Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]
- Thread starter Obloquy
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Sorry Bruce, but I don't think it took. You may want to get that checked up.
Also first time I have seen Army Martha
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- Leeds
Oooh she's alive in this.
Would be awkward explaining to your fiance why you have three seperate wedding rings though
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
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- the Physical Realm
Given that Kate Kane exists here as Batwoman, and by extension Col. Jacob Kane as well, I thought the Kanes as an army family made sense.
Especially since Wonder Woman's influence in and after WWII meant that West Point started accepting female students 20 years earlier than in our world.
I haven't decided whether she was unarmed on the night she was shot, or carrying and got shot first/anyway, I admit, but either would make an interesting interpretation.
Still alive, still the Phantasm, sadly.
The rings are kept in the same place as the Wayne Murder investigation records, the bagged & bloodstained watch & pearls, the records of the Grayson murders, etc.
If Bruce isn't sure enough in his relationship to tell her about the other rings, then he knows he's not sure enough to offer whomever he picks her ring yet.
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- Location
- Leeds
Alive is alive. Curse of the Phantasm remains the best Batman movie.
(The Dark Knight is the best Joker movie though
)The Kanes as an Army family also makes sense in light of the fact that as far as I know, comic canon for Adeline Kane Wilson is that she's some degree of cousin to Bruce via Martha and met Slade when she was working as an Army trainer in an elite program.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Alive is alive. Curse of the Phantasm remains the best Batman movie.
(The Dark Knight is the best Joker movie though
I agree. Honestly, I think SF Debris' analysis of the work is spot on, though I don't think it's quite compatible with how she's being used here.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Except for industrious. The upcoming scene is made in his honor/at his request. Took me forever to get to, though. This originally was going to be in October, and then I kept getting other stuff I needed for set-up.
Originally, LOD Poison Ivy had some control of plants, but was mostly all about the biochemistry, toxins, seduction, etc.
The Injustice League was a big change in her approach, in-universe, as the first time she's ever done something so big. Before Ivy's had to get into greenhouses she'd prepared for fights and rely on toxins/pollen/etc. outside because she couldn't do big things.
The reason she can do them now is that they hyped up her powers with a drug regimen. But it's not exactly pleasant on the side-effects or withdrawal front.
Electrons and Cognitive Aspects of things are much easier for Ferris to affect than Physical things. Electrons are very small and light, and naturally move in wildly unpredictable ways, so altering their paths a little to affect the data the transmitted is doable.
She basically broke down the "walls" keeping Wendy from hacking the Tubes to give them clearance. And Ferris doesn't herself understand the technology any more than that, so she's not sure what specifically happened.
Huh. I hadn't heard about the cousin part, and I think I'm not running with it in this iteration for the same reason Dinah Drake Lance (and by extension her daughter) won't be related to Tim Drake.
People can have the same names without being related, and I don't want to make the crime-fighting community too inter-connected on its own, though of course people deliberately making connection of friendship, etc., is an entirely different thing.
Even A Man - part 14
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
This installment is for industrious. Sorry it took so long to get to!* December 5 [Ferris PoV]
I stared down the woman we had fought in Khandaq, aware that if she pulled the trigger, I would almost certainly die.
She did not appear to be so certain of that fact, however, and so even though I was only sitting in a chair against the wall, with a blanket covering my lap and legs, we remained at a stalemate. She had several hostages, but appeared less willing to kill another, and she did not know how weak I was; I could probably fight, but only for I short time I expected, though in that time I would be quite capable.
Artemis was still on her feet somewhere in the area, Batman had arrived and rescued most of the civilians Whisper had previously held hostage, Karen had mingled in with them to stay away from the fighting, and there was another warrior allied with Batman in fighting off the scaled woman's subordinates. I mostly examined her skin and tried to guess if the scales were armored, as we waited.
I was also storing speed as I stayed immobile; it was almost certain to be useful, and unlikely to hurt me any worse, at least.
Two other women – Poison Ivy and the younger Whisper, without snake scales – burst through the door to my left in a rush. Whisper twitched at their entrance, her aiming shifting off-center for a moment, but I remained impassive, and she did not attack me.
