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

Personally, I think it's because Paul is a lot nicer than most people
Give him credit for and he's sick and tired of harmful chaos and all that. People as a whole are in a really bad spot in-canon and he's deliveratley attempting to not make it worse or do something that blows up in his face like the Batman situation no matter how good of would be long term, so treating the world with kiddie gloves it is.

On the bright, I think a lot of people are going to start seeing things his way real soon, so that's all good on that front
I hope Paul gets a good amount of credit for resolving this disaster, enough for some people to openly ask why he hasn't either been made a member of the Justice League or make his own organization that can act as less of a rapid response team that the JL is suited for and more of a preventative task force that does its best to improve Earth's defenses so that things never get this bad again.
 
I don't know where this is from. Can you clarify what comic/tv show/movie this comes from?
I tried to to find a video clip but failed. It's from Spider-Man.
That should say 'town'.
Thank you, corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Agreed…it's really weird. I actually thought he'd be gung ho about the rebuilding and upgrading. Plus…this is exactly why Paul chose Eris as a patron, change and progress, no matter who's stomped on and what industry is destroyed or the negative consequences if the overall change is a net positive no matter the chaos it causes

Mr Zoat Paul has no hesitation telling transportation businesses that he doesn't give a crap about their complaints or how many jobs will be lost with the implementation of Dolmen Gates since the end result is better for the overall transport infrastructure , why the sudden hesitation? Isn't he doing a disservice to Eris? Being too cautious and not making the most of the chaos to bring about better infrastructure? Let no crisis go to waste and all that?

Yeah, it's really weird to see. I would've thought he'd be full on "let no crisis go to waste" mode and replacing all these "obsolete" systems.

On the bright side, nice to see OL hang out with Kid Flash again.
Comes up later. Basically, because forcing powerful groups to accept major changes to their lives would involve conquering the world first.
...with a quick setting of foam before moving on to the next vehicle.
Found another error. That should say 'the'.
'quick-setting foam'
Thank you, corrected.
Is the flamethrower bit actually true? I tried looking it up and I couldn't see anything about use of flamethrowers for deicing.
I haven't watched it myself, but I believe so.
 
I tried to to find a video clip but failed. It's from Spider-Man.

Thank you, corrected.

Thank you, corrected.

Comes up later. Basically, because forcing powerful groups to accept major changes to their lives would involve conquering the world first.



Thank you, corrected.

I haven't watched it myself, but I believe so.

Fair enough, corporations are one thing, whole nations are an entirely different matter.

Well, if nothing else, I'm sure Teth Adom wouldn't mind OL giving some assistance.
 
Fair enough, corporations are one thing, whole nations are an entirely different matter.

Well, if nothing else, I'm sure Teth Adom wouldn't mind OL giving some assistance.
Considering Paul is largely responsible for many of the armaments that Kahndaq currently has, that's already a given. I'm just waiting for the announcement that Kahndaq will be considered one of the most prosperous nations thanks to coming out relatively unscathed compared to the rest of the world in addition to Teth Adom giving Paul permission to give as many kinds of technological advancements to his beloved nation as possible.
 
the Batman situation

this was my daily confirmation that Paul could still be reckless and morally questionable- in other words, same old OL. and i mean that affectionately.

it makes sense that things are different for almost everyone (Luthor? interesting) because they got directly 'purified' by the Life Entity... including OL. i could only imagine what that kind of emotional recharge feels like.

OL's clone got purified too, so there's an extra one of those floating around somewhere, which is neat.

between the world just starting to rebuild after the Sheeda crisis, and the Euanthe/Ivy situation down in Brazil, and now the Anti-life Crisis doing even more damage to infrastructure, i have very, very high hopes for what we see the world doing as far as rebuilding goes, and it seems like there is going to be significant rebuilding needed. with the hopefully newfound appreciation for life and naturalism and magic, it almost feels like Paul, with his part in creating Dolman gates and therefore the Anti-Life crisis, has helped to usher in a reverse-Sheeda future. like for some reason i always imagined the Sheeda future looking like Morrowind. now the world is going to be Valenwood.
 
this was my daily confirmation that Paul could still be reckless and morally questionable- in other words, same old OL. and i mean that affectionately.

it makes sense that things are different for almost everyone (Luthor? interesting) because they got directly 'purified' by the Life Entity... including OL. i could only imagine what that kind of emotional recharge feels like.

