[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell

Talk or fight?

Fighting in here isn't optimal. Eternians can't fly but the athletic ones can be bloody quick on their feet. And the fight would definitely damage the crystal chamber. I don't know how big a deal that is; Teela Na didn't seem especially concerned about the damage Zodak's fight caused, but it wasn't that much. I have no idea what weapons are integrated into that armour, and then there's the sword…

On the other hand, while I'm not as proficient as some of the other mes I met briefly after we got grabbed by Krona, I am still a Lantern. Or.. power ring user, anyway. Eternians are tough, but they're hardly invulnerable to levels of force I can generate. This fight should be winnable.

Alternately, I could try to convince her that I'm a minor functionary while I feel her out. Find out what -if anything- she remembers of Eternia. What Hordak's been doing with her. I can turn the staff into a broom-.

Evelyn's half way to Adora already.

"Hail, friend. I am Evil-Lyn, a warrior in the service of Skeletor." Adora levels her sword at Evelyn, who stops walking closer and affects an expression of mild offence. "Is that any way to greet an ally?"

Thaaat works, I suppose. I send the staff into subspace before hesitantly following Evelyn, holding my body in a submissive posture.

"Skeletor." Probably-Adora doesn't sound entirely convinced. I suppose that Keldor isn't exactly a constant presence in… Wherever Hordak spends his time. He might just not have mentioned him to her. "This is… Eternia."

"Ah, you do know of it. I hadn't realised that Hordak was trying to send his warriors here."

"Where are we?"

"An abandoned castle I was exploring. The crystals possess a strong magic."

Adora's helmeted face turns towards me, and I make a point of dropping my eyes submissively. She discounts me immediately, not even bothering to look at the Basophil Amulet on my chest. Now, Hordak shouldn't know that King D'Vann's power outlasted him. Keldor only found out about the power of Grayskull recently, and he wasn't in regular contact with his nominal superior. But if he were here, then he'd find out fairly swiftly.

Adora raises her sword slightly, looking at the blue stone in the ricasso. "They're the same."

Evelyn shrugs. "Perhaps. The same colour, certainly." She extends her right hand. "If you'll hand it over I can check for-?"

Adora glares at her. "I'm keeping my sword."

"As you wish." Evelyn withdraws her hand. "And.. who, exactly, are you? From your armour I assume that you work for Hordak..?"

"I am Despara, a Force Captain in the Horde."

"Despara?" From the sound of her voice I don't think that Evelyn is impressed by the try-hard name. Evil Lyn isn't impressed by the try-hard name. I carefully school my expression and don't comment on dubious wisdom of projectile geology in silicate-based domiciles. "I don't believe that I've heard of you."

"My elevation is recent; long after Hordak's last contact with Eternia."

"Where is Hordak these days? He was supposedly banished to Despondos, but if he has living followers that seems unlikely."

"Hordak's great horde is in the process of subjugating the world of Etheria. There is some… Magic to the place that makes it more accessible from Despondos. Hordak can walk among us for brief spans, and his presence and voice are always with us."

Etheria… I guess that's where She-Ra happens? And I don't remember anything about Hordak having trouble interacting with the world. He was just sort of there, commanding his army and occasionally getting involved in active combat with the… She-Ra's team, whatever they were called.

"Fascinating. But how did you come here? I remember the last time that Hordak sent soldiers here, and the preparations were extensive."

"Last time?"

"Mmmmm. Fifteen or so years ago."

'Despara' doesn't move for a moment. Her eyepieces mean that I can't tell whether she's staring at Evelyn or staring into space. And while I could do some sort of ring scan, she might be able to detect it and it would be much better if we could resolve this without fighting.

"What did they do here?"

It's hard to notice, but there was a slight hesitation between the first few words of her question.

"They kidnapped the infant daughter of one of the local rulers. They never said why, but they returned through the portal back to 'Etheria' and never returned."

"What-? Was her name? What did she look like?"

"She looked like a small, crying child." Evelyn shrugs. "Archivist?"

Who-? Oh, me. "Blonde hair, blue eyes, your eminence. Her name was Ador-."

"Adora."

I bow my head. "Yes, your eminence. Have you met the young lady? Actually knowing what Hordak intends would make it far easier for us to enact his will."

"Adora. She came from here."

"Well… A city a short distance from here."

"Have its people been enslaved and tasked to labour for the Horde?"

I shake my head. "No. Skeletor has been more focused on increasing his personal power rather than conquering and holding inhabited territory. He nominally 'rules' half the world, but in fact his writ runs shallow outside of Snake Mountain."

"You are impudent to speak so of the one Hordak has placed over you."

"I try to keep a realistic view of the abilities of those around me. For example, I don't see any sign that you are a magician."

"I am not. I am a warrior."

"Your armour appears…" Evelyn runs her eyes over Despara's armour. "Sophisticated, but I see nothing that could open a portal to this… 'Etheria'."

"Shadow Weaver wished to study my interaction with this sword. Usually I arm myself with two short swords. Shadow Weaver is Hordak's greatest sorceress, and she believed that this sword would react to me in some way. I held it aloft, then… Here I was."

"That's it? No flash of light? No glow?"

"Not that I noticed." She hesitates, her attention moving to the sword. "Though most of my attention was focused on Shadow Weaver. If it was a subtle sign, I may not have noticed."

"Then what are your intentions? Do you wish to return as swiftly as possible? Or do you have other orders you wish to complete first?"

"I should return. But the ability of this sword to open portals could be an asset to the Horde, and none of my usual responsibilities are anything that another Force Captain could not complete nearly as well."

"Then studying the sword is what we will do. Archivist." I perk up attentively. "Fetch my staff and some refreshments and then meet up in the castle library."

I bow my head to hide my smile. And of course I can't refuse now, or the mummery comes to an end and we're back to fighting. Evelyn could have just told Adora that she needs help, so I don't think that she intends to betray me. Of course, that doesn't mean that she isn't trying to find out whether or not Hordak would give her a better deal if she did. Fortunately, I can monitor her while I'm away to make sure that she doesn't do that the moment my back is turned, but I just got put on the back foot something fierce there.

"At once, Evil-Lyn. I will meet you there."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell

The Basophil amulet glows as it sustains the simple levitation spell I've cast to carry my load.

One staff, temporarily bequeathed to me by Sorceress Teela Na.

Another staff, this one topped with a crystal ball which allows her to call upon 'blue crystal magic', a title which makes me long for some sort of guide to pre-invasion magic use. Is the colour coding significant? Is it a matter of authorisation to use part of a planet's magic system? Does the colour indicate that they're better at certain tasks but the energy field itself is undifferentiated? Are there racks of crystals sitting somewhere, ready for use?

One plate of pastries and another of fresh fruit. I have no idea where Teela Na gets them from. The forest outside of Castle Grayskull does contain some fruiting trees, but nothing like enough to sustain the larder I visited. She hasn't shown me any sort of hydroponics system, so maybe there's a matter re-sequencer of some sort? If she was just conjuring it she wouldn't bother building up a store…

And the device Teela Na attached to Evelyn's staff to neutralise it, which I'm going to drop off there, just outside of the library, because I might want to grab it again really quickly.

I knock, though I know perfectly well what they're doing and what they've been talking about. Evelyn's plan appears to involve me -as the total unknown- staying in the background as a subservient character while she takes point.

"Come!"

I gesture with my right hand and the door opens, allowing me to walk in, calling Evelyn's staff into my left hand. The two of them are sitting at the table I was occupying, Despara's helmet laying next to her right elbow and her face. Blonde, short-cropped hair and brilliant blue eyes are accentuated by dark eyebrows and a black curve painted along the bottom of her eye orbits. I think the Ancient Egyptians did that to reduce the effect of the sun's glare. Perhaps the part of Etheria where she was stationed was equatorial?

"Polished up nicely, Evil-Lyn."

And just in case, I did actually polish it.

She glances at me from the corner of her eye, then raises her right hand and summons it to her in a flicker of purple light. She catches it without looking, briefly makes the head glow and then lowers it to lean against the table, her left hand resting against the shaft.

I take the opportunity to sit down next to her, though I note that she put the staff on the opposite side from me. A wave of my right forefinger and the plates deposit themselves on the table between them.

Despara regards the pastry selection blankly. Alright, her armour probably has all kinds of protective enchantments on it, but now that her helmet is just sitting on the table the seal to the interior has been broken. The air of this room should now contain just enough dead skin cells and hairs for me to be able to read her genetic code…

Match found.

So unless she's a clone or Hordak's genetic engineering technology is a lot more advanced than anything I've seen -and given that Sir Duncan didn't know what a gene was until I told him I rather doubt that- then this is indeed Princess Adora of Eternos. And her armour didn't appear to detect my scan, which is nice to know.

Evelyn picks up the bread roll that had Adora's attention. "It's not poisoned, if that's what you're worried about."

"What is it?"

"Bread. Ground grains mixed with yeast and water and then baked in an oven."

"And you eat it?"

Evelyn raises her eyebrows slightly, then tears off part of the soft roll and puts it into her mouth.

I nod. "Yes, Force Captain. Bread is a very common foodstuff in this part of Eternia. Most farmers bake their own, and any settlement of any size will have at least one baker. Hordak's horde does not?"

"We eat ration bars, made in the Vittles Factory."

I shake my head. "Eternia lacks the technology to produce nutritious ration bars. It's usually easier for armies to carry flour, jam, sausage… Easily portable preserved food, and feed on that. Or to provision themselves through forage. Though with an army of any size, that can rapidly starve a region."

"The logistics must be complicated."

I nod. "Hordak's horde did a number on the place. Even paved roads are something of a rarity. Much of what was once farmland has returned to nature."

Her eyes narrow. "You speak treason!"

I shrug. "Hardly. I'm sure that Hordak had a plan for the place, and starving an enemy is usually more efficient than meeting them with equal force in the field. I merely observe that moving an army is easier in a place with good infrastructure. Or with a way to supply by air."

I gesture to the pile of books still on the table.

"I was attempting to study Hordak's invasion, to learn from his example. Sadly, few quality records survived. Does the horde have better records?"

Adora appears to have calmed slightly. "Not that I have seen."

"That's a shame. It's usually worth knowing what hasn't gone according to plan in the past in order to avoid repeating those mistakes. Well!" I reach over and pick up a fruit that looks like a cross between an apple and a passion fruit. "Perhaps -time permitting- I could ask Hordak himself for his recollections at some point in the future. I'm sure that future generations would benefit from his wisdom."

I bite down and… Yes, pleasant taste, kind of messy. Puts me a little in mind of a peach in that regard, except that rather than dribbling juice it dribbles seed-rich slime.

Evelyn finishes her roll and reaches out to push the plate a little closer to Adora.

"Are you sure that you're not hungry?"

I nod, lowering the dripping fruit from my mouth and swallowing. "If this is a trust issue, I'll gladly eat a bit of whatever you're worried I might have poisoned."

Adora stares at me for a moment, then grabs a roll apparently at random and tears it in half, hard crust cracking and depositing fragments onto the surface of the table. She looks at the soft interior for a moment and then awkwardly bites at it as if the crust was an inedible fruit skin and only the interior was for eating. Her chewing motion is a little awkward, which… Would make sense if she's really been subsisting on ration bars for her entire life.

Though from the way she's chomping it down as if she's afraid that someone will take it away from her, I would guess that the experience is a pleasant one.

I take another bite of fruit as Evelyn leans forward. "Have you been to Eternia before, Force Captain?"

Adora needs a moment to swallow, and I notice Evelyn looking my way out of the corner of her eye again. I nod, apparently to myself, and Evelyn returns her full attention to Adora.

"No. I was born in the Whelping Chambers in Hordak's domain on Etheria. I have spent my entire life until this day on Etheria."

"Are you certain?"

Adora's eyes narrow for a moment, before putting the crust down and grabbing a fruit a little like a small pineapple.

"Yes. Shadow Weaver told me, and so it is true."

"Could not she be mistaken? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but a place called a 'Whelping Chamber' hardly sounds like a position of high honour. Would they really bother keeping track of every whelp?"

"Yes. How else would they judge which bloodlines were worth cultivating, and for what purpose? Though… I suppose that the tracking only starts once they arrive." She looks mystified at the fruit, so I take a small knife out of subspace and offer it to her, grip first. She takes it and cuts into the flesh of the fruit. "What do you think that you know?"

"You have a certain physical similarity to a local notable. Tell me, Force Captain. Have you heard of He-Man?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
08:21 GMT -5

"Ah…" Wallace shifts uncomfortably as Richard and Raquel look at him. "Yeah…"

"Blitzen has agreed to be our woman on the inside. She has the heroic inclination and… Dubious history that puts her in the victim profile. And her super speed means that she can probably react to an attack and dodge gunfire fast enough to stay alive and call in reinforcements."

"Paul…" Raquel switches her attention to me. "How many Nazis you gunna bring over here?"

"Be fair, Raquel. I didn't bring this one. This was the Overs."

"Uh-huh. Least Kid Flash is looking after this one."

"Actually? Jay Garrick is." Wallace squirms. "I have a secret identity, he doesn't, and she really wanted to meet him…"

Richard looks sceptical. "Isn't Mister Garrick ninety years old?"

"Ninety three. But.. he's in good shape, y'know, running everywhere..."

"Orange Lantern." Kaldur regards me patiently. "Did Blitzen have any way to deceive your empathic abilities?"

"Not that I could detect."

"Do you believe that her claims regarding her motives are true?"

"Yes. In our society, you have to be a nasty piece of work to identify with National Socialism. In hers it's just normal. She genuinely wants to have some sort of relationship with Jay, and she's not acting in accordance with the ideals she's 'meant' to hold. My only concern would be the fact that she doesn't really have a life outside of being 'Blitzen', so-."

Artemis has raised her eyebrows. "That's a concern for you?"

"I had a life before I got my ring. She's been raised to be a superhero from infancy. I have friends outside of the community. She doesn't. She didn't even have a name until she chose one for herself. That said, this mission shouldn't involve her dealing with members of the public all that much."

Kaldur nods. "This is something of an expansion on the mission which Batman set for us, but I agree that it could produce valuable information. Were you and Supergirl able to find anything useful out from Pied Piper?"

"He-."

"He's curing cancer!" She beams for a moment, then her face falls about as far as it ever does. "And Mexican people can be really rude!"

"Cancer?" Wallace blinks in surprise. "Really?"

"Sonic energy can be used to precisely destroy cancerous cells." I shrug. "There's more money in a novel cancer treatment than in rat-charming."

"Hey, that's great!" He smiles. "Next you're gunna tell me that Captain Boomerang's going back to Australia."

"I didn't see anyone from the Immigration Service, so, not as far as I know."

"Getting a real job?"

I shrug awkwardly. "Some people just like… Throwing bent s-. Pieces of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic. Ah, I can talk to Marcus today, see if he's got anything."

Kaldur nods again. "My efforts to speak with Vigilante's friends and family produced little benefit. As far as they knew, he was not undertaking any kind of unusual investigation, and we already knew that he had become less murderous."

Richard frowns. "Maybe that's the issue. Have you looked at who he didn't kill who he might have before he met the Alliance?"

"I did not. It should be a simple matter to compare his arrest records and the criminal records of those whom he arrested. Have you done that for White Dragon?"

"No, it only occurred to me just now." Richard brings up his arm computer. "I didn't get much out of White Dragon's friends, either. There was a lot of speculation, but no real leads. The only thing was when I asked about his racism. They'd noticed that his opinions had changed, and when they asked him about it he'd just brushed them off. Apparently he got annoyed when they kept asking him about it."

"Had he abandoned his purist attitudes?"

"No. It's more that he shifted his position a little. He stopped talking about minority groups as things that he needed to get rid of and started saying that he just wanted to keep white people safe."

I frown. "Getting annoyed about being asked to justify a belief could indicate an unnatural mental influence, but it could equally be that he'd had a bit of a rethink and didn't want to have to justify it to his friends."

Raquel grumps. "So he was still a racist."

"People don't abandon deeply held positions in a few weeks. It's possible that he had but didn't want to just spring that on his friends. Or that he'd have kept moving his position the more he actually interacted with people in the Alliance."

"I've got… Something." Richard looks up from his arm computer. "Some of the serious criminals Vigilante didn't kill had Intergang contacts. They might have been part of Intergang."

"The head of the Alliance used to be part of Intergang." I shrug. "Most people find killing people they know harder than killing strangers. A few personal anecdotes might have been all it took."

Richard nods. "Or it could just be him setting an example. If one guy in Intergang could go straight, why not more?"

Artemis frowns. "Did Vigilante actually meet… What's his name?"

"Vincent Edge. And he's genuine as well."

"Right. Did Vigilante actually meet him? Or even know about him? Because I heard of the Alliance last year but I didn't know who ran it or why they set it up 'til I read Paul's report."

Raquel nods. "And how about White Dragon? Were any of the people he didn't kill members of Intergang?"

"I don't know." Richard shakes his head. "A lot of them don't have great documentation."

"And what about Black Orchid?"

M'gann shrugs. "No one seems to know what she was investigating. I can go check out her old cases, but I haven't learned anything useful."

Kaldur nods. "Follow up whatever leads you have left. Orange Lantern, speak with Alpha Centurion and then remain available to aid Blitzen whenever she needs it."

"I assume that Kara's with me?"

"Unless she feels that the mission would be better served elsewhere?"

Kara shrugs. "I can fly back from Mexico in a few seconds! It's no trouble!"

"Then yes. Do you require anyone else to aid you?"

"No, I can handle it. M'gann, do you need someone who can talk to Black Orchid's plants?"

"No, Cornwall managed it. They tried to help; they really liked her. But she didn't talk to them about it."

"Right then. I'll go and speak with Centurion." I raise my right hand to my forehead. "Speak to you this evening."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell

"A mighty warrior who opposes Skeletor, and through him Hordak? And he has a sword like this one?"

Her eyes dart for a moment to her Sword of Power, and I nod.

"You're… Simplifying things rather a lot, but that's an essentially true summary. I will say though that it's entirely possible that he's never heard of Hordak."

That gets a frown from Evelyn. "Never?"

"He's not the most studious sort, and his tutors have focused on warcraft and statecraft and rather let history go hang."

And to be fair, teaching the Crown Prince to swing a sword is a far better use of his time than having him study pre-invasion Eternia. That society will not come again, and interesting as its successes and failures are they won't have much impact on his life. The general state of He-Man's education can be deduced from his primitive attire; he's clearly from some tribe somewhere and only ever used a book to light fires.

"They never heard-!" Adora seems genuinely incensed. "How could they be unaware of the being whose invasion brought their world to its knees?!"

At least she's eating normal food now.

"Because one of the things that got ravaged was the education infrastructure. And also the data storage repositories and libraries. There are records, but a people who are forced into a subsistence existence are more interested in learning how to grow enough food for them to last the winter than learning about the history of centuries ago."

"And this 'He-Man'. He is their greatest champion?"

"Yes. Has Hordak mentioned his fights with King D'Vann Grayskull to you at all?"

"I was told that he was the Eternian ruler Hordak killed, though he was banished in return."

"Accurate. There's a certain amount of evidence which suggests that the sword He-Man wields belonged to him."

"A descendant, then?"

Huh. I hadn't really thought about it, but… Veena was his wife, but he passed authority onto the Elders as a collective body rather than to her or any children they might have had. Did they not have children? Or did he just not set any store by hereditary succession? Regardless, the Elders lived until Keldor's insurgency, while… His children didn't? I know that Zodak literally lived through the invasion… Eternian lifespans are weird, and I don't entirely understand why.

"Between the sword and the sheer size of the man, that seems likely."

"He is a warrior without equal." Evelyn makes sure to make eye contact with Adora as she says it. "I've yet to see him command any sort of army and he knows nothing of magic, but his sheer physical power makes enemies and obstacles alike a trivial inconvenience."

"Hordak would overcome him as he did his ancestor."

"Hordak isn't here. Are you his equal in might or intellect?"

Adora looks mildly surprised, then shakes her head. "No."