'Poison Ivy looks… unwell,' I noted, assessing her visually. 'Drug withdrawal of some form, and it does not appear she's been well-treated since she was broken free. Her hands are still shaking, and I doubt it is healthy to sweat so much in this temperature.'
'I already feel a little sorry for her. That will be useful,' I concluded with some satisfaction.
I tapped a trickle of connection from my duralumin-mind, along with some zinc-mind acuity, and opted to engage their attention.
"Did you really name your daughter after yourself? That seems a little… self-aggrandizing, I think," I stated, projecting amusement.
"Shut up," the daughter hissed.
"Don't let her bait you," the snake-woman reprimanded, twisting the pistol in her hand contemplatively. She said to me, "I ought to shoot you where you… well," she amended with some amusement, "not exactly where you stand. Can you even walk? Our information was that you suffered some extreme injuries about a month ago. Though, I am interested in how you got over here in the first place."
"Why walk when you can fly?" I deflected, keeping my eyes on her and not on the three hostages at her feet. Whisper wasn't aiming at them, but she had her foot on one unconscious woman's spine, and at that range she could shoot instantly. "So did you?" I challenged.
"Shut up. I am willing to kill another hostage," she threatened, retreating from my bait again. I kept my eyes on her.
Looking at any of the hostages would be a show of weakness. Looking at the meat that used to be a young boy before Whisper put a hole in his head would only get me angry, and that would be not conducive to my plan of approach.
Looking at Batman as he lurked in the shadows further back in the room would only alert them to him. He flashed me a hand signal
"Prove to me they are not already poisoned and about to die anyway," I riposted with a smile to Whisper. "It seems the type of idea you would enjoy, I think, for spite." As I spoke, I brought my right hand up to my temple and stroked back some strands of my hair.
It was intended to cover my signal in reply: thumb folded in, primary finger (my index finger in America) folded over it, with the other three fingers that I combed through my hair extended and splayed to communicate, 'I have an incomplete plan.'
Keeping the three pressed together would indicate a more complete plan, but I was uncertain about the hostages. I did my best to indicate as much with a significant tap of my finger against the arm of the chair as I brought my hand down; it was not a planned signal, but the Batman was intelligent, and I trusted him to get the gist. He nodded once, and gestured back something about coming up from below.
"…You are not a normal hero, are you?" Whisper asked with a slight smirk. "I wouldn't have thought of that. Maybe next time."
"Really? It is a strategy the League of Shadows has used in past encounters," I lied. The important part was to buy time and keep her talking.
'Ideally, I should distract the other two. The daughter gave some instructions to Poison Ivy, and I do not like the way she is focusing again.'
"Well, that isn't me. And I really will kill-," She took note as I deliberately moved my gaze to her two companions. "-a hostage. You two, what's the status? Didn't get your target?"
"The pollen wasn't fucking fast enough," the daughter growled.
"Shut it! It was working, you just couldn't keep her from injecting some antidote," Ivy snarled back, sending a slight ripple through the vines and leaves as though moved by a breeze. "And what about your target? Didn't someone want Wayne worked over-,"
"Batman rescued him with a number of other, less important hostages," Whisper demurred, "but I broke enough bones to get my master's point across." I increased my tap of connection, feeling an odd, pseudo-sense awareness at the edges of my mind, and wondering if it was almost connecting to Ivy's plants in a way. But I needed to connect to their attention as best I could, so I ignored it.
"I still have not figured out the point of everything tonight," I invited pleasantly. All three of them snapped their eyes over to me.
"You… you were there in the swamp, weren't you?" Ivy bared her teeth at me even as her twitching fingers became more pronounced. "I owe all of you children an unpleasant payback for that incident."
'Don't get angry, stay sympathetic, I need to feel sorry,' I reminded myself, and let my agitation flow away with an exhalation. I wanted to snap something snarky back about kill a number of people and only being incarcerated, but it would be unproductive.
"Even with the Injustice League's help," I noted, "you are still much more powerful than the records say you were before. Am I the only one you owe, or are you going to pay back the pain of drug withdrawal? I think it is unpleasant, yes?"
