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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
1st January 2013
22:13 GMT

And there go my boobs. Chest… Uaargh. Yeah, that shot a nice hole through my construct, force fields, armour and flesh. Heart-. Yeah, lost my heart, as well as a lot of lung and my oesophagus. Fortunately, it looks like whatever the gun fires it a purely straight line thing, rather than crawling though my body to hit every vital organ. So my brain's still fine. Or maybe she doesn't realise that I have one? This armour doesn't have a distinct head unit after all.
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I suppose being able to keep your brain running on Orange Light makes losing a fairly important chunk of your body seem insignificant... Still, very lucky she did shoot center of mass instead of targetting the presumably obvious sensor cluster...

I'm falling. Good, playing possum in a situation like this is a reasonable ploy, because if my defences don't work the only thing I've got to fall back on is phasing and that's a lot easier to bypass than the rest.

Ring, image of Astarte?
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Always good to keep eyes on the threat, after all. Be thankful she didn't give you a follow-up double-tap.

The armour is clearly a New God riff on what the rest of her people are wearing, with the helmet being replaced with a diadem. New God technology, so it'll probably work fine on the areas its not covering. The forearm weapons are blasters rather than being plasma-based, which explains why she was able to bypass…

Ugh, Hippolyta's been sandbagging, hasn't she? Is Ares Astarte's father, too? Might explain-.
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It's more that Hippolyta hasn't tapped into her divine side. Not much need too with Themyscira normally so peaceful.

Right. Regenerate my chest… Yes, just repair, I'll redesign later. Have to evade attacks, rather than tough them out. Restore armour and start dodging at once just in case.

How to actually attack her?
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Sadly, her proximity to the ritual chamber kind of rules out the biggest guns. Too much collateral damage.

Fungoid, go after her.

"One animal is much like another, as far as I'm concerned."
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...Wow, he's a rude one, that Construct Lantern. Do as you're told, blobbo.

Where even-? The tower. And I'm going to assume from the fact that she is having to fight the defenders that she can't just blast her way through the New God armour that the Ascendants are wearing.

I scan the lower levels of the tower, and… Yes, a couple of dead Ascendants.
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Ah, indulging in some quick looting for new gear, OL-chan? It's a fine tradition. After all, back in the Trojan War, they fought over things like the armour of fallen heroes...

Well, there's no point in wearing armour that I know doesn't work. Construct armour should be able to handle the other weapons. I fly downwards, forming a crumbler ram to crumble a circle out of the wall and slam into the Citizenry's rearguard.

Literally.
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...Good thing crumblers are self-cleaning, or that would result in a lot of chunky salsa.

It turns out that in addition to properly phased plasma, their armour also doesn't stop crumbler fields.

My construct armour takes fire from the three survivors, and I feel reassured that it takes the hits without much difficulty.
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Well, reinforced by your desire to not get shot again, of course it will.

I lash out with filament cluster constructs, and two respond by diving to evade and the third slashes at the cluster coming at her with a glowing short sword. The short sword works best, cutting through about 80% of the oncoming filaments. It doesn't make much difference as I only need one to tag her for a shock crown, but it does to show that evading isn't always the best option as the other two are hit by all of the filaments I send at them.
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Still, good show for her attempt to resist.

Right. Take their weapons, send them to subspace. Nerve impulse suppression collar, slap that around their unwisely exposed necks. The version with the anti-sabotage decapitation charge. Now… Yes, they've shut down the boom tube and the next closest squad are several floors up.

I step
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No interruptions to your looting. Yoink!

out of my armour and grab the two Ascendant corpses. The armour… It's not going to give me complete coverage, but it'll be better than nothing. Muttering a prayer to Hades, I strip the dead of their armour and strap it onto my own body. And… Each of them get an obol in the mouth, which probably won't matter, but is appropriate and respectful, especially if I'm stealing their soul-bound equipment.

And now…
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Construct armour can always cover the gaps for you. And respect for showing respect to the dead.

I feel the shape of my desires, the fabric of reality flexing in response to the orange light within me. I feel the networks of desire I'm not even touching respond to my actions, reshaping themselves without requiring my direction. I feel myself partially material and partially in the Honden of Avarice, existing as an aetheric creature.

That… Seems to be working. Faintly-glowing tron lines, and… It's easy enough to move in. Makes my breasts more apparent than the fully enclosed power armour, but…
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...And now I'm picturing that moment from the end of 'The Matrix'. You know the one. Where the shape of reality itself begins to warp...

Just ignore it.

For a moment I consider getting back inside my power armour and using this as an undersuit, but I just don't think it adds anything.
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I'm sure it looks a lot spiffier than your usual light combat armour. And possibly more hellenic.

