I pull my blade free and stare down at him dispassionately.
"A cruel blow, great uncle, I know. But let us be honest:
nothing good would have come of you going to Earth."
Ah... The
Movie-verse. This is going to be interesting. I personally haven't seen any but '
Man of Steel' within this continuity, other than '
Everything Great About' coverage from CinemaWins... This place could
use some of the Renegade's distinct
humour.
He falls to his side and then flops onto his back, eyes staring as if he were looking right through me. "Mo… Ther…"
No sense in letting him suffer. He is family, after all. I raise my daiklave up by the guard and then bring the point down directly between his eyes because that's what you get for not wearing a faceplate.
To be honest, what he's
wearing in the original movie looks more at home in Power Rangers. ...Let's not talk about
whatever the hell he's wearing in the Snyder Cut.
"
Throwing a rather large clog into the machinations of this Darkseid?" And yes, folks, that
is the origin of the word 'sabotage'.
Ah, yes. Quite right. I stride through the boom tube-
17th November 2017
09:14 GMT +3
Effectively replacing Steppenwulf as the movie's 'villain', largely due to the fact people keep attacking him?
-and into a.. cave..? No, this is clearly an artificial structure. Tomb? No, vault. The local Darkseid's Mother Box sits on a plinth in the middle of the room, the light from within shining just brightly enough to pierce the outer casing. A curious design choice, but given the things he was using it for I suppose-.
"Who are you?"
And how
strange is it that something that's a largely common piece of sapient
equipment in the comics is suddenly the macguffin of the movies?
Oh! Is this..? Mother Box?
Ping.
"
Well, it's a poor
example of my kind. But I suppose this is
what passes for us in this misbegotten world..."
It is! Themyscira! That explains the women pointing spears at me! Which.. means.. that the middle aged blonde glaring at me is…
"Queen Hippolyta, I presume. My name is Grayven. I'm here for Father's Box."
...Maybe add a little more
explanation, Renegade? I mean, you aren't exactly
not seeming like the bad guy here.
There's a general tightening of bow strings and bracing of shield wall-. Well, it's not really a shield wall anywhere other than by the entrance. They're more buttresses guarding the archers.
"You will never have it."
An efficient layout, at least, I suppose. And being elevated as they were makes it less likely to have friendly fire by encircling the enemy...
I raise my eyebrows. Then I turn my head to look right. Then back at her. Then left. Then back at her. "How.. precisely.. were you planning on stopping-"
"Loose!"
Now, see, anyone
else, and arrows might be a
threat...
Arrows -iron-headed arrows- plink harmlessly off the armour covering my chest, back, arms and thighs. One or two strike me in the face.
I smile. "-me?"
Not
quite blocking it with your
eye, but then, can you imagine how
annoying getting a fleck of it under your eyelid would be?
And they're still shooting. And what I'm learning from this is that local Amazons are baseline humans rather than demigoddesses and that their arrows are unenchanted.
I fold my arms patiently behind my back as they continue to draw and loose at me.
Kind of weird, yes. You'd think after three-thousand-odd years, they at least have built
some measure of magical arsenal. Or perhaps that was too much thought for the writing team to put in.
"The greatest archers this world has ever seen-" A lucky hit lands directly in my mouth. I bite through the shaft and turn my head to the left as I spit out the head. "-were fifteenth century Englishmen. They used longbows of around one point two metres-" I hold up my hands to indicate the length. "-with a draw of around four hundred Newtons. About twice what you're using." They've stopped loosing. "With a two hundred Newton draw, drawn back forty centimetres and at a distance of… What is this, five metres? The force of the impact on my skin is something like three million kilograms per square millimetre-."
Bit rude, interrupting his little trivia drop with an arrow to the uvula. And his numbers are even
lowballing it a little.
"Form up!"
The Amazon hoplites form up around the huddle blocking the door, the bow wielders drawing swords and assuming a skirmishing position at either side of the shield wall.
Oh, joy, more Hollywood tactics. A phalanx against one man? Also, they
do realise he can just leave the way he got in, right? Blocking the door will not impede him at all.
"Perhaps another history lesson, then. In seventeen fifty six, the British Admiral John Byng led a force of thirteen ships of the line against a French fleet of twelve. The French ships were modern and in good repair, the British ships dilapidated. The initial fighting saw the British-"
"Advance!"
