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

Where's the rest of the League? Didn't Paul call them before they attacked the alliance?

 

This would be a great time for Paul to stop sandbagging and go all out for once.

 

Welp, time to break out the Spear again and get Balewa to inject some Life-entity juice into it.

 

Pete Tong indeed.

 

Ho-ly Shit! Was the teleportation system just the basis for this then, not a subtle corrupting system for the heroes? Damn, well played, practically nobody saw this coming, well played indeed.

And once again, Renegade/Grayven's Earth pulls ahead as the best Earth to be in.

 

Wait, that's not OL... What a time to cut away to another person. I hope we're not going to see the whole fight resolve off-screen, that'd be... Anticlimactic. ...Or is something not good about to happen?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Ah, the erstwhile Cat-Girl. Or at least she would be, if she had her way in some distant reality. What with being one of Selina Kyle's oldest friends.

Ah, simple relationship things... Shit's about to go bad, isn't it?

Well, yeah, they're not idiots or out-of-towners. Oh, wait, tautology.

Just flashing them should be enough to ward off any wanna-be gangbangers... Wait... Phrasing!

Never underestimate one of the Freaks. They'll go out of their way to spite the universe's goodwill.

Yeah, kind of tripping a buncha death flags here, kiddo.

And thus, by the law of Narrative, something bad must now happen...

And here it comes. I'm guessing the effects of Bruno's Anti-Life machine is being felt everywhere.

Hmm...Emotions running wild. Their inner light trying to resist in any way it can, perhaps?

Concerning that she's flip-flopping between emotions. What happens if one of them hits Rage?

Aw, crap. that's gonna have consequences...

And the whole world is acting like this, isn't it? Emotions being driven into madness, panic and fear driving people into rage and destruction...

And there goes her self-worth. That's gonna leave a mark.

And here we go with the New God Hax...

...Would Anti-life work better on an angel, being naturally subservient to the Presence, or less effective because of that devotion, I wonder...

Oof. Punched him right in the soul.

Also, I don't think Bruno's gonna let you try to fix Zauriel while he's standing there.

Yes, but he can force your body to deflect the swing. And you hardly even noticed him do it.

The scary thing is...

...Bruno might not even be attacking. He could have mind-whammied OL without him noticing and this is just an illusion. Not likely, I know, but maybe?

Problem is, OL, when he's got nowhere to go except through you.

Ah, if only you'd figured out the alt-fire mode. One Purple Death ray to the face and this would have been... If not over, then much easier.

Maybe so, but the act of building it is defiance enough.

And he actually heard that one, huh? Maybe he can try throwing his own metaphysical weight around, then.

Ah, the good old 'world of cardboard' moment. Usually it's Superman getting this kind of treatment.

...huh. Guess he wasn't interested in a straight fight, then.

Ah, there's the shoe. Why waste time tussling with one mook when you can claim the whole shebang?

And all of a sudden, it's starting to look a little Final Crisis in here. Wonder if this'll go down as 'The Day The World Went Mad' or something like that? At any rate, it's going to be all hands on deck for this one. League, Team, Alliance (Those who aren't Justified yet) and every incidental hero, getting dragged into keeping the world from ripping itself a new one. This is certainly a Season Finale episode now!

 

If enlightenment helps, then Guy should be able to lend a hand. Unfortunately since his promotion he hasn’t spend much time on Earth.


The interlude half of the update was deeply unsettling, Mr Zoat. A lack of hope. Minimal will. Waning love. Apathy in the face of the Darkseid’s “revelation” for Earth.

 

Adom and maybe Captain Marvel should be able to at least partially resist the Anti-Life Equation's effect, so maybe they could provide backup. Jordan also has enlightenment, though he may also not be on Earth due to being a member of the Honor Guard as well.

 

He does? Since when?

 

After he passed the M'eelam Na'aquall ritual. One POV has Hal remarking that he is now able to make constructs without being completely focused on only that one thing and disregarding everything else around him.

 

Haha. Now they've motivated Paul.
Time to Nom.

 

I mean, that sounds like he's a better Lantern. Not that he's enlightened. The only other Green Lantern that I remember having seen with green quotes, besides Guy, is the Illustres we met on Oa. Has Hal showed up with green quotes?

 

Sorry. I double checked, and you're right. So he isn't enlightened, and wouldn't have any resistance to the Anti-Life Equation.

 

Oh boy. Trying to take what Avarice has claimed as Theirs?


Bad plan Darkseid. Very, very bad plan. Begins your better have fell to The Gnats ire for daring to touch what he felt was his, and he was far from Best Girl's Hunger.

 

Beings Darkseid's lesser have trapped emotional entities in jars for millions of years.

 

Paul: *Intricate plan and trying to save everyone*

Grayven!Paul: "Okay, but like, have you considered just stabbing your problems until they go away? That tends to work for me. Also is this going to take long? I have to pick up my daughter."