OL's clone got purified too, so there's an extra one of those floating around somewhere, which is neat.

between the world just starting to rebuild after the Sheeda crisis, and the Euanthe/Ivy situation down in Brazil, and now the Anti-life Crisis doing even more damage to infrastructure, i have very, very high hopes for what we see the world doing as far as rebuilding goes, and it seems like there is going to be significant rebuilding needed. with the hopefully newfound appreciation for life and naturalism and magic, it almost feels like Paul, with his part in creating Dolman gates and therefore the Anti-Life crisis, has helped to usher in a reverse-Sheeda future. like for some reason i always imagined the Sheeda future looking like Morrowind. now the world is going to be Valenwood.

honestly this is the point where i expect Earth 16 to really enter it's magitech/si-fi stage, with mass production of advanced technology, the widespread exploration and integration of magic and enhancing baseline humans with stuff like the Danner formula.

The planet's been hit too many times too quickly for them to go back to the way things were, and more and more people are going to likely start seeing the benefit of rapid development and enhancing the world as far as possible.

Also, fun little idea - Since most of the planet's countries barely have governments anymore, is this possibly the first step towards something like a world government? Or maybe at least a slightly more powerful UN?
 
Also, fun little idea - Since most of the planet's countries barely have governments anymore, is this possibly the first step towards something like a world government? Or maybe at least a slightly more powerful UN?
I kinda hope not, because there's a good chance Lex would become the leader of such an organization.
 
I kinda hope not, because there's a good chance Lex would become the leader of such an organization.

Dude, fuck it. At this point even Lex can only help, and this version is pragmatic enough to know that killing off heroes or attempting to clone/control them is high risk and very low reward at this point.
 
Dude, fuck it. At this point even Lex can only help, and this version is pragmatic enough to know that killing off heroes or attempting to clone/control them is high risk and very low reward at this point.

That's the problem, never underestimate Lex's paranoia and pettiness. We are always thinking of him as a smart and pragmatic man, but he's equally driven by his ego.

You might think that Lex wouldn't do something because it's stupid and would be detrimental to him, as part of humanity, but if he's feeling paranoid and petty enough, he totally would. He is, after all, willingly part of the Light.
 
Since most of the planet's countries barely have governments anymore, is this possibly the first step towards something like a world government?

my hope is that what remains of the world takes a look at the success Adom and Euanthe had in withstanding the bulk of the devastation. rather than a stronger world government, i think a variety of new nations, pieced together from old ones, governed by supers that are chosen magically or by the people or through some kind of religious sanctification would be neat. Themyscira could absorb Greece and the Mediterranean, the smaller South American countries like Guyana or Suriname could have religous uprisings and commit to the new Green-led shamanistic order. i dunno, lots of fun opportunities to build some gods on earth.
 
my hope is that what remains of the world takes a look at the success Adom and Euanthe had in withstanding the bulk of the devastation. rather than a stronger world government, i think a variety of new nations, pieced together from old ones, governed by supers that are chosen magically or by the people or through some kind of religious sanctification would be neat. Themyscira could absorb Greece and the Mediterranean, the smaller South American countries like Guyana or Suriname could have religous uprisings and commit to the new Green-led shamanistic order. i dunno, lots of fun opportunities to build some gods on earth.
As the knowledge of how gods work becomes more widespread, I wonder if there will be cases of people trying to deliberately engineer new gods by manufacturing a religion. It doesn't actually seem to require all that many believers given historical god-formation, although maybe it used to be easier because it works on a percentage system.
 
