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

Stay hidden? Failed.
Look around. Kind of.
Find a way out. In progress.
Then come back. Probably not.

I've never been a midget before.

I can take on more mud or dump it, but I need at least a certain amount to be me, and if I add too much everything gets kinda… Numb. Like I'm waving around something that's kind of attached but not quite. I guess it's like having a body made of prosthetic limbs. And yeah, I can compress myself down a bit, but then I end up being far heavier than I look like I should be.

If you're a short skinny guy and the floorboards are creaking, the people around you don't exactly need to be Batman to spot that something's up.

So I've got Clay Krona with painted on eyes on top of a thin platform of me. Time Trapper was pretty sure that most of the Manhunters still in here aren't all that smart, so looking like Krona and faking his voice should be all I need to do… So long as I don't run into Krona himself. So I've got my actual eyes at the front of the platform as hard to see as I can make them but I'm still really hoping that I don't run into Krona. Time Trapper seemed pretty sure that he isn't super-powerful right now, but I get beaten up by a man dressed like a bat, so…

No Krona so far, and it's not that big a place. I really hope he's outside right now. I mean, that's probably bad for the multi-universe thing, but me not pulling this off is bad for the multi-universe too. And-.

Manhunters. A bit different from the one I was pretending to be, but according to Time Trapper they're not 'mission abort' dangerous. He seemed to think that their scanners are 'too advanced' to detect me, which… Eh, not like I've got a better idea.

"Manhunters, go and keep Time Trapper company. Make sure that he doesn't escape."

"By the command of Krona, I obey." /"By the command of Krona, I obey." / "By the command of Krona, I obey."

I guessed right? Jeez…

The Manhunters stomp off, which leaves me access to the storage room. Apparently this building is pretty much immutable and the residents just move the furniture around. Time Trapper said that Krona stuffed a lot of his stuff in here…

None of it means much to me, but apparently this… Looks sort of like a small solid metal funnel, but if I absorb it into myself and press with my internal mud…

And I'm floating. Okay, stage one.

I turn it off and make sure that my disguise is still there.

So now I can fly like a Manhunter, and Time Trapper is going to get confirmation that it worked when the Manhunters walk in. Great. Next objective.

This feels really weird. Not holding something inside me; I'm used to that. It's the crawling-across-the-floor-while-managing-a-man-shaped-body thing that I'm not used to. I know I'm not... What's the word… Humanoid, except when I want to be, but there's a reason why I usually look roughly humanoid. It's instinctual, and doing this I have to keep remembering that I'm not supposed to 'be' the Krona-shaped bit.

If I breathed, I'd sigh.

More Manhunters, and these are definitely the more advanced model. One of the more advanced models. So I lower my crawl speed and make a show of having Krona look around, like he's taking in the larger… Workshop? I don't know if that's something he'd do, but I don't think he'd program the help to question him. Still no Krona…

I have my Krona replica stop walking and slowly shift the rest of me into it. Yeah, this… Looks like where they blew the effects budget. I don’t have the slightest idea what any of this does, but apparently this was the last place Time Trapper saw Krona putting the power rings he was taking from all the Peter Wynne doubles. I can't see any glowing lights, which… Is a problem. I don’t think the Manhunters would question Krona poking around to try and find them, but it would be a risk. And it would take too long.

I blink, looking out of Krona's eyes and focusing on the closest Manhunter.

"Manhunter. Fetch me an orange power ring."

It doesn't say anything. Shit, have I fucked-? No, it's moving. It presses its right hand into a panel on the wall which chimes, then a compartment slides open. Inside there are a couple of weakly glowing rings plugged into… Some sort of alien equipment. The Manhunter presses part of it and part of the equipment retracts, allowing it to remove the ring.

So apparently orange rings really fuck up the people who use them. And Time Trapper didn't know exactly what it would do to me if I touch it. He suggested gloves or something like that. But Krona's supposed to be an expert with power rings, so…

The Manhunter stomps across the deck but I really don’t want to be here.

The Manhunter stops as the ring glows weakly and jerks in its hand.

Okay, literally the reason I exist is to do this and I really want to get-.

The ring jumps out of its hand and into mine and whooooow I've been thinking too small. I could turn myself back into a regular guy with this. No, better! I could get all the advantages of being a regular guy, then go back to mud whenever I want! I mean, yeah, the accident wrecked my career but it's not like I was getting any younger! Now I've got a fucking power ring and the robots are looking at me.

I put the ring inside my robes, turn a chunk of me around the ring into inert regular clay, then turn around and walk out.

Step two done. Now comes the part where I probably die.

I-. Matt the First… Whatever, saw the glowing versions of Peter Wynne. Time Trapper said that those ones are super-powerful mystic Lanterns, and that as far as he knows the Orange one is the most powerful. Don’t know how he ended up here, but I guess 'most powerful' doesn't mean 'unbeatable'.

I step out of sight of the Manhunters, shift into the shape of one of the advanced Manhunters, and march towards where Time Trapper said the exit was. No guards again, but the front entrance is still locked from this side. Time Trapper said that the quantum lock thing was a leftover from one of the previous occupiers of this place, but you can turn it off by pressing here and here-. Yeah, it's gone.

The Manhunters around the tuning fork look a hell of a lot more intimidating now. I still.. don't think they can kill me-kill me, and Time Trapper would probably take the time to stick me back together…

I turn on the flight funnel and float towards the tine that's glowing most. A few other Manhunters are flying around doing whatever they're doing, but none of them pay me any attention. Risk comes if the ones guarding the dangerous versions of Peter Wynne got told to stop anyone coming closer, and if that happens I'm going to have to hope I'm a little bit faster-.

Tattoos and an orange glow. That's the guy.

I shift the direction of my flight slightly and shit that's Krona. He's not looking at me but he's a heck of a lot closer than I want him to be. Looks like there's some sort of hole in the universe just in front of him, and I can just about see a whole lot of bright lights flashing through from the other side.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Can't change what I'm doing now. Can't go faster without giving myself away. Stick with it. Stick with it. You're an actor so fucking act.

Getting closer getting closer.

Aim…

"By the command of Krona, halt and identify."

Shit!

I turn up the floating funnel and shift shape into a ramming spike, shooting past the outer layer of the Manhunter cordon as I build up internal pressure, aiming carefully for the-.

The Manhunters start shooting and I start taking hits, but whatever they're shooting isn't designed for hurting mud. A few start getting closer, and they look like they've got some sort of shield-.

That'll have to do. I decompress, flinging a volley of hard ceramic spikes into the pod containing this Orange Lantern guy. Some glance off, a few cause light damage but a couple punch through. Then I fire the ring and really hope this works.

Okay
What the heck is going on?

My eyes open, and my surroundings explode with orange light!

"KRONA!"