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

[Duke Long]

A pile driver construct slamming into his chest and sends him flying back into -and through- the wall of an abandoned boatshed.

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'slams'
or
Extraneous 'and'

"Go back to Pentex? And blow up there, amongst the largest concentration of highly refined nuclear material on the planet? Is that..? Good?"

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'Pantex'?

"Why would they blow up if you set the time?"

"What, do I look as stupid as you do? Goldar set the timer. I just moved them."

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'timer'?
It might be correct as is, but the mismatch of 'time' and 'timer' just seemed a little odd.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'slams'
or
Extraneous 'and'

'Pantex'?

'timer'?
It might be correct as is, but the mismatch of 'time' and 'timer' just seemed a little odd.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[JC Denton0]

As a new reader to this story, where would you recommend I start?

 

[Lord Ernest]

As a new reader to this story, where would you recommend I start?

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At the beginning of the Story Only Thread.

Any other place and you would be lost.

 

[NightmareWarden]

As a new reader to this story, where would you recommend I start?

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Updates or chapter headers with adjusted text (Red) are stories running parallel to the main story. You could think about them as Elseworlds what-if possibilities. If you think the protagonist is acting odd, check the start of the update or arc.

 

[Sockmonkey]

Hmm, the whole thing where ending the magic doesn't just cancel ongoing effects, but actually retcons all the secondary non-magic consequences kinda bugs me.

 

[Ngamer11]

Hmm, the whole thing where ending the magic doesn't just cancel ongoing effects, but actually retcons all the secondary non-magic consequences kinda bugs me.

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That could be the reason as to why there isn't any collateral damage after the Rangers blow up the monster of the week. Though why this is a built in effect is still a mystery.

 

[rdfox]

That would just create a Dirty Bomb.

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Big deal. So a building at Pantex gets contaminated, that's just Tuesday there. Even if the implosion apparatus charge is large enough to breach the building (and while that was certainly true with the earliest ones, most modern implosion devices use less explosives in the trigger than a 500-pound conventional bomb, so it's not a sure thing), Pantex is out in the middle of nowhere, not in the heart of Amarillo. The contamination would be contained withini the facility's boundaries, and it's not like the US military doesn't have experience in cleaning up after a one-point-safe (i.e., non-prompt critical) detonation of a nuclear weapon. Even ignoring the number of deliberate one-point safe nuclear tests conducted in the late 50s and early 60s specifically to check out what the results would be and learn how to clean up after them.

I'd much rather have a nuke go off in one-point-safe mode than actually initiating correctly; while it's a messy and expensive cleanup operation, it's a hell of a lot less damage than a full nuclear detonation would be, and if it's not actually in a major population center, the danger to the public is minimal. Given that they're still a significant distance offshore, a one-point-safe detonation of even the largest fission device out there wouldn't threaten Angel Grove.

There's a reason why I've always figured that if I found myself in a position similar to Bond at the climax of Goldfinger, I'd pull open the bomb case as best I could and just start ripping wires free as fast as I can. Might not save me, but I'd at least stop them from vaporizing the target...

 

[Mr Zoat]

As a new reader to this story, where would you recommend I start?

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At the beginning of the Story Only Thread.

Any other place and you would be lost.

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No, you need to Ironman it. Thread One.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April 1995
14:42 GMT -7

I think I made it angry.

Five missiles zip through the space I occupied prior to my aerial dodge before slamming into the ground and exploding. Red-. Scan. No, he's teleported away, but I hope there wasn't anything valuable in that boat shed. And those missiles are big; I'd say about a metre across the fuselage and six times that long. Not sure what the warhead is. Anti-matter would make sense, but there isn't the radiation that would entail.

I sight the zord-. It's firing its left hand now. I fly upwards to evade them, spotting it reloading its right fingers. They don't appear to have any tracking capacity, so I suppose that they're intended for overwhelming the defensive abilities of other zord-scale opponents at short range. So as long as I-.

AH!

Hah, okay. They can be prematurely detonated in an airburst. Goldar did say that zords could shoot down missiles. I guess that's how the Dragonzord does it. But I'm a lot tougher than an aluminium missile, so it'll need a far closer miss to take me-

I look down at my nearly-dark crystal.

-down.

