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

[Darko]

When I saw that the date and time were in green I thought we'd be seeing Anti Green SI.

Speaking of him., what has he been up to ever since Supes came back?

I know he won't be joining the league but what will he do in the future?

 

[Darko]

Is Angelica going to speak with the numbers in front of her like that all the time or only when she's using her powers, because when she freed those people from demon control she didn't have them?
How is her relationship with the other angels?

How strong is she compared to Zauriel and Gabriel? All we know is that Paul says that she doesn't have a connection to heaven.

Is Zauriel stronger than a average angel, can he still use theurgy after the Kings of heaven made him into a mortal?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Is Angelica going to speak with the numbers in front of her like that all the time or only when she's using her powers, because when she freed those people from demon control she didn't have them?

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I'm probably going to have her talk like that whenever she uses theurgy.

How is her relationship with the other angels?

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The one angel she knows doesn't appear to have a problem with her.

How strong is she compared to Zauriel and Gabriel? All we know is that Paul says that she doesn't have a connection to heaven.

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Gabriel is a demon's science experiment at the moment. I'd say that Angelica has broader permissions but less actual force than Zauriel.

Is Zauriel stronger than a average angel, can he still use theurgy after the Kings of heaven made him into a mortal?

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There isn't really a meaningful average.

 

[Ardy]

Are we going to see Zauriel hanging around Paul any time soon? Him commenting on every single one of Paul's actions, from premarital sex to supporting illegal vigilantes like the Alliance, promises to be hilarious.

 

[Darko]

When I asked how strong she is compared to Gabriel I meant when he was at full power.

Is Zauriel going to involve himself in super heroics, and will he join the league?

How is the world reacting after the angels invaded?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Are we going to see Zauriel hanging around Paul any time soon?

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Probably not.

Him commenting on every single one of Paul's actions, from premarital sex to supporting illegal vigilantes like the Alliance, promises to be hilarious.

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Zauriel doesn't actually care about a lot of stuff that religions that regard him as the agent of a morally superior power care about.

When I asked how strong she is compared to Gabriel I meant when he was at full power.

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Pass.

Is Zauriel going to involve himself in super heroics, and will he join the league?

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Yes, not anytime soon.

How is the world reacting after the angels invaded?

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In lots of different ways.

 

[Grimnar]

I wonder if Zatanna is ever going to get a replacement crystal.

Early on when it was shown, OL described it as somewhat Lantern like in construction. If that's the case, given his ability to create Lanterns, is it possible for him to make his own version of the Star Sapphire with the Orange light, to integrate with Zatanna's channeling staff? They'd only have to rejig it with the Avarice symbol so not much work needed done.

It's just that after so long and after spending so much time upgrading her shit, I just don't see Zatanna willingly going back to casting from her internal reserves alone. It's stupid. She knows she can do better than that now, she's used to it, and permanantly gimping herself is just... if she really need lean into OL's philosophy, there's no way on earth she isn't doing SOMETHING to get a magical source of energy to use.

Which could be bad.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

I'm not super Familiar with this Robot, or at least don't think I am, but...wow, the damn thing seems almost ludicrously OP.

 

[Pinklestia]

I wonder if Zatanna is ever going to get a replacement crystal.

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The thing was bad for her mental health, so not any time soon?

I.mean technically she could use something else but the closest thing qe know to a power ring power source that you can easily find or build on Earth is a Star Rod aka Starman staff thing. And that works on science.

Unless she becomes some kind of technomage she isn't gonna use spells powered by stellar energy any time soon.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I'm not super Familiar with this Robot, or at least don't think I am, but...wow, the damn thing seems almost ludicrously OP.

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At the moment it's a bit like fighting Superman in the outskirts of the sun.

 

[iamnuff]

I'm guessing Hal is arguing the kill, declaring that of course his ring could keep him alive through that blast...

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I assumed he was trying to wave off medical attention, but green rings don't heal so well as orange ones, and Paul is telling him that he can't tell if he's still irradiated.

Mr Atom is firing real blasts of radiation in this training exercise.
That hit could have done IRL damage.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I'm trying to find a comic, set shortly after Superman 668, in which Kara Zor-El cooks dinner for the Kents using vegetables taken from Karsta Wor-Ul's farm. Anyone remember which it was?

 

[Darko]

Is Karsta going to show up in the paragon side?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Is Karsta going to show up in the paragon side?

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Sort of. She left the planet a while ago after Superman found her, but her farm's still there.

