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

Common Sense (part 9)

1st October 2010
17:31 GMT -6


I place Alan's personal lantern in the cuirass of my power armour and close the hatch.

"Seal, and direct linkup."

"Full power available."
Heh, clever. I'm guessing this is more of a mini-mecha like Paragon's Heavy Powered Armour than something like the sort of thing Alan wore in Kingdom Come. But at least he's loaded for bear. Or rather, magically empowered criminals.

Because that provides a small power boost as well as ensuring that I won't need to recharge. I've never needed to recharge mid-fight before, but Hal told me that there are ways to remotely drain a power ring and Dr. Shugel is in the intellectual class of person who might have found a way to do that. The power boost -naturally- comes at the cost of greater psychological decay
Shugel, Shugel... Ah, right, Ultra-Humanite. Wearing his stolen white Gorilla body.

"Accelerate. Plot route and evasive patterns."

"Route plotted."

"Transition."
He's gonna need that evasion, given Black Adam's speed.

I appear just above the marshy ground, Kaldur appearing on a small root-anchored island to my left. I nod politely, then transition upwards into plain view of the vine nexus. In fact, let's make it more obvious.

Orange sigil backlight.
Ah, drawing the aggro needed to ensure the big boom attack hits clean.

Compliance.

Good. Railgun, white phosphorus load.
And no effing around from the start. That's nasty stuff.

Compliance.

The large magnetically charge tube appears above and behind me, pointing at the vine nexus through the trees. I can't see it with my naked eyes from here, but that's hardly an issue.
Common Sense to exploit the best combat aspect of a Lantern Ring: Multi-vector attacks.

Surprised he's limited himself to one, or is that just to make a bigger target of himself? Since the missiles are going to be on their way shortly.

The round punches through the first few layers of wood, but it's not fused. It's designed to release its fiery load when it hits the target, so while the tip keeps going more or less on track to strike the target the damage the rest of the round takes from the impact sprays burning white phosphorus across the swampland.
Might tick off the Green a little, but given they're already grumpy about the vines...

Trees carbonise, animals screech and flee and I fire again and-

Whoom.

-this time the same obstacles aren't there. This time, the white phosphorus load spreads over the outer surface of the vine nexus and-
Probably got all of the Injustice League looking in that direction, though.

Skip.

-Black Adam flies through the space I was occupying and splashes down, spraying water and mud for miles.
Yep, there's Theo.

Time to impact?

Forty four seconds.
Now to play bait and hold out...

Black Adam's looking for me, and his senses are acute enough that the airborne debris aren't going to obscure my position. And because his resistance is magical, a super flashbang isn't going to stun or distract him. Fortunately, analysis of Black Adam's preferred fighting style shows that he will rush his target in just about every situation.
Hardly drawing on all that divinely-granted wisdom, is he? Just a blunt instrument in the hands of a fool.

X-ionised sword.

So all I really need to-
Ooh, that's gonna sting.

Gotta love speedy guys who aren't actually all that fast in the brains department.

-is drop it in the air when I go and he'll impale himself on it without further prompting. I transition towards him as he slams into the ground in a semi-controlled tumble, using a claw construct to grab the grip and pulling it sideways. I disinterestedly notice that it hasn't gone all the way through and that his flesh is actually resisting a little, but it's not enough and the sword comes free.
Interesting. Because of the divine energies in his flesh? Just like a New God...

Time to impact?

Forty seconds.
Goddamn short combat rounds... At this rate, you'll have Black Adam down before the missiles even arrive.

I back up, rotating the sword as he covers his wound with his left hand and swings at me with his right fist but I'm already out of reach and the action means that his throat is unguarded.

His eyes widen, for an instant as his blood sprays and his windpipe quivers before I swing the sword around again.
Sadly, not a fatal blow due to his inhuman durability and healing factor.

Lightning explodes from his corpse as his head flies, battering my armou-.

Argh!
Huh, I wonder how much of the body interacts during the transformation? Will wounds carry over?

Armour, regenerate.

Ugh.

