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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Smilex dealer. Do you know where I might find one?"

The large black man with the dreadlock ponytail I'm talking to clearly doesn't quite know how to take that.
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Ah, OL. Still befuddling people through politeness...

"Ain't no Smilex dealers 'round here, man."

"No? You're certain?"

"Yeah, that shit just kills you." His friend, a slender white man with a camo-pattern jacket, looks extremely sombre. "Hey Chuck, you remember what happened to Ernesto?"
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No doubt it wasn't pretty.

"Ah yeah." 'Chuck' nods. "'bout, ah..? Three years ago? Dude picked up some stuff, thought it was acid…" He shudders theatrically. "Poor bastard laughed so much he suffocated. I mean, I only really saw him when they stuck him in the ambulance, but his face was all…"

He makes a broad and obviously false grin, drawing false curves on his checks with his index fingers. What does it say about Gotham that he had to be reminded of that?
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Eh, not the worst thing to have forgotten.

"Glad to hear it. But do you know of anyone who might lack your good sense?"

"You should try China Town. Ghost Dragons be into all kinds of crazy shit."

"Yeah." The white man nods. "Or… I dunno… The Burnley Town Massive run drugs, right?"

Chuck frowns. "They wouldn't do Smilex. No one would touch their stuff again if they did that."
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I love how they seem to have forgotten they're talking to a superhero.

"I'll try China Town, then. Thank you for your assistance." I rise slowly into the-. "Oh." I stop. "One more thing. You haven't seen any fairies, have you?"

They look at each other.

"'Fairies'?" Not-Chuck shakes his head. "Nah, man. Clean livin' all the way."
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...No that kind of fairy.

"No, not in the sense of drug-induced hallucinations. We're due for an invasion of time-travelling fairies from the far future and I'm trying to keep an eye out."

"Ah… Ooooh… Kay?" Chuck shakes his head. "I ain't seen no fairies?"

"Alright. Keep an eye out, would you?"

"Sure. Yeah, we can do that."
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Admittedly, it might have helped to specify 'S&M murder fairies'... I doubt either man is thinking of anything more objectionable than Tinkerbelle.

I nod. "Oh. And I realise that lock picks, crowbars and pistols aren't illegal, but I'm going to be flying back this way tomorrow, and I'm not going to hear anything about anywhere being broken into, am I?"

Not-Chuck doesn't conceal his wince quite as well as his partner in pre-crime.

"There's a good fellow."
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Ah, the good old 'Don't make me come back here...'

The universe flickers in the way I've become somewhat jaded to, and then I'm in China Town. A product of the largess of one Mr Lee Walter Travis, this place became the home for a large influx of Chinese refugees during the conflicts which preceded the Second World War. And afterwards, when the Nationalists and the Communists had it out. The Ghost Dragons make their home in a low-rent industrial estate which officially houses purely their legitimate businesses. I think I'll walk there to make the point-.

"Orange Lantern?"
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Wow, it wasn't even five seconds. Is it his lucky day or something?

An elderly oriental man.. with three missing fingers, is looking up at me.

"Yes? Something I can do for you?"

"I am wondering… Do you know the original Green Lantern?"

"The original Green Lanterns died millions of years ago, but if you mean the fellow from the thirties then yes. He was my first point of contact with superheroes and I still use his personal lantern."
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Certainly, that's public knowledge. But to just say it so casually...

"He is still alive?"

"Last time I checked."

"That is wonderful news!"

I smile. I really need to talk to Alan about coming back here. See what effect a superhero who isn't dour and menacing has on the place.
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Gotham could definitely use some Hope about the place.

"I'll tell him that you said that. I'm sure that he'll be pleased-."

"Nineteen forty one! He rescued me from an apartment fire! And then he caught the criminals who set it!"
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Now that's a long memory. Must have been one hell of a day.

"He was very good at his job. Listen, you haven't heard anything about someone distributing Smilex, have you?"

"The Joker has escaped again?"
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And now the mood's brought down...

"No. But any sufficiently skilled chemist can replicate the general formula, and some very naughty person was making some on their own recognisance. I don't suppose that you've heard anything about that sort of thing?"

"At my age, those are not the sort of drugs I take." I smile and nod. "But we have many gangs here. Not all are criminals, but… Desperate people do not make good decisions."
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What an odd turn. This is shaping up into a weird questline.

I shrug. "I just want to find whoever ordered it made. If some people went looking for a payday and ended up over their heads… The economy is a heartless beast. I can look the other way as long as they tell me what I need to stop it."

He nods. "Perhaps someone I know will have heard something. I will see if someone will confide in an old uncle something they would not wish to tell a superhero."
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Do not be incautious around old, smiling oriental men...

"I would appreciate that, thank you. But don't put yourself in any danger on my account; this is my job. You're an elderly civilian."

