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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. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    I know this is humour, but, pretty sure that OL checked that at the disappearance site. He was looking for anything out of the ordinary.
     
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  2. LZB1285

    LZB1285 Getting sticky.

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    This is Earth, is anything out of the ordinary?
     
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  3. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    For certain values of, "we need to get suspicious now", yes. Most of the time, for most of the people, the weird stuff is happening to other people, in the news.
     
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  4. Threadmarks: Plutonian (part 11)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    12th April
    17:52 GMT +7


    "Alright, that's-."

    I stare at Lantern Koriand'r.

    "Where did you get that coat?"

    She smiles brightly as she pulls the furs more tightly around her.

    "The Director gave it to me. He said that I looked cold."

    Yes, I imagine that surrounded by men stuck on a single sex military base in Siberia, the athletic, well endowed alien princess in short shorts and halter top probably did look cold.

    Speaking of which…

    "Speaking of clothing, how does this-"

    I take a bracer with an embedded sunstone out of subspace and hold it out to her.

    "-feel?"

    She gives it a small frown, then puts it over her left forearm and activates the auto-fit function. It tightens in place, the sunstone lighting up a moment later.

    Lantern Koriand'r gives a slight gasp of surprise.

    "It feels like warm sunlight! What is it?"

    "A Kryptonian sunstone. Kryptonians are also solar powered, though it works a little differently for them."

    "Do you have more? Can Tamaran buy them?"

    "You'll have to talk to one of our kryptonians." Jor-El isn't really set up for mass production, and we can't really ship anyway. I look down at the depot. "Find anything?"

    She shakes her head. "I did not. None of the patterns which you described were on any of the walls, or the ceiling, or the furniture, or the people."

    I nod. This is a 'secure' facility, but it isn't anything like as secure as the launch site. By design; it wouldn't be practical. Things are checked coming in and going out, but a lot of things come in and go out.

    "So… Something came from somewhere, passed through here and might have ended up on the ships. But since we don’t have any idea when or what it was, that doesn't really help."

    "Are there very many things on Earth that could do this?"

    "There are machines that can grant humans telepathy. A company I'm associated with is trying to update one, but the original machine was built decades ago and I doubt that I'm the only person who had this idea. Any human can learn magic, and… A sufficiently skilled street magician could do everything we've seen so far."

    Russia.. doesn't.. exactly have supervillains. There are superpowered criminals, but they generally don't wear costumes or use signature weapons. Not unless they're working overseas, anyway. Independent superheroes are also somewhat thin on the ground. As a result, there isn't a readily available data source that isn't coming out of the Ministry of Justice, and the League's never really been sure about how reliable those are.

    China grudgingly cooperates with the League because they don't think they're ready to go their own way yet, and hate being reminded of the fact. Russia grudgingly cooperates with the League because they used to be fine going their own way and now aren't, and hate being reminded of the fact.

    On the other hand, both of the Russians associated with the League are national heroes while the Chinese guy is someone they wanted rid of.

    Hm. There are a few people listed as 'at large' who might have been able to do the bits we've been able to detect… But other than grabbing and interrogating every one of them-.

    Ring, scan Moscow. Current location of 'The Goatsmasher'?

    I get an image of a group of heavily armed Federal Police and.. Red Rockets, attacking a white haired man. Bullets do nothing but empower his kinetic blasts, but they were prepared for that. He's hit by flares, some sort of ice gun and high-powered tasers until he collapses.

    Cleaning house. I wonder if the Director kept quiet after the collapse of the Soviet Union so that he'd have a target-rich environment to work in when he had someone in the Kremlin he could work with?

    No. No, deliberately letting things get worse seems contrary to his character. But he probably finds it really convenient.

    Something below catches my eye, and I look down to see that Dr Balewa has arrived. I take that as a sign and drop down to ground level, Koriand'r following me as I do so.

    The warehouse workers have been restrained, but haven't regained consciousness yet. Mr Hol isn't superstrong, but he is a fair bit stronger than a human of his proportions would be, and he wasn't exactly pulling his punches when those guys jumped him.

    Dr Balewa is staring at them… I'm assuming that he's trying to sense any residual magic or at least identify spells that could have been used to do this, but there's nothing visible going on. I'll just.. wait until he finishes.

    "Curious."

    "Sir?"

    "I have the spell, but I do not recognise the form or the tradition." He frowns. "That is strange."

    "It is? I thought random cults brute forced blood rituals often enough-."

    "That is a tradition in its own right." He shakes his head. "Magic schools have their forms. Even 'traditional' magic has a form, whether it works or not. I have had a very long time to acquaint myself with all of the forms of magic on the Earth. I do not recognise this."

