He did actually give "because it looks cool" as one of the reasons he wanted a giant X-ionized sword.Grayven's too busy going all Apokalyptian techno-barbarian and humming the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe theme to care.
With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- The UK
The section in question is found in the first part of Spring in Blume. Thus:
Wow, Renegade's anti-life partial mantlectomy could not have been soon enough.
Black Reign (part 19)
- Location
- Hampden Park
14th March 2011
07:29 GMT +2
I sit on a large lump of what was once a wall, my hands massaging my temples. Well… Attack's over. The surviving military officers from the Shiruta garrison are taking charge of the clean… Of the clean up. The wounded are being treated in makeshift field hospitals, but there aren't actually that many casualties. It's a little like a Dalek attack: their weapons are so deadly when used against baseline Humans that there are hardly any survivors. You either flat out die or you're fine.
There's a soft thud just in front of me and I look up. Despite his power, the League felt it best that Captain Marvel remain behind. Partly because he should be able to deal with most situations which arise in the absence of the rest of the League's most powerful members and partly because he has school later today. "Captain. What can I do for you?" William isn't looking at me. He's staring to his right, at… Ah. "We haven't prioritised clearing the bodies away. I know it's not.. ideal…"
"Oh God. What..?" He shakes himself and turns back to me. "What happened here?"
"Not entirely sure, sir. A group of people -Humans, probably- attacked the city using Apokoliptian equipment and combat robots. Adom was in Al-Qawiya and normal military units can't effectively fight things like that. I got here at oh four fifty three local time and began killing the attackers. Unfortunately, they'd killed most of the Shiruta Council during their initial attack… After that… Well, we can analyse their exact movements later, but it looks like they just went on the rampage."
"Who..?" He looks as lost as I feel. "Who was it? Who would do something like this?"
"I don't know." My head goes down into my hands again. "We know Bialya has had dealings with Apokolips, but we've had them under satellite observation and I've set the ring to notify me of any boom tubes opening near Earth. We haven't seen or heard anything in that direction since last year. Those criminals Dreamer mentioned could have accessed the equipment… Maybe, I don't know. And if they've got a way to get around boom tube detection systems then they could have given it to just about anyone." I look up and glance around at the devastation that surrounds us. "Or just sent them here themselves."
William looks straight at me. "I wanna talk to your prisoners."
"Prisoners?" I shake my head. "There aren't any."
"You..? You killed all of them?"
"A lot, but no." I take a partially reconstructed set of aero-trooper armour out of subspace. "Once I killed their fliers and destroyed their heavy equipment, I attempted to take one or two of the others alive. Their armour contained a very thorough suicide system, which incorporated a G-Sanitizer. A G-Sanitizer is a rather nasty piece of short lived nanotechnology which -when properly utilised- completely breaks down organic matter. Including the subject's DNA. I've been trying to use what's left to identify them, but what I've got is nothing I'd want to make any definite conclusions with. I had the rings take a crack at the robots' central processing units… Same problem. Not enough left."
He nods. "Who's in charge here?"
I stand up, stretching a little more out of habit than any real need. Rings aren't quite exhausted yet. "Me, actually. Adom's not here, every high ranking politician's dead, along with the general who was in charge of the city's defence… We only found the radio jammer ten minutes ago. Lieutenant Colonel Negm is organising the recovery efforts but I think he's a bit shell shocked." My eyes unfocus for a moment as I have the ring give me an overview of the city. Things.. seem to be progressing… "Have they attacked anywhere else?"
William shakes his head. "No. Just here."
"I had wondered if this was a reprisal. But, if they've just come here…"
"It probably wasn't."
I nod. "Have we heard anything from the team that went to Apokolips yet?"
He shakes his head. "This doesn't mean that anything's happened to them."
"I know. I just thought they might be able to shed some light…" I shake my head. "Where's Adom?"
William winces. "Cairo."
Oh shit. "Doing what?"
"We're not sure. I wanted you to be there when I went to talk to him."
I bow my head slightly, squeezing my eyes shut. Even under optimal conditions… And that was with me working alongside him and with as much of the army as could be spared assisting, attacking Cairo was going to result in massive collateral damage. Of course, if he's there then it's already happened. There's no way this happened and he didn't retaliate. I nod. "Okay. No sense leaving it."