I fly-

Ooh, that's interesting. Flying by ring power feels easier and more responsive. It's like I'm… More aware of the universe around me without specifically telling my rings to feed me that information.
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Because of course New God-style technology gives a bonus to exotic sensory perception.

-up the tower, construct armour forming around me. The ship is moving away from the tower, training its guns on the tower but not actually firing. Do the crew know about the ritual? How much of the tower-?

The attackers aren't destroying the New God systems in the tower's structure. Are they-?
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Probably confident they don't need to, assuming that they can overpower the spirits of those within.

There are many more Ascendants on the planet than are in New Othrys. The logical thing to do would have been to boom tube directly into the ritual space, unless they couldn't because it's shielded. With the power boost from the Seeds, Sparta or Astarte could overwhelm the system… Broadcast her power over the whole planet. Or just override anything that might stop them boom tubing out. At the same time, I can't just tell them to wreck the tower because Athyns wants to do the same but for our side.
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It's going to have to be blade and fist, then.

Astarte is two floors down, battering the last set of defenders between her and her goal, their New God shields barely able to block the hail of plasma coming up at-.

For a second, Astarte locks eyes with me through the wall evade!
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To be fair, she probably doesn't know you from the heavily-armoured being she killed earlier. Astarte is likely only seeing a flying Ascendant with an irrelevantly odd aura.

Die.
Ow! Right in the-! Boobs again! Armour took it, and… Stayed whole, but it's visibly damaged and I'm seeing the downside of the extra erogenous zones. Stings.

Destructive pulse.
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Hey, at least it's not like Wonder Woman or Power Girl. :DYou've got plenty of support, and presumably a lot less mass there...

My armour shimmers as the orange bolt fires back along the path taken by Astarte's blaster shot, the woman herself evading it easily with a sidestep she barely seems to think about. Three thousand years worth of experience and this is all she does with it.

Destructive pulses.
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Yes, put that indignation at her wastefulness to use.

I fire a barrage, orange bolts punching through the walls and slamming into the Citizens, bursting apart their armour and flesh.
Die.
Astartes takes another shot at me, so I try to intercept it with my own. It's… Partially successful, repeated destructive pulse hits eating away at her blaster bolt until what hits my armour is barely a fart. Grinning, I focus fire on Astarte and force her away from the staircase, fire from the defenders causing a crossfire. And since they're Ascendants, she can't just tank it on her armour.
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Amazing how much easier it is when you're using the right gear, isn't it?

Die And Be Damned!
She makes her choice and backs up towards the far wall, letting the defenders hit her in exchange for getting more shots off at me. She's moving her arm around to change the angle, but I'm in the air and moving slightly to intercept a gun that fires more slowly than I do is no real hardship. She's-.

Wait, where's Spa-?
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I would have expected her to have been left on the Citizenry's ship, in chains...

"MINEIT'SMINE!" "MINE!"
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...But no. Here she is, going all Daffy Duck over the Seeds...

Sparta throws the bodies of fallen Citizens at the distracted guards and then throws herself at them. The bodies only block a couple of shots but Sparta doesn't even notice the burns on her skin as she throws herself at them in a frenzy. Astarte switches targets, managing to hit a guard who was trying to fight Sparta off in the head and creating an opening for her. Sparta charges past them, a New God mace appearing in her hand as she assaults the fortified door protecting the ritual space. Astarte switches target again, shooting the wall behind her with a wide beam shot before throwing herself out. I fly into the building, trying to-.
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Well, crap. Two war goddess-wannabes fighting side-by-side...

BOOM!

Through the hole in the building I watch Aramis spit out an ice cube.

"Hey there sugar plum. Miss me?"
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...and then there's this crazy bastich again... o_O It never rains when it could pour, does it?

Eesh. this day just keeps getting worse, doesn't it? OL-chan might have to toss out the 'minimum killing' rule out in the face of ludicrous resistance. At least he's got a power-up from the Ascendant armour. Let's hope he keeps it, or at least gets a somewhat more masculine cut for later. Now... I wonder how resistant Velorpians are to assimilation? ;)

Fortunately, it looks like whatever the gun fires it a purely straight line thing...
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Fortunately, it looks like whatever the gun fires is a purely straight line thing...
 
Wait, if it's Sparta being consumed by avarice? That's got to be very bad for Sparta fighting the avatar of the Orange Light. Feels like that would make her extremely susceptible to assimilation (much like Black thoughts would be very bad in the face of the Anti-Life)
 
AmericanNumbers said:
Wait, if it's Sparta being consumed by avarice? That's got to be very bad for Sparta fighting the avatar of the Orange Light. Feels like that would make her extremely susceptible to assimilation (much like Black thoughts would be very bad in the face of the Anti-Life)
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Alternately
"You may not use our light"
 
Mr Zoat said:
Wait, where's Spa-?

