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

Ganurath · Jan 11, 2020

Well, Clayface is a dummy.

Also, when this gets around to the Crime Syndicate, what are the odds on Zorina wanting to check in on Paul and Zatanna, see if it hit them yet?

Silverias · Jan 11, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Okay, so what is the action of taking up a mantle called in Dresden Files?

The term is usually referred to in a definitional way. "Assuming the mantle" or "Taking up the mantle" or "Being bestowed with the mantle". It lacks its own verb mostly because the mantle is treated as a noun, and its own discrete item, rather than a process (which is what requires the term "Mantling" from The Elder Scrolls)

There's not actually an action you can personally take to just....get a mantle. You have to have it given to you, you have to take it from someone, or you have to have it bestowed on you.

Honestly, when people are talking about Mantles in this story, they're usually talking about the divine portfolios with regards to The New Gods because people are more familiar with D&D than the canon of New Genesis.

Darko · Jan 11, 2020

Ha, oh Clayface

But I guess this would explain how someone with no power ring could participate in the crisis.
A... unique approach

Handlewithcare · Jan 11, 2020

So that thing can locate Pauls over paralel earth boundaries, can find their local identities and even name them...but is fooled by sentient clay looking like one?

Cuchulin · Jan 11, 2020

Flux Casey said:
Oh, Clayface you dumbass. Best deal he was ever going to get and he tosses it away for weird as fuck sky portal that didn't want him. PeteyPaul should reassess whether the guy is insane.

Agreed, that was one of the least intelligent things Hagen has done.

Simonbob · Jan 11, 2020

That's funny as hell!

Bit of a waste for 'Peter', all that money and favors, and the idiot jumps into a random portal asking for somebody else?

Well, he is a DC villain.

NightmareWarden · Jan 11, 2020

...
Grayven isn't going to be directly involved in the multiverse shenanigans, is he? If non-Pauls (with their plus one) are involved and Paragon Paul does get grabbed, then we certainly aren't getting an interaction between Renegade and Paragon.

I'm an adult, this feeling of heartbreak won't keep me down! I foresee one of Grayven's buddies getting snatched up, possibly with a non-Earthling companion. Hmm. I wonder... if TimeTrapper is actually responsible for the abductions and everyone is returned to their original universes, then Mr Zoat has the option of doing some incredible trolling. Imagine the victims getting snatched up and fighting for their lives for one month. Once the antagonist has been taken care of a solution to the returning-home-problem is concocted. What could be troll-like about that?

The victims have coordinates related to their original capture. The return trips could drop them off literally seconds after the original craft abducted them. There could be time travel tech available! So any parties worried about their missing Brits won't even get to miss the guy.

Chojin Patriarch · Jan 11, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Jade backs up further, a shock baton appearing in her left hand and a crossbow pistol in her right. But there isn't any particular surprise in her expression. Her life to date hasn't encouraged or rewarded trust and she certainly wasn't putting any faith in me at this point in our working relationship. To be fair, I don't trust her either, which is why none of my employees know why we're here.

"Hey, what the hell are you-"

There's an arrowhead next to my head-

"-doing?!"

"What I planned to do all along." Honestly, has she not worked with him enough to know he plans ahead?

-as the battered canisters leak brown sludge over the floor of Mr Edge's vault. Liquids don't really compress that well but they do conduct blast waves. Thank you, Hollywood Science. I could shoot it again, but at this point-.

The mud begins purposively pouring out of the canisters, collecting into thick strands which writhe and twist around one another before merging into a unified mass.

Someguy Somewhere called it, it's a rescue and recruitment run!

The arrow lowers.

"The.. hell..?"

What, never seen someone pulling themselves together?

I lower the Gravity Rod and step forward as arms, legs and the outline of a face begin to appear.

"Mister Hagen? Are you compos mentis?"

I don't look, but I suspect that Roy is frowning as he reorientates his arrow. "Hagen. Clayface?"

"Yes, Arsenal, do try to keep up..." So none of his operatives knew what he was after?

