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

Doccer · Dec 23, 2021

What happened with the Tree?!

Mr Zoat said:
"Now do you believe me?"

"I'm perfectly happy to accept that you and… Is Daring Do a doctor of archaeology?"

"No."

Could point out she's basically just stealing artifacts and talk about the history of how museums got started based on theft.

Mr Zoat said:
Her eyes are slightly unfocused and her head is tilting slightly to the left. Ah… Luna's going to be annoyed if I break one of Twilight's coterie.

I dismiss the construct, causing her to blink and refocus. "Breathe, my little pony, breathe."

"I'mokay!" She shakes her head and regains her focus. "I'm okay. It just moves. Okay, sure, why not?"

Now tell her about Galaxies and show her a model if the milky way! And be sure to point out that tiny insignificant glowy dot is the entire Sol System in comparison!

Mr Zoat · Dec 23, 2021

Doccer said:
What happened with the Tree?!

It treed on him.

Now tell her about Galaxies and show her a model if the milky way! And be sure to poi t out that tiny I significant glowy dot is the entire Sol System in comparison!

Wouldn't have the same effect. She doesn't have a preconceived notion of how a galaxy should behave.

Also, does anyone know what G1 episode the soap thing comes from? I spent a little while trying to locate it but got nowhere.

DrThoth · Dec 23, 2021

Darko said:
I don't remember if she did that either renegade, but even if she did it may not matter what his desires are since his divine nature would automatically resist any changes.

She did do that to Renegade as well, I believe soon after she saw his orchestration of the public execution of the First Citadelian on Tamaran by the princesses.

Edit: scene in question:

Mr Zoat said:
"They get to see the most powerful being in the region killed by two of the potential heirs to their throne. Two heirs who pointedly aren't wearing their alien power rings and whose alien ally is keeping himself out of the picture. And who happen to be the spitting image of a local goddess."

"Just so."

She squints at me. "What is it that you're god of again?"

"Conquest." I shrug. "I could probably have strong armed my way into becoming ruler of Tamaran, but this way-."

"This way you get exactly what you want without seeming to force them into it. That's almost subtle."

And how often does a public decapitation get called that? "Their strength will be mine and mine, theirs. There's no need for conflict or ego clashes when we all want the same thing."

"Which is?"

"Firstly, safety. Secondly, to excel. To grow into the most perfect form of ourselves that we can. I see great potential here."

"And statuesque, naturist locals."

I raise my eyebrows. "I hadn't realised that Maltusians still had those sorts of drives. Though I suppose that the Zamarons demonstrated the possibility. And after three billion years-."

"It's not my drives I was worried about. The orange light can have some rather seriously adverse effects on its users. Still, you.. appear to have yourself under control. I think that I will be able to tolerate working with you." She makes a vague flicking gesture at me with her right hand.

Propriety unlocked.

My ring flickers for a moment, then stills.

"What.. was.. that..?"

I know his divine nature is what prevents things like permanent boosts from Velocity 9 and other stuff, but that's fairly clearly a Watsonian justification for the Doylist motivation to keep him (relatively) underpowered. Intelligently-used superspeed would be a game-changer in a lot of contexts, though of course not all (I wonder what Paragon or a Paul would have done if their original power was the Flash powerset instead of a power ring, actually).

If something is fairly clearly a net boost/improvement to you and something within your complete control, I think you could easily argue that it's metaphysically compatible with a divine nature of Conquest. It's not like Conquest is a static or one-dimensional concept either, as shown most prominently by all the Grayven v. Renegade fights and their different applications of the domain.

Ngamer11 · Dec 23, 2021

DrThoth said:
I know his divine nature is what prevents things like permanent boost from Velocity 9 and other stuff, but that's fairly clearly a Watsonian justification for the Doylist motivation to keep him (relatively) underpowered. Intelligently-used superspeed would be a game-changer in a lot of contexts, though of course not all (I wonder what Paragon or a Paul would have done if their original power was the Flash powerset instead of a power ring, actually).

If something is fairly clearly a net boost/improvement to you and something within your complete control, I think you could easily argue that it's metaphysically compatible with a divine nature of Conquest. It's not like Conquest is a static or one-dimensional concept either, as shown most prominently by all the Grayven v. Renegade fights and their different applications of the domain.

I think I remember the Renegade noting that Velocity 9's effects grew shorter each time he used it. It's possible that Velocity 9 and other temporary serums do nothing to him now.

Chojin Patriarch · Dec 23, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
16th September 2012
13:44 GMT -7

"Yeah, that's a… Giant pile of rubble alright."

I nod, which is a decidedly difference experience now that I'm back in pony form to try and avoid terrifying the locals. There isn't much they could do against me physically, but I have a vague recollection that Wilsonian trolls can be killed with soap and my resilience doesn't stop me from tasting soap if it gets in my mouth. Soap from civilisations at this level of technology is some pretty nasty stuff, and I don't want to be attacked by scrubbing brushes.

