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

[Mr Zoat]

What Lies Beneath

27th January
13:27 GMT -8

"Recognised, Green Arrow, zero eight, Robin, B zero one, Kid Flash, B zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six-"

I step out into the bare stone cave.

"-Artemis, B zero eight."

"So." I make a point of looking around. "This is the Arrow Cave."

Mister Queen sighs and raises his right hand to cover his face. "This is not the Arrow Cave."

Wallace turns back to me and nods. "Totally the Arrow Cave."

"It's just a cave that's far enough away from the roads that I don't have to move the zeta tube every couple of weeks and close enough to a campsite that I don't have to come up with excuses about why I'm here if I get spotted." Mister Queen starts through the cave towards the exit.

Robin pointedly looks at the cave wall. "Do all the caves around Star City have lighting?"

"No, but if anyone asks it's for spelunkers."

Artemis is grinning. "How about the equipment lockers?"

"Spelunking equipment can be very heavy. No one wants to have to carry it here every time."

"And it can't be easy to get the Arrow Car in such a narrow-."

"There is..!" He takes a deep breath. "There is no 'arrow car'. There was an arrow themed carnival float which I used once. I use zip lines or a normal car. One I can get insurance for."

Wallace nods sagely. "Batman does go through Batmobiles kinda fast. Hey Rob, how many was it last year? Three?"

"The third one wasn't a total write off."

"That's not what Two-Face says."

"Half the car was fine."

Mister Queen sighs and shakes his head slightly as we emerge into daylight. Three cars all with four wheel drive capacity are parked just by the cave entrance and Roy Harper is leaning back against the bonnet of the jeep. Unlike the rest of us he's in full costume. Quick scan… No, aside from Roy and.. him, no one anywhere near here. In New England the working day is coming to a close but here we're almost in the middle of it.

Roy straightens up. "Ollie. Robin. Wally. Artemis. Paul."

Robin smiles at him. "Hey Roy."

"I'm not..!" He bites it down. "I'm not Roy Harper."

Wallace shakes his head. "Actually, we checked the timelines. I never even met the other Roy."

Robin nods. "And I only met him once." That doesn't seem to help. "How's going solo working out for you?"

His head turns slightly away and down. "I'm getting nowhere. With the League of Shadows gone I barely even know where to start."

"Dubbilex couldn't help?"

"Couldn't or wouldn't. I was thinking that maybe I should have asked more aggressively."

"That.. wouldn't be a good idea. He's aware of physical harm, but he doesn't really feel pain pain. Plus, even if he didn't brain blast you you'd be swarmed under by G-Elves in seconds."

Mister Queen takes a step towards his protégé. "Roy, you've been running yourself ragged ever since New Year. It's not good for you and it doesn't help the other Roy." Roy's eyes narrow slightly and Mister Queen raises his hands to ward off his complaint. "But, since I know I can't persuade you to take a break, I thought we might try a new approach. Paul's got a technique for finding things that looks like it bypasses all defenses."

"Unless they're protected by magic. Hal already-."

"Actually-" I wave my right hand like a student uncertain about the answer to the teacher's question. "-the quintessence waveform scan should bypass magic… Most magic. You could probably ward against it specifically or.. some sort of planar distortion? I mean, if they've put him in a parallel universe or something you're out of luck, and if they've moved him to another planet we could be here a while. But if he's on Earth and whoever took him hasn't expended massive -and easily traceable- levels of resources…" I nod. "I should be able to find him."

He frowns. "Why didn't Hal try that?"

"Because it would have given him a brain haemorrhage. I can only do it if the Ophidian helps and I can't.. retain most of what it shows me. That's why I brought this." I unsling the box containing my personal lantern and open it. "A location should be doable."

"When can you get started?"

"As soon as James Harper gets out from behind that car." Roy stills slightly. "The one thing I dislike more than him being here at all is him maintaining the pretence that-" I turn my head in his direction. "-I don't know full well he's there!"

The other Mister Harper walks out from around the… Americans call them Sports Utility Vehicles, don't they? He's wearing full Guardian gear. "Orange Lantern."

"Mister Harper." I don't hate him. Nabu is an extremely intelligent being who makes his own choices. When those choices involve body jacking the father of a friend of mine… I'm an Orange Lantern. Taking it personally is exactly the correct response. James Harper on the other hand is an idiot who played the hand he was engineered to hold. True, it hurt many sentient beings and produced no useful benefit, but it did so because he lacks the mental apparatus to do anything else. Maybe he can learn to be something else.

"You knew, didn't you? Back at Cadmus when you came in with Superboy."

"Knew what?"

"That I was a clone as well. You grabbed me, scanned me with your ring and then you just left. I didn't start thinking about it until after Luthor fired me, but you knew."

"You're spiritually shallow and your genetics are extremely similar to those of Roy."

"Was 'Tomato' some kind of British insult?"

"No, it was a reference to the animated television series 'Big O', in which the entire population of the city are clones who think they're amnesiacs. The one man who wasn't is a senile tomato farmer and he constantly tells people what happened in a way no one else understands. Or something, it got a bit weird towards the end." I take a firm hold of my lantern and float the box softly to the ground. "It's probably best that you're here. Having multiple people with the same genes around might be confusing." I reflect on what I'm about to do. "More confusing." Deep breath. "Ophidian, quintessence waveform scan."

She touches my mind and immediately my awareness oooh whaw. This is never… Do Maltusians see the universe like this all of the time? Every mote of energy around me, every whiff that could be anything fully visible in every regard. I could stare at a single atom until the end of the universe and not even scratch the surface. Ophidian, I need to filter a little. I'm looking for matter that looks like this. For an instant the maddening detail fades a little, then it snaps back with billions of locations as I'm bombarded with every skin cell and hair that still has his DNA intact within it. No, more, concentrations. Show me the patterns of organs. Okay. That's.. probably him. In material terms there isn't much difference between a live person and a corpse, but in spiritual terms… Oh, I'm not going to remember this anyway. Just fix on the location…

And the beautiful picture fades away. Artemis catches me as I stumble backwards. "How long?"

"About three hours. You find him?"

I straighten up and nod. "Yep. We can pick him up when the world stops sparkling."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Doppelgänger

5th February
06:01 GMT -5

I open my eyes and look at the off-white hotel pillow beneath my head. This is not my beautiful house…

I pull the duvet tighter around me. "Ring, anything from the Controllers?"

"No messages received."

Sure, the ship couldn't just FTL into Maltus orbit but they don't maintain an interdiction field that far from their system. I know that the ship is at least in Maltus' star system by now.

"Status of automated defences?"

"Two intruders have been entangled. No further activations."

Unfortunate thing about a ring moderated body: no excuses. I only feel tired if I want to feel tired. No one would think it odd for someone to sleep in a little on a Saturday but all that'll happen to me is that I'll eventually get bored. And I've got plans with Zatanna today and.. I need to find out if she's made any plans for her birthday. Or if there's anything she'd like to do. I half turn in bed and push myself up into a sitting position. Ring, curtains.

Compliance.

Sunlight. I instinctively blink as it hits me, then roll my eyes at my own behaviour as the ring easily compensates. Normally on a Saturday I'd use the fact that I get up earlier than everyone else to prepare the kitchen. Get the waffle iron heated up and some fresh batter mixed. A little later on if Batman didn't have a mission for us we'd have training, lectures first and then some sort of physical session.

I still can't believe they actually…

No, if they're serious about making him 'part of the team' of course it makes sense that Nabu would be taking a week as our overseer eventually. And I'm certainly not begrudging Red Tornado his time off being 'John Smith'. I'm sure a few lectures on arcane theory and practice will do my colleagues a world of good. For myself, I will not spend a moment longer in Nabu's presence than mission priorities require.

I don't so much fly out of bed as drag myself upwards. Don't need to wash, don't really need to -a wave of orange passes over me- dress. Breakfast? Getting room service had a certain novelty value to it the first night but it's not as if the food is any better when delivered like that. Ring, grant maids… Wait, what's a male maid called? And.. maidians? Maid men? Janitorial staff access-.

Closest term is 'valet'.

Oh. Thank you. Maids or valets access.

Compliance.

I drift down and land next to the bed. Zatanna's not going to be up for another hour at least. John… Five hours ahead. He should be awake. Probably… I trudge over to the glass door leading to the balcony and push it open.

"Mmmmph!"

"Well, honestly, what were you expecting?" I don't recognise the man. Sweatshirt and jeans, male pattern baldness shaved near bald and a camera that fell from his hand as the entangler activated. "Do you know how often people try to kill me?"

"Murmuuuh?"

I float the camera up and have the ring check its memory. No, he didn't get anything. "Did you climb up? That would actually be slightly impressive." His just visible eyes flick sideways. "Snuck into the room next door and climbed across the adjoining balcony?" A nod. "Leave anything there?" A slight hesitation and then a shake. "Right ho." I connect a filament to him, pick him up and float him over the edge of the balcony.

"Mmmmn!"

I lower him at speed. Am I going to need to change hotels or will he spread the word that this doesn't work? I may be a C-list superhero but I'm not a C-list celebrity. I have no interest in appearing in some rag of a tabloid. Just before he reaches the ground I reduce speed, then open the entanglement trap and bring it back up. I hear a dull thump from below as I reset the trap. It's sort of nice that the Green Lantern Corps has put so much effort into low lethality weapons. The camera I just transition down next to him. Now, where's the other one?

I walk back into the bedroom and close the door behind me. Pretty cold here in Metropolis, not that I feel it. Don't want it to be too cold for the staff. Crossing the room I go through the interior door into the living area.

"Resufgnin!"

No, didn't make it this far. I switch the television on to GBS. I did try BBC News 24 for a while but it's just so repetitive. GBS is far more likely to carry alerts of things I need to know about right this second. I only glance at the screen as I cross the room towards the cloakroom. Don't recognise the reporter and there doesn't appear to be any sort of ongoing attack. Gotham? Oh, if Batman needs me he has my number. I pull open the door and look down at the bound woman. "Good work on picking the lock…" Wait, where's the camera?

"Fzew!"

No camera found.

Oh dear. Weapons?

The ring shows my mind's eye a picture of a nail file.

Yeah, that doesn't count. "I'm going to untie you now, and I'd appreciate an explanation." I touch the entangler with a filament and open it up, the silver ribbons retracting back into the device. The woman inside staring up at me defiantly is.. maybe late teens? Early twenties? Dull grey jogging bottoms and a hoodie combined with a Superman t-shirt. Her hair is brown, medium length and frankly a bit of a mess.

"What the hell was that?!"

"An entangler. Very useful device." She pulls herself to her feet, sparing a second to glare at it instead of me. "So. I'm Orange L-."

"I know who you are!" Actually, her voice does sound-. "You got me fired!"

I point at her with my right forefinger. "Dana Dearden."

"Got that right." Her right hand heads towards her pocket. What's she going to do, throw change at me? "And I'm going to-."

"I'm so sorry about that. It honestly didn't occur to me at the time that they might.. react in that way." I tilt my head back for a second, looking at the ceiling. "It wasn't until Diana -Wonder Woman- talked to me about it the next day… I mean, it was just a little oversight, right? A ticking off would have been more proportionate. I'd probably have realised myself if I'd been more on the ball." She frowns, apparently puzzled. "I phoned the studio a few days later to see if I could get them to change their minds…" I shrug apologetically. "They weren't really... The person I spoke to went on about journalistic ethics… Um, Malcolm.. someone?"

She blinks and appears to calm down a little. "Bernstein."

"Might have been. Anyway, I just.. wanted to laugh the whole thing off…"

"I can't believe he-! Grah!"

I gently press my left hand into her side to nudge her along as I head for the door out of the suite. She starts to be led along before she realises what's happening. "Can I… Buy you breakfast? I realise it doesn't really make up for losing your job…"

"Oh. Um." She looks a little bewildered. "Thank you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Prayer

7th February
07:17 GMT -5

"Would you like me to help you with that, sir?"

Thomas Curry looks around from his chest of drawers for a moment and sighs. "I can manage perfectly well. The other two are bad enough but it'll be a sad day when Tom Curry can't carry his own pack."

I was half-expecting someone older, but I suppose with King Orin only being twenty nine there was no reason why his father would be old old. He's fifty three and still physically fit. His hair's grey and his bushy beard puts me in mind of how my own father wore his in my youth.

The 'other two' being his Atlantean close protection officers.. or whatever they're properly called. Seeing as the king's father had no desire to live in what they considered an adequately secure environment they ended up having to move here to Amnesty Bay. They have to work their cover too. I suppose their resulting unusual familiarity with surface world culture might open up interesting opportunities for them as Atlantean-Surface World relations become closer. One of them -Alpheus- is awaiting our return to the kitchen with Mister Curry's wife, Mary Curry née Sullivan. The other bodyguard couldn't justify taking time off from his cover job to join us.