"MINEIT'SMINE!" "MINE!"
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Wait, Sparta using Avarice fueled Godspeech... me thinks the Ophidian will take insult to some puny god trying to piggyback off her power. Either she utterly removes Sparta's ability to feel desire (was she the one who did that to Larfleeze? Can't recall of the top of my head) or she decides to make her a toy (like she did that one Saremite).
 
I'm happy that the Illustres is using his Destruction Pulse, anything else was soft-balling these enemies. Now he needs to really push his metaphysical weight around; disconnect these viruses from the orange light to see how they like it, brand and subvert some of them, some Feed Me and All Things Strive as well!

These new New Gods might ve dangerous but I can't believe that their souls have more weight than the human Avatar of the Ophidian.

Oh, and at this point I think the Illustres' armor probably looks like a more square version of Robby the Robot or something like that, so something aesthetically unpleasing. At least make it 40k-like if you want it that bulky and unwieldy.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Wait, where's Spa-?

"MINEIT'SMINE!" "MINE!"
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I was so excited for Paul to be able to speak Godspeech! Hmm… I wonder if broadcasting his name would knock out all ascended in the system (plus him, but that would be a decent trade in this context). Ah, wait. We very much don't want to knock out the ones doing the ritual.
PAUL: "My name is Paul Tal—"
RITUALISTS: collapse
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Mr Zoat said:
Basically, the head is enclosed with the torso.
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Ask, and you shall receive.
krang.jpg

https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3345908/krang-arrive-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-sequel/
Truly the most fetching of 'amazons in armor' eyecandy.
 
Sorry if this sounds odd but does anyone have the entire list of Chapters of Paul in the He-Man universe?
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
I would have expected her to have been left on the Citizenry's ship, in chains
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Even if she was, she could have escaped.

Chojin Patriarch said:
and then there's this crazy bastich again... o_O It never rains when it could pour, does it?
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And right now it's raining crazy bitches and cats.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Now... I wonder how resistant Velorpians are to assimilation? ;)
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I think renegade assimilated that other Lobo, but I'm not sure.

He definitely assimilated that Green Lantern black ops guy.
 
Mr Zoat, since the latest Episode starts in January, shouldn't the previous Episodes be combined into one folder and labelled July to December while the latest Episode be labelled under 2013?
 
Interesting. I don't recall Sparta having an orange Lantern ring, but I assume all shall be revealed.

Huh, I wonder if any of the Citizenry will find themselves submitted to Hades judgement. Or some God connected to the Ascendents.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I can't immediately call to mind power armour that looks like it does. Basically, the head is enclosed with the torso.

Depends. How good at drawing are you?
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terribad at drawing. how does she swivel her neck about? what about feelings of claustrophobia? i guess there are cameras to let him see in 360 degrees?
 
Mr Zoat said:
See? You're not the only one who can put unnecessarily huge images in my thread.
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Funnily enough, when you use the 'insert edit' link button to add an image, there are these 8 blue squares at the corners and midpoint you are supposed to be able to use to make the image a manageable size.

They do nothing.
Once you press post, any resizing you did gets undone.

So... have a face full of Alien Wang Krang, on me!
 
Fleet Traction (part 27)
  • Threadmarks
    • 1st January 2013
    22:16 GMT

    I keep firing, destructive pulses flying through the building towards Astarte.

    "No."

    I get exactly two hits on her as she tries to dodge while maintaining the ability to shoot back. One hits her torso and the other on her left arm, scarring the armour but not disabling her. Then Aramis interposes herself, shoving Astarte aside and… Just soaking the hits. Her armour is blasted apart and the orange bolts start eating into her flesh.

    "That's it! Make me feel-"
    Die!
    I dodge to the side as Astarte fires another shot, my ability to analyse her actions increasing the longer my ring studies her.

    "-pain!"

    Really?

    The pulses chew through her skin and muscle, but she clearly doesn't care. Her head's tilted back and she's laughing, and… I just can't work up the same contempt for her that I have for Astarte.

    In front of me the Ascendants try to hold back the frenzied Sparta. But she's a lot stronger than them, and it looks like a losing battle. The Citizenry rally, careful to keep out of the line of sight between me and their superiors. Raising their guns, they-.

    "Last ones."

