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

Fighting the demons was the easy part, its what comes afterwards that will be hard.

Hopefully the GLC can help that along with Guardian support, especially given their newest member.

Man, Mr Holt with a Power Ring will be nuts strong.
 
"Morgan le Fey now rules Britain, and she's got things somewhat under control. The Marked were attacking her fortifications but that's not an issue any longer and she probably doesn't need help. Zandia has some religious organisation who was able to keep everyone safe."
Good job handing this Universe to Trigon by the way.
 
16th September 2012
23:21 GMT -5


"Mr Holt?"

His company Cyberwear is the tech company version of Image Comics. No actual technological development is done by its employees. Rather, it exists to handle sales, distribution and fabrication of its owner's creative vision.
And with a multi-disciplinary super-genius like Holt, those ideas can be creative indeed. Not quite at 'Reed Richards is useless' levels, since some of his stuff probably does make it to general market releases... But I bet big, world-changing stuff was too expensive to get cleared for the public... Bet he has a line of smartphones called T-Phones or something like that. :p

It has very clearly seen better days.

Something smashed the front doors apart, the hinges holding on while the doors themselves lie in the foyer. Along with a great many neatly-stacked bodies in varying states of decay whose blood has been used to draw demonic sigils on the floor and walls. Mr. Holt is an omnidisciplinary genius and it appears that his genius extended itself to demon magic.
...Ew. Thankfully nothing used the opportunity to come through... Yet. With Rakkar gone, I suspect the Lords of Hell are sorely tempted to make their own moves on a vulnerable Earth...

"Mr Holt?"

The intercom crackles.

"Lantern."
Oh, boy. He's awake... And hopefully clean, by the sounds of it.

"I can't find you with all these wards up. Where are you?"

"Why?"
Oh dear, is he suicidal... Again? Given his heroic career started after a visit from the Spectre last time he was this low... Who knows what he's going to do this time.

"So I can fix your arms and legs."

The lift doors clank open and Mr. Holt chunks out, supported by a bodged but solid looking mechanical frame.
I see he's been busy. Not bad for under an hour's work. While dealing with multiple puncture wounds to all limbs.

"I'll say again." His mask makes it hard to tell what his exact expression is, but his voice sounds like a man who's been through the wringer. Which, obviously, he has. "Why?"

His wounds are bound with some sort of elasticised bandage, each of the spikes I saw go into him having either vanished back to hell or been physically removed.
Hopefully they weren't like a Gae Bolg's wounding effect... That would have been nasty. Though he's suffered worse in the comics, including surviving a trip to the Arctic with broken ribs...

"Because everyone's been through the same thing as you, and we need someone intelligent enough to put things back together." I raise my left hand slightly, hesitantly pointing my ring at him. "Lex Luthor is confirmed dead, and I haven't been able to find out what happened to Batman."

"Put a gun in his mouth when he started changing." He shakes his head. "I just assumed it was a telepathic attack. I shielded this place against-." He cuts himself off. "Yeah. It makes sense. It's going to have to be me." He looks at my ring. "Is it going to hurt?"
...Wow, okay. That is not how I expected Batman to go out.

"No."

An orange beam connects us, his body showing the same signs of extreme stress as the various cultists I've patched up in addition to the Glasgow grin and puncture wounds. When the light fades he checks the movement of his hands and then triggers the 'unlock' mechanism on his frame.
Surprised you didn't offer a Danner upgrade at the same time. Even at the peak of human capacity, and freshly rejuvenated to his physical peak of that... He's still only human.

"Parallel universe?"

"Two different parallel universes. Diana and Crusader are from this one, Superman and I from Universe Sixteen and the rest from Universe Ten."
Worth remembering, this is not Michael's first ride on the Parallel Universe party bus. 'Infinite Crisis', for a start...

"I recognized some of them from Axis Amerika. Is that a parallel where villains are heroes?"

"Um."
:oops: Awkward. How to best explain it...

"Oh. So what the hell-?" He shudders at his own choice of words. "What are they doing here?"

"Wolf Krieger was trying to expand onto their Earth. They know nothing about magic or parallel universes. They're just here to fix the problem at its source."
Right, smartest man on Earth right now. Of course he'd twig to their origin...

"Nazis are playing nice?"

"It's…"

"You went with what you could get."
Plus, they'd already made contact with Earth-16, technically.

"In a decent civilisation, you can remain a reasonably moral individual by just doing what everyone around you is. For someone born in a world ruled by fascists, it takes… Effort, most people won't make, in order to become better than you were raised to be."

