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

[Chojin Patriarch]

"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

No civil war today, at least.

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Thank goodness for that. Hopefully, things work out without violence...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

The Accala weren't exactly impressed by the government's first offer, but they didn't dismiss it out of hand either. Diana was hopeful that they'd eventually be able to reach some kind of settlement and I could see how much Hugo wanted one. I hadn't realised exactly how poor the soil in the Amazon was until he delivered an off the cuff lecture on the subject. The Accala themselves aren't experts on jungle management; they may have been a few generations ago but they haven't been able to use those skills since the putsch and they've sort of fallen out of the collective consciousness. But some of the tribes they've had dealings with do and they're willing to learn if that's what it takes.

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So the Amazon gets its own super-powered guardians.

I walk across the hangar -no bioship yet- and head up the steps to the kitchen. Of course, the best thing to do would be to recruit the entire tribe into the.. jungle rangers, or whatever the Brazilians call them. Make them part of a federal law enforcement body so that they can enforce the current laws, and pass a piece of legislation recognising the tribal lands as actually belonging to the tribes. But I doubt that the Accala want to be bound to an institution that they hate and I doubt that the government want to invite in people who just metaphorically cattle prodded them in the genitals.

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And isn't that an amusing image. Perhaps they can work out a deputisation program, allowing the Tribes to enforce the laws within the jungle and its borders, with minimal oversight.

"…complain about, but I had thought there would be more fighting."

I can hear Garth through the door, and I suppose that's a fair observation. He was stuck at the logging camp trying magic he didn't know and waiting for something to happen.

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Not every mission can be a knee-slapping, leg-breaking good time. Fellow's got to learn that.

As I walk through the door I see Beryl flash him a grin.

"You could always go and visit the Accala if you wanted. They'd probably be happy to spar with you. Or the Brazilians. Their soldiers need lots experience fighting metahumans."

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I'm not entirely sure Garth's Atlantean strength would be up to the former...

"Reports all done?"

Garth nods while Beryl shrugs.

"Sure, but I'm pretty sure that Batman's already getting on top of this one."

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And he is not happy. Certainly, less happy than he usually is.

"…rises at four o'clock…"

Angelika enters the kitchen area from the other side, Wallace helping her with the bags. He nods as he sees me.

"Hey, Oh El. South America still in one piece?"

"For now."

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Hopefully. If it all goes ploin-shaped, we know who the League is going to be looking at first.

He and Angelika put their bags on the table and Angelika starts rooting through them. She notices me watching and smiles.

"Kid Flash said that Central City had good German food stores and I was inspired. I thought that I would cook today?"

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Ah, some German-style cuisine. I suppose anything works to get the bad taste out of their mouth.

I shrug. "Fine with me. Should be an interesting change of pace."

She smiles and pulls out a bag of.. some sort of pasta balls. "Ideally, this would all be made from scratch, but this is all good quality. Perhaps, tomorrow, I could do something more involved?"

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How domestic of her.

Ah… Is..? I don't think there's anyone on the team who would point blank refuse to eat something she cooked, and.. she.. hasn't refused to have anything to do with the non-Caucasian members of the team. I had planned on us visiting a high crime city and making it a low crime city, but I suppose that we can settle for medium crime.

"I'm sure that-" Whose turn-? Oh.. gosh yes. "-Canis won't mind skipping his turn."

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Yeah, I doubt anyone will object to missing out on his 'cooking'.

Apokoliptian food culture doesn't do much to recommend the place. Though he has backed away from his initial idea of having an elimination tournament for would-be diners to prove that they are worthy of being fed, his… Ideas about flavour and texture combinations would make Heston Blumenthal say 'that's a bit out there'.

Scott Free said that it's better than Barda's efforts, but he has fairly low standards.

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Given that in his childhood, cold gruel would have been a treat, I can see that.

I look around as Angelika begins to pull out roasting tins.

"Raquel not here?"

"No." Wallace flops down on the settee. "She wanted to talk to Icon about the whole 'natives versus settlers' thing."

