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

Cuchulin · Sep 30, 2020

aaa001 said:
"I heard in times of hardship, the pioneers used to eat coral"

They ate just about everything else, Heck some people COMPLAINED if their water didn't have enough sediment/silt in it.

Senevri · Sep 30, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
My daiklave's out and Artemis's coral arrow is on her string as the horde of zombie children charge out of the murk!

Well, as long as they don't explode....

Worst scenario, this is some sort of a post-anti-life time, but since something slightly similar happened in the DCeased miniseries / Marvel Zombies ripoff, or whatchamacallit, it seems unlikely.

Gotta say, I've forgotten a lot of the details of Renegade timeline.

Chojin Patriarch · Sep 30, 2020

Dang late. Guess that's what happens when you get stuck into a costume creation session on Champions Online...

Mr Zoat said:
One Foot in Front
Of the Other

"What about Texas, then?"

I hold my seventh attempt at a coral arrow up and look it over with a critical eye. Straight, smooth, with a somewhat pointy tip. I think it'll do.

Let me guess, using his daiklave or the Sword for a whittling knife? Assuming his fingernails aren't sharp enough...

"Probably vote for Knight, unless I can talk Jon into going to a gun show. Which isn't very likely."

I pass her the arrow and she takes a moment to get a feel for it.

Funny, but I doubt she's that interested in politics. More like LExcorp's little project.

"I'm not talking about the election. We're pretty sure Luthor was up to something and you're supposed to be keeping tabs on him."

"Yes, he made a big hole in the ground. I went to see it."

"Quite a nice hole, overall. Very good echo."

Getting the giant space ship may have been the primary objective, but Lex wasn't going to waste his investment for a ship he was giving to someone else.

"The only thing special about it is that it's lined with a simple kryptonian crystal."

Well, I suppose if there were something Kryptonian there... But what would the chances of that be?

"And you didn't think that was worth mentioning?"

"What, that Lex has a bit of a Krypton-fixation? I rather thought you knew." I shrug and then slice a new section off my coral-block with my daiklave. "He wasn't just working on ways to kill Kal-El. He wanted to develop kryptonian technology as well. Dumb programmable crystals-"

And it's entirely believable that Lex could reverse-engineer Kryptonian tech, because Lex.

Were a gift from Karsta, who's hiring every Tamaranean childminder she can.

"-are just one of the things he learned to make."

I see the Kryptonian cloning is going well. Rapid development or not?

And I'm not telling her the truth about that, because I am planning on getting home. Not entirely sure what I'm going to use a few hundred kryptonian marines for yet but I'm sure that something will present itself.

Artemis puts the new arrow on her string and draws it experimentally.

Not the best of ammunition, but you take what you can get, I suppose.

"What does it do?"

I shrug, strands of coral falling to the ground as I side the block I'm working along the edge of my blade.

Huh, using the Daiklave as a tool, eh? I suppose it's easier to use, what with the Sword's drawbacks if you nick yourself...

"It's strong, absorbs radiation and grows where it's told. That's about it. Nothing clever."

"So it's not a weapon."

If it eats radiation, it'd be quite useful for cleaning up reactor accidents or maybe radioactive waste. That's quite the winner...

"It works as armour but it's not a very effective weapon against things in our weight class."

She smiles. "Oh, I'm in your weight class, am I?"

You would need about three of her to match Grayven's weight class... And while that sounds like a fun party, someone's going to feel left out...

"If you can shoot holes in space, yes. I don't suppose you can do time, can you?"

"Ahh… No."

Not yet, anyway. Don't underestimate her growth potential...

She sights and looses her arrow at a nearby coral wall, the arrow becoming thirty arrows in transit with all of them embedding themselves into their target. She nods, satisfied, and strolls over to recover them.

"This should do."

Okay, now that's a useful trick for re-arming. Something Celestial Archer taught her?

I hold up my complete arrow as she checks them for impact damage and stows them in her quiver.

"So I can just stop?"

She shrugs. "You can keep on going if you want."

Don't give him an opening like that, you never know what he'll do with it.

I hold up the half-finished arrow before me, shrug and toss-.

No. Ugh. Thanks, brain.

