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

Considering the methods used in the Renegade side to magically teleport the kryptonian warship out of the ground on earth, we can assume that it would take a fair bit of both knowledge and power to produce similar results with the 'russian wessels' and the bargain barge up there. There are only so many folks in that weight class in DC.

Higher end Gods, I would assume, wouldn't care about covering their tracks, neither would the Heavenly Host, both tend to see themselves as the highest authorities and have power enough to not feel very threatened by generic superheros or interplanetary parties.

Next step down is lower tier magical beings, and upper tier wizard types. Lords of Order and Chaos could likely do it, as could some lower tier gods. Circe comes to mind for having both skill and power, but as shown from the renegade side even she would need a support network to pull that off. The Light could swing it with their support network, but there doesn't seem to be much of an angle, unless they're trying to trigger a xenophobia reaction from russia in a round about manner. The Queen of Fables is up in there in both power and skill, but was last seen still stuck in tartarus.

Phasing was ruled out by the scan, so that likely means it isn't the martians doing it conventionally hiding things, telepathic hiding it from everyone earth including ring users is Highly unlikely. The Martian Hyperclan wizard types could have worked something out, stealing warships from puny humans could give them something to use against the martian government, and a shapeshifter could easily gotten onboard.

The only other 'faction' we've encountered that comes to mind that could pull it off would be Darkseid's forces via Massive hush tubes....actually.

The Starro's that learned chaos magic got away. Could be they wanted a lift to go wake up the really BIG ones.

The demonic Genomorphs could have, but they were generally under Satanish, and he's still locked up last we heard, might have a new boss around.

And as a Distant, why the heck not guess......The Shade, going nuts from his mental house guest, who wasn't removed in the Paragon timeline. He'd have the power to make a fleet vanish in the darkness of space I'm sure.

All highly plausible.

Wait, when did Starro learn chaos magic?
 
IIRC, the 'red' starro's during their appearance at the lab in gotham. Since Starrotech mind control was a group effort from the Light, the 'evolved' starro generated from the mind control patches had some inherently part of themselves thanks to the chaos magic the witch boy used in the original creation.

When the Team encountered the starro's trying to escape from the lab, there were a few different types of larger ones, the red ones seemed to chuck magical energy rather then the usual TK and telepathic attacks. The rest of the starro seemed to put a priority on the new models escaping back then. They weren't sure they got them all, and since they're magical and telepathic, simple scry wards are not beyond them. The Team later had a manual look in a river for them, but turns out it was unrelated mind control stuff (ultrasonic from some D-lister with a bad speaker system iirc)
 
Relevant quote from back then, though not really that chaos-ish:

Light runs under the skin of the Red Star, red veins flickering and glowing. Starro-tech has three components: Star Conqueror flesh, nanotechnology and… Magic. Magic's unusual away from Earth, but Kaldur said that the Atlanteans at the arctic research-.

The Star Hunter is being battered by Atlantean magic.

**Kaldur, shut off-!**

The bubble of water and electricity surrounding the Star Hunter ripples twice and-

Mental pathway damage limit reached. Acceleration discontinued.

-my team mates duck and dive as the highly charged water leaps back at them!
 
Plutonian (part 10)
12th April
17:15 GMT +7


He-llo…

My eyes widen slightly as I look at a member of the ground crew. A thought and his employee file appears in my mind. Corporal Mikhail Kuznetsov, air force man from when he left high school until he moved to the Director's command. Certain… 'Unreconstructed' Russian military units don't keep useful records for… Various frustrating reasons, but all the ones I'd consider reliable paint a glowing picture. Which is why the Director moved him to this project; no one here isn't highly motivated and skilled.

Batman noticed the slight change in my posture.

"Orange Lantern?"

"Corporal Kuznetsov. Some of his… Recent memories don't have the emotional depth that they should."

"You believe they've been edited?"

"Can't say for sure. Could even be stress, but… Since we're a bit desperate..."

"Is he dangerous?"

"I don't think so. His deeper memories appear unaffected, which should mean that they haven't tried rewriting his priorities… But I couldn't swear to it."

Batman raises his right hand to his cowl, activating his communicator. "Director, please bring Corporal Kuznetsov in for questioning. We believe that he may have been under the influence of something. "

There's a momentary delay, then I see a couple of military policemen move forward to apprehend him. Fortunately, he goes with them without complaint. Everyone at the launch site is going through a detailed interrogation, and Russia doesn't have any of those frustrating laws against telepathic or arcane compulsion when it comes to gathering evidence. They also don't have enough telepaths or magicians to make much use of it. Pravda's already here and Firebird's being flown in… Heh, it's taking her longer to get here from Moscow than it took me to get here.