I attach a filament to William and transition us to the air over the Heliopolis Palace. An entire wing of the place has been demolished, and the ring scans show that the people within have been pulverised. He didn't fight them. He didn't slow down. Slowing down to fight them would have been inefficient. We did actually.. plan this… The reason that we didn't implement it was that just about everyone in the target area would be killed. Not just the people in control of the government, but their aides, staff and other civil servants. When he's going that fast… Ring, scan…
Yes. The minimum number of civilian casualties that could be achieved in an attack by him alone, as long as you exclude anyone remotely involved in government or military function from your assessment of 'civilian'. Fewer people than died in Shiruta…
William goes pale as we descend through the sky towards Adom's entry point. The Palace itself would have been the last place he struck. No hostages here after all. We head further into the building and I'm glad that the ring's environmental shield is filtering out the smell. In Shiruta we'd at least gotten around to covering up most of the bodies. Here, there's bits of person nearly everywhere I look.
Adom looks up from his seat as we enter the cabinet meeting room, the bodies of Kahndaq's late rulers laying in squishy pieces around him. His eyes move over our faces for a moment, then he returns to staring into the middle distance. "Orange Lantern. Captain Marvel. Is Shiruta secure?"
I go to land, then realise that there isn't really anywhere I can land without stepping on a piece of someone. "The attack's over, Mighty One."
"The attackers?"
"Dead. All of them."
"Where were they from?"
I hesitate, trying to ignore quite how much blood there is on his uniform. "I.. can't say with any certainty. They were using Apokoliptian equipment-."
"So, Bialya. It was just a trick." He exhales sharply. "That is disappointing."
"We don't.. know for certain-."
"CAN THERE BE ANY DOUBT?!" The muscles on his neck stand out as he glares directly at me. "Who else has motive?! My city, the city named for my wife, lies bleeding and broken…" He leaps into the air, level with William and I. "And now you will no doubt try to dissuade me from avenging Kahndaqi blood." He shakes his head. "No. No. This is more than I can bear. The sands of Bialya will turn RED for this!"
"Adom, even if it was Bialya-" William floats forwards, hands raised in a placatory gesture. "-and we don't know that for sure yet, that's not the right way to go about dealing with this! You said you wanted to lead Kahndaq to a better future and you won't be able to do that if you keep killing people!"
"You may be surprised what one may do and still be considered an upstanding statesman." He turns, looking out through the broken wall to the city beyond. "And where was the Justice League?"
"They're.. off world."
"How many of my people died in Shiruta today?"
"Um…" I shake my head. "We don't know yet. Every major politician who was there, and a lot more besides. We'll know more in a few hours."
"I should be back by then." He bows his head slightly. "This was not how I wanted to begin my reign."
"Adom, I can't let-." I turn, frantically shaking my head at William as Adom raises his eyebrows. The absolute last thing that needs to happen now is the two of them fighting. Whoever wins, Kahndaq would be in even more of a mess. He spots me, then hesitates as Adom turns to regard him. "I mean, you're angry. You're not thinking clearly. I understand why. This is an absolutely horrifying thing to have happened, but you just need-."
"I need nothing. And I will not be lectured by the Wizard's lackey, a man who has never-."
"Show him."
Adom turns to glare at me. "Show me what?"
"William. Show him."
He hesitates for a moment, then lands on the cleanest part of the floor. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath. "Shazam!"
"Removing your powers will not-!" Adom boggles as the smoke clears. "You're… You're a-a child? The Wizard chose a.. c-child?"
"Hey." William smiles, though I imagine that without Achilles' courage he's finding our environment even more shocking. "I'm not a baby. I'm eleven."
Adom drops to the floor, flabbergasted. "My… My own s-." He looks William over, clearly not quite believing his eyes. "Why? Why did he choose you? You cannot have been a warrior or leader. What did you do to so earn his favour?"
"You're right. I'm not a warrior or a leader. He chose me because he thinks he can trust me to use the power properly. That I was a good enough person not to end up..." He looks around the room. "After the two of you fell out, after five thousand years, I was the first person he met he thought he could risk it on. And I'm telling you, you don't want to make this decision when you're angry."
Adom.. seems to shrink in on himself slightly. He stands completely still for several seconds. At long last, he nods. "I will.. be guided by you. I will wait. Orange Lantern, please convey me back to Shiruta. I must see to my people's needs."
