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

disease, as well as a few indication that he might be slightly deficient

"indications"

looks a little a jelly baby with

"little like"

tentacles twitching in its direction the moment it
"start twitching"

them us have their hands occupied, so

"them up"

They walk passed me,
"pass me"
 
16th October 2013
18:55 G.M.T.
Senior Agent Nguyen


A ping from my ship tells me that Lantern Arkymandryte has left the system.

"Let all see! Let all who reject the wisdom of the gods bear witness to the price of apostasy!"
Ah, Jade. Working planetside for something, presumably locating the second Sector Lantern. And of course the Arkymandryte's followers are performing witch hunts and public pillory displays.

Interesting. The templar standing on the stage is clearly better fed than most of the locals gathered to hear his pronouncements, but I'm not seeing any sign that this society's rulers are violating their own rules on rejecting technology. My exo-mantle's sensors can identify pox marks from some sort of local disease, as well as a few indication that he might be slightly deficient in one or two vital nutrients. That might well not be deliberate; I remember Paul told me that humans who don't live in coastal areas sometimes suffer negative effects from Omega 3 deficiency that we could easily prevent, and we don't farm with sharpened wooden sticks.
Which is impressive, as such groups are rarely prone to adhering to their own restrictions.

"See the enemy the Arkymandryte has struck down!"

The templar is wearing a rough-spun skirt held up by a leather belt. A heavy wooden club with a steel-. No, bronze bands around it hangs from his right hip, and a carving -probably religious- hangs from his left. No guns. No scanners or phase disrupters, or anything that could stop me at all.
A Fetish, for the record, is an object someone holds as holy or powerful in some way. No relation to the sexual use, usually. This one is likely a carving of whatever god they believe abhors the advances made.

"See the enemy who would lead us back into savagery!"

The surrounding people are… Resigned in a way that I haven't seen from the Reach's targets. A few have their own fetishes, but most are clearly just watching from a sense of social obligation. Robes of coarsely woven cloth are the most common sort of clothing, and I don't see leather or metal anywhere. They're… Clean, but basic hygiene is common in primitive communities, even if bathing just involves a bucket and a rag.
Most would happily go back to their 'sinful modern conveniences', I suspect. But until the Arkymandryte's control is broken...

Two other templars haul Lantern Niiniini onto stage, construct-nullifying crystals on a necklace around their neck. Lantern Niiniini looks a little like a jelly baby with a jellyfish on its head, and I can clearly see the discoloured patches where they've been beaten and cut. But… Nothing looks critical, and Green Lanterns are chosen for their ability to willpower…
An amphibious species, perhaps, though I expect they're tougher than they look.

Lantern Niiniini stumbles, and is held up by the templars. Drugs, then. That makes my job a little harder. I don't have enough data on his species to neutralise anything-. They're not going to have anything exotic. It's either going to be from a local plant or animal, which wouldn't keep fresh for long so it will have to be something they can gather wherever they go, or-. The crystals themselves?
Or just a concussion from their beatings.

"See the profane weapon it wields!"

Another templar hold up Lantern Niiiniini's power ring, and their tentacles twitching in its direction the moment it becomes visible. Bodywide photoreceptors? But despite the fact that their power ring is only feet away, nothing happens. I've seen all of Earth's Lanterns call their rings over distances greater than that.
It'll be the Fear crystals doing that. The second they're off them...

"See how it is impotent before the Arkymandryte's wisdom!"

They haven't brought the Lantern out, but that shouldn't matter. If I get the crystals off Lantern Niiniini, they should be able to handle that themselves.
With any luck, he kept it in subspace.

Tactical assessment? Each of the templars is strong enough to kill Lantern Niiniini, and I think they're faithful…

Hmpf.
I doubt they'll execute them here without provocation. That would send the Ring into seeker mode. More likely they'll keep dragging them from town to town, spreading the word. But the second Jade moves...