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Not dealing well with her preconceptions getting shaken up, eh?

I nod. I suppose he was around while that was still a significant political issue in America.

"How was Russia?"

"I… Don't know..?" I frown, and he shakes his head. "I mean, the mission went… Fine. We found Christina, she'd joined this… Cult…"

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Uh-oh. that's never a good sing...

I walk through the kitchen and sit down across from him.

"What sort of cult?"

"They.. kinda.. worship this guy called Savitar."

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Very bad. Very, very bad.

I nod. "The Hindu deity?"

"No, a metahuman with superspeed who named himself after the god. Or wants to be the god. But I think we might have got played by the Russians."

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Seriously, does OL not remember Savitar from the comics? Not a fan of Flash back in the day?

"How?"

He shuffles in his seat slightly. "We found Savitar's cult-. One of his cults, and the leader could use full on superspeed. I think he was the guy from that Russian army base, the one who got away." I nod. "They had some kind of mystic energy transfer thing. They put it on Christina to give their guys enhanced speed. Not full superspeed, but they did a number on the soldiers the Russians sent with us."

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Well. So much for avoiding a super-speed arms race.

"Did they get away?"

"No, once I talked Christina down their speed vanished right away. But the problem is that we found out there's a whole bunch more places like that and some of the cultists have super speed. So now the Russians want to make more speedsters."

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Fight fire with fire, no matter the damage dealt to the surroundings, eh?

"Which they could do anyway." He looks dubious. "Couldn't they?"

"Yeeeeeaaaagh… They could, but they never got the full formula from Jay Garrick and they haven't done much testing to try and fix what they did get."

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Refer back to Zig-Zag if you don't remember how that went...

I take a moment to remember my own early experiments with it. Also, poor Speedy.

"So they want the full formula?"

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Well, they're going to be disappointed, aren't they?

He nods. "And any work we've done with it since. And, yeah, they say they're not gunna use it to make a super speed army, and… They probably won't, because they didn't do that when Stalin was running the place and he wasn't exactly averse to human experimentation. But if we give it to the Russians… Why aren't we giving it to anyone else?"

"How about just agreeing to give a dose to a certain number of applicants?"

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Tolerable, but...

"Yeah, but they could probably reverse engineer it from their blood."

"Why not give them the Blitzen formula instead?"

We both look around, Wallace craning his neck slightly to look over the back of the settee. "Huh?"

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Huh, pertinent input from Overgirl?

Angelika keeps putting mustard on some raw meat.

"Aunty Geri's.. friend, Blitzen. She developed a formula which give enhanced speed to the person who takes it. It does not make her so fast as the Flash, but it makes her faster than a normal person. If these cultists do not have the same level of speed as the Flash, then the Russians do not need the same level of speed."

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Hmm... Workable. But the problem is still reverse-engineering.

"Huh." Wallace frowns. "Could they reverse engineer it from their blood?"

"I do not think so. You could ask her."

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That's the local Blitzen, of course. I doubt Angelika knows the Earth 10 variant's formula form memory.

"Yeah, I will."

"Shame there isn't a short term version of the formula, really."

"Yeeeeahh…" Wallace looks thoughtful. "Ac.. tually…" He gets off the settee. "I.. think I know how to make one."

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Oh god, he's making Mongoose Juice, isn't he? As long as it isn't as addictive as some versions of Earth-14's speed formulae...

And again, the focus on OL's perspective makes the other squads' missions into amusing noodle incidents. I suppose someone could write Omakes about them based on what's mentioned in-story. Not it!

 

[Stsword]

Isn't that just the velocity series?

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Well the velocity drugs are known for killing lots of people, so one would hope not.

 

[Valiran]

"Yeeeeahh…" Wallace looks thoughtful. "Ac.. tually…" He gets off the settee. "I.. think I know how to make one."

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If true, this is probably a good thing. With the proverbial genie out of the bottle, people are going to be looking for any advantage they can get for their armies. Introducing a harmless, less powerful, and temporary super-speed serum to the world at large will have everyone pouncing on it.

