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

Negotiations (part 3) New
3rd August 2013
01:05 GMT

"…recorded at the reliquary itself, which means that we have a definite date for when Savage was up and about again."

Darkstar Click Click-Click makes a slow and steady series of clicks, which my ring helpfully informs me is a sign of bewilderment rather than actual speech. "He survived having his body torn apart, and those parts being exposed to vacuum and falling through the atmosphere to your planet's surface."

Jade and I nod together. "Yes. " / "Uh-huh."

"How?"

"Based on what Klarion said, he may be able to regrow his entire body from his amygdala with no or very limited memory loss. Presumably, he uses some sort of non-standard memory storage and has access to some form of exotic energy to fuel his regeneration, but that's speculative. And, yes, people have tried burning him to death before to try and destroy him completely so there wouldn't be anything for him to regenerate from… It didn't work."

Larksh nervously licks her eyes. "How will we kill him?"

Jade shakes her head. "You won't." She then calls up his file on their holodisplay. "We don't carry weapons that could do the job. The important part is that he isn't invulnerable. He isn't much tougher than a normal humanoid, though he is a lot more determined. Since he knows that he'll recover from any injury he takes, he will keep going until he physically can't."

She looks pointedly at me.

"If you encounter him and can get a message out, notify me, or if you can't get hold of me one of the other Orange Lanterns. Even if physical destruction can't kill him I'd like to give assimilation a go. Failing that… Dump his brain in acid, in such a way that we can replace the acid on a regular basis. Thread barbed wire though the regrowing mass so that he gets brain damaged. Throw his remains into a sun or a black hole. Dump him somewhere in deep space and then lose the coordinates."

Calpri shimmers, indicating a desire to ask a question. I nod. "Which would you prefer?"

"Assimilation. Absorbing fifty thousand years worth of memories won't be much fun, but it will give me vital knowledge of his recent activities. Lantern Son of Great Mother could probably handle that part more easily. And obviously, don't put yourselves at risk unnecessarily. I'll be perfectly happy if he gets to spend the next five billion years working on his tan. It might be interesting to talk to him afterwards."

Jade nods. "How does this affect our priorities?"

"Up to you. If you think the best use of your time is to head to Daxam and investigate there, then do so. If you think that it's not, then don't. I don't know enough to set priorities."

"But you're most worried about Batman."

"I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm weighing things properly. If he's actually mind controlled and Savage is involved, following up with Savage might be the best thing to do."

"Is that likely?"

"I wouldn't have thought so, but last week I would have said the same about Superman and he nearly killed me." Jade nods. "Anything any of you need from me right now?"

Negative gestures from everyone except Jade, who nods. "I have a personal query."

Her eyes flick in the direction of the teleportarium. I nod, and gesture to the corridor with my right hand. She leads the way and I follow-.

I accelerate, matching her pace and reaching out to catch her left hand in my right. She gives me a slightly surprised look, but graciously tolerates the imposition.

"I've missed you, too."

"If I could go back in time and kill Mannheim before he could tie me to Earth for so long, I would."

She smiles faintly. "You mean you can't?"

"No, we're on Dragonball Zee rules now. All going back in time would do is create an alternate timeline unless I got the Time Trapper onside first."

"Isn't she a version of me?"

"A version of you who never met me before that whole mess happened. Unless she's already been replaced…" Ah… "Though 'already' isn't.. really…"

She nods. "I understand."

We reach the teleportarium and she turns to face me as the door closes. Her eyes drift down to where I'm still holding her hand, and then back up to my face.

I nod, raise her hand slightly and take hold of it in my left hand as well.

She makes a quiet but amused-sounding snort.

"It's not flowers, but-"

I fabricate an inordinate quantity of flowers and deposit them around us.

"-it's-." She takes a moment to take in the flowers, her head still but her eyes absorbing everything. "Nice."

"So, what's the question?"

"Am I stuck on Venus for the whole investigation, or can I actually tell Mom that I'm here?"

"As long as you don't mind using your accrued leave time. I doubt that anyone is going to check up on you too closely."

