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

[boo600]

...Ok, I could have sworn antemergerentur meant 'old, before times,' or somehow 'unsunken,' but when I went to check the word, my dictionary, spell-check, and google all failed me. I think it's a misspelled word (Grayven says it when fighting Ahri'ahn at the Un-men compound), but while I'm fine not using it in the case where I wanted to, this is really bothering me. Mr. Zoat?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Anarkic

1st May 2013
12:46 GMT

The old home town just… Ain't the same,
Like a derelict man who has died out of shame,
A jumble sale left out in the…

No, no. That's not fair at all.

But this whole situation is disappointing. Dolmen Gates are the second biggest improvement I've made to the world. Right after preserving Cadburys' chocolate.

"Heh."

Right after undoing global warming. Useful magical artefacts that can just slot into the world, reducing pollution, getting Atlanteans interacting with the surface, cutting travel times to next to nothing… And the longer it stayed there the more useful it made itself.

And now… Well… The ones we already made are still there, but the one Atlantean who was working with us and was on the surface when the Anti-Life broadcast happened… Didn't.. survive. I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprised me to learn that magic users were actually more vulnerable than normal people due to their connection to the arcane side of the world.

I'm not sure if Mannheim didn't know about the portals, or didn't care about them, or didn't really have a way to move them, but he didn't do anything about them. Mitchell and Noriel had to stop the Bourneville City Boss doing a sort of evil Willy Wonka re-enactment with Cadbury's World at one point, but… Well, we were moving goods using the Gates before and… Morbid as it is, aside from a few name changes where people died and a few emergency League authority rulings to get land where all the potential owners died back into use, it's… Back into full working order.

I mostly check the value of my theoretical investment in medallions rather than pounds sterling these days…

Who was it-? I honestly don't remember who it was, who looked upon the damage wrought by the Great Fire of London and got excited at the chance to rebuild London as a modern city in its wake. Good for him, I suppose, but I'm just… I'm not annoyed or angry. I'm actually sad that it's all been curtailed like this.

Months since, and I still can't get back to what I was doing.

I suppose that I should check in with everyone.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Watchtower. Anything you need me doing, or can you just forward me the to-do list?"

"Watchtower responding." Mr. Atom. "Orange Lantern, Batman has expressed a desire to speak to you in person. Go to Mount Justice and I will inform him that you are here."

"Rightoh. Going there now. Orange Lantern out."

I raise my right forefinger to my forehead and

step out, reappearing

next to the bundle of drives that characterise Happy Harbour.

1st May 2013
07:48 GMT -5

It's… Quieter than it used to be. As a rural location, the death toll here wasn't… Too bad. But.. more than the death, people are just more sombre than they used to be. I suppose that after the Sheeda it was possible to believe that things would just go back to normal eventually. At least, if you weren't in one of the areas that was directly attacked. But everyone got exposed to the Anti-Life. Sections of the woodlands near the town have been cut down to make allotments-. A community farm, because while food supplies here weren't disrupted much, everyone living here thinks they could get disrupted badly if anything like that happens again.

And with the economy the way it is, having a cheaper hobby like growing your own food has a definite appeal.

I drift towards the mountain, taking in Euanthe's grove on the top. Still there, if not flourishing quite as much as it was with a dryad's constant attention. And no soon-to-be druid lying next to a tree blissed out on green magic rich fruit this time, which is probably good.

Hm.

I don my light power armour and dive into the water off the coast, powering through the water and entering the underwater tunnel into the lower level. I send my authentication signal to the force field system to actually enter the Mountain proper. This system is an upgraded version of a modification I made to the system after those Saremites got in and we got a definitive answer to the 'do they actually know we're here' question.

Gone are the happy days when I could just swim in.

I come out in the hangar, and… Ah, no bioship. It's a school day, so… I guess Martian Manhunter is using it? Or there's been an emergency of some kind. Not really a huge issue. Anyone-

Lantern Ghia'ta flies into the hangar, Lantern Rrab just behind her.

-could be.. using it. I send my armour back into subspace.

"Good morning."

Ghia'ta smiles. "Good morning!"

Lantern Rrab just nods a little cautiously. "Illustres."

"Apparently Batman wants to talk to me. Any idea what that's about?"

