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

[Vaermina]

"They're not daxamites. They're robots."

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Ah, so that's what happened to the Annihilator that Orange Lantern revived and then just ignored.

 

[Bigking321]

Either that or a braniac plot i guess.

 

[Vaermina]

Either that or a braniac plot i guess.

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Na, Mr Zoat is using the non-Kryptonian version of Brainiac.

 

[Z000]

Ah, so that's what happened to the Annihilator that Orange Lantern revived and then just ignored.

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i though Paul destroy that one ?

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Na, Mr Zoat is using the non-Kryptonian version of Brainiac.

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You mean Milton Fine?

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

27th July 2013
04:25 GMT

"They're building a warship."

I frown as I step away from Cara Yat. A curious Arisia walks closer to check on her.

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Daxam is building a warship? That's a sudden swerve for a xenophobic isolationist government. I'd say something happened in the last eighteen months, because I suspect OL would have noticed that. Heck, Superman might have when he visited.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"How? You mean, on the surface?"

Arisia looks down at Cara Yat's injuries. Her eyes widen and her hands go to her mouth as her stomach undulates.

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Right, no Ring-based control of biological functions. And this might well be the first severe injury she's ever seen...

"Hang on. Not on the open wounds, Aris-"

Lantern Stewart deploys a construct bucket just in time.

"-ia. Sorry."

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Not the best showing for the rookie...

"What happened?"

"The Daxamite party started a fight on the Watchtower. They lost."

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Which was a foolish move no matter how you look at it.

"Ah-. Damn it. Okay, no, they were flying around in space."

I frown. "That shouldn't be possible. Did they..? Have some sort of lens deployed between Daxam and their sun? Something altering the wavelength of the light?"

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Or did the personnel have tiny sunstones strapped to them? Powered armour, maybe?

"No, nothing like that."

"Jet packs?"

"Not that I saw. I didn't want to get too close in case they had Superman's super senses or something."

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And even with a stealth system, the ship isn't exactly covert.

"No, no, you were right to be cautious." Okay, sunstones… Might do it, but the red light should-.

Wait. No, it can't be that simple.

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...They don't have to make a giant lens...

I turn around, walk passed Arisia as she cleans her mouth out with water and crouch down next to Cara Yat. Should be… I pull the environmental shield generator off her overalls. Ring, check the settings.

Compliance.

"OH-. Damn it."

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...When every person can wear one.

"What?" / "What?" / "Mgphg."

"They're wearing environmental shields. They can set them to change the wavelengths of incoming light-."

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Heh. Even Cara seemed shocked. Probably cursing through her smashed face. Edit: Whoops, forgot about Arisia. And that does sound like 'What?' filtered through a gobful of mouthwash.

Lantern Stewart nods. "They're powerful all the time."

"As long as the environmental shield is on. Which means red light isn't going to do anything. They don't need a space dock or launch facilities because they can build ships manually, weld with their eyes and check seams with microscopic vision."

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Which means the ship they arrived in could have been fresh off the production line, not an old relic.

"How are they making them?"

"It's an old design… They probably had them left over from when they arrived. In theory, they could have one for every original colonist plus a few spares."

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And with super-speed... That could take days, not months...

"Can they make more?"

"If they're putting ships back into service, they probably have onboard workshops. They didn't have an electronics industry last time I was there and I'm not sure if their population is educated in how to build ships… But it doesn't make sense. They're isolationists. I checked."

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And I doubt Sodam's 'abduction' triggered this. One child leaving wouldn't set this off.

"They weld crystals with heat vision?"

"What?" My eyes move from Lantern Stewart's face as I focus on what Roy just said. "No? What do you mean?"

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Oh, that's a worry.

"The ship they're building looks like it's made of crystal. I mean, they're making repairs to regular ships, but the incomplete one is made of crystal. Like Superman's base in the arctic."

"That-. That design of ship was use long after the Daxamites left Krypton. They shouldn't have a ship like that."

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Shit. External influence. And evidently one capable of overriding their own impulses? An Eradicator?

"Well, more bad news: someone gave them access to a boom tube. Doctor's Knight's pretty sure he picked up the residue of boom tubes being active in their system."

"Could he track where they went?"

