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

[Darko]

So why not loot it? That's how they got their... everything else. They got a time traveling machine that way, why not get a space travelling one?

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The civilizations they raided probably didn't have those, and if they did the Sheeda may not have known if they weren't mass produced.

Earth 16 technically only had Starmans one ship before renegade started having it mass produced.

 

[Agent Orange]

Earth 16 technically only had Starmans one ship before renegade started having it mass produced.

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And the ancient Thanangrian one, and the kryptonian crystal snowflake one, and the durlan one, and the Maltusian one, and... you get the idea.

edit; are we capitalizing some species' names but not the others?

 

[Darko]

And the ancient Thanangrian one, and the kryptonian crystal snowflake one, and the durlan one, and the Maltusian one, and... you get the idea.

edit; are we capitalizing some species' names but not the others?

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Again, they may not have known about these ones existing due to the fact that there weren't dozens of them on the Earth.

They didn't know about that one colony in the ocean, so it isn't like they know everything about the era they are raiding.

The ships were either buried or got destroyed during the raiding.

 

[Darko]

Pied Piper, sometimes Flash Rogue and, in the much-maligned Countdown, the man who played the song that destroyed Apokolips.

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It was sad that he died, but you can't say that he died without doing something amazing.

It would be a safe bet the he receives a lot of it. Ranging from death threats to romantic offers to desperate, lunatic ramblings, I would expect.

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He did spend time in Japan with a sex cult so him having tsunderes hounding him makes sense.

Something to be investigated, I suppose. But I doubt it would work on any Apokoliptian who has a God-Name. Their innate resistance to magic would probably work on it.

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They may be resistant to magic, but this appears to be a purely scientific and technological tool, so they may not have as much resistance against this as they would against that whistle OL got from the Dreamkin.

Now I'm wondering if Darkseid can be killed by Paragons Kon's heat vision.

We know Superman 50 managed to kill Darkseid 50 with his heat vision, and Kon is much, much more powerful in that department, but his heat vision is magical, so there may be very, very small chance he could potentially survive it.

Man, dude hit the jackpot of exotic science capabilities, didn't he?

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Sivana Sr. technically hit that jackpot.

Says the man who dressed in a green cloak and tights and fought the Flash...

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He may not have done that here and just used his tech to control some rats, but someone probably filmed him doing it and he was considered part of the superhero/supervillain community.

"Look, up in the sky!"

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"Is it a bird?

"Is it a plane?"

"No you idiots, it's an invasion!"

Let's hope it can affect Sheeda like it does modern Humans... For all they know, it drives them berserk.

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Well while it's most likely Sheeda it can also be something else like a supervillain attack or an alien invasion.

Well... That's happening. I hope Doctor Sivana and anyone working with him have working weaponry ready to go, otherwise, this is going to be bad. We can only hope they aren't setting forth in OL's timeline as well...

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They may or may not be.

Not everything that happened in one timeline happened in the other timeline.

Paragon Xor for example crashed on Earth and was later recruited by Paul, but in the renegade timeline his prison transport never malfunctioned and he ended up in prison.

 

[CTrees]

So, has the harrowing started in the paragon timeline as well, or did he manage to delay it? Because OL being stuck offworld, with his main way to get back not being ready yet, and no way for the League to contact him or the other heroes with him? Well, not sure what he's going to be coming back to.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Why are the Sheeda so obsessed with harvesting past Earth for resources? If they have all this fancy hypertech why not just go and Harrow alien worlds instead of keeping all of their eggs in one basket? Just because far future solar system is tapped out doesn't mean other star systems are.

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You'll find out in a couple of episodes.

Zoat can Kon's Helios given heat vision kill Darkseid?

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Yes, if for some reason he just stood there and took it for a while.

We know Superman 50 was able to kill Darkseid with his and Kon is much, much, much more powerful in that department, but his heat vision is magical so I was wondering if Darkseid can survive a magical attack like that, even if it's capable of damaging planets?

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Darkseid 50 was also weaker. As far as I can tell, he was just a super strong warlord rather than a god.

 

[Darko]

Yes, if for some reason he just stood there and took it for a while.

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Well if Kon can attack him at full blast from space, like he attacked that planet when her was testing it out with OL, then he has a pretty good chance of killing him.