I bring it to my mouth and bite the end off, chewing… Yeah. No. We can't live off-

... Well... I suppose that's one way to test it, without a Ring.

"What are you doing?"

-this stuff.

"I wondered if we could eat it." I turn my face away from her and awkwardly spit what is basically rock out. "In case you're wondering: we can't."

Not without much stronger teeth and a lot of sauce.

"Ah, yeah?" She frowns. "How hungry are you?"

"Not rock-eating hungry." I pull my daiklave out of the ground and attach it to my armour. "Can your rainbow bridge arrow thing take us anywhere?"

Good question. Given we saw Tao shoot a bridge to the Moon and get there in a minute or two tops...

"Anywhere on Earth… If this place even counts. But I can't go to a place I don't know, and I don't know anywhere-"

"In this time." / "-around here."

Aw, it's like a Fast Travel power, then. You still have to explore the map the old-fashioned way.

I nod. "Right. And… Yes, I can't think of anywhere that would be similar enough five billion years in the future to bypass that. So I guess we're back to plan 'pick a direction and keep walking'."

She nods, and we turn in to direction we were walking before our brief stop and keep walking.

Trudge, trudge, trudge... If only montage powers worked in reality...

"How come Luthor didn't use that kryptonian crystal stuff for his space ships?"

"Because those ships are designed for agility and stealth. Kryptonian warships were flying bricks."

And big to boot. Kryptonians didn't do things by halves, did they?

"Didn't help with the Sheeda."

I smile. "What, you mean those empty hulls we left on the ground so they'd be a nice and obvious target?"

Heh. As if they'd do the building in such an obvious place. And let everyone with a telephoto lens see every step of the process?

She stares at me. "What?"

"Yeah. The on-site bunkers were made of kryptonian crystal, but… We knew that the Harrowing was coming up and we didn't think we'd have time to finish a big enough fleet to protect the whole planet. So we… Kept a nice obvious target out in the open. Sure, the Sheeda would know that we were working on space ships, but if they thought they knew where all of them where and saw them all being destroyed, they'd stop worrying."

A nice, big chunk of bait. And the Sheeda pounced on it, not thinking it could be a mousetrap...

"You wanted them to commit."

"Yep."

"And… Then you get aboard the Castle and assassinate the Queen?"

It's Grayven, no way could it have been that simple.

"No. We get aboard the Castle and disable the time drive so they can't get away. Then the actual fleet flies in from the actual shipyard on the far side of the moon and destroys everything that's left."

"The actual-? No." She shakes her head. "Green Lantern would have spotted it."

Oh, please. Anyone with a little magical knowledge can beat Ring scans. The Paragon knows that well, even if the Renegade hasn't run into it that often.

I shrug. "Advanced sensor stealth and magic wards. One of the local Greenies might have found it if he looked really hard in exactly the right place, but that wasn't very likely."

"So Lex Luthor's.. got a space fleet."

You make that sound like a bad thing. He's reformed... Mostly. Thanks to Grayven hanging over his head like a beefy Sword of Dmocles.

"Unless we badly miscalculated and he's-. Uh. Well, if we're in the future then he's certainly dead, but since he was on board the Pax Lex it's possible that we miscalculated and he died that day."

"Pax L-? Of course he called it that."

To be honest, calling it something like the 'Pax Alexander' might have sounded better. Draw parallels to Alexander of Macedon, and all. Though that still has its issues...

"Actually, I picked it. He finds it embarrassing." I smile. "One of our Chinese employees asked if Lex's family name was 'Pax'."

But it didn't give him a bout of paranoia, which means that his therapy sessions are actually working! He gets to name the next battle cruiser, but I suspect that he intends to be boring and give it a sensible name rather than a pun based on my name. Either that, or do a pun that no one but him will understand.

Probably a sneaky pun on Gray, yes. I can just see him chuckling to himself as he works out really subtle ones...

…

How am I going to tell the difference?

Joy of not being a tenth-level intelligence. That's what you hire the smart people for.

"And that's it? The ships fly in and destroy all of the harvest ships-."

"And the fliers and monsters. Our ships can all operate in an atmosphere, so fire support isn't a problem. Any surviving Highborn might be a problem, but that's what the League's for."