"Not my greatest role." Mr Hagen mimes cracking a neck he no longer possesses, then lumbers around to look at the canisters. "How long was I in there?"

"About four years, I'm afraid."

Ouch, that'll make him a little upset, I think.

He turns back to the four of us, eyes -such as he has- properly focusing on me for the first time.

"Edge?"

"Will be spending some significant time explaining himself to the Federal Bureau of Investigation once we anonymously drop him off."

Significant amongst the charges: Kidnapping and Deprivation of Liberty... Never mind his whole secret crime boss thing.

He thinks about that for a moment.

"You some kind of superhero?"

Easy assumption to make, really.

"I prefer to think of myself-."

"Heh. Supervillain, then."

Us or Them mentality. How nice.

"Not really." I hold up the Rod. "Barely know how to use it." I indicate Roy with my right thumb. "He's a superhero. She's-" I look around and nod at Barbara. "-a former supervillain and she-" I nod at Jade. "-issss..." I raise my eyebrows. "Former supervillain?"

She shrugs.

Let's go with 'Mercenary'. Or maybe 'Freelance problem solver', mercenary is such an ugly word.

I turn back to Mr Hagen.

"Former supervillain. I, Mister Hagen, am in the business of locating people who have -for whatever reason- made some rather unfortunate choices, but whom I think might be amenable to making better ones in future."

It tends to be quite profitable for said people, too.

"Uh-huh."

I reach down with my right hand, unclip a chemical flask and hold it out to him.

"MP Forty. I understand it helps you pull yourself into shape."

Quite literally.

Pun not intended, as far as Peter is concerned, I hope.

He looks at it hungrily. "It does more than that. It makes me feel human again. What do you want for it?"

I shake my head. "Nothing. First taste is free."

"Heh." He reaches forward with his left hand and takes it from me. "And the second taste?"

Ah, he's suspicious. Sensible, really.

I shrug. "You need to show me that you're serious about reforming. I can arrange for you to continue receiving doses while you're in prison-"

"Ah, I already don't like this plan."

You haven't heard the whole plan yet. Patience.

"-and for a legal team who will keep the time you'll serve to an absolute minimum. Doctor Bates is already working for me-."

He frowns. "Stella? She's still..?"

"Invested in your wellbeing? Yes. Her work has enough other applications that that I've been able to justify setting her up in a laboratory, and I'm happy for her to also work on a long-term fix for you."

A little bit of carrot. Unfortunately, I suspect the stick will carry more weight...

"If I play ball."

"If you play ball."

He holds up his right arm and turns his hand into a morning star.

You do realize there are four super-powered or exotically skilled individuals with weapons ready?

"And if I don't?"

"I don't intend to stop you." I step aside, leaving a clear isle towards the vault's exit. "You're free to go."

Wait for it...

He lumbers past us and sticks his head out through the door. "That sounds better. Where are we, anyway?"

"A small island in the South Pacific." He stills, then turns back to me. "I won't stop you from leaving… But if we don't come to terms then I won't help you to leave."

Heh, not much of a choice at all.

He lumbers back, growing larger as he does so. Though his combat abilities are… Disturbing, he is restricted by conservation of mass. While he can whip out his arms to tens of metres long they're not particularly strong when he does that, which is why he makes dense patches in the shape of bludgeoning or melee weapons when he wants to seriously hurt someone.

I fold my arms across my chest and wait patiently.

"Not Arkham. Not Blackgate. Someplace… Nice. I think I want to take up gardening."

Ah, good, he's playing ball, rather than taking it and going home.

"I don't have the authority to negotiate, but… I'll see what I can do. Avoiding Arkham should be simple enough; whatever else you are you're clearly not insane."

"Guess that'll have to do." He shifts his right hand back into a hand, twists the top off the flask and downs the contents. Then he tosses it back towards the canisters which contained him. "How are we getting off this rock?"

Eyes on the prize, eh?

"Submarine."

He closes his eyes and groans.