The only positive we know is WoG from Zoat is that they take insanity defense seriously from the example of Joker being cured and arriving in Heaven as Jack Napier, and I'm not sure if that's just Zoat trying to not make the Silver City 100% worthless by having Joker go to Heaven as himself since iirc, that's how Hellblazer's take on Heaven and Hell goes, if you feel guilty even if you're a good person, you go to Hell, if you're a virtuous person or a sociopath and psychopath incapable of guilt? Both go to Heaven.
That's not quite how it works. It doesn't have so much to do with guilt as a state of mind. It's about how well your actions lined up with what you believe is righteous. If the sociopath actually believed that they were acting out of virtue, as opposed to simply not feeling guilty about what they were doing, then yeah, by that interpretation they'd go to Heaven.

marshalling LexCorps resources
I think you meant LexCorp's
 
As the knowledge of how gods work becomes more widespread, I wonder if there will be cases of people trying to deliberately engineer new gods by manufacturing a religion. It doesn't actually seem to require all that many believers given historical god-formation, although maybe it used to be easier because it works on a percentage system.

right, almost like a purposeful American Gods-esque system. we already know through Boss Smiley that the potential exists for zeitgeist-type gods to arise. maybe the old world gods arise to combat the new, just like in American Gods? especially with modern benefactors like Superboy, Orange Lantern, Wonder Woman to give credence to the old world. mass belief is a large pendulum that anyone can swing in this universe.
 
"And then there's the issue of one government or another half-inching them and doing something stupid with them. I'd rather not put temptation in their way."
Is 'half-inching them' a Britishism that I'm unfamiliar with, or am I just tired? Because while I can sort of guess from context what it means, I'm really not sure.
 
Reconstruction (Renegade option)
28th February 2013
10:01 GMT -8


Mr. Constantine lays out the parts of the thurible on the work bench.

"Right. Bone fragments from their mother and father." Those are loaded into the central portion of the thurible. "Blood samples from the other kids." The vials containing those slot into the exterior ring. "And this-."

I peer at it. "Is that a tooth?"

"Considering how drunk I was at the time, I'm friggin' surprised I even remembered where it was." He picks up the elongated canine with a pair of tweezers and puts it onto a upper plate. "Tooth from the King of the Vampires."

"Okay."

"Now, normally I'd just hand it over and wish you all the best." He pats his coat for a cigarette packet, then glances at me and reconsiders. "But since it's kids involved, I'll walk you through it."

He picks up the lid and screws it on. The exterior is decorated with runic scrawlings that I suspect he made up, but I suppose that hardly matters. It just needs to be able to handle the energy flows.

"The tooth isn't just for the fact they're vampires. It's for you as well. You're the ruler. Your powers lets you use it to substitute for him."

"Did he have any actual power over other vampires? I've spoken to a few and most of them hadn't even heard of him."

"Dunno. He always had a few with him when I saw him. Maybe he wasn't a total arsehole to other vampires."

I carefully pick up the thurible by its chain with my right hand, letting it dangle freely. By My Power. Yes, there we are.

"It works. What else?"

"Blood and bone for cross-referencing. Authority and the fact that you're their adopted dad connects you to the bones of their father and the blood of your children. That connects you to the bones of their mother, and the whole thing should lead you to anyone it resonates with."

"Isn't Hell a high-magic background environment?"

"Shouldn't be a problem for you."

"No, almost certainly not. I'm just concerned that it will disrupt the functioning of this device."

"Not as long as Triskele isn't there. She's got magical authority over the other succubae."

"And I can use that-."

"As long as she isn't there. Yeah." He exhales slowly. "Look… This is the sort of thing I'd do. But I don't get why you are."

"How do you think I should do it, then?"

"I dunno. Summon the old bitch up and stab her to death?" His eyes drop to the Sword. "I recognise that thing. You know what it does?"

"It doesn't kill them. It just makes them mortal. Someone like Triskele is going to have a way back to power. Or just accept the hit and work her way back up. I accept risks as part of the job. I prefer not to accept them on behalf of my children."

"This will come to a fight." He looks me right in the eyes and I see his certainly, wrought from bitter experience. "She can't let something like this go."

"Then I'll get the children out of the line of fire first."

"Or." He points to the thurible. "The magic in your children and in their mother is the same as the magic in her."

"And..?"

"You should be able to bind her to you."

"I'm not a magician, Mister Constantine."

"You don't need to be. Just do what you do best: fight her and beat her, pushing your essence into her through the thurible all the while. And then when she's barely got any magic left, hit her with your orange ring."

I frown. "Has she done something to irritate you, Mister Constantine?"