Let them have some Righteous Face-punching fun, of course. I can just see Superman stewing over the fact that Lex's fleet saved the day. And Batman being paranoid about it.

"And they don't need you for that?"

"No, just for nobbling the Queen. I-."

And you still didn't manage that, either... Oh, well.

"Hhhkkkkkkk."

My daiklave's out and Artemis's coral arrow is on her string as the horde of zombie children charge out of the murk!

Bugger, looks like the DM's bored. He's hit the 'Get on with it' button: random encounters!

Finally, something other than talking. Don't get me wrong, character moments like this are fun, but a bit of biffo is always good.

And I think the thread might have started lighting torches if it was three in a row. Roll for initiative!

...as I side the block I'm working...

...as I slide the block I'm working...

Darko · Sep 30, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
Well, I suppose if there were something Kryptonian there... But what would the chances of that be? <innocent whistle>

About as big as the chances of Lex having unresolved sexual feelings for Kal El, which given the fact that Kon exists are extremely high.

Chojin Patriarch said:
And it's entirely believable that Lex could reverse-engineer Kryptonian tech, because Lex.

Well maybe it's more like his staff that did this.

Lex may be smart, but this version may not exactly be the omni disciplinarian scientist that his comic self is.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Not the best of ammunition, but you take what you can get, I suppose.

In this fic on SB called The Traveling Merchant and Wandering Mage the MC picks up a bunch of crossbows for his dimension hopping ship.

The reason he does this is because while guns and lasers can be more powerful they can also be easily disabled, like and EMP pulse for the electronics and something like that Sontaran thing that stopped bullets from firing in Dr Who, but arrows can't exactly be stopped like that and if you're stranded somewhere without any advanced equipment the primitive option may be the most useful since you can easily fix a bow and arrow while doing the same with a gun or laser in a primitive place would be impossible.

Another reason he picks up the crossbows is that because they travel through other universes they may end up in one where the lasers don't work due to the local laws not being all that sci fi and allowing things like laser weapons to work.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Good question. Given we saw Tao shoot a bridge to the Moon and get there in a minute or two tops...

He either shot it literary to the moon or just aimed at the direction of the moon and opened up a portal to the residence of the gods, but it wasn't on the moon and what we saw was just something like an illusion.

Chojin Patriarch said:
You make that sound like a bad thing. He's reformed... Mostly. Thanks to Grayven hanging over his head like a beefy Sword of Dmocles.

It kinda is a bad thing, if renegade isn't around to hold Lex's hand then he may go off the deep end and now he'd have a whole fleet to enact his crazy plans.

Chojin Patriarch said:
. I can jsut see Superman stewing over the fact that Lex's fleet saved the day. And Batman being paranoid about it.

Well wouldn't you be mad and paranoid if a guy that belonged to a group of psychopaths and sociopaths that committed horrible crimes against innocent people, like torture, murder, enslavement and a whole lot of other things, and was never punished for it, and is actually getting more power and wealth, is being hailed as a hero and has his own fleet

Mr Zoat · Sep 30, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
...as I slide the block I'm working...

Thank you, corrected.

Pinklestia · Sep 30, 2020

Senevri said:
anti-life

Cue Zoat recreating the Elements of Harmony. Then he hits the sun.

NightmareWarden · Sep 30, 2020

Place your bets people! Did the preparations of this comic take place before Grayven and Artemis' adventure or will Grayven create a similar stash when he returns?
If a stash already exists then I wonder if Lynne deposited wishful (heartbreaking) letters in the stash since Grayven's disappearance.

DAT_NOOB · Sep 30, 2020

NightmareWarden said:
If a stash already exists then I wonder if Lynne deposited wishful (heartbreaking) letters in the stash since Grayven's disappearance.

Ow, why would you say that? Now I'm sad.

...

I reckon 3:1 odds it's a sad letter about missing him and 1:3 odds it's angry at him for leaving her behind.

Stsword · Sep 30, 2020

Why exactly would spaceships made out of shapeshifting crystals be flying bricks?

They grow and shrink as needed.

Darko · Sep 30, 2020

Stsword said:
Why exactly would spaceships made out of shapeshifting crystals be flying bricks?

They grow and shrink as needed.

They might be limited in how much they can do that.

