[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

6th March 2025
12:32 GMT -5

"Baaaah-h-h-h-h-h."

"…hundred sheep, two-" Invincible frowns for a moment. "-piles of government emergency cheese and thirty industrial pumps. You good?"

Armour Invincible nods, looking up from the damage on his chest plate to check the assembled survival materials. "More would be nice, buuuut honestly it's more than I was expecting." He turns towards Angstrom as Invincible flies off to talk to Local Invincible. "Okay, we already cleaned up most of the radioactive material from New Zealand. Can you open the portal to there?"

"No. My power only lets me open the portals relative to the planet. If you want one in New Zealand, we will have to travel there on this Earth."

I knew this was possible, but I haven't actually done it before. And everyone's.. sort of both horrified and enthralled by the glowing orange Angstrom Levy standing next to me. The Invincibles sort of sneak a look and then pretend that they were looking somewhere else.

Armour Invincible look at me. "You mean you could just have taken the sheep to New Zealand instead of here?"

I shrug. "I didn't know where you wanted them. Why don't you pop back and get things prepared, and I'll take them to New Zealand once we're finished here?"

"Mm-hm. Quick question: how do I know that you're actually opening a portal back to my Earth?"

"Ah… Because it would be far more work for me to do all this than it would be for me to pick a fight with you and then portal you somewhere else when you charged me?"

He tilts his head slightly to the right. "I mean… Yeah…"

I call down the drone I acquired and hand it to him. "Can you interface with that? It used standard Viltrumite Empire protocols."

"Just a sec…" The drone blinks, then does a self check. "Got it. I send this through the portal, it sends telemetry back, and that's how I know I'm home. Okay, open the portal."

I nod, and-

Ssshnnng.

-the portal opens, the drone flying through a moment later.

"What did he offer your Invincible?"

"A chance to kill Cecil Steadman."

"Huh. Seems like a lot of work to kill one guy. Is that what he's doing next?"

I look over to where he's talking to Local Invincible, Atom Eve and a short purple viltrumite who was introduced to me as Oliver. Local Invincible's half-thraxan half-brother, which I guess explains why Purple Invincible is purple.

"Maybe. I'm not sure. But it's his decision."

"Hm." He rises off the ground and flies towards the shipping containers with the pumps. They're wreathed in chains to spread the load when he picks them up, and it should all hold. "You can still watch through the drone, right?"

"Yes. Just hold up a sign when you're ready."

There's a.. decidedly unpleasant screeching-clanking sound as he picks the shipping containers up, and then I breath a little easier as he flies through the portal. I generate a giant sack barrow construct and start conveying the rest of his order through.

Purple Invincible drifts over. It's… A little surprising, but he's not paying any attention to the other purple viltrumite at all. I'd have thought that they'd have.. something to talk about. Or is that racist?

"Cecil, huh? Why Cecil?"

"He holds him responsible for his mother's death."

Purple Invincible shakes his head. "He shouldn't make it so personal. It's self-indulgent."

"What did he offer you, then?"

"I wanted to make sure that he stayed away from my Earth. Thraxan-viltrumite hybrids grow up faster than human-viltrumite hybrids. In my reality, Dad went to Thraxa first. He brought all of my brothers and sisters to Earth. It wasn't really much of a fight. Angstrom was a threat to us…" He looks pointedly at the construct. "And now he's not."

"Do you mean to imply that I am?"

He huffs with amusement. "No. You're not crazy like he was, and neither of us has anything the other one wants. I can go home and tell Dad and my brothers and sisters that it's taken care of."

I nod.

Ssshnnng.

He nods, and heads towards the portal with a wave. "Let's hope we never see each other again."

"Likewise."

He flies through, back to his home Earth, the portal shutting down a moment later.

Ssshnnng.

Still got some more equipment to move, and then I've got to transport these sheep to New Zealand… Which wasn't targetted by any of the Invincibles, so at least things should be relatively calm there.

"Hey…" Local Invincible drifts towards me, awkwardly pointing at Angstrom. "Is that..? Permanent?"

"I believe so. I haven't made a point of turning people into constructs on a regular basis, so I can't say for certain, but…" I nod. "I believe so. I certainly don't feel any sort of mechanism for turning it off."

"Would it work on viltrumites?"