Interesting that the Director had a zeta tube set up here just in case. I can't see an American general doing that, no matter how much sense it would make. But if you really need the Justice League, you don't want to have to hang about.

A project like this has thousands of people working on the site, and tens of thousands more in the supply chain. The President might have unusual levels of personal authority but someone has to have oversight on things like this, which means that a number of politicians are at least somewhat in the know…

And they're all going to have to speak to the Director's people. They're got two security cleared telepaths. They'll probably accept Mr J'onzz and… Maybe M'gann, but the League's not exactly blessed with a plethora of security-vetted telepaths either.

And I don't think that Ted's Thinker's Cap is… Quite ready for this. Even if the Director could probably secure volunteers prepared to put up with the implants, and the headaches and occasional auditory and visual hallucinations that the current version causes.

"I'm going to check his barracks. I'll let you know if I find anything."

Batman nods very faintly, his eyes fixed on the records of this site's working life as I

step out

and reappear in the enlisted barracks. They're… Well, I've seen worse. The benefit of working on a highly classified project out in the middle of nowhere is that they make an effort to keep the workforce happy. The downside being that if you don't like it then you're rather out of luck.

I scan in detail, orange light strobing off his bunk, wardrobe and trunk. Not… A… Lot… I take out a rune stone and carefully-.

A member of the military police -brought in from another facility entirely, though still thoroughly vetted- sticks his head around the door.

"Orange Lantern? Is there anything you need?"

"Nothing that isn't already being worked on, thank you."

His emotions are… Well, he's a little anxious. Annoyed, too. The Director likes to employ people with strong patriotic inclinations, and this mess has turned what should have been a day of nationalistic triumph into a potential tragedy. I don't feel it quite so personally, but…

Oh. That's… Odd.

There's a slight… Change in the structure of the wall. It's not a lot; unusual patterns of ionisation and stress in the brickwork. But that's not something that should occur naturally unless they were using radioactive paint or something.

Certain types of energy weapon could do it-.

And certain types of phasing.

Check the project history. No, no work was done here that might cause something like that. The patch is too small for a humanoid. A drone, perhaps? I'm only seeing the one patch, but that might just mean that whatever it was came through the same place each time.

"Orange Lantern to Batman. I believe that something phased into Corporal Kuznetsov's quarters. Not sure if it was by magic or technology; I suggest sending Doctor Mist when he's next available."

"Understood."

Hmm.

I look at the building from the outside and try to detect anything similar, but… No, nothing. In by air? They've got pretty good detection systems here, but nothing is infallible. Basic wards again… They really need to hire an Atlantean to do the job. Heh, or at least a Londoner. All they're doing is giving themselves a false sense of security.

I need to raise the idea of a worldwide magic detection network again. Perhaps a little more forcefully.

Would whoever did this rely on one person? Ordinarily, I'd say that was a bad idea. At least, if it was something that absolutely had to work. But… If one infiltrator was discovered, the result would be a shutdown while they examined the site with a fine toothed comb. Any others would have to flee or simply accept being discovered. So it would only be worth using more than one if it made the one attempt more likely to succeed-.

"Batman to the Justice League. Hawkman has been attacked at the supply depot and-"

I look south east, focus my empathic vision on the pattern I recognise as being Mr Hol and

step out

, appearing a short distance from him with construct armour appearing around me!

He stares at me for a moment as I note the unconscious warehouse staff and Lantern Koriand'r floating in the air with her ring glowing.

"-alert for other mentally influenced individuals."

Right. Batman wouldn't make an announcement if the attack was ongoing.

But since I'm here

I look into the souls of the unconscious men, and… Again, it could be the concussion, but I'm definitely seeing odd emotional attachment in their recent memories. No, not just recent. This goes deeper, and… Guard dogs. Someone set them to attack under certain circumstances.

"Orange Lantern, please attend the warehouse and investigate for possible mental alterations or the use of phasing technology."

"Already here, sir. I confirm the mental alterations, stronger than what the Corporal has. I'll check for phasing now."
 
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There's a slight… Change in the structure of the wall. It's not a lot; unusual patterns of ionisation and stress in the brickwork. But that's not something that should occur naturally unless they were using radioactive paint or something.
Radioactive paint... Like the military likes to use for their gun sights and emergency lighting? :p
 
Phasing, mind alteration via drone and some form of undetectable FTL. Why would someone with resources like that go to the trouble of making a comparatively prmitve fleet and the Cluster ship disappear?

