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

Thank you, corrected.

 

Feels like a pretty major crossroads for the rest of the war. It also will add some interesting interactions to the already highly-anticipated meeting between Paragon and Renegade.

 

I was thinking about the situation back in Earth, and this feels like a Gold Morning level failure state for the planet.

I’m keen on seeing where you go from here, as you do tend to follow on from believable cause and effect and consequences for such titanic shifts to the world order, rather than returning to status quo by the next chapter.

 

I'm betting Earth is in the middle of outright war with Apokoliptian forces, is already trying to rebuild the world to something resembling the previous status quo, or the Justice League is forced to act as the temporary governing body of the entire planet.

 

Probably asking a lot of them, OL. Multiple maulings over the last day, several are dead in space, and the remaining active ones are... Scrapping them would be a kindness. As it is, the analysis process is likely to involve destructive processes anyway...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Ah. Bit late for the real fight, folks, but you can help clean up.

Not from people who mattered, I bet.

If there were more than one, they'd probably have decamped for personal combat by now...

Careful, guy is likely to be in quite a mood.

Defiant to the end, eh? I'm sure your name will be remembered... Whoever you were.

Yes, noted. OL can handle those himself. Or would you rather he throw the lot of you to the planet?

Better be sure to impress the importance of disarming. The home fleet won't be too happy if they see any live guns on approach.

Ah, well. No visible impact of the guy's former metaphysique. I suppose that's because it got eaten by the assimilation process.

Or would they like to receive the same treatment? Answer quick, I doubt the Minosyssan Ascendants will be too gentle.

Well, that's a pretty clear answer. I doubt being hung up on will make him any happier, either.

Ah, good, no teething troubles. That'll make thing easier. Especially since his new ship is in fairly good shape.

Hold, on, Reach fellows. Your guns?

...Oh, no. You do not get to pull the 'technical difficulties' lark. And I doubt you're going to get so lucky as to have another Boom Tube open for you to flee...

Pretty clear instructions. Let's hope they have the sense to follow them completely.

I'm sure someone will be monitoring their progress anyway...

I suppose you should make some effort to collect them before they die of exposure, radiation or incineration...

And won't that result in a few jump scares for them. Good-o.

Well, good to see someone of authority is still alive. They can handle getting who they can moving.

Since despite what the Chief Engineer said, there's no guarantee they've got atmosphere or survival suits...

...Yeah, that might be a bit awkward. Though I doubt tech like that would be in the hands of the common crewmembers...

Sock optional.

Ah, there's the incineration I mentioned. Bet there's a few spots like that.

Yes, he's proving to be something of a 300-pound gorilla in all this...

So, fight's over, OL has gotten prisoners and some awesome loot, and it's all done bar the cleanup. Some of which may need a mop. The matter of Grayven, though... Hopefully the memories of the assimilated New Ascendant can provide some insight on his character and temperament. Something to let OL get some advantage in any diplomatic discussions they might end up having.

 

Dude. You got your ass kicked by a New God a lot less powerful then Grayven less then a day ago.

 

Finality Man should be stronger than normal New Gods. This is assuming it is still related to Drax.

 

What's the population of a ship like that, before and after casualties? Are we talking hundreds or thousands, and/or how does it contrast to those marooned Gordanians from a while back?

 

No, I was talking about the New New God guy with the tiny tiny piece of Darkseid in him.

 

Pretty sure anybody who has a little of Darkseid in them can kick the butt of everyone who isn't stupidly powerful. Or hasn't taken any special anti-Darkseid precautions.

 

'assimilated', I think, belongs here.

 

Unless Heggra cuckolded Yuga Khan with Megatron I suspect that Drax is not a robot in this continuity.

Not 100% certain mind you.

But Infinite Man's gestalt nature would make him more powerful than a regular New God regardless of having a direct pipeline to the Source.

For example one time in the comics Impulse joined the gestalt.

Spoiler

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Plus Paul had a lot of reasons to not go full out with his power.

For example, he didn't bond with the Ophidian because that had the risk of Manheim infecting her with Anti-Life.

He also may not have used extremely powerful constructs of techniques because they could have damaged the planet.

Grayven doesn't seem to have Anti-Life and the battle may take place in space.

 

We know from Renegade side that Grayven does in fact have a portion of Anti-Life and the Omega Force.

 

When was that revealed? Because I don't remember that.

 

Grayven using the Omega Force: https://forum.questionablequesting....stice-si-story-only.8961/page-75#post-2877462

I'm not sure if it was established that the real Grayven-16 has any Anti-Life Equation fragments, but it would seem a little bit strange that Darkseid would give that gift to the Renegade but not the real Grayven.

EDIT: Never mind, found it. https://forum.questionablequesting....stice-si-story-only.8961/page-75#post-2870818 real!Grayven-16 knows "life=pain".

 

That was Grayven 50, who comes from a universe where Darkseid's dead and isn't preventing anyone from accessing that parts of the Anti-Life Equation in his possession. And Grayven 50 merely recognized the Anti-Life Equation part in the Renegade's possession, he never had one of his own. Is there any evidence that Grayven 16 either can fire omega beams or had his own fragment if the Anti-Life Equation in his possession?

