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

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
17:12 GMT -5

I float in the air looking at the hole that was torn through the wall of Missus Gordon-Hewitt's house while beneath me Detective Bullock flicks through a forensics report. I think the really bad attempt at intimidation was part of some sort of ill-calibrated information gathering tactic on his part. He's being far more helpful now.

"Don't know how they smashed down the wall like that. No tire tracks, no obvious burning or blast debris."

"Looks to me like someone with superstrength hit it."

"Don't know how it works where you're from, pal-."

"Eastbourne."

"Whut?"

"Where I'm from. It's a town on the south coast of England."

"Whatever. 'round here, no one's strong enough to punch through two layers of brick like that."

I cover the area around the hole in orange light. Ring, measure pressure patterns. Try and get me footprints.

Working. Analysis available.

"Never said they were from around here." I cause the orange glow below me to float upwards, patterning itself after the soil compressions. Lots of people -presumably forensics- have walked over this area, but two sets of footprints stand out. I dismiss the rest and float an example of each over to Bullock and Montoya.

Montoya looks at them in dismay. "They're two feet long. Who coulda made those?"

I suppose it was too much to hope that they'd put all that effort into getting Venom Buster and then never use it. "Anyone. Did you see the news on the attack on the Rhelasian peace conference back in September?"

"Oh yeah. That was you, wasn't it?"

"Remember the chap Red Arrow and I fought when Onyx tried to kill Lex?"

"You think he's here? I thought you fixed him?"

"Mister Huang is back in Human shape. And anyway, he's a thoroughly nice guy." I've kept in touch, just to check I hadn't messed him up when I upgraded his brain. His family have noticed a slight change but none of them seem particularly worried about it. Apparently he's earned a degree of fame in Taiwan by appearing on some very intellectually challenging quiz and game shows. He is now very good at absorbing new information, to the point where I've had a few enquiries from people asking if I could make the same modifications to them. So far I've turned them down. "But there are still people who know how to make the formula. I can't conclude that it was them with a high degree of certainty, but…"

I use the ring to recreate the part of the wall that was torn asunder and the approximate shape of its probable destroyers. Ring, run re-enactment. Fists fly and construct brick is forced inwards by the force of their attack. Another series of blows forces sections of brick to fall inwards, then the construct figures stick arms inside and pull chunks of wall off, tossing it aside. Once the wall is down they walk inside and I lose track of them.

Bullock flicks through the paperwork again. "Lemme see. Forensics said they didn't find anything much inside. Few knickknacks."

"This was where the sarcophagus was."

"What sarcophagus?"

The footprints on the outwards journey are deeper. I project a construct of the two Venom Buster enhanciles carrying it before dismissing them and floating the sarcophagus over. "The one I gave her. She wanted something of historical significance, this was used to regenerate Ra's al Ghul." Ring, scan for it? No, that would be too easy, wouldn't it.

Montoya nods. "The head of the League of Shadows. Former head, since the Justice League tore it apart."

"You're welcome."

Bullock sneers. "Since when are you in the Justice League?"

"I'm not, but I did initiate the attack on Infinity Island and gather most of the intelligence that made the global roll up possible. So, you're welcome. Anyway, now it's gone."

Bullock takes a closer look at the construct. "So, what's it do?"

"Nothing. The alchemical sludge it used can -under some circumstances, we're not sure exactly what- heal any injury, including death. But it was empty when I handed it over. By itself it's just a box."

Montoya frowns. "Would the thief have known that?"

"I'm surprised they even recognised it, to be honest. I can only think of a couple of people who've seen it before and aren't currently in prison." Quick check. Talia's in Wayne Manor, Nyssa's in Lex's research centre in India and Ubu's still in prison in Cuenca. "And none of them are in the area. You sure this happened last night?"

Montoya gives me a look. "Kinda hard to miss all the noise."

"Okay. And someone called the police but whoever did it was gone before they arrived, so they can't have taken all that long. This was a new acquisition and she said that she liked showing things off to people. Do you have footage from the security camera yet?"

"The one on the gate?" I nod and Bullock shakes his head. "Doesn't record."

"You think she invited someone over and they had it stolen? Because they were jealous or something?"

I nod. "Or they heard the history from her and thought it could make them immortal. Which it can't, by the way." I raise the ring to my ear. "Danni, anything interesting?"

"Officer Corrigan has been most helpful in identifying the location of the missing objects from the collection. So far none have reacted to the arcane detection stone."

"Good work. We can hand him over to Internal Affairs when we're finished."

Montoya frowns. "How'd you know Corrigan was dirty?"

I roll my eyes. "Prat kept my coin with him."

"Thought you said you just gave her the sarcophagus?"

"I did. She already had the coin." I sigh. "I don't suppose she kept a visitors log, did she?"

Bullock shrugs. "If she did, either we haven't found it or Corrigan fenced it."

"Right. I know of at least one man with access to Venom Buster who's active in the US and who I can't scan for." I generate a construct. "His name's Bane, and he used to run the factory where the drug was first made. You said there was no sign of a break in?"

Montoya glances at the hole in the wall. "Not through the door, anyway."

"Bane has phasing technology as well. He could walk through the door. That might explain it, or…" I touch my right hand to my forehead and then wave it forwards. "It could be something completely unrelated. There are big strong people around. Or people with big feet and sledgehammers."

Bullock slumps. "Great. Another novelty bozo. What's this one's damage?"

"He's the leader of a mercenary company and the former owner of a drugs manufacturing facility best known for being the US's number one source of Venom." I gesture at the construct. "This is his most recent appearance, confirmed by some of my colleagues last week when they ran into him near New Orleans. Likes to lead from the front, but other than that doesn't have any noteworthy eccentricities. Used to use Venom, but I don't know if he still does."

Montoya nods. "I'll get on to forensics, see if they've gotten done looking through the local traffic camera footage yet."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
19:38 GMT -5

On my left Bullock takes another gulp of coffee and grimaces. Yeah, probably gone cold by now. I generate a maser construct and give it a quick zap.

"Uh. Thanks. You sure there's no way for your ring t'do this faster?"

I keep watching the screen showing the playback from the surveillance cameras. Danni and Montoya are busy following up on some witness statements now we know roughly what we're looking for while Bullock and I go over the footage. Tracking down all the stuff of hers that Corrigan offloaded didn't take long and none of it was particularly interesting. Making a list of things he provided to her is something he's working on from his cell. He was trying to get clever about a testimony for immunity deal until Danni -apparently- set fire to his hair. Now he's giving us the name of every person he could remember who he'd ever sold stuff to. If there's a difference between the list of things he sold her and what was in her house when I visited we might be able to work out if other collectors might have been involved or if the gang took things with them and sold them to someone else.

"I already scanned it for Bane and his known associates. The ring can find anyone I tell it to look for, but it doesn't have a definition of 'suspicious'. Heck, we don't even really know what we're looking for."

More people walk past the camera and the ring brings up their identities, cross referencing with what we've seen on other footage. To start with I found it slightly interesting to plot someone's route like this, but now I'm just staring. It's a residential area so it's mostly the inhabitants or -since it's a rich residential area- their staff. Missus Gordon-Hewitt's gardener has already been questioned but he only works there a couple of afternoons a week and wasn't due to come in until tomorrow. We'll check his alibis but his brain activity seemed to say that he was being honest. She showed him the sarcophagus the day after she got it but he said he didn't really pay much attention and except us no one had asked him about it since. He didn't remember seeing anyone suspicious last time he was there so: dead end.

I wasn't there when they told the family. Heck, I'm only here in this broom cupboard on sufferance. Metropolis police might have weapons to deal with people with super strength but Gotham police don't, and since in theory I should just be able to revert them to normal Bullock and Montoya convinced Commissioner Gordon to let me hang around. They gave me a dirty look when I suggested contacting Batman, so I just sent him a message without telling them. There are Venom users in Gotham and Batman gave me their details but he's busy with something Leaguey and said that he was happy for me to follow up on it myself.

It's still weird seeing Commissioner Gordon with brown h-.

"Hey, aah." I glance at Bullock. "Were you serious earlier? About the… Y'know… The fat, thing."

"Yes Detective. I realise this must come as a surprise, but you really are a little overweight."

"No, I meant about gettin' rid of it."

"I already got rid of a bit. But, yes, I could probably get rid of most of the rest."

"Huh. How 'bout that."

"I basically rebuild my entire bod-. Whow!" I hit the pause button and then rewind the footage a few seconds. Didn't expect to see him.

"Seein' someone you know?"

"Yes, that's Nylor Truggs. He's a lawyer. I met him in Qurac a couple of weeks ago." Guess Mister Lawton found new representation. "I'm not sure what he's doing here."

"Why was he in Qurac?"

"He's on the Bialyan agents' defence team. Was, anyway."

"See him anywhere else?"

Ring? "One other camera, going towards the property. I can't see anything of him coming out."

"Think they got him too?"

"No idea. He might just have got in a car." I didn't really think to look anything up on him before, other than to check his bona fides. He actually works for the same law firm as Mister Tuckman, hired not long after I arrived on this Earth. Can't see a record of any cases but he said as much himself. Guess he's just working as a legal aide or something. And.. now I can't detect him. "Correct that: yes. He isn't showing up on my scan."

"He a collector too?"

"We didn't talk much, but on his salary? Wouldn't think so."

He nods at the ring. "What's the range on that thing?"

"Edge of the universe." He blinks. "I can get detailed images of anything in this solar system that doesn't have specific protection."

"And how hard is it to get that?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. The League of Shadows had it… Some of them, anyway. Bane has it, otherwise I'd have found him by now. Every time I've seen it so far it's been magic-based but I don't know where it originated. According to a few magicians I've spoken to it's basic enough that it could have been devised by different people independently."

"Any other ways to block the scan?"

"Sure, but those are well beyond Earth technology."

"Great, magic." He massages his forehead with his right hand. "We gunna need t'call in the Fish people too?"

"At least we know something about it." I turn my left hand palm up and tap the sigil twice. "Danni, I'm sending you a picture of Nylor Truggs. He was in the area when Missus Gordon-Hewitt was killed and now I can't detect him. Try showing it to people.

"I have received the image."

I fabricate a hard copy of the picture and hand it to Bullock. "If you could circulate this along with Bane's image?"

He takes it, looks at it and then nods. "Yeah, we can do that. Look, I've been thinking."

"Yes?"

"Her daughter said she didn't get all that many visitors, right? So if this Truggs guy was seein' her, he's probably the only one."

"Could be. Where are you going with this?"

"I think we'd be better off out lookin' for this Bane clown. Shake down some Venom dealers, see if anyone's heard anything."

Ring, is anyone else I've encountered on these tapes?

Negative.

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

Bullock heaves himself out of his chair and I rise from mine and gives my armour the once over. "We're gunna need to find you somethin' else to wear."

There's a flicker of orange and my original biker armour appears. "Any good?"

"Could be better. There's no way people'd think you're police dressed like that."

"I'm sorry, but all my suits are… Not.. 'off the rack'."

"Playboy billionaire?"

"Asteroid miner."

"Hpf. What else you got in there?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:06 GMT -5

"Yes, I know and I'm.. sorry, but this has to-"

"Ooof!"

"Why y'gotta run from me, Jimmy?"

"Agh!"

I look away from Bullock's 'back to basics' Gotham style policing. "-take priority. It's the first good lead we've had on Bane since New Orleans."

Holding the ring up like this makes it look like I'm on the phone. I don't.. actually have a phone. I meant to get one after that investigation Captain Adams sent us on where I had to use a folded up napkin and create the screen-glow with the ring in order to pretend I did, I just never got around to it.

I hear Zatanna sigh. "Okay. We can… John says that this 'Chantinelle' isn't usually violent so we should be okay without you."

"If he can even get hold of her. She's just as hard to find as I am, remember?"

"Is this sword.. really..?"

"It can kill anything. You can ask John for the full story if you want, but it's not… Well. You know John's stories."

Silence for a moment while Jimmy throws up against the alley wall. "Do you know why he's got a pair of swan wings in here?"

"Are you doing the ritual in his lock up?"

"No, he just wanted to pick up a few things."

How to put this? "Those aren't swan wings."

"Goose? I thought they were too big. Whatever they're from, I don't see why he's keeping them. They're kind of creepy."

"He chainsawed them off the back of the Archangel Gabriel."

She snorts. "Look, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine."

"I was not joking or being in any way metaphorical. I don't know exactly what happened, but he ended up with Gabriel's heart in a box until the First destroyed it. John's really the best person to ask for details."

"That's… That's impossible."

"Okay."

"No, don't 'okay' me, that can't have happened!"

"Zatanna, do you believe in the bodily reality of Jesus Christ?"

"Of course."

"You saw the Demons we summoned. You know these lifeforms exist. You know they can be hurt, maybe even completely destroyed."

"But, Gabriel..!"

"Was a rapist and a mass murderer, and a few years ago the Angels had a good go at removing our species' capacity for free will. The 'End of History' they called it. John'll be able to give you the details if you want them." I take a breath. "Neither Law nor Chaos are inherently good or bad. The Angels I've heard about are pretty much Lawful Neutral. Raise the dead or kill the firstborn son of every Kahndaqi household, whatever they're told to do goes. And I'll remind you that we'd be obliged to defend the Kahndaqi children if that happened now."

"Hey Paul!" Bullock looks up from a sweaty but relieved looking 'Jimmy'. "Hang up on your girlfriend already! We got an address!"

I wave him off with my right hand. "Zatanna? You still there?"

"Yes."

"Went overboard again, didn't I? Sorry. If it's any consolation I've never heard anything bad about Jesus. You could.. try talking to Diana about how it feels when things… When entities you worship don't live up to your expectations. I'm… I don't… I've been an atheist for so long I can't really relate to it. I know where I stand with the Ophidian… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" Idiot. "I'll see you when we.. get back."

"Okay."

I take the ring away from my ear. Jimmy's scurried off and Bullock raises his eyebrows. "Problems at home?"

"I just told a Catholic friend of mine that a mutual acquaintance has Gabriel's severed wings in his lock up."

He smirks. "And they believed you? What, are they five or something?"

"No. No they're not. You mentioned a lead?"

"Ye-eah. Venom prices in Gotham been goin' up for months, only now, there's a new supplier."

"Is there that much of a market? Venom's not exactly a recreational drug."

We start walking in the direction of his car. "Some gangs like usin' it, but wasters usually mix it with other stuff. Makes them less likely to die from whatever other crap it's cut with. Jimmy got this-" He holds up a red vial. "-from some zombie lookin' bald guy with -get this- a Santa Priscan accent."

"Is there a distinct Santa Priscan accent?"

"Jimmy wouldn't lie to me. Doesn't have the spine." We pull open our doors and get in. "We'll take a drive down there, have a nose around. Grab the supplier if we can, and if it turns out that's where they're holed up, you and… What'd you call her?"

"I call her Danni. Firebrand."

"Right. You two can handle it."

He turns the key in the ignition and pulls us out into the road. "I have to admit, I'd rather got the impression Gotham police weren't all that happy about people like us poking around."

"Hm. Bein' honest, if you weren't here, we'd probably be callin' in the National Guard. I know the costume nutjobs like their riddles and stuff, but they're not that hard to track down. Just ignore what they're sayin' and follow the evidence. And even Branden's SWAT yahoos could take down a normal gang. And anyone standin' next to 'em. Nutjobs with actual superpowers, not just 'I'm so crazy your mortal mind cannot comprehend my brilliance' bull, I'm more'n happy handing that stuff over. Hpf, be crazy not to."

"While we're on the subject. I.. bumped into Mister Napier in Louisiana-."

"Who?"

"The Joker."

"Uh. Didn't know he had a name."

"I'm sort of wondering… How come he hasn't fallen down some stairs yet?"

That earns me a sidelong glance while he tries to work out if I'm serious, then he returns his attention to the road. "'cause they haven't put me on his detail, that's why."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Spoiler: Original version

15th December
15:12 GMT

The drive to the ritual site was quiet. And at the risk of being cliché, John would swear it was… Too quiet.

Zatanna hadn't spoken a word since she'd got off the phone with Orange Lantern. Just shook her head when he asked her if the man was coming. He didn't have to be clairvoyant to know something was wrong.

He would, however, have had to be a coward not to push the issue.

Chas had been shooting him these… Looks. All along the drive. Those special 'I know you're better than this' looks that were the reason John kept him around as a friend. Well, that and he had a ride.

Ah, fuck it. He wished he could light up.

"So, what's eatin' you kid?" he asked.

Zatanna was… Composed. That very special kind of composed that told you to watch what you said, where they might keep going just fine or fall to bits no further warning given. "Were those really the angel Gabriel's wings in your lock up?"

He bit down an oath. One day, he'd have to get a straight answer out of Paul how he knew these things. He nodded. "Messy business. I hope Paul didn't give you the details."

"He said Gabriel was a rapist and a mass murderer and you used a chainsaw."

Dammit Paul, don't I have enough messes to clean up?

John really needed to light up.

"I remember when I first met the Wizard Shazam." John said. "He didn't meet up with my expectations either."

"Did you take a chainsaw to him too?"

John sighed. "I do the best I can with what I have. If I had your power, maybe I would've done differently. Maybe not. If The Ponce hadn't tried welshing on his debt..."

Zatanna had tears in the corners of her eyes. John would've jumped out right then and there, but he knew better than to do that in Chas's cab. "I-I always thought Angels were the good guys?"

John considered the question, and very carefully did not mention how Dr. Fate fought in the war. "Well, the way I see it… Superman's a good guy, and he fights crime outta the goodness of his heart. Green Lanterns are good guys, but they fight crime because it's their jobs. Captain Marvel's a good guy, but he fights crime because that's what kids think a person in a costume should do, unless it's Halloween. They're all good guys, but they all have their reasons for why they do what they do. And Angels have their reasons too. The War between Heaven and Hell split them off from the Fallen ones, but that just defined black and white. You still gotta keep your eyes out for the shades of gray hidden in there."

John wondered -briefly- if it was ironic Zatanna was wearing black and white.

"And you think you're a good guy?" Zatanna asked.

"Oh, I'm definitely a shade of grey." John said without humor. "Your father was a good guy. He also wasn't a fool. After the one time I saw him meet Angels, he said they were beings of light, and they couldn't understand flawed creatures like us. And those who didn't understand shouldn't judge."

"My father met Angels?" Zatanna asked, confused.

"This was before he met your mother." John said, eyes gone distant with the memory. "I was in Africa, and on the run from a Headless Horseman this yank wizard sent after me. Your dad couldn't get involved, not directly, so he was in New Jersey, trying to find the bastard's head. The only thing keeping me from gettin' cut up was this haunted tank I'd befriended, and the wizard got it into his head to consecrate the body of the Ghost that was possessing it."

"An Angel came down, and tried to drag the spirit off to the hereafter. Now this Ghost was a fighter, and he wanted to stay and fight, but rules are rules and the Angel was going to take him off no matter what he wanted. It couldn't understand why he wanted to stay, and didn't care whether I lived or died without him. If it weren't for your father getting into the Angel's face, that spirit would have been gone, and I wouldn't ever need to wear a tie again."

He turned and looked at Zatanna. "I know you're upset about finding out not all Angels will have your best interests in heart. But a lot of them will. Like your old man said that day: 'His will be done, but perhaps it's best if it's done by a man. A man other than you, John.'"

Zatanna stifled a giggle.

"There you go." John faced forward in his seat, satisfied. "Take it from a man smarter than both of us. So you found out one Angel was a bit of a jerk. Not the end of the world."

"I guess." Zatanna wiped at her eyes with gloved hands.

He breathed a sigh of relief. The Angel crisis was averted. He was definitely not telling her about Santa Claus, and he would be reminding Paul to do the same.

Click to shrink...

15th December
15:12 GMT

The drive to the ritual site was quiet. And at the risk of sounding cliché, John would swear it was… Too quiet.

Zatanna hadn't spoken a word since she'd got off the phone with Orange Lantern. Just shook her head when he asked her if the man was coming. Not that this part of the job should require that sort of firepower. More likely to spook Elle, really. But having someone who might actually be able to fight her or.. whoever turned up if things turned bad… As they so often did…

Because there was no way that he was putting Sindella's daughter in that position. Only good thing about confronting a demon was that with him in their sights they'd probably ignore anyone else.

He instinctively reached for a fag, only to realise what he was doing and clench his hand into a fist. Chas had been shooting him these… Looks, since he picked them up. Chas didn't know the whole story… But he probably won't have approved of bringing someone Zatanna's age along if he did. Heh. A solid bloke fallen in with bad company.

Yeah, well. He remembered being her age. He wanted her somewhere he could keep an eye on her.

Speaking of, he regarded her for a moment out of the corner of his eye. Hands in lap, but fingers in constant motion. Eyes not settling on anything… Something obviously wrong. Something she didn't want to talk about, not with him. Best thing to do would be to wait until after the meeting with Elle was over, bring it up then. Or tip Charlie the wink so he could do it.

But he supposed that he wouldn't be John Constantine if he didn't prod things which wiser men would have left well alone.

"What did he say?" he asked.

She went completely still as he turned his head to look at her. Zatanna looked composed. On the surface. Almost. But her jacket couldn't complete disguise the tension in her shoulders, or the rhythm of her breathing. She was trying to pretend, trying to disguise how she was feeling by acting like a porcelain statue: one sharp push from shattering into a thousand pieces.

What the hell did he say?

"Were those really the angel Gabriel's wings in your lock up?"

Ahhhh, fuck. That mess. One day, he'd have to get a straight answer out of Paul about how he knew these things.

He wished he could light up. But ever since some comedian at Chas' work got him that automatic fire extinguisher…

He nodded, reluctantly. "Messy business. I hope Paul didn't give you the details."

"He said Gabriel was a rapist and a mass murderer and you used a chainsaw."

He closed his eyes, frustrated breath hissing through his teeth.

He really needed to light up.

"I remember when I first met the wizard Shazam," John said. "He didn't meet up with my expectations either."

"Did you take a chainsaw to him too?"

Sarcasm in teenagers was usually a sign they were basically okay. But in Zatanna's case… "No, as it happens." He sighed. "I'm not a superhero, Zatanna. I don't-" Usually, those blessed times when he conned someone like the Bog God into a working relationship… "-have the resources they do. So… I can't deal with things as… Cleanly as you're used to." Which often compounded the problem…

Zatanna had tears in the corners of her eyes. Fuck. True believers were usually pretty thin on the ground in the circles he moved in, and when he actually ran into one he was more inclined to take the piss.

"I-I always thought Angels were the good guys?"

John considered the question, and decided not mention how Dr. Fate fought in the Second World War. Or how a nazi saved hundreds of lives in Nanking. Now was not the time for a lecture on moral relativism, and how it applied to winged fascists.

"Well, the way I see it… Superman's a good guy, and he fights crime outta the goodness of his heart. Green Lanterns are good guys, but they fight crime because it's their jobs. Captain Marvel's a good guy, but he fights crime because that's what kids think a person in a costume should do, unless it's Halloween. They're all good guys, but they all have their reasons for why they do what they do. And Angels have their reasons too. The War between Heaven and Hell split them off from the Fallen ones, but that just defined black and white. And they define black as 'anythng not completely white'."

John wondered -briefly- if it was ironic Zatanna was wearing black and white.

"And you think you're a good guy?" Zatanna asked.

Loaded fucking question.

"Oh, on my good days." John said without humor. "Your father-. Is-" Not was, not yet. "-a good guy. He also wasn't a fool. After the one time I saw him meet Angels, he said they were beings of light, and they couldn't understand flawed creatures like us. And those who didn't understand shouldn't judge."

"My father met angels?" Zatanna asked, confused.

"This was before he met your mother." John said, eyes gone distant with the memory. "I was in Africa, and on the run from a Headless Horseman this yank wizard sent after me. Your dad couldn't get involved, not directly, so he was in New Jersey, trying to find the bastard's head. The only thing keeping me from gettin' cut up was this haunted tank I'd befriended, and the wizard got it into his head to consecrate the corpse of the ghost that was possessing it."