"True, but if they go right back-. We're in no condition to rehabilitate them here, even if they wanted to stay."
And they would see nothing to be rehabilitated from, having grown up in that world. As far as they're concerned, other Earths are aberrant. Though thankfully, they can't do anything about it. Not if Overman has any say in the matter.

"I know." I shake my head. "I'm just here to dump information on you to get you up to speed. I'll be talking through our ongoing 'rehabilitation' efforts with their Superman."

"What happened with our Superman?"
Yes, do tell. Is he awake? Suicidal? How much did he experience of his possession?

"Hasn't regained consciousness since we got the demon possessing him out of him and destroyed it. Any idea what happened to him?"

Mr. Holt shakes his head. "It was an actual demon?" I transmit the recording to his mask. His stance changes slightly as get gets confirmation. "A parasite. All of this…"
Huh. Let's hope he does wake up. Who knows how Kryptonian souls and demons interact?

"With my parallel it was time travellers." I give what I hope is a sympathetic shrug. "Not quite this bad, but we lost a few countries."

"What's the global picture?"
I suspect if the Sheeda looked at this period, they'd probably go 'Nope! Nopenopenope!' and pick another era.

"Morgan le Fey now rules Britain, and she's got things somewhat under control. The Marked were attacking her fortifications but that's not an issue any longer and she probably doesn't need help. Zandia has some religious organisation who was able to keep everyone safe."

..And? I'm sure there are other places that survived? Or are you just focusing on ones you bothered to find?

"What about everywhere..?" He realises. "Else."

"That's it. Everywhere else… The more urban, the worse things are. I'm sure-."
So, smaller tribes might have gotten off relatively scot-free... Traumatised, but not badly harmed? I bet the Accala made a bit of a mess in their part of the world...

Alert.

"Ah. Mister Richard Swift has returned to Opal City. I was hoping that he'd recover. It appears that Crusader's spell worked on even individuals with unusual physiology."
If anything I suspect he's feeling a lot healthier than he ever has in a while... The problem comes down to his friends and allies, though...

"So all the supervillains who survived are back in action."

"Yes, but all of the ones who used their powers for theft just became irrelevant. There's no economy. Even superhuman warlordism-."

"Would actually stabilise things. And probably keep regular people out of the line of fire." He sighs. "I had to burn my T-Spheres to avoid memetic contamination."
Ah, yes, his atheism... No Heaven, no Hell... Just alternate worlds with unusual native lifeforms, huh? But... He's probably right about the warlord thing. Sure, some people might be hurt or killed as they take over, but those who play along... They'll be alive, if nothing else.

"You can just say 'magic'."

"That's imprecise." He looks around. He's not just seeing the bodies for the first time, but he's showing me that he's looking. "I knew these people. When I cut them up, they were happy to be used like that. What did this, I can't think of anything more evil. And I'm not even going to be able to bury them. We don't have time. I'm going to have to drag them outside and cremate them."
Though he's probably committed each and every name and face to memory. If their families are still alive, he'll want to make things right by them...

"No. I'll handle that. You need to get started on your T-Spheres."

He stares for a few moments longer, then nods.
After all, the world needs heroes right now... And because of Rakkar's targetting Superman's friends and colleagues, they're in short supply, I bet.

"How long can you stay for?"

"At the moment, the Nazis are still on-task, hunting down Wolf Krieger and other villains who might be able to make a portal to Earth Ten. But that won't remain the case for long, and I can't leave them unsupervised. Call it three days."
After that, any problems are the Justice League's to deal with. Though I suspect Dox is going to have quite a headache after reading his report of his 'days off'...

He nods. "Do you have a spare power ring?"

"I can make rings, but orange rings are memetic hazards too. I've gone crazy a few times using it, but-."
I suspect Michael could handle it, if he can keep his goals in focus.

Alert! Will detected!

A green power ring flies in through the open door.

"But it looks like that's been taken care of."
Oooh. The Guardians have no idea what they're unleashing... Or they want a firm hand watching over the Life Entity's holiday home...

Well. I wonder if discussion of what he could do with a Power Ring inspired that? Still, it's going to be very useful for him to rebuild Earth. And as long as he doesn't use it to seek political power (which I doubt he would,) it's completely within the Guardian's rule of conduct. We know he's smart enough to cheese it out like all hell, right down to mapping constructs in detail, so it should make things much easier...

His stance changes slightly as get gets confirmation.
His stance changes slightly as he gets confirmation.

First time for everything. Is it the Lantern without his legs we saw earlier or someone the Guardians sent to check out non-hell Earth?
That was a minor Green lantern character form the early Kyle Rayner period. Purgatory, an amputee who connected emotionally with Kayner in a chance meeting. Kyle empowered him with a little Will energy, which he used to create leg constructs... Ended up being tricked by Neron into selling his soul for more power.
 