"Then you realise that attacking him yourself would be a fool's errand. So you must decide what you want to do. I know the location of the temple Skeletor used to contact Hordak."

"Is it near to here?"

"No. Travelling there would take several days, and require us to avoid detection. Alternately, we could disguise ourselves and conduct covert reconnaissance on the city of Eternos."

"Are you not known to them?"

Evelyn rises from her chair and waves her now-glowing staff in a circle. Purple mist billows around her for a moment, then disperses to reveal her altered form. Her turquoise and bronze outfit has been replaced by something in green with a red cloak, and the structure of her face has changed enough to render her unrecognisable.

"Not like this."

She's changed her voice as well. Her expression is pretty recognisable, and I wish we had some way of communicating without Adora overhearing because I.. don't really know where she's going with this. Taking Adora into Eternos puts her close to their army, the Masters and her natural parents. With overwhelming power available, detaining her by force would be a good deal easier, but I'm not sure how that actually helps bring her over to our side. I don't at all remember how it was managed in the original animated series, which is annoying because I'm fairly sure that.. my.. cousin..? Owned the book version of the story.

I nod. "Anyone can wear a hooded cloak. If I leave the staff behind I'm not immediately recognisable. And you would not be known at all."

"They would not recognise my helmet? Surely there are some scholars amongst them?"

Evelyn nods. "You would have to change into something that would fit it. I'm sure that I can conjure something appropriate."

Getting her to take off her armour. And she can't carry the sword with her, so that stays here and we don't need to worry about 'She-Woman' appearing by accident.

"Something I can wear over my armour?"

"The citizens of Eternos do not habitually wear armour. Those that do do not wear armour that looks like that. It's far too advanced."

"Too advanced? How primitive are these people?"

I perk up slightly. "Soldiers in most places are limited to armour made of steel plates. More advanced armour is available in a very small number of places new, or as valuable heirlooms handed down from before the invasion. I… Suppose we could paint it a different colour, if-"

"No."

"-you could accept that. Hordak heraldry hasn't changed in the intervening period. You might be able to get away with it at some sort of fancy dress party-"

"No."

"-but otherwise I'm afraid that it wouldn't work. If you don't want something conjured, there… May be something in your size in this castle?"

Adora nods uncertainly. "I could gather useful intelligence and take it back to Hordak once Shadow Weaver opens the portal once more."

Evelyn nods. "Or perhaps we could travel to Hordak's temple once we are more certain of the disposition of our enemies."

Adora nods. "Agreed."

I raise my right hand and think hard about a book on modern Eternian customs-.

A book flies from a book case and slams into my hand. I take a quick look at the cover -Diary of a Journeyman- and offer it to Adora.

"This should give you some idea of how Eternian society works. Evil-Lyn and I can go and look for some clothing while you read it."

She takes it, and I stand and follow Evelyn out of the library. I close and sneck the door behind us.

"So what are you planning?"

She looks down, looking at the lock for her staff.

"So what are you planning?"

"Get her to disarm herself, take her to Eternos… Hope that she works out that she's Adora for herself without us needing to tell her so that it's more convincing."

She smiles. "Precisely. Perhaps we could even deny it to make it more convincing?"

"I'm not sure-. I can't leave the castle entirely unattended. You can't go out unsupervised, and-."

"Even with the princess of Eternia?"

"Especially with her."

"Then I suppose that I will simply have to stay here. With the Sword of Power. And since no one else is available-."

Oh no.

"I have to transfer the power to you." Damn it. "Go and find her some clothes while I try working out how to modify the geas so that Teela Na won't put one on me when she finds out about this."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
15:04 GMT

The Pax Romana very visibly tracks the retreating starships with its primary weapons, though it makes no move to accelerate after them. The trio of ships in question don't look anything special; small freighters with a light armament, more focused on speed than armour. None of them have any alert flags, but at the same time Marcus isn't the sort to go around picking fights. Not picking up any weapon fire and none of the ships look damaged in any way…

Not sure what's happened there.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Pax Romana."

"Alpha Centurion responding. Were they friends of yours?"

"I have no information on those ships. Where were they flagged as coming from?"

"Timaron. A dead world."

"I know it. Commodore Amalak is one of my.. contacts in Vega. Useful fellow. If they're looking for more of their species I could send them his coordinates and contact details."

"They're not. They're looking for revenge."

"Ah."

"Did they hear of Superman from your lips?"

"No. That would have been an obvious mistake… But I didn't ask Koriand'r to avoid mentioning him. Or Adam Blake. Did they ask after him specifically?"

"No. They visited the Rao system and noticed that one of the moons had moved."

"Oh."

"They will not be the last. Krypton was known for its technological sophistication and military might. People have tried raiding the system before."

"And, what? They think that now someone has succeeded that must mean that the defences are off?"

"I suspect that they reached the conclusion that surviving kryptonians must be the ones who recovered their planetoid."

"So their plan is to visit every space-faring civilisation in the region to see who's putting them up?"

"Or perhaps see where they have established a colony. I don't believe that they have visited Earth, but it is possibly to decipher radio waves from the edge of a system. Superman's face is widely known. In theory, they could have heard of him over a substantial area."

"Not easily. Assembling an actual picture or coherent speech from outside the Sol system would require huge amounts of processing power and detection equipment. That's not something that a random group of freebooters could put together. But I… Take your point."

I look around.

"Just the Pax out here, then?"

"You sent your ships to the Alignment."

"Yes, but the Russians have that launch cannon and Starfire's ship, and the US must be working on something by now. I know that someone got hold of Doctor Knight's cosmic converter technology from somewhere."

"Disappointing, is it not?"

"Yes. Yes, it is. I don't suppose that the virmiru are likely to pass comment?"

"I imagine that you could get a message to them more swiftly than I could. They are a people given to making long term plans. Their emissary to this region would have left long before I began my return journey, and I have had no contact with them since."

"I don't suppose anyone in the Alliance of the Just has a spaceship, do they?"

"Not as far as I know. Most are 'street level', as you might say. Those that aren't usually limit their interest to terrestrial events. Does the Justice League not have spacecraft?"

"Martian Manhunter has one, but it's effectively an upgunned civilian ship. The Hawks have another, but it's not designed for deep space operations. Batman has a glorified rocket plane. Then it's just the Lanterns."

"Then it's a mercy that we haven't been invaded before now."

"Thanagar and the Alignment were heading this way, if it makes you feel any better."

"Do you have the matter in hand?"

"That's a long way down the 'plan' list. To my mind, raising a interstellar navy on Earth would be a pretty clear sign that I'd decided to take over the world."

"But bringing an external navy across the Rubicon was not?"

"That was just something I had laying around. There's a difference between riding to an ally's aid and taking over the mechanisms of their state."

"True, I suppose. Might it be advantageous for me to coordinate my patrols with the Justice League? I have been working under the assumption that they would have acquired a long range detection system of some kind, but if that is not so then the sensor system of the Pax Romana could serve."

"The Hawks were kind enough to volunteer some Thanagarian monitoring devices."

Because the League are still pretending that the Watchtower doesn't exist, despite the fact that knowing there was a neutral station which could serve as space traffic control and somewhere to get a general alert from could serve as an excellent bypass to 'who owns space' arguments. The sort of thing that most spacefaring civilisations have above their homeworld, even the ones that never unified politically.

"As well as their interdiction equipment. The very bare bones are covered, but that's about all. I'll pass your comments along, and give Batman a bit of a nudge about it."

"Thank you. Are there other matters you wish to discuss?"

"Yesterday, a woman named Jill Carlyle attempted to kill the first Wildcat. That brought to light the fact that she was almost certainly responsible for a large number of deaths, and the League is investigating those. Three didn't appear to fit the pattern; they were Alliance members."

"And you want access to our records?"

"Records, personal recollections, anything that we could use to work out what is going on."

"I can arrange that. Who were they?"

"Vigilante, White Dragon and Black Orchid."

"Orchid?"

"Did you know her?"

"Yes, we worked together on several occasions. The other two I remember as short-sighted and violent, but she was intelligent and subtle. Has this Jill Carlyle killed a great many people?"

"Dozens of superheroes. We're not sure whether she's killed other people as well. We think she might be being controlled to an extent by evil spirits in her guns, but that's about as far as we've got."

"I see. Well then, let us return to the bosom of Tellus and I will gather the information that you seek."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 17th bell

This plan has gone somewhere it really shouldn't.

Adora née Despara is wearing a… Nice..? Tunic that I assume Prince Adam left in Grayskull at some point. I mean, Teela Na doesn't get a lot of guests, so it's either him or Sir Duncan, and it's nothing like large enough for him. The quality of the cloth is good and the fit isn't terrible and that's about as much as I'm qualified to say about it. She's looking around in guarded fascination at the festively-dressed city, smiling couples walking the streets and cheerfully greeting their friends.

Eternos doesn't exactly have a state religion. The nearest thing they have is the universal reverence the people hold for the Elders, but there's no temple or anything like that. I think that the royal couple are going to be doing a speech at some point, but I wasn't paying any attention to the arrangements because… I was either going to be in Castle Grayskull, or in its mistress.

And now I'm in neither, and probably in trouble.

Adora left the Sword of Power in Castle Grayskull, so all she's got are a couple of short swords she picked up from the castle's armoury. And that's good. It doesn't even stand out that much, as more people took to arming themselves as a response to Keldor freeing himself.

She left the Sword of Power in Castle Grayskull, with Evil-Lyn, who is now studying it. And that's bad. And because the Sorcerer/Sorceress needs to be on-site in case something… Unexpected happens, Evelyn Powers now has the power. She can't rewrite her own geas and she doesn't have the activation phrase for the Sword but I'm…

"What… Are they celebrating?"

"The… Older couples are celebrating love and familial bonds. The younger couples are tentatively celebrating their own relationships. The singletons are using the atmosphere to try and start relationships with other people embarrassed by their single state, with inhibitions reduced by the event and by intoxicating beverages." I glance awkwardly at her. "I… Suppose that's not something you have a great deal of experience with?"

"That question is irrelevant to our task. Why do they do this?"

"Why this event.. particularly?" A curt nod as she stares at a boy and girl slightly younger than her awkwardly failing to hold a conversation. "This sort of social ritual bonds a civilisation together by marking major stages in the lives of its inhabitants. Most people will marry at some point in their lives, and most will have children. It also serves to emphasise the significance of the pairing, and so reinforcing it and therefore the society which relies on those bonds for its strength."

"Are you married?"

"Ah-. No."

"Do you have children?"

"Not as yet."

"Good. A warrior in Hordak's service should be able to rise above the profligates and dedicate themselves to him in their totality."

"I'm… I'm getting a certain image of life under-"

"Hey, Orange!"

"-Hordak-." I turn, smiling, as Krass and Ekra-. I don't think I fully appreciated the size difference before I saw them next to each other with Krass out of armour. Good grief, he's got to be three times her mass. Four times. Maybe five. "Krass! Delighted to see you!"

Adora's going for her swords grab her arm and wrap it around mine as if I were her escort and pull her close enough with a solid enough grip that she can't take a fighting stance and start walking towards my good friend who is almost certainly setting off her 'threat alert' instincts because, my goodness, he's a big lad.

He's grinning a big, dopy grin and I'm happy that he finally took the plunge and I'm really hoping that this is just a brief 'hello' before they go somewhere else, because this could really go very badly.

"I didn't think you were coming! I thought you were busy with-." He tries to work out how to refer to Grayskull without directly mentioning it. "Y'know."

"Something came up, and I had to get someone to cover for me while I attend to it."

He looks at Adora. "Uh… Huh…"

Not mentioning the fact that she's half my age, because we both remember what happened last time that came up.

"Despara is new to Eternos and I decided to show her the city at its best. Despara, this is my good friend Krass and his beau Miss Ekra."

Ekra nods her head politely. "I'm glad that you're visiting during the festival. You're really seeing the city at its best."

Adora… Stares at them for a moment.

"… Hello."

My smile probably looks a little unnatural. "She's a little shy. Look, have you seen Sir Duncan? I need a word."

"Oh yeah! He actually came this year too! Ah, last time I saw them, they were in the big park, but… I dunno if they're still there." He thinks for a moment. "I'd… Probably leave them alone? Man-at-Arms doesn't get a lot of time to himself, and… It's a festival."

I nod. "You're probably right." I take a half-step back. "We'd best be getting on. You two have a nice evening."

"Oh? Oh! Okay." He shyly lays his right hand on Ekra's entire left forearm and they share a slightly bashful smile, before proceeding down the street.

Adora watches them like a hawk as they go, waiting until they disappear around a corner before returning her attention to me.

"Who. Was. That?"

"Krass. Sergeant Krass. A member of the Masters of the Universe, the kingdom's elite military unit."

Her swords leap for my throat, and are blocked by two orange construct shields.

"Traitor."

"We don't have the raw power for a direct attack. Gathering intelligence requires making well-placed contacts. People who will tell you things if you buy them a drink, or show you the guard's equipment because you showed an interest." I raise my hands, pushing against the inside of my shields to move her swords away. "I take it that Hordak's horde has no need for such subtlety?"

"Little." Eyeing me suspiciously, she sheathes her swords. "I am done with this pretence. I will explore the city for myself. Follow me or do not."

She stalks rides past me, heading in the direction Krass came from.

Can't let her go off on her own, but I should probably give her a little space. I create a sound-deadening aura around me and walk after her, hanging back and using the ring to keep track of her in the crowd.

Okay, getting her to recognise who she is… How. Photography doesn't exist here. Queen Marlena actually did have a camera when she first arrived, but it stopped working years ago. There's no picture of the young princess that I could arrange for her to 'accidentally' find. Which leaves…

I sigh and put my hands on my amulet. Using magic for something simple is usually fairly instinctive, training mostly revolving around how to use it under stress. In this case, reaching out to someone who shares a connection to Grayskull…

"Sorceress, I apologise for contacting you-."

I get a momentary image of big and strong and reliable and comforting before she limits my view. Glad things are doing well.

"I am glad that you approve. What is it, Orange Lantern? And why do I feel you away from Castle Grayskull?"

"Right, yes, there's a good reason for that, but first… Do Eternians have unusually good memories, and is there a spell for restoring things that have been forgotten?"

"What has occurred?"

"Well, on the positive side, Princess Adora's back."

"What?!"

And I see Sir Duncan stiffen at the surprise she expressed openly.

"And she's been totally brainwashed by Hordak and Friends. She thinks I work for Skeletor and I'm keeping an eye on her. So… Memory spell?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
13:32 GMT -5

"So we're pretty sure that White Dragon and Vigilante never met each other?"

Marcus types a new search and presses 'enter'.

"So far as I can tell, they never met at our events. Beyond that I could not say." He moves a mouse and highlights other names on the attendee lists. "According to this, there are at least three people who attended meetings at various times with both of them."

"I see that your name is one of them."

He nods. "I try to attend gatherings in as many areas as possible. Given how the Alliance has expanded of late, that is not as great a proportion as it once was."

"Oh? What sort of area do you cover these days?"

"All corners of the world, saving only China. Though finding appropriate partners in all places has proven to be a little difficult, and while the majority of our affiliates are American, we can provide training in almost every country on Earth."

"Oh. I hadn't realised. What's the take-up like outside of the US?"

"It varies a great deal. In Europe we're replicating the model we use in America, though with a little more contact with national governments. South America is… Difficult. Accalacan doesn't have much use for us, and the other nations are experiencing a wave of newly ascendant tyrants who do not wish to be seen to be too closely aligned to foreigners. In Africa, there is a great need but the infrastructure is so poor that we cannot gather enough metahumans together to be truly effective."

"What about magicians?"

"Where would we find tutors, when even the mighty Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps has struggled?" I make an amused 'hm' noise. "When magicians come to us, we are forced to train them as if their abilities were no different from the natural powers of metahumans, and hope that gradual experimentation amongst their own supporters will allow them to gather knowledge. Eventually, we will have a library of sufficient volume that we will be able to provide the answers they seek, but for now…"

"Magic not a big deal in Rome? Or on the virmiru homeworld?"

"In Rome, there were the mysteries revealed to those who gave their lives to the cults of the various gods. As a Christian, I was unconvinced how many were engaged in devilry and how many were simply charlatans. My time amongst the virmiru moderated that view only in that it opened my mind to the possibility that they had access to knowledge of the functions of the natural world that was not widely known."

"And then you came back to this."

"It was not the greatest surprise, but it was noteworthy."

"It's funny; a while ago I mentioned taking this approach to the Justice League. Forming contacts with superheroes across the world and providing direction, a code of conduct…"

"They don't appear to have made any moves in that direction."

"No. I'm… Sort of used to them ignoring my advice on organisational matters. Though I am pleased that someone's doing it."

"Now you've made me curious. How are the Justice League organised?"

"Rotating chairmanship, everyone votes on major decisions, new recruits need everyone's approval and there's no set criteria."

He gives me a mild frown. "That… Sounds…"

"I know, and I told them that." I shake my head. "They might have changed it since then, I don't know."

"Would you be willing to assist us?"

I shrug. "I move around too much to be involved in an organisation. I could probably build you a few virtual reality training suites if you have a site in mind..?"

"We would appreciate that, but I understand that you were responsible for the Justice League's worldwide training exercise?"

"I was the directing mind, but that took the input of a great many people."

"Could you run an exercise on a smaller scale?"

"Certainly, but the Alliance doesn't have the same degree of official recognition that the Justice League does. It would be a good deal harder to persuade authorities to participate in training exercises; that sort of thing is highly disruptive."

"While it is true that the Alliance does not have the League's mandate, we are beginning to sign cooperation agreements with a number of cities. Even a few countries."

"Then I… Suppose I could commit to one a year? I don't know how you're going to decide who gets it."

"My thought on the subject was that we would form a mobile reserve of volunteers. When there was a surge in crime in a particular area, or a supervillain emerged who was in possession of far more power than the local members could safely engage, we could move our reserve to that location. It would be something like what the Congregation do when they call for aid."

"Sounds like a good idea to me, but Congregationalists can teleport. They can call in aid for a particular fight. A reserve force would take… They'd usually have to get to an airport and fly to wherever they were needed. That could take a day or two, assuming that they didn't need a visa or other travel documentation."

"We're building a teleportation network."

I raise my eyebrows. "You are?"

"My sponsors were familiar with teleportation technology. And while I'm sure that your efforts to sponsor genius technologists who wish to use their intellects commercially are quite helpful, a significant number have offered us their assistance."

"Satellite based? I tried to sell the League on the idea, but they didn't go for it."

"No, transmission towers. They generate a weak quantum entanglement field, allowing us to transport our people to anywhere where the fields intersect. Getting enough towers to cover the world will be the work of decades, but we believe that three will be enough for the United States."

I have… Heard of the technology. It's not popular in most places because the quantum manipulation can interfere with other devices that civilisations advanced enough to build them would be using. But I suppose that's not a problem on Earth. Powering the things might be a problem… Or might have a few years ago. Global energy costs have been slashed as a result of my threat to the energy market. It might actually be viable, though there would be the problem of having infrastructure on Earth where national governments might decide to get in the way.

In terms of effectiveness, the system would be immune to most forms of conventional interference. And since the field is constantly active, it's far easier to conceal its use than the use of other forms of teleportation.

"I'd be interested in-."

My ring blinks.

"Excuse me." I raise my left hand. "Yes?"

Alan's face appears, though he's not looking at the camera.

"Paul, get to Dakota City right now. Avenger's here and she's not playing around."

I nod. "With you in two, one."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
13:36 GMT -5

I appear high above the Alva Technologies building, which in turn towers over most of the city. I've only been here a few times, and it-

Hope detected.

-never really had any appeal. Same urban decay as a lot of formerly manufacturing-focused cities in America with a tech billionaire taking advantage of the cheap land and tax incentives to build things that the locals didn't want or need. Alva's like Lex Luthor without the idealism that prompted me to try working with him. But at the same time he's not an imminent threat to the world, just a utility drain who would make the world a measurably better place if he took a dive out of his office window one day.

I see flashes of blue in the building below me as Alan fights someone.