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That's even more worrying. That means there's a good chance Apokalips or New Genesis are involved.

"We followed it back here."

"'Here' as in..?"

"Jupiter. Under the clouds."

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Sneaky, sneaky.

"Okay. Okay. Send the image to Har-Zod to see if he recognises the ship class."

"Right."

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Well, something is about to hit the fan.

"Anywhere other than Jupiter?"

"That was the first one we checked."

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Multiple signatures? How many different systems were they jumping to? Possibly still are?

"So… The ship that came here for the custody hearing didn't come from Jupiter because that's well inside the interdiction field."

"I thought it didn't work on boom tubes."

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Would have been kind of suspicious if they just showed up in-system with no sign of approach.

"No, but they flew in from the wrong angle. We'd have picked up a ship leaving Jupiter, turning around and then flying back. Our in-system security's not that bad. Did you actually get to the surface?"

"Not with people with kryptonian powers flying around. J'aarkn tried reading the minds of the ones in space from a distance but he couldn't get anything."

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Welp, bang goes that plan.

"Ah, that's fair enough. Between the distance and the theta wave state, it would have been difficult. Can Doctor Knight tell if it was his Mother Box which made the boom tubes?"

"Ah… Hang on-. He says it matches, but he doesn't know whether that exact pattern's unique to him, or it's just what they're all like."

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Since presumably, he wasn't actively scanning for Boom Tubes on New Genesis. Annoying...

I nod as Arisia flies back into the meeting room with Ken Lee. "Right. Let me know what Har-Zod says."

"Will do. Arsenal out."

I lower my hand, looking at the three prisoners. Arisia is twitching and Lantern Stewart's generating some kind of medical construct. He looks my way. "Lead carbonate?"

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Given what you saw about their environmental shields... Their reserves would have been too high to wait them out.

"It works." I put a chirurgical construct around Cara Yat as the other two continue with their pained wheezing. "Cara Yat, I am going to excise the dead parts of your flesh, and then attempt to regenerate some of your injuries. I wish you to understand that I am doing this purely to keep you alive in the short term and I am more than happy-."

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...To let her suffer? Understandable.

Lantern Coutara puts her right hand on my left shoulder.

"Why.. don't.. you go and see if Lantern Taranna needs any more help. Take Lantern Yat with you. Or send him back to base; he doesn't need to get further involved. Up to you."

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This is exactly the sort of situation they were trying to avoid involving him in, after all...

His eyes dart from me to his mother and back again. "I-I wanna go help Taranna."

Lantern Coutara considers for a moment, and then nods. "We will go to the airlock together."

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Just be careful, kid.

I glance back to check that they're clear, and then begin working on Cara Yat. Kryptonians can regenerate remarkably well when solar powered, but dead tissue is still dead. I also know enough about daxamite physiology to dose her with an analgesic that won't diminish her mental-.

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Dosing her with red sunlight to weaken her durability wouldn't help either, as that would reduce her self-healing. Tricky process...

My ring shimmers.

"Yes."

"Illustres! The-they're-!"

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Oh, joy. Now what? The rest of the ship crew?

"Calm down, Taranna. Focus."

I hear her take a breath.

"They're not daxamites. They're robots."

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...Huh. I wonder if they were stowed in addition to the organic crew? That could be a lot of Kryptonian warbots running around then.

Something very concerning is going on with Daxam, then. An Eradicator, perhaps, taking control of the 'traitorous' colonists and seeking to restart the Conquest? That honestly seems the most likely thing. Which bumps this up from a mere custody battle into them trying to recover a 'lost son of Krypton'. This is going to be troublesome, then...

 

[boo600]

Not the best showing for the rookie...

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I mean, they're 'just' supposed to be 'cops.' Cops with godlike power policing civilizations, cops dealing with all sorts of species and all sorts of crimes, but still cops. It's not the worst thing in the world if the rookies are still sensitive to the pain of people who are superficially similar to them.

An Eradicator, perhaps, taking control of the 'traitorous' colonists and seeking to restart the Conquest?

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Probably. They're the only Kryptonian robots that keep pulling that kind of stunt, at least as far as I can recall.
Although I'd be surprised if the ones in the station are robots, given all the lanterns- wait. They didn't scan them, did they? Ok, back to the paranoid drawing board.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Heh. Even Cara seemed shocked. Probably cursing through her smashed face.