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Bet he has a line of smartphones called T-Phones or something like that. :p

Hey, if Luthor can name everything after himself, then Holt sure as hell can.

Wow, okay. That is not how I expected Batman to go out.

Not too surprising though.

Surprised you didn't offer a Danner upgrade at the same time. Even at the peak of human capacity, and freshly rejuvenated to his physical peak of that... He's still only human.

Given Holt's intelligence, he may be able to do it himself.

Plus, he may not want people tampering with his body after the demon thing, even if the tampering is good.

So, smaller tribes might have gotten off relatively scot-free... Traumatised, but not badly harmed? I bet the Accala made a bit of a mess in their part of the world...

Assuming they existed on Demon Earth.

. And as long as he doesn't use it to seek political power (which I doubt he would,) it's completely within the Guardian's rule of conduct. We know he's smart enough to cheese it out like all hell

I think the Guardians may not have a problem with a Lantern seeking power to reestablish order on a world, provided they go through them.

Sinestro either didn't ask for permission or the crisis on his world didn't warrant his takeover.
 
First time for everything. Is it the Lantern without his legs we saw earlier or someone the Guardians sent to check out non-hell Earth?
Either way, Paragon re-checking inwith this dimension's GLC could be useful. Did the Guardians of this universe do anything to prevent Earth's demonic corruption from possibly corrupting Mars and reactivating the Burners? Or did they just observe that no corrupted force was willing to leave Earth's thaumosphere?

I think Michael would be a pretty good Green Lantern, especially because as a genius he'd be capable of more complex constructs to possibly match non-Green Lantern ring capabilities. Hopefully Paragon gives him a bunch of data on cold guns, crumblers, etc.

Honestly I'd give Paragon decent odds against this dimension's Larfleeze (and at least helping Hinon, assuming she's around) just to help things a bit in the galactic scale, though I appreciate any and all of that would take more than a couple of days. Still, a multiversal Paragon could be interesting; I don't imagine the Ophidians are substantially different from each other at the end of the day, and I think Paragon could convince them to practice enlightened self-interest i.e. 'share'.

I'm assuming Hell-Earth didn't have its own iteration of Paul. Come to think of it, Sybarite could have been an interesting/fun addition to this whole adventure- I know about Zoat's comment explaining the lack of calling upon demonic allies, but Sybarite does convert demonic magic into orange light and Fate's ward didn't detect anything inherently corruptive (that wasn't just orange light itself, anyway).
 
Either way, Paragon re-checking inwith this dimension's GLC could be useful. Did the Guardians of this universe do anything to prevent Earth's demonic corruption from possibly corrupting Mars and reactivating the Burners? Or did they just observe that no corrupted force was willing to leave Earth's thaumosphere

Or the Martians all died before the demon thing.
 
Or the Martians all died before the demon thing.
True. Though I don't remember Demonic Martian Manhunter being around.

Do we know where the helmet that corrupted Wonder Woman came from?

I'm also not fully sure how Baroness Reiter got the speed-boosting/stealing abilities of the Flash. Is it a permanent thing? I guess it doesn't materially change the situation of rehabilitating/dealing with Nazi-Earth too drastically, though. Can Earth-16 Flash steal speed or is it just Wally for now?

Edit: I did like all the social interactions leading up to this conflict, but I still think they could have gotten more Earth 16-heroes involved and that dynamic would have been interesting to see, especially in dealing with the racial aspects of working Nazis. I'd kind of like to see Canis looking down on the Reichsmen a bit (actually do any New Gods look non-Caucasian? I think Black Racer does but I can't think of any besides him, and none on the Apokaliptian side, besides the technical exception of Darkseid).
 
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Do we know where the helmet that corrupted Wonder Woman came from?
No.
I'm also not fully sure how Baroness Reiter got the speed-boosting/stealing abilities of the Flash. Is it a permanent thing? I guess it doesn't materially change the situation of rehabilitating/dealing with Nazi-Earth too drastically, though. Can Earth-16 Flash steal speed or is it just Wally for now?
It's not permanent. Flash 16 does know it.
Edit: I did like all the social interactions leading up to this conflict, but I still think they could have gotten more Earth 16-heroes involved and that dynamic would have been interesting to see, especially in dealing with the racial aspects of working Nazis. I'd kind of like to see Canis looking down on the Reichsmen a bit (actually do any New Gods look non-Caucasian? I think Black Racer does but I can't think of any besides him, and none on the Apokaliptian side, besides the technical exception of Darkseid).
Canis is a sort of medium brown that would require a human to have a very specific set of ancestors to achieve. Orion Issue 15 wasn't exactly a high watermark of artistic clarity.
 