He's not joking, either. Pre-industrial soap had some nasty stuff in it. Though, if he didn't want to taste it, his Orange Ring could handle it for him... Briefly? Or has he simply become so accustomed to using his New God abilities he doesn't even think of using the Power Rings for something that mundane? How far he's fallen...

"It's a fortress!"

Ah…

I try hard to see it. And… Yes, those look like carved stones, but whatever smashed it made it virtually impossible to tell what shape it used to have.

Well, they were thorough, if nothing else?

I give Miss Dash a sceptical look. She meets it, then looks at the rubble pile.

"It was a fortress."

I suppose the Renegade does have high standards for his fortresses.

"Yeah. Okay. The rings?"

"They were inside. Except-." She darts off and then stops, studying the ground. "It was…" She darts right and then swoops down, landing on the ground.

Well, so much for them. I doubt much of anything would be intact after that much rock fell on it.

I walk over. "Yes?"

"Daring Do and me got the biggest ring out of the temple so it couldn't be used."

Yes, very heroic of you.

"Out of…" I pointedly look at the rubble pile. "The 'fortress'?"

"Yeah-. Okay, they probably couldn't have used it after the temple fell apart and the plinth disintegrated, but we-." She frowns. "I didn't really think about it at the time."

Adrenaline's a heck of a drug, huh?

"Are you thinking about it now?"

"Yeah. Look."

I look. She's pointing with her right forehoof at… Pieces of broken pottery with gold… Coating on…

...So, the rings weren't even actually gold. Merely plated. I suppose that explains how they could lift them, since a gold object of the size shown would likely have folded under its own considerable weight.

I lift them up and fuse the broken segments back into a ring. I can't tell if there's any sort of residual magic here, but I'd guess not. Low quality enchanted objects like this tend to lose power if they're this badly broken, but Sunset might be able to get something out of it.

I don't think there are any enchantment you could put on a ring like this that could control the sun.

Maybe it was a modular thing? Or some kind of cumulative bonus...

"Now do you believe me?"

"I'm perfectly happy to accept that you and… Is Daring Do a doctor of archaeology?"

...I'm honestly surprised Ponies even have a concept of Archaeology. Though I suppose there's bound to be some-Ponies interested in the distant past.

"No."

"Miss Do got into a fight here. Clearly, you knew where this ring was before we arrived. But… I'm not seeing anything that proves the whole 'control the sun' thing. Was it just this ring?"

Or could it just have been some measure of hyperbole on Ahuizotl's part...

"No. There were a whole pile of rings. That's just the biggest."

"Okay. Where are the rest?"

Take one guess...

From the way she glances awkwardly at the pile of rubble, I think I can guess.

"They kinda got… Crushed."

Into very, very small pieces, I would expect... Then again, the villains survived the collapse... I know, Kid's show, but still...

Hm.

"Okay, look, I understand that you're an elite athlete, but how the heck did you do that to an actual stone fortress? Explosive decompression? Can you make pressure differentials strong enough to break stone? Because if you can, Tempest's going in completely the wrong direction with her training."

Well, the forces involved in a Sonic Rainboom might be quite considerable... Though not that easy to perform inside a building...

"No? It just kinda fell apart once we got the last ring off."

"Huh." I frown thoughtfully. "That's interesting."

Kind of rare to actually see a Load-Bearing Artifact...

"It is?"

"It implies that the rings are some sort of regulator system, and that the spell was bound into the structure of the fortress. Without the rings, the spell itself tore the building apart."

A nice theory, but how to test it? I doubt even Sunset or Twilight could pick up lingering traces in the stones... Well, maybe Twilight could.

"Soo… You believe me?"

"I didn't disbelieve your claim to have adventured with Daring Do, I just disputed your belief that this place could have done anything to the sun." I shake my head. "This is a lot easier in systems like mine."

Such is the nature of inadvertently Geocentric planetary systems. Though... Does the system even have other planets?

"What do you mean, 'systems'?"

I generate a massively oversimplified model of the Sol system.

"The sun is huge, and the planets move around it due to a combination of momentum and gravitational attraction. No deific involvement is necessary."

"Much tidier overall, if you ask me." I assume the system is considerably scaled down, like an orrery. Might be hard to see marbles hundreds of feet from a basketball...

Rainbow Dash stares at the system. Then she cranes her neck to stare a little closer. Then she narrows her eyes so that she can… Cut down the glare?

"I don't… I don't get it."

I mean, it's not that hard. Big heavy thing makes smaller, less heavy things move around it in a near-eternal fall.