 

[SIDoragon]

I am really looking forward to the scathing review from Paul.
Seriously, I would even encourage Mr Zoat to take an extra day and really make it through. I want to see detailed step by steps of what happened, when, to whom, and why.

Keep up the great work.

 

[Darko]

Where did she go, and will she have a run in with Amalac?

What has Amalac been doing now with the whole spider queen and does he know that she can help him revive his race?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I am really looking forward to the scathing review from Paul.
Seriously, I would even encourage Mr Zoat to take an extra day and really make it through. I want to see detailed step by steps of what happened, when, to whom, and why.

Keep up the great work.

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Ah...

I was kinda going to skip it, actually.

Where did she go, and will she have a run in with Amalac?

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Away, and probably not unless she actually goes to Vega. He's a bit busy there at the moment.

What has Amalac been doing now with the whole spider queen and does he know that she can help him revive his race?

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He doesn't trust her anything like enough to try that. He's happy with the work she's doing on his behalf.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Ah...

I was kinda going to skip it, actually.

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We know Zoat....we all know.

 

[KillingYouNicely]

Threats of a kind the League rarely faces?

It involved a mix of criminals and super-powered mercenaries that robbed super-technology from high-tech companies for a mysterious master, culminating in a super-fight against a high level antagonist that requires the might of the entire League to defeat. That sounds like basically your average Justice League comic story-arc to me.

I rather think the SI's point is that this is exactly the kind of threat the League regularly faces. Indeed, whatever the League's purpose actually is it would cover this under all definitions, so nobody can say it's outside of their usual ballpark.

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...I meant threats like Mirror Master's esoteric abilities, of which Flash is the only one with any experience.

More importantly, radiation as a weapon in general. Barring the different colours of kryptonite, it isn't often that something as serious as actual radioactive material, and people who can control it, are tackled by the League. Not to mention the poisoning effect it has on the environment - if Agent Orange wasn't the one overseeing this and making sure the ramifications are immediately obvious, they'd might not remember or even bother cleaning up after a villain who sprays that sort of hazard around after they beat him.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

At the moment it's a bit like fighting Superman in the outskirts of the sun.

Click to shrink...

AH, so not the character I was thinking of at all.

A quick google shows I was thinking of the Atomic Skull I believe.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
01:02 GMT

Lex smiles in a mildly sinister way as he leans back in the command chair-.

No, let's be honest. I've seen the specifications for the standard model and that isn't it. Command throne, Lex had them build him a command throne. It's just a mercy that it isn't gold and covered in skulls.

His armour is gold-coloured with a purple undersuit -for reasons best known to Dr Metcalf- and looks.. more than a little like armour I remember the version of Lex Luthor from Earth 2 wearing. Which I suppose is better than the green and purple monstrosity he wears in the comics, but… Really?

He glances my way as he steeples his fingers in front of his chest.

"A little garish, I know, but I feel that it makes a strong impression."

"I could make you something better."

"Gray with glowing lines? Please." He holds his right hand out to the side. "Besides, the whole point of this ship is to show what humans can accomplish without aliens."

"Which is a great and noble purpose to be sure, but this is a rush job with no media observers."

"If I won't risk myself over a point of principle then I can hardly ask other people to do the same."

I raise my left eyebrow very slightly, glancing at the members of the crew manning the other stations. This prototype destroyer is crewed exclusively by people Lex… Not 'owns' exactly, but skilled ex-military people who are loyal to him personally. Usually as a result of him arranging for them to be semi-legitimately aided in escaping an 'unfortunate' situation and then given a decent job. These are people he trusts. He could have said anything that he wanted and there wouldn't be any adverse consequence, so he's either getting into character, or… He actually believes it.

Huh.

I mean, I knew he had some sort of revelation after Truggs and I pointed out that we knew he was a paranoid… And he certainly isn't anything like as aggressively paranoid as some comic interpretations, but that's verging on heroic talk right there.

Remarkable, really.

Ultraa and crew are hanging back from Earth, probably trying to make sense of the place. It's a bit of a joke in some places, but it's actually quite hard for an observer to tell the difference between entertainment broadcasts and information broadcasts. In more advanced places where they still do broadcasts rather than just narrowcasts they actually mark the images with the alien version of 'all characters contained herein are fictional' for that very reason. And then you've got to work out the languages… Not a problem for them, they've clearly had a telepathic specialist sent to Earth to pick up at least English and load it into their brains.

I could have gone after them myself. I mean, I'm a Lantern. Flying in space is part of the job, and Sazu could provide me with a pretty reasonable estimate of their ship's capacities. But then it occurred to me that I'm not meant to be defending the Earth against alien aggressors. That's hireling work, and I'm management these days. I'm supposed to arrange things so that a defence can take place.