"An angel came down, and tried to drag the spirit off to the hereafter. Now this ghost was a fighter, and he wanted to stay and fight, but rules are rules and the Angel was going to take him off no matter what he wanted. It couldn't understand why he wanted to stay, and didn't care whether I lived or died without him. If it weren't for your father getting into the angel's face, that spirit would have been gone, and I wouldn't ever need to wear a tie again."

He turned and looked at Zatanna. "I know you're upset about finding out not all angels will have your best interests in heart. But a lot of them will. Like your old man said that day: 'His will be done, but perhaps it's best if it's done by a man. A man other than you, John.'"

Zatanna stifled a giggle.

"There you go." John faced forward in his seat, satisfied. "Take it from a man smarter than both of us. So you found out one angel was a bit of a jerk. Not the end of the world."

"I guess." Zatanna wiped at her eyes with gloved hands.

He breathed a sigh of relief. The Angel Crisis was averted. He was definitely not telling her about Santa Claus, and he would be reminding Paul to do the same.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:19 GMT -5

How do you make something like that up to a committed Christian? I don't.. really know how big a figure Gabriel is in Christian mythology. I don't remember him coming up in Reverend Gino's sermons or all that much in RE classes. Maybe it's different for Catholics? Anyway, Zatanna certainly doesn't need me kicking away the rest of the pillars of her life.

I look across the car to Bullock while he peers out into the dark outside. "Detective, how much do you know about Catholicism?"

"Lapsed, myself. You still thinkin' about that stuff you said to.. whatshername?"

"Zatanna, yes, and I'll think about it until I know how to fix it."

"I mean, if you were just messin' with her then yeah, you got some stuff to make up for. But, you sound like you believe it, an' I gotta say… That sounds plenty crazy to me."

"You know where Wonder Woman comes from?"

"Greece?" I give him a sidelong look. "Fine, that mythical island where it's all women."

"And if it's all women?"

"I know she's supposed to be made outta clay, but I never really bought int' that stuff. I reckon they just grab a couple a' guys off a ship or somethin' an' pass 'em around. I mean, who's actually checked up on this?"

"The Justice Society?"

He grins at me. "They ever get a tour?"

"Yes, once." Why is he-? Oh, eww! "I don't think they got up to anything like that!"

"Greatest guys in the greatest generation. Pick o' the crop, right?" He nudges me with his right elbow. "Ah, come on. How many guys would turn that down?"

What sort of depraved individual would think something like that? "Leaving aside that most of them were married and brought their wives along-."

"Heheheheh."

"The point I'm trying to make… Do you believe that God exists?"

He glances up at the car roof. "Probably."

"Jesus?"

"On the good days."

"And Gabriel?"

"I dunno. Once you get past Jesus it all gets a bit fuzzy. Lapsed, remember?"

"And, just saying: if we'd spent the evening summoning Demons so we could burn them in holy fire-."

"And now the crazy's back."

I take a screen out of subspace and play the recording of us summoning the Fuckpig. When she saw its genitals Tanis shot it twice, which I thought was a surprisingly visceral reaction given that Eel-folk spawn. "J-esus!" It appears to be having much the same effect on Detective Bullock.

"Not really. Christianity hasn't spread to Atlantis. Tanis-" I point her out. "-did say she was going to spend some time in the Temple of Quirinus after we'd finished, if that's any good."

"And that's supposed to be a Demon?"

"Yes. A Fuckpig, to be precise. The demonic embodiment of rape. My point is, I'm a practical man. These things exist, we have to deal with them. I can't relate to religious interpretations -religious faith- at all. I just told.. her-" I point to Zatanna. "-that he-" John. "-did something similar to Gabriel, and as far as I know he did. Do you think.. a sightseeing trip to the Garden of Eden would make up for it?"

He continues watching the burning Demon for a moment. "Eden? Wait, I remember… Isn't there suppos-. Isn't there an Angel with a burning sword keeping anyone from going back in?"

"If it turns up we can leg it, but the garden's supposed to be beautiful, right? Enough to counteract seeing Gabriel's severed wings?"

"I… Um…" His eyes go from the screen to me and then the front windscreen. He carries on looking for-. What's he seen? "I think that's our guy." I take a look. The glow makes using the ring to augment my vision a bad idea, so I'm using the light enhancement glasses again. Across the road from us a thin bald man takes a key out of his pocket and opens the padlocked gate to an abandoned car park before walking inside and locking the gate behind him. The ring can't identify him but his face is now logged in my records. "Your ring gettin' anything from inside?"

"He's got a small amount of Venom on him. I can scan him, which suggests this will be a dead end."

"Bustin' a Venom dealer's not a bad day's work."

"Can't detect anyone in the warehouse. I could use other forms of scanner but if they were prepared those would risk giving us away."

"Alright, guess we're doin' this the ole fashion way." He goes to open his door but I put my left hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Whut?"

"There could be Venom Buster enhanciles in there. If we're attacked suddenly, I can't guarantee your safety."

"No one guarantees my safety. S' why I carry this." He flicks open his coat, revealing a powerful looking revolver.

"Won't be enough. Here." A plasma pistol appears in my left hand. Red, but what's the chance of him using it on Superman before I can get it back? "Won't stop them, but it will hurt. Should buy you time for me to pick you up."

"You got one that doesn't glow in the dark?"

I point out the dials. "Range, power, off." The gun dims. "Reactivation takes a couple of seconds, which is why I usually leave it on." He reaches over to take it. "This is just a loan. I'll want it back when we're done."

He grunts an assent and takes hold of it, tucking it into an inner coat pocket. Then we open our doors and exit his car. I open the door gently, trying not to make much noise, while he just thrusts it open and swings it shut. He sees me wince at the noise and shakes his head. "Quiet noises attract more attention than loud ones that aren't repeated. Trust me."

I shrug. We have had lessons on tailing suspects, and they usually leave Robin with his face in his palms due to our ineptitude. I'm perfectly happy to take the word of a man who's spent his whole life in Gotham. As I watch him walk towards the end of the alleyway I note that he's got the 'I'm-not-sneaking' walk down perfectly. Look like you belong and you're a long way to encouraging people not to see you. Two men coming out of an alley doesn't by itself say police, it says…

They're not going to think I'm a prostitute, are they?

No, that's stupid, that's stupid. Just check for cars then follow him across the road. Bullock's standing just in front of the lock and he's got the padlock in his hand. "Can you do somethin' about this?"

I nod, take it from him and have a probe with orange filaments, the metal of the lock keeping the light from escaping. After two seconds we get a click, and he takes it back, lifts it off the gate and carefully pushes it open. Not much sound, which means that despite the decrepit look of the area someone's cared enough to oil the gate. Interesting. We enter and he puts the lock back in place but doesn't close it, presumably in case he has to leg it. He flicks his eyebrows at me as he takes the plasma pistol out of his pocket. I point at where the ring says the suspect went and Detective Bullock leads the way after him.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:26 GMT -5

There are a few cars and two lorries in the car park, but a quick look at the infrared part of the spectrum shows that none of them have been used recently. They look to be in reasonable condition, though. Ring, compare security and traffic cameras with vehicles and report matches.

Possible matches found. Warning: low quality of footage makes match quality unreliable.

There's a nine hour gap between me leaving her house and a passerby alerting the police to the damage to her property. We know the time the hole was made from her neighbours but we don't know when everything else happened. They forced the gate either going in or out but pushed it to when they left, and with the wall around the garden the damage to the house wasn't all that easy to see from the pavement. There weren't any tyre marks on the grass where I found the footprints so if there was a lorry then it must have stayed on the driveway. If they moved the sarcophagus by lorry then they carried it to the vehicle by hand. Of course, they could just have carried it down the road. The streets were pretty much empty and I doubt that Selina was around. Should probably check with her just in c-.

Bullock puts his right arm to my chest to stop me as we reach the end of the warehouse wall. We're not far from the shore here and I can just about hear the waves breaking against the dock area. I give the area a quick scan again. Our man has turned towards the seafront and is passing between a large warehouse and a similarly sized boathouse up ahead of us. There's another man sitting on a smallish cargo boat moored to the docks and that appears to be where he's heading. How to communicate this to Bullock? Can't talk, can't make a construct, so the screen comes out of subspace once more. He nods and draws a line with his finger. He wants us to head to the shore earlier and watch what they do. I nod and remove the screen once more.

The texture under our feet changes from tarmac to concrete and we get closer to the waterfront. For a moment I worry about the noise the metal of my boots is making, but I suppose it's not very likely anyone could hear it and removing them would require a flash of orange. And, really? It's two men. They're both carrying pistols and there's a shotgun in the boat but I can't see what would happen if they do hear me. The man we're following stops well before emerging onto the waterfront and takes out a phone. Anything odd about that phone? There's some encryption but other than that it's just a regular handset. Ring, fill me in.

…me. Again. Come on maaan, I'm freezing my balls off here.

Yeah, okay. I promise not to shoot anything important.

That gets me recordings of their voices, if that's useful for anything. Sounds like they could be from somewhere in South America, though it could just be a local accent for all I know. As we reach the end of the wall Bullock takes a look around. No lights down here, though there are a couple at the top of a nearby goods crane. Not much in the way of useful cover either, but with no obstructions I can just about make out what our targets are saying.

"… ing monster … "

"… going for … money ..ght now."

"I know … don't even … stuff ..."

The man we're following walks up to the boat as the man onboard clambers off. Together, they make their way towards the warehouse entrance. Bullock waits until they get inside before heading in the direction of the boat. Why are they going into the warehouse? Ring, sca- I can't see them. Oh, that's interesting. I saw them go in but the ring insists that the internal contents are the same. Looking around for anything else interesting I follow Detective Bullock, then grab the back of his coat as I spot the security camera. He looks at me, I point and he nods. Out comes the screen again and I draw a picture of us moving around the boat on the water side. He looks a little puzzled but nods. I walk in the direction of the water's edge, take a steel sheet out of subspace and float it down below the level of the quay before getting on and beckoning to him.

He's a bit reluctant, but after a few gestures he turns and lowers himself onto the platform. I could just have put us on a construct disc or used a flight aura but I think this carries the lowest risk of someone seeing the orange light. I carefully accelerate us out over the water in the direction of the boat. Judging by the lines of sight we should be able to get aboard undetected. I don't seem to be able to scan the contents of the crates on board. I'm still not certain that we're in the right place but this is certainly looking pretty darn suspicious.

We pull up alongside. If they can block my normal scans I'm not getting into a confined space until I've got a better idea of what's onboard. I jab my right index finger at the hull and force a filament through the metal, branching it out once it penetrates the whole way through. Multiplying, they start poking around, feeding me visual images combined with the occasional sonic probe. No one else up there, and the crates mostly contain tinned food. There's some Venom in a small partially concealed barrel in the control cabin but it's hardly enough for a major operation. Some sort of supply run? The boat has a few explosives too, but again nothing too massive.

Seeing nothing to worry about I raise the platform to a level that will allow Bullock to get onboard without straining too much. The camera on the warehouse has a view of the gangplank but not of the boat itself so I pull myself over the side before offering him a hand up.

"What we got here, Orange?"

"Not much. There's a little Venom but these crates are mostly full of preserved food. The Venom'll get you a warrant-" He smirks. "-but I'm more interested in the fact that I'm having trouble scanning this stuff. Someone's intentionally tried to make this area Lantern-proof."

"Knew you were commin', eh?"

"Or one of the Greenies. Should I call in additional assistance?"

"Not yet. I wanna get a look at the warehouse first. If it's just two guys' homebrew V knockoff we can handle it without callin' them away."

Makes sense, I suppose. Montoya and Danni could take a couple of hours to get here and they'd have to stop whatever they were doing. Even if this is part of Bane's operation, nothing he's used so far would pose a significant threat to me. It certainly wouldn't stop me falling back or calling for help. There's always an element of risk, but… Yes. Press on.

What's the best way to get closer? Walking down the gangplank would get us spotted and I don't want to transition into the warehouse blindly. I turn and head back onto the metal plate. Once Bullock joins me I take us around the far end of the boat and then shoreward, low enough that the waves wash over our feet. Crouching down beneath the side of the quay I put one hand to it and send a filament out in the direction of the warehouse. Given the probable resolution of the camera and the low level of glow my filaments have these days I'm not too worried about it being spotted.

I send it through the metal side of the building, where the scan says that a shipping container should prevent anyone inside from seeing it. The view from the filament shows that at least is true. Can't see anyone else from its current position. Okay, most likely position of the targets is further in. I send the filament along the inside of the wall and send another strand up the shipping container to try and get a better look. I can't hear-.

Alert! Connection made to monitored telephone line. Location: second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

I do a full body clench. No, calm down, calm down. It's not out loud, it's not out loud. What are they phoning me for now?

Ring, who is it?

Connection originates at an unfamiliar Gotham address.

I get a flash of Danni holding a phone handset in a richly furnished apartment.

Orange Lantern here, Firebrand. What can I do for you?

Detective Montoya and I have spoken to five people whom former police officer James Corrigan has provided with evidence materials. Four of them have recently been visited by a man matching Nylor Truggs' description.

What did he want?

He was most interested in the more technologically sophisticated pieces.

I shrug and send the filaments onwards.

I would be too. Any collectors gone missing, or have any of them had anything stolen from their collections?

No one we have attempted to speak to has been found dead. If any of those we have spoken to have suffered thefts they have chosen not to inform us of the fact.

Sounds like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though, why not just kill him? Or if they took him, why didn't they take her?

I do not know. How is your investigation proceeding?

We're standing next to a warehouse of things I can't scan. Hang on, I'm about to get a-. Oh.

Near the end of the warehouse I have a clear view of Bane and someone I assume to be Mister Truggs tied to a chair with a bag over his head. And next to them?

The Brain.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:32 GMT -5

Ring, sound. Now.

"Patience, Mister Bane. We will realise our objectives soon enough."

Can't scan his travel machine, but I know where those arm things he used to escape last time were located. I even got a look at some of his older design schematics so I'm reasonably confident I could cripple him with a railgun shot without risking the vital life support components. With his Human body most likely serving Gorilla City as fertilizer that machine has to not just provide his remaining organic component with nutrients and oxygen but also their temperature. A small increase or decrease could be fatal, and they all run off the same power supply as his technical and combat components.

Bane nods. "I am sure you are right. Still, I do not like spending time in the city of the Batman."

I'm surprised that he's letting the two men who walked in a moment ago fiddle around with it, though. Seems like something he'd want Mallah doing, or maybe handle himself? Eh, maybe drug dealing mercenaries pick up engineering skills on the job. I don't know. I doubt he'd let them do it if they didn't know what they were doing.

"The man who dresses like a Bat will not be an issue, I assure you."

The filament moving along the side wall gets a better view. There are a few armed men standing around but I'm still not seeing anything that could hurt me through my armour constructs. Assuming that Bane still has his phase device I'll need to hit him with a Crumbler round first. Not sure exactly how much of the effect will transfer itself to him and how much will be absorbed by the phase generator. Ah, whatever, he can survive with an arm or a leg missing.

"Better men than you have said that. Waiting makes me uncomfortable."

Who's the boss here? Those are clearly Bane's men but if you'd asked me I'd have guessed that Brain was higher up the villain totem pole. Not seeing any other hostages or equipment. Did they remove the sarcophagus already?

Huh? Oh. Bullock nudged me and is now making a silent gesture of appeal. Forgot he was there for a minute. I extend another filament into his ear.

"Mister Truggs is inside, bound to a chair. Seven men with guns, Bane and The Brain."

"I d-." He leans a little closer. "Bane's the guy you said probably juiced up the ones who stole the chest you gave the ole lady, right?" I nod. "I ain't never heard of a 'Brain'. He important?"

"Yes, extremely so."

"Right." He withdraws the plasma pistol and activates it. "Time t' make some arrests. You need back up, or you think you can handle it yourself?"

I take another look through the filament. Still nothing that threatens me. "I should be able to handle it."

"Okay then. On three?"

Why wait? I transition to the end of the closest filament, two construct spikes penetrating the sides of Brain's travel machine and wrecking the arms and motor systems. Bane and company are barely moving as I send clawed hands to grab each of them around the chests. Bane picks up speed as he passes right through it but the rest are slammed painfully against the far wall. He's wearing the phase generator then. A Crumbler round appears from subspace and shoots along my newly formed railgun construct to strike Bane's left shoulder. A flare of energy and he's knocked sideways with a grunt. Just check… This time the claw makes solid contact with his chest and I use the grip to yank him into the air.

"Bane, you're under arrest."

He grins back at me. "Not quite yet."

The doors of the two shipping containers in front of me fly past me through the air as a pair of Venom Buster enhanciles charge out. The one on the right leaps at me as I toss Bane aside and shift myself out of his arc of movement. Quick scan -blocked- and I realise that even if I could target their internals well enough to turn them back I probably wouldn't want to enough. As the jumper lands and takes an awkward step to absorb his momentum I form a large orange claw around his chest and thrust him in the direction of the warehouse door. A lot of superstrong people fail to realise that quite often they won't have enough friction to fully utilise their abilities. I'm not pushing against his strength, I'm pushing against his mass and the friction between his feet and the ground, and while those are significant they aren't anything like great enough to stop me throwing him out onto the dock with enough momentum left over to send him sliding past Detective Bullock and into the Atlantic ocean like a skipping stone.

The second steps up, swinging his fist. As he does so I notice that two more enhanciles have emerged behind the first couple. I dart up, behind him and down behind his back before sticking a pair of sonic cannons to either ear and letting rip.

"AAaaarghhhh!"

He goes down on his knees and tries to get his hands over his ears before collapsing completely. Hearing loss from having his ear drums blown out and concussion from having his skull vibrated like that, but he'll recover in a few weeks. I see that Truggs has managed to get free and is heading away from the fighting super people. Good. Trying to rubberneck here could get him killed. A few bullets bounce off my environmental shield as one of the mercenaries picks up his Kalashnikov. Wait, environmental shield? Another claw snaps the earlier riser's gun in half as.. something's wrong. I skip backwards in the air as a huge grey fist swings past my chest. Why haven't I..? I always put up… Armour, righawoof! Another blow sends me slamming to the floor. Armour holds, thankfully, and I yank myself sideways before shooting upwards. Two more sonic cannons form alongside me and two Vertigo-inspired waves of infrasound slam into the heads of my two remaining opponents. They stagger, but one manages to keep it together well enough to pick up the container door and hurl it at the construct assailing him, breaking it. Wait, what am I doing? I should have dodged… I do dodge the torn section of railing which follows. Okay, this is weird, but I'm still not seeing a serious threat. Turn up the power a little, watch them stagger and collapse -and in the case of the slightly shorter one, vomit up his dinner, eww- and then go home and sleep. I drop down to the ground and dust my hands off as the merely Human mercenaries cower just behind their leader.

"Okay, that was annoying. But, try again. All ten of you are-."

Face stills. Knees hit floor. Left arm braces.

"And that, Bane, is how you take down a Lantern." Head turn. Truggs grins. "What did I tell ya? Brute force won't work, 'cause you ain't got enough, buuut…" Drums on Brain's dome. "One little telepathic surge and they're weak as a kitten. Oh, Pablo, would ya clean that guy up?" Hand waves at sick. "I don't wanna slip or something." Footsteps, clank of bucket and squelch of mop. Groans and pulling upright. "Good man, good man." Truggs smiling, crouching down. "Hii. I'm gunna.. reintroduce myself. My name.. is Nylor Truggs, and I'm not actually a legal aide. I come from- Whaowh!" Gun pushed aside. "What you tryin' to do?! I'm having a monologue here. Bane, get yer.. get yer people on a leash or something. Thank you." Shaking head. "You just.. can't get the help. Still, pretty good day. Not too good for you, though." Patting cheek. "Now, I've kinda got this thing.. building up inside me. Five months in that stupid law firm building up a cover, you have no idea how lucky you had it. Now, I can just do my thing. You're too out of it to appreciate how clever this whole set up is… But I'm gonna tell you anyway." Shoulder. "I don't know any more'n you do how these people manage.. 'secret identities'. I was ready to go postal on the whole building after a month; sure I'll copy that for you, let me get you a coffee 'cause you're clearly too wedged inta that chair by yer own doughnut-powered ass-fat t' get up yerself. Let me do yer job for yah. Minimum wage? Thank you so much. Couldn't even work up the enthusiasm to lord it over the interns properly. But now that's all behind me, and couple years down the line? I'll be laughing about it. I'll be laughing. And I'll owe it to you."

Pressure left wrist. Tug on ring finger.

"Hnn. Thought there'd be a trap or something. Nearly got one of those bozos to get it off you, but seriously: who could I trust with something like that?" Lifts ring up. "Is there a password? No, no, they usually just grab people, don't they? Probably just plug and play. Well, I'll be having some fun with that later." Ring goes. Pressure on head. "I'm sure you're wondering how you ended up in this sorry state. Let me explain it to you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Warehouse
Truggs

"I'm from the future. Not as far forward as Kadabra -good work turning him, by the way- but still, about eight or nine hundred years. I know, I know, I don't look like much. Time travel reah-he-heally ain't easy. Turned up with just the clothes on my back and the little burned out doohickey I used to do it. And talk about mutually incomprehensible dialects! You have any idea how much one language changes over that much time? I had to write stuff down and hold it up for people to read! I'm lucky Metropolis is such a friendly town!"

"Are you really going to do this?"

"Bane, do I..? Do I interrupt you when you're murdering people?"

"That doesn't matter. You don't tell people-."

"I don't. You know why? Because I respect you as a professional. Now, howsabout a little professional courtesy for me, huh?"

"Fine. We are finished with Gotham anyway. You, Ramon! Get up!"

"Sorry about that. Where was..? Ah, so! There I was on the friendly streets of Metropolis with the clothes on my back and a head full of historical knowledge.. which suddenly wasn't so historical anymore. Hit one of Barrage's workshops, couple a' other places… Didn't take long to find my feet. Then, what next? I know all this stuff, what am I gonna do with it? Make enough money to buy an island, spend the rest a' my life sunning myself surrounded by naked supermodels? Borrrring. No. What I'm going to do is improve things. That's the dream, isn't it? To prove that you're better at it than the entire swath of Human history? Talk about ego trip, am I right?"

Grip on head head up head down head up.

"Yeah, you know I'm right. So I got some stuff together, wrote up a business plan and went to see a guy who had the infrastructure I needed, see if we could work somethin' out. Who was it? You wanna know who it was?"

"You can't-."

"Bane, what did we say? What did we say? Thank you. I'm not gonna tell you that. But I will say, supervillain. Why a supervillain? Why didn't I go see Wayne or Kord, someone like that? Simple."

Face close.

"Villains act. Heroes, those paragons of stasis, react. I wanna change the world, change history. You think they'd.. let me? Or try an' send me back to my crummy future? No, I needed ruthless, determined, aggressive. I needed people who'd plow through every law and social convention to get what they want. Heroes? The Justice League was a great idea and now? Now they answer to the UN. Do they like being tied down? Is that the problem? One rush of beautiful madness makes them put on a costume that'd get them laughed out a' every costume party an' bondage club on the planet and get out there to punch face for the greater good, then they start havin' second thoughts? An' run away from it just as fast as they can? I'm gonna beat this clown-lookin' mass murderer half to death, then I'll hand him over to the police? In Gotham? I dunno. I dunno. I just knew… I couldn't work with them."