"On site."

"Evacuate the Alva Technologies building. We've got a plan."

"Sir."

I fly down, scanning the building for people and-. And use a crumbler construct to break through the force field that someone put up when they got attacked, presumably as part of a disaster contingency plan that was implemented without any actual thought. Or maybe they're just testing it, I don't know. Okay, I've got no idea who Ms. Carlyle is targetting, but there are quite a few corpses in there and the internal walls aren't all that thick. People are trying to flee, but it looks like the ones on the upper floors don't know where they can go that won't just result in them getting shot.

…

Obvious problem with that is that they're all people voluntarily working for Lex-but-worse. So no super fast filaments transitioning them to the nearest open space as I could for people I liked or respected. Instead, I tear an opening down the side of the building furthest from the stairs and generate a grav-chute construct.

Then I extend construct signs into the building, pointing to the new evacuation-

Alan smashes the floor that Ms. Carlyle was standing on and as she shifts back into smoke uses a fan construct in an attempt to push her out of the building. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like her smoke works like that, and he's forced to transition-dodge as she regains her footing.

-route, which I immediately change to route them around the crazed gunwoman on the floor she's on and the ones immediately above and below her.

Alan barricades the way back up but Ms. Carlyle doesn't bother trying to go that way, instead-

Filament and move!

-taking a shot at an office worker I just about get out of the way in time.

Ring, research their background. Just because they don't deserve to die, that doesn't mean that they don't have something coming to them.

Compliance.

People are starting to use my chute, dropping at near-terminal velocity and then halting safely at ground level. And they're doing that stupid thing of landing and not getting out of the way that always irritates me. Okay, add an impeller construct to give them a shove at the bottom, good. Police are starting to arrive, and they're-. They're building a barricade of cars to keep the rubberneckers away from the superhuman fight. Camera phones are already being raised.

I practise restraint and don't wipe their memories.

Alan sends a straitjacket construct at Ms. Carlyle, but she walks through it as if it weren't even there-

"Alan, try putting runes on the construct."

-as she keeps shooting. Not at everyone -I watch as two people sheltering in a cubicle are completely ignored as she walks past them- but at a great many people. Alan's throwing up barriers and deploying riot shields from his subspace pocket in an attempt to weaken the bullets but they're still-

Transition that one!

-bullets. Even without a demonic enhancement they'll punch through flesh easily enough, as my right shoulder will confirm.

Some of the people on the street are trying to get as far away from the building as they can. Too many have moved to what I can see them telling themselves is a 'safe distance' against a teleporter with possessed guns and decided that now is the time to take advantage of being inside the cordon and watch the super fight. And/or film it. If I weren't-

Change the signs again as there's a better route.

-focusing on the fight-. Aren't there places where they have anti-rubbernecker barriers for car crashes? We need one of those.

"Youbetcha."

The next time Ms. Carlyle fires, her shot is intercepted by a construct shield bearing the blue lantern sigil. The bullet punches through the shield just as easily as before. Is the sigil even-?

The bullet hits a computer monitor and gets embedded in the plastic.

"Worked!"

"Saw that."

He boxes her in, blue sigil glaring from each side of the construct packing crate, sides slamming together and trapping her within! She actually stops, blindfolded face staring at the glowing walls hold holding her in. And unlike he would have done right after returning to active duty, Alan remembers to keep back just in case she pulls something. Ms. Carlyle taps the butt of the gun in her right hand against the interior of the box, achieving nothing.

Reroute the signs again, and this part of the building is mostly cleared. I start removing the chute construct so that it can't get damaged by a wayward bullet in case she breaks out.

Being careful to keep a wall… Well, an interior partition, between him and her, Alan creates an Alan construct in front of her.

"Miss? What's this all about?"

Her head turns slightly, and she realises that she's too tightly compressed to raise her guns. So she reverses them, poking them under her arms and firing at the rear of the construct trapping her. Fractures appear as the first rounds punch through, cracks for the second and she doesn't bother firing again, red mist pouring out and allowing her to walk through the otherwise-solid construct. She raises her guns at-

DODGE!

-me, the shot passing through the open-plan office and exiting the building through the window, passing over my right shoulder. With Alan's sterling example in mind I create orange construct disks with the orange sigil on them and fire them into the path of the bullet. The first is smashed asunder, the second gets cracked and the third catches the bullet. Present for Batman.

"Alright, if that's what you want."

Alan's boxed her in again, beams running through the interior of the crate forcing her to point her guns upwards.

"Two important things Paul taught me. The first one is, everyone's got a reason that makes sense to them, and you can't understand them unless you understand how they think about things. You're doing all this because of what happened to your boyfriend? Seems to me that a good cop like him wouldn't be on board with you going on a killing spree. The other important thing he taught me-"

His constructs glow brilliantly.

"-is how to use a ring to make someone feel an emotion. Because it seems to me that what you're short on is hope."

There's a blue flash, and Ms. Carlyle shudders inside her construct prison.

And then she points both barrels at her head and pulls the triggers.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
13:54 GMT -5

"That Alva guy give you any trouble?"

Alan stares morosely at the bottles of liquor lined up on the wall behind the bar, his elbows resting on its surface and his chin resting on his hands. His ring's glow is dim to the point where I can't see his environmental shield.

"No." I pull out the stool next to him and sit down, noting the glass of whisky he has in front of him. "I don't know if that was because none of the local superheroes were with me or if he's more different to Lex Luthor than I've been assuming."

"Mm."

"Though if what Rocket told me is right, I'm surprised that he's still alive. If I'd been going on a murderous rampage I'd have prioritised him above anyone else."

"You... Got any plans to do that..?"

"Do I have plans? Yes."

Alan nods, his gaze still distant. "But you're not thinking about putting them into action right this minute."

"Now you've brought it up I am. But I wasn't, otherwise." I make eye contact with the barwoman, who I'm pleased to see hasn't picked up a camera. "Orange juice for me, please."

A nod, and a quick grab at the under-bar fridge later there's a glass filled with orange juice in front of me. I take a sip.

"Did I-? Did I do it wrong?"

"Not as far as I could tell."

He nods sadly. "Could you see something..?"

"No, sorry. Between the demons in the guns and the blue light, empathic vision wasn't giving me anything useful."

"I figured. But I wanted to ask."

I nod, and take another sip. Time to have another go at convincing Britvic to rerelease Still Tango. Or… I could just buy it. And Ribena and Um Bongo. Or I could just license the old recipes; can't assume that everyone shares my tastes. That would actually-.

"Think of something?"

"Nothing relevant." I shrug. "Are there..? Old drinks from the thirties you miss?"

"They stopped putting cocaine in Coca-Cola before my ma would let me drink it. Twen'ies were a big time for cocktails but I was too young, and there wasn't a lot going on during the Depression." He turns his head just far enough to look at my drink. "What, are they watering your orange juice again?"

"No, just… Thinking about things I used to drink."

"Buying another company?"

"Maybe."

He takes a small sip of his drink, then catches me watching. "You know, I do remember Prohibition. I've known people who ruined their lives with drink. I'm not an alcoholic, but I… I do use alcohol as a… What do you call it? A coping mechanism, sometimes."

"I… Didn't…"

"You don't get on anyone's case about it, but you don't drink at all yourself." He exhales through his nose. "I don't even really need this to steady my nerves, but… God damn. She just shot herself right in front of me."

"Yeah."

"What the heck did she do something like that for, huh?" He shakes his head. "We knew the guns were possessed. She wasn't going to get punished for what they made her do."

"It could have been the guns-."

"It wasn't the guns. I could… I could feel it when I got through to her. She decided to shoot herself."

"We can't know why. She might only have got a moment of freedom and decided that she'd rather stop the guns killing anyone else than take a risk on us being able to free her. Heck… Even if she picked them up willingly to start with, she can't have known what she'd have been driven to."

"Or what?"

"'Or what' what?"

"You're not exactly known for your light-hearted up-beat outlook, Paul."

"It could have been the guns. Sometimes, when demonic creatures get exposed to emotions they can't process, they do uncharacteristic things."

"Like shoot their host."

"Or that might have been her being driven out of her mind by the contrary impulses. Or -given how her body disappeared- she might not actually be dead."

"I saw the back come off her head, Paul. I felt it when her brains sprayed all over the inside of my construct. Then just…" He swirls his glass around. "Poof. Gone."

"I'll try and get hold of Mammon. See if her soul ended up downstairs."

"Yeah. I'm going to finish my drink and then try and work out what the hell happened to make this whole mess happen."

"Alan, I'm kind of a psycho. You're not. I could take people blowing their brains out all over the inside of my construct all day and it wouldn't bother me. You can't, and it would. If you want to knock off early..?"

"I'd rather keep working." He exhales sharply, downs what's left of his whisky and deposits a few dollar bills on the bar. "Even if it's just fetching and carrying, I'd rather have something to focus on. Something to keep me busy."

"If you're sure."

"I may not be an alcoholic, but if you keep using a coping mechanism you can fall into the habit." I nod. "Bet you're impressed I know what a 'coping mechanism' is, aren't you?"

"I assume you and Guy talk about something when I'm not around." I raise my own glass to my lips to finish my drink.

"And don't call yourself a psycho. You're just resilient. Maybe a little callous. But you're not a psycho." He stands, his cape billowing around his bar stool. "Things going well at your end?"

"We're gathering information, certainly." I lower my empty glass and place my payment plus a small tip down next to it. "But since we don't understand why this is happening, we're just acting as drift nets until we get a better idea about what's going on."

"No red flags, then?"

"None so far. A lot about what the Alliance does is odd, but then this life isn't exactly 'normal' to start with."

"I'm not so sure. Diana told me once that back in Ancient Greece they didn't have any kind of police. If people wanted to keep them and theirs safe then they had to do it themselves."

I nod. "True, mostly."

"Then really, this sort of grass roots thing is a return to form. The unusual thing is people assuming that the police could handle things on their own."

I nod. "There's something to that. Ah, Alan."

"Yeah?"

"If you want to talk about anything, I'm just a ring call away, right?"

"Yeah." He nods, reaching out with his right hand to pat me on the right shoulder. "I know."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
20:27 GMT

Trailing grape vines wrapped around pillars of white marble, friezes decorated in the classical style and a small band in the corner playing medieval music.

And a colossally corpulent demon sitting on a throne at the head of the room.

"Illustres, m'boy!" Mammon smiles broadly, raising… In all fairness, relatively muscular arms, in greeting. "What can the President of Hell do for you today?"

I take a moment to look around. "I see that you've remodelled."

"My power rests on the support of my subjects… But it's my power. I felt that the Greek model of an enlightened tyrant was better than anything suggesting hereditary.. kingship."

"And styling yourself as a king would suggest that you ultimately wanted direct control of all nine circles, whereas if you look fat and happy-"

"Which I do and am!"

"-it reassures the others that you aren't interested in the Crown of Horns. Though on the subject of expansion, have you appointed a ruler to The Odium yet? I imagine that putting one of the senior Renderers-."

"Ah." He actually manages to look a little awkward. "No. As it turns out, there was an outstanding candidate. So outstanding, in fact, that appointing anyone else would have looked ridiculous. And since my ruling council is consent-based…"

"Anyone I need to worry about?"

"Did you have any dealings with Lucifer?"

"Not knowingly."

"And how do you feel about a cosmology ruled by a single, all-powerful, all-knowing and all-righteous divinity?"

"I'm against it. I'd rather that people be free to make a mess of things."

"Then I imagine that the two of you would get on well enough. She was something of a Lucifer-loyalist, but that ardour appears to have been dimmed by him abandoning creation."

"He's gone? You're sure that he's actually left?"

"With beings like Lucifer it's almost impossible to be completely certain. But Lady Mazikeen was his consort for a very long time. If she thinks that he's gone, then it's as good as true." He leans forward slightly. "Unless you know differently?"

I shake my head. "No. I'm just relieved that I've got one less arbitrarily powerful entity to deal with."

"I ask because there's been a certain amount of… Idle speculation. Concerning your true nature."

"I've been fairly open about my origin."

"Yes, but we're not known for honesty or faithfulness down here, and we're biased to assuming that others share our habits. Your appearance in the wake of his final vanishing act, your attitudes, your ascent in the ranks of power… Your mystically-obscured name, even your totemic bond with a great serpent-."

"You think I'm Lucifer?"

"The possibility has been mooted. In certain circles."

"You think I'm actually Lucifer, or just some creation of his?"

"Lucifer would be perfectly capable of granting an aspect of his character their own agency. Though it would be uncharacteristic for him to create someone purely as a pawn."

"To the best of my knowledge, I am neither Lucifer nor a creation of his."

"But it's not as if we can check, is it? But…" He waves his right hand. "Idle speculation. And we've drifted away from the subject of your visit."

"I'm looking for the soul of a woman named Jill Carlyle. Died a few hours ago after murdering quite a few people."

"If she came to Hell and retained coherence, she would have gone to Internecia. I will summon the lists."

"There are a few other names I'd like to check out as well." I fabricate an updated list of Crimson Avenger's victims and-. And pass it to a demonic flunky in robes who scurries across the floor and up the podium to Mammon's side with remarkable speed. "Would-be heroes who might have-."

A huge book resting on an equally huge lectern appears next to Mammon, cover opening and pages turning as he looks over my list.

After a few moments the book stops.

"No. Nothing for a recent inductee named Jill Carlyle and nothing for any of these people." He smiles. "What a remarkably virtuous collection."

"Okay, do you have anything on their sins? I assume that those would be recorded even if they didn't end up coming here?"

"Yes, we're subcontractors for a variety of places that find it more efficient for us to do their legwork for them." He smiles. "Sloth. It was such a wonderful invention."

He claps his hands and another lectern with an even larger book appears on his opposite side. The pages don't move, prompting a mild frown.

"Strange."

He grips the cover with his left hand and starts flicking through it with his right, slowly at first but quickly gathering speed until the pages move in a blur, the back cover slamming shut a moment alter.

"Problem?"

"Nothing. According to our records, not one of them so much as coveted their neighbour's ass for even a moment."

"Is that possible?"

"The odds against it are steep, to say the least. Were they all warrior-saints raised in monasteries?"

"One was a nazi. Several of them were killers."

"Do you know what this means?"

"Demons are failing to detect sins?"

He looks horrified.

"We'll be ruined! I've built my premiership on the idea that I'm a safe pair of hands, and I had no idea that someone was dodging-. People come up with ways of dodging Hell all the time, and some of them work for decades. This, we didn't even know this was happening!"

The musicians stop, cringing. Mammon notices and waves at them to carry on as he calms himself.

"I can trust you to investigate?"

He nods, the books and lecterns vanishing in a puff of pure white cloud. "For my own sake, as much as anything else."

"Thank you. And don't feel too bad about it. You found out because of your alliance with me. The other Lords of Hell don't have anything similar."

"That you know about. But you're right; that might mollify them. Bless it, we need to get on this immediately. Do you have any idea what might have caused this?"

"The murderer was using possessed handguns, but-."

"Wouldn't have been enough. Even if the demon in the guns got greedy, we'd still have a record of their sins. What gun was it?"

"I don't know their names. The guns the Crimson Avenger used to use."

"Them? Yes, we know who they are." He heaves his bulk out of his seat and strolls down the podium. "Why don't we go call 'em up right away?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
20:35 GMT

'Gaudy' is the word that comes to mind when I look around Mammon's summoning chamber. The main body of the room is marble once again, only this time it's black with grey veins running through it. The actual summoning glyphs are poured gold which remains molten in the grooves carved for it in the floor in the centre of the room. Gold braziers burning with golden fire illuminate the room, and wards made of more gold cover the walls.

"I've been meaning to redecorate, but this has sentimental value."

"Really?"

"No. Every atom of gold here is associated with a grave sin, making it a perfect conduit for my magic. And I really like gold." Mammon takes his place at the head of the room. "I delight in shallowness. Out there, I have to appear to have entirely converted to the creed of enlightened self-interest. In my private spaces I can go back to being my true self."

"A giant demonic magpie?"

"Crudely stated, but not untrue. Now we must simply wait for-."

A woman walks in unescorted, dressed in a kimono-inspired dress covered in a cloak made of the same cloth. Which knowing demonic aristocracy is probably something far fouler. Her skin is tan and her hair jet black and if I saw her on Themyscira I wouldn't look at most of her twice. The exception is the left side of her head, where a… Mask? Prosthetic? Cybernetic? An artificial eye, and the side of her jaw is… Rebuilt? Reinforced?

She stares at me with piercing intensity the moment she has line of sight, something in her cybernetic eye refocusing itself and flickering as it does… Something.

"My Lady Mazikeen. Thank you for joining us. I felt that given the nature of the artifice involved it would be appropriate for you to-."

Her organic eye blinks at me. "Father."

Without turning his head, Mammon eyes me for a second and then takes a step away.

"Um. I'm.. reasonably confident that I'm not-."

"You call it the Ophidian, a great elemental being so bound into you that I cannot tell where it begins and you end. You may as well be its human face."

"I've… Always perceived the Ophidian's presence as feminine. Though since she-. It's not biological, that's an honourific."

"The Ophidian granted my mother a small portion of its power to quicken me, so I call it my father. And since you are the Ophidian made flesh, I may as well address you in that fashion."

"Ah… I'm going to need a little while to explain that logic to my girlfriend. And I suppose that I'm going to need to know when your birthday is. Um."

I approach her and slightly awkwardly open my arms for a hug, waiting for some sort of indication that she's actually interested in-.

"You offer your affection freely?"

"Familial relationships are reciprocal. I offer to start such a relationship freely." I shrug. "I can't deny that I sometimes forget that the Ophidian and I are separate beings, and I accept that for better or worse. And if you're on board with Mammon's plans then you can't be all that bad."

She looks up at Mammon. "I believe that we can rule out him being the Morningstar. Though he does sound like someone the Morningstar may have left in my path."

"So is..? Is that a 'no' on the hug..?"

Ignoring me, she walks around the ritual space until she's standing on the opposite side of the summoning pit. I lower my arms, shrugging. I've got no idea how old she is but she's clearly an adult. I'll ask Angelica about her background later.

Lady Mazikeen's eye shifts again as she reviews the summoning grid.

"Accurate. And since The Odium has accepted my suzerainty we won't need to trouble ourselves with true names. By the power of Hell: guns, appear."

For a fraction of a second I see a.. forge? A gun smithy? And some people in classical evil cultist gear. Honestly, I was half-expecting to see John Constantine, but I suppose that the twenties were a bit before his time. And Johanna Constantine was too far back for that style of gun.

And then there's a sort of spark and the guns I remember all too well appear in the centre of the ritual space, about two metres off the ground. The… Flecks of blood and brain that ended up on them after Ms. Carlyle turned them on herself are still visible on the barrel.

"Mistress?"

"Guns." Mammon leans on his podium, as if attending to a tiresome duty. "Explain to me what you were doing with that Jill Carlyle human."

"Nothing, lord."

"It sounds like someone wants to do this the easy way."

Lady Mazikeen's eye clicks and strobes as I connect to the Ophidian, though her posture remains unaltered.

"Nothing! We delight in spurring mortals to murder, but in her there is a great pit. She could not hear us at all! Our voices went… Somewhere, somewhere cold and pressing. And a dull echo came back. Until the blue light blinded and burned it, we could not speak to her at all!"

"Lady and gentleman? Is that claim credib-?"

The glyphs below the guns glow blue and their firing pins glow red with heat! The blood encrusting them blackens and burns, foul smoke rising off them.

"Mistress!"

"Do not think to sneak a lie past my eyes by concealing it within truth. Answer honestly and in full."

"We could speak to her at the beginning! She fought us! Then the darkness came!"

The firing pins dim slightly.

"Who put the darkness in her?"

"Mistress, we were not made with eyes! We can see only dimly!"

"What did you see, then?"

"A god! Cold, forceful! Alpha-Predator! Rock of unyielding will!"

That narrows it down nicely. An evil, strong-willed god. But it does let us know that neither Jill Carlyle nor… The demons, were responsible for all of the deaths.