Agent Orange · Sep 30, 2020

Stsword said:
Why exactly would spaceships made out of shapeshifting crystals be flying bricks?

Because Kryptonians like their ships looking like that. Nothing quite shows the primitives how 'advanced' you are like making your warship out of something that has no business being used as armour - like a glasslike space crystals /s

Lex (depending on the incarnation) has a 'we can do this with a good, old fashined Human IngenuityTM/Earth shizotech' thing going on (except for all the times he completely forgets about it). So he might've decided to go completely homegrown on this project. Or Grayven convinced him to for some reason.

Darko · Sep 30, 2020

Agent Orange said:
Lex (depending on the incarnation) has a 'we can do this with a good, old fashined Human IngenuityTM/Earth shizotech' thing going on (except for all the times he completely forgets about it). So he might've decided to go completely homegrown on this project. Or Grayven convinced him to for some reason.

Paragon wasn't all that willing to share every single bit of alien tech his ring had in its database because he thought the people of Earth would become dependent on him for every single advancement instead of relying on themselves to develop their tech when they could have done so, like depending on him to make them spaceships, powerful energy devices and teleporters when they already had those in Ted Knights inventions and the Zeta Beam that was developed in the fifties.

Maybe renegade also feels somewhat the same in this regard, or maybe Lex also feels that way, at least in some ways.

Agent Orange · Sep 30, 2020

Darko said:
Maybe renegade also feels somewhat the same in this regard, or maybe Lex also feels that way

I seriously doubt any incarnation of Lex would see people being dependent on him/his company for the goodies as a bad thing. Grayven might but even he is very cavalier about using alien tech for his purposes.

Darko · Sep 30, 2020

Agent Orange said:
I seriously doubt any incarnation of Lex would see people being dependent on him/his company for the goodies as a bad thing. Grayven might but even he is very cavalier about using alien tech for his purposes.

Sorry I was thinking more along the lines of them not getting too dependent on alien technology and wanting humans to advance using human tech rather than alien.

dxdragon · Sep 30, 2020

NightmareWarden said:
Place your bets people! Did the preparations of this comic take place before Grayven and Artemis' adventure or will Grayven create a similar stash when he returns?
If a stash already exists then I wonder if Lynne deposited wishful (heartbreaking) letters in the stash since Grayven's disappearance.

Why'd you got to end it on the depressing letter stash note? Now I can just see Lynne or Luna doing this.

Mr Zoat · Sep 30, 2020

DAT_NOOB said:
Ow, why would you say that? Now I'm sad.

...

I reckon 3:1 odds it's a sad letter about missing him and 1:3 odds it's angry at him for leaving her behind.

If Grayven's estimate of 5 billion years is accurate, it's unlikely any such letter would have survived.

Stsword said:
Why exactly would spaceships made out of shapeshifting crystals be flying bricks?

They grow and shrink as needed.

No. Not shapeshifting crystals. Growing, programmable crystals. They can't just magic mass out of nowhere and send it back their when convenient.

Darko · Sep 30, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
If Grayven's estimate of 5 billion years is accurate, it's unlikely any such letter would have survived.

Ehh, given the fact that they have access to advanced tech and powerful magic it just may survive even that long.

Someguy Somewhere · Sep 30, 2020

I think Paragon made a joke about one of his subspace pockets with his breakfast cereal of choice being one of the last things remaining on earth. He'd created it in the kitchen at the Mountain after Wally had a bit of a snacking fit. Soooo, maybe they'll be some granola left for the sheeda to be very confused over.

Vaermina · Sep 30, 2020

Agent Orange said:
Because Kryptonians like their ships looking like that. Nothing quite shows the primitives how 'advanced' you are like making your warship out of something that has no business being used as armour - like a glasslike space crystals /s

Lex (depending on the incarnation) has a 'we can do this with a good, old fashined Human IngenuityTM/Earth shizotech' thing going on (except for all the times he completely forgets about it). So he might've decided to go completely homegrown on this project. Or Grayven convinced him to for some reason.

Kryptonian Sunstone isn't glasslike.

And it's a lot more impressive then Zoat makes it out to be.

