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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. Gilhelmi

    Gilhelmi Know what you're doing yet?

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    I know the last time I posted I used the "Nazi Rocket Scientists" comparison. But, to be fair, there were many "German Rocket Scientists" who were given no choice but to work with the Nazi ran government. Not a "one-to-one" correlation, but darn it, I am really hoping Thaddeus and Georgia go down the strait and neutral path.

    Also, I was sadly right. While most were more "German Scientist" than "Nazi Scientist", the US Army Chemical Corp did "recruit" a couple.......... I never trust a Nazi who worked at Nuremberg, who preformed "Euthanasia". Source

    Oh, von Brums brother tried to sell a brick of Plutonium, to a jeweler (entry 6). The famous Wernher von Braun beat the crap out of his brother for it (because of course the government is going to cover it up, must protect thier star player). Though, Wernher von Braun himself did lead more towards being a "Former German" than "Former Nazi".

    You know, we make jokes about Supervillians being stupid; and if this was a comic, no one would believe it. But really, maybe Supervillians are more realistic than we give them credit for.
     
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  2. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No, it works as written.
     
  3. Ardy

    Ardy I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    It should be B zero four, unless he got upped and we didn't notice
     
  4. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  5. Threadmarks: Bended (part 9)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    2nd March
    10:42 GMT -5


    Nooo sweat.

    Okay, he was sweating a little. Sneaking around a building filled with creepy-looking robots was bad enough. Creepy-looking robots that probably got built by the Sivana family were even worse, because he's read Marvel's after-action reports and there was absolutely no way in hell the sort of things those lunatics could put together would get knocked out by gas arrows. Which meant that even if they were playing along for now, he was still surrounded by two dozen possum-playing robots built by mad scientists and all he could really hope was that they weren't built by the serial-killing mad scientist.

    Would..?

    Yeah, but only if he really had to. He wouldn't call Pa Sivana for a training exercise.

    Right?

    Yeah.

    "Uugh."

    He looks around as the first of the thugdroids he dragged out for the cops begins to come around. He'd put the unconscious employees in the recovery position back in their offices, and got some of the others to help him bring their 'attackers' out front. Signed a couple of autographs, chatted with a few fans…

    Police were kinda taking their time, but then, he wasn't really sure what the police were supposed to do with them. If the robots were standing in for regular guys they'd need to book them, but-.

    He tapped his bracer.

    "Hey, what am I supposed to do with these guys? I don't really wanna waste police time with this."

    "Once the automata are in police custody, they may be marked for extraction from the scenario."

    "Or..?"

    "You may choose not to mark them for extraction."

    Why would-?

    "I can interrogate them?"

    "That is a possible action."

    "Interrogate a ro-?"

    No. This whole thing was dreamed up by a guy who stopped Dinah destroying Dukeston and got a law passed making robots 'people'-.

    "Wait, how smart are these things?"

    "The automata are subsapient, but may be programmed to reveal information in particular circumstances."

    Oooor we could just telepathically-.

    He looked at the robot. Who was a robot.

    Wait, was that intentional?

    "How does that work with telepaths?"

    "Information will be revealed after an interval depending on the automaton's modelled resistance."

    He smirks. "And how about if Rocket Red takes a look? You know his armour lets him read any database."

    "Metagaming is strictly prohibited."

    "Yeah, but he could read their phones or whatever."

    "Metagaming is-."

    "Yeah yeah, I get it."

    Man, he didn't remember it being this hot in March before. He wasn't going to take off his armor or anything, but he was definitely gunna need a shower when this was over. Anyway, if these 'automata' can be interrogated…

    He knelt down in front of the closest.

    "Hey kid."

    The automaton visibly slumps. "Fuuuck, we got beaten up by the second lamest superhero ever."

    "Second, huh. So who's first?"

    "Red Bee. Using a bow rather than a gun is stupid, but at least it's not a fucking trained bee."

    The robot's face isn't particularly expressive, but it looks like whoever put it together decided it needed to be able to sweat. He guessed that having a few… What, tubes filled with water? Wasn't that hard.

    "So what was the point of all that, anyway?"

    "Fuck you Five Oh. Not sayin' anything."

    "Huh. Okay."

    He stood up, picked an automaton at random and picked them up. Then he carried their weakly-struggling form around a corner, put them down and gagged them. Then he crouched down in front of… Huh, this one was female-shaped. What was that word-? Gynoid, but that was only if they were intelligent.