"Yeah. It makes sense. It's going to have to be me." He looks at my ring. "Is it going to hurt?"
No idea if it was intended, but to me he 'sounded' almost hopeful that it would.
He nods. "Do you have a spare power ring?"

"I can make rings, but orange rings are memetic hazards too. I've gone crazy a few times using it, but-."

Alert! Will detected!

A green power ring flies in through the open door.

"But it looks like that's been taken care of."
Convenient, but I suppose that now the mass possession/influence is over it has a chance to actually select someone.

Though I have to wonder... are there any other systems in the sector with sapient life? I mean, I'm not all that aware of GL lore, but I don't remember hearing of any 2814 Lanterns other than from Earth. I suppose Mars (if the martian civilization is still around in this parallel) is a possibility, but otherwise there's nothing I can think of.
Surprised you didn't offer a Danner upgrade at the same time. Even at the peak of human capacity, and freshly rejuvenated to his physical peak of that... He's still only human.
If anything, holding off on applying such until all doubt of lingering demonic possession (or destructive suicidal tendencies) was gone is probably for the better.
I suspect if the Sheeda looked at this period, they'd probably go 'Nope! Nopenopenope!' and pick another era.
That or they'd be forced to play "hero" as otherwise there probably wouldn't be any future civilizations to invade later.
Oooh. The Guardians have no idea what they're unleashing... Or they want a firm hand watching over the Life Entity's holiday home...
Do they even know it's there?
 
Though I have to wonder... are there any other systems in the sector with sapient life? I mean, I'm not all that aware of GL lore, but I don't remember hearing of any 2814 Lanterns other than from Earth. I suppose Mars (if the martian civilization is still around in this parallel) is a possibility, but otherwise there's nothing I can think of.
Where did you think Abin Sur came from?
 
Where did you think Abin Sur came from?
...

Right... Well, I ended up forgetting about him somehow when I was trying to think of Lanterns, so... yeah...

Still, the only other non-humans I can find with a wiki search is Abin Sur's immediate predecessor named "Stakaðr" who was himself preceded by another human. Who got the ring from an alien who was apparently in operation back in the 1600s.

Which... I suppose if the a ring ends up going to a member of a species with a comparatively extended lifespan it won't be hopping to different planets for new users. However, I have no idea what's the 'average' number of species per sector is supposed to be, let alone the official count for 2814, so I'm still left wondering things like why the ring was sticking around Earth during demon-Superman's rule instead of going to some other in-sector civilization.
 
Edit: I did like all the social interactions leading up to this conflict, but I still think they could have gotten more Earth 16-heroes involved and that dynamic would have been interesting to see, especially in dealing with the racial aspects of working Nazis. I'd kind of like to see Canis looking down on the Reichsmen a bit (actually do any New Gods look non-Caucasian? I think Black Racer does but I can't think of any besides him, and none on the Apokaliptian side, besides the technical exception of Darkseid

Canis is a sort of medium brown that would require a human to have a very specific set of ancestors to achieve. Orion Issue 15 wasn't exactly a high watermark of artistic clarity

There was also Vykin, the leader of the Forever People, who is black.

Maybe they can contact the Martians and/or Paul loans them a few of his Lanterns for a while?

Assuming there are any Martians in universe 666.

Though i suppose they can use Martians from universe 16.
 
I suspect Michael could handle it, if he can keep his goals in focus.


Oooh. The Guardians have no idea what they're unleashing... Or they want a firm hand watching over the Life Entity's holiday home...


Well. I wonder if discussion of what he could do with a Power Ring inspired that? Still, it's going to be very useful for him to rebuild Earth. And as long as he doesn't use it to seek political power (which I doubt he would,) it's completely within the Guardian's rule of conduct. We know he's smart enough to cheese it out like all hell, right down to mapping constructs in detail, so it should make things much easier...
Giving Mr. Terrific an Orange ring to experiment with might work out but I don't think that's something you wanna risk right now considering he's the only person fit to lead and him going insane could screw this earth even worse than before.

If the Guardians were concerned with the Life Entity being corrupted or hurt by this Earth they have a funny way of showing it leaving this Earth to be ruled by a Demon/Alien not even native to this planet's hell.

I don't know if the Guardians will have a problem with Mr. Terrific seeking political power in this scenario considering there is no established government on 90% of the planet, no economy anywhere, and everyone alive is traumatized with little to zero chance of survival without some kind of government system getting established and soon.
 