"If I could survive in close physical proximity to one for long enough… Probably."

He looks thoughtful. "I know you said that you didn't wanna join your G.D.A…. But if you had… I mean-."

"I could have killed my Invincible. Probably. Or.. helped someone else do it. The x-ionisation process isn't something that I worked out on my own, but attacks based on mental focus seem like they'd work. And with anti-matter? There'd be a crater in the planet the size of Australia, but I think I might have managed to kill Omni-Man as well. Distinctly possible." He nods slowly. "That wouldn't have helped with the next dozen viltrumites, who'd know what happened and could easily ambush me. Or just throw rocks at the Earth. Or… Any one of a number of things." I sigh, shrugging. "Or maybe they don't have that many people to send after an unimportant place like Earth and it would have been fine. Or at least taken them until I got x-ionisation technology and could outfit other people… Or take on a greater number myself. I don't know."

"Huh." He thinks for a moment, and then nods. "Cecil says that all of the other Invincibles are dead, so it's just the two of you…"

"Baaaah-h-h-h-h-h."

"And the sheep still to go. Do you have a reason to stick around?"

"No. Not really. It's been… Nice to see an Earth that hasn't been stamped on, but this isn't my home."

"You… Can stay. Cecil would love the ability to make portals, and… Learn how 'x-ionisation' works."

"I can hardly abandon my wife or child. And I want to finish putting the planet back together. But… Thank you for the off-"

Bwf-fytt!

Angstrom ripples-. Armour!

"-er."

A bullet slams into the side of my head!

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th March 2025
12:36 GMT -5

Self-scan basically fine need information fall, transmute and expel blood from impact site.

"Lantern!"

I hit the ground, environmental shield cushioning my impact without slowing it. Scan. Who just shot me?

An image forms in my mind: soldiers in some sort of full-body tactical gear, outer surface perfectly mirroring their surroundings. General design… Matches what the G.D.A. troops wear.

Huh.

That makes sense-

"Oliver, get out of here."

"It's just bullets!"

-given Cecil's confrontational attitude. Clearly, people invading his planet getting more power doesn't improve the situation as far as he's concerned. Even if it looks like we're leaving, that doesn't bring back any of the people who died. A high-calibre round to my head… Probably wouldn't have gotten through my environmental shield, but there would be some bleed through. It could have knocked me out or stunned me. But they assumed that construct Angstrom was only as tough as meat Angstrom and targeted him first.

"Who was that!?"

That was.. lucky.

Alright, I could have Angstrom mark the targets, but I suspect that Invincible will simply kill them if I do that. And I know that he wants to go after Cecil anyway, and… I'd like to be sure.

I…

Nothing I've seen suggests that Cecil Steadman is someone I actively want to stay in office. Nothing about.. this situation only being managed because Angstrom's recruits turned on him suggests that he's actually all that vital to the defence of this Earth. And he just had someone shoot me. But even so, I… Instinctively, I'd rather not kill people if I can get away with it. All I'd have to do is open a portal, say… I needed emergency medical attention, fake some sort of injury. Invincible would believe that.

But he just tried to kill me after I repeatedly helped him, damn it! If it was him, he's got this coming.

Plot and transition.

My view flickers, and I'm behind the squad.

Accelerate. Sonic scan. Jam. Silence. Grab.

I see the vibrations as the soldier on sternguard duty tries to call out a warning, only for my orange glow to absorb the sound waves. He tries to activate his radio but hears nothing. The others start to come alert as they realise that they can't hear their surroundings.

Then the construct clamps grip them torsos, arms, legs and heads, knocking their guns from their hands and hoiking them into the air.

Remove stealth armour.

And there they are. Three men and a woman in their under suits. I rotate them to face me, sighing quietly as a quick scan of the G.D.A.'s personnel files finds matches for all four of them.

"That was foolish."

I once tried using my abilities to inspire fear. I was.. trying to get some protestors to pack it in before Invincible arrived. And my ring stopped working for a moment and they decided that made it a good idea to hit me with a crowbar. It's not just feeling fear that disrupts my connection to the orange light. Deliberately seeking to provoke it has the same effect.

So beyond my desire to contain the people trying to kill me, I try to avoid feeling anything else. I try not to feel anger, though I think under the circumstances that would be quite justified. I'm used to preventing myself feeling fear, but I try to avoid deliberately inspiring it too. Hope, love, compassion? Hardly relevant. Taking a moment to centre myself with willpower? Forget about it.

