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

21st August 2015
21:05 Japan Time

Diabo curls up into a foetal position, then bites down on his right forearm and starts sort of rolling back and forth on the ground.

"Yes, using emotional stabilisers and then coming off them can have that effect on people."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh…"

"I thought that you did a good job."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh…"

"Alright, alright. Get it out of your system."

He rolls back and forth a few more times, then rolls onto his back with his arms flapping down on either side of his torso.

"I'm dead. I'm dead."

"Can I have your dressing gown?"

He blinks. "Huh?"

"Since you're dead, and I doubt that you want your brother or father to have it. I won't be able to use it for a while, but it's pretty nice."

"I don't think this is a dressing gown."

"No?"

"I saw people wearing them outside."

"It still looks nice."

He tilts his head up to look at his yukata. "It does. Their weaving is as much ahead of ours as everything else they do."

"You'd be surprised. A lot of the traditional crafts haven't changed all that much. If you want to see the design, you could probably share it with the Empire's weavers."

"I just want to forget that the gate ever opened."

"On that subject, how are you doing?"

"Can you keep me from falling asleep?"

"Yes? But I wouldn't worry. They've got a crack team guarding this place, and-"

"You think they're guarding it!"

"Honestly, yes."

"Can you check? Can..? I check?"

"Ah, no. You could find out if they want to kill you, but you would only know if they planned to kill you in your sleep after they received their orders because I doubt that they feel any malice for you personally."

"Oh."

"And I doubt that they'll receive them. Killing ambassadors is frowned upon."

"It's frowned upon in the Empire as well. Do you know how many ambassadors we've killed?"

"Yes. I'm a god."

"O-." His eyes widen. "I meant no offence, divinity."

"It's fine. But do you really want to stay in this room-"

"Yes."

"-rather than gain useful intelligence on Japanese society by interacting with your protection detail?"

"Yes… But… No."

He sighs and rolls into a sitting position.

"What should I try to learn?"

"How they think. What makes them do things. You already know that they don't act like citizens of the Empire. You need to learn how far it goes."

He nods, and I feel his own desire kindle as he immediately associates learning about the Japanese with his own short and medium term survival.

"You also need some sort of plan for when we get back."

"What can I do? I haven't won a victory. Father might even refuse to ratify the treaty I'm negotiating in the hope that the gate will close before he needs to pay them."

"By now, the soldiers sieging Alnus will have had plenty of time to see the bodies of their late comrades, won't they?"

"Yes. They won't just leave the bodies there to rot."

"And..?

"And… They'll have seen their injuries. What the Japanese weapons did to them. The tributary kings and the legate will be on my side, at least. But the senators in the capital won't be."

"You appear to have forgotten that you have me."

"I can't just pick them up and shove their faces in the giant mounds of corpses."

"..."

"I.. can?"

"In practical terms, yes. There's the further question of whether or not it would actually be productive to do that which you should consider before actually doing it."

"… Oh."

He stares blankly at the wall in front of him.

"I had assumed that the thing with the dragon would have caused you to gain an awareness of your personal power."

"Assassins. I can't-. If I do that with rich and powerful people-."

"How often do apostles get assassinated?"

"But I'm only as resilient as an apostle when I'm awake. Aren't I?"

"You're still tougher than a normal person when you're asleep. Poison or a stab with a knife wouldn't be enough. There are also various things that can be done to the room to make it harder for someone to approach your bed. Alternately, you could build a house on top of a mountain where no one else can reach and fly there at the end of each day."

He gazes into the middle distance. "I prefer that."

"Prince Diabo, you are going to need to interact with those people eventually."

"Yes… Yes, and I did, but I'm a lot more… Significant now. Whether they agree with what I've done or not."

"Life is not a safe occupation, Diabo. And while I'm sure that it sounds trite, the only way to get over your fears is to confront them."

"It's not that easy."

"Alright. Let's start with the security detail. You're awake, and you already know that you can defend yourself against their weapons."

"Yes, that's… True." He reluctantly pulls himself upright and walks towards the sliding door to his room. "And the young officer seemed-"

A bullet punches through the wooden wall and slams into his forehead!

 

21st August 2015
21:08 Japan Time

^{"-easy-going!"}

The bullet flattens against the part of the environmental shield covering his forehead, penetrating just enough to embed into it and delivering just enough kinetic force to knock him back a step. Construct armour snapping into place around his body, he raises his hand to check for blood even as he braces himself.

His hand finds the bullet and for a moment he's more confused than anything else. He's mentally off balance and it's not an immediately familiar object. Most bullets around Alnus Hill didn't hit anything that hard and so didn't deform quite as much, and the word he hears for 'bullet' refers to stones use in slings.

Then he realises what it is, and throws himself through the door.

"Guards!"

The lieutenant and one of the other male soldiers are already running towards us, also dressed in yukata but with their sidearms at the ready.

