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

Reader mode
i wonder if the JL is gonna show this later to the YJ team and they solve the issue after like the 3rd step and bypass alot of Paul wild goose chase since they know him so well
 
Z000 said:
i wonder if the JL is gonna show this later to the YJ team and they solve the issue after like the 3rd step and bypass alot of Paul wild goose chase since they know him so well
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That is why Paul has been hiring consultants. If you are putting together a villainous plot you might as well ask the experts.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Dr Munro looks at me dubiously.

"Have you asked Lex about this?"

"Of course not. If I talk to Lex about it, they'll start to think that I'm actually trying to kill them."
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Given how suspicious some members of the League are towards him already... Good idea not to give them ammo.

"Why would they think that?"

Ah… Yes. The 'legitimate businessman' problem. Coming from Earth Prime, the fact that Lex Luthor is the bad guy is well known. Even amongst Earth 16 superheroes it's-. Well, amongst the better-connected ones, it's known in the same way that it's known that Racer X is Speed Racer's brother. Everyone watching knows, no one in-universe knows. But amongst people out of the loop, they genuinely believe that he's a legitimate businessman. Maybe a bit sleazy or corrupt, but that's due to the job and not due to his actual personal characteristics.
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Ah, yes, the old metaknowledge conundrum. How much to reveal...

How to break it to one of his project leads?

"Because he's a supervillain."

"I'm… I'm sorry?"
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Just ripping the plaster off, are we? Hopefully, Doctor Munro won't go doing anything foolish...

"Yeah, he…" I bring up a construct showing the sub-levels of LexCorps I flew through during the Young Offenders' attack. "He's attempted to have Superman assassinated on multiple occasions, he was one of the people behind the Roanoke Island Event, he backs all sorts of-."

"Wait wait wait." He shakes his head. "Wh-? You're the one who told him to hire me!"
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Not directly, actually. Heck, OL didn't even realise Iron Munro existed here before the India mission, did he?

"I told him about the Danner Formula because I thought he could be rehabilitated if I proved that he could fulfil his objectives in other ways, because he's very good at disguising what he does and finding evidence hard enough to get him convicted was prohibitively difficult. It.. didn't work. I still don't fully understand why."

"I-." He looks around at the laboratory complex. "We're making super guard dogs for him. Do you not think you should have told me about this sooner?"
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Big picture, Doctor. Humanity becoming supermen in a few generations. Lex won't jeopardise that for his own manias. I hope.

"I didn't -and still don't- have proof I'd feel comfortable relying on. A few winks and nods, a few remarkable coincidences. Because if I did have proof, he'd have been arrested by now. And the work you're doing is very useful to human civilisation and Ted Kord didn't have the same sort of resources."

Though he's getting there now. I wonder if Lex regrets his decision after seeing how much KordTech's share price has gone up? I only know about that aspect because the commercial law firm which arranged my purchases wrote to me about it. And given his behaviour regarding that part of the business I could easily believe that Ted doesn't know at all.

"So, yeah, that's why I don't want him knowing about this exercise. Are you in?"
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And since what Lex knows, The Light will know soon after...

28th February
19:33 GMT +9:00

Colonel Park frowns faintly.

"I do not understand what agreeing to help the Justice League will entail."
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Nothing that puts your country in danger, of course. Think of the goodwill!

"Well, that depends. We're assigning roles blindly, so there's a good chance that all that will happen is that the people working at the site-" I point to the file concerning one of North Rhelasia's research and development hubs. "-will just have to carry around cards with 'No Information' written on them for a day, and they'll probably never see a member of the League. There's a small chance that one of them will have a role in the exercise, probably something along the lines of 'conceal this information' or 'conceal this object'."

"You do not want us to fight the Justice League."
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You honestly think you'd last very long anyway?

"Of course not."

"Even as an exercise, using rubber bullets and dummy explosives."