"And the rest of my squad?"

"I can set up a zeta tube to Ungara. The weather's lovely this time of year, and there's no travel between Ungara and Earth."

"What if they need to go to Earth?"

"They can tell people that they're un-men. Or weird biological experiments." I shrug. "Or just say they woke up like that one day. People will probably believe that. It'll only be a problem if their exo-mantles get seen."

"Because Batman knows what exo-mantles look like."

"I'm not.. sure, but the Green Lantern Corps certainly does and he can just ask them. What time zone are you on?"

"I think it's somewhere in the Pacific. I'll be back to Eastern Standard in a couple of days." She smiles. "Taking me somewhere nice?"

"All of you is nice." She snorts quietly. "But I certainly intend to. Um. Your apartment."

"Is it on fire?"

"No, it's-."

"Was it on fire?"

"It just… It doesn't smell of you any more, and I've been living in Bir Tawil… I just wondered if you'd given any thought to what you wanted to do with it."

She thinks for a moment. "What's the Gotham property market like?"

"Pretty bad, but the few companies with ready cash have been buying up job lots. Historically, this sort of thing usually causes a baby boom. And if the fiscal forecasts I've been reading are correct, Mannheim might have saved government pensions schemes."

"How?"

"They're effectively pyramid schemes, but since old people died disproportionally often their liabilities dropped a lot. We're nearly solvent enough to afford new old people."

She winces theatrically, but can't quite stop herself smiling. "That's awful."

"I try. Now, if you'll excuse me-" I raise her hand to my lips and kiss it. "I have to go and buttonhole Lex Luthor."
 
Also, been meaning to ask for a while, was Earth 12 Peter Wynne around/caught up in the 2-part JL episode Legends?
No. He did briefly see if it would be possible to go back to help people/acquire technology, but it was prohibitively difficult.
When the four League members who were caught up in that event got back and reported to Batman 12, did he then consider it as a possible explanation for Wynne's meta-knowledge? Or will Terry find the record snd suggest it at some point?
 
3rd August 2013
01:05 GMT


"…recorded at the reliquary itself, which means that we have a definite date for when Savage was up and about again."

Darkstar Click Click-Click makes a slow and steady series of clicks, which my ring helpfully informs me is a sign of bewilderment rather than actual speech. "He survived having his body torn apart, and those parts being exposed to vacuum and falling through the atmosphere to your planet's surface."
Yes, hardly the most impressive death he's suffered. But it's probably in his top ten of interesting experiences. I'm loving their reactions to Earth Bullshit™. That stunned disbelief that someone could heal from being tossed at a planet from orbit...

Jade and I nod together. "Yes. " / "Uh-huh."

"How?"
Earth Bullshit™. Humans are a strange and adaptable species. Those with just the right genes can develop superhuman powers from exotic exposures, rather than something normal like cancer.

"Based on what Klarion said, he may be able to regrow his entire body from his amygdala with no or very limited memory loss. Presumably, he uses some sort of non-standard memory storage and has access to some form of exotic energy to fuel his regeneration, but that's speculative. And, yes, people have tried burning him to death before to try and destroy him completely so there wouldn't be anything for him to regenerate from… It didn't work."
And if he had any sense, he'd keep fresh bits of himself hidden away before any action with a risk of total physical destruction. Sadly, he probably needed his Light colleagues to suggest that one.

Larksh nervously licks her eyes. "How will we kill him?"

Jade shakes her head. "You won't." She then calls up his file on their holodisplay. "We don't carry weapons that could do the job. The important part is that he isn't invulnerable. He isn't much tougher than a normal humanoid, though he is a lot more determined. Since he knows that he'll recover from any injury he takes, he will keep going until he physically can't."
He's also much stronger than the average man, what with being able to push his muscles harder in bursts to the point of destruction. Hurts like hell, I bet, but he and pain are old friends by now.

She looks pointedly at me.

