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

[mastermenthe]

Sleez is the New God of Corruption,

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Not corruption, Portland Pornography.
Otherwise, yes. Pornography's domain was corrupting Darkseid's domain of Tyranny into expressing itself narratively as a porno flick version of Darkseid Is.

Damn you autocorrect, what would a New God Of Portland even be like???

 

[Steelplaza]

Sending him to the Sciencells seems like a good idea. I think the Guardians are pretty chill about that kind of thing, I don't know that they'd really want a favour or anything. And since Sleez is apparently not popular with Darkseid, I don't think the treaty is too likely to be a problem.

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Yes, that does seem like a pretty good option. He's technically an "alien invader" so under Green Lantern jurisdiction.

The only thing I would be unsure about is that I don't really have a good grip on how the Guardians think about these things and what degree of crime (evil?) they require before locking someone up in a ScienceCell. Sleez is undoubtedly a bad person doing bad things, but he's not really an alien warlord out to genocide systems or anything like that. It would be up to the Guardians' own arcane sense of justice.

 

[BartlettMagic]

Not corruption, Portland Pornography.

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Spreading corruption in California

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i took it all as pornography was the means of corruption, but i am by no means an expert

 

[Bud-E]

Did common sense Paul tell the League about the fact that the DC universe is all fiction where he's from.

 

[Ardy]

Did common sense Paul tell the League about the fact that the DC universe is all fiction where he's from.

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No, that's the Paul who got his ring taken away and is quietly living in a mental health hospital.

 

[Prince Charon]

No, that's the Paul who got his ring taken away and is quietly living in a mental health hospital.

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I really don't think most versions would respond like that... and in a setting where they would, it'd be Arkham, and he'd escape after being driven nuts by Hugo Strange.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd October 2010
10:35 GMT -5

Mr. Batson floats up out of the-

"Hey there! Hi!"

-subway, cheerfully greeting the passers by as he does so. Some wave back, some just stare, and others appear to be trying to avoid the weird flying man in the pyjamas. A small child runs up to him and he lands, bending down to have a conversation at their level.

Besides me, Lantern Jordan sighs.

"What? He's a friendly guy."

He makes a gesture of appeal. "Look, I get that not everyone was in the military. And I don't have anything against P.R. work… Gotta do some of it. It just winds me up that he's got something important to do and he's doing…"

Mr. Batson picks the child up and spins then around, to their obvious delight.

Jordan gestures towards him. "That. If someone came to me with Sinestro's ring, I'm taking it straight to Oa right away. Wouldn't matter if I was in bed, on a date, in the shower… It's too important."

Mr. Batson puts the child down, pats them on the head and then flies up towards us.

"Really? You wouldn't be tempted to give it to Batman?"

He snorts. "I'm sure Batman would do great with a power ring-"

Mr. Batson's eyes widen. "Batman's getting a power ring?!"

"-but-." Jordan jerks his head from me to Mr. Batson. "No. It's just a theoretical."

"Oh." Mr. Batson looks disappointed for a moment, then recovers, grinning. "Because that would be so cool."

"I wouldn't give him Sinestro's ring because there's all kinds of ways to booby trap a power ring, and I'm pretty sure Sinestro's got his set up with all of 'em."

I bow my head slightly. "Ah."

"You didn't check yours?"

"Well, I was in orbit, so even if it was trapped, what was I going to do?"

"Okay, but you check it since?"

"Yeah. And I ran the orange light through it just in case it was programmed not to detect the traps, and I had the Wotan construct check it with magic just in case." Jordan nods. "Which… I could also do if you got Sinestro's ring."

"I can't think of a way to beat Sinestro that doesn't involve destroying his ring, and I doubt that's gunna happen in the next eight months. Marvel, what did your wizard say?"

"Yeah, he…" Mr. Batson points awkwardly at the amulet with his right hand. "Kinda… Wants that back..?

I frown. "It was in a cave for several thousand years. What's the urgency?"

"I guess it's not… Like… Urgent-urgent? But… He… Wants it back. And he's, like, the best guy for keeping evil magic artefacts safe, and we don't want anyone else becoming Black Adam."

