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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Or idealised Superheroes of the past?

     
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  2. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    I might be aspiring to this 'British understatement' thing-y that I understand some people can manage?

    Nice video... Worrying might be if the Sepia Ring (which is powered by Nostalgia) can pull them up, as sepia-colored constructs, and they have independent minds, and ask questions like "Why am I here?", after they've dealt with the immediate problem...

    Good quality nostalgia needs teeth... So it can bite you in the nostalgics... I might have once written a character called 'Emily' in a setting called 'Fenspace', who might have been a immaterial super-human grade intelligence AI, with ability to generate a physical form to interact with the world, and you knew she was around because everything went sepia, until she left... Where did I get the idea?


    Or, you find them lying round, abandoned...

    Grayven has an irrational fear of scarabs, because they represent his fear of being being retcon'd without realising it?*

    (* This theory has no basis in fact viz the canon of WTR, so, for it to be true would likely require a retcon. :) )
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2020
  3. Threadmarks: Duplication (part 7)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    16th May 2011
    11:44 GMT -5


    Indigo staggers, blinking in surprise as I

    !GET THE BITCH!

    lunge forward, blood vomit spraying from my mouth and-.

    I'm suspended mid-dive and the vomit is.. sort of pooling in the air just in front of her. I'm not-.

    I fly left, making it all of a metre before I find myself unaccountably slowing to a stop once again. The.. hell?!

    "LexCorp Metropolis." Indigo's chest glows as he undoes whatever Red Queen just did to him "Basement."

    The blue black beams flicker out again, but this time he vanishes before they strike him, reappearing just behind her!

    "Peace."

    The air goes white as a massive discharge of electrified plasma explodes out from Red Queen. I don't think that was Indigo, but if I've got any time-.

    I fly backwards-.

    Huh?

    I just hit the back wall-. She's twisting spatial dimensions, right! A bucket excavator construct eats through the wall and I fly back, dropping down the shaft a level before creating a rock drill construct and boring through the.. server room-

    "Aaaaagh!" / "What the fuck?! / "Hit the alarm!"

    -cooling system in a spray of escaping refrigeration gas before drilling upward underneath-.

    My constructs disappear and I'm falling towards the ground, the shock of cold! This is what I get-

    Ow! Ugh.

    -for not getting the temperature controlled version!

    I tap my chest plate to activate my force field and furiously try to reactivate my there we go! This time I try to lock on-.

    I'm not seeing any emotion. How-?

    WOOAP! WOOAP! WOOAP! WOOAP!

    The alarm finally goes off as the last of the staff flee for the exits. Okay, magic or tech based ring shutdown, only bypass I can do at short notice-.

    She's helping Krona destroy everything and fighting in a building full of people.

    Butcher's Horns.

    The red light roils around my body as I leap through the hole I made in the roof to the next floor up, claw-.

    Where is the-?

    I'm slammed across the room, environmental shield twisting as a blurring Red Queen hits me with more than human speed and strength! One interior wall explodes around us as we smash through it, but the next is fortified and I merely dent it! I'm taking hits, but when I'm like this I don’t really feel it, and I can see the damage on her armour where the red light is biting back.

    A spray of blood vomit forces her to back off for a second, circular saw constructs are negligently slapped aside and the plasma discharge construct… Hits but doesn't appear to do all that much. She raises her right hand-.

    Which is suddenly yanked aside by glowing yellow tethers, the black-blue beams she was planning on firing at me instead scything through the floor and wall as Indigo appears behind her, his staff glowing with the light of fear. I fire the blood vomit again, this time getting a solid hit and melting through her armour, revealing-.

    "By the command-"

    The yellow tether evaporates as the blood vomit eats through the Manhunter infiltrator's now-exposed chassis!

    "-of Krona-"

    The chassis smokes, the colouration browning as the infiltrator jerks its right fist and.. the left side of Indigo's torso jumps about two inches left. He shudders, and a second jerk causes his staff to go flying into the room's debris. He collapses, an indigo body cast appearing around him as he tries to hold his internal organs together. A point blank bull construct gets-. Sliced, and I'm barely able to dodge her black and blue beams.

    What do I do what do I d-?

    The room explodes and the Red Queen is gone.

    W-?

    I look left and a two metre wide hole has been punched into the building through the rock and soil outside. I can see a curved tunnel whose interior is illuminated by daylight. On the right, the exit hole looks much the same.

    Um.

    "Indigo, are you alive?"

    "Just about."

    "I've only got a first aid k-."

    "I'll live. Get the Queen."

    My aura flares back to full as I shoot out and up through the hole, the crowd who are in the process of evacuating LexCorp at a sprint. Okay, great, is someone-?

