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

Diabo instinctively raises a large dome shield, which blocks the bolt heading for Lelei. It shatters right in front of her face, her eyes widening as she realised what just happened. The praetorians are drawing their swords-.
'realises'?
Swords clatter to the ground as the elite of the Saderan Empire impotently try to remove the noxious liquid form their eyes, noses and mouths.
'from'
Oh dear. Is this what passes for rizz amongst their misbegotten kind?
Wow, Oh El has learned some new vocabulary in the future, huh?
She passes Diabo the note. Ah, written orders signed by Zorzal himself. Even added his seal. How remarkably convenient.
I lack familiarity with the source material so maybe there's something that would be more obvious if I knew, but my first guess is that the emperor wants to fabricate an undeniably good reason to disinherit Zorzal in favour of Diabo.
 
Last edited:
Late Winter, IC 690
The next moment


Diabo instinctively raises a large dome shield, which blocks the bolt heading for Lelei. It shatters right in front of her face, her eyes widening as she realised what just happened. The praetorians are drawing their swords-.

Diabo, check their desires.


What? Oh.
And it seems the praetorians are in the pocket of whoever arranged this foolishness. Honestly, to be expected when you come into the soon-to-be-former Crown Prince's territory showing off your assets. Might have known they'd be a trap from the start...

He does so, identifying their hostile desires before their swords clear their scabbards. I've got no idea what… Their swords and armour. They're enchanted. I… Suppose if they caught him when he was distracted. Diabo sends filaments towards the swords-.

It's harder to affect enchanted weapons. Use indirect force.
Wouldn't have been the first time a Praetorian Guard caught an emperor (or prospective emperor) unawares.

Like what?

Fast acting knock out gas. Pepper spray. Stab through the-
Honestly, just spraying sand in their face t speed would be enough...

Bellow constructs appear around us, squirting eau de poivre fantôme directly into their faces!

-eye-. Well done.
I don't recognise the name, but I would assume it's akin to skunk spray in terms of nasty. <Googles> Ah, pepper spray of particularly high spiciness. Ghost Peppers, in fact...

The entire escort manages to get their swords out of the scabbards, and one of them even manages to takes a stab at Cato before the pain gets to them.

"YEAAAGHGODS!"
That's one MILLION Scofields to the eyeballs. Ow.

Swords clatter to the ground as the elite of the Saderan Empire impotently try to remove the noxious liquid form their eyes, noses and mouths.

Tuka looses an arrow, the enchantment on the tip punching a tiny hole in the shield construct and flying into a-


"Agh!"
Elven Archery for the win!

-building and nailing someone inside. Not fatally, but… Ah. Diabo's shortcoming as a Lantern is that when under stress he focuses on what is immediately around him and ignores things further afield. Dealing with the praetorian traitors he was preparing to act, listened to my advice and responded rationally. He even maintained the dome shield. But he wasn't looking for other threats or opportunities.
He's still young. He'll learn. Perhaps this will be a good object lesson in monitoring the whole field.

Something to feed back on.

What next?
Understandable he'd fall back on asking OL for advice here. This is not a situation they would have predicted. Should have, but didn't.

Have Cato or Lelei magic up ropes or chains, then see to Eithne.

He turns to the wizards.
"Bind the traitors."
At least once he has a direction to move, he wastes no time moving.

Lelei gestures with her staff and chains surge jingling from her saddlebags. They wrap themselves around arms, necks and chests and then pull tight, praetorians being dragged from their saddles as the chains pull them towards each other. Between that and the residual pepper spray the horses are starting to get agitated-
Might want to disperse that pronto, Last thing you want is a stampede in a busy street liek this.

"Who the fuck was that?!"

-as Eithne pulls herself to her feet, hand clasped around her wound. A hit to the intestine isn't immediately fatal, but in a culture like this it virtually guarantees that the target will die. Perfectly fixable by power ring of course, but extremely painful, and the victim will know that they're doomed.
Which is why she's so pissed, I expect. Not just the attempt on her life, but just as she declares her intentions towards Diabo? 😘 Rude!

Tuka has another arrow on her bow, her eyes glowing faintly as she enhances her already excellent vision with magic. After a moment she lowers it with a frustrated snort.

"The other archer is too far away. She rises out of her saddle and stands on it. "I can catch him-."
Hard to believe she couldn't outrange a crossbow, given magic, but better to let it pass.

Diabo looks at her. "No. He could lead you into an ambush. Take two trustworthy… Bunnies, and secure the one you already hit."

She nods, jumps towards the edge of the shield, pointing-

"You and you! Come with me!"
Excellent, he didn't even hesitate to check with OL. The lad has promise as an actual Emperor even without OL's advising.

-to two of the Warrior Bunnies walking behind the officer group. Her interactions with the bunnies have been… Interesting. In addition to her magic she is far more quick and agile. They on the other hand are stronger and have better endurance. Several have sparred with her, and after she proved that she could keep up they sort of accepted her as an unusually runty Warrior Bunny. Which means that unlike legionaries or marines who think that she's Diabo's concubine, Warrior Bunnies will actually take orders from her without needing to be nagged. The two she pointed to take off after her without hesitation while Diabo-.
The benefit of having a whole party of bad-ass female warriors. Everyone thinks they're eye-candy until they start tossing people through buildings or shooting arrows half a mile...