Stands. Gets box. Sits.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't put you in the same bracket as the rest of them. I know you hadn't been doing it long, you don't have the experience to see the extent of the problem. I do. We do. Even Bane there kinda gets it, even if he doesn't care too much. So, there's a plan an' a strategy and thanks to you, I get to play a big part in it. Why thanks to you? You got my predecessor arrested, that's why. Gonna be awkward when Crock finally gets out… Anyway, I was on the ground in Bialya gettin' the lay of the land and who should I bump into but you. I told Queen Bee she should just write off the agents she'd sent in, or kidnap some people an' do an exchange or somethin' but you just can't talk to some people. With you in the prison I knew the whole mission was a bust, but just because you can't complete your objectives doesn't mean you can't achieve something useful, right? Little bit a' Brain's hardware gave me a scan a' your brain, especially when you used your ring. Touching the barrier you put around that bomb with this little wand here gave me all sorts of information. I mean, if Bozo had taken you I mighta been able to get your ring anyway, but I think this works better. You know I had to go to Japan to get him? America's first combat robot an' I found him in some damn collection. Superheroes I just have contempt for, but collectors? People who actively hide away all this great technology? I can't stand 'em. They do more damage to Humanity's tech base than superpowered thieves or those poor underfunded try-hards at STAR ever will. Killed the guy in Japan myself. Didn't kill the old woman myself. I think it was… Well, one of these guys. Hell, I wasn't even gonna steal anything from her 'till she told me you were the one who gave her the Lazarus Box. When she told me that, I knew I had a way to lure you into my grasp so I called in Bane's people."

Stands. Walks to Brain.

"An' that's where this fellah comes in."

Drums Brain dome.

"It's not actually Brain in here. I just borrowed one a' his spare Travel Machines. Had a bit of a scary moment when you hit it, heh. See, when I got a look at the design I realised: with a little tweaking, I could make a brain inside it see whatever I wanted. And with a little help from a technological marvel called the Thinking Cap… Future versions won't even need telepaths inside them. Who was the volunteer from the audience, you ask? Thought I'd do the species a favour and use Edgar Cizko. Turns out, being a telepath doesn't make you immune to seven point six two hollow points. How's it goin' in there, Edgar? Anyway, set up like this he can bypass your ring defences and -let's be honest here- there was no way you'd beat him otherwise. The reason you weren't on top form when you stormed in here was him dialling down your brain power by between twenty to thirty IQ points -broadcast, 'cause I didn't know where you were- and the reason you can hardly think at all right now is him going full suppression. I mean, I'm still impressed. Usually that kills people. And, ahh. As it is he's still gonna burn out in.. mm, call it four hours? You're a lively one. And by burn out I do mean die. Just so we're clear."

Comes forwards.

"Think that's me all monologued out. Hope it wasn't too boring. Now I'm gonna go take this little ring of yours and make a few changes to the world, kick some sense into a few people. Deliver some toys int' tha hand of people who'll use it, not just stick it in a big box and ban the other kids from touching it. Get out there, grab the Human race by the balls and drag it where I want it to go. Oh? What's that you say? What about democracy? The wisdom of crowds? Shouldn't I try an' include normal people in all this, share what I know and trust them t'make the right choices? Pfffff, no. They've had their shot an' I saw where it went. I've seen that history, remember? And? Between you an' me?

Closer.

"Not. Too. Good."

Away.

"What am I gonna do with you? I dunno. I mean, anyone else, I'd just kill 'em, but you seem to be on the right track with that Winchester and using the Ice Fortress to repair the ice caps -you were serious about doing that, right? Course you were.- and I do sorta owe you for gettin' me this shot. Tell you what. I'll let Bane decide, shall I? Huh. No, say it out loud and it really doesn't sound as generous as it did in my head. Okay, how about this? Bane, when I've gone, turn the neural inhibitor from 'total suppression' to 'chaff generation' and give him a chance to convince you."

"Sí."

"Be honest about it, now. Give him a chance. Just be sure to keep him here for at least half an hour. Given what we know, I'm interested to see what he comes up with."

"Sí. I will give him a chance. Then I will kill him. I am not some Gotham energúmeno playing games with people. I am a professional. I do not leave enemies alive behind me."

"Well, you do what you can. Have fun now. I know I will."

Walking away. Footsteps. Door.

"Perdición. We do him now?"

Orange glow backlighting.

"We were hired to do a job. He is the patrón. Armando, Fabiao, hold him."

Pressure. Lifting. New face.

"I remember you from Santa Prisca. You held me back when that zagal with the S on his shirt hit me."

Face closer.

"I will give you your chance. And then, when you fail to convince me? Then I will kill you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:45ish GMT -5
Maybe

Agwhgwhwaaah.

Bane waves a hand in front of my face. "You back with us, mi amigo?"

I look over at the Brain issue travel machine. "I don't suppose you could turn it down a notch more, could you?"

Bane nods. "Could. Not going to." He takes a knife out of his belt. Not all that big, really. Big enough though. My eyes follow the line of the blood release groove. "Come on then. Explain to me why it is not best for me just to kill you."

Did Bullock get away? Maybe. I didn't hear him say anything after my attack started and I doubt they'd have been able to kill him without some noise. Just have to hope that help is coming because I really don't think I'm up to convincing this audience.

And the ring. Just have to hope he isn't a quick study.

"Gratitude?"

"Gratitude? What am I supposed to be grateful for?"

"On Santa Prisca, after we beat you and your team… Followers. Militia men? I did a full purge on your system."

"You made me shrivel up and you stole my mask."

"Venom has a range of physiological side effects. When I purged you, you were already showing-."

"You expect me to believe that? I know what Venom does to people better than any man. I've been using it since I was a little niño. More than twenty years. If it did that to me, I'd be a drooling idiot."

I shake my head. Can't move much else with these two holding me up. "You're unusually resistant. You're not immune, and I do note that you're not using it now. Have you found that you're.. better able to plan, now?"

He purses his lips, then gives a slight nod. "Maybe. But I'm not go'n let you live just because of that."

"Okay. Um. I could pay you to let me go?"

A narrow smile. "A superhero offering a bribe?"

"Your employer said you could choose, so you wouldn't be failing in your duties if you did. I mean, you're mercenaries, right? It's all about the money, isn't it?"

"There is a bit more to it than that. If I kill you, it builds my reputation with future employers. Además, you did attack my factory. If I don't take revenge, I look weak."

"Kobra attacked your factory. And we left it mostly intact and I'm pretty sure you got it back afterwards."

"How much money?"

"Two million US dollars for you, half a million for each of your men."

"You got it on you?"

"No, I've only got a couple of thousand on me."

He holds up his hands, palms upwards. "You see my problem. How do I know your word's good for anything?"

"Because I'm a superhero? A breed of person generally known for their honesty?"

"Mmm, I don't think you realise how much you're worth dead, muchacho. Queen Bee and the Witch Boy don't like you so much."

"They tell you why?"

"No."

"Klarion hates me because I stole his cat. Queen Bee hates me because I built a giant naked statue of myself in her country."

Bane's mouth opens slightly, and closes again. He squints at me. "Are you making a joke?"

"No, seriously. Doctor Jones messed around with my mind… It's near the border with Saudi Arabia if you're ever in the area. It's about half a mile tall." He stares at me. "She had her army put a giant sheet over it with helicopters."

"Ay, caramba. If I hadn't heard about the cake I would not believe it."

"So, do we have a deal?"

"No."

"Okay… Let's turn this around. What could I offer you?"

"I can' think of anything. You've made yourself a target, muchacho. If I kill you everyone will know my name."

"Nothing at all?"

"Power means more to me than money. You got another ring?" I shake my head and he shrugs in response. "I got a pretty good thing going on here. I don't think I need what you're offering."

Must be something must be something. "One Hundred Bullets."

"Qué?"

"It's a comic, where I come from. There was this man named Graves, and he recruited people by giving them one hundred untraceable bullets and complete proof that this one terrible wrong in their life was the fault of one person."

"I grew up in a prison. I made myself this." He brings his fists to his chest. "The only other man responsible was Colonel Aiza, and I killed him years ago."

"And your father, of course."

The two Venom Buster enhanciles let go and then every member of Bane's crew takes a couple of hurried paces back. Um? What-? Gkahk! His hands go around my throat, lifting me off my feet and shoving me back against the shipping container!

"You know what I did to the last man who said he knew who my padre was?"

I gasp for air. "Never found?"

"They found bits of him. You know, I did not have a personal problem with you. I was going to kill you quickly. Now, not so quick." His hands tighten. I can't breathe, can't speak! I get my hands up and frantically point to the pale patch on my left ring finger where until recently the ring had sat. Unless he works it out or rescue turns up right now I'm going to die. "What, your ring? I can't hear you, muchacho."

"Arhkkkk…"

"You want to say something? You get two seconds, then I crush your windpipe."

I suck the air in as he lets go. "Genetic… Genetic scan. With the ring. I checked." I pant for a moment, then look up at his face to see him calm down. Only very slightly, but I'll take what I can get. "Not a guess. I know. Can give you information you can double check. Is that… Worth my life?"

He inclines his head slightly. "Talk. Fast."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:50ish GMT -5

"You can work out approximately where a person's family comes from by looking at their genes. Obviously, your mother was Santa Priscan, so once I had her DNA-."

He lunges forwards, slamming the back of my head hard against the shipping container. Ow! "You touch my mother's body?!"

"No! Of course not! I don't need to touch someone to scan them! I just needed to know which bits of your DNA you got from her and which you got from him!"

He stares at me. Something -presumably the neural dampener thing- is making it harder for me to see his soul than would normally be the case. I can see the rage-fatherhood association well enough, though. Really, I'm even more in danger here than I was with Dan… With Red Inferno. Bane's far less logical than she was. I can only assume my lack of fear response is due to the neural dampener as well. A moment longer and he lets go again, but stays standing close enough that I can't move.

"The partial copy of your father's-" A twitch. "-DNA showed that his family is English, probably coming from Surrey. You're, what, thirty one? So I knew I was looking for an Englishman who'd been on Santa Prisca between nineteen seventy eight and nineteen eighty, when Colonel Aiza's coup happened. Given that your mother was nominally imprisoned for treason, it seemed likely that your father fought on President Sebastion's side, and as it turns out, President Sebastion knew he couldn't trust the military and had a group of international mercenaries as his bodyguard. Did some digging through old news photographs and managed to get pictures of a lot of them. Most of their names were fake, but I did a facial recognition scan on them and started searching. At the same time, I started looking for other partial DNA matches, try and narrow it down a bit. I got positive results for both pretty quickly."

His eyes narrow, but there's a slightly thoughtful edge to it. "President Sebastion's bodyguards were killed. If you're telling me my father is a dead man-."

"No. A lot of them died when the military stormed the presidential palace, but a few managed to evacuate the island and get to Venezuela, including their severely injured leader. Official documents list him as 'Édouard Durant', but it's fake. His real name is Sir Edmund Dorrance, and he matches your nonmaternal DNA."

"This man. He is my father?"

"Well, I haven't spoken to him. He could be his identical twin, or perhaps his cousin if their fathers were identical-."

"If you want to live, do not make fun of this."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just a bit nervous."

"Where is this.. 'Dorrance' now?"

"He's part owner of several fairly large companies in Hong Kong. Last time I checked, he was still there. His injuries left him blind, but apart from that he seemed to be in good health."

"If you are wrong, if you are lying to me, I will make you beg for death." He takes a step back and nods at one of his henchmen. "Llama al Calculador." Another nod and the two enhanciles close in on my sides once more. One last look at me and Bane strides off towards the far end of the warehouse out of sight.

The enhancile who I sonic cannoned is still out cold, and probably will be for several hours. One of the others has dragged him out of the way and propped him up against the shipping container to my left before going.. somewhere. The baseline henchmen are standing ready with weapons drawn, except the one Bane nodded at. He was the one who'd been on the boat earlier and he's got out a mobile phone and is muttering into it in what I'm going to guess is Spanish. No ring translation anymore.

"You a crazy man, talking about his father?"

I look up at the enhancile on my right. "I was out of ideas and about to die. It didn't seem like much of a risk."

"You don't sound stupid." He grins. "You must have bigger balls than I have, and mine are fucking armor plated now." The enhancile on the other side gives him an irritated look and makes a 'What-do-you-think-you're-doing?' shrug with his hands. "What, I can't talk now?"

"So, you volunteered for the armour plating thing?"

"Yeah, man. Have to be an idiot to turn down superpowers." He points at the guy on the floor with his right arm. "Hey, ah. Is what you did to Miguel permanent?"

"No, it's um… It's like getting punched in the head really hard. His brain's bruised and that's making him unconscious. He'll have a massive headache when he wakes up and he'll be deaf until his eardrums have healed, but he'll get better. If I still had the ring I'd have fixed it before handing you lot over to the police. Sorry, I didn't keep track. Which.. one are you?"

"I'm the one you threw in the water."

"Um. Sorry about that?"

He grins. "Why be sorry?" He punches me lightly on the shoulder, staggering me. "I like fighting superheroes. You are all so gentle. What's a bit of water to me? I grew up in a favela. You know favela?"

"Slum, yes. Studied them briefly in Geography class."

"They are not gentle in favelas. I join a kid gang at thirteen because it was the only way to be safe. I stab my first man to death when I was fourteen, and he wasn't much more of a man than I was. When I grew up some more I did jobs for people. I could fight and I could be trusted to do what I was told so the money was okay. I got noticed by a guy who sometimes recruits for Bane and I sign on with Bane for four years. I still have one and a half years to go. When they are over I am going home to Brazil as fast as I can. You know how much rich people in Brazil pay for metahuman security? I speak Portuguese, Spanish, English and Terêna. I make a lot a' money."

"Terêna? I'm not familiar with that one."

"You can't tell looking at my face anymore but my people are natives, from south western Brazil. My parents will probably think I look weird, but they can think I look weird from the nice apartment I will buy them in a nice part of town where they don't get woken up by gunfire four times a week."

"That's a… That's a nice ambition you have there. And.. the drug dealing..?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "Way I see it, rich Americans want to poison themselves? Let them." He thinks for a moment. "Shame Bane didn't take the money. We just lock you in one of these containers, they find you in a few days… You smell of piss and shit, but you still alive."

The enhancile on my left looks offended. "Es su padre."

"I'm just saying, two million dollars can buy a lot of therapy, man."

May as well ask while I have the chance. "I meant to ask the last guy, but do those tears in your outer skin hurt?"

"You bet they fucking hurt."

"Okay, well, um… Assuming we all get out of this alive and I get the ring back… Give the Themysciran embassy a phone call when your contract's over and I'll fix them for you."

"Thanks, man. That's real nice of you."

"Or you could just get arrested before that."

"Heh, good one m-!"

"Perdición!" The henchman with the phone holds it up, and Bane stalks back to take it from him.

"Calculador. I have a question."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
20:55ish GMT -5

"I want a phone number for-." He pauses, presumably while the Calculator says something. Given what he's doing I'm going to assume that we're dealing with the Society-era information broker version, not the original 'keypad-on-the-chest' version. "No, I can' just phone enquiry service. You want the money or not?" I don't think the League has heard about him operating in this capacity yet. And he must be doing alright in it if Bane is taking back-chat. "Edmund Dorrance. Hong Kong." Another pause. "Because I have a bad wi-fi connection! No, his personal number. When I call it, I want it to be him on the other end."

Bane turns towards me, staring at me as he awaits Calculator's answer. I start to smile at him out of social reflex, then remember his warning and keep my face sombre. "So, ah… You guys get a lot of information from the Calculator?"

"Just because I talk to you about me doesn't mean I'm dumb enough to talk to you about work. Or interrupt the boss when he is in a mood like the one you put him in. Only got a year and a half to go, remember?"

I nod my head to the side and focus on listening to Bane's conversation. Just have to hope he doesn't start speaking Spanish or Mandarin. His eyes are still pointed in my direction but they've unfocused slightly. He nods. "Okay, I have it. This better be right. If I have to talk to some fucking secretary…" He nods again, once, then hangs up and starts typing in a new number. "Start packing up. I wan' to leave as soon as the half hour is over." There's a momentary hesitation -two of them glancing at me- and then they start moving. Three head further into the warehouse while the other two head towards the quayside entrance.

Bane finishes typing and spends a moment looking at the number. Obviously, whatever happens next won't necessarily stop him killing me but it will give any potential rescuer more time. Is Bane one of those supervillains who obsessively keeps his word? Am I overestimating my own importance? I really don't know. I watch as he reaches a decision and presses the 'call' button, then holds the phone back up to his ear. He's not looking at me anymore. After a moment a slight jerk of his head indicates that someone has answered.

"Am I speaking to Sir Edmund Dorrance?" A pause. "My name is Bane. I wish to speak to you on a personal matter. I have been told you spent some time on Santa Prisca as part of the bodyguard of the former President Sebastion. Is that true?" Another pause, this time a little longer. "Two very nosy men. It is true, then?" He nods. "It is a very dangerous country. No, I understand. I wouldn't either. I doubt it will be a problem." He looks in my direction. "Such men can be useful. No, I would say that they are both honest." He listens for a moment. "School? No. Anyone rich enough to afford that sort of education sends their children to schools on the mainland. And I think someone would get angry and shoot you. Yes. Because I wanted to ask you about your time there. No, I realise…" He nods again, waiting for Sir Edmund to finish. "I think everyone important involved in that is dead. Certainly they do not have enough money or passion to send someone to Hong Kong for you."

The talkative enhancile on my right nods. "We probably killed most of them. The military had to control everything. You can't work with people like that."

"No, you are right. I wanted to ask about the time before that. There was a woman… Her name-." His eyes flick to me for a fraction of a second before returning to the warehouse wall. "Yes. You remember her?" His eyes drift down slightly. "No, she did not. No, I understand… Yes. No, I have already taken care of that."

"You get away with this and you are the luckiest fucking man I have ever met."

"I prefer to put it down to preparation."

The three guys who went further into the warehouse come back carrying small crates. A few stomping footsteps and the fourth enhancile comes in from the quayside and takes the loads from them, then turns around and carries them out.

Those guys are a lot more intimidating when you don't have a power ring.

"After they found her they sent her to Peña Dura. Yes, of course. Six years. Probably, I was too young… Because I am her son. I have been told you are my father, that I have your genes. Yes. I had always assumed that it was one of the other prisoners, but unless I was born very early…"

Quiet again. The third enhancile comes back in and picks up Miguel, dragging him out.

"No, that would be foolish. A man is trying to trade this information for his life." A slight shake of the head. "I do not know. I had not planned to discover this today. No, I do not… I would still be interested to know what sort of man my father-."

His face darkens, a scowl forming.

"I do not want your money. I am my own man. I am Bane. I want to know because-. If you have heard of me, why-? It is not a matter of convenience, I know he is in prison. Do not call her that!"

Two of the henchmen head off again but the third is left in the unenviable position of needing to talk to the boss about something when the boss is busy. And angry. Been in that position quite a lot myself in my former life. He hovers, not wanting to get too close in case Bane decides to take out his growing anger on the closest object. Realising the ridiculousness of his situation, he glances at me then takes the time to check over his rifle. Look busy, the boss is around. Weird to see it in a mercenary rather than be doing it as an office worker.

"They were trapped! In two days we would have..! Why do you..? Oh." I get a frown that doesn't bode well for my longevity. "No, he did not tell me that. Still, if you would negotiate rather than-." Back to the phone. "Because I say it is. I am not some mindless cultist to be fed on lies and hachís. You will deal with me-! No, but I would."

My empathic vision flicks back on for a moment. Bane is almost completely red. What the hell is Sir Edmund saying to him?

"You will not talk to me like that! I have lived this long without you and I do not-. I do not-."

Uh oh.

"ELLA MURIO EN PRISION CUMPLIENDO TU SENTENCIA PLACENTA CANCERIGENA DEL FETO DE LA PUTA DEL BURRO!!"

I have no idea what Bane just shouted at his mobile but I think I'm about to die. His baseline Human henchman shrinks back and the two at my sides hunch down slightly. He stares around the room, runs at the man waiting to speak to him and grabs his Kalashnikov from him before throwing the phone to the ground and opening fire at it on full auto!

"ZORRA MAL PARIDA-!

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBNAGBANG!

"-QUE LOS VAGABUNDOS-!

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Come on, someone hear that!

"-USAN COMO SACO-!"

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

"-DE ESPERMA!"

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG! Click.

"AAAGHHH!"

He hurls the spent gun to the ground and then turns in my direction, panting hard and clearly furious. He strides at me, pulls back his right fist and-.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Ow
Pain

"… other injuries…"

Ughh?

Everything's… bright. Still, alive, that's good.

"… armor… way… other problems…"

Pain's coming from my face, but everything else… Feels alright… Don't recognise the voice… Okay, open your eyes. Open. O-pen. That's not open. Ring, Wholeness… Oh. Yeah. That's… Someone took it. Truggs. Should I have warned him about the whole going crazy thing?

"…not serious… check … dental … hurt …"

Huh?

"OW THAT REALLY FUCKING HURTS!"

I sit up in… An ambulance? The paramedic who'd been leaning over me with an alcohol swab backs up a little just as everything starts spinning and I slump back onto the bed-stretcher-thing. Uhuuuguh. Oh, oh there's the pain again.

"Orange Lantern. Orange Lantern."

"Ye-. Ow."

"Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, yes I can. Any chance of some sort of painkiller?"

"We don't have your records. I didn't know if you were allergic."

"Not as far as I know." We're not in motion, and the back of the ambulance is wide open. I think we're in the car park Bullock and I-. "Bullock, Detective Bullock. Is he okay?"

"A whole lot better'un you, that's for sure." Bullock rounds the back door with a wry grin on his lips. "Thought you said you could take 'em?"

"Truggs wasn't a hostage." The paramedic goes back to cleaning my injury and I try to keep my flinching down to a minimum. Pain. I haven't missed you at all. "They were working for him. Took me down with a telepathic weapon. He was trying to get hold of advanced technology, he had them kill Missus Gordon-Hewitt to try and draw me out."

"Doesn't look like it worked. Montoya says none of the other collectors-." I hold up my left hand. "Oh. That's bad, right?"

"Yes. I was on about ninety four percent power when I went down, so we've got a murderer who likes schizotech in possession of a full power ring. Please tell me someone's contacted the Justice League."

"Yeah, Firebrand took one look at you then took off." He frowns. "What the hell's schizotech?"

"Future anachronisms. Technology too advanced to exist but does anyway thanks to mad scientists and aliens. Firebrand was built in the nineteen thirties, and she's-."

Bullock squints. "She was what?"

"Built. Firebrand's a gynoid."

"Well, they probably feel better havin' another woman do it."

We stare at each other in mutual incomprehension for a moment.

"A gynoid. A synthetic lifeform designed to resemble a woman. Artificial intelligence with a robotic body."

"Oh, you mean an android."

"No, android -from the Greek andro- means masculine synthetic. Gyno means fe-. Oh, at last." I take the two white tablets and plastic cup of water from the paramedic, put the tablets in my mouth and wash them down with the water. "Thank you."

"No problem. Can you take your armor off? I wanna get a look at the rest of you."

I make a noise that's halfway between a cough and a laugh. "Funny story: it isn't designed to come off. It's a single piece. I usually just use the ring when I want to remove it."

"What do you do when you're not wearing your ring?"

"I wear the ring pretty much the whole time." I shrug. "Hasn't come up until now. I mean, back home I've got this X-Ionized knife that'd go through it, but if I can't get the ring back I'm probably going to need Superboy to rip it off me."

The paramedic gives the armour another once over. "That's a really bad design. What happens if you get injured?"

"The ring fixes it, usually. Not many things can hurt me through my constructs and my armour anyway, and if they do and it doesn't kill me the wound's gone in a few seconds. I hadn't thought that working out what happens if I get an injury it can't fix that doesn't kill me or damage the armour was worth thinking about. Oh, um." I turn back to Bullock. "We need to warn a Hong Kong national named Edmund Dorrance that Bane might be after him."

"Who's that?"

"Bane's father. Truggs told Bane to give me a chance to persuade him not to kill me before he left. Bane wasn't interested in money, so I told him who his father was."

"He didn't know, but you did?"

"Yes. There was a revolution on Santa Prisca just after he was conceived. His father worked for the government, got seriously injured before his men could get him to safety. Bane's mother got caught, and the military government took it out on her." I think for a moment. "When you're finished with me I'll try getting in touch with China's superhuman defence people. I think Ghost Fox Killer works in Hong Kong."

"We're watchin' the roads an' the rails. Four huge grey guys should stand out, but…" He shrugs. "Guess you don't become a supervillain if you can't dodge the cops."