I never really had any interest in Aquaman in the comics so I've got no idea if that version of him had as many land-dwelling relatives as the one I know does. One much younger half-brother, currently at college, along with several cousins living in and around the Amnesty Bay area. Aquaman doesn't exactly have a secret identity but knowledge that Arthur Curry equals Orin is a secret, if only to make sure the rest of the clan have some privacy and don't become target-of-the-week for supervillains with a grudge against him.

Mister Curry checks his hair in the mirror, lifts the holdall over his shoulder and then turns around. "Alright then… What was your name again?" I hold up a business card. He frowns at it then at me before dismissing the oddity. "Lead on, Paul."

I nod and exit his bedroom, starting the walk down the staircase. The Curry family home is the old lighthouse keeper's cottage. Apparently Mister Curry's forebears used to operate it before the network was automated. The lighthouse itself is still in use and from the various pictures and nautical knickknacks attached to the walls I gather that this is something of a source of pride. Thinking about it, it can't have been easy, a single man with a full time job which often requires significant amounts overtime bringing up a child more or less on his own.

As I enter the kitchen I nod to Alpheus. This isn't in any way a high risk journey and I'm going to be there. Missus Curry also won't be joining us so it'll just be the three of us. As I understand it, King Orin always regarded Queen Atlanna as being his real mother and while relations between them aren't bad exactly they aren't particularly close.

"I'll be off then, Mary." Mister Curry crosses the kitchen and embraces his wife. "Should be back in time for dinner."

She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. "Give Arthur and Mera my best. And little Artur too."

"I will."

I hadn't realised that 'Artur' was even a name before Kaldur told me that was what the new prince was called. Still, I suppose it was a lucky escape; one more letter and he'd have been 'Prince Junior'.

Mister Curry smiles fondly at his wife as he pulls away, turning towards the back door. Alpheus exits first and I notice him do a quick check for possible threats before stepping aside from the door for Mister Curry to pass. To keep with the secrecy thing I'm wearing clothes which contain no orange along with a black bobble hat. And glasses. I mean, they work for Superman, right?

The local zeta tube terminus isn't anywhere near the lighthouse. It would be too hard to disguise the electricity consumption if it was connected to the town's energy grid and fairly difficult to hide the electromagnetic and heat radiation if it had its own system. Similarly, I could transfer us straight to Poseidonis but the orange glow was judged to be too much of a risk. Instead, we're going for a short drive in Mister Curry's car down towards the docks where the zeta tube terminal is housed in a warehouse owned -through a front company- by the Atlantean crown. They do occasionally use it for its alleged purpose but it's mostly here for King Orin's benefit.

Amnesty Bay isn't a big harbour but it is just about big enough to cope with smaller container ships and has much lower docking fees than the larger port cities of Portland or Portsmouth to the south. Most of what goes out here is manufactured goods heading towards Europe and the constant demand is more than enough to keep the docks and the local workforce busy. Back home… No idea if this place exists. If it does it's probably been hit pretty hard by the recession. I did a quick check here and apparently 'sub prime' mortgages were never a thing here due to some unusually farsighted legislation that attracted a surprising amount of cross-bench support. Even free market friendly Senators and Congresspeople have been heard publicly talking of the need to avoid perverse incentives in a way that only happened post-crash back home.

I really need to get around to looking into why.

As Harbour Master, Mister Curry does have a legitimate reason for checking up on warehouses near the waterfront. If anyone asks that's exactly what we're doing. If anyone watches they'll probably be curious about why we walked into a warehouse and didn't come out for twelve hours but if anyone's that interested then we're probably rumbled anyway. As it is no one's around when we get out of the car and Alpheus heads towards the door, the key for the padlock already in his hand.

We follow him inside. It's hard to spot unless you know what you're looking for, but this building is designed to shield any emissions generated within from external detection. A shipping container over to my right contains an Atlantean lightning generator and the transformer required to turn that into power a circuit can usefully use. Sephtian and I could probably replace the generator with something a fraction of the size… But if we're going to aim to replace the network anyway there probably isn't much point. I had some trouble explaining to Sephtian exactly how much electrical energy the surface world uses. Atlanteans don't, for obvious reasons. Since I'm.. fairly sure that I want to introduce a xenotech power generation system rather than a magitech one I don't think I'll bother focusing on that.

Alpheus pulls open the doors to the shipping container holding the zeta tube. This isn't part of the main system; it's strictly point to point. Too much risk of someone putting two and two together if they walk in on something. Mister Curry looks the device over as I give it a scan. No problems that I can detect. Alpheus pulls a lever and the interior of the tube runs through its start up sequence.

I wave my left hand and connect myself to Mister Curry with a thick line of orange, extending an environmental shield around him. He looks at it and then turns over to me. "What.. exactly should I expect?"

I shrug. "You'll be able to walk around with little more difficulty than you can on the surface. And breathe normally and speak normally. Though.. I ttthink they're setting up an air-room for you."

"Are you going to be hanging around all day?"

"I'll be one guard among many, Mister Curry."

He nods. "I suppose privacy's one of those things kings have to do without."

"Three." This zeta tube actually has a count down. "Two. One."

7th February
10:17 GMT -2

And we're in the water before the Poseidonis tube. Mister Curry doesn't start, but he does look a little apprehensively curious about the situation. Alpheus on the other hand looks a little happier. Purebloods don't need constant exposure to water but they certainly prefer it. "If you're ready, sir?" He hesitates for a moment, then nods. Plot route, open a tube and transition.

And we're inside the palace, near the royal quarters. After the incident last year where Ocean Master and his followers were basically able to swim into the royal bedchambers they've upgraded security somewhat; I certainly couldn't transition directly inside there any longer. The guards outside tense for a moment, but a moment later recognise us -it's probably the orange glow- and one of them turns to press the rune on the doorway.

Another swims forwards. "Identify yourselves, please."

"Guardsman Alpheus, with Thomas Curry and Orange Lantern, here to see their majesties."

The guard raises some sort of runic stone and waves it at us. He looks at it for a moment and then nods. "Identities confirmed." He turns his attention to Mister Curry. "Welcome to Atlantis, sir. This way please-."

The door opens and King Orin swims out towards his father, smiling broadly. "Dad! Glad you could make it."

For a moment Mister Curry Senior tries to swim up to his son's level. Realising that he can't, he waits for King Orin to drop to floor level in front of him. "As if I'd miss this." They embrace, and I note that their beards follow the same contours along their faces. "Mary sends her love. Now, where's this grandson of mine?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Spring in Blume

12th February
17:26 GMT -5

Mm-hm, mm-hm, hmmm-hmmm-hmmm!

…

Finally the song's out of my head! Goodness me, that was annoying! I lean back slightly in my chair in one of the mountain's side rooms. Sound proof room, I note. Diana and Bruce are just outside urgently discussing my recent conduct and I can't hear a word they're saying. I think I'm supposed to be stewing in my own nerves or something but I'm just feeling a mixture of relief and anticipation. Man Who Dresses Like A Bat just can't intimidate me anymore.

And I got the fucking Sword! "Heh heh heh." Yeeeeesssss!

Okay, laughing to myself, not a sign of a healthy psychology. But still! The Sword of Second and Third! With this, I can make good on my obligation to kill Klarion. Probably. It sliced up Sabbac easily enough and it killed the First… Worth touching bases with Mister Constantine..?

Ploong.

No, I wasn't ignoring you. I simply didn't think that you knew anything about Earth-made arcane weaponry.

Ploong.

You think so? I suppose that's definitive, then. Making avatar-death kill the core being… Doesn't really add anything against most people I might want to kill but against high end supernaturals it's just what the doctor ordered. Can I think of any reason not to kill Klarion? Opinion of my peers? No, not really. In a one off situation that might make it worth not killing someone to preserve the illusion that I'm one of them but I don't think I could go on doing that. There's no easy way to break the news to them that I'm perfectly happy killing people who are both sufficiently bad and sufficiently stupid and.. when you get right down to it… I don't like deceiving them.

I lean back further, putting my hands behind my head. Good day, good day. Now, how to actually go about-?

The door opens and my two overseers… Oh, plus one. "Lantern Gardner. What's up?"

"Grayven, you just killed a guy in broad daylight. What'd you think's up?"

Diana walks across the room in front of me and sits down on the right hand side of the settee. Guy moves to occupy the left while Batman remains standing. "Oh that, yeah. Look, before you start? I'll save you some time. Don't try and guilt me. I don't feel even slightly bad about it. Heeeyy, how's Marvel doing?"

Diana looks down at the ground, then nods once. "It looks like he'll make a full recovery. What was it you gave him?"

"Innocent's Tears. Not.. tears from actual innocents." Hmm. "Probably. It was a gift from Pope Innocent the Third to the Closed Order of the Alexins back when they were still in communion with Rome. I think they think they're tears from a saint or Jesus or something." I shake my head. "The bottle appears to generate a healing unguent ex nihilo… I don't understand exactly how it works."

Guy nods. "They let you borrow it?"

"Nooo, I stole it." He frowns. "Oh, come on. There's.. like, twelve of them left. Marvel needed it more." Diana joins in the frowning. "They can have it back, I just wanted to get it to Marvel before he bled out. It was the only thing I could think of that might fix a wound that sword caused."

Diana's eyebrows rise very slightly. "You are familiar with Sabbac's sword?"

"Oh, yes. Never thought I'd actually see it, though." I sit a little straighter and pull it free of the scabbard I made for it. Same principle as the x-ionised sword's scabbard; the blade can't touch the sides or it just goes straight through. This sword even does a number on force fields. Ooh, it's so great! With a firm grasp of the grip in my right hand I rest the flat of the blade on my left palm. "This sword was created by the Succubus Chantinelle from the remains of Hell's most powerful Demons. Heh-heh, and now it's mine." My smile fades slightly as they stare at me. "Okay, that was undignified, but I'm still very happy to have-."

"…in Fawcett City today." I look behind them as a holoscreen comes on, showing they got my good side! "A superhuman identifying himself as 'Officer Grayven'-" Hahahahahahah! Ms Grant delivers the patently ridiculous line with her usual aplomb. "-confronted Sabbac and brutally ended his rampage by decapitating him with his own sword. The death toll from Sabbac's attack currently stands at forty eight, and emergency responders have stated that they expect to find more bodies as the rubble is removed. Some viewers may find what we're about to show disturbing."

Bruce turns away from the screen as the report continues. If they got this much, that means that they also have the recording of the moment I killed him. Not that they'll show that on network news… At this time of day. Probably on VidULike already. Don't think I'll have a problem getting recognised in public anym-.

"Why?" He sounds.. tired?

"People were dying and I had no gentle way to take him down that stood an adequate chance of success." There's a tiny flicker as his eyes instinctively jerk towards Diana for a fraction of a second before returning to me. And the best thing is, it's true.

"There was nothing else you could have done."

A question, though there's no change in intonation. "No, there were any number of other techniques I could have attempted. That was just the one that stood the best chance of success… And I didn't think it was worth the lives of everyone who would have died in the meantime to try something else. Plus, I did follow the law; he clearly stated that he was resisting-."

"Grayven, direct order: hand the sword over to Wonder Woman."

"No." I return it to the sheath. "That's a suicidal order. This sword is the only thing I know that would reliably work against Father or other high end New Gods. Giving it up leaves me wide open." Actually, this.. could.. probably kill Gaea. What happens to the world if I..? Let's not think in that direction.

Diana shares a look with Guy. "The Bialyan government hasn't made an announcement yet, but news of Queen Bee's death is starting to spread. Grayven, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking 'it makes M'gann happy and President Harjavti's cool with it'. Also, 'there's no way she's going to be dumb enough to drive over a disputed border herself'. Though, again, the degree to which I'm prepared to be sad about it-."

"Will be measured in Bialyan dead when the civil war starts! Some of her generals are already marshalling their forces!"

Hmm. Had been giving that some thought… "Okay, look. I haven't broken any law by killing either her or Sabbac. But, the Bialya situation was a miscalculation on my part. I.. think I can fix it. Give me a few days to sort things out. And while I'm busy doing that you can decide how you want to discipline me."

"What?" Guy makes a shrugging gesture with his right hand. "You plannin' on taking over the country yourself?"

"No, I plan on looking after Crown Princess Adilah until she can be installed as Queen, and making sure she can actually do the job."

Diana's face hardens. "She's gone missing."

"And I've got a power ring!"

"Have you done anything to her?"

What? "No, not really." Curious look. "I killed her sister but I haven't had anything to do with her directly. But it's hardly a surprise that some of the people back home want her dead now and she's intelligent enough to work that out for herself. Look, I don't want Bialya collapsing on itself either. Someone who's used to the Singapore system could do wonders for the place."

A flash of colour draws my eye as the screen shows Mary Marvel smashing apart a Demon made of burning skulls. Fully sentient? Did she check?

"The Justice League cannot legally operate in Bialya." The other two looks around at Batman. Diana does not look happy. "You will provide me with updates on your progress every ten minutes and you will follow my directives."

"Of course, sir." I rise to my feet. "If you'll excuse me?" I get a nod. "Father Box, hush tube to Singapore." A hole in space opens next to me and… No, waving goodbye is probably wrong. I trigger my armour's flight discs and float through, closing the portal behind me.

