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

Reader mode
BlueMangoAdea said:
Speaking of the age thing, how long have Grayven and Artemis spent conquering the Sheeda?
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I'm going to guess Grayven touched back down on the wrong side of Earth six months ago.
As for how much time passed due to the Source Wall's time dilation? My gut says at least 10 years.
Actually since Artemis' hair is white... 40 years time dilation, 2 years of conquering.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Bull's
Stop

Shield-beetle on my left arm I leap from the latest generation rocket-beetle and dive towards our soon-to-be latest conquest.
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Steaming along happily, I see. And every success strengthens him, too. I bet he's having fun. Oooh, that's a lot of Godspeech. It'll be inline during my commentary, methinks.

At this point, I should probably be able to say that I've lost count of how many Sheeda cities I've conquered. But I haven't. I know exactly how many. I can recall each with perfect clarity. Every fight. Every wall taken. Every keep fallen. Every skirmish. Every battle. And every one has made me feel more complete. I've.. never wanted to give full rein to this part of my character back in the past, but here? Every Sheeda I kill brings me closer to my objective. Every nation I overrun. Every oath of submission I gain-.
Indefatigable!
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Yep, he is really losing himself in his role. Quite the power-up, it seems.

The lightning towers shielding the city against fly fliers give vent to their electrical charges, brilliant white flashing across the sky as the rocket beetle mark 2 begins its uncontrolled descent into the city suburbs. But my escort are Highborn, their armour warded against attack b their magic and by the strength of my soul. And I've been getting stronger.
Unstoppable!
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Man, just imagine the stat buffs they're getting through that armour link. One of the few times this build really pays off.

No one reports injuries as we pass through their effective range, and… Ah! They're using acid golems to counter our attack! Figures shaped like a poorly-coordinated child's first effort to sculpt a person in clay, vacant eyes glowing faintly with the magic their controllers are using to direct them and the green gel making up their bodies bubbling and churning as they prepare to assail us.
Incomparable!
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And now I'm reminded of Chemo again. With a mix of the Mindless Ones from Marvel, the servants of Dormammu.

No actual Huntsman, but those are ridiculously energy-intensive and even my growing alliance can't really spare it. The biliferous creatures are moving to defend their inner keep's walls because their masters have heard from those who fled before my advance how I usually deploy my forces. Decapitate the leader of the defence or capture their production facilities and the battle is over. They can't let that happen.
In Your Face!
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Heh, he understands their mentality. Show your strength, dominate their leader, and the rest will fall in line.

My Highborn activate their wing bugs, living hang gliders clamped to their armour and turning their downward movement into lateral movement almost immediately. They rocket away from the keep towards the spinward walls, ready to seize the defences for my army. I on the hand keep falling, tossing my shield beetle away and hitting the upper level of the keep-
Onslaught!
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Seriously, this scene needs a metal soundtrack. A picture of this would look like something straight off an album cover.

-and smashing right through the coral that makes up the roof and sending grey fragments exploding outwards in all directions! The second surface my feet hit fails as well, though this time the collapse is much less explosive.
Heeeeeeere's Conquest!
Dust rains down on me, and a chunk of coral finishes cracking off and falls to the ground just behind me.
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Now that's an entrance! You even got the tinkling glass tumbling down, technically.

I give myself an eight. Maybe an eight point five.

Their controllers will send the acid golems down after me once they've overcome their surprise. I need to get going. Daiklave in hand I charge further into the structure the feeling on the edge of my soul allowing me to feel it as my soldiers engage the enemy.
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At least he's still modest. And another aspect of his strategy: He's pulling all the aggro while his troops face distracted or weakened defences.

I hear the hiss behind me as the first of the acid golems splashes down and begins eating through the broken coral as it tries to reassemble itself into a shape that will allow it to follow me. The drawback of psychometric control: the controller can only direct it when it and they are roughly the same shape. But when they are they can fight with surprising agility and speed and, frankly, I'd rather not.

