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

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He finally cracked, huh?

An enlightened Yellow Lantern is a good match-up for an Endbringer, due to the ambient and all-consuming fucking terror of being faced with a beast that defies conventional physics, is composed at least 50% of interdimensional portals, and scoffs at petty nukes. I don't doubt he'll prevail in the end, one way or another, but I'm curious how he'll deliver on that.

On the other hand, if the Simurgh works past Lantern defenses, he's kind of fucked.

On the third hand, if Scion or tinkers get curious with how, respectively, the Emotional Spectrum and ring work, it could spell disaster.
 
Vaermina said:
So... Shouldn't Scion be showing up to kill him and steal his Power Ring about now?
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Scion doesn't even need a power ring, and even if, for some godforsaken reason, he did, I don't much like his chances against someone who can ring up the Fear Entity, which, in theory, an enlightened Lantern can do.
 
Something that is always interesting in Worm X whatevers is that the power scale in Worm is all fucked up; due to PLOT.

The powers are sorted into: trivial to most settings; or Totally Golden Age Superman Busted.

So you end up with people who's power is "I'm significantly weaker than a dude with a gun!" to "I can punch, but, like, real hard" all the way to "You better have a nonilion exajoules ready my dude".

DC gets away with it by invoking the spirit of the SPEED FORCE; IE, author fiat, but that is less satisfying than some good old scubwar.
 
Ciber said:
I find "A week in the life of" to be very promising.
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I'm guessing that either Paul gets transported in the body of someone else, probably an alternate of his, or we view this entire episode through the perspective of someone else, like the Mandated episode.

Vaermina said:
So... Shouldn't Scion be showing up to kill him and steal his Power Ring about now?
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Scion is still being depressed over the death of Eden so he probably doesn't care about LP being there.

He may not even know that LP is there.

Tattletale apparently passed out when he showed up, so that could mean that his extraplanar nature makes him somewhat difficult for those that have Thinker like powers.
 
Mr Zoat said:
A Week in the Life of

10th April 2011
23:43

I take a moment to regard the petty criminals sitting on some sort of large canine on the rooftop a short distance from me. The young woman in the dog mask.. is quietly growling. Odd. The young man in regency dress is subtly trying to nudge his hound backwards. The thickset man in leather is trying to appear completely calm while supporting the semi-conscious woman sharing his dog, wisps of the black.. material he appears able to control pooling around their feet.
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Huh, when I saw the title of the ToC, I assumed it would be D&D related. I never expected you to do a Worm SI. I'm guessing you've done a little research on it, then.

"Undersiders. Please may attention, for I will say this only once. I will be cleaning house in Brockton Bay. You may find legitimate employment, you may leave the city, or I will kill you. Am I understood?"

Regency looks down onto the street below, where the charred remains of Lung and the corpses of his retinue are slowly cooling.
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Oh, that's going to flip the table. Not that I expect the other gangs will be lasting long enough to take advantage of it.

"Yeah, I think we got the fucking message."

Leather's head dips for a moment, then returns to facing me. "What did you do to Tats?"

"Nothing deliberate. She appears-" I scan her body. "-to.. have unusual activity in the part of her brain controlling her superhuman abilities. I could attempt to turn it off, but that probably wouldn't be healthy for her. If she collapsed when I arrived, I would suggest removing her from my presence as quickly as possible."
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Ah, her Shard suffered an 'Unanalysable entity, please refill cheese' error. I'm sure she'll be fine soon, though with the Thinker headache of all Thinker Headaches.

"Yeah. How long you giving us?"

"I'm working from most serious to least serious. I will be checking on you shortly after Uber and Leet."
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...Okay, he has low opinions of their threat level, I see. That's a blow to their egos.

"That's.. after the Nazis and the Merchants?"

"And what's left of the Asian Bad Boys, naturally."
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Given that they only have Oni Lee and Bakuda, neither of which would come close to threatening him? Chances are good for his success.

He snorts quietly. "Good luck with that."

"Thank you. Ah, I see that you all have the same brain abnormality. That will make this easier."
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Pretty much a definite tell. Wonder if he could kill someone's Shard-link by 'correcting' the anomalies. Good way to deal with threats like the Siberian, at least.