Stsword · Oct 1, 2020

Agent Orange said:
Because Kryptonians like their ships looking like that. Nothing quite shows the primitives how 'advanced' you are like making your warship out of something that has no business being used as armour - like a glasslike space crystals /s

The Doomsday was durable enough that it took Superman to damage it, and even then it could heal instantly using the shapeshifting, and defensive wise it can also use the shapeshifting to build additional defenses like say growing extra armor when needed.

It's not quite up there as a technological cheat as the emotional electromagnetic spectrum, but I'd rate it higher than Nth metal.

At least until DC added a gazillion new powers to Nth metal, like shapeshifting and reality warping.

DAT_NOOB · Oct 1, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
If Grayven's estimate of 5 billion years is accurate, it's unlikely any such letter would have survived.

She's a god she can use god magic to make the letter last long enough, or steal paper from the book of destiny (or maybe be actually waiting there herself, I'm sure she can find some form of eternal youth) can't she?

Darko · Oct 1, 2020

DAT_NOOB said:
She's a god she can use god magic to make the letter last long enough, or steal paper from the book of destiny (or maybe be actually waiting there herself, I'm sure she can find some form of eternal youth) can't she?

She is a New God so she may be able to live that long.

gattsuru · Oct 1, 2020

DAT_NOOB said:
She's a god she can use god magic to make the letter last long enough, or steal paper from the book of destiny (or maybe be actually waiting there herself, I'm sure she can find some form of eternal youth) can't she?

Five billions years is long enough for a tectonic plate to have scooted back into the mantle two or three times. It's a really long time

Mr Zoat · Oct 1, 2020

The Shoe
Dropping

I charge, daiklave swinging out in a wide arc and slicing through the front ranks. I Stand!

I'd estimate these children died when they were between eight and twelve. Their hair is either grey or entirely absent, and they're wearing coloured smocks and… Nothing else. Their skin is a very pale grey-turquoise, their sclera black and their pupils a glowing red. None of them have adult height-

A wide and exaggerated swing scythes through the mob as they try to surround me.

-and there doesn't appear to be any particular directing mind; they're just charging a source of heat or movement. Or life. In theory numerous small and weak attackers could overwhelm a larger and stronger opponent, but as I keep-

Smaller swings as I press into the throng, always moving into the space I create.

-pressing forward, I don't think I have to worry about that. They're tougher than humans of their size and shape, but not by enough to slow the movement of my sword through their bodies.

I've passed some, and a good proportion of them turn to follow me. A chunk of the mob to my right suddenly find themselves with arrows in their heads as Artemis demonstrates that whatever limitations the coral arrows have they do well enough against these things.

The mob's thinning out but I can see more of these things heading our way through the gloom. But a more dispersed formation means that scything strikes aren't what I need. I circle around, charging back into the thickest part of the mob and running back over the bisected bodies with my daiklave stretched out to the side, the upper torsos of those I've sliced in twain grasp at my heels and I stamp them into the ground.

One jumps from a nearby outcrop -or falls from it- and I switch to a one-handed grip in order to catch them in my left hand to get a closer look without stopping. Their -its? Her?- hands claw at my gauntlet and when that doesn't work they try using their teeth as well. No effect, but with a energy nullification effect in effect I'm not going to chance it.

"What-?!

Ahead of me Artemis strikes a couple of the zombie children in-. Through the heads with the arms of her bow-

"Are they?!"

-and then fires another coral arrow. This one arrow volley doesn't target the mob but rather the stragglers, each one collapsing and creating a clear break between the mob and the stragglers.

"Working on that!"

I toss my captive lightly into the air, draw the Sword of the Fallen and stab her with it on the way down before resheathing and catching her again.

Interesting. There's no obvious change, which suggests that there's no ongoing spell keeping them animated. Headshots appear to be working, which isn't always the case with magically animated corpses. Certainly it's easiest to bind the control spell to a brain, and Vodun-style living zombies obviously die if you shoot them in the brain, but pure death magic generally creates things that need to be smashed to pieces to end the spell.

"Is there a spell you can shoot out of them?"

Artemis hesitates as I come to a halt just in front of her, bracing myself to charge back in. Then she shakes her head before drawing and loosing again, the seven closest zombie children slumping to the ground as shafts appear in their crania.

"Not that's coming from outside of them."

