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

3rd January
21:45 GMT

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

The Red Martian opposite me doesn't say anything. I wonder if this is-. Oh, right.

"I'm sorry. If you're trying to speak to me telepathically, I instinctively block-."

Her shape begins to shift, moving away from the broad chested, long armed and short legged natural martian form to something more like Mister J'onzz's first attempt at looking humanish. "Is this better?"

I shrug. "That's up to you. Your appearance doesn't bother me, but you'll probably find it easier to communicate with me with a standard humanoid vocal system."

"Your telepathic block is quite impressive." Got the form but not the body language, I see. "For what reason did you develop it?"

"Self defence. There might not be many telepaths on Earth-" Or Apokolips, actually. Plenty of people who can get into your head, but surprisingly few classical telepaths. "-but given my power and position, I can't afford to leave a glaring vulnerability."

"Martians who wish to shield their thoughts sometimes do so by altering the structure of their brains."

I smile politely. "Not all of us share your species' protean nature. It's true that many humanoid species have techniques for shielding their thoughts which involve mindless repetition of facts or ideas, or training themselves to adopt alien thought patterns on the same brain, but I prefer my approach."

"I myself have some experience with combining magic and telepathy. But I do not believe that any martian handles it in quite the way that you do."

"Ah, yes. My people can learn to manipulate magic as you do, but we also have a more… Instinctive form. Our souls naturally form certain shapes, and within that we can draw upon our own reserves of spiritual strength to manifest particular effects. If I might demonstrate?"

"Yes."

I take a thick iron bar out of subspace and create a clamp construct at either end to hold it up. Next, I take two Apokoliptian cleavers. One I hold out, the blade just above the bar. Through the second I exert myself. Will To Conquer!

Then, without pressing them down, I allow the blades to rest on the metal. The second passes through with almost no resistance, while the first barely has a chance to make any impact at all before the bar falls.

"That is interesting. I have never felt anything quite like it."

"That's why I'm here." I return my demonstration aids to subspace. "Earth… There are many more magic practitioners on Earth than there are on Mars, but they are still only a tiny fraction of the population. I've… Already sponsored a school, but that is an institution for neophytes, to give the ignorant a basic level of education. For true discovery to happen…" I shrug. "My hope is that by bringing together educated magic users from multiple traditions, I might bring about a sharing of knowledge and experience which will bring everyone forward."

"You are right. Few martians study magic."

I nod. "I… Realise that you only teach Red Martians, but I had understood that your pool of potential students had dramatically increased recently."

I was fascinated to hear from M'gann that someone on Mars had found a way to remove the Maltusian lock. She wanted to know if I was responsible, but while I'm not sure how I would have responded if directly asked to remove it, in this case I'm totally innocent.

"No. It has not."

"But there are so many new Reds…"

"A White or Green who shifted their colouration to red would not be admissible. The same applies to these… Social radicals."

I bow my head. "Very well. I freely admit that I know little of Martian society."

Though obviously I know you're all a bunch of racists. Wouldn't it be nice if I only had to deal with the nice parts of a civilisation?

"So you wish for us to meet with human users of magic?"

"Oh, not just human. I've got a fellow from Zerox, a couple of people from Euphorix-" I did briefly consider inviting Kalista, but thought better of it. Alonzo was perfectly happy to extend our cooperation agreement to cover magic users. "-and a young woman from Wilson, as well as representatives of several different Earth traditions."

"Traditionally, we do not teach those who are not Red Martians."

"You wouldn't be teaching rank amateurs. You would be sharing knowledge with your contemporaries. Of course, if you consider this unacceptable, I will understand. Our forum will be poorer for your absence, but we will persevere."

"This is a novel situation." She rises off the ground and triggers the stone ring on one of her office walls, a portal to another part of the monastery briefly opening for her to float through. No idea if she's flying by magic or telekinesis. On the far side she waits for me.

Hm.

Mother B-.

Ping!

No, it's part of my approach to encourage her to think of us as equals.

Ping.

The hush tube opens and I stride through, appearing next to her. She appears to take this in her stride, shutting down the ring as Mother Box shuts down the hush tube.

"Do you know what the purpose of this monastery is?"

"No."

She gestures to a work area where another Red Martian is very carefully removing soil and stone from… Something.

"At some point during our pre-history, life dwelt on the surface of Mars."

"I know. I was part of the group which recovered the records."

"In places, small pieces of those forms of life were preserved, either in fossil form or mummified. Sometimes, enough of their genetic structure remained whole for biologists to recreate them. In other times, we must resort to more arcane measures."

The sample cleaned to his satisfaction, the martian cleaning it grows two extra pairs of forearms and gestures. Yellow.. light.. swirls for a moment as the sample… No. No, the sample isn't coming back to life. I read about this. They're manifesting the universe's memory of the plant, with its remains serving as a focus. Fascinating.

"It is our hope that we will one day be able to restore our world in full using such techniques."

Apparently happy with the twisted root that his magic has created, the martian begins planting it in a large earth-filled pot.

"I don't know for certain that my colleagues can help with that, but I suppose that if you don't ask you'll never know."

"I suppose that you are correct. I will agree to an initial meeting, on the condition that we host it. There are concerns relating to ritual purity where the arcane sites of other cultures are concerned."

"Is that… Going to be a problem going forward?"

"No. If the meeting is productive we can prepare the ground at future meeting places ourselves."

Hm. I think that everyone I would be bringing is capable of making their own arrangements regarding breathable air…

"That shouldn't be a problem. How about the security arrangements?"

"Even in fractious times, monasteries have always remained inviolate. The upstart Whites will not risk alienating those whose support they seek by assailing this holy place. And if they did?"

Her body shimmers in a way I remember from the pictures the team took of the Burner.

"We do not limit our studies to the magics of plant resurrection. Your allies will be quite safe here."