I know that Captain Marvel uses his lightning as a weapon, but I didn't know-. Huh. He did change back, and… That necklace doesn't match the rest of his clothing. Take it and then disintegrate.
Joy of his regular body being noticeably shorter than his transformed state. On the other hand, you just eliminated him outright and freed Teth-Adom's spirit, apparently without knowing it.

Alright, back in the air. None of the others are anything like as fast as he was, so they're probably irrelevant.

Time to impact?

Thirty seconds.
Wotan is probably trying to weave a defensive barrier against you. Let's hope he makes the mistake of making it limited in direction.

I suppose that's the result of electrocution. I-.

The vertigo effect hits me, but my environmental shield effortlessly prevents it affecting me. Scan and energy p-.
Ah, Count Vertigo. Ordinary guy with one clever trick. Too bad it doesn't work on Lanterns.

Vines leap from the ground, Smilex vapour wafting and transition-! Doesn't work, probably magic. Fly instead, straight up, slash at the vines-.

They're entangling me even as I cut and blast. The cutting works fine but I still need to keep a construct grip on-.
And the Gang are probably warming up their villainous monologues and taunts. "One guy? You thought you could take us with one guy?"

Connection lost.

On the sword. Blasting is making some progress, but the vines are regrowing into a dome around me even as they try to envelop me completely. Blast, blast, blast, time?
Upside is that the vines will maybe act as a nice blast shield when the missiles hit.

Ten seconds..

Construct buzz saw and slash! If they're using magic here then I've got Wotan's attention and he's not looking at the sky. The vines glimmer for a moment, and-. And now my energy blasts are doing nothing. Fine. Construct armour, deploy white phosphorus.
A critical mistake on Wotan's part. Fortunate.

The vines jerk back as the chemical fire ignites, the Smilex somehow enhancing the fires even further. Wood doesn't so much blacken as vaporise, but the vines further away are mutating thicker and.. strangely damp-looking bark which seems to be holding better. My construct buzz saw cuts upwards, breaking through into the air as more vines try to envelop me, pumping out new poisons and acids as the Smilex got nowhere.
Adapting quickly, I see. Too bad it's too little too late.

I think I have their full attention, but even watching for it I don't spot the exact moment that the missiles hit.

KRACKBOOM!
...I hope his armour is up to the task of tanking that.

Welp, so ends the 'Injustice League'. Any of them without a backup plan against close to a thousand kilograms of high explosive aren't going to be making any more appearances in this timeline, that's for sure. So good riddance to the bad rubbish and a lamented farewell to any that might have been redeemable. 😏 ...Which was maybe Ivy if she got de-crazied.
 
Surprised he's limited himself to one, or is that just to make a bigger target of himself? Since the missiles are going to be on their way shortly.
It's more that he's not that good yet.
...I hope his armour is up to the task of tanking that.
He's outside of the blast radius. Plus, he's surrounded by vines.
'magnetically charged'?
Thank you, corrected.
 
Now I kinda want to re-read just the Common Sense posts.

Anyone have a way to do that?

I couldn't find it on the first page of the threadl link list of story arcs.
 
I'm going to be honest, I am half-certain that Common Sense Paul could have just solo'd the Injustice Leage on his own. The only real stumbling block is Wotan, but a simple super-sonic railgun round to the head as a first strike might have been enough, and then take out Black Adam and that is that.

But this missile plan is certainly a lot more certain in case he couldn't.
 
Common Sense (part 10) New
Common Sense (part 10)

1st October 2010
17:32 GMT -6

I float towards the burning vine nexus, large railgun forming next to me.

Fire.

Whoom.

Whatever magic is going on is preventing me from scanning the interior of the structure, and the heat is preventing me from spotting the people inside with infrared.

Kaldur comes up alongside me, water bearers pointing downwards to allow him to maintain a constant plume.

"I watched you kill Black Adam."

"Thank you. I'll have to recover the sword later. Any word on the other attacks?"

"They are weakening, but the vines are still somewhat active."

Fire.

Whoom.

"Best deal with that, then."

"You intend to kill them all."

"Yes. Local law, basic morality and common sense all make it clear that killing them is the correct course of action."

"I do not believe that Batman will see it that way."