"And now you've got to make a choice, and I suggest that you make it quickly. Invincible will be here in a moment -my Invincible- and he'll be minded to kill you. Explaining why you just did that might make you live a little longer, but you'll need to explain it to me and you'll need to do it now."

They try to look at each other for guidance, but I force their heads to remain in place.

"You're G.D.A. soldiers with G.D.A. weapons and armour." I fabricate paper copies of their personnel files and float them in front of their owners so that the front piece is clearly visible. "You have no plausible deniability. If Invincible sees you, he will immediately reach the conclusion that Director Steadman sent you. He will then fly to his location and kill him, right after he kills you. That's if you say nothing. Saying something on the other hand could change that. So I'm going to stop preventing you from speaking and I strongly advise you to take advantage of my largess."

I sigh. This has never worked, but if I don't hold myself to higher standards…

Dismiss.

There's a brief delay.

"Sergeant Michael Phelps. Serial-."

Gag.

"Would someone who isn't a moron like to try it? I know who you are." I jab him in the face with his own paperwork. "We were leaving. You want us to leave. 'Name, rank, serial number' applies if we're at war, and I rather think you'd prefer that we weren't."

The woman's eyes widen. "Ah-. I-." She strains to look over to the other two, but again I keep her locked in place as I drift closer.

"Not taking the shot would have been the best option, but providing a scapegoat is the second best."

"In-." She hesitates, trying once more to turn so that she can see how the others respond to her speaking. "Invincible was supposed to talk you into staying. We know that your Invincible wants to destroy the G.D.A. and we can't risk you getting away with Angstrom Levy. The Director gave Invincible a chance to get away from him, and…"

"And since I didn't take it, and since you can't leave the capacity to open portals in enemy hands, you were ordered to take the shot. Did the order come from the Director himself, or from your commanding officer?"

"F-from… Ah…"

"If you tell me that it came from the Director, Invincible will probably kill him. If you tell me that it came from your commanding officer, Invincible will most likely kill him and the Director. So I will ask again: who gave the order?"

"… The Director."

"Thank you. Thank you." I begin replacing the construct bonds with chains of tungsten. "I will-."

"You're okay!"

I look up, then nod to Invincible. "Yes. According to these people, Director Steadman was concerned that we might use Mister Levy's ability to strike them again in the future, so-."

"Oh, don't worry." He t-.

…

He tosses Director Steadman's head down to the ground next to me.

"I already dealt with it. Let's go home."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th July 2013
12:35 GMT -5

I stare into the depths of my pint glass, watching the bubbles making up the foam on the head gradually burst. On the television in the corner of the room Batman is introducing the first few Global Peace Agency officers to a broadly positive reception, both from the audience and from the few people in the bar watching it.

National sports leagues haven't really restarted yet. They could, in theory, but the money isn't there to pay the participants what they're accustomed to so there have only been a few exhibition games.

"Hey."

I don't look up.

"Miss Grant. How can I help you?"

"Depends. How many of those have you had?"

My eyes ascend to the top of the glass. "Looks like about half of one."

"According to the social media posts I've been following, you got here three hours ago."

"I like to nurse my drinks." I sit up and turn to face her. "I've never really been drunk before. I don't think I'm doing it right."

"Never?"

I shake my head. "The closest I ever got was 'tipsy', and all that really happened was that I went to bed early. Didn't even have a headache the next day."

She frowns. "What brought this on?"

"Political legitimacy."

"Are you a secret political science major?"

"Philosophy."

"Want me to get you some laudanum, then?"

"Best you didn't." I pick up my glass and take a sip, the twenty or so minutes since my last one not having noticeably improved the taste. "You know… How, originally, the Vice President was the person who came second in the Presidential Election?"

"And it got changed almost immediately because no one wants to work with the guy they just campaigned against?"

"Right, but… You've got an ideal, and everyone shares it, and you might disagree about what the best way to realise it is, but you're all working to the same goal… And then someone comes along and says 'I've got a new ideal'…"

"The U.S. Constitution can be changed."

