None of them would be able to understand anything from her since it would be moving too fast. It would probably be more distracting then anything useful.
Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]
- Thread starter Obloquy
- Start date
- Crossover
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
I wasn't assuming she'd be sharing everything at maximum acceleration. Just that she could analyze, slow closer to normal, disseminate to M'gann (who I would expect to be able to take things in quicker than the others, due to higher information density of normal Martian telepathy), then go on with things.
Quickens the body, subjectively slows the world. Time dilation descriptions can be weird and confusing sometimes, though.
Escalation - part 3
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Escalation - part 3* August 27 [Aqualad PoV]
The squelch of dripping mud was my only warning. Ferris accelerated into speeds more common from Kid Flash as I spun to find Clayface dripping like a stalactite. Its face was warped-
"Ambush!" Ferris yelled.
-like pieces had been gouged out of it, and its stump of an arm was growing larger. Our formation had been unexpectedly shattered, with Miss Martian and Robin moved away from the encroaching Clayface.
'I wish Ferris had given some warning, or placed them closer to the rest of us, but given how thoroughly our position was compromised I cannot fully blame her.' By the time I had finished that train of thought, my water-bearers had already formed two long maces and splattered Clayface's head into tinier pieces. Robin quickly recovered his bearings with a "Holy Canolies!" and threw two bird-a-rangs into the mass.
"Miss Martian! Do you detect anything?" I barked as more mud dripped down. It was like sludge from a factory pipe.
"But! How did I-? Oh! Right!" I heard her answer. I gestured Superboy not to engage yet, as the creature was attempting to pull itself together.
'Cornered predators may be very dangerous,' I remembered. I readied my mace constructs for another assault as the churning cone of mud touched the walkway, forming a solid pillar. More mud peeled off of what had appeared to be a solid brick wall. 'It covered up the entrance to an empty passage to conceal the majority of its mass,' I realized. 'Now that we are face-to-face with it, I must reconsider my decision to have Superboy take point. It's body is far more malleable than I first assumed. The name Clayface suggested the coherence of potter's clay, but it appears to be more similar to swamp mud, yet able to change its visible color and texture to other forms of stone and earth.
'I wish I had attended Professor Dyrem's lecture on elementals other than water, no matter how pompous he is.'
Two blank, glowing white eyes opened at the top of the marshy stalagmite, and two arms thicker than tree trunks pulled away from the main mass.
"Kid Flash. Fall back down the corridor, observe, and use your speed to rescue anyone in danger of a debilitating strike."
"R-right-o!"
"I will attempt to see what effect comes from severing its limbs," I decided, reshaping my water-bearer constructs into sword blades. "Superboy, aim for the eyes if you are able, or its legs if you are not."
"Two black eyes, coming up." He cracked his knucked and bent his knees, prepared to leap at the three-meeter high target on my command.
"Miss Martian," I began.
It screamed.
"Hrrbrrryyyyaaaaaahhh!"
Closed, its mouth appeared to resemble a human, with lips and a horizontal jaw joint.
Fully opened, its mouth reminded me of the ancient lamprey: a round, empty suction-cup lined with teeth, and large enough to swallow my torso whole.
Superboy jumped.
'I must-!' I could not stop him, so I continued with my stated plan. My water blades cut into its arm and carved away large chunks when it swung at Superboy. His assault struck true.
"Whoa!" he shouted in alarm. His fist had sunk up to the elbow in its face, and it required an awkward contortion of his legs to brace his lower torso away from its gaping mouth. I struck at the same limb again, removing smaller pieces of its mass only because it drew back from my assault.
'Perhaps it can feel pain.'
"Superboy, can you free yourself? Miss Martian! If telepathy is not working, then pull Superboy free!"
"Gruuuuh," it rumbled, and the arm that I had not struck lashed out directly at Miss Martian.
"Kid-,"
Ferris, braced for impact, was suddenly in between the arm and her teammate. A blur of muted color pulled Miss Martian further down the tunnel, well out of Clayface's reach.
With a squelch, the limb gripped onto Ferris instead, and retracted to pull her back. I cleanly cut through its right knee, but Clayface did not disbalance. My sword constructs dug into the shoulder of the offending arm, instead.
"Go. Down!" Superboy roared, and he began to tear out chunks of its head with his free arm.
It pulled back its arm despite my swords lodged in its shoulder. Ferris's feet made it six inches off the floor before its grip broke and she dropped back down. Clayface had lost the end part of its arm that acted as a hand, but Ferris's arms were effectively glued to her chest by that same muck.
I pulled my blades free in response to Robin's call.
"Clear the way!"
"No!" I ordered, recognizing the capsules in his hand. "Superboy is still-,"
[I'm on it!] Miss Martian's telekinesis dragged Superboy free and threw him across the water channel to land on the far side's concrete walkway.
It's face freed of obstruction, Clayface reformed its eyes and screamed once more.
"Grrrkkyyyyaaaaaaggghhh!"
Robin threw three concussion bombs down its gullet.
The thing did not explode so much as it simply burst like a lanced boil. Filfth filled the air and splattered across all of us. The headless two-thirds of Clayface's remaining body collapased mutely into a pile of pooling sludge.
We were all silent for a moment, waiting.
"Can't say I'm whelmed," Robin decided, "but considering how bad an ambush in the sewers by a shape-shifting sludge monster could have gone, I'd say that was pretty aster." He pumped his fist. "And it was all me that finished it! Oh yeah! I'm the man! Who's the man? I'm the man! Give me five, guys!" I gave a look to our eldest teammate. Robin held his hands out to Kid Flash and myself.
Ferris was the only one of us to oblige him, slapping his palm with a wet clap from her own. He smiled at her. She smiled back, and failed to let go of his hand.
"Very good!" she cheered faux-cheerfully, and Robin realized he had been had. She grabbed our mostly-clean friend with her free arm and pulled him up tight against her armor's mucky breastplate.
"Ack! No, please, I surrender! I'm sorry! Next time, I'll totally give you more warning before I break out the explosives, I swear, I promise! Gah!" he protested as she hummed a happy song and swung him around cheerfully in a circle, which incidentally ground more of her muck into his despicably spotless self.
"That is sufficient, Ferris," I called after his string of pleas had ended. "Robin appears to have remembered the lessons of our previous discussions about explosives safety, so you are free to let him go."
"Mm-hm!" Ferris chirped, and Robin was dropped back on his feet.
"Urgh," he mumbled. "Couldn't you have waited until after you showered for my punishment?"
"That was the issue," I pointed out. "Still," I allowed, "that was a satisfactory solution. I look forward to informing the Batman of our- did you hear that?" I scanned briefly around the tunnel before I carefully examined the pile that was Clayface. It remained completely immobile.
Superboy misjudged his jump across the tunnel's central channel, and hit the wall on our side with a rattling crunch. He the smashed chips of stone from his hands and grumbled, "Hear what? I'm hearing a bunch of things from all this tunnel's stupid echoes."
"Perhaps it was just an echo. But remain on guard. Robin, how quickly can you contact the Batman and inform him of recent events?" I heard another splash, but other than being slightly louder, it was no different from many of the regular sounds I had grown used to hearing in these sewers. I could see nothing to make it, and the pile of mud still was motionless.
"Not from down here in the sewers, but just as soon as I get up there I can radio in."
"Miss Martian, you and Robin find the nearest ladder to report. Kid-," The floor fell out from under me and I struck-
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
* August 27 [Kid Flash PoV]
"Aw crud, crud, crud crud crud," I grumbled, checking Robin's vitals. He was groggy, but his pulse was strong, his breathing was unobstructed, and I couldn't find any giant bloody lumps on his skull. "You okay there, buddy? Don't worry I got ya," I reassured him as he stirred back into consciousness.