A wrath spider scurries around the corner on the ceiling, a shot of venom squirted at me a second before it leaps at my face. The venom I sidestep, blade raised to bisect it as I turn to avoid both halves of its body as they fly past me. Wrath spiders have become a pretty common form of first responder because they're awkward to fight and biomass-cheap. What they're not good at is stopping rampaging New Gods.
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Zerg rush can't beat a hero drop! I suppose you could say, he's in their base, killing their dudes?
Another spider on the wall to the left, three more on the ground. I jump, slashing left as I do so. My daiklave slices through the spider and the wall its standing on while the spiders beneath me miss their shots, too slow to traverse to keep up with me. Large doorway coming up, and the two Highborn on guard duty are releasing their defensive spells. Ghostly strands anchored in the strength of this edifice grasp at my armour, trying to bind my body and tear apart my soul.
Tear Through Their Lines!
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Web? Seriously? I know, mental effect too, but honestly, they just pulled the old Web trick?

I'm slowed slightly, and then I'm upon them, daiklave slicing through the space the Highborn on the right was occupying before she forward-flipped out of the way. I use my left gauntlet to parry the flat of her spear, sending the point scratching across the floor as she completes her dive and forward-rolls into a defensive crouch. Turning to keep her in sight I spot the acid golem coming up behind us, parrying a sword thrust from her partner and head butting the owner in the helmet as I do so. Small stagger, both our swords out of position as the spear-wielder darts left and stabs at me, hoping to use my larger size against me.
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Unfortunately, the Daiklaive is a bit too big for her to take any reach advantage.

KNEEL
I catch the shaft in my left hand just below the head and pull, the Highborn shaking slightly as her anti-disarming wards cooks off and she has a split-second to choose between losing her weapon and being pulled into grappling range of someone monstrously stronger than her. She chooses to let go, and I twist my wrist and narrowly fail to impale the sword fighter and he hurriedly shuffles back.
KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!
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Dang, missed. Always fin taking down one dude with his buddy's weapon. The only thing better is taking one guy with with his buddy, 'Grevious harm with a body' style..

I shift my grip, letting the spear slide through my hand and gripping the shaft near to the butt while lunging forward to slash with my daiklave. He blocks with his shield, my swing being slowed as the ridiculously oversized sword overpowered its defensive spells. He sidesteps and cuts at my extended forearm only to be smacked across the cuirass by his partner's spear.
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Dual-wielding reach weapons is OP, pls nerf.

And then cut from shoulder to sternum by a heavy downward swing from my daiklave. He staggers back… Into the first acid golem, his flesh steaming away inside his armour as the acid gets to work. I swing my new spear back to ward off its former owner, then thrust my daiklave's tip into the golem's forehead.
You Are Dismissed
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ooh, got to watch them boss stage hazards. Always fun when the boss gets tagged by their own toys.

Its eyes flicker as its controller's binding is disrupted, then I jump and trigger my aero-discs as it collapses in a wave of acid slime. Sword-fighter has dropped his weapon and collapsed on the floor, his wounds and exposed flesh smoking from the acid. A downward stab trepans his skull and then I swing back towards the surviving Highborn.

"Kneel."
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One warning, 'lady'. Take the hint.

Her hands are in a guard position and her left holds a long knife shimmering with runes. Some of her armour flickers, but between my goggles and the fact that I own most of this planet Highborn invisibility doesn't really work on me. She lunges, and I drop her spear to half-hand my daiklave and smash the broad side into her knife hand. She keeps the knife but her hand twitches, clearly injured.

"Kneel."
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Yeah, people never expect you to grab your own sword-blade for in-close fighting...

I swing the blade back, striking her in the chest and slamming her back into the doors, then charging forward, stabbing my daiklave into the ground and grabbing her head in both hands.

"Kneel." Accept Your Defeat
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Ooh, the double whammy: physical beat-down and metaphysical barrage. That'll put most anyone out.

The wards on her armour burn out, then she drops from my hands and falls into a kneeling position. I glance back at the corridor and see two more acid golems stumbling after me.

"Pick up your spear and follow."
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I see he's not concerned with being stabbed in the back. She belongs to him now.

I grab my daiklave out of the floor and savagely kick the doors in. They explode across the room and-.

Arrows pincushion my cuirass, biting into my armour! No penetrations, but that's more power than I'm comfortable being hit with. I charge-.
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Heh, that's a surprise. Hardly the weapon you'd expect a Sheeda to use...

"Artemis?"