"I deal with demons because I need to. That doesn't mean I don't know what they are."

Nice to hear.

"How would I even get her to fight me?"

"Not that hard. Same way I sold my soul to the First, Second and Third. Remove all magic residue from a ritual space and then call her up. Make sure that she's fully here and then hit her." He tilts his head to the right. "Of course, in your case, hiding you isn't quite as easy."

"Wouldn't she just teleport back to Hell?"

"I can give you a way to track her. Keep using your Mother Box to stay on her trail. If she keeps running away in her own place of power then it'll keep costing her."

That's true. I'm aware of the theory, and from Other Grayven's memories I can recall how it felt to do just that to another New God. But that was a weaker New God as a training exercise, not an ancient demon. It's possible, but…

"What happens if the First sticks his oar in?"

"Well… I'm not exactly unbiased where he's concerned. He's not exactly unbeatable. And if Triskele is getting her tail handed to her I don't think he'll help. He's more about giving you sadistic choices."

"So he'll have found the children already and offer a trade."

"If he even knows this is happening. Look, you know there's no way to guarantee this. Are you looking for an excuse to not try?"

"No. No I am not."

Mother Box.

Ping.

The hush tube portal opens to our ritual space, Mr. White and Ms. 'Bae' bound to armoured chairs in the centre of the room. Mr. White looks decidedly uncertain while Ms. Bae is more afraid but is trying to cover it up.

"Mister Grayven? Are you..? Sure about this?"

Sunset rolls her eyes. "Like I told you the last five times, it's fine. This room has the best sense-defying wards there are. I designed them."

"The Queen's gunnna be, like, super-pissed?"

Sunset folds her arms across her chest. "I don't think I'd want a demon who eats souls to not be 'super-pissed' with me." She looks my way. "Grayven, are you ready?"

I nod. "Start it up."

Sunset nods and gives her control system her full attention. The theory is simple: Triskele is aware of Mr. White through her contract, and of Ms. Bae through her authority. By pinging both -a sort of legal authentication spell for Mr. White and the first part of a binding spell for Ms. Bae- constantly in a warded area, she'll be driven to distraction with a need to locate them but with no idea of where they actually are. We just need-.

Sunset's eyes widen. "I felt her. She's looking. Running a trace… Got it."

Ping.

Excellent.

I ignite the thurible, raising it up to head height.

Boom tube to Hell.

Ping.
 
Last edited:
Please tell me these are the first moves in gearing up for the harrowing of Hell. Been looking forward to some cool Grayven episodes and to that event in particular as well.

I think the last significant event of that story was the confrontation with original Grayven and it wasn't as satisfying, honestly.
 
"Now, normally I'd just had it over and wish you all the best."
'hand'
"Isn't Hell a high magic background environment?"
'high-magic'?
"I don't think I'd want a demon who eats soul to not be 'super-pissed' with me."
'souls'
The theory is simple: Triskele is aware of Mr. White through her contract, and with Ms. Bae through her authority.
'of Ms. Bae'?
or
'connected with Mr. White'?

So was Constantine suggesting that he assimilate Triskele?
 
28th February 2013
10:01 GMT -8


Mr. Constantine lays out the parts of the thurible on the work bench.

"Right. Bone fragments from their mother and father." Those are loaded into the central portion of the thurible. "Blood samples from the other kids." The vials containing those slot into the exterior ring. "And this-."
In case anyone wondering what a Thurible is, it's those censer things you see priests swinging around on chains in religious processions. Usually used for ritual purification, that sort of thing. I'm betting with a little work, this one will end up serving as a weapon too. :D

I peer at it. "Is that a tooth?"

"Considering how drunk I was at the time, I'm friggin' surprised I even remembered where it was." He picks up the elongated canine with a pare of tweezers and puts it onto a upper plate. "Tooth from the King of the Vampires."
So, this fellow? I'm sure there have been many pretenders to his throne, but this is likely the real deal...

"Okay."

"Now, normally I'd just had it over and wish you all the best." He pats his coat for a cigarette packet, then glances at me and reconsiders. "But since it's kids involved, I'll walk you through it."
Ah, his conscience won't let him play it safe, eh? Then again, it's not like he's going to be swinging it himself.

