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

Spoiler: Original Version

28th October 2012
12:20 GMT +3

Many years ago I watched a pantomime. I don't remember what it was called, only that the villain of the piece was a pirate captain, and that at one point he was challenged for the captaincy by one of his cowardly crewmen who had taken a potion to grant him courage. They then performed a song called 'Pain, pain, pain', taking alternate verses to threaten and taunt one another. From what I remember, that would fit this situation quite well.

Of course, there's another option.

"These are the signs of the king honour-broke,"

Hephaestaean shifts his hammer into a defensive position, left hand just under the head which is pointing towards Zeus. Zeus grimaces, his face like-. Thunder, as he reaches down slightly with his right hand and hurls the lunch table aside.

"Pride coming first over all,"

The glow in Zeus's eyes is getting brighter, but I don't see him calling for or summoning any weapons. I know that he sometimes uses a bident, but he mostly just goes for-.

The lightning comes from nowhere, the air humming as electrons are torn from every molecule available and slammed into-. Hephaestaean's hammer, where the plasma field easily absorbs the charge.

"You use lightning but don't understand the first thing about physics. Let me educate-"

Reforge.

"-you."

The air between them turns blue as his hammer turns the air into plasma, the blast slamming into Zeus and making him cringe for a moment, his hair smouldering. Then he rallies, slamming his hands forward and parting them, his electromagnetic shield diverting the charged plasma off to the sides.

"Treading the backs and the necks of his folk,"

"I see Metis hasn't been entirely wasted on you."

The floor to either side is scorched and the remaining furniture incinerated. But

Permanence.

the charring undoes itself a few moments later. Because Hephaestaean made no effort to override its nature with his attack.

"You dare use my own lightning against me?!"

Oncoming storm.

Zeus moves in a blur, left hand grasping for the shaft of Hephaestaean's hammer while the right flies at Hephaestaean's helmeted head!

"That he alone might stand tall."

A three-clawed mechanical hand catches the shot at Hephaestaean's face, runes inscribed on the blades glowing as they make shallow cuts into Zeus's fingers. Hephaestaean flat out lets go of the hammer, dragging Zeus's shoulder down before he does the same. And he barely gets his left foot out of the way in an awkward half-hop which leaves him off-balance as Hephaestaean's mechadendrites stab forward towards his eyes!

Zeus ducks his head slightly, taking the double hit to the forehead as he responds with another lightning bolt. But Hephaestaean's armour is fully insulated and another mechanical arm is in the process of gripping the haft of his hammer.

"Giving himself to desires that are base,"

Zeus darts back as the air around Hephaestaean flares with plasma.

"Too slow, boy."

"Progress is a slow but steady thing, father. Human technology gets better all the time, while storms become less and less relevant."

Zeus's eyes flare and his hair billows as if blown by the wind.

"I'll show you-."

The turquoise bolt of.. something, hits him in the forehead, burning his flesh. Though his expression shows more rage than pain.

"Tyrannous, cunning and cruel."

Zeus blurs, moving faster than I can see as he strikes Hephaestaean from all directions. Punches rain down on armoured arms, his backpack, the sides of his head, his chest and any other part he can easily reach. Hephaestaean is buffeted, forced to lean away from each attack in turn and rely on his additional appendages to ward Zeus away. Zeus can easily move around them, but it buys him-.

Hephaestaean raises his hammer and Zeus falls onto his back, clutching his forehead.

"Bring him down – set someone else in his place,"

"Predictable." Hephaestaean teleports forward, gun firing into Zeus's right hand as the head of his hammer drops down on Zeus's forehead with a crunch. "You fell into a pattern. The analysis of-."

He brings the hammer down again, but this time Zeus catches the head with a grimace. The head of the hammer begins to glow, heating up and Zeus does something to it.

"Such men are not fit to rule."

Hephaestaean deploys another gun, aiming it at the freely-bleeding wound on Zeus's forehead. A red beam lances out, the hammer's head dimming as the heat is returned to its sender.

"Heat? It's just energy."

Hephaestaean tries to wrench his hammer out of Zeus's grasp but Zeus has kept his focus better than he expected, shoving the hammer head up and making Hephaestaean stagger backwards. Zeus is up again in a moment, viciously resuming his attack. This time he-. He's flying, moving in the air with-. The air is bending around his fingers, and that swipe gouged into the metal of one of Hephaestaean's claws. Air manipulation. Hephaestaean has his own supply so Zeus shouldn't be able to affect it without breaching his armour completely, but it-.

