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

I realise this is just his accent written out, but this immediately made me think of a compulsive gambler Bruce Wayne and found it hilarious.

 

lol no: It takes a lot more than a bit of Orange Light to permanently change a New God.

 

It amuses me greatly that LePaul actually thought his mind control could trump the very concept of Freedom.

 

Desaad also knows quite a bit about the ALE. But...here's an interesting thing.

Back when this whole thing with the Alliance of the Just was starting out with Crimson Avenger going around, one of the missing Alliance members was Anita Fite.

As was noted by a few at the time, one of Empress' canon powers is limited mind control.

Because she has part of the Anti-Life Equation riding around inside her.

And I'm pretty sure we have only seen the missing persons report, not a body.

 

Oh look, the "nuke it from orbit" alarm is going off.

 

Damn, it's rare seeing Paul scared. Absolutely appropriate here, of course, but still unsettling.

 

Strictly speaking, Wholeness Rightly Assumed was already based on Titanic magic from the same setting as Renegade has been drawing New God inspiration from.

 

‘seriously’

Apparently freest is a word. Weird.

 

Thank you, corrected.

I know, right?

 

My best guesses are she was kidnapped by someone who realized what she had, she realized something was wrong and decided to try something similar to what her counterpart in Tangseid's universe did, or she's already dead.

 

Darkseid is as tied to his own nature as any New God, and what do you think Jack Kirby's opinion on tyrants and fascist leaders was?

I went back to check where they actually are, and they're in an "examination room" where Doctor Mist was examining Crimson Avenger's corpse. A Justice league facility, presumably.

 

Yeah, when your examples of something are utterly horrible people, it makes sense you'd want to avoid becoming that something.

Oh boy, now I'm wondering if Desire was somehow behind this.

You're a bit too underwhelming to be able to control someone that managed to escape Darkseid.

 

Comma instead of semicolon.

Why do you think he thought that he could? He certainly didn't want to cause significant changes; you'll note how much care he took to avoid doing anything that would be contrary to Scott's nature. He was only doing what he thought he had to in order to save him from Anti-Life -- and it only worked because it agreed with the Anti-Life infection. That is to say, Anti-Life was telling Scott that Freedom wasn't good enough, which meant Scott's metaphysique found relief in having its own Freedom overridden by external control. But that also meant that the manipulation the Anti-Life was whispering wasn't effective anymore, weakening its grip on Scott, which let Doctor Mist drain it away.

Which, of course, gave Scott enough power to override the mind control.

Which, I think, is exactly the outcome OL wanted, overall. So I think you're stretching a bit to think OL thought that he actually could control Scott in the long term.

 

He probably could, but why would he want to?

Thank you, corrected.

 

He is the next Desire if Desire dies and he is a Greed Demigod so yeah... Remember his true form is a snake made out of greed.

 

No, the Godspeech was all from Scott Free and his Anti Life infection, the Desire injection merely short circuited things so a different result was broadcasted.

Yes, OL just did a DJ's vinyl scratch on Scott Free.

 

Well now, things got spicy.

Sure, Darkseid is there. But it also might be another Apokalyptian. Granny in disguise, Steppenwollf (okay probably not), or any other of Darkseid's minions.

 

Alliance of the Just about to be Alliance of the Dust! Ayyyy

 

I thought Zatara's magic got stronger after he was possessed by Nabu?

 

Becoming part of the 1% strongest magic users can still put you well below the top 0.1%.

 

"infected"

 

Not a pretty idea, is it? I mean, every person has darkness in their soul, things they refuse to acknowledge, which is probably what this stuff is latching on to. Hiding in the places within oneself that you would never look of your own accord... It's insidious. It's genius. And it's entirely monstrous...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

On it's own? Probably nothing. But it gives someone else a hook into you, that they could tug on, and...

True, the master of the stuff is probably able to monitor those touched by it. Probably not passively, but I bet they're watching OL very closely, given his track record.

Oh, that does not make this scenario play out any better... At least it's only a partial sample.

Yeah, that's how you ended up in your position, after all. The doubt, not the Anti-Life.

And stop the opponent from turning you against your allies... Because I have no doubt that if the unknown master of this stuff tugged on it, everyone infected would fall in line with their will.

Yeah, New God technology has a lot more metaphysical horsepower than anything short of the Life Entity itself. I don't fancy that any Earthly defence could resist a concerted attack for long.

Oh, is that a amused 'would we even notice?' glance or a worried 'how strongly were they able to affect him?' glance, I wonder.

Of course, you saying that doesn't prove anything. If someone was controlling you, they could tell you to say that...

But, if they could target one person at a time and take control long enough for them to disrupt an attack...

Indeed, Darkseid is not one for subtlety, especially when coming in His capacity as an invading Tyrant. No, this may not be Him, but He's almost certainly holding the leash of the one who is...

Ha, even he knows Canis would be crowing about it from the rooftops.

...Well, that was anti-climactic. Though no doubt very conditional.

So if it's hooked into someone, their own soul will act as protection for the globs...

That would be a mind-fuck, wouldn't it? Letting them think they've dealt with it, only to discover it right back where it was...

...All signs point to 'No.' After all, you're only human. This stuff is forged by a god.

Though it's certainly going to be a dramatic attempt.

Ow. That would feel unpleasant as. Probably like having someone scrape their fingernails down the chalkboard of your soul...

Not enough metaphorical horsepower. He's a Ferrari trying to outpull a tank.

Don't be ashamed of failing. At least you tried, and confirmed it's there.

Yeah, even with a tap to Order Magic, he's not got a lot of flow-through. He's more suited to precision work.

...And warn the bad guys you're coming. Yeah. That's a hard nope.

Like injecting something into someone. You're not gonna be able to suck it back out once it's dispersed...

Just be honest with them: A dark God's followers tried to manipulate their systems into setting up an army of blindly-loyal slaves...

A New God... Or something with similar traits. And as BR549 pointed out earlier, Anita Fite is still missing...

And hope that nothing goes badly wrong in Hub City... No Jinx.

So, now they have a plan of action. Let's hope things go well, and OL doesn't have to play Spooky for the League. He can always apologise to Alpha Centurion and Mister Edge later. But this has so many places where something could go badly wrong and we face another holiday-season disaster for the third year running (Starro-tech'd Justice League in 2010, the Angelic Assault in 2011, now this? I hate to imagine what next year's big event would be...)

---

...as he watches the glowing ball of magic...

Then both Dr. Balewa's spell and the mist are both gone.

Alan nods. "Apparently, I'm infected too. Take your best shot."

Mr. Zatara keeps up his effort for several seconds...

 

I can't remember. Have we seen Paragon Earth's Grayven yet?

 

I am going to guess that we're going to find this to be the work of Desaad.

One, he's very familiar with Anti-Life and its technology.

Two, he's been on Earth working with Intergang before.

Three, 'Alliance of the Just(ified)' really is a turn of phrase for a project that sounds like him...

 

Briefly. He and Paragon had a power waving contest during an encounter with the Reach. I don't think there's been anything else besides a few name drops after that though.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

'Lets build a teleportation network that secretly Anti-Lifes everyone who uses it' does sound like a Desaad plot, now that I think about it.

 

Yes but only slightly.

 

Is Mazikeen still in the room?