Darkseid 50 was also weaker. As far as I can tell, he was just a super strong warlord rather than a god.

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To be fair, that can be true for a lot of versions of Darkseid, hell including Earth 16 Drakseid.

We know godhood doesn't exactly make you invincible, and he was up against a Kryptonian, someone that can beat most gods in a physical match and still have energy left.

You did kinda make your stories version of Earth 50 New Gods have similar powers to their Earth 16 counterparts, so even if Darkseid 50 was weaker than his Earth 16 self, he is still a god in this story and Superman was able to kill him.

New Gods are also physical beings, so even if they are able to tank magical attacks like there's no tomorrow, physical attacks may work more on them, even if they possess some resistance in that area.

 

[Assblaster5000]

Because they're really effective.

Given the total volume of the Earth, the relatively tiny amounts of energy being nullified by tactical entropy deployment isn't really significant.

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Fair enough, I just figured that they'd be as hyper efficient as possible when it came to gathering resources since they don't seem all that willing to get proper comic book space travel going, or set up a bleed generator and slap a matter fabricator on it.

Suppose expecting something like proper science or reason is a bit much from the Dark Eldar's time traveling little cousin.

 

[Prince Charon]

It was sad that he died, but you can't deny that he died without doing something amazing.

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The phrasing there is weird. Did you mean 'say?'

I think he's going to do something awesome here, the bigger question is whether he'll still die shortly after.

 

[DrThoth]

Suppose expecting something like proper science or reason is a bit much from the Dark Eldar's time traveling little cousin.

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That's a very apt comparison I hadn't thought of before. Actually, which came first in real life, Warhammer's Dark Eldar or DC's Sheeda?

 

[Assblaster5000]

That's a very apt comparison I hadn't thought of before. Actually, which came first in real life, Warhammer's Dark Eldar or DC's Sheeda?

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Based solely off of the art of the Sheeda that I've seen I would assume that it was the Dark Eldar.

 

[Darko]

That's a very apt comparison I hadn't thought of before. Actually, which came first in real life, Warhammer's Dark Eldar or DC's Sheeda?

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I think the Dark Eldar debuted in 1998, while the Sheeda did in 2005.

 

[Rafin]

Why are the Sheeda so obsessed with harvesting past Earth for resources? If they have all this fancy hypertech why not just go and Harrow alien worlds instead of keeping all of their eggs in one basket? Just because far future solar system is tapped out doesn't mean other star systems are.

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Judging from the undertones of the Sheeda conversation I am assuming that the "Vampire Sun" isn't letting them leave the planet in any larger capacity.

 

[Darko]

Judging from the undertones of the Sheeda conversation I am assuming that the "Vampire Sun" isn't letting them leave the planet in any larger capacity.

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I remember in a Sandman comic that suns could be sapient beings, so if it's a sapient being it is possible that it considers them its food supply and that's why they can't escape.

 

[Agent Orange]

I wonder what provoked the Sheeda to attack in Grayven's parallel? I can't recall him having any particular encounter/interaction with them. Did Luthor's nascent space fleet panic them? Did Sivana poke them extra hard here? Or... It's Luna isn't it? :/ The Sheeda Queene wants her own pony princess.

 

[Darko]

I wonder what provoked the Sheeda to attack in Grayven's parallel? I can't recall him having any particular encounter/interaction with them. Did Luthor's nascent space fleet panic them? Did Sivana poke them extra hard here? Or... It's Luna isn't it? :/ The Sheeda Queene wants her own pony princess.

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They may also be attacking the paragon side now.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I wonder what provoked the Sheeda to attack in Grayven's parallel? I can't recall him having any particular encounter/interaction with them. Did Luthor's nascent space fleet panic them? Did Sivana poke them extra hard here? Or... It's Luna isn't it? :/ The Sheeda Queene wants her own pony princess.

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Sivana made a deal with the Renegade and was destroying spine riders. But they were going to harrow the Earth at some point anyway.

 

[nick012000]

"I'm-. I'm not a… Supervillain."

I look up from his document and raise my eyebrows.

"Sure thing, Pied Piper."

...

"You have a prototype in that case?"

He nods, pulling out a flute and nervously bringing it to his lips as I generate construct armour.