The figure with the bow straightens slightly, not completely relaxing their hold on their bowstring. It took me a moment; the bow is familiar but the arrows and armour are different and her hair is white, but…
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...Okay, seriously, how long has all this taken? Or is she suffering more heavily from the Vampire Sun?

"Wait… Gray… Ven?"

I lower my sword. She lowers her bow.
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"Long time no see, kid. Did you do something with your hair?"

"Hi."

"I… Though you were-. Wait, it's you?"
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Sounds like she can't believe her eyes. Might she have had to deal with imposters before?

"Ah…"

"The guy whose been rampaging around and conquering every-."
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"Mea Culpa, Mea maxima culpa. What can I say, these idiots need a firm hand."

I take a few steps closer, shrugging as I do so.

"Well… Yeah, that's what I do." Hang on. "Are you the one who's been organising the resistance against my campaign? I thought they'd been more unified lately."
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<Facepalm> And here he thought he'd be coming to her rescue, charging in on rocket-beetle cavalry.

She walks slowly towards me, bow handing from one hand as she pulls off her Sheeda-issue facemask. Aside from the hair she looks the same.

"I thought you died."
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Now, that's an easy mistake to make, what with the disappearing into the clouds thing...

"No. Landed on the wrong side of the planet and had to fight my way back. Thought I'd end the war by force on my way."

"So… We can just tell them to stop?"
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Assuming it's come down to two rival empires steam-rolling into each other... Kind of a waste of resources (and Sheeda lives, but they don't really count, do they?)

"Yes. Prob.. ably. Assuming your side are sufficiently unified." Um. "How have you-?"

She jumps up, hands bracing on my shoulders, and kisses me.
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...That better just be a 'happy to see you again' kiss. I really don't think there was that kind of spark between them...

Well... Looks like the fightings all done, bar a few holdouts. Maybe now they can get down to solving the real problem at hand. But boy, I hope there's some temporal reset thing or mana-fueled rejuvenation ahead for her, or her relationship with Xu Tao is going to get weird.
 
Darko said:
'by'
maybe 'on the other hand'
maybe 'as he hurriedly'
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Thank you, corrected.
moralrelativity said:
its -> his
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No, the spells are on the shield.
Darko said:
Renegade will most likely stay with Luna, but Artemis is unlikely, due to the age thing and him already being in a relationship, and Melinoe is also unlikely since they may never meet.
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When you're 30, and 15 year age difference is a big deal. When you're 300, not so much.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I always like the ArtemisxGrayven pairing idea. I don't expect this to turn into a thing, because of Jade, but Arti and Gray always clicked better than Gray did with any other team member. I'm sure her being along with Sheeda for so long has had a negative impact on her. She's more of a social person, so the isolation from more human-like contact affects her in ways it doesn't to Renegade.

I'd much rather see Renegade with Artemis than with Luna. While that arc was cute, it was also weird (for me, at least).
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Dual-wielding reach weapons is OP, pls nerf.
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Just look at Diarmuid from Fate Zero. Guy managed to weaken the King of Knights after their first duel and could have killed her if he didn't destroy his spear.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Heh, that's a surprise. Hardly the weapon you'd expect a Sheeda to use...
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Probably not that big of a surprise, seeing as they use weapons that seem primitive, but are still able to do some serious damage.

Chojin Patriarch said:
...Okay, seriously, how long has all this taken? Or is she suffering more heavily from the Vampire Sun?
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Or like the renegade she has also been evolving here divine nature and the white hair is a symptom of that.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Kind of a waste of resources (and Sheeda lives, but they don't really count, do they?)
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Not really.

Chojin Patriarch said:
I hope there's some temporal reset thing or mana-fueled rejuvenation ahead for her, or her relationship with Xu Tao is going to get weird.
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If they've only been there a few months, or even just a few years, then it wouldn't be that weird.

Mr Zoat said:
When you're 30, and 15 year age difference is a big deal. When you're 300, not so much.
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Wait does this mean that they've been stuck in the Sheeda timeline for centuries?
 
Not really surprised, but not sad either. They work pretty well, as noted previously, and it makes sense that conquering a planet would take a long time given the resources Grayven started with.
 