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Ah, no, that was Arisia.

 

[Darko]

walk passed Arisia as she

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"walk pass"

They ship they're

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"The"

ship was use long

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"used"

His darts dart from me to

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"He darts from"

"They're not daxamites. They're robots

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Fuck. Eradicators.

 

[Ngamer11]

I just recently remembered that the members of the Justice League are considered intergalactic criminals to those who are aware of what happened on Rimbor. Perhaps now that Earth is getting more intergalactic scrutiny the League can learn of this early and be forced to leave to be put on trial.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

I just recently remembered that the members of the Justice League are considered intergalactic criminals to those who are aware of what happened on Rimbor. Perhaps now that Earth is getting more intergalactic scrutiny the League can learn of this early and be forced to leave to be put on trial.

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Considering how much the Earth is depending on the League to function right now, that would be incredibly inconvenient for the human race as a whole.

 

[Wheenesss]

Considering how much the Earth is depending on the League to function right now, that would be incredibly inconvenient for the human race as a whole.

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But it would be incredibly convenient for outside forces seeking to fuck with Earth. I don't think the Eradicators would do that but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"walk pass"

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Nearly.

"The"
"used"

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Thank you, corrected.

"He darts from"

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eyes, actually.

Fuck. Eradicators.

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The kryptonians are just about the only species who wouldn't, should they have that functionality.

I just recently remembered that the members of the Justice League are considered intergalactic criminals to those who are aware of what happened on Rimbor. Perhaps now that Earth is getting more intergalactic scrutiny the League can learn of this early and be forced to leave to be put on trial.

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'Intergalactic' means 'between galaxies'. So far everything in this story has taken place in one.

Even on the scale of a single galaxy, only a very small proportion of people know what happened and the ones looking for the Justice League are looking in the wrong places. They assume that the attackers must be violent expansionist warlords, so they looking in regions experiencing a high degree of unrest. There's a pretty decent chance of the SI running into such people in the Reach Periphery.

 

[Clell65619]

"Calm down, Taranna. Focus."

I hear her take a breath.

"They're not daxamites. They're robots."

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Well, this is getting complicated. Brainiac? Or his Daxamite cousin Clockworkiac?

 

[Ngamer11]

'Intergalactic' means 'between galaxies'. So far everything in this story has taken place in one.

Even on the scale of a single galaxy, only a very small proportion of people know what happened and the ones looking for the Justice League are looking in the wrong places. They assume that the attackers must be violent expansionist warlords, so they looking in regions experiencing a high degree of unrest. There's a pretty decent chance of the SI running into such people in the Reach Periphery.

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This is good to know. That hopefully means Paul will learn of this, realize that this is not good for the League, and then think of a plan to fix things before telling the League about it. My personal theory is that he'll just bribe the judges like what normal people do on Rimbor. The League wouldn't do it because of their moral principles, but Paul doesn't have that holding him back.

 

[Steelplaza]

Will this is going far beyond a mere custody dispute.

Congratulations to Zoat for planting the seeds under our nose. In retrospect, wasn't it a bit off that the Daxamites would have been willing to pull one of their spaceships out of storage and mount an interplanetary expedition for a single lost child? Since when are they such bleeding hearts willing to sacrifice everything to reunite a mother and son? Doesn't seem like the Daxam we know!

But if someone was already having them build a fleet of spaceships, it becomes much more likely that Cara Yat could wrangle grabbing one and taking off with it, along with a few specific individuals who sympathized and were willing to help her.

 

[Mr Zoat]

This is good to know. That hopefully means Paul will learn of this, realize that this is not good for the League, and then think of a plan to fix things before telling the League about it. My personal theory is that he'll just bribe the judges like what normal people do on Rimbor. The League wouldn't do it because of their moral principles, but Paul doesn't have that holding him back.

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I have plans for the trial.

I find it more than a little irritating that canonically it's treated as an injustice the heroes have to endure, rather than an attempt by a civilistion that had tens of thousands of its people murdered out of the blue to get some measure of justice for their greaving families. It's been a while, but did anyone actually tell the people of Rimbor what happened? I can't believe that an interstellar civilisation in that setting doesn't have a concept of mind control.

