With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Eleven) To threadmark (2024)

5th February
11:51 GMT -4

The damage this part of the building has taken is quite evident. There are holes blasted or burned through the walls, some of which are large enough to walk through. Since we've clearly lost the element of surprise I'm firing filaments and sonic scans off in all directions in the hope of finding out what is going on. I hate to have to write off the remaining hostages but I'm rather afraid that this is going to come down to a stand-.

My scans detect a rapidly moving object heading up the staircase at the end of the corridor. I get just enough time to say -"Contact."- and erect a barrier before the figure slams into it like a bug on a windscreen. Wallace falls to the floor in a daze and I drop the barrier.

He shakes his head and looks up at me. "Aww."

"Sorry." I lift him to his feet with filaments. "But you could have been Jackie Quick or an OMAC."

"An O-what? You mean those robot things?"

"Yes, and they're cyborgs. There's a living person in there being controlled by-."

"Whatever. Did you get the Martian?"

"No. Zatanna set her on fire and she ran away." He raises his eyebrows and glances at her. She smiles nervously and shrugs. "What's going on? "

"We've pretty much got them pinned down in a meeting room five floors below us. Aqualad told me to try and take out their Martian, 'cause she's the only one who could break out."

"I think she's still phased, and Lex has had the building warded. We'd struggle to track her."

"Okay." He raises his right arm and activates his holographic map. "Bad guys are here. Aqualad said that if I made contact with you, we should take up position here-" He points to the area above the auditorium. "-and wait for his signal."

I run an orange thread along our best route. "Cornwall, lead the way. Troia, Rocket, go through the rooms to either side. Make holes through the walls if you have to. Kid Flash, with me."

"Got it." / "Right." / "I'm on it."

Rob takes off down the corridor at a jog. Donna moves left for a second and then jerks hard to the right, smashing a hole through the plasterboard. Raquel swoops through a door to the left as the rest of us follow on behind Rob.

"Kid Flash, fill me in."

"Ah, okay… We got attacked by some of Luthor's gun robots as soon as we got inside. Ultraboy said he got control of the internal defences somehow… Guess LexCorp needs to work on their data security."

Zatanna shakes her head. "They do have a telepath."

"There's smart systems that can detect that. Batman's installing them on the Watchtower in case someone tries using Starros again. Anyway, after we beat them they let most of the hostages go, but that was just so they could get evil M'gann up close without us spotting her. She use her pain thing on you?"

Garth nods. "Yes. I have never felt anything like that before."

"She used it on us to soften us up while she tried reading our minds. Our M'gann did some sort of feedback thing to make her back off." He frowns. "Evil M'gann's got a really potty mouth. I mean, she was shouting in Martian but I know bad language when I hear it. Oh, and it turns out that Lamprey guy can turn into a shark-man. I always thought evil versions of us were supposed to be the same as us, you know? I never even got to see that Jackie guy."

"He was in the underground part of the building with two OMACs. Knocked him out twice, but the OMAC had some sort of healing ability. He might be up and about again by now."

Rob vaults the banister and drops down the stairwell, controlling his descent with a blast of air. I lift Zatanna and we follow, Garth and Tula following a moment later by using their water appendages to grip the railings. Wallace dashes down at super speed and from the crunches I hear it sounds as if Donna and Raquel have made their own paths.

I aim railgun constructs down the corridor leading to our target room. Nothing yet.

"You said Ultraboy was fast? "

Wallace nods, his eyes darting around the corridor, searching for potential attackers. "Yeah. Not me-fast, but a lot faster than Superboy. Then there was that.. OMAC? It was like how Amazo was when the League fought it. They really got three of them?"

"Two now. The trick is to hit the eye on the chest."

There's some sort of vaguely pyramid shaped device on a table in the middle of a waiting area outside one of the larger offices. I'm not sure if it's some sort of artwork, or… Ring?

Artefact appears to be a technological device. Unable to determine purpose.

Wallace notices my interest. "There's a bunch of those around the place. You don't know what they're for either?"

I frown. "No."

"Maybe they're a LexCorp thing. Rob was try'n to get a closer look but we were.. kinda busy."

"What can you tell us about the other Young Offenders?"

"Their Arrow-Girl likes using acid gas arrows. And trip wires. Mayhem's about as crazy as you'd expect… Didn't really see her do anything special. Just, y'know, Marvel stuff."

"Any sign of-" Up ahead Rob waves his right hand at something I can't see and the air ahead of him is filled with a fragmentation blast. "-my or Zatanna's opposite numbers?"

"Haven't seen 'em. Aqualad said he thought he could feel her magic, but…" He shrugs.

"Remaining hostages?"

"We got Lex's… Mercy, out. They've still got the rest."

"Have they tried to neg-?"

The air around me turns red! The floor beneath us is burned through and I can see an OMAC at the other end of the beam. Wallace dives out of the way as I erect an orange barrier to block the attack. Barrier visibly melting I crumble a small hole in the floor behind me, stick a filament down and create a railgun construct. Okay, one replicated power set at a time, if it's heat visioning me then it isn't phasing. Then.. why use a railgun? I reform the construct as a kryptonite laser, target the location of its chest eye and fire.

"Eughah."

The heat beam sweeps across the corridor as the OMAC loses focus, then cuts out entirely as it staggers back. It looks up at me as I try to recalculate the angle for the laser, then dashes away in a blur, my vertigo inducer dropping down next to where it had been a moment too late.

"Everyone alright?" Nods all round. "Troia? Rocket?"

"Still here." / "What happened?"

"OMAC." I check the interior map again. "Troia, two more walls and then stand by. Rocket-."

"Some of us weren't built for smashing down walls."

"I have offered to fix that. Door in front of you, follow the corridor around until you get to the T junction and then wait. Everyone else, with me."

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Eleven) To threadmark (2024)

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