…
Other than the… Obvious.
Yes, Renegade, you
are an arse.

It's gratifying to see the times when he realises he's screwed himself out of contacts because of it. Donna wasn't an active Team member in this timeline, was she?
"Professional, Mister Hall. You're here in an official capacity."
He clears his throat, straightening up slightly. "Okay, but can I ask her out in an unofficial capacity?"
Assuming she's not into older men like so many of her incarnations, he
might have a chance. Though I foresee
some measure of personality clash. Even if he is one of the few men her age who could keep up with her
physically, if you know what I mean...
"In your own time, certainly, assuming that she had nothing to do with the incident we're investigating."
Miss Troy approaches to within convenient speaking distance, and I nod to the police officer and dismiss her with a wave. She's obviously curious about what's going on, but the arrangement between the federal and local authorities doesn't give her any grounds to listen in. She nods back and heads back towards her police car.
A nine-foot-tall grey man might get people's attention,
yes. I can only wonder what rumours this might spark...
"Grayven? Ah, Agent Grayven? What is it?"
Because she has a secret identity and there's no reason for her to know me personally in her role as 'Donna Troy, college student', and we're in a public location. Which is why I didn't just boom tube to her location when I left Artemis and Kanto to see I could find anything.
And I'm sure she'd appreciate your discretion... If you hadn't arranged to have a cop collect her for you instead.
Renegades...
"Nothing to worry about too much, Miss Troy." I look over to where a group I assume to be her friends are clustered around the library's entrance. "Would you prefer if we moved somewhere private?"
"Do I need a lawyer?"
Oh, boy. I hope they're at least read in on her powers, or this is going to set the rumour mill ablaze...
"You are entitled to one if you want one, but at the moment I'm not arresting you. Or investigating you for a crime. This is really more of a 'due diligence, eliminating you for my enquiries' sort of thing."
"Okay then, yeah. That's probably a good idea."
...argh, Renegade... Just lay off the cloak and dagger, for Source's sake...
I nod and smile.
Mother Box, hush tube to that planet.
Ping.
Wow, even Mother Box thinks he's overcomplicating things.
Mr. Hall heads through first, due to a combination of machismo and a genuine concern for what might happen to his brother if he left him alone for any length of time. Genuine, but insulting concern. I head through next, because we're not escorting Miss Troy and I don't seriously think that she had anything to do with this. But 'feels like Wonder Woman' doesn't result in all that many matches.
I step aside as Donna comes through, frowning as she looks around. I'm not seeing anything on her face or in her actions which suggests any familiarity with the-.
If anything, it's probably a case of 'where the hell am I?' She's probably thaumically empowered enough to sense the slight difference in the local mana.
She looks up at the sky with a frown. Ah, she's spotted that we're not on Earth.
"Where are we?"
Yeah, definitely getting the feeling she's feeling the difference in atmosphere. Given her similarity to Diana, she's probably got a distinct
bond to the Earth.
I shut the tube down.
"You haven't been here before?"
"I've been to two alien worlds, and this isn't one of them. What's going on? Where are-? Where are the local people?"
And now I find myself wondering
which worlds. I mean, Mars would probably be one. But unless Olympus counts, I'm hard-pressed to think of the other.
"We don't know. There are signs of a struggle, but no organic remains. Can you account for your movements over the last three days?"
"Yeah, but, why?"
Seriously, Renegade, just
tell her.
"It's not her." Artemis walks over. "She feels kind of similar, but not the same."
Donna glances at her, then returns her attention to me. "She's waiting for that explanation."
Boy, I can
feel her frustration at the 'New Gods' talking over her head. And not entirely
unjustified. Especially when one of them's supposed to be
younger than her.
"I'm not used to using my magic senses on people who aren't Sheeda. Someone was here, and their magic feel like yours and Wonder Woman's."
Donna frowns. "There isn't anyone like me and Wonder Woman."
...That you
know of. Who's to say what secrets Hippolyta hasn't shared?