"I doubt that I will forget that." He raises his left hand to wave. "Good evening, Orange Lantern."

"Good evening." Ugh, maybe I won't walk, then. Fingers to my forehead…
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...Seriously, you chat with one old man and call it a day? That would be Fortean levels of coincidence if it pays off.

I appear amidst revving motorcycles, ridden by five tattooed gang members carrying pipes, swords and semiautomatics. One points and fires it at a nearby building-.

An orange shield blocks the shots, then I reach out and pluck every gang member off their bikes. Said bikes then carry on without them for a short distance before falling on their sides and skidding along the road to a stop. Interestingly, none of the gang members try struggling. I'm not sure if it's shock or if they realise that they're ridiculously outclassed, but they're all content to just hang there.
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Ah, my comment about low-level mobs proves accurate.

Ring, contact the police.

Compliance.

"Now, I can't technically arrest you-." I generate another shield as a volley of automatic rifle fire from inside the building hones in on one of my prisoners. "Arrest you, but I'm afraid that I'm going to be holding you until the police arrive." I turn my attention to the building. "While I understand that you're irritated about being shot at, I assure you that the situation is under control."
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"Let's not do anything you might regret later, now..."

A few heads… Ah, those are Ghost Dragon tattoos, stick themselves up. They don't look especially happy to see me, but at least they're not shooting.

"By any chance, have any of you heard anything about someone selling Smilex?"
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Heh, straight to the source...

Ah, Gotham. The only place in the world this weird. No doubt the old chinese guy will be linked to damn near everything in China Town...
 
Handlewithcare said:
Wide eyed OL: "Hello friendly villagers! Do any of you, buy any means, have done anything illegal around these here parts?"

Reminds me of Captain Carrot of the Watch. Every criminal is to embarrassed by his earnestness to do anything to him.
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And yet, when one of them -genuinely- does something that crosses the line, he suddenly doesn't look so harmless from over his crossbow/ plain, absolutely mundane sword... ( the joke being, that simple, unadorned sword could probably cut a mountain/ god in half with enough force behind it, since its sheer non-Magicality makes it an order of magnitude more REAL then anything else on the disc...).....and unlike their fellows, WONT gloat instead of pulling the trigger..

thats the feel the smarter crooks here Are getting (I sincerely hope)- that the smiles and affable talk are infinitely preferable to what'll happen if they stop being civil first...
 
N11143.jpg
 
Handlewithcare said:
Wide eyed OL: "Hello friendly villagers! Do any of you, buy any means, have done anything illegal around these here parts?"

Reminds me of Captain Carrot of the Watch. Every criminal is to embarrassed by his earnestness to do anything to him.
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Not exactly. Carrot's strong, but as we saw in Jingo he's perfectly killable. These people aren't a threat to the SI.
Flux Casey said:
Really? One pleasant conversation with a friendly old man was his threshold for it being too much of a hassle?
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It's more that he doesn't want to get stopped for a chat by everyone he walks past.
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Ah, Gotham. The only place in the world this weird. No doubt the old chinese guy will be linked to damn near everything in China Town...
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My first response to a Chinese guy asking about Alan was that Zoat figured out how to work Green Dragon into YJ, where Alan's ring is just a malfunctioning Oan ring according to word of Greg.
 
You know all the old Chinese men in the neighborhood play Mahjong together... of course he knows the dragons' boss.

That myth busters test of the bull in a china shop "myth" is so inaccurate though. All those shelves have space between them for bulls to go. They've obviously never been to an actual china shop before. Everything is so cluttered together that it's hard for a human to walk through without accidentally touching something. Also, they used a fairly tame bull, and not a wild/ angry one. In short, they lack both the bull and the china shop in that clip.
 
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Mquz said:
You know all the old Chinese men in the neighborhood play Mahjong together... of course he knows the dragons' boss.

That myth busters test of the bull in a china shop "myth" is so inaccurate though. All those shelves have space between them for bulls to go. They've obviously never been to an actual china shop before. Everything is so cluttered together that it's hard for a human to walk through without accidentally touching something. Also, they used a fairly tame bull, and not a wild/ angry one. In short, they lack both the bull and the china shop in that clip.
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Nah man I saw a bull and some china...seems legit here
 
Gantradies said:
And yet, when one of them -genuinely- does something that crosses the line, he suddenly doesn't look so harmless from over his crossbow/ plain, absolutely mundane sword... ( the joke being, that simple, unadorned sword could probably cut a mountain/ god in half with enough force behind it, since its sheer non-Magicality makes it an order of magnitude more REAL then anything else on the disc...).....and unlike their fellows, WONT gloat instead of pulling the trigger..

