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

Vaermina · 2026-02-17T06:30:52+0000

Mr Zoat said:
"I just don't want to live in a universe that frivolous and unserious."

That ship sailed when you visited the world of magical talking ponies.

CrazyNoVa · 2026-02-17T06:32:48+0000

Vaermina said:
That ship sailed when you visited the world of magical talking ponies.

I know, right? Grayven's standards are really backwards about this sort of thing. He's willing to date a magical pony princess, but somehow, living on a cube-shaped world is too much for him?

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-02-17T07:01:40+0000

Mr Zoat said:
20th August 2013
10:44 GMT -7

"…feel that you're being excessively particular about this."

I stare at her in genuine disbelief.

"Hinon, it's a cube."

Oh, boy. Given that Bizarro isn't really a thing in this universe, I have to wonder how that got there. Dimensional castaway, perhaps? Or someone with a lot more power than that put it together for a joke and forgot about it...

Persuader gave it her best shot, but then she got bored and got her phone out. Iname is making an effort to stay focused, but every so often her eyes shift to the considerably more interesting game her friend is playing.

Hinon frowns at the image on the display for a moment. "I don't see the problem. Gravity is locally consistent. Even if you step over the edge, you won't see all the way across that face due to light scattering."

There's still the disconcerting matter of there being an edge to step over. Never mind the peculiar sort of weather and day-night cycle you'd experience...

"That's not the point. Though, yes, the fact it has edges is a concern for me. It's artificial, right?"

"Yes, it was made by a M-." She frowns. "An extra-dimensional creature."

A Fifth-dimensional imp, you mean.

"When you say 'extra-'?"

"He allegedly exists in five dimensions. I have not checked myself. Based on reports of his behaviour, I think I'd find him quite disagreeable."

Yeah, most straight-laced folks find the imps annoying if not dangerous. Their ability to casually play with reality as if it were clay gets under a lot of people's skins.

"And this place is magical?"

"It has the same connection to the Dream that Earth has."

Yes, that totally isn't suspicious at all, no sir.

"And it's not inhabited?"

"It is… Inhabited, in a manner of speaking, but they're more in the manner of organic automata."

Oh no, it's a race of Bizarros, isn't it?

"And how many of them are there?"

"About six billion. Humanoid ones. If you include the animal species-."

I shudder to imagine in what ways those are inverted.

"I'm not doing a genocide, Hinon."

She sighs. "I'm sure that you'd see it my way if you actually visited the place."

They might be annoying, sure, but genocide-worthy? As long as none have reality-warping powers of their own...

I pointedly make eye contact, then raise my eyebrows. "Yes?" She nods. "Persuader?"

Persuader looks up from her phone. "I dunno, Grayven. I fight with an axe. Six billion could take a while. Wouldn't it be better to use a virus or something?"

That's not what he's asking, and you know it, honey...

"Just go there and see if the people are people or not."

She nods, stows her phone and-

Hopefully she doesn't get into any trouble.

Ping.

-calls for a hush tube before walking through it.

"Making it happen. I'm sure it's not that bad." Why do I get the feeling those might be famous last words before disaster?

"Master? Should I go as well?"

"Hinon, is that-?" It's a cube planet, of course it's dangerous. "Yes. Observe the pseudopeople, stay out of trouble."

Easy enough if she sweeps the place at superspeed. And stays well out of reach of any dressed like the Flash because he probably exudes super-slowness auras or something.

Iname smiles happily. "Yes Master!"

And she's gone.

He's really going to have to work on that blind obedience for sure.

I sigh, looking down an my midget ally. "Hinon, have I done something to upset you?"

"Worlds that are easily to colonise don't stay uninhabited for long, and magic-rich worlds are rare. Why do you have a problem with cuboids?"

Well, besides the obvious association he made (Bizarros? No thanks.) a planet like that was surely built for a reason by someone, and squatters might make them angry if they come to check on it.