He picks up the lid and screws it on. The exterior is decorated with runic scrawlings that I suspect he made up, but I suppose that hardly matters. It just need to be able to handle the energy flows.

"The tooth isn't just for the fact they're vampires. It's for you as well. You're the ruler. Your powers lets you use it to substitute for him."
All a matter of Conquest, eh? Symbolism is important, after all.

"Did he have any actual power over other vampires? I've spoken to a few and most of them hadn't even heard of him."

"Dunno. He always had a few with him when I saw him. Maybe he wasn't a total arsehole to other vampires."
That alone might well put him leagues ahead of many.

I carefully pick up the thurible by its chain with my right hand, letting it dangle freely. By My Power. Yes, there we are.

"It works. What else?"
Good to see it was that easy. Then again, his metaphysique is pretty weighty.

"Blood and bone for cross-referencing. Authority and the fact that you're their adopted dad connects you to the bones of their father and the blood of your children. That connects you to the bones of their mother, and the whole thing should lead you to anyone it resonates with."

"Isn't Hell a high magic background environment?"
Presumably the sympathetic links will provide clearer tracing.

"Shouldn't be a problem for you."

"No, almost certainly not. I'm just concerned that it will disrupt the functioning of this device."
I'm sure with a little New God reinforcement, it'll do the job.

"Not as long as Triskele isn't there. She's got magical authority over the other succubae."

"And I can use that-."
If nothing else, there's always the option of 'conquering' her, Tentacle Oni style. :p

"As long as she isn't there. Yeah." He exhales slowly. "Look… This is the sort of thing I'd do. But I don't get why you are."

"How do you think I should do it, then?"
Because the Renegade isn't quite ready yet to lead an army into Hell to conquer it.

"I dunno. Summon the old bitch up and stab her to death?" His eyes drop to the Sword. "I recognise that thing. You know what it does?"

"It doesn't kill them. It just makes them mortal. Someone like Triskele is going to have a way back to power. Or just accept the hit and work her way back up. I accept risks as part of the job. I prefer not to accept them on behalf of my children."
And given her age and experience, that would not take long, especially if those that might replace her have bindings that would force them to bow to her.

"This will come to a fight." He looks me right in the eyes and I see his certainly, wrought from bitter experience. "She can't let something like this go."

"Then I'll get the children out of the line of fire first."
That may take some doing. Perhaps a vacation on Tamaran, or similar?

"Or." He points to the thurible. "The magic in your children and in their mother is the same as the magic in her."

"And..?"
I doubt they could be so lucky.

"You should be able to bind her do you."

"I'm not a magician, Mister Constantine."
No, you're a muscle wizard. So cast Fist. :p

"You don't need to be. Just do what you do best: fight her and beat her, pushing your essence into her through the thurible all the while. And then when she's barely got any magic left, hit her with your orange ring."

I frown. "Has she done something to irritate you, Mister Constantine?"
Besides just existing?

"I deal with demons because I need to. That doesn't mean I don't know what they are."

Nice to hear.
Because even John Constantine has standards. And demons are right evil bastards, by and large barring a handful of exceptions.

"How would I even get her to fight me?"

"Not that hard. Same way I sold my soul to the First, Second and Third. Remove all magic residue from a ritual space and then call her up. Make sure that she's fully here and then hit her." He tilts his head to the right. "Of course, in your case, hiding you isn't quite as easy."
Unless you turn it into a challenge. Which going behind her back and stealing several of her subjects will do.

"Wouldn't she just teleport back to Hell?"

"I can give you a way to track her. Keep using your Mother Box to stay on her trail. If she keeps running away in her own place of power then it'll keep costing her."
Yes, I can imagine the Narrative aspect of it, and her story is much weaker than his already. What with her being the evil queen holding 'innocent' women hostage and him being the rescuing hero.

That's true. I'm aware of the theory, and from Other Grayven's memories I can recall how it felt to do just that to another New God. But that was a weaker New God as a training exercise, not an ancient demon. It's possible, but…

"What happens if the First sticks his oar in?"
I expect at most, you'll hear his laughter in the distance as he watches the battle.