And if they went to the lengths of concealing it, why the glaringly obvious kidnapping of the ships?

Also, guard dogs? Whoever did this must have exoected the League. Sending baseline humans to fight them is a short distraction at most.

This is all an odd mix of high tech and low planning.
 
12th April
17:15 GMT +7


He-llo…

My eyes widen slightly as I look at a member of the ground crew. A thought and his employee files appears in my mind. Corporal Michail Kuznetsov, air force man from when he left high school until he moved to the Director's command. Certain… 'Unreconstructed' Russian military units don't keep useful records for… Various frustrating reasons, but all the ones I'd consider reliable paint a glowing picture. Which is why the Director moved him to this project; no one here isn't highly motivated and skilled.
Classic Black operations personnel. Always double check, there's bound to be something of note.

Batman noticed the slight change in my posture.

"Orange Lantern?"

"Corporal Kuznetsov. Some of his… Recent memories don't have the emotional depth that they should."
Oh, that's a worry. Mental manipulation of some kind, certainly?

"You believe they've been edited?"

"Can't say for sure. Could even be stress, but… Since we're a bit desperate..."
Better to check and be wrong, than not check and be in trouble later.

"Is he dangerous?"

"I don't think so. His deeper memories appear unaffected, which should mean that they haven't tried rewriting his priorities… But I couldn't swear to it."

Batman raises his right hand to his cowl, activating his communicator. "Director, please bring Corporal Kuznetsov in for questioning. We believe that he may have been under the influence of something. "
Let's hope he comes quietly. Let's also hope whatever happened left some signs.

There's a momentary delay, then I see a couple of military policemen move forward to apprehend him. Fortunately, he goes with them without complaint. Everyone at the launch site is going through a detailed interrogation, and Russia doesn't have any of those frustrating laws against telepathic or arcane compulsion when it comes to gathering evidence. They also don't have enough telepaths or magicians to make much use of it. Pravda's already here and Firebird's being flown in… Heh, it's taking her longer to get here from Moscow than it took me to get here.
All going well, then. I presume Firebird is on a military flight, rather than under her own power? Not every telekinetic can make themselves fly, after all.

Interesting that the Director had a zeta tube set up here just in case. I can't see an American general doing that, no matter how much sense it would make. But if you really need the Justice League, you don't want to have to hang about.
In a place like this, every second of delay could mean bad shit happening sooner. Especially if there's something extra-worrisome hidden deep down somewhere. A viral outbreak, or some dormant war machine...

A project like this has thousands of people working on the site, and tens of thousands more in the supply chain. The President might have unusual levels of personal authority but someone has to have oversight on things like this, which means that a number of politicians are at least somewhat in the know…
Lots and lots of fingers in the pie. I'm amazed it was kept hidden as well as it was for so long.

And they're all going to have to speak to the Director's people. They're got two security cleared telepaths. They'll probably accept Mr J'onzz and… Maybe M'gann, but the League's not exactly blessed with a plethora of security-vetted telepaths either.
The League really needs to go on a recruitment drive. Something more like Unlimited would be a good idea. Not every person has to be a full-time, 'shifts on the Watchtower' member, but easy enough to have reservists with Zeta Tube access for quick response.

And I don't think that Ted's Thinker's Cap is… Quite ready for this. Even if the Director could probably secure volunteers prepared to put up with the implants, and the headaches and occasional auditory and visual hallucinations that the current version causes.
With those drawbacks, I don't think it's quite ready for primetime...

"I'm going to check his barracks. I'll let you know if I find anything."

Batman nods very faintly, his eyes fixed on the records of this site's working life as I
Let's hope they didn't do too much scry-warding there.

step out

and reappear in the enlisted barracks. They're… Well, I've seen worse. The benefit of working on a highly classified project out in the middle of nowhere is that they make an effort to keep the workforce happy. The downside being that if you don't like it them then you're rather out of luck.
At least it makes it easier to ensure everyone stays put. It's a long walk to anywhere.

I scan in detail, orange light strobing off his bunk, wardrobe and trunk. Not… A… Lot… I take out a rune stone and carefully-.

A member of the military police -brought in from another facility entirely, though still thoroughly vetted- sticks his head around the door.

"Orange Lantern? Is there anything you need?"
Good wishes? Not sure what they have that can compete with a power ring or a trained mage.

"Nothing that isn't already being worked on, thank you."

His emotions are… Well, he's a little anxious. Annoyed, too. The Director likes to employ people with strong patriotic inclinations, and this mess has turned what should have been a day of nationalistic triumph into a potential tragedy. I don't feel it quite so personally, but…
People are still missing. That's always a concern. And it sets back the cause of Human space exploration.