thats the feel the smarter crooks here Are getting (I sincerely hope)- that the smiles and affable talk are infinitely preferable to what'll happen if they stop being civil first...
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Kind of like some of the better depictions of Superman, really - the smart thugs just surrender and stay polite, rather than shooting at him and then throwing the empty gun out of frustration, threatening hostages, or anything else that they think might make him stop being so nice.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"Now, I can't technically arrest you-." I generate another shield as a volley of automatic rifle fire from inside the building hones in on one of my prisoners. "Arrest you, but I'm afraid that I'm going to be holding you until the police arrive."
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Actually, OL, what you're doing exactly is arresting them. Catching someone in the process of committing a crime and detaining them until law enforcement arrives is precisely the definition of a citizen's arrest. (Which doesn't actually require being a citizen; it's something of a quirk of historical terminology.)
 
Mquz said:
You know all the old Chinese men in the neighborhood play Mahjong together... of course he knows the dragons' boss.

That myth busters test of the bull in a china shop "myth" is so inaccurate though. All those shelves have space between them for bulls to go. They've obviously never been to an actual china shop before. Everything is so cluttered together that it's hard for a human to walk through without accidentally touching something. Also, they used a fairly tame bull, and not a wild/ angry one. In short, they lack both the bull and the china shop in that clip.
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People always seem to forget that show was entertainment first and foremost and that a lot of their methodology wouldn't even begin to fly in the world of professional science science. Just because the Mythbusters fail to replicate something does not mean that it's not possible. In fact, they've done multiple entire episodes about their own mistakes.
 
Coda said:
Actually, OL, what you're doing exactly is arresting them. Catching someone in the process of committing a crime and detaining them until law enforcement arrives is precisely the definition of a citizen's arrest. (Which doesn't actually require being a citizen; it's something of a quirk of historical terminology.)
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TMYK_HEADER.jpg
 
Mquz said:
So what would that be like? If it's similar to anti-green lanterns, will the ring give them constant pain and the motivation powering their orange would be taking the ring off?
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A masochist gets the ring and gets punished for not following orders and 'punished' for following orders
 
An anti-orange ring?

If you ask me, an anti-orange ring would intentionally trigger an avarice feedback loop in the bearer. It would burn its own orange light charge in order to induce this, limiting its own capacity. The ring would then inform its bearer that normal orange rings are full of orange light that would empower them to keep going beyond just what the anti-orange ring's initial charge could sustain.

It is, then, an amusing coincidence that carrots are orange.

So basically, an Anti-Orange Lantern would be Ragnar before he met the SI, but artificially amplified up to Larfleeze levels.
 
Guys from Gotham (supplementary, Renegade option)
  • Threadmarks
    • 2nd January 2005
    09:01 GMT -6

    The United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth is a formidable-looking structure. The brick and stone frontage, the bars on the windows and the armed guards all give the impression of an actual fort. What it is is the place where America puts the worst criminals in its armed services, one of whom has recently had his conviction quashed. Or the charges withdrawn; the American judicial system is largely opaque to me. But whatever, Guy Gardner 50 is getting out today and I thought that someone should be here.

    While I'd rather be here openly, given that the offence which he is no longer considered guilty of is working for me I decided that that wasn't a good idea. So illusion charm it is.

    Guy Gardner 16 shivers slightly in his all-enveloping long coat, hat tilted to obscure his face. We couldn't risk him wearing his ring in case the locals spotted it, and as a result he's enduring the Kansas winter chill with only conventional warm clothing. He shuffles in place, looking around for something to distract him from how cold he feels. Then his eyes fix on something in the sky-.

    SHADE agent and Stormwatch member Kara In-Ze drops out of the sky, hovering just in front of me.

    "And why are you here?"

    She's dressed for the weather, though I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't feel it either. Thickly woven jeans, a knitted jumper and a thick coat accessorised with a bobble hat. There's something about the whole getup that makes her look young and sweet. Younger and sweeter.

    I smile. "Even though I wasn't the one who put him in here, he did end up here as a result of my actions. I feel obliged to give him the opportunity to have it out with me in person."

    She lands, eyes downcast, shakes her head and then looks up at me. "I'm here for the same reason. I actually do know what it's like to have the whole country hate you and stuff you in prison for something you didn't do."

    "Really? I only ever got locked up for something I did do. What did they get you for?"

    "They put you in prison?"

    "I put me in prison to make a point. I lured a mass-murdering wizard into an ambush and murdered him. You?"

    She hesitates to respond. Fair enough, I'm certain that I'm not her favourite person in the world, but since she met my children and knows that I mostly kayfabed our original encounter… "When… When Kal-El was mind controlled by Darkseid, I caught up with him at a military base he was attacking. I tried to stop him… It didn't go too well. Then the army hit us both with a kryptonite missile Luthor gave them, and I woke up in a cell."