"Prince Diabo, are you okay!?"

"Someone shot me in the head!" He holds out the flattened bullet as proof of his injury. "See!"

The soldier looks Diabo over. "It doesn't look like you're bleeding, your highness."

Diabo isn't reassured. "Who's attacking us?!"

The lieutenant looks a little awkward. "We don't know, but the perimeter security should be all over them. It was probably just a stray bullet rather than one that was aimed at you specifically. We should move further towards the middle of the resort."

He gestures down the left hand corridor, and Diabo follows his direction.

"Were any of your people injured, Lieutenant?"

"No." He takes the lead as we come to an intersection, checking both directions with his gun ready before stepping forward. "Our radio operator is trying to contact our command, and the rest are getting their equipment."

Diabo, we could resolve this ourselves.

That would make them think that we think that they're incompetent.

You did get shot in the head in the middle of their sea-bounded country. At a certain point it's something they thank you for doing to save them the embarrassment.

He slows down, looking at me on his left hand and nearly having the soldier on rearguard walk into him.

I know that you're used to being relatively powerless, but the image of strength-.

Alnus Hill was different! I had to do it there! I have guards here!

I hate to sound like a-. Person who repeats themselves, but I'm forced to ask once again: what would the Diabo you want to be do?

He'd be surrounded by loyal guards who would put themselves between him and people who could kill him!

Have you seen your shield?

He stops completely, causing the Lieutenant to give him an interrogative look.

Are you certain that they don't have anything that can hurt me?

Am I? His construct armour is reasonable. Good, even, for someone who has been using a ring for only a few days. Repeated anti-material rifle shots would go through it, but would anyone have actually brought one of those? Regular sniper rifles wouldn't even penetrate his environmental shield thanks to his underlying need for personal safety. I haven't seen any weapon lasers or exotic weapons. A suitcase nuke would kill him, but the chance of someone bringing one of those…

While I can't promise that for certain, the chance of them having anything that can hurt you while you maintain your focus is vanishingly small. Use this ring to expand your awareness if you want to be certain.

"Ah, your highness? We should move."

Knowing wouldn't hurt, I suppose.

His eyes glow orange as he turns in a circle, trying to see who it is outside the spa resort. I see… Asian faces with… No unit patches, obviously, but overwhelmingly carrying genes from China. The other side in the gunfight appear to come from a more mixed background, which doesn't actually narrow it down. Very few places have special forces soldiers from a single ethnic background; they could come from just about any former European colony. Though given that this is Japan-

Diabo blinks as he focuses on the Lieutenant.

"The Japanese guards have vanished."

-I would guess they're America. They're all using NATO equipment, but for the Chinese that's probably because they copied it.

The Lieutenant nods. "That explains why we can't reach them."

Diabo, the fight outside appears to be between Chinese and American soldiers. China is a strategic enemy of Japan while Japan and America have been allied for seventy years. Given that the only obvious reason for the absence of the Japanese soldiers is their deaths, I would guess that the Americans are answering their call for help.

Are America and Japan equals?

Oh gosh no. America has more than twice as many people, a far larger military and strategic nuclear weapons.

What are-? Oh.

Yeah. Want to know why Japanese men are all thin? It's because last time they had a fat man, a city vanished.

"Lieutenant, I… I think I should go outside and help your allies."

"Ah… Well, we hit you with everything we had when you landed on your dragon, and you didn't get hurt. But we're supposed to keep you safe."

"I appreciate that." Diabo takes a moment to get himself-. He's thinking of himself as Emperor, how that will make him safe both physically and socially. "But I've got a god in a ring on my finger and you don't. Thank you for your trouble."

Diabo hasn't got the hang of transmission, but the idea that being an apostle means that he should be able to move faster than a normal man is a far easier one to grasp. The wood-panelled walls blur past us as he runs, a construct sword-

Really?

I know how to use it.

-appearing in his right hand. And then we're outside, flickers of light and bursts of sound echoing from the woodland surrounding us. The gunmen are using suppressors, but all that does is muffle the noise a little.

The ones who look like the Japanese, but with rounder faces?

Check that their equipment matches, because there are ethnic Chinese and Japanese in America.

Alright. I see… There.

The wood blurs past, and I see through his eyes as he bursts through a bush into a Chinese fire team. They don’t have time to reposition themselves before he's among them, sword stabbing through necks and eyes. As they fall he checks again and dashes towards the other cluster of Chinese survivors. This time one is facing the right way to see the oncoming orange glow and gets a volley off with his automatic rifle, but Diabo's armour construct is easily up to the task of stopping it. And stopping the blood spray as he slashes with his sword, sending the man's head flying.

Diabo checks his surroundings, sword at the ready and breathing far harder than his level of exertion really warrants.

"American soldiers! The Chinese are dead! I thank you for your assistance! If you have injuries, I am willing to offer my aid!"

And then the flashbang goes off.