    "Hey." A young man in some kind of… Nineties reimagining of Superman's costume… Drops down to float next to me. "You on our side now?" He tips his glasses down slightly so that he can see me over the top of them. "'cause horns made of blood are usually a bad sign."

    "Look after the civilians."

    "You don't get-!"

    I shoot upwards, trying to work out where she's gone. She could just teleport-.

    A plume of debris and a chorus of car alarms draws my attention to the coastline, blue and white figures flying around a blackened red figure I assume to be Red Queen. Superman and.. either Power Girl or Supergirl. Superman deliberately tanks a volley of those blue-black beams in a way which has me wincing while the other one zooms in and scores a couple of punches. I-.

    I frown. I'm feeling anger from Red Queen, but not-. The Manhunter isn't angry at us, it's angry atitself?

    Four Gold Lanterns flash into the sky above me, followed a moment later by Black. One of the Golds-. Is that Barbara Gordon? Heads towards me.

    "Red Lantern." She eyes me for a moment, paying particular attention to my horns. "I'm taking command."

    "Good for you. Any idea why I can feel emotion from that Manhunter?"

    She looks up towards Black.

    "The Manhunters who attacked the crystal pocket universe used Red Queens to stabilise themselves. I had assumed that this was simply a replica, but it has been using her other abilities as well. Perhaps doing that does not require all of her?"
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2020
  4. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'is biting' not 'it biting'

    So this could be a Manhunter conversion like in the comics.
     
  5. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Makes sense that you don't get to manipulate extra planar realities with a clockwork mind alone. You would need complexity enough for a mind with emotions and a soul.

    On a side note: I like how they took care to shade Superboys crotch so they wouldn't have to draw a bulge.
     
  6. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Paragon must be so dissapointed he won't see Kons bulge:D
     
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  7. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Robotisation? Centurions did it first, yes even before Sonic.



    Edit: Technically Doctor Who did it first in 1966.
     
  8. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    The SI has seen Kon naked. He might have wished that he could have seen one of Kon's dafter costumes, but that's about it.
     
  9. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Finally, a good target for his Blood Rage! Get her, Raul!

    Temporal fuckery, or spatial? Either way, that's not cricket!

    At least he's got the word out. I see he can pull out Wholeness Rightly Assumed or an equivalent.

    Tranquillising her ain't gonna help here, Saul...

    I'll say this: Red Queen's power spamming is such a cheap boss fight. Dozens of different abilities, with cooldowns in the microseconds? Cheap!

    Mind that collateral damage, Raul! There are still people here.

    At least she's not bothering to Mind-whammy people anymore. So the authorities will be here soon.

    Oof. Any bets on just how cold the coolant is? Because I'm picturing liquid nitrogen or something close...

    Oh, that's annoying. Emotional shielding?

    Besides the old 'fist through the device' kind...

    Ah, rapid assault, one thing Reds are good at.

    Ah, Red rings. Such a useful frontline combat powerset... The only drawback is having to deal with damage when the red mist wears off...

    Well, good to see he can whip out the beatdowns when needed...

    And that's a surprise!

    Ouch. The one time we see him get in a cape fight, and he gets torn up... The joy of focusing on non-combat XP and skills.

    Wait What?

    Looks like someone made a dynamic entry... and exited the same way...

    Might be hard to talk when you're concentrating on holding your upper torso together...

    Now that's a request I can get behind!

    Oh, boy. 90's Superboy and his two-tone body stocking costumes... Eye candy, but not really the best time.

    To give orders? Are you really arguing with someone in the middle of a fight... Oh, wait, 90's Superboy... The picture of teenage contrariness.

    Wouldn't it be easy to tell PG apart from SG? Just look at the chest size...x3

    Oh, sure. He recognises Barbara on sight. What's Zaul's excuse, lack of energy to care?:p

    Well... Alpha Lanterns are a thing... Albeit one from a different universe and later period of time...

    ...Ew. Still, better than 'Future's End's Brother Eye-created cybor-zombies, if you'll pardon my new-52.

    Backup has arrived! Let's see Red Queen-bot get a well-deserved beatdown, shall we?

    Which is suddenly yanked aside by glowing yellow tethers...
    Double space.
    ...zooms in and scores a couple of punches.
     
  10. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    'for forget'?

    I'm not clear what this means or refers to... The alarm? The coolant leak? Something else?

    The colour of the beams used by Red Queen are sometimes 'blue black', sometimes 'black blue', and sometimes hypenated - was this intentional?