Mammon frowns. "What about the other sinners?"

"It cared not for sin, and so there was none. It cared only for obedience, and so obedience is all there was!"

Mammon nods. "Illustres, is that at all helpful?"

"It clears a few things up. And gives the investigation a new direction. Thank you, thank you both."

"Do you want the guns?"

"Not particularly. Do you?"

Mammon considers the idea.

"You suggested that I consider sponsoring a vigilante. Having seen what can be achieved by someone acting contrary to Hell's interests, I think that I may just do that."

"Anyone I know?"

"Oh, no, Lantern." He shakes his head. "That'll be my little Secret."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
16:56 GMT -5

"…which is why I'm here. Because when I think 'evil god walking around', Darkseid is the first person who comes to mind."

Barda nods. Mr. Free would probably nod if he could move.

"I mean, rescuing the Forever Children from Apokolips must have irritated him a bit."

Barda's face hardens. "I doubt it."

"Powerful aliens attacking Apokolips and taking his stuff wouldn't irritate him?"

"Not unless it somehow made him know less about the Anti-Life. He'd already destroyed Infinity Man. Beyond that, all they had to offer him was another lesson in how to break a New God's spirit. Letting them go and learn to hope again will just make it more educational when he finally gets them."

"So you don't think it was him?"

"If-" And Mr. Free is now out of his restraints, glancing at the timer with an air of mild disappointment. "-he were on Earth, we'd all know about it."

"You sure? I'm sure that Apokolips has hush tubes, and… We wouldn't necessarily spot them if he came through somewhere remote. We didn't know about Desaad for months."

Mr. Free shakes his head. "Darkseid's telos won't allow it. When he moves, there's nothing subtle about it. Desaad can sneak around. Darkseid… Can't."

"Okay, what about someone taking… Ms. Carlyle to Apokolips for an anti-lifing?"

"I… It's not impossible. But the demons didn't say anything about going to Apokolips, did they?"

"No. They didn't. But I didn't specifically ask, and they are demons." Barda and Mr. Free share a glance. "No? Not something that could happen?"

Barda shakes her head. "Darkseid has captured magic creatures before. If he had broken these demons, they would not have recovered so easily."

"But the demons said-."

"Demons can be broken." Another nod from Barda. "I have seen demons afflicted by the Anti-Life."

"The demons said that their voices went somewhere, and a dull echo came back."

Mr. Free frowns. "Yeah, that… Sounds a little like Anti-Life, but… Anti-Life is a memetic hazard. You can't touch a mind infected with it without getting infected as well." He considers me for a moment. "Usually. You remember our fight with The Key?"

"Yes. So, someone else acting as a relay, like he was? None of the survivors described him the way the demons described whoever this was."

He shrugs. "It might not even have been that at all. There are other ways to control someone's mind. Did you get someone to do a telepathic scan or make a detailed thaumic map?"

"No."

Barda nods. "I have seen legions of Justified soldiers. This woman did not behave like them. She had no helmet to keep her connected to the broadcast or give her orders. No New God of Apokolips was giving her commands. We have seen no sign of other New Gods on Earth. I don't think this was Anti-Life."

"Of course, this is Earth. If anywhere could find some new way to administer an Anti-Life infection, this would be the place."

I nod. "Yes, but… I suppose you're right. Thank you for seeing me at short notice."

Mr. Free smiles as Barda picks him up, turns him upside down and puts him back into the harness. "Thank you for putting up with Canis."

I nod, raise my right hand in a farewell wave and

step out, appearing

in the Mountain. Most of the team are out on their assignments, but Richard and Beryl are using the cave's main computer to… Render all of our data in three dimensional space to allow them to take all of it in.

Richard doesn't look around. "Anything new?"

"The Frees don't think it was Anti-Life. But they can't rule it out."

"Oh?" Beryl looks around with a smile. "We not important enough for Darkseid?"

"We're an utterly insignificant little blue green planet in-."

"In the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy, yes, we've all read Douglas Adams."

Richard looks slightly awkward for a moment. "Ah..?"

"I'll get you a copy later. But he's got a point. We're probably not important enough for Darkseid."

"Apparently there's something about Darkseid that means he won't ever be personally subtle."

Richard smirks. "Guess you can relate, huh Oh El?"

…

I mean…

"So we know that the guns are out of circulation, and that something really mystically suspicious is happening. Have you learned anything?"

Richard shakes his head. "We're trying to find points of commonality between all of the victims. At the moment, all we've got is that they're slightly more likely than average to drink orange juice with their breakfast."

"And that could just be because they have a more active lifestyle than average."

"No, we took that into account."

I throw up my right hand. "I guess I'll go and interrogate the head of PepsiCo, then."

"I might have got something." Beryl doesn't sound particular certain, but she's standing in the middle of a lot of holographic screens. "It's not exactly solid-."

"Putting things together like that is your super power. What have you got?"

"The lists the Alliance gave us cover everyone who's signed up with them. But it doesn't cover people who just went to a couple of meetings. Because superheroes don't like people keeping track of their movements. But that means that there are some pretty big spaces in their timelines. And every one of them has a gap big enough to have gone to an Alliance seminar. Like…" She pulls up a file. "Wrench Wench."

I don't say anything about the name. She was shot seven times.

"Back in September, there's a gap where she was supposed to be visiting her aunt. But we know she wasn't. I didn't think much about it the first time we went through the files; superheroes make stuff up about where they're going all the time. But there was an Alliance conference not all that far away that matches. See?"

Richard nods. "And that's the same for all of them?"

"Yes it is."

"Do we have the full guest list for those meetings?"

She shakes her head. "Only for the people who actually signed up."

"Might as well check it anyway. Not as if we've got any other leads."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell

"…far too delicate for you to perform."

"Yes, I-. I see that. I'm sorry."

I continue hurrying towards Adora's current location, feeling like a dunce. Eternian magicians need a fetish in order to use virtually all of their magic. When Teela Na made me Sorcerer, she lost hers. Which means that right now all she can do is turn into a bird. She literally can't restore Adora's memories herself without an unclaimed fetish, which Eternos doesn't have.

And she can't use mine, because I've futzed around with it so that it will power the ring.

And while she could fly back to Castle Grayskull and get Evelyn to tag her in, as of right now Evelyn has the power and if she's found a way around her geas… We'd swiftly found ourselves down one Sorceress.

Why is Adora in the Masters' sparring arena? Since Teela Na warded the castle I've lost the ability to scan inside it. I only know that she's there because Sir Duncan's an anal retentive who couldn't quite stop working and got an automatic notification when someone accessed it.

I jog into-.

"Oh. Orange Lantern." Orko spots me from the observation platform. "I was just watching Prince Adam and the new girl." He rises up slightly to float over to me.

"Prince Adam and the new girl? New blonde girl about Adam's height, same hair colour, same eye colour?"

"That's her."

Oh… Dear.

I start moving again. "And are they doing the sensible thing and using blunted training weapons, or is Adam just using his normal sword?"

"Ah… Is that bad?" Orko floats after me, his right hand on his hat. "I mean, it's the sword he always uses..?"

Filaments erupt from the ring and try to latch onto the access panel, only to evaporate because Sir Duncan implemented my defence review suggestions really thoroughly. Which is nice, but-. Damn it! I physically reach it a few seconds later and start typing in my code.

"Orko, how good are you with memory spells?"

"Uh, I've got a spell for mixing different people's memories around? That's great fun at parties."

"No, I mean-" Come on, come on, open already! "-do you have a spell-" The entryway begins scanning me to confirm my identity. "-for restoring memories?"

"Restoring, restoring..?" Orko starts nervously rubbing his hands together as he tries to remember. "Uh, oh! I've got a spell that makes memories play outside your head. Is that any good?"

"Actually? Yes." The door slides back and I see-.

"Lantern. Orko."

A slightly bored-sounded Teela standing next to the exit with her staff in hand. A little way ahead, Adam and Adora are using the floating platforms mode of the arena. Adora is very much on the offensive, swinging her swords one after the other at any weak point she sees in Adam's defence. He's being forced to use his sword more like a shield than a bladed weapon; he's probably stronger than her but it doesn't take a lot of force to cut human flesh with a bladed weapon and he isn't getting the time to attack.

"I thought you were spending the festival at the Castle? Which is why my father is spending it with the Sorceress."

Okay, they're fighting, but it looks like a spar. Adam doesn't look worried, and Teela clearly isn't worried. Actually-

"Hey, nice try!"

-he doesn't look worried at ohnononono.

"She turned up and I had to deal with her."

Teela raises her left eyebrow. "What, was she supposed to be your date?"

"Ah, no."

"Adam's been trying to hit on her since they ran into each other. How did we get a Prince so pathetic that he can't find his own date on the one day a year when even my father has a date?"

Air hisses between my teeth as I inhale. "Okay, Orko, I need you to make her relive a really early memory. Her kidnapping as a small child."

"Relive a kidnapping? Um. I can do-"

The head of Teela's staff leaps past Orko's face and ends up under my nose.

"-that?"

"Lantern, what's going on?"

Before us, Adam jumps backwards, catches his foot against the side of a platform and kicks off. Adora is taken by surprise by his change of direction and just manages to swing at him while he's upside down.

Adam lands a short distance away and finally manages to get the Sword of Power into an offensive position. "Hah! Good one! I think you gave me a haircut! A few more and it'll be as short as yours!"

"That's Princess Adora, Adam's sister."

Teela frowns. "Adam doesn't have-."

"She was kidnapped when she was an infant by Hordak's soldiers, and was raised by her abductor. I'm hoping that Orko can trigger some memory of Eternos, otherwise-."

"Oh, that's easy! I've got a spell for recreating past events that's almost completely reliable! I love having a stabiliser again!"

Teela lowers her staff, staring at Adora and Adam as she redirects his strike into the arena wall with her swords. "He's hitting on his sister. Somehow, I'm not surprised."

I raise my eyebrows. "You couldn't find a date either?"

"Someone had to keep an eye on Adam."

"Ac-tually, no." I shake my head. "No one has to look after Adam. Protocol allows for him to be left on his own inside Eternos."

Adam goes for the double jump again, but this time he misjudges it and slams into a wall. Adora strikes down and he's-

"Yah!"

-forced to roll aside to avoid being struck.

"Okay!" Teela and I look at the glowing purple orb in Orko's hands. "Spell's ready!"

Teela blinks. "I still can't quite get used to you being able to use useful magic. What exactly does this do?"

"Oh, it's really clever! It recreates what happened in the minds of everyone affected using a sort of transtemporal arcanometry!" He makes a pushing motion and the spell orb flies towards Adora. "She'll see the whole thing, and-"

As the spell reaches her she turns, slamming both swords into the spell and rending red and purple light in all directions! I blink and the mist sinks into me and Teela, staring at my arms-.

Adora watches it do the same to her, then stalks in our direction.

"What did you just do?!"

Orko's eyes widen. "Ahhh…"

The wall at the far side of the arena explodes, heavily armoured soldiers led by some guy with a jetpack storming in!

"Into the castle! Hordak will tolerate no failure!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell

Oh fuck all kinds of-.

I throw up a tower shield construct as the first few plasma shots come our way, and I can immediately feel that Hordak's technology is a wee bit better than what modern Eternia can scrounge together.

Adora just stands there. "Soldiers, explain your-!"

I step in front of her to block their shots while Teela dodges, throwing herself back into the arena antechamber. While Sir Duncan has been assiduous in implementing my suggestions, Teela hasn't, as she didn't feel the need to augment her staff with any sort of ranged weapon. And her normal clothing isn't up to taking hits from a rapid fire plasma weapon.

"Orko!"

Orko looks around nervously. "What?"

Teela glances out of cover. "Did you just time travel a bunch of Hordak's soldiers here!?"

"What? No! I can't see what you're reacting to! It's just a memory!"

"Does that mean it can't hurt us?!"

"Ah, well? Normally, yes? But the spell's only supposed to be used on one person, so... I'm not sure."

Adora raises one of her swords to the side of my neck. "Lantern, I demand an explanation!"

"Those soldiers work for some guy called 'Hordak', and Orko cast a spell to make your sparring match more exciting. Unfortunately, it may have gone a little wrong."

Orko points both hands at Adora. "She hit it with a sword!"

"Focus!" Teela leans out of cover again as the Horde soldiers begin advancing towards the courtyard wall. "Are they actually here or not?"

"No! Probably!"

"Can they hurt us?"

"Um."

"Or anyone else?"

Orko cringes for a moment, then pantomimes rolling up his sleeves. "Orange Lantern? Can you show me where one of them is?"

"Certainly."

The closest Horde soldier glows with orange light. He-. It? Pauses for a moment to try and work out where the light is coming from, then lumbers my way, spraying my construct shield with plasma fire. It's getting uncomfortably abraded now, but I've learned that even though Eternian technology has regressed since Hordak's invasion there are a surprising number of highly functional anti-air guns around the place.

"There? Okay." Orko flies directly in front of the oncoming Horde soldier, arms spread out to the sides. "Stop!"

The image barrels right through him, Orko just hanging in the air for a moment.

"Is it through?"

"Yes." I generate a construct maser and point it at the Horde trooper's helmet. "It is."

I fire, the beam of invisible light punching through the trooper's visor. The trooper staggers, but recovers after a moment and continues their charge. Meanwhile the jetpack guy plants… Something against the wall.

"Despara? How is he still up?"

"Cybereugenics. The best of machinery and-."

I fire again, the shot blasting through the other eye hole. But while the trooper staggers to a halt, he doesn't fall, and I'm left wondering what sort of head they've got under there.

Somewhere behind the floating platforms, lightning hits the ground from a cloudless sky. Ah yes, it turns out that Adam doesn't actually shout 'By the Power of Grayskull! I have the power!' when he transforms, and can actually whisper it if necessary. Which means-.

BOOM!

The man with the jetpack waves his left arm. "Squad five, rearguard! Everyone else, into the castle!"

"Not so fast!"

He-Man charges out, torso twisted so that his armoured shoulder is there to absorb any incoming fire. The jetpack guy turns and fires with predictable results, but the regular troopers don't appear to be that agile and can't reposition. The jetpack guy boosts away from He-Man but the first trooper gets the strongest man on the planet slamming into them and they go flying into the far wall.

"Enough of this."

With the troopers' attention off us, Adora dodges around my shield and charges the chap I shot in the eyes, He… Appears to hear her coming and levels his plasma gun in her direction. He fires at her centre of mass but she ducks under his shots and lunges past him, her swords coming around and biting into the cabling at the back of his left knee! There's a sort of gurgle from his helmet as his leg collapses, then Adora back flips over him, jamming the points of her swords through his eye holes and crossing her arms so that the parts penetrating the helmet slice vertically through the interior.

The trooper slumps, the armour not allowing them to fully collapse but the person inside clearly dead. He-Man now has the rearguard's full attention so Adora sprints forward to assist him.

Teela uses the break in incoming fire to dart out of cover and approach me, gesturing with her staff towards where the Horde soldiers are piling into the castle.

"Orko, do you see that hole in the wall?"

"Yes. How did that get there?"

"Because the illusions used explosives!"

"Oh." He scratches his hat with an extended right forefinger. "That's not supposed to happen."

Oh dear. "Where in the castle is the nursery located?"

Teela thinks for a moment. "Near the grand balcony."

"The grand balcony where the king and queen will be giving their speech in a little while? The king and queen who would have been targets in the original raid?"

Teela stares at me for a second.

"Orko, stop the spell!"

"Ah…"

"Orko!"

"I could stop it if it was doing what it was supposed to do!"

He-Man hits the last horde trooper on the outside of the castle over the head with the pommel of his sword, then looks over to me and Teela. "What's going on here?"

I transition to his side. "We're not sure, but we need to stop those soldiers just in case it's something bad."

"There's got to be dozens of soldiers between here and anything-."

I wince. "We seem to be the only ones who can see them."

"We need to go." Teela sprints past me and into the castle, staff at the ready. "Now!"

"Right." He-Man takes off after her, running as fast as he can without wrecking the place with his enormous strength.

Orko sags in the air. "Oh no."

"No." I shake my head. "This one was me. I-."

Jetpack man leaps from an upper balcony, spraying us with plasma bolts!

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell

Adora darts away, jumping off the wall and then off a floating platform to swing at him, but the jetpack man just jinks out of the way,-

"Hah!"

-laughing contemptuously.

Orko watches her in bewilderment. "Is there someone up there?"

Right. Okay. The jetpack appears to only allow him short bursts of thrust, so that-.

Adora dashes at his landing spot and he responds by diving under her swing and… Landing on his chest… There's a wheel through his chest, and he can use the thruster to-. Drive along the.. gr-ground? On his chest with his arms and legs-.

I mean, I understand the principles involved, but what possible advantage-?

"Orko, it's a man with a jetpack and a wheel through his chest."

Orko nods as Adora takes a defensive stance. "Oh, Dragstor."

I try not to wince. "Dragstor?"

Orko nods. "Yeah, I heard one of the janitors complaining about how long to took them to get the wheel marks out of the floor."

Dragstor turns, rolls onto his side and then spins onto his feet, some sort of… Crossbow-looking-.

Heck with this. I create a giant orange hammer and smack him over the head, driving him to the ground! For a moment he just lays there, pinned beneath the head, his crossbow knocked from his hand by the surprise. Then he twists and punches, knocking the hammer up far enough for him to fire his booster, zooming across the floor towards the entrance to the castle.

Adora darts over to pick up the crossbow. "Where are they going?"

I nod, my environmental shield expanding around my body. I've learned the hard way that trying to tank hits from Eternians is a fool's errand, but that their dexterity isn't enhanced by anything like as much.

"The old nursery. Ring, evasive program."

"Pro-gram load-ed."

"Let's g-" She's already running into the castle, following the sounds of fighting. "-o." I fly after her, slaloming as the ring moves me through the corridors. She slows slightly as she sees me, then accelerates to a run as I pass her. "How will the troopers act in a situation like this?"

"Given how strong He-Man is, they'll split up and attack targets of opportunity to draw him away from their objective. I've got no idea what Dragstor is doing."

I attach a grabber construct to Adora and fly us up onto a landing, bypassing a ruined staircase.

"Do you know him?"

"Good roads are rare on Etheria. He mostly pilots a helicopter."

CRUNCH!

He-Man comes through the wall to our left, three horde troopers having charged him and all of them being stronger than the stone is tough. They let go as he hits the banister, letting him go flying into empty space before crashing back down. He lands on his-

"Oof."

-back with a wince. But while these mooks are a novelty to him, they're still just mooks. He grabs a nearby table and throws it, the solid wood smashing into the chest of the middle horde soldier and knocking him off his feet with enough force to splinter the table. Were he a normal human I'd say that would have killed him, but with these things who knows.

And if Orko were here I'd ask how much of what I just saw actually happened.

A pneumatic ram construct from me and a wall jump drop kick from-

"Yagh!"

-Adora sends the other two troopers down to He-Man as we speed past.

"Why are we doing this?"

"I'm sorry? Left ahead."

We take the turn together.

"Whether these phantom soldiers kill the king and queen or not, why do we care?"

I was hoping she wouldn't ask that.

"There aren't enough troopers here to take the country. Adam vanished and Sir Duncan's miles away, which means that the line of succession is still intact and a widely respected regent is available to keep things running. And if the king and queen are killed by horde troopers, the first thing he'll do is fortify the country and ramp up rearmament."

She nods, then jinks around a volley of plasma fire from a trooper crouched down at the end of the corridor. I raise my left hand and send a magnetic bottle construct over his gun, disrupting the plasma containment module and causing it to-

BOOM!

-explode, slamming the trooper against the wall!

Adora charges, knocking aside the left arm the trooper awkwardly raises to shield himself with her left sword before angling her right sword to stab downwards inside the neck ring, slicing into his neck. She leaves it there for a second, presumably to make sure that he's really dead. Then I catch up and it's time to resume the pursuit.

"So what do we tell them?"

"What's to tell? We're concerned citizens who were hit by one of Orko's spells and then responded to a situation that evolved. There won't be bodies when this is done because they're an unusually dangerous hallucination."