And with this much time having passed, Black and Pink might teleport back here. Or go to help William or the yellow one beat their opponents. But the reason why I wanted to pair William with Goldar is because while I don't think he can win that fight, he's intelligent enough to try to stab his bomb and leave.

Another flight of missiles heading this way. Point defence constructs, shoot them.. while moving, because that zord is lumbering this way and I don't know that I didn't forget one of its weapon systems. Shooting them out of the air… Ah, they still detonate, but nowhere near me and… This whole area is used to having a giant robot dragon lumber out of the water and so they've got a really good evacuation plan.

Alright, where did Red-?

Oh, good man. I-.

I glance down at my crystal again and don't create a booster rocket construct, instead settling for using my armour's flight system. Target Red Ranger, who is rummaging around a fish market and trying to locate where I hid the bomb, most likely by tracking the tiny amount of radioactive material I left as a trail. Someone needs to pay more attention in physics-.

The Dragonzord tries launching all ten missiles at once, some coming in high, some direct and others flying along the deck. I didn't know it could do that.

Did someone get inside when I wasn't watching?

"Good distraction, Red! Doing wonders for property values!"

Thin lines of light leap out from my point defence constructs, missile after missile detonating without coming anywhere near me. I'm careful to shoot out the lower ones while they're not directly above any structures; their explosions are intense but relatively contained-.

He's spotted the crate. Railgun, track and fire on full automatic.

Compliance.

The first shot hits him in the back, sending him tumbling forwards. He rolls and dodges, the second shot ripping through the wall next to him.

Fly closer and construct lasso.

Red Ranger leaps at the crate, sword held high as he takes my advice. All for nothing, as my construct grabs him and yanks him back.

"No!"

"Didn't Blue or Black tell you what I can do?"

I spin the lasso, dragging him through the air before releasing him in the direction of the next wave of oncoming missiles. The Dragonzord detonates them early, but Red is already moving to intersect with the blasts.

"Ugh!"

And then I let him drop.

"Given how slow you are, maybe I should leave now! The bomb will probably go off by the time you get there!"

He lands in a crouch, exhaling hard before looking up at me.

Then he teleports.

Okay, passable. But it's not like I don't know where-.

The Dragonzord fires again, and I ready my point-.

Duuuufgh!

There's a screech as-. As the Pterodactyl Dinozord swoops out of the clouds, both lightning cannons firing! Construct shield, nice and non-conductive… Yes, good. It's heading back up into the clouds. My point defence constructs fire at the oncoming missiles. Ah, trying to time their attacks so that they hit at the same time. Good tactic.

Red Ranger grabs the crate with the radioactive symbol on it, only for me to lasso it this time and pull it out of reach.

"I thought you only used zords against giant monsters. What gives?"

"None of Rita's other monsters tried to blow up the world!"

Fair point. Okay, the Mastodon Zord freezes things but I don't remember what the other-.

A silver missile shoots past me.

Oh, okay, that-.

Chain! It was towing-! Construct armour and-.

The air around me turns to plasma as a lot of electricity flows between the two… Missiles? Horns? Triceratops horns, right. Doesn't do a thing to me because I'm insulated, but-.

The Pterodactyl Dinozord comes around and fires, destroying my point defence constructs.

Ah.

And here come the missiles, direct flight path so they can minimise the time I've got to do something about it.

I fabricate insulated cables and stick them out through the electrified plasma, recreating my point defence constructs as I thicken my armour, but…

Oh, this is going to hurt.

WUCHUUUM-CHUUUM-CHUMMMMM!

Yaaaagh!

The chains break and I… Fall to the ground. Still alive, skin… Burned and leaking juices in places. Construct armour's broken and regular armour looks like something a niche stripper would wear, good work environmental shield. I think I'd be in more pain if my nerves were still connected.

I wallow as I reach the ground, nearly arresting my fall but needing to take a few staggered steps.

Red Ranger dashes towards me, sword held at an.. odd angle as he runs his left hand down the blade-. And it starts glowing.

Oh. I guess they don't always need the combination gun, then.

 

[GigaVanguard]

Damn, this might be it for PR!OL. Unless he's got a real convenient source of compatible magic nearby ready to be assimilated, he's just about dry now

 

[FreeGod]

Damn, this might be it for PR!OL. Unless he's got a real convenient source of compatible magic nearby ready to be assimilated, he's just about dry now

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This is the part where Rita always says "Make my monster grow!" And she seems not to have a range limit. She might just recharge him.