"The League is… The League wants to avoid implying that they're training to destroy national militaries. This exercise is designed to simulate their response to a well-networked supervillain. While there will be combat segments, I'll be handling those with my own resources well away from civic infrastructure."
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In other words, Colonel, keep the war-boner in your figurative pants.

"And how long will this take?"

"Assuming that the site is even involved, the League would be on site for… Maybe an hour? The people on site would have the possibility of a visit hanging over them for a week or so, but as I said; they don't need to actually do very much."

"Why was this site in particular chosen?"
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I'm betting everyone not involved in the highest planning level will end up very confused about it all.

"Because it's hard for the League to reach, and the laboratories there are sophisticated enough to credibly play a role in the plot. Part of what I'm doing is creating a thread of evidence that the League can track if they find it. There wouldn't be much point in implying that certain parts came from somewhere which they couldn't have come from."

"What do you know about what happens at that site?"
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Hopefully, nothing the UN would want to have words with them about...

"Most of what I know is available from publically accessible sources. Of course, I also have access to the 'high risk locations' file your government provided the League."

His eyes narrow. "That was supposed to only be shared with Justice League members."
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Power ring. Until Warded servers became a thing, OL could know anything he wanted in moments...

"Actually, the agreement which your government signed includes anyone deputised by the League, as the League didn't want to define a formal recruitment process at the time. If you feel that the North Rhelasian government was mislead about that, I can only apologise. If you wish to make a formal complaint, you will have to address it to the League."

He appears to decide to let it go.
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Too much hassle to argue about it with OL...

"Would you need to meet with the people working there?"

"If they're selected for participation, a brief meeting would be helpful. I'm afraid that I won't be able to schedule it in advance, as I'm trying to avoid the potential for metagaming."

"Can you select a time during which they will need to be available, and then simply not arrive if they are not required?"
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In other words, have a meeting scheduled during their work day, but if he doesn't turn up.. Well, a free lunch!

"Yyy.. es, that should work."

"Will there be a public announcement after the exercise is complete?"

Meaning a PR opportunity with members of the League.
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Ah, eyes on the world's public opinion. How political of you, Colonel.

"While the fact that an exercise is happening isn't a secret, there isn't any plan to make public announcements about how it went. Obviously, that sort of information is exactly the sort of thing that a supervillain wanting to take a swing at the League could benefit from. If they end up being involved, I would like the opportunity to thank the participants in person."

Which doesn't exactly thrill him. I'm not much of a PR coup, and some of his colleagues are still annoyed about the whole 'bringing traitors back from the dead' thing. I suppose I'm just lucky that the forest Euanthe made hasn't killed anyone yet.
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Oh, yeah, that was a thing.

"Will facilities in the South also be participating?"

"I have made such a request. The government gave me their tentative approval, subject to the directors of the facilities in question giving it theirs."
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Ah, the benefit of a non-totalitarian government. I'm sure the Colonel sees it was weakness...

A mild twitch, and I strongly suspect that I've got him. If I just asked the South, his government would moan about it. If I just asked the North, they could turn it down with no loss of face.

"I suppose that it is more likely that the South would consort with supervillains." He nods. "You will have my decision within two days."

"Thank you, Colonel. You've been most helpful."
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So, cooperation likely but grudgingly given.

Evan McCullock cautiously raises his pint glass in my direction.

"Aye, well, yer payin' fer it, pal. I'm yer man soon as the cheque clears. We'll no' be doin' anything illegal, aye?"

"Not at all. Nothing could be further from my mind."
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I take it Mirror Master there will be providing transportation for the fictional 'project'...

More heist planning.And from what we've seen, the League's investigators will be working their asses off to unravel it...
 
Mr Zoat said:
"Actually, the agreement which your government signed includes anyone deputised by the League, as the League didn't want to define a formal recruitment process at the time. If you feel that the North Rhelasian government was mislead about that, I can only apologise. If you wish to make a formal complaint, you will have to address it to the League."
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It should be 'misled'.

Mr Zoat said:
The League win, but with several members 'dead' and significant damage done to the planet.
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Now I really can't wait for the epic "training exercise".
 