"I see."

She does? I thought that was pretty weak, myself, but if she's buying it then I'm not going to complain.

"…need to move."

Not far now. The balcony is that way, and I can feel the breeze where the castle doors have been left open. Which means that the royal quarters are that way. My own rooms are pretty much on the other side of the castle so I… Came here during my defence review once. Can't help but think it a little odd that Randor and Marlena never had any other children.

"…concern, Teela, but I…"

I hear the squealing of rubber against stone as Dragstor accelerates… Somewhere. Queen Marlena would obviously have been around during the original attack, so they might attack her.

Sonic scan.

Scan com-plet-ed.

Noise there, two noises there, transition and shield!

An energy crossbow bolt blasts against my construct as I take a stance in front of the queen, Teela brandishing her staff as she reacts to Dragstor's sudden appearance. Adora throws herself around the bend a moment later, her earlier imprint of Dragstor's crossbow firing and hitting him directly in the backpack! The fuel explodes, sending him careening through a nearby door which gives way with a crack!

Marlena's eyes widen as she sees the damage being inflicted by an enemy she can't see.

"Teela, I've got the queen. You-."

She charges the wheeled lunatic, staff spinning and Adora just behind her.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell

Every so often, I hear a thud somewhere in the distance as He-Man chases down another trooper.

Every few seconds, I hear a 'clunk' as the head of Teela's staff hits somewhere on Dragstor's cybernetically reinforced body. It seems that he's neither immune to blunt force nor easily disabled by it. Adora takes a few moments to study him, and then-.

Then she lunges, swords piercing his chest near the gap made for his wheel. He shudders, a mixture of blood and oil splattering on the floor as she withdraws her blades. As he falls, purple and red mist rises from our bodies and dissipates into the air around us.

I think that's it.

I relax slightly from my crouch, a sign Queen Marlena picks up on immediately, striding through the broken door to-.

Oh. To a… Child's nursery, now somewhat damaged. The ring lights up immediately, tendrils reaching out to right the crib, mend the dresser and remove the tears from the carpet. I… Guess that this is where the kidnapping happened, then.

"Thank you, Teela. And who are..?"

Queen Marlena's eyes widen as she gets a clear look at Adora's face. She doesn't look the same as her father or her mother or her brother, but even beyond the hair and eyes there are features she clearly shares with them.

"You..?"

Adora for her part is trying to look at Queen Marlena, but her eyes are constantly jerking to some point of interest in the room she was taken from. Does she actually remember, or did Orko's spell actually shake something loose? Or is she just-? Unused to a room for children this different from the whelping chambers of Etheria and unused to duplicity.

Okay, how do I work out-?

The world glows orange as my point of view suddenly changes, and I see that Adora just lunged at the place where I was. Why-what-?

Construct shield and traverse towards the queen in case-.

Adora's eyes widen! "Mother, watch out!"

She throws herself at me again, swords slamming rhythmically into my construct as she tries to punch her way through!

"He works for Skeletor!"

"What? A-ador-?" Queen Marlena looks somewhat bewildered, and I-.

She knows. She's been playing along. That wasn't a 'I distantly remember this person', that was a 'this is my mother' reaction. And while I don't think she's strong enough to put a regular sword through my shield, I don't want to find out that she can draw on the Power of Grayskull under extreme stress without her Sword of Power.

"You work for Hordak."

"That was before I remembered-." Her eyes go to her mother again, before she forces herself to keep her eyes on me. "My memories started coming back. Shadow Weaver did something to my memories, but coming here-. I started to remember again. You told me that you serve Skeletor!"

"I told Despara, Force Captain of Hordak, that I work for Skeletor."

She pulls her swords back a little. "We have been lying to each other?"

"I'm afraid that it looks like that."

"Who are you?"

"Orange Lantern. Member of the Masters of the Universe… At least, until Sir Duncan gets here."

"Evil-Lyn?"

"Used to work for Skeletor, is currently on probation. I-I think-" I raise my right hand and point to the shocked Queen Marlena. "-that the Queen wants your att-."

Queen Marlena grabs her daughter, swords awkwardly forced out to the side. Adora appears to not know what to do. She either can't or doesn't want to move her arms to sheathe her swords. But she doesn't appear to be trying to hug back. But this is clearly a highly emotional moment for both of them so I move to step out of the ro-.

Ah, hello Teela's staff.

"Now Orko's spell has stopped working, I want an-."

"Marlena?" King Randor enters the room, right hand on the hilt of his sword. "I heard-."

He stares at the sword-bearing young woman his wife is embracing.

"Who is this?"

I gently nudge Teela's staff aside as I perform a shallow bow. "Princess Adora, your majesty. Teela and I will leave you to reacquaint yourselves."

"A-?" He blinks, then his eyes widen as he takes her in. "Dor… A?"

I attach a strand of orange to Teela and then transition us out of the room.

Teela scowls. "Warn me before you do that."

"Sorry. And… Sorry about this whole thing. I'm pretty sure that I've made a series of sub-par decisions-."

"I'm glad that you recognise that." I clench as Sir Duncan strolls down the corridor towards us, Teela Na close at hand. "But right now I'm most concerned about Evil-Lyn."

"I'll deal with that right away, sir, and recluse myself to the castle until tomorrow."

Sir Duncan thinks for a moment. "You should take someone with you, just in case. I know Adam doesn't have a date-"

Teela and I share a cringe.

"-so-." He notices our response, then looks uncertain. "Did he find a date?"

"He was-. He was flirting with Adora without knowing who she was." Sir Duncan winces. "And I think… After a certain point, you sort of have to trust people. I don't think that.. coming back mob-handed is.. going to help her recovery."

He nods slowly. "That's taking a risk, but alright. Send a message to the Sorceress when you find out what she's been doing. And I'll expect a full debrief from you tomorrow."

"Thank you, sir. Excuse me."

The world shudders, and I'm in front of Castle Grayskull. Whose drawbridge is down. Okay..? I walk forward, looking around just in case-. Something triggers the moment I cross the threshold, and-.

And an instant later the Sorcerer's staff appears in front of me. Taking hold of it, I feel it as I reconnect to the Power of Grayskull, and focus to dispatch an impression of success and safety to Teela Na.

"Surprised?"

Evelyn is still carrying her own staff, but makes no aggressive move towards me as the Castle finishes connecting to me.

"No. Pleased, certainly."

"Oh? Did you bring no one with you?"

"No."

"I think I should be insulted. I had a speech prepared, on the subject of how foolish I would have to be to throw away this opportunity. And now I won't get to give it."

I shrug as I walk past her into the Castle.

"You can give it to me, if you like. And tell me what you've learned about the Sword of Power."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
19:13 GMT -5

"…remember any of them?"

Death-Doll shrugs, and I try not to look at the way the stitching holding her epidermis together pulls her 'skin'. It looks painful, and under other circumstances I'd offer to fix… Fix her. But some people like looking that different and I don't know her well enough to know how she feels about it.

"Nah. I mean, I think I remember some of them, but I didn't talk to any of 'em." Her attention shifts from me to Canis, who is openly staring at her clearly-altered physiology. She smiles, her head tilting to the left and her hair -which is either artificial or held together with something that's not so much hairspray as hairglue- just sort of holds its shape rather than flowing with gravity. "See something you like, kid?"

"Your body is a walking sculpture; a meditation on the disposable and transitory nature of human flesh. Every inch of it thrills me."

She… Stares at him for a moment.

"I would like very much to paint you, if you would allow it."

"That's not something I expected to hear today." She stares as if not sure what to make of him. "Um. Sure, I guess."

"Hah!" Canis shakes his head, then turns to face me. "My art professor tried to tell me that humans disliked posing for paintings. As if nudity was something to be ashamed of."

"Wait, I didn't say anything about 'naked'. I'm married."

Canis looks puzzled. "I have no libidinous intent. I wish to depict the glory of your stitched together flesh on canvas."

And this is why Canis is extremely useful for interviews like this. I know that Death-Doll used to operate under the name Liberty-Lass, until a covert operation she undertook for the CIA went badly wrong. I know that the resulting 'experimental medical procedure' -read: we're handing your barely living body over to mad scientists and told them they could do whatever they like, no loss to us either way- left her a little unhinged. And a lot more violent.

In a normal confrontation with a League-affiliated superhero she'd posture about how dark and edgy she is. Canis wrong-foots her and I've got a larger body count and neither of us are bothered about talking about it. Which improves the chance that she'll cooperate, if only out of confusion.

She looks to me for a rational response. Which was probably a mistake.

"Is he for real?"

"He's the Apokoliptian God of Art, so, yes. Though in other circumstances he would probably call sex 'performance art'."

"I-. I mean-. Would anyone else be there?"

Canis nods. "How many people do you want?" A sight for all eyes?

"If we could return to the matter at hand? Canis?"

He nods a little sheepishly.

"What did you think of the meeting?"

"Meeting-? Oh. Ah. Guess they were well-meaning, but… I've been doing this a while. I know how to work with police, levels of force…" She shrugs. "There wasn't really anything there that I wanted."

"What do you think of the organisation as a whole?"

"Seem like good people. Probably real useful for people starting out. I don't do well in…" She raises her right hand and runs it over her neck seam. "Organizations."

"Did anyone approach you during or after the meeting?"

"It was a mixer. Plenty of people approached me. Only one that stuck out was a little girl."

"In what way?"

She frowns incredulously. "Because she was a little girl in a room full of roided out men. You've seen the guest list, right?"

I shrug. "They don't keep one, only a sign-up sheet."

"Right. Anyway, yeah, you know the statistics on the sort of people who put on masks, right?"

"What, that they're overwhelmingly male, particularly when they don't have superpowers?"

"Teenage girls who do it are usually part of a group. She was there on her own, but I think she'd already joined."

"What makes you say that?"

"The officials paid attention to her. Nothing obvious, just looking at her a bit more."

"To the teenaged girl in the room with the 'roided out men'? That doesn't seem too unreasonable."

"No, they weren't looking out for her. People look at people they know differently. Trust me."

While she's far from the strangest looking person I've met, I can't help but take in her raggy doll appearance when she asks me to take something on faith. We know the procedures altered her thought processes-.

"Yeah, I know. But trust me, all that spy craft stuff stayed. They'd have cut me up-. Left me in parts if it didn't. No one wants an incompetent assassin."

I nod. "Thank you. We'll be in touch if we need to ask any follow up questions."

"You got any idea why I'm still alive? I'm not exactly shy about maiming or killing."

"No idea at all." I smile. "It is not by eliminating the impossible that crimes are solved, but by the much harder job of eliminating the possible. Orchid wasn't violent. She breaks the pattern, so that can't be it. Maybe it's because you didn't cross… Whatever line there was. I don't know. Though if you're curious, I'll get in touch once we do solve it."

"I'd appreciate it."

I stand, stepping away-. Canis isn't following. I give him an interrogative frown.

"This was our last interview for today. I have no further business with you, and Death-Doll and I haven't agreed a time for her to pose for me."

"I haven't said I'm going to pose for you."

"You can read the intentions of a room by where people look and do not look? I know when someone will work with me."

She shakes her head. "I.. can't believe I'm considering this."

"I'll leave you two to it." I

step out

and reappear in the Mountain.

Richard glance around. "Same thing?"

"An out of place teenaged girl. I think we need to find her." I nod at the facial recognition system they've got running. "Find her yet?"

The Alliance genuinely made sure that the cameras of their venues weren't active, because not everyone turning up had the hang of the whole 'secret identity' thing. But there wasn't any rule about the people attending having their own cameras. They took pictures, and uploaded them to their masked identity's social media accounts. So there are hundreds of images for us to find this girl.

Beryl calls up a picture.

"I think we have."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October 2012
19:17 GMT -5

Richard presses a few buttons.

"Or… No. We don't."

"We don't?"

He brings up… A missing persons report for someone called 'Anita Fite'-.

"Is that her real name?"

"Her dad's name is Donald Fite, so I guess so. She went missing… Sometime after the last of these meetings happened. Looks like we're too late."

Beryl calls up the file and starts flashing through it. "Her dad's an FBI agent. Someone kidnapped an FBI agent's daughter?"

"Did he know she was a superhero?"

"Probably not." Richard's looking at Batman's intelligence records. "Apparently, he… Really doesn't like superheroes. I don't think he'd let her out of the house if he found out what she was doing."

I connect my ring to the League database and extract the relevant files, blinking as my ring's AI orders them for my mental consumption. "A natural talent for vodun-style magic."

Beryl raises her eyes from her screen for a moment. "Do you think she was turning people into zombies? I read the report on Papa Midnite."

"Ah… I wouldn't have thought so. She's in her early teens. Unless one of the more powerful spirits took a real shine to her for some reason, that's not going to happen."

"She's a voodoo witch who can't make zombies? I feel cheated."

"She could probably animate corpses somehow. Sticking a weak demon in a corpse isn't hard. But creating vodun zombies requires some complex soul manipulation that I don't think a teenager with little access to tuition could manage."

I sigh.

"I can't think of a vodun spell or ritual that would produce the results we've seen. And I can't imagine anything that a teenager could cast that Doctor Balewa couldn't detect."

"So…" Beryl slumps slightly. "That's it?"

Richards nods, once, slowly. "We can send a report to Batman, which he'll send to the FBI. But at this point… There isn't a whole lot more we can do. If she's on her own, then… She'll show up on camera eventually. But she could be… Anywhere. And if she's getting help…"

Beryl brings up her psychological profile. "But why would she do it?"

"There's her crime lord grandfather. But I can't see why he'd care about low level American superheroes either."

"And there's no record of her having any contact with him, and her mother came to America specifically to get away from him."

Richard shrugs. "It's another lead, but I'm not sure we really want to tip him off that she's disappeared in case he finds her."

"Then that's it. We've got a suspect we can't find and…" I look at Beryl. "No motive?"

She shakes her head. "Nothing I can see. Maybe Batman will have better luck."

"Then, yeah."

Richard nods. "I'm gunna go through these files some more. See if I can learn anything."

"Yeah." Beryl nods. "It's only five hours ago in England."

"Okay. I've got a few things to do before I head off. Let me know if you need me for anything."

I get a couple of absent-minded nods as they give their screens their full attention before I

step out

and reappear a short distance away from… Blitzen, in civilian clothing. A suit, feminine cut, complete with a trilby. I'm sure she's trying to communicate something with that, but I've got no idea what.

"Hay!" She frowns at me. "Vhat if I had been on the toilet?"

"It would have to be a very large toilet."

We're in… A motorway service station, with attached fast food restaurant. Not particularly busy at this time of day, and in civilian clothing and with a minimal environmental shield glow I don't attract that much attention. Since my particular form of teleportation doesn't cause a lightshow or any noise, people who see it generally just assume that they just happened to not notice me approaching.

I sit down opposite her.

"Any news?"

She shrugs.

"I vent to their little get-together, said hallo, told them about vhere I'm from. If they are going to do something, they have marked me in their books."

"I have a little news on that score. We've taken the guns out of commission and the person we think was marking the targets has vanished."

She moues, nodding.

"Vell, it got me out of the house. Anything else?"

"That doesn't mean that you won't be targeted. Or that we aren't interested in how the Alliance works from an insider. But it's less likely than it was."

I fabricate a data stick and slide it across the table to her.

"That's a summary of our discoveries to date, and this-"

I take a spell eater out of subspace.

"-is an anti-magic ward. Not one hundred percent reliable, but better than nothing. Please destroy the datastick after reading."

She nods, both items disappearing as her right hand blurs.

"Not vorried about me passing the vard to the people at home?"

"Your world doesn't have the arcane infrastructure to make more, and you'd need wizards to make anything like it." I lean forward slightly. "You can't just crib off the kryptonians for this one."

"You mean the superior men from the future?"

I narrow my eyes slightly. "You don't actually believe that version, do you?"

She rolls her eyes. "I don't inhale everything that comes from the Führer's arsehole, no. Did you know they're going to publish a history book that calls the whole period of the First Great Var through to the end of the Second Great Var a single conflict?"

"Um. Why?"

"So ve can pretend ve didn't lose anything. Just a temporary setback. Ve conquer the whole vorld and our ego is so fragile. Stupid."

"Supermen don't need to tell themselves that they're super. They just are."

"Yah, but vhen your Führer is balding and asthmatic it doesn't pay to say things like that out loud. Anything else?"

"No, that's it. Thank you for your help. Have a pleasant evening."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd October 2012
21:17 GMT +3

I take a moment to look down at the celebration taking part in the room below us. Luna is in equiform and attracting quite a lot of attention. Not people engaging her in conversation, that would be far too civilised. No, just people staring and needing some time to mentally adapt to the presence of a sophont quadruped who looks sort of like a horse. And that attitude is precisely why I brought Sunset along; next to her she's coping far better than she would have been otherwise.

The… Seven, I think? G-goblins are fitting in rather better. No Ixy, but Dubbilex and… Six other pun-named telepaths accompanied by a g-goblin bodyguard or two. They're human sized and human shaped and most of the politicians here have become accustomed to genomorphs operating in their countries over the course of the year. Representatives of just about every African nation are either down there or attending one of the other events we're running across the continent to celebrate.
This Feels So Right.
A year without war. Technically. If you fudge the definitions slightly. No African nation taking up arms against another or against its own people, at least. And with stability has come a degree of prosperity. Africa now has a larger economy than… Okay, than Australasia, but that's for the first time in recorded history and it's a start, damn it! Life expectancy is already increasing. Time children spend in school is definitely increasing, legitimate employment is increasing as corruption vanishes and Lex finds out what running a responsible megacorporation is actually like.

We're even fixing the rivers! And roads, but Africa's so huge and air travel by low-flying space-capable craft is so cheap that -much like wired phone lines- it'll probably be easier to skip that step.

I raise my glass tankard in a silent toast to the people below, then turn back to my fellow members of The Light. Lex has progressed to a telepresence robot, a machine that reminds me a little of Mike the TV or KOMPLEX's robot body.

I frown mildly as I consider the direction of my thoughts on the issue. Maybe I should talk to him about reconsidering his image? Wasn't there a… Cartoon where the robots had screens for faces? Never been able to remember what that was called…

Adom floats over, looking past me to the people below.

"Pleasing."

"I'll say." I glance at him. "But I don't think you quite feel it in the same way that I do."

"I have some idea of the tumult this continent endured before we took control."

"Come on, Adom, we've talked about this. It's not 'took control', it's 'lent aid'. 'Exerted persuasive influence'. 'Appealed to the better angels of their nature'."

"We gave them no choice, and their lives are better for it."

"Yes, and you know that and I know that and, honestly, I'm sure they do too. It's the illusion of choice that we need to appear to give, not choice itself. People who know that they're being compelled to move in a particular direction will often fight against it, and we don't want people fighting us."

"They would lose. But you will tell me that is not the point."

"We didn't conquer… Well, okay, you conquered Kahndaq and I got Sudan, but we didn't bring in an army of foreigners and force them to bend their knees and expect them to thank us for it. We set limits for people and grant them opportunities, we should never use a whip hand to drive them."

"Then you are correct." He gives me a sidelong glance, and I know that I'm about to hear the closest thing to a joke he's capable of saying. "I do not feel it in quite the same way that you do."

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant. I'm the New God of Conquest, remember. Africa's been an itch in my soul ever since I reclaimed my power. Every time I came here, just…" I raise my left hand to my chest and clench my fist. "But no longer. It's working, it's all working."

I close my eyes for a moment and just feel the connectivity of the whole land. It's not done yet, it's nowhere near done, but it's functioning now.

Adom shakes his head. "You are still correct. I do not feel any great change from when we began. Improvement, yes, but that is to be expected when laws are enforced on highly-placed criminals."

"You wanna feel it?"

"I feel that I am sufficiently blessed, thank you."

"No, no, I don't mean-. You wouldn't end up with the same nature as me, anyway. I mean, you should be able to use the Power of Atum to listen in on my god-sense. Right?"

He frowns thoughtfully. "I do not know. It would make sense to a degree if I were to overpower you-."