    "Just hold still a minute, will yah? I need to convince your friends that you're spilling all your secrets 'round here."

    The automaton struggled against its bonds, but with human-force, not mad-science-powered-death-robot force, and they were designed to cope with that. Then it-

    "Mngrmngrrhhhh!"

    -tried to shout through the gag. He stuck his head back around the corner to make sure the others weren't trying anything. Nope. He waves cheerily to any who looked his way and then ducked back.

    "Okay, keep up the good work. But seriously, between you and me-."

    The automaton collapsed. Was that supposed to happen? Did it.. run out of battery power or something? If it was the Sivana kids, would they bring their A-game for the Justice League, or.. was it a pride thing so they definitely would? No, no, Paul might not drop some sort of super demon on him but he definitely would a thug with a heart attack!

    Shit, ah…

    Two fingers to the part of the neck where whatever mechanism the automaton used to replicate a carotid artery was, and he takes a half-second to be glad that in this case the person he's doing this for can't die. Despite what Paul told him about 'magical head trauma', seriously injuring the people you were fighting against actually was a serious problem, especially if you were shooting them with arrows. He hadn't ever had to deal with an actual heart attack, but he'd been trained by an EMT so he could actually handle things like this.

    Pulse… Okay, not a heart attack. Elevated but regular. Breathing, so fast it's on the border of hyperventilating. Temperature, elevated. There's a whole bunch of things it could be, and calling an ambulance-.

    His legs gave out, and he collapsed on top of her.

    Poison? A disease weapon? This was a Paul job, so he wasn't actually going to die, but…

    Sweating. They were all sweating, and he was feeling hot. In March. A supervillain wouldn't trust someone else's gang with anything vital, but-.

    Ugh.

    But he might dose them with something. Hadn't happened in Star City before, but Flash and…

    His vision wavered.

    And Bats…

    He just had to hope Paul would tell them the symptoms.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2019
  6. Ardy

    Ardy I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Please tell me Red Bee is a real character! That sounds amazing.
     
  7. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Ah, that moment of panic as he suspects the worst.

    Eh, Thaddeus Senior is busy with Sheeda stuff anyway. I'm sure that would be in OL's reports...

    Heh, one of the joys of electronic stand-ins. And nice to see Ollie being more personable than Batman would.

    In other words, their boss would break them out rather than let them be interrogated. Unlikely.

    Heh, we already know they won't know anything important...

    Some of those 'robots' are buddies or yours, Ollies...

    Not complex enough to mind-read directly. But that's accounted for, of course.

    Good to know they'll play fair, though. So if J'onn came in to sift through their 'minds' they'd inform him of what he'd find?

    Eh, well, he wouldn't have to read their programming...

    feh. I'm guessing OL would be a 'No Shenanigans' DM.

    Ha, they even programmed in insults?

    ...I'll admit, that's kind of stupid, yes. And yes, that is an actual DC character. I think they buffed him into controlling bees, later on.

    Entirely in character. Ollie's going to have to play bad cop.

    Representing an equal-opportunity gang? Georgia's idea, I'll bet.
    Correction: 'Then he'.

    And he's already treating them like actual people.

    Still thinking OL had any part in the details. How naive.

    Good to know he's sensible in that respect.

    Would be a bit much for robots, but entirely appropriate for real people, so he should do so.
    Correction: 'the border of'.

    And that explains the 'poison' OL got from Euanthe. Non-lethal but incapacitating. I think Ollie just got eliminated.

    I'm sure he will. It's part of the scenario after all

    Heh. Looks like Ollie's out of the game. But then, how could he predict a 'killer virus' situation at a basic robbery?
     
  8. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

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    Y'know just because there are robots involved doesn't remove magic from the equation. I'm sure Red Tornado could chuck holy water at a demon without a problem, so these guys could disperse a magically-created virus. We could see the starfish-nano-patches all over again, but with fewer gloating supervillains! It'd be perfect; Ollie here gets knocked down with a bug, one of the heroes cures him and begins spreading a vaccine, and then we learn that Green Arrow isn't home, leaving someone else to pilot his body!
     
  9. Ardy

    Ardy I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    SKITTER RISES FROM THE GRAVE ONCE MORE! FEAR THE SWARM ARROW-MAN, FEAR IT!
     
  10. HereforZooat

    HereforZooat Getting out there.

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    When did the SI gain the ability to see emotions through solid objects? I remember one instance of him seeing through a thin door, but this seems like substantially more material to see through. It's a meaningful increase to his abilities.