"Oh?"

Oh dear. A figure I immediately recognise as Ares calmly strolls in through the wedged open doors, smiling at the violence on display. And he's looking at me. Or rather us, because the Hellenes can manage perfectly well with one war god.

"Diana's pet madman provoking a fight between Father and… Is that Hephaestus? Now this is interesting."

Hephaestaean is using small bursts of plasma to disrupt Zeus's air blades, but it looks like Zeus is not merely faster but also more skilled. His hits are landing, and while the main body of Hephaestaean's armour has only tiny amounts of damage when compared to the freely-bleeding gash on Zeus's forehead, two of Hephaestaean's mechanical limbs are lying on the floor.

"Ares! I command you to aid me!"

Ares very visibly hesitates. It's no secret that Ares's core nature causes him to seek to conquer. Zeus looks weak right now, and he doesn't know how Hephaestaean has become this much stronger. Staying out of it and killing the victor if they're weak enough is the obvious play. But that's Zeus's blood, and he knows that Hephaestaean will bear a grudge. If he isn't weakened then Ares is in the shit. If Zeus wins it's business as usual.

Weaponmaster.

Hephaestaean's hammer flies out of his hand and into Ares's grasp. He takes a hold of it and takes a few practice swings to get a feel for it.

"Nice weight. You always did the best work. I think I'll keep your final piece as a trophy."

Zeus slams both hands into Hephaestaean's cuirass, electricity crackling and winds roaring as the metal starts to give way!

28th October 2012
12:20 GMT +3

"You play?"

"Some of my new sisters have been trying to civilise me. They thought that it might stick better if they set the lessons to music."

He takes a drink.

"Fine, but even if you can play with the grace of Orpheus you'll not move me. I'm a good deal harder to please than Persephone."

I get up, and walk over to the… Beautifully crafted harp. There's some non-standard decorative carving in the wood, and I can't immediately identify what sort of tree it came from.

"Not a classical Greek instrument."

"My cripple of a son isn't the only one who tries to stay up to date. Apollo doesn't think much of you either."

"Yes, I had a dream a few nights ago about running around the interior of a crystal sphere while the lower portion filled up with oranges. Presumably, that was his idea of sending me a clear message."

"I really don't understand why you're like this. You come up here to ask me for a favour, but rather than offer me gifts or praise, you just remind me of how you usually refer to me."

"I don't know what you want, and it wouldn't be entirely honest."

"Feh. No one praises a king honestly. It's just that I might have been moved if you humbled yourself."

Would that-? I mean, I could. It would be a bit annoying to have spent all that time unnecessarily, but I'd rather get Diana free sooner and with less risk. And novel works of thaumaturgy are their own reward.

"So if I-?"

"It doesn't work if you try to make it a trade."

He keeps watching me… Ah. He wants me to actually humble myself. I could still do it, and he'd make a show of not being impressed, but he'd enjoy the fact I hated doing it and probably would let Diana out a little early.

How utterly contemptible. He's clearly not worthy of his position, but that should have been obvious a thousand years ago. But this… He actually would. He'd do it. And from the way he's looking at me, he knows I'd know it. If I fall on my knees and plead with him, Diana will be out before too long.

I'm not going to. It's not about pride. It's about building a better future without lazy, petulant man-children with power they don't deserve and won't use properly.

I look over the harp once more, then put my fingers on the strings.

I don't actually have the first idea how to play a harp, but fortunately my ring does.

"Cursed oathbreakers, your honour's in pawn,
And worthless the vows you have made,
Justice shall see you where others have gone,
Delivered to those you betrayed!"

Doesn't look like he's heard this one before, but it's clear from the way he's looking at me that I'm treading on thin ice.

"These are the signs of a mage that's forsworn,
The True Gifts gone dead in his hand,"

Unfortunately, there's no such thing as 'true gifts'. Magic's available to anyone who puts the work in. But Klarion's use of chaos magic upended the normal function of the thaumosphere, so he'll do.

I doubt that Zeus even knows who he is. A few images that Teekl showed me will do for this part.

"Magic corrupted and discipline torn,
Shifting heart like shifting sand;
Swift to allow any passion to run,"

Though it's not exactly hard to remember what he looked like.

"Given to hatred and rage.
Give him wide berth and his company shun,
For darkness devours the Dark Mage."