I take another look at my abductee. Like those I cut in half the wound isn't bleeding, but she's still animate. I suppose that I could try lightly poking her in a non-critical part of her brain but she's pinging on my God-sense as a tool rather than a citizen, so I don't think there's anything here to preserve.

"Mother Box?"

"Pung?"

"Sorry, Artemis, without my rings I'm-"

I step forward, swinging my daiklave at neck height and decapitating two of them.

"-a bit weak on analytics. Any ideas?"

"They're not hard to kill, but there's a whole lot of them. So… Can we get away?"

"I can pick you up and run. I'm pretty fast. But I don't know that we won't end up somewhere worse. I don't know how or why they're coming after us, so while we could just build a shelter I don't know that doing so would make them leave. I don't…"

They appear to have stopped attacking. They're still there, but they aren't heading our way. Experimentally, I toss the one I stabbed back towards the rest. She hits a couple of the others and they tumble to the ground, then rise and…

Huh.

I take a few steps closer to get a better look through the gloom.

"Srkh."

"Khrrp."

They're… Eating the fallen. That's… Interesting. Groups of the zombie children still standing-. Still functioning are kneeling around the severed lower parts of the ones I sliced in two and are biting them. Or to be more precise, grabbing on with both hands and nibbling, small pieces coming free in their mouths which they then.. swallow. They don't fight one another while they do it, don't try and force one another off or attack anything animate. Once the part they're gnawing on is eaten to the full extent of their ability to consume then their grip shifts and they go back to it.

"They're feeding on their fallen."

The heads I cut off are opening and closing their mouths, no vocal cords left for enunciation. The upper torsos are a little sluggish, but they're trying to get to the severed parts in order to feed as well. The ones which have managed it are… Eating, and… Slowly regrowing.

"That's… Disgusting."

Actually, I find it fascinating. Cannibal zombies. That eliminates a slew of possibilities; one way of creating zombies involves evoking death's malevolence and zombies created that way only attack the living. This suggests.. some sort of biological machine?

"It's efficient. There will always be some loss, but without blood pumping and spilling it will be minimised."

No extraneous movement. No looking around. That's not something animals do. Predator or scavenger, they'd be checking their environment and competing for the best-

There are a series of quiet crunches as some of them get a good angle on some bones and ingest them the same way as they did the flesh.

-parts. Even the damaged ones aren't distressed, they're just eating.

"We should get outta here while they're busy."

Artemis takes a step away, then hesitates when I don't immediately follow.

"You said yourself that you can't analyse them. They can't tell us anything."

I nod and follow after her, repeatedly turning my head back towards them as we leave. Until the murk fully obscures them and I can't see them any longer.

"That was interesting."

"That was creepy. Be nice if everything else here is that weak. But what's the chance of that."

"Low." I shrug as we pick up the pace. "But you never know."

Darko · Oct 1, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
One ones which have managed it are

'The ones which'

Mr Zoat · Oct 1, 2020

Darko said:
'The ones which'

Thank you, corrected.

Diraniola · Oct 1, 2020

Thus continue the Adventures of Big Grey Meanie and Arrow Lass in: Overleveled Past the Deathworld.

rkyeun · Oct 1, 2020

Oh my. This isn't life OR death. It goes from being BOTH, undead using normal biological muscle and tissue life processes which need fuel, to being NEITHER, the bodies simply becoming inert inanimate material without stimulus to chase. The ones that fed won't have a heartbeat until they're done digesting their meals, and then their hearts will beat exactly enough to distribute the nutrients, and then stop again. There's no life to maintain. They could have literally been standing there, without decay, for a billion years, until something showed up to eat, and only for those few seconds are they living zombies. And now they're inert again, ready to wait another billion.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 1, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
The Shoe
Dropping

I charge, daiklave swinging out in a wide arc and slicing through the front ranks. I Stand!

Cutting them down like wheat, literally. The joy of fighting zombies, at least. No need for concern about wounding future captives.

I'd estimate these children died when they were between eight and twelve. Their hair is either grey or entirely absent, and they're wearing coloured smocks and… Nothing else. Their skin is a very pale grey-turquoise, their sclera black and their pupils a glowing red. None of them have adult height-

So likely.. manufactured.. for purpose. If they were wild, they'd simply be nude. Presumably dispensed from some local fort to harry intruders, since anyone authorised would be able to manage them. But definitely signs of Columbian origin.