"Keep it with you. You're going to need it."

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Congratulations, Pied Piper. You're a superhero now, instead!

 

[Pinklestia]

Oof, well that's the risk of living in a splinter timeline. If you don't pick up the plot hooks then they'll still gut you like a fish anyways.

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Good thing Grayven has his own team, is on more friendly terms with the JLA than Oh El, has an army of psychics, a moon goddess and a lot of people that can help.

He is preparing for Darkseid, these guys are B rated villains at best.

 

[Vaermina]

I wonder what provoked the Sheeda to attack in Grayven's parallel? I can't recall him having any particular encounter/interaction with them. Did Luthor's nascent space fleet panic them? Did Sivana poke them extra hard here? Or... It's Luna isn't it? :/ The Sheeda Queene wants her own pony princess.

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I suspect it was less a provocation, and more of Paul doing something Renagade didn't.

 

[Darko]

Good thing Grayven has his own team, is on more friendly terms with the JLA than Oh El, has an army of psychics, a moon goddess and a lot of people that can help.

He is preparing for Darkseid, these guys are B rated villains at best.

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I wouldn't discount the Sheeda so soon.

Yeah they may be weaker than Darkseid and his forces, but they're still a civilization ending threat.

Renegade also probably isn't on friendly terms with the JL, at least not as much as paragon.

The only Leaguers that dislike Paul are Hawkgirl, and possibly Hal and Aquaman.

Paragon greatly helped the JL in several ways that renegade did not.

He helped Supes meet Kara, solved Donna's history, got Angelica her wings, saved Alan's life, introduced Kid Flash to magic, so Flash may respect him for helping him with those issues, Rocket Red may respect him since OL was the one that suggested that the League expand to a more international level, he's good friends with Guy, etc.

Even the Hawks and Aquaman may respect him, albeit grudgingly, seeing as he helped introduce magic to the surface world and got forge gods more involved, so the Hawks managed to convince one to come to their planet, potentially solving their Nth metal shortage.

Renegade left the League in a fairly insulting way, and while he's working with them on the Sheeda issue, he probably doesn't like them all that much and they don't like him all that much.

Diana and Scott Free may be the only Leaguers that actually like renegade.

Paragon also has his own resources to call upon, like Hades, a powerful god, Mammon, the ruler of Hell, a powerful demon, and the guy with a giant demon army, his Lantern Corps may also be larger, better equipped and better trained than renegades, seeing as he has a better working relationship with the Controller's and knows a whole lot more about the orange light than renegade so probably taught a whole lot more tricks to his Corps.

He is also on friendly terms with several Sivanas, while renegade only has access to two.

OL also has his own team that is at least as strong as renegades, and quite possibly much stronger.

I suspect it was less a provocation, and more of Paul doing something Renagade didn't.

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Possibly, or it may not have anything to do with with whatever Paul did or didn't do.

We know that some things happen differently in both timelines, even if the two versions weren't involved in it happening.

Xor's prison transport ship in the paragon timeline malfunctioned, but in the renegade timeline it didn't.

Hell if this is the Sheeda then they may also be attacking the paragon side too, and Paul and his companions are still on Witch world.

 

[Agent Orange]

Hell if this is the Sheeda then they may also be attacking the paragon side too, and Paul and his companions are still on Witch world.

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Now that would be neat. I can almost imagine them returning to Earth only to find out that the Harrowing already happened.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

Why are the Sheeda so obsessed with harvesting past Earth for resources? If they have all this fancy hypertech why not just go and Harrow alien worlds instead of keeping all of their eggs in one basket? Just because far future solar system is tapped out doesn't mean other star systems are.

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I feel like raiding other worlds is a good way to get the GLC to step on you

 

[Pinklestia]

Renegade also probably isn't on friendly terms with the JL, at least not as much as paragon.

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What he did to his Doctor Fate was quickly accepted unlike with Paragon.

He never did the things Paragon did to piss off the JLA.

Aquaman doesn't have a grudge with Grayven last I checked, even if he may not have liked him interfering in some things.

Grayven did alienate himself from the JLA but it was during an undercover mission. And him deciding to go his own way after what Darkseid did to him makes perfect sense.