I shake my head. "That's just top tier laws. I'm talking about something fundamental. The assumption that people have rights and as such there are things a state must do and things that it cannot do. And within that paradigm you can disagree about what those rights are and how far they extend… But that faith in intangible rights is the same."

"… Just half?"

"Philosophy degree. But then I look at Greater Kahndaq, right? Adom wanted a democratic system that he could oversee in a… Hands off sort of way. And then Mannheim sent in robots to murder most of the people who could make that work so he ended up needing to make a far more centralised state. There's still… Voting, but it's more of a test to see whether appointed officials have enough popular support locally to do their jobs, rather than a source of independently minded representatives. Their constitution guarantees a few things to its citizens, but it's more procedural rather than a high-minded metaphysical claim. Like… 'So that we may best enact good order and public safety, citizens will receive fair trials'. Rather than 'citizens have an innate right to fair trials'."

"And when the Anti-Life broadcast happened, barely any Kahndaqis died. Because Adom could use his magic to shield them. And obviously, that's not something any elected politicians could do. You can't vote Anti-Life away, so..."

I smile unhappily.

"How did the Ron Jeremy sketch go? 'All men are created equal? What bullshit'. So maybe my problem is that I'm working with outdated schema? My expectations are wrong?"

She waits a moment to see if I'm going to ramble about anything else. When nothing else comes out she sits down next to me. "Is this about the Justice League taking over the world?"

A burst of laughter escapes my lips, then I lean forwards until my forehead touches the surface of the bar.

"'Taking'? Well, I can't talk about that, but it looks like I don't need to."

I… Straighten back up… Most of the way.

"And Accalacan didn't do as well as Kahndaq, but they did pretty well. Short supply lines, dispersed population… They didn't get any city boss equivalents. And I… I want people to have the opportunity to improve themselves, but maybe people don't want to? Do you know what s-? High school attainment rates are like in the U.S.? How many people, living in an advanced society, can't read that well? People from a hundred years ago would kill for that opportunity, and a lot of people today just can't be bothered? So maybe people don't want that."

"Ah… Don't want to read?"

"Don't want to push themselves. And think about how many people don't bother voting in elections. I know there's an assumption in the United States that people are put off voting if they don't think it will make a difference, you know, if a place always returns a candidate from a particular party. But maybe they don't care? Maybe one person in power is pretty much like another at such a deep psychological level that it's a fools errand to try and engage… A lot of people. Maybe it's not the party but the decisions they decide they can't really affect… Whoever they vote for, and that's what turns them off."

"I guess? Are you okay?"

I gesture to her with both hands. "I mean… Would you prefer a sweet merchant, or a dentist?"

"I… Guess that depends what for?"

"No, no, no. It's a thing from Ancient Greek philosophy. The guy was arguing against democracy, on the grounds that people will always vote for someone who gives them nice-tasting food over someone who stabs holes in their mouth for a living. Most… Modern democracies don't have qualifications beyond 'is a citizen' and 'isn't in prison', but the Greeks had other requirements, Rhodesia had other requirements and even the Founding Fathers discussed a property requirement before deciding against it. So… Adom rules Kahndaq, and there's no point giving people the opportunity to vote against him because, one, they wouldn't, and two, even if they did, there isn't anyone else who could do what he does."

"So are we getting to a point where the well-known flaws in democracy have… Reached the point where human civilisation needs something radically different? Where..? Some other form of legitimacy is..? Coming to the fore? Should I be working towards bringing about meritocratic rule instead of trying to make new opportunities available to a broader base? I can, it would be a lot simpler once I had a way of identifying the best motivated people in the population. I hadn't done that… Other than sharing things with self-selecting people who can use them now to make it easier to get results, but my intent was always to move to something with mass appeal."

"Is this about the Global Peace Agency? The Justice League's police officers?"

"Yes. Or… Maybe 'no' but it comes from the same place. Batman is the best detective on the planet. What does holding him accountable to a body far less capable than him do except waste his time? Or Superman? 'Accounts audit? Sure, I guess those Nepalese villagers can just dig themselves out of that mudslide.' And when we have telepaths and truth lassos, we don't need systems to ensure that people are staying trustworthy because we can directly test it in advance."

"Maybe oligarchy is the way to go." I shrug with both hands. "Maybe it is. Maybe I've been on a hiding to nothing. But I can't help but feel a bit despondent about it."