"Got to be honest, I don't think that's a good idea. Finding four Venom Buster enhanciles will just get the police officers doing it killed. Oh, um, sorry, but I've got to ask for the pistol back."

"Hoping you'd forgotten about that." He pulls it out of his coat and deactivates it before passing it over. "Never even got a chance to fire it. That one guy you threw into the sea didn't even notice me."

I take hold of it. "After the fight with me three of them were still functional. If you'd had to fire it you'd probably have died."

He nods. "Probably. What you gunna do now?"

I turn so that my legs are over the side of the bed. When the paramedic doesn't object I gingerly lower myself onto my feet. Everything appears to be working. "Shout at my League superiors until I'm sure they are treating this with the seriousness it deserves. Then, make sure my personal lantern is secure. He can't recharge without it."

"Can you.. deactivate the ring remotely?"

"No. I mean, I'll try, but I don't think so."

"What do you do if he just goes to ground and they can't find 'im?"

I think about that for a moment. Not being Orange Lantern anymore. Back to.. normalcy.

"Are Gotham PD hiring?" No. You lost the damn ring, make yourself useful. First step, get back to the cave. Testing that everything is still working I walk out of the rear of the ambulance. "Detective, I need a lift, and I need to borrow someone's mobile."

 

[Mr Zoat]

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

"…true, then you definitely can't let the other two… Hang on a moment." I lower the phone and turn to the Zeta Tube's control panel. "Computer, date and time please?"

"Fifteenth of December
Twenty one thirty seven, Eastern Standard Time"

"Thanks." I raise the phone again and ignore the enquiring looks from my assembled team mates. Artemis, Wallace, Kaldur and Red Arrow look like they were in the middle of a sparring session. Kon and M'gann are probably at Cadmus -or maybe on a date-, Zatanna's with John and -five hours ahead- Robert's probably in bed. "Can't let them go in. He'll just assimilate them and then he's got another ring, and probably their personal lantern as well. I realise this probably means we're fucked, but you're our only hope."

"Thanks fer the vote a'confidence, Paul. Anythin' else I need t'know?"

"He said he was from the future and he mentioned Kadabra, who damn near shat himself when he realised what I was. Assume at least basic constructs and assimilation."

"You sure he'd even know anything about usin' a ring? Rookies we get turnin' up on Oa…"

"Guy, he had phasing technology without the ring. Don't take anything for granted. You'll need a list of everything the League was storing-."

"Is storing."

"You wish. If he was telling the truth about coming from the future, he probably knows how all the stuff there works and exactly what to look for."

"Nah, I've got satellite coverage. He's in the front door but he hasn't breached the main vault yet. Okay, I'm goin' in. Wish me luck."

"You don't need it." I hear a dull bleep as the phone cuts off from his end. Can he win? He should be able to, and his orange light defences should at least prevent it from being a curb stomp. Can't believe that after the whole Ophidian merger thing neither Stewart or Jordan thought to ask him for tips on how to resist me. I don't know, maybe after getting overwhelmed by the Ophidian they didn't think the defences would be powerful enough to bother with. That doesn't sound very Greenie, though. I carefully put the phone into one of my belt pockets before turning to my team mates. I can answer a few questions, but I need to check on my Lantern. And the Ophidian.

Red Arrow crosses his arms. "Who's Gardner fighting?"

"Orange Lantern Nylor Truggs. I'm happy to answer your questions, but we need to walk and talk." I stride past him in the direction of my room.

Artemis blinks in surprise. "I thought you were the only one."

"Sadly, that isn't the case any more." The Star Sapphire's still in Sephtian's laboratory in a very heavily warded container so I can't even try using that. "All you need is an orange ring."

"Where'd he get it from?"

I stop suddenly, take a deep breath and make sure I've got eye contact before tapping the tips of my fingers against my chest plate. "See how my armour's not glowing? That's not a good sign."

"So you're out of power? Big de-."

I hold out my hands so the length of my fingers are clearly visible. Three sets of eyes widen. Red Arrow just frowns a little. "More like out of ring."

"W-! How?!"

I start walking again and the four of them fall in behind me. "Ran into Bane while I was in Gotham. He had a novel telepathic weapon that stuck me in a stupor. I could barely think, let alone use the ring. Truggs just walked up to me and pulled it off, and now he's attacking STAR Labs' San Francisco storage vault."

"That's where the League keeps stuff they take off supervillains!" Wallace recognises the significance then. Before the whole Roanoke Island thing I'd thought about offering them my assistance. Bit busy now.

"That's why he's going there. He did this whole monologue about wanting to improve the world by using it-."

"Don't you say stuff like that?"

I just manage to avoid rolling my eyes at Red Arrow. "If supervillains were capable of using their gear sensibly they'd have done so the first time. They're exactly the people who shouldn't have it."

"Is Lantern Gardner in need of assistance?"

"I really hope not, Kaldur. That thing I did to Teekl and Fatty? That works on people, too, and it's one of the most basic orange ring functions. Guy can defend himself from it thanks to his sessions with me but no one else can." I turn the corner towards the residential section of the base. Not much further. "I just hope the Ophidian's still listening to me. If she sides with Truggs…"

"What was the nature of this 'telepathic weapon'?"

"Doctor Edgar Cizko's brain, stuck in what appeared to be one of The Brain's travel machines. That's what Truggs said, anyway. Didn't have a chance to scan it for myself." I stop at my door and turn my head to look a them. "You might want to take a step back. I've got no idea what my lantern's going to be doing."

Kaldur shakes his head. "In your current state I am more resilient."

"Not to the psychological aspects." No one moves. "Okay, on your heads be it." I push open the door. Orange light everywhere, the lantern glowing like mad, floating in the centre of the room. When I left I put it back in a subspace pocket but apparently it can either leave on its own or at the Ophidian's direction.

Or worse, at Truggs'.

I walk towards it cautiously, orange light forming visible eddies around my arms as I hold them out. I don't feel anything trying to force me away, but I don't feel the Ophidian either. Try talking first? Meditating? Or just touch the thing. I never tried talking to her without the ring on. I hold my hands close to the surface of the lantern. Still nothing other than the light bending around my body.

"Ophidian?" There's no obvious response. No good. I want her help.

BABUM

No one takes our ring from us.

In a sudden motion I lay my hands on the lantern's-.

BABUM BABUM BABUM

Defiled! Unworthy, this man who thinks to command the ring we share!

Wisps of orange light throughout the room collapse back into me and for a moment I think I see the outline of the Ophidian manifested.

You are my Agent! None other!

The ring is mine. It belongs on my finger. It is wrong that it is anywhere else.

"Ah, hey, Paul?" I turn my head away from the lantern. Artemis is standing just inside the threshold and she shifts her weight a little uncomfortably. "You're not gonna.. merge with that thing again, are you?"

I lift my right hand away from the lantern and try to generate a construct. Nothing. Merging with the Ophidian… That's probably possible. In the comics Parallax only took hosts with no yellow ring. We'd have the full range of orange light powers. Heck, with my increased control we'd probably even stay separate people this time.

We will become one once more! All who stand before us will become our puppets!

No. I can still remember the way everyone looked at us last time. I need the ring back but I need my ingroup just as much. Ophidian, thank you for the offer, but no. I don't want to behave like that, to damage their faith in me in that way. I will correct the wrongness another way.

"Last resort only. There's no Zeta Tube near the STAR Labs vault, but…" An idea begins to form. "Maybe there's another way I can stop him."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
21:40ish GMT -5

Climbing the mountain is much harder without a ring. "Owfff." Harder still when you're carrying a personal lantern that you can't let your augmented team mate carry for you because-

Agent! Join with me! Let us pull the bones from his still living flesh together!

-the Ophidian is still rather ticked off about the whole thing and I don't want to risk her possessing anyone else. At least I can be sure that Truggs won't be able to call on her to aid him.

Yes! For his impudent theft from us I will go to him and seize all that he has! His body, mind and soul will become-!

No. Ophidian- "Ugh" -I appreciate your support immensely, but we're perfectly capable of retaking our property without violating our moral beliefs.

Your moral beliefs.

And since you don't have any of your own, they're yours as well.

I get an impression of her pulling her head back in confusion.

If we change our behaviour in response to him then he's taken something else from us, hasn't he? And if we kill him we'll also alienate my friends.

A picture of the shocked faces of Kon, Alan, Diana and Zatanna forms in my mind.

Is that what you want?

In my mind's eye I see her head rock from side to side as she tries to adapt to the idea. From the way the lantern's glow dies down I'm going to assume that she's getting it. Okay, final ridge. I put the lantern down on the flat section above me before clambering up myself. I haven't been up here since I gave Artemis a close up of an asteroid and it looks like someone set some lights up.

"Took you long enough."

I take hold of one of the lantern's handles and narrow my eyes at Red Arrow. "Excuse me, but my armour weighs more than yours, I'm hopped up on painkillers after getting punched in the face by Bane and my lantern doesn't come with straps."

"What are you trying to do, anyway?"

I straighten up, take a quick look at the completely fresh Artemis and Kaldur -really need to take another look at augmenting myself at some point- and Doctor.. um, Swamp Thing's trees. I think I remember that Swamp Thing has a copy of Doctor Holland's soul rather than literally being him so I suppose it isn't unreasonable for him to insist on the distinction. Are those.. quinces? In winter? Looking at them I feel a sudden impulse to try one. The brightly coloured drawings in the Swamp Thing comics really didn't make it clear what the person tasting them actually experienced…

Maybe later. I head towards the south west side of the summit and sit down, crossing my legs with the lantern on my lap.

"Lanterns can remote control their rings. When we practised, Guy struggled to call his from more than about five metres away but I don't think his heart was really in it. The longest distance I've ever controlled it over is four hundred metres, and I didn't try further than that because I don't like being that far away from it. San Francisco is about three thousand miles that way." I nod into the distance.

"Would it not be better to go to San Francisco and try there?"

Thought of that, Kaldur. "Guy will start by blocking Truggs' FTL as soon as he attacks but they can still fly very fast. If he feels something pulling at the ring he'll have to run. If I can't call it from here…" I shrug. "Then I'll have to try something else. On the other hand, if I can get it off his finger… Fight's over. Guy'll take him down before he can even start contesting it."

"Is that even possible?"

"Won't know until I try." I close my eyes and place both hands as close as I can to the glowing core.

Mine. The ring is mine. It belongs on my finger. It is an abominable wrong that it is not there.

No, come on. Think like a Lantern.

"This is my cause. This is my fight."

BABUM

My cause is the cause of avarice and humanity's future. Truggs said something about things not turning out well. He believes supervillains can do better? Utter balderdash.

Balderdash!

I'll do it. I'll make sure whatever happened in his timeline doesn't happen here and I'll do it without lunatics like him. Like them. If the Justice League isn't set up to handle that sort of job I'll start a company and recruit people who are a little more broad minded. I'll share technology with people who aren't mental.

"Shine through the void with orange light."

BABUM

I can't stand the idea of him being Orange Lantern instead of me. I remember what happened to Lex in the comics. I want to be responsible for revolutionising the way the Earth works. Arrogant? Hey, Orange Lantern here. There are other people I'd trust with it but supervillains have a record of bad decision making. I can't imagine them being able to improve things, certainly not in a way that couldn't be done better in a different way.

"I've claimed all within my sight."

BABUM

This world is mine. Its people are mine. Mine to protect and nourish. Mine to watch grow and thrive. And I'll be damned if I'm handing them off to a lunatic supervillain.

Ours!

BABUM BABUM BABUM

"To keep what is mine, that is my right."

BABUM BABUM BABUM BABUM

The ring is a part of me and I will have it back!

BABUM BABUM BABUM BABUM

I feel a distant tearing sensation. I open my eyes. The core of the lantern is glowing brilliantly, easily outshining the electronic lights on the mountaintop.

Ring, come.

I keep staring into the distance. I've got no way to tell if this is working. I doubt that we could get a reliable image of Guy's location. Wait, is that..? I see a distant light in the sky. A plane? A firework of some kind? No, it's getting closer..! I stand -carefully putting the lantern down- and hold out my left hand.

The ring stops a metre ahead of me, floating in the air. It looks a little..? Oh. Macabre, but not entirely unexpected. I reach out a little further, taking the ring and its grisly passenger into my left palm and pulling it to my chest. With my right hand I carefully extract what I assume to be Nylor Truggs' ring finger by the damp and squishy end before thrusting my own left ring finger into the opening.

"Welcome back to the Orange Lantern Corps. You are Agent Orange."

The pain of my injuries and the fuzziness inflicted by the medication vanish immediately. I am whole again.

"Hah!" I hold the severed digit aloft in my right hand. "And this fucking finger is going on the fucking trophy shelf! Ring, recharge!"

A beam of orange light so brilliant that it's nearly white engulfs the ring and I see-.

The treasures of civilisations, fallen ages past. Bones stripped of flesh and marrow. Orange rings piled high around a dais and even more flying at speed around the chamber. Dozens, no, hundreds of Construct-Lanterns swarm around trying to grab them as a shrivelled figure glares directly at me with eyes filled with hate and madness.

"No! You can't have them! They're mine! My shinies!" His head swings left and right. "Find him! All of you, go! Find him!"

Oooh poop.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th December
22:54 GMT -5

"Recognised, Green Lantern, one seven."

Guy materialises in the Zeta Tube opening. Oh, he's not even pretending now.

"Brace for incoming smug!"

Guy's grinning and he strides out, body glowing green. He stops before us and puts his hands on his hips. "Always said Orange Lanterns ain't all that. I hit Truggs so hard his ring fell off."

Artemis shakes her head. "Actually, that was Paul. He took his lantern on top of the mountain and called his ring back."

"Oh." I hold the aforementioned finger ornament up. "Ah, whatever, I had him on the ropes anyway." He points at me with his right index finger. "Credit where it's due though, you were right about him tryin' to assimilate me. I coulda got in real trouble if I hadn't learned to block you first."

"And did he attempt to use any sort of telepathic weapon?"

A spherical metal object appears from subspace. Guy catches it in his left hand and tosses it up and down. "Threw this little ball thingy. Didn't do much. The three of us got extra lessons on blocking stuff like this as soon as Salaak heard about the Star Conquerors. Not that I needed it; Kilowog taught me how ta resist telepathic attack in basic."

I watch the ball going up and down like a hawk. Or maybe more like a cat. "Because all Green Lanterns get taught that, or because he absolutely needed to know it due to him being unusually vulnerable to that sort of attack?"

Guy frowns. "Is he?"

"That's what this ring thinks. Didn't his homeworld have some sort of mass empathic field or something?"

"I dunno. Don't think he ever talked about it."

"Were you able to apprehend the thief?"

Guy freezes for a moment at Kaldur's question. Guy! "Aaaah. No. We were mixin' it up when his ring came off… The STAR Lab was a wreck an' he hid in the debris. I couldn't do a normal scan for him so I went through the whole thing carefully. He wasn't there. Security camera got a partial shot of him disappearing. Looked t'me like he had some sorta stone or crystal in his hand. He broke it then 'poof'. Gone."

Red Arrow tilts his head slightly to the side. "Do you know what he was there to take?"

"Everything, probably."

Guy shakes his head. "It'll be hours before the STAR people can do an inventory and find out what's missin'. Place looked secure but if he could phase through stuff…"

"Guy, do you want to…" I point at the ball. "To keep that? Because if not then I'd like to-."

He tosses it to me. "Knock yourself out, kid."

I catch it with both hands. Nylor Truggs' anti-Lantern telepathic weapon? Heck, yes. Guy.. probably shouldn't have done that, but now he has I'm going to spend the next couple of days analysing it. And on that note… "Guy, given how this happened, do you think you'd be allowed to share that telepathic defence stuff with me?" He looks a little dubious. "Come on, it's not like it'll give me an edge against you, but it does mean there's less chance of you having to deal with someone like Truggs again. Or the Ophidian."

"No promises. I'll have to check with some people."

Some Bobbleheads. "Come on, I'll help you teach J-." I look at my colleagues. Probably in the know, but I don't know for sure. "The other two how to resist assimilation and branding as well."

Guy tenses the left corner of his mouth. Not going to be an easy sell but I'm confident that he'll give it his all. "How'd you manage to call yer ring that far?"

"Muttering my oath while focusing on what it means to me. And, the Ophidian helped. Actually, might have caused a bit of a problem with that."

"What kind of problem?"

"When I recharged the ring after getting it back I sort of.. had a.. vision."

He raises his eyebrows. "Really?"

"First time I tried saying the oath, I got an image of the Ophidian looking at me, and that panned out."

At least Wallace looks like he believes me. "What'd you see this time?"

"Larfleeze. It looked like he'd felt what I was doing and.. unleashed his Construct-Lanterns to find me. Speaking of which…" I shake the ring and Fatty drops out. He lands on the floor at a crouch, looks around, then runs to my left leg and wraps his arms around it in a bear hug.

Huh. I reach down and pat him on the head.

"Anyone seen Teekl?"

Artemis nods. "Saw her heading to the power plant earlier."

I close my eyes for a moment. Yes, I can still feel her. She tenses as she feels me, then relaxes slightly.

"Wait a sec." Guy touches his right hand to his forehead. "You're telling me we've got a swarm of intelligent constructs with Lantern powers and one crazy ancient Orange Lantern heading here and you didn't start by mentioning that?!"

"I can't check it myself. And the impression I got was that Larfleeze couldn't tell exactly where I am. He was sending the Construct-Lanterns out to look for me and it didn't look like he was moving himself. Who's the Green Lantern assigned to the area around Vega?"

"Aah… Two eight two eight A is Green Man -he's a real pro- and.. his backup's a guy called Gretti. He's a flake."

"Try getting them to confirm it, and once the other two can block assimilation reliably one of them needs to go back to Oa and share the knowledge around."

Artemis looks puzzled. "If he's like you but crazier, why isn't he coming himself?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's scared of the Guardians taking the Orange Central Power Battery away. I don't.. actually know how hard he'd be in a fight. The Central Power Battery should give him unlimited charge and he's certainly got the avarice, but he's not that intelligent. It could be I'd already be able to beat him if I had the Ophidian supporting me. I'd just.. rather not find out until I'm sure." I look back at Guy. "How was Truggs coping?"

"I've seen worse. Only Lantern I've seriously fought before was Sinestro that one time and he just fights like a Green Lantern. Truggs fought kind of like you, only… More."

"More?"

"More. More fancy than any Green I've ever seen.. even more than you, but there was a lot less power behind any of it. Even used grenades. Not just that one-" He points to the… Let's call it a Neural Chaff Emitter, in my hands. "-but smoke, EMP and plasma as well. Apart from you and that Chance guy I can't think of any Lanterns who carry another weapon."

"Tool."

"Potaytoe potahto."

"No, I was calling you a tool. Seriously, sidearms. Look into it."

"Alright, if I'm doing this whole debrief thing, howsabout we take this to the kitchen? I could do with a beer-."

"Sorry Guy, no alcohol on base. Batman's orders."

"Eh, you guys pay attention when I talk and I'll make do with a soda."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December
16:19 GMT +1

I lean slightly away from the popcorn tub, eyeing it warily.

Miss Head narrows her eyes. "I haven't poisoned it."

No, no, of course she hasn't. And even if she has I've still got the ring on. I reach over with my right hand and take out a single popped grain. "Thank you."

"Hmpf." Miss Head turns her head back in the direction of the centre ring, leaning slightly closer towards Mister Wayne as she does do. The Haly's Circus doesn't open properly for several hours but Mister Haly was happy to let Richard, his uncle, adopted father and their friends come in to watch their rehearsals. I've only ever been to a circus once before, when I was… I'm not sure how old I was, actually.

From my left Nyssa taps me on my shoulder. I turn to face her and she gives me a look of disappointment. "Paul, be nice."

"Sorry. But you know she did try and stab me last time we met."

"I don't believe for a moment that she would actually have stabbed you."

"No, but she might have tried. How long have we got until Richard's on anyway?"

Wallace leans around from her far side. "Abof fo' min'ah."

"Mister West! Did your mother not warn you against speaking with your mouth full?"

Wallace swallows the popcorn. "She kinda gave up. I just need so many calories…"

Nyssa frowns. "Surely your speed is not fuelled by the food you eat? The Human digestive system should not be capable of processing-."

"Yeah, that's what Oh El says. Um, Paul. You know. And I don't… Ah…"

"He doesn't spend a proportional amount of time on the toilet."

His eyes widen in shock. "Hey! You said you weren't scanning that!"

"I said I wouldn't scan you while you were in the toilet. I had to calculate how fast your digestive processes would have to be for someone of your dimensions to process what you observably can in order to notice the discrepancy, but I know you should be spending more time-."

"Dude. Too much."

"Nyssa's probably the leading expert on alchemy on the planet."

"I wouldn't go so far as that. My father's knowledge is far superior."

"Lex was ever so subtly hinting to me that your father was dead, presumably in a permanent sort of way. Since we know they were.. probably working together…" She nods. "Wallace, we still haven't been able to track down Max Mercury and you couldn't get your head around Missus Tyler's multidimensional formula thingy." Jolly nice of her to share that, I thought. She even tried to explain it, but the physics were well beyond either of us. "We're back to doing something with the Formula itself."

Nyssa looks from me to him and then back again. "Is there something you would like to share with me?"

Wallace winces slightly, then leans forwards and lowers his voice. "Flash and me get our powers from the same place as Jay Garrick, the first Flash. It's a formula which -turns out- does what it does using alchemy rather than normal chemistry. Only, when I made it…" He looks away for a moment. "Didn't go quite right."

"You were lucky not to have been killed."

"Yeah, that's what Uncle Barry said. And Dad, and my Mom, and pretty much everyone. Bu-ut, it worked, except I.. can't run as fast and I need to keep eating."

"How is the formula applied? Is it injected, swallowed..?"

He shrugs and picks up another handful of popcorn. "I'm not sure exactly what happened. I may have swallowed some of it. It kind of.. exploded. When I woke up in the hospital I couldn't remember."

Nyssa nods. "So you could also have breathed it in or got it on your skin, either in gaseous or liquid form."

"Uh, yeah. I've been trying to use Kaldur's book on Atlantean alchemy to work out what went wrong but I think I've hit a dead end. And it's not like I can just look it up online."

"I.. can try to help. If that is what you want." Wallace pops a piece of popcorn into his mouth. "But you must understand that my ability to do so will be limited if I do not know exactly what you were working with."

Wallace nods and returns his attention to the circus ring. "Yeah, I… I get that. But, you work for Luthor. I can't just hand over Jay's notes like that."

"Then I will do what I can without them. The research centre in the Valmiki National Park is now up and running. I can make time for you whenever it is possible for you to visit."

"How's that going?"

"Slowly. There is no standard notation for alchemy and it is very hard to analyse our test subjects. And hard to get staff who know anything about the subject."

"I might be able to help there. There's a guy in Atlantis I go to for arcane analysis, I could put you in touch. And I know of a professional alchemist living in London. Don't know if she's interested, but if you want to make her an offer…"

Nyssa smiles. "Thank you. That would be very helpful."

I look at the fire breathing tightrope walker in the ring for a moment. Glad I don't have to do anything like that. "No problem."

"Hey, Paul?" I look back at Wallace. "Are.. you and Zatanna okay? I mean, if it's none of my business…"

I shake my head and look at the ground. "I said something rather stupid during the Gotham.. thing. I'm going t'.. talk to her about it when we move the cake tomorrow."

"Save some for me. Y'know, it's kinda lucky that Truggs guy did steal your ring. If he hadn't, then…"

I nod. "Saved me some time, certainly." I can't access the files he created during his brief span as Orange Lantern two eight one four but the handful of objects he put into storage are now mine, including a copy of his phase generator. Scan the generator, replicate it a few thousand times and I gain the ability to tell the universe to pretend that the Uber Cake has no mass. The storage vault even has a ventilation system in place that I can use to transfer them down without digging up more of the Swiss countryside.

"How are you going to move it all? Or have you got some kinda giant cake tray set up in New York you can just zap it over to?"