"If you encounter him and can get a message out, notify me, or if you can't get hold of me one of the other Orange Lanterns. Even if physical destruction can't kill him I'd like to give assimilation a go. Failing that… Dump his brain in acid, in such a way that we can replace the acid on a regular basis. Thread barbed wire though the regrowing mass so that he gets brain damaged. Throw his remains into a sun or a black hole. Dump him somewhere in deep space and then lose the coordinates."
We know from the Renegade that Assimilation is a pretty likely hard counter for his tricks, though...

Calpri shimmers, indicating a desire to ask a question. I nod. "Which would you prefer?"

"Assimilation. Absorbing fifty thousand years worth of memories won't be much fun, but it will give me vital knowledge of his recent activities. Lantern Son of Great Mother could probably handle that part more easily. And obviously, don't put yourselves at risk unnecessarily. I'll be perfectly happy if he gets to spend the next five billion years working on his tan. It might be interesting to talk to him afterwards."
...Yeah, you'd have to see every murder he's committed from a first-person perspective, for a start. EDIT: Well, any he remembered well enough. 😨 Though there's probably some he remembers clearly due to pride or something...

Jade nods. "How does this affect our priorities?"

"Up to you. If you think the best use of your time is to head to Daxam and investigate there, then do so. If you think that it's not, then don't. I don't know enough to set priorities."
Giving them a lot of leeway in their mission, I see. Better than micromanaging. They know how to do their jobs, no need to watch them.

"But you're most worried about Batman."

"I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm weighing things properly. If he's actually mind controlled and Savage is involved, following up with Savage might be the best thing to do."
Or ruling it out, if that's a possibility.

"Is that likely?"

"I wouldn't have thought so, but last week I would have said the same about Superman and he nearly killed me." Jade nods. "Anything any of you need from me right now?"
I suppose staying hands-off that way also helps with plausible deniability. "No, Batman, I only let them stay in my base. I have no idea what they've been up to otherwise."

Negative gestures from everyone except Jade, who nods. "I have a personal query."

Her eyes flick in the direction of the teleportarium. I nod, and gesture to the corridor with my right hand. She leads the way and I follow-.
No doubt to the amused but well-hidden smiles of her team.

I accelerate, matching her pace and reaching out to catch her left hand in my right. She gives me a slightly surprised look, but graciously tolerates the imposition.

"I've missed you, too."
A rare chance for her to be so open. I'm guessing she's felt the need to keep a tight lid on her emotions around her fellow operatives.

"If I could go back in time and kill Mannheim before he could tie me to Earth for so long, I would."

She smiles faintly. "You mean you can't?"
Hey, don't joke about that. He's fully capable of managing time travel if he's properly motivated, after all.

"No, we're on Dragonball Zee rules now. All going back in time would do is create an alternate timeline unless I got the Time Trapper onside first."

"Isn't she a version of me?"
...Last time OL looked, anyway. It's basically a game of musical chairs as to who's wearing the robe.

"A version of you who never met me before that whole mess happened. Unless she's already been replaced…" Ah… "Though 'already' isn't.. really…"

She nods. "I understand."
Time travel grammar, always messing with temporal clauses.

We reach the teleportarium and she turns to face me as the door closes. Her eyes drift down to where I'm still holding her hand, and then back up to my face.

I nod, raise her hand slightly and take hold of it in my left hand as well.

She makes a quiet but amused-sounding snort.
She may make a show of huffing about it, but you can tell she's enjoying the attention.

"It's not flowers, but-"

I fabricate an inordinate quantity of flowers and deposit them around us.
A frivolous use of Ring power, but a fine show of love. I suspect the Violet Lantern Ghi'ata would approve.

"-it's-." She takes a moment to take in the flowers, her head still but her eyes absorbing everything. "Nice."

"So, what's the question?"
Do remember to clean that up before you go, though.

"Am I stuck on Venus for the whole investigation, or can I actually tell Mom that I'm here?"

"As long as you don't mind using your accrued leave time. I doubt that anyone is going to check up on you too closely."
Honestly, why wouldn't she visit family if she's on vacation, after all?

"And the rest of my squad?"