"Far as I can tell?" Artemis shakes her head. "Not true."
"Except-?"
I shake my head. "Not Orana. When I awoke her after she ritually accepted my authority. I could probably navigate back to Earth using her. She certainly hasn't been here."
Okay, I guess New God senses
do work at quite a distance, especially amongst those linked by bonds of fealty...
"There are other demigoddesses on Themyscira, but-. Well…"
I nod. "They're a bunch of shut-ins who wouldn't come to an alien world even if they had the opportunity."
Hey, now. That's hardly fair. Just because some gods found their mothers irresistible...
"I wouldn't-." … "Yeah." … "I mean… Some of them might."
I nod. "But if they were inclined to covertly murder three billion people they've have shown some sign during the last three thousand years. Amazons don't do innovation."
...True on all counts, depressingly... Honestly, they kind of
wasted all those years, given what
some incarnations had accomplished.... Blame Modern DC, I guess.
"They certainly don't do three billion murders. What.. happened here?"
I make an exaggerated shrugging gesture.
"We don't know! We don't know. There're signs of a struggle but no bodies. No damage relating to weapons that weren't native. No residues of any kind. Other than the fact that someone incongruous stood here we're got no idea."
Even the
greatest detective would struggle with so few clues. Unfortunately, I don't think the renegade knows
Detective Chimp...
Artemis nods. "I was trying to track the other Grayven, when-."
"Other Grayven?"
Yes, I know, the thought of more than
one of the Renegade is quite the
terrific idea... There's no need to sound so
horrified.
I nod. "I have a duplicate. I don't know where they came from, but he has a fleet and he's heading for Vega to remonstrate with me. We're… Not exactly on a direct line from his last known location to Vega, but it's not far off."
About half the distance, which… The barrels of some of the muskets were still warm. This was recent. So assuming that they're moving at a constant speed, I know roughly when we should expect them. Unless they're just going to set up a base in our area before actually attacking.
Well, at least there's
some good to come out of it. He has a rough schedule for Grayven-16's progress now... Pity an entire world had to disappear to provide it.
"You don't know of any others?" Donna looks at me quizzically and I shrug. "I don't know, no Amazon went on a mysterious nine month long spiritual retreat after visiting the mainland or something? Because there aren't a lot of options here."
"Plenty of Amazons from the old city of Themyscira didn't ever manage to get to the island. But they would have died thousands of years ago. The.. same with any of them who went back; their immortality is tied to staying there."
A pity the Goddesses left such an oversight in place... But when has
any member of the Greek pantheon shown good sense when the moment
needed it?
I nod. "And the demigoddesses?"
"There was.. about two thousand years where Themyscira had no contact with the mainland at all. And the thing about Themyscira is.. there aren't any men on it."
Not
mortal men, no...
"Right, but there's magic and there's gods."
"And there's an island full of militant lesbians and it still took three thousand years for Queen Hippolyta to create Diana. If someone had children I haven't heard about it."
Again, who says Hippolyta hasn't been keeping secrets? Or someone
else on the island?
"Drat. Well, than you for your time. I'll take you back-."
"No."
"I'm sorry?"
Yes, you should be, dragging her here like this... Piquing her curiosity and all.
"You can't just announce something like this and expect me to carry on like nothing happened. And Diana's going to want to be involved too."
That's… I mean, I have-. No, I haven't wanted to get the League involved. This is my dog, and…

And you've been doing such a
great job of things thus far, haven't you?
This Is Mine.
They aren't likely to appreciate how I'm building the place up, and I can't exactly shove them back out of the way once the fight's over. And while I'm reasonably confident that they won't side with someone who'd do this over me…
Well, you burnt your bridges, now you have to work out how to cross them,
Renegade.
I'm not completely sure that they wouldn't try doing something ill-advised.
But if I'm looking at exposure anyway, it's best to make it controlled exposure.
"Then let's go and talk to her."
Finally
some sense. Not
too late to start building bonds to the heroes, after all.