"Sssstill working on that one. That's part of why I need Zatanna and Guy with me."

"So she can magic the cake smaller then make it bigger again at the other end?"

"No, that…" Wait, would that work? "Hadn't actually thought of that. I'll ask her if that's doable."

"Any luck finding Bane?"

"Not yet. The Gotham Police-."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience!" Mister Haly strides into the centre of the arena in full ringmaster gear. "It is with great pleasure that the Haly International Traveling Circus introduces -for one afternoon only- the Flying Graysons!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December
22:19 GMT +1

Roy frowns at me. "Why are you still wearing the clown costume?"

I flick one of the woolly bobbles on my comedically short waistcoat. "Because it makes me feel pretty."

Nearly the whole blooming team taking part in a circus! I came very close to asking Richard what he'd been smoking when he suggested it, but it's actually been really good fun. Artemis and Tau have really been getting into the whole trick shot thing, Match and Kon juggle barbells and Richard, Roy and Her Highness have been on the trapeze. Kaldur's busy with something Atlantean and Wallace… Not sure why he's not with us, actually. Probably not important.

And I'm a clown!

Roy and I are standing in an empty train depot. In a few hours the circus will be packed up and moving out in the direction of Geneva but first we have a thief to apprehend. Richard's been trying to work out who it is. I say, who cares? Since they seem disinclined to stop we can always find out who they are once I've beaten them unconscious.

**Miss Martian to Grayven, Red Arrow and Match. Can you hear me?**

**I can hear you.**

Match is floating over our heads. There shouldn't really be any significant danger in our end of the operation but he did so want to be involved. The sessions with the Genomorphs have gone really well and Wonder Woman has arranged for him to start at Happy Harbor High School in the New Year. As with Kon I doubt that he'll find the academic side at all challenging but I've seen a noticeable improvement in Kon's social abilities since he started there. He'd never have been willing to pretend to be a circus strong man when the team first got together.

**Red Arrow, loud and clear.**

**Grayven receiving, Your Highness.** A thought occurs. **Is that a new distance record for you?**

**Um… I think it is!**

**Well done you!**

**Stay focused, people. Target in sight.**

I roll my eyes as Kon relays the image from his super vision. **Robin, how much do we really care what he's after?**

**We need to know if he's passing what he's stolen on to anyone else.**

**Okay, so why not just have M'-** I remember myself. **-iss Martian extract that from his mind once we have him. Just seems like we're making heavy weather of this. And -no offence intended- you didn't look that good earlier. Are you feeling alright?** Ring, scan the target in case he has an attack of common sense.

By your command.

Nothing on the link for a moment so I have another look around. On one side I can see the tents of the main circus, behind which are quaint brick buildings which the local guidebook claims are nine hundred years old. On the other, fields dotted with sporadic trees, most likely existing through a generous contribution from the Common Agricultural Policy. There's a light dusting of frost over everything, creating a picture such as might be seen on the front of a Christmas card. It's really quite beautiful.

"So, tell me." I tear my eyes away from the vista and look at Roy. "What's a thirty year old man doing taking orders from a fourteen year old boy?"

"Curses, you've found me out. My plan to take over the world with a small group of teenagers falls at the first hurdle." He scowls, no mean feat with that stupid tiny mask stuck on. His accusations of me being some sort of mole are so ridiculous I was having trouble dealing with them until I hit upon the idea of just admitting to anything he accused me of in the most over the top fashion I could. Now everyone finds the idea risible. But here it's just Match… "I started on this team with no experience. He started with four years' worth. And.. having him around to hold me back isn't necessarily a bad-."

**Okay, you're right. Grayven, take him.**

I blink in surprise. **You're agreeing with me? Oh, now I know you're under the weather.**

**Not. Helping.**

**Boom Tube in three. This will be loud.**

The swirling hole appears twenty metres over our heads, with the other end directly under the ne'er-do-well's feet. He drops the crowbar he was holding with a yelp as he drops towards the tracks. I let him get half way down before attaching a harness around his chest and closing the Tube.

Then float up and hit him in the face with a custard pie.

I drift back out of arm's reach as he wipes it off his grey balaclava. He's wearing grey trousers, a navy blue coat and hat with a black turtleneck and gloves and once he can see again he stares around in surprise.

"Sorry about the pie. My inflated bladder on a stick's in for repairs. Also, you're under arrest."

He squirms for a moment, then takes off his gloves and throws them at me. I put up a small orange shield. Not sure what he was planning to do with-.

Alert! Energy drain in progress. One percent power loss. Two percent power loss.

I drop the harness construct and he falls a metre in the air before being stabilised by a pale orange aura. That's.. concerning. After glancing at the ground he fixes his gaze on me and lunges forwards. Puzzled, I fly backwards at the same speed to his visible frustration. After three seconds his aura cuts out and he starts falling again. I form another harness, this time taking care to bind his arms and keep the construct away from his bare skin. He struggles for a moment and the ring reports that he's doing so with more strength than his muscles suggest that he should have. Hmm. Curious, but not really significant. Still being careful not to let them touch his skin I use a construct to remove first his hat and then his balaclava.

"Ray the Roustabout! Who joined the tour at the exact time the thefts started! Who could have guessed?!" Wait a second… Drains power, called Ray..? No, surely he wouldn't have used his own fricking name? Ring, detailed scan.

**Grayven, do you have him?**

**Yes Robin, trussed up like a Turkey. It was Ray the Roustabout, only it turns out that Ray the Roustabout is really-** I tug the remarkably lifelike synthetic skin mask from his head. **-Raymond Maxwell Jensen, aka the Parasite.** His skin is a dull purple with raised lines that look like partially healed chemical burns around his eye sockets and down the sides of his mouth. The ring tells me that he's also wearing contact lenses but I'm not going to risk removing those.

**There is no flu! He's been draining the circus performers' skills to perform his robberies!**

**Looks like. Someone want to phone that Faraday oik and tell him we've done his job for him?**

"I knew I should have fed on you."

**Already done. They're working on the power suppression collar configuration now.**

"Yes, well, your mistake." Physiological analysis complete? Thank you ring. "Here, sniff my flower." A small flower construct appears in front of him and squirts a fairly noxious knock out gas directly into his face. He coughs and squirms some more but there's no way he's getting away. After a few moments he slumps. I scan his brain once more to make sure, but he's definitely out. He has a truly fascinating ability. Given the physiological alterations that appear to be an intrinsic part of it I don't think it will ever become popular, but I'll have Father Box and the ring do a full scan to see if it can be adapted in some way.

"That wasn't so hard." I glance to my right and see that Match has decided to join me. Technically that's a violation of mission discipline. Do I care? No.

"It's all about having the right tools for the job. How would you have gone about fighting him if it were just you?"

He tilts his head to the right. "Can't touch him, so… Ah, use a metal bar or something as a club?"

"That would work. Not ideal though." I float down towards Roy, taking Jensen with me. "Red Arrow, if you were fighting Mister Jensen here on your own, how would you handle it?"

He looks from me to Match, trying to work out what point I'm making. "I'd keep my distance and use a hard foam arrow, stop him from moving before he could drain me."

"Perfect answer. Match, you don't want to get close to someone like this. A melee weapon will make it possible for you to hit them but it still puts you close enough that you're at risk of getting grappled and drained. Throwing something at him would be better. In your position I'd.. probably heat vision one of his kneecaps or drop concrete on him from the air or something along those lines. After all, he can't fly without draining someone." Match nods. "Look, you're Kryptonian. You're used to fighting in a particular way but that isn't always the right way. There's always a counter to any form of attack. You need to learn to understand your situation and react appropriately."

He nods, looking thoughtful. "Diana said the same thing."

"She's a highly skilled warrior. You could do much worse than her for a teacher." He nods again. Match doesn't have the same need for a Kal-El substitute as Kon but he'd still benefit from a mentor figure. "Now, come on. We need to hand Jensen over and then get back to the circus. Richard's uncle is waiting for us in Geneva and I don't want to break cover until he's seen us perform."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Unusual Suspicions

23rd December
07:35 GMT -5

I take one last look at the construct cables running from my lantern to the Ice Fortress' power distribution network. Everything looks set and I know this should work in theory but I'm still a little nervous.

"Alright in there, Ophidian?"

A pulse of orange. "Fear not, my Agent. We were one when this scheme was conceived. We will see it through to its conclusion. The people of New York will bear witness to the magnificence of our palace and marvel at our generosity."

"Thank you. Ring, contact Green Lanterns two eight one four B and C."

I was a little surprised that Lantern Stewart offered to help. He'll be very useful if something goes wrong. I hope that Guy didn't twist his arm too much. With two out of three of this Sector's serving Green Lanterns helping me I'm certainly not going to complain about Lantern Jordan absenting himself. I'm sure the rest of the Sector doesn't stop for Christmas.

The busts of Guy and Stewart appear just above the ring. "Ready in Switzerland?"

Guy nods. "Cake's outta the ground. Think we gave some cows a nasty shock. Hadn't realized you frosted it."

"What sort of Christmas cake designed by a Lantern hopped up on the light of avarice doesn't have a scale model of the North Pole on top?"

Stewart takes a quick look around. "Air space is clear and the cake weighs next to nothing. Orange Lantern, I was contacted by a guy from the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs. They want to know what you intend to do with the chamber you were storing this thing in."

"Hadn't really thought about it, to be honest. Do they want it, or do they want me to fill it in?"

"I think he was more trying to feel us out about it."

"I don't really have any strong feelings about it? I realise that I shouldn't have dug it, wasn't compos mentis at the time. Far as I'm concerned it belongs to Switzerland."

"I'll pass that on. Ready at your end?"

"The Ophidian's ready and willing." Guy winces as I reach over to press the intercom. "Captain Zatara, you about ready?"

The ring shows me an image of her sitting in the central command chair with a thick coat on and Teekl curled up on her lap. I've had several heaters up there trying to raise the temperature for a couple of days but we are in the arctic circle. She could use magic to warm up but we want to keep her fully fuelled in case we run into difficulty later. "I will be as soon as I get some power up here."

I nod. "Main power live in three, two, one, now." There's no outward sign that my construct is now converting the lantern's output to electrical power from the lantern itself, but the lights in the engine room immediately come on at full intensity and -quick check- so does the heating. "Captain?"

"Heat systems check, computers… Check. Closing external doors and hatches. There doesn't appear to be any new damage since yesterday. Shall I take us up?"

"Orange Lantern to all points, we are go for take off. Engage anti-gravity at your convenience."

In the command centre I see her smile, her right hand on the control pad and her left idly stroking Teekl. "You are so loving this."

"Yes, I so am."

"Taking us up."

There's a very slight shudder, probably caused by an unevenness in the shape of the ice attached to the bottom of the hull. I checked the bracing around what we think to be the bit generating the anti-gravity effect at the same time as I checked the computers and it all looked solid. Can't be one hundred percent sure without a better understanding of the system. I close my eyes for a moment and focus on the sense of hunger I know to be Fatty.

Fatty, start eating the ice off the hull. Don't eat the hull.

Eating! Yay!

He's been weirdly upbeat since the Truggs thing. I can't really ask what that was like for him. Well, I can, he just can't give an answer that makes any sense to me. He's much less use as a scout than Teekl for much the same reason; even though he is more obedient he can't articulate or comprehend what he sees as well. I get a vague impression that he's eating something and so until Zatanna reports otherwise I'll assume that it's what he's supposed to be eating.

"Everything looks good up here."

"Right. Ophidian? "

"This is a mere fraction of my full power as well you know."

"Just checking. Okay Captain, I'm on my way up." I need to stay connected to the transfer constructs to keep them active but I can do that with a filament. In fact, since I'm not actually doing much ring work here I've got filaments trailing throughout the structure. With one last look at my lantern I turn around and start the trek back to the bridge.

"Hey, Paul." I look at the image of Guy. "You know none of the rest of us can hear what the Snake's saying when you do that, right?"

"No, I.. I didn't. Really?" Lantern Stewart nods. "Huh. Um, I'm not crazy."

"We know she's real, it's just kinda weird seein' you talk to thin air."

"I'll bear that in mind. See you when we get to Switzerland." I close the connection and start climbing the ladder up to the next level.

"Internal communications are up and running as well. I'll do a check on the snow generators."

I pull myself up onto the next floor and fly through the corridors at speed. "Operation: White Christmas is still on?"

"I think so. The vents are still covered in ice. We won't really know until Fatty's finished clearing it off." I land next to the bridge door and press the control panel. Zatanna looks up at me as the door slides open. "We're at cruising height and I'm setting course for Switzerland."

"Good show. Estimated time of arrival?"

"At the moment? About five days." She presses a few buttons. "Once the vents are clear and you add your engine constructs, about six hours."

I nod. "Zatanna, I want to apologise again-."

She jerks her head away. "No, it's… I talked it over with John. Really, I'm okay with it."

I nod. "I'm glad, because the next six hours would have been really awkward otherwise. But I was thinking I should do something to.. you know.. make up for it."

"What did you.. have in mind?"

"How would you like a trip to Eden?"

She blinks at me. "Eden? Oh! Rob told me about that place. That's the botanical park, where they use giant domes to create different habitats from all over the world, isn't it? I'd love to go there."

I blink. Eden..? Eden Project. "Yes, that's exactly what I meant! I.. wasn't sure you'd heard of it."

She sighs slightly. "You meant the other Eden, didn't you."

"Yes. Sorry."

"Look, I.. don't really-."

"It's as near to the biblical version as it could possibly be. But we can go to the Eden Project instead. Less risk of flaming sword. I'm… I'm happy to take you anywhere."

"Oh." She thinks for a moment. "Well, then, yes. Thank you." She looks straight at me. "The other one. Not the biblical one."

"Other one it is. They're closed Christmas Day… Do you have any plans for Boxing Day?"

"No. Boxing Day's.. good."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd December
15:31 GMT -5

"…in New York today with the re-appearance of an Ice Fortress. But don't worry, this time it's firmly under the control of the Justice League."

Ms Grant looks up and the camera tilts to follow her gaze, giving me an excellent view of my Fortress' exterior. Looks like we're pulling in a decent crowd. Even at this distance the shining green from Guy and Stewart is clearly visible, on station should it be necessary to balance the load. The giant cake sits proudly on the platform which now extends outwards from the top of the command tower. The bracing I built should be able to hold it up but just in case Zatanna hit it with a 'ekac ecuder ni thgiew'.

I sneer at the television. "My foot it's under the control of the Justice League! Everyone saw me making the cake and Diana told them I was raising the Fortress!"

"Just be glad they're not running and screaming." Zatanna smiles. "You know, you could always-."

"I'm not singing it again. It's not happening."

"..following through on his promise two months ago, and while I have no idea what that will taste like New Yorkers have turned out in their thousands to find out."

"How are you actually going to get it down there?"

"I'm not. I'm going to slice it up up here and hand the boxes out. Your spell will stop affecting the pieces cut off the main cake, right?"

She looks aside for a moment. "It should. It might cut out altogether when more than half of the cake's gone though."

"Won't be a problem, the platform's easily strong enough to hold that." I look back at the screen. "Hey, watch this."

Reaching out to one of the filaments on the Fortress' exterior I cut a smallish piece out of the cake. I then take a patisserie box out of subspace around the cake piece and start floating it swiftly ahead of the Fortress. The picture jerks slightly as Ms Grant directs the cameraman to focus on it. Write a quick message on the interior, draw an orange sigil on the top of the box and write her name… And Ms Grant takes a step back as the box floats down in front of her.

"Well, this… Um." She turns back to the camera as the crowd turns to look. "It looks like Orange Lantern wants me to try it first." She's holding a microphone so I extend a filament and tug it out of her hand while keeping it pointed at her. She gulps, then reaches out to take the box and flip open the lid. Her eyes widen slightly at the message 'Is this live?' but she doesn't let her surprise disrupt the performance. Holding the box with her left arm she reaches in to pick up the cake with her right. "Looks like a.. normal frosted fruitcake to me." Thankfully, Ophidian me realised that just scaling up the thickness of the icing wouldn't work so Ms Grant's bit has a completely normal layer of icing and marzipan on the part which was on the Cake's outer surface. "Clearly it hasn't suffered from being stored under Switzerland for two months, or from being transported over the Atlantic today." She appears to take a breath to steady herself. "Here I go!" Keeping the box underneath to catch any crumbs she raises the cake to her mouth and takes.. the tiniest bite she could possibly manage! Oh, come on! What did she think I was going to do? Her face goes stiff for a moment as she chews, clearly bracing herself for the worst. "It's.. moist… The texture's good and you can taste the fruit flavors." She nods to the camera and takes a larger bite. Result! "Wooks wike…" She chews a bit more and then swallows. "Looks like New York's in for a delicious pre-Christmas treat. This is Cat Grant, eating cake, for GBS News."

"Glad it tastes nice. I was worried for a minute."

Zatanna presses a few buttons on the control pad. I got rid of the engine constructs once we got to the Lower Bay and we've been gradually decelerating since. "Aaaand… Full stop, Battery Park dead ahead."

"Thank you captain." I point at the door. "Do you want to come out and watch, or stay in here?"

"At this time of year? I think I'll stay where it's warm." Teekl opens her eyes, stretches out her forepaws and then rehuddles to indicate her agreement.

"Okay. You can watch us on the external cameras-."

"Or on the news, I know." I nod and then turn to leave. "Paul..?"

"Yes?"

"Who do you think they're going to get?" I turn back to her, looking blank. "The League, I mean. They don't have a magic user now…"

"I don't know. Um, Jason Blood, maybe? David Sargent? I doubt it'll be John and it could well end up being some Atlantean battle mage neither of us have ever heard of. Why'd you ask?"

"We'd be working with them, wouldn't we? To free Dad."

"I assume so. I mean, we'll need to talk to them in private at some point and see how they want to handle things…"

"It's just…" Her eyes dip. "It's probably stupid…"

"What is it?"

She looks up. "You don't think they'll offer Nabu a place, do you?"

I blink, stunned. "No, of course not! They're M-. Your father's friends! They're not going to let some Lich stroll in, steal his body and then pick up the keys to the place as a bonus! There's no way they'd do that."

She nods. "I know, it's just… I can't stop thinking about it. I mean, Wonder Woman and Red Tornado worked with him-."

"And that's exactly why they won't. They know what he's like. Zatanna, you're being ridiculous. You know that, right?"

She nods. "I guess."

"Okay, long as we're clear?"

Another nod, a little more confidently this time. I wave to her with my right hand before heading out of the door. The closest exit is the one Guy and I came in through the first time and I've repaired the doors since then. Flight door flight airlock, and I'm out into the air over New York. Sun's going down but aside from the Fortress the air looks clear. I'm glad about that; having to create an umbrella construct over the whole cake would have been annoying. We're never going to get finished before sunset, but then I didn't really expect that we would. Short PR thing here while people can still see, then Guy, Stewart and I can carve the Cake up and box it. Should have finished handing Cake out by seven at the latest then we can strip the Cake stand off the Fortress and Zatanna and I can take the Fortress back to the Arctic Circle. No real reason why I can't just transfer it back, so depending on whether the Mayor has decided on whether he wants the city to get a snow dusting first we should be finished by half past seven at the latest. Red Arrow's supposed to be cooking tonight. He seems to have thawed out a little bit but I'm still half expecting my drink to be spiked with sodium pentothal or something.

Ring, does sodium pentothal actually..? No, I suppose that was a bit silly.

I drift outwards and up over the rim of the upper platform, up the side of the Cake decorated to look like the rimfall and over the top to where Guy and Stewart are waiting. I made a cake five hundred metres tall. I chuckle as I think about it. It's ridiculous, really.

Stewart spots me first and rises to meet me. "How d'you wanna do this?"

I generate an illustrative construct. "Pieces of approximately even size. We should probably start with the side facing away from land and serve everyone on the shore before boxing up and delivering. Remember to keep your lists synchronised so no one gets second helpings."

"Yeah, but-."

Guy taps Stewart on the chest with the knuckles of his right hand. "Who gets the frosting is what he means."

I shrug. "Doesn't really matter. I iced the interior boreholes I used for the heating elements so they'll get some icing wherever the piece comes from. And the decoration is far more flattened than the real North Pole. Even at its thickest it isn't all that thick."

John looks up into the sky. "And the news helicopters?"

"If they come from New York, they can have a bit. Otherwise, just chase them off if they try to land."

Guy grins then starts to open his mouth. "You could always try-."

"I'm not singing it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd December
15:59 GMT -5

Guy stops cutting for a moment while I float cake pieces over to the waiting boxes. John's delivering to homes in Queens and if I strain my eyes a little I can see the green glow from the stack of boxes he's put down on the top of one of the high rise apartment buildings. We've pretty much finished feeding the crowds on the waterfront and it's thinned out a little bit. I'm beginning to think that my decision to work on the side facing away from them was in error; from their point of view the cake isn't changing and they can't see us for most of the time. The helicopters have been joined by three ferries and.. sixteen? Smaller boats. The people in charge must be minting it.

"Hey, Paul… I've been wondering…"

"What about?"

"Did you an' the Snake put any liquor in this?"

I frown slightly as I try to remember. "Um… Yes, several gallons of cherry brandy. Why d'you ask?"

Huh. Never seen Guy look nervous before. "You know we've been giving this to kids, right?"

"Guy, a few gallons across a cake this size results in less alcohol per piece than you get if you leave a carton of fruit juice out in the sun."

He nods. "That's okay then."

"This from the man who asked if he could get a beer in the junior team's training area. M'gann, Roy and me are over the age limit, but the rest aren't."

He makes a dismissive gesture with his right hand. "Eh, I was drinkin' at their age."

"Guy, you were a nasty little tearaway at their age."

"Yeah, well, there's a difference from havin' one beer in your own home when you're a teenager and us givin' liquored up cake to a bunch a' kindergarteners."

"Guy, if I'd put that much in it would have drowned out all the other flavours."

He looks at the hole we've cut in the side of the Cake. "Never eaten a good fruitcake before."

"Dad was… Is a big fan of my mum's fruitcake. I don't really like fruit in cake myself, but I know how it's supposed to go. Um, feel free to take a chunk home with you for Christmas to share with the family…" I'm wincing even as I finish the word.

Guy sags slightly. "Gloria's spendin' Christmas with her husband's family. Mom's still goin', but…" He curls the left edge of his lip into a small sneer.

I hesitantly put my right hand on his left shoulder. "If you don't have any other plans, you're welcome to spend Christmas in the mountain."

He doesn't shake the hand off, but he does turn so it drops away naturally. "You sure? I don't wanna mess up any a' yer plans…"

"I'm going to have to do two turkeys anyway. All you coming means is that there's a small chance we'll be eating something other than turkey by Easter. Seriously, it's no problem."

"Zatanna gunna be there?"

"No, she's spending it with her grandparents in Italy." I take a quick look at the Fortress' bridge. "She's actually got a phrasebook out right now trying to swot up on her Italian."

"Who else is commin', then?"

"Alan, Mister J'onzz, Danni-."

"'Danni'?"

"Danette Reilly." Blank. "Red Tornado's sister?"

"Oh! Right, the robot chick."

"Um… Yes. Red Tornado himself… Think M'gann said something about inviting Marie and Garfield Logan. They run an animal sanctuary in the middle of nowhere in Qurac, we met them on a mission there. Diana's busy for most of the day but she said that she'll come for dinner. Artemis and her mum still haven't decided; her mum didn't grow up in a Christian country…" A dreadful idea occurs to me. "Guy, what were you doing for Thanksgiving?" He shrugs. "Oh, shit, Guy! Now I feel like a complete arsehole! Why didn't you say something?"

"I'm not really.. good.. at the whole 'Happy Families' thing…"

"I'm not related to anyone in this entire universe, that's no reason to spend a major national holiday on your own. Alan's always up for company, and he'd probably appreciate having someone around who likes that rugby in body armour thing you people call 'football'."

He perks up and stabs at me with his right forefinger. "Oh, you do not get to talk smack about football!"

"The guys with the measuring tape do more work than most of the players!"

"I do hope that I'm not interrupting?"

