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

9th January
06:33 GMT

I'm not sure whether I should feel proud or insulted.

…

Ah, who am I trying to kid? It's pride all the way.

Standard complement for a patrol boat is twenty. Standard rules of engagement require four to stay on board. Ships have two main guns, so there are at least six shooting at me right now.

Main guns that have surprisingly limited arcs of fire, which is why Komand'r just tore through another without being shot.

Another blur descends through the ceiling and starts shooting at me. Shield's fading a little. I can't take this indefinitely.

So there are around a hundred Manhunters taking positions in an urban environment, quite possibly in constant telepathic contact with one another. Armed and trained, but probably not that experienced in actual warfare because Mars has been at peace since unification.

And M'gann is good at what she does, and she's got more relevant experience than they do. But she isn't up to taking on a hundred of them. Frankly I'm a little surprised-.

There's a concerted push against my mental shields. Nothing that I can't hold off. Yet, at least. J'onn specifically noted that M'gann was unusually powerful and I can hold her off. But a hundred, and at least a few of those are probably specialists. Need more help.

**Hu-?**

Ring, contact Circe.

By your command.

"Hello, Grayven. How is the peace conference?"

"Under attack. By troops with magic defences. Are you available?"

"I'm not really dressed for war-" There's a small explosion in the general direction of where M'gann went, and I… Think I see bodies. "-but if it's urgent..?"

"I've got a giant shield up. You just need to counter their invisibility spells. And I know you can don your armour with a word."

Komand'r starts to come under fire from the Martian infantry, and-. Her constructs are fading a little as she weaves through the air.

"Komand'r, fall back."

"I can manage."

"… little more fragile since I returned most of my power to Hecate."

"Komand'r, you've done enough damage and now they're focusing on you. I've got magic users and telepaths who can support you, but they're not here yet. Circe, you don't work for me, and if you're really concerned I can have the G-Trolls bring in mobile force field generators." Which I would be doing next anyway, because the Apokoliptian in me is demanding that I find the prat running this show and rearrange their face hard enough that they won't be able to shapeshift it back. Now, with Jean accompanying the children, Mortalla will be on Challenger Mountain's desk. "Mother, please arrange a group of G-Gnomes for telepathic defence work and get a pack of G-Elves to bring though a building-scale reactive shield system."

"At once, Grayven."

I'd wince at her instinctive obedience, but in a situation like this it really helps things along. Circe.

"And please see if you can get hold of J'onn J'onzz, and get him to visit the Manhunter Marshal."

"I will.. ask."

BOOM!

Four boom tubes open at ground level beneath me, G-Trolls lumbering through with equipment strapped to their backs and glowing faintly blue from the aura of the environmental shield emitters they're wearing. Next come the G-Elves, snatching the emitters and sensors from the backs of their larger kin and-

Komand'r retreats back behind my barrier, blind firing behind her as she goes.

-spreading them out facing the incoming attack, scrambling up the front of the building to get them in position.

"Their telepathy was weak. I've endured far worse. Where are your telepaths?"

I point down to where a G-Troll is carrying more than the standard load of G-Gnomes. "They're not physically resilient, but if you extend your construct armour around them-."

"Fine."

Circe precipitates out of the air next to me. "It isn't fun to tease you when you're actually focused like this. You ignore half of it."

Komand'r frowns at her for a half-second, then dives towards the G-Gnomes.

"You can tease me later. The spells-."

"I'm not sure that orange Amazon would like that." Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Yes, I see. Invisibility and scry wards bound up into a spell which looks like it's supposed to-."

"Yes, you're very clever. Can you end it?"

"Oh please. A simple twist and the caster-"

Three wrecked patrol ships appear, crashed into buildings across this cavern. Five more are still in the air above us, holding fire for the moment. And the Manhunters…

"-becomes the only one befuddled by their work."

Fire teams have formed, groups of three moving through the city with their guns trying to cover every angle while another hangs back with eyes glowing. Then I see M'gann rise up behind a support and grab him around the head.

"KKGGGHHAAAARRR!"

She tosses him aside and flies at his squad as they turn, bending around or phasing through their shots. One lowers his gun and a lump of debris flies at her from her right only for her to turn, grab it and push off it into the one telekinetically throwing it at her. She stabs him in the chest with her claws before phasing underground as the two remaining members of the squad try to draw a bead on her. When she doesn't reappear one starts to go to check on the optimistic telekine, only to stop and look back at the squad's other member. A moment later they both fly upward to deny her an angle of attack with cover…

And I watch as she makes a pop out attack against another squad a city block away. She doesn't appear to be exactly going for kill-shots, but I can see where there are bodies on the ground and they're not all moving. I've got no idea what's going on telepathically… Shouldn't they be able to co-ordinate better than this?

"Thank you, Circe."

There's a faint hum as the shield generators go live, and I allow my construct barrier to drop. That provokes a round of focused fire, the force fields… Well, they handle it. They're not constructs, and we'll probably need to scrap most of them once this is over, but the sudden hope of our attackers has been dashed. What next? I see the Manhunter lines shift, abandoning ground level and turning to focus on M'gann's last known position.

"G-Gnomes, project fire." Drones, fire to disable.

A wave of small grey heads come up, focusing on the Manhunters as their horns light up. The Manhunters… Don't collapse, they're almost certainly trained to resist telepathic attack, but there's a definite unease in their ranks. Purple beams flash out from my drones, those Manhunters hit staggering and slumping.

Komand'r returns to my level, a G-Gnome on each shoulder. "Komand'r, would you be so good as to transmute the air around their position to methane?"

"If you insist." She holds out her left hand, orange light strobing through their ranks. Another flicker of unease, but methane is odourless. "Are we accepting their surrender?"

"If they all surrender. We don't have the facilities for prisoners like them." That should do it. "Ignite, if you please."