Sure he is not close with the Team but that also means he doesn't take orders from the JLA or Batman.

I find ridiculous that Oh El is still taking orders from Batman when he has this whole Orange Corps going on for example.

Grayven has been making preparations for something way worse than stupid evil future humans so he is most likely gonna use some of that for this crisis.

Now that would be neat. I can almost imagine them returning to Earth only to find out that the Harrowing already happened.

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That would be hilarious.

I feel like raiding other worlds is a good way to get the GLC to step on you

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That's a more reasonable explanation than the Vampire Sun thing.

 

[Vaermina]

I feel like raiding other worlds is a good way to get the GLC to step on you

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The GLC doesn't last that far into the future.

Contrary to what Paul might like to think, emotional spectrum tech isn't the end all be all of things and the rest of the universe is at the point where it's only a couple hundred more years till the lantern corps get eaten for breakfast.

 

[Darko]

What he did to his Doctor Fate was quickly accepted unlike with Paragon.

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I'm still fairly sure that some of them are still peeved for what he did.

He never did the things Paragon did to piss off the JLA.

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He also never did the things Paragon did to earn the Leagues respect.

Plus he did his own things that pissed off the League, like the way he overthrew the British government. Superman did not seem all that pleased in the way he went about that.

Also the League isn't called the JLA, they're just the Justice League. They're not a purely American group.

Aquaman doesn't have a grudge with Grayven last I checked, even if he may not have liked him interfering in some things.

Grayven did alienate himself from the JLA but it was during an undercover mission. And him deciding to go his own way after what Darkseid did to him makes perfect sense.
.

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We haven't really seen Orin and renegade interact all that much, so for all we know he may have a grudge against him.

He also may have more reason to dislike renegade than paragon Orin does paragon, seeing as renegade has been focusing on advancing Venturia and not more of Atlantis, unlike paragon who helped advance more of Atlantis in several ways.

Renegade did go under cover, but he started alienating the League long before that, and it wasn't done to make his dissatisfaction with them seem more real, he genuinely disliked them.

He also went his own way long before he met Darkseid face to face.

Sure he is not close with the Team but that also means he doesn't take orders from the JLA or Batman.

I find ridiculous that Oh El is still taking orders from Batman when he has this whole Orange Corps going on for example.

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Okay here's the thing, Paul developed a closer bond with the Team than renegade did, so he likes spending time with them. Plus he also likes protecting the planet.

Following Batman's orders is a good way for him to both spend time with them and save the planet.

He also respects Batman, so following his orders isn't exactly some taxing thing like trying to continue working for an idiot, which Batman is most certainly not.

If Batman's orders don't make sense to him then he can disagree with him. He's not some pushover that considers every word out of Batman's mouth to be something that needs to be followed, it's just Batman tends to say things that make sense most of the time.

The reason he's still with the Team and not with the OLC is because Dox asked him to go back home for a while so that he can establish his authority, and OL did that since he doesn't want to alienate the guy he hired to manage the Corps.

Batman is also a skilled and experienced detective, strategist and investigator, so OL respects him for this and considets working for him to be something he can easily do.

That would be hilarious.



That's a more reasonable explanation than the Vampire Sun thing.

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More horrifying than hilarious.

The Vampire Sun thing also wouldn't be the weirdest thing that happened in a comic universe.

If the GLC exists thar far in the future than thay may be aware of what the Sheeda are doing, but can't intervene because the Sun would try to stop them and it may just have the power to do some serious damage, so that have a similar situation like the one with Larfleeze.

The GLC doesn't last that far into the future.

Contrary to what Paul might like to think, emotional spectrum tech isn't the end all be all of things and the rest of the universe is at the point where it's only a couple hundred more years till the lantern corps get eaten for breakfast.

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The GLC may not last that long into the future in most universe, but they may last that long in Earth 16.

There are also the other power ring wielding groups that have been, and are most likely, popping out that never existed in the comics, like the OLC, who aside from their rings also use Maltusian tech, which is some if the most advanced in the universe, and power rings aren't exactly pushover tech in the first place.

 

[Pinklestia]

If the GLC exists thar far in the future than thay may be aware of what the Sheeda are doing, but can't intervene because the Sun would try to stop them and it may just have the power to do some serious damage, so that have a similar situation like the one with Larfleeze.