"What hit-?" he mumbled.
"Turns out Clayface wasn't quite as down and out as we all thought. You were the only one I had time to grab," 'Well, it was either you or Miss Martian, and even if that "bros before chicks" dig wasn't aso stupid stupid I'm still not letting you get hurt on my watch, no matter how much you hate to be treated like a kid,' "but he snuck his clay under our feet and threw the others across the tunnel before he skedaddled. Don't worry though, they're all-," and I cut off because my headcount had a problem. "Oh no."
I quickly laid Rob down on his back, rushed to the edge, and peered across at the bunch of bodies to confirm that it was not Aqualad I had to worry about, unfortunately.
'Nope, that's Aqualad right there, which means…'
"This is going to suck." I hesitated for exactly 2.8 seconds as my disgust fought tooth and nail against my resolve. I bent my knees. Disgust lost. I took a deep breath and dove in.
Dove face first into fetid sewer water, to be specific.
It was cold, it was clammy, and there were little tiny bits of stuff floating in it.
Most of the bits were soft. Most of them. I wasn't sure whether that made things better or worse.
'And of course these goggles aren't water-proof. C'mon Wally, you can't see anything. But could you see anything even if you did open your eyes? It's murky water and sewer-level lighting. No, no, it might help me, so I've just gotta bite the bullet.' Then my searching hands hit something 'Solid, warm, and familiar! Thank everything, there have been too many things here that were only one or two of those three, and none of them were good combinations.'
I gripped, and pulled up toward the air. I nearly screamed when the Younger Bloke Of Steel gripped back.
'Please oh please be who I think you are,' I begged as the fleshy manacle nearly yanked my arm out of its socket with a sudden lurch to the surface.
We broke and I gasped for air and spat and gasped and tried not to hurl because 'That was not supposed to get in my mouth, ew, ew, ewww!' and flailed and someone grabbed my hand that wasn't in the manacle grip and I almost flew onto the concrete walkway and would have kissed the ground if I weren't busy vomiting.
"That," I gasped out from all fours after scraping my tongue with my teeth enough times to pretend it could ever be clean, "was awful. Ugh. Yuck! We will never speak of this again, and I am totally skipping out on all cleaning chores for the next month. Urrrrg."
Almost tentatively, someone reached out to touch the back of my hand. It was so gentle, I almost thought it had to be Miss Martian, impressed enough to reward me with a kiss. 'Except no, even if it is her, I wouldn't want anyone to ever kiss me while I'm this disgusting. Not even if it was now or never ever ever.' I turned to look.
Superboy, equally sopping and disgusting, looked back at me with an expression I'd never seen before.
"Hey," he said. "Uh, thanks."
"No problem. What are friends for?"
"For getting into horrible messes," Rob scolded with a shove to me shoulder. I blinked at him.
"Hey. Weren't you on the other side?" I asked, confused.
"Grapple," he explained.
"You and your utility belt."
"You should be grateful. It has this, after all." Proving that there was good in the universe, he somehow unfolded two small squares into thin, but beautifully clean and dry towels.
"Ooooohhhhh, thankyouthankyouthankyou. Come to poppa," I groaned, burying my face in the clean whatever-kind-of-linen. Superboy got the other one, and while the towels were not recognizable after another few minutes, the two of us finally were.
"Do we have a plan?" I asked when I felt human enough to realize that the other three had huddled up (Miss Martian was off to the side, closer to Superboy, but not by much and still a little bleary).
Aqualad looked me evenly in the eye, and said, "We continue with the mission."
"Ah! But first, you guys need to take these. Batman's best slow-release all-purpose immune-booster antibodies. They work to keep down fevers, infections, and all kinds of sickness for about three hours after ingestion. Just swallow them dry, since the water around here is all contaminated." Superboy and I took the foil packets as Robin tilted his head. "Huh. If pro is the opposite of con, then is protaminated the opposite of contaminated? Hey Aqualad, any idea what protaminated water is like?" He just raised an eyebrow, so I jumped in after I swallowed.
"It'd probably be super-pure water. Like, chemically pure water, I mean. Just pure di-hydrogen oxide solvent, with no other solutes mixed in." I swallowed the pills dry and remembered a happy time in the lab. "I once synthesized pure water, you know? I mean, I didn't have the most accurate measuring equipment, but what measurements I could take read it as pure, at least."
"I would be interested to hear of that process, but later" Aqualad intervened. "If we may return to the matter at hand?"
"Right," we variously agreed. The six of us huddled up.
"First. Robin, does the tracer still function?" He checked his wrist-comp.
"Yup. Do you think it wants us to follow it? We could probably chase it down in less than three minutes from here."
"Perhaps. At the very least, we should first alert the Batman." Some of us, me included, tried to object."The Batman must be warned that Clayface has demonstrated predatory ambush tactics, disguise abilities that mimic other forms of earth, and the ability to reconstitute its body. It also, to judge from the lack of clay on the far side of the tunnel, may reabsorb lost mass into its body with little issue. However I do not intend to let him pull us from the mission while we are still combat capable, given the stress he is currently under. Robin, are you able to make contact if you get into the open?"
"Yeah. I think I saw a service ladder back there. I'll go-,"
"No," Aqualad interrupted Robin. "We all will go up the ladder to regroup in the fresh air. Miss Martian, you told me that there was some telepathic contact?"
"It… it definitely has mind. ...No, you're right, he definitely has a mind." She nodded to Ferris, who must have said something I hadn't caught. "I think he used to be human," she said sickly. My stomach was already jittery, but that bit really didn't help anything. "There were definitely some memories there, but he was confused. But there were definitely other people talking to him like he was a person, and a woman, and then-!" She shuddered, and all of us leaned in to comfort her.
"Do you know how the human became Clayface?" Aqualad asked.
"Not really. There was a woman, and he knew the Batman was involved and disdained the Batman, but I didn't get any memories of meeting him. He had a big ego as a human, and desperation, and hope, and then something went right, and then something went very, very wrong, but his mind is so confused." She shook her head. "I don't think I should try to touch his mind again, guys. It felt like I was an egg yoke getting scrambled. That's how he could see with his face covered; he was looking through my eyes. I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's all right," Superboy said.
"Yeah, you did an awesome job," I added. Ferris hummed and petter Miss Martian's hair and shoulder.
"Do not apologize. You followed my plan and suffered for doing so, which is my responsibility. I will not ask you to attempt telepathy on Clayface again. Will you be able to link us up, now?"
"If you give me a few minutes to get my head together, then some friendly thoughts will be just what the doctor ordered," she said with something that wasn't quite a smile, but it would have to do. "But… Robin, he recognized you, and he really doesn't like you."
"Man. Right, I'll be careful."
"Robin, which direction is Clayface?" Rob pointed. "Then we will proceed in the other direction to the ladder. Alert us if Clayface moves, so that we may know if he is able to track us." It was a tense journey up into Gotham's above-ground, but we made it without incident.
"Huh. Hey, Aqualad, now that I've got a better signal it looks like Clayface is above ground. Right over in that warehouse, probably licking his wounds."
"Or lying in wait to surprise us. We will wait to approach, but we will not retreat." Aqualad produced a bit of paper and began to slowly scribble as he outlined the vague generalities of a forming plan. As it took shape, and Robin finished relaying his message to the Batcave and Agent A, we all found ourselves smiling in anticipation. I volunteered my last few suggestions, and Aqualad handed me the finished list. "Is anyone carrying money, or will Kid Flash need to requisition some from the mountain?"
