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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. DeathReaperZ

    DeathReaperZ In the Void.

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    That would probably be a very stupid idea. Giving an Orange Lantern something important to want is probably a very bad idea. Especially since Paul is the strongest Orange Lantern to exist so far.
     
  2. DeathReaperZ

    DeathReaperZ In the Void.

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    I'd be surprised if all Reach personnel didn't start glowing orange by the sheer power of Paul's Desire to end them.
     
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  3. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    It came out looking wrong because of a missing bracket.
     
  4. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No, I missed an equals sign.
     
  5. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    Wooo! Orangest Night!
     
  6. Threadmarks: Counterpunched (part 17)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    18th January 2013
    23:33 GMT


    A slight pinch on my right forearm. I don’t let it show as Agnie reaches out for a magnetic constrictor and I put it into her hand.

    Exo-mantles were originally designed for stealth. Darkstars were supposed to be able to infiltrate worlds that the Reach were converting to their control, and carry out a guerrilla campaign in order to prevent it. They needed to be able to pass through checkpoints without obvious alien technology on them, and also to be able to switch into kill-mode if they were detected with enough power to actually kill things.

    When we moved to a counter-intelligence role, we didn't have to hide so much. My usual exo-mantle had all but basic stealth stripped out for the phasing system. What I'm wearing right now is the stealth version, but since I'm still in the hazing stage of becoming a Citizen they haven't bothered looking too hard. With sensors; I'm not sure whether they were staring at the new girl in the showers to size me up or if they liked the look of me.

    A twitch of my right arm, wait, and then two more, and I feel it as the mental uplink deploys around my neck. It's designed to not be immediately visible, and to look like a necklace if it does get noticed, but I can't help but feel self-conscious about having it active in enemy territory because I know we can detect things like this.

    And I wait for the actual message. It's.. a little awkward, because the uplink puts it directly into the language centres of your brain and then you have to wait for your brain to actually process-

    Confirm contact.

    -what you didn't hear with your ears.

    Darkstar Jade Nguyen.

    Status request.

    Infiltration: intelligence gathering. Uninjured, cover intact. Status request.

    Stealth ship. Reach interior survey. Darkstar crew, Lantern escort. Undamaged. Concealed.

    I didn't know we had ships that could hide well enough to enter Reach space like this. It doesn't sound-. What's the chance of them running into us? Not high, but I suppose that we would stand out compared to the Reach worlds around here.

    Orders?

    Status of boom tube generator.

    Damaged, extent unknown. Bridge 'no-go' area.

    Explain.

    Captain is psycho.

    Killable?

    I might be able to kill her, but her bodyguards are actually good at their jobs. I don’t think that I could beat all of them, and we don’t have time for a proper duel. I need to know what's going on out there to decide if it's worth the risk.

    Not by available assets. Status of Reach fleet?

    Two battleships one mobile shipyard plus escorts. Scarabs and marines inbound, suspect boarders.

    Damn it. With my regular exo-mantle I'd take a chance on one Scarab, but I doubt they want us in one piece so badly that they'd just keep throwing their elites at us single file. Reach marines aren't exactly a joke, but in a fight between them and the Citizen marines in narrow confines I'd bet on the Citizens.

    Evacuation?

    Difficult without boom tube. Crew repairs?

    Basic. Suspect lack of knowledge to repair boom tube.

    Information and assistance can be provided.

    They've got someone who knows New God tech? Okay, that might makes things easier. But I still need to be able to convince the Captain to get off the bridge so we can work without getting killed. Hm.

    The lighting improves a little and Agnie starts reattaching the protective plates. That's good, but it isn't going to make much difference to what's actually happening.

    I put a hand on one of my daggers, just in case.

    "Agnie, if you had a chance to leave, would you take it?"

    "I couldn't go home. Not with what I've done."

    "No. I can see that. But somewhere else."

    "Did you do this?"

    She actually sounds repulsed. Not sure why, as she clearly likes it here less than I do. "No. If I were going to sabotage a ship it would be one I wasn't standing on."

    "Were you planning on leaving?"

    "I like our chances better without the Captain or the Reach."

    But, yes, I think my time infiltrating the Citizenry is over. I don't know what made our ship get caught, but I'm not all that broken up about it. Okay, maybe I'm not seeing them at their best here, but if this is what they're like I don't get how they've survived this long.