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It will be funny if the League cheats on this one like Paul cheated on the last.
 
Vaermina said:
It will be funny if the League cheats on this one like Paul cheated on the last.
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He didnt cheat, he did something unexpected that still fulfilled the purpose of the exercise by revealing a hole in their defense a real Supervillain could exploit.

This isn't supposed to be some game between them with fair chances of winning, but something that helps the League in thr long term.
 
I'm still surprised he gave up on Lex as totally as he did. Especially now that he's further developed his ability to understand the desires and motivations of others.

It just seems like it'd be pretty easy to figure out, "Oh. He's a paranoid shit who thinks I used the Ring to make him have a change of heart."

Because Zoat has said Lex's paranoia that he was being brainwashed is the only reason Paul failed to flip him the last time they spoke to one another.
 
Looking at the Grayven is/becoming a god bit...

This seems to depend on several things, including "what is the nature of a god?", in this setting, which it should be quite clear is Mr Zoat's decision, not YJ or DC Comics, though they might point you in useful directions. If you want to go classical, dying and restoring yourself to life was regarded as the qualification for becoming a shaman or a god... Whether this is required to be symbolic or actual is a different issue... From my memory of the WTR story Grayven qualifies, arguably on more than one occasion...
 
Maxx Crowley said:
In all failed relationships, eventually you just have to move on.

You could "this" and you could "that", but really? You just need to cut your losses and get on with your life.
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i mean- he gave it his best shot-he gave the man so many choice whilst KNOWING just how far he was capable of sinking,
but Alexander's..
well..
he's too...ill? Neurotic? to be saved without psychological help- anything that genuinely makes him second-guess-himself/question the morality of his actions/upcoming actions causes him to snap to "im obviously being mind controlled- the smartest man on the planet NEVER questions himself- nice try, ALIEN, ill double down, im clearly justified,you just tried to brainwash me!"
without breaking his delusions/ FORCING him to face just how...off his perspective/viewpoint is, how much damage he's constantly on the verge to causing to humanity, in a way he CANT rationalize away with his paranoia,until he has to acknowledge he's -not- mentally healthy, well...things will never improve, and eventually he'll be the one cackling at the controls of the orbital accelerator instead of one of his "business partners"...


......kinda reminds me of my mother giving her sister too many second chances-
like you said, in the end, sometimes you have to just...call it a loss and ...let things go ...
 
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I'm lost. If he even thinks Lex is still up to No good then why hasn't he done anything about it.
 
Aeess said:
He didnt cheat, he did something unexpected that still fulfilled the purpose of the exercise by revealing a hole in their defense a real Supervillain could exploit.

This isn't supposed to be some game between them with fair chances of winning, but something that helps the League in thr long term.
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So true. One of the US military's greatest assets, at least for the Army and Marines, is the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. This is a facility for large-scale force-on-force training exercises, far bigger ones than any unit could do in their own base's maneuver grounds. However, the value of it doesn't come (solely) from that--it comes from the fact that there's an entire armored cavalry regiment based at Fort Irwin dedicated entirely to the job of being the opposing force at the NTC. As a result of the fact that they fight a major (if simulated) battle on the same ground every six weeks or so, the OPFOR know the NTC's grounds intimately--Tom Clancy once described it as them knowing the battlefield there "like an inner-city high school basketball team does its own court, where they know every loose board in the floor by name." The result is that the OPFOR is really really unfairly good at fighting at the NTC, particularly since the exercise rules do not have any differentiation in weapons performance between the unit training and the OPFOR (i.e., the OPFOR is assumed to have weapons just as advanced and effective as US forces); one standing joke is that there is an "OPFOR Tunnel" that lets the OPFOR move unobserved throughout the NTC and pop up wherever they want to be at any time (when it's really just that they know the terrain so well that they know where they need to be in advance, and how to get there unobserved).