No sirens, I note. A man glowing with yellow light shoots a dragon in the brain with a positron beam, and no one calls the police. Clearly, I couldn't get here soon enough.
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Yeah, Brockton Bay is a shithole. Blame Wildbow.

"So, like… Can we go?"

"Yes. Be about your business."

A series of somewhat frantic looks are exchanged between the two men, then the one in leathers carefully lays a hand on the dog girl's shoulder. She tenses, but after a moment she whistles and the canines turn away.
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Surprised she didn't go into total submissiveness at a superior threat. But presumably most shards will glitch out at him.

I hope that they make a sensible decision.

I float downwards, yellow filaments flicking out and plugging into the phones owned by members of the fallen dragon's retinue. I doubt they have much identifying information stored on them, but I'm perfectly capable of brute forcing the records held by their service providers, bankers and.. accessing city records to locate their registered addresses, scanning their home computers and-.
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Ah, Power Rings are awesome... Total game-breaker. Wonder what he could do to help Dragon, if he could be bothered?

Why are there so many flies? And why aren't they being attracted to the corpses?

Hm.

In a city there are almost always going to be some observers. I turn slowly in the air, looking through the walls at the fears of those inside the buildings around me. Generally, I can tell how bad things are by how glad people are to see me, and from the look of things…
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Honestly, around here? You'd probably be an improvement.

Things aren't too bad-.

Several small flies attempt to land in my hair. A scan of the local area reveals one person with the signature brain abnormality of the local superhumans. A young woman wearing a.. ersatz costume. Nothing about her in local records. I transition to just in front of her.
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Mover: Yes. Man, the PRT threat ratings are going to get broken over his knee, I bet.

"May I help-"

Flying insects of many types swarm in from all directions, creating a cloud around my face as she hurriedly backs away.
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Yeah, about the reaction I'd expect from Taylor 'Escalation' Hebert.

"-you? I bear you no malice, my environmental shield is proof against insects and I can see where you are perfectly well without using my eyes. I am merely trying to ascertain your purpose here."

She's showing up rather brightly in my 'empathic vision' at the moment. She knows perfectly well that she wasn't ready for a confrontation like this, but-.
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I bet if he looks deeper, a certain trio might find themselves in hot water...

"If you're looking for the Undersiders, they've already left."

The insects are showing up in yellow as well. Curious. Simple insects shouldn't be mentally complex enough for true fear. And if they were, they wouldn't be behaving like this.
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For those wondering, she can offload emotions into her bugs, as if the collected swarms were a spare brain. She also has the ability to perceive through their senses too. And YL here is probably a big, glowing yellow void in them.

"Who are you? Are-? You a hero?"

"I would be somewhat sceptical of anyone who would describe themselves as a hero." I raise my hands to gesture to the cloud of flies. "Would you mind?"

The insects withdraw, forming a dense cloud around the young woman and settling on her body. She's trying to disguise her outline. Alright.
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Easy enough to do. Her figure is already pretty androgynous, besides the mane of curly brown hair..

"You killed Lung."

"If violence troubles you, I suggest finding a new career. There's always work for a good exterminator."
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She would make a good pest-control service. Just order the bugs to leave. Pity about the 'Conflict Libido' thing: The shards push their users to fight in order to gain data; They also make it feel good to use their powers. Vicious circle much?

"Why did you kill him?"

"He was a serial murderer who runs an organisation of rapists, slavers, murderers and drug peddling thugs. Would you like to reflect upon your question?"
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Yeah, he was an asshole. That's canon, too.

She just stands there for a moment.

"Look, if there's nothing else I've got a lot of people to kill-."
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I'd bet cleaning up Brockton Bay takes him all of a day, depending on pushback.

"Are you-? Trying to be a hero? I mean, is this-? Normal?"

"How are you defining 'hero'?"
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A good question. And one even the original writer apparently didn't ponder too much on.

"How are you defining 'hero'?"

"A hero is someone who lives to improve the lives of others, rather than to improve their own. I look at the situation in Brockton Bay and I see rampant gangs and under-resourced law enforcement organisations with bad doctrine who are failing to bring the situation under control. Therefore, I will cull the criminal population until it reaches a level where civil peacekeeping becomes possible. Once I am done, I will move on to the next city and repeat the process."
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So, cleaning out North America in what, a week? Bet Cauldron's going to have kittens when they learn of this and Contessa gets a '5021: Please cheese the mustard' glitch when she goes to PtV him.

