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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
My construct net briefly slows it, but the witch man gestures and the construct evaporates. I use my armour's flight systems to dart sideways and evade it but fortunately Dr Sivana is there, an appendage which looks disconcertingly like a butterfly net briefly surrounding it before a force field bubble forms to contain it. It squelches against the bubble's interior, then slightly extends its disturbingly wide mouth and tries biting at it.

For a moment I consider mocking the effort, but then I remember that I'm a professional with a job to do.
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Good-oh, OL. No point taunting those who can't be annoyed by it.

The witch man gets to his feet, the purple-glowing fingers of his right hand intercepting a grabbing arm construct and reducing it to orange smoke. The filament I sent after him at the same time tags his right boot but immediately meets the same fate. Alright, we're doing this the harder-.

Rock bulges and breaks as more maggots squirm their way free from the floor, walls and ceiling…

And I'm underwhelmed. Or, sure, these things are probably nasty, but…
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Never underestimate an enemy, OL, until you've made a full measure of its' ability.

I raise my right foot and stomp, the head of the maggot I've targeted bursting apart in a spurt of yellowy green ichor. I don't think there is any bone in there, though I'll leave the autopsy to Dr Sivana. One attempts to drop on my from above but a slap from my left hand is more than enough to smash it aside.

Railgun, mage slayer, target the witch man. Right arm.
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Good move, since he apparently needs gestures to cast spells. And as Starship Troopers taught: "The enemy cannot push a button if you disable his hand!"

Compliance.

Dr Sivana's mech frame fires an electrolaser at him as my construct gun forms, burning through his smock and revealing the carapace-like armour underneath. Then a maggot lands on it from above and bites into the mechanism, the force field shimmering for a moment and then buckling and failing. He shifts position, coming fully into the room and using his weapons to clear the maggots off his frame before they bite into something important.

He can handle himself. Fire.
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He'd probably be shocked to find out you thought he couldn't.

The railgun round launches at the witch man with a small flare of plasma, im.. pacting at a fraction of the force it should have against his upper right arm. He winces faintly in pain, then wiggles his fingers.

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

Okay, not sure what happened there. Solid shot, increased power, continuous fire.
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Looks like he's relying on save-or-die grade effects. Too bad OL has Spell Resistance.

Compliance.

The first shot causes his to jerk his arm back, the purple fires now expanding to cover his entire body. The second I direct at his chest, and it hit hard enough to make him stagger back a pace as he waves his left hand and destroys my railgun construct with a flare of purple. A maggot lands on my faceplate and I grab it before it can try digging in with its teeth and hurl it at him as the third railgun shot hits home. The railgun round causes him to stagger back again, the backs of his legs bumping into his chair. The maggot-.
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Yep, kind of hard to concentrate under fire, isn't it, Binky?
Correction: 'and hits hard'

The flames go out where the maggot hits him, then it starts to fall-.

I shoot the maggot, its internal fluids spraying out across him and causing his spell to weaken and fail.
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Clever, a spell to stop projectiles. Too bad the spell's effect doesn't extend over the projectile itself.

Then I shoot his right arm again and this time the shot strikes at full power. For a fraction of a second there's a clear hole through his flesh and bone, then he jerks again as his blood begins to pour out. Another shot repeats the process with his left, leaving them both hanging limply at his sides.

"Yield."
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As if he'd be that smart.

Beryl's ducking and weaving around Sivana's mech frame, luring the lunging maggots into its fields of fire. I fire three solid rounds, each shooting a maggot squirming after her through the face and pulverising them.

"NYREGH!"

Purple light spills outward, rocks crumbling, the chemicals in the air decaying as he somehow pulls energy into himself! Through the guttering purple flame I see the flesh of his face become.. slightly translucent, blood vessels and bones becoming easier to see. His eyes glow brilliantly-.
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Nope, no self-destruct spell for you, Binky.

I use a construct scoop to throw the remains of the maggot-corpses littering the floor at him and then shoot him in the throat!

He collapses back into his chair, air wheezing through the hole in his oesophagus as his purple lights go out.
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And he's down. Mostly. Nice killshot.