Faithful enough to do so regardless of the threat I pose to their life. The crowd… Won't care much, but might intervene if they think I'm a threat to them. I haven't seen templar agent provocateurs in the crowd. The two holding them up have their hands occupied, so the highest priority target is the preacher, then the one with the ring. Mongul's species aren't usually as strong as he is, but I should use the highest power setting anyway.
No kill like overkill, especially if Mongul is the average. Pre-Crisis, dude could fist-fight Superman to a standstill...

Charging masers.

The preacher steps forwards to the front of the crowd. "Who amongst you is prepared to demonstrate their faith?! Who amongst you is prepared to strike one of the enemies of the gods?!"
Ah, that'll explain the bruises. No doubt they've been busy letting people take a swing.

There's a moment of quiet, and then his head jerks back as my maser bolts strike him directly in the eyes.

Get their attention.
That'll sting for a bit.

Disengage camouflage.

"I am."
Really hope the suit gives her a noise, powerful voice filter. it's just not the same without the growl.

Check the target.

"Nruuuhh!"

Not dead. Fly.
Damn, looks like Mongul isn't that exceptional toughness-wise.

The two carrying Lantern Niiniini keep holding them-. No, they grip tighter. The one carrying the ring drops it and draws his club.

Eyes didn't work. Shoot the neck.
Or the mouth, and hope the inside isn't as tough as the outside.

"K-hu-?"

Good. Land on the front of the stage, x-ionised sword through the preacher's neck and step out of the way of the blood fountain. Left templar holding Niiniini is pulling them closer, possibly attempting to break their neck-. If they have a neck. Right templar is drawing his club but isn't giving me a good angle on his neck.
And enhanced toughness can't help with archetypal sharpness.

Ignore the one running for me and target the one holding Niiniini. Shoot hands-

"Ah!"
Phasing or kinetic defences can deal with the melee attack. Don't want the prime rescuee getting killed mid-rescue.

-and shoot neck and phase, charging templar running through me.

Half-turn, phase in and cut, then charge the templar-. Releasing Lantern Niiniini.
Probably hell of a thrill for the crowd. Seeing their oppressive 'spiritual guides' being eliminated that easily by an outsider...

Slice.

No other targets.
The crowd definitely smart enough not to get in the way of her.

Silence.

Lantern Niiniini half-collapses, reaching weakly towards their ring. I slice through the thong holding the yellow crystals and then sheath my sword, offering them a hand-.
Hopefully they're up on Corps intelligence to recognise a nominal ally, lethal force or not.

They walk past me, pseudopods outstretched towards their ring. It wobbles in the air for a moment and then flies onto a reaching tentacle, green light surging as their uniform appears.

I turn to the silent and fearful crowd. "We're going to kill the Arkymandryte. Be ready."
And while they're probably too wary to cheer, you just now some of them are hopeful now.

I rise into the air slowly, aiming at my ship and hoping-. Yes, Lantern Niiniini is working through their injuries and following me. Narrow beam transmission.

"How injured are you?"
Because she almost certainly has a Purple Healing Ray handy, plus whatever medical supplies are standard for Darkstar craft.

"Painfully, but my ring-use is not disabled. Thank you for your rescue. Where are we going?"

"To my ship. I have medicine for your injuries. Lantern Gaart, Honor Guard Lantern Jordan and the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps are fighting the Dread Horde, and the Arkymandryte-."
Triage and first-aid now, Any proper medical care will have to wait for later.

"He is working with them. Yellow crystal for Sinestro, in exchange for an alliance. But the ships-. They use the crystals in their weapons. That is how I was taken. I thought that Gaart was too."

"He was. He's free now. Are you able to fight?"
Accurate read of the situation in space, even without looking.

"Yes, but… These people are filled with fear. In fuels the Arkymandryte's constructs."

"I can't do a worldwide broadcast. They don't have the communications infrastructure."

"No. But I don't need it." They squirm. "Glue my wounds shut and then take me to their upper atmosphere. I have an idea."
Oooh, a 'holy manifestation'. That might get people to rise up.