    "Where would we even go?"

    "I have… Friends. Who don't care about this sort of thing." She doesn't say anything. "Or if you really want we could try transferring to another Citizenry ship, but I don’t think this place is good for you."

    "No, I-." She pulls herself out of the deck and slides the maintenance hatch back into place. "What is your plan?"

    "Does this ship have any sensors left?"

    "No. They're either wrecked or so badly damaged that they can't transmit."

    "The damaged ones. If you got to them, could you take the data directly from them?"

    "Maybe? Why?"

    "We need to get the Captain off the bridge. If we tell her that the Reach's marines finally showed up, that should get her moving."

    "We could just-?"

    "Lying would get her off the bridge for a minute tops, and then she'd have us killed."

    "Okay. Okay." She taps her bracer, and brings up a map of the ship. Destroyed areas are in red, and… There aren't a lot of green places. She points to a yellow patch. "Here. This is our best bet. I don't know-. I won't be able to repair all of it, and the connection to the bridge is totally gone-."

    "That's fine. Just do your best. If it's not there, we'll just have to race the Reach marines."

    She nods, and takes off at a fast walk. Running would risk attracting attention, and she's a little short of protectors. I hang back slightly, happy for her to act as a lure because everyone I kill now is someone I don’t have to kill later, when they're organised and aiming at me.

    Acquired local engineer. Will attempt to access bridge. Time to marine/Scarab arrival?

    8-12 minutes.

    So, repair the sensor, convince the Captain, repair the boom tube-.

    What do we want the boom tube for?

    Escape with Citizenry ship, Citizenry prisoners.

    How?

    Boom tube Lanterns from our ship, tow Citizenry ship through tube.



    I have to admire their optimism. And it would complete my mission, which would be good, because the Power Company has never sounded more appealing.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
  7. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    I'm guessing a long vacation is in Jade's near future after this mission is over? I hope it is, because she needs to bring Paul along for the ride so it can go off the rails again.
     
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  8. Ciber

    Ciber Know what you're doing yet?

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    Wen u on deep cover mission & don't know your homeworld is apocalypsing again.
     
  9. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    "battleships, one mobile"

    Also maybe add a space between the two sentences.

    Either her people wouldn't take her back, or she wouldn't feel right going back.

    Well you are connected to her and if anyone finds out that you damaged the shop then they may also target her.

    Dumb luck.
     
  10. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    That was deliberate. I was trying to convey that the information comes through in an unusual way.
     
  11. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    And the regular combat models were never the most subtle of power armour designs. Even for 90's comics. I expect the stealth designs look more like biological support systems, like a slim-line exoskeleton for a low-G race...

    And given canonical Jade's looks, I could see the latter definitely being a thing...

    At least it doesn't use your own mental memes for it? Imagine hearing 'You've got mail!' in your head.

    Oh, that's going to be funky. Almost like talking to yourself in your own head...

    At least the messages are short.

    ...Though not for much longer.

    ...yes, you do stand out just a bit...

    And at least that confirms it for the stealth ship crew.

    Textbook definition of a bad boss, huh?

    Good thing you have all that ninja training to fall back on.

    and there's the shit incoming for the fan.

    Yeah, melee versus ranged in tight quarters often doesn't go well for the ranged. Unless they're ludicrously overpowered.

    Grayven's information security practices biting them in the ass.

    Huh, the system is on the bridge itself? Hope it's not a Mother Box... Nah, that'd be too valuable to trust to grunts.

    Even if they're not much use in this situation, just feeling them can be a comfort...

    I mean... It's not like you directly participated in any of the fighting or culling?

    If Jade had done it, it would have been a lot more subtle and a lot more thorough.

    ...I think she's just feeling a little betrayed. Understandable.

    ...Dumb luck sounds about right. That and being too insignificant to be much threat to anything larger than a system or two.

    Honestly, if not for her tech skills, she'd probably have been dinner long ago.

    Those that haven't been boiled away by the Reach?

    ...Or perhaps feed false data into the system?

    Or rather, make her think so. I suspect being right there when she learns of it might get you dragged along to fight them.

    ...So, wait until the Reach actually attack? Risky.

    A good hidey-hole if nothing else, then?

    Ah, still thinking like a ninja, eh? Good, good...