"So you do think you're a hero."

"I'm trying to be one. Not that I want to imply that I think there's only one way to be a hero."
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Admittedly, it helps to have good examples. Something Earth-Bet is in short supply of.

"And what about the Protectorate? Do you think they're heroes?"

"Probably not. The silly costumes were the first clue. Not that there's anything wrong with being a police officer or a soldier, or that people employed in those capacities can't be heroic or be heroes."
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Part of the whole 'make people not afraid of us' thing they decided on early. Pity they can't be consistent about it.

"But you wouldn't join them."

"No. They would hobble me and drag me down to their level of ineffectiveness. Though-" I smile. "-it could just be that I'm a pontificating serial killer with delusions of utility."
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Given the Yellow Enlightenment, both things can be true anyway. Hero and serial killer. Cruelty in the name of peace. Sinestro would applaud his logic, I think.

Another person with a super tumour is approaching… On a large motorcycle.

"I believe that the authorities are responding. You may wish to absent yourself."
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Ah, Armsmaster. Flanderised into an asshole by fanon. Not that far off, given what few glimpses into his mind we see.

"You.. know they're.. going to arrest you?"

I smile wryly as I turn away.

"If they couldn't arrest Lung then I very much doubt that they can successfully arrest me."
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Especially if their shards glitch out around him. Only the Endbringers and Scion would likely be a major threat, and some exotic powers...

...Wait, this is Yaul? Lord Protector from the Thundercat snippets? So, he cracked the interdimensional barrier. I wonder which other Pauls have managed that... And since the date for tomorrow's is the same day, we likely won't see him against an Endbringer. Maybe Scion comes poking his empty head into things.
And after that, perhaps we see OL checking on on various projects, judging by the title. Something I noticed people complaining about earlier.
 
Seriously though, why would an Entity benefit in any way from a Power Ring?

Exotic energy generation? They've already got that.

FTL transportation and communication? Yep.

High powered scanners? Already accounted for.

They don't have any reason to even want the things.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"A hero is someone who lives to improve the lives of others, rather than to improve their own. I look at the situation in Brockton Bay and I see rampant gangs and under-resourced law enforcement organisations with bad doctrine who are failing to bring the situation under control. Therefore, I will cull the criminal population until it reaches a level where civil peacekeeping becomes possible. Once I am done, I will move on to the next city and repeat the process."
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Oh... sounds like somebody hasn't heard of the Boston Games. Parahuman villains love, love, love a power vacuum. Parahuman crime isn't a problem you solve by playing Whack-A-Mole, especially not in a city where the corruption is... more than a little rampant.
 
AidanMorgan said:
Seriously though, why would an Entity benefit in any way from a Power Ring?

Exotic energy generation? They've already got that.

FTL transportation and communication? Yep.

High powered scanners? Already accounted for.

They don't have any reason to even want the things.
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Power Rings don't give a fuck about energy conservation. Not that Zion would care, since he's too busy being depressed.
 
W o o o

Imagine having this as your first superhuman encounter lol.

Looking forward to this, I always enjoy a crossover done even slightly well and just from this first chapter qualifies it. I like that he's got no meta knowledge of Worm so it'll be fun to see how he's either blindsided or just out of ignorance solves a bunch of problems haha.


Also yellow fear powers OP when every natural superhuman has an event in their life they fear probably haha.
 
Ganurath said:
Oh... sounds like somebody hasn't heard of the Boston Games. Parahuman villains love, love, love a power vacuum. Parahuman crime isn't a problem you solve by playing Whack-A-Mole, especially not in a city where the corruption is... more than a little rampant.
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At which point you come back and repeat the process until the local authorities can contain the situation without you.
 
Lothlo said:
The moment an Endbringer appears, ParaPaul will get a boost out of all that ambient fear... Now not only Cauldron will fear 'the man in yellow'
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I hate to tell you this, but Paul is in way way way over his head in Worm.