07:29 GMT +2
I sit on a large lump of what was once a wall, my hands massaging my temples. Well… Attack's over. The surviving military officers from the Shiruta garrison are taking charge of the clean… Of the clean up. The wounded are being treated in makeshift field hospitals, but there aren't actually that many casualties. It's a little like a Dalek attack: their weapons are so deadly when used against baseline Humans that there are hardly any survivors. You either flat out die or you're fine.
There's a soft thud just in front of me and I look up. Despite his power, the League felt it best that Captain Marvel remain behind. Partly because he should be able to deal with most situations which arise in the absence of the rest of the League's most powerful members and partly because he has school later today. "Captain. What can I do for you?" William isn't looking at me. He's staring to his right, at… Ah. "We haven't prioritised clearing the bodies away. I know it's not.. ideal…"
"Oh God. What..?" He shakes himself and turns back to me. "What happened here?"
"Not entirely sure, sir. A group of people -Humans, probably- attacked the city using Apokoliptian equipment and combat robots. Adom was in Al-Qawiya and normal military units can't effectively fight things like that. I got here at oh four fifty three local time and began killing the attackers. Unfortunately, they'd killed most of the Shiruta Council during their initial attack… After that… Well, we can analyse their exact movements later, but it looks like they just went on the rampage."
"Who..?" He looks as lost as I feel. "Who was it? Who would do something like this?"
"I don't know." My head goes down into my hands again. "We know Bialya has had dealings with Apokolips, but we've had them under satellite observation and I've set the ring to notify me of any boom tubes opening near Earth. We haven't seen or heard anything in that direction since last year. Those criminals Dreamer mentioned could have accessed the equipment… Maybe, I don't know. And if they've got a way to get around boom tube detection systems then they could have given it to just about anyone." I look up and glance around at the devastation that surrounds us. "Or just sent them here themselves."
William looks straight at me. "I wanna talk to your prisoners."
"Prisoners?" I shake my head. "There aren't any."
"You..? You killed all of them?"
"A lot, but no." I take a partially reconstructed set of aero-trooper armour out of subspace. "Once I killed their fliers and destroyed their heavy equipment, I attempted to take one or two of the others alive. Their armour contained a very thorough suicide system, which incorporated a G-Sanitizer. A G-Sanitizer is a rather nasty piece of short lived nanotechnology which -when properly utilised- completely breaks down organic matter. Including the subject's DNA. I've been trying to use what's left to identify them, but what I've got is nothing I'd want to make any definite conclusions with. I had the rings take a crack at the robots' central processing units… Same problem. Not enough left."
He nods. "Who's in charge here?"
I stand up, stretching a little more out of habit than any real need. Rings aren't quite exhausted yet. "Me, actually. Adom's not here, every high ranking politician's dead, along with the general who was in charge of the city's defence… We only found the radio jammer ten minutes ago. Lieutenant Colonel Negm is organising the recovery efforts but I think he's a bit shell shocked." My eyes unfocus for a moment as I have the ring give me an overview of the city. Things.. seem to be progressing… "Have they attacked anywhere else?"
William shakes his head. "No. Just here."
"I had wondered if this was a reprisal. But, if they've just come here…"
"It probably wasn't."
I nod. "Have we heard anything from the team that went to Apokolips yet?"
He shakes his head. "This doesn't mean that anything's happened to them."
"I know. I just thought they might be able to shed some light…" I shake my head. "Where's Adom?"
William winces. "Cairo."
Oh shit. "Doing what?"
"We're not sure. I wanted you to be there when I went to talk to him."
I bow my head slightly, squeezing my eyes shut. Even under optimal conditions… And that was with me working alongside him and with as much of the army as could be spared assisting, attacking Cairo was going to result in massive collateral damage. Of course, if he's there then it's already happened. There's no way this happened and he didn't retaliate. I nod. "Okay. No sense leaving it."