So, Lex. Who has a small number of completed ships that he was holding off launching until he could make an event out of it. And who doesn't like aliens and certainly doesn't like people invading the Earth. In other circumstances he might want to capture the Almeracians and their ship but since he's come over all homopuritan that seems to be less of a concern.

The ship has cold guns and purple death rays for ordnance, all running off super-dense batteries of Dr Metcalf's design. It has a stealth system that renders it near-invisible to electromagnetic detection, 'almost' because the cosmic converters which power everything other than the weapons do actually need some access to solar radiation in order to work. But the near-invisibility is really good, even by galactic standards. There's even a counter-gravity system to defy gravity-based detection, telepathy scramblers and the final model of ship will have a duty mage to work an anti-magic system.

Lex doesn't have any magicians he trusts enough to fulfil that role for this flight.

I wonder what that says about me?

"Mister Luthor?"

He doesn't look around, instead calling up an image of the Almeracian ship on the holodisplay in front of him.

"Yes, Mister Finch?"

"We've got a weapon lock, and communication lag at this distance is next to nothing."

"Are we able to confirm Mister Grayven's information about their defensive abilities?"

"No, not with passive sensors. I can tell you how many weapons and defense turrets they've got-" He presses a button and they are immediately highlighted on the hologram. "-but until they actually start emitting energy, there's nothing to read. Same with the armour. Until we can see them try to accelerate we can't judge their mass." He shrugs. "And if they use telekinesis to mess around with gravity I can't see how we could do that reliably even then."

"Fair point." He touches a button on his command throne. "Luthor to fleet. We are about to engage active scans. Prepare to take evasive action."

A fleet of three ships, so 'squadron' would really be more appropriate, but... It would be churlish to point that out.

The other two ships signal readiness, then Lex pushes the button that launches the similarly invisible sensor drones. Because when you're risking breaking stealth but have an undetectable communication system you'd be a fool to scan from your actual ship. So they're away…

I'm feeling out of sorts. Apokoliptian management oversight is usually at least a little hands on. If this were an Apokoliptian ship I'd be channelling my spiritual power through the ship's systems. I'd probably feel the results of the scan before the sensor-operating minion did. I'm really only here as emergency backup in case things get radically out of hand. And because I'm the one who accepted the responsibility, so… I'm here.

"Telemetry coming in, Mister Luthor. No sign they've spotted us."

Lex quickly reviews the data on his personal throne-display.

"Uh. It appears that your data was correct. At least as far as we can determine."

I nod. "So. Naval option or telepathy?"

"I think we should keep it simple. Hail them."

The communication avenue we're using here is a bit on the simple side. We don't share a system, but their regular sensors should be able to pick up radio waves and we already know that they can speak English.

"This is Lex Luthor. You are intruding in the home system of the human species. Explain yourself."

Getting an answer might take a few moments, given that they're probably not set up for broadcasting radio waves.

There's a chime-.

"Pressure on the telepathic screens, Mister Luthor. They're looking for us."

"That won't do." He taps the hologram, bringing up the results of the life-energy scan. "That appears to be the bridge. Target it with the purple death rays, and… Point the cold guns at their exhausts."

"Sir."

"Lex Luthor to Almeracian ship. If you do not cease scanning and enter communications within thirty seconds, we will assume that you are hostile and treat you accordingly."

He presses a button, and a thirty second timer appears next to the image of the ship. Then he turns to me.

"That should be rude enough that they feel obliged to disobey, shouldn't it?"

I nod.

"I believe so."

"And neither their shields nor their armour will protect them from the death rays." He presses another button, connecting him to the marine teleportation centre. "Mister Near, prepare to board on my signal."

"Understood."

Lex taps his right index finger twice, then waits patiently for the times to run down.

Then he kills every living thing on their ship.

 

[JamesEye]

That last line was a bit chilling in how casual it seemed for Lex.

thanks

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Truggs and I pointed

Click to shrink...

Wait...wasn't Truggs off being vivisected in some lab somewhere in the Renegade timeline?

 

[Ardy]

Sweet mother of fuck when did this story get AWESOME?

edit: No maxx, he originally was being vivisected to determine how his nanotech thing worked but when they first introduced the Starseeker it was revealed he got let out to work on the project.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

2nd March
01:02 GMT

Lex smiles in a mildly sinister way as he leans back in the command chair-.

No, let's be honest. I've seen the specifications for the standard model and that isn't it. Command throne, Lex had them build him a command throne. It's just a mercy that it isn't gold and covered in skulls.