Ivy hacked out something that was supposed to be laughter.
"Oh yes, I owe people a great debt for making me truly an aspect of the goddess, and closer to my true, natural self," she gloated.
"Even though it hurts? Well, 'growing pains' is, I think, an accurately English saying," I mused.
"It is the crucible, purifying me of weakness," she agreed.
"I thought that was metal, not plant life," I countered, and she blinked at me in confusion. 'I still need to buy a bit more time….'
"Enough. The mission has become unviable. Ivy, dose everyone," the elder Whisper instructed, her eyes coming to rest again on me, "and we'll flee while they save the few people they can from the pollen." Ivy gave a taught smile, and the vines began to stir.
'And not one mention of the person-of-interest to Ivy… I can use that,' I decided, making peace with the risk.
"That wasn't in your file," I noted faux-absently. "I thought you liked Barbara Gordon. That is true, yes?"
Her green eyes slid back to me, and she stilled save for the twitching and the trembles. "What?"
"Barbara Gordon. You attacked to find her here, yes? She is here," I informed Ivy leadingly.
"Red is here?"
"Ivy! Don't tell me you're going to let some tether to a normal human hold up your-,"
"Ivy," I interrupted, "you do realize that she is a snake shape-shifter, yes? An animal. Why do you trust a friend of the Red over the Green?"
""What?"" all three asked at the same time.
I had not seen her before, but at some unknown signal Artemis dropped into my sight in the shadows where the Batman had been, and sent a bladed disc skimming through the air. It hit Whisper A'Daire's gun in an odd way, and there was a humming sound at the edge of my hearing before she sharply dropped the gun without it having fired.
Before the weapon hit the floor, areas of floorboards under the hostages splintered and imploded, collapsing the three insensate civilians through to the floor below as their captors stumbled away, onto more solid footings.
The elder Whisper cursed, and scales flowed across her skin more completely as the younger Whisper retrieved a second weapon.
But they were not the problem.
Poison Ivy screamed in a-
{Grow and be fruitful and extinguish the others!}
-fury, and the plants reacted with raw violence.
Roots tore into walls and furniture, thorns sprouted where the plant life had been smooth, colored syrups splattered out in gush, and masses of vines lashed out and twisted into shapes almost like snakes as they sought blood.
I tapped into the stored compassion of my eloheinum-mind ring, as well as my store of connection, and I stored my identity as well.
I heard the shouts and screams of the civilians still in the building.
My eyes rested once again on the poor child who'd had his life snuffed out too soon.
My thoughts filled with the other people suffering and in danger.
And finally, I saw how much Poison Ivy in particular was hurting herself with this intemperate display of wrath.
'I need to stop her, for everyone's sake – including her own,' I knew. My hands worked quickly beneath the blanket over my lap.
I gripped, pulling on more connection and compassion, and I spoke with resignation and with certainty.
"Abannan afol Beowulf."
Sparks of a dark purple power, one of the colors of the evening sky, arced and crackled around me, climbing up my arm.
The writhing vines smashed a chair leg and swatted away the seat, but I was already on my feet, moving with purpose as I drew the ancient blade, my body as weightless as soot flakes.
I was vaguely aware that the Sword of Beowulf was not healing me, only accounting for my injuries, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.
I slashed a gaping flytrap's maw from its stalk with a lazy swing, cut through a tangled thorn bush as its spikes skidded off my skin with my next step, and drove my blade deep into the heart of a writhing mass of greenery.
If I'd thought it was sapient, I might have felt remorse, but my understanding had to be that it would, at worst, simply return their spirits to the Green from which they were conjured, kindly ending the twisted conjuring Ivy had forced upon them. It was the swiftest mercy I could give.
Dark purple electricity – or a power shaped to resemble it – burst out of the impaling blade at my thoughts, traveling down the plants and across all the vines. The end of their suffering was quick and painless, as much of the vegetation in the room stopped writhing.
I kept moving, sympathetic to the fright of the people causing this to let both Whisper women back away sharply and not pursue.
Ivy thrust her arm at me.