    "Martians?"

    Because if so this is going to be a pain.

    "Perhaps. Perhaps. I have not seen martian magic. But I do not think that a martian could adapt to the magics of the Earth quickly or easily."

    Ah shit. Mental manipulation and magic?

    "Do you think it was the Star Conquerors?"

    He freezes, then slowly nods.

    "That is distinctly possible. None of the victims have the wounds on their faces that their bite leaves, but the improved version created at STAR Laboratories did not need to leave such wounds. Doctor Mist to Betman."

    "Go ahead."

    "Orange Lantern has observed that this could be the work of the Star Conquerors, and I believe that he could be correct. I can attempt to track whoever did this by using the people they have touched, but they have become adept at disguising themselves and it will take some time."

    "How long?"

    "I cannot be certain. I should have a better idea after half an hour."

    "The Lanterns are on call to perform an emergency interception if they try to de-orbit the ships. I'll contact Fate and ask him to check the remaining personnel at the launch site."

    "Very well. I will speak to you again in half an hour. Doctor Mist out."

    Koriand'r frowns, then her ring glows and her eyes widen.

    "Why did you not track down these 'Star Conqueror' creatures after you fought them?"

    "Because the planet is a big place and they're very good at hiding. And we had no idea what they were trying to do, and we still don't."

    As far as I remember from the comics, Star Conquerors mostly wanted to control things and keep expanding. These ones -if it was them- clearly had something in mind when they picked these targets. And now we're stuck waiting for the other shoe to drop.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2020
  5. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Missing 'with' there.

    Dr Mists' quote marks should be in white because he is enlightened.
     
  6. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Maybe 'empower'
     
  7. iamnuff

    iamnuff Connoisseur.

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    In hindsight, he probably should have done a quintessence waveform scan for starros a long time ago.

    Letting an active infestation go on this long is... probably a really bad idea.
     
  8. Mihari

    Mihari Know what you're doing yet?

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    Unless there's a gambling themed superhero, then that should be Batman
    @mrzoat
     
  9. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    It's his accent, I think.

    This could be another example.

    If this isn't his accent then it should be 'their bite'
     
  10. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Also because you are notoriously bad at any sort of detective work and following up on things.
     
  11. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    I wonder why the interstellar hive mind would want ships capable of interstellar travel.
     
  12. theaceoffire

    theaceoffire Versed in the lewd.

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    Is this an accent or is this a typo?
     
  13. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Also the fact that the Starros have developed ways to hide from Lantern Rings.

    When they were discussing why he shouldn't just teleport some of the Starros, or their remains, Guy told him that they may have ways to detect a power ring being used and bypass its functions, like stopping their FTL ability.

    Then there's the fact that he also had other problems to deal with, problems which were more immediate.

    Either their impatient and want to get off the Earth now and the reason they didn't do it before is because that it may take them time to actually become capable of interstellar travel.

    That or they may not be able to travel through space on their own power now because of the changes done to them.
     
  14. Z000

    Z000 If this is trash, then find me in the dumpster

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    everytime Paul does one of those he almost miss one of his project

    he probably doesn't like the time consuming nature of the super scan since he have alot of stuff on his schedule
     
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  15. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  16. zerofarad

    zerofarad Know what you're doing yet?

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    feels?
     
  17. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Except they used some form of FTL event to abduct them.

    It would be far more discrete to instead build the ships somewhere hidden.

    Which of course places a far more sinister light on all the recent ship-building projects on earth.
     
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  18. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    No doubt the men on site are enjoying the view... If nothing else, it's helping to keep them warm.

    Not that she needs it. Environmental field and all that.

    Something for her, OL? Upgearing a fellow lantern?

    Oh-ho! Now that would be useful for her. Like a pocket battery of solar energy.

    Heh, like a warm summer's day... And the bracer probably feels nice too.

    Huh, that's one thing Earth can provide. How many other things are there, I wonder?

    Making a visual inspection, of course. Since if they were, they'd be conspicuously absent on a ring scan...

    Well, darn. Back to the mental editing lead, then.

    o_O But what reason would Constantine have to do this? :p...I kid, I kid.

    International politics in a superhero world, yay.

    Which the Director is probably doing already. If nothing else, this gives a good pretext to do so.

    Oof. One of the stronger locals, eh?

    He struck me as someone who would prefer absolute control over everything, with every person knowing exactly what they have to do, and doing it without argument. Like an army of machines.

    That may sound odd, but consider - a goose's wings are strong enough to break a large man's bones. That's only six-odd feet of wingspan. Imagine what a Thanagarian's eighteen-foot-plus wingspan can do.

    I see he's found something. And evidently it's not good.

