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

2nd November 2010
16:34 GMT -5

I don't look around as the door opens, and not just because I'm busy clamping down on the fear of someone taking my things away or attacking me and the anger about someone coming into my place without knocking. I mostly don't look around because-

"Hey. You still doing okay?"

-Artemis has done this every day this week so far.

I turn around and… Yes, it… Does feel more natural to smile like this. "I'm… Doing alright, thank you."

"Ah, good."

"No, not 'good', just 'alright'. Still getting the mood-."

Great, I was trying not to-.

She nods. "The mood swings, yeah. I… Think I can tell what you're feeling."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." She nods again. "Your face moves a lot more now. And you don't try and stop it."

"No, I do, I just-." And I stiff upper lip through a wave of worthlessness. "I just don't succeed."

She nods, then looks around. "So what are you working on now. See you've… Still got the rats."

"I.. think I rather owe them a quiet retirement. Since I-. I know I just agreed 'no injections' and Vitamin X is usually taken orally, it wouldn't technically…" I nod and shrug. "But I understood the intent, and I'm not going to…" I shrug again. "So I'm basically just clearing this place out."

"So we'll see you around more?"

"Ah… Maybe. I'm actually… I'm.. still interested in making improvements to myself, I'm just… Going to avoid altering my body from now on."

She nods. "So… Better armor?"

"Acquiring magic artefacts. I'm not an-. I don’t have much experience of designing armour, it's probably better I just pay an actual professional for it."

She looks pretty darn sceptical. "Are magic artefacts better?"

"It varies, but it's a lot easier to ask a trustworthy magician to take a look than it is to ask for volunteers for experimental injections."

She thinks for a moment. "I guess as long as someone's looking at it first that's okay. Did you have someplace in mind to go looking?"

I nod. "Bolivia. Back in the sixties a minor supervillain called 'Diablo' operating out of the Bolivian jungle put together a small paramilitary using a mind control amulet."

She frowns. "What happened to him?"

"Run over by a tank. I read the biography of the man who beat him, and as far as I can tell the amulet got broken during their fight. Since it was broken and he had other things to worry about he just left the parts there."

"A mind control amulet."

"It's a lot safer to mind control people into giving up than it is to fight them, for them and us. You remember that talk Batman did about the results of repeated traumatic head injuries?"

"And that's all it can do?"

"The man who beat him -his name was Timothy Kelly- more or less tripped over his operation, and didn't study exactly what happened. The people he controlled snapped out of it almost immediately, so it's… Pretty safe."

"'Pretty safe' mind control."

"Ah…" I frown. "Did I..? Ever tell you exactly what orange power rings can do?"

She closes her eyes and exhales through her nose. "Mind control."

"No, worse. It's possible to use an orange ring to turn someone into a construct. Aaaaand it's permanent. Naturally I haven't used it…" I shrug, and she looks disturbed.

"What's that..? Like?"

"I don't know. I know it's possible to build working construct computers, so there's nothing… Fundamental about a mind that means that it couldn't become a construct without losing consciousness. I don't know what it does to the victim's soul, I don't know how much control the ring would have over them…" I fan out my hands. "Actually, it's… Possible to make a mind control construct with any ring if you know what you're doing, but it's… Difficult."

"That's kinda terrifying."

I shrug. "You know there are more guns in the US than people, right?"

"I.. guess." She shudders, looking away.

"Ah, I, I recognise that response. Is it something you want to talk about it?"

She shrugs. "I.. nearly got made an Alice one time. Mad Hatter came around my junior school playground, and I saw one of the other girls get abducted. I still remember what it looked like. She had this.. blank stare, and creepy.. doll-smile."

I think about saying 'it would have been worse if he'd shot her', but I don't think that trauma really works that way.

Instead, I nod in understanding. "Batman had a look at Mister Tetch's hat designs, and… Basically, if you don't have Mister Tetch's particular psychological abnormalities, you can't use them. And, yes, I don't intend to ever do that to anyone. And I may not even be able to put the amulet back together; it just seems like it would be really useful."

"Yeah, I guess-." She frowns. "Does it work on the guy using it?"

"Ah… I don't know."

"Cause I don't think either of us wanna go through this again."

"No. And.. I-." I mean, testing that function sounds like it would be sensible, but I understand where she's coming from. "I.. think I can give testing that a miss."

"Hm. Maybe I should come with you anyway. Make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"That.. might be a good idea." She smiles faintly. "Ah, I won't be going for a few days; until my mood stabilises it wouldn't be safe for me to use the ring. Or for.. anyone I was carrying."

She nods. "I'll bring a parachute." She takes a deep breath, eyes dipping. "So you're-. Ah, you're obviously different… Like this."

"Not being a psychopath."

"Yeah. Yeah, that. So…" Her eyes dart up to my face, then drop again. "Have you… Like… Thought about..?"

"Whether or not I want to keep dating you?"

She metaphorically girds her loins and looks me full in the face. "Yeah. I mean, the attention was… Kinda nice, but you weren't-. You, so… No pressure if you don't or anything."

She shrugs.

"Artemis, I… I wasn't lying when I said how admirable I find you, but-" I smile awkwardly. "-my brain's still a mess. Any answer I gave you now… It's not reliable. I could feel completely differently in either direction once my amygdala settles down."

"Yeah, I.. guess that's fair. Oh, ah, Mom wants me to invite you over for dinner."

I nod. "And I would be happy to attend."

"I mean, today."

"Oh. Ah, in that case…" I take a look around my workshop. Nothing that needs to be made safe right away. "Let me go and change my clothes."