    I frown. "Um. Why?"

    "General Hardcastle."

    "Look, few people have a lower opinion of the US legal system than me, but…" No, no. I can see the US panicking and putting someone in prison without anything approaching due process. And she wasn't that well known at the time. "Yeah, okay. How long were they planning on keeping you there?"

    "Oh, not long. They were going to inject me with liquid kryptonite and kill me."

    "What? That's a bit-." I frown. "Wait. Were they… Keeping you there with kryptonite, or red sunlight?"

    "Red sunlight." She exhales faintly. "Okay, not.. 'sunlight'. Eight feet of concrete to keep out natural light and some red lamps to light my cell."

    "Wasn't.. that the same setup that SHADE had in..?" She gives me a look that's.. surprisingly fragile. "Um. Would..? Would you punch me if I hugged you right now?"

    Lantern Grayven, I've changed my mind. Just hand me over to Corporal Gardner when he emerges.

    She frowns. "No, but only because heat vision is faster. Why are you.. doing this?"

    I shrug. "I respect you. I think I'd come to like you if I got to know you properly. And I think-."

    My Guy turns his head as the front gate of the prison opens and his doppelgänger exits, right hand holding the kit bag over his shoulder and left hand making rude gestures at the prison guards. My Guy becomes decidedly still as he looks at the living embodiment of how things might have gone. The other fellow takes a look around, his eyes stopping for a moment on the direction of the nearest bus terminal. Then he turns around, drops his pack and sticks both middle fingers up at the gate as it slams shut behind him.

    Once he's sure that it's shut and that no one is watching him from the prison side he sags slightly, then bends down to pick up his pack. He takes a moment to make sure that it's properly secured and then starts walking.

    "Excuse me, Mister Gardner?"

    Kara steps forward, prompting Guy 50 to stop and warily try to work out who she is. The time of his release wasn't passed to the press so there isn't a crowd here waiting to barrage him with questions. I imagine that if there were he'd swiftly find himself saying something regrettable. And then I see the exact moment he works it out.

    "What.. the.. fuck 're you doin' here?"

    He sounds more bewildered than angry, but given his position I imagine that's a mood which could change very quickly.

    "I wanted to apologise. Part of the evidence they used to put you in there was from my report, and… Now that I know why you opened the vault, I can see that I jumped to conclusions."

    "Yeah." He nods. "Y' did. You an' everyone else. Fuck alla yah. Anything else?"

    It's a sad day when a Guy-variant is so out of sorts that he doesn't bother hitting on a pretty blonde woman.

    Kara folds her arms across her chest. "I'm also the reason why your release got expedited."

    "Great, thanks, 'cause I've got so much t' be outside for." He turns his head to take in myself and his alter ego. "An' who're you supposed to be?"

    "I'm the reason why you went into the vault in the first place." His fists clench instinctively. "I wanted to commend you for your initiative, apologise for my part in inspiring the Justice Department's latest bout of incompetence and offer compensation."

    "You can't give me anything!"

    "Oh, don't worry. I've made compensation payments to everyone else I injured during my attack as well. It won't look like I'm paying you for services rendered. But, if you really want, you can donate it all to charity or convert it to cash and burn it or… Whatever. Up to you."

    "Wait… Were…" He looks from me to Kara and back again. "You two..?"

    I shake my head. "No." / "God no."

    I smile at Kara's response. "We just saved the world from a parallel universe version of me. Well, I did; Kara had a brief holiday on Thanagar." That earns me a short-lived scowl. She was actually rather busy with the gordanian military until the boom tube opened to bring her back. "So that earned me a reprieve, though unlike you I actually did all the stuff I've been accused of."

    "Oh yeah?" He looks at Guy 16. "And who are you? My asshole CO here to apologise too?"

    "No." Guy takes off his hat and turns down his collar. "I'm a guy who knows exactly what it's like t' be you."

    "The fuck..?"

    "I'm a parallel universe you. Only difference is, I had slightly better luck. Got my own power ring. Might even join the Justice League one a' these days. So unlike these two I get alla the crap you went through getting' here. An' maybe I'm the only one you might actually talk to about it. 'Cause I've been where you are. I've been that angry an' I did a whole bunch a' stupid shit." He turns away. "C'm on. Bar's this way, you ain't got nowhere better to be an' Grayven's buying."

    Guy 50 looks around in a slight daze, then throws his arms up.

    "Fuck it. Why not?"
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Mr Zoat said:
    Fair enough, I'm certain that I'm not her favourite person in the world, but since the met my children and knows that I mostly kayfabed our original encounter…
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    I think "met" should be "meet with". Or maybe change it from

    "but since the met my children"

    to

    "but since she met my children"


    Also, Guy wouldn't happen to be from Gotham, would he?
     
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