And I'm sure there are plenty of folks willing to rise up against their oppressive rulers. Hopefully that will undercut Arky's power at just the right moment for those fighting him to get a mission kill. Ideally capturing the Yellow Ring as well, because the Guardians are going to be very interested in it and the Fear crystals.
 
hmmm. I think I found the correct links.

Yeah, no. I get it. No using the Dream to cheat. It's a process, an end you're never supposed to reach. Something to make you want to do better than whatever you're doing. I'm not going to cheapen my own soul with shortcuts."

In truth, our greatest heroes are those who still know how to fight, despite the lassitude brought about by a thousand years of peace."

Michael Siskin.. is.. dead, but I never checked where his soul went.

. So if I called Lantern Mother of Mercy back here and someone wanted to commit suicide-. And it would have to be me, because everyone else would be stuck at the back of the queue, then we could get a message in that way."

. Personal flying machines exist but they've never really caught on.

"Not how I originally intended it. I thought she'd be interested in a ceremonial marriage with.. a suitably armigerous second son. But it seems that I was the outstanding candidate. Oh and.. we're… Ah, I'm not a skeleton fetishist, we're-."

Nothing. Looks like subspace isn't available in this place. Darn. There are other things I could do, but they all require more attention than I can-
"AAaagh! What did you DO!?"

"After two thousand years of isolation I doubt that any of us have not felt such misery at least once. Though had it gone on longer it would have been uncomfortable."

"They will take no land and they will take none of our people as slaves. They will return prisoners once a treaty is signed. And in return they want three things: a chest of gold as a symbolic reparation for the injuries caused by our attack, a return of the citizens we took as slaves, and the right to purchase grain for as long as the gate remains open. For all their industry, it seems that their land is a poor one for farming." He shrugs. "The barbarians our ancestors conquered traded their lives for the advancement of their descendants. We need only trade our excess grain for improvements to medicine, steel-forging and alchemy. I hope you will agree that it is a bargain."

"A single chest, filled to the brim with gold. And under the gold-" A slight relaxing of people who've just seen where the other shoe is going to drop from. "-they have requested enchanted… Objects."
 
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Normally, when you reply to someone, a link to the original post appears at the top. This allows the person you are replying to to look at the full text of the thing you're talking about, which is particularly helpful if they posted it a significant period of time ago and they don't really remember it.
I find it difficult to write comments like this, as they turn into a jumbled mess thanks to my browser. I find it easier to copy and paste manually.
 
In truth, our greatest heroes are those who still know how to fight, despite the lassitude brought about by a thousand years of peace."
Huh. Technically, we don't know how long the Elements of Harmony have been out of commission for. Twilight didn't know about them, but that could just be Celestia pruning the historical record. I generally assume however that they've been inert since Celestia used them against Luna. If we accept that, it follows logically that Equestria hasn't had a major attack in a thousand years, because each time they had one recently their either used the Elements or tried to use the Elements. Supporting this is the fact that Ponyville doesn't have a garrison, despite being next to the Everfree Forest. Yes, the Forest itself is a dangerous place filled with monsters, but they're sure enough that those monsters aren't going to come out that they have neither military or -as far as I remember- police.
 
16th October 2013
18:55 G.M.T.
Senior Agent Nguyen




"The templar is wearing a rough-spun skirt held up my a leather belt."

extraneous "my""

"Robes of coarsely woven cloth are the most common sort of clothing, and I don't see leather or metal anywhere."

Jade has just moments earlier seen the leather belt from above. Perhaps "any other leather" or something similar.
 