Interesting aside. Wonder where he's going with
this...
"-take the worst of it. In the end, he decided that it wasn't possible to win, to relieve the nearby garrison or even to inflict significant damage on the French. So, he retreated his fleet."
I take a few slow paces to the right so that the line can advance without needing to split around the plinth.
How obliging of him. Then again, he's going to show them just
how outmatched they are, isn't he?
"Afterwards, the Admiral was recalled, tried, and executed for 'failing to do his utmost against the enemy'. So I understand why you're doing-" I gesture towards Queen Hippolyta with both hands. "-this, even knowing that it is futile. Indeed, I respect you all the more. And when I rule this world I will ensure that there is a place for all of you in it."
I lunge, knocking aside seven spear points with a swing on my right arm and shoving the shields behind them with my right hand. Warrior women go flying backwards as I step into the gap, brace and shove.
Ah, I see. Complimenting their determination, even as he demonstrates their incapability.
Swords and spears plink uselessly against my armour.
"You might need to.. improve slightly before it's a place of honour, but-."
Wonder they can hear him over the inevitable
clatter.
There's a slight scraping noise as someone -it's Hippolyta, isn't it?- grabs Father's Box and sprints for the exit. "Close the gates!" Past the reforming hoplite huddle around me I see.. burly Amazons in bikinis take sledgehammers to wooden pillars supporting the ceilings above them, their strikes splintering them and causing stone sheets perhaps forty centimetres thick to fall into place.
Did they.. not.. see the boom tube I arrived by?
Not that forty centimetres would slow him down much
anyway.
"But there's always a place for women of courage-" More iron weapons scrape uselessly against my armour. "-under my rule."
"We defeated your kind before!"
To be fair, I have to wonder how much their contribution actually
meant, given their allies... Especially if they
aren't collectively superhuman.
I lightly grip the speaker's spear head with my right hand, anchoring it in place. "You did? You don't look like a Green Lantern."
"All the people of this world fought against Steppenwolf's hordes!"
...Man, it's a pity the Green Lantern movie bombed, because it would have been nice to see one show up. As long as he didn't replicate the
animated version's performance in '
Justice League: War' (

and a fan
edit for extra
humiliation.)
"Our histories only mention Green Lanterns and a couple of local gods. I don't remember hearing about iron age barbarians. Are you sure your people achieved anything noteworthy?"
I shove my arms outwards, pushing the Amazons pressing against me away and giving me the space to grab one in my right hand. Then I pull a nerve jammer off my belt with my left and delicately place it on her neck before dropping her. Her eyes move and she can still breathe, but her arms and legs are completely still. Good show.
If you're going to do that for
all of them, this could take all day.
This isn't about killing people, no matter how-.
A section of the crowd parts and a large woman swings a hammer at my head. It hits, and then rebounds with such force that she loses her grip and it-.
...Honestly, I could see them
thinking that might work, even if the swords hadn't been.
I catch it in my right hand before it can brain one of her fellows, toss it at the far wall and then grab her and nerve jam her. Huh. Gone rather dark with the only light source blocked. And -amusing as their feeble attempts to harm me are- I'm not really achieving anything here.
Mother Box.
I guess he's choosing not to use his Rings so as not to make it
too humiliating for them. Or simply doesn't feel the need to.
I get into a rhythm, grabbing and nerve jamming every Amazon still assailing me.
Mother Box, boom tube to… Wherever Hippolyta is about to be.
Ping.
"
Working on it. My, she's a fast
one." That's got to be a little demoralising. All of them whaling on him and doing nothing while he casually puts them out of the fight, one at a time...
BOOM!
Those Amazons still standing are knocked off their feet as the tube opens, and I nudge the fallen aside with my feet before striding through it-
Still being very polite. No stepping on the unlucky ones.
"Hyarh!"
-bracing myself and catching Hippolyta's horse mid-stride as she tries to run me down, casually absorbing its momentum as I lift it off the ground.
Again, that
might have worked if he wasn't about the same weight as the horse, and significantly
stronger.
And again, if you please.
Ping.
"
I'll find us somewhere more private." I suppose having dozens of determined warrior women throwing themselves at you might get a little
troublesome.
BOOM!
Horse and queen in hand, I leap through the tube before her fellow Amazons can reach us.
Now, for a nice, calm chat... While Hippolyta tries to brain him with whatever she can get her hands on.