    Not a lot of time, unless they can get a Ring wielder into position.

    ...Still a big ask. Especially under the Reach's guns.

    Well, it sounds so easy when you say it like that...

    Second thoughts about fighting for NEMO, Jade? Sadly, Earth is worse off right now...

    Well, then. this is going to be a tricky little bit of misdirection. Get the captain looking one way, the Reach the other, and slip in between them? Well, you don't join the Darkstars for an easy life... Or a long one, more often than not. Still, lots of moving parts, lots of places something can go wrong... :confused: And I can hear an Irish-accented giggle somewhere...


    Scarabs and marines inbound, suspect boarders.
     
  12. Old Knife

    Old Knife Not too sore, are you?

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    Who are the power company?
     
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  13. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Jade was offered a job as security for a company back on Earth before she joined the Darkstars.
     
  14. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    I will be surprised if their relationship survives her finding out that LePaul just abandoned Earth.
     
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  15. Mecrazyfang

    Mecrazyfang Not too sore, are you?

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    Either ; then she'd
    or; and she'd
     
  16. FuzzyZergling

    FuzzyZergling Getting out there.

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    and then she'd
     
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  17. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    True, but she's still helping the Citizenry, and that's killing her.

    It's actually kinda good that she can still feel guilt instead of burying it deep down.
     
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  18. AmericanNumbers

    AmericanNumbers Not too sore, are you?

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    It's actively hilarious that they've managed to basically restore some normalcy in the middle of an active Anti-Life equation. Death worlds. Lol.
     
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  19. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    These people.
    Thank you, corrected.
     
  20. Khornelius

    Khornelius Overlord of the Underworld

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    She probably just assumed it would apocalypse at least once while she was gone. The real surprise would be if it actually sticks and wasn’t undone in some far flung manner.
     
  21. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

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    And if they sound appealing, I guess Jade doesn’t like the Darkstars missions very much.
     
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  22. Valint

    Valint I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    A "heroes for hire" corporate team. Kurt Busiek created them for a series back in the early 2000s.

    There's also a potentially relevant plot hook there, in that one of the Power Company's missions involved them freeing a Controller who was being held prisoner by some supervillain.
     
  23. mastermenthe

    mastermenthe Mint Thistle

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    Fucking how???
     
  24. Huttj509

    Huttj509 Getting sticky.

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    I'm sure in general she likes them just fine.

    Deep cover on a crippled ship with a bunch of angry warriors and incoming scarabs? That'll make folks second guess things.
     
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  25. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Dr Polaris, DC's answer to Magneto.

    And somehow the author thought it made sense that Polaris could tap the Controller's psychic powers as a battery for a power up.

    Yes, because Maltusians are known for their magnetic personalities...
     
  26. Rafin

    Rafin Not too sore, are you?

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    I am starting to like Zartok more and more. "I want to become a powerful emperor and if I have to be compassionate and just to achieve that, so be it."
     
  27. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    That's called pragmatic villainy over at tvtropes.

    For example in a Vampirella comic there was a nosferatu king who founded an organization of monsters and monster adjacents who regularly save the world. Because if everyone dies in an apocalypse he and his subjects would get awfully thirsty real quick.
     
  28. Threadmarks: Counterpunched (part 18)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Now

    Focus.

    Don't think.

    Focus.

    Don't think.

    It's easy to work like this, entirely in the now, all thought of what came before and what will come after banished from my mind. Who is that coward and traitor Agnie, who turned on her shipmates to live this half-life? Not me. Not here.

    "How's it look?"

    Even this, another act of betrayal, isn't something I would have done without someone pushing me. Cheshire didn't throw up her first blood porridge. Cheshire didn't shrink back from the first Citizens to challenge her. Cheshire saw a way-.

    No. Don't think it.

    "I can repair it enough to work. Without going outside."

    "Good. I don't think the Reach are feeling that generous."

    The auto-seals have worked, which is why the air is thin and we're breathing through masks rather than needing full suits. But I'm repairing by tearing out melted components and replacing them with similar parts I salvaged from other parts of the ship. Some sort of… Local power surge strong enough to arc past the surge protectors? And some EM spill over from the shields. There are probably… A lot of systems like this. And I doubt that the Reach have anything compatible.

    "How much functionality do you want it to have before we call the bridge?"