"Most worlds don't have someone like Celestia or Luna to push celestial bodies around. Much as 'wild weather' is in fact normal weather -though props to the Equestrian Weather Service's advertising department, that's some impressive need-generation-through-reframing there- so the arrangement Wilson has where Celestia and Luna manage the movement of the sun and moon is in fact highly abnormal."

Miss Dash can't seem to keep her eyes off the slowly rotating planet.

To be fair, I suspect when the Equestrians first arrived in the lands they now occupy, the weather was flat-out cataclysmic... Like, hourly tornados, that sort of thing.

"So who moves it?"

"Who makes weather in the Everfree?"

"No-. One…" Her eyes widen, then she blinks. "Whow. So it just… Moves?"

It's called Physics. You know, the thing you make a mockery of simply by flying.

"Most star systems are like this. Wilson is a bit of an oddity. It-."

Her eyes are slightly unfocused and her head is tilting slightly to the left. Ah… Luna's going to be annoyed if I break on of Twilight's coterie.

Well, perhaps she's having trouble with the sheer scale of things. Or maybe it was the planet fascinating her. Another world... With completely different weather? Her 'special talent' may well have been drooling in her subconscious.

I dismiss the construct, causing her to blink and refocus. "Breathe, my little pony, breathe."

"I'mokay!" She shakes her head and regains her focus. "I'm okay. It just moves. Okay, sure, why not?"

I wave off the dart drone that had appeared behind her.

Heh, always prepared, eh, Renegade? Given the reactions the last time he blew some Pony minds, I'm not surprised.

"I suspect Discord is the reason why this system is as it is, and obviously neither Celestia nor Luna knew that this arrangement wasn't the usual way to do things when they took control."

"And they've… Just been going and going ever since. So…" She glances at the rubble hillock. "What's that got to do with this place?"

...Good question.

"Nothing directly. Though if it could control the sun in some way… We could give Celestia a day off."

"Yeah, but…" She flaps a little way off the ground and gestures to the rubble. "It's kinda been destroyed."

What's destroyed can be rebuilt. Isn't that basically the Renegade's whole MO? Break the thing, then fix it more to his liking? Unlike the paragon, who tries to fix things while they're still running.

"Do you remember the internal dimensions?"

"Ah… Some of them." She manages a small smile. "They actually had a piranha pit. Classic!"

Eh, if there's no rolling boulder, collapsing ceiling or pit traps, it's not a real dungeon.

"In that case, you and I need to redraw as much of the design as we can. While we're doing that, I'll have the genomorphs go through the rubble and try and makes some sense of it. Once we've got some idea of what we're doing, I can have the genomorphs start rebuilding."

"You're going to rebuild it? Why? The thing they pull all the rings on turned to dust after we took them off."

Which smacks of either poor sense or good sense on the creator's part. Either they never considered someone might want to shut it down that way, or they rigged it to fail-deadly if interfered with by someone other than themselves...

"Because I'm interested in the core spell. This…" I wiggle the ring back and forth. "Isn't exactly impressive, but it worked. With the sort of techniques at my disposal, I could easily have something better made, but I need to know what the spell it was directing did first."

"I get it. The only way you can find out is if the fortress is in one piece. And the Princess Celestia can have her first day off in a thousand years." She nods. "Let's get started."

And now I'm picturing that 'Pop-Team Epic!' meme of 'Aah, so it's like that, huh? (Totally doesn't get it...)'. It's all flying over her head, but doing something for Celestia? That she can get behind.

Well, it's certainly starting off with good intentions. Just remember to actually check with Celestia about this, because you know what's paved with good intentions... I get the feeling Ahuizotl will be very interested in the interlopers in his territory, though. Could result in a meeting later that lets him explain things. At any rate, at least we'll be back to OL tomorrow. Maybe we'll see what's been happening with Superman and the Kants

Darko · Dec 23, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
So, the rings weren't even actually gold. Merely plated. I suppose that explains how they could lift them, since a gold object of the size shown would likely have folded under its own considerable weight.

Unless magic was used in its creation.

rkyeun · Dec 23, 2021

"What happens if you drop an apple?"

"Well it falls, duh."

"How fast does it fall?"

"92.541 hooves per second per second."

"And you know the world is round?"

"Well yeah. Otherwise we wouldn't have a horizon. Anypony with wings can tell you it's round."

"And if you're on the other side of it, which way do you fall?"

"Still down, duh."

"Our down, or their down?"

"Down from wherever you are towards the center of the planet."

"And you know how big Wilson is?"

"Yeah, that's a little basic trigonometry."

"And you know the air gets thinner the higher you go."

"Yep, less air, less wind resistance slowing you down."

"So if you were above the air so it wasn't slowing you down, and you fall at 92.541 hooves per second per second, how fast would you have to be going sideways to... miss the ground? And where would you land?"