Darko said:
Okay, but if it was the MC you were talking about then that would technically be paragon, seeing as we mostly see him, and he's unlikely to get together with Artemis due to the whole age difference.

Melinoe also doesn't exactly like him.

Luna is a possibility if he recruits her in the future.

Renegade will most likely stay with Luna, but Artemis is unlikely, due to the age thing and him already being in a relationship, and Melinoe is also unlikely since they may never meet. Renegade considers the Olympians to be not worth much so the chances of them meeting are very, very small.
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The MC, as I see it, is any variation of Paul. We see those two the most.
 
Mr Zoat said:
It took me a moment; the bow is familiar but the arrows and armour are different and her hair is white, but…

"Wait… Gray… Ven?"
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Just how long did he play global conquest? Decades?

Mr Zoat said:
"I thought you died."
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How? Even if he landed too far away to just run back to his only friend/ally in this godsforsaken place how come he didn't just message her that he's fine? Do Sheeda really don't have any radio equivalent? He couldn't be bothered to send a zombie messenger pigeon with a letter in the implied decades (judging by her hair)?

Mr Zoat said:
She jumps up, hands bracing on my shoulders, and kisses me.
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Oh-kay... That's new! Luna might be pissed though.

Mr Zoat said:
When you're 30, and 15 year age difference is a big deal. When you're 300, not so much.
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Wut? 300 years? 3 centuries? It took him 3 centuries to get back in touch with his only real ally??? I know time flies when you're having fun but this is ridiculous. This is rediculous even.

BlueMangoAdea said:
I wonder if Grayven built Artemis that clock before he went to space.
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As a matter of fact he did. This is from part 11 - just before he went off to become the first new god in space (using arrows and beetle jetpack):

Learning to keep the aero-discs functioning under ground-level disruption took… A while, as measured by Artemis's beetle clock.
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Agent Orange said:
Just how long did he play global conquest? Decades?



How? Even if he landed too far away to just run back to his only friend/ally in this godsforsaken place how come he didn't just message her that he's fine? Do Sheeda really don't have any radio equivalent? He couldn't be bothered to send a zombie messenger pigeon with a letter in the implied decades (judging by her hair)?



Oh-kay... That's new! Luna might be pissed though.



Wut? 300 years? 3 centuries? It took him 3 centuries to get back in touch with his only real ally??? I know time flies when you're having fun but this is ridiculous. This is rediculous even.



As a matter of fact he did. This is from part 11 - just before he went off to become the first new god in space (using arrows and beetle jetpack):
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The previous chapter mentions that the Sheeda don't have reliable intercity communication during war so he couldn't send her the message, and he was on the other side of the planet.

As for the hair, that could just be a side effect of her growing into her godhood more and not a sign of decades or centuries passing, other New Gods that are much older than her still have non white hair.
 
Darko said:
and he was on the other side of the planet.
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He apparently had new beetle jetpacks made. He could've just flown back. Even if he had to have a new one built every few cities it can't have taken him more than a few weeks/a month to get back to where he started from. 300 years of no contact is nuts!

Doccer said:
Did he do that?
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He did. In part 11.

Fellow said:
Otherwise, poor Tao :(
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Nobody gives a shit about some GA wannabe. Besides, what happens in Vegas at the End of Times an' all that!
 
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Darko said:
his skill with a bow and arrow is much, much superior to GA.
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You obviously haven't seen the new version of boxing glove arrow GA patented. Thy cover any amount of skill discrepancy.

Also, I was talking about familiarity/popularity. I (and I'm gonna bet 95% of the readership) never even heard the 'Divine Archer' or whatever his name is until Zoat pulled him from obscurity. It doesn't help that he's perpetually offscreen (since Grayven is no longer part of the Team). I can care about Artemis but I cannot care about her offscreen boyfriend.
 
Agent Orange said:
Nobody gives a shit about some GA wannabe. Besides, what happens in Vegas at the End of Times an' all that!
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Damn dude, pretty harsh. Is he not that loved a character in the fandom or something? I thought they made a cute couple. I can't really fault Artemis if this is gonna go any further as, if I'm understanding the situation correctly she's been trapped in the future for years now. The sad thing is that when they do make it back, it won't have even been a day for Tao. Sad situation all around aside from the Harrowings no longer being a thing of course.
 
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