13th February
06:30 GMT +8

Okay, I'm in the air high above the city-state of Singapore, no one's around… "Ring, dial Katherine Spencer."

I hear a ringing sound for a moment, then she picks up. "Gray. I saw what you did in Fawcett. Does this mean..?"

"Yeah. Think I'm about ready for… You know. Have you managed-?"

"He'll meet you, but I couldn't come right out and tell his people what you're offering. I can't say how he'll respond." I hear her sigh. "He's not exactly known for taking hard positions."

"All I ask is that he meet me. Thanks, Kate. I owe you for this."

"Just get the bastard for us, Gray."

I find myself smiling. "Happy to oblige."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stars, Crossed, part 1.

22nd February
09:59 GMT -5

"That's… Quite a lot of people."

"Sure is." Ted reaches up slightly to put his left arm around my shoulders. "They told me they were coming, but usually about half of them drop out." He turns his head to look at me, a small smile on his lips. "Can't imagine why that didn't happen this time."

"It's just been a while since I did anything in front of an audience of strangers."

"When was the last time?"

"Primary School production of Peter Pan."

He looks speculatively at me. "Oh? What role did you have?"

"Nana." He squints. "The dog."

His grip loosens slightly as he gives me a look of stunned disbelief, gradually morphing into-.

"Bwah-ha-ha-ha!" He bends over, clutching his stomach.

Fine, then. "I was a great Nana." I stride out of the wings and onto the stage, giving a wave to the journalists who've gathered to hear our announcement. A handful I recognise -ooh, that's Ms Lane- but most of them I've never seen before. That's fine, we wanted a more serious crowd for this than the usual superperson reportage. I stop just past the middle point and generate a construct podium. I won't need it for most of the lecture but when I was practising I found that it helped to have somewhere to put my arms when I didn't have anything to point at. I rest them there and lean forwards slightly. "Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for coming. Ted will be on-" I look off-stage… Oh for goodness sake, he's fallen onto his knees. It's not that funny. "-a bit later to demonstrate some of KordTech's latest developments, but first you're going to have to sit through a short lecture on comparative xenosociology from me."

No one looks particularly upset at the prospect. Re-sult. "It occurred to me some time ago that the Green Lantern Corps must have built up a colossal database of information on.. just about every different type of civilisation across this galaxy. I'm -obviously- not a Green Lantern, but since that information isn't considered to be secure they were willing to share it with me. Millions of years of data is far too much for most people to examine in any detail… I mean, who hasn't gone on Encarta Populi to look something up only to emerge hours later-" A polite laugh from the audience. "-with no idea where all the time went. I had the ring-" I raise my left hand slightly. "-go through it all for points of interest. What I was really looking for is… Some way.. to evaluate how well we're doing. As a species. Just how good is our technology compared to what other species have? I mean, most people have seen pictures of Superman's Fortress-" My eyes alight on Ms Lane for a moment. "-which employs Kryptonian technology, but pretty much by definition any species that's managed to come here is going to be more advanced than us. Because otherwise we'd have gone there."

"First thing I discovered? A lot of species don't get past late medieval, and even fewer get past early industrial." I pause there for a moment and make eye contact with a random selection of journalists. "It makes sense, when you think about it. Industrial society requires fuel; you can get by on charcoal for a while but what you really need is coal. If the species evolves before coal happens in sufficient quantity and accessibility, they can't use it. In some places they don't even get that far; if the planet doesn't have tree analogues for easy growing fuel and building material they can end up getting stuck earlier."

"Of course, that's just technology, in terms of social organisation all sorts of things can happen. I actually came across one species where they have a planetary government despite not being able to use technology more complicated than a windmill. They travel long distances on the backs of animals and build their multilane roads with stone blocks." I trigger the stage's holo display, showing a part of the road network as seen from low orbit. It visibly covers a continent the size of Africa.

"So, ignoring them, how are we doing? In absolute terms, not all that well. Any species that continues to develop will get past the point we currently occupy. A better question then is: how fast are we developing, compared to how fast other species did when they were our age? And that's where this graph-" I change the image to a slightly wiggly line, starting bottom left and moving to the top right. "-comes in. Along the bottom-" I dismiss the lectern and walk over to point at the image. "-rank order, one to… Well, it's a big number. Up the side, 'development points'. I awarded points for how quickly the species reached a particular developmental milestone; first tool use, first copper smelting, first iron smelting, first mechanical engine, first powered flight, things like that. I also gave points for how widespread those things became; no points for developing it in a workshop somewhere and never using it like the ancient Greeks did with steam power."

"What I got was a very subjective line, but it should be enough to give us a rough idea. The result?" I create a construct baton and point. "We're just under two thirds of the way up the development speeds table." Another look around the room. "That's not bad. I mean, we're no Colu-" I point to a spot near the 'fast developing' end of the line. "-and we're certainly not Maltus-" I point to the very end of the line. "-where they went from discovering iron to 'you still use metal, how quaint' in the space of a day, but we're doing better than a lot of species did."

I turn away from the display and spread my arms out. "Pat yourselves on the back, Humans. Well done." A bit of laughter and people are generally looking happier. I'll soon fix that. "But there's always room for improvement. For example, I was awarding points for implementation. There are still large areas of the Earth out there that don't have running water, sanitation… You've heard that argument before, I'm sure. And to be honest, even if I restrict my analysis to the advanced parts of the world it doesn't change our rank that much. You can get a plane in most places, you can certainly buy iron in most places… What really brings us down is our failure to implement the most advanced stuff which we have anywhere at all."

The image changes again. "This is a picture of Earth's first interplanetary teleporter. Show of hands, who thinks it's been developed since two thousand?" I wait patiently while they look around and a few hands start to creep up. "Come on, don't be shy. Okay, keep them up aaand raise yours if you think it was developed since nineteen ninety?" More hands. Most are now up. "Good, thanks for playing along. Nineteen eighty?" A few more. "Okay, thank you, you can put them down. That, is Professor Erdel's original zeta tube generator. It was built in the nineteen fifties. When it was first activated-" I set the display to do a slideshow of pictures taken from newspapers of the time. "-it caused brownouts and blackouts across three states and transported Mister J'onn J'onzz -the Martian Manhunter- to Earth from Mars. Take a moment to think about that. Earth has had interplanetary teleportation technology for sixty years."

"President Nixon approved the development of the space shuttle in nineteen sixty nine. It costs four hundred and fifty million dollars to launch a space shuttle today. Once you factor in all of the other costs of the program it works out costing over a billion dollars per launch. All that time, Doctor Erdel's company was being denied funding by the Federal Government. Despite having a product that was -by galactic standards-" I switch the slide back to the graph. "-something we might have expected to develop about two hundred years later. They limped by for decades on university funding, only able to make small scale models and tests. A ride to the moon via a current generation zeta tube would cost you about forty dollars a time once the system was set up. And today, the only people who use zeta tubes on Earth are the Justice League."

Another round of eye contact. "And if that fact makes you angry? Then you're in good company, because it makes me bloody angry. Human technological development is being retarded by stupid people. And I'm not having it any more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stars, Crossed, part 2.

24th February
11:56 GMT +3

Kandake stares in amazement as her right ring and little fingers reappear. After my first few healing sessions Sadeh suggested that I make a bit more of a drama about it. Just making it 'wave of orange and your arm's back' was weirding the Amazons out too much, particularly in the case of old or ancient injuries. So I've suppressed the nerves around the affected area and I'm taking it slowly. First, the scar tissue and the skin covering the place the fingers used to be dissolves. There's a slight intake of breath as it starts -despite what I tell them most of my patients expect it to hurt- but she looks more fascinated than anything else as a construct takes the shape of the missing bones before gradually filling in from the hand end with transmuted material.

Next come the nerves, blood vessels and tendons. Amazons had a surprisingly good knowledge of the internal structures of the Human body. She knows what the parts I'm regrowing are. Oh, she's trying to keep her hand completely still. I did tell her… With those parts complete I cover the whole thing in construct skin, taking care to match her skin pigmentation as the uppermost layer goes on. Match the length of the nail to her others… And, done.

I take hold of her fully restored hand in both of mine. "Now, I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone else. To lose your fingers may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose them twice would start to look like carelessness." I lean forwards a little. "Do try and be careful."

I release her hand and she holds it in front of her face, staring at her restored digits. She closes her fingers into a fist and the new ones lag a little behind their compatriots. She swallows, then touches her new fingers with her left index finger. "I can't… I can't feel them. Is that… Wrong?"

"No, it's to be expected, really. I've been…" I glance at Sadeh. "Well, actually, Sadeh's been keeping records on Amazons who've had body parts restored. With recent injuries there isn't a problem, but a substantial portion of those with older injuries experience numbness and a lack of responsiveness. Did you ever experience phantom limb pain?" She looks blank. "The sensation that the fingers were still there, did you ever feel like they were touching something?"

"They… Ached, sometimes."

"Right, that's pretty common. There are several theories about why that sort of thing happens… The one that I remember -and I don't know whether it's true or not- is that without any sensation, the part of your brain that used to interpret input from the fingers connects to other things. "

"Is this.. perman-?"

"No, it's not… It shouldn't be permanent. For obvious reasons there's not a lot of research on restored body parts, but from what the first few people whose old injuries I fixed have told me, you should experience a gradual restoration of sensation as your brain adapts to the new source of data. Human brains are remarkably clever things. Now, we think.. the best way for you to speed this up is to keep using them. Basically, we want you to-" I pick up a foam ball from a nearby table. "-take this, and we want you to spend an hour each day squeezing it in your formerly injured hand. Here."

Kandake takes it from me, feeling the texture. They don't have plastic on Themyscira, for obvious reasons. No rubber either. They could grow rubber-producing plants in this climate but they don't currently have much use for it. "Like this?" She gives the ball a squeeze.

I hold out my right hand and open and close it as if repeatedly squishing the ball. "Like that." She nods and repeats the motion. "We'd also like you to keep a written record… If you start getting any feeling back, if it hurts at all…" She nods. "After about a month, if you still haven't felt anything, there are other things I can do, but they involve fiddling with your brain and I'd rather avoid that if at all possible."

"I will do as you ask." She squeezes the ball hard. "Thank you." She turns and walks away to rejoin the small group of Amazons from her village who made the journey with her.

I turn to Sadeh. "Is that it?"

She nods. "Everyone who came. I don't think there's a single woman left carrying a wound on Themyscira now, thanks to you."

I smile. "Glad to help."

She frowns as I get up to leave the Temple of Apollo which doubles as Themyscira City's hospital. "Oh, I was thinking yesterday… Have you heard of Baroness Paula von Gunther?"

I nod. "Yes, Diana fought her during the Second World War. She.. came to live here afterwards. Died about thirty years ago."

She nods. "Yes. What you've been doing… It reminds me of one of the things she designed here."

"She… Built something that could regrow-?"

"No, no. She showed me once. It could regrow flesh and.. reattach severed body parts, but it could not restore them from nothing as you can."

"She built it here? That's amazing! Where is it, does it still work?"

"It's probably still in her workshop. As far as I know the last person to have seen it would have been the Princess."

"Still in her workshop? Why isn't it in.. here? If someone comes in injured..?"

She shakes her head regretfully. "It seemed very complicated. How would I know it was working properly?"

"Okay, that's… Reasonable. If you could show me where her workshop is I could-. I'm sorry, just a moment. Ring, what time is it?"

"Eleven fifty nine local time."

!!!

"TerriblysorrybutI'msupposedtobespeakingattheSenaterightatmiddaysorry."

I see her frown as the ring calculates the route. "We don't keep time that precise-."

I transition to just outside the small amphitheatre of the Themysciran Senate. It's at the centre of the city just to the left of the palace. The guards look my way, but they're become fairly used to me appearing and disappearing by now. No cry of alarm goes up at least. Right, right, ahhh… My usual armour disappears into subspace, being replaced by what I keep wanting to call a toga but isn't. Mala was quite clear about that and I have no desire to sit through another lecture on Amazon fashion. Fortunately, she was a good deal less certain about clothing for men so I'm cheating and wearing a himation rather than a peplos. The colours gave me some trouble. My signature colours are grey, black and orange and Amazons generally favour lighter colours for their clothes. I could just do grey with orange trimmings but I need to appear as a part of the group rather than as an external force. In the end I went for pale orange cloth with a darker orange border. Since they don't have an orange dye it draws the eye, but the style is more familiar while still being distinctively mine.

I hurry up akgh!

I walk slowly and carefully up the steps, nodding politely to the two guards on duty by the doors. "Haven't started without me, have they?"

"Probably." I vaguely recognise the guard who answered, but I don't think we've been introduced. "But I wouldn't worry. We don't keep a tight schedule here in the way you're used to." She looks past me towards the entrance to the palace. "In fact…"

I turn to follow her gaze. The royal party are approaching. Two guards to the fore, then Queen Hippolyta, High Priestess Menalippe, Captain Philippus and the two guards bringing up the rear. I recognise Zosime by her reflective skin. Should really see if she still wants to keep that at some point. The group climbs the steps and Hippolyta smiles at me. I bow… Well, as much as I can in this dress thing. "Majesty."