. If we accept that, it follows logically that Equestria hasn't had a major attack in a thousand years, because each time they had one recently their either used the Elements or tried to use the Elements. Supporting this is the fact that Ponyville doesn't have a garrison, despite being next to the Everfree Forest. Yes, the Forest itself is a dangerous place filled with monsters, but they're sure enough that those monsters aren't going to come out that they have neither military or -as far as I remember- police.
They happened. The comics make it clear that Chrysalis and her army have already attacked ponies and were defeated by Celestia without the Elements of Harmony before the events of the series.
Are they sure enough, or do they have no other choice? The army under Celestia hasn't just stagnated; it's degraded compared to the Pegasi army before the tribes unification.
Not to mention SMILE, whose activities were the fight against Monsters
Either a parasprite or a giant dragon, flora and fauna pose a serious danger to the inhabitants of Equestria and are NOT under control
 
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I think about it as I sit down next to him. Six months ago I wouldn't have dared do this. Heights and the risk of falling really scared me. Now, nothing. "A few minor cuts and plenty of bruises but no one on our side was seriously injured."
I'm not… There aren't a lot of things I'm afraid of. Not irrationally so, at any rate. Heights used to scare me, but… I've been flying everywhere. Even diving down from high up in the sky is fun when I'm in control.
"Because I know how to assemble mobile force field generators and Rocket doesn't. Or rather, didn't." I walk over to the surrounding wall and take a look over the edge. Heights used to scare me, but somewhere along the line I lost that fear. Probably all the flying I've been doing. "I've.. been thinking… About my leaving."
It's amusing how much the MC has grown; he doesn't even mention his former fear anymore.

I have the ring transmit a break down into my mind as I try using construct manacles to hold the Huntsman in place. Yikes gravity manipulation weapons are power hogs.

Forty one percent power remaining.

A chunk of power when I make one, then more to power the effect. Plus my injuries and the construct armour. The Huntsman takes another green lightning bolt shot at my weapon construct but the Praexis Demon has recovered enough to interpose itself.
Reading this I wonder; does not knowing how to build a contruct and relying on the Ring to do it increase the power drain on his ring? Would the simplier constructs of the Green Lanterns extend their battery?

I'm actually struggling to theorize why GL rings can't do complex constructs 'out-of-the-gate' now.

"And the symptoms are progressive."

!!!

"You're not showing any-?"
"That would depend on the degree. At lower levels, we have enough conventional anti-armour weapons to cope. And again, gas has often proven to be effective. They still need to breathe, after all. If all else fails we have a nuclear self-destruct-"

!!!

"-system." We all look shocked. "Oh, there is no need to worry. It is a tactical nuclear device only, and both the American and Chinese governments have been informed of its existence. If we are forced to utilise it, it will not be the start of World War Three."
One of the few times post-enlightenment that the MC has used his backdoor into NewGod-Speech.

Wallace holds up his hands at his sides, palms upwards. "Did you not hear how that would have destroyed the world?"

"Planets are hardy things. With reasonable preparation, some of the population of one side would be able to survive and rebuild later."

"They'd be rebuilding from nothing. Billions of people would die, including almost everyone from their own side."

Canis frowns uncomprehendingly. "But they would have won?"
Canis is always a treasure and I wish he appeared more. I do wonder though if asking him if he's enjoy the results if the only survivors were Lowlies.

KF and Robin are so Black and White in outlook; it's core to their superhero character but still amusing.
 
I'm actually struggling to theorize why GL rings can't do complex constructs 'out-of-the-gate' now

I'll take a stab at it. Basically, any ring user has to be experiencing their color's emotion to make constructs, and that emotion has to be directly related to the construct they are making. As we see often with orange, Paul doesn't have to pay attention to what he is doing, he just has to actively want it to happen.

For Green Lanterns, the paying attention part IS the emotion they have to channel. Naively, it would seem that they should be able to substitute intensity of focus for mechanical precision the way Paul substitutes intensity of desire, but, well,

If they're focusing really hard on something other than the construct itself, then they are, by definition, distracted. They can't channel green light from arbitrary focus into arbitrary constructs, they have to focus on the construct, and the AI can't channel it for them into something they aren't actually thinking about.* Picturing the whole construct and setting it in motion as an act of direct will is just...how green rings work, and if you can't actually imagine how a device would accomplish what you need, then...the construct doesn't do that, I guess.