    The range is also kinda nuts. Not just the "seeing someone from space" thing, but also it would be fairly unlikely that a satellite in a probably LEO equatorial orbit was passing over the relevant location at that time. Although these two are more handwaveable.
     
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  11. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    I'm not sure I'd call him amazing, but...
    Thank you, corrected.
     
  12. Ancalador

    Ancalador Know what you're doing yet?

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    Pretty sure that when he's 'looking through the hull' he's using his empathic vision to pick up GA's emotions
     
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  13. HereforZooat

    HereforZooat Getting out there.

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    Yes, and I'm fairly sure he shouldn't be able to do that. If he can do this, he should also be able to see through walls to check if people are in a building when scans don't work.
     
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  14. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I think Major Bummer would be one of the top ten on that list. Guy's got super strength, but MAN is he so f@#$ing lazy and reluctant to put it to much use.
     
  15. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    He did that a couple of episodes ago. The wards block his empathic vision, but he can amp up the power to burn through them.
     
  16. FreeGod

    FreeGod If you see a God on the road fuck it!

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    Are we sure that Paul didn't program these robots?
     
  17. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Let's just hope that was a chemical, not a contagious virus...

    Plague Carrier humanoid drones. What a fucked up concept.
     
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  18. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Yeah, heroes really should have the gas masks and goggles on before approaching a crime scene. Even if it isn't trapped with bioweapons and stuff, there are a lot of toxic substances common to industrial areas. Fighting in an older building means there might be asbestos so having the place get busted up in the fight means a lungfull of cancer. Hell, going into any fight without a helmet on is stupid. Even a cheap bicycle helmet can keep a random mook from one-shotting you with a pipe.
     
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  19. jaelin910

    jaelin910 habitual lurker

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  20. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Actually, as far as I know, Red Bee stuck to just having a trained bee.

    However, his grandniece became Red Bee 2.

    She was a roboticist with her own power armor and robot bees.

    Then the Freedom Fighters encountered a rather Zerg like race who infected her brain.

    She was more Khepri than Skitter though, with pheromonal mind control with a range of hundreds of miles.

    She got cured, and then retired, rather mortified by the mind control, attempted murder, and plans on breeding an exploding warrior cast by raping the Human Bomb.
     
  21. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I wonder if the Earth-12 SI will be conducting similar training exercises for the DCAU Justice League; he has the requisite connections and resources from his company. I can only imagine the scale involved when they become the JLU in the future.
     
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  22. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    He might in the long term but he's a long way from being that integrated at the moment.
     
  23. NeoDarklight

    NeoDarklight The Final Observer

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    It’s Green Arrow’s POV, so the American spelling should be used here.
     
  24. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
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  25. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Given how "illegal" chemical and biological weapons are you might want to consider that whatever's effecting you has no connection to Paul...
     
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  26. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    These are robots - I don’t think it’s a real chemical/ biological weapon. Maybe some sort of mild poison.
     
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  27. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    Poisons, mild or not, are chemical/biological weapons.
     
  28. TheMidnightRook

    TheMidnightRook Well worn.

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    There are degrees of legality though. Tear gas and pepper spray, for example, are both chemical weapons. Many law enforcement agencies have their personnel pepper sprayed in training in order to prepare them for the possibility of it happening for real.
     
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  29. FreeGod

    FreeGod If you see a God on the road fuck it!

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    It is new enough that it might not be illegal yet. Not sure if chemicals are whitelisted or blacklisted.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Bended (part 10)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    2nd March
    16:08 GMT


    "I was the first one to die, wasn't I?"

    I nod sympathetically as Mr Queen sits up on the bier. "Yes. But I'd like to say that thanks to your valiant sacrifice none of the police or ambulance personnel were exposed, and most of the Consolidated Applied Sciences who were also exposed survived."

    His expression brightens up very slightly, then the brightness dies.

    "But you can't, because they all died anyway, along with all the robot gang bangers, because I got exposed after all of them."

    I nod again.

    "Was it a.. poison, or a disease?"

    "What knocked you out was a poison, an extremely safe one I had Euanthe develop to stand in for something nastier. I'm afraid that I won't be telling you what it was in-game until today's activities are concluded."

    He gives his muscles a slight stretch, the last of the lingering effects vanishing. Things like this make me very glad that Euanthe isn't a supervillain.

    "So what was I supposed to do? Not get close enough to get infected?"