    'to borg' - the verb referring to the process of turning a living being into a cyborg, a 'cybernetic organism'... Related to the term 'to roboticise'. May also imply a loss of agency, in that the resulting being is not, or is not completely, controlled by the original organic parts. This can be complicated by various vitalist ideas, such as 'soul' or 'spirit', where even if no living nervous tissue remains some 'essence' may be assumed to possibly influence the behaviour of the being. Also see 'ASFR-ism' (robot fetishism), and 'uploading'.

    Yes, as some might have thought, this has got more messy...

    I'll admit I'm curious as to the origin of the blue-black beams (which I'd assume are a feature of some other super)...

    Also, Superboy, I did like the (high tech) X-ray specs he wore for a while. Lots of potential for a tech-enhanced pseudo-Kryptonian... Pity they took those off him again...
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2020
  11. Breadnaught

    Breadnaught Experienced.

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    Ah, poor Jade. Looks like this version of her got the conversion treatment.
     
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  12. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    So, here's a question that hasn't been asked yet.

    Why are they assuming it's just one Korona?

    After all, if multiple Paul's can team up why can't multiple Korona?
     
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  13. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Doesn't seem likely.
    Thank you, corrected.
    Not especially. The Red Lantern is in the middle of a fight and not taking time to ponder his descriptions.
     
  14. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    Maybe it's an entire virus of them.
     
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  15. jaelin910

    jaelin910 habitual lurker

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    A plague, even.
     
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  16. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    On both their houses.
     
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  17. WereDragon

    WereDragon Bookwyrm

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    Fairly poor showings from Red and Indigo if we are being honest. Are SI Paul and Grayven both that far above average?
     
  18. jonasquinn

    jonasquinn I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    So sorry if this has already been explained nah dive missed it but where the fuck is Paul in all this?
     
  19. Lord Ernest

    Lord Ernest At the End...

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    I don't think that was that poor of a showing, but still, I think the Illustres and Grayven have had to fight bigger, meaner and more clever things that whatever Red Lantern has killed. And Indigo, I don't think has been in a good fight in forever, really.

    And we don't know where our unequipped Illustres is. He was with Overgirl, Time Trapper and Komand'r in that base that is now a crater. We are as in the dark as in Indigo, Red, Black and these gilded Green Lanterns.
     
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  20. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Paragon is an enlightened lantern and renegade is a new god and has advenced equipment, Raul is probably more of a highly skilled brawler but his rings limitations don't allow him the opportunity to branch out all that much in comparison to paragon and renegade and Saul has probably been in only a handful of fights at most.

    Paragon is probably where TP is right now.
     
  21. BartlettMagic

    BartlettMagic peekaboo, you fucks you!

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    goddamn i loved the centurions.
     
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  22. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    Sinestro

    wreaths (twice)

    as circular saw constructs are negligently slapped aside

    Ooh, heart. Nom nom.

    You mean the hoarders' houses?
     
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  23. inglorius

    inglorius Getting sticky.

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    You get a piece, and you get a piece. :V
    Though he can be reffering to to idea of stuffing a head on life support in smaller chassis. Optimization.
     
  24. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  25. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    The Red King, for whom the Red Queen is named, had given himself 63 superpowers and had a suit of power armor specifically designed with countermeasures for the entire Justice League (including green lantern) as a cherry on top.

    Which he used to level every city on Earth in one parallel. With which he blew up the planet Earth in another parallel.
     
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  26. QQporter

    QQporter Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

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    Wait why does indigo lantern's staff glow yellow? Wouldn't it be indigo?
     
  27. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Toilet Paper? Now that's a funny idea.
     
  28. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Indigo lanterns use their empathy to emulate other lanterns.

    In that first appearance I mentioned a while ago? Scared off a sinestro corps member with a yellow construct, and killed the green lantern with a green construct.

    So in this case, he'd have been emulating the Will of the Gold Lantern.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2020
  29. Threadmarks: Duplication (part 8)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    16th May 2011
    11:47 GMT -5


    "Heart ready for harvesting."

    Commander Gordon looks askance at the ring as it makes its pronouncement, her retinue moving into position to hem Red Queen in.

    "Your ring thinks that she's a cyborg? That we're fighting an organic brain in a robotic Manhunter body?"

    "Not necessarily. The human brain is mounted in the head so that it doesn't overheat, but there are other ways to maintain its temperature. We could be fighting a Manhunter android with an organic brain in its chest that it externally stimulates when it wishes to use her super powers."

    Red nods, his horns fading into nothing.

    "Or any other body parts it needs. Not like any of us know how her powers work. Or Krona could have altered her organic mind to be loyal to him." He looks at Commander Gordon. "Got any telepaths available? Or.. technopaths, I suppose."

    "Commander Gordon to the Justice League. I need a telepath. Who can get to Metropolis fastest?"

    "And Indigo could do with a medic."

    I look at his bleeding torso. "What about you?"