I kinda dig Renegade more since he comes off as like... more human? I dunno, OG!Paul seems less like a person and more a plot device or comes off as kinda inhuman a little, whereas Grayven has like a family and actual strong interpersonal relations and friendships.

I mean I can name like 5 actual-factual close friends of Grayven, but Paul comes off as kind of impersonal/standoffish. Renegade is more charismatic maybe? I'm too tired for deep character analysis.

The fact one random asshole wizard trapped DREAM, the metaphysical universal concept of reality, one of the ENDLESS, in a glorified bottle, while trying to literally call up & imprison the literal metaphysical universal incarnation of DEATH, makes me really want something along the lines of some random wizard summoning Darkseid, and then just... leaving him there after Darkseid tries his whole 'anti-life' thing but fails due to some incredibly mundane reason. Like the circle is made of Life juice or something.

DC is a setting where random nobodies can do insane, absurd things inexplicably. I want 'This random hedge mage has trapped Darkseid in a salt circle, and now it's everyone's problem' shenanigans.

 

It's yet another example of how styles makes fights. Paragon is not suited for this one. Renegade would be.

I do think it's weird that Paul had an Anti Life infection possibly happening and didn't have Shade on call.

 

I've always said that Darksied is a representation of badly written shitty premise power fantasy Self Inserts, and this just proves it: he's using a Normality Field!

What next, will he randomly seduce his family into an incestuous harem completely lacking all personality except when he is in the room?

Oh wait, he already has.

 

Huh, Paul responding to godspeech. Haven't seen that before. I know the last time it came up he could sort of hear it in a vague sense where he was aware it was happening, but I think this is the most fluent he's been for it yet.

 

No, but something worse is coming.

I'm wondering if Anti-Life somehow first brings out all the good before crushing it.

This kinda reminds me of one story from the Books of Blood where a Satanist says that an important aspect when dealing with Hell is to always look forward.

And there's Anti-Life.

"I grab"

Shit.

Okay, this was maybe the scariest way you could show Anti-Life and its effects.

Bravo.

Ohoh, so you noticed that.

Oh fuck.

 

Whereas I am fresh as a daisy!

Renegade had a tendency to push people away early on, but when he left the Team 1) on his terms and 2) still on Earth he rapidly began to form a stable friend group. He also has Grayven memories, which make him think 'yes I need a court and this is how to develop one'. Renegade had a lot of trouble relating to people early on, but then he learned from that.

Paragon had a lot of early success with his friends and family and love life. Even now he has Jade. But because the break from the Team was so sudden and lead to space, and he hasn't really been hanging out with them or rebuilding those relationships, he doesn't have many. And even with the kick in the pants the JSI adventure gave him, he's still very work mode and hasn't yet gotten to a place where he realizes how much he needs to reinvest in his friendships since he's mostly spending time around work friends like Dr. Balewa.

 

I'm now curious as to what effect this is happening to the more mystical people and beings of Earth, like the Amazons, the Greek Gods, or Atlantis. Could any of them have developed some kind of defense against this? If not, I hope we get to see the aftereffects of this for all of them.

Edit: I'm adding Accalacan, just to get an update on how that place is progressing and to see Paul interact with Euanthe and have him gently turn down her propositions. I'd also be happy to see how the people of that nation react to Paul refusing their goddess' advances like that.

 

I'm pretty sure he did it during the fight with The Key.

Thank you, corrected.

 

It occurs to me that this'd be a time to go looking for more humans who are enlightened, or in the aftermath of this. Because they would be more resistant.

This is also going to be a pain to fix.
I think OL himself eliminated time travel as an entirely viable way to fix this, which I think basically leaves mass mind control, and if OL realizes the scale of the problem he's liable to break off from the fighting and start mind controlling the planet to reduce the damage.
Maybe implant a strong worldwide desire to recognize and resist harm from ongoing mind control, and keep physical damage from getting too bad in the time until the effect stops/is counteracted?

 

Well, time to get the Big Guns. Merge with the Ophidian and temporarely mindfuck the Earth by their desires. So long as he can influence the desires of people not to kill each other, and fight the Anti-Life, he can gain time for others to find a solution. It is radical, but its either that, the spear of Longinus, or try to contact the Life Entity and that would be like lighting a neon sign on the dark for anyone who has knowledge of what the Life Entity is.

 

To be fair, that's most DC universes. They are not nice places to live for most of the population.

 

Missing full stop, I think.

I always love it when an OP guy just ignores esoteric stuff, because fuck you, that’s how.
What a great chapter. At least for me, definitely the best in a long time.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

I wouldn't want to expose Ophidian to a more complete Anti-Life E.quation, besides...Darkseid's supposed to be Grayven's Final Boss ain't he? He shouldn't be going down like a chump to Paul, especially when if this is a plan that he's put some of his own personal attention to, this almost definitely has to have at least 3 parts of the Equation with it, if not a nearly complete Equation.

 

Rereading, this situation sure escalated abruptly. We went from something vaguely concerning to worldwide antilife exposure.