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

Ahh a racist and a snob.

A true Lovecraft.

Unless renegade recruits him.

He is a Paul and they seem hell bent on working with people that are best left dead.

In our world there are people who are interested in old cars, old movies, old music and even old ways of living, so the fact that some Atlanteans are interested in old magic isn't that surprising.

He may not be as academically gifted as Circe, but he's probably much, much more cunning.

Also he may be teaching them how to use magic for police work.

Circe may not know much about that.

Especially this young lady's ego.

 

Um, macadam has little to do with cookies.

 

..I stand corrected. On the upside, that makes Sunset's defences even more impressive.

 

I believe the cookie is named after the road style, involving crushed nuts that look like the crushed stones.

 

I mean, tbf, I imagine most of those slip off like trying to grab a greased monkey

 

The cookie is named after the nuts. The nuts are named in honor of a Scottish scientist.

The road material is named after its inventor, who was also Scottish but not the same person.

 

Zoat, how did Circe meet Ahri'ahn?

In this universe she's apparently three thousand years old, but Ahri'ahn may be over five thousand years old, based on Gamemnae, who knew Adom before he was imprisoned in his body, and tried to raise Atlantis from the waters, which he was present for when it sunk, so he was most likely born before she was.

Has he come out of whatever hibernation he was in before in the past and met Circe during one such time?

 

Yes.

Those are all of the details I have for you.

 

Also is this a Renegade only event (Ahri'ahn coming back) and if so why?
Or is he also in the Paragon side, but because Paul wasn't connected to Doom (and Circe being part of the Light) noone found out he is back, and things are developing differently?

 

The SI doesn't know.

 

I think calling the League in would be a good course of action; I'm sure a bunch of their members would be resistant to the insectoid's effects for whatever reason. And if Ahr'ian is still around they would be good backup to have.

 

There's always power rings.

Unless the biomancy makes it difficult.

'over and over until'

'is my'

 

Where's the Insectoids from again?

I imagine that either a civilian will have already called some sort of hotline or they have some sort of alert that would let them know about something as obvious as this.

 

Thank you, corrected.

The originals are from Louisiana. Later additions come from a variety of places.

 

Huh, I expected Florida.

 

I would also like to know where these Insectoids come from? Who made them? And why, if they are so dangerous, they weren't being stored and studied off-world?

Grayven has access to multiple different types of portals that would make the commute for researchers unproblematic.

 

Yeah, I've done that in games myself: Charge in expecting to steamroll an enemy, only to catch their attack with my face. One of the most painful recently was charging at a Space Marine Devastator with a Lascannon. One word: Cored.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Okay, this is not a place you want melee combatants. good thing Adom isn't here, I guess. I'm not sure that his divinely-granted Potency would protect him...

Last thing you want is a New God Speedster getting anywhere near these things, yeah...

Ironically, the elementals are probably the best weapon against the infectious bugs. Pity they're not on your side.

Man, these things are insane. Those blades would make it hard to block...

Drones with death rays. Another good option to take these things down. Seriously, why were they not entirely wiped out, or at least Boom Tubed to some remote planetoid somewhere? Were Cranius and Crassus that attached to them?

Kill him quickly! And with no splatter!

Man, Arion the Elder is an arsehole. Did he not realize how dangerous they were? Did he simply not care?

"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!" Yeah, this is not a time to be sloppy.

Damn, this shit's looking like Dead Space in here! Thank Goodness Anton Arcane wasn't a gamer, he might have gotten inspired.

Don't push your luck, girl. This is no time to try and show off to your sweetie.

Thank goodness these things can't think. That'd be even more horrifying, being trapped inside your own body watching it kill and rampage...

Cage is patched up. Now for the escapees. Get scanning, Ringnestro... We got us a bug hunt.

"Currently casting Fist! A lot!" I see she's having fun. And we'll get to see if our guesses paid off.

The only drawback is that the Tube aperture can only form so fast... And only so many at a time... Seriously, Grayven needs to arrange some offworld containment somewhere obscure.

I doubt the Bugs did this. Presumably Arion's doing... Which raises some questions about how...

An unconventional application of summoned Elementals... Quasi-Elementals of Lightning?

Well done, Sunset. Gold star!

And hopefully staying out of Zatara's sight? Last thing we need is a 'let's you and him fight' scenario.

Denied! Back in your hole, bug!

Boy, that's nasty stuff. Might need to quarantine the place and sweep to make sure they didn't leave any surprises about the place...

Yes, people thought the same thing of another bug species. That didn't work out too well for them either. You know, the shiny black ones...

In other words, Earth is too nice? But he has a point. Unless their very blood releases mutagens, killing them all would be the best idea...

No. One scratch and you've got a fresh convert. And these things have shown they're too wily and adept at ambush tactics to be easily fought that way...

"This could take all day..."

So it'll come down to nigh-invulnerable heroes laying in with blades and bullets. Short of some manner of kill-switch, and I doubt Anton thought that far ahead. He would have wanted these things to rampage unstoppably, of course. And if they could kill him? Then so be it.

Well, then. Thank goodness for speedsters.

And introduce Arion the Elder to the Knuckle brothers: Righty and Lefty... Then the Sword of the First and Second, if he's still got it.

Now, to see if the League arrives at the same time Grayven's forces do to confront the villain of the piece. Because between emergency calls and Zatara's inbound presence, there's going to be a lot of people coming to Righteously Punch Arion the Elder's Face... Let the fun begin...

---

A little Godspeech:

 

I think it was Anton Arcane.

 

He probably doesn't care.

Also with his power he may be able to control them.

Magic.

 

There are some places even insectoids fear to tread.

 

If it is indeed Arion that is attacking, what is this supposed to even achieve anyway?

 

This has all been covered in the story, but in summary:

Anton Arcane made them after the original Un-Men turned on him. They're big, aggressive and with Arcane dead they don't obey anyone. Most of them also used to be regular people who were infected by an existing insectoid, and the transformation is very fast. They're kept in Aberrance because Cranius is researching them and... Actually, the site is pretty secure. There are levels of force you can't secure places against.

 

Will we find out what is happening with Tim Hunter?

 

All we know is that he's studying at the White School. It's probable that we'll never see him in the story.

 

Can Grayven really not think of more efficient ways to beat them? If the Illustress was here he'd probably do it with brain-seeking fillaments tipped with X-ionised knives.

 

I completely forgot that Misa/Iname exists here. It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen her.

 

He could kill them easier, yes. He's trying to avoid doing that.

 

The only one who can help, their Wizard, is already going. You do not want Superman to get infected, do you?

 

This is not helpful at all.

This is much more helpful.
However, a point of confusion is that in Part 10...

You introduce Insects as what appears to be utility constructs made from the renegades yellow ring, before having the some different, completely unrelated insects show up in Part 12.

And yes, they come out as an curveball.


"well, they were mentioned in the story at some point," isn't a good excuse for not refreshing the readers memories when they suddenly became relevant in the here and now. This is a big sprawling story after all, and I cannot remember them showing up before. So when Grayven suddenly starts ruminating about how they are this incredibly contagious zombie virus analog, I was thinking "what the hell is going on, why are they suddenly here, and how does he know about their virulence without it having happened yet, or the Mother Box or one of the rings doing a scan and telling him?"