I nod inside my armour. "I suspect that you are correct. That's why I deactivated my communications suite. But I don't intend to hold you responsible for Batman's position when I'm fairly sure I'll be able to have it out with him directly in an hour or so."

Fire.

Whoom.

The vine structure is burning fiercely, a few patches trying to produce whatever gel it was that was inhibiting the fires on the dome containing me. Dr. Isley is still alive, then. Or possibly Wotan?

Kaldur lowers his water bearers now that we're over solid ground. One he leaves in whip configuration, the other maintains a shield of water around his body to ward off residual Smilex.

"You told me that your ring influences your behavior. As a military officer, I accept that I may be called upon to kill the enemies of Atlantis, but I am concerned that your behavior is out of character."

"The ring doesn't make me do anything I didn't want to do. Definitionally. It does make me ignore social conventions sometimes, which is why I have a checklist. Put it this way: if you had a shot, would you kill Ocean Master?"

He hesitates for a moment before nodding. "I would."

"His confirmed kill count is… A dozen people?"

"He has attempted regicide, but I understand the point you are making. In terms of the number of people they have murdered, the 'Injustice League' are far worse."

"Guh!"

A somewhat burned Count Vertigo staggers free of the structure. The upper left part of his body is badly burned, blood and liquefied fat dribbling freely from the charred flesh. I'm impressed that he's still moving. His one intact eye peers around and fixes on me.

"Ah-! Ah-ahh-!"

Common-sense.jpg


Fire.

Whoom.

His torso bursts, the solid railgun slug punching through without slowing, the force of the impact causing the flesh around the point of impact to visibly compress. He's dead before he hits the ground, but I disintegrate his body anyway.

"He may have been trying to surrender."

"He may. But I saw an armed mass murderer conducting an ongoing attack." I pick up his fire-damaged vertigo inducer from where his head used to be. "See?"

He bows his head slightly. "I believe that I do."

I send it to subspace before dismissing my railgun and generating a huge chainsaw construct which I bring down on the front of the nexus structure, cleaving it open.

The fire inside is… Uneven. I can see where the missiles punched through the roof and where my railgun shots punched through the walls, but it.. looks like I missed the core of the-.

CHGCHGCHG-!

Heavy machinegun fire is absorbed by my construct armour as Dr. Shugel opens fire from a sheltered position about halfway up the interior vine piles. I thrust the chainsaw forwards and he's quick enough on his feet to hurl himself aside. He doesn't look particularly burned, but his choice of hiding places is sharply limited if he wants to stay that way.

I transition forwards and stab a construct sword through his left eye and into his brain.

"Hak-k-k-k."

The corpse twitches for a moment, and then goes still. I disintegrate the brain before picking it up and moving it outside.

Kaldur looks mildly unsettled as I put it down.

"Why have you left this one intact?"

"You heard what Miss Martian said. This body used to belong to a member of the gorilla troupe we met in Africa. I'm not sure that they have funeral traditions, but I'd like to get this back-."

"RRAAAAAAGHHHH!"

Dr Isley rises from the centre of the vine mass, flesh blackened and some.. of the vines woven into her flesh. Just behind her-

"Heh-heh-hah!"

-Mr. Napier fiddles with something irrelevant-

Whoom-whoom.

-because I just shoot them both with solid slugs, disintegrating the bodies a moment later. It's probably good that Isley wasn't killed by the incendiaries, because turning her into a full on elemental is the last thing the world needs. Napier had some sort of electronic device on his hands-.

"That is it. The vines have ceased their attacks."

"Mm. But this structure is still intact, and we don't know what the control mechanism was. I'm going to confirm that Wotan and Atomic Skull are dead."

"Wotan is immortal."

I deploy a construct cold gun and fire it at each fire I see. Scans are becoming available once more, and… I send a claw construct into the lower part of the building and pull out Atomic Skull's remains. Looks like one of the Brave Wind missiles more or less shredded him. Kaldur… Nods, and I disintegrate the corpse.

"And once I've assimilated him, he'll still be immortal. But he won't be a threat any more."
 
"You intend to kill them all."

"Yes. Local law, basic morality and common sense all make it clear that killing them is the correct course of action."