"Paul. I'm glad that I haven't missed anything. How were things at the Temple?"

"I think I've run out of people to heal. And Sadeh said something about a healing machine Baroness von Gunther built?"

"Ah, yes. I think I remember it. You're welcome to go through her workshop. I imagine that she would be pleased that someone is making use of it. Now." She nods to her escort at they open the doors. "Shall we?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hullevow

2nd March
09:22 GMT +1

I put the amulet John gave me back into my jacket pocket as I lean against the wall opposite the church hall's toilet block. Should.. probably give this a few minutes… I actually wanted to talk to John about Hekatonkheires, but I lost heart when his response to me asking was a mystified "Y'what?" Finding-.

An interior door bangs and I take a mobile phone out of my pocket, pretending to be engrossed in the screen. A moment later a man whom I'm going to assume from his dress is an Orthodox priest of some kind walks out. He looks around as he leaves the toilet block and I look up, giving him a smile and a friendly nod. Ring, don't translate. "Father." Not the proper way of addressing a priest around here if you're a believer, but then.. I'm not.

He nods back and raises his right hand to wave at the ignorant tourist. "May God smile upon you, my son."

He means well. I return my attention to my phone as he looks up into the sky, then carries on down the path. Give him a while to get out of sight… Good. I slip the phone back into an interior pocket before ambling across the path and entering the toilet block myself. John's amulet is still tugging at my lapel so I know I'm in the right place. I was a little worried she might just vanish, but then; why would she? It's not like any of her enemies have the means to find her any longer. I can hear her singing softly to herself from the men's toilets, and... Heh, the graffiti on the walls covers a few spell glyphs. She thinks that she'd have warning.

John will be amused.

I push open the door and the woman redoing her makeup by the sink looks around in surprise. Respectable calf length skirt, blouse and woollen jumper… Not really what I'd expected her to wear, but I suppose she's playing a role. The face is neither her default one or particularly striking in its own right. I'm going to assume that she chose it to appeal to her target.

She frowns at me and the lip gloss tube disappears. "What are you doing in here?"

Indignation. She plans to pretend she picked the wrong toilet. Brush the whole thing off. Okay.

"This is the men's. Um. I can just… Wait?"

"Oh!" She looks around, her countenance changing to one of joviality. It's fascinating, really. Empathic vision is giving me nothing. "Silly me." She takes a step towards me. "I've been coming here for years and still manage to go in the wrong one." She pats my left forearm with her right hand. And.. there's the confusion. About a second as she tries to assess the threat level, then she steps back a few steps, still smiling. "Would you be a dear and wait outside for a moment while I finish up?"

"Ordinarily I'd be happy to, but I did come rather a long way to talk to you." I straighten up slightly, a mild smile on my face. "Miss Chantinelle."

She shakes her head. "I.. don't know anyone…" The ring pings my brain as my Spell Eater gets ever so slightly warmer. A second later Chantinelle abandons the pretence, glowering fiercely, her eyes shifting from brown to her default turquoise. "Who are you?"

"Someone interested in doing business with you."

Her face relaxes a little. Guarded but no longer aggressive. "Well… You might want to turn off your wards, then." She struts a pace closer. "You'll have more fun that way."

"Not that sort of business. I'm nothing like stupid enough to try that with a Succubus."

She looks me over salaciously, her body slowly shifting shape as she returns to her default mostly human form. Long, straight, dull brown hair parted in the middle, slender body and tiny fangs that are a lot less cute in real life than Japanese animation thinks they are. "I don't have to feed. Sometimes I just do it for fun."

"The priest?"

"Priests are always fun."

I narrow my eyes. "I don't think Orthodox priests actually have to be celibate."

"No, but they're not supposed to be un-celibate with their Deacon's wife."

I beam. "Oh, congratulations!"

She frowns, puzzled. "It wasn't that hard."

"No, on getting married! I realise that must have presented you certain practical difficulties-."

She blinks heavily, then shakes her head. "No, I'm not actually married.. to... I just took her shape to seduce the priest."

"Oh right." I nod. "That makes more sense."

She looks me over again, this time a little more cautiously. "Where did you get that ward from?"

"Same place you did. Weird not being able to see inside someone, isn't it?"

She exhales with frustration. "Constantine."

"He and I have a scheme in the works. And since I like to plan for contingencies, it seemed wise to come to terms with people who could mess things up before they got into a position to do so. I understand the two of you aren't on best terms-."

"Do you know what he did to me?"

"After you made everyone he knows hate him, he gave your last known location to the First. To be honest, even leaving aside the fact that I killed the First again a few weeks ago I think you're.. kind of even now. But, that's why I'm here, not him. I want to pay you off so that you'll agree not to interfere."

"What's the scheme?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

She tilts her head to the side. "Now I'm curious. What exactly happens if I say 'no'?"

"I shoot you dead with the Ace of Winchesters." Her eyes don't widen, but her pupils do dilate slightly for a moment. "Though I would really rather not do that."

She nods and leans back against the… Ah. Since she can't read my desires she's going for generic appeal. Nothing too obvious, but she's gained a cup size, lost a few centimetres of height and her hair's grown a little lighter. I think her facial structure is changing slightly as well, becoming less harsh. "What am I being offered?"

"If I remember correctly, you told your lover… The Angel-."

"His name was Tali."

"Tali." I nod. "You once told him that you loved Hell… The screams, the landscape, the suffering… But also that you didn't identify with that value set. You hadn't grown up learning it, you'd just been…" I circle my right hand. "Created with it. It just.. happened to be.. how you are. Was that true?"

She glares. "How did you hear that?"

"I read it in a comic book. Was it true?"

"I.. suppose." She shakes her head. "Why does it matter?"

"What I want to offer you is power. Raw, arcane, lots of it. The downside -and why I'm not using this technique on myself- is that it would significantly affect the sorts of thing you value. But…" I spread out my hands and shrug. "If you don't care about that, and you get something you value now…"

"I'm not quite that casual about it."

"When was the last time you were completely happy, Chantinelle? Running? Hiding? The occasional clerical seduction? Ripping Gabriel's heart out? No. Not even that. It was when you were with Tali. I'm offering you the chance to feel that way again. No more missing Hell, wanting to go back even though you know any number of Demons know you as John's ally and would gleefully take their hate out on you. No more risking giving yourself away by feeding on people. I know you only just managed to dodge those Inquisitors in Kiev. You could be happy as yourself. How about it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Black Reign

1st October 2010
19:26 GMT -5

"Orange Lantern. A word."

I take a breath and move my right hand down to my side. Attention isn't really practical in a swamp but I do a reasonable approximation. "What can I do for you, sir?"

Batman makes sure that I'm watching his face, then pointedly looks in the direction of Teth Adom. "Please explain why Black Adam now appears to be on our side."

"Simple enough, sir." I see his eyes move back to me and I strongly suspect that under his mask his eyebrows are raised. "Simplish. About five thousand years ago the wizard Shazam appointed Prince Teth Adom as his champion, the role Captain Marvel occupies now."

"I am aware of Black Adam's history."

I go to say 'ah, but you're not'. Fortunately, I remember in time who I'm talking to. "The authorised version turns out to have certain.. omissions. Firstly, the modern age supervillain 'Black Adam' was not in fact Teth Adom. He was an archaeologist named Theodore Adam who used Teth Adom's corpse to hijack his powers. Part of the process of doing so caused his empowered state to look somewhat like Teth Adom. Um." I take a quick look around, then raise a soundproof bubble around us. "Sir, can I assume that you know-?"

"That Captain Marvel's secret identity is that of a ten year old boy?" He changes the focus of his attention to William for a moment. "Yes. As such, I understand that changing shape is an intrinsic part of the power Shazam bestows."

"Right. So, when I found that out, I realised that the best way to neutralise Black Adam as a threat was to disrupt the spell which allowed him to steal that power. We fought, I managed to provoke him into calling down lightning and… The third time, I managed to manoeuvre him into position to be hit by it. Then I destroyed the amulet that was the spell's physical component and used a magic powder-" Please don't ask. "-to weaken the magic's hold to the point that Teth Adom's spirit could fight its way free."

"And take control of their shared body."

"I assumed that something like that would happen. That, or Adom would pass on to his people's afterlife and Theodore would be depowered. What actually happened was that their gods decided that they didn't like Theodore very much and had Ammut eat his soul. Teth Adom is currently in sole control of what used to be Theodore's body."

Batman nods slowly. "Why wasn't Captain Marvel aware of that?"

"I don't think that Shazam himself knew exactly what had happened. I think he saw someone dressed as Teth Adom using Teth Adom's powers to pick a fight with his current champion and rather jumped to conclusions."

"Why would his former champion want to fight his current one?"

"As I understand it, Shazam is the one who killed him. I only have.. his version of events. I'm not sure enough of what happened to say anything definite, and I can't.. check, anyway…" I shrug. "His desires appear to show that he doesn't have a specific grudge against anyone except Shazam and that he has other priorities at the moment."

Warning: low power. Six percent remaining.

I turn off the sound deadening dome. "Sir, if you want to ask him anything then I suggest doing it now. Another one percent and I lose translation."

"Tell me: what does a man five thousand years out of time want?"

"He still regards Kahndaq as being his country." Batman stiffens slightly, his gaze growing distant. "I don't think he's made any concrete plans, but given the state of-."

"What languages does he speak?"

"I'm not sure. No modern ones, certainly."

"The Republic of Kahndaq is not a member of the League's UN charter. As such, the League is not empowered to intervene in its internal affairs unless it threatens another state."

"Yes sir."

"Can I take it that this outcome was not entirely unanticipated?"

"Well, I knew it was theoretically possible. And my plan for dealing with it is a simplified version of the one where they were sharing a body. Sir, if this is about the fact that Theodore died-."

"No. Though I have noticed that you seem to be less disturbed by that than you were with Matthew Hagen."

"I didn't kill this one. My decisions leading up to it were entirely intentional… And, frankly, he deserved it more. I.. don't think I'd have been prepared to kill him, but I'm not going to pretend to be choked up about the fact that he died."

"How did you plan to handle integrating Teth Adom into modern society?"

"I have plenty of spare time, and he has the Wisdom of Zehuti. I was planning to hire a language tutor and use the ring's translation function to make it possible for him to learn Kahndaqi Arabic. Until he had a functional understanding of the language I'd be his main way of understanding the modern world."

"You could keep an eye on him."

"Um. Sort of. I don't think it would actually come to that…"

Adom and William fly over to the dome to help the other League members with the clean up. Wallace sticks his head out of the bioship, starts to say something, spots who I'm talking to and ducks back inside.

"Acceptable, with one modification. I am.. concerned, that your ring may impact your judgements on some matters. Changing a government by force has a great deal of opportunity to go badly wrong. I want a member of the Justice League to be on hand to make sure that he isn't a threat to the people you want to help. Human culture five thousand years ago was very different than what it is now."

"There's plenty of room at the embassy, sir. I'm sure Wonder Woman wouldn't mind having him as a guest for a while."

He nods. "But she doesn't speak Ancient Kahndaqi."

"I checked, sir. The language is dead. No one speaks it. Unless you ask one of the other Lanterns..."

"Does he know that?"

"I… I don't know."

Batman inclines his head slightly. "Martian Manhunter has the ability to telepathically use languages from someone else's mind." I did not know that. "He could assume the guise of a professor of Kahndaqi history. If we allowed Adom to believe that knowledge of the language was unusual rather than unheard of, it would give him an additional point of contact."

That… Should work. "Assuming that he doesn't block the telepathy with the Power of Atum."

"Captain Marvel has shown the ability to resist telepathic attack, but he has to exert himself to do so. So long as the telepathic contact is subtle, it should go unnoticed."

I nod. "It would probably be easier for him to learn from Mister J'onzz than someone who needed me to translate everything for them."

"Accompany the others back to the mountain, recharge, then return here. I will need to discuss the arrangements with Adom himself."

I nod, and he turns to walk away. "Sir? Do we know how many people died?"

"Casualty lists are still being compiled."

I close my eyes for a moment. I need to ask this. "Sir? Are they just going to send Napier back to Arkham again?"

"The Joker will be temporarily housed in the Belle Reve Penitentiary, pending a decision on where the members of the Injustice League will stand trial."

"Sir, Arkham couldn't keep hold of him the last seven times. What makes you think it will work this time?"

"Wayne Industries has secured a contract to upgrade Arkham's security. Having reviewed their work, I'm satisfied that he will find escaping again a good deal more difficult. Is there anything else?"

I smile. "No sir. Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Carpe Tempus

18th March
09:26 GMT -7

"Whoooooooohoooooooww!"

Niko shoots past the rooftop with a look of pure and unbridled joy on her face. She isn't a great flier, not yet. This is the first time since the procedure that she's been able to get properly airborne and I'm still half-poised to leap into the air and grab her myself if it looks like she's starting to flag. Plus, I think the lack of a left arm is throwing off her flight profile. More drag on one side.