"Because Mxyzptlk will almost certainly come back at some point and I do not want to have to deal with that."

"Whyever not? He never does any lasting harm."

And now he's almost certainly going to get a visit, just by mentioning that name. I'm sure the prankster would like to lighten his mood a little anyway.

"I just don't want to live in a universe that frivolous and unserious."

She folds her arms across her chest. "Then I'm afraid all I can suggest is suicide. He's here whether you interact with him or not."

Also, despite how dark some aspects of Equestria can be, that world is kind of frivolous and unserious. Or is he not counting it as part of this universe for his own reasons?

"But if I ignore him really hard, then I can pretend until-" I clench my fists. "-I'm in a position to make missiles that fly at right angles to reality." I sigh pointedly, opening my hands. "Do you actually have any serious suggestions?"

"They're all serious suggestions, Grayven. But if you're going to be fussy about it…"

Sadly, while serious, they're hardly acceptable. A radiation-baked globe ping-ponging around a triple star? A world shrunken to near subatomic levels? (Not that they realise that yet.) And now a possible Bizarro world? More issues than a newsstand.

She presses a button, and… Okay, new planet…

"Chemically, it's nearly identical to early Earth. You'll need to do something about the storms, create your own soil and import all manner of plants, animals and microbes. In addition, it's on a major pilgrimage route to the Source Wall so literally everyone will know that someone is colonising it."

So there'll be lots of folks passing by. I thought the Renegade wanted a relatively private colony.

I frown. "Pilgrimage route planets don't get left fallow. Even if it's just a layover." I tilt my head back. "Other than needing some work, what's wrong with it?"

"Most species aren't as used to magic as humans are. And there's some evidence of an orbital strike, or… Significant planetary impact, in the recent past. It's not impossible that the planet used to be two planets and actually had an ecosystem but lost it."

So things on the surface are probably quite chaotic. Wild magic may be running riot...

My frown deepens. "But it's on a pilgrimage route. Some of those have been active for millions of years. Someone must have seen something."

"This route is only a about three thousand years old, and the Knights of Passage only secured it… Two hundred years ago. Planets take a while to stabilise after something like that."

And it's usually not that fast to recover. Geological time-frames are long for a reason, after all.

"Okay, ah… How about the neighbours?"

"Source worshippers who are well used to the presence of aliens. There's a Knights of Passage naval yard not too far away and you know how they get about people starting fights near pilgrimage routes."

But how will they feel about folks claiming an uninhabited world on the route. Can the first deployments expect visitors checking things out once it becomes obvious they're staying?

The Knights of Passage, the second largest law enforcement organisation in the galaxy. Largest in sheer numbers. Anyone who tries to stop people making pilgrimage to the Source Wall can expect a fleet turning up to politely ask them to knock it off. They maintain order in difficult circumstances around sites that are sacred to a lot of religions, many of which don't like each other. Father… Definitely would pick a fight with them, but it would be a big deal.

And I suppose having a New God sponsoring the colony will count for a lot with them.

"That's… Good." I nod. "Alright, I'll take a look myself once the girls are back."

"As you will."

I'm sure they won't take too long. Not if it does turn out to be a bizarro world.

"So why did you put this one last?"

"Because there are so many unknowns, and you would have so much company. The pilgrims will visit."

The colony can set itself up as a rest spot and service facility, then. Depending on the tech level of the pilgrims, anyway.

"Right, but… We'll have our own fleet, and the Knights of Passage are right there."

"Do you want to be dependent on aliens? I rather thought that was something your allies were working to avoid."

There's dependency, and then there's being good neighbours. Letting others assist in your defence is perfectly reasonable. As long as boundaries are respected.

"Not in the long term, but this colony only becomes vital if Earth's been wrecked. And if that happens then we've probably lost all of our fleet assets. I won't like it, but I'll swallow my pride if it means that humans don't go extinct. It-."

Iname appears, carrying Persuader in her arms. They both stand still for a moment, Iname breathing hard as she lowers Persuader to her feet.