 

[Ngamer11]

I find it more than a little irritating that canonically it's treated as an injustice the heroes have to endure, rather than an attempt by a civilistion that had tens of thousands of its people murdered out of the blue to get some measure of justice for their greaving families. It's been a while, but did anyone actually tell the people of Rimbor what happened? I can't believe that an interstellar civilisation in that setting doesn't have a concept of mind control.

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Yes. But they also expect people who want to be let off to bribe them first. The people watching the trial talk about how weird it is that these guys who want to be released aren't doing so. That's why I expect Paul to bribe the judges.

 

[Duke Long]

"Understood." Ugh, if they're all got environmental shields then dumping lead in their path won't do anything other than confusing them. On the other hand, E.M.P.ing them in space and then dosing them would probably kill them. "Disrupt their environmental shields with electromagnetic radiation and then throw lead carbonate powder at them. Don't get close enough for them to touch you. Remember they can shoot heat rays out of their eyes. If they grab part of you-"

I wince as a glancing hit from Cara Yat causes Lantern Coutara to hit the metal wall hard enough to crater it. Her armour construct takes it, but fails a moment later.

"-cut if off and flee. Understand?"

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'they've'
'it'

"You didn't do anything wrong." I fly over to his mother… Yeah, that's a mess. Her eyes are both still there but the right one is cooked, the left side of her jaw bone is blackened and there's smoke rising from her lungs through the hole in her upper chest. "But you've done enough. Check Lantern Coutara."

He blinks again, head jerk to where his adopted mother -and we should probably formalise that- is picking herself up and flying over to her.

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'jawbone'?
'jerking'?

I look down at Cara Yat again, but what's left of her jaw is locked together. I raise my ring my to my ear.

"Sorry about that, Arsenal. What have you found?"

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Extraneous 'my'

 

[Mr Zoat]

'they've'
'it'
'jerking'?
Extraneous 'my'

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Thank you, corrected.

'jawbone'?

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I'm fairly sure that's correct.

Yes. But they also expect people who want to be let off to bribe them first. The people watching the trial talk about how weird it is that these guys who want to be released aren't doing so. That's why I expect Paul to bribe the judges.

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If you consider compensating thousands of people for loss of earnings, injuries, and negligent xenocides 'a bribe', then yes, probably.

 

[Ngamer11]

If you consider compensating thousands of people for loss of earnings, injuries, and negligent xenocides 'a bribe', then yes, probably.

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On Rimbor, that's apparently exactly what it is.

 

[PDV]

Doctor's Knight's

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Doctor Knight

 

[Ardy]

If you consider compensating thousands of people for loss of earnings, injuries, and negligent xenocides 'a bribe', then yes, probably.

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It's just business, Zoat.

It also wasn't a fine or damages, it was pretty explicitly a bribe.

 

[Stsword]

It's just business, Zoat.

It also wasn't a fine or damages, it was pretty explicitly a bribe.

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Yes, Rimbor has the best judges money can buy.

Anyone curious what Rimbor's nickname in the interplanetary community is in the comics? Crime Planet.

It's basically Gotham in SPACE.....ACE...ACE.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Doctor Knight

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Thank you, corrected.

It's just business, Zoat.

It also wasn't a fine or damages, it was pretty explicitly a bribe.

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It's a payment to a damaged party.

 

[Ardy]

Thank you, corrected.

It's a payment to a damaged party.

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Were the people injured just so happen to be made judges? Cause otherwise it was a bribe.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Were the people injured just so happen to be made judges? Cause otherwise it was a bribe.

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The judge is a public servant.

 

[Silverias]

The judge is a public servant.

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You're being pedantic.

and wrong.

 

[Mr Zoat]

You're being pedantic.

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Do you live somewhere where judges trouser the money they fine people? I understand that happens in some places.

Usually, judges are paid a wage, and money accrued goes into government funds. Because obviously, letting a judge profit from fines is a massive conflict of interest.

and wrong.

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Okay. Can you prove that?

I can't prove the inverse. I just can't see why they'd bother with a court setting if there wasn't some official process. It wasn't being held on a neutral planet, after all.