"No no no. No overpowering, I'm letting you in willingly." I turn my head back towards the other members of The Light. "Circe, that should work, shouldn't it?"

Circe looks around from where she was deeply in conversation with Cranius.

"Using the Power of Atum to connect to another form of arcane power? That should be within his purview. Have you never experimented before?"

"No." Adom looks a little curious. "I have always used it to attack."

"Well then!" I crouch slightly and crane my neck towards him, gesturing to my forehead with my left hand. "Hands on. Let's see if this works."

Richard uses shadows to support his own drink as he drifts closer, passing through the table apparently without noticing. "This could prove informative." He turns his head to Queen Clea. "Do you suppose that something like that would work on me?"

Clea is looking much better… Much younger, than she did when we first met. I'd say that she's at 'forty year old with an expert beautician who takes good care of herself'. She should get a little younger, but I doubt that she really needs it.

"I doubt it. The Shadowlands aren't like the Earth's thaumosphere. Though if you wish to experiment, the Arcane Institute of Venturia has heavily warded laboratories where you could do so safely. It could prove quite enlightening."

"If that's the case…" Richard hesitates. "Not to be a Dicky Downer here, but is it a good idea to do this in a densely populated city?"

Circe waves her left hand dismissively. "Grayven uses the same thaumosphere as Adom. I'm not certain that their systems can be made to interact in a way that would allow either of them to understand what the other is experiencing, but any blowback would be limited to them. And they're both big boys."

Adom drifts a little closer. "I will admit to a degree of curiosity. To see the world as a god does, even one as…"

We don't all live in the thaumosphere, Adom. "It's okay, you can say it."

"As New as you. Have you tried this before?"

"Luna saw what I see when she intruded on my dreams. It works. Come on."

"Very well." Adom comes close enough that his chest obscures my vision, and I feel him firmly grasp my forehead with both hands. "Prepare yourself."

I relax, letting the corporeal universe flow away and immersing myself instead in the conceptual aspect of my nature.

"Lord Atum, show me my ally's power."

The meeting below is mildly discordant as People Are Out Of Their Place, but I clearly divine Control and Loyalty and Structure and Obligation. The tickling cough of Dysfunction that I feel all around is receding, the satisfying pump of Effort and Direction and Effectiveness, my metaphysical skin humming with a growing Health and Power. Ahead of me I feel the Greater Power that I reach toward, growing closer and more magnificent for it. And close about me I feel Directing Minds, my partners and allies without whose efforts I would not be so strong.

"I.. feel it."

As genomorph police hunt down terrorist weapons caches I am there.

"It is…"

As a student who hates me studies law under a grant I sponsor in a school I had built, I am there and I am approving.

"To be…"

As those who didn't recognise that their time was up break rocks in a prison, they do so under my watchful eyes.

Adom removes his hands, and I refocus my awareness. "Remarkable. And some day you will attain greater power?"

"Yes. But that's true of all of us. And if it isn't now, then I will make it so."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Coup Data

27th October 2012
01:23 GMT

Jade glances at me as I pull myself out of bed after her.

"You don't have to get up. I know you came to bed a while after me."

"No, that's not the point. I moved in-"

She tosses her pyjama shirt to me and I catch it as she heads towards her quarters' sonic shower.

"-because I want to spend more time with you, and if that means getting up out of sequence and taking a nap later, then so be it. " I walk towards her the wardrobe. "Ah, uniform or exercise clothes?"

"I already laid-" There's a burst of sound distortion as the sonic shower activates, effectively limiting the pitch of sound that can escape the shower unit. "-it out in here last night."

"Oh, okay." I hold out my hands, calling my rings to me from the dressing table. A flicker of orange and I'm clean of the night's dead skin and sweat and dressed in my own light armour. Then I clean, iron and fold her shirt and lay it down on her pyjama trousers. "Breakfast?"

"Something that doesn't make me need to spend an extra hour working out."

I walk towards the kitchenette.

"I'm hearing pancakes and golden syrup!"

"No you're not!"

The distortion cuts out, and as I pull out the… Foil… Alien oats packet? I hear the quiet rustle of her donning her clothes. With sonic showers not actually involving water they can double as a changing room, because there isn't any need for them to dry after they share in the cleaning process.

Okay, alien probably-milk, or-? Oh, right, lactose intolerant. I'm sure it says something about Jade that she was happy to change the structure of her own brain in order to improve her emotional awareness but it didn't occur to her to gain the ability to digest milk properly. Heck, that means that this isn't actually milk, it's-.

Well, she's clearly fine with drinking it or it wouldn't be in here. I'm having the actual milk that my majority Anglo Saxon digestive tract is evolved to process instead of...

I'm not going to scan it.

Okay, two bowls of porridge and under the smart microwave cooker they go. And fire. It's essentially the same as a microwave on Earth, only lacking the whole box element and the turntable. It's also quieter than the models I'm used to, leaving me to watch the countdown.

Fruit juice is chemically synthesised, but given how I've been agitating for the return of Still Tango I'm hardly in a position to complain about that. Darkstar food processors are able to adapt to produce food that's nutritious and palatable to just about any carbon-based species, though… Obviously the components aren't going to be recognisable due to not occurring in nature. For obvious reasons most Darkstars prefer to bring in food from home rather than subject themselves to the synthesiser.

Though I will admit that the green lumps it came up with yesterday were actually quite nice.

Jade strolls in wearing her uniform, picking up her juice cup and taking a small sip.

"Briefings today, then?"

"I think we're nearly getting to the point where we can leave them to take care of themselves."

"Oh? Where are we off to next?"

"I don't know for sure, but I'm due a rotation on one of the liberated worlds. Investigation, counter-insurgency, that kind of thing."

"Still got room for a plus one?"

She smiles faintly. "They're not going to say 'no' to you even if we don't."

"I don't want to take advantage of my status."

A quiet non-beep tone as the microwave cooker finishes its work, and I offer Jade her bowl.

"I have real fruit and nuts-."

"It's been so long, I don't know if I can handle real food. Why is mine a different color?"

"Because I can handle real milk." I frown. "I know I offered it to Artemis but I don't remember ever offering it to you; are you at all interested in improved milk digestion?"

"Why?"

"Because it would let you ingest milk-based products without ill-effects?"

"Considering what happened last time I modified myself with a power ring, I-"

I frown and look at her breasts. They look like they've gone back to normal size to me, but-.

"-think-." She follows my gaze, then averts her eyes with an expression of amused embarrassment. "No, my brain, not.. that."

"Oh. Ah, while the lactase gene might have a knock-on effect, it would be a very minor one. Humans all produce lactase at some point during their lives."

"Did you give yourself that gene?"

"No, I was born with it. Like your-." Oops. "Un-cle."

"I'll.. stay with the nut-milk, thanks."

"As you will. I -on the other hand- am trying different fruit combinations, and today is…"

"Apricot."

"Apricot, apparently."

"Don't you like apricot?"

"Last time I ate apricots, it was with a pork chop."

"For breakfast?"

"No."

"Do you like pork chops?"

"No. Honestly, I just want to try everything once. I don't have high hopes, but I've been wrong before."

Seven apricot halves appear in my-. And there's the eighth half so that I won't be thinking about the missing half all day. Thank you, ring. I generate a construct spoon and dig in.

"What are you doing today?"

"Quick check up on my students, then I'm in the Themysciran forum all morning. Elections are coming up and I'm hoping that we can finally get Clyemne out of office."

"Are you standing?"

"Hah! Ah, no, I don't think that Themyscira is ready for a male senator. Maybe when the war's over."

I take a spoonful of-.

Uh.

"Not good?"

"It's… Interesting."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:08 GMT +3

I wave at the fishing boats as I pass over the fleet at sail-height, getting a few waves back from those women who have a free arm. Others are already unloading their catch at the docks, or laying them out at the morning market. I smile as I see one of the night fishers shaking a bucket of ice out over their catch to preserve it.

I did that. They're using ice created using a machine I put into commercial service on Themyscira, and no one acts like it's anything strange. No one's shying away. I mean, it'll be a while before we get to the stage where there are fridges or freezers in every home, and I've… Really got to see about sorting out some way for my fellow Themyscirans to get formal magic tuition-.

After I've found John Constantine. No new projects until that one is done. So far I've only got as far as tracking down every dodgy street magician on the planet and asking if they've seen him. If I'd known there were this many of them I'd have tried to start an actual Trench Coat Regiment.

Huh. Usually, Diana makes a point of being around when it's one of my days in the forum. I'm not sure what she thinks is going to happen; I'm not persuasive enough to convince them to do anything too crazy just by speaking. Maybe she's there as a calming influence. Or maybe she actually finds it funny?

No. No, I don't think it's that.

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Diana, are you actually giving me a-?"

"Wonder Woman not found."

Oh. Well, that explains it. If she's not on the planet then she can't lurk on the outskirts of the forum, covering her eyes with her right hand and slowly shaking her head.

For example.

I'm not seeing Kon or Mitchell either. Maybe they went with her? Seems… Unlikely though. Mitchell's been trying to catch up on Kon's superior social skills so I doubt that he'd want to miss a weekend like that. Ring-?

Kon and Mitchell are in Mount Justice.

I'm actually a little touched at her faith in m-. No, there's Alkyone. Interesting choice, given that Alkyone likes me more than anyone other than Hippolyta and her three circlemates, but a logical one. She has pretty conservative instincts while still being willing to give me a fair hearing. I should check in with her first.

I cross the lower city forum low enough and slow enough for my passage to be clearly visible to everyone. I see a few regulars -some of whom will be seeking office or trying to keep it- shuffling through their notes in preparation for the morning disputation. Some are recorded on vellum, but it looks like Man's World paper is also making inroads.

Alkyone comes to alert as she sees me heading towards her, and I slow and land a not too close distance in front of her.

"Good morning."

A shallow inclination of the head. "Illustres."

"Did Princess Diana leave a message for me?"

She visibly hesitates, which isn't something I'm used to from her. "Queen Hippolyta requests your presence in the palace."

"Um, okay, I'm at her disposal. Can you give me a clue what this is about?"

"I am sorry." And now there's no doubt, which means that this is something that Queen Hippolyta has ordered her to do or told her is right. "But the Queen wants to tell you herself."

Then that's the most I'm going to get out of her. I look around, but none of the other Amazons appear to be acting strangely. Alright, I.. suppose. It's not as if Hippolyta is unpleasant company.

"Rightoh. Do you want a lift back?"

"The Queen has tasked me with overseeing the debates to make sure that things don't get out of hand."

"Out of hand? Should I leave a camera?"

"Cameras have been forbidden during elections since we first learned of them." She makes a very small smile. "If people wish to see politicians make fools of themselves, they may stir themselves and come to the forum to see it in person."

"Fair enough. Have you given any consideration to how you'll be voting?"

"That will be a matter for consideration once I have heard-." She considers me for a moment. "Yooou are not standing yourself, are you?"

I grin and hold her gaze. Then I raise my arms, holding them out to the sides as if to embrace the world.

"No. Much as it would delight Eris, you would be conducting yourself differently if you were. You are simply playing on my expectations and prejudices."

"You're pretty insightful for a woman who spent ninety years in a box."

"You are fairly insightful also. Do you inhale fumes, as oracles do, or does it come naturally?"

I reduce my smile to slightly more normal proportions, give her a mock-salute with my right hand and then transition to the palace plaza.

Ooh. Demeter's temple is looking a little more overgrown than normal. Has Euanthe been visiting? Hera's temple has… A satellite dish, which is… Okay. The rest looks much as it has for the last two thousand years or so. One of the guards-.

She's running into the palace. That's unusual. I'm not normally a 'panic stations'-. Something's up.

I trade my light armour for my heavy armour and generate construct armour to go along with it. That sends a wave of uncertainty through the remaining guards, but unusually none of them say anything. They've all been ordered to leave this to Hippolyta. Why? I like Hippolyta well enough but we're not super-close. Certainly not 'we need someone to talk Orange Lantern down' close.

What's going on?

And… Here comes Hippolyta. And Captain Philippus and… Menalippe. Has Eris done something? Why the heck is-?

"Paul, that…" Queen Hippolyta looks over my preparations. "Won't be necessary."

"Your majesty, something about this situation makes me think that you might -and I say this with all due respect- be mistaken."

"Diana has received a mission of great importance from Lord Zeus, King of Olympus."

Oh. Is that all? Not exactly a frequent occurrence, but Diana's been clued in on supernatural threats by him about… Three times before? And while the lightning hurt, I'm prepared to take the occasional cheap shot in the name of maintaining the peace.

"What sort of mission?"

"Lord Zeus is concerned about the circumstances of Donna Troy's creation, and has charged my daughter with ensuring that Tartarus remains an inviolate prison."

"How? I'm fairly sure that Diana doesn't have anything like the knowledge of thaumaturgy that would require."

"By attending to its security in person."

"Al.. right? How long is that going to take?"

"Lord Zeus did not specify a time limit. I assume that she will visit each of those imprisoned within and ensure that they are not attempting to escape or otherwise violate their bounds."

I frown. This does sound like something that a demigod might be asked to do, but where Zeus is concerned… "She's going to Tartarus indefinitely?"

"Yes, but-."

"Not a problem." I rise off the ground. "I'll pop down and help her. We'll be back this afternoon."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:21 GMT +3

"Zagreus?" I frown at the hunt-god. "That's a little… Heavily armed for you, isn't it? Are you hunting dragons or something?"

His normal hunting gear has been replaced by a mixture of orichalcum plate and… Scaly leather? I'm assuming that the donor was some sort of mythological creature, probably the same one that donated his cloak. A bandoleer of knives, two short swords-. Gladiuses, a Colt single-action army revolver and an AK-47. That's not 'today we're hunting wabbits', that's 'I could totally take Kratos'.

"Just… In case Diana finds anything concerning. I've never hunted a titan before, and I wouldn't dare to be less than fully equipped should she call for aid."

I look away for a moment, down towards the queue of souls still awaiting judgement, then over to the new settlement built not too far from the palace. The 'foreign quarter', for souls who have other afterlives they'd rather go to but are staying here until some sort of transfer can be arranged. It's an interesting mix of architectural styles, though they've clearly compromised in some areas due to not having access to some types of more advanced materials.

"Is that likely? I mean, Cronus has been down there for a very long time and hasn't really achieved all that much."

"True, but Zeus was there when they were bound and has wisdom that we lack."

"Zeus's 'wisdom' doesn't even remind him to put a condom on while playing away after Hera put him in the last chance saloon."

"Ahhhh…" Zagreus awkwardly looks up towards Erebos's false sky. "Perhaps you could avoid insulting the King of Olympus when in the domains of Greek myth. It's usually not conducive to health and long life."

"He shot me with lightning, Zagreus. I'm not planning on doing anything about it, but I haven't forgotten it. If he wants my respect then he can pull his finger out, do something with his life and stop sending my friends and mentors off on pointless busywork quests."

Zagreus takes a deep breath.

"Are you familiar with the concept of nemesis?"

"Colloquially, a person's greatest enemy. Traditionally, it was the source of destruction the hero of a story created by their actions. Anger the gods and you make enemies. Eventually, one of them bests you. It exists to remind even the powerful that they can be brought low and that they should remember the virtues even if they can maintain their position without needing to."

"Quite. So-."

"You think I'm Zeus's nemesis? The natural consequence of his bad behaviour?" I shake my head. "I'm not sure that follows, and real life is seldom like the plays."

Zagreus looks at me despondently for a moment, then nods with a sigh.

"You are of course free to travel into Tartarus. I don't know exactly where Diana is, but I'm sure you can get directions from the Hekatonkheires. Or perhaps the other inmates."

"Thank you. All the best to Melinoë."

He nods as I rise into the air, heading 'east north east' towards the gateway into Tartarus. Not sure what the weapons were really in aid of. I've been… Assuming that efforts to fight a titan in purely material space were more or less doomed to failure, but I suppose that he might be able to do a little better with godly magic than I managed against Oceanus.

Despite the enlarged population, Erebos looks much the same as normal. I wave down at the orchards as I pass over them, though I doubt that anyone at ground level can see me. The rivers, the blasted plain, the… New road going up to the Fields of Punishment. And the people walking it don't exactly look unhappy. Walking in either direction, I should say. I suppose that knowing their punishment has a definite end helps? Or maybe they're masochists who pled guilty or something, I don't know.

No trouble getting the door open, and there's the inky void that I remember from my last visit. However, my increased familiarity with the Ophidian's empathic abilities means that while conventional light is denied to me, I can navigate using the wisps of feeling… Is that Tartarus itself, or left over from the inmates? Diana's trail stands out, and while I can't see where my navigational feeler filaments are I can still feel them. She's not going particularly fast, which makes sense as while her senses are acute, they're not supernatural. She's stuck with normal sound and light like the rest of us. Not that I think that, say, a kryptonian's vision would provide much benefit in here.

"Who goes there?"

"Hail, Wonder Woman!"

A burst of sonic energy gets me a 'look' at her. Looks like she's in her standard Wonder Woman corset, and holding… A dense hand, which is pointing in the direction she was travelling. As she turns towards my voice the hand moves so that the pointing finger remains extended in the same direction.

Useful.

"Paul. Why are you here?"

"Thought we could get this done faster if I helped. Can I offer you a lift?"

Sonic scans show her bow her head slightly.

"This is not about speed."

"Right, it's about thoroughness. But you can't see in here. I can-" I fabricate an echolocation headset. "-help with that, even if I don't know what this place is supposed to look like."

"Paul, do you-?" I nudge her in the shoulder with the headset and she takes it, feeling around it to work out what it's for before putting it over her head. She takes a moment to look around before focusing on me. "Thank you. Paul, do you understand what is meant by religious faith?"

Ah…

"Compliance with the will of what the believer believes to be a higher power?"

"Lord Zeus has given this task to me. I appreciate that you want to help, but I am the person it was given to."

"But-."

"Your mercenary approach to religion isn't normal. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, but-! It's Zeus! He's not exactly inscrutable."

"Even if he does not choose to live in accordance with the highest virtues at all times, Lord Zeus is a god. He is aware of the universe in ways that neither of us can comprehend."

"I'm not sure that's true for either of us." I sigh, looking away and shaking my head. "You really think you've got to do this on your own?"

"I do."

"Okay. Okay, fine. Have fun, or religious enlightenment or whatever."

I shake my head and I back away from her, then turn and fly at speed towards the gates. I mean… It's not impossible that Zeus is… I don't know, doing this to help her train her god-senses or something. I would be surprised, given Diana's lack of enthusiasm for that aspect of her power and him waiting this long to do something he could just have well done seventy years ago, but this sort of situation might do something like that. Not sure why it's suddenly become so urgent…

I pass through the gates and close them behind me. Okay. While I'm here-.

"Lantern?"

Akhlys walks towards me, looking pretty miserable but not as miserable as she used to. Her arms and legs clatter from the bracelets, armlets and other rune-inscribed charms I've had made for her, spells for promoting health and wellbeing and others that are designed to absorb sickness. The result is no better than a draw, but it's where we are now and Sephtian said that making them taught him a lot.

"Akhlys. Any worse?"

"No. Thank you for asking. I am very sorry about Diana."

"She's managing."

"Still. It is disgraceful that Zeus could not simply accept his rejection with good grace."

…

"I beg your pardon?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:25 GMT +3

"Pau-?"

"Diana."

"Wha-?"

"I have been informed that your description of the event that led you to your tour of Tartarus was less than entirely complete. Would you care to expand upon it?"

Diana considers that carefully.

"Since… Hera has separated from him, Lord Zeus expressed an interest in remarrying. He asked if I would like to be considered for the position and I replied that I did not feel ready to undergo apotheosis."

"And then you were sent here."

"We discussed the possibilities, but ultimately I declined."

"And then you were sent here."

"Being asked to become Queen of the Gods is no insult." I actually see the stygian blackness around us turn orange for a moment. "A few days later, Lord Zeus asked me to undertake this mission. The two are not necessarily related, though I acknowledge that if I had undergone apotheosis I would not be here now."