Oh. That's… Odd.

There's a slight… Change in the structure of the wall. It's not a lot; unusual patterns of ionisation and stress in the brickwork. But that's not something that should occur naturally unless they were using radioactive paint or something.
Not something to be dismissed out of hand, mind. Though I suspect the amount of Rads needed would be noticeable amongst the workers...

Certain types of energy weapon could do it-.

And certain types of phasing.
So someone's snuck in, put something into the Corporal's mind and snuck back out? The perfect sleeper agent.

Check the project history. No, no work was done here that might cause something like that. The patch is too small for a humanoid. A drone, perhaps? I'm only seeing the one patch, but that might just mean that whatever it was came through the same place each time.

"Orange Lantern to Batman. I believe that something phased into Corporal Kuznetsov's quarters. Not sure if it was by magic or technology; I suggest sending Doctor Mist when he's next available."
Could be a while, given everything else he's doing. Note for Batman: More Mages!

"Understood."

Hmm.

I look at the building from the outside and try to detect the anything similar, but… No, nothing. In by air? They've got pretty good detection systems here, but nothing is infallible. Basic wards again… They really need to hire an Atlantean to do the job. Heh, or at least a Londoner. All they're doing is giving themselves a false sense of security.
And whoever came in here walked through all of it like it wasn't there. That's significant in itself.

I need to raise the idea of a worldwide magic detection network again. Perhaps a little more forcefully.

Would whoever did this rely on one person? Ordinarily, I'd say that was a bad idea. At least, if it was something that absolutely had to work. But… If one infiltrator was discovered, the result would be a shutdown while they examined the site with a fine toothed comb. Any others would have to flee or simply accept being discovered. So it would only be worth using more than one if it made the one attempt more likely to succeed-.
Or they could be remotely triggered and dismissed. If they're committing sabotage anyway, why not have figurative bombs waiting to go off?

"Batman to the Justice League. Hawkman has been attacked at the supply depot and-"

I look south east, focus my empathic vision on the pattern I recognise as being Mr Hol and
He's already dealt with the guy, hasn't he? I suspect there would be more concern in Batman's voice otherwise.

step out

, appearing a short distance from him with construct armour appearing around me!

He stares at me for a moment as I note the unconscious warehouse staff and Lantern Koriand'r floating in the air with her ring glowing.
Right. No problems here, then. I take it Kory was already here, or had the same idea OL did.

"-alert for other mentally influenced individuals."

Right. Batman wouldn't make an announcement if the attack was ongoing.
:rolleyes: Well, duh. Unless it was something that needed powered backup. and that would be a lot more noticeable.

But since I'm here

I look into the souls of the unconscious men, and… Again, it could be the concussion, but I'm definitely seeing odd emotional attachment in their recent memories. No, not just recent. This goes deeper, and… Guard dogs. Someone set them to attack under certain circumstances.
Messing with the dogs? That's nasty!

"Orange Lantern please attend the warehouse and investigate for possible mental alterations or the use of phasing technology."

"Already here, sir. I confirm the mental alterations, stronger than what the Corporal has. I'll check for phasing now."
And then mention the dogs, please? I suspect that would be worth mentioning.

Ah, the fine art of the forensic procedural. CSI: JLA edition. Now they have a lead. Time to sniff it back to its' source...

Corporal Michail Kuznetsov
Is that an actual Russian spelling, or should it be 'Mikhail'?
Since we're a bit desperate...
Double space here.
...and try to detect the anything similar...
Unnecessary word.
 
Phasing, mind alteration via drone and some form of undetectable FTL. Why would someone with resources like that go to the trouble of making a comparatively prmitve fleet and the Cluster ship disappear?

And if they went to the lengths of concealing it, why the glaringly obvious kidnapping of the ships?

Also, guard dogs? Whoever did this must have exoected the League. Sending baseline humans to fight them is a short distraction at most.

This is all an odd mix of high tech and low planning.

Supervillains aren't exactly renowned for their logical thinking.
 
Phasing, mind alteration via drone and some form of undetectable FTL. Why would someone with resources like that go to the trouble of making a comparatively prmitve fleet and the Cluster ship disappear?

And if they went to the lengths of concealing it, why the glaringly obvious kidnapping of the ships?

Also, guard dogs? Whoever did this must have exoected the League. Sending baseline humans to fight them is a short distraction at most.