Nigel has collapsed to the floor gasping for breath. I extend a filament to him, giving him and environmental shield while checking him over for injuries. Some damage to his lungs from trying to breath what was briefly a non-Earth atmosphere, but nothing serious. The maggots appear to have been avoiding him, probably directed away by his telepathic abilities. I take a few steps closer as Dr Sivana's frame finishes off the remaining maggots.

"That was invigorating."
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So glad you enjoyed yourself, Doctor. I'm guessing he hasn't had much time to have fun while researching Sheeda.

His samplers deploy once more from their housing, jabbing into maggot corpses and scraping up samples of goo. I walk towards Nigel and Beryl checks her goo-covered costume for a moment before deciding that it isn't worth attempting to clean it.

"Nigel? You with us?"

He looks up, nodding a little frantically. He's never seen a serious fight before, and I doubt that the fact that he can't read my mind is making this easier for him.
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I expect he's reconsidering any plans about 'making the bullies pay' he might have been formulating with Binky's encouragement.

I can have a talk with him later.

"Squire, escort Nigel outside."

"Er, yeah."
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Bonus, it gets her out of the way so OL and Sivana can discuss some stuff privately. Nice.

She moves to take possession of him while I walk over to the witch man. He's still desperately gasping for air, his arms limp at his sides and… He does not look well, and not just from the blood loss. That last spell did something to him.

I take another set of suppression chains out of subspace and clamp them in place before patching his oesophagus with a construct. He gasps as his lungs suddenly regain access to air, and I send a filament inside him to patch up some of the internal damage.

"That construct is keeping you breathing. If you disrupt my construct, you will finish suffocating. Do you understand me?"
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Not even Binky is stupid enough to try that. He seems the sort who likes his pieces attached to him...

A weak nod. A bit impressive that he's still conscious, given the amount of blood he's lost. I fabricate a small device to allow blood flow to resume without allowing him to regain any strength or motion. Right, immediate medical attention applied.

"Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. Do you understand? Just nod."

Another weak nod.
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Smart man.

"Orange Lantern to Tempest. Status."

"We've gotten most of them, but the ones which have landed on people are going into hiding."
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Well, damn. I hope Sivana has some way to track those shits...

"We're finished here. We'll come and help you hunt them down shortly." I turn-.

Dr Sivana is right behind me.

"Doctor?"

"Are you taking him back to my laboratory, or shall I do it? If you're going to be busy I'm confident that my rocket-plane can still bear the load. I've signalled my Sivanadroids to come here-."
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Still got a few things to deal with, Doctor. Like Spine Riders running around town?

"Doctor, I'm sorry, but as long as you're a wanted man it's only possible for me to cooperate to a certain degree."

He scowls. "Why on Earth is that?"

"Because while you and I know that the sheeda are coming, most people would want a clear and present danger before they would tolerate me working with someone with your reputation and history. Beryl and I are heading into Kennedy with Nigel and our prisoner, and while I will share our discoveries with you just leaving him here isn't on the cards."
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And OL will tell the others 'he slipped away while I was interrogating the prisoner.'

He leans back slightly.

"I… Grudgingly concede your point. Your contacts are far to valuable to burn over one living specimen. Would it be-?"

"Tissue samples are fine, body parts aren't, you've got twenty seconds."
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Ah, OL. You know just what to say to a man in the name of Science!...

Well, main annoyance dealt with. Time for cleanup. Of both said annoyance and his pets. Still gotta wonder how the other squads' missions are going. Hope there's a debrief in the future, for hilarity's sake.
 
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Mr Zoat said:
"Doctor, I'm sorry, but as long as you're a wanted man it's only possible for me to cooperate to a certain degree."

He scowls. "Why on Earth is that?"

"Because while you and I know that the sheeda are coming, most people would want a clear and present danger before they would tolerate me working with someone with your reputation and history. Beryl and I are heading into Kennedy with Nigel and our prisoner, and while I will share our discoveries with you just leaving him here isn't on the cards."

He leans back slightly.

"I… Grudgingly concede your point. Your contacts are far to valuable to burn over one living specimen. Would it be-?"

"Tissue samples are fine, body parts aren't, you've got twenty seconds."
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Wow, I'm impressed. I didn't expect Sivana to be that rational about it. To be honest, he's starting to grow on me.