Ephialtes of Trachis is probably the most notable traitor in Classical Greece. Not a perfect match for the lyrics again, but I can stretch it a little, and it gives Zeus something that he'll recognise. Looks like he's actually enjoying it a little.

Good.

"These are the signs of a traitor in war,
Wealth from no visible source,
Shunning old comrades he welcomed before,
Holding to no steady course.
If you uncover the one who'd betray,
Heed not his words nor his pen
Give him no second chance – drive him away–
False once will prove false again."

Skip a few verses. They're not really necessary for my purpose.

"Cursed Oathbreakers, your honor's in pawn
And worthless the vows you have made,
Justice shall see you where others have gone,
Delivered to those you betrayed!"

The next verse is easy. I don't think there's anyone who knows anything about the Catholic Church's paedophilia cover up who doesn't know exactly who was responsible. And he's a representative of the religion that displaced Hellenism, so it's playing to the crowd.

"These are the signs of the treacherous priest–
Pleasure in anyone's pain,
Abuse or degrading of man or of beast,
Duty as second to gain."

To be absolutely fair, it probably wasn't personal gain, just his horrible idea of what was in the Church's interest. Doesn't really help everyone who got raped as a result.

"Preaching belief but with none of his own,
Twisting all that he controls,"

Though in terms of belief in the morals he preached, that's probably true. Believe in the ideal, not the idol.

"Fear him and never face him all alone,
He corrupts innocent souls."

Now, I have to judge this right. Using an image of Zeus would be too direct a provocation. An image of Odin on the other hand, a god whose face I don’t know…

"These are the signs of the king honour-broke,
Pride coming first over all,
Treading the backs and the necks of his folk
That he alone might stand tall."

And it's not as if Jon Haraldson ever told me what his wife looks like, so if my construct looks a little like Diana…

"Giving himself to desires that are base"

And maintain eye contact as his jaw hardens.

"Tyrannous, cunning and cruel-."

LIGHTNING RETRIBUTION SMITING CHASTISEMENT!

There's no build-up, just lightning and the idea of lightning, sudden and powerful, leaping towards me before taking a right angle and flying out of the room. Zeus cuts it off and stares after it, frowning.

"I'm jolly glad that worked."

"How..?"

Clank. Clank. Clank.

The doors bang open and then lock in place as the hulking figure lumbers in. He's more muscular than Zeus; his build actually puts me in mind of Kalmin, the product of countless hours performing physically demanding labour with his upper body. He's wearing space-aged body armour in shining gold, though his left leg appears less armoured and more replaced with a cybernetic styled after the rest of the armour. In his hands is a huge hammer whose head sparks and crackles with caged lightning. The back of the armour is bulky and further expanded by the resting mechanical manipulator appendages attached to it.

"Father. Striking at a herald and violating hospitality."

Zeus and I both rise to our feet, Zeus to square off against his opponent and me to clear the area. The circuitry that allowed him to do that just melted off my cup so I'd rather he didn't get it into his head to try again.

"That armour. Hephaestus? Did you cut off your own leg?"

"A king is owed fealty and respect, and owes his people direction, protection and justice. You provide none of those, and hence are owed nothing. You're a bent nail, a rotten beam due for replacement."

"It seems that I'll have to throw you off this mountain again, Hephaestus. This time you'll land on your head."

"We'll see." Blades and arcane ranged weapons uncurl from his back. "And my name is not Hephaestus. I'm Hephaestaean."

"Bring him down – set someone else in his place,
Such men are not fit to rule."

Hephaestaean shifts his hammer into a defensive position, left hand just under the head which is pointing towards Zeus. Zeus grimaces, his face like-. Thunder, as he reaches down slightly with his right hand and hurls the lunch table aside.

The glow in Zeus's eyes is getting brighter, but I don't see him calling for or summoning any weapons. I know that he sometimes uses a bident, but he mostly just goes for-.

The lightning comes from nowhere, the air humming as electrons are torn from every molecule available and slammed into-. Hephaestaean's hammer, where the plasma field easily absorbs the charge.

"You use lightning but don't understand the first thing about physics. Let me educate-"

Reforge.

"-you."

The air between them turns blue as his hammer turns the air into plasma, the blast slamming into Zeus and making him cringe for a moment, his hair smouldering. Then he rallies, slamming his hands forward and parting them, his electromagnetic shield diverting the charged plasma off to the sides.

