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

1st April 1995
20:26 GMT

Nineties mundane data protection, the sort of thing you can bypass with a dial tone. But my energy budget is unusually strict. I could scan the entire world, but…

I don't know how much of my optimal lifespan that would use. It might be none. It might be that the power from the potion went into making my ring and now it just does ring things, at least for as long as its current charge holds out. I'd experiment, but that might make me die faster.

And I don't know if this universe has souls, much less whether or not I still have one.

Death could be permanent here.

I could die. For real.

I dealt with that. Or rather, the comic book character whose memories I have dealt with that. And now I've got to deal with that all again, because-. Because it didn't happen. And I guess I'm glad to exist, but from my point of view I-. I didn't exist but my memories tell me that I did.

And I want to keep existing.

Everyone… Else… My friends, family… They don't exist. Didn’t exist. And even if I got more of whatever that potion was and… Pour it out…

I don't even know how to evaluate that. Definitely immoral without a way to sustain them. And then… I don't have a problem with selfishly bringing fictional characters I know into being rather than fictional characters I don't, but…

I don't know.

But keeping myself alive comes first.

Positives. Not many. With no Justice League here I can pretty much do whatever I want. Since I'll be dead soon anyway, there are basically no consequences that are worse for me than the inevitable. So between the aforementioned nineties electronic security and my willingness to completely disregard the law, I can hop from secure facility to secure facility and scan whatever I want.

If only anyone had anything worth stealing.

The National Security Agency facility near Angel Grove had plenty of data on their fights, as well as all of the personal data of each Ranger. Because ducking into an alleyway might throw off a putty but actual spies are a little harder to fool. But when monsters are destroyed by the Megazord's finishing moves there isn't much left in one piece, and sometimes what there is reverts to clay. And as far as they can tell, the clay itself is completely mundane.

I might be able to get more. But I'm not risking shortening my lifespan to try.

Area 51 was a disappointment. Not a single intact ship and most of their research on the fragments they have is on paper. I copied a few pages before deciding that it was worthless.

The Bermuda Triangle is a perfectly normal confluence of shipping lanes with a statistically average number of disappearances.

Loch Ness does actually have an alien sea creature in it. But it's not one that can give me what I need.

The Tunguska Event was an alien incursion, but reading between the lines in the contemporary reports it looks like Zordon dealt with it while he was in his prime. Some machinery was recovered, but between revolutions, governmental circular firing squads and general neglect, if there ever was anything that could help me it's long since broken beyond my capacity to repair.

I'm dithering.

I know that there were different generations of Power Rangers, but I don't remember when they went from just changing the current cast to restarting the whole thing. Or if they shared a setting. There were time travellers, ninjas, beast… Something or other? There probably are things I could loot to sustain myself. But I don't know enough to remember where they are.

I'm still dithering.

Did Rita ever have a goal? A… Strategy that went beyond this week's plan? Now that I'm not ten years old, the ability to teleport superhuman soldiers to anywhere on Earth seems like something that would make it simple enough to just bypass the Power Rangers and conquer the planet conventionally. Even if their equipment can't make many monsters within a given timeframe, she could easily…

Mid-nineties. The Bosnia war is still going on. She could make a deal with any of the involved parties, give them some monster support and then have a base of operations on Earth. Large parts of Africa would be incapable of offering meaningful resistance. The Russian Federation is still kind of a mess.

But no. She attacks Angel Grove. Is that because her experience tells her that the Power Rangers are the only thing able to resist her significantly? And that this is genuinely the most efficient route to go down? Am I overestimating putties? Regular putties could be beaten up by human martial artists, so they're probably perfectly killable by actual guns. The Lord Zed putties were invulnerable everywhere except the 'Z' on their chests, but they weren't actually any better at fighting than the other sort. Just tankier until whoever they're fighting works out where they should be hitting and then they could be destroyed by literal children.

I suppose that against someone who knows to attack the weak spot, they're actually worse than normal putties.

The giant monsters would still beat everything that isn't a zord or a tactical nuclear device. I'd bet on an infantry platoon against most regular-sized monsters, but they'd take losses killing it.

I look up, and there's the moon.

Time to stop dithering.

I accelerate, trying to spot any space-based defences. Or weapons. Or detection devices. Looks like a few American satellites are pointing at the moon, but I don't know if that's more than normal or not.

No weapons. The SALT treaty was intended to stop people using space based weapons against targets on Earth, not against other things in space. If they didn't want to use nuclear weapons then they could build a railgun and start blasting with that.

Are they dealing with the same problem of ignorance that I am?

Closer to the moon, and closer, and closer… There's the pot… Container thing, that Rita got out of. Odd that she just left it lying there. I'd have either kept it with me or destroyed it, but up to her.

Step through the dust and there's her citadel, complete with… Telescope that's currently pointing at me. Something about the building is throwing off my scans, but they definitely know that I'm-.

A golden fleck leaves-.

I stop, because while Goldar had effectively been reduced to scenery by the time I started watching he's supposed to be a significant physical threat. And to emphasise that I don't want to fight I hold my hands out to the side with my fingers unclenched.

By the looks of things his flight speed isn't all that great, but he's not on a death clock.

He slows as he approaches conversation range though he keeps his sword at the ready.

"You. You were supposed to fight the Power Rangers."

"Why? I had no reason to fight them."

"Because it is what you were made for!"

"And if I'd been told that, I might have acted on it. Or at least asked-."

"WHAT?! What do you mean, you weren't told? How did those idiots bungle that?"

"I couldn't tell you. My… Creator just told the Power Rangers that I was there to destroy them, without telling me to do so or explain why I should. I am here because I wish to offer your mistress my services. For appropriate compensation."

He sneers. "Mercenary."

"Yes."