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If the Vampire sun is magic then the Greenies have the knowledge to deal with it.

They may decide not to because that might kill every race living in the Solar system, remember that Martians are a thing, but they can.

However since the fake Eldar come from a dystopian future, who knows?

For all we know they are stuck on Earth due to the Greenies putting a shield over the planet or something.

Plus he did his own things that pissed off the League, like the way he overthrew the British government. Superman did not seem all that pleased in the way he went about that.

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Batman knows jack shit about magic and the British government was literally making demonic sacrifices. Doctor Fate, if he wasn't a construct, wouldn't have done better.

 

[Darko]

Batman knows jack shit about magic and the British government was literally making demonic sacrifices. Doctor Fate, if he wasn't a construct, wouldn't have done better.

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I was talking about Superman, not Batman.

Batman would try to at least learn a bit about magic, and if he studied escape artistry with Giovanni then he may know some magic as well, at least the theoretical aspect.

Superman may also try to learn at least a bit about magic, seeing as it's one of his weaknesses.

The renegade version of the League, aside from Diana and Red Tornado, probably have no idea of how non construct Nabu would react to such a situation, so they can't exactly compare how Nabu and renegade would have done things all that well.

For all we know Nabu may have handled the situation much better than renegade, seeing as he has millenia of experience when it comes to magic.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

The GLC doesn't last that far into the future.

Contrary to what Paul might like to think, emotional spectrum tech isn't the end all be all of things and the rest of the universe is at the point where it's only a couple hundred more years till the lantern corps get eaten for breakfast.

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I'm sure the guardians will send whatever their next galactic police force is then

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Pflugzeit 2510
Early afternoon

"That's… Curious."

Aranei frowns at the standing stone in the middle of the village square. Around us, a curious mixture of Bretonnian peasants and beastwomen work to prepare the fields for our first major planting. The beastwomen were a major find; far stronger than normal humans but far more sociable than their male brethren, they've been perfectly happy to pitch in in exchange for protection and a share of the crop. I'm still not really sure why the females are so different to the males, and Aranei hasn't really been able to help me. Neither healing people nor subtle ghur manipulation were really the focus of her magic education.

"What is?"

I took a bit of a risk in picking up a selection of potatoes from Lustria; I remember hearing that they can be poisonous and the lizardmen certainly never bothered to put them through the selective breeding process which humans did back on Earth. But as best as I can determine they should be sufficiently safe and nutritious to join turnips, oats and legumes in the local diet. Peasants in Mousillon have some fishing but not a significant amount of herding, which seems odd to me. As a result, while most of the Dark Elf residents are a head taller than me poor diet means that I've got at least that on the locals. Those who didn't have some sort of gigantism-granting mutation, at least.

"The distortion in the winds of magic which I felt last week." She gestures at the stone, causing the runes carved into the surface to distort very faintly as she makes use of the region's natural magic flows to try and narrow down the source of the oddity which has drawn her attention. As I'm not a magic user myself there's no.. light show. Not that I can see, anyway, but I've at least gotten to the point where I can tell that something is happening. "I've been trying to study the after effects, and I believe that I have a better read on it."

"Can you tell what it is?"

She makes a face like she just bit down on an unexpected lemon.

"… No. It wasn't an ignorant human wyrd drawing upon the winds in ignorance, or a daemon or chaos spawn."

"A vampiric transformation?"

"I doubt it. It's too structured to be primitive dark magic." She considers that for a moment. "Though it is true that I have never had the opportunity to study such a transformation directly." She lowers her hands and pulls a map of the duchy out of her satchel. Unrolling it, she points to a location on the edge of the Forest of Arden. "There. Whatever happened, that was where it happened."

That's not… Too close by. Given the nature of this world I would prefer to keep my head down until I've had a chance to gain more experience, and even after I've spent months draining the local dark magic taint down to safer levels this duchy is basically Bretonnia's Sylvania. But large magic distortions happening in the vicinity of my home base is… Something I have to show an interest in before it blows up in all our faces.

"I'll take a look."

"You should take an escort."

I frown at her. "Who? The cloaks are a give away, the beastwomen-."

"I will accompany you."

