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

15th February 2013
19:01 GMT -5

Karshon started at about two metres tall. He doubles that almost immediately and then keeps going. Two Justifiers who were in the immediate area step out from behind cover and open fire with automatic rifles. They don't do any damage that I can see. Karshon… Doesn't just blast them with a psybolt. Instead, he dashes over to them, grabs them in one oversized hand and-.

Ah.

I think he was trying to pull their helmets off. Unfortunately he took their heads off with them.

He drops the bodies, his head angling towards the direction which the largest concentration of Justifiers are coming from.

So he's definitely not the city boss. He was just… Openly infiltrating, because Team Anti-Life just assumes that if you're not attacking them then you'll fall to the Anti-Life eventually, and the people who do aren't good at questioning. So is Onomatopoeia in charge? I have no idea what the sound of a giant shark's bones breaking are.

Okay, majority of the city… The people aren't having a good time of it but only the Justifiers are immediately in danger. Tuppence first.

I drop down, quick-fabricating a spy drone and sending it towards the broadcaster. Tuppence is exactly where I left her, dropping into a foetal position. Fortunately, she doesn't pull away when I put my right hand on her left shoulder.

"Karshon has-."

"Ah-huh ah-huh ah-huh…"

Mentioning his name made it worse. Okay.

"He is on the other side of the city fighting Justifiers. He's not coming here and doesn't know where we are. You're relatively safe."

Okay, her eyes are focusing a little better, but it's clear that she's still nearly out of her mind. She can't fight like this, or even act as support. I could try flooding her with orange light, but that sounds like something that would leave her pretty messed up. What else-?

I use a quick burst of sonic energy to check that the Water Department building has the internal structure that the plans suggest. Mostly, one reinforced cellar isn't to official specifications. I drop down to look in a window and all of the staff are in the same position as Tuppence. They aren't in any position to report our presence and I can't see anyone wearing a Justifier helmet. Good.

I rapid-fly to the door, unlock it and rapid-fly inside, dodging around obstacles until I reach the well-locked door to the out-of-spec basement. The locking system is a bit more advanced than the one on the entrance door, but isn't particularly complicated. A quick application of ring and I'm through, into… A disused store room. Another scan… There, there's a hatch going down into the utility tunnels, but the room below it is far larger than it needs to be, and the floor here is reinforced. A moment's work with the ring and then fly down.

**Know absolute terror.**

Looks like a room an engineer might pull an overnight stay in. Open up the cupboard… Yes, there we go. A couple of devices marked as 'behavioral regulators'. Might be a good idea to give one to Batman for mass production, but-. There's a manual, good. Scan it, and then fly back to Tuppence.

Oh my. I don't need to magnify anymore. Karshon is clearly visible, his body now large enough that I can see him around the tallest buildings in the city. He fires a psybolt at something, but one of the Justifiers throws up a purple beam of their own at it and the psybolt veers off course.

Is he trying to bring Mannheim here?

Alright, connecting the regulator up. This part goes around the neck-.

"Tuppence, I'm putting something on you to try and block the effect."

She's just… Staring blankly ahead at the moment.

And this part goes along her spine… And on.

No obvious change in her behaviour. Check the manual… Oh. Her Danner-enhanced tissue is probably blocking the radio waves better than normal flesh. But I can fix that…

Tuppence sits up, suddenly aware!

"Back with me?"

"That-that-." She takes a couple of breaths. "What the fuck was theyat?"

"Agent Carlyle used the Medusa Mask on the Anti-Life broadcaster, creating mass fear. Karshon has-." I look past her, and he's-. I just point. "I knew that he liked fear, I didn't realise that it literally made him stronger."

"What now?"

"Um. Good question."

We still need that mask. The people under those Justifier helmets are probably mostly good people, and Karshon definitely isn't. On the other hand… Just killing Mannheim and/or Finality Man would represent a major victory. It would be like… Using the Elements of Harmony on King Sombra. You still need to actually have the Crystal Fair, but there's no longer any sort of hurry.

Do I think he can pull it off? Don't know. No way to know.

How would I fulfil my own objective? Fly over there, destroy the broadcaster and take the Mask by force. Then burrow out and leave Agent Carlyle and Karshon to their fates. That would temporarily free the local people from the constant Anti-Life broadcast, though the Justified would have it up and running again in a few days. And there are so many Anti-Life broadcasters on the east coast of America that it isn't really practical to evacuate them, which is why that isn't standard practice.

So what if I don't destroy the broadcaster and just nobble Agent Carlyle?

He'll almost certainly be killed if I don't evacuate him as well. Morally… He made a choice whereas the Justified thought they were signing up to be superheroes. Saving one of them is a better option. Karshon would probably shrink down, and… He'd have to choose between going down fighting and running for the shoreline. It's close by, and he could easily make the swim. The city would still be Anti-Lifed, but the only immediate threat appeared to be Karshon himself.

Someone fires a heavy plasma weapon at him from a building, and he responds with a psybolt that turns the entire building to rubble.

Or I ally myself with Karshon, defeat the Justified with a minimal number of casualties, remove their helmets and wait for a larger counterattack before deciding whether to leg it or not.

I don't think I can beat Finality Man… But can we? I don't know how tough Karshon is like this, but I don't feel any reservation about letting him tank its attacks and then falling back if he can't take it. The only wrinkle would be Onomatopoeia, but engaging him at range when he doesn't have a mob to set on me seems like a viable solution.

Small extra risk, much better optimal outcome. Assuming that Agent Carlyle and Karshon cooperate. I think it… Might even be WSWD.

"We're going to help the giant shark. Ready?"

"We..? You shuwer?"