"Understood."

"Somehow, I doubt that. Paul, I want you to promise me that you will not fight Zeus. The lightning bolt with which he struck you was but a small fraction of his strength."

"Diana, he's using your morals in order to twist your arm on the issue of marrying him, whereupon he'd be a devoted husband for maybe three months before reverting to type and treating you like he did Hera."

"Yes, that is why I said no. I still want you to promise me."

Breathe in, breathe out.

"I promise that I will not fight Zeus. Anything else?"

"Paul, please take this seriously. Any outcome of you fighting Zeus, even with the Ophidian's full support, would-."

"I am aware of the likely disruptions to the thaumosphere that would come from an entity like Zeus being consumed. I promise that I will not attempt to consume Zeus. I will be making vigorous representations concerning my disquiet at his actions to various parties."

Her right hand twitches slightly, and I extend my right hand towards her.

"If you want to check that I'm being honest, I am happy to be bound by the lasso."

She lowers her hand.

"Thank you. Please, be safe."

"Excuse me."

And I'm outside of Tartarus, and up the stairs and into the air.

That explains why they were speaking carefully around me.

To the Mountain. I think.

26th October 2012
22:27 GMT -5

"…if Olympian could-."

Richard goes silent, and the rest of the assembled team turn to stare at me.

Wallace is the first to look away, glancing left and right to see the response of the other team members.

"He's he-re."

I nod. I am indeed here.

"What have we got so far?"

Kon smiles at me. "How'd you find out?"

"Come now, Prince Kon-El. It's election season. Naturally, I visited Themyscira."

"Yeah, but Grandma said they weren't gunna tell you."

"But no one told Akhlys that she wasn't supposed to tell me. I'm not happy about certain people trying to keep me from finding out-"

I make eye contact with Ghia'ta, who has a power ring. She gulps.

"-but I think it's more important that we focus our efforts on liberating Diana."

"Ah." Wallace hesitantly points to me with his right hand. "Could you stop talking like that? And… Maybe stop glowing? It's creeping me out."

"I would be happy to do that, but I'm going to need a moment. Why don't you bring me up to speed while I do that?"

I walk into the huddle, Leonid and Tula backing away slightly. Mitchell on the other hand just nods as I try to let some of my rage bleed off. I know why I'm angry; Zeus is acting against Diana and… No. The whole team was here and on top of this. She wasn't being abandoned. This was being dealt with.

I hear Wallace exhale in relief as the orange lights die down a little.

"So… Yeah." Richard expands a hologram of Aristides Demetrios, Creeper on Argonauts and Embarrassment to Greece. "If we need extra superhuman power to fight a titan, he's on the list."

"A question."

"Go ahead?"

"How are we characterising the problem?"

"Wonder Woman's stuck in Tartarus until we're sure that the Titans aren't trying to escape."

"No." I smile as I hear Zatanna speak up. "This isn't about the Titans. This is about Zeus. This is about Zeus sending Superboy's mother into Tartarus."

Mitchell shifts slightly at his exclusion, but he clearly agrees with the sentiment.

Richard appears not to. "She didn't have to go, Zatanna."

"My dad didn't have to put the helmet on."

Kaldur steps towards the hologram. "I fear that we are being distracted. I believe that it is worth considering techniques which could be used to stop Titans-"

"Because they'll probably work on Olympians, too."

"-because such techniques could be used at any point in the future, not merely in relation to this incident. Orange Lantern, since you are clearly deeply emotionally affected by what has occurred, would you like to share your thoughts?"

"Yes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th October 2012
22:29 GMT -5

Richard edges away as I move to stand at the front of the team's semicircle huddle. My environmental shield is still expanded, but it's not quite the roaring house fire that it was a few moments ago.

"This is Zeus."

I connect my ring to the hologram projector and bring up an image of the avatar Zeus used when he met Helena Sandsmark. Between her photographs of the trip and the ship's security cameras I had more than enough to create a three dimensional model.

"He's King of the Olympians, a pantheon of gods worshipped by the inhabitants of one small and insignificant island in the Aegean Sea, and a handful of weirdoes in other places. When encountered like this, he's fairly weak."

Noriel frowns. "Weak?"

"To be precise, mildly superhuman strength and endurance, and some ability to manipulate electricity. Everyone here with their normal equipment could take him down. That is because gods can't maintain strong avatars in the material world for long without a great deal of effort and assistance, and Zeus doesn't have enough worshippers to pull it off."

I pause.

"It occurs to me just now that while most of you know about why I-." I make eye contact with Zatanna and not Robert. "Why we went after Nabu, we never really discussed the methodology. How we went about working out how to fight a high-end arcane life form. The first stage isn't much different to a more mundane target: find out everything you can about them. Find people who know things about them, and have reason to do them harm. Find people with relevant skills and work out how to bind them to your cause. When we had our first meeting about dealing with Nabu, I asked if we were willing to make common cause with Klarion."

That gets a quiet-

"Dude."

-from Wallace.

"We decided that it wasn't even worth considering. And we decided it that evening. Who are Zeus's enemies?"

Raquel straightens slightly. "The Titans, right? Cronus, and… Whoever."

"I doubt that anyone in Tartarus likes him very much. Or Tartarus itself. Several Titans, gods and demigods ended up down there at the end of the Titanomachy. And I don't know of enough reliably unbiased sources to want to base my decisions on them. Oceanus was wrecking the Atlantic rim because Orm did something to him. Helios has-" I glance at Kon's dull glow. "-been nothing but helpful. Did the Olympians serve anyone else by defeating Cronus, or did they just want to avoid being consumed? Don't know."

Kaldur nods. "We will need to find out."

Donna nods. "I'll go. Cronus is more likely to speak with me than with anyone else."

"Would Lord Hades let you in?"

"I'll just tell him that I want to speak to Diana."

"Which is a problem. Diana's not stupid enough to believe that my reaction to this situation will be anything less than total apoplexy. If any of us start walking up to the prisoners in Tartarus for a chat, she's not going to be happy."

"Um!" New Kara raises her right hand. "We should just ask Zeus to stop being a poopy head!"

"We did that to Nabu just before the fight started. And though I agree that Zeus should be given a chance to stand down before direct violent action is taken, asking him before we've finished planning our attack just abandons any sort of element of surprise."

Garth nods. "Would it shame him into allowing Wonder Woman to leave Tartarus if we conclusively demonstrated that the Titans don't have any sort of escape plan?"

"They've been down there for about seven thousand years. I'd be amazed if they think about anything other than escaping. I did learn from Hades that Zeus is the one stopping them from being considered for parole, so there's that."

"Are we..?" Artemis looks around. "Are we talking about killing a god?"

"Killing a god is perfectly possible. Killing an avatar isn't hard, and the core consciousness is just a mass of magical energy. I'd rather avoid it though; tearing something like that apart would radiate huge amounts of raw magic out into the Earth's thaumosphere. The issue is that if you don't have a way to kill someone you want to apprehend, then you probably don't have any way to threaten them."

"I'm gunna need bigger arrows."

"You'd need arcane batteries like the ones we used to drain Nabu, but that probably wouldn't be an efficient approach. With Nabu, we only had to drain what was in his helmet at any one time to erase his mind. With Zeus, you'd have to drain the entire being." I shake my head. "It wouldn't be my choice, though it wouldn't hurt to look into it."

M'gann looks unhappy about the direction of things. "Are we really going to have to fight him?"

"Defeating him, whether that means killing him or just wounding him until he submits, removes his authority. As King, his right to issue orders to his followers is absolute and backed by force."

"Okay, but what if he wasn't king?"

"It's not an elected position. A god or demigod from the Hellenic mythos would have to beat him in a fight, and convince the other gods to accept them. Of the ones I know, Lord Hades is happy where he is and Hephaestus is physically crippled from last time Zeus took issue with him. And Ploutos wouldn't want to unmask his avatar."

Ghia'ta perks up. "What about Hera?"

"If she hasn't gelded him in his sleep already, I doubt that she's up for a fight now."

"Could she not prevail upon him to change his mind? Perhaps find him someone else to grant his attention?"

"You can certainly ask her. As for other goddesses, I doubt it. Zeus has a bad track record for infidelity and while the Hellenic pantheon has seen a minor resurgence lately, he isn't one of the movers. The status isn't there and he isn't that appealing on a personal level."

Something occurs to Kon. "What about Athena? She's Mom's patron goddess."

"We should certainly talk to her. And to your grandmother; since her dodge failed I'd like the whole story. And I need to get hold of Eris. Tempest, Aquagirl, Zatanna: any ideas what would actually happen if Zeus died?"

Three shaking heads, and Canis is smiling in expectation. Probably a bad sign.

"Worth finding out in advance to see what we could do to mitigate it. Just in case."

"Paul…" Richard shakes his head. "Zeus hasn't killed anyone and he's not threatening to kill anyone. I think we should investigate what's going on, but-."

"Zeus might not be able to make a strong avatar, but he can create a storm ten miles across centred on Themyscira and fire lightning bolts until the bedrock melts without leaving his throne. People with superpowers are a threat, and that's true for gods as well."

"Would he?"

"I don't think so, but I've never spoken to him directly and I'm not prepared to risk their lives on my beliefs. Now. Individual assignments."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:43 GMT +3

"Lord Hades, King of Erebos."

I make a point of bowing to ninety degrees, a formal display of respect and deference. I'm also in formal robes, and my aura hasn't died down to anything like normal resting levels. Hades read my mood rather well, and the petitioner was politely but firmly escorted out by his guards when I arrived.

Zagreus was already here, along with his sister Macaria. I haven't had anything to do with her, though I suppose that technically I've achieved the aim that she sets for her followers on two occasions. Or was the first time too selfish? Honestly, training her up as a judge makes more sense to me than getting Zagreus or Melinoë more involved in running Erebos.

Canis doesn't bow, instead just looking around. He doesn't have that near-manic expression he gets when he sees something really interesting, but he is taking the opportunity to have a look around the last resting place of the dead of Greece and anyone who couldn't find anywhere better. Zagreus gives him the occasional look, but otherwise there's little reaction by the gods to a New God.

"Paul, Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Rise, rise." I straighten up but otherwise remain fairly rigid. "It does not require the judgement of a god to know why you are here."

"Lord Zeus."

"My brother's treatment of Diana is… A feeble smokescreen to disguise his intention."

"Nearly as feeble as the attempts by those involved to prevent me from finding out."

"If you do not want a reputation for highly aggressive responses to those who wrong your allies, then I suggest killing fewer order-lords. And if you want your other allies to have concerns about what you will do should they fail to react in a way they find pleasing, you may want to consider threatening them less."

"This isn't as bad as the Nabu situation, and they've had less time to think things through. What I wish to know is what you intend to do."

"I have explained to my brother why he should not behave in this way. He in return made certain observations concerning my own marriage and suggested that-. That was why he was disinclined to seek my advice on the subject."

"Did you intend to do anything else?"

"Not at this stage."

"Do you believe Lord Zeus for a moment when he claims that the inmates of Tartarus are at a heightened risk of escape?"

"I know of no corroborating evidence, and quite a detailed survey was made after the incidents with Donna Troy and Deva."

"What is the mechanism to talk Lord Zeus out of making a poor decision?"

"We talk to him about it until either he decides not to… Or it's too late. Princess Diana is a powerful demigoddess dealing with beings who have been imprisoned for longer than human civilisation has existed. She is in no danger, and I see little harm in her checking my work."

"You are not insulted by Lord Zeus ordering someone to check your work?"

"If the actual reason for him sending her wasn't completely transparent, then I might be." He leans forward slightly. "I will be clear now, Illustres. Much as I disagree with what my brother has done, distasteful as I find it, I will not support the sort of aggressive action with which you have become associated. I will certainly not undertake it myself."

"And if someone else did?"

He contemplates me for a few moments.

"What are you planning, Lantern?"

"A dozen or so things. But at the moment I am simply gathering information. Amongst…" I fan my hands out to either side. "Mortals, dropping waste material in a public street is a criminal act. It's not a serious act, if the quantity of waste is small. Usually a person would just get told to pick whatever it was up." I shrug. "They might get a small fine. It's not a big deal. But.. it.. is a criminal act. And a person can be taken to court over it with all the expenses that involves, and if they don't pay there are interest charges and ultimately debt recovery charges. Someone can be arrested, have their property seized… I think a person can even end up in prison for Contempt of Court if they're really intransigent about it. It's against the law, and that needs to be enforced."

"I think that I understand, but perhaps you could clarify."

"A prideful god sending a devotee on a snipe hunt isn't that big a deal. Not really. But it is a misdeed and it is likely that her friends will pursue the matter. However far they must."

"My brother does not usually respond well to efforts at compulsion."

I smile. "Neither do order-lords. In my experience."

"Do you?"

I shrug. "Diana asked me to promise not to attack Lord Zeus. I did. To an extent my hands are bound." I see Zagreus sigh with relief. "But there are ways to make a person's life awkward which do not require direct violence. And I am to my knowledge the only one so bound."

"I hear what you say."

I bow again, this time not quite so far.

"Thank you for your time, Lord Hades."

He waves his right hand in dismissal, and I turn and walk out of the throne room.

"An interesting experience." Canis pulls himself up onto Brut's back. "A less powerful figure than Darkseid."

"True. I much prefer it this way."

"I also." We head towards the exit at some speed, Brut loping along beside me as I fly. "I can scarce imagine a universe containing two Darkseids. I would be filled with a most profound confusion."

We exit the palace grounds and head 'west', towards our next interviewee.

"I was a little surprised that Melinoë wasn't there."

"Your ally, the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness?" I nod. "Truly a shame. I hoped to consult with her."

"You want to paint madness and nightmares?"

"I wish for her to unleash the full gamut of her wrath upon me, that I might make art while my mind is so afflicted. Or perhaps her efforts might be in vain; having quailed before Darkseid, other sources of fear are far less concerning."

"Maybe later."

"The witch-goddess we are visiting. I do not recall her appearing in your records."

"I've never met her before, though she has blessed Donna a few times."

"A risk, then. What knowledge do you seek that you cannot find elsewhere?"

"Hades is far more powerful than most Olympians due to his bond with Erebos. But he accepted Zeus becoming the ruler of the gods."

"He has a similar bond to some being."

"That would be my guess. But it's not mentioned in Themyscira's holy texts, and neither Hades nor Melinoë nor any of the others have mentioned it. I need to know what and I need to know how, because once I do, then I have all the leverage I need."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:49 GMT +3

As we travel, Canis looks northward, staring at the area of verdant growth and the near-blinding glow at the centre.

"What is that?"

"Hades's wife is a goddess called Persephone. She's the daughter of Demeter and loves living greenery."

"Is she related to your plant goddess?"

"Euanthe would be her aunt. And I don't think that Euanthe is technically a goddess. It's not just a measure of power, it's about how their metaphysique is structured." I frown thoughtfully. "Unless you're telling me otherwise?"

"If a god can be new and not be a New God, I can accept that power does not make a thing a god."

"Can they?"

"Can-?" He jerks his head around, frowning. "Yes, of course they can. A New God joins to an aspect of Darkseid's divinity. Old Gods arise directly from the Dream, and their spawn gain their power from much the same place."

"So there's no link?"

"There are some… Vague similarities, but no more so than there would be with some ancient sorcerers. Do you not know her?"

"No. For plant life, I'd either go to Euanthe, Swamp Thing or Gaea herself. Do you need to speak with her?"

"I find inspiration in all places. But I have no special need to speak with her. Unless she has some relationship with Zeus we can avoid the place entirely."

"She's Zeus's daughter. But… Ah, I don't think they're on good terms."

"Is that not good for us?"

"I also don't think she's powerful or influential enough to affect matters one way or the other."

He nods. "Glory to the weak, for in having no strength of their own they shall not be tempted to act aught but the will of Darkseid."

…

"Yes."

I remember the typical version of the myth from Earth Prime, but Hades doesn't seem like the sort to slip a few pomegranate seed roofies in someone's drink. The Amazon version mentions the seeds, but dwells more on Hades's wickedness in not consulting with or appeasing Demeter. I still don't see how Demeter's response of 'starve the world' could be considered anything other than completely deranged, but I… Don't know if the mythological version is what actually happened. Hades admitted that he's changed a lot since the old days, but I imagine that it's a sore point with him and I haven't wanted to push it.

Before us, there's a village coming up. Or possibly a town? Order of service gets a bit confused in situations where the locals don't need to eat and a temple would be redundant. Hecate used to live in a relatively modest home tended by bound shades of those who joined her cult in life. Now… Now they're all bound to Erebos and like its other denizens they aren't 'shades' in the traditional mindless dead sense any longer.

Given Hecate's threat potential and the fact that most Atlanteans are hostile to the idea of gods, I haven't felt the need to make contact with her. I wonder-.

…

Is that a water park?

I watch as a woman -an Amazon by the look of her hair and skin- grins with delight as she shoots out of the end of a water slide to the laughter of those already in the plunge pool below.

Okay…

Well, I… I imagine that it's all their own work. Erebos is actually well-served with rivers, it's just that the titan's magic tends to give them unpleasant arcane effects. I… Assume that the witches have learned to filter them. Which does leave the question of what's powering the pumps. The slides are made of wood, smooth polished, with metal scaffolding. Nothing plastic or synthetic. I guess that the wood comes from Persephone's woodland, and they… Mine the metal themselves?

There are swimming pools, some for training and some for more casual swimming. Seven slides of various designs… No rubber rings-. Because no rubber. Wrong continent. A possible avenue for trade? They are wearing swimming costumes, which makes me somewhat more comfortable, styles varying between Victorian to modern. Ages range from-. Another Themyscira flashback, newly adult to mature adult with no children or old people.

"Hey!" A woman in a lifeguard chair points at us as we get closer. "Who ordered concubines?!"

Or men.

"I'm sorry, we're not concubines." She moues in pantomimed disappointment, but I see the purple glow-dust that gathers around her left hand. "Could you please point us in the direction of Lady Hecate? It's a bit urgent."

We've attracted the attention of quite a few women, though we're only being watched because we're marginally interesting rather than with any real hostility. When you're already dead, personal safety is much less of a concern. Or maybe they're dog people.

"So you're not concubines, or you've already been hired?"

"So we're not concubines-"

Canis shrugs his shoulders. "I have no objection to being a concubine, if it aids the mission."

"-and I need to speak with Lady Hecate on the subject of thaumaturgy and Olympian politics."

We reach her lifeguard chair, Brut taking a sniff at a puddle of water splashed onto the side of the pool. The woman on guard duty straightens up slightly now that's it's apparent that we're here for a serious purpose.

"Do you have an offering?"

I raise my left hand and fabricate an inflatable obstacle course, depositing it in the middle of the fun pool.

"Yes. Arcane knowledge, artefacts, and-."

"Hey Paul!" Eris waves as she heads in our direction, wearing a sarong. And nothing else. I bet she was wearing a swimming suit, saw me and then chucked it in the-.

Yes, there it is.

"Eris, good to see you. This will save me time."

"Oh?" She raises her eyebrows. "I don't get a 'Lady' Eris?"

"You're not a lady."

"Eh." She looks at Canis for a moment, then appears to dismiss him. "Are you up to something?"

"At the moment we're just gathering information."

"So 'yes'. You know, I don't think I really committed last time."

"Your help may well be quite useful. Or we might end up resolving things peacefully and-."

"Bghhahaha!" Eris hunches as she splurts with laughs, the action clearly taking her by surprise. She then reaches up with her right hand and half pat and half slaps me around the face. "'Peacef-. Have you met you?"

"Are you going to take us to Lady Hecate or should I just ignore you?"

"Oh, I'll take you. This feels like something interesting and I wanna get in at the ground level." She lowers her hand, grabbing hold of my robe in a surprisingly strong grip as she turns and pulls me towards the path. "And bring the art student and his poodle. I think this is the start of something funny."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:55 GMT +3

"So Zeus is totally doomed, right?"

"Given that entropy exists and will probably be impractical to fight on a universal scale, I'd say that we're all doomed."