"... ... ...it just moves... What... what is Celestia even doing? I don't... But the SUN moves around US... no. No, we'd be the apple... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

"Uhm, are you oka-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

"I'll come back later."

---

"You did it again, didn't you Grayven."

"Yes, your highness. Sorry, your highness."

ForeverShogo · Dec 23, 2021

Is it really giving her a day off when there's still all that pesky monarch business to attend to?

Though I guess it'll be funny having them go through all this trouble when apparently Celestia and Luna can just make an amulet that lets others handle sun and moon duties.

Enochi · Dec 23, 2021

I remember a fanfic where the rings were actually an old training toy for Celestia that she used when she was still a foal but after she got her cutie mark I think.... I have no idea where it is though on Fimfiction been many years now since I read it.

Senevri · Dec 23, 2021

I used to think that Grayven was going to mess up a pretty decent arrangement, but somehow canon Twilight manages to FUBAR things enough that Gen5 happens. So....

My pet theory is that without windigoes, there is no more evolutionary impetus for harmony and something something. Magic does not happen.
Worryingly, Gen5 seems to be merely hundreda, not thousands of years after. Gen4.

Stsword · Dec 23, 2021

DrThoth said:
I know his divine nature is what prevents things like permanent boosts from Velocity 9 and other stuff, but that's fairly clearly a Watsonian justification for the Doylist motivation to keep him (relatively) underpowered. Intelligently-used superspeed would be a game-changer in a lot of contexts, though of course not all (I wonder what Paragon or a Paul would have done if their original power was the Flash powerset instead of a power ring, actually).

.

Not mutually exclusive, the Key gave the Flash a vision of an alternate history in which his origin is getting a speed ring from a dying Fastbak.

So if Zoat wasn't a grognard who rejects a concept introduced 3 decades ago there could be a world with an alt.Paul who is a member of the Flash Corps.

Mr Zoat · Dec 23, 2021

ForeverShogo said:
Is it really giving her a day off when there's still all that pesky monarch business to attend to?

They can quit as monarchs whenever they want, and all that happens is a few years of political turmoil. If they don't move the sun, everything dies.

Though I guess it'll be funny having them go through all this trouble when apparently Celestia and Luna can just make an amulet that lets others handle sun and moon duties.

That was after I stopped watching. Sounds stupid.

Stsword said:
Not mutually exclusive, the Key gave the Flash a vision of an alternate history in which his origin is getting a speed ring from a dying Fastbak.

So if Zoat wasn't a grognard who rejects a concept introduced 3 decades ago there could be a world with an alt.Paul who is a member of the Flash Corps.

3 minutes or 3 decades, if it's pants-on-head it's being excluded.

And being pants-on-head is far more serious to a British person than an American.

Dur'id the Druid · Dec 23, 2021

So what is the planetary system of Equesteria like? I know it is like 8 times larger surface area than earth, but how do the heavenly bodies interact with eachother? Has it ever been explained anywhere?

Mr Zoat · Dec 23, 2021

Dur'id the Druid said:
So what is the planetary system of Equesteria like? I know it is like 8 times larger surface area than earth, but how do the heavenly bodies interact with eachother? Has it ever been explained anywhere?

The nature of the stars visible from the surface of Wilson hasn't been explained. I'm inclined to assume that the rest of the universe works on normal laws, but since I don't intend to feature an Equestrian space program it doesn't really matter.

I rather like that in Fallout: Equestria the ponies who survived the war completely freaked out when they saw the first eclipse.

Pinklestia · Dec 23, 2021

Assblaster5000 said:
Man, I really should go back and rewatch MLP. Been way too long since I saw it, and I never even finished the show in the first place.

Well the FiM fandom is way more divided that the Sonic one. Mostly on what season ruined everything or if the show, save for the comunist pony takeover season, was good from the first season to the last.

ForeverShogo · Dec 23, 2021

Oh, there are many things about the final season that are stupid.

After Celestia and Luna decide to retire and force Twilight to do their jobs instead, which is kind of mean to Luna when she missed out on 1000 years of rulership, they decide they don't even want to put up with moving the sun and the moon anymore. So they imbue some special amulet with a portion of their power so that Twilight, or really anyone magically gifted, can do it.

Well, they call it an amulet but it's some kind of clockwork device. Twilight is pretty terrible at using it.

===

And of course Gen 5 didn't surprise me in the least because even in Gen 4 Ponies were shown to be pretty damn xenophobic. Even if it usually expressed itself in just over the top fearfulness rather than rage.

Like, all it took to incite a race war bad enough to bring back the Wendigos was for Tirek to screw with their crops and Chrysalis to go around in disguise claiming that the Earth Ponies were planning to hoard food and leave Unicorns and Pegasi to starve. It gets undone when the students of that Friendship School remind them that friendship is a thing. Because, you know, the inferior non-Pony races needed to have the concept of friendship taught to them by the Pony master race.