"I see Metis hasn't been entirely wasted on you."

The floor to either side is scorched and the remaining furniture incinerated. But

Permanence.

the charring undoes itself a few moments later. Because Hephaestaean made no effort to override its nature with his attack.

"You dare use my own lightning against me?!"

Oncoming storm.

Zeus moves in a blur, left hand grasping for the shaft of Hephaestaean's hammer while the right flies at Hephaestaean's helmeted head!

A three-clawed mechanical hand catches the shot at Hephaestaean's face, runes inscribed on the blades glowing as they make shallow cuts into Zeus's fingers. Hephaestaean flat out lets go of the hammer, dragging Zeus's shoulder down before does the same. And he barely gets his left foot out of the way in an awkward half-hop which leaves him off-balance as Hephaestaean's mechadendrites stab forward towards his eyes!

Zeus ducks his head slightly, taking the double hit to the forehead as he responds with another lightning bolt. But Hephaestaean's armour is fully insulated and another mechanical arm is in the process of gripping the haft of his hammer.

Zeus darts back as the air around Hephaestaean flares with plasma.

"Too slow, boy."

"Progress is a slow but steady thing, father. Human technology gets better all the time, while storms become less and less relevant."

Zeus's eyes flare and his hair billows as if blown by the wind.

"I'll show you-."

The turquoise bolt of.. something, hits him in the forehead, burning his flesh. Though his expression shows more rage than pain.

Zeus blurs, moving faster than I can see as he strikes Hephaestaean from all directions. Punches rain down on armoured arms, his backpack, the sides of his head, his chest and any other part he can easily reach. Hephaestaean is buffeted, forced to lean away from each attack in turn and rely on his additional appendages to ward Zeus away. Zeus can easily move around them, but it buys him-.

Hephaestaean raises his hammer and Zeus falls onto his back, clutching his forehead.

"Predictable." Hephaestaean teleports forward, gun firing into Zeus's right hand as the head of his hammer drops down on Zeus's forehead with a crunch. "You fell into a pattern. The analysis of-."

He brings the hammer down again, but this time Zeus catches the head with a grimace. The head of the hammer begins to glow, heating up and Zeus does something to it.

Hephaestaean deploys another gun, aiming it at the freely-bleeding wound on Zeus's forehead. A red beam lances out, the hammer's head dimming as the heat is returned to its sender.

"Heat? It's just energy."

Hephaestaean tries to wrench his hammer out of Zeus's grasp but Zeus has kept his focus better than he expected, shoving the hammer head up and making Hephaestaean stagger backwards. Zeus is up again in a moment, viciously resuming his attack. This time he-. He's flying, moving in the air with-. The air is bending around his fingers, and that swipe gouged into the metal of one of Hephaestaean's claws. Air manipulation. Hephaestaean has his own supply so Zeus shouldn't be able to affect it without breaching his armour completely, but it-.

"Oh?"

Oh dear. A figure I immediately recognise as Ares calmly strolls in through the wedged open doors, smiling at the violence on display. And he's looking at me. Or rather us, because the Hellenes can manage perfectly well with one war god.

"Diana's pet madman provoking a fight between Father and… Is that Hephaestus? Now this is interesting."

Hephaestaean is using small bursts of plasma to disrupt Zeus's air blades, but it looks like Zeus is not merely faster but also more skilled. His hits are landing, and while the main body of Hephaestaean's armour has only tiny amounts of damage when compared to the freely-bleeding gash on Zeus's forehead, two of Hephaestaean's mechanical limbs are lying on the floor.

"Ares! I command you to aid me!"

Ares very visibly hesitates. It's no secret that Ares's core nature causes him to seek to conquer. Zeus looks weak right now, and he doesn't know how Hephaestaean has become this much stronger. Staying out of it and killing the victor if they're weak enough is the obvious play. But that's Zeus's blood, and he knows that Hephaestaean will bear a grudge. If he isn't weakened then Ares is in the shit. If Zeus wins it's business as usual.

Weaponmaster.

Hephaestaean's hammer flies out of his hand and into Ares's grasp. He takes a hold of it and takes a few practise swings to get a feel for it.

"Nice weight. You always did the best work. I think I'll keep your final piece as a trophy."

Zeus slams both hands into Hephaestaean's cuirass, electricity crackling and winds roaring as the metal starts to give way!