After all, the last thing Earth needs is people with unproven moral fiber permanently gaining powers that few can hope to counter.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Everyone is always on about superspeed soldiers when the real application lies in information processing.

Imagine a corporation with a superspeed RnD team.

Or even just a superspeed assembly line.

 

[Vaermina]

"Yeeeeahh…" Wallace looks thoughtful. "Ac.. tually…" He gets off the settee. "I.. think I know how to make one."

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Enter the real version of Velocity 9.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

Oh, so now there's going to be a speed version of venom. Call it 'spite'.

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Isn't that just the velocity series?

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Well the velocity drugs are known for killing lots of people, so one would hope not.

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or velocity 10 with renegrayven

 

[zerofarad]

Their soldiers need lots experience fighting metahumans."

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Lots of experience? Or is this a dialect thing?

 

[TheEyes]

He nods. "And any work we've done with it since. And, yeah, they say they're not gunna use it to make a super speed army, and…

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...now they totally will thanks to the Accala opening the Pandora's Box first.

Mass-produced super-powered armies were like all other WMDs: no one wanted to be the first to let one off the chain (at least in a way that couldn't be construed as a reversible one-off), but now that there is one, being the second is perfectly acceptable, and seemingly inevitable.

 

[Simonbob]

...now they totally will thanks to the Accala opening the Pandora's Box first.

Mass-produced super-powered armies were like all other WMDs: no one wanted to be the first to let one off the chain (at least in a way that couldn't be construed as a reversible one-off), but now that there is one, being the second is perfectly acceptable, and seemingly inevitable.

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I'm not sure that's entirely true.

The atlantians, the amazons, the martians?

I'm sure there are other groups out there who are self-contained supers, to some degree.


I think the World isn't going to go berserk about this until the Accala or the like show just how insanely hard it is to stop such a group without a counter.

It'll just be another curio tribe, another thing to keep super solder programs crusing along.


When the shit hits the fan, perhaps that will change.


Then again, this is DC.

 

[Darko]

Zoat is there going to be a chapter focusing on an alternate version of the SI tomorrow, aside from renegade i mean?

 

[Stsword]

It could be worse, Zoat could have been an I...Vampire fan.

Russia could be mass producing super-vampires with no weaknesses thanks to the Russian Formula.

Soldiers with superhuman strength, speed, durability, regeneration, shapeshifting, superhuman senses, and mind control.

Vampires who can ignore sunlight, garlic, religious symbols, and finds stakes through the heart merely annoying.

Not as fast as Garrick enhanciles or as strong as Danner enhanciles, but then again neither of them can fly around as giant bats or mind control people.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Lots of experience? Or is this a dialect thing?

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Thank you, corrected.

Zoat is there going to be a chapter focusing on an alternate version of the SI tomorrow, aside from renegade i mean?

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Not unless I have a brainstorm this evening.

 

[Darko]

Vampire King Cain was really OP.
Still I Vampire was a really great series.

 

[RichardWhereat]

F.A.Q.
I have also used invisible text for chess notation.

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Chess Notation? What do you mean by that?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Chess Notation? What do you mean by that?

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Writing the moves used during a chess game. It only came up once.

 

[TheMidnightRook]

I'm not sure that's entirely true.

The atlantians, the amazons, the martians?

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All three of those examples can easily end up falling into the "out of sight, out of mind" category. Each one is heavily isolated politically and economically, meaning that when one of their representatives engages in some high-profile, righteous face-punching, it's easy to forget that they're abilities are part of the standard package, and not the Platinum UltraDeluxe Metahuman model.

 

[Impartial Panic]

"Shame there isn't a short term version of the formula, really."

"Yeeeeahh…" Wallace looks thoughtful. "Ac.. tually…" He gets off the settee. "I.. think I know how to make one.

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Oh, so now there's going to be a speed version of venom. Call it 'spite'.