"I think our revenge counts as an emergency," Rob decided. He flourished a rectangle of black plastic at me. It was decorated with one gold and one white stripe. "The emergency Bat-debit card, connected to an untraceable account. Once activated, it's good for twenty-four hours of purchases before it automatically expires."
"What is the spending limit?" asked Aqualad, which proved that he did not know who Robin and Batman were under their masks like I did.
"Like I said, twenty-four hours," Robin replied. His cackle echoed off the buildings and I raced away to do some grocery shopping.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
I'm gonna have to disagree with KF here. It's like the difference between silence and Unsong. Contaminated water is water with bad shit in it, uncontaminated water doesn't have any shit in it but protaminated water would have like, minerals and nutrients and probiotics and stuff in it. One rather than zero compared to contamonation's negative one.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Well she's forgotten some of it by now, and is no longer in a situation to understand other bits of it, but intentionally preferring not to think about it too closely is the biggest contributor.
Renka's aversion to copper-minds is just a personal preference thing. She disdains the emphasis most Feruchemists place(d) on their copper-minds to the detriment of all of their other powers, and because of her mother she associates copper-minds with 'learning things but not doing things'.
Additionally, she has been known to lose metal-minds once or twice in the past, and losing a copper-mind will permanently leave a hole in your memory; Ferris thinks permanently cutting knowledge out of your head is a stupid thing to do. The later-in-life discovery that Ruin could edit copper-minds just cemented it for her.
She is getting over them, slowly. Of course, they might still resurge in the future. It wouldn't be quite as incredible as you're thinking, though.
It certainly wouldn't be as impressive as the effects tapping an electrum-mind would have on a telepathy battle. Or what it could do to support a Green Lantern's Ring, for that matter.
I'm curious about what makes you think she's about to start playing around with nicrosil-minds?
Sorry, but I'm going with the Bands of Mourning application of a nicrosil-mind, which is that it stores innate investiture like the ability to use the metallic arts. That said, this application of a nicrosil-mind may be even more broken to anyone who bothers to think about it.
Ferris doesn't have the mind-set to think about it the right way, other than by making metal-mind amulets for her teammates. But at least one person on the Team does, so when they have that conversation...
Ferris doesn't have the mind-set to think about it the right way, other than by making metal-mind amulets for her teammates. But at least one person on the Team does, so when they have that conversation...
Yeah, but you're using a human point of view for what is "good" stuff versus "bad". The muddy contamination that we would find disgusting is vital to the wellbeing of a fish, while the chlorine we use to keep our tap-water clean would make them sick.
From the point of view of water itself, anything other than H2O would count as contamination.
Fun Fact: If she was presented with a Surgebinder or an Awakener, Renka actually does know how to use Hemalurgy to steal part of a Nahel Bond or unwillingly spike out someone's Breath.
She could only steal one Surge per victim, and she wouldn't get more than 3/4 of their Breath, maximum, but she could do it.
She could only steal one Surge per victim, and she wouldn't get more than 3/4 of their Breath, maximum, but she could do it.
You probably shouldn't expect the next story update before Thursday, I'm afraid. Things are happening.
DarthThrawn
Bloody Eldar
Is it even possible to steal part of the Bond? I would have expected any attempt to do so to wind up jacking the spren, rather than the abilities the bond grants.
Neat.
*steals for own use*
It was this part here.
It's pretty clear she intends to do some nicrosil cheese, although it makes sense that she's planning on giving other people powers rather than swapping investiture especially with how aluminum was mentioned in the same paragraph.
OK so to start with a metalmind normally only works for the person who created it.
Aluminum allows one to store identity, by combining this with storing a second metalmind you can make a universal metalmind
Nicrosil stores investiture (aka magic power), allowing you to by weakening your magic power temporally to then tap it and gain greater bursts of magic power later
If you combine these tricks you can make a universal nicrosil metalmind that anyone can use. This effectively turns then into a temporary feruchemist (or what other form of magic power you give them as it can store investiture not just feruchemy).
As always this presumably gets even more bullshit when combined with other magic systems such as allomancy, hemalurgy, or whatever local magic systems are available in the DC-verse.
Aluminum allows one to store identity, by combining this with storing a second metalmind you can make a universal metalmind
Nicrosil stores investiture (aka magic power), allowing you to by weakening your magic power temporally to then tap it and gain greater bursts of magic power later
If you combine these tricks you can make a universal nicrosil metalmind that anyone can use. This effectively turns then into a temporary feruchemist (or what other form of magic power you give them as it can store investiture not just feruchemy).
As always this presumably gets even more bullshit when combined with other magic systems such as allomancy, hemalurgy, or whatever local magic systems are available in the DC-verse.
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Something I really think she should have done earlier was just straight read through a dictionary cover to cover then store that. She would lose the memory of reading it, but that would have been super boring anyway so no loss there, and this way she would have a far more portable reference copy that she could consult when needed which should help her with learning the language.
Same for any other kind of reference or tech manual. Sure she would lose the memory of reading them, but straight reading through the book is different from taking the time to understand and absorb the information in it, and spending the time to read through it once solely to have a portable reference copy sounds worth the effort to me.
And I might be wrong, but couldn't Ruin change the written word as well? With that being the case, it wouldn't matter if it was stored in metal or on paper, anytime you needed to look something up you would get the altered copy either way.
Escalation - part 4
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Escalation - part 4* August 28 [Superboy PoV]
After it knocked me into the funky water and messed with M'gann's head, it would have been really nice to punch Clayface in its clay face a few more time. Unfortunately, Aqualad nixed that plan because punching Clayface didn't seem to do much.
'What good are you, then?' I'd wondered with a glare at my fist. 'At least he promised I'd get my chance to punch that thing eventually.' I didn't really care that Clayface had used to be human. I hadn't, I still wasn't, and I'd still gotten better than Desmond wanted me to be. I'd made a choice, Desmond had made a choice, and Clayface could too. 'Given the way it hunted us, I'd say it chose wrong.' I cracked my knuckles.
[I have finished making our back-up preparations and inspecting the materials,] Aqualad sent. I saw him leaning back against a streetlight. Robin perched nearby on top of a fire hydrant, peering at a newspaper in a plastic box.
[I got everything on the list! Man, payback is going to be sweet,] Kid Flash added, and I could certainly agree with that.
[I guess you weren't kidding about being back in a flash. It hasn't even been five minutes since you left,] I congratulated, and I could feel him preen.
[Miss Martian, have you finished your reconnaissance?]
[Yes! I didn't see Clayface and I didn't want to feel for his mind, but I've got a map of the layout and the distribution of the crates.] An image appeared in my mind and zoomed in. [This seems like the best place to spring the trap.]
[Good call,] Robin sent. [The trickiest bit will be luring him over there, but we've got that covered, right?]
[Right!] she agreed.
[Kid Flash, you understand the pattern and the signals?] Aqualad checked.
[Don't worry, I've got it all memorized, and I promise to double-check if I have any reason to doubt.]
[Ferris, you are in position in case you are needed?]
[I am. Do you want me to enter yet?] she asked him.
[Not yet. First we should have Superboy run a check, if you still feel comfortable doing so.]
[I'm allowed to punch his clay face in if he does show it around, right?]
[You are allowed, and encouraged, and ordered to be as wantonly destructive and violent to Clayface as possible if engaging him is possible. Merely remember the signal to pull back,] Aqualad added.
[If I'm lucky, I won't need it.]
[Just do not become too overconfident.]
[Please take care of yourself,] M'gann sent.
[I will,] I assured her.