Click to shrink...

No, that's for later. Or if he declares himself Emperor of Mankind...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length.

His armour is gold-coloured with a purple undersuit -for reasons best known to Dr Metcalf- and looks.. more than a little like armour I remember the version of Lex Luthor from Earth 2 wearing. Which I suppose is better than the green and purple monstrosity he wears in the comics, but… Really?

He glances my way as he steeples his fingers in front of his chest.

"A little garish, I know, but I feel that it makes a strong impression."

Click to shrink...

Well, it certainly does that. Hopefully it's the impression he wants...

"I could make you something better."

"Grey with glowing lines? Please." He holds his right hand out to the side. "Besides, the whole point of this ship is to show what humans can accomplish without aliens."

"Which is a great and noble purpose to be sure, but this is a rush job with no media observers."

Click to shrink...

Besides any lucky observers back on Earth. I doubt anyone would see more than flickers of light though.

"If I won't risk myself over a point of principle then I can hardly ask other people to do the same."

I raise my left eyebrow very slightly, glancing at the members of the crew manning the other stations. This prototype destroyer is crewed exclusively by people Lex… Not 'owns' exactly, but skilled ex-military people who are loyal to him personally. Usually as a result of him arranging for them to be semi-legitimately aided in escaping an 'unfortunate' situation and then given a decent job. These are people he trusts. He could have said anything that he wanted and there wouldn't be any adverse consequence, so he's either getting into character, or… He actually believes it.

Click to shrink...

Let's hope he's improving.

Huh.

I mean, I knew he had some sort of revelation after Truggs and I pointed out that we knew he was a paranoid… And he certainly isn't anything like as aggressively paranoid as some comic interpretations, but that's verging on heroic talk right there.

Remarkable, really.

Click to shrink...

It's a rare case when a supervillian turns away from the 'dark side', so to speak.

Ultraa and crew are hanging back from Earth, probably trying to make sense of the place. It's a bit of a joke in some places, but it's actually quite hard for an observer to tell the difference between entertainment broadcasts and information broadcasts. In more advanced places were they still do broadcasts rather than just narrowcasts they actually mark the images with the alien version of 'all characters contained herein are fictional' for that very reason. And then you've got to work out the languages… Not a problem for them, they've clearly had a telepathic specialist sent to Earth to pick up at least English and load it into their brains.

Click to shrink...

Heh. Imagine if they assume the colourfully dressed flying people are fiction...

I could have gone after them myself. I mean, I'm a Lantern. Flying in space is part of the job, and Sazu could provide me with a pretty reasonable estimate of their ship's capacities. But then it occurred to me that I'm not meant to be defending the Earth against alien aggressors. That's hireling work, and I'm management these days. I'm supposed to arrange things so that a defence can take place.

So, Lex. Who has a small number of completed ships that he was holding off launching until he could make an event out of it. And who doesn't like aliens and certainly doesn't like people invading the Earth. In other circumstances he might want to capture the Almeracians and their ship but since he's come over all homopuritan that seems to be less of a concern.

Click to shrink...

And the difference in technological paradigms might make the effort worthless anyway. It'd be like Prothean technology - most of it built for a race with senses humans don't have.

The ship has cold guns and purple death rays for ordnance, all running off super-dense batteries of Dr Metcalf's design. It has a stealth system that renders it near-invisible to electromagnetic detection, 'almost' because the cosmic converters which power everything other than the weapons do actually need some access to solar radiation in order to work. But the near-invisibility is really good, even by galactic standards. There's even a counter-gravity system to defy gravity-based detection, telepathy scramblers and the final model of ship with have a duty mage to work a anti-magic system.

Click to shrink...

Mages trained by Circe's school, no doubt? Lex would likely not trust Atlanteans enough for that.

Lex doesn't have any magicians he trusts enough to fulfil that role for this flight.

I wonder what that says about me?

Click to shrink...

What, Lex's opinion of you? Likely cautious respect.

"Mister Luthor?"

He doesn't look around, instead calling up an image of the Almeracian ship on the holodisplay in front of him.

"Yes, Mister Finch?"

"We've got a weapon lock, and communication lag at this distance is next to nothing."

Click to shrink...

Just a matter of the Almeracian ship being informed of such and them hopefully surrendering... Unlikely.

"Are we able to confirm Mister Grayven's information about their defensive abilities?"

"No, not with passive sensors. I can tell you have many weapons and defense turrets they've got-" He presses a button and they are immediately highlighted on the hologram. "-but until they actually start emitting energy, there's nothing to read. Same with the armour. Until we can see them try to accelerate we can't judge their mass." He shrugs. "And if they use telekinesis to mess around with gravity I can't see how we could do that reliably even then."