Our heads snap around as Diana politely waits for us to stop, arms folded across her chest. Her left hand is holding some sort of cardboard tube. She's in full armour with the lasso at her hip and looks slightly amused.

"Heck, Wondy, you can interrupt me whenever you want."

"I'll bear that in mind." She looks at me for a moment, then turns her attention back to Guy. "Lantern Gardner, may I speak with my student alone for a moment?"

"Oh, sure." He looks at me. "I'll go make some deliveries." He leans forwards and shields his mouth with his left hand. "She's totally into me." I shudder theatrically as he extends his aura around the now cake filled boxes. "See you in a few!"

Diana watches him go for a moment as he heads off in the direction of Brooklyn. "This seems to be going well."

"We're on schedule. Um, want a bit?"

"Not at the moment, thank you." She looks down at the iced surface for a moment. "I'm.. sorry that I'm not going to be there on Christmas Day, and that I'm taking Kon away from you."

"No, no, I completely understand that he's got embassy related stuff you two need to do together. I'm just going to be in the kitchen for most of the day anyway."

She nods. "Be that as it may, I wanted to give you your present a little early." She holds out the tube and I take it from her with my right hand.

"Thank you. Am I supposed to open this now?"

"That would probably be best."

I nod. "Okay. Usually I'm pretty strict about opening stuff on the day, but seeing as it's you..." I run a small construct blade around the wax stopper and flip it off the tube's interior before reaching in and pulling out the parchment within with my right hand. Anything else in there? Quick shake. No. With a mental shrug I send the tube to subspace and unroll the parchment. I wonder what..?

I blink rapidly. Oh. That, I did not expect.

"You said you'd only accept a nationality you wanted, and you haven't made any effort to claim British nationality. I know Kon would feel better knowing that you were around when we visit in the new year."

"And… Is this..? Queen Hippolyta was alright with this?"

"I didn't forge Mother's signature, Paul. Though I did have to explain why you needed it. Themyscira hasn't had to worry about this sort of nationality identification paperwork before." She studies my face for a moment. "Are you alright with this?"

"Yes! Oh, goodness me yes. I didn't this is whaw." I shake my head and chuckle. "I'd be delighted to become a citizen of Themyscira. This should be a very interesting experience. Um, I suppose I should…" Two small packages appear from subspace. One is an ovoid wrapped in paper decorated with kittens playing with string. The other is a flattened cuboid wrapped in shiny black paper decorated with gold stars.

She looks at both of them before reaching for the ovoid. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Probably. We added a clip at the back so you can attach it to your belt."

She gently unsticks the sellotape at the top before reaching in and taking out the Spell Eater. "Exactly how effective are they?"

"Its predecessor let me tank shots from Klarion. That one's a lot more effective." I point at the other package. "The other one's more personal."

She opens it with the same care and smiles as she sees the book inside. "I hadn't got around to reading this."

"That copy's edited by me. Only one in the world with Harriet Taylor's name on the cover."

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th December
16:35 GMT -6

"Why are we in Wisconsin?"

We're walking down Newbury Street in Ripon, south eastern Wisconsin. It's cold up here, and as I glance at Artemis she rubs her hands against her arms in an effort to keep warm. Not that I'm feeling it. "This is revenge. You see, a certain pair of archers decided that it would be amusing to program the mountain's computers to play the British National Anthem every single time I sat down. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, toilet… And it took me all day to work out how they managed to rig it so that I couldn't just erase the program with the ring."

Her pantomimed expression of complete innocence would be more believable if I hadn't just seen her smirking. "I.. don't know what makes you think it was us. Red Arrow barely talks to me."

"You may have erased the cameras and cleaned your finger prints off the data stick and the mechanism which physically removed it from the network after every upload, but fortunately for me you both left hairs at the scene. Unless there was some other reason for you getting into a tightly enclosed space with Mister Harper?"

She wrinkles her nose. "Okay, you found us out. Why isn't he here?"

"I already got him with the mole thing." Which house was it again? Ah, yes, there it is. "How come the two of you are getting on now?"

"I told him. You know, about my Dad."

"How'd he take it?"

"Actually…" She nods to herself. "Surprisingly well. I guess once he found out what was making him so suspicious it stopped bothering him. It's just.. I thought it would be this huge deal, you know? Something I'd have to cover up forever, except.. you found out and didn't care, and I told him and he didn't either."

"Thinking about telling everyone else? You'll probably feel better."

"Maybe…" She frowns. "You still haven't told me why we're here."

"Since I was such a good sport about jumping to my feet whenever the anthem played -something I don't normally do, by the way- I think you're obliged to play along with my prank."

"Dooon't think it works like that."

I glance around in the general direction of New England. "Do you feel like walking home?"

She huffs. "Doesn't this mean I'm basically pranking myself?"

"No, this prank is epic." I stop opposite a modest two storey green house. Most importantly, it lacks one of those odd personal post box things suburban American houses are usually shown having on television. "Okay, this is it. All you have to do is walk up to the front door with this-" I take a brown A4 envelope out of subspace and hold it out. "-hand it to whoever answers and wait for a response."

She stares at me for a good three seconds. "And that's it."

"That's it."

Her left eye narrows ever so slightly, but she takes the envelope from me with her right hand. Then she holds it up to her right ear and shakes it. "Sounds like paper."

"It is paper."

"And it's nothing.. y'know, illegal, is it?"

"Artemis, I wouldn't do that to you." I shake my head. "That's not fun."

Both eyes narrow, but she doesn't have any more ready excuses. Turning away from me she walks slowly up the path to the front door, I assume trying to work out where the surprise is coming from. She'll never manage it. No way. She stops right as she gets to the front step, half turns in my direction and gives me another stare. I hold my face in a picture of cherubic innocence and after a moment she shakes her head and finishes her walk to the door. I get a camera out of subspace and hold it behind my back as she takes hold of the door knocker and bangs it three times on the door before standing back to wait.

The elderly woman who opens the door is wearing blue jeans and a thick woolly jumper. Her hair's grey but I can still just see a little of its original blonde colour peaking through and a quick scan reveals her to be in basically good health. She blinks at Artemis in puzzlement. "Can I help you?"

"I'm.. supposed to give you this and then wait for a response."

A slight frown. "O..kay..?" She takes the envelope, opens the unsealed flap and takes out the first sheet of paper. She reads it for a moment then her head jerks back very slightly. She puts the sheet back into the envelope and takes out another, slightly smaller piece of paper. This too is swiftly read and returned. Then she takes out a photograph. And another. And another. She turns her head back towards the interior of the house. "Lawrence!"

"Ah… Is there some sort of problem?"

She returns her attention to Artemis, eyes slightly wide. "Didn't… Don't you know what's in here?"

Artemis turns her head back towards me and the old woman follows her gaze. I wave. "No, because someone decided it would be more fun this way."

"Then he's either very kind or very mean." A similarly aged man emerges from the interior of the house and she passes the envelope over to him. The resemblance is obvious really; he's basically an older and more weathered version of his son.

I think Artemis has spotted it too. "Look, who are you?"

The woman favours her with a gentle smile. "My name is Cynthia Crock, dear, and according to this I'm your grandmother."

Camera up! Artemis boggles for a moment and then angrily turns in my direction and points viciously with her right hand. I keep the camera pointed at her with my left, point back with my right and pantomime sniggering at her confusion. She gives me a full on scowl and then turns back to the senior Crocks. "But.. Dad always said…"

Lawrence Crock Senior's face isn't particularly expressive. There's a very slight tightening of the jaw muscle but I only notice because the ring's pointing it out. "Junior hasn't spoken to us since I made my feelings on him leaving the army for.. private work clear to him. I'd like to say I'm surprised he didn't mention us to his daughter, but that would be a lie."

Artemis puts her right hand on her forehead. "Oooh my God."

"Can I assume that you're not here as a result of him coming to his senses?"

"Oooh my God."

"Honey? Would you and your friend like to come inside? Your Uncle Warren's family are coming over later and I'm sure they'd-."

"Oh my God!"

"Young lady, compose yourself." The old man's expression still hasn't changed. He used to be a Sergeant in the US Army and apparently his son takes after him in more than just looks. I mentally mark him down as 'Sportsmaster, but less malevolent'. "This is just as much of a shock to us as it is to you."

"Ah, yeah, sorry. It's just… Whaw. I.. haven't met anyone from Dad's side of the family before."

Cynthia glances at her husband. "How is Junior?"

"He's serving about fifteen life sentences in Belle Reve."

"Oh."

"I think they're trying to make it longer, actually."

"Well… That's…" She gives up. "How is your mother?"

"Mom's good. Divorce got finalized about a month ago."

Lawrence Senior nods. "Smart woman. Junior's never going to change. He's stubborn, just like me. Only shame is none of my other virtues rubbing off."

Cynthia fishes out a recent photograph of Paula and Artemis together. "Does he have..? Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Yeah, Jade. She's… Actually, can we talk about this inside?"

"Of course we can, honey."

"Thanks." She turns around. "Paul, get over here right now!"

Good job I brought some Christmas Cake.

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th December
17:52 GMT -5

I use the ring to transfer some of the fat which has run into the bottom of the roasting tin back onto the top of the Goose without opening the oven door. A must buy accessory for any kitchen: the power ring.

"Are you sure you don't need to get the other vegetables yet?"

I nod at M'gann. "Completely, Your Highness. They're-."

She giggles. "Will you stop calling me that."

"Mmmmmmmm..? No."

"You really shouldn't."

"Feels nice though, doesn't it?"

She tosses her head. "I'm not even sure I count. I mean, I haven't inherited it…"

"No, you have. All Martians have. And once we've got a little more evidence of that fact no Martian will suffer from the ridiculous colour-based stigma again."

She looks off into the distance for a moment. "You're really planning to.. do this to everyone?"

"Maybe not everyone, that could get a bit tedious. I'm hoping that once they've had a chance to study the process Martian doctors or sorcerers will be able to replicate it." I frown. "Didn't you say something about having a White brother? I don't mind bumping him up the queue if you think it would help?"

She frowns. "He wouldn't be able to keep it secret."

"And?"

"Wouldn't that cause total chaos on Mars?"

I smirk. "Again: and?"

"No." My smile broadens. "No!" She comes a little closer and waves her right forefinger at me. "I'm serious Grayven, don't do it. We need to come up with a plan for how this is going to work."

I fan my hands. "Alright. You're the expert on Martian culture." She steps back, apparently mollified. "Soo, how have you been getting on with Match?"

"Well, the rest of his programming's fully integrated. He doesn't…" She purses her lips. "You remember how Conner snapped at me the first time I spoke to him telepathically?" I nod. "Match doesn't have that problem. Actually, he seems to find it reassuring."

"No, I meant socially." Kon and I have been debating whether or not to introduce him to Karsta. She used the hush tube to take a trip to Australia and left a note saying that she'd be back in February but it's not as if it would be difficult to track her down.

M'gann nods. "Conner's been spending a lot of time with him, but I don't mind. I can't imagine what it would be like not having brothers or sisters."

"Your boyfriend, his near identical brother…"

A slight frown, then she rolls her eyes. "Wally told you."

"It was pretty funny. I thought you were supposed to be telepathic?" I've been trying to work out how to bring up the incident where M'gann plonked herself down in the wrong brother's lap and kissed him before noticing his eyes ever since Wallace mentioned it to me. Shame I missed seeing it myself.

"I don't scan everyone all the time! And the G-Gnomes made their minds feel similar anyway!"

"It's nothing to feel embarrassed about. You're young. Curious. Passionate. And I don't know enough about Martian social customs-."

Her eyes widen. "We're monogamous! It was just a mistake!"

"And now you're thinking about it, aren't you?" Her cheeks darken very slightly. "Are you blushing?" I wave at my cheek with my right hand. "I-I can't tell anymore. Hey, maybe we could compare notes on the use of constructs and shapeshifting in intimate-."

"Stop!" Her hands go to her ears. "Stop! I'm not listening!"

"Hehehahah-!"

"Not listening to what?"

We both look around as Match and Kon walk into the kitchen from the hangar. "Nothing!" / "Oh, nothing."

Match appears to shrug it off but Kon knows us better. "Right…" His hearing's good, but that doesn't mean that he hears everything in the mountain without focusing on it. "Grayven, Diana wants to talk to you about something."

Diana, I note. Not Wonder Woman. I know his relationship with her is much better than mine is with her but it still makes me a little uneasy, trusting her with him. I know, my decision originally… "About what?"

He shrugs. "She wouldn't tell me."

That gets a frown from me. What the heck would she want to talk to me about that she wouldn't say to him? "Alright, I'll go and see what she wants. Is she still in the hangar?" He nods. "Right then. You two have fun with M'gann while I'm gone."

**!**

I feel M'gann's mental exclamation through my customary mental shields as I leave. Bit much, maybe? Oh, she's forty eight, if she can't take a little ribbing about her cradle robbing habits… Through the door and a short walk down the corridor brings me out at the top of the steps leading down to the lower floor area of the hangar where Wonder Woman's waiting for me. The left Zeta Tube is still disassembled from where I started installing the hush tube before realising -somewhat belatedly- that the base's power plant didn't generate enough power to run that and the base's other systems. Hardly an insurmountable problem were it not for the fact that replacing or adding to the existing power plant requires Batman's sign off and he's actually taking Christmas off. I suppose I can't really complain about that but it has left a bit of a mess.

I give her a shallow bow as I reach her level. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"How is the food coming?"

I shrug. "Well enough."

She looks at me for a moment as if expecting me to continue. When I don't her eyes dip for a moment and I think I hear a very faint sigh. What was she expecting?

"Grayven, I want to speak to you about something.. personal." 'Why?' is the first thought that comes into my head, but I hold my peace. "It's about Kon. And, Match as well, I suppose."

"Thank you for taking him on as well, sir. I know he's been getting a lot out of your lessons." It took a while, after Roanoke, for being polite to her not to be an effort. But.. it's Christmas. I don't even look like I'm made of stone anymore.

"I've enjoyed being their teacher as well." She risks a small smile. "When I used to think back to my own childhood I sometimes wondered how my mothers put up with me. Now, I think I can see why they found it so rewarding." She pauses. "Since you and M'gann are the people who know Kon and Match best, I wanted to ask you something before I ask them."

"You can ask. I'll answer as honestly as I can."

She nods. "I've been considering offering to adopt them."

…

"You what?"

"Adopt them. Become their mother. I think we already have an emotional bond and I'd like to take that further."

This isn't fitting in my head so I shake it in the hope that will help. "You what?"

Her expression hardens slightly. "If you disapprove then I want to hear your reasons."

This is actually happening! I'm… I'm… Don't fuck this up for him. What do I say? "When we first met, I didn't really know much about you. I had.. given your status, I had fairly high expectations, perhaps unreasonably high. For the most part you've lived up to them, aside from Roanoke-."

"Grayven-."

"This is the first time you've surpassed them. Yes. Yes, that is…" I shake my head in bewilderment. "That is the absolute best thing you could do. He'd love it. I'm not sure about Match, but…" I shake my head again. "I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't.. expecting this." I stumble back, instinctively opening a Boom Tube back to my room. "I need… I need to think about this."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th December
18:43 GMT -5

I stretch my neck to the left and then to the right. My new armour still doesn't feel quite right yet, but I'm sure I'll adapt. The additional weight and mass of the flight belt is the most noticeable change. Rather than wearing it over the top it is now fully integrated and programmed to activate automatically if the ring cuts out unexpectedly. One telepathic shock when I'm airborne would have been an unfortunate way to die, but now all that will happen is I'll fall and land softly. The other significant change is the headgear. I'm not sure I'll wear it on an actual mission but the head padding has been invaluable for this testing.

"Test number one hundred and twenty two, orange light chaff generator. You ready in there Oh El?"

I nod to Robin through the glass to the control room of the hazardous testing lab and bring my shields up. Guy decided that the Guardians' existing permissions covered him teaching me the telepathic blocking techniques he knew when he started teaching me. They're good -M'gann can just about get past them but she has to work for it and Mister King can't at all- but these chaff generators are designed to bypass them. As I understand it, it does that by generating white psychic noise rather than trying to access a precise part of the brain and that's far more difficult to stop.

"Activating in three, two, one…" He presses a button and-.

Warning: telepathic attack in progress.

My environmental shield visibly contracts as I focus my mind on my desire for mental wellbeing. I still feel… I don't know, slightly wrong, but on the first thirty nine attempts I fell over at this point.

"Looking good Oh El. Now try creating a barrier."

A simple hemisphere appears in front of me.

"One of your railguns?"

It forms, though far more slowly than I've become accustomed to. I point it at the target at the far end of the room and after a brief hum a tungsten round strikes the bull's-eye.

"Particle beam?"

The railgun shudders, collapses and reforms, sending a beam of purple after the metal slug.

"Energy pulse?"

The particle beam projector dissipates as I raise my left hand and fire off a packet of orange energy.

"Think you've got it, Oh El."

"Looks like. How many that time?"

"Seven, and Lantern Gardner said that Truggs only had one."

I nod. Fortunately for me the chaff generators are designed to shock and then burn out, not remain continuously active. We're having to burn through them in sequence to simulate a determined attack. I can build more with the ring -though it isn't exactly fast as they're bloody complicated- but manufacturing them by mundane means would be an expensive and time consuming process. I hope, anyway.

The door in the control room opens and Wallace enters. "Hey Rob, what-? Is he still hiding in there?"

I wave at him and start heading towards the exit. Quite aside from my need to protect myself from a repeat of the Gotham Curbstomp -I don't think Bane has any more fathers he doesn't know about- I'm not exactly in a hurry to meet our newest team mate. Or her mentor. Though apparently she mentored him, or something? I suppose I should be happy that we're getting a bit more notice this time, but Icon and Rocket arriving in the mountain is going to create a massively awkward moment for me.

I turn the wheel, pull the door open and step into the decontamination chamber. A moment while the inner door locks and the computer scans me. Finding nothing more hazardous than normal the outer door clunks open and I stroll out. I know from my own research that Augustus Freeman and Raquel Ervin operate out of Dakota City. I know that she's sixteen and that he's at least a hundred and thirty and that they've been active for a little over seven months. Batman had been Batman for four years when the Appellaxians invaded seven years ago. For our team that's fine as we're all in training. Seems a bit… I don't know, not all that long for someone who's joining the League. Maybe they're going to get him to prosecute the people the League arrest or something?

Wallace and Robin are already in the corridor when I leave the decontamination chamber. Wallace looks at me sceptically. "You really think it's a good idea to keep blasting your brain with those things?"

"Compared to what?"

"Didn't Thinker end up in a psych ward?"

I nod my head to the side as we start walking towards the living area where the victims of my theft are waiting. "Well, it didn't get noted down in the official files, but according to Alan? They weren't exactly gentle when they disconnected Mister DeVoe the first time. He'd wired the thing directly into his brain…" Wallace and Robin grimace. "His later versions could just be detached from the graft points, but given where it connected his behavioural changes might just have mostly resulted from the damage caused by having the wires yanked out." I make a dismissive gesture with my right hand. "Besides, unless it wrecks my brain completely the ring will fix any damage."

"Yeah, 'cause you've got such a good record with mental stability."

Robin smiles. "He just wants to put off meeting the people he stole the flight belt designs from."

"Ooh." Wallace nods. "Thought that looked familiar. Do they know you-."

"I'm not sure but I'm fairly confident they'll spot it."

Round the corner and one straight corridor to go. Don't normally come in from this direction. How do I want to handle this? Stating my case right away is probably the best approach but I don't want to be too aggressive. After all I am going to be working with Miss Ervin for at least six months. Possibly longer, depending on how the thing with the Controllers goes. What else do I know? The belt's kinetic absorption systems don't stop energy weapons so I can offer her armour if she wants it. She's physically a baseline Human so Dannering is an option. What else? Mm, frankly we could all use lessons in how to use the flight belts better and she's had far more practice than we've had. I only even tried the force field projection system once and it's... It's not a power ring. I intentionally trained myself not to point at things but the belt requires it. Presumably there's a proper military version which-.

"So you finally left the lab?"

Who's she-? Oh, Robin went in ahead of me. Right, no dithering. I walk forwards into the living area. No Icon, I notice. Red Arrow is similarly absent while M'gann and Kon are in the kitchen putting the finishing touches to dinner. Rob's been here as much as he could manage this week, more than happy to duck out of spending time with his aunts over Christmas. He, Kaldur, Rocket and Artemis are on the large settee facing the currently off television while Robin perches on one arm. Zatanna makes eye contact with me and shuffles along the settee to make room for me to sit between her and Wallace on the settee at the far side.

We're going to need another settee soon. And possibly a larger living room.

"Hey." Miss Ervin gets up and approaches me. "Orange Lantern, right?"

"Indeed I am." I extend my right hand and she gives it a quick and slightly puzzled shake. "Welcome to the team, Rocket. Now, I'm afraid that I've got something rather unfortunate I feel obliged to tell you."

"What is it?"

I pull the ring off my finger and drop it to the floor. Then I trigger the belt and rise off the floor. "A few months ago-."

"Where'd you get that!?"

"I copied yours. Actually, I copied it thirty three times and gave my team mates one each."

"You mean-" She half turns. "-all of you can do your thing and my thing together."

Kaldur looks like he might answer so I jump in ahead of him. "No. As a result of not being able to focus on it we're all much worse with it than you."

Back at me and starting to get angry. "Then why-?"

"Because it's bloody useful. Kinetic impacts -punches, knives and bullets- become a non-issue and it lets the user fly. Those are very useful abilities. Similarly, I enhanced Robin, Artemis and Kon with something called the Danner Formula, granting them enhanced strength, endurance and healing. My job -as I see it- is to ensure that my team mates are equipped as best they can be to do the job and stay alive, and if that means that one team mate doesn't get to be a special snowflake with unique equipment that no one else is allowed to use, then so be it. It is not worth one of my friends dying over."

"Oh." She thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "Yeah… Okay. That's a good point."

"Is that it? I was expecting more than that."

"No, you're right. It's just equipment. As long as everyone's playing by the same rules." She looks at Robin and Artemis. "What exactly does that Danner stuff do?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:10 GMT -5

"Sure you don't wanna come, Oh El?"

I shake my head. "Robin, it makes no difference whether I watch it on TV here or there. Unless someone actually attacks the ceremony -which is just about the dumbest thing a person could do short of invading Russia- all that's going to happen is you'll stand in the Hall's library for ten minutes and then come back."

"It's exciting for me." Rob shrugs in response to my puzzled look. "I've never been to the Hall of Justice before. I mean, the headquarters of the Justice League! How does that get boring?"

I share a slightly awkward moment with Robin and Wallace. He doesn't.. know about the Watchtower. No, I suppose.. there's no reason why he would. Robin smirks while Wallace looks around for a distraction. "And.. Zatanna's not coming either?"

"No, she's staying here."

He nods. "Guess Donna owes me ten dollars then."

I tilt my head to the side. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." I raise my eyebrows in an interrogative manner. "Hey, come on 'Cornwall Boy',-" He grabs Rob's arm and pulls him in the direction of the hangar's Zeta Tube. "-we can give you the nickel tour before they start."

"Oh, cheers mate!"

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one, Kid Flash, B zero three, Cornwall Boy, B one zero."

M'gann, Kaldur, Artemis and Kon will be accompanying their respective mentors. Roy… I don't know what he's doing. With him being an arse for most of his stay here I haven't made social enquiries, though I think the fact that he was referring to Mister Queen as 'Ollie' rather than as Green Arrow was probably a good sign. The League have a party planned for their new members up on the Watchtower after the ceremony but none of us got invited. Zatanna and I will probably use the time to help John try contacting Chantinelle again and I need to see if Miss Greaves has given Nyssa's offer any thought. I shrug and transition back to the settee opposite the television, leaning back against the cushions.

"Have they gone?"

I glance at Zatanna where she's sitting cross legged on my left. She's wearing a red cardigan with a yellow turtleneck and black leggings. "Yes. I still don't understand why. Do they think they'll get better reception there or something?"