"Well… I'm not exactly unbiased where he's concerned. He's not exactly unbeatable. And if Triskele is getting her tail handed to her I don't think he'll help. He's more about giving you sadistic choices."

"So he'll have found the children already and offer a trade."
So, definitely ensure everyone valuable to you is beyond his reach, preferably off-world.

"If he even knows this is happening. Look, you know there's no way to guarantee this. Are you looking for an excuse to not try?"

"No. No I am not."
Just making sure he knows all the risks.

"I don't fully agree with this, but if you're sure about this..."

The hush tube portal opens to our ritual space, Mr. White and Ms. 'Bae' bound to armoured chairs in the centre of the room. Mr. White looks decidedly uncertain while Ms. Bae is more afraid but is trying to cover it up.

"Mister Grayven? Are you..? Sure about this?"
Oh, I'm sure there's very little danger to you, Jerry.

Sunset rolls her eyes. "Like I told you the last five times, it's fine. This room has the best sense-defying wards there are. I designed them."

"The Queen's gunnna be, like, super-pissed?"
Good. Angry people make mistakes.

Sunser folds her arms across her chest. "I don't think I'd want a demon who eats soul to not be 'super-pissed' with me." She looks my way. "Grayven, are you ready?"

I nod. "Start it up."
And even if she's not as powerful as someone like Celestia yet, she could give an arch-demon a solid fight.

Sunset nods and gives her control system her full attention. The theory is simple: Triskele is aware of Mr. White through her contract, and with Ms. Bae through her authority. By pinging both -a sort of legal authentication spell for Mr. White and the first part of a binding spell for Ms. Bae- constantly in a warded area, she'll be driven to distraction with a need to locate them but with no idea of where they actually are. We just need-.

Sunset's eyes widen. "I felt her. She's looking. Running a trace… Got it."
Heh. Getting her attention through simple annoyance. Good way to niggle her into responding.

"Well, there's definitely something responding. We have their location locked."

I ignite the thurible, raising it up to head height.

Boom tube to Hell.

Ping.
"Let's hope we don't regret this..." The Renegade going in loud, I see.

So, things are heating up. I'm expecting that by the end of this subplot, either the Succupires' dead siblings and mother will be free and the Snake Lady upset but still kicking, or the Renegade will have a suitably serpentine Construct Lantern and the captives freed... Both outcomes have their own issues, though, and I doubt one will be better than the other. Either way, the Kings of Hell are going to be vexed with him.
 
That should say 'Sunset'.
'hand'
'high-magic'?
'souls'
'of Ms. Bae'?
or
'connected with Mr. White'?
Thank you, corrected.
So was Constantine suggesting that he assimilate Triskele?
Grayven hasn't been entirely open with that function, so Constantine only infers that the orange light can be used in that way.
 
Reconstruction (part 5)
1st March 2013
10:57 GMT


Mr. Queen leans back slightly in his chair. "You wanna run that by me again?"

"What?"

"Oh, it's…" He waves his right hand. "Just that out of everyone here, you're the guy I'd have thought would have the least problem with them."

"Why?"

"Your.. huge.. body count?"

I shrug, shaking my head. "What's that got to do with it? Strategic nuclear weapons destroy the whole region indiscriminately. I'm very discriminating. They're also too big and poisonous to use in intraplanetary warfare and don't work well in space."

"And just like that, suddenly it makes perfect sense."

I nod. "I'm glad we understand each other."

"And I don't think you understand why I'm against them at all, but…"

"I suspect that it's because they represent the capacity of humanity to violently destroy itself, and you think that by expunging them from your awareness-"

"No."

"-you can metaphorically expunge the very capacity of man to commit acts of violence."

"No, it's the 'wiping out all life on Earth' thing."

"Wiping out all life on Earth isn't hard. Any Lantern could do it. Honestly, anyone with a few rocket motors and a little patience could do it. But honestly, the whole 'nuclear winter' thing is overdone. The bombs used on Japan threw up a lot of ash because the cities they hit were mostly made of wood and had been being bombed by incendiaries for weeks beforehand. They didn't create ash so much as throw upwards what was already there. And outside of the initial-."