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Oh no Wally is going to whip up batches of Velocity 9

and now we're seeing the beginning of the superhuman armsrace.

Looks Like we're going to get the metahuman trafficking issue a few years early.

 

[Whenever Possible]

>Russian Gov makes noises about more Garrick formula to Kid Flash
>Kid Flash flexes alchemy chops to make temporary formula so that Russia can't give their entire army permanent superspeed
>Russian Gov doesn't have to worry about super-powered defectors keeping their powers after leaving Russia and ensures that Russian metas given the drug are dependent on Russia for more of the drug as well as medical treatment for side effects.
>Russian 4d chess


Wait, wasn't this reasoning somewhere earlier in the renegade timeline?

 

[Darko]

A metahuman arms race may happen, but probably not one that includes abducting children.
Truggs took one of the HERO dials and was thinking of giving powers to mercenaries temporarily.
Giving powers to professional soldiers who consent is a better plan than kidnapping children and forcefully giving them powers.
The soldiers will be more loyal and are better trained, and they will depend on the one who gave them powers to keep them, so the chances of the person you kidnapped and made into a metahuman without his consent coming for revenge are removed, plus experimenting on someone without their consent is a taboo, especially if it is on children. This can seriously hurt any transhumanist efforts to enchance humans even if they are doing it in a safe manner. After WWII eugenics, even some of the more scientific type, became a taboo subject because of what the nazis did, so if someone tries enchancing humans in a criminal manner it can hurt the more benevolent people that are trying to improve people in a non-criminal way.

 

[Chaoswind]

I'm not sure that's entirely true.

The atlantians, the amazons, the martians?

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None of them hold any relevance whatsoever in regards to the rest of the world.

The Amazons are for the most part a bronze age army with a few dozens daughters of Hercules (probably weaker than the Danner enhanced), some advanced magic practitioners of with there is a very high emphasis of ritual and conjuration magic, so when it comes to magic they are bellow England.

So Amazons would cause a negligible impact and they are already isolationist by default so no one needs to care about them unless a new leader takes over.

Atlanteans are a bigger concern hence why the UN had a measure of contact with them that has greatly expanded after the Romanoke split world tragedy, but they have no mayor interest beyond cleaner oceans and the territory of their city states so they are easier to negotiate with and their economic impact is greatly reduced.

The Martians are the other guys in SOL, but they are in MARS and are also HARD isolationist, so they don't really matter much either.

All of them have absolutely no impact on the worlds economy and the inter relationships between nations, the Accala and their plans would have a super massive impact and their starting position as a threat is already much higher than the Amazons, and they are harder to hit than the Atlanteans (underwater nukes are no joke and the side effects to the rest of the world would be very limited).

 

[Rafin]

Hey. I just got through the whole archive since back when I stopped at some point before the migration to QQ. Good stuff.

I've got a question relevant to the latest chapters and I don't know if it has been answered/asked yet. Did Overgirl Angelika appear in the Renegade timeline as well? If not, why not?

Speaking of that, does anyone remember what Blue!Paul -12 was up to in the Renegade timeline back when in the Paragon timeline he decided to pay Earth 16 a visit? Is Renegade!Blue's startingp the same as Renegade!Paul's/Grayven's, which led him down a path that never led to dimension-hopping? And if there ends up being a crisis of Pauls, should we or shouldn't we expect a crisis of Rene!Pauls to go alongside it?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I've got a question relevant to the latest chapters and I don't know if it has been answered/asked yet. Did Overgirl Angelika appear in the Renegade timeline as well? If not, why not?

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No, because she came from one parallel and went to another. There would need to be another Nazi parallel and another fluke event to bring her to the Renegade's parallel.

Speaking of that, does anyone remember what Blue!Paul -12 was up to in the Renegade timeline back when in the Paragon timeline he decided to pay Earth 16 a visit? Is Renegade!Blue's startingp the same as Renegade!Paul's/Grayven's, which led him down a path that never led to dimension-hopping? And if there ends up being a crisis of Pauls, should we or shouldn't we expect a crisis of Rene!Pauls to go alongside it?