Ganurath said:
With the laws he pushed through to protect nonhumans? They'll totally begrudge him.
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RichardWhereat said:
Aww, its not like he needs arms or legs to stand trial. The courts surely won't begrudge you a flesh wound.
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RichardWhereat said:
Sure, if they didn't happen during the heat of battle.
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He'd probably be fine if he cut off a limb during battle, but while he damaged them substantially he didn't detach them, and OL would have a lot harder time justifying cutting off a limb now that the battle is over and the suspect has been rendered powerless.

And it might not be all that easy to give away the limb even if he had. I would expect that a court would at least ask why a arresting officer gave away a limb that was dismembered in the course of arrest, and that would give the defense ammunition along the lines of 'How do we know that you didn't purposefully injure him more than necessary to arrest him?'.
 
How long before Batman asks Paul if he's going to make a habit of blowing away people's limbs with railgun rounds. This is the second major fight in a row that he's done so.

I mean, it's definitely effective and non-lethal, but I bet the League would give him the frowny-face.
 
Silverias said:
Could you...elaborate?
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While sapient rights legislation is normally fine, it doesn't seem to have made provisions for when those sapients are in fact only partially sapient, such as for example demons, who are fundamentally incapable of doing good deeds outside of certain, usually plot-related, circumstances.

doug89 said:
How long before Batman asks Paul if he's going to make a habit of blowing away people's limbs with railgun rounds. This is the second major fight in a row that he's done so.

I mean, it's definitely effective and non-lethal, but I bet the League would give him the frowny-face.
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Indeed, they may even pout. How sad for them.
 
"I… Grudgingly concede your point. Your contacts are far to valuable to burn over one living specimen."

Man, it's surreal how reasonable this guy is.
Sure, he's totally amoral and is focused entirely on his own goals with little care for anything else, but so long as your goals align... he might not even betray you at all.

Wild.
 
TheEyes said:
While sapient rights legislation is normally fine, it doesn't seem to have made provisions for when those sapients are in fact only partially sapient, such as for example demons, who are fundamentally incapable of doing good deeds outside of certain, usually plot-related, circumstances.
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Whilst I agree that the legislation is annoying, something that OL himself has said on numerous occasions, I don't see how you can say that demons are only partially sapient
 
Yes - in this case they are literally retarded specifically because they are steps backward. They should either have been put into place a long time ago or not put into place at all - literally retarded.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I am literally asking you: do you not understand what the word 'literally' means?
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At what point does the mistaken use of a word become so widespread that it's accepted? Pretty sure the only reason this hasn't happened yet is because literally everything (heh) is recorded nowadays.
 
TheEyes said:
While sapient rights legislation is normally fine, it doesn't seem to have made provisions for when those sapients are in fact only partially sapient, such as for example demons, who are fundamentally incapable of doing good deeds outside of certain, usually plot-related, circumstances.
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Problem is - they are capable of doing good deeds, as you point out - they just choose not to because they have no motivation to. The possible problem here - and what you may be getting at - is that they're just psychopaths - and psychopaths / crazy people still get representation under the law - though that may be an entirely other issue that people can have opinions on. Do we want to let Dexter run free just because he only kills those he knows are guilty? What about if the person is only killing small animals - is he at risk of eventually killing humans? What about if he just enjoys hunting a bit much - is he at risk of starting to hunt humans? Do you capture Batman because you know he's eventually going to kill someone - because it's likely he's not gonna be able to keep to "no killing" forever and when he does he won't be able to stop? It's a bit of a slippery slope between detaining / denying rights to mentally unstable humans / humanoids who haven't provably done anything wrong, and capturing innocents who weren't actually planning on doing anything legally wrong. For example, does Lucifer deserve human rights in DC - he does do good things despite being (sort of) a demon. What about those demons who really only punish people in hell and don't often interact with living people? They can't all be inherently evil - just some of their leaders are likely to be.
 
doug89 said:
How long before Batman asks Paul if he's going to make a habit of blowing away people's limbs with railgun rounds. This is the second major fight in a row that he's done so.

I mean, it's definitely effective and non-lethal, but I bet the League would give him the frowny-face.
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He also cut off Ocean Master's hands and decapitated Satanus, so dismemberment isn't a new thing for him. The League might bitch a little, but Batman probably won't bother with more than the usual bat-glare.
 
