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

4th February
19:58 GMT -5

"Really?"

"Well…" Mister Scott shrugs. "More or less. Blue was running the team with Ultraboy, not with me."

"He got married to a sixteen-year-old girl..? Because she told him to?"

"They spent a lot of time together after the Decapitation, then they were trying to work out how to kill Doctor Chaos. I guess she just had to be a bit more forceful to make him think of her in that kinda way."

Zatanna.. shuffles uncomfortably next to me, and Mister Scott regards us curiously.

"You two… Not together? Blue's big problem was the age gap, and you two look like you're the same age to me."

"No." / "No, we're… Not."

"Alright." Mister Scott shrugs. "Hardly matters to me. What else you wanna know?"

"Everything. To come up with a workable strategy for keeping your Syndicate going, I need everything. And some time outside. I want to check everything you're telling me."

"Sure, we can set that up. But I was mostly talking about if there was anything you wanted to ask me. Not everything we do gets written down, y'know."

"I didn't…" Zatanna glances at me. "Read the full report on the Syndicate. If… President Slade could beat the Syndicate when it was at its strongest, how are you still here?"

Mister Scott shakes his head. "No, he couldn't. The Syndicate was effectively above the law for six years. Then Luthor got the smart idea of travelling to a parallel Earth to ask for help. We got… Blindsided. Well, I say we, I was retired at that point. We knew that Luthor had cracked our security, we just didn't think he had enough manpower to do anything about it. Next thing we know, he's back, and he's brought a team of Management recolors with him."

"Who were they?"

"The Justice League. Not the one from your universe. Ultraboy checked that before their little excursion to your LexCorp. They attacked Syndicate operations all over the United States." He glances to his side where Olympia has started grinding her teeth together. "Olympia got a front row seat at one of them, if you're interested in getting a blow-by-blow."

"I will rip out her intestines when next we meet."

"And then, when everyone was running around trying to defend the operations that were still going on, Luthor and the League attacked the moon base. Managed to jam the teleporters when it was only the Management on board. Wilson actually led the Marines boarding party himself. Which I kinda respect."

"And… Then the League left?"

"Sure. Mission accomplished. Except Wilson didn't actually think Luthor would be able to pull it off. He didn’t have anyone in position to attack all the other Syndicate bases or companies. And they didn't have anyone telling them what to do."

"The League half-arsed it."

Mr Scott shrugs. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. Maybe they had their own business to take care of back home?"

"No, I know the Earth Sixteen Justice League. It's not on the job full time. If they could spend a few days here they could spend a few more, or come back a little later. If they didn't, it was because they decided that their involvement was no longer required."

"Did the Syndicate try to rescue the.. managers?"

"Owlman and Johnny Quick were killed during the League's attack. The rest? Hah, Ultraman killed President Wilson's wife. What did they think was going to happen?"

"He killed him?"

"Exposed him to blue kryptonite, then beat him to death with a crowbar in his prison cell. Power Ring got disarmed and then shot in the head. They had to use a nuke on Superwoman. We don't call it the Decapitation because the heads survived."

"Okay, but if President Wilson hates the Syndicate that much… Why didn't he do anything about the rest of you?"

"Putting something like that together takes time. And by then, Made Men had already started killing each other so he figured he didn't need to."

My blue counterpart didn't mention that, but I suppose that it makes sense.

Zatanna blinks in surprise. "What? Why?"

"Because they're supervillains. None of them have any higher ideology than their own preservation and enrichment. The moment the Management were no longer around to referee, they reverted to type."

"A little harsh… Blue and Ultraboy kept the Team alive, Jimmy Olsen took charge of Ultraman's people… But mostly true. Things really got going about… Oooh… Three weeks later? Pretty much died off now. A few bright young things tried to set themselves up as the new Management, but everyone else was just fighting over territory. Thanks to the Don, things in New York were pretty calm, but everywhere else was a mess."

"Tragic."

"It was for everyone who lived there." Zatanna frowns. "What, you think they're keeping it in the family? Wow, you really aren't Zorina, are you? People die in the crossfire, people die being in the right place at the wrong time. Having interests that conflict with the new kings and queens of the hill. Being anywhere near the more aggressive Made Men, now Owlman isn't around with the super sedatives. Or by thinking that they can actually arrest us now that the top bosses are pushing up daisies and not getting that we aren't any physically weaker."

"Did anyone come after you?"

"Oh, phsss, I was an old man, they didn't care about me. And the Syndicate members who did respected me enough to leave me alone. Think Olympia here got a few new notches on her spear though."

Her hands ball into fists, her face twisting in anger. "It took the combined might of the Hellenic peoples to force the Amazons from Greece and they dared to think that-."

Mr Scott reaches behind him and puts his right hand on her left arm. She flinches, and then calms.

"There were a lot of bodies on the floor before anyone really got into position to organise anything. The surviving Justice Underground members -like Q-Ranger- got out almost immediately, which meant they could actually fight us without needing to have a whole battalion on hand. Blue was instrumental in holding things together. That's why him not being here is.. such a pain."

"What precisely do you need me to do?"

"Talk our guys and their guys into accepting something we can all live with. Thought it was gonna be an easy sell, then Wilson started up again and it's thrown everything out. Folks are getting skittish. Be nice if you could find out what was going on in the White House, check that Luthor's planning what we think he's planning."

"And what resources do I have? What authority do I have?"

He shrugs. "You're my main guy's younger brother. Folks know you're speaking for me and him both. You can't order us to hand ourselves over to the Feds, because that's not gonna fly with anyone."

"Can I include the summary execution of Made Men in my plan? The truly monstrous ones?"

He raises his eyebrows slightly. "Not an easy sell. Most of the people you're thinking about aren't actually Made Men. We liquidated a lot of our 'living weapons' so's Doctor Chaos couldn't use them."

"Still…"

"I'm not taking anything off the table, but you'd better have a good pitch to go with it."

"Right. We'll need you to show me the exit so we can confirm any of what you've just told me, then we'll get to work." Hm. "Actually, are the parts of the Syndicate you're in control of doing anything right now that President Wilson might find particularly objectionable?"

"Sure, everything. But if you're talking about stand-out objectionable… Yeah, one thing comes to mind."

"Then I'm probably going to need you to stop doing that right away. What is it?"