"No, but it's the least bad option. I'll talk to Agent Carlyle, and if they're both hostile… Grab and de-helmet Justifiers while Karshon keeps them occupied."

She looks a bit sceptical, but nods. "Okay. Y'all think it's best."

I tether her with a flight aura and rise-.

"'poof'"

"Darn it."

 

15th February 2013
19:01 GMT -5

Laser turrets, infrared auto-targeting and sound suppressors.

Compliance.

Where is-? Standing in the middle of the road, ducking behind an abandoned car as the lasers begin burning through the chassis.

Construct grenade launcher with flashbang grenades.

Compliance.

And fire. He'll see the attack coming and almost certainly have something to block it, but he can only say one thing at a time. I point at his location.

"He's there. I'll keep him pinned."

Tuppence snarls. "Fahnally."

She crouches and then leaps, flying through the air and-. And cracking the roof we're standing on so that the roof of the room beneath us collapses, fix that. Tuppence herself lands in the road about half way to Onomatopoeia as the grenades-

"'tink'"

-land on and around him without detonating. I keep firing, because if it keeping his mouth occupied then it's doing its job. Tuppence-

"'blah-heeeeeeee'"

-grabs a motorcycle and throws it at him just as he sets off a flashbang before it leaves the barrel. An error on his part, as my construct armour has auto-sensors and dimmed my vision the moment it happened, and it didn't do anything to stop Tuppence. Her bike hits the roof of the car he's hiding behind, bounces and then clips him as he dives aside!

And into the path of my laser turrets.

One bores into his chest-. He's armoured, but it looks like its just steel rather than steel/ceramic and a laser will heat it up nicely. Another hits him in the leg and-. No armour there, it's just burning flesh. Another hits his shoulder and the last one doubles up with the first and hits his chest as well. Justifiers can usually cope with pain but that's quite a lot of burning.

At least it stopped him blocking my flashbangs.

'Blah-heeeee' indeed.

That makes him shake, spasming in a way that must be an automatic reaction because Justifiers who get hit with those don't usually react so strongly. Tuppence reaches him a moment later and I cut off the lasers just as she grabs his helmet in both hands and pulls it apart!

She's done that before. Fingers in the right spot to gain leverage, breaking the helmet in the right places to avoid stabbing the head underneath. She then grabs hold of the remains and crushes them, destroying anything that could be used to broadcast the Anti-Life.

Then she flicks him in the forehead, sending it back into the tarmac and stunning him.

She stands over him for a few seconds, breathing hard.

"This guy was jus' fah'n us 'cuz a' the Anti-Life, raht?"

I rise off the roof and fly over to them.

"Not sure. He helped out Klarion before the mass child murder thing, but I wasn't ever sure how much of that was him and how much whatever Klarion did to him. Simple solution."

I form a construct railgun, load a mageslayer round and fire it into his chest… At low velocity. I'm not trying to kill him here. I dimly… Feel something change as the round hits… Not sure if that was the whole of the enhancement spell-. Shoot him again.

This time he just jerks in response to the impact.

"No more sound effects."

And without the helmet he should be affected by the same fear projection that's paralysing everyone else. I take a careful record of his face just in case he becomes a problem later.

"Right, let's go."

Karshon doesn't appear to have gotten any bigger, but he certainly hasn't gotten any weaker.

**Hah!**

He appears to have decided to stop attacking, and…

I turn my empathic vision up a little.

Yes, it looks like he's trying to wake up the fear inside the Justifiers, pushing against the black shell of Anti-Life from the inside. Anti-Lifed people don't really fear-. Or rather, don't fear in a remotely normal way. Some of them are still attacking him, but they've lost coordination. His efforts are definitely doing something, though they aren't being freed by it. I don't think that can work but I don't know that it can't work.

**Hello, little orange light.** His left eye is taller than I am, and it's currently locked onto me and Tuppence. **Are you going to make this interesting?**

"I wasn't planning to. I'm actually here to pick up the artefact that Agent Carlyle is using."

**That would be a problem. For you.**

I shake my head. "No no. I'm happy to take it after this whole thing fails. Carry on with what you're doing. It's a valuable learning experience."

**I'm trying to break their minds with the most horrifying thought that they can comprehend.**

"Right, but they've already been Anti-Lifed. That's like trying to let the air out of a flat tire. You might get some, but it's not really going to change anything."

He eyes me for a moment, then points at one of the Justified staggering around near his feet. Ring, compare visible uniforms and anything you can scan with known superhumans,

Compliance. Files available.

**That one. Bring them up here.**

I dimly recognise the man, and my ring fills me in. Amazing Man Three, currently having his body mimic steel. That makes him strong and tough, just not giant shark strong and tough.

I send a construct harness down to grab him. And use the fact that Karshon's focusing on me and his chosen Justifier to covertly deliver Tuppence to ground level.

**The helmet. What does it do?**

"It's like an Anti-Life broadcaster, but for the wearer."

**Not part of the network. That is why they don't feel fear.**

"Yes. Most of them aren't even broken like some people are from regular exposure. A surprisingly large number become functional again after the helmets are removed."

Karshon turns his head so that he can get a better look at Mr. Clay.

**Disappointing. This one smells brave. Take the helmet off.**

I take x-ionised blades out of subspace and carefully cut it off him, though between the Anti-Life exposure and fear projection he's pretty out of it.

**Unfocused. Like this I would crush him easily.**

"True. But if I free all of them, that is likely to attract Mannheim's personal attention. He's… I think that he's got more personality than they do."

**Or I could fight you, Lantern.**

"You can do that afterwards. But you need me to remove the helmets."

**Perhaps.** His mental voice sounds pleased. *Do it, Lantern. Show me their master so that I can break him.**

"As you wish."