    The Fungoid phases through the floor and opens its arms wide, spores spreading outwards to cover the blindsided Citizens. A few get shots off, but they're poorly aimed and hit only solid armour plates. The rest try to stagger away, but having already taken a lungful-.

    Aramis shatters the Fungoid construct lantern with brute force, flying straight through the tower-. And running straight into my crumbler ram construct as I lurch to the side. Ah, she doesn't have a natural flying ability. Without the ability to launch herself off objects with super strength, she's stuck at the same airspeed as the other Citizens. The construct ram smashes through the left side of her face, though for some reason it's more 'mashes' than 'reduced to component atoms'.

    And then she turns around and grins, one half normal jaw and the other half bloody exposed bone. I can see the flesh wriggling and writhing as it heals.

    "You soft-pedalling me in the arena?"

    She lunges, and this time I try a cold gun as I fly aside. She holds out her right arm, letting it freeze completely solid. But it looks like that provides enough insulation to stop the rest of her still-healing body from freezing along with it.

    "A woman could take that the wrong way."

    And of course the knock-out spores aren't doing anything. She-.

    She's slow in the air. I'm trying to keep Athyns safe. As long as I keep both Aramis and Astarte focused on me, I'm achieving that aim.

    On the other hand, if she's basically immortal…

    I move aside as she lunges again, firing my cold gun at her trunk. Another hit, but she twists and uses her frozen arm to block as much as she can and it's not freezing her fast enough. I can see her bare flesh thawing as I watch. She's grinning-. Or that could just be from the lack of flesh on her face. But I've been lining her up.
    Die!
    I dodge aside and Aramis takes Astarte's blaster shot right in the face. It tunnels through, into the lower part of her brain and then out of the back of her skull.

    I turn around as her body drops.

    "Thank you."

    I see her eyes flick to Spar-.

    She fires at the Ascendants who have just about got their former mistress under control. Two die in one shot, and the blood-maddened Sparta tears out the throat of a third and then lunges-.

    WORLD MADE WHOLE

    Sparta stops, stunned. My armour… Flares, not with orange light, but… It's as if the orange is forming a corona around something I can't see or feel. Astarte's armour dims and her blaster fails. She looks blank for a moment, then favours me with a look of absolute hatred before turning and fleeing.

    Point defence fire from both my ship and the local one sleet through the air, battering her armour. Which doesn't seem to be providing her with the same protection that it was a few moments ago. I form-. I try to form-.

    Can't form constructs. I could-.

    BOOM!

    A shimmering portal appears just ahead of Astarte, and she dives through. She was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, but I doubt that will prove a-

    BOOM!

    -problem. I look down and watch Aramis shakily raise two index fingers up at me as she falls through another tube, the hole in her head... Still completely open.

    Objective achieved, bonus objective-

    "It should have been mine."

    -failed. I fly into the tower, looking at the fallen Ascendants. Several are still alive, but without constructs the only way I've got to heal people is the purple healing ray on my power armour. And Sparta's still active and I have no idea what's going through her head right now.
    Be whole, my children.
    The Ascendant I'm looking at jerks up, the wound that pierced her chest glowing for a moment and then just vanishing. She pats the hole in her armour and then looks up at me for some sort of explanation.

    "I believe that Athyns has succeeded. How does the thaumosphere feel?"

    "Vital."

    The man next to her -who I was sure was dead- staggers upright, spear pointing at Sparta. Sparta doesn't even bother looking at it, just staring at-.

    The fortified doors clunk open and Athyns walks down the stairs towards us. He looks…

    I wouldn't say like a god. But more like a god than he did a little while ago.

    And the others… I can see a small part of the aura the New Titans had around each of them. And for a moment I'm extremely curious about how that worked, but… I'm not a good enough thaumaturgist to decipher it, and it's not my job anyway.

    Athyns looks over the Ascendants, who drop to their knees. Nodding, he turns to me-.

    "Did the Illustres recruit one of us?"

    "No, sorry. Hang on."

    And I'm a man again. That was mildly unsettling.

    "I thought that if I issued a challenge according to their customs, they might hold off. Unfortunately, I was wrong." I resummon the Fungoid. "We have prisoners in the lower levels. This construct can help you with them. I need to get back into space to make sure that they leave."

    "That won't be necessary." He looks up, in the direction of the Citizenry's ship. "I allowed Astarte to retreat, but that is all. The technology they were given by Grayven will not work here any longer. And the performance of our ships will be somewhat better."

    "Understood. Do you want me to stay, in case Grayven tries something? Or leave, in case I provoke someone?"

    "Neither. You helped us, despite my refusal to ally with you. We will bury the dead, and then we will celebrate Grandmother Rhea's return together."
     
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