• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

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

And the others… I can see a small part of the aura the New Titans had around them around each of them. And for a moment I'm extremely curious about how that worked, but… I'm not a good enough thaumaturgist to decipher it, and it's not my job anyway

So are the New Titans going to come back to life or consciousness, or did these Ascendants take their place abd absorbed their power?

"Neither. You helped us, despite my refusal to ally with you. We will bury the dead, and then we will celebrate Grandmother Rhea's return together

Looks like the ritual brought her back.
 
is it possible ol could chase after astarte and kill them off? like setting of a nuclear charge inside their ship?
 
1st January 2013
22:16 GMT


I keep firing, destructive pulses flying through the building towards Astarte.

"No."

I get exactly two hits on her as she tries to dodge while maintaining the ability to shoot back. One hits her torso and the other on her left arm, scaring the armour but not disabling her. Then Aramis interposes herself, shoving Astarte aside and… Just soaking the hits. Her armour is blasted apart and the orange bolts start eating into her flesh.
Ah, goddamn regen tanks. Only thing worse than something that can outheal your damage is something that takes less of it in the first place, though. And thankfully, Aramis doesn't have any passive buffs like that...

"That's it! Make me feel-"
Die!
I dodge to the side as Astarte fires another shot, my ability to analyse her actions increasing the longer my ring studies her.
Whoops, and there's a debuff from Astarte. Fortunately, she seems more concerned with killing OL-chan right now than completing her previous objective. Got to love short-sighted fools.

I suppose if you've got a healing factor that powerful, you end up becoming something of a masochist...

The pulses chews through her skin and muscle, but she clearly doesn't care. Her head's tilted back and she's laughing, and… I just can't work up the same contempt for her that I have for Astarte.

In front of me the Ascendants try to hold back the frenzied Sparta. But she's a lot stronger than them, and it looks like a losing battle. The Citizenry rally, careful to keep out of the line of sight between me and their superiors. Raising their guns, they-.
Yeah, bad idea for the mooks to get the attention of the big guns in this fight. They're likely to get squashed.

"Last ones."

The Fungoid phases through the floor and opens its arms wide, spores spreading outwards to cover the blindsided Citizens. A few get shots off, but they're poorly aimed and hit only solid armour plates. The rest try to stagger away, but having already taken a lungful-.
See? Down in one hit. Gotta love those poison builds... :p

Aramis shatters the Fungoid construct lantern with brute force, flying straight through the tower-. And running straight into my crumbler ram construct as I lurch to the side. Ah, she doesn't have a natural flying ability. Without the ability to launch herself off objects with super strength, she's stuck at the same airspeed as the other Citizens. The construct ram smashes through the left side of her face, though for some reason it's more 'mashes' than 'reduced to component atoms'.
Maybe her bodily tissues are just that damn dense? I mean, Lobo can survive exposure to space without any protection (even assuming that his space-hog even has an environmental field.)

And then she turns around and grins, one half normal jaw and the other half bloody exposed bone. I can see the flesh wriggling and writhing as it heals.

"You soft-peddling me in the arena?"
Well, it was kind of a delaying action. One that failed utterly, but still...

She lunges, and this time I try a cold gun as I fly aside. She holds out her right arm, letting it freeze completely solid. But it looks like that provides enough insulation to stop the rest of her still-healing body from freezing along with it.

"A woman could take that the wrong way."
Oh god, this is basically her idea of flirting, isn't it? Do any survivors of her attentions in the combat ring get invited to her room once they heal? :oops:

And of course the knock-out spores aren't doing anything. She-.

She's slow in the air. I'm trying to keep Athyns safe. As long as I keep both Aramis and Astarte focused on me, I'm achieving that aim.
Velorpians and Czarnians aren't exactly know for their airworthiness, after all. And presumably, the Ascendants in the ritual chamber can deal with Sparta.