 

[Irked]

...I think i've actually figured out what his plan is here.

Whats the one thing Rita does every time it looks like the monster of the week is about to lose?

Edit: spoiler apparently not required as i just got ninja'd

Noone in the setting he's in has any idea that Paul has just as much foreknowledge of them as they potentially do of him (even if Billy hasn't told them much), meaning he knows that Rita is about to yeet her staff at the planet once he starts losing badly enough and give him a chance to steal it.

 

[Bigking321]

"Make my monster GROW!"

 

[Irked]

The fact that he's made the Power Rangers use the zords before Rita's done her usual shtick makes it even more likely she'll give him a boost, as thats a lot more than most of her MOTW can manage.

 

[boo600]

And that is how even a little meta-knowledge can be exploited to fix Problems.

I mean, assuming that Make My Monster Grow is his plan. Which it seems like, seeing as how he didn't just Transition or Step Out to get away and attack from behind.

 

[Rebu]

Damn, this might be it for PR!OL. Unless he's got a real convenient source of compatible magic nearby ready to be assimilated, he's just about dry now

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"How will Our Hero get out of this one? Tune in next week! Same Orange -time, same Orange-channel, on With This Ring!"

 

[FreeGod]

The fact that he's made the Power Rangers use the zords before Rita's done her usual shtick makes it even more likely she'll give him a boost, as thats a lot more than most of her MOTW can manage.

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In story the reason they don't use the words right away is escalation. But in this case OL turned the escalation dial up to 11 before the fight even started. If they destroyed the whole block with missiles it's a small price to save the world.

Presumably Zord collateral damage doesn't fix itself with monster death.

 

[Signaller]

Of course, we still don't know if either Yellow or Black survived their challenges. We know from Green With Evil that the Megazord can operate with four pilots, and the Dragonzord Battle Mode with three, but I don't know if regular with three was ever a thing?

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

1st April 1995
14:42 GMT -7

I think I made it angry.

Five missiles zip through the space I occupied prior to my aerial dodge before slamming into the ground and exploding. Red-. Scan. No, he's teleported away, but I hope there wasn't anything valuable in that boat shed. And those missiles are big; I'd say about a metre across the fuselage and six times that long. Not sure what the warhead is. Anti-matter would make sense, but there isn't the radiation that would entail.

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Boy, the Zords don't do thing by half, do they? At least anyone around here when it walked out of the ocean would have hauled ass out of there. Otherwise, all sorts of questions would be raised about the giant monster fights... At least some series explain it by them taking place in otherworldly pocket dimensions or the like.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I sight the zord-. It's firing its left hand now. I fly upwards to evade them, spotting it reloading its right fingers. They don't appear to have any tracking capacity, so I suppose that they're intended for overwhelming the defensive abilities of other zord-scale opponents at short range. So as long as I-.

AH!

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Well, the giant monsters do seem unusually tough until the Rangers hit their finishing move.

Hah, okay. They can be prematurely detonated in an airburst. Goldar did say that zords could shoot down missiles. I guess that's how the Dragonzord does it. But I'm a lot tougher than an aluminium missile, so it'll need a far closer miss to take me-

I look down at my nearly-dark crystal.

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Ah, right, that pesky energy limit. That's going to severely impair his durability.

-down.

And with this much time having passed, Black and Pink might teleport back here. Or go to help William or the yellow one beat their opponents. But the reason why I wanted to pair William with Goldar is because while I don't think he can win that fight, he's intelligent enough to try to stab his bomb and leave.

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And then tell everyone else the trick. Now, to see whether they can beat the clock or not.

Another flight of missiles heading this way. Point defence constructs, shoot them.. while moving, because that zord is lumbering this way and I don't know that I didn't forget one of its weapon systems. Shooting them out of the air… Ah, they still detonate, but nowhere near me and… This whole area is used to having a giant robot dragon lumber out of the water and so they've got a really good evacuation plan.

Alright, where did Red-?

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Well, that answers the question of where the people went. The construction industry must be making a killing in this town, though.

Oh, good man. I-.