Well, I say race war but it was so basic that if that was really all it took to make Wendigos show up . . . Yeah. I can definitely see Gen 5 happening if one assumes Ponies managed to permanently rid themselves of them. Because it really does feel like the only thing holding their society together is the fear of being killed by ice spirits.

Like this comic, actually.

Ciber · Dec 24, 2021

Every story has a lesson to teach us. Be it by example, or by counter-example.

Anyway my preferred equestrian cosmology is one where the equestrian universe is extremely small and magic heavy.
You have two base kinds of magic. Mechanistic magic which is just extra layers of physics, and Abstractive magic where the systems of magic are governed by some level of intelligence or system imposed by an intelligence.

Michael Vonica · Dec 24, 2021

Ciber said:
Every story has a lesson to teach us. Be it by example, or by counter-example.

Anyway my preferred equestrian cosmology is one where the equestrian universe is extremely small and magic heavy.
You have two base kinds of magic. Mechanistic magic which is just extra layers of physics, and Abstractive magic where the systems of magic are governed by some level of intelligence or system imposed by an intelligence.

But what about abstractive magic that arises from a collective intelligence? Could this not then be traced back to physics, as physics and logic is what gave rise to intelligence as we know it? Not that anyone could tell the difference.

Ciber · Dec 24, 2021

Hmm maybe. I think every universe must always be traced back to a mechanistic origin. There are always some fundamental set of invariant rules that determine how a universe works. So then magic is a sliding scale. "how artificial is this". You could have anything from sufficiently advanced nanotech used by regressed neo-barbs. But you could also have a universe like Aurbis where the mechanistic universe is a random high energy state and the entire world that humans inhabit is literally a simulation/dream of a Boltzmann brain.

And then you have Exalted, which is sort of similar. The background is that the true universe is essentially randomness and every single phenomena that humans experience is actually directly managed by spirits / some sort of intelligence.

Mr Zoat · Dec 24, 2021

16th September 2012
21:46 GMT +1

Unable to detect-.

Yes, I know. Obviously he'd be blocking things like that. Just go through the faces one by one and highlight matches.

Compliance. Working.

"…to know that she is well."

Tante Gerri smiles at me as we fly in the direction of what was once Greece. The maps I've seen show it split between Germany and Italy, and I don't actually know whether there's a real 'Greece' left to speak of. I don't remember much about Greek participation in World War Two on Earth Prime, but on Earth 16 they saw off the Italians before being smashed by the Germans and brutally occupied until near the end of the war.

Here… They were brutally occupied until near the end of the war. Then they were annexed.

"Your alter-ego was one of the first people she asked about, once she woke up."

"I have an alter-ego?"

"Oh yes. You're just about old enough that-."

She mock-frowns. "It's not polite to talk about a woman's age like that."

"My gran used to say that at a certain age it becomes a source of pride."

"Hah! I am not that old." She looks curious. "Is she like me, this other Gerte von Hohenbrauer?"

"I don't believe that she uses the 'von', but I don't know her that well. I believe she shares the same close friendship with Doctor Kameya that you do, which was a surprise for Angelika when she found out."

Ms. Brauer doesn't twitch in the slightest. And I'm fairly confident that she isn't going to ask any questions where there's the slightest chance of being overheard.

"It's good to know that she has some familiar faces."

"Though in our parallel her first name is 'Valerie'."

"Her actual first name, or has she just taken a 'European' n-?"

"Donner, Atom Man, prepare to deploy."

Ms. Brauer nods at The Bat's voice, checking her communication earpiece and throat mike before moving towards the cargo door, keeping a firm grip on the hand holds. She has the same Danner enhancements as her Earth 16 doppelgänger, but that doesn't stop her being tossed around if she isn't anchored. Atom Man on the other hand has an anchor system built into the boots of his kryptonian-derived power armour, and is content to stay in the middle of the hold to await deployment.

I could have flown ahead, but The Bat wasn't keen. He fed me a line about his honour not letting him let me face the danger alone, but… Well, it's not as if I let Angelika out of my sight until I was sure she wasn't going to try re-enacting the Holocaust. While I'm fairly confident that none of the superheroes they have on hand could stop me, they can at least keep tabs on me.

I hear the quiet sound of bullets hitting the aircraft's force field. Not too bad at the moment, but someone unfriendly knows that we're here.

"Enemy superhuman en route. Deploy-" The side of the aircraft drops away. "-now."

Ms. Brauer leaps first, falling a dozen metres to the Greek street below. Atom Man follows her out, using his armour's flight system to land far more gently. I fly out after him, generating a construct shield to cover us from the sporadic automatic weapon fire.

Ms. Brauer stands, nodding. "We're down."