Dreamlike, I deflected thorns fired like arrows. I clipped the vines that lashed past me at Artemis as I moved into their range, and I cast another crackle of energy from the Sword to shatter the buzzing red laser whip that was Whisper Junior's backup weapon.
And then I was upon them.
I deflected a grenade out a window before it could explode, and reflected with some sadness that my greatest difficulty was figuring out a way to capture them without hurting them too badly. I overextended a thrust to reach the tip down to Ivy's ankle as she stumbled away in a frantic panic, and slid the tip up to her knee with a flick of my wrist, drawing a thin line of red along her leg.
Whisper the elder attacked in a flash, smashing her heel into my floating ribs to no effect, and I swung around to face her.
She promptly hit my face with several palm strikes, trying another kick as her hands went for a knife at her belt.
I cut her-
I tried to cut her marn tendon, behind her ankle, when she did, but Whisper flexed her supporting knee into a backflip and her daughter obstructed my vision with a thrown gas bomb; by the time I could see clearly to aim, the older, scaled woman had her knife drawn.
A young girl launched a flying kick into the back of the younger Whisper's head, and I elbowed… elbowing her in the nose had too high a chance of sending bone splinters into her brain, so I just threw my strength and weight into elbowing her forehead as she was driven to stumble forward. The blow still further staggered her, and in between cutting through two plants I dipped the tip inches into her knee.
This left me with the problem of a teenaged girl – she was also a redhead, and I had to wonder 'Why are so many people…? Maybe there is more than a correlation between unusual hair color and involvement in heroism.' – in range of Whisper the elder and her knife.
I tried to turn the sideways slash that had beheaded another flytrap into a thrust before Whisper could reach the girl.
I made it in time, successfully interposing my sword between them and even splintering the knife mid-strike, but it was unneeded.
"Don't you dare-!" I belatedly heard Poison Ivy shriek as all our surroundings struck out, a multitude of vines smashing the snake-woman off her feet. That was… a little unexpected, but I vaguely remembered something about 'protecting a person of interest from Poison Ivy,' and while it looked like she was being protected instead of needing it, I felt safe assuming that I could let her approach Ivy on her own.
No doubt they had something to discuss, and I hoped they would make amends and recover from this.
I felt a mild tingling in my left leg, and the activity of the Sword of Beowulf's magic…
'Well. I feel a bit more sorry for her, if she is desperate enough to try shocking me at this range,' I mentally admitted, content to watch the dark purple sparks of the Sword fight with the scarlet sparks of the unusual Taser that Whisper Jr. was pressing against my calf.
After a few seconds – and a brief digression to deflect some stray fire from a few final operatives in a hall behind me as Artemis and Batman took them down – the power of the Sword of Beowulf won out and blasted apart the device in Whisper's hand.
"…Are you willing to surrender now?" I asked gently, as she stared at her own twitching fingers. She'd need medical attention soon.
All I really wanted was to end this whole fight as quickly and painlessly as possible, not having enough heart to really beat them into submission without more provocation, considering how twisted their lives likely had been to lead them to this path.
The younger Whisper tried to balance on her good leg and shoot up to deck me.
I caught her fist without issue and tapped the tip of the blade down against the marn tendon of her intact leg.
A spray of red liquid tingled as it spattered the right side of my skull and shoulder, dripping off amid more mystic sparks of power.
'Some chemical or solvent,' I assessed, realizing it was trying to melt my flesh only for the magic to keep it off of me. I pushed against Whisper's trapped fist, overbalancing her, and cut into her shoulder as she toppled before I turned to her mother again.
"Really, I think you've lost your chance to do whatever you were planning," I pressed. "Will you please surrender?"
The snake woman was silent for a long moment as the battle wound down around us. Then, she dropped her hands from her pose.
"The mission is unsalvageable," she agreed flatly. I smiled at her sense, and lowered the Sword from its guard position.
*THWOOOM!*
{Piercing One To Another}
As her scales receded, Whisper touched a mechanical box on her belt, and triggered something. She stepped backwards into the gaping portal that had opened up behind her, and it closed a moment later while I was still gob-struck, wishing my ears would pop.
I stayed that way for another second or two, until I could no longer hear any fighting. Or anything else, as the words unsaid receded.