Canis nods. "All are doomed before the omnipotent malevolence of Darkseid. We are caught in a trap we cannot perceive."

Eris looks at him curiously. "Darkwho?"

I shake my head more as I see Canis's eyes twitch. "Don't get him started."

"Okay. Fine." She cranes her neck towards me. "But he's doomed, yeah?"

"I have no plans to kill Zeus."

"So is it Ice Giants?" She squints. "Or is that too obvious? Too obvious. Fire G-? No, stupid-."

"I have-."

"Giant-! Lightning rod-! And a magic pokéball!"

"Too obvious, too direct, and I already promised Diana that I wouldn't fight Zeus."

Canis gives her a mild frown. "I would have guessed that a chaos goddess would be more appreciative of surprise."

"It's nervous energy. Zeus screwed the centaur and this time it's metaphorical! A-. What'd you call it? Dysfunctional order that would have been overturned centuries ago if anyone cared about it is about to get flipped."

"Can I assume that you're interested in taking a swing at him?"

She frowns, clearly baffled. "No! Taking crazy risks is what humans are for! I'm just gunna watch. 'cause… This is gunna be hilarious."

And breathe in. And hold. And breathe-.

Eris has taken several steps away from us. "Okay, what was that?"

"You. You want chaos? You want disorder? You want things to change? Get involved. Put something on the line. Be true to your stated beliefs. Because if you don't, that's it. I'm finding a new god. I'll see what Discordia is doing. Or-."

"Hey! No, it's not-! Look, it's Zeus, okay? If I had a good idea how to get rid of him I'd already have done it! I don't know how to fight him, and I'm not powerful enough to just… Pick him up and throw him in the pig pen!"

"This isn't going to be a direct fight. I'm not asking you to beat Zeus for me, I'm just asking you to actively participate in the plotting. Like you did when we went after Klarion."

"Oh, this is not the same-."

"Is the idea of changing making you uncomfortable? Do you want to go and hide in your comfort zone?"

She glares, something about her eyes… I think I'm dimly perceiving the goddess pretending to be a normal woman. For a moment I feel like the hard pavement I'm walking on is moving or… About to move, like one of my feet could just drop through the hard surface, or… Slide away, all my certainties undone.

"The whole point is overseeing chaos created by mortals. I didn't think you wanted gods controlling your lives."

"If there was a god trying to control my life I'd deal with that god. I want you involved."

Her face goes slightly blank, then she smiles, pleased, and the floor is solid once more. Or at least it's disguising that it's not. "Really?"

"You're as much a part of my project as Hephaestus or Ploutos, and you're the one I chose as my patron. This is the same as getting Hephaestus to work with arcane engineering or Ploutos to review my economic plans. You're my first choice adviser."

Her eyes narrow, but this time it's more playful. "Prove it."

I bow, then lunge forward and lift her up onto my right shoulder before chasing after Canis towards… Towards a grim and foreboding tower reaching up towards the faux sky.

"I thought you were gunna grab my boobs! That would have demonstrated you'd overcome your hang-ups about sexuality and the human form! And that you didn't care what that assassin girl thinks about it!"

"Grab your own boobs."

"You're bouncing me up and down and I tossed my bra! You think I'm not?"

"I've overcome my hang-ups to the point where I don't feel the need to prove it. It's emotional intimacy that I crave. Any advice on handling Hecate?"

"You've got two shoulders. Ooh, try pulling her hair! She loves that!"

Canis dismounts and walks into the tower through the open front door. I leave Eris hanging where she is as I follow him. The interior is… An alchemist shop? Jar-covered shelves containing a variety of parts of plants and animals, and tables with various primitive pieces of chemistry equipment. Does she just want her supplies on-hand?

"Lady Hecate?" I look around. "Might I request an audience?"

Canis peers at one of the shelves, clearly not impressed. "This is far more archaic than I expected. Is this not your people's Goddess of Magic? Is she as backwards as the women of Themyscira?"

"No." I look around as… A woman in a purple dress in the medieval European style shuts the door behind us. Her hair is grey and done up in… I don't know what the name is; both flowing and having a pony tail. The skin of her face is a little darker than the Amazon average, and wrinkled as if she's lived a long life under the sun. She looks mature but not really old; it's a look many Amazons have. "But this is only the first floor."

I bow, both arms by my sides. Naturally this causes Eris to land on the floor on her bottom.

"Lady Hecate." I straighten, and… She's younger, her skin more taut and her hair longer. Her dress likewise has changed, the style closer to the beginning of the 20th century. "I would like to barter for knowledge."

"Lord Illustres. An ironic name for one so difficult to see."

Still the same woman. Or goddess, or titan. Of course if she's a titan, then what I'm seeing-.

"I believe that the maiden is next. Should I blink or look away?"

She laughs quietly, raising her right hand and dipping her head as she pushes her hair back over her right ear. "Are you sure that this is not my maidenly aspect?"

"I have essentially no interest in mysticism. I just want to make it a little easier for you to do whatever it is you feel the need to do."

"The form you see is drawn from your own expectations, so it is really more of a question of what you feel the need to do."

"I feel the need for information. What titan does Zeus use to boost himself?"

"And what do you offer in exchange?"

"What do you want? I can give you anything from thaumaturgy texts to more rubber beach toys."

"And if I want to see the titans liberated?"

Ah.

"I think I'd need to know more about the titanomachy than I do now to make that decision."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
06:59 GMT +3

"Would you be prepared to accept 'considered for parole, based on their behaviour'?"

Eris half-grins. "That sounds interesting."

Hecate tilts her head to the right, gazing at me with an expression of curiosity. "And how could you even make such an offer?"

"Any reasonably probable favourable outcome will result in a reduction in Zeus's power, and he's the one giving a hard no to ever releasing them. Hades prefers to allow freedom to the redeemed, and has granted it to all long-term residents of the Fields of Punishment."

"All of the titans."

Oh.

Including Tartarus and Erebos.

Freeing Tartarus wouldn't… Be an insurmountable problem. The few beings inside there could be relocated. The titans could be released to the Dream, and the Hekatonkheires to… Wherever they felt like living from now on.

That isn't true for Erebos. Erebos is where the souls of dead Hellenes exist. And less-importantly-but-still-somewhat-importantly, it's the power source for Hades and Family. Melinoë told me that Erebos hates them. It's a The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas problem and then some. Great afterlife at the cost of chaining up a primordial being that may not have done anything particularly wrong.

I mean, Hades could suck it up, but we need the afterlife. The power for the sophoncy of the souls here has to come from somewhere.

"I don't know. I have no principled objection, but there are obvious practical costs. I don't know enough about how titans function to offer a solution."

"You can't give me what I want for my information until you have my information."

"I can't promise anything anyway. I don't have an aim beyond 'twist Zeus's arm as hard as I need to in order to get Diana out'."

"Diana." Hecate smiles. "Zeus has sent her to Tartarus? That is awkward."

"For.. you?"

"Circe can hardly kill her if she's in Tartarus, can she?" I don't.. know what she's talking about. "Oh, you didn't know about that?"

"Know about what?"

"I'm Circe's patron. I'm the reason why she's not a shrivelled up wisp of a woman writhing in perpetual agony. The reason why she's murdered so many women who might cause that liberty to be rescinded."

I nod, smiling. "Great." Hecate raises her eyebrows. "If she's focused on Diana, then she's not going to target anyone else. And Diana's proven that she can take the attention. I'm not worried about Circe killing her now, when Diana's got so much more experience than when they first fought while Circe's basically the same. And Circe's unpleasant enough that I'm not going to be massively broken up about her suffering. So whatever… Historical evil you've been a party to, there's nothing happening now that requires my attention."

"What a marvellously self-serving viewpoint."

"Now, are you going to tell me about the titans, or do you want something else?"

"Very well. The very basics. Titans are primordial powers born of the first fumbling attempts of the minds of mortal creatures to comprehend the universe around them. They emerge in the depths of the Dream, connected only weakly to those who first conceived of them."

"What did that mean for the material universe?"

"A great deal. Humans struggled to conceive of the animated minds of natural forces. They dreamt things therefore that were at least a little human. Things that could be bargained with. Things that could love or hate. It was a great benefit for the earliest sorcerers, to have stable systems in the thaumosphere connected to those vast beings with which they could commune. Even if their core intelligences were alien to their human devotees."

"Helios isn't alien. Kon has spoken with him on several occasions."

"They're perfectly capable of learning. Most of them, at any rate. But to them, humans are small and distant unless they make a great deal of effort." She turns her head to Eris, staring at her for several seconds. "You call these efforts 'gods'."

"Because gods dwell within the thaumosphere, one step closer to the material universe. And are generally more human-like and can manifest here. Can titans do that?"

"No, not directly. You saw Oceanus create a body, but he did that by manipulating the Dream of Water. He wasn't in the material world's ocean. The Atlanteans' toy merely alters his narrow window on the world; their ancient forebears simply could not tolerate the idea that another being could know their waters more deeply than they."

"So where do gods come from?"

"The story of the world being created by parts of the bodies of the titans is true, though less literal than some scholars assumed."

"What about the cats?"

"The c-?"

Her neck cranes towards me, her eyes narrowing.

"How do you know about that?"

"I've got all of Venturia's spare researchers studying the Dream's connection to the material world. And I've had multiple encounters with time travellers. It wasn't hard to notice that something was off. And then there's all the internet cat videos."

"Then you should know that I can't know where the cats come in. Perhaps there was a cat with my name and nature who existed at some point or perhaps there was not." She shakes her heads, glaring at the universe. "It vexes me that I will likely never know how it was done."

Eris looks confused.

"Cats. What-? Why do you both know what that is?"

"Make yourself useful and I'll tell you. So gods are supposed to be… What, the titans' emissaries into the material universe?"

"Something like that. For most of them it wasn't a deliberate, purposive decision; it was more an… Interaction between the Dream and the material universe. Heat thrown up by the friction of two surfaces rubbing against each other."

"And that's where you come from."

"More human-like, and less primal. Weaker, but with more direct influence on the material universe. And able to commune with our titanic forebear."

"And the war?"

"We are human enough to hate being under the thumb of another. As we are closer to the Dream than the humans in the material universe, so the Dream is closer to us. Our power was not our own."

Eris sneers. "And some of the chaos-primordials had no sense of self-control."

"If you were different classes of being, how did the war work?"

"A flash of brilliance from Zeus, believe it or not. We were bound to the titans by the magic that made us. But could we not learn to manipulate that link, even reverse it?"

"It sounds like you could."

"And so fell Aether, and so rose Zeus."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
07:03 GMT +3

"His power comes from the titan Aether? Where is it?" I mean, the only place-. "Is it in Olympus itself? Because the realm of the gods isn't at the literal peak of the mountain."

"No. That was at the start of the war. Zeus had nothing like the power to bind a titan like Aether." She looks thoughtful. "How much contact have you had with gods not of Olympus?"

"Little to none."

"Mm. Pity. The gods of India found a fascinating way to deal with their titans, though I doubt that you'd appreciate it."

"Why not?"

"Since they could not take the titans' power into themselves, they broke them down gradually to create a system. At one end, it is tethered by the titans. At the other, by the souls of mortal creatures, undergoing a constant cycle of life, death and rebirth. The gods would then draw power from the system, something far easier than taking power from the Dream. And less likely to render the one doing it malleable."

"Erebos allows reincarnation."

"It pales in comparison. How many shades do you think had the wherewithal to actually choose reincarnation? Besides, Erebos doesn't make value judgements about the moral quality of a person's life. Any shade being reincarnated would be reborn as a human, and the Waters of Lethe expunge all memory. It isn't part of the system and it wasn't planned."

"Okay, so..?"

She rolls her eyes dismissively. "Zeus was able to steal tiny amounts of Aether's power for himself, growing steadily stronger and stronger as Aether weakened. In the end, the conscious mind that was Aether collapsed back into the raw magic of the Dream, with Zeus having captured only a tiny fragment of him. But that was enough for him to rise in power and prominence."

"How did he work out how to do that? Zeus never struck me-"

She gives me an unimpressed look.

"-as-. You did it."

"There are limits to what the spell I devised can achieve. And I felt that having Zeus risk himself was better than taking the risk myself. He had the drive…"

I turn to Eris.

"So..?"

She slumps. "No. I wasn't born until after it was all over, remember? Or I'd totally have mainlined a chaos titan."

"Who got the chaos titans? Or chaos titan?"

"Chaos, duh. Punched a hole between parallel universes and made it their own thing."

I frown, curiously. "Why didn't you ever become a Lord of Chaos?"

She shrugs awkwardly. "If you're not all about raw power, it's not all that great a deal. You have to give up a lot, and there're a tonne of responsibilities…"

"You couldn't be bothered to put the work in."

"It didn't offer me anything I wanted! I actually kinda like being a goddess, and there wasn't anything I wanted to do that needed more power."

"'Kinda' like?"

"It's a lot less fun without worshippers, but that's fixed now." She grins, reaching up to pat me on the head. "Good work, Chaos Prophet."

"Didn't you have no worshippers for about two thousand years? And assuming that you're about as old as Hephaestus, you're only four thousand years old."

Eris fidgets awkwardly. "Three and a… Half. But I had other worshippers. There's always someone who wants to buck the system."

"Okay, so-" I look back at Hecate and-. She's ancient, paper-thin skin stretched across fragile bones, hair thin and dress just a sheet bound with a brooch. "-that was your maiden form."

"N-o, yo-u're assuming-"

I sigh, put my hands over my eyes and then turn in a circle. When I get back I'm looking at a child.

"-that I'm limited to a trinity of forms, when really I can look like anything I want."

"Lady Hecate, you can look like whoever you want. But if we return to the issue, Zeus… Doesn't have a currently alive titan he's drawing power from in the way Hades does Erebos?"

"No. He's got Metis stuck in his head. In theory she should give him wisdom."

"Is he just not listening, or..?"

The tiny child-goddess rolls her eyes. "I don't know. I was already down here by the time that happened."

"I see. That's why he's keeping the ones in Tartarus there, isn't it? So he can use their power in full."

"Not quite. He can't take power from Tartarus quite as easily as Hades can Erebos. But that is almost certainly why they're there." She sniffs. "Not that he can use all that power as things are."

I nod. "So that's quite a lot of power."

"Quite a lot of power and quite a lot of different abilities he can use if he puts his mind to it." She sniffs. "Not that I expect that he would. Still, I'm not sure where you'll find anyone who can fight him."

"No one comes to mind?"

She makes an amused noise. "If I had to select the person with the greatest chance of defeating him in the entire Hellenic mythos…"

I wait a moment.

"Yes?"

"I'd bet on you. But not with very much money."

"I assume that you still know the spell for stealing from or binding a titan?"

"It's more complex than just casting a spell. They tend to fight back. But yes, I do know it. Why?"

"Nothing yet. I'm just gathering information. Would you be willing to share it?"

"It's an interesting spell to cast. If you could find a situation for it, I would cast it for a trivial price."

"I appreciate that, thank you. And there's no one in the mythos who could fight Zeus?"

"Not presently. And if you're thinking about using the Tartarian prisoners to boost Hades or Melinoë, I will tell you now that Zeus will feel it and stop you."

"I expected, but thank you for confirming. Can-"

I turn around, and-. Canis has taken jars, their contents and their shelving and arranged them to form the image of himself and Brut mid-leap.

"-is-?"

"This is art attack!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th October 2012
07:38 GMT +3

"No, Canis, 'the mood took me' is not an acceptable reason to wreck a potential ally's place of business."

"I understand, but you cannot perceive the textures!" Unappreciated Artist Bemoanment.

I deposit the construct-barrow of fresh heather down on the ground, where Hecate's shop assistants are ready to receive it.

"I know that you experience sensory… Tessellation, differently to the rest of us. I'm not saying that you were wrong to create it. I'm saying that the way you went about it was wrong. I also know that you're perfectly capable of buying stuff. Hecate's a goddess; she'll understand domain-based impulses."

"That is… True."

"Then would you mind telling me why you just-?"

"Because it was there!"

"Canis, could you make art with a person's internal organs?"

He shakes his head dismissively. "I've rather exhausted the medium. Human livers are bland in colouration. Though I have wondered about incorporating rot and carrion-eaters into a design, that it could change over time and so change in the mind of the observers."

"And do you feel so overwhelmed by your desire to produce art that you're about to try to steal the organs from my body?"

Canis stares at my torso for a moment or two as I dismiss my construct.

"No? There are no insects in this place, and likely none of the proper microbes in your body. I would have to culture them. I would not be able to achieve the proper effect before the textures of your organs were changed by their death." He frowns. "Do the dead here have organs?"

A few of the witch-women below make gestures I associate with certain styles of spell casting.

"You're free to ask them, and they're free to put thousands of years of spell casting experience to use against you."

"Then perhaps a mortuary?"

"We can just synthesise-."

"The soul-feel would be wrong."

"We're getting off the point. I-." No, no, he's Apokoliptian, I'm going about this wrong. "Canis, do not do that again."

He nods, apparently untroubled by my gross violation of proper etiquette.

"As you command."

Okay, feathers smoothed here and useful intelligence gained. And I've got some idea of what I'd need to do in order to beat Zeus. One obvious place where I could get a titan no one else is using, but I…

I have some fairly significant reservations about making Richard Simpson powerful enough to fight Zeus.

And if he's getting powered by a lot of titans, it probably wouldn't be enough anyway.

Can the connection be disrupted? Not easily or quickly. Can it be redirected? No. Could a god learn to use their new power quickly? No.

"Hey!" Eris waves her raised right arm as she walks towards us, and I drop down to ground level. "You staying for the pool party?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I have leads to purs-." Hm. "While you're here, have you seen John Constantine recently?"

"No? Why, did you lose him or-?" She blinks. "You lost him?"

"He's his own man."

"How do you lose a Constantine?! Especially now."

"I'm fairly hard to find myself. And he can use magic."

"You've checked with his friends?"

"Friends and a good few of his enemies. No one's seen him. And since you haven't heard anything, I'll have to look elsewhere."

"Is this a threat? I know Constantine's beat powerful things before, but this is Zeus. He doesn't have the weaknesses of demons or the sense of duty and order that angels have."

"I'm not threatening Zeus with John and asking you to pass it on. I've lost him, and I was wondering if -since you've got other worshippers now- you could ask them to keep an eye out? I really just want to make sure that he's alright."

"Uh-huh."

"It's entirely separate from the Zeus-Diana situation. Unless I find him. Then I'd probably ask for his advice."

"Yeah. Howsabout we sort this thing out before we find John Constantine?"

"Sounds good. Any further divine insight you'd like to share with me?"

"Eygh… Make sure you've got a plan for what happens afterwards?"

"What does Zeus actually do? He doesn't run the world's weather, he doesn't adjudicate disputes and he doesn't guide mortal rulers."

"Him just being there stops some… Things. Fights with other pantheons. Stuff like that could spill into the material universe."

"And I do actually like some Olympians. So if he does get overthrown, someone as powerful needs to be ready to step up. And… Even then, certain parties might try and test things. Right." I nod. "I'll get back in touch when we make some actual progress. Canis, you can find your way back up to the surface on your own?"

"Of course!"

I nod, then transition over to the gates to Tartarus where Donna is waiting. She looks a little out of sorts.

"Get anything?"

"Cronus was pleased to see me."

"He gave you the Darth Vader spe-"

"Hah!"

"-ech, didn't he?"

"Yeah. Yeah, he did. And he didn't ask about Deva, which gives me an idea how paternal he was really feeling."

"Vader didn't ask about Leia, either." … "Oh."

"What is it?"

"I've just realised that Vader never knew that Leia was his daughter." Donna frowns at me. "It's a big deal in the story-." She's not convinced. Move on. "Ah, according to Hecate, Zeus draws power from the titans in Tartarus in the same way that Hades gets power from Erebos, which is why he's never going to release them. And why he's as powerful as he is."

"Oh."

"Hecate and Eris are willing to help, but I don't have a silver bullet quite yet. Let's go and see if Kon and Mitchell have done any better."