"The Bat pulling back." Thrusters burn as the owlwing turns away and rises at speed. "I will stay on station in case you need emergency evacuation or fire support."

Atom Man deploys his forearm-mounted weapons, several parts of them glowing a familiar green.

"I think we can cope with some uppity subhumans, yes?"

"What do you call it if a subhuman is also a superhuman?"

"Unnatural."

He raises his right arm and a lance of… Yes, that's a kryptonite laser, flickers out and hits the person shooting us in the chest. Their torso sort of collapses inward as their centre collapses in a cloud of ash.

"We could use some prisoners, Atom Man."

"This is the fourth operation I have been on against these subhumans. The ones with guns don't know anything."

He lands, then begins walking in the direction of the screams.

"Usually, we call them 'empowered subhumans'. When they are not race traitors." Ms. Brauer marches after Atom Man, and I float along just behind her. "The local garrison should have evacuated people by now, but… Ah. We are near the Italian border."

"And they're less strict about enforcing certain laws?"

"When it comes to the border, yes. They cannot afford to be too blatant; Greater Germany is a great deal more powerful than Italy."

"Does Italy want something?"

"Yes. Greece. They cite the old links between Rome and the Eastern Empire. Hitler said that if they wanted it that badly then they should have fought for it harder."

"You understand that I have no interest in fighting an international war for the Reich?"

"We would not want you to. 'Survival of the fittest', yes?"

"Of all the parts of the ideology for you to ke-."

Atom Man slams into my construct barrier back first, dents clearly visible in the front of his armour!

"Atom Man, report!"

"I have found… Found the deviant."

He pushes himself off the construct, floating in the air as his armour shimmers with green light.

"I recognised her. I think she is one who fought for America during the war."

"Are you injured?"

"Nothing I cannot heal."

"Okay, who-?"

A red blur flies past Ms. Brauer, knocking Atom Man into the sky! I fly up, keeping him in sight as he raises his fists overhead and slams them down on his attacker with a blast of green energy! His attacker lets go and he continues on a ballistic arc-. Does he not have stabilis-?

My construct shield shudders as whoever this is decides to assail me instead, giving me a brief view of a madly-grinning face before they pull back, heading back to ground level faster than I can easily follow with my unaided eye.

Fortunately, my rings can track better than that.

I form a railgun and fire.

Ngamer11 · Dec 24, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Does Italy want?"

I think that should say 'Does Italy want something that Germany has?'

Mr Zoat said:
"I recognised her. I think she is one who fought for America during the war."

Uh oh. What are the odds that this is Wonder Woman?

Mr Zoat said:
He attacker lets go and he continues on a ballistic arc-.

That should say 'His'.

Darko · Dec 24, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
. Brauer laps first, falling a dozen

Maybe 'leaps first' or 'lands first'.

Mr Zoat said:
"I have found… Found the deviant."

He pushes himself off the construct, floating in the air as his armour shimmers with green light.

"I recognised her. I think she is one who fought for America during the war

I'm getting some Wonder Woman vibes here.

Mr Zoat said:
A red blur flies past Ms. Brauer, knocking Atom Man into the sky

And here's a Flash.

Handlewithcare · Dec 24, 2021

Wait, why is he suddenly taking part in their fighting? They wanted to find a magic user, not help the Nazis.

Darko · Dec 24, 2021

Handlewithcare said:
Wait, why is he suddenly taking part in their fighting? They wanted to find a magic user, not help the Nazis.

Because he thinks their cooperation may be necessary and is thus helping them.

Also, finding a magic user, or at least one willing to help since Atlantis may not give a shit, could take time and they may not have time if the demons get a foothold on this Earth.

Chojin Patriarch · Dec 24, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
16th September 2012
21:46 GMT +1

Unable to detect-.

Yes, I know. Obviously he'd be blocking things like that. Just go through the faces one by one and highlight matches.

Interesting. He's looking for someone? Presumably scanning for Doctor Mist, in the hopes of getting some local arcane backup, whatever the card-carrying members of the Party think about it. Good plan. Always have a backup.

Compliance. Working.

"…to know that she is well."

The best part, his erstwhile 'allies' here don't even know he's doing it. You can tell they've never encountered a real Lantern before...

Tante Gerri smiles at me as we fly in the direction of what was once Greece. The maps I've seen show it split between Germany and Italy, and I don't actually know whether there's a real 'Greece' left to speak of. I don't remember much about Greek participation in World War Two on Earth Prime, but on Earth 16 they saw off the Italians before being smashed by the Germans and brutally occupied until near the end of the war.

Here… They were brutally occupied until near the end of the war. Then they were annexed.

The benefit of having a local heroine to inspire them, I suppose. You know, Diana of Themyscria? But here, Diana met a worse fate, and, well...

"Your alter-ego was one of the first people she asked about, once she woke up."