I look at the spiked, skull-embroidered and generally minimalist 'I grew up in the arctic, this is roasting' clothing she always wears. "I'm not sure that's a better option."

She moues and raises her hands slightly. "Dress me in Ulthuanian garb so that I only intimidate the ignorant peasants. That will assuage your concerns, will it not?"

"I suppose." I focus on my desire to have her accompany me in a way that doesn't result in her getting shot full of arrows. The result is that her usual ensemble is replaced with a multi-layered robe in two tones of blue, with gold decorative thread work and borders. She looks it over and sniffs. "Tolerable."

I offer her my right hand and she gracefully accepts, returning the map to her satchel as she does so. Once it's safely stowed she nods and we shoot upwards, the world gradually spreading out below us.

"Such unthinking power…"

Aranei has a habit of… Purring when I do something like this. Her appreciation for having a powerful patron was one of the few non-evil things I found in her psyche when I 'operated' and I thought that leaving it would help her with interpreting her older memories. And it… Does…

I focus on the area she pointed to and fly us in that direction as rapidly as I can. We don't really have anything challenging us for airspace; Bretonnians do make some use of pegasus and hippogryph knights, but they're uncommon and they generally have better places to be than Mousillon. Getting spotted would be unfortunate, and having our point of origin spotted would be far worse. I can't afford to spend all of my time in the village if I want to get anything done, but I don't want to come back one day and find everyone dead.

Mousillon is heavily forested, not because it's naturally particularly fertile but more because there aren't enough people who want to fell it to make much of an impact. Most of the places that aren't covered by a forest canopy are bare because the soil literally can't support large trees; swampland and places where the topsoil is a few centimetres thick over chalk or stone. The land we're travelling towards is swampy, a narrow creek which-

Alert! Exotic contaminant detected.

-has some sort of magic taint to it. Ring, scan for people.

Compliance.

One person-. Oh. It's… Him.

"Aranei, you remember that Questing Knight who came across you a little after I did?"

"Yes? What of him?"

"He's the only person in the area you pointed to."

"I assumed that a fool like him would be dead by now. I suppose this speaks well of his strength of will, if not his sense of direction. Will we speak with him?"

"May as well."

And down we go.

I take care to come down well out of lunge-distance. And hopefully out of challenge-distance as well; the ground here would make any attempt to bury him quickly fatal. I'd been hoping since we hadn't seen him since that day that he might have left…

Huh. His surcoat is torn and muddy… Fair enough: we're in a swamp and he can hardly take a tailor with him on his quest. But his armour appears to be in a similarly sorry state, and I know that Bretonnian noblemen are taught basic armour and weapon maintenance. Bretonnian squires are trained peasants after all, not junior noblemen. And his face… It's not the beard; shaving regularly would be something of a luxury on a campaign, let alone a quest. It's the dirt and the fact that he's just staring into space without even a fire. He looks like he's been in the metaphorical wars when he'd only been trained for literal wars.

"Sir Mallobaude? Are you well?"

He looks around slowly as we touch down. From the looks of it he doesn't really care that we're here; he only moved his head on a sort of mechanical instinct. When his eyes finally alight on us there are a few moments of blankness, then a very dim light of recognition appears.

"Oh. You."

"I ask again, sir knight: are you well? You seem to be rather the worse for wear."

He turns his head away, looking over to where his sword lies carelessly discarded onto the muddy ground next to him.

Then he hangs his head.

"Leave me be."

"Come now, that's no attitude for a knight of Bretonnia when confronted with a man like me!"

Aranei flashes me a look of frustrated confusion and I respond with an 'I'm going somewhere with this' wave.

"I am no knight. Before you lie the broken remains of a fool.."

Aranei shakes her head. "'Fool', I'll grant you. But you remain unbroken in body if not in mind, and it appears my lord wishes to offer you succour. He's done the same to less worthy beings before, so I imagine that the offer is genuine. What ails you?"

"If you have any mercy then le-."

The three of us turn as we hear the sound of approaching hooves, and Aranei swiftly makes the gesture to inform me that magic was employed.

Scan.

Ah. A small party of lightly armed nobles. A hunting party perhaps. Their leader has a tabard of three black flowers over a black fleur-de-lis on a white field. And none of their hearts beat more than once a minute.