 

5th November 2010
09:02 GMT -5

Artemis and I walk towards the training room zeta tube. Normally we'd have a team training-.

There's a gust of displaced air as Wallace appears. "Ah, hey, where you guys off to?"

Artemis smiles. "Bolivia."

"Are you..? Blowing off class?"

I shake my head. "I'm signed off for another couple of days while my brain fixes itself. Artemis is coming along as my minder."

"Okay, I guess. Does the League even have a zeta tube in Bolivia?"

I shake my head again. "No. We're going to Lima and then flying there."

"You mean on a plane, or are you using your ring? Because if your brain's still acting up that's probably not a good idea."

Artemis and I hold up our right fists. "I copied Booster Gold's flight ring. Don’t tell the Legion of Super Heroes."

"Who are-?" He nods. "Time travel, right." He shrugs. "Have fun, I guess."

"We will, thanks." Artemis nods, then turns to the zeta tube opening. "See you later."

"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B zero five, Artemis, B zero six."

5th November 2010
10:04 GMT -4

We step out inside an empty corridor in a WayneTech-owned factory, whose sole purpose is to conceal the zeta tube.

"So how good are these flight-rings?"

"The environmental shield is pretty useful, but the flight is fairly slow." Which fits with what I remember of the League's attack on the sun-eater in the comics. "It would be better to fly-" We both start walking towards the exit. "-by power ring."

She nods. "And just use these rings if you have an-. Issue. So how would that work?"

"I can just carry you along." I pause, smirking as she glances at me. "Or I could just bridal carry you. I'm still strong enough to-" She looks away. "-do that."

"Really?"

"Sure. You don't weigh that much, and I'm still in peak human condition. Or I could give you a piggy-."

"Alright." She pushes the door open and I just stop for a moment. She hear that and turns back. "What?"

"Oh, I just didn't think you'd-."

"You don't have t-."

"No no. I offered." She hesitates, then carries on outside. I follow her out of the building and into the rear area of the factory. A few large bins and a lot of discarded cigarette remains. I take a step closer, the stop as I try and work out how to do this. Okay, so I can-. I half-crouch, and-. Left arm holding her legs is easy, but her quiver is sort of in the way and there's no obvious place to move it. "So…"

She holds out her left arm to put it around my back, then realises my problem. "Y-eah, how do you-?"

"If I put your bow and quiver into subspace?"

She nods, and I carefully focus on storing them, causing them to disappear in a ripple of orange light. Then I lean in, right arm going around her back.

"Okay, grab on."

"Uh-huh." She grabs on, and-. And our faces are really quite close together, and-. She's noticed it too.

Damn it.

I shift down a little and push my left arm into her houghs, which apparently is the proper name for 'knee pits', and lift.

Okay. Faces aren't so close together anymore, but I'm not sure this is better.

"Comfortable?"

"Uuuh, yeah."

"Nice deltoids."

She snorts and lightly slaps my back with her left hand as we take off and head east.

And what the heck am I going to do about that?

Because I remember doing a pretty good job of hitting on her, despite having no capacity for empathy and barely being able to read human expression. I worry what that means for humanity more generally, but… Aside from the Evil Formula… I'm someone she likes, and I got rid of that while a psychopath because she asked me to.

I'm trying not to look at her desires, but I can feel how relaxed she is like this, looking down and the Bolivian panorama beneath us. And I'm pretty sure she was blushing under her foundation a couple of times there.

Why couldn't I have been this good with fifteen year old girls when I was fifteen?

I mean… Ugh. Between her mother being in prison and her father being busy being a supervillain, Artemis basically raised herself for half of her life. She's a heck of a lot mature than I was at fifteen, ignoring the fact that the adults in her life are fine with her being a vigilante. A bow-armed vigilante.

And my mouth outran my brain and told everyone that I'm sixteen. Which means that as far as she's concerned everything's great now. And… I'm rather.. fond of her too.

Alright, in practical terms… I don't have to worry about becoming physically old while she's still young. I won't age as long as I have the ring, and I've rejuvenated my tissues and telomeres so even without it I'd probably be younger longer than she will. No need to worry about sperm quality decay, for example.

Uh.

I can… Oh. I don't know-. I can remember how it felt, to not… Care about… 'rightness'. The form of my own thoughts, and… I'm pretty sure I could just decide not to care. Ring, check my brain?

Still working normally, sport. Teenage girls don't stop being attractive just because you've got morals again. You could always say you aren't interested in having a relationship for professional reasons.

You've remembered that you're an orange ring, right?

Yes, and while you do want the hot girl, you also want to be a moral person.

Can I just take a bunt? Chances are that this relationship won't work anyway.

You shouldn't, but I'll take what I can get.

Great. Thank you.

We're here, by the way.

"Going down."

I swoop down into the jungle, hovering in front of an overgrown tank.

Artemis stares. "Is that..?"

Scan.

"Yeah." I land, set her down and return her weapon. "His body's over there. We should-. We should probably get.. someone to recover the bodies. Bury them."

She nods sombrely. "And what about the Left Eye?"

I've seen pictures of the Right Eye, and descriptions in the memoirs, but I don't know for certain what it looks like. Assuming it looks the same… Ring?

Orange light runs across the ground in a wave, then bits of crystal begin flying out of the ground to hover in front of me. Gradually, the broken parts of the gem stick themselves back together, and I catch it just as the glow cuts out.

And it occurs to me that I could use this to remove Artemis's affection. Just dial it down-.



No.

"That was easy."

I nod. "Mission accomplished. But I think it would be worth looking at the Temple of Zoltec while we're here. Interested in some sightseeing?"