"I have an alter-ego?"

Though with a subtly different backstory. Mostly in the more recent years.

"Oh yes. You're just about old enough that-."

She mock-frowns. "It's not polite to talk about a woman's age like that."

Ah, that Danner Formula. Always making it hard to keep track of people's ages.

Remember the debacle with 'Doctor Munro'?

"My gran used to say that at a certain age it becomes a source of pride."

"Hah! I am not that old." She looks curious. "Is she like me, this other Gerte von Hohenbrauer?"

Well, she's a tall, blue-eyed blonde. So you've got being the Aryan Ideal in common?

"I don't believe that she uses the 'von', but I don't know her that well. I believe she shares the same close friendship with Doctor Kameya that you do, which was a surprise for Angelika when she found out."

Ms. Brauer doesn't twitch in the slightest. And I'm fairly confident that she isn't going to ask any questions where there's the slightest chance of being overheard.

That's Blitzen, of the Shadow Cabinet, in case anyone's wondering. And that's probably very sensible of her, given their companion...

"It's good to know that she has some familiar faces."

"Though in our parallel her first name is 'Valerie'."

The joy of parallel, but not identical universes, given the same basic starting point.

"Her actual first name, or has she just taken a 'European' n-?"

"Donner, Atom Man, prepare to deploy."

...An interesting teammate for a half-kryptonian. I would hope he's not too indiscriminate with whatever weaponry he's packing.

Ms. Brauer nods at The Bat's voice, checking her communication earpiece and throat mike before moving towards the cargo door, keeping a firm grip on the hand holds. She has the same Danner enhancements as her Earth 16 doppelgänger, but that doesn't stop her being tossed around if she isn't anchored. Atom Man on the other hand has an anchor system build into the boots of his kryptonian-derived power armour, and is content to stay in the middle of the hold to await deployment.

Heh, almost like a living bomb, ready to be dropped. And probably as destructive, if a little slower about it.

I could have flown ahead, but The Bat wasn't keen. He fed me a line about his honour not letting him let me face the danger alone, but… Well, it's not as if I let Angelika out of my sight until I was sure she wasn't going to try re-enacting the holocaust. While I'm fairly confident that none of the superheroes they have on hand could stop me, they can at least keep tabs on me.

I hear the quiet sound of bullets hitting the aircraft's force field. Not too bad at the moment, but someone unfriendly knows that we're here.

At least you're being understanding about the short leash they're trying to keep you on. I suppose playing along will make it easier to get what you want...

"Enemy superhuman en route. Deploy-" The side of the aircraft drops away. "-now."

Ms. Brauer laps first, falling a dozen metres to the Greek street below. Atom Man follows her out, using his armour's flight system to land far more gently. I fly out after him, generating a construct shield to cover us from the sporadic automatic weapon fire.

Because while a Danner-enhancile is tough, bullets still sting. And while I'm assuming Atom-man's armour is resistant, it still has weak points...

Ms. Brauer stands, nodding. "We're down."

"The Bat pulling back." Thrusters burn as the owlwing turns away and rises at speed. "I will stay on station in case you need emergency evacuation or fire support."

Nothing says fun like being able to call in a strafing run. Though it's probably overkill for any mundanes or low-durability supers.

Atom Man deploys his forearm-mounted weapons, several parts of is glowing a familiar green.

"I think we can cope with some uppity subhumans, yes?"

Not quite Iron Man, but I can appreciate German engineering. Pity about the pilot.

"What do you call it if a subhuman is also a superhuman?"

"Unnatural."

...Best not mention your family lineage, then, OL.

He raises his right arm and a lance of… Yes, that's a kryptonite laser, flickers out and hits the person shooting us in the chest. Their torso sort of collapses inward as their centre collapses in a cloud of ash.

"We could use some prisoners, Atom Man."

Because, as Warhammer 40k lore has taught me, Laser weaponry is not as pretty as movies make it look. That ash is basically the unfortunate target's organs being combusted via transfer of heat. A lot of heat in this case...

"This is the fourth operation I have been on against these subhumans. The ones with guns don't know anything."

He lands, then begins walking in the direction of the screams.

On the other hand, a couple of the ones with guns might well be Superman and the Kants in disguise... Though I suspect the latter will recognise their ally's distinct weaponry and be prepared to avoid it.

"Usually, we call them 'empowered subhumans'. When they are not race traitors." Ms. Brauer marches after Atom Man, and I float along just behind her. "The local garrison should have evacuated people by now, but… Ah. We are near the Italian border."

"And they're less strict about enforcing certain laws?"

No love lost between the nations, then. Because just because they were allies, didn't mean they liked each other.

"When it comes to the border, yes. They cannot afford to be too blatant; Greater Germany is a great deal more powerful than Italy."

"Does Italy want?"

