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

27th October 2012
07:47 GMT +3

Queen Hippolyta glances my way as I'm granted access to her private receiving room, where Kon and Mitchell are already ensconced.

"I will admit, I was unsure that you would be able to restrain yourself. I apologise for misjudging you."

"Think nothing of it. You weren't that far off. Incidentally, would you be willing to become Queen of Olympus?"

"Lord Zeus did not ask me."

"I wasn't talking about marrying him."

Mitchell doesn't seem to react, though Kon looks a little perturbed.

"I…" Queen Hippolyta makes brief eye contact with Menalippe, who does her best not to react either. "I know that as a demigoddess myself I could undergo apotheosis more easily than a mortal. I know that Diana is perfectly capable of taking my place as Queen of Themyscira. But I have no desire to disrupt the divine order, or put myself above the king of the gods."

"But if by some mysterious happenstance there was an opening..?"

Hippolyta swallows, eyes not quite focusing on me. "I don't know. I have never seriously considered the possibility. Do I need to?"

"I don't know yet. This is just the 'sounding out' phase."

"Paul…" Kon gives me a concerned look. "We're finding things out for the League. I know you're angry, but we really shouldn't do anything without talking to Batman and Doctor Mist first."

I nod. "I agree."

"Yeah, but… You're treating this like the thing with Zatara. I'm pretty sure that you were already assuming that the League weren't gunna do anything."

"No, I trusted that they would. I just wasn't sure how quickly they were going to be moving on this."

He doesn't look entirely convinced. "You sure?"

"Alright, there's a-. I'm sure the League got the message last time and they wouldn't let this lie, but I got used to them not doing anything so I'm inclined to act like they're doing nothing until I actually hear something from them."

"Maybe you should go talk to him."

I go to nod, then look suspiciously at him and Queen Hippolyta. Orange Lantern handling stage 2. But… Yes. Okay. He's still right, and it might help get me out of this mindset if I do speak to Mr. Wayne.

"Yes, I think you're right. Excuse me."

I get a nod from Hippolyta as Donna walks over to take a seat with the three of them. Then

I vanish from their sight and

appear on the Watchtower.

27th October 2012
04:49 GMT

Mr. O'Brien's eyes bulge out of his face, then he ducks down and morphs his body into the shape of a television, his face pushing 'through' the screen.

"Heeee's he-."

"Kid Flash already did that joke."

A hand extrudes from the side of the screen and scratches the top of his head.

"Okay, well, what else is there?" He morphs into… Darth Batman? "The Lantern is not so forgiving as I am."

"Did you know he never realised Leia was his daughter?"

"Huh?" Mr. O'Brien snaps back into his default shape. "Sure he did. Right at the end, he says 'Tell your sister, you were right'."

"Yes, because he knows that Luke has a sister. But he never specifically identifies her by name."

He thinks for a moment, then his jaw bungee drops down to the deck.

"Is Batman here?"

"Ah, yeah, but…" He takes a deep breath. "Okay, promise you're not going to go crazy?"

"I promise that I will not become crazier than I am now."

"That's… The least reassuring thing you could possibly have said, but okay! See… What Zeus did is wrong, and we're obviously going to get-" I nod. "Diana back-."

"But she's not in immediate danger, so the League doesn't need to get on top of this immediately. There are plenty of more urgent and important things going on in the world and that's why you passed it on to the team in the first place."

"You're being a whole lot more reasonable about this than I thought you'd be." He narrows his eyes. "And you skipped immigration."

"If I was an attacker, it would be too late. So what problems do the League have that prevent them from prioritising Zeus?"

"Some guy in Brazil started up Venom production-"

Wouldn’t be in Euanthe's areas, which leaves the coast. Probably no magic defence, because the Accala shamen would show an interest in that. Mr. Dorrance Junior may be dead but there were plenty of people who worked for him at some stage who might still be around…

Coast. Look for increased number of venom users, any familiar faces… Users there, but the production-.

I step out, reappearing

in a factory, constructs snatching guns and knives and chaining up and stunning their owners. Two guards have already injected, but that doesn't make them construct proof. Once the place is recumbent I

return

to the Watchtower and upload the coordinates to the League's computer.

"-but Batman-. Uh. You just went there, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Okay, we'll cross that off the list. I'm guessing you're gunna keep doing that until Wonder Woman's at the top of the list, ain't cha?"

"Yes."

"So I need to call Batman right now in case he wants some of these to not get solved."

"That might be an idea, thank you. Tell him that if he's in Brazil I can help with the pick up."

"Okay. So, stand there, don’t move, and I'll get a hold of him as fast as I can."

"Thank you."