A wide and exaggerated swing scythes through the mob as they try to surround me.

-and there doesn't appear to be any particular directing mind; they're just charging a source of heat or movement. Or life. In theory numerous small and weak attackers could overwhelm a larger and stronger opponent, but as I keep-

And absolutely no thought of self-preservation. Nothing more than attack dogs. Except even dogs would flee before such carnage...

Smaller swings as I press into the throng, always moving into the space I create.

-pressing forward, I don't think I have to worry about that. They're tougher than humans of their size and shape, but not by enough to slow the movement of my sword through their bodies.

They can barely even damage him, and then only if they hit a gap in his armour, or his head. At a guess, they're probably being monitored from a distance, by some overflying drone Grayven and Artemis can't see. They're nought but strength testers...

I've passed some, and a good proportion of them turn to follow me. A chuck of the mob to my right suddenly find themselves with arrows in their heads as Artemis demonstrates that whatever limitations the coral arrows have they do well enough against these things.

The mob's thinning out but I can see more of these things heading our way through the gloom. But a more dispersed formation means that scything strikes aren't what I need. I circle around, charging back into the thickest part of the mob and running back over the bisected bodies with my daiklave stretched out to the side, the upper torsos of those I've sliced in twain grasp at my heels and I stamp them into the ground.

Man, getting images of a Musou game here, with bodies (or body parts, in this case) sent flying with every swing of a max-rank weapon being wielded by a max level character. On Beginner difficulty.

One jumps from a nearby outcrop -or falls from it- and I switch to a one-handed grip in order to catch them in my left hand to get a closer look without stopping. Their -its? Her?- hands claw at my gauntlet and when that doesn't work they try using their teeth as well. No effect, but with a energy nullification affect in effect I'm not going to chance it.

The joy of lacking any better sensor gear than the old Mk1 Eyeball. Or in this case, the Mk2?

"What-?!

Ahead of me Artemis strikes a couple of the zombie children in-. Through the heads with the arms of her bow-

Either she's a lot stronger than she appears (quite likely, given the probable draw of her bow) or they are made of plasticine!

"Are they?!"

-and then fires another coral arrow. This one arrow volley doesn't target the mob but rather the stragglers, each one collapsing and creating a clear break between the mob and the stragglers.

Cleared some space nicely. Joy of being a ranged build in a melee scrum.

"Working on that!"

I toss my captive lightly into the air, draw the Sword of the Fallen and stab her with it on the way down before resheathing and catching her again.

No soul, Grayven, I doubt that'll do much. Besides knock off a limb or something.

Interesting. There's no obvious change, which suggests that there's no ongoing spell keeping them animated. Headshots appear to be working, which isn't always the case with magically animated corpses. Certainly it's easiest to bind the control spell to a brain, and Vodun-style living zombies obviously die if you shoot them in the brain, but pure death magic generally creates things that need to be smashed to pieces to end the spell.

Good thing, otherwise all those severed limbs would be dragging themselves after you. That's always double-plus creepy.

"Is there a spell you can shoot out of them?"

Artemis hesitates as I come to a halt just in front of her, bracing myself to charge back in. Then she shakes her head before drawing and loosing again, the seven closest zombie children slumping to the ground as shafts appear in their crania.

If only it were that easy...

"Not that's coming from outside of them."

I take another look at my abductee. Like those I cut in half the wound isn't bleeding, but she's still animate. I suppose that I could try lightly poking her in a non-critical part of her brain but she's pinging on my God-sense as a tool rather than a citizen, so I don't think there's anything here to preserve.

Whatever's keeping them moving, it's apparently pretty simple. I suppose it would have to be to be used so casually...

"Mother Box?"

"Pung?"

Translation: "Please stop the angry midgets from hammering on my casing. It huuuurts..."

"Sorry, Artemis, without my rings I'm-"

I step forward, swinging my daiklave at neck height and decapitating two of them.

Ah, if only talking were a free action.

"-a bit weak on analytics. Any ideas?"

"They're not hard to kill, but there's a whole lot of them. So… Can we get away?"

That depends. How fast can you run?