 

Oh right, wrong segment.

https://forum.questionablequesting....stice-si-story-only.8961/page-98#post-4632842 This is the one I was looking for -- this one IS Grayven-16 using the Omega Force.

But it does seem you're right, there's no concrete evidence that Grayven-16 had an Anti-Life fragment before the merger with the Renegade.

 

This guy is a walking talking confusion generator.

 

Wanda, I presume?

 

She wanders the world so much, her name has gone wandering to.

 

I said this once, I'll say it again. This dude made Asteroid M without anyone noticing. Why couldn't he just use it as a launching point to colonize the rest of the Solar System? Form a sort of underground railroad to get mutants off Earth, and then send them to Mars and call it Planet M. Leave Earth and its constant conflict with normal humans behind.

Let humanity fight and squabble over a ball of dirt all they want while Magneto and the rest of his mutants conquer the stars. By the time humanity gets its collective shit together and steps out onto the galactic stage, they won't even be able to find a place at the table because mutants got there first and humanity is considered a laughing stock.

 

Magneto: but that would mean I can't kill innocent people to pay for the sins of a few idiots.

 

(Delayed somewhat by a storm-induced blackout down my way...)

Ah, Lantern and Magneto? There's an interesting combination of characters. Though I expect Magnus' tolerance of non-mutant supers isn't much higher than his tolerance of regular humans. Which is amusing, given the times he's appeared in other heroes' shows...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

The fun of dealing with someone who has an almost instinctive control of their power, and a very large radius of effect.

...Rail Guns. It's your own fault, Lantern.

Ha! I bet he made that change after said previous encounter with Lantern.

Okay, have you ever actually read a history book more modern than, say, 1960, Maggie?

And he's pulled some crazy applications of that out of his ass before. So it's not unbelievable.

Hell, Doctor Doom has a goddamn Time Machine. If he wasn't so focused on stroking his ego and messing with Richards!!, just imagine how he could contribute to historical studies.

Which is quite a bit younger-looking than his canonical age of... 65-ish? 75 or so? Mutants age damn well.

That it is. Let's not speak about the romantic teasing between Magneto and Rogue in the comics...

Honestly, that seems like a fun way to conquer humanity. Fuck super-powered punch fights. Just swan around all smoking hot in that skin-tight spandex and watch the men and women drool...

Wouldn't that be a butterfly? Xavier and Magneto working together again.

Not unless he's added a search mode for 'exotic emotional energy signatures' to Cerebro's sensors.

Honestly, if you got into more trouble than you could handle, it's not all that hard to leave. Not much can pin a Lantern down when they want to go somewhere...

And as noted before, it wouldn't be the first time he's ruled Genosha, or made a safe homeland for mutant-kind. Though all those occurrences never seem to end well. Either he fouls it up by being all Super-Villainy about it, or someone else ends up doing it.

Old politics... But that's mostly because the European powers and America stuck their beak into the Middle East again. And we all know how well that always goes...

Now see, there's an issue with that. Mostly 'writers can't get politics right...' But in this universe, there's bound to be all manner of antagonising factors...

Hey, they only did that once... Didn't they? ...Oh, right.

To be fair, it probably was a hell of a time... A young nation still trying to find its footing, while swinging its big stick trying to establish an international reputation... Of course someone's gonna take exception that that.

Free speech, after all. You can say what you like, but that doesn't stop someone else from having their say in response. Though if they do it violently, well...

Lucky Magneto had calmed down. If his ring had blinked off like that during the initial exchange of greetings...

Sadly, the super-hero community of the Marvel universe isn't as interconnected as the DC universe is.

...Technically, four. But the one you're not counting is probably something of a sore spot for Maggie, even today...

Not that that's stopped the comics flip-flopping on that fact for decades...

...Let's hope he doesn't come on too strong when he goes looking for them. Especially Wanda, if she's working with Tony Stark right now...

Ah, if only he'd coined his catchphrase here. Say it with me: 'Power Rings are awesome.'

Ah, so Wanda hasn't joined Force Works yet. (And what is with that name? Seriously, 90's...)

A bit older than they were in the comics when Magneto met them, if I remember right... It wasn't really declared outright, after all...

Heh. Bit of a mood, learning you have kids you didn't know about out there...

To be fair, you won't know if he'll stay bought until the wedding...

What a juxtaposition between plotlines. OL getting embroiled in messy diplomatic stuff... While Lantern here is trying to navigate the minefield of super-heroic romance. And honestly, I don't know which I prefer more. Lantern's probably causing more butterflies than anyone could predict, though... I shudder to imagine what Cable is thinking.

---

From behind his full face helmet...

Perfectly presentable man… For your age… I'm seeing-"

 

I am enjoying this story line, thank you for the update!

 

I'm guessing this Paul used some type of sleeping gas last time he met Mags.

 

I suspect this is a good representation of Cable right...about...now.

Spoiler

 

Good thing the Senator has such a big scary mutant that kills people for reasons he dislikes and he can point to to keep his constituents paralyzed with fear isn't it? I mean can you imagine how far he would get if he didn't have you Maggie?