"I don't know. I think it's nice they want to be there." She shifts around so that her legs are splayed out to her left, an action which results in her pressing against my left side. "If Dad was still on the League I'd have gone."

"It's not like they're even going to be on camera. The whole Hall is closed for the announcement. No one's going to see them."

"That's not… Oh, wait, I think they're starting."

I make an upwards gesture with my right hand and Miss Grant stops miming. "-short minutes the Justice League will start the…" She sees something out of shot and turns her head in the direction of the Hall of Justice's doors just as Kal-El pushes them open. "They're coming out now. Superman,-" He walks up to the podium and smiles at the assembled press. "-Batman,-" He exits the building and stands a little way to Kal-El's right. "-Wonder Woman,-" A slight uptick in camera flashes as she takes her place to Batman's right. Are they really going to line up in order of- "-Flash, Green Lantern,-" -yes, yes they are. They're lining up in order of designation number. "-Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Captain Atom, Black Canary, the second Green Lantern,-" Ooh, did Guy hear that? Are the news people going to try to call them all Green Lantern? Maybe Guy could go with Lantern Gardner. I mean, Jordan and John's names are secretish but his isn't. "-Red Tornado and Captain Marvel." Hm. Those last two aren't in designation order. I wonder why? "The only League member absent is Giovanni Zatara, who took a leave of absence earlier this year." Zatanna shuffles and I put my left arm around her shoulders.

"Shouldn't be for much longer."

Kal-El looks back at the door and -with the biggest shit eating grin that will physically fit plastered across his face- Guy strides out and falls into something approximating parade rest on Kal-El's left. "The first of the League's new members appears to be Baltimore native Guy Gardner, another member of the Green Lantern Corps." Guess the news crews have biographies of all the likely inductees ready to go. "The second new member is Dakota City hero Icon." Obviously no surprise there, though I still don't know who else is joining. Next through the door is-. "Red Arrow, former student of Justice League member Green Arrow. Viewers may remember him from the attack on the Rhelasian peace conference in September."

"That explains why his attitude improved so much."

"The next new member is…" She trails off as Yao Fei comes through the door. "Um."

"Ring, grab her autocue."

"Compliance."

"… Accomplished Perfect Physician, a Chinese national who has been active with China's state superhero team the Great Ten."

I wrote superfunctionary. I'll assume she didn't think the viewers would understand.

"Next out is-."

Her voice fades, replaced by a sort of buzzing. My mouth opens slightly and my eyes widen but other than that I'm paralysed by the horror of what I'm seeing as Nabu, dressed in blue and gold and Giovanni Zatara's body steps out of the Hall of Justice. Dimly I think I hear Zatanna gasp but my mind is empty. I just stare at his helmet as he takes his place in the line up.

"How..? How could they do this..?"

I think some other people are coming out after him. Miss Grant's mouth is moving. That's probably important? There's probably… There might be someone..? The camera angle changes to give a wider image and I find my eyes shifting over to Diana.

How could you? How.. how could you? Why..?

The world snaps back into focus as I hear Zatanna whimper. She shakily gets to her feet and I can see the tracks of the tears that are already running down her cheeks and I'm on my feet and putting my arms around her and resting my head on hers as she cries into my shoulder. Without the Justice League's help -and I think I have to assume that we're not getting any now- freeing Mister Zatara... I'd hoped someone else would have had new ideas, someone who knew something… No. I don't know less than I did before. I was keeping the League out of the loop anyway. "This is still winnable."

"How?"

"Come with me." I transition us to the door of my bedroom and pull away from her slightly. I'm never really sure what to say in this sort of situation but I can be practical. I pull a tissue out of my pocket and hand it to her. "The methods we've been investigating are still valid. League help-" I realise that underneath the shock I'm not feeling any doubt about the right course of action. The course of action I want to take. "-would have been nice, but it isn't essential."

She weakly blows her nose. "You think we can fight Nabu without the League?"

"Yes." I push open my door and guide her inside. "Unocclude." My lantern appears, bright as ever. "After we got back from Roanoke Island I swore my oath for the first time. Lantern Oaths are very personal things… You say what it is that makes you so committed to your cause, what that cause is. And when I did it I wasn't thinking about Klarion. I was thinking about Nabu." I hold out my left palm.

"This is my cause, this is my fight,
Shine through the void with orange light,
I've claimed all within my sight,
To keep what is mine, that is my right."

The brilliant orange beam connects my lantern to the ring and doesn't cut off. "You, are mine. Anything that hurts you is utterly unacceptable, either to me, or to the being I swore my oath to. Ophidian, show yourself."

Light pours forth from my lantern in all directions, pooling like liquid jelly in a mould in the shape of a snake. Not the colossal form she had in the mindscape when she ate Doctor Jones. Not even the fills-the-room form I vaguely remember from when we were merged. She's not much bigger than Zatanna at this point and she bends her body so that her head is slightly lower than Zatanna's so as not to give the impression of aggression.

"Zatanna."

Zatanna blinks in surprise. "Um? H-hello?"

"I agreed with my Agent's decision and wholeheartedly support this undertaking." She stretches forwards and appears to nuzzle the side of Zatanna's face. Is that an actual snake gesture or something she learned from me? "I understand 'to keep' now. You are ours. Harm to you is harm to us. I stay my fangs only through concern for your father's wellbeing. I care not for your faithless League. Any knowledge, any power you require from me is yours for the asking. Your father will be liberated."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:19 GMT -5

My smile grows as Kal-El keeps pontificating. "What complete and utter twaddle!"

Richard raises his right eyebrow. "Not a fan of truth, liberty and justice then Grayven?"

"I'm fine with justice, so-so on truth and I know too much about Human psychology to put much faith in liberty. But that's not even my point!"

The whole team's sitting in the library of the Hall of Justice. We were standing as an act of solidarity motivated by the fact that there weren't enough chairs for everyone until I got annoyed and fabricated some more. Outside on the steps three second stringers and a former sidekick with a pointy stick launcher are getting sworn in as members of the Justice League. Okay, Atom I get. Doctor Palmer is by all accounts a brilliant physicist and his ability to shrink down inside someone and inflict internal injuries at minimal risk to himself makes him horrifying to fight -unless you've got a power ring- but I'm really not clear what Mr Freeman brings to a team that already contains Kal-El and Wonder Woman or what Mister O'Brian brings to anything. And Moody Arrow? Forget about it.

"Well what is your point?"

"Okay,-" I sit back and hold up my right index finger. "-first off, the Justice League wasn't formed 'as an acknowledgement that no single person can solve the world's problems'. You know who picked the League's initial line up? The Appellaxians. The initial League members were either targeted for assassination or drawn to an ongoing attack. If the Appellaxians had come down anywhere other than the United States, would the League have come together?" I shake my head. "Probably not. And if that was the reason, why haven't they diversified their skills more? They've still only got one magic user-" I gesture to Zatanna. "-one lawyer-" At Miss Ervin. "-one physicist and a whole team of flying bricks. How can you cope with a greater range of challenges if you keep selecting the exact same characteristics? And don't even get me started on this whole the-Justice-League-can-deal-with-all-the-world's-problems nonsense."

"How is it nonsense?"

"Okay, ignore the ideology for a moment. What does the Justice League actually do?"

"The Justice League protects the world!"

"Yes. Well, no, but nearly right. The Justice League is a paramilitary organisation which protects the world from threats to the whole of the world, and from iconoclasts and lunatics -supervillains- within our society. When was the last time the League -as a whole- stopped a war? Or policed a demonstration that was in danger of becoming violent? Or -and we're getting on to the truth, liberty and justice thing now- broke someone out of prison who was wrongly convicted or was convicted of something that shouldn't be a crime. Heck, if you want culprits you only need to look at the United Nations Security Council. Britain's libel laws can easily beggar a person who has done nothing but speak the truth, the United States' entire legal system seems to run on financial exhaustion and plea bargains and that's before we get onto the really serious offenders. Tao, what do you know about Falun Gong?"

All eyes on me now. Tao gives his head a little shake. "I do not know who that is."

"Chinese spiritual movement. Started in nineteen ninety two, became a bit too popular and then got cracked down on in ninety nine. All mention eradicated from the internet -if you're in China, anyway- members arrested and imprisoned without trial, forced labour, torture, that sort of thing. No liberty, no justice and the truth is that the Justice League will never intervene. I mean, the Gobi Desert prison camp I kind of get, it's a lot cheaper to run than Belle Reve. But a bunch of people who practice exercise routines?"

"Well-."

"Another example then. Tao, who was responsible for the Tiananmen Square Massacre?"

He hesitates. "I.. was told it was the Shaolin Robots.. but, if you are asking…"

"I've seen all of the original reports. The Robots probably trampled a few people to death but the majority of fatalities were caused by the indiscriminate fire of your former team mate, Gu Lao."

"That…" He shakes his head. "No, that cannot be true. I know he is.. uncompromising-."

"He's a nutter! Colonel Fang's own report claims that he had to destroy Socialist Red Guardsman's plasma cannon himself to stop him firing. No justice; the Guardsman will never be punished. No truth; the reports are sealed and the few people who tried to speak out were 'disappeared'. Including a Red Army Lieutenant with more courage than sense who'd just seen his platoon incinerated by his alleged ally. Liberty? Only if you don't make trouble. No, the Justice League is extremely hesitant to take action against governments." I look around. "I mean, remember Vertigo?" Wallace and Richard look away. Tao looks like he really wants to say something in his country's defence but is no longer certain enough of his footing to do so.

Miss Ervin looks around the group. "Vertigo? You're not talking about the Hitchcock film, are you?"

"No, Werner Vertigo, the leader of the Injustice League who despite thousands of deaths walked out of court a free man after waving his diplomatic passport."

"I think I saw something on TV about that."

"Yes, I ran an ad campaign to try and get the people involved in that act of craven cowardice tarred and feathered. I originally wanted to go for hanged, drawn and quartered but the director negotiated me down." Only one suicide so far, but I'll keep working at it. "Fortunately, Wallace managed to get his immunity revoked so with a little luck, in a few years, once all of his avenues of appeals have been exhausted he'll finally be executed. I've already donated half a million dollars to the 'Kill Werner Vertigo' fund and that wasn't even a hundredth of their total donations."

Wallace looks a little pale. Really? Did he not realise that was going to happen? Even leaving aside the international pressure from places perfectly happy to kill him it was fricking Louisiana, the twelfth most death-friendly state in the country.

Kaldur uses the pause in my diatribe to try to assemble a counterargument. "Forcibly trying to change the policy of the Chinese government -or any government- is unlikely to produce useful results."

I nod. "I know. What I mean is: the League probably shouldn't claim these things as their highest values and then not follow through on any of them. On a practical level I understand where they're coming from. My other problem is that Kal-El seems to want to reduce all of Earth's problems to things which can be dealt with by brute force. The Justice League is exceptionally good at hitting things, fairly good at criminal investigations and a bit rubbish at, for example, environmental management or economic management. They have a space station but when was the last time anyone sent an Earth built spacecraft to another planetoid?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "That is not the Justice League's role."

"Quite true. So, if Kal-El was being honest what he'd have said would be something along the lines of… I don't know… 'The Justice League was formed in the aftermath of the Appellaxian attack because that made us painfully aware that some problems couldn't be dealt with by just simply punching them in the face. No, sometimes you need to punch them several times, maybe even from different directions. Even though we won't tell you our real names we're all big fans of truth here, and even though until recently we were all vigilantes we're admirers of justice as well. Investigation and arrest anyway, we don't really care what happens next. I mean, remember Count Vertigo? Liberty's great, along with little league baseball, puppies, kittens and apple pie. Just don't expect us to actually intervene to protect your right to it, because the Illuminati wouldn't like it and that's far more important. So let's have a big hand for Righteous Face Punchers seventeen through twenty. Hooray!'"

Painful silence. Miss Ervin in particular looks rather shocked. "Are you sure you're not a supervillain?"

I sigh and shake my head. "If I were a supervillain it wouldn't bother me so much."

"Well… Icon and me did search and rescue. We didn't punch anyone in the face for that."

"Search and rescue. That must be why you've mass produced copies of your belt and handed them out to Dakota City's emergency services."

"I don't see you producing power rings!"

"I can't. Quite aside from the fact that orange rings have a tendency to drive people mad, making them is an incredibly involved and time consuming process. I have, however, reproduced Apokoliptian armour and weaponry and offered to make any baseline Human whom I trust a god, a list that includes all of my team mates and the entire Justice League. I could equip others but I don't want to risk such powerful technology falling into the wrong hands, by which I mean not only supervillains but also national militaries. There are Fire Pits where people used Apokoliptian technology unwisely."

"Diana does charity work. Lots of it, actually."

"Yes Kon, she certainly does. And Batman funds education scholarships and the Atom is an inspiring physics teacher and Icon takes any number of court cases pro bono and.. so on. In their private lives they are actually quite creative in finding other causes to champion. But they don't do any of that through the League."

Richard's phone goes off and Wallace breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:29 GMT -5

"I probably look awful."

I lay my right hand on top of Zatanna's where they rest on the kitchen table. I transferred us back here after the Ophidian decided that Zatanna was as reassured as she was going to get by a giant glowing orange snake and vanished back into my lantern. "It's not that… I can.. um, fix that? If you want?"

She looks up a little and gives me a slight nod. I don't know makeup but I know what she normally looks like so a quick splash of orange is all it takes to tidy her up. "Thanks." She takes a deep breath in and then out. "So.. what.. do we do now?"

"Anything we tell the Justice League might get back to Nabu. Anything we tell our team mates.. might get back to their mentors."

"But we're going after Klarion, aren't we? Kilderkin said he'd make Nabu let my dad go if we.. if we…"

"Killed him, yes." I take a moment to think back on the conversation. Having eidetic memory is a massive boon. "I'm not sure a Manifestation of Order can lie but.. that isn't what he said. He just said that he'd be 'more amenable to negotiation'. If we don't have a firm offer I wouldn't want to-. Oh that complete shit!"

Zatanna looks up fully. "What?"

"'I believe that you have incorrectly predicted the actions of your superiors'! He knew, he bloody knew! He knew the League were going to-." I clamp down on my growing anger. That isn't helping Zatanna.

"Do you know.. why the League..?"

"I can only assume it's because they want to keep him where they can see him." I exhale heavily. "At least I hope that's what it is. Have.. you and John had any luck contacting-."

She shakes her head. "He thinks she's avoiding him. He says he doesn't know why, but…" She shrugs.

I shake my head. "I don't think he'd lie to you. Not about this." I lean forwards a little. "Okay, so the Sword's out. I've already got Sephtian's magic suppression manacles. They've tested their copy on Wotan and it held up, but he's far less powerful than Klarion. John said that the Lord of Chaos he knows doesn't spend any time on Earth and I think he'd rather get the wrong idea if we asked if he minded us chaining him up."

"And even if we chained Nabu up there's no guarantee he'd be willing to leave Dad."

"True, but I think binding him and dumping him somewhere out of the way would make him far more amenable to-." I pause as I hear the noise of the zeta tube activating. "They're back. Ugh, super hearing. We need to talk about something else."

"Um… Could we.. go back to the Eden Project in the summer? It was nice but I don't think we really saw it at its best."

"Yeah, no problem. I'm happy to take you wherever you want to go, you know that. Heck, we're not limited to Earth. If you ever want to see the bits of the moon I haven't-."

There's a rush of displaced air behind us and we both look round to see Wallace come to a stop. "Hey guys. Catch much of the ceremony?"

I remove my hand from Zatanna's then shake my head and shrug. "Kind of.. stopped paying attention once I saw who was getting inducted."

Zatanna nods. "Me too. I mean, that's the important bit."

Wallace grins. "Suuure is. Plenty of better things to be doing than watching some old ceremony. Oh, ah, Rob's got a lead on Onyx…" He pauses and rubs his chin with his right hand. "Rob as in Robin, not Rob as in Robert. Cornwall. Y'know. We were gonna head out, but if you two're busy..?"

Zatanna and I stand and my armour appears in a pulse of orange light. Zatanna points both hands at her chest. "Romra tcetorp em." Dust -which I know our kitchen doesn't contain- swirls around her as her armour appears. It now incorporates the flight belt in the same way mine does. She's even been down to the West Side Pistol and Rifle Range with me a couple of times, enough that I decided to risk Batman glaring at me and include a revolver. It's a bit smaller than mine to compensate for her smaller size and reduced strength and she has to load the bullets the normal way.

"Are we taking the Bio-Ship?"

"Yeah, the plane she was on crashed-" We transition to the landing pad. "-in the middle of no.. where... Little warning, Oh El?"

"Sorry. Go on."

"Rob..bin had some kinda hack going on airport security cameras. He got an alert when Onyx got on a plane at some airport in North Carolina. She was carrying the same package as she had in New Orleans."

"Was he really hacking security cameras in every airport in the country?"

He nods. "Guy's an over-achiever. Comes of spending too much time with Batman. Her plane went down in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so that's where we're headed."

Ring? Images of snow covered mountains and evergreens flash through my mind. "I can't see the plane, but I can see what looks like an impact crater and some loose debris."

"They got unscryable planes now?"

"Planes that are immune to the ring's basic scans, anyway."

Wallace nods and then turns to walk up the Bio-Ship's boarding ramp. "Might as well get on board. Everyone except M'gann and Artemis needed to make a trip to the armory."

Zatanna looks at me. "Has Artemis actually let go of that bow since you gave it to her?"

"It's a very nice bow. After you?"

I follow her inside. All Io wanted in return was some metal samples and information on modern metallurgy. A bit like Sephtian, actually. I'll have to make a point of talking to her when we visit next month. Now I know we're not going to be getting Justice League resources every contact I can make is doubly valuable. I can't remember anything at all about her from the comics but it shouldn't be too hard to build some sort of improved forge for her.

Artemis looks up as I come in. She's still in the civilian garb she wore to the ceremony. I raise my eyebrows and lift my left hand slightly in her direction. She inclines her head slightly and an orange pulse replaces her clothes with her armour and the spare quiver I keep for her. "Thanks." She pulls out a glue arrow and experiments with her new bow's draw. The bow itself looks like a short bow. Certainly it's smaller than what she's used to and it wouldn't work as an ersatz staff like her old one. Not that she'd really need it to at her current strength level. Maybe I could get her some sort of melee weapon for her birthday? The bow's made largely of metal, though I think the magic involved in its creation is throwing off the ring's attempts to scan it. It can't actually be made of lead, silver and titanium, can it? I mean, where would Io even get titanium? I recognise a couple of the symbols picked out in gold thread on the outside but a number of the others are new to me. I'll have to show them to Sephtian during my next visit.

I take a seat on the left side of the ship while Zatanna takes a quick look around. "Oib-Pihs, esaelp ekam a taes txen ot Egnaro Nretnal." Another chair rises from the floor next to mine and she sits down, flashing me a smile. Um, Bio-Ship please… Oh, heh.

M'gann looks around from the pilot's seat, a sly grin on her face. "Anything 'interesting' happen while we were gone?"

"No, not really." / "No."

Zatanna and I look at each other for a moment.

"Oh really? Then why can't I hear what you're thinking?"

Because I can't let what we're planning get back to Mister J'onzz. "Well, I'm practising telepathic defences. I need to keep it up pretty much all the time for it to be effective and I'm.. used to not…" Bit of a departure for me, that. Usually I quite like her listening in on my surface thoughts, a reassuring presence on the edge of my awareness. I'm going to have to stop that completely now. "I'll drop it when the mission starts."

Artemis looks up at me, then at Zatanna, then rolls her eyes and returns her attention to her bow.

What?

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:38 GMT -5

"...with Green Arrow and I haven't had any problems with it."

"I worked out that you liked it from the way you haven't put it down once."

"That's..!" She looks aside and thinks for a moment. "Not.. true…"

Wallace nods. "Totally is."

Zatanna nods as well. "You've been carrying it every time I've seen you."

Artemis looks to the pilot's station to make a final appeal. "M'gann..?" M'gann thinks for a moment, then nods. "Ugh."

"I'll let Io know when I see her."

Artemis runs her right hand over the upper arm of the bow. "Do you think..? I know Kon meeting his people for the first time's a big deal and all, but I'd kinda like to say 'thank you' myself. Do you think I could.. y'know.. visit Themyscira some time?"

"I'll ask, but I don't know if I'm allowed to bring guests. Um, if I can.. I should probably warn you-."

I hear Kon's metallic footsteps on the hangar floor before the rest of our team walk up the Bio-Ship's steps. Kon and Kaldur are both in full armour and Kaldur's brought the Trident as well as his Water-Bearers. Robin's wearing his standard equipment and Rob has the Sword of Beowulf strapped to his back. Miss Ervin enters last, fidgeting as she tries to get her new body armour comfortable.

"Warn me what?"

Huh. With Roy getting upped this is the full team, and this will be the first time we've all been on a mission together. M'gann has the Bio-Ship ooze a few more seats for our extra complement.

"Um, you know how.. there aren't any men on Themyscira?"

"What?" She smirks. "You think you're gunna be too busy to show me around?"

"No, but, um… You might be. Their society's… Homonormative?"

Wallace blinks. "Their society's what?"

Robin grins. "Homonormative, KF. It means they, ah, 'enjoy the company of other women'."

Artemis just about manages to control her expression but can't stop her right hand leaving the bow to partially cover her blush.

"There's a bit more to it than that… But basically, yes. A quick in and out's fine-" Robin bites his lip. "-but if you want to look around… They don't see many blondes… I'm going to stop talking now."

Miss Ervin looks around. "Why are we still on the ground? We want to get there today, don't we?"

Kaldur takes a moment to check that I'm not going to answer before responding. "Orange Lantern is able to use his ring to convey the Bio-Ship to our destination almost immediately. As such, the normal need to get into the air as swiftly as possible does not exist. It is more important that everyone is fully briefed."

Robin plugs his personal computer into the Bio-Ship and we get an image of a lightly disguised Onyx Adams, wearing loose fitting black and white clothing and a truly awful wig of black curly hair. Either that or she's had access to some sort of mad science hair restorer; she was bald when the others fought her in New Orleans. She's carrying a heavy looking grey briefcase and walks up a set of moveable steps onto a medium-sized aircraft before pausing at the top to look around. Curiously I don't see any other passengers and the plane looks a bit big for a single person flight, even if someone was willing to pay for luxury travel. "This is the security footage from the Asheville Regional Airport." The image freezes as Robin taps another button and a mug shot appears next to it for comparison.

Kon nods. "Looks like her to me."

Kaldur leans forwards slightly in his seat. "Agreed. But focus on what she carries." The focus of the still image drifts down, magnifying the briefcase. It isn't just heavy, it's made of metal and looks like something that might at the touch of a button turn into a ground to air missile launcher. Or a robot. There's a yellow biohazard symbol on the bottom left corner and some sort of glowing blue light in the centre. Kaldur looks at Wallace, Robin and Rob in turn. "Is that the briefcase you saw in New Orleans? The one that got away."

Wallace nods while Rob is less committal. "It looks the same, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the same one."

Robin tilts his head to the side. "Occam's Razor says 'probably'. And Onyx is wanted by US and Taiwanese police."

Miss Ervin looks at the image on the screen and then at the rest of us. "How dangerous is this Onyx girl?"

"Baseline Human with intense martial arts training. So far, primitive weapons only. I'd bet on any of us against her one on one. All of us together would be embarrassingly one sided." I look at Robin. "Where was the plane heading?"

"It was supposedly going to Gotham City, but the Watchtower's tracking showed it heading over the Smoky Mountains, too low to be picked up by radar."

Rob shakes his head. "Can't believe no one told me the Justice League had a space station."

Miss Ervin isn't quite up to speed yet. "What's so important about that case?"

Robin changes the picture of Onyx for one taken from the Injustice League's initial public announcement. "Remember the Injustice League?"

"And their giant evil plants? Uh, yeah?"

Kaldur sits back a little. "The team and the League put them in prison."

"Except Vertigo, who walked, Theodore Adam, whose soul got eaten and-" I look to Robin for confirmation. "-didn't Isley get transferred to a normal psychiatric institution after Swamp Thing yanked her powers?"