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No, he'd just be another alt.

 

[Sceptic]

super solder programs

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Are we talking lead-free super solders, though?

 

[Rafin]

No, because she came from one parallel and went to another. There would need to be another Nazi parallel and another fluke event to bring her to the Renegade's parallel.

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Huh. So Renegade is not actually on DC Earth 16? Where is he then?
Also does this mean that when Paragon!Paul's Doctor Thaddeus Sivana actually can contact Renegade!Sivana at any time?

 

[jonasquinn]

This is actually good for OL's goal of uplifting humanity, after all as super strength and super speed become more widespread there will be more demand for it and so on and so forth

 

[GhostKing 666]

So I was trawling though the DC wiki and it turns out there's a second group of amazons on Earth in the comics. The Amazons of Bana-Mighdall are apparently a splinter group that rejected following Hippolyta to Themyscira after Heracles and instead settled in their own hidden city(protected and hidden by a magical sandstorm by the Egyptian/Kahndaqi gods) in Egypt/Kahndaq. They rejected the gods of Olympus and apparently worship the gods of Egypt/Kahndaq(though they apparently are rather violent, surviving as secret mercenaries and master weapon-smiths), they even have their own champion called the Shim'Tar, who's armed with the Bow of Ra.

I admit I find myself rather curious if Mr Zoat will use them(and how they and Adom will interact).

 

[Mr Zoat]

So I was trawling though the DC wiki and it turns out there's a second group of amazons on Earth in the comics. The Amazons of Bana-Mighdall are apparently a splinter group that rejected following Hippolyta to Themyscira after Heracles and instead settled in their own hidden city(protected and hidden by a magical sandstorm by the Egyptian/Kahndaqi gods) in Egypt/Kahndaq. They rejected the gods of Olympus and apparently worship the gods of Egypt/Kahndaq(though they apparently are rather violent, surviving as secret mercenaries and master weapon-smiths), they even have their own champion called the Shim'Tar, who's armed with the Bow of Ra.

I admit I find myself rather curious if Mr Zoat will use them(and how they and Adom will interact).

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Almost certainly not. Some Amazons left the island, but by this point their descendants are culturally identical to the people around them. If any of them were demi-goddesses then they might still be alive, but... Someone would have noticed by now.

 

[Mr Zoat]

 

[Stsword]

Huh. So Renegade is not actually on DC Earth 16? Where is he then?
Also does this mean that when Paragon!Paul's Doctor Thaddeus Sivana actually can contact Renegade!Sivana at any time?

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I believe the story once referred to the renegadeverse as Earth-16b. If I'm remembering right.

My assumption is that Zoat is using Hypertime, in which there are alternate universes based on the "every possibility that can happen does happen somewhere" model.

Or he's borrowing from wildstorm, which I understand showed universes just popping into existence in the Bleed.

So I was trawling though the DC wiki and it turns out there's a second group of amazons on Earth in the comics. The Amazons of Bana-Mighdall are apparently a splinter group that rejected following Hippolyta to Themyscira after Heracles and instead settled in their own hidden city(protected and hidden by a magical sandstorm by the Egyptian/Kahndaqi gods) in Egypt/Kahndaq. They rejected the gods of Olympus and apparently worship the gods of Egypt/Kahndaq(though they apparently are rather violent, surviving as secret mercenaries and master weapon-smiths), they even have their own champion called the Shim'Tar, who's armed with the Bow of Ra.

I admit I find myself rather curious if Mr Zoat will use them(and how they and Adom will interact).

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You missed a third one actually.

Dumb Bunny is half Amazon, her mother Princess Power coming from a subterranean city of Amazons.

 

[Norgarth]

I'm trying to recall, did OL plant Euanthe's seed when they got down to Brazil? Cause I think she'd be quite enthusiastic about helping the native grow back the jungle. If she mentions that Orange Lantern was the one who signaled her, that would likely make the natives happier with him (and the Government more upset with him)