Whatever they can get their hands on? I can imagine they feel a bit of 'small man's syndrome'...

"Yes. Greece. They cite the old links between Rome and the Eastern Empire. Hitler said that if they wanted it that badly then they should have fought for it harder."

"You understand that I have no interest in fighting an international war for the Reich?"

Worth noting, the latter party, The Byzantine Empire based in Constantinople, ruled for about a thousand years, more or less... Whereas Rome collapsed a lot sooner. Probably felt a bit of an insult that Germany wanted to make a thousand-year-Reich...

"We would not want you to. 'Survival of the fittest', yes?"

"Of all the parts of the ideology for you to ke-."

Eh, look at it this way, OL. Sooner this gets settled, sooner you can be back home on Earth-16.

Atom Man slams into my construct barrier back first, dents clearly visible in the front of his armour!

"Atom Man, report!"

Well, there's trouble.

"I have found… Found the deviant."

He pushes himself off the construct, floating in the air as his armour shimmers with green light.

"I recognised her. I think she is one who fought for America during the war."

Chances are good that's Earth-Hell's Wonder Woman. Which is rather ironic, given their current location.

"Are you injured?"

"Nothing I cannot heal."

Hard man, eh? No big loss, though, if he gets his ass kicked...

"Okay, who-?"

A red blur flies past Ms. Brauer, knocking Atom Man into the sky! I fly up, keeping him in sight as he raises his fists overhead and slams them down on his attacker with a blast of green energy! He attacker lets go and he continues on a ballistic arc-. Does he not have stabilis-?

Hmm... If he's flying, probably not the Flash. Earth-Hell's Captain Marvel? Or it could still be Wonder Woman. Not like her outfit features that much blue... And she is reasonably fast.

My construct shield shudders as whoever this is decides to assail me instead, giving me a brief view of a madly-grinning face before they pull back, heading back to ground level faster than I can easily follow with my unaided eye.

Fortunately, my rings can track better than that.

I form a railgun and fire.

The joy of knowing how to deal with speedsters.

Well, battle is joined. I hope the Kryptonians made it through in this group, if only so they can co-ordinate. But now OL faces a conundrum: use lethal force against what may be heroes from Earth-Hell, or try to capture them, only for the Nazis to try and finish them off... Either way, I don't think whoever it is will make it easy for them.

...several parts of is glowing a familiar green.

...several parts of it glowing a familiar green.

Darko · Dec 24, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
The best part, his erstwhile 'allies' here don't even know he's doing it. You can tell they've never encountered a real Lantern before...

They have encountered a GL before, though they just negotiated then, so they most likely have not seen what a fully powered Lantern can do.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Best not mention your family lineage, then, OL

It might not get him killed, just prevent him from holding political office.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Interesting. He's looking for someone? Presumably scanning for Doctor Mist, in the hopes of getting some local arcane backup, whatever the card-carrying members of the Party think about it. Good plan. Always have a backup.

Unless Mist managed to change his face as a precaution.

Old Knife · Dec 24, 2021

Well if you needed a heavy hitter, WW is a good choice.

ForeverShogo · Dec 24, 2021

Guess it can be chalked up to greater levels of confidence with Kryptonian tech at their back, but Hitler thought it was too much of a pain in the ass to put resources towards destroying Greece as a nation when the invasion of the Soviet Union was coming. Which led to the Axis setting up a collaborator government and calling their puppet the Hellenic State.

Italy was mostly just gonna grab some islands from Greece. Though they were also going to have a chunk of northwestern Greece annexed into Albania. Since Italy had plans to eventually annex Albania that just meant Italy would have a delayed annexation of all their ambitions for Greek lands.

Bulgaria was gonna annex the bits they wanted.

Occupation wise, Italy dealt with most of Greece. Bulgaria was focused on just the parts they wanted to annex. Germany occupied the bits considered most strategically important.

So effectively the Axis was going to annex most of northern Greece and let a puppet regime keep what was left over. Just in case people wanted to know the plans without alien supertech or superpowers or whatever.

Rafin · Dec 24, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"I don't believe that she uses the 'von', but I don't know her that well.

What made Gerti 16 drop the official "von" from her name? Did she sell it? Did her parents?

Mr Zoat · Dec 24, 2021

Ngamer11 said:
I think that should say 'Does Italy want something that Germany has?'
That should say 'His'.

Thank you, corrected.

Darko said:
Maybe 'leaps first' or 'lands first'.

Chojin Patriarch said:
...several parts of it glowing a familiar green.

Thank you, corrected.

Rafin said:
What made Gerti 16 drop the official "von" from her name? Did she sell it? Did her parents?

Germany has been trying to make aristocratic titles go extinct. She did it for the same reason why her surname is officially Brauer rather than Hohenbrauer, to distance herself form the rest of her family.

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