"Ahh…" Cranius has Otto turn so that he can follow her. He isn't capable of sighing exactly, his respiratory system just doesn't allow him to store enough air for that sort of exhalation. But he is willing to make an effort for my benefit. "It is a wondrous sight, to see her in zhe air like zhis." Otto turns him back towards me as Niko climbs higher into the air. "I zhank you, Grayven. From zhe deepest part of my spirit. Without your knowledge of xenophysiology unt zhis…" Otto holds up the remains of my Nth metal sample. "Remarkable material, such a zhing would never heff been possible."

I wave my right hand dismissively. "Come now Doctor, don't sell yourself short. Without your mastery of metahuman physiology all I could have done is give her an autoimmune disease. Human bodies just aren't designed to make use of Nth metal like that."

"Collaboration. Hm. It is not a zhing which I am used to, but between yourself and my brozher… I zhink I could grow accustomed to it."

Niko dives directly for the rooftop before flipping over a mere five metres up and flapping downwards, the Nth metal swiftly nullifying her downward momentum. "This is amazing!"

"I'm impressed how quickly you've picked it up."

"I'm an Un-Man." She makes an uneven flap, then draws her wings around her as she twists in a spiral.

…

For a moment I'm rendered insensible by the beauty of the sight. She notices as she comes out of the spiral, granting me a more personal smile as she hovers once more. "I wasn't born to do this. I was reborn to do it."

Cranius smiles. "Well said, my dear. Do you.. feel tired? I would not want you to overstress yourself."

She immediately shakes her head. "I feel like I could do this all day." She thinks for a moment. "Maybe another half hour?"

Otto spreads his arms. "Even if zhis were not a validation of everyzhing I heff worked for, I could not deny it to you."

One mighty downward flap and she's gone again, this time heading out over Aberrance. Cranius and I watch her go. Ah, well that's the unquestionably nice part of the visit taken care of. Now… Business.

"How.. is the… Project work going?"

"Eh. We were.. able to conclude our business with zhe Gotham police unt zhe Justice League… Wizhout too badly upsetting our partners in zhe Department of Energy. I am not heppy with how zhings turned out… After zhe.. excitement, zhe network decided to delay… Well. In effect, to cancel. Buuut, such is fate, I suppose. We will recover."

"Made any progress in understanding Arcane's writing?"

"Yes… Somewhat. I believe zhat before zhe year is over I may heff regained zhe ability to uncreate. Unt.. wizh my brozher, several fascinating new avenues of possibility heff opened zhemselves."

"Doctor… You understand, my admiration for the pioneering work you do here is undimmed…"

"But you wish to make some criticism?" He swivels slightly on Otto's shoulders. "Grayven, you are family. Please, if you believe zhat zhere is some way in which our working here could be improved upon, you heff but to speak." His neck pulses. "I will not promise zhat I will agree, but I will listen."

"Thank you. I suppose… As I understand it, your current plan is to go for.. high impact modifications. You want to show… Want people to realise exactly how malleable the Human body is. To get the idea out there into the world that this is something which can happen. In a controlled way. The fact that you can do these things is something of which you are rightly proud. But -and this is my concern- the people who are interested in undergoing this sort of modification are.. a minority. A very small one. And will probably remain so for the foreseeable future."

Cranius is looking thoughtful, but he doesn't speak as I pause.

"Now, if you get a new television deal… Then, twenty, thirty years on… You may start to see wider acceptance. Maybe. Do you know how long you're going to live, Doctor?"

"It is impossible for me to say." His eyes narrow slightly. "You heff some ozher approach you wish to suggest?"

"I think… Look, the Human brain is rigged to see healthy Human bodies as beautiful. I know you don't, and I realise that there's no objective reason to consider the product of evolution as more beautiful than the product of a laboratory, but these are the preconceptions… Hard wired preconceptions we're working against." I pause again. "What do you know about multidrug resistant microbes?"

"I am not a medical doctor, but I read zhe trade magazines. Dependency on antibiotics is slowly but surely breeding a generation of bacteria who no longer have need to fear zhem."

"Only one major pharmaceutical company is even bothering to continue researching new types of antibiotics. The future appears to belong to bacteriophages, viruses which-."

"I know what a bacteriophage is, Grayven. Amusing as zhe idea is, I do not zhink zhat I could create an 'Un-Virus'."

"Right. But could you create an implantable organ that monitored the user's blood and could perform an intelligent filtering operation? Targeting elements that should not be there."

"Perhaps… Yes, I zhink zo." He frowns, deep in thought. "Some sort of addition to zhe endocrine system..? I may even be able to modify zhe pancreas zo zhat-." His eyes widen. "You feel zhat people would be more open to zhe idea of a subtle modification. It benefits zhem, it does not challenge zhem…"

"And it gets your technology out there. Once they've accepted the wedge's thin end, you would have an opening in which you could discuss.. other things. And by that stage-."

"Zhey would already be Un-Men." He hesitates. "I… Intellectually, I understand where you are coming from, but… I do not like it, Grayven. My work here… I pride myself on releasing people's true inner selves. What you are asking, it does not do zhat. It is… Ugk, pandering. To zhe norms of zhe Human flesh."

I shrug expansively. "You work with what you have. You're trying to convince Humans to do something highly counterintuitive. I really think.. a little pandering could help immensely. And hey, once you've got the basics of the organ design down you can hand it off to your subordinates anyway. It's not as if you'll need to install every single one personally." He doesn't look happy. "Consider it this way: the original method you were using was attracting freak show enthusiasts. This? This would attract-" I point at the buildings being occupied by pharmaceutical concerns. "-serious medical researchers and practitioners. If you pull it off, you steal a march on all of those companies who restrict themselves to tinkering chemically with Human bodies. Would you rather feature in National Enquirer… Or New Scientist?"

"Ah, zhe ego. My one weakness. Heh."

"Well? Do you think the idea has legs? Or-" I look around. "-ambulatory tentacles, at least?"

"I… I heard what you heff said in zhe spirit in which it is intended. Haaaaaaaa. I… Do not know. I see zhe reason, but all zhe time I heff in my head zhe idea zhat zhis is not what I am meant to be doing."

He looks away, trying to catch sight of Niko again. Trying to see the physical validation of his preferred form of work. No, she's moved behind one of the buildings.

"I.. will need to discuss zhe matter, with Janus unt with Crassus. Investigate how practical it is, howww.. much of my research can cross over between zhe two streams. From what has been said of our cash flow… I imagine zhat Janus will be in favor of somezhing swiftly marketable. Zhe Atlantean techniques for zhe growing of limbs, perhaps."

"I realise that this is a wretch, but I really think that getting a unique and valuable product out there will spread the Uncorporation name better than another set of Third Generation Un-Men."

"Yes. You are most likely right. But zhis thought does not fill me with happiness."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Date Night

24th March
21:47 GMT -4

I ring the doorbell of Holly and Karon's home. Remarkably, I was able to navigate the mean streets of Gotham without being unduly disturbed this time. I'm not sure if that's due to the word about me getting around or things just not being so openly lawless as they once were. I think I saw Artemis -or someone anyway- on a rooftop part of the way, but it might have been a trick of the light.

Tsaritsa will be held in the Themysciran embassy until such time as her long term location is agreed upon. President Horne appears to not be entirely horrified by the idea of sending her to Tartarus, but it's not as if the final decision will be entirely his. It was a bit off the cuff on my part, but Tartarus could be an excellent place for long term supervillain storage. Good luck getting anyone out of there, because if the Titans can't manage it…

The door opens. "Hey Hol-." Karon blinks in surprise. "Oh, hey Paul. Holly's not back from work yet."

"Actually, I was hoping to speak to you, if that's alright?"

"Sure, come in." She steps back from the door and I follow her inside, closing it behind me. The weather's still fairly chilly, so I'm wearing a suit jacket with a roll neck jumper underneath. I subspace the jacket as I head towards the comfy chair that I habitually occupy when I visit them here.

"I caught that play you were in on TV."

I look mildly pained. "You didn't."

"I didn't know you could act!"

"I can't-. Well, I can, but in that instance I was-" I sit. "-getting mind controlled by a supervillainess called The Queen of Fables." Karon sits down on the settee. "I only went onto the stage to try and arrest her and that's when her spell caught me."

"You got mind controlled by a supervillainess and all she did was made you act in a play?"

"She made me live the play as if I was the character I was playing. I honestly thought that I was Prince Pavlos of Themyscira while it was going on."

"Whaw. Do you, like, ever get a normal week?"

"Not really." I smile, shaking my head. "You know.. it's funny. You're actually the most normal person I know."

She looks like she's not quite sure what to make of that. "Thank you?"

"My favourite author is a man named Terry Pratchett. In one of his books, he wrote that… See if I can remember the quote… Ah, 'Individuals aren't naturally paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society, which is a mechanism by which human beings constantly remind one another that they are.. well.. human beings.'."

"What book was that?"

"Men at Arms, but I'm afraid it doesn't exist in this parallel."

"So I remind you that you're Human?"

"I have a soul made out of orange Snake. You remind me what being Human is like. And I'm grateful, because none of my other friends can manage that."

She shakes her head in bemusement. "You're.. welcome, I guess?" She glances in the direction of the kitchen. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Ah, yes please. Milk. Full fat, if you've got it."

She gets up, looking at me over her shoulder as she heads for the kitchen door. "Bit early in the evening to be on the hard stuff, isn't it?"

"Oh, you know us superheroes. Living each moment as if it was our last. Oh, I haven't checked: how are the plays going down?"

I hear the fridge door open. "Effects were better in the first one. Was that the Queen of Fables' magic?"

"Mostly." There's a 'chink' noise as she removes the cap from a beer bottle. "The sword I made while being guided by Hephaestus and Helios was actually real. Superboy's got it now."

I hear pouring. "And the fish?"

"Sadly, not real." Karon walks back in, glasses in hand. She hands me my milk glass before sitting back down. "Other thing I wanted to talk to you -and not Holly- about… Back in February."

She pauses for a moment, thinking back. Then her eyebrows shoot up. "Oh, you mean…"

"Yeah, the threesome thing. Um…"

We both glance away from each other.

"Ah… I thought you said you weren't interested..?"

"No, no. Look… One of.. my abilities.. is empathic vision. I can see.. patterns of emotional association in a person's mind."

"But I thought you didn't have your rings..?"

"No, that ability's innate. I… I don't need the rings for it. And what it means is, I know why someone's doing something. You weren't anything like as up for that as Holly was."

"Wait, is that why you said 'no'? I mean, I noticed at the time you didn't say why…"

"That was a good part of it. I mean, I'd be up for it in theory, but not if you didn't really want to or were only doing it to make Holly happy."

She's not looking at me. "I'd… Um…"

"You're not into men, it's fine. I'm not offended."

"No, it's… It was just kind of a high pressure situation… Holly just.. sprang it on me-."

"And you weren't sure how you felt about it or how you'd feel while actually doing it or how you'd feel afterwards because emotions aren't things you can just turn on and off." I nod. "I get it. I was in the same place."

She looks at me, a little surprised and a little relieved. "Oh."

"Like I said. Fine. Though in future, you might want to just tell Holly. 'Cause, there's a reason why I said that you're the most normal person I know and not.. her."

Karon nods. "So…" Her eyes flick back to me for a moment. "Theoretically… If I decided I did want to…"

"Assuming that I wasn't in a relationship at the time, yes."

"Huh. I'll.. bear that in mind."

"I also wanted to ask a favour. Not about, not about that."

"What is it?"

"A friend of mine is.. getting out of prison in a couple of days. She lived in Gotham before, but I don't think she really wants to move back in with her mother-."

"You want us to put her up?"

"To rent her a room. She can pay for it."

"What was she in for?"

"Membership of a proscribed organisation. But I broke up the organisation and she really does want to sort her life out. And I-" I point to my eyes with my right hand. "-can tell for certain that she's telling the truth."

Karon's back to looking at me, apparently relieved for the change in topic. "She do anything violent?"

"Only professionally. She was never wantonly violent."

She does a sort of cough-laugh. "That's not as reassuring as I think you meant it to be." She nods. "I'll.. talk it over with Holly."

"Thank you."

The front door swings open and Holly hurries in. "Hey K-. Paul!"

"Good evening, Holly."

She looks slightly blank for a moment, then grins. "Hey, we're going out for dinner with some friends tomorrow night. You wanna come with?"

I nod. "Yes thank you, I would. Where and when?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Fool's Canon

1st April
06:26 GMT -6

I open my eyes, shifting my right shoulder at an obstruction. Why am I-? Right, the lounge, because I gave Lynne my room. And… I lift my left arm, catching sight of the top of her head. And she didn't use it. Okay, so, priorities for today: finish the guest rooms. Need her input for hers. Find out stuff about her, birthday, how old she actually is… I'd guess somewhere around twelve? I'm going to need her whole personal history at some point, though that can wait. I'll need to sort out a school and… She's going to need some sort of immigration paperwork, isn't she? Ugh, I'm probably going to have to formalise that whole 'Apokoliptian Ambassador' thing? Probably easier than popping over to Earth 50 and getting her old paperwork from SHADE and creating law for parallel universe travel.