I assume extremely powerful/skilled Green Lanterns can brute force solutions by "just trying harder" anyway, but that probably results in a wave of reality-warping green light rather than any kind of specific construct that the Lantern otherwise doesn't understand.

*Anti-green rings do this, so maybe the Guardians could get it to work, but the tradeoffs aren't worth it, or something.
 
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Penal (part 18) New
16th October 2013
19:01 U.T.C.
Honor Guard Lantern Harold 'Hal' Jordan


I may not be the smartest Lantern on Earth.

I do a little lightspeed hop up as one of the battleships tries to shoot me with its big gun again. It misses by a country mile.

I may not be the most experienced Lantern on Earth.

A Patriot missile battery intercepts Arkymandryte's… Was that a ballista bolt? Anyway, it's intercepted and destroyed.

And I may not know the most about Lantern-on-Lantern fighting. Yeah, I had Sinestro on my case for years, but… I was slow off the mark on the whole Chihuahuan Bowl thing Guy and Paul had going on. That was on me.

Arkymandryte comes at me with a sword and armor, so I duck down and turn the missile battery and then fire it again. He slices one with his sword and dodges the next, but the third hits him right in the chest and sends him flying across the battle zone before exploding. His armor takes it, which is kind of a bummer, but I'll take it. And-.

And then I have to dodge again 'cause that battleship's rotating faster.

Because if there's one thing I do better than every Lantern on Earth, it's understand three dimensional movement. Three dimensional combat.

Arkymandryte comes out of the explosion and heads right for me, just in time to take a giant hammer construct straight to the ribs!

I create a binocular construct just so's I can watch the expression on his face. He winces, but he's not out of the fight. He makes some sort of yellow knives and stabs the hammer as I swing it again, and-.

Huh. Okay. Somehow that's enough to stop it and break it. Sinestro never did that. So either this guy's a natural -like me- or Sinestro's got some kinda training going on. And I know Guy's gunna get a laugh out of it, but Sinestro didn't teach me how to fight with a power ring. He taught me diplomacy, strategy and galactic politics.

I dodge another spatial charge, and then again because they tried to get cute.

And that was useful. But I mostly learned to fight by myself, with maybe a little help from old news reports about Alan-.

Oh Jesus, Arkymandryte's actually trying to come at me out of the sun. What is this, World War I? I generate a Vulcan cannon directly in front of me so my body blocks it from his view, then wait as he gets closer and closer-.

And then he's close enough and I turn aside, grinning, as I open fire and about a thousand tiny flecks of green blast through the space between us! His armor takes it fairly well, but he's having to focus on… Whatever messed up thing he's focusing on to maintain it. Yeah, haven't focused on willpower, have you? Not used to having to ignore someone shooting your fancy armor in the faceplate. It's not going through but he still has to deal with the fact that he's instinctively flinching.

And while he's doing that, I form a YF-23 construct and hit him with a couple of Sparrows.

Gotta give him credit, he's taking hits like a champ. I can barely see any abrasions on his armor, but I've used armor constructs enough to know that he's getting rattled around in there even if his armor's not getting breached. I reload the hardpoints and-

"No. I should not fight you as another warrior."

-fire again."

"I will show you why I was chosen-"

A… Big construct swats my missiles out of the sky.

"-to restore my people to the godly path!"

Oh boy.

He's made a giant construct of himself. It's so… solid that I can't even see him inside it.

"Do you feel it, Lantern Jordan!"

It swings a punch and damn, something that big should not move that fast. Dodge, dodge, and the battleship is tracking me again so pull back-.

"You will not!"

Huh-? Oh-.

Fine, use the construct plane and accelerate. Be hard to get out of the blast area, but if I can use him as a human shield-.

GUHHH!

He made a..? Giant construct baseball bat? Guess this is what a baseball-

Uooff!

-feels like!

Two bats-. And he's-. Smacking me from one to the other-! Okay, be the ball, I guess! Now-.

Huh. The battleship actually shot him in the back. Didn't really look like it did anything-.