"I can set up a zeta tube to Ungara. The weather's lovely this time of year, and there's no travel between Ungara and Earth."
Though I imagine they'd want to steer clear of any immigration concerns.

"What if they need to go to Earth?"

"They can tell people that they're un-men. Or weird biological experiments." I shrug. "Or just say they woke up like that one day. People will probably believe that. It'll only be a problem if their exo-mantles get seen."
...Yeah, that flies. Depending on the location, people have seen weirder, after all.

"Because Batman knows what exo-mantles look like."

"I'm not.. sure, but the Green Lantern Corps certainly does and he can just ask them. What time zone are you on?"
Because jet lag is still an issue for her, of course.

"I think it's somewhere in the Pacific. I'll be back to Eastern Standard in a couple of days." She smiles. "Taking me somewhere nice?"

"All of you is nice." She snorts quietly. "But I certainly intend to. Um. Your apartment."
Heh, wasting no time, I see. 😘

"Is it on fire?"

"No, it's-."

"Was it on fire?"
To be fair, between Gotham and the Anti-Life, that would have been a minor concern, yes. Though OL's upgrades have probably made it basically fireproof.

"It just… It doesn't smell of you any more, and I've been living in Bir Tawil… I just wondered if you'd given any thought to what you wanted to do with it."

She thinks for a moment. "What's the Gotham property market like?"
True, no real need to keep it up these days.

"Pretty bad, but the few companies with ready cash have been buying up job lots. Historically, this sort of thing usually causes a baby boom. And if the fiscal forecasts I've been reading are correct, Mannheim might have saved government pensions schemes."

"How?"
And if they pull the usual sort of tricks, Gotham's skyline could have some new buildings in a few years, eh?

"They're effectively pyramid schemes, but since old people died disproportionally often their liabilities dropped a lot. We're nearly solvent enough to afford new old people."

She winces theatrically, but can't quite stop herself smiling. "That's awful."

"I try. Now, if you'll excuse me-" I raise her hand to my lips and kiss it. "I have to go and buttonhole Lex Luthor."
Aw. Wouldn't rather spend a few hours with your lady first?

From one fun interaction to another. It'll be interesting to see if we get any Jade time this episode, and what OL plans to poke Lex with this time. I'm also sure her squad will be able to keep themselves busy on Earth. Who know, perhaps they'll end up finding themselves mistaken for superheroes, given their biological advantages. Wouldn't be the first time, given the comics' history.
 
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Based on what Klarion said, he may be able to regrow his entire body from his amygdala with no or very limited memory loss.
...
Thread barbed wire though the regrowing mass so that he gets brain damaged.
The amygdala is apparently about 1.24 to 1.63 cubic centimetres, about the size of a peanut. So you'd need a very fine mesh to guarantee it.

The other possibility is that Savage can regrow from any part, e.g. hair follicles, but he just prefers the amygdala because it's somehow faster/easier.
 
When the four League members who were caught up in that event got back and reported to Batman 12, did he then consider it as a possible explanation for Wynne's meta-knowledge?
Not really. Most of the things that Wynne has shown himself to know can in fact be learned from publically available sources, and the easiest way for him to learn the rest is people in the community making referrals.
Or will Terry find the record and suggest it at some point?
Yes, but at that point Terry would have seen a recording of his meeting with the Controller, so it's a little more obvious.
...Yeah, you'd have to see every murder he's committed from a first-person perspective, for a start.
No he wouldn't. In the comics, even Vandal Savage doesn't remember everything he ever did. In this, the Renegade got random flashes of recollection that were very far from everything.
The amygdala is apparently about 1.24 to 1.63 cubic centimetres, about the size of a peanut. So you'd need a very fine mesh to guarantee it.

The other possibility is that Savage can regrow from any part, e.g. hair follicles, but he just prefers the amygdala because it's somehow faster/easier.
No, he meant that they could mess up the formation of the rest of the brain. If Savage's reasoning functions can't grow properly then he's a lot less dangerous.
Hm, does Paul remember the JL two-parter "Hereafter" and its far-future, regretfully repentant Savage?
Yes.
 

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