I attach a filament to William and transition us to the air over the Heliopolis Palace. An entire wing of the place has been demolished, and the ring scans show that the people within have been pulverised. He didn't fight them. He didn't slow down. Slowing down to fight them would have been inefficient. We did actually.. plan this… The reason that we didn't implement it was that just about everyone in the target area would be killed. Not just the people in control of the government, but their aides, staff and other civil servants. When he's going that fast… Ring, scan…
Yes. The minimum number of civilian casualties that could be achieved in an attack by him alone, as long as you exclude anyone remotely involved in government or military function from your assessment of 'civilian'. Fewer people than died in Shiruta…
William goes pale as we descend through the sky towards Adom's entry point. The Palace itself would have been the last place he struck. No hostages here after all. We head further into the building and I'm glad that the ring's environmental shield is filtering out the smell. In Shiruta we'd at least gotten around to covering up most of the bodies. Here, there's bits of person nearly everywhere I look.
Adom looks up from his seat as we enter the cabinet meeting room, the bodies of Kahndaq's late rulers laying in squishy pieces around him. His eyes move over our faces for a moment, then he returns to staring into the middle distance. "Orange Lantern. Captain Marvel. Is Shiruta secure?"
I go to land, then realise that there isn't really anywhere I can land without stepping on a piece of someone. "The attack's over, Mighty One."
"The attackers?"
"Dead. All of them."
"Where were they from?"
I hesitate, trying to ignore quite how much blood there is on his uniform. "I.. can't say with any certainty. They were using Apokoliptian equipment-."
"So, Bialya. It was just a trick." He exhales sharply. "That is disappointing."
"We don't.. know for certain-."
"CAN THERE BE ANY DOUBT?!" The muscles on his neck stand out as he glares directly at me. "Who else has motive?! My city, the city named for my wife, lies bleeding and broken…" He leaps into the air, level with William and I. "And now you will no doubt try to dissuade me from avenging Kahndaqi blood." He shakes his head. "No. No. This is more than I can bear. The sands of Bialya will turn RED for this!"
"Adom, even if it was Bialya-" William floats forwards, hands raised in a placatory gesture. "-and we don't know that for sure yet, that's not the right way to go about dealing with this! You said you wanted to lead Kahndaq to a better future and you won't be able to do that if you keep killing people!"
"You may be surprised what one may do and still be considered an upstanding statesman." He turns, looking out through the broken wall to the city beyond. "And where was the Justice League?"
"They're.. off world."
"How many of my people died in Shiruta today?"
"Um…" I shake my head. "We don't know yet. Every major politician who was there, and a lot more besides. We'll know more in a few hours."
"I should be back by then." He bows his head slightly. "This was not how I wanted to begin my reign."
"Adom, I can't let-." I turn, frantically shaking my head at William as Adom raises his eyebrows. The absolute last thing that needs to happen now is the two of them fighting. Whoever wins, Kahndaq would be in even more of a mess. He spots me, then hesitates as Adom turns to regard him. "I mean, you're angry. You're not thinking clearly. I understand why. This is an absolutely horrifying thing to have happened, but you just need-."
"I need nothing. And I will not be lectured by the Wizard's lackey, a man who has never-."
"Show him."
Adom turns to glare at me. "Show me what?"
"William. Show him."
He hesitates for a moment, then lands on the cleanest part of the floor. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath. "Shazam!"
"Removing your powers will not-!" Adom boggles as the smoke clears. "You're… You're a-a child? The Wizard chose a.. c-child?"
"Hey." William smiles, though I imagine that without Achilles' courage he's finding our environment even more shocking. "I'm not a baby. I'm eleven."
Adom drops to the floor, flabbergasted. "My… My own s-." He looks William over, clearly not quite believing his eyes. "Why? Why did he choose you? You cannot have been a warrior or leader. What did you do to so earn his favour?"
"You're right. I'm not a warrior or a leader. He chose me because he thinks he can trust me to use the power properly. That I was a good enough person not to end up..." He looks around the room. "After the two of you fell out, after five thousand years, I was the first person he met he thought he could risk it on. And I'm telling you, you don't want to make this decision when you're angry."
Adom.. seems to shrink in on himself slightly. He stands completely still for several seconds. At long last, he nods. "I will.. be guided by you. I will wait. Orange Lantern, please convey me back to Shiruta. I must see to my people's needs."
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- Location
- Oblivion
PARAGON INTERRUPT!
Oh yay, this means he gets to extort Queen Bee for everything she's worth.
- Location
- Greece
I thought he had his birthday recently (So he should be 11)
Boy, is that the truth.
Does someone who knows more about Teth Adom know what's up with that statement? Also, thank god they averted that mess of Adom going off on a probable culprit with circumstantial evidence.