And now he's grabbed me by the ball and he's holding me up to the height of the head of his construct-.

Wait, I can see him-?

Surprise battering ram to the face!

The giant yellow construct shimmers and staggers back-. A jetpack construct lets me dodge the… Bat which is now way slower than it was a second ago.

Okay, this guy likes giant bodies? Have a giant boxing glove!

It hits him right in the chest, where I can see Arkymandryte hiding! His construct collapses, and he's… He's looking a little desperate. In fact, he's… Looking away from me.

But the battleship's coming around again so I gotta move again, and then check on-.

The battleship's shot explodes, and-. Oh.

I focus carefully, bending space so that any bits of crystal that are still in the area move away from Arkymandryte. And then I warp forwards and… Take a look at him.

Arkymandryte must have had some shield in place, but I guess he was too focused on me or something. He's kinda a mess.

…

Well, not my problem. I just need that ring-.

It weakly tries to escape my construct box, but it's not going anywhere. Oh, and stick an environmental shield around Arkymandryte. The least I can do for his people is let them decide what to do with him.

Alright. Now what?
 
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Okay, this guy likes giant bodies? Have a giant boxing glove!

It hits him right in the chest, where I can see Arkymandryte hiding! His construct collapses, and he's… He's looking a little desperate. In fact, he's… Looking away from me.
And once again the boxing glove construct saves the day.


You know reading this reminded me that relative to amount of power and options he has, Paul is kind of terrible at fights…
Yup, there's good reason that he gets his ass kicked any time he goes up against someone he's not hugely punching down against who has a way to shut down his dozen or so tricks.
 
And once again the boxing glove construct saves the day.



Yup, there's good reason that he gets his ass kicked any time he goes up against someone he's not hugely punching down against who has a way to shut down his dozen or so tricks.
Yeah, Paul is a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none, he wins by flaw explitation and knowing 5 weird things most people do not do...until they adapt
 
16th October 2013
19:01 U.T.C.
Honor Guard Lantern Harold 'Hal' Jordan
Oh-ho, this will be fun. Hal showing us just why he's an Honour Guard. And not jsut for the personable nature and ability to lead. Because in the Corps, authority equals asskicking too.

I may not be the smartest Lantern on Earth.

I do a little lightspeed hop up as one of the battleships tries to shoot me with its big gun again. It misses by a country mile.
Thing is, as a former fighter pilot, he's no fool. You don't get in the front seat of a 60-million-dollar fighter jet without knowing your shit.

I may not be the most experienced Lantern on Earth.

A patriot missile battery intercepts Arkymandryte's… Was that a ballista bolt? Anyway, it's intercepted and destroyed.
Alan has been around for longer, not not as active since the fifties. And the threats the modern heroes face have been bigger.
EDIT: And Lord Malvolio, of course. Few Greenies last that long, I suspect.

And I may not know the most about Lantern-on-Lantern fighting. Yeah, I had Sinestro on my case for years, but… I was slow off the mark on the whole Chihuahuan Bowl thing Guy and Paul had going on. That was on me.
And once he got the ideas down, he won more than he lost, I bet.

Arkymandryte comes at me with a sword and armor, so I duck down and turn the missile battery and then fire it again. He slices one with his sword and dodges the next, but the third hits him right in the chest and sends him flying across the battle zone before exploding. His armor takes it, which is kind of a bummer, but I'll take it. And-.
Arky's foolish obsession with his primitive weaponry is going to prove his undoing. The drawback of his religious mania.

And then I have to dodge again 'cause that battleship's rotating faster.

Because if there's one thing I do better than every Lantern on Earth, it's understand three dimensional movement. Three dimensional combat.
Because, again, Fighter Pilot. And likely to have seen actual combat if anything like a Gulf War happened.

Arkymandryte comes out of the explosion and heads right for me, just in time to take a giant hammer construct straight to the ribs!

