the road I first entered by. "-and I'm heading your way."

A couple of slaves stare at the me-shaped blur as I run past their hidey-hole, and I start to see the glow from either Lantern Qarrigat or Lantern Gaart's dome shield construct. A couple of parademons are firing on it, but-. It's Gaart, and he's keeping it up well.

"Okay, go!"

Gaart glances towards me, and then alters the shield to only block shots from above. I dash past him, and-.

There we go, back in the tunnel. Step aside, and prepare crumbler gauntlets just in case the objects in there are capable of existing outside-.

Gaart darts out and then freezes, staring at his own hands. He glances back at the start of the projection area-.

"I told you. He wasn't real."

He focuses for a moment, and then nods.

"Right, now I need you to help me clean out my armour before the mine security get here."

"I'll get right on that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:35 G.M.T.

Gaart's construct pump sucks the air out of my armour near the breaches, and then fails as the powdered yellow crystal that was trapped inside gets sucked out along with it. And… Yes, I'm back in business.

"Good work."

Repair my armour, and… Uh, add an external positron beam projector mount. Not worth making it a standard thing, but this situation rather demands it.

"Illustres to Lantern Jordan. Still alive?"

"Yeah, still here. Find anything?"

"Found Lantern Gaart and I found where the yellow crystal nullifying our constructs is coming from. They're collecting it from part of the Apokoliptian training equipment."

"So, what..? Apokolips can just make as much as they want?"

"That would be my fear. Or there might be something here that allows them to make it, or it might require particular materials that are in limited supply. We should ask-."

Jordan's face winces and the image is disrupted.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Too close and they can actually hit me, too far away and they lose interest." He looks around where he is for a moment. "Ask Scott and Barda, right?"

"Or New Genesis. I do not want Grayven getting his hands on this."

"Not worried about a repeat of Mannheim?"

"Earth can handle something like that, but if Grayven gets serious about disrupting the Orange Lantern Corps' activity, not only will that severely mess up our war fighting ability, but it also-."

"The Reach will get it, and that's bad for everyone." Lantern Gaart's ring glimmers for a moment, and then Jordan's head appears over it as well. "Gaart, good to see you're in one piece."

"Yes sir."

"Any idea where Lantern Niiniini go to?

"They were taken prisoner at the same time as me. If they're not here and their ring hasn't chosen a new bearer, I don't know."

"Paul, is that the only mine on the planet?"

I nod. "It's the only one I've seen. I haven't explored the whole place, but as far as I can tell they're focusing on expanding the digging here rather than exploring new sites. The important point there is that the training area only produced yellow crystals in response to Lantern Gaart's presence. Just removing him is going to make them useless until they get dig down a lot further."

"Okay. Don't have a fleet laying around, do you?"

"There's a Doomsday."

"Could it fight this whole fleet?"

"It wouldn't win, but we could charge up a bunch of kryptonian volunteers. They could. Or we could let Apokolips know they're being burgled. Does the Green Lantern Corps have a fleet?"

"Yeah, but it's not that big, and all the ships work off green batteries. How about Legion?"

"Even if we could spare a fleet, I'd have to drag it here myself, so it wouldn't get here all that quickly."

"Alright. Can you get back up here?"

"Easily."

"Gaart?"

"I could use a recharge. But I can fly around to the far side of the planet, and escape that way?"

"You didn't bring your personal lantern with you?"

"I always thought it was a risk. Especially on a planet owned by Apokolips."

Jordan sighs. "What are you on now?"

"Fourteen percent.

"Okay. Paul, can you bring him up faster?"

"Yes. Easily."

"Gaart, you can recharge from my lantern. I've got an idea for the fleet."

"And the slaves?"

"I don't have anywhere to put them. Do you?"

"No. But this place is dangerous enough that they evacuate the slave workers before the sun goes down."

"If this takes more than two hours I'm handing in my ring."

I nod. "Alright. Be with you soon." His face disappears from Gaart's ring. "Gaart, do you think it would risk attack by the native animal life if I killed a few dozen of the overseers on the way out?"

He licks his left eye in confusion. "Kill?"

"I know that the Green Lantern Corps prefer to maroon pirates, but in this case-."

"I was planning on handing them over for trial. I-. Is that not how your Corps does things?"

"In the case of minor crimes, it is. In the case of interstellar warlords, I don't see the advantage."

"The Dread Horde is meritocratic. A lot of the officers who command their ships started out as labourers in places like this, and rose up the ranks."

"Right, but I imagine that to do that, they had to do some pretty unpleasant things."

"Yes, but the regular soldiers haven't. If they're helped to get away from it, they can eventually be returned to normal society."

Right. Green Lanterns are police, not soldiers.

"So, leave them alive?"

"If possible, yes."

"Fine." Right. Be a little awkward to sneak out with him hanging around… "Hold still a moment."

I scan him. Nothing about his physiology that would make stealth armour dangerous or risky. Since he doesn't know the controls I'd have to slave it to mine, but that's not a problem. And there's no problem with him keeping it afterwards.

"I'm going to give you a lighter version of my armour, and then we're going to sneak out. You'll need to keep your environmental shield around your body and not around the armour, or you'll still glow. Can you manage that?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. Let's get out of here."