Then I sighed, and turned to find a chair I could collapse into once I stopped using the Sword of Beowulf.
Aaand... I do not think The Sword supposed to have dark purple GFX
Should we be worried? My memory tricks me?
I'm betting that's a bit of Renka's Ruin aura bleeding over.
Stripes
Genre-Savvy Anti-Nihilist
- Location
- Nizhniy Novgorod
Oh, that goes by default. Question is, how and why in the seven Hells it is actually happening? Sword has it is own (power) source.
I am in a bit of speculative frenzy, here and now, yes. The possibilities!
Oh, that goes by default. Question is, how and why in the seven Hells it is actually happening? Sword has it is own (power) source.
I am in a bit of speculative frenzy, here and now, yes. The possibilities!
I was sort of assuming it's because her aura is just that strong, especially with her having deliberately tapped it earlier to break the firewalls in the Zeta system.
- Location
- Leeds
Hmmm so was Renka trying to feel pure compassion?
"Does she mean that not all contingencies are covered? She can't be improvising?"
I assume that the reason that Batman didn't do much was because he was having an existential crisis over the concept of an incomplete plan.
"Does she mean that not all contingencies are covered? She can't be improvising?"
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Stripes
Genre-Savvy Anti-Nihilist
- Location
- Nizhniy Novgorod
I think Renka cheated. It is a known fact, that Connection not only two way, but forces, if tapped in sufficient quantities, Ferris to mirror the one she tries to connect with.
I believe Renka Connected to The Sword and purified her mental state by injecting Compassion.
P.S. At first I though about alignment (in D&D terms) compatibility with Sword, but remembered that Harm is hardly compatible even with old Folklore idea of Hero.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Hint: What happened when Kaldur or the others tried to use it?Aaand... I do not think The Sword supposed to have dark purple GFX
Should we be worried? My memory tricks me?
It was only a few installments ago!
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- Location
- Alaska
The purple sparks confused me too, because Ruin in Mistborn is normally associated with the color black. Isn't purple normally associated with Odium? If so, hoooooo boy is Earth in for it.
You know, I'm just saying, but... it's a little weird that the sword used by/named for the guy who murdered a monster and its mother in their own den to be powered by compassion, of all things. >.>
I don't even remember if he had a good reason other than monster-hunting, though it's likely, I do remember that Beowolf was a king and was probably defending his people. But. Still.
I don't even remember if he had a good reason other than monster-hunting, though it's likely, I do remember that Beowolf was a king and was probably defending his people. But. Still.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
It's not about compassion. It's about having a 'pure heart.' Not a good heart, Harm was pure evil. A untroubled laser focused heart.
Ahhh, so it just so happened that Renko was powering with "pure compassion"/indigo, rather than that being a feature of the sword.
Tandristy
Only right twice a day
- Location
- Dallas
Damn, I figured that the difference in color between when Harm and Renka used the sword was caused by the hole "Pure evil vs Pure compassion" thing, but I hadn't even considered what the different colors actually stand for in the emotional spectrum.
Now that you've gotten me thinking about it though, the sword gave off Red-Orange sparks when Harm used it in the episode "Secrets". Red represents RAGE, which seems a little off for Harm. He was aggressive and evil sure, but rage and anger weren't his motivation. Harm seemed to want the sword because it would make him more powerful. He didn't NEED the sword for some higher goal, he didn't NEED its power to fulfill some grand objective (at least not any that we got to see). He stole the sword because he WANTED to be stronger. He killed his little sister, the only person in the world he "cared about" because he CRAVED the swords power purely for the sake of having it. In other words, while Renka cheated so that she was motivated by PURE COMPASSION, Harm cheated (probably unintentionally, since I doubt he knew anything about the color spectrum and probably thought he was making his heart purely evil) so that he was motivated by PURE GREED. Hence the difference in color
Do I think that the creators had this in mind when they created the episode? Probably not, and the fiery color the sword gave of was probably to emphasize Harm as a threat. But I still think it ends up meshing together well with how Oblo seems to be placing a good deal of importance on the emotional light spectrum.
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