21st November 2012
08:02 GMT +2
"John, are you..? Sure about this?
"
John reaches into his coat and pulls out a slowly charging crystal.
"Yeah. Synchronicity wave. Felt it the moment I saw Supergirl."
Oliver raises an eyebrow, a gesture that's not easy to see with a domino mask on. "I would have thought a pilgrim would
avoid someplace full of demons. Or is this more of a challenge?"
John looks slightly puzzled, and I-. Oh.
"The Witch-Hunter Abednego called himself a synchronicity pilgrim, but that's a term I've only heard used by his people. And it doesn't have to be a spiritual journey in the classical religious sense.
"
"Oh?" Oliver looks at John curiously. "So how does it work?"
"Well, it's a bit…" He takes a breath as he slips the crystal back into his pocket. "A bit of self-hypnosis, a bit of reaching out to the magic around you and letting it guide you. You need some idea where you're trying to get, but at the same time you can't
force how it takes you there."
"Can anyone learn it?"
"Anyone can learn magic. But there's usually good reasons not to."
Dinah and Alan stroll back in from having a word with Dr. Sivana, neither of them exactly looking happy about things.
"Problem?
"
Alan shakes his head. "No, he's clean. It's just…"
Dinah exhales sharply. "It feels like he's getting off lightly."
"He wasn't being punished anyway. And this way the world benefits from his work. Though probably not from his analysis of romantic comedies.
"
Alan shakes his head again, but this time there's a small smile. "It's a shame more mad scientists aren't like him. Oh, how's that..? Therapy workshop Ted Kord was running coming along?"
"It's hard to find evidence of crimes
not committed, but it's turning a profit and there haven't been any 'incidents' yet.
"
Dinah regards me curiously. "I'm a little surprised that you're not more..."
Alan raises his eyebrows. "Aggressive?"
Oliver holds out his right hand, palm up. "Vengeful?"
"Psychotically murderous?
"
"You did boast that you'd killed more people than anyone else in human history."
"But Mister Crock hasn't tried to get in contact with his family, has he? Point is, I don't see any point in killing people who are straightening themselves out. My kill count comes from people in lawless regions of space who are perfectly fine being evil.
"
I step towards the machine. A quick scan shows that it's live, and similar enough to other similar devices that I've scanned that I'm confident that it does what it's supposed to.
Oliver looks around. "We're not bringing Kara with us?"
"I.. thought it best to make sure.. that they…
"
He nods. "That they want her back."
"Basically.
" I press the helpfully labelled 'on' button and stand back as the space in the arch of machinery turns matt black.
"Who wants to go first?
"
John pulls another crystal out of his pocket and throws it into the blackness. It disappears as soon as it passes the aperture.
"Feels like it worked. And it feels-" He steps forward. "-like the place to g-."
He vanishes into the void.
Oliver watches the black rectangle for a moment. "Ah, how do we know it worked?"
I close my eyes,
feeling for-.
I open my eyes, nodding.
"He still exists. I can feel his route from here. Follow me.
"
I step into the blackness, and while there's a moment of disorientation, when I reappear a moment later I note with satisfaction that that was the smoothest transition that I've had from one of these things. John's just a little way ahead, picking up his crystal and holding it up to his face to study. We've.. come out in a woodland, it's… Huh, Yellowstone Park. Sky looks clear, and I'd say it's.. late morning, probably.
Didn't Demon Superman hit Yellowstone?
"John, are we-?
"
"Huh." Oliver steps out of thin air behind me, looking around. "I was expecting something a little more… Beat up."
"I think we might have a problem.
"
"What, Sivana got the-" Dinah walks through behind him as he takes a more careful look around. "-wrong Earth?"
"Um. It.. doesn't look like a
trap…
"
"Go home and try again?"
"No." John shakes his head. "This is where we're supposed to be."
Oliver smiles. "The wizard's being all ominous and cryptic. Must be Tuesday."
"Also, it's not going to switch for a return journey for an hour. It's the one drawback of this machine.
"
Dinah tries her arm computer. "Can't find the local GPS."
Ring, scan the… Ah, scan just Yellowstone. Just in case someone can detect my scans.
Compliance.
I generate a map construct in the middle of our group.
"Looks pretty normal. A few craters are in different places; looks like Morrow didn't build a base-.
"
"Alert! Incoming-!
The sun goes out, and my map shudders as it adjusts to fit-. Two giant-
Oliver puts an arrow on string. "Oh
hell no."
-humanoids-.
I
look up at the giant Amazo androids glowering down at us.
"Stand down, metahumans!"
And between them, a
normal-sized woman in a grey uniform.
"You will be taken into custody, at which point it will be determined whether charges will be brought against you in addition to the charges for operating an unlicensed teleportation system."
Ah. Yes, that's…
"Let.. me just go and talk to her.
"
Oliver has an arrow on string, but he's keeping it pointed down.
"Orange, those are
giant Amazos."
"Yes, and they're not attacking. Having overwhelming force that can be deployed against serious threats is a very sensible thing to do. But since we're not here to fight anyone, we should be able to talk things out.
"
I float up into the air, making sure to keep my constructs to myself.
"Hello! I'm-.
"
She
snarls. "A Green Lantern. You're coming with-" She
lunges towards me. "-
me!"