I create a binocular construct just so's I can watch the expression on his face. He winces, but he's not out of the fight. He makes some sort of yellow knives and stabs the hammer as I swing it again, and-.
Best option would be to refuse to engage him in melee. Duck, dodge and keep away while you wear his charge down.

Huh. Okay. Somehow that's enough to stop it and break it. Sinestro never did that. So either this guy's a natural -like me- or Sinestro's got some kinda training going on. And I know Guy's gunna get a laugh out of it, but Sinestro didn't teach me how to fight with a power ring. He taught me diplomacy, strategy and galactic politics.
Makes sense. He would have realised Hal is a far better fighter and would need the non-combat skills improved more.

I dodge another spatial charge, and then again because they tried to get cute.

And that was useful. But I mostly learned to fight by myself, with maybe a little help from old news reports about Alan-.

Oh Jesus, Arkymandryte's actually trying to come at me out of the sun. What is this, World War I? I generate a Vulcan cannon directly in front of me so my body blocks it from his view, then wait as he gets closer and closer-.
And really, working on instinct works well with Green Light. You want constructs that are easy to visualise, not OL's super-complex exotic weapons of choice. Hence the boxing gloves and hammers, plus weapons he knows from aircraft operations.

And then he's close enough and I turn aside, grinning, as I open fire and about a thousand tiny flecks of green blast through the space between us! His armor takes it fairly well, but he's having to focus on… Whatever messed up thing he's focusing on to maintain it. Yeah, haven't focused on willpower, have you? Not used to having to ignore someone shooting your fancy armor in the faceplate. It's not going through but he still has to deal with the fact that he's instinctively flinching.
And I doubt Sinestro thought to allow the user's own fear to amplify their power. No, he went with negative-mode 'the Fear of others' because Qwardians.

And while he's doing that, I form a YF-23 construct and hit him with a couple of Sparrows.

Gotta give him credit, he's taking hits like a champ. I can barely see any abrasions on his armor, but I've used armor constructs enough to know that he's getting rattled around in there even if his armor's not getting breached. I reload the hardpoints and-
The YF-23? Nice taste. and good exploitation of mortal weaknesses.

"No. I should not fight you as another warrior."

-fire again."
Ugh, Arky's deciding to cheat.

"I will show you why I was chosen-"

A… Big construct swats my missiles out of the sky.

"-to restore my people to the godly path!"
A path of primitive sciences and disease treatment? Of blind religious devotion and casual violence as a way of life? Let's see how much of that your people keep when you're out.

Oh boy.

He's made a giant construct of himself. It's so… solid that I can't even see him inside it.
And it's not Hal's fears fuelling that. That's his own people powering him up somehow.

"Do you feel it, Lantern Jordan!"

It swings a punch and damn, something that big should not move that fast. Dodge, dodge, and the battleship is tracking me again so pull back-.
Fortunately, he's still thinking in terms of 'hit thing with bigger thing.' If Hal can play keep-away, he should be able to wear him down.

"You will not!"

Huh-? Oh-.

Fine, use the construct plane and accelerate. Be hard to get out of the blast area, but if I can use him as a human shield-.
Trick his allies to drop a blast on him? That'll do nicely.

GUHHH!

He made a..? Giant construct baseball bat? Guess this is what a baseball-
Ow.

Uooff!

-feels like!

Two bats-. And he's-. Smacking me from one to the other-! Okay, be the ball, I guess! Now-.
Double-Ow.

Huh. The battleship actually shot him in the back. Didn't really look like it did anything-.

And now he's grabbed me by the ball and he's holding me up to the height of the head of his construct-.
Perhaps they're allies of convenience. I would not be surprised if he's pressganged them into his service.

Wait, I can see him-?

Surprise battering ram to the face!
One advantage of Hal being so skilled at quick constructs. He can take a shot OL would miss without neural acceleration.

The giant yellow construct shimmers and staggers back-. A jetpack construct lets me dodge the… Bat which is now way slower than it was a second ago.

Okay, this guy likes giant bodies? Have a giant boxing glove!
And another advantage of Will: The more determined you are, the bigger you can go.