W-why are m-my eyes sweating?
Is that a quote? It feels like a quote. Someone Roman maybe.
His sons were about Billy's age when they were killed.
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- Location
- Australia
This. This scene made the update for me
This.
This right here.
This is why I read WtR.
The intrigue is compelling, the characters move, interact, and breathe, butterflies practically cloud your vision, but...This is what makes it all special. Of all the SIs I've read, I can count on one hand the number that don't just go through Canon's paces mutely.
But this one exists, seemingly for little other purpose than to generate Out-Of-Context Solutions, to problems we hadn't even considered.
I just felt the need to let you know, @Mr Zoat, that, like Yao Fei, your skills are both Accomplished, and Perfect.
Angle
Release Candidate Enby
- Location
- Colorado, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Theirs/Comrade
I don;t know any details, But I'd guess he's starting to say "My own son." Which, considering how old William is, isn't particularly surprising - he probably does remind him of his own son.
For those who missed it, "surprised" is a link.
- Location
- Florida
Dayum.
DAYUM.
DAYUM.
deadpan29
Strangely Stoic
I believe that next word, starting with an "s" and tinged with the emotional color of love, was going to be "son". As in, Billy stirs memories of Adom's son who is long dead.
Daecl
CURSED BY THE DICE
Okay, so Kahndaq is essentially Egypt in this universe right? And Adom... attacked Cairo? Wah? Someone remind me of what's going on politically and why Adom attacked?
EDIT: Okay, did some wiki diving, Kahndaq is not Egypt. But why did Adom destroy Cairo? He was at a conference, right?
EDIT: Okay, did some wiki diving, Kahndaq is not Egypt. But why did Adom destroy Cairo? He was at a conference, right?
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hance1986
The One Above All.
I think maybe part of it is Adom is like Shazam gave the powers of the Gods to a child and it strikes a little what the fuck chord in him a bit. I think this ties a bit into what the world was like 5000 years ago and the circumstances Adom had to deal with. His father killed Adom's beloved family out of some fucked up godhood trip, the wizard turned on him for reasons.
And the reasons were kind of bullshit. Adom was networking with other ancient empowered people and Shazam saw the birth of a superhuman dictatorship or something? The world when Adom was younger was not like now when people would generally gravitate towards cooperation for the most part because the world was interconnected. in the BC times the nations were other and alien and enemies to each other a lot. Rule of the sword or magic was largely the way things got handled. Adom not using his powers for conquest and having a for the time enlightened reign where the various losers weren't slaughtered like animals was new. Adom talked about that in one of his conversations with OL. He used his powers in battling demons and sorcerers, for the greater good, while fighting for Kahndaq he released his power and fought as a man.
EDIT:
Adom was trying to handle things diplomatically with peace talks and the President for Life asshole gradually getting moved out completely when someone went all sneaky snake and sent some other assholes with alien tech and weapons to attack Adom's home base and kill everyone. So while OL stopped the army, Adom cut the bullshit attacked the President, who was probably involved and did something shady to get alien tech support.
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Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
Well if there can be a bright side to this situation the country is now totally under Adoms' control and after a national tragedy like this lots of people are going to unite together and step up to help speed up the recovery process.
Know for a fact that Adom will do literally everything he can to help his people recover and lead them to the best of his ability.
Know for a fact that Adom will do literally everything he can to help his people recover and lead them to the best of his ability.
Cairo's where the established government the group of rebels he was with were trying to overthrow are based, and before this had been reduced to holding out in Cairo with hostages to keep them from attacking it.
Especially since I strongly suspect that was the idea. The attack was designed to be as provocative as possible, yet whoever was behind it went to great lengths to make sure they couldn't be identified, including fitting their own troops with suicide nanotech.
I wouldn't be surprised if Queen Bee had nothing to do with it. It just seems too suicidal for her to set herself up as such an obvious target for Adom to splatter.
The old dictator of Kahndaq still held Cairo, and was holding Adom & OL off with a large number of hostages. Adom clearly blamed the dictator for what happened and decided to take out him and his supporters as quickly as possible, minimizing the deaths of the hostages by annihilating everyone near them. Apparently by simply flying at extremely high speeds, splattering them all.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Did he? I don't remember that.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
he was going to say Son...wasn't he?
Reincarnation? perhaps this was another reason William was chosen...
- Status