    "I was going to include that as part of my feedback at the end, but… If you really want to know now?" He nods. "Everyone in the League now uses the wards Sephtian and I developed to protect them from magic attack, but… Most of you haven't followed up. I don't use them, but there are wards against poison and disease."

    "U-hh."

    "Failing that, sealed armour like Roy wears or certain types of environmental energy shield or certain types of physical enhancement would have rendered you immune."

    He-. He's trying to put a brave face on it, but I can see he's sagging.

    "I can put you in touch with my supplier if you want."

    "I've never-. I mean, I know it's a fair test. Joker does stuff like that all the time, and I think Barry had a guy-"

    I nod. "Doctor Amar."

    "-who-. Right." He hesitates. "What-?"

    "Murmur."

    "Yeah, that's it. I've never had a bio-weapon bad guy." He slides off the bier and onto his feet. "Think I've just gotten lucky?"

    "I think it's the heavy industry. Star City never had all that much compared to Gotham in its heyday or Keystone City today. Chemicals get into the water, the air… Plus, heavy industry has suffered from relatively cheap imports, resulting in higher unemployment in primarily low and semi-skilled manual labour jobs. And, yes, a bit."

    "So… You're not… I mean, all the guys the League are gunna be fighting-."

    "I'm not trying to push you out of the League, if that's what you're working up to asking."

    He hesitates again, then nods. "Yeah, it kinda is."

    "Alright, to be totally blunt, based on the criteria I came up with for League membership, I wouldn't have recruited you. You’re not alone in that category, and it doesn't mean that you're doing a bad job or that you're a bad person. If we were reforming the League to have a far broader base I'd be happy putting you in charge of a city or a region. Your skills and comportment are good. But several of the League's core functions call for a level of raw power or extraordinary skill which you don't have and don’t appear to be inclined to get."

    "Huh." He nods again. "So who else is on the list?"

    "The initial seven members joined up due to fighting the appellaxians together, so skipping them-."

    He shrugs. "Why skip them?"

    "Alright. King Orin is borderline. I'd rather have had Queen Mera. He can contribute an army and the resources of a state, but he can do that without occupying a front line position. I wouldn't have recruited the Hawks when they were recruited." The same year as they started operating on Earth. The only justification I can think of is that Batman wanted them where he could keep an eye on them. There's no way they showed a level of ability and dedication in that period which justified their recruitment. Mr Freeman's dodgy for similar reasons. Not enough time active, Superman's 'I thought he was kryptonian' excuse notwithstanding. "Ms Lance, Mister Harper, Doctor Palmer, Mister O'Brian-."

    He frowns. "Plas?"

    "It's not a 'superpowers only' thing. I recommended Dmitri and I'd recruit Batman. Mister O'Brian's abilities just aren't useful enough to justify his inclusion compared to plenty of other people on Earth." I shrug. "Of course, all that only matters if we're talking about a 'small League' like we have now. If we switch to a broad based organisation, they're all fine."

    "Okay, so, how about your team?"

    "For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

    "You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

    "No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."

    "Not you?"

    "Gods, no. The lack of clear direction would drive me insane. I'm more effective left to my own devices."

    "And everyone else?"

    "Same sort of problem. Insufficient power, skill, experience or poor comportment."

    "You.. told them you think that?" I shake my head. "'cause Arte-."

    "Doesn't want to join the League. Oh, she wants to fight the good fight, partially to distance herself from her father and partially because she actually likes helping people. But the best way to utilise her would be to deploy her off in somewhere like Hub City. Somewhere with a high level of both street crime and official corruption. A long term medium intensity job."

    "You told her that?"

    "No. I might once she finishes college, if she decides to get back into it." I pause briefly. "Do you have any other questions? Because the wargame is still running-."

    "Those wards. Orin can hook me up?" I nod. "And… Enhancements?"

    "I'll include a few options in my report. Excuse me."

    Under the circumstances I decide not to raise my right hand to my forehead, but instead just

    step out

    and reappear in the Watchtower's main room, Batman giving a summary to the rest of the League.

    "-biological agent. Take extreme caution in dealing with anyone. If you notice yourself sweating or an increased heart rate, call for Doctor Mist, Accomplished Perfect Physician or Angelica immediately."

    The heads on the monitor all nod. It appears that Mr Queen has been the only fatality so far. Ms Lance's eyes alight on me for a moment, then her face vanishes with the rest.

    GM system, how are things going?
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2019
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