I frown. "Did he..? Fill you in on the background? Because I did some checking, and the man who was using it was called Doctor Theodore Adam. He was a Kahndaqologist, and he certainly wasn't alive thousands of years ago."

"No, that…" He sighs. "So, he told me that the original Black Adam was his old champion. He started out as a good guy, but he ended up trying to conquer the Middle East so the wizard stripped him of his powers."

I frown. "So where does the amulet come in?"

"That's…" He looks really awkward. "So, one of my powers makes me… Pretty good at judging people. I've never… I don't think the wizard was being completely honest about what happened? He said that the amulet was part of the ritual he did to give Black Adam… The first Black Adam, his powers…" He looks awkward. "But he didn't need one for me… So…"

"So it can be used to gain Black Adam's powers, but Theodore didn't stay in Kahndaq or try to conquer anywhere, suggesting that his original personality was intact. And in control."

"Well… Not… For sure, but… Probably."

"Okay, so what happens if I hold it up and say the word?"

"I didn't specifically ask, but I don't think anything would happen. The wizard didn't say anything about approving Theodore Adam, but there hasn't been another Black Adam between him and the original, so there's probably a ritual or something he needed to do to use it. And I don't know how that goes."

And I'd want to do a lot more investigation before I try something like that.

"There wasn't any record of Theodore getting any sort of magic training from anywhere, which means that he either tripped over the ritual, or… It's a generic Ancient Kahndaqi religious rite, because… Zeus. He wouldn't have even heard of Zeus, would he?"

"Um. No?"

"And he'd probably have been quite religious, so I doubt he'd want to honour foreign gods…"

Mr. Batson nods, then blinks as something occurs to him. "You.. already know what's going on, don't you?"

Jordan nods. "Zatara's locking up some woman called 'Angelica Blaze'. According to her, she used to date the original Black Adam."

"So why did you ask..? You wanted a second source just in case she was lying."

I nod. "Technically, we don't know which of them is lying. But Ms. Blaze was being compelled by Mister Zatara's magic while Jebediah of Canaan is free to lie."

He blinks heavily. "Is that his real name? How did you find it out?"

Jordan smirks. "According to her, your wizard got a succubus pregnant and she's the result."

Mr. Batson's face slides towards blankness. "Ah… That… Didn't… Come up. Are you sure about that?"

I nod. "Batman frowns on me assimilating contained prisoners, but basically yes."

"I.. guess he can't have been old his whole life… So… Like, what really happened?"

I shrug. "According to her, the original Adam and Jebediah had a huge argument about something, Jebediah killed him and bound his soul to the amulet."

"Oh." He looks thoughtfully uncomfortable. "He didn't… Mention any of that. But now that you've told me, I'm… Spotting the places where he didn't say things."

I nod. "Now, armed with the truth, please go back there and ask him not to leave things out this time. I don't trust Ms. Blaze not to maliciously avoid mentioning things that we really need to know."

"Okay, I can-" He nods. "-do that. But… I couldn't help noticing that you didn't say what you were going to do with it."

I nod again. "I didn't, because that decision will depend on what he says. The two things I'm thinking about are ritually destroying it so that Black Adam's soul can travel to the afterlife, and finding someone to use it so that his powers do some good."

"Are.. you gunna use it?"

"I'm… Not sure. Again, it depends."

3rd October 2010
18:56 GMT -5

"Paula, now that you're… Fully healthy again…" She gives me a level look, probably wandering where I'm going. Across the room, Artemis looks around from the television with a look of distinct concern on her face. "Have you thought about taking up superheroism? And, do you have any strong religious beliefs?"

"I will need several more months of physical therapy before I can walk normally. I do want to get back to the level of fitness that I used to have, but I had not thought about becoming Huntress again. And… No. Why are you asking?"

"I thought that going out together might be a.. good couples bonding thing."

She smiles, shaking her head. "You are far more powerful than I was. And I do not have time for long term infiltration."

I nod, taking Adom's amulet out of subspace. "But what if you could be as powerful as me?"