Hasn't he been in a small tin can long enough already?

"Submarine. Why did it have to be a submarine?"

"The island's too small for an airplane big enough to carry you and I don't own a helicopter big enough to carry you. Cheshire, would you be so good as to lead the way out?"

I'm guessing Morgan Edge either uses his own private VTOL aircraft, or a teleporter system...

She stows her pistol bow, makes brief eye contact with Roy and then turns away, heading cautiously down the corridor towards the exit. Mr Hagen regard me for a moment, then turns away to lumber after her.

"Clayface."

"Arsenal, I don't like using their-" I make fleeting eye contact with Barbara, who looks away. "-nom de infamies. I think it encourages them to think of themselves as criminals and nothing else. Will you stay here until the navy arrives?"

I suppose the only Hero in the party has to play the Face...

"Yeah, no problem." He nods. "Good trip."

Barbara and I follow Mr Hagen towards the front door, the sky outside… Glowing red for some reason? Flares? Did we miss someone, or is the navy early? That could be a little awkward if-.

"Acquisition successful. Locating local variant 'Peter Wynne'."

Oh, dear, this again. And this Paul isn't exactly geared for it...

What the hell is-?

Mr Hagen smiles as he looks back at me.

"Guess I'm getting out-"

He shrinks, assuming my form.

Hey, wait. Is he really going to try...

"-after all. Thanks for the jail-."

A giant blue.. hand reaches down and grabs him, pulling him up into the air.

"Acquisition successful."

Whoever that is just 'dun goofed' Seriously, working solely on visual data?

…

"What?"

Cue that Tenth Doctor clip...

Well, as expected, an Alternate Paul got snatched. But this time, they got who they least expected... Wonder how this little bit of dirt in the works will mess up their plans. And... A giant blue hand... Hmm, an original Maltusian? Krona, perhaps?

Irked · Jan 11, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
Well, as expected, an Alternate Paul got snatched. But this time, they got who they least expected... Wonder how this little bit of dirt in the works will mess up their plans. And... A giant blue hand... Hmm, an original Maltusian? Krona, perhaps?

Not quite, Clayface has just been snatched instead. Gonna be funny to see how that affects the plans of whoevers doing the snatching, especially if they just think it's a Paul who got the Clayface treatment/powers.

On the bright side whatever they're planning will probably not work properly thanks to the fact they're missing a Paul.

Ngamer11 · Jan 11, 2020

From out of the frying pan and into the fire. Wonder if Clayface had enough time to regret what he did? Also, it would technically be easy to know this was a fake. Just ask the shapeshifter you suspect isn't a version of you one question: what is your name? The fact that he doesn't faint, say he'll faint, or ask if they can say their name is enough for any of them to know that he ain't Paul. I hope whoever got him realized he wasn't one of them and decided to make an example of him or make him a braindead minion or something. It would make him think before trusting the ominous voice in the sky over the guy who freed him from years in captivity.

Mquz · Jan 11, 2020

Plot twist: Peter Wynne is actually an offshoot of Clayface, who Paul was given the powers of in this universe.

Darko · Jan 11, 2020

I am pretty sure that Hagen decided to go with the hand is that he doesn't trust Peter that much.
For all we know Edge could have offered to help him and them put him in his collection.
While Hagen isn't Arkham crazy he has spent several years in isolation and is probably not all that there in the head.

⸺⸺⸺ · Jan 11, 2020

DrThoth · Jan 11, 2020

Darko said:
I am pretty sure that Hagen decided to go with the hand is that he doesn't trust Peter that much.
For all we know Edge could have offered to help him and them put him in his collection.
While Hagen isn't Arkham crazy he has spent several years in isolation and is probably not all that there in the head.

Trusting a giant blue hand that comes from the sky would count as Arkham-crazy to me.

Darko · Jan 11, 2020

Good point Thoth, good point.

Mr Zoat · Jan 11, 2020

⸺⸺⸺ said:
Was the giant blue hand the Hand of Creation? How does this work?