Click to shrink...

So what he's saying is, the fleet needs much better sensors. I'm sure Lex can knock that out in an afternoon.

"Fair point." He touches a button on his command throne. "Luthor to fleet. We are about to engage active scans. Prepare to take evasive action."

A fleet of three ships, so 'squadron' would really be more appropriate, but... It would be churlish to point that out.

Click to shrink...

Yes, just a bit. It will prove a good shakedown for the combat capabilities.

The other two ships signal readiness, then Lex pushes the button that launches the similarly invisible sensor drones. Because when you're risking breaking stealth but have an undetectable communication system you'd be a fool to scan from your actual ship. So they're away…

I'm feeling out of sorts. Apokoliptian management oversight is usually at least a little hands on. If this were an Apokoliptian ship I'd be channelling my spiritual power through the ship's systems. I'd probably feel the results of the scan before the sensor-operating minion did. I'm really only here as emergency backup in case things get radically out of hand. And because I'm the one who accepted the responsibility, so… I'm here.

Click to shrink...

Feeling a bit left out, Grayven? I thought you wanted humanity to be able to stand by itself without you.

"Telemetry coming in, Mister Luthor. No sign they've spotted us."

Lex quickly reviews the data on his personal throne-display.

"Uh. It appears that your data was correct. At least as far as we can determine."

Click to shrink...

And now the Almeracians are getting a little panicked? Getting scanned by apparently no-one?

I nod. "So. Naval option or telepathy?"

"I think we should keep it simple. Hail them."

The communication avenue we're using here is a bit on the simple side. We don't share a system, but their regular sensors should be able to pick up radio waves and we already know that they can speak English.

Click to shrink...

Oh, boy. I've seen stories where this didn't go so well.

"This is Lex Luthor. You are intruding in the home system of the human species. Explain yourself."

Getting an answer might take a few moments, given that they're probably not set up for broadcasting radio waves.

There's a chime-.

"Pressure on the telepathic screens, Mister Luthor. They're looking for us."

Click to shrink...

Trying to find and kill them, or searching for them to reply, I wonder?

"That won't do." He taps the hologram, bringing up the results of the life-energy scan. "That appears to be the bridge. Target it with the purple death rays, and… Point the cold guns at their exhausts."

"Sir."

"Lex Luthor to Almeracian ship. If you do not cease scanning and enter communications within thirty seconds, we will assume that you are hostile and treat you accordingly."

Click to shrink...

Talk or be killed. simple and decisive.

He presses a button, and a thirty second timer appears next to the image of the ship. Then he turns to me.

"That should be rude enough that they feel obliged to disobey, shouldn't it?"

I nod.

"I believe so."

Click to shrink...

Setting them up to fail, and making a statement about Humans. Nice in a callous way.

"And neither their shields nor their armour will protect them from the death rays." He presses another button, connecting him to the marine teleportation centre. "Mister Near, prepare to board on my signal."

"Understood."

Lex taps his right index finger twice, then waits patiently for the times to run down.

Then he kills every living thing on their ship.

Click to shrink...

And it's done with no ceremony. I bet if the crew were communicating with home, they'd have quite the impression...

"If it needs be done, let it be done quickly." Lex has quite the logic to his actions. Making a strong impression on the Almeracians, and setting up a reputation amongst the galactic population, once this gets out. Or it goes forgotten by history, like so many other such actions...

 

[Xmaster3000]

with have a duty mage

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will have a duty mage

I can tell you have many weapons and defense turrets they've got-

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how many weapons and defense turrets

 

[gustyeagle]

Wait...wasn't Truggs off being vivisected in some lab somewhere in the Renegade timeline?

Click to shrink...

Nah, he was a tech in some earlier part, I think the first space ship one.

 

[Mquz]

Nah, he was a tech in some earlier part, I think the first space ship one.

Click to shrink...

As mentioned, he helped point out that Luthor suffered paranoia to humans break him into realization. He was building an AI based on modeling the brainwave patterns of multiple people and picking and choosing - he specifically left out Lex's paranoia.

 

[Twilight666]

Wait...wasn't Truggs off being vivisected in some lab somewhere in the Renegade timeline?

Click to shrink...

Nah, he was a tech in some earlier part, I think the first space ship one.

Click to shrink...

He was being vivisected but then here we found out that he got out.

 

[Mr Zoat]

will have a duty mage
how many weapons and defense turrets

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.