NTC rotations are both eagerly and fearfully anticipated by US troops, because a training battle there is, deliberately, harder than actual combat. The visiting unit goes in knowing that they will lose the battle, lose it badly, and be forced to write a dissertation-length post-mortem analysis as to why, in humiliating detail. It is an absolutely miserable experience... and yet it's also both one of the best chances to go out and play in the dirt and to get yourself ready for real combat; the more an NTC rotation sucks, the less a combat deployment will suck.

The best training exercise is one that is very much not fair to the trainee, one designed to let them learn from failure. (Note: this is not to say a training exercise that is inherently impossible to "win" is a good one; all that a true no-win scenario will do is kill morale. For example, during the Apollo program, NASA would run training simulations that faced the crew with scenarios where the only way to survive was to immediately abort the mission and carry out a very specific series of corrective actions; however, the simulator operators were absolutely forbidden from throwing a combination of problems at the astronauts that was impossible to survive--there always had to be some chance, no matter how slight, of being able to solve the problem without "dying" in the simulator. In theory, the OPFOR at the NTC can be beaten; they just have all the advantages.) This is because the last thing any military force wants is a fair fight; there's always a chance of losing a fair fight. So if you're prepared to fight effectively on the "unfair" side of the fight, then fighting anything more fair than that will be a relatively easy victory...
 
ForeverShogo said:
I'm still surprised he gave up on Lex as totally as he did. Especially now that he's further developed his ability to understand the desires and motivations of others.

It just seems like it'd be pretty easy to figure out, "Oh. He's a paranoid shit who thinks I used the Ring to make him have a change of heart."

Because Zoat has said Lex's paranoia that he was being brainwashed is the only reason Paul failed to flip him the last time they spoke to one another.
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Whereas Gravy acted like an asshole, made Light 2.0 without his input and randomly stumbled over the hidden dialogue option to connvince Lex he was being paranoid, which is to say he didn't even try to persuade him but let Lex persuade himself.
 
Z3r0Sama said:
Whereas Gravy acted like an asshole, made Light 2.0 without his input and randomly stumbled over the hidden dialogue option to connvince Lex he was being paranoid, which is to say he didn't even try to persuade him but let Lex persuade himself.
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To be fair lex didn't have much of a choice
 
So I know that this is kind of a random question but I've been doing a reread and there's something that's been kind of bothering me, what does Ranx look like?

Image search shows that he either looks like a weird twisted thing or a perfect sphere but as far as I can tell the only picture in the story show him as just being a giant grey building in space but did that change after getting a ring? And if he is just a building is he still like the size of a moon or just a regular space station?
 
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jonasquinn said:
So I know that this is kind of a random question but I've been doing a reread and there's something that's been kind of bothering me, what does Ranx look like?

Image search shows that he either looks like a weird twisted thing or a perfect sphere but as far as I can tell the only picture in the story show him as just being a giant grey building in space but did that Chang after getting a ring? And if he is just a building is he still like the size of a moon Ormthal just a regular space station?
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He looks a bit more like the Sinestro Corps version these days. He's expanded significantly for extra shipyard capacity.
 
If Ranx looks like from the Sinestro Corps War version, then he should be looking something like...

ranx-the-sentient-city-0fe32583-56be-45c4-bd0d-e1605f936f5-resize-750.jpeg


latest


745787-ranx.jpg

Just that with the Orange Lantern symbol, I suppose.
 
Bended (part 4)
  • Threadmarks
    • 29th February
    17:22 GMT -5

    I knock on the window of the Daily Planet office once again, and once again Ms Lane pointedly ignores me.

    When I first did this, Planet staff looked around in alarm or flat out sprinted for cover. Now I've got a small crowd, and one of the braver souls took it upon herself to point me out to Ms Lane. She hasn't even looked up since she confirmed that I wasn't Superman.

    Lex would have said something by now. I don't.. think I've done anything in particular to irritate her.

    Ms Grant appears to be trying sign language again. And by sign language, I mean posing.

    I knock again, and Mr White sticks his head out of the editor's office, takes one look at me and then shouts something. Ms Lane sighs, gets up and with clear reluctance heads my way. I

    step out

    and reappear in her chair.