There was also the one time a while back when he was looking for someone and he stormed in to a known friend/partner of theirs house, chopped off his arm and threatened to keep doing it if he didn't tell him where the guy was
 
Mquz said:
Yes - in this case they are literally retarded specifically because they are steps backward. They should either have been put into place a long time ago or not put into place at all - literally retarded.
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No. Even if we agree to take it as read that the laws in question are steps backwards rather than steps forwards/sideways (which I suspect the G-gnomes, M'gann, Kal-El, and Red Tornado's extended family would rather vehemently dispute, given it finally gives them the same legal protections as humans enjoy), the word "retarded" is incorrect for describing them. Retarded means slowed or held back. When you lift off the gas pedal in your car to start coasting down to a slower speed, you retard the throttle, meaning that you slow the flow of air into the engine, reducing the amount of fuel consumed and the power output.

The word you are thinking of is retrograde, meaning "in a direction opposite the direction of motion, or of facing, or of the prevailing motion of a system." If you step back from someone who's in front of you with a fist cocked back to punch, you take a retrograde step relative to your current direction of facing. If you're in a spaceship in Earth orbit and want to come back and land, you fire your engines retrograde, opposite the direction of your current motion, to reduce your speed and thus lower the orbit to intersect the Earth's surface. And if you were to find a star system where one of the planets orbits the parent star in a direction roughly opposite the rest of its planets, that planet's orbital motion is said to be retrograde compared to the rest of the star system.

The only way that saying the laws in question are retarded could be accurate is if they were delayed in either enactment or in taking effect. And while I would personally agree that they should have been put into place essentially as soon as non-human intelligences were encountered in-universe, consider how "quickly" any government acts in response to a new situation; there's a reason that it's said that democracies will get things right... eventually.
 
jonasquinn said:
There was also the one time a while back when he was looking for someone and he stormed in to a known friend/partner of theirs house, chopped off his arm and threatened to keep doing it if he didn't tell him where the guy was
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I think it was more threatening to eat his arm via Praexis Demon/Lantern, but either way the essential point is the same.
 
Idkusername said:
At what point does the mistaken use of a word become so widespread that it's accepted? Pretty sure the only reason this hasn't happened yet is because literally everything (heh) is recorded nowadays.
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It still happens.

People call humanoid piloted machines "robots" or human looking machines androids despite it meaning "male looking".
 
I have to say, I think Mr Zoat is giving Sivana kind of a sweetheart treatment here.

His inventions always work and never fail at inconvenient moments. We never see him bump up against the limits of what he knows. And worst of all, he constantly displays the ability to reign himself in and respond rationally when the core of his character is that he's the archetypical Mad Scientist who is simply incapable of doing so. I never minded earlier because the SI was catching him in calm, reflective moments when he could be expected to be at his highest clarity. In the middle of a fight and immediately afterwards? He ought to be ranting and practically frothing and have made at least one inexcusable mistake by now.

"I… Grudgingly concede your point. Your contacts are far too valuable to burn over one living specimen. Would it be-?"
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See, I find it almost impossible to see Sivana doing that. Never in a million years.

That's my feedback anyway.
 
Steelplaza said:
I have to say, I think Mr Zoat is giving Sivana kind of a sweetheart treatment here.

His inventions always work and never fail at inconvenient moments. We never see him bump up against the limits of what he knows. And worst of all, he constantly displays the ability to reign himself in and respond rationally when the core of his character is that he's the archetypical Mad Scientist who is simply incapable of doing so. I never minded earlier because the SI was catching him in calm, reflective moments when he could be expected to be at his highest clarity. In the middle of a fight and immediately afterwards? He ought to be ranting and practically frothing and have made at least one inexcusable mistake by now.



See, I find it almost impossible to see Sivana doing that. Never in a million years.

That's my feedback anyway.
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The man wasn't sheeda, and based on the information available to him probably doesn't have much to do with the people coming back from the future. Also, his children like the SI. If another superhero had tried that it probably wouldn't have gone as well.
 
Someguy Somewhere said:
Remember Chummer, Geek the Mage First.
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Indeed.

217534009_hZ5oD-L-2.jpg
 
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