[If you don't me and Ferris will be happy to bail you out,] Kid Flash added.
[I'll take care of myself,] I repeated, and this time I meant it.
[For the last time, confirm you are in position,] Aqualad ordered.
[I am on the nextdoor warehouse roof, watching through the skylight. I have my tools,] Ferris confirmed.
[I'm warmed up and ready to run. I have the floor plan and crate arrangement memorized and my stuff is on hand, so I can get to anywhere from anywhere just as soon as Superboy opens the front door,] Kid Flash announced.
[I'm outside the wire fence, I have Miss Martian's floor plan picture in my head, and I'm ready to kick ass and take names.] I rolled my shoulders. Out loud, I shouted, "Aqualad, I'm sick of waiting for the Batman to get here! Ready or not, I'm going in!" I began to stride to the warehouse's giant door.
"Superboy, stand down! Our orders were not to engage! We must wait for the Batman to arrive!" Aqualad yelled at me. [I am stationed with Robin, prepared to uncork the first of our back-ups once Miss Martian begins her part.]
[And I'm with Aqualad, with all my gear ready to go,] Robin added. Loudly, he tossed out, "Seriously, Supes! Kid Flash and Miss Martian ran to get Batman! Just wait for Ferris to finish her reconnaissance and report back!"
[I'm camouflaged out of sight and can begin whenever.] I smiled genuinely at M'gann's message.
[Consider whenever to be now. Commence phase 1,] Aqualad directed.
"If we keep waiting," I shouted, "she'll have that creep beat on her own by the time the others get back! I'm sick of waiting! I'm going in!" I suited word to deed and tore off the main door with a scream of warping metal.
With my strength, it was easy. I stepped through the ten-foot hole, matched up what M'gann had showed us with the stuff around where I was standing, and began to walk away from our chosen ambush point.
I kept my super-hearing primed, but the loudest things I heard were my own footsteps.
"The tracker was in here before it went dead," I muttered angrily. "Screw what Ferris thinks. We don't have time to let her check every damn warehouse in the sector. Keep it simple, stupid." I kept up my stream of disconsolate vitriol as I turned one corner, walked to the end of one aisle, and took a branch further to the side.
I heard a sob.
"Who's there?" I shouted. "Answer me!"
The sobbing became louder, taking on the sound of a girl.
I recognized the voice.
"M'gann?" I gasped in confusion and rushed around the corner. [M'gann! You're still out there with Robin, right?]
[Batman just arrived to meet us,] Robin informed me.
[I'm still here, outside,] she added to my relief as I followed the sobbing around a corner and began calling her name, calling for her to please answer me. The source of the sobbing voice came into view.
It wasn't M'gann.
"Mister?" The weeping girl hiccupped. "N-no! Mister, you gotta run! The monster'll get you! Run, please!" She began wailing. Her pretty blue dress was ragged, and I saw blood matting her long blonde hair, and bruises on her face in the moonlight.
[There's a girl here! She's like, eleven! Can Clayface-?]
[She wasn't there when I looked, and I don't feel any normal minds other than you.] I felt a brief lightheadedness as M'gann borrowed my vision. [No, and that pile of crates she's leaning against wasn't there five minutes ago.]
[I've moved over to the skylight. You are the only warm-blooded mammal with a pulse I can smell or hear in the warehouse, barring a few rats. The sobbing girl has no heartbeat,] Ferris confirmed as I inched closer to her.
I still couldn't get into the idea of punching that poor, injured girl, even if she was Clayface in disguise. But Clayface didn't know I knew.
[Kid Flash, begin your part of phase 2,] Aqualad ordered.
[Already setting things up,] he returned.
[Batman and I are heading in. Aqualad will follow for phase four when he's got enough.]
"Hey, it'll be okay," I prompted the girl. I did my best not to look like a threat, or look like I thought she was a threat.
"Mister," she whispered. "He's here." I spun to where she pointed and uncoiled my legs like springs.
Nothging was there, but I heard Clayface smash down where I had been before.
"Grahh," the girl burbled, melting with the pile of crates to become normal - meaning huge and ugly - again.
"Ferris!" I yelled, putting up my fists.
"Yes!" her voice yelled. Clayface and I careened toward a meeting point, and ice erupted from its chest. It staggered, clawing at the growths her thrown freeze-bombs had created.
"Oh yeah," I hissed, and drove my fist into the center of the very solid ice.
It shattered, and the scattering ice crystals tore frozen chunks of clay away as well. I smacked my other, open palm into its center of mass and then I got the hell away.
"Superboy!" Batman roared in a heart-stopping fury from the entrance, "Where are you? What do you think you're doing?!"
The concussion detonator I'd shoved in Clayface's chest blew a bunch of chunks out of it. If all three had gone off, it would have done a lot of damage but I knew two of them were duds.
I still let surprise show up on my face and froze up whe it swung at me.
Everything became gunk. It had stuck its hand to my head like it had to Ferris's chest. My feet left the floor and my back hit a pile of half-rotten crates spine-first.
I put up a token effort to escape.
'Aqualad was right, it can change its cohesive and adhesive properties. This stuff is much thicker than what I was punching before.' When no further pounding from Clayface arrived, I made a serious effort to escape. My arms squelched free and I might've toppled over if I weren't already on the floor.
[Need some help?] Ferris sent.
Someone's hand patted at my stomach - I flashed back to the way Kid Flash had grabbed my hand underwater and pulled me to the surface - and then I had help pulling free of the suddenly slicker mud. I caught the crackle of plastic with my superhearing. Five seconds later I was wiping my wet face clean on a small towel.
[How many of those do you have left?] I asked. She hauled me to my feet and pointed at a rafter.
[I am carrying two and the other eight water bottles are up there.] I was so storng that it didn't really make a difference to me how heavy or light she was, but I guessed she was making herself light when she clambered onto my back.
My legs uncoiled and we were airborn. I grabbed the ceiling beam she'd indicated and she scramble off. I took two of the bottles and uncapped one for a drink.
[Really? Is this the time?] she asked.
[Our part is done until another phase or two. Do you like the taste of grit in your mouth?] I asked.
[No, but it's close enough to ash that I… eh. May I?]
[Here.]
[Thank you.] Ferris swished one mouthful around, spat, and took another generous gulp. I looked back at the floor.
[Kid Flash, I can't see you. Getting everything done?] I asked.
[No worries, it's all under control. I moved on to do our back-up ambush site, just to be safe.]
[Well done,] Aqualad sent. [I have established my supply line and entered through the front door.]
[Is Clayface coming? I'm still wary about sensing him, and it might let him know where we are,] M'gann warned.
[I'll make some noise in a bit if he doesn't show and split off on my own,] Robin volunteered.
[Is ClayFace supposed to be able to look like humans?] Ferris asked. I followed her pointing finger.
[He took my appearance,] I warned. [He's getting closer, pretending to be beat up.] I accepted the two tools Ferris handed me and double-checked with my infrared vision. [Hey, head's up, Clayface looks really different from a person when I look with infrared vision.]
[Useful to establish. Good thinking ahead. I am pooling my supply near the front and preparing to move in any direction needed. Is Clayface near my location?]
[No,] I sent. Below us, the Batman and Robin shared a few hand gestures, a short look, a nod, and split in different directions. 'I wonder what's it's like, to be so close with your dad – Robin is the Batman's son, right? They're so close they don't even need words to talk.'
[Neither do we,] Ferris sent, and the metal beam bent in my grip.
'Did I send that?'
[Yes,] M'gann answered gently.
[Batman isn't my father, by the way,] Robin added with a look in the direction of his… mentor.