He nods. "She's doing well, actually. In a.. catatonic sort of way."

Miss Ervine looks a little unnerved. "His soul got eaten? I thought Black Adam was a good guy now?"

"Different person, same power set. And please don't call him Black Adam, he really doesn't like it."

"Since then-" Kaldur decides to interject to keep us on topic. "-evidence has come to light that they may have been acting in concert with others. And whatever is in that containment case seems to be important to their plans."

"We had a chance to grab it in New Orleans, but Oh El's friend Nylor Truggs had been busy arming Bane and his thugs with next gen weaponry."

I glare at Wallace. "Really, not my friend."

Kaldur bows his head slightly. "By the time we had fought our way free of Bane, Onyx had already rendezvoused with Doctor Ivo, the Brain and Klarion."

Wallace raises his right index finger. "And Mon-sieur Mal-lah." That's.. the worst attempt at a French accent I've ever heard. "Can't forget the Gorilla with the machine gun."

Rob nods. "Klarion did something to teleport the lot of them away. I didn't think we'd see them again."

Ring, grab a satellite and show me the plane's current location.

Compliance.

Aah. "Interesting news. I've found the plane." I send a filament to connect to the Bio-Ship's screen and put up the image. "Looks like the plane's crashed. In a canyon. Miles from anywhere. And yet doesn't appear to have suffered that much structural damage, isn't on fire and I can't see any bodies."

Robin smiles. "Someone knows we're watching."

Artemis looks the lay of the land over as I switch in a relief map. "And they're trying to ambush us. I think they're in for a surprise."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:38 GMT -5

Cold air blows in through the boom tube as we look out at the crash site from the comfort of the League's library. Match takes a step forwards only for Kon to put a restraining hand on his arm. Match gives him an interrogative frown and Kon shakes his head. I scan the wreck. The lack of bodies or burning material is suspicious, but not nearly as suspicious as the cuboid inside the intact section of fuselage that I can't scan. I know full well that there are ways to interfere with the ring's scans -the basic ones anyway- but I've never encountered one in a mission critical situation before.

Kaldur look at me. "Are either Cheshire or the case on board?"

"Not that I can see from here. There's an area inside the wreck which the ring can't scan. If she survived-" And I'm not worried about that. "-I doubt that she'd have stayed on board. The weather isn't going to get any better." Hint hint. I may be confident that Jade has survived but I'm less confident that she isn't injured. I've already armed, armoured and goggled everyone except Kaldur and Tao, who both use arcane weapons I can't easily store. They had to nip back to the mountain's armoury via boom tube and, yes, a briefing was useful for those of us who skipped the New Orleans mission but we've been ready to go for a good five minutes now.

He nods. Looks like he agrees. "Superboy, Match, Rocket, Miss Martian. Take up position over the crash site." Match is through the tube first, closely followed by the other three. "Grayven, Robin, Zatanna, investigate the wreck. Kid Flash and Celestial Archer-" His name really doesn't abbreviate well. "-stand guard at the cockpit. Artemis, you and I will take the tail end." Wallace speeds through first, with Tao just behind him already putting arrow to string. Kaldur draws his Water Bearers and takes a steadier pace through the tube, constantly scanning his surroundings. One ranged fighter and one melee fighter at each location with a criminologist, xenotechnologist and magician doing the investigating. Sometimes I wonder why I take orders from a sixteen year old youth. Most of the time it works like it did just now: I get told to do what I'd have done anyway and everyone else gets told to do what I'd have told them to do, and this way I don't have to argue with them to get them to do it.

Richard heads through after Artemis but Zatanna waits for me. I bow slightly and hold my right arm in the direction of the tube. "Ladies first."

She shakes her head with a smile and goes through at a jog. I'm glad our relationship is back to normal, or at least how I thought it normally was. Once she got over the embarrassment of her initial mistake it was easy enough to talk matters through with her and she was completely on board with idea that a fourteen year old having that sort of relationship with a thirty year old was completely inappropriate. If she'd kept some sort of torch going for me things might have got awkward but thankfully that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

I stroll through the tube into the cold Smoky Mountain air and start towards the gaping hole in the right side of the fuselage, snow crunching softly under my feet. Still a little curious as to where Jade's got to. We've been out of touch since the New Orleans thing and I'm missing her. I'm not worried, though. She's a big girl and is perfectly capable of looking out for herself, though I'll admit that I'd have appreciated some notice that Ra's was putting her back on active duty. Couldn't see her when I scanned the surrounding area but I wasn't really going all out in case I needed to cover for her with my team mates.

Zatanna and Richard are already inside the plane as I gently pull myself through the hole. I'm a little concerned about the wreck being able to take my weight but it seems to be stable enough. Richard's crouching next to what appears to be a large metal box, playing with his computer. The box is easily a metre and a half on each side. He looks around as he hears me. "Look familiar, Grayven?"

Yes, it rather does. The material appears to match that of the armour I've made for us, glowing segments aside. And now that I look closer I can see that what I had assumed to be imperfections in the surface instead follow distinctively Apokoliptian patterns. There were a few of this style in Bialya with The Lump. I nod. "Queen Beatrice, do you think? It's quite possible that she decided to ignore my warnings, even after she saw how bad things could go. Or Intergang?"

"Haven't been handing out Apokoliptian tech to anyone yourself?"

"Aside from my team mates, no." I take a step towards it and hold out my right arm. "Father Box should be able to open it."

"What if it came from Darkseid?"

I lower my arm. "Then we should hurl it from this star system and pray that it never returns."

Zatanna's eyes blaze with golden light. "Neila xob, llet em ruoy sterces!"

The three overlapping ovals which make the triquetra appear in the air in front of her in the same glowing gold as Nabu's ankh used to. I think I'd find her actually using the ankh a bit disturbing. Not sure how I feel about her getting into order magic. Obviously that's what Nabu and Mister Zatara are best placed to teach but I can't help but worry that perhaps Nabu's colleagues might not be best pleased with me.

Richard looks at her. "Got something?"

Her eyes stay glowing as she takes a closer look. "It's not trapped. The case is inside, as is Cheshire." Interesting. "And.. one other person. It was brought here by boom tube." The symbol fades and so does the light in her eyes. "I couldn't see anything more than that."

"If it's not trapped…" **Kaldur, we have located Cheshire and the case. They are held within a storage unit of Apokoliptian design. We can open it here or move it somewhere else first.**

**This location is free of civilians, and she may need medical attention. Open it, but be on your guard.**

I shrug and cover myself in construct armour. I doubt that Jade would do anything silly in a situation like this but whoever else is in there might have an attack of the stupids. I'll just have to arrange for her to escape later.

"Stirips fo Redro, sselb ym romra." Zatanna's Apokoliptian derived armour glows in the same gold as her spellcraft, with the same order symbol becoming the focal point of the Tron lines. Her spiritual force isn't much less than mine now. It could just be a reaction to her magic use but I've got a sneaking suspicion that she's done everything she can to increase the growth of her divine attributes without directly disobeying my instructions or frightening her father. I'll have to find out whether or not she can hear the God Speech later.

Richard stands up. He looks at us and we look at him. "What?"

"Are you sure you wouldn't feel better with Apokoliptian armour? If you prefer it I can make a lightweight version without the hard plates?"

"Hey, Zatanna said there wasn't a trap."

I shrug. "Your funeral." I step forwards and place my hand on the crate's surface. "Father Box, open sesame."

"Ploong."

The crate shudders and then the top surface slides back. A slight pause and then the four sides slide down in segments with the top folding down on the far side, revealing…

Richard tilts his head to the side. "Riddler?"

The two of them are bound back to back in a kneeling position, facing away from each other with the case next to them. Their forearms are tied behind their backs and their ankles are both tied together and to each other's necks. Even if they had somewhere to go standing up would choke the other party. They're both bruised but have no serious injuries. There is what looks like an Apokoliptian sensory deprivation helmet over each of their heads so they can't see or hear us but they can clearly feel the change in the texture of the air around them. The same helmet also covers their mouths but I think Mister Nigma is trying to whimper something through his. Jade is remaining completely still. Reminds me a little of that one time we… No. Stay focused.

"That sure looks like the case."

I attach a filament and float it up to me. "Yes. Something rather curious inside, though." I create a shield around it before opening it up. On some sort of black packing material there are nineteen red.. thingies. T shaped with a fattened junction. Father Box identifies them as techno-organic but they aren't Apokoliptian. Biological elements matching.. Star Conquerors? Starro? I haven't seen any report of those things having been on Earth.

"Laever rieht esoprup." Zatanna's eyes glow for a moment and she staggers backwards. I reach out to steady her but she brushes me off. "They're mind control technology, part biology, part technology and part sorcery. And they're also a-"

BOOM!

Her head jerks around. "-distraction."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

We look out of the hole in the fuselage as more boom tubes open in the air above us. I get a glimpse of the Apokoliptian skyline before Parademons start flying through. They're far more muscular than a normal Human, but not the humanoid beasts they were shown as being in Superman Animated so that the writers could have Superman kill them without it being 'proper' killing. Sentient but not sapient; constant exposure to the Anti-Life Equation during their maturation process means that they simply aren't capable of the sort of mental flexibility that a normal person is. They are created as living weapons, killing machines that exist to inflict death and terror. Which means that if they haven't attacked immediately, someone bigger than them must have told them not to.

They land along the top of the small canyon and some half heartedly aim their blasters at us. They might fire once or twice before getting into melee range but if they got a hit even Kon or Match would feel it. The baselines Humans amongst us would just be vaporised. Keeping an eye on them I slowly leave the plane and walk over to Kaldur, the case in my right hand.

His eyes flick to me for a moment. "What are they?"

"You remember that I listed the weapons of Apokolips I didn't think they'd give Queen Bee?" He nods. "Those are Parademons. Think of them as well trained flying attack monkeys."

Hot on their heels come two flights of four Aero-Troopers, elite among the more mundane soldiers of Darkseid's armies. Born as Lowlies and hardened by their experiences in Granny Goodness' training centres they'll have fought their way up the ranks of Steppenwolf's army in order to wear that uniform. They'll have the sense to keep their distance and wear us down.

"Aero-Troopers. Fast, manoeuvrable and intelligent. Far more dangerous."

BOOM!

A new boom tube opens up at ground level and two hulking red-skinned Gravi-Guard stride through.

"Gravi-Guard. They can alter gravity around them but their range is only a few metres. Extremely dangerous, but what really worries me is whoever's in charge of-."

BOOM!

Parademons shrink back from the latest portal, far larger than the rest. Behind me I hear Richard and Zatanna come out onto the snow but my eyes remain transfixed on the colossal figure in dark purple armour who strides forth.

Oh dear.

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:43 GMT -5

My goodness me he's huge. His proportions are correct for a normal man but if I include the helmet he appears to have stolen from Galactus he's about twelve metres tall. Rather than the black and grey palette I usually work with his armour is purple with red reinforcements and decoration. His spear is even taller than he is and I know from Father Box that it doesn't merely serve as a melee weapon. In addition to that he can use it to fire energy blasts and open boom tubes. No Father Box in evidence… Am I seriously thinking about that?

**Who is that?**

**That, Aqualad, is Devilance the Pursuer, Apokoliptian God of the Hunt. An elite warrior, and one of two people Darkseid sics on those who've antagonised him.**

**Do you know why he is here?**

**No. If Darkseid's angry he doesn't wait for months, not when he knows where the target of his wrath is.** Devilance comes to the edge of the ridge and looks down at us. **Do you have any objection to me handling this?**

**You know more of Apokolips than I do. Do you believe this can be resolved peacefully?**

**Seems unlikely, but I'll give it a go.** What would give the right impression to these people? I hold up my right hand, palm forwards. **Everyone, back off a little.** The fliers move inwards to hover over the wreck while our archers lower their bows. I fold my arms behind my back and make my eyes shine. Now, on the off-chance they don't know I have a power ring, lift. A tiny construct appears beneath the soles of my feet and the base of the case, lifting us upwards. I gaze into Devilance's eyes with what I hope is lazy contempt. "Ah, Devilance the Peruser. Finally finished polishing your spear, I see. What do you want?" "These are my lands. Hunt elsewhere."

There's a booming sound as he rests the butt of his spear on the ground. "Hail Prince Grayven, God of Conquest and son of Darkseid. I bear a message from your father." "My master bids me hunt here. I am obedient to his commands."

He sounds a bit like the guy who played Heimdall in the Thor films. His normal voice anyway, trying to find a spoken word equivalent to a god-voice is… Just impossible. "You may speak." "What does Darkseid want?"

He raises his spear in his right hand and aims the point in my direction. "Twice you have vexed his purpose on this world. Twice you have defeated his agents and worse, placed your own mark upon his most favoured servant." "To test your worth."

"I overstepped the mark with Desaad. I appreciate that. Please, pass on my apology." "To what end?"

"Your apology is empty and insufficient. A more physical chastisement is due, both to you and to your entourage." "Should you be victorious, my master will acknowledge you as this world's suzerain and his vassal."

Ooooh. That's not too shabby, though I'm a little surprised that I've fooled Darkseid of all people. Maybe he hasn't bothered looking at me too closely? Or maybe he took a quick look at Kalibak and decided that I was close enough? No more New God tech turning up in the hands of supervillains. I turn away from him, taking in the rest of his force. Thirty two, not counting Devilance himself. Could we take them? I beat the Forever Children easily enough but this is a veteran warrior, to say nothing of the fire the Parademons can throw out. One or more of my friends could die here. I keep turning until I face him once more. "And if we simply escape your trap?" "And if I don't care for my father's opinion?"

The corners of his lips turn upwards in a narrow smile. He holds out his left hand, palm upwards. The area in the centre shimmers for a moment and then a large black egg shaped object appears. Around the pointed end are oval patches where the surface has been cut away, letting the brilliant orange-white light from the interior mechanisms shine out. A Hellspore. One on its own probably wouldn't destroy the planet but the tectonic activity and nuclear winter would cause catastrophic damage to Human civilisation. I nod. First things first then. I take hold of the case and fire a faux Omega Beam from my eyes to drop it into subspace. His smile disappears. "Were they important?" "I'll need a moment to confer with my retinue."

"They mattered to the mortal queen of Bialya. To me they are simply a lure." "Of course."

I nod and turn away before floating back down to where the others have gathered around Kaldur. "We may have a slight problem."

Artemis glares at me. "Really?!"

Wallace looks confused. "Wait, so are you really Grayven, or is it just-?"

I hold out a hand to silence him. "Do not doubt for a second that I am. It is the only reason we have a degree of accommodation rather than simply being annihilated."

He blinks and then nods in understanding. "Right."

Kaldur frowns. "I am not clear from your conversation why they have not destroyed us anyway."

Zatanna's eyes pass over the group. "Didn't you hear him? Devilance said that Darkseid wants him to prove his worth."

Richard shakes his head. "No, he didn't."

I nod. "He did." Richard raises an eyebrow. "When two New Gods talk, there is the speech component and another.. level of communication as their fundamental natures interact. I've been able to use it for a while and apparently Zatanna can as well."

Tao nods. "I also heard it. A strange experience."

"Short version for the rest of you, if we beat them no more Apokoliptians will come to Earth without my permission. No more super advanced technology in the hands of our enemies. If we leave, he'll detonate that Hellspore."

Kon's eyes widen slightly. "Weren't they the bombs you said could-?"

"Blast a hole down to the mantle, yes."

Kaldur's eyes dip for a moment. "We must fight, then. Can you tell us anything further about their abilities?"

"The guns are energy weapons." Miss Ervin gets a bit more nervous. "I would advise against blocking their shots and don't even think about trying to tank them. If you close the range they'll probably stop firing at you. Don't stand your ground. Movement is your friend, getting pinned in place is not. I'll try and provide cover but I haven't tested my shields against a sustained bombardment yet. I don't know the full extent of Devilance's abilities but I intend to engage him myself."

Match shrugs. "We can take 'em."

"I think you're right. I just want all of you with me to enjoy the spoils of victory." I take a deep breath. "If any of you who have not been Awakened wish to undergo the process now is an excellent time to speak up." Richard evades my eyes, shaking his head. After a moment's hesitation Wallace and Kaldur both nod. I reach out and tap each of them on the forehead. "I don't know how much it will help but it certainly won't hurt."

"Aaawa-kened what?" Miss Ervin looks around as if she has no idea what just happened. Which she probably doesn't. I hadn't got around to talking to her about it yet.

"Spiritual augmentation. Improving your theoretical peak capacities. If you're interested no one who's gone through the process has reported any adverse side effects but it really only produces rapid effects when combined with magic use."

"I think I'll pass."

"Very well. One other matter: I think it would be worth seeking Cheshire's assistance." Not a popular idea, I can see it in their faces. Even Artemis doesn't look entirely happy with the idea. "She has useful skills and they'll kill her just as readily as us. At worst she can provide a distraction." Do the Apokoliptians know that she's mine? It wouldn't be hard for them to find out but I doubt they'd care enough to bother.

Kaldur's eyes drop as he considers it. "And if she escapes?"

"Then she escapes. Where's she going to go out here? What's more dangerous, one young woman armed with swords or a Hellspore?"

He considers a moment longer and then nods. "What of the Riddler?"

I scoff. "What's he going to do in a fight?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th December
09:46 GMT -5

Kaldur looks at me again. "Have you found anything?"

I stare down through the Bio-Ship's hull to the crash site. "Nothing on standard scans. Ultrasound scans of the ground showed a rather large explosive buried under the wreck. I've taken the liberty of disarming it."

"And the case?"

I shake my head. "I can't see it. Honestly, if I hadn't checked myself I'd guess this was a distraction and the real plane was somewhere else."

Robin rubs his chin with his right hand. "There's gotta be something else going on."

"Laever ruo neddih seimene!"

Miss Ervin's head jerks back. "What'd she say?"

Ah… "Reveal our hidden enemies." I raise my eyebrows at her. "Get anything?"

She slowly shakes her head. "There's.. something… Some things deep under the ground. I can't get a clear reading on them. Either they're warded or.. they're just not very hostile."

M'gann's eyes dim "I can't hear any thoughts. I.. think it's really clear."

Kaldur nods. "Orange Lantern, transfer Superboy and Rocket one kilometer away from the crash site. The three of you will approach by air." I nod as Kon and Miss Ervin climb to their feet. "This incident is 'suspicious', to put it mildly. Treat the whole area as highly dangerous." He puts his right hand on my left shoulder. "A repeat of what happened in Gotham would be most unfortunate. Leave your telepathic shields up." M'gann gives him a worried look. "We will simply have to compensate."

I nod and the three of us walk to the area just behind the pilot station where M'gann has opened a small hole for my filaments. Miss Ervin looks at Kon then at me. "So what does this 'transfer' thing-"

Transition.

"-feel li-ke." She looks around as we float in the air over the mountainside. "Oh."

Kon shrugs. "It doesn't really feel like anything. Used to, though. There was this one time in Bialya-."

"Thank you Superboy. Shall we?" I start flying in the direction of the wreck at running pace. Rather than risk giving away the Bio-Ship's location I actually made the filament look like it came from New York. It was a simple matter of using my ultra-fine one during our exit and firing a slightly thicker one off as we reappeared. The small stone which made the journey is even now sitting in the Themysciran Embassy's inner courtyard. Not perfect but the best I can do… Or..? No. Zeta tubing us back and transitioning us here wouldn't have been better. Zeta tubes are even easier to detect.

Kon and Miss Ervin keep pace easily enough. Kon used to try copying my upright flying posture but just found it too counterintuitive. Diana had a similar problem the one time I was able to persuade her to give it a go. Miss Ervin's giving me a funny look. "You really fly like that?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? Don't you find that the swimmer pose strains your neck?"

"Not really." We crest the ridge and start the descent towards the wreck. "What did Aqualad mean about a 'repeat of Gotham'?"

I idly rub the signet with my left thumb. "I got taken down by a telepathic weapon and a.. person called Nylor Truggs made off with this ring. How are you-?" Their eyes unfocus slightly for a moment.

I raise my eyebrows. Kon notices first. "Ah, sorry. M'gann just linked us in."

"Right." We move into a triangular formation over the plane with me taking the far point. Need to talk to Mister J'onzz and Mister King, see if there's a way to improve telepathic network security. Getting excluded on a regular basis is going to get really grating.

I strobe filaments around the area of the crash site. There probably are forms of invisibility I can't detect but if there are invisible targets here they're phased as well. Empathic vision.. still shows nothing. I shake my head. "There's nothing unusual here."

Silence from the other two for a moment, then Kon turns to me. "Aqualad wants us to land." I generate construct forms of each member of the team and lower them to the ground before having them jump up and down a couple of times. Kon just shrugs. "Can't hurt to make sure."

"Alright."

I drop the constructs and start to lower myself but Kon lunges forwards and puts his right hand on my left arm. "Let me go first."

I look at him for a moment, then shrug. Not sure why it matters, but if it makes him happy… "Oh-kay?"

He nods and descends to ground level. Construct armour? No, don't see the point. There's nothing here and he might see it as me being over protective. He lands just next to what's left of the cockpit. It's bent downwards into the ground and there's a large hole on the right hand side of the fuselage. Not sure what caused it. The rim of the hole is flat rather than being bent inwards or outwards in the way I'd expect from an explosion. The edge is too ragged to have been cut. Broken on impact? Torn open by super strength? Not sure. In any case Kon's intrusion doesn't appear to have offended our nonexistent observers.

"Aah, Orange Lantern?" I look at Miss Ervin. "Aqualad says they're coming down. He wants us to stay airborne."

"Right." I look up as the underside of the Bio-Ship opens and our team mates drop down to the ground, slowed to safe velocities by M'gann's telekinesis. They touch down next to the engine on the left side. Miss Ervin follows me as I drift upwards. If Onyx was on this plane -let's assume she was flying it herself- and she survived the crash, where would she go? I'm sure that the League of Shadows teaches wilderness survival and she'd almost certainly have had a map to hand. Atlanta's too far for her to have reached yet and I doubt she'd go that far as a first choice. Where else..? Sevierville? Depends. Would she have just tried hitchhiking..? Even if I can't scan her directly I can look through security cameras-.

"What's 'geomancy'?"

"Earth magic. Usually, it means someone feeling local natural magic flows. Why d'you ask?"

"Cornwall.. Boy.. says something doesn't feel right." She looks puzzled. "Is he talkin' about the situation or-?"

I bring up two railgun constructs and generate construct armour around myself. "Ready in sixty four directions stance."

Her eyes widen slightly and she starts staring at the lip of the canyon. "Oh-kay then."

"Lla fo ruo s'ymene scigam lliw wohs sevlesmeht!"

"Subspace vacuoles detected."

Show me.

The rim of the depression positively glows with tiny access points to someone's pocket planes. It looks like the same system Kadabra used which means that someone with some very advanced kit is hiding out. Hiding behind magic as well, otherwise I'd have picked these up. So what-?

"Alert! Vacuole evacuation in progress."

My railguns are reorientating even as the Brain's travel machine materialises. Whether that's real-Brain or weaponised-brain-Brain I already know exactly where to hit it to stop it being a threat. My rounds punch cleanly through primary power and sensoria, crippling and blinding him as I reach out with filaments to probe him past his scry wards. Genetics match Edgar Cizko, though from the brain damage and unusual patterns of neural activity I'm not sure how much there is left of him. I hesitate a moment and then send electrified spikes through his brain to finish him off, withdrawing them only when I'm certain that he's dead.

"Alert! Vacuole evacuation in progress."

Filaments leap in the direction of all of my team mates to give them construct armour as well. With no vacuoles in the air around me I drop my telepathic barriers and share an image of what I'm seeing. Numerous humanoids in light power armour and carrying what look like cold guns materialise from subspace and… Come on, where is he?

"Orange Lantern! Hello!"

I know it won't work but I fire a railgun round through his face anyway. As expected it passes through with no resistance. Onyx takes a slightly nervous step away from him as he gives us all a jaunty wave.

And then something else steps out of subspace next to him.