    "As much as we can. It needs to be completely clear that the Reach are about to board us."

    "What if they're not?"

    "Then we wait until they are. But I don't think we'll have to wait long."

    "How-?"

    Don'taskdon'tdrawattention!

    "How..?"

    "If we-. If we survive, you'll be a Citizen."

    "What, because I killed Dulcya? I wasn't sure that's how it worked."

    "Not just.. that. Your… Presence. Your purpose. If we live, the leaders will view you and find you worthy."

    "Lucky me, but like I said, I plan on jumping ship."

    A bit more power flowing. The connections are holding.

    "How do you do it? Become…"

    "How? Oh, that's easy. I was trained as a killer from birth. My species are considered adult at eighteen and I killed-. I murdered for the first time when I was fifteen. If you see enough violence close up, you just get-. Numb to it. It becomes your 'normal'. Have you finished?"

    I nod as I complete the connections and use my bracer to restart the computer. Start up looks good.

    "Yes. Just.. bringing it online now."

    "Will the Reach be able to see?"

    "Yes."

    "Should we get out of this section before running the scan?"

    "There's.. no point. They almost certainly knew the moment I got somewhere with the repairs."

    "So they want us to see. I wonder why?"

    The first returns of the scanner come back. The external components are damaged. If they make any active effort to hide, we won't see them. But-.

    "There's-. There's a troop ship. It's heading for us."

    "How about that? We should probably let the Captain know."

    "How did-? You-? Know..?"

    Cheshire's mask makes it impossible to read her facial expressions. But the set of her head makes me feel like I've asked a stupid question.

    "Can we tell if they've got any Scarab Warriors with them?"

    "No. No, those-. We'd need main sensors for that, and they were completely destroyed. We don’t have the parts to rebuild the detection system."

    "But they'll probably have a Scarab. At least one. Okay. Can you tell where they'll come from?"

    I activate my bracer's hologram display, showing their location relative to us.

    "Here. They know we don't have shields or point defences here, and their ships around this area are in position to shoot with small-sized weapons if we somehow push them back."

    She nods. "Nice that they value our lives more than the lives of their boarding party. Are they transmitting any messages to us?"

    "This system isn't-. Isn't designed to pick up messages. I-I can't-."

    "That's fine." She-. She pats me on the shoulder-. Oh. "Don't worry about it. Let's get to the other side of the bridge and then signal the Captain."

    I follow close behind her as we cross the ship-. The wreck. I see two other engineers working under the watchful eyes of their 'protectors', and I can see that their expressions are the same as mine. The others we see are soldiers, some trying to rest while others work on their weapons.

    So, I'm… Cheshire's property, now. I… Don't think that she's taken anyone since she joined-. But if she's going to be made a full Citizen, maybe she thinks this is the time? Working on a ship with her would be better than working on a ship with-. Like this. If-.

    "You're not my property."

    What? "What?"

    "Sorry." Cheshire glances back. "I forgot about the hand-on-the-shoulder thing. I just wanted to reassure you. Don't read too much into it."

    Oh.

    "Okay, this should do it." Cheshire finds a reasonably intact wall communications unit, and… Signals the bridge.

    "WHAT?!"

    "Captain. We got a sensor back in working order. Sending-"

    "YOU'RE BOTHERING ME FOR-?!"

    "-now, enemy boarding party incoming."

    "Oh. Then I guess you get to live." The Captain smiles, cruelly. "Guess I better go welcome them. COME ON, BITCHES!"

    The Captain steps away from the bridge monitor without bothering to deactivate it, letting me watch as she kicks a broken body out of the way as she heads for the door.

    And there's the portal machine.

    With a woman's head shoved half-way through it.

    How am I supposed to-?

    "Don’t worry. We don't need the full thing. Just single person point-to-point."

    "I… I can't-."

    "You won't know until you try, and we don't really have any other options. And if the worst that can happen is the same as what happens if we do nothing, you may as well try."
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2023
  29. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Well that was a depressing POV. Also, I just realized that now it's Cheshire's turn to help a woman who's in a dark place which will eventually result in said woman being attracted to her/doing something to Cheshire due to mind control/alteration. If this happens, Cheshire and Paul should compare notes.

    That should say 'knew'.
     
  30. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Don't want to get hopeful so you don't potentially lose it later on.

    "value"
     
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