[Are we supposed to know that?] Ferris asked.
[There is a mission underway,] Aqualad reminded us. Ferris hissed beside me.
[Superboy! Is that Miss Martian near Robin?] she queried, pointing. I flicked to infrared again.
[No, I'm still ready in my position!] M'gann objected.
[We have two Clayfaces, one looking like me and one like M'gann,] I confirmed.
[That's why the one isn't dragging a lot of excess mass with him!] Ferris realized.
[Do we have evidence that there may be more than two? We may need to abort our mission,] Aqualad determined.
[No, we can't let this whacko get away again!] Kid Flash snapped. [We can do this!]
[Kid Flash is right.] I had a lot less problems with admitting that since that thing in the sewer. I'd been dazed in the water with no idea which way was up, all alone… 'It was like the CADMUS pod when I was on telepathic lockdown, except worse.' I'd been panicking, feeling more trapped than I had ever; his hand had changed all that and showed me where the light was. 'I still wish he'd stop hitting on M'gann when she isn't interested. …I didn't send that, did I?'
[With two versions of Clayface-,]
'I guess I didn't.' [Robin, the third turn-off on your right will take you to that Clayface. If you need it, I'll reinforce you and we'll do like we planned at the back-up spot.]
[The third back-up spot is closer, and I set that up just now,] Kid Flash volunteered. [We'll have to divide our firepower with icing this guy, but we were only planning to use one method on him anyway, right? Aqualad, the third spot is closer to you, too, so we'll use that one to stop the Miss Martian impersonator cold. If you and me help we can do it quick enough to work together and turn up the heat on Superboy's clone – uh sorry, didn't mean it like that.]
[I know,] I sent back, annoyed anyway.
[I've engaged fake-Martian, so if we're going to pull out, I need the order soon!] Robin sent.
[…No. I will arrange to support Robin and Superboy if the supplies are in place. Kid Flash, arrange the appropriate supplies in both locations. Everyone else should attempt to delay the other Clayface until I am free to prevent everything from going up in flames, but if you must trigger the trap then do so.]
[Okay.] Ferris grabbed the waterbottles that I wasn't going to use, the other bottles and materials, and took off to where Clayface was going to ambush the Batman. I grabbed the rest and prepared to jump over and down when I got the signal.
An explosive went off when Clayface and the crates that were most of the rest of him tried to swallow Robin, who flipped free and ran.
I jumped, and for a moment it felt like I was flying. The world was nothing but freedom, and motion. Splinters flew when I hit the pile of crates, but they may as well have been pillows for all the harm they could have done to me. I scrambled free and grabbed the metal canister Kid Flash had left in easy reach next to a just-purchased crowbar. It sloshed as I hefted the weight and waited with a grin.
Robin vaulted into the cleared area between the crates and did a rude gesture. My free hand grabbed the remote I'd need to trigger it all. I heard the sound of running water from off to the side, getting closer.
"Hrrbrrryyyyaaaaaahhh!" Clayface screamed as it smashed after Robin. He was about half the size he'd been in the sewer and in the video, but that was still bigger than all of us put together. It tore a crate free and hurled it, but Robin dodged and ducked closer to its reach to lure it back into melee. Clayface fell for it and charged.
It hadn't seen me yet, but Robin had and he threw a thumb's up and cartwheeled away. I hit the button.
Half-a-dozen plastic foam capsules Kid Flash had wired and left in a semi-circle went off all at once. Clayface hit the foam, gave up trying to knock it over, and stood up to just climb over it.
"Krrggrrryyyyaaaaarrrgghhh!"
"Open wide!" I shouted, and I threw the canister straight between its teeth. Sadly, the he was smart enough to realize that I wanted him to bite down, and fought off the impulse.
Fortunately, Clayface didn't spit it out fast enough before Aqualad finally hit him with the several hundred gallons of water he'd been bringing over from the outside fire hydrant.
It was like an ocean wave in a storm from out of nowhere, and the big ugly lug staggered and smeared at the edges.
[Perfect timing,] I congratulated as I picked up the shiny new crowbar and gave a practice swing. The water started almost melting Clayface's body as Aqualad built a dome-shaped prison to pin it against the foam.
[I would have been much faster if this warehouse were up to fire codes.]
[Sorry, but Gotham is sort of a craphole. Chances are the owner wanted this place to burn down, so no fire sprinkler system,] Robin pointed out. [Superboy, now would-,]
[I know. I just want to-,] I hurled the iron bar and it sang through the air. The thing hit dead on target, punching through the canister and out the other side. [-savor the moment.] With its mouth full of extremely sub-zero liquid, Clayface froze up solid faster than I'd believed, and Robin threw the last two ice bombs he hadn't given Kid Flash to redistribute, just to make sure.
[Ensure it stays that way. We have halted our Clayface, and I will be present with water to extinguish fires within two minutes.] Aqualad hurried off to grab more water from the channel he'd carved between the spewing hydrant and the warehouse entrance.
[You're a little late,] Kid Flash sent sheepishly. I kept my fist pulled back and glanced over. From where he was hauling over a wheeled cooler and unfolding a trash bag with his other hand, Robin did the same.
With a dull *whumpf* flames shot up halfway to the roof and something screamed.
[Fire! Hot! Fire! I-i-i-i-!…er-aaa-arr-rrmm-… okay. Okay! Okay. I think I'm good.] I heaved a sigh that M'gann had gotten out of the way in time. [Um… Can I drop the Batman shape, please? Boys' bodies are still hard to hold for me, and his proportions are really different. Even more different than what I'm usually used to d-do-do-doing getting further back from thefirenow!]
[Let me check… the parts that are not burning and being baked are still too slippery and wet to hold together. What did you say this was again?] Ferris asked.
[Aqualad,] Kid Flash sent in a hurry, [remember, do not dump water directly on any flames that are getting out of control, some of these will just get spread around. We have fire blankets and extinguishers for that. Use it to-,]
[To wall off the area and prevent the flammable substances or sparks from spreading, and wet down the wood that may be in danger before moving it out of the way,] Aqualad confirmed. Robin nudged me in the ribs.
"Oh, right." I smiled, drew back a fist, and proceeded to enjoy breaking Clayface up into nice, tiny, therapeutic, cooler-sized chunks.
________________________________________________________________________________________
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Escalation - part 5
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Escalation - part 5* August 28 [Overview]
The Batman stared evenly at the group of guilty-no-we-don't-look-guilty kids in front of him. Robin was shfting worriedly, as was Aqualad, but the other remained calm and self-satisfied.
"I have three- no. Four…" The Batman took a deep, calming breath and fought down the urge to taser something. Not someone, he didn't want to taser anyone here, or anyone in general, other than the Joker, some similar crazies, and occasionally Clark's 'dead-beat dad' ass.
But he'd brought along his new, suped-up taser, and now The Batman had nothing to use it on. It was such a waste. "I am going to ask you questions. You will answer these questions that I ask. If I do not like these answers, there will be problems." He did not ask whether that was clear. If it was not clear, then it would be made so.
"Okay!" Ferris chirped with a smile. She skipped away from Kid Flash's elbow at her ribs and ignored Robin's frantic hush gesture. The Batman was positive that it was an act, but he couldn't be asked to care.
"Question one: why did you engage Clayface despite my instructions to the contrary?"
Aqualad stepped forward. "In the beginning, we did attempt to follow your instructions. But in our attempts," he fought off a yawn, "to track the creature, it reversed our methods and ambushed us by means uncertain, using the previously unknown camouflage abilities I reported."
"And the second engagement?" The Batman loomed. To his credit, Aqualad did not step back.