On the other hand, if she's basically immortal…

I move aside as she lunges again, firing my cold gun at her trunk. Another hit, but she twists and uses her frozen arm to block as much as she can and it's not freezing her fast enough. I can see her bare flesh thawing as I watch. She's grinning-. Or that could just be from the lack of flesh on her face. But I've been lining her up.
Because if your weapons aren't hurting a tank...

Die!
I dodge aside and Aramis takes Astarte's blaster shot right in the face. It tunnels through, into the lower part of her brain and then out of the back of her skull.

I turn around as her body drops.
...Perhaps someone else's will. :D That should take Aramis down for... Five minutes, maybe?

"Thank you."

I see her eyes flick to Spar-.
After all, time is running out to get their hands on the Titan Seeds.

She fires at the Ascendants who have just about got their former mistress under control. Two die in one shot, and the blood-maddened Sparta tears out the throat of a third and then lunges-.

WORLD MADE WHOLE
Oh, tough luck, ladies. :cool: Too late.

Sparta stops, stunned. My armour… Flares, not with orange light, but… It's as if the orange is forming a corona around something I can't see or feel. Astarte's armour dims and her blaster fails. She looks blank for a moment, then favours me with a look of absolute hatred before turning and fleeing.

Point defence fire from both my ship and the local one sleet through the air, battering her armour. Which doesn't seem to be providing her with the same protection that it was a few moments ago. I form-. I try to form-.
Ooh, looks like someone managed to erect a 'No New God technology' bubble.

Can't form constructs. I could-.

BOOM!
Only problem is, it seems to be stifling OL's abilities too. That's not great.

A shimmering portal appears just ahead of Astarte, and she dives through. She was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, but I doubt that will prove a-

BOOM!
And of course it doesn't affect their evacuation.

-problem. I look down and watch Aramis shakily raise two index fingers up at me as she falls through another tube, the hole in her head... Still completely open.

Objective achieved, bonus objective-
Huh, half expected her to flash the middle fingers. Guess that's more of 'We'll meet again, honey!' move...

"It should have been mine."

-failed. I fly into the tower, looking at the fallen Ascendants. Several are still alive, but without constructs the only way I've got to heal people is the purple healing ray on my power armour. And Sparta's still active and I have no idea what's going through her head right now.
Sparta seems almost broken, by the sound of her.

Be whole, my children.
The Ascendant I'm looking at jerks up, the wound that pieced her chest glowing for a moment and then just vanishing. She pats the hole in her armour and then looks up at me for some sort of explanation.

"I believe that Athyns has succeeded. How does the thaumosphere feel?"
Ah, good to have that confirmed, then. It cost a fair bit, but hopefully it pays off.

"Vital."

The man next to her -who I was sure was dead- staggers upright, spear pointing at Sparta. Sparta doesn't even bother looking at it, just staring at-.
Yeah, she's basically gone bye-bye, hasn't she?

The fortified doors clunk open and Athyns walks down the stairs towards us. He looks…

I wouldn't say like a god. But more like a god than he did a little while ago.
More of a demi-god who's gotten a taste of the good Ambrosia, huh?

And the others… I can see a small part of the aura the New Titans had around them around each of them. And for a moment I'm extremely curious about how that worked, but… I'm not a good enough thaumaturgist to decipher it, and it's not my job anyway.

Athyns looks over the Ascendants, who drop to their knees. Nodding, he turns to me-.
Oh, right, OL's still in girl-type mode, huh?

"Did the Illustres recruit one of us?"

"No, sorry. Hang on."

And I'm a man again. That was mildly unsettling.
Aw, no more OL-chan. :sneaky: For now...

"I thought that if I issued a challenge according to their customs, they might hold off. Unfortunately, I was wrong." I resummon the Fungoid. "We have prisoners in the lower levels. This construct can help you with them. I need to get back into space to make sure that they leave."

"That won't be necessary." He looks up, in the direction of the Citizenry's ship. "I allowed Astarte to retreat, but that is all. The technology they were given by Grayven will not work here any longer. And the performance of our ships will be somewhat better."
...That seems unwise. Are you sure you don't want to press your advantage while you can? I don't imagine they'll leave you alone.