It hits him right in the chest, where I can see Arkymandryte hiding! His construct collapses, and he's… He's looking a little desperate. In fact, he's… Looking away from me.

But the battleship's coming around again so I gotta move again, and then check on-.
Interesting. Communicating with the ship, or with someone via Rings comm.

The battleship's shot explodes, and-. Oh.

I focus carefully, bending space so that any bits of crystal that are still in the area move away from Arkymandryte. And then I warp forwards and… Take a look at him.
No power-up for you, Arky.

Arkymandryte must have had some shield in place, but I guess he was too focused on me or something. He's kinda a mess.

…

Well, not my problem. I just need that ring-.
Taking him alive is acceptable, but not required. Getting shot in the back by his allies is a fine way to go.

It weakly tries to escape my construct box, but it's not going anywhere. Oh, and stick an environmental shield around Arkymandryte. The least I can do for his people is let them decide what to do with him.

Alright. Now what?
And they got the Ring? Great success! Better not let this one get away.

Hal putting in the work to get shit done. He's gonna be able to hold this over OL, too, what with steamrolling the boss and capturing both him and his Ring. And ideally they can sort out Debstam IV's current political stuff, putting an end to the religious nutters little pogrom. So a good end all round... For now.
 
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They happened. The comics make it clear that Chrysalis and her army have already attacked ponies and were defeated by Celestia without the Elements of Harmony before the events of the series.
Are they sure enough, or do they have no other choice? The army under Celestia hasn't just stagnated; it's degraded compared to the Pegasi army before the tribes became icy.
Not to mention SMILE, whose activities were the fight against Monsters
Either a parasprite or a giant dragon, flora and fauna pose a serious danger to the inhabitants of Equestria and are NOT under control
The problem with that is that it makes series Celestia look even more incompetent. They've fought changelings in the recent past, but they don't have any sort of changeling detection equipment or counter-intrusion protocols? They know that they can be attacked anywhere, but don't bother garrisoning anywhere outside of the capital? And we see from the wedding and the film how much use the capital garrison is.
Thank you, corrected.
Alan has been around for longer, not not as active since the fifties. And the threats the modern heroes face have been bigger.
[Lord Malvolio is trying to work out how offended he should be]
 
I get the feeling that whatever Jade and Niiniini did got the attention not just of the planet's residents, but the Dread Horde's ships too.

Which is why Arkymandryte suddenly got shot in the back by what had up to then been a "friendly" battleship.

Remember folks, friendly fire isn't.
 
side question, i can't remember if this has been addressed before or not: is Parallax in the GLC Central Power Battery in this fic? i don't recall mention of any Greenies having the yellow color weakness, and i would assume that Zero Hour would have been referenced by Paul if it had happened in this timeline. also, the DC timeline in general has always been a mess and hard for me to keep track of.
 
side question, i can't remember if this has been addressed before or not: is Parallax in the GLC Central Power Battery in this fic? i don't recall mention of any Greenies having the yellow color weakness, and i would assume that Zero Hour would have been referenced by Paul if it had happened in this timeline. also, the DC timeline in general has always been a mess and hard for me to keep track of.
I think he was freed when that alternate Hal merged with him, but was later imprisoned.
 
What's the problem here? I only see canonical, typical Celestia behavior here.
If we limit ourselves to just the cartoon, we can say that the ponies got blindsided the first time and failed to come up with an effective counter later because 1) not much time had past, 2) Celestia was mentally checked out due to her upcoming retirement and 3) Thorax had taken over the hive and was friendly. Not good reasons, but not an indication that anyone involved was a moron.

If we include things like the Changeling Amulet and previous large scale changeling attacks, that is no longer true. Celestia, Equestria's officer corps and whatever other political leadership Equestria has are all pants-on-head retarded, because they had plenty of notice and plenty of examples but still took no action. Nothing there contradicts cartoon canon exactly, but that Equestria is a very different place to live.
 

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