"We had already been injured in the ambush and were wary that, left unchecked, it may attack again. Furthermore, rather than the confused flight of its first encounter with you, Clayface demonstrated a predator's cunning, and there were risks that it may assault more civilians if we did not occupy it's attention. When we felt we could reliably locate the being and had a viable plan of engagement with a back-up, we decided to do so in hopes of sparing you the stress of another encounter."
"Third question: why did you believe it to be a good idea to use fire to bake it hard in the middle of a warehouse of wooden crates?" Ferris stepped forward before Aqulad could answer.
"Me. ClayFace was in the tunnel, and dark, wet, chilly. Since you cook clay, I thought to cook Clayface's clay to be hard."
"The fire was our first suggestion," Aqualad continued, "but I hesitated for exactly the reasons you outlined. I resolved that we should attempt to freeze Clayface first, and would use the fire as a second or third resort."
"Freezing." The Batman looked at the half-dozen wheeled coolers that held trash-bag covered chunks of frozen Clayface. "Where did you get the coolers?"
"There's a Bull'sEye open twenty-four seven about a mile and a half that way. I could carry two or three coolers easy when they were empty. It took me like two minutes, all told," Kid Flash boasted.
"And from where did you obtain the canister of liquid nitrogen?" The Batman's voice was almost as chilling as the substance in question. The redhead scuffed his foot, considerably more sheepish.
"I… maybe… may have… um, headed over to CentralCityfromtheZetaTube! And, uh, dropped by a chemistry lab that Flash and I had saved before and told them I needed to to stop a monster cold in its tracks, so they let me have because they were chill guys?" The Batman did not appreciate the pun.
"And the thermite?"
"I raided my uncle's personal lab for that," Kid Flash admitted. "But most of that fire wasn't the thermite, we just needed that for some ignition."
"So you mentioned. What were the rest of the accelerants, and where did you buy them from?"
"Um… just from the grocery store?" The Batman looked at him. "I'm serious! A bunch of it was sunflower oil because that has the lowest smoke point and ignition point of the common cooking oils, but even then it needs scary temperatures to light up! So mostly I just used a little rubbing alcohol because alcohol, and some bottles of orange extract for the limonene, and a bunch of non-dairy creamer!"
"Creamer?" The Batman asked flatly.
"Yeah, they put all sort of chemicals in that synthetic, dairy-replacement stuff. Ick!" Kid Flash mimed gagging, although after his experience in the sewers he couldn't quite muster up as nasty a gag reflex anymore. "But seriously, I never touch that fake stuff. It has sodium aluminosilicate in it, for Pete's sake!" The Batman glared. Kid Flash wilted.
"Um." Miss Martian stepped forward. "I think I should add that since we knew Clayface really hated you and Robin-,"
"Your impersonation of my presence was one of the wiser tactics on display tonight, Miss Martian. Do not do it again, but you deserve some congratulations for doing it well." Miss Martian brightened. "Superboy, why did you play bait?"
"I'm the hardest to hurt, and if Clayface bit then I could get to punch his teeth in," he huffed.
"Ferris was on hand above in the event that someone required unexpected support?" Kid Flash added.
"And if Ferris required unexpected support?"
"Then Superboy would not need to play bait and could provide it." The Batman slowly nodded, and Aqulad relaxed.
"You thought it appropriate to damage a city fire hydrant and carve a water channel into the ground to the warehouse."
"It was the best way to get the large supply of water required to freeze or safely bake the opponent. I used tools Kid Flash provided rather than cut through it with my water-bearers, after Robin showed me the schema. It should take me a maximum of ten minutes to repair the hydrant to an adequate level of function, and I can alert the city of the damage for them to later inspect."
"I will see that you do before we leave." The words were as absolute, and as grave, as gravity. "Last question."
But he said nothing. Silence stretched on.
They waited, patiently.
The Batman completed his examination of the numerous cases that contained bits of Clayface, and the equipment used to get them. "How did you pay to purchase all of this?" Robin shifted guiltily. "I see. Robin. This coming Tuesday."
"Yeah?" The penny dropped. "Wait! But you said-,"
"That was before. You will be there, with a companion of my arrangement, and you will remain for the entire duration. Is that clear?" Robin hung his head, morosely contemplating the tedious night of fundraiser-charity-ball-party that awaited him.
"Yeah… It was so worth it, though."
"Having said that," The Batman continued flatly, "congratulations." The Team perked back up. "You successfully overcame a dangerous enemy; more dangerous than I would have been comfortable sending you against, had I known the range of Clayface's reported abilities beforehand. You have exceeded my expectations. Take today and tomorrow off for your own devices." He paused. "Except, I want you all to report to the medical ward for a health check-up every four to six hours. We have excellent health treaments, but the sewers of Gotham are foul, and I do not want you to pick up any infections. Is that clear."
"""Yessir."""
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- Location
- USA
I think that all worked really well but there should be no way that Batman of all people doesn't know how to Macguyver up explosives using household goods. I'm not sure how you'd work that in without breaking the flow there, though.
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
I more read that as surprise that Kid Flash understood how, and uncertainty if Kid Flash understood how to do so safely.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Wait a second. Robin is Batman's son. By adoption at least.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
BatDad knows how to MacGuyver up explosives, and given that KF got his powers through a chemistry experiment it may not be a surprise that KF can too, but that doesn't mean he could identify what chemicals KF used without seeing the bottles or whatever, and he wanted to make sure there'd been no toxic smoke/carcinogens, etc.
Escalation - part 6
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Escalation - part 6* August 28 [Renka PoV]
"Weren't you given a free day or two by Batman?" I turned and matched the Superman's amused grin with my own. He floated just off the side of the rooftop where I stood, surveying Metropolis. "That's a rare event. You shouldn't squander it."
"To do whatever I want. I want to do this. I am always being clear about that," I replied. 'I also wanted to distract my thoughts from Clayface. Or avoid distractions while I think about ClayFace. I have many clips rattling around my purse.' My mind just didn't want to still, but wasn't going anywhere other than following its own tracks around. "It is a good day," I offered.
"That it is. Did you want to accomplish anything in particular? Seems like you might need to meditate after your earlier battle?"
"I am fine," I deferred. "Mostly I stayed outside fight. Do you know… where did ClayFace come from?" I asked.
"We aren't yet sure. Batman says that he was either some old monster Ra'as al Ghul dug out of some crypt, or some new metahuman, but the tests he's run with Mister Zatara are still inconclusive."
"Who is Raas al- Ra'as?"
"Ra's al Ghul is the leader of the League of Shadows. He's believed to be six or seven hundred years old, and he believes that the modern world is too corrupt and polluted, and that the world would be better off with a smaller population."
"By killing them?" I couldn't fail to be skeptical. 'Technology is burnished amazing. Farming the land by beasts and by hand… no. I remember the skaa and the plantations. He sounds like he'd make a great Obligator. I don't mean like Yomen, either.'
"Super villains are not known for their common sense," the Superman pointed out.
"What powers does he have?"
"None that we know of." Irked, I shot him a look. The vehemence of my look appeared to surprise him.
"He is seven. Hundred. Years. Old," I emphasized slowly.
'Even without other powers like that, the sheer amount of resources, experience, and information you can amass in that time should be asphyxiating.'
"That… isn't a power, so to speak." My look did not decrease. "He is very good at alchemy," the familiar word tweaked my awareness, "and he knows how to make… how to make something that can heal his injuries and stop his aging with alchemy. He was killed in a fight against Batman not too long ago, so he probably sent ClayFace as revenge."
'I think I missed something.'