And I've got to work out how to tell Jade. Somehow… I suspect this isn't going to go over too well. Or maybe she'll be fine with it? I did talk to her about children after I got back from Earth 50 and once she reassured herself that I didn't mean 'imminently' she told me that she does want children. And the really horrid stuff like Lynne waking up at all hours of the night and needing us to clean up her excrement has already been taken care of. And, um…

"Mister Grayven. I see that you are awake." I turn my head as far to the side as I can, spotting Jean standing just inside the room. Took her a little while to get used to not asking me things telepathically, but as she pointed out the extra speaking practice is probably good for her. "Should I have breakfast prepared, or do you intend to sleep in?"

"Um." I look at Lynne again. She grew up in a military holding centre, right? I assume that they kept a fairly inflexible schedule. "Lynne, sweetie?"

"Mmmmnnmf."

"Are you awake?"

She grudgingly opens her eyes and looks around. "No?"

"Well, I'm afraid that your mattress is, so unless you want to go back to your actual bed…"

"Mmf." She sits up, still mostly on me. "I'm awake. Who was-?" She spots Jean, her eyes widening oh dear.

"Didn't have a chance to introduce you last night." I sit up slightly, picking Lynne up and then setting her down on the floor. "This is Jean. She's a G-Goblin and she more or less runs the place."

"Oh." Lynne calms down a little as I come fully upright and swing my legs over the side of the settee. "What are… G-Goblins?"

Jean looks to me. "If I may, Mister Grayven?"

"You know what you are better than I."

Jean's horns glow faintly-. Oh, that might not be a good idea. I lean forwards and rest my hands on Lynne's shoulders. And much of her upper arm, given how large my hands are. Hm. I'm not.. feeling any fear, and it doesn't look like Jean's suffering from the mind crush. At least, she isn't showing the symptoms the military facility which held Lynne described. Okay then, I guess I'll let them get on with it.

I shuffle sideways and rise to my feet. Pyjamas, right. A quick flare of yellow and my sharply-pressed trousers and tartan shirt appear. As part of my normalisation campaign I'm making a point of wearing normal clothes while out and about. Actually, replace the suit trousers with jeans and I'm copying Dad's preferred mode of casual dress. Oh, it is nice to be able to think that without thinking 'Darkseid'.

"Oh." Lynne shakes her head slightly as Jean's horns dim. "And… All of you… Think together?"

"In a manner of speaking. Forgive me for bringing the others in like that, but your mind was a little overwhelming."

Add telepathy training to the slate. Hm, if I check that no one on the Light wants Doctor Cizko for anything I could assimilate or brand… My eyes flick down to the yellow ring on my right forefinger. Ah.

How I weep for you, Corpsman.

Or I could just hire Henry or something. I mean, if she can burn out people's minds by accident she clearly needs some sort of instruction. I'll put Chester down as a doubtful… Wait, Mars! It's lousy with telepaths! M'gann said that she had a White brother, and if he's not interested or appropriate there'll be plenty of others.

I smile down at my daughter. "Lynne, what do you eat for breakfast?"

"I don't know. What do you have?"

Hmm. As New Gods, we can eat whatever we want. We can't get tooth decay, we can't get fat and aside from certain raw material requirements we can get away with eating pretty much anything. On the other hand, children need structure to their lives.

"I usually eat porridge, but since this is your first morning here… Jean, could you ask the G-Prometheans to prepare a Full English?"

Her eyes flare for a moment. "Done, Mister Grayven. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, get the work crew to focus on Lynne's room. Just get it liveable, we can worry about decorating it tomorrow."

"Of course, Mister Grayven." She bows slightly. "Miss Wayland." She turns away and walks out of the room.

"Her mind felt weird."

I lightly rest my right hand on her left shoulder. "She isn't Human. Have you spent much time with aliens in the past?"

Lynne shakes her head. "Not apart from people from Apokolips."

Right, I'm… going to be lying to her about that, aren't I?

"There's that, and the fact that all Genomorphs are part of a mental network."

"I know. I felt the others through her."

"Okay. Breakfast should be ready in about-."

Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Six minutes."

"Right. So, today we're going to be sorting out your living.. situation." She turns her head slightly-. "No, not like that. You're living here, but you need clothes, toiletries, stuff like that. You need to think about what you want your room to look like. Um. Were you enrolled in a school on Earth 50?"

"Doctor Hol was home schooling me." She looks uncomfortable. "Do I..? Have to go to school?"

"Have to? No. It will be far more efficient to have the G-Gnomes-. They're the little telepathic-."

"Jean showed me."

"Okay. It'll be far easier to have them load the factual information you need into your mind, and in any case it's probably best to give you time to get used to your new environment. But. Going to school will force you to learn all sorts of essential social skills and give you the chance to build social relationships with children your own age, as well as giving you formal qualifications which may well be useful to you in future." She nods. "But we can worry about exactly how that's going to work later. Come on." I smile at her and transfer my right hand to her back, giving her a small push. "Let's head to the canteen."

She starts moving, opening the door and then walking out into the corridor beyond. "Who else lives here?"

"Myself, Doctor Robbins, Mister Tawny, the Sphere-."

"The Sphere? What's that?"

"Like a circle, but in three dimensions." She turns back to give me a confused look, then gets it and rolls her eyes. "The Sphere is a New Genosian artificial intelligence that can shift between ball and flying bike forms. Then there's the Genomorphs: Jean, the G-Prometheans, and-" The corridor comes out into one of the workshop areas and I point. "-the G-Trolls, G-Gnomes and G-Elves."

She hesitates slightly, but now she knows what they are she isn't worried by them. Excellent. Now, what do we do after breakfast? What did my dad used to do with me?

"Lynne, have you ever flown a kite before?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Triumph of the Will

3rd April
09:26 GMT -5

"Ooookaaaay." Ted taps a couple of buttons on his tablet and then looks up at the… Ah, call it what it is, the stage. "Try the legs?"

Diana leans forwards, stretching her left leg straight backwards as she bends her right at the knee, her hands resting on her right thigh. She bends it a little further, then tries twisting her torso left and then right. Then she stands and bends her right leg behind her, taking hold of her right foot with her right hand.

Io looks her over. "It seems well to me, Princess. How is it to you?"

Diana lowers her right foot to the ground, then spreads her legs apart before bending to her left. "Constricting."

Io's face falls. "Which part, Princess? We can-."

"No, Io, the armor is perfect. It's simply that my normal Wonder Woman armor doesn't cover quite so much. I have become accustomed to the flow of the air across my arms and legs."

Ted starts walking in a circle around her while the motion sensors capture everything for later review. We developed this set up to try and make the computer in my power armour a bit quicker on the uptake, but Ted thought it could help with arcane armour as well. "We've only been talking about the enchantments we could put on it in the theoretical so far. Sephtian could probably come up with.. something if it's a problem for you. Of course… We can only make the matrix so complicated, you know? Might end up…" Head down again, he taps a few more buttons. "We could make a bunch of different versions if you can't decide."

Diana twists and throws a punch to her right, testing how far the armour can accommodate her. "Can you make me faster than a speeding bullet?"

"Top speed in the air, no problem. I mean, you'll want a helmet with a-" He waggles the tablet at his jaw. "-mouthpiece…" He turns to Io. "Io, you don't happen to have a super tough glass or something you haven't told me about, have you?"

"Would aluminium oxynitride not work just as well?"

"For the armor? Sure, but it's a synthetic material so-."

She nods. "It would interfere with the enchantments."

"Yeah." He taps his tablet again. "Maybe. We might be able to persuade the spells to just ignore it…"

Diana stands again and looks down at Io. "How were you able to make this so quickly without Paul's help?"

"The foundries here are far more advanced than those on Themyscira, Princess. Achieving an alloy that is nearly perfect for the transmutation is apparently a simple matter."

"I wouldn't say simple, but-" Ted shrugs. "-yeah. Automating the process of making the rings for the chain was harder. We don't usually have any use for armatures that small."

"That is why the armor I made for the guards on Themyscira makes no use of chain. Without the knowledge of enchanting Sephtian shared it would have taken until the end of the universe for me to transmute all of the links that would require."

"How do you feel about the design?" Ted points to her with his tablet. "We could stick some stars on the skirt if you start missing them."

"No, that won't be necessary." She rises slightly into the air, then drifts down from the stage. "The design is perfect. The armor is beautiful." Io beams, blushing slightly. Ted grins. "I am almost afraid to be struck while wearing it in case it becomes damaged."

Ted nods. "Just because you can take the hits, doesn't mean you have to."

"Who else do you plan to make such armor for?"

"Small wrinkle there."

Ted pulls a face. "Y-eah."

Diana looks at me. "What is it?"

"Senator Clyemne's been agitating again. Currently, we're not supposed to manufacture suits for any military organisation, which.. because Themyscira doesn't separate the military guards from police guards, includes the police."

"She doesn't have the authority to order that."

"It's covered by existing laws about supplying military equipment. We can make it for the Justice League, or other Amazons… Which means we can make some for Kon, Donna or me… Unless Lyta Trevor-Hall feels like coming out of retirement."

"That seems unlikely."

"And then we run into a bit of a roadblock. Themyscira doesn't trade with the outside world, so we can't pay them for the right to sell it. Or, we can, but they've got no use for the money. Giving potentially hostile countries better armour does technically weaken Themyscira's defence… This isn't something where I can just persuade my fellow citizens not to demand that I stop, this is… They'd have to actively change the law to make this possible. And I'm not that popular yet."

"Do you want me to try speaking on your behalf?"

I shake my head. "No, thank you."

Ted raises his right hand. "I wouldn't mind, actually. Oh, I'm not-" He turns his head to me. "-complaining, or anything. Kord Tech's share price doubled within a day of us announcing the weather control drones and our order book is packed, so this whole thing hasn't been a drain on our assets. But I'd like to know this is going to get used by more than a handful of people. Otherwise, I just-" He shrugs. "-feel like I'm kinda wasting my time."

"But it's not just this. I want Amazons to embrace the best of the modern world. Otherwise, we're going to have to fight them on every little thing. I mean, we're not even allowed to mass produce the purple healing ray. It's a gun that shoots life."

"A Nazi gun that shoots life."

"Also." I turn to Diana. "Bit annoyed you didn't tell me about that thing earlier."

Io walks around to join us as Diana shakes her head. "I didn't know that she had a working version in her workshop. Otherwise, I would have brought it to America myself."

"Okay, that.. makes sense." I return my attention to Ted. "And who knows what else they've got squirreled away where no one will ever hear about it."

"Princess? We have a purple healing ray here if you wish to use it on your arms."

Diana shakes her head. "Thank you, Io, but that will not be necessary. The wounds will be gone by tomorrow, and until then they serve as a useful reminder that I am not invulnerable. Paul: how do you plan on convincing our countrywomen to change the habits of three thousand years?"

"Wait until next September? Once the births start I don't think it'll be all that hard to convince people that I'm on the right track. Until then, I still think that increasing familiarity is the way to go. We need more arcane smiths anyway."

Io nods. "I have had three present themselves to me for training, though it will be months before they are ready."

I nod. "But… Then they'd either have to come here or we'd have to set up a modern foundry on Themyscira annnd I know that's a non-starter. We could trade suits to the guard in exchange for letting us sell some here. That just requires me to convince Philippus, and I should be able to do that."

Io looks thoughtful. "Perhaps if we focused more on the mithril type instead? The weight of orichalcum might be more difficult for those who do not share the Princess' strength and stamina. The guard does not use it and the metal is generally considered inferior for weaponry."

"Maybe some of your senators could visit us here?" Ted looks around the workshop. "We do sometimes show politicians around when we're competing for major orders. Io got pretty excited when she saw what we'd be working with-."

"Theodore!" Io glares at him indignantly.

"You did. And Paul.. said most Amazons have tried just about every profession sometime. Maybe it'll work for them?"

Diana nods in approval. "I am glad that you have it so well in hand."

 

[Mr Zoat]

A Star Reborn

12th April
07:27 GMT -6

"You… Completely sure-?"

"Eh-heh eh-heh eh-heh."

Miss Shimmer stares up at me through bleary eyes as her coughing fit comes to an end while her right hand fumbles for the tissue box. Nice to see that her hand usage has improved so much.

"Yeth."

Naturally -being a magically transformed Pony- Miss Shimmer had none of the usual immunities and resistances to local diseases most people take for granted. Or at least have injected into them in early childhood. I had just been giving her a daily purification with my ring, but we talked about it and agreed that bringing her immune system up to scratch was a much better solution.

She may be regretting that now.

"Okay. Aaaah. You know where the intercom is. If you need anything, just-." She presses a button on the control pad and the television comes on.

Oh no, it's Spongebob Squarepants.