"N-ngh!"

Eithne tries to join them, but the action stresses her punctured abdominal muscles and exacerbates her injury.
Ah, one of those patients.

"I'm going to get the bastard!"

"You." Diabo points to a non-praetorian guardsman. "Take my reins."
Good move, she keeps aggravating matters, she'll bleed out before infection can take hold.

The guardsman complies, and Diabo dismounts -while maintaining the shield, respect to him there- and strides over to her.

"Hold still while I tend to your injury."
Making for one heck of a show, as well. Like some mighty wizard-king...

She makes a weird-

"Gwaah."

-noise-. Is that supposed to be a Bunny growl? Perhaps fortunately, Diabo doesn't notice the direction of her aggression and just assumes that it's the pain.
Probably pissed she has to let him see her like this. A warrior's pride, you know?

"Hold-"

She swings her left hand at him to push him away. He-.
Adrenaline. Marvellously useful in actual combat, bit of a pain when you need them to sit still a second.

Oh dear.

He sidesteps it, then reaches out and takes her hand in what I think is supposed to be a reassuring manner. Eithne appears to be so surprised that she doesn't just.. punch him out or something, but just stands there staring at him while he-
Oooh, so lewd! 😘 And in public? I think she's just stunned by his blatant hand-holding.

"Heal."

-puts her back together, the bolt floating out of her and landing in his right hand.
Probably didn't even take a single point of charge, not that he needs to worry on that front.

"There, all better. Hardy can't have you quite yet."

Alright, no need to make a meal out of-.
Ah, young love. Well, not on his part, or the Ring would have fritzed out.

Why are the other Warrior Bunnies staring-?

Oh dear. Is this what passes for rizz amongst their misbegotten kind?
Heh. I can just imagine Ring-OL rolling his figurative eyes.

Tuka-. Jumps out of the window the would-be assassin fired from, snapping them out of it. She's got a piece of parchment in her hand, and the two Bunnies that went with her are carrying the still-bleeding mercenary. Plain clothing, no distinguishing physical features, not loyal enough to take poison. Excellent.
I'm sure it won't be too hard to track down his employer.

She passes Diabo the note. Ah, written orders signed by Zorzal himself. Even added his seal. How remarkably convenient.

Diabo reaches the same conclusion.
"Obviously fake. My brother may be bull-headed, but he's not that stupid." He remounts his horse and puts it into subspace. "Alright, show's over. Decanus, drag these impostors to... Our cells, and make certain that they have to way to kill themselves. Lelei, go with them."
Stripping them entirely naked should do the trick, their dignity or honour bedamned.

"Yes, Highness."

"No, we shall finish my Triumph, and then-."
After all, why let a little assassination attempt spoil the party?

Giselle slams into the road just in front of us, another… Individual in her claws. He's somewhat battered.

Tuka perks up.
"That is the other bowman."
Ah, all neatly wrapped up.

Giselle grins slightly manically as she lifts him over her head.

"Witness my victory!"
Not bad, given that the guy is probably as tall, or taller than her, and likely looks heavier

I mean… He's a human with a crossbow, she's a demigoddess. It's not that impressive. From the looks of things, the others feel the same-.

She glowers fiercely.
"Praise me!"
...Ah, it's not about the quality of the catch, then.

Diabo looks a little uncertain, but makes a construct hand and pats her on the head.

"Well done."
Oooh, clam-jammed by the ersatz head-pat!

So, bets on who is actually behind this? The former lapine Queen? An agent of the Emperor trying to justify Zorzal's deposition? Or even foreign spies, trying to weaken the Saderan Empire? I don't expect interrogation to take long, given Diabo's options, and then it's a simple matter of confronting the responsible parties... 🤔 And he got to show his nigh-invulnerability in the process.
 
"No, we shall finish my Triumph, and then-."
Apparently the crowd is patiently waiting for the assassination attempt to conclude. Or are enjoying the additional entertainment.

She glowers fiercely. "Praise me!"

Diabo looks a little uncertain, but makes a construct hand and pats her on the head.

"Well done."
If that is how Apostles act I have to wonder what the gods were like back when they were embodied.
 
Their swords and armour. They're enchanted. I… Suppose if they caught him when he was distracted. Diabo sends filaments towards the swords-.

It's harder to affect enchanted weapons. Use indirect force.
Didn't Diabo say that they didn't have enchanted weapons when he was negotiating with the Japanese? Or was that just a case of discretion?
 
Didn't Diabo say that they didn't have enchanted weapons when he was negotiating with the Japanese? Or was that just a case of discretion?
They don't commonly have enchanted equipment, and they're not all that good. The army the Japanese faced on the Saderan side of the gate had no enchanted equipment.
 
Diabo is underestimating the stupidity of Zorzal, through it's likely either the Emperor or Tyuule setting him up.
Canonically, Diabo thought that his brother was an intelligent man who pretended to be an idiot because he didn't want to become the next Kati. He blamed his later stupidity on him becoming so used to pretending to be an idiot that it had become natural.
 
Alright, no need to make a meal out of-.

Why are the other Warrior Bunnies staring-?

Oh dear. Is this what passes for rizz amongst their misbegotten kind?

How does Paul know what Rizz means? He left Earth Prime way before it became a thing, and the slang in DC is different. Unless he's been hanging out in abridged universes, I guess.
 

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