"Understood. Do you want me to stay, in case Grayven tries something? Or leave, in case I provoke someone?"

"Neither. You helped us, despite my refusal to ally with you. We will bury the dead, and then we will celebrate Grandmother Rhea's return together."
...Oh, that's going to be... Interesting.

I suppose it's not really OL's place to decide whether to give chase, this being an unaligned and technically neutral system. And it's unlikely he could reach the Citizenry's flotilla before they fled, anyway. Nor fight them single-handedly with any real effectiveness. Still, I doubt this will be the end of Minosyss' troubles with Grayven's plans. Still, crisis over, and presumably not too many dead allies... Those Reach ships are still en-route too...
 
One hits her torso and the other on her left arm, scaring the armour but not disabling her.
'scarring'?
I look down and watch Aramis shakily raise two index fingers up at me as she falls through another tube, the hole in her head... Still completely open.
Is that how her species does it, or did her middle fingers get blown off?
Because her ring stopped working, and without it she'd probably have beaten him in a hand to hand fight.
I think he was referring to Athyns.
 
From a Doylist perspective, why give them the x-ionized blades? Now they have to come back sporting dozens of them. The rules of the narrative demand it.
 
Oh, Rhea's back. I think I missed the part where this would resurrect her, but that seems like a major change.

Hmm, how the prisoners will be handled will certainly be interesting. I suppose it depends on how many are willing to reform.
 
The pulses chews through her skin
chew

"You soft-peddling me in the arena?"
soft-pedaling

the wound that pieced her chest
pierced

What I took from this is he can achieve apotheosis at any time into somethingclose to a new god, he just doesn't want to and can in fact reverse it.
That was Athyns's power flowing through him because he was acting in that god's service. He's probably very compatible with that power, but I wouldn't say that he could achieve apotheosis "at any time" -- it seems specific to these circumstances.
 
Meanwhile on Earth 534834 (part 9)
Earth 534834

8th February 1992
12:13 GMT -7


My point defence constructs shoot down the handful of missiles that are actually on target, ring weaving me out of the lines of travel of the rest.

Ring, get him back on the phone.

In progress.

"Oh, hey Orange. What do you n-?"

"We 'might' be testing some missiles?"

"Yeah. Y'know, it's a desert, Stark Enterprises does weapon testing-"

Alert.

I generate a shield construct as a laser cannon deploys from beyond a camouflaged hatch in a nearby mesa, the brilliant red beam hitting the shield and achieving nothing.

"-around here… Huh."

"I have no particular objection to helping you improve your weapon systems, Mister Stark, but I'm a bit narked about doing it without warning and for free."

"No, I just… Spotted that the whole system's live. It's not supposed to be."

"Do you want me to forcibly shut it down, or are you good to fix it yourself?"

"Ah… I'd rather you didn't write off twenty million dollars worth of equipment, but if you need to. I'll just have to make my investors understand."

"Oh, don't worry. It's not that good."

He sighs. "Yeah, okay. I had that coming. On your-"

My point defence construct fires, hitting the stealth missile's fuel reserve and causing it to ignite.

"-six… Huh."

"Missiles aren't tough. You don't need a laser powerful enough to cut through tank armour to destroy one. Far weaker lasers will do the job, and far faster and more accurately than kinetic flak. The only issues are power, which this ring handles perfectly well, and the computational power to target it accurately in flight, which this ring handles perfectly well."

"What about chaff or flares?"

"Sure, if your battery or computer can't handle it, being able to maybe dodge three missiles is better than-" Ah, that actually is a flak emplacement. I reinforce my armour and ignore it, because my armour is a lot tougher than aluminium. "-nothing."

Shells burst around me, doing a grand total of nothing as the shrapnel fails to penetrate.

"But if you can do lasers, in an atmosphere you effectively just need to know where the target-."

"Where the target is, because you hit it at the speed of light rather than three thousand feet per second. I need to talk to some of our product users-."

"Have you shut the system-" A rather large plasma cannon turret emerges from a bunker in my line of travel. "-down, or-?"