All right, no obvious injuries. Though they seemed to be in a hurry to get back if a speedster is breathing hard.

The Persuader slashes through the hush tube aperture with the atomic axe, forcing it to shut down.

"Girls?"

"Master?" Iname shakes her head. "We should not go there."

...Okay, then...

I consider them carefully, but I can't see any injuries and Persuader's mask covers up her facial expression. I don't know what's wrong… But I can ask when they've calmed down a little.

"Alright, well, don't worry. We've got a better prospect to check out."

That may be possible, but I suppose visiting will be necessary to determine that.

Well, then. The maybe-Bizarro-world is a wash, I guess. Hopefully they actually do want to talk about it in a bit. And I suppose it could have been worse. Could have been a planet of naughty-tentacle creatures or something. This new option ahead is going to be something troublesome, though, I just know it...

Rebu · 2026-02-17T07:10:49+0000

CrazyNoVa said:
I know, right? Grayven's standards are really backwards about this sort of thing. He's willing to date a magical pony princess, but somehow, living on a cube-shaped world is too much for him?

Did you miss the part about having to deal with Mr M?

Eld_Tiger · 2026-02-17T07:34:24+0000

What was the talk of genociding cuboids about?

CrazyNoVa · 2026-02-17T07:46:27+0000

Rebu said:
Did you miss the part about having to deal with Mr M?

Yeah, that part I get, but it's still weird that it came as a secondary concern next to the whole cube world thing.

Neruz · 2026-02-17T07:54:33+0000

Eld_Tiger said:
What was the talk of genociding cuboids about?

The inhabitants of Bizarro World are all Bizarro-style clones of notable people on Earth.

As it seems this version of Bizarro World was created by Mxyzptlk instead of Bizzaro, it appears that he populated it with "organic automata" as Hinon put it, probably they don't really have free will and just mindlessly repeat a distorted version of the lives of their originals or something along those lines.

Mr Zoat · 2026-02-17T08:38:05+0000

Ngamer11 said:
That should say 'easy'.

Thank you, corrected.

ShadowScion626 · 2026-02-17T08:49:33+0000

Y'all keep on saying it's a Bizarro world. My first thought upon hearing a cube shaped world was, "Yay, the crossover is expanding even more! Dc as the starter, Equestria Girls and MLP FIM next and now we are adding in Minecraft! Whoo Oooh!"

Duke Long · 2026-02-17T08:54:27+0000

Mr Zoat said:
"Yes, it was made by a M-." She frowns. "An extra-dimensional creature."

"When you say 'extra-'?"

"He allegedly exists in five dimensions. I have not checked myself. Based on reports of his behaviour, I think I'd find him quite disagreeable."

Extraneous 'a'?

Mr Zoat said:
"This route is only a about three thousand years old, and the Knights of Passage only secured it… Two hundred years ago. Planets take a while to stabilise after something like that."

Extraneous 'a'

How close is the Source Wall? I'd assumed the Milky Way was the centre of the universe and therefore the Source Wall is quite distant for anyone who doesn't have technology like boom tubes. I guess it wouldn't be much of a pilgrimage if it was easy.

Neruz · 2026-02-17T08:57:40+0000

ShadowScion626 said:
Y'all keep on saying it's a Bizarro world. My first thought upon hearing a cube shaped world was, "Yay, the crossover is expanding even more! Dc as the starter, Equestria Girls and MLP FIM next and now we are adding in Minecraft! Whoo Oooh!"

Because the text "Hinon, it's a cube." is a hyperlink to the dc fandom wiki page on Htrae, the cube-shaped world that Bizarro created also known as Bizarro World.

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

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Vaermina

Well worn.

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I trust you know where the happy button is?

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Rebu

hey, little Anna, you're the one

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Know what you're doing yet?

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I trust you know where the happy button is?

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HISSSSSS!

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Getting sticky.

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