"I'll leave you to it, then." I leave her room at a quick-march and close the door behind me. Shame, really. I had been hoping to include her in Thursday's lesson… Oh well. Might still be possible, but she really has to be better for Lynne's birthday.

"I take it that the young lady is little better, Mister Grayven?"

I shake my head. "No." I frown. "Can Genomorphs get ill?"

"Yes, but Human diseases have little effect on us."

She.. visibly hesitates. That's odd. "What is it?"

"I have a request." I wave my right arm in a 'continue' gesture. "A personal one, though I imagine that the results would be of interest to all Genomorphs."

"No need to beat around the bush. What do you want?"

"I wish to know of our origins, Mister Grayven. Through Dubbilex's memories I have seen all of the records relating to the development work done to turn our G-Promethean brethren into the other Genomorph strains. What I do not know is how they were developed. Cadmus has no record of it. I thought that perhaps Mister Luthor may be more willing to divulge the pertinent information to you now that you are a member of the Light."

I nod. Interesting question, actually. They're not direct copies of any species that Father Box or Sinestro have ever heard of and creating them whole cloth should be well beyond Human biotechnology. Or… I suppose a malign hypercognitive could, but I doubt that they would stop there. "I am somewhat curious myself. I can't promise that I'll be able to find anything out, but I will certainly ask him."

She bows. "Thank you, Mister Grayven. Miss Wayland is presently attempting to teach herself remote viewing in the 'rumpus room'. Your meeting with Director Williams is scheduled to begin in two minutes at the Centre for Paranormal Studies in Metropolis."

"Thank you, Jean. Father Box, hush tube."

"Ploong."

I step through the portal in the air and into the hardened room we built into the Mountain for full contact superpower combat practice. Lynne sits with a couple of G-Gnomes and a row of blank white cards lying on the floor.

"Square." She turns over the first, revealing a diamond. "Ohh."

"Poppet, time to go. Are you ready?"

"I guess." She sweeps the cards into a pile and hands them to one of the G-Gnomes. "Is this place really going to be my school?"

"Maybe. Depends…" I extend my right hand and take hold of her right hand to help her to her feet. "If the Genomorphs can find a way to safely teach you things telepathically, I'd rather send you somewhere more normal starting in the next school year. Otherwise, this place is.. probably the best place you could go." I lay my huge left hand over her right, sandwiching it between mine. "Now, if you really hate it, I won't insist. But this isn't like the people who tried to teach you things before. This is a charitable foundation run by civilians."

"I… I know." She looks away. "I just… Okay, let's go."

I'll… Just have to hope that she warms up to the idea. "Father Box."

"Ploong."

A new portal opens, and we step through.

12th April
08:30 GMT -5

Hm. Looks a bit like a hospital reception desk, actually. I lead Lynne in the direction of the receptionist. "Good morning. Grayven and Lynne Wayland to see-."

"Hello there!" We look around to see Director Williams walking towards us, waving his left hand and smiling cheerily. He's about three feet tall and completely bald, wearing what must be a custom lab coat with a shirt, blue jumper vest and navy blue bowtie. "I'm Doctor Williams." He walks closer. "And you must be Lynne."

"Hi?"

She appears to not be quite sure what to make of him. He certainly isn't visibly threatening, which is one of the reasons I think this might actually work. I didn't warn her that he was a dwarf, or tell her that he's a telekine himself. That can be something for her to find out on her own recognisance.

"Now, there's no need to feel nervous. For a lot of our students, coming here is the first time they've met anyone who can do the sorts of things that they can. Now-" He turns away and motions for us to follow with his right arm. "-classes don't start for another half an hour, but a lot of the children here live on site. Why don't I introduce you to a few of them while your father and I have a walk around?"

"Um, okay." Lynne starts after him while I bring up the rear. "Why do they live here?"

"We're the only school like this in the entire country. Our students come from all over, and a lot of the time it isn't really practical for them to go home at the end of the day. Or even at the weekends."

Head that one off… "Lynne, you can always call for a hush tube."

"Oh, uh, most of them do, though. It's actually a major limiting factor in the total number of students we have. Some only come for a few weeks each year, but for the full time students, they either have to be local or… Well, their abilities are so overt that they need our help in learning to control them."

Normal parent question next. "What sort of class sizes do you have?"

"Class sizes for our normal education program range from eight to twelve children, but when it comes to teaching the children to use their paranormal abilities we use much smaller groups. A lot of the time teaching is one to one, so the student's development can be precisely monitored. There's a lot we don't know about how these abilities work, so we put a great deal of emphasis on safety, both for the children and the staff."

Lynne nods. "Do you have..? Other telepaths?"

"Several students have different forms of extra sensory perception. If you mean 'can they speak to each other mind to mind', there are a couple of other children who can do things like that." He smiles up at her. "Would you like to meet them?"

"No." She shakes her head, stopping dead in the corridor. "No. I shouldn't go anywhere near them. If they.. touch my mind by mistake…"

"Ah, yes." He glances at me, then returns his attention to her. "Mister Grayven did.. mention the tragic incident with your parents. But don't worry, everyone here knows not to poke into other people's minds without permission."

"She does have a point, Director. I wouldn't want to needlessly endanger anyone."

"Hm. Ahhh… Ah!" He sets off again with a spring in his step and we follow. "Since not all of our students are capable of conventional telepathy, it wouldn't really be hard to put you in a class where no one else was. At least until your control is good enough that it isn't a problem any more." He knocks on a door, waits for a moment and then pushes it open.

"Hey Doc."

"Good morning, Claire. We've got a visitor. Would you mind looking after her for a little while?"

"Sure. Why not?" The Director steps back as a teenaged girl with astonishingly long and flame-orange hair comes out after him. I get a momentary frown before she turns her attention on Lynne. "Hey."

"Hello?"

"So what are you in for?"

"I'm a telepath. I can turn off people's brains." She pauses, not quite sure where to go from there. "What do you do?"

"I burn stuff." Claire holds up her right hand and it's momentarily enveloped in flame. "Wanna come meet everyone?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Demeanour

18th April
08:06 GMT -5

I slump slightly on the settee, staring blankly at the television screen. I think I'm watching one of those long running American situation comedies, the ones that aren't actually funny but use so much canned laughter they sometimes trick you into forgetting. The Earth 16 version of Two and a Half Men or Everyone Loves Raymond. Or whatever.

"Hey guysssss." The air displacement from Wallace's arrival blows past me. Huh. I'm a little surprised that he's here this early. "Ahh, is Oh El still moping?"

The noise generated by the movement of Kon's pen across his homework momentarily pauses. "Uh huh."

"Oh-kay." Kon's pen resumes its motion as Wallace walks past the kitchen table and into the living area. I don't turn around as he plops himself down in the armchair to my right. "Hey."

"Good morning Wallace."

"What're you watchin'?"

"Whatever this is."

Out of the corner of my eye I see him carefully watching my face, trying to gauge my mood. "Still bummed out about Luthor, huh?"

"Mm."

"You don't think you were being… Kinda optimistic there?"

I sigh. "If only he'd been a little more avaricious."

"I thought Lex Luthor was all about avarice."

"No, he… Isn't."

He leans forwards slightly. "So.. what is it based on?"

"He's… Red, yellow and.. green. The base is red. He's… His core personality was formed in anger. "

"Doesn't seem very angry to me. I've seen pictures… You know, after Superman stopped him doing whatever he was trying to do… He always looks calm, or… A bit angry, but I've seen Uncle Barry's rogues after they get taken down. They get.. seriously angry. Luthor always looks like he's just shrugging it off."

"No, I mean-. He's not angry. I mean, the way he thinks is.. defined by anger. Some time… When he was young, something made him so angry that he's never stopped thinking like that."

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

"In his case… Yeah." I shuffle slightly on my seat. "He picked a fight with Superman when he first arrived in Metropolis because he literally can't stand the idea of there being someone he can't take down. It's like, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Ugliest Man. He can't stand the idea of there being someone looking down on him and judging him."

Kon's pen stops again. "Didn't the Ugliest Man kill God for doing that?"

Wallace blinks. "Huh?"

"In 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' by Friedrich Nietzsche, The Ugliest Man is a nihilist who hasn't learned how to create values or ideals for himself, but has genuinely rejected the ones normal in his society. 'Killing God' is.. probably a metaphor for rejecting the idea of revealed truth. For him, the morality of the church is at best one man's opinion and at worst an active attempt to deceive. But, without it, he can't really function."

"So you're saying… Luthor didn't take your offer because… You're too powerful?"

"I'm not sure. It could be that, it could be because he just can't accept something that good happening. Just.. instinctively suspicious. Or.. it might be that he's genuinely committed to the Light and is just taking the things he doesn't like them doing in his stride." I sag. "I just.. really hoped he would. At this point he's seen enough of what I'm doing to know-. In his head, to know that I mean what I say. He knows that the people I've brought together are producing genuinely revolutionary technology and are actually doing things with it. I should embody the things he likes about the Light better than they do, and without the baggage. It just.. didn't happen."

"What you gunna do now?"

"Nothing I can do. I can't make a stronger pitch than I did yesterday. I'll just… Keep doing what I'm doing and hope he comes around. Which he won't."

"I'm not really seeing how 'less Luthor' is a bad thing."

"He knows how international business works. He's a great organiser and he's genuinely committed to bettering the lot of the Human species. He'd have.. been a great help. But it's not going to happen." I raise my left hand slightly, unnecessarily pointing the ring at the television to turn it off. "So… Yeah. You..? Still on for tomorrow?"

"Psh, ye-ah. You really think my healing potions are something that can… You know, go all the way? I mean, they get a lot less effective if they're a couple of days old. They're not really something you can store."

"Sephtian can probably come up with some sort of enchanted bottle that can get around that. Prevent them losing their potency. Or…" Huh. "We could try seeing what happens when old potions are exposed to the purple healing ray?" I slump. "Sorry, I'm not really feeling the… Uplift revolution at the moment."

"You got a spare one of those purple ray things in your workshop, right?"

"Yeah. Um. All yours. Just.. don't try it on yourself without someone else being there."

"Obviously." He turns to his left, looking at the table where our team mates are hard at work. "You two looking forward to visiting Mars?"

"Um. Kinda… Nervous, actually. Meeting M'gann's family for the first time… Plus I.. can't actually breathe the air on Mars."

"Conner. I'm sure my parents will love you. I'm.. just.. not sure how they're going to feel about me."

Wallace looks puzzled. "Why? Because you haven't seen them for nearly a year?"

"I didn't exactly tell them I was leaving. Uncle J'onn checked with them after he found out I was on his ship, but…"

I half turn on the sofa so that I can actually see them as Kon reaches out with his right hand, laying it on M'gann's left. "They'll be fine. If they were really upset, they'd have said so when he told them."

"I'm…" Her head droops a little. "I'm not sure that them not being worried at all really makes me any happier. When you've got as many brothers and sisters as I have it's easy to get lost in the shuffle."

Wallace turns back to me. "You just dropping them off and coming back..?"

"No. I think… As a Sector Lantern, I should introduce myself to the Martian government. See if there's anything they want me to do for them. And I need to hear officially what they want to do about the whole 'Burning Martian' thing. And, it'll be my first time interacting with an alien civilisation in their own territory. Um, do you have any plans for spring break?"

"You bet I do! Once my homework's done I'm gunna hit the streets of Central City with Uncle Barry. He even said that if things are quiet I can handle it on my own!"

"Shame Artemis, Richard and Zatanna aren't off until next week."

"Yeah. Well." He shrugs. "It was the same last year. Y'know, for Rob."

"Geography done." Kon's pen clatters as he drops it on the table. "I'm free for the rest of the week."

Wallace looks around, frowning. "Seriously?"

Kon shrugs. "What can I say? The Genomorphs were pretty thorough."

"You know, they were looking for Human volunteers for knowledge implantation. If you're interested..?"

"Aaaaaaah…. Think I'll pass."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Family Day

21st April
21:03 GMT -5

"This is yah last warning, Tetch! Come out with your hands up or we come in an' drag you out!"

I've no idea how he managed it, but the deranged criminal somehow built a giant teacup in a disused warehouse along the Gotham waterfront. Gas fired flames lick the bottom, heating the cup and the tea therein to scalding temperatures. Around the edge are the bound girls who were nearly but not quite what the crazed man's madness said that he needs in order for the world to start making sense. He used his hat to mind control them here-. Well, not mind control exactly. It turns out that his hats just make people very suggestible rather than flat out controlling them. Whatever. Hat-persuaded the girls to come here, bound them and then turned it off.

Naturally, they all screamed up a storm and he stumbled off in confusion to find someone else.

"But we're all having such a delightful tea party. No Humpty Dumpty allowed!"

"They never take it." Detective Bullock draws his revolver before holding his phone up to his cheek. "Montoya, you in place yet?"

"Excuse me, Detective."