"I can pick you up and run. I'm pretty fast. But I don't know that we won't end up somewhere worse. I don't know how or why they're coming after us, so while we could just build a shelter I don't know that doing so would make them leave. I don't…"

They appear to have stopped attacking. They're still there, but they aren't heading our way. Experimentally, I toss the one I stabbed back towards the rest. She hits a couple of the others and they tumble to the ground, then rise and…

Huh. That was spontaneous. I guess they have a fairly simple attack routine: Charge, or recover if you can't reach the target.

Huh.

I take a few steps closer to get a better look through the gloom.

Not too close, don't want to set them off.

"Srkh."

"Khrrp."

...

Such marvellous sound effects...

They're… Eating the fallen. That's… Interesting. Groups of the zombie children still standing-. Still functioning are kneeling around the severed lower parts of the ones I sliced in two and are biting them. Or to be more precise, grabbing on with both hands and nibbling, small pieces coming free in their mouths which they then.. swallow. They don't fight one another while they do it, don't try and force one another off or attack anything animate. Once the part they're gnawing on is eaten to the full extent of their ability to consume then their grip shifts and they go back to it.

That's quite possibly the grossest self-repair method I've ever seen. And that includes Nurgle and Tyranid armies.

"They're feeding on their fallen."

The heads I cut off are opening and closing their mouths, no vocal cords left for enunciation. The upper torsos are a little sluggish, but they're trying to get to the severed parts in order to feed as well. One ones which have managed it are… Eating, and… Slowly regrowing.

Oh, come on, they regenerate that well? Talk about stupidly resilient, for all their fragility. Though, to be honest, that fragility is because they're facing super-strong New Gods.

"That's… Disgusting."

Actually, I find it fascinating. Cannibal zombies. That eliminates a slew of possibilities; one way of creating zombies involves evoking death's malevolence and zombies created that way only attack the living. This suggests.. some sort of biological machine?

Hence why I said 'Manufactured' earlier. It's still horrifying and sick. Which means it's perfect for the Sheeda.

"It's efficient. There will always be some loss, but without blood pumping and spilling it will be minimised."

No extraneous movement. No looking around. That's not something animals do. Predator or scavenger, they'd be checking their environment and competing for the best-

Evidently, they have no natural predators. Anything around here is a Sheeda creature, or an intruder. And we've seen how they react to intruders.

There are a series of quiet crunches as some of them get a good angle on some bones and ingest them the same way as they did the flesh.

-parts. Even the damaged ones aren't distressed, they're just eating.

No sense of pain at all. No wonder they didn't retreat before they couldn't pursue. Presumably, whoever controls them has other options on the way...

"We should get outta here while they're busy."

Artemis takes a step away, then hesitates when I don't immediately follow.

"You said yourself that you can't analyse them. They can't tell us anything."

No point standing around wondering, like this is some immersive nature documentary. Their owner is probably mobilising as you speak.

I nod and follow after her, repeatedly turning by head back towards them as we leave. Until the murk fully obscures them and I can't see them any longer.

"That was interesting."

Only you could make that sort of understatement sound profound... The only interesting thing about it was their behaviour.

"That was creepy. Be nice if everything else here is that weak. But what's the chance of that."

"Low." I shrug as we pick up the pace. "But you never know."

True, for all you know, this is an area for toons straight out of character creation, and it doesn't scale. Sure, you could farm for kill achievements, but I'd rather be getting ones for exploration.

Not the most difficult fight he's ever had. No doubt the next encounter will be something stronger. If they're lucky, it'll include something they can ride on to get moving faster. Sooner or later, someone important's going to notice them, after all...

Godspeech:

I charge, daiklave swinging out in a wide arc and slicing through the front ranks. I Stand!

I take another look at my abductee. Like those I cut in half the wound isn't bleeding, but she's still animate. I suppose that I could try lightly poking her in a non-critical part of her brain but she's pinging on my God-sense as a tool rather than a citizen, so I don't think there's anything here to preserve.

Darko · Oct 1, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
Either she's a lot stronger than she appears (quite likely, given the probable draw of her bow) or they are made of plasticine!

Or it may just be her god archery that enhances her shots even if she isn't that strong.

She may have some enhanced strength though.

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

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