I glance down at my crystal again and don't create a booster rocket construct, instead settling for using my armour's flight system. Target Red Ranger, who is rummaging around a fish market and trying to locate where I hid the bomb, most likely by tracking the tiny amount of radioactive material I left as a trail. Someone needs to pay more a attention in physics-.

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After all, a nuke that leaks that much is a badly-made nuke.

The Dragonzord tries launching all ten missiles at once, some coming in high, some direct and others flying along the deck. I didn't know it could do that.

Did someone get inside when I wasn't watching?

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I mean, if Billy did beat his stage first, he may well have taken the controls once Red regained control.

"Good distraction, Red! Doing wonders for property values!"

Thin lines of light leap out from my point defence constructs, missile after missile detonating without coming anywhere near me. I'm careful to shoot out the lower ones while they're not directly above any structures; their explosions are intense but relatively contained-.

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After all, never know if some idiot stuck around to watch the fight.

He's spotted the crate. Railgun, track and fire on full automatic.

Compliance.

The first shot hits him in the back, sending him tumbling forwards. He rolls and dodges, the second shot ripping through the wall next to him.

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Yeah, he's definitely going easy on Jason. If he really wanted him dead, he'd just have deployed multiple guns on full automatic...

Fly closer and construct lasso.

Red Ranger leaps at the crate, sword held high as he takes my advise. All for nothing, as my construct grabs him and yanks him back.

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Oh, that's got to be annoying.

"No!"

"Didn't Blue or Black tell you what I can do?"

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Not sure what insight Zack would have, outside of that short conversation before he met with Zordon...

I spin the lasso, dragging him through the air before releasing him in the direction of the next wave of oncoming missiles. The Dragonzord detonates them early, but Red is already moving to intersect with the blasts.

"Ugh!"

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Ooh, that's got to sting.

And then I let him drop.

"Given how slow you are, maybe I should leave now! The bomb will probably go off my the time you get there!"

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And somehow, I get the feeling his chattiness is not making Jason's mood any better.

He lands in a crouch, exhaling hard before looking up at me.

Then he teleports.

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Smart move. But where has he gone?

Okay, passable. But it's not like I don't know where-.

The Dragonzord fires again, and I ready my point-.

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Persistence is nice, but you know he can stop that shit, folks.

Duuuufgh!

There's a screech as-. As the Pterodactyl Dinozord swoops out of the clouds, both lightning cannons firing! Construct shield, nice and non-conductive… Yes, good. It's heading back up into the clouds. My point defence construct fire at the oncoming missiles. Ah, trying to time their attacks so that they hit at the same time. Good tactic.

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...Well, that's an impressive level of escalation. Zords versus single normal-sized person has to be something of a first at this point.

Red Ranger grabs the crate with the radioactive symbol on it, only for me to lasso it this time and pull it out of reach.

"I thought you only used zords against giant monsters. What gives?"

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Guessing he was going to pull the 'get it out of here' play.

"None of Rita's other monsters tried to blow up the world!"

Fair point. Okay, the Mastodon Zord freezes things but I don't remember what the other-.

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Ooh, individual mech abilities? Fun times.

A silver missile shoots past me.

Oh, okay, that-.

Chain! It was towing-! Construct armour and-.

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There's the Triceratops Zord. Have to wonder if the Rangers are in the pilot's seat or they're being remote-controlled...

The air around me turns to plasma as a lot of electricity flows between the two… Missiles? Horns? Triceratops horns, right. Doesn't do a thing to me because I'm insulated, but-.

The Pterodactyl Dinozord comes around and fires, destroying my point defence constructs.

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Ah, five-v-one. Looks like they're through playing nice.

Ah.

And here come the missiles, direct flight path so they can minimise the time I've got to do something about it.

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Teamwork! Great for the Rangers, bad for OL. Even if he was trying to push them to improve...

I fabricate insulated cables and stick them out through the electrified plasma, recreating my point defence constructs as I thicken my armour, but…

Oh, this is going to hurt.

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And every Construct reduces his available charge that little bit more...

WUCHUUUM-CHUUUM-CHUMMMMM!

Yaaaagh!

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Heh. You know this would be a big-ass pryo stunt, with multiple colours and lots of flame.