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Could you refresh my memory on that one?

Raven's father, a demonic god who rules over at least one universe in its entirety, traditionally worshipped by the Cult of Blood, ie the all but official religion of that country mentioned.

Darkseid, for all his hype, spends pretty much every one of his storylines looking for power ups- highlandering Gods, stealing the power of Heaven, absorbing the powers of a Green Lantern, cloning Doomsday, getting the ALE, etc, etc.

Trigon doesn't need power ups, he can just flat out conquer the entire universe, or supposedly, rip a universe apart like its made out of tissue paper. He was trapped once in the comics. He escaped by consuming the souls of every single being in a universe.

Raven inherited his power. In the Teen Titans/X-Men crossover, Dark Phoenix acknowledged Raven as a spiritual sister and peer.

But since he's a Titan villain he doesn't get all the hype Darkseid gets, plus DC doesn't shill Trigon ad nausea.

Trigon does have a limitation- He can't stay if he's not invited. He needs Raven to invite him into the universe, and then he can conquer it and turn it into his own personal infernal playground.
 
...Wow, okay. That is not how I expected Batman to go out.

It might be worse....Batman doesn't carry a gun (aside from some early day comics).

So in general the only gun in the cave that isn't some ray gun or freeze gun taken off a super villain....would be Joe Chill's gun from the slaying of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

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Raven's father, a demonic god who rules over at least one universe in its entirety, traditionally worshipped by the Cult of Blood, ie the all but official religion of that country mentioned.

Darkseid, for all his hype, spends pretty much every one of his storylines looking for power ups- highlandering Gods, stealing the power of Heaven, absorbing the powers of a Green Lantern, cloning Doomsday, getting the ALE, etc, etc.

Trigon doesn't need power ups, he can just flat out conquer the entire universe, or supposedly, rip a universe apart like its made out of tissue paper. He was trapped once in the comics. He escaped by consuming the souls of every single being in a universe.

Raven inherited his power. In the Teen Titans/X-Men crossover, Dark Phoenix acknowledged Raven as a spiritual sister and peer.

But since he's a Titan villain he doesn't get all the hype Darkseid gets, plus DC doesn't shill Trigon ad nausea.

Trigon does have a limitation- He can't stay if he's not invited. He needs Raven to invite him into the universe, and then he can conquer it and turn it into his own personal infernal playground.
Yup.

Unless Zoat massively nerfs Trigon there's absolutely nothing Paragon can do to stop him once invited in.
 
Holt might not even seek personal political power. He absolutely could as he is the world's smartest man now. Even before he was more stable than the top 2.

But he would probably be focused on a larger picture and improving infrastructure, maybe just acting as an authority to catch those abusing the victims. I doubt he has time to run things himself.

Plus according to Lantern Law, there are really only 2 political entities anymore.
 
So demons weren't summoned from Christian-hell because the head demon possessing Superman was a demon from Krypton? Or… was there some other reason demons weren't summoned?

I assume hell was still getting loads of souls so they (or at least the demon which empowered the kryptonian demon) are content with the situation up to now, the end to their buffet. But going forward, someone will want to make new contracts for mortal souls.
 
Holt might not even seek personal political power. He absolutely could as he is the world's smartest man now. Even before he was more stable than the top 2.

But he would probably be focused on a larger picture and improving infrastructure, maybe just acting as an authority to catch those abusing the victims. I doubt he has time to run things himself.

Plus according to Lantern Law, there are really only 2 political entities anymore.
Holt would likely excel in running Earth 666 just as he would excel in anything he tries. But I think it is clear in chapter that is something that he won't want to do.
His company Cyberwear is the tech company version of Image Comics. No actual technological development is done by its employees. Rather, it exists to handle sales, distribution and fabrication of its owner's creative vision.
"I knew these people. When I cut them up, they were happy to be used like that. What did this, I can't think of anything more evil. And I'm not even going to be able to bury them. We don't have time. I'm going to have to drag them outside and cremate them."
Holt seems like the kind of guy that has mastered delegation. He is able to assess a situations full scope and will do the tasks that others cannot. He will get others to take control of the simpler task that would interfere in his own progress. For his old company this meant he did the inventing while others kept the company running and made sure the inventions got sold.

In the current situation, he will likely be better served by getting others to rule and run the country/World while he starts making things that will actually save it. This does raise the question of who eould be best to rule...

On a slightly different note, what are the chances that Holt is going to get called to Oa in the next few seconds? And if he is a GL now, will he be allowed to devote the time needed to get the Earth back up and running if he has an entire sector to protect?
 

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