"He is dead now? Killed in a fight?"
"No," the Superman corrected. "The injuries that the Laza- The injuries that he can heal include lethal wounds, as long as his subordinates, his followers, can keep hold of his body."
'Like atium and gold Compounding all in one. Spooky.' "Alchemy can do that?" 'The bits I read mostly talked about turning lead into gold.' "How?"
"No one knows. Ra's al Ghul is the only one that knows how."
"If he sells that, he shouldn't need to turn lead into gold," I opined. I decided to bring up a matter that had been piling up in my head. "…How could I learn alchemy? Where?"
"I don't know. Zatara might know a little bit, but it isn't widely known."
"You can live during seven hundred years and turn lead into gold but everyone does not study alchemy? Is it only can be used by some people? Born to use alchemy?"
"I really don't know," the Superman apologized.
I sighed. "Unlikely I am not find it in a book store?"
"No, I don't think they sell books about alchemy," he agreed. Then the Superman cocked his head.
"A crime?" I asked.
"No, but Aqualad just came through the Zeta Tube."
I hummed in curiosity and took off. My run was a good exercise. I had been storing away almost my entire weight for my whole outing, so I could still safely clear the rooftops, but I didn't tap any speed or strength. 'I will need to store away a larger reserve later.'
"Ferris," he greeted, but it appeared that Kaldur had not come to see me. "Superman, I believe there may be a problem with the Zeta Tubes. I attempted to travel back to Atlantis, but no connection could be made." He frowned. "I could not find League members in the Hall of Justice, and-," his tone grew slightly sharp, "-I am not cleared to visit the Watchtower. Most likely there has been a problem with the Poseidonis Zeta Tube, but I wished to seek support."
"Well, that is a problem. If you traveled here without any issues, then I doubt it's the Mountain's Zeta Tube," he agreed. "Give me a few minutes to check with the control center at the Watchtower. I don't suppose you know where Aquaman is right now? No, never mind, I'll check in with him from the Tower too."
<Recognized: Superman, 01. >
Moments ticked by in silence as I watched Kaldur brood on whatever may have happened.
"Do you know ideas where the others are?" I finally asked. "What they do today? Are doing?" 'Judging from that twitch, he may have forgotten I was here. Should I pretend to be insulted? Admittedly, I have no idea how often or how badly these things break down, but is it really so serious? Wait, Rusts, don't tell me I just invited in catastophe that way.'
"Kid Flash is attending a family gathering of some kind, and Robin has returned home to Gotham. I am less than certain about Superboy and Miss Martian, but they are not in the Mountain."
I hummed. "Artemis would be done with her thing, her mission in Star City? Could? Might?" I hazarded.
"It is possible," Aqualad agreed slowly. He twitched his head. "Yes? Aqualad here."
'Radio message. Should I or shouldn't I tap tin?' I wondered. I decided to respect his privacy.
"Yes. Out of- but there are no messages? Would you tell me where King Orin is at this time? I see," he said heavily. "Thank you, Superman. Aqualad over and out."
"News?" I asked carefully.
"Communications between Atlantis and the surface have been cut. There may be any number of possible explanations, but I am worried. My King is currently off the coast of Australia, and neither he nor I could travel to Poseidonis in time to investigate. Other members of the Justice League have already left to investigate, so there is nothing I may do at the moment." He sighed. I patted him on the shoulder.
"Star City and Artemis?" I suggested. 'Exchanging stories of our exploits might get his mind off of things. I hope it is nothing serious.' Aqualad sighed.
"It is as good an idea as any. Although we must be careful that we do not interrupt an in-progress mission." He appeared to consider something. "Black Canary also operates out of Star City at times. We may end up spending the afternoon working with her." I suppressed a lingering twinge of guilt and nodded.
<Recognized: Aqualad, B 02. >
<Recognized: Ferris, B 06. >
The Star City Zeta Tube was also in an alleyway between two taller buildings. 'I should eventually ask people why they put it there,' I noted. 'Well, it's hotter and brighter than Metropolis or the mountain. Drier, too.'
"Will you be okay? The weather is hot," I noted to Aqualad. I had begun to store heat into my brass-mind, but I knew that he had no such recourse and was more sensitive to these things than me.
"I will be well enough. I do not want to remain out in the open for more than an hour or two, but if I occasionally find some shade and remain hydrated, there will be no problems," he assured. But still he frowned.
"Problems?" I prompted.
"I have spent time in Star City with Speedy in the past, but the places and methods to contact him would not work for Artemis. I am not certain where Green Arrow keeps his base of locations… truth be told, we do not know if Artemis is currently in Star City at this time."
"I can answer that," I asserted. I hummed as I pulled up the usage logs for Star City's Zeta Tube. Immediately above our arrivals from Metropolis sat Artemis's arrival from Gotham the previous evening. 'Well, she's been going back and forth between Gotham quite a lot these past days. More often than she's been to and from the Mountain.' I raised my eyebrows, but kept my mouth shut and put off until later the decision about whether I should gently tease her and Robin or not. 'Good for them.' Aloud, I announced, "Artemis came to here when the time of the evening of yesterday. She has not used the Zeta Tube to leave."
"We may as well run a few patrols and look for her, Green Arrow or Black Canary. Remember that if they are not in uniform, we should not confront them; all three have secret identities," he cautioned.
"Thank you, I will remember," I promised. Aqualad clambered easily onto and up a… 'Those are named "fire escapes," right?' I put the matter to the side and opted to practice my jumps instead. I crouched down and tapped iron and pewter, becoming both heavy and strong. Not tremendously so, but a few times above my baseline for each.
My legs uncurled in a rush of wind, and in the moments when my momentum lifted me off the ground, I ceased to tap the iron-mind and instead stored away most of my weight. In a rush I launched up almost four stories, but I had dropped one more down again before I caught and clambered on to the fire escape.
"Impressive," Aqualad congratulated. I hummed and shrugged.
'I will need to tap more weight and strength in the beginning if I want to go higher. Or maybe I can keep my strength consistent and do better by more sharply storing my weight in my iron-mind as I jumped. But I may need to tap zinc for the level of necessary precision, and that feels a little like a crutch to me. Well, I am still experimenting,' I allowed to myself. 'I should see if I can do it at all before I see if I can do it better.'
I did tap zinc as we began to lope across the rooftops. It helped me better time and gauge my jumps, and it also helped me sort through my sensory in-take when I tapped tin to listen for Artemis's voice.
It was twenty minutes before I heard the sounds of her quiet snarls, and I led Aqualad back to the alley where the Zeta Tube was. The glimpse I got of her from the rooftops showed Artemis out of her uniform, so we dropped down into the alley to wait for her. I wondered what she was so angry about as she rounded the corner and stopped.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis snapped. "Waiting for me?"
"Yes," I answered. Because I felt bored enough and wanted to watch her squirm, I pitched my voice a little more 'cutesy,' as Kid Flash called the tone, and added, "We mi~issed you, Artemi~isss."
That took her aback, to be certain. I grinned.
"After the messy events of last night, the Batman gave us the rest of today free from our duties," Aqualad told her. This completely failed to get Artemis to settle the tense aggression I could see in her shoulders. "We wanted to seek you out and inquire how your mission last night went."
'Badly, no doubt.' Her face had twisted grimly at the mention of her mission, and I guessed she was looking for something appropriately ugly to hiss at us. 'Well, making Artemis angry about that would be boring. Ooh! I know just how to knock her off balance, so let's see where she lands.' One scene from a show – I had watched and laughingly imitated it with M'gann sometime last week – had returned to my thoughts.