"I can talk and work at the same-" I hear a dull tone from his end, and the turret stops tracking me. "-time. There, clear for approach. What was it you wanted to talk about, anyway?"

"I actually wanted to talk to Mister and Ms. Maximoff, if they're available."

"Ah… Who?"

"Mister Stark, the ring can locate anyone anywhere on the planet who isn't specifically protected against it. And the only things I know block it are some types of magic and some types of alien technology."

"That sounds like a horrible violation of civil liberties."

"No, it's only a violation of civil liberties when the government does it."

"I… Don't think that's how it works. Quicksilver's going to meet you outside. Scarlet Witch will be along in a few minutes."

"Thank you, Mister Stark."

And there's the main bunker, complete with runway, cargo helicopter landing pad and white-haired man in a skin-tight silver and grey costume. I'm a little surprised that Mr. Stark hasn't insisted on something a little more professional, but maybe he wanted superhuman protection more than he wanted uniformity.

I raise my right hand in greeting as I come into land. "Mister Maximoff."

He regards me with a degree of suspicion for a moment. "Were you tracking me all around the world for a reason?"

"Ah, yes. Though strictly speaking, I wasn't tracking you all around the world, I just had the ability to find out wherever you are at any point in time. Point is, I just got back from having a conversation with your elder half-sister, and it turns-"

"What?"

"-out that she didn't know that you exist either. Or who her biological father is. It's all getting a bit soap opera-y, so I thought that I'd stop that silliness and just tell everyone the stuff they were probably missing. I don't know what your phone number is, so-."

There's a sort of glimmer in the air, and… Glam rock Thor appears with a twirl of his axe, Ms. Maximoff next to him. I… Think his name is Sentry?

"Scion of Maltus. I offer you warm greeting."

I blink.

"Thank you. You're the first person I've met since I got here who's heard of Maltus."

"In my life I have walked many strange roads, and forgotten more than many have ever learned. I fear that I recall no more than the name and the image of rings such as you now wear."

Ah. Well, it would have been a bit easy if I found the place through a chance encounter. "Ah. Well, it's still worth knowing."

Mr. Maximoff looks at me for confirmation. "Sister?"

Ms. Maximoff looks at him. "Yes?"

"No, a…" I shake my head. "You both have an elder half-sister by the name of Lorna Dane. You have the same father. His name is Erik Lensherr, though I believe that at other points of time he's used other names."

Ms. Maximoff stares. "Magneto… Is our father?"

"Yes. Given how confused he was when I told him, I don't believe he knew. Given how you both have the x-gene, I expect that he will want to make contact soon-. So you might want to advise Mister Stark to make a suit of non-ferrous armour."

Mr. Maximoff's eyes narrow. "How do you know that? We-."

"I compared your genes to his and noted the fifty percent match. It's not impossible that someone like Nathaniel Essex got hold of some of his genetic material and created you as partial clones, but given that Mister Lensherr was married when you would have been conceived and they were separated when you would have been born, there's really no reason to add more steps to the process."

"We-." Mr. Maximoff and his sister just look at each other for a few moments. "We should talk about this."

"I understand." I fabricate a card with Ms. Dane's home telephone number on it. "You can reach her here. And on an unrelated note, is anyone on your team happily married?"
 
Last edited:
"That sounds like a horrible violation of civil liberties."

"No, it's only a violation of civil liberties when the government does it."

When you do it it's just a crime and very creepy.

little surprised that Mr. Start

"Stark"

the name of Loran Dane

"Lorna"

His name is Erik Lensherr, though I believe that at other points of time he's used other names."

If I remember correctly, his birth name was Max Eisenhart, and Erik was an alias.

advise Mister Start to make a

"Stark"
 
"I understand." I fabricate a card with Ms. Dane's home telephone number on it. "You can reach her here. And on an unrelated note, is anyone on your team happily married?"
It's just buisiness to him at this point. It takes a special kind of disentization to be able to shrug missiles coming at you and only being annoyed about the owner not asking first.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top