This is all an odd mix of high tech and low planning.
Keep in mind, we don't have any evidence these things are actually connected to the various ships disappearances.
 
Keep in mind, we don't have any evidence these things are actually connected to the various ships disappearances.

High chance that they are.

Though I guess its possible that this may not be connected to the ships vanishing, unlikely but possible.
 
A drone? That's possible, but there are a lot of other possibilities: a naturally small race, a shapeshifter that can shrink, a small golem or homunculus created by a magician...
I am reminded of that Gotham-based spellcaster who Paragon-Paul brutally trounced a while back. The vampire-like caster's minion was sacrificing citizens and Paul invited the new Doctor Fate to raid his magical knickknacks. Perhaps there was a loose end.
 
High chance that they are.

Though I guess its possible that this may not be connected to the ships vanishing, unlikely but possible.
Out of universe, yes there's a high chance they are because the narrative wouldn't be covering them otherwise.

In universe, he's throwing a giant net that is picking up anything weird. It would be unrealistic if he didn't get at least one or two false positives.
 
It is a secret military base run in a reasonably competent fashion. While it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility for there to be multiple groups attacking it, it's not particularly likely given that the technology demonstrated (or the wizards to cast the spells) doesn't grow on trees. For there to be multiple attackers would require a very small set of people (people with these capabilities) to contain more than one group interested in this one Russian military base.

Again, not impossible, and it is a good point that it could be multiple groups, but not likely.
 
Looking at this situation the whole thing smells like magic. Or, super-powers plus magic.

If you want to get rid of ClusterCorps, send them 'elsewhere', then, a load of smaller ships that surround it, carefully positioned to act as a 3d pentagram, could be a way to do the job without a massive amount of magical power. Ritual magic via spaceship. Then, maybe intentional, maybe an accident of disappearing something that big, the little ships go as well.

Where do you send them? I hear Hell is accepting bookings...

You want to really surprise everyone? Send them to The Dreaming...

No, I don't think this is what happened. I expect Mr Zoat to surprise me, as he's done so many times before in this story.
 
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Sheeda? Small size, phasing, mind control... Maybe with the guiding hand of Zachary Zor, this time? Zor would probably be powerful enough to delete (or timeshift) the space fleet, and would have the future perspective to know what ripples that change to his past would cause.
 
Magic, phasing, and advanced mind control... Have we found the last surviving Starro? The one upgraded by Klarion to interface with magic and technology?

Don't think the Starros have phasing abilities.

There actually is a race of Plutonians in DC comics, so I don't know maybe their trying to invade the Earth of something like that and this was just a first strike.
 
Honestly? No. I don't know the story of A Streetcar Named Desire." Is it a racing film?
Ah, sorry, I meant that I was certain you knew it wasn't a correction, and your response was a joke. I'm totally unfamiliar with A Streetcar Named Desire myself, but I recognize a heartfelt cry of "STELLA!" as a (very dated) pop-culture reference and would probably have guessed it to be an unfamiliar reference in context even if I didn't.

"Orange Lantern please attend the warehouse and investigate for possible mental alterations or the use of phasing technology."
Comma after "Orange Lantern".
 

Hopefully not them since now they would have space ships with them.

Think that the renegade mentioned they may not have spaceships and none of the civilizations they raided had that type of tech.

If they're the ones behind this then now they may be able to raid other planets.
 
Ah, sorry, I meant that I was certain you knew it wasn't a correction, and your response was a joke. I'm totally unfamiliar with A Streetcar Named Desire myself, but I recognize a heartfelt cry of "STELLA!" as a (very dated) pop-culture reference and would probably have guessed it to be an unfamiliar reference in context even if I didn't.
If you'd said KHAN I'd have got it.

I think one of the GCSE classes in my Secondary School did A Streetcar Named Desire. I did Hobson's Choice. Which, ironically, it was.
Comma after "Orange Lantern".
Thank you, corrected.
 
Phasing, mind alteration via drone and some form of undetectable FTL. Why would someone with resources like that go to the trouble of making a comparatively primitive fleet and the Cluster ship disappear?
This is all an odd mix of high tech and low planning.
Well Darkseid and his gang are a bunch of dicks so they may have a hand in this.

An opposing nation with the right Schizo tech trying to sabotage the Russians and gain a monopoly on the alien tech.

some other group of well equipped supervillains working outside the light's influence.

A competing interstellar corporation.
 
Zoat are we going to see what 40k Paul has been doing after joining the Tau anytime soon?

Hopefully in this episode, or the next few.

We already saw what Fantasy Paul had done to fight Chaos, would really like to see what 40k has done.
 

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