BlueMangoAdea said:
Too busy being depressed, I assume.
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Highly unlikely, Paul is publicly swinging around one of the two things in existence that Scion actually wants.


AidanMorgan said:
Scion doesn't even need a power ring, and even if, for some godforsaken reason, he did, I don't much like his chances against someone who can ring up the Fear Entity, which, in theory, an enlightened Lantern can do.
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Scion doesn't need a power ring, however he does not just need, but desperately wants, the ability to draw endless energy from the emotional spectrum.

Also it doesn't matter, played completely straight to Worm canon, there's absolutely nothing even the most wanked out version of Power Ring Paul could do to even mildly inconvenience Scion.

Hell, played completely straight to Worm canon, he wouldn't even be able to stop the Endbringers.
 
King of Frost said:
At which point you come back and repeat the process until the local authorities can contain the situation without you.
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Indeed. Even the most 'conflict libido'-driven Cape would hopefully catch on after Lord Protector makes a few object lessons in not being assholes in one city. Probably with a "Don't make me come back here again." after the second or third time.
 
Vaermina said:
Highly unlikely, Paul is publicly swinging around one of the two things in existence that Scion actually wants.
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Vaermina said:
Scion doesn't need a power ring, however he does not just need, but desperately wants, the ability to draw endless energy from the emotional spectrum.
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Hm hm.

Scion doesn't have clairvoyance, buddy. For all he knows, Paul is pooping out yellow visible light instead of rainbows.

Vaermina said:
I hate to tell you this, but Paul is in way way way over his head in Worm.
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Vaermina said:
Also it doesn't matter, played completely straight to Worm canon, there's absolutely nothing even the most wanked out version of Power Ring Paul could do to even mildly inconvenience Scion.

Hell, played completely straight to Worm canon, he wouldn't even be able to stop the Endbringers.
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And I though you were the one who liked to wank DC in this fic, even compared to canon.
 
AidanMorgan said:
Seriously though, why would an Entity benefit in any way from a Power Ring?

Exotic energy generation? They've already got that.

FTL transportation and communication? Yep.

High powered scanners? Already accounted for.

They don't have any reason to even want the things.
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Power Rings don't have capabilities* that an Entity would particularly want.

What they'd want a Ring for efficiency. Power Rings are ridiculously space efficient for what they do compared to how an Entity would pull it off. In all honestly, if they could crack that, an Entity would probably be able to maintain its full capabilities even if it shrunk down to a size comparable to what Scion is when he settles in for a Cycle.

It's the sort of thing that would massively expand their operational ability.

A Power Battery would basically be their holy grail.



*Barring Silver Age Silliness, of course.
 
Vaermina said:
but desperately wants, the ability to draw endless energy from the emotional spectrum.
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As I remember, there was a storyline were they explained that the emotional light spectrum wasn't limitless and even though it was vast, it could be depleted (at least in thr DC universe). It was a storyline were a survivor of a previous universe, one where they used light spectrum technology and used up all the emotional light energy, tries to acquire all Emotion avatars and pierce the Source Wall.

I don't know if Wormverse would be under the same rules or not.
 
Vaermina said:
Highly unlikely, Paul is publicly swinging around one of the two things in existence that Scion actually wants.
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Sure, infinite energy would be something attractive for entities in general, but Zion isn't really interested in maintaining the cycle. He would be interested if he learned that white light is capable of revival, but with Eden dead, Zion is pretty purposeless.
 
Vaermina said:
Also it doesn't matter, played completely straight to Worm canon, there's absolutely nothing even the most wanked out version of Power Ring Paul could do to even mildly inconvenience Scion.
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One of the core narrative themes of the entire story of Worm is that just because you can match or beat someone in a straight fight doesn't mean they can't be a threat to you in some other way.

Psychological warfare is how Zion killed Eidolon. Psychological Warfare is how Khepri killed Zion. And it turns out that a yellow power ring is a pretty effective tool for psychological warfare, even ignoring any magic the Lord Protector has picked up along the way.

There is plenty of room for surprises in this Paul's potential methods to deal with Zion.

Edit: And that's before considering the other core narrative theme of Worm: collaboration makes people stronger. An approach to problem-solving that almost every version of Paul has demonstrated a deep appreciation for.
 
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