    He blinks in confusion, then examines his battered armour. "Yes… Probably, but he got the worst of it. And if I know the Justice League they haven't exactly been mass producing purple healing rays."

    "…to LexCorp. We'll provide transportation." She switches her attention from her ring to Red. "We can't mass produce it yet, but we're working on it. The standard procedure for the aftermath of a metahuman battle includes bringing one in with the medics."

    He nods. "Sounds pretty reasonable. How long has that been going on?"

    "Luthor had some fairly harsh words for Superman about him not sharing Kryptonian technology that could make the world a better place. When he told the rest of the Justice League about it, they realised that he wasn't the only one." She smiles distractedly as she monitors the fight on the seafront. "And it means that Themyscira has a GDP figure for the first time in history."

    "Do you require us to take any action?"

    "Not.. yet. We are going to have to use you to reactivate the tuning fork once we know how, but at the moment-"

    Two flickers of heat vision and a punch tears Red Queen's right arm off.

    "-we've got this handled. Unless you've got a way to knock her out right away."

    "Technically, yes, but if we're trying to rescue the organic brain it's probably not a good idea."

    On a nearby rooftop a cylinder of space shimmers for a moment before resolving into the form of a man. He takes a moment to get his bearings before turning to watch the fight unfold.

    Red Queen appears to be draining the golden constructs and using the energy she gains from doing that to make a shield to keep the kryptonians back. Since this reality is similar to DC post-Crisis I can only assume that they've already gotten the message about the organic brain because otherwise they should have taken her apart by now. Since she has maintained the Manhunters' ability to remotely drain rings, directly involving myself probably isn't a good idea.

    "Are you certain that there isn't anywhere where it would be acceptable for me to harvest hearts?"

    Commander Gordon frowns at me. "Yes. Why, are you getting drained?"

    "No, but I noticed that the serial killer Ragman and the mass murderer Spectre were both on the League's contact list. There appears to be a logical contradiction and I'm hoping that you can explain it."

    Red snorts in amusement. "You can only expect the Justice League to be so logical. I've killed plenty of people and yet for some reason it's the fact that I keep their skulls as trophies that horrifies people."

    One of the Gold Lanterns flies over to pick up the man I assume to be Brainwave Junior and fly him closer to the combat zone.

    Commander Gordon frowns. "Do Red Lanterns power their rings using skulls?"

    "No, it just-." He glances over to where the kryptonians appear to be destroying Red Queen's power ring draining apparatus. "Actually, while we've got a few minutes I should probably recharge."

    He holds out his ring and a red/white hole in space opens before him, his personal lantern floating out a moment later. It's in the shape of an oblong hurricane lantern, with the handle making up the horns of the sigil.

    "Embrace your hate; vengeance for all!
    My ring answers to rage's call,
    And once I'm done, been your downfall,
    I'll put your skull upon my wall."

    Commander Gordon stares at him as he returns his lantern to subspace.

    He shrugs. "Komand'r thought it was funny. And speaking of the love of my life, Commander, do you have her?"

    "No. The site of Luthor's bunker was the same when we arrived as it was when you got there."

    "Do you know where she is?"

    "No. Our best guess is that Red Queen either teleported it to Krona, or she destroyed it."

    His jaw tightens. "If she could destroy it that easily, she would have destroyed us when we attacked her. I.. think it's more likely that a radius around.. either Time Trapper or the tuning fork he was building was teleported."

    "I'm…" Commander Gordon nods. "That's certainly possible." She frowns. "Komand'r?"

    "Yes."

    "Blackfire? The Tamaranean Princess who sold her sister and then her entire world into slavery?"

    "No, a version of that woman from a parallel universe who lived a different life. The gordanians were perfectly capable of ravaging Tamaran without anyone's help."

    Superman and the other kryptonian have pinned Red Queen and are carefully removing her weapon modules as Brainwave is brought closer.

    "What is the status of Vega in this parallel?"

    "It's difficult, but it's not so bad that I'd let you rip people's hearts out."

    "Is there a substantive difference between a psion vivisecting someone and me tearing out their heart? I'm pushing this because if you intend to use me to activate the tuning fork then I will need substantially more power than I have now."

    She looks thoughtful.

    "That…"

    "Also, the Manhunters who attacked us had internal explosives to kill the Red Queens when their containment was breached. I can create new black rings to raise her, but that-."

    Her eyes widen. "What? Superman, be-"

    The Manhunter Red Queen shudders and goes limp.

    "-careful."

    "That requires significantly more power."

    Commander Gordon takes a deep breath.

    "How much more power?"
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2020
  30. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    "We are good guys, we don't kill people!

    We only let criminals kill people!"
     
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