Bullock glances at Miss Shimmer, who has left the small cluster of people watching the unfolding confrontation. Her hair gets a flicker of a frown but she doesn't look enough like an Alice in Wonderland character to attract actual alarm so he ignores her. "Yeah? I dunno. Because there's a camera on the door and if I have them kill the power-. Yeah, well he's not here, so I guess the police are gunna-."

Miss Shimmer reaches the end of her patience and pokes him in his considerable gut with her right forefinger.

"What! No, not you, some kid. Hang on." He lowers the phone. "The only reason I'm not bustin' you for interferin' with an investigation is I got eight little girls to rescue from a nut job an' that takes priority."

"Oh. Well, is there any way I can help?"

"You live around here? You got any idea how I could sneak inside and put a couple a' rounds through that sicko's head?"

"No. But-" She opens her guitar case and takes out the contents. "I do have a sniper gun that can shoot through walls. Would that help?"

Bullock's eyes widen. "Holy Mother of God. Where the hell did you get that?"

"Grayven. And I have a concealed carry permit."

"Grayven?" He makes the connection. "The guy who-." He looks the gun over. "You know how to use that thing?"

"Not really." She holds it out to him. "Do you?"

"Uhh…" He takes hold of it, resting the stock against his shoulder and peering into the target scanner. He then turns it in the direction of the warehouse. Having designed the weapon myself, I know that the scanner will immediately detect and highlight life forms in the direction it's pointed it. Actual marksmanship isn't required, the barrel only exists to let the coilgun round build up speed. It's the teleport function which makes the projectile hit the target. "Okay. One guy moving around-."

"If you press that button you can hear what he's saying."

Bullock frowns slightly, then presses the button.

"-above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky!"

He shifts the phone to his shoulder. "Montoya, I got a shot." He hesitates.

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh, guess I just got used t' the Bat handlin' these."

Miss Shimmer frowns. "So… Are you.. not a police officer, or something? I thought your job was to keep people safe, but if you're completely dependent on a man who dresses up like a bat-."

There's a sudden crack, and inside the warehouse Tetch crumples and falls back into his own tea vat.

Bullock lowers his gun. "I get by." He holds the gun out to Miss Shimmer. "Thanks."

"Oh no. You can keep it. In fact-" She holds out a business card. "-please give this to the Commissioner. Just in case he's interested in getting more like it."

Behind me, I hear a soft sound as someone who thinks that he's silent lands on the roof.

"I'll keep that in mind." Bullock looks at her, as if he suspects that there's something else going on but can't quite work out what it is. Then he shakes his head and hurries in the direction of the warehouse.

"Grayven."

"Batman. Nice night for it."

"You're using children as arms dealers."

I turn, smiling. "Oh, you of all people don't get to rag on me about that. Miss Shimmer is better equipped, better protected, older and engaged in less dangerous work than Richard was when you first took him out with you."

He walks closer, taking a moment to look at the people gathered below. "Is Tetch dead?"

"Hmm." Sinestro? Ah, I see. "Wait for it, wait for-. Yes."

"He was a sick man."

"Yes." I nod. "Yes he was."

"He was off his medication. I could have taken him in alive."

"Was he off his medication last time as well?" He glares. "And the time before that? Seven deaths total, all young girls. Maybe you should stop thinking of the medicated version of him as being the real him and recognise him for the deranged murderer he really is." I tilt my head to the side for a second. "Was. Anyway, Detective Bullock identified himself as an armed police officer and had a reasonable belief that innocents were in danger. No crime happened on my side."

"You could have stopped him even easier than I could."

"I can't be everywhere. Time the Gotham police learned to stand on their own two feet, far as I'm concerned. They carry guns, I'm giving them better, more precise guns. But hey! You're doing better than Aquaman. He'd have punched me in the face by now."

"Don't think I'm not tempted."

"Don't recommend it. But if you've got time to moan at me over a perfectly legal police action-."

"Is that what Darfur was?"

"No, but as I said to Guy, the government was okay with genocide so I don't consider their laws to be binding. And I didn't see you coming up with anything better and it did both stop the fighting and punish the guilty. But enough of something we're never going to agree on." I smile. "I have a story for you."

I give him a moment, but he doesn't appear to want to interject.

"One day a man named Jack Napier goes on holiday to the great city of Metropolis, taking a few of his closest friends with him."

"The Jack Napier you crippled. You did that intentionally, didn't you?"

"Rather than splitting him in half? Yes, pulling my punches was intentional. Anyway, he goes to Metropolis and pays a visit to a famous tourist landmark: the Daily Planet building. And while he's there, he connects drums full of Smilex to the ventilation system and sets it off! Lois Lane dies with a smile on her face. Perry White, same thing. James Olsen, Steven Lombard, William McCalman… All dead. Some guy called Clark Kent was out on assignment at the time, but everyone else? Gone. Mister Napier goes into hiding, pursued by your good self, Superman, and some new guy called Magog. Magog was Superman-level strong and tough and he had this laser.. trident.. thing."

"And for once? It's the police who find the criminal first. Heck, they even capture him without any fatalities, which was a near miracle. So, the three superheroes stand there watching them drag him off, and? Magog raises his trident and with a snarl incinerates him. Then he hands his trident to your good self and surrenders to the police. The case goes to trial quickly and he pleads not guilty. When the prosecutor puts him on the stand to query that, he says 'I'm glad I did it'."

I raise my eyebrows.

"Wanna guess how the story ends?"

Batman's jaw tenses. "The jury agreed with him and he was acquitted."

"No." I shake my head. "No. Oh, they acquitted him alright. But that's very much not how the story ends."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Zigzag

29th April
10:58 GMT +2

Jade looks around at the bustle of activity all across the archaeological dig site. "It's certainly classier than anywhere I've been on a date before. Not sure about the food…"

I shrug, left hand holding onto the box whose strap is slung over my left shoulder. "I can take you to somewhere in Shiruta afterwards. I should warn you though… I'm quite popular there. We might not get much privacy."

Though it hasn't been a priority of his reign so far, Adom is well aware of the value of tourism to the Kahndaqi economy. He also knows the location of a great many valuable sites that have been lost in history, though I know for a fact that there have been clashes with Cairo University's Archaeology department about how to treat them. For an archaeologist, historical sites should be preserved as much as possible. For Adom, a place sacred to the gods he worships should be repaired, repainted and put back into use. What exactly is to become of the now partially buried Temple of Zehuti hasn't been agreed on, but for now it serves our purpose nicely.

I frown as we head towards the recently excavated entrance. "I.. thought you said you didn't want to-."

"I didn't say we were. But this is."

"Look, I've had enough criticism about my romantic intention communication failures that-."

"I never said that I wouldn't flirt with you." She's not looking at me, but she is smiling.

I look directly at her, then wave at the archaeology student beyond her who's excitedly pointing his camera phone at us. "I said I was interested, you said it was against your professional ethics."

"It is. We were the League of Shadows, not the League of Ninja.. Escorts."

"But you're not as assassin any longer." That gets an eyebrow. "Not professionally. This is a.. hobby thing. The rule doesn't need to apply if you don't want it to."

We pass under the awning and start down the slope into the Temple proper. "Date with Sivana go that badly, huh?"

"There was a near-unstoppable time travelling gravity manipulator and Thaddeus Junior and Georgia stole everything from my subspace pocket." Jade stops and this time looks at me with genuine alarm. I shrug. "They gave it back, but it was pretty unnerving."

Got back everything the breach of the warehouse complex didn't completely burn up or melt to sludge, anyway. After their mother glowered at them for a while I got what certainly sounded like a genuine apology… Which -given how they normally behave- is probably all I can hope for.

I pull ahead of Jade slightly as we reach the first chamber. "Beautia and I will be meeting up again. I just want to be clear that you have… First refusal." She doesn't say anything. "How's the bodyguarding thing going?"

"It pays the bills."

"No problems with the other henchmen?"

"Not after they found out I'd been to Belle Reve. Besides, I'm not supposed to get involved in the 'family business'. I'm just temptation-free protection for the boss's daughter." Her face stills for a second, and the next thing I know her sai is out, fully extended at thin air. Her eyes have narrowed. "I know you're there."

"Between you an' the Bat, think I need to work on me hidin' spells."

John… Appears. It isn't the shift that I saw when Thaddeus turned off the invisibility generator. The best way I can describe it is the reverse of what Granny Weatherwax did in Masquerade. Parts of wall and floor I was perfectly aware that I was seeing before suddenly come together in my mind as being parts of John. He holds his hands open and to the sides, trying to make clear that he isn't a threat while at the same time not deigning to pay her knife much attention.

Wait a second. No cigarette. The rings run full scans on our surroundings, bands of orange light running swiftly over everything. My rune stone comes out of one of my pouches and I turn up my empathic vision, taking a good look in all directions.

"What's wrong with you?"

"No cigarette." The stone is glowing… John usually makes it glow brightly, but the Scholars of Zehuti were big magic users back in Adom's time. This whole place sets it off. Scans don't show anything I wasn't expecting.

"Oh, come on. I can go five fuckin' minutes." His hands and eyebrows flick up for a moment in appeal at the gross slur on his personal habits.

"Almost certainly him."

"So does that mean I put the knife down, or stab him twice just to make sure?"

John smiles, right hand patting the left of his coat before tensing up and lowering itself again. "Where'd you find this one?"

"'This one' grew up in Gotham City." Jade lowers her sai and returns it to her coat. "John Constantine. The League had a file on you."

"Oh yeah?" The left side of his mouth turns upwards. "Anything good?"

Zatanna walks through from the inner chamber. "No one who has a file on you has anything good to say about you. I thought you realised that."

"Charmin'." He looks around the room, then turns and ambles towards the doorway to the inner chamber. "Adom's warmin' up the wards. We can get started in a mo."

Jade nods, then glances at me. "And the defences here are good enough..?"

I shrug. "If you know somewhere better…"

Zatanna nods. "We don't know enough about what we're up against to judge it perfectly. But this temple is as well protected as anywhere else we could go without rousing even more suspicion."

Adom stands as we enter, his normal black and gold costume covered by white robes. A display of modesty before one of the gods empowering him. Not something he does for anyone else. There's a smell of burned perfume in the air. "My preparations are complete. We may speak freely."

John nods, then looks at me. "Did'ja get it?"

I open another pouch and pull out a Golden Apple. "I asked when we were dumping Apollo in a pig pen."

"She ask what it was for?"

"I said it would be a surprise. She didn't seem to think it was such a big deal. Apparently she's got a whole grove of them."

"An' that'll work, will it?"

"We'll find out." Filaments take hold of my box, pulling out the prototype elemental rifle I received from Sephtian's workshop. "In theory, it's this simple." The Apple flickers as my constructs push, then deforms as the gold it's made of says that it should. The metal stretches over the chamber of the gun, making it the most bling firearm I've ever held. I hold it out to Jade, who takes it, works the mechanism then nods.

Zatanna makes a small beckoning gesture with her right hand and a small stone rises off the floor. "Dleihs fo redro."

A small golden barrier forms around the stone as it hovers in the air. Order magic isn't Zatanna's speciality, but we've been studying what Nabu might be able to do so much that she's picked up a few things.

Jade raises the gun to her shoulder, sights and fires. The stone explodes, its arcane shield doing nothing at all. She lowers the rifle.

Zatanna looks at her cautiously. "Remember, the aim isn't to kill him. He's holding my Dad-."

"I know." Jade nods. "My job is to disrupt his spells unless ordered otherwise. Then shoot to wound."

I nod. "You've had plenty of time to look over our plan so far. What do you think?"

"It's… Basically well thought out. But as far as the ideal outcome goes, I'm worried about what happens if your arcane mana draining device doesn't do the job. I think you need-."

I nod, looking down. I was worried it would come to that.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Bindings

11th May
13:58 GMT

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Guy looks around from his place on the far side of the Justice League's meeting table as Diana and I walk towards it. "Hey Orange. Welcome t'the club."

I.. slow slightly, but continue my approach as Diana walks over to her place near the table's head. "Club?"

Superman nods. "I suppose you could put it like that."

Batman's here, as are the other Lanterns, Major Adams, William Batson, Mister Freeman, Mister Yao, King Orin and.. Nabu. If Mister Allen and Mister J'onzz were here I'd make a comment about this being the League's top tier. For a moment I worry that my talk last month resulted in half of the League getting fired.

Batman looks up from his datapad for a moment. "Take a seat."

That makes me stop. On the near side the occupied seat furthest from the head of the table is occupied by Nabu. Fortunately, there are more empty places on the far side. Giving Nabu a wide berth, I walk around the open end of the 'U' and pull out the seat next to Guy before looking in to the League members' faces and trying to work out what's going on. Diana orders me somewhere, I go there, but a little more information would have been helpful.

"Orange Lantern." Batman presses a button and a blue holographic globe appears in the middle of the 'U', rotating slowly on its axis. There are a large number of markers on it, some green, some yellow and a few red. "Do you know what these represent?"

Ring? Hm. Some are military bases, some I can't scan... Those could be secure government sites of some kind. Countries marked are the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain...

"Are they nuclear weapon launch sites?"

Batman inclines his head slightly. "This is a list