"I do not believe that Batman will see it that way."

I nod inside my armour. "I suspect that you are correct. That's why I deactivated my communications suite. But I don't intend to hold you responsible for Batman's position when I'm fairly sure I'll be able to have it out with him directly in an hour or so."
I can't wait to see Batman and Paul's argument.
 
I can't wait to see Batman and Paul's argument.
Could be more interesting to have the start of the morality debate only to have Captain Atom come in as empowered by the government to say the US government doesn't really have a problem with how things ended. Efficient and with no more civilians killed.

It would have been harder to take them alive. Plus once Paul started to try and nonlethal subdue them the rest could have used further attacks with their vine weapon against the world in exchange for their freedom.
 
Common Sense (part 10)

1st October 2010
17:32 GMT -6


I float towards the burning vine nexus, large railgun forming next to me.

Fire.
Ah, the missiles didn't level the place outright? A shame, but it probably would have taken much larger ordnance to manage that, I suppose. At least he won't have to resort to DNA matching to identify the remains.

Whoom.

Whatever magic is going on is preventing me from scanning the interior of the structure, and the heat is preventing me from spotting the people inside with infrared.
Could well be something inherent to the vine's own structure, really. Perhaps some sort of 'if it encompasses an area, he can't scan in here' or the like.

Kaldur comes up alongside me, water bearers pointing downwards to allow him to maintain a constant plume.

"I watched you kill Black Adam."
So Theo Adams is confirmed dead? Not like he'd survive the blast as a squishy human, and even if he did make it out, he couldn't re-power himself without the amulet.

"Thank you. I'll have to recover the sword later. Any word on the other attacks?"

"They are weakening, but the vines are still somewhat active."
So someone in charge is still alive. Right, then, close quarters it is.

Fire.

Whoom.

"Best deal with that, then."
Good to see him pressing on.

"You intend to kill them all."

"Yes. Local law, basic morality and common sense all make it clear that killing them is the correct course of action."
And international law would be kind of pissed too. Every nation they attacked would want a piece of them, I bet, and even Joker can't get out of that mess.

"I do not believe that Batman will see it that way."

I nod inside my armour. "I suspect that you are correct. That's why I deactivated my communications suite. But I don't intend to hold you responsible for Batman's position when I'm fairly sure I'll be able to have it out with him directly in an hour or so."
No radio so he doesn't have to hear a direct order to stop. Common Sense ultimate superpower plz-no-nerf.

Fire.

Whoom.

The vine structure is burning fiercely, a few patches trying to produce whatever gel it was that was inhibiting the fires on the dome containing me. Dr. Isley is still alive, then. Or possibly Wotan?
Honestly, he could probably manage to spoof a Green connection like Ivy's given time to examine it.

Kaldur lowers his water bearers now that we're over solid ground. One he leaves in whip configuration, the other maintains a shield of water around his body to ward off residual Smilex.

"You told me that your ring influences your behavior. As a military officer, I accept that I may be called upon to kill the enemies of Atlantis, but I am concerned that your behavior is out of character."
That may be so, but could you really stop him if he persisted and you would prefer he didn't? Outside of talking him down?

"The ring doesn't make me do anything I didn't want to do. Definitionally. It does make me ignore social conventions sometimes, which is why I have a checklist. Put it this way: if you had a shot, would you kill Ocean Master?"

He hesitates for a moment before nodding. "I would."
Enemy of the State of Atlantis, after all. It'd be his duty.

"His confirmed kill count is… A dozen people?"

"He has attempted regicide, but I understand the point you are making. In terms of the number of people they have murdered, the 'Injustice League' are far worse."
And there's no insanity pleas for that sort of international terrorism.

"Guh!"

A somewhat burned Count Vertigo staggers free of the structure. The upper left part of his body is badly burned, blood and liquefied fat dribbling freely from the charred flesh. I'm impressed that he's still moving. His one intact eye peers around and fixes on me.
At this point, he's already dead, his body just hasn't got the message.

If anything, this would be mercy. Dying from burns that severe would be extremely painful, at least where the nerves aren't destroyed outright.

Fire.

Whoom.