His stare becomes slightly less intense. "Hah. She will hear you. And if you fail to impress her, you will not live to return to Earth."

"Rightoh. Lead the way."

 

1st April 1995
20:30 GMT

"You're back!"

The short blue person who was responsible for creating me shouts in surprise the moment he sees me approaching Rita Repulsa's throne. His jaw drops and his hands come up to cover his mouth. Then he throws his arms out to the sides in excitement.

"You're back, my Orange… Warlord! Are-?"

"Warmaster."

The winged ape next to him rolls his eyes.

Squatt just blinks. "Huh?"

"The name you picked for me was Orange Warmaster. You clearly put no thought at all into it and made it up on the spur of the moment in an attempt to encourage them to attack me after accidentally dropping whatever potion that was onto my comic."

"Ah…" Ms. Repulsa looks at him with an arched left eyebrow, so he decides to double down. "Don't worry about that right now. Are the Power Rangers dead?"

"Probably not."

"You came back here without doing your job?!" Ms. Repulsa gestures to me with her staff. "Tell me why I shouldn't destroy you where you stand!"

"I don't remember accepting a job. The short nitwit dropped whatever that potion was on a superhero comic. I had no reason to fight them and no reason to follow his orders." I smile cruelly. "Not that he actually remembered to give me any; he told them I was supposed to kill them, not me."

She glares at him and he cringes back. "Ah-aaa…"

"How can you be so stupid that you don't even tell your monster to attack?"

"Uh, I was-. Surprised! Yeah!"

"With the greatest respect, ma'am, there's very little point in blaming a moron for being stupid. He's working at the limits of his competence."

The ape-man snorts, raising his right fist to his mouth as the short blue one glares at him for his lack of support.

Ms. Repulsa gives me a grudging smile. "So! Why are you here?"

"The poorly brewed potion that granted me life only gave me a limited amount of power. When I run out, I stop existing."

"That's not a bug." Ape man wiggles his right forefinger at me. "That's a deliberate feature. The potion is only designed for creating short term minions."

"Ah. Then I apologise. The potion worked exactly as intended, which is a problem for me."

"Oh." Ms. Repulsa smiles cruelly. "So you want to live?"

"Just so. I already asked Zordon, and apparently I'm out of luck. If you can make me a 'real boy', I'm your man."

"I can make a new monster any day I want." She waves her left hand dismissively. "What's so special about you?"

"The dullard dropped the potion on a superhero comic. It brought me to life with all of the skills and memories of the character I'm based on. Years of fighting against supernaturally powerful opponents in all sorts of exotic locations. And I'm fairly powerful…" I glare at Baboo. "When I'm not having to worry about spontaneously snapping out of existence."

"Oh, that's not how it works. You'll be able to do… Ah… Nearly everything you could do in your comic. Not things that required other things to work properly, but everything else. And you should be able to do most of them as much as you want! Un… Til… You run out of power."

"Ah. In that case, why not accept? You'll want me to fight the Power Rangers anyway, and from the sounds of it I can do that without anything extra from you. If I win, I want you to extend my life. Is that something you can do?"

"Baboo! Bring me the potion recipe!"

"At once, mistress!" He bows and scurries off into one of the other rooms.

"Thank you. I do rather like being alive."

She gives me a hard look. "How do you plan on fighting them when all of my other minions and monsters have failed?"

I know that there are more zords buried in various places. I doubt that Ms. Repulsa whipped up the Dragonzord herself, but 'somewhere underwater' doesn't really narrow it down. Titanus is 'somewhere in the mountains in California', which narrows it down a bit, but a quick scan earlier didn't reveal it and I'm not sure how reliable my more exotic scans are at the moment anyway. She's in a better place to track the location of the main dinozord hangar than I am.

Other than just flying into Angel Grove and tearing apart a few buildings… Which I'd rather not do because I'm sure that insurance rates there are already ridiculously high. I could just snipe each of the Rangers from a few miles away, but…

I'm negotiating with Team Evil here. Just killing the only people who can effectively fight them is just asking to get backstabbed, and leave the Earth completely vulnerable to them. Making it look like I've killed them is similarly problematic: I have no idea what sort of sensors they've got up here, so I don't know if I could fake it convincingly. And if I did, I don't know what Rita Repulsa actually wants to do with Earth. She might just see that as a sign that it's fine to let her people go on a rampage.

"Is there any device or artefact that you particularly want to recover from Earth?"

"You said that you had extensive experience. If you want to impress me, kill the Power Rangers!"

"Show me the potion and I'll get right on it."

She pouts frustratedly, then turns to Baboo as he hurries back in, book in hand.

"It's this one, your-."

She grabs the book from him and plants it on a nearby lectern, peering at it intensely.

"Hhmmmm. Yes, that's easy! You just need more magic power!"

"Just an infusion of magic power? Nothing… Special about it?"

"No. But I'm the only person in this entire star system who could do it, so don't forget who's in charge!"

"Certainly. I assume that my continued existence will be dependant on my continued service?"

I hear Goldar snort behind me. "You should be grateful for the privilege."

"I'm not complaining, I just want to know where I stand. I mean, if you're constantly having to recharge me I imagine that you'd find that annoying."

"Hm. Yes. I would."

Ms. Repulsa bangs the butt of her staff on the ground, the orange crystal in the head shimmering for a moment… Before a necklace with a smaller but similar crystal pendant appears around my neck.

"Once you've completed your mission, that will allow you to retain more than enough power to keep yourself alive… For a few months. And in the mean time, the glow will tell you how long you've got to live."

It's not glowing very brightly at the moment.

"Very practical. I don’t suppose I could trouble you for a top-up now, could I?"

"No."

"Alright. Then I'm going to need some putties, and the use of your teleporter."