    And very worrying, since he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Earth magic. It would have to be very, very obscure for him not to recognise something about it.

    So it's the original work of a talented amateur... Or it's something not of this earth. Or both.

    Oh, yes. Who knows what's going on up there, considering what's been happening in the Renegade's timeline.

    :eek: ...Oh, bugger.

    Crap. Crap, crap crap. This is not good at all...

    He better be quick, this is not something to let sit...

    More mages. good. The sooner this gets chased down, the better.

    Checking her files? She's smart!

    Maybe... They want to call home?

    Well, if it was the Chaos Starros, that's not good. Assuming they snagged the ClusterCorp ship, they're almost certainly going to run for the Star Conqueror's old turf, looking for any bigger brothers to wake up... Might want to call this in to the Green Lanterns, have them keep an eye out...
     
  19. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  20. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Considering that he may still be struggling with his Lord of Chaos powers an whatever warped mindset it may give him, it wouldn't be too surprising if he did this, somehow thinking that he was doing the Earth a favor by stopping the social upheaval having ClusterCorp around could cause.

    He also may not have the notes that show how to combine Order and Chaos magic to not get your mind warped.

    It isn't him, but it wouldn't be too surprising if it was.

    Think Zoat said that the guy OL showed the recordings of the Burning Martian to showed it to the other rulers and they've started making laws that make the lives of White Martian easier and more equal to the Greens.

    This may have made it somewhat more difficult for Karmang to find recruits, but not all that much considering the millennia long discrimination, but it may still be causing him some difficulty.

    OL also probably has a lot more goodwill among the Martian population because of the whole 'helping their planet to recover thing' when he brought Mother of Mercy there, while renegade may not have all that much goodwill after he played a part, however unintentional, in the destruction of much of the Martian governing body by a violent terrorist.
     
  21. Z3r0Sama

    Z3r0Sama Not too sore, are you?

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    Or they've had time to analyse exactly what other disasters hit the Earth on a daily basis and have decided to get the hell out of dodge.

    Starro when he woke up:Ah, a primitive planet with no real long distance communication, top kek.

    Starro after Crisis of the week 47: oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit
     
  22. Slayer Anderson

    Slayer Anderson Orthodox Heretic

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    Robin: "Fuck Batman."

    Paul: "...why are you even on this continent?"

    Robin: "Not sure, I just felt like a heinous crime against reality itself had been committed and I needed to make a contribution to it."

    Paul: "...Orange Lantern to Batman, the star conquerors got another one."



    Because I'd honestly rather see references to Teen Titans Go than that live action abortion of a show.
     
  23. thebishop8

    thebishop8 Umm, ackchyually...

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    Should there be an "of" after "group"?
     
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  24. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Sooo, magic-using star conquerors escape Earth, teach magic to all the others, and take over the universe because lanterns suck against magic.
     
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  25. TheEyes

    TheEyes Well worn.

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    Like what, exactly? Hasn't the theme for the last few months, aside from all the interludes and the Crisis of Infinite Pauls, been that OL not only doesn't have anything meaningful to do at the moment, but the things that other people are trying to foist off on him, like the Cluster Corp economic invasion, are things he actively doesn't want to deal with? Didn't he just spend an evening in Gotham whining about not wanting to deal with that city's petty theme criminal problem? Didn't he fob off his whole Reed Richards Is Useless On Earth-16 problem on Georgia and not follow up with her for months? How exactly has his schedule been so booked up that he couldn't take a week to track down an invasion of mind-controlling Chaos parasites?
     
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  26. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    ...

    What?
     
  27. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Think he meant the Teen Titans cartoon that once showed that scene of Star getting a hat when they went to Russia and met Red Star, but confused for the Go show.
     
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  28. Slayer Anderson

    Slayer Anderson Orthodox Heretic

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    No, not that...
    This:
    [​IMG]

    I thought you were making a reference with the whole 'fur coat' thing. My apologies if I assumed incorrectly, I just really didn't enjoy the live-action adaptation of the Teen Titans for a number of reasons.

    The 'Fuck Batman' line for Robin was from one of the first trailers for the show.
     
  29. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    They just don't make cat girls the way they used to...

    I thought making this at all was brave, seeing as the public wont take men-in-rubber-suits as aliens, these days. I'm sure some people like it. But...

    Reminds of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', where the special effects budget wouldn't handle super-strong vampires, so we got loads of martial artist actors, which portrayed that vampires fought differently, instead... And, jokes about the 'vampire martial arts' package...
     
  30. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    It probably would have been kinda difficult to make someone that has orange skin seem attractive in real life, instead of a page, so they had to settle for giving a slightly glowing bronze hue to her skin.
     
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