Well, I did tease the Anti-Monitor...

Darko · Jan 11, 2020

If the crisis happens in 2012 then can you tell us just say what time it will happen, like in summer, winter etc.?

Chaoswind · Jan 11, 2020

Darko said:
If the crisis happens in 2012 then can you tell us just say what time it will happen, like in summer, winter etc.?

No thanks. We don't need that much information.

Mr Zoat · Jan 11, 2020

Chaoswind said:
No thanks. We don't need that much information.

Couldn't even if I wanted to.

Maxx Crowley · Jan 11, 2020

Darko said:
If the crisis happens in 2012 then can you tell us just say what time it will happen, like in summer, winter etc.?

The SI doesn't know.

Darko · Jan 11, 2020

Did that Martian porn star give renegade M'gann the pendant with the shape-shifting information?

Mr Zoat · Jan 11, 2020

Darko said:
Did that Martian porn star give renegade M'gann the pendant with the shape-shifting information?

No, he was too cowed to do anything except get back on his ship and head for Mars.

Gantradies · Jan 12, 2020

Flux Casey said:
Oh, Clayface you dumbass. Best deal he was ever going to get and he tosses it away for weird as fuck sky portal that didn't want him. PeteyPaul should reassess whether the guy is insane.

stupid. stupid, not insane.

Cuchulin · Jan 12, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
No, he was too cowed to do anything except get back on his ship and head for Mars.

Pity. I mean it's a pity for that M'gann.

iamnuff · Jan 12, 2020

Kinda surprised that the portal-thing was fooled by a mud-man.
they can detect people through dimensions and lock onto them with enough accuracy to find them seemingly anywhere, but will then grab the wrong guy just because they superficially look the same?

It's not doing a DNA scan or anything? Just going by facial recognition? And it wasn't stumped by there being two people with the same face at the same location?

Cuchulin · Jan 12, 2020

iamnuff said:
Kinda surprised that the portal-thing was fooled by a mud-man.
they can detect people through dimensions and lock onto them with enough accuracy to find them seemingly anywhere, but will then grab the wrong guy just because they superficially look the same?
It's not doing a DNA scan or anything? Just going by facial recognition? And it wasn't stumped by there being two people with the same face at the same location?

This is DCAU Clayface, he is going to look EXACTLY like the person he is impersonating.

iamnuff · Jan 12, 2020

Cuchulin said:
This is DCAU Clayface, he is going to look EXACTLY like the person he is impersonating.

Yeah, superficially. Meaning he resembles them 'on the surface' not that he only vaguely looks like them.
Any sort of technological scan (even as primitive as an X-ray) would reveal him not to be human though.

If they're portaling dudes in from other universes, they should be doing dna scans or staring into the target's soul.

Cuchulin · Jan 12, 2020

iamnuff said:
Yeah, superficially. Meaning he resembles them 'on the surface' not that he only vaguely looks like them.
Any sort of technological scan (even as primitive as an X-ray) would reveal him not to be human though.
If they're portaling dudes in from other universes, they should be doing dna scans or staring into the target's soul.

It's a quick snatch of basically exact duplicates of a guy who didn't have a soul who almost never makes any big changes to him self. Also in context superficially can also mean stunt double level of look alike or some one who looks exactly the same, but only from behind.

jaelin910 · Jan 12, 2020

Also, they may have had the more in-depth analysis before/during opening the portal.

Mr Zoat · Jan 12, 2020

Jungle Gym

15th March
20:46 GMT -5

I walk-.

"What-"

I wince-.

"-the-"

Raquel grabs me by the right arm and pulls me around.

"-fuck?!"

"There's no point whispering. She'll hear us perfectly well if she concentrates."

"What the fuck?"

"Her culture has engineered a visceral revulsion at the idea of underemployment, she wanted a job and-."

"A Nazi?!"

"You know Canis is worse, right?"

She grimaces, shaking her head. "He's not a Nazi, he's just a.. weird.. art.. guy."