I saw Artemis inhale to spit her furious vitriol, so I copied the girl from the episode and jumped forward to glomp her. She reflexively dug an elbow into my ribs, but I took the pain as it came. 'Some sacrifices are necessary for true art.'
"It will be soo~ooo fun!" I sang, and I spun her around. "We can paint our nails, and braid each other's hair, and stay up until the wee hours of the morn talking about boys!" I took a moment to revel in her gob-smacked expression.
Then, continuing the re-enactment, I promptly ignored her and twisted my head around to face Aqualad again. "We'll promise not to talk about you, and you can even join us as an honorary girl for tonight, but only if you put on a skirt and let us call you Maureen," I offered. "So what do you say? Join us. Join us. Jo~ooin uuussss!" My sincere expression lasted four seconds before I looked back at Artemis, whom I had allowed to squirm free. Then I lost it.
"YehEeeaahahAHahahha!" I cackled. At some point I had slumped against the brick wall, probably because Artemis had shoved her way out of my grasp, but I was doubled over clutching at my sides as I heaved and howled and could not be bribed to care. I giggled, I gasped, I guffawed, and finally I wound down. Ribs aching pleasantly, I blinked my eyes clear and looked up at my two teammates.
"Th-the l-looks on your faces!" I nearly broke down again, but managed to restrain myself just to giggling.
"You've known her longer than I have," Artemis accused, backing away hastily. "Is she often like this?"
Aqualad was silent, and his unusual expression stayed on his face because he had moved not one muscle.
Finally, he snorted out the shortest, softest breath of laughter I had heard. "Define 'often'," he answered.
"Very often!" I asserted cheerfully. I leveraged myself off the wall, and Artemis backed away another step before she caught herself. Tapping into another Earth tradition, I asked that sacred question, "Sowaddayouwanndo?"
Instead of the traditional, 'Idunno, waddayouwannado?' answer, Artemis groaned.
"I want to make the world make sense again." It took me a second to sort through that.
'Nope, I still think I'm misinterpreting that. What's the safest response…?'
"Again?" I asked innocently. That, finally, got a huff of amusement out Artemis. Kaldur shook his head.
"Artemis, you appear to have had a rough mission. We have also had our shares of problems the past night. Does not misery love company?" he asked.
"...I don't think that's what the saying means," she chuckled. Kaldur and I shared an uncomprehending look. I enjoyed the thought that I finally wasn't the only one left out of the references. "It means that miserable people like to make other people miserable. To… make themselves feel better?" Artemis prompted.
I rolled my eyes at the unpleasant accuracy.
"I am… at once surprised, and not," Kaldur decided.
"So, whaddayouwannado?" I repeated.
"I just want to go h- …go … go, back to the mountain. I still have a room there, right?" She flicked her eyes between us. "I mean, it's been forever since I was there, so maybe you rearranged or something?"
"Your room is still there, unoccupied as always," Aqualad said.
"Great. I need a nap. And a punching bag," she grumbled. "Don't want to talk to my mom right now."
<Recognized: Artemis, B 07. >
<Recognized: Aqualad, B 02. >
<Recognized: Ferris, B 06. >
I passed Aqualad and caught up with Artemis before she'd left the main room. "Sparring ring or gym?" Artemis halted.
"…Okay, sparring ring. You going to use your metal-minds?" I followed her over to the computer-run ring.
"No. I have used a lot last night, and so I thus need to store in more."
We squared off in the ring.
~
<Winner: Artemis. >
<Ferris: Status: FAIL >
I groaned.
"Woo-hoo! Five out of six!" Artemis cheered. "Hey, Aqualad, you want another piece of this?" she poked her thumb into her own chest.
"Allow me to preserve the remaining health of my ego, please," he deferred, rubbing a bruise on his arm.
"Feeling better now?" I asked, managing to sit up. My head swam, and I fought off the desire to dip into my valuable gold-mind for some instant wellness. Artemis paused and blinked at me.
"Actually, yeah," she realized. "Thanks, I needed to vent."
"You, are, welcome," I burbled carefully. 'I didn't need to get my pride handed to me on a bronze platter, but urrrggh.'
"I…" Artemis paused. We both looked at her. "I was running an infiltration. Getting someone's trust, getting them to tell me their secrets, and then doubling back around and spilling it all to Green Arrow. It left a bad taste in my mouth." She grimaced. "I signed up to be better than that, I mean." Artemis folded her arms defensively. "Better than them. It felt like I was… one of the criminals, betraying the Justice League's trust, instead of betraying a criminal to the Justice League. It's what they would have done to us," she all but pleaded, "and aren't we not supposed to stoop down to their level?"
I closed my eyes, and too many nights of begging, blood, and shallow graves stared out from the inside of my eyelids.
"I am… not the right person to make point fingers. Make acc-yu-say-shuns," I said slowly. A thought occurred to me.
Aqualad said, "I believe this matter is different for me than for the rest of you, Artemis. I am a serving member of the Atlantian military, and while My King often advocates the least violent options available to us, there remains the possibility that I may engage and kill an enemy in battle. Options that avoid that possibility are not things I complain about. But I am sympathetic to the stress that you must been under in your recent mission." Making a noise, I waved my fingers to attract their attention.
"The time when the Green Arrow again says you should do the thing you did, please have me help. I have experience," I offered. 'It isn't like my hands can get any more dirty. There's not much room for dirt with all the blood.'
"Iiiii don't think that would have happened this time. But, thanks," Artemis said cautiously. I hummed again in acknowledgment. "So, what happened last night that got you guys bummed out?"
"We spent several hours in the sewers of Gotham tracking a being known as ClayFace, only to be ambushed…"
________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I suspect that Renka may not be quite as interested in turning lead into gold as experimenting with turning (say) an iron metalmind into gold. OTOH, that might just have a similar result to smelting an iron metalmind into steel or such. Admittedly I don't know what the result of that would be though...
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Melting an invested piece of metal to liquid form would (in LOD, at least) cause the investiture to slowly evaporate out of it. If you then mix in another metal to alter the composition enough, it exorcises all of the (Metallic arts based) investiture at once.
An invested metal-mind would resist magical transformation unless you threw in enough magic to overwhelm the investiture, in which case it would be easier to use anti-magic to just drain that separately first and then transform them.
However, if you got a piece of steel of the wrong chemical composition, could you transform the carbon in it into iron until it was the right composition for either a steel-mind or iron-mind? Could you turn lead into gold for a gold-mind?
Renka doesn't know, but she's very interested in finding out.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Renka seems wildly out of character from what I've seen here. Is it because of the date?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Renka is acting deliberately out of character to throw Artemis off-balance. She rather enjoys throwing people off-balance, so this seems in-character to me.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
I got that. The prank seemed out of character. I'm not saying she's super serious all the time or hates fun but this just feels weird to me.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
This is the first time Renka's come across Artemis (or any member of the Team) in a situation this spittingly furious and ashamed. Maybe she's seen Superboy in this type of foul mood before, she also knows that he could break bones by accident, and she doesn't want to use up her gold-minds just for entertainment.
She has to work with Artemis so she didn't want to poke her about whatever it was, but she did want to poke her in the feels and see what happened; you'll see her do this again now that she's getting comfortable with the League and the Team not double-crossing her. She's known Artemis for less than 3 weeks (met on the 8th, now it's the 28th) and wanted to explore her personality a bit and get her to let off that stress.
She also thought it would be hilarious.
And as the narration mentioned, she copied that glomp trick and the line from a television episode she and M'gann had watched previously. So she's acting out of character by acting in-character for that tv character she's copying; she didn't make it up from scratch.