The chains break and I… Fall to the ground. Still alive, skin… Burned and leaking juices in places. Construct armour's broken and regular armour looks like something a niche stripper would wear, good work environmental shield. I think I'd be in more pain if my nerves were still connected.

I wallow as I reach the ground, nearly arresting my fall but needing to take a few staggered steps.

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Oof. Yeah, for all those defences, he's still only as tough as a normal person underneath. No Monster durability here.

Red Ranger dashes towards me, sword held at an.. odd angle as he runs his left hand down the blade-. And it starts glowing.

Oh. I guess they don't always need the combination gun, then.

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Nice, he actually managed to earn a solo finishing strike. That's a rare honour.

Yeah, I get the feeling he's trying to lose this fight. Not to make the Rangers look good, or to go out on a high note... No, he's hoping Rita pulls her usual trick, isn't he? Because that means the 'Wand' is out of Rita's hands, and quite likely charged up with magical energy he can absorb with a little need. Whether that will work remains to be seen, though...

---

Someone needs to pay more a attention in physics-.

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Extraneous 'a'...

...sword held high as he takes my advise.

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...sword held high as he takes my advice.

The bomb will probably go off my the time you get there!"

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The bomb will probably go off by the time you get there!"

 

[Venustoise]

Even if Rita tosses her wand to "make [her] monster grow" couldn't she just resummon it if PROL tries to swipe it? Or was Linkara right and she has to use a fishing rod to manually reel it back up?

 

[moralrelativity]

high as he takes my advise.

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advise -> advice

probably go off my the time you get

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my -> by

My point defence construct fire

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construct -> constructs

 

[Nervaqus987]

Even if Rita tosses her wand to "make [her] monster grow" couldn't she just resummon it if PROL tries to swipe it? Or was Linkara right and she has to use a fishing rod to manually reel it back up?

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Well, she yeets the thing instead of teleporting it. Maybe the wand has to physically travel back to her and the Rangers are usually too preoccupied to stop it.

If it does, OL may be planning to wrestle it in place or maybe drain it and stop her from getting it back?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Extraneous 'a'...
...sword held high as he takes my advice.
The bomb will probably go off by the time you get there!"

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construct -> constructs

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Thank you, corrected.

Well, she yeets the thing instead of teleporting it. Maybe the wand has to physically travel back to her and the Rangers are usually too preoccupied to stop it.

If it does, OL may be planning to wrestle it in place or maybe drain it and stop her from getting it back?

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You think maybe that she doesn't have an automatic recall feature, and has to send someone down to pick it up every time?

 

[Coltsguy]

The real question becomes 'can she take the staff back from him'?

 

[Lord Ernest]

I'm actually impressed by the Rangers. After getting clowned by PROL and, honestly, taught what he really needed to do, Red Ranger adapted relatively quick and then they supported and escalated as necessary.

True that PROL wasn't really trying to defeat him, though. He was literally telling the Ranger what to do and hamming up his kayfabe, but never even tried to actually hurt the Red Ranger.

If the strategy is indeed taking the Wand when Rita tries to 'enlarge' him, then it would be really funny to see the reactions of the bad guys and of the Rangers.

 

[DeathReaperZ]

In the corner of my eye I see the Aztec goddess's head split in two, a new mouth appearing between the left and right sides as it fully opens and her tongue extending up from her neck!

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Something like this?

"Ring's dead. Kon, what's your damage?"

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Rings'?

"They probably call themselves 'Mexians'."

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Mexicans?

 

[Ngamer11]

Mr Zoat, I was rereading the episode where Richard Simpson gets a robot body and John Quinn as a parole officer and it got me wondering. What happened to Richard Simpson after it was revealed that John Quinn was trying to infect the world with the Anti-Life? Was he infected like the imprisoned evil magicians? Or was he kept out of the way? And what is he doing now?

 

[CTrees]

You know... some monsters do change appearance when they grow to giant size, notably Scorpina and the Pyscho Rangers. If Rita does make PR!OL grow, he might end up surprising everyone but Billy by being significantly more snake-like.

 

[Lord Ernest]

Mexicans?

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No, it's actually Mexica, the people that ruled the Aztec Empire. I believe the Illustres doesn't actually know and so is wrong in-character, so there wouldn't be a correction because nobody was there to correct him in the story.