"Did you..? Miss the bit where he mentioned leading Apokoliptian armies? You've read the files on Apokolips, what did you think they were doing?"

"Fighting a war?"

I don't laugh, even though that statement is ridiculous.

"The area around Apokolips is called 'The Waste', because whenever anyone tries settling there Apokoliptian armies go out, kill everyone and destroy everything. Canis personally led at least one campaign of outright extermination and sees nothing wrong with having done so, so, compared to that, the activities of someone who has mostly done the same sort of work as us but in the service of a far less pleasant society is less evil."

"So she is evil."

"Well that's an interesting philosophical-."

"Paul."

"No, it is! Let's assume that as a fully indoctrinated National Socialist-"

"Nazi."

"-she sees absolutely nothing wrong with killing someone from one of their scapegoat groups. However, as a result of frantic genocidal purging before her birth she's never met one. Jews are extinct, gypsies are extinct-."

She raises her eyebrows. "Niggers are extinct."

"Actually, no, but I got the impression that Kaldur was the first black person she'd ever spoken to. The point is, though she would take part in a genocide if asked, she never has. Likewise, she hasn't ferreted disabled people out of hiding to send them to the camps because there aren't any. She hasn't had the opportunity to do the evil she'd be willing to do. What she's actually done is crime fighting and disaster relief. So is she evil-"

"Yes."

"-or a good person working for an evil state?"

"Okay, kinda both. An evil person working for an evil state."

"You know she did dinner-" Raquel grimaces. "-tonight, right? Look… Why do we arrest people?"

"Yeah, I don't think Little Miss-"

"She's thirty nine."

"-Mz Nazi is gunna go join the Belle Reve Crew."

"Of course not. She hasn't committed a crime here yet."

Um. Except arguably wearing that red 's' symbol in Germany, where a very similar symbol was banned as part of post-war denazification and hasn't been unbanned. But fortunately America has much more broadly-phrased free speech laws.

"But we perform arrests rather than summary executions-"

"Because we're not Nazis."

"-because we try to rehabilitate people, Miss Breaking-and-Entering. We support a system in which people who break the rules are placed in confinement and gradually re-socialised. That is what I would like us to do for Angelika."

"I'm cool with confining the bitch."

"You… Ah, you.. mouthing off to her might be a bit of a hard test of her willingness to play along right now."

"Well excuse me, masser!"

I frown. "Oh, don't even. I'm not asking you to calm down a little because you're black, I'm asking you to do it because, firstly, her seeing you as a rational person undermines what she's been taught about black people, and second, because it means that if I've horribly misjudged the situation she's less likely to kill you."

"Oh, ah'm not going near her without my kinetic barrier-."

"She has heat vision."

She frowns. "Superboy didn't have heat vision."

"It's a different form of hybridisation. She can't match Superman's peak output but it'll still incinerate you."

She stands there for a moment with a decidedly disgruntled expression on her face.

"Oh that's a great way to introduce her to the team."

"Not… What I wanted to lead with. But I don't need to tell you not to make rude jokes about Darkseid in front of Canis despite the fact that-."

"Worse, yeah, I get it."

"If you want to see what true evil looks like I've got a few thousand hours' worth of recordings from Vega you can go through. Mid-firefight cannibalism is a high point, and the Citadelian slave-cages match anything the Nazis managed. Or heck, you ever watched a cowboys versus Indians film?"

"Yeah, but I never cheered the cavalry. Spotted that one."

"What tribes used to live where Dakota City is now? You live there, work there, and I don't see you calling for the city to be demolished."

"I wouldn'a invaded their land and killed them. She would."

"Okay, look: you don't have to have anything to do with her. I'd appreciate it if you'd help, because at the moment you're one of two black people she's been introduced to and I think you disprove Nazi propaganda pretty hard."

"Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome. But you don't have to, and she's probably only going to be here for a week or two anyway."

She sighs angrily.

"What's Superman sayin' about this, anyway?"

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

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