Ghia'ta shakes her head as I land on the shore. "No. Perhaps he wishes to coordinate a wide scale operation with you?"

"I suppose. What are you up to today?"

"I am volunteering at an orphanage."

I.. nod. That's something she's been doing during her enforced downtime. Children generally flexed rather than being broken under the Anti-Life, but that meant that there are a lot more children without a next of kin to take them on. I turn to Lantern Rrab, eyebrows raised.

"Um. Could you..? Tell me how the war against the Reach is going?"

I shrug, and flick a data packet from my ring to hers.

"The most recent fight involved me rescuing the last surviving members of an unusually intelligent species before the Reach could scoop out their brains to use as computers. We're winning, as much as space captured since the beginning of the war is any guide to go by. But we always knew that the Reach are defence in depth types, so…"

I shrug, and she nods.

"Interested in getting involved?" I pull my ring off my right hand and wiggle it at her. "One of my students recently gained enlightenment, so I've got some spare time?"

"Um." To her credit, she doesn't recoil much. "No. Thank you. I've got… A lot to learn before I try fighting the Reach."

"Good attitude, though I think it makes you the only member of this team who thinks that. What are you doing today?"

"Hal is showing me more advanced techniques!" She smiles as she-. Oh dear. Note to self, have a word with Lantern Jordan about-.

I consider Zatanna.

About talking to someone else about how to gently let someone know that you're not interested. Actually, Batman is probably a good person to go to with that.

I nod again. "Chihuahuan Desert?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Lantern Gardener and I started using it, then it expanded to all the Lanterns on Earth. I should probably try and get us all together at some point. Well, you have fun with that. I've got some mission reports to read."

 

[Mr Zoat]

...Ok, I could have sworn antemergerentur meant 'old, before times,' or somehow 'unsunken,' but when I went to check the word, my dictionary, spell-check, and google all failed me. I think it's a misspelled word (Grayven says it when fighting Ahri'ahn at the Un-men compound), but while I'm fine not using it in the case where I wanted to, this is really bothering me. Mr. Zoat?

Click to shrink...

Can you give me a link?

 

[hkim]

"Hal is showing me more advanced techniques!" She smiles as she-. Oh dear. Note to self, have a word with Lantern Jordan about-.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Paul, how about-

I consider Zatanna.

About talking to someone else about how to gently let someone know that you're not interested. Actually, Batman is probably a good person to go to with that.

Click to shrink...

Never mind, carry on.

 

[Darko]

So I'm guessing that they'll be dealing with Anarky in this chapter.

Usually it takes time for elements you've introduced in your story to play out, but seeing as Luthor is helping rebuild civilization, the League may not want to wait and give someone that could potentially disrupt that a chance to continue.

haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprised me to learn that magic users were actually more

Click to shrink...

"surprise"

. I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprised me to learn that magic users were actually more vulnerable than normal people due to their connection to the arcane side of the world

Click to shrink...

Either that, or Manheim targeted them because he thought they could be a problem.

I'm not sure if Mannheim didn't know about the portals, or didn't care about them, or didn't really have a way to move them, but he didn't do anything about them

Click to shrink...

He was basically controlling most of the planet, so he may have thought getting rid of them was worthless.

Plus, he had access to Boom Tubes, so he didn't need them.

. Mitchell and Noriel had to stop the Bourneville City Boss doing a sort of evil Willy Wonka re-enactment with Cadbury's World at one point

Click to shrink...

I can just imagine said boss trying to turn people into weirdly colored midgets and forcing them to sing under pain of death.

I come out in the hangar, and… Ah, no bioship. It's a school day, so… I guess Martian Manhunter is using it?

Click to shrink...

Or it's flying on its own.

The latest season of Young Justice showed bishops as being more like animals. They even mate with each other.

 

[Ngamer11]

"Hal is showing me more advanced techniques!" She smiles as she-. Oh dear. Note to self, have a word with Lantern Jordan about-.

I consider Zatanna.

About talking to someone else about how to gently let someone know that you're not interested. Actually, Batman is probably a good person to go to with that.

Click to shrink...

I thought Hal already talked to Arisia about this? Did Hal's unnamed girlfriend die during the Anti-Life, causing Arisia to think she has a chance now that he's on the rebound?