    "Good afternoon!"

    She turns around with a frustrated exhalation. "You could have walked in the front door and you could have phased through the glass. Were you really that desperate to take my chair?"

    I stand, step aside to ceremoniously return her chair to her, then sit in the air next to it.

    "Hn."

    She retakes her seat.

    "Having a hard day?"

    "I've got a deadline, an article to write and someone just knocked on a fifteenth floor window to get my attention. What is it? And it better not push my actual article to the second page again."

    "I'm running a wargame for the Justice League."

    She looks at me blankly. "What, like, Napoleonic?"

    "No, a.. training field exercise."

    "God damn it." She sighs. "Do you ever feel that everyone focuses all their attention on the.. part of your work that's least important?"

    I smile a little too broadly. "Hey, remember when there used to be a drugs trade in Caracas? No, no, never mind. Yes, it was a very big cake."

    She nods sympathetically. "So, what, you're here to give me the inside scoop?"

    "No-." Huh. "Sort of. More… A front row-."

    "You want to kidnap me."

    "N-. No. Technically, I wouldn't be doing it." She shakes her head, breath hissing through her teeth. "I'm going for realism, and you have to admit, Superman's villains have a certain form when it comes to-."

    "I know."

    "Also, it's just a possible thing. The idea is that the villainous party will be reacting to the League and vice versa. You and Mister Olsen are the obvious targets for anti-Superman distraction attacks, so I thought that I'd try and get your permission."

    "So we're going to get kidnapped."

    "Or killed-. Virtually, virtually killed. If you agree to take part. I'm striving to make this as authentic a supervillain experience as possible."

    "Are you kidnapping people?"

    "No, that would compromise my objectivity. Also, if you consent in advance it isn't kidnapping. It's an unexpected holiday."

    "You checked, did you?"

    "Yes. For every country on the planet with a coherent set of laws."

    "Am I getting an actual holiday out of this?"

    "I'm happy to offer my services as a transport vehicle whenever you like. I don't know where the villain team is planning on hiding any hostages they may take, because that would threaten my objectivity."

    And risk Mr J'onzz or M'gann getting a look at it inside my head. M'gann's not technically part of this, but she could very well involve herself at his direction. She is a Manhunter, and a better telepath than him.

    "So? Are you in?"

    29th February
    18:33 GMT -5

    General Lane squints slightly.

    "You are aware that I'm a general in the US army, right?"

    "Yes, General. The uniform was a bit of a clue."

    "And you want to stage a supervillain attack in the middle of an army base. That's what you're telling me."

    "Possibly, yes."

    He shakes his head. "I don't think I'm going to be able to approve that."

    "Won't it be a useful readiness test? I mean, I know that Hardcastle's gone-."

    "And that didn't exactly make you any friends."

    "Yes it did."

    "I wouldn't-."

    "I'm an empath. It may be less precise than telepathy, but it has the advantage of bypassing the mental defence techniques US military officers get taught."

    His face takes a turn for the stern.

    "Get the hell out of my head."

    "That's not.. how it-." I shake my head. "Look, you have preparedness drills, don't you?"

    "We don't use civilian contractors. And I doubt that you want whoever you've got playing the role to get shot dead by the US army."

    "Actually, that's fine."

    He raises his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

    "We're using lifelike robots. Your people can shoot them as much as you want. The individual running the villain side knows that your rules of engagement are different to the ones the Justice League uses."

    He looks a little interested.

    "Are you serious?"

    "They'll be using low lethality weapons themselves. It's possible that your people could get hurt in melee or by.. friendly fire. But it doesn't matter if any of the attackers get destroyed."

    "Didn't you.. get a law passed-?"

    "They're not intelligent enough to be covered."

    "Okay." A frown, this time curious. "Can we buy these robots?"

    "I'll ask, but probably not."

    "Okay, yeah. This could have legs. Let me talk to a few people, then I'll get back to you."
     
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