The door to my right opens, and Superman walks in, looking pensive. "Ollie, Paul, thanks for coming."

"Don't sweat it, Clark. What is it? Want help wrangling Luthor?"

"No, I-. Luthor wants to do some… Radical things with the rebuilding project. I wanted to talk to both of you about it."

I smile, generating a construct halo and wings for Mr. Queen and a trident and horns for myself. Superman spots it and smiles.

"I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. But you do certainly have a unique perspective."

Mr. Queen glances back at his wings and then reaches up to feel his halo. "And what did I do to join the brain trust?"

"You're the most normal guy on the Justice League."

"I'm a millionaire bowman."

"Ah, okay." Superman nods. "Who would you pick?"

"C-." Mr. Queen thinks for a moment longer. "Ba-." … "What about Ray?"

"Doctor Palmer's a great guy, but he doesn't have your life experience."

I set my trident construct to float at my side and rub my hands together. "Alright, Kal-El. What morally dubious thing do you need me to convince you is rational today?"

"It's not-." He takes a breath, then pulls over another chair and sits with us. "It's not a simple moral subject. If it was, I'd just do the right thing."

"That-." I sigh. "Did Batman tell you what I did to him?"

"Ah…" Superman looks a little concerned and glances at Mr. Queen, who seems similarly out of the loop. "No? Did you have an argument?"

"Do you remember how after Richard got exposed to the Anti-Life, he went through a major re-evaluation of his life choices?"

Mr. Queen winces. "I don't know what you're about to say but I already know I'm gunna hate it."

Superman frowns. "You did something to him so he could use the yellow ring."

I nod. "I undid it afterwards, and I think it was essential to the mission, but unlike a lot of things I've done, that… I'll definitely understand if you want to run your moral quandaries with someone else."

"You undid it." He gives me a hard look, eyebrows slightly raised. "You're sure?"

"As sure as I can be. You can't-. Experiences change a person. I couldn't just turn him back without erasing his short term memory, which would be worse. So he could still think about what happened with Richard in the same way that he did before, but he can also remember thinking about it… Differently."

"And Batman knows you did that?"

"He couldn't really miss it." I point to the right side of my face. "You might have noticed that one of my bruises didn't just vanish with the rest of my injuries."

"I did, I just wasn't sure what that was. That means you think you deserved to be injured, does it?"

"It means that I want to hurt. The point is, I-" I dismiss the horns, trident, wings and halo. "-quite understand if you'd rather ask… Ted Kord?"

"Considering that I'm dealing with Luthor, you might still be the best guy."

Mr. Queen shrugs. "If it helps, he seems pretty much the same to me. You, ah… Got any plans to brainwash the rest of-. You do?"

I shrug. "The drug I used would work the same on everyone-. Any other human. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to use it on anyone else, but it-. The possibility is there."

Superman sighs. "The thing is, that actually makes you better for helping me with this."

"Ah." Mr. Queen glances awkwardly at me. "Should I try running now, or are you gunna give me a five minute warning?"

"Before I got here, you were talking about nuclear weapons."

Mr. Queen nods. "I mean, none of the countries who own them have managed to reorganise their militaries. We could just get rid of all of the warheads."

"That wouldn't stop them making new ones."

"Maybe they won't-." He sags a little. "Yeah, wishful thinking."

"Strictly speaking, we could have gotten rid of them before all this happened."

Superman gives his head a small shake. "I don't think the League wants to become a nuclear power."

I shrug. "Who said anything about keeping them? Unlike America, the League could actually destroy the nuclear material rather than just sticking it in long term storage. I assumed that the League didn't do things like that because you didn't want to directly act against world governments."

"That's a part of it. Lex has spent a few days trying to persuade me we should work a little differently."

Mr. Queen snorts. "Well if it's Lex…"
 
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What's the got to do with

"What's that"


"thought"

And don't think you understand why I'm

"I don't"

and your think that by

"and you"

and had been being bombed by

"been bombed"

"I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. But you do certainly have a unique perspective

That's an incredibly generous way of putting it.

halo. "I what did I do to join the

"What did I do"

Remove the "I".

"Ah, okay." Superman nods. "Who would you pick

Honestly I'd pick Superman.
 

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