His torso bursts, the solid railgun slug punching through without slowing, the force of the impact causing the flesh around the point of impact to visibly compress. He's dead before he hits the ground, but I disintegrate his body anyway.
Not one drop of blood remaining. Just to make sure.

"He may have been trying to surrender."

"He may. But I saw an armed mass murderer conducting an ongoing attack." I pick up his fire-damaged vertigo inducer from where his head used to be. "See?"
A technicality, but one most people won't argue.

He bows his head slightly. "I believe that I do."

I send it to subspace before dismissing my railgun and generating a huge chainsaw construct which I bring down on the front of the nexus structure, cleaving it open.
Kaldur might well be the best person he could have brought along. All the right amounts of pragmatic sense and calm detachment needed.

The fire inside is… Uneven. I can see where the missiles punched through the roof and where my railgun shots punched through the walls, but it.. looks like I missed the core of the-.

CHGCHGCHG-!
Staggering the missiles might have been effective, using one to break the walls and the rest turning the inside into an inferno... But he probably couldn't count on that.

Heavy machinegun fire is absorbed by my construct armour as Dr. Shugel opens fire from a sheltered position about halfway up the interior vine piles. I thrust the chainsaw forwards and he's quick enough on his feet to hurl himself aside. He doesn't look particularly burned, but his choice of hiding places is sharply limited if he wants to stay that way.
Especially as large as he is in that gorilla body.

I transition forwards and stab a construct sword through his left eye and into his brain.

"Hak-k-k-k."
Clean and simple.

The corpse twitches for a moment, and then goes still. I disintegrate the brain before picking it up and moving it outside.

Kaldur looks mildly unsettled as I put it down.
Because the ape is as much a victim as the people Shugel attacked.

"Why have you left this one intact?"

"You heard what Miss Martian said. This body used to belong to a member of the gorilla troupe we met in Africa. I'm not sure that they have funeral traditions, but I'd like to get this back-."
A courtesy, if nothing else.

"RRAAAAAAGHHHH!"

Dr Isley rises from the centre of the vine mass, flesh blackened and some.. of the vines woven into her flesh. Just behind her-
Probably fusing them with herself to try and stay alive. Not the smartest idea, but given it was that or become a briquette...

"Heh-heh-hah!"

-Mr. Napier fiddles with something irrelevant-

Whoom-whoom.
Not even a thought for him beyond 'target acquired'. About what he deserved.

-because I just shoot them both with solid slugs, disintegrating the bodies a moment later. It's probably good that Isley wasn't killed by the incendiaries, because turning her into a full on elemental is the last thing the world needs. Napier had some sort of electronic device on his hands-.
And it probably would have caused that, because Sod's Law. I'd imagine the Parliament of Trees would not have been happy with you.

"That is it. The vines have ceased their attacks."

"Mm. But this structure is still intact, and we don't know what the control mechanism was. I'm going to confirm that Wotan and Atomic Skull are dead."

"Wotan is immortal."
That remains to be tested. and best to eliminate the possibility if him coming back either.

I deploy a construct cold gun and fire it at each fire I see. Scans are becoming available once more, and… I send a claw construct into the lower part of the building and pull out Atomic Skull's remains. Looks like one of the Brave Wind missiles more or less shredded him. Kaldur… Nods, and I disintegrate the corpse.

"And once I've assimilated him, he'll still be immortal. But he won't be a threat any more."
If the anti-scanning effect is fading, that means Wotan is probably dying. Better be quick.

Heh. Such casual disregard for boss fight setups. I suppose Common Sense is good at that sort of thing. No traps, no monologues, just 'Fire' and dismiss. It'll be interesting to see how Batman reacts to the casual extermination of two of his rogues, even if they were committing international terrorism. Soon, perhaps.
 
Random question is there an Arrowverse Paul? He'd thrive in Legends of Tomorrow.
Sort of. There was one in Stargirl, but I don't know whether that's the same continuety or not.
Given the local afterlife he will be less of a threat than the dudes OL gust killed.
Good odds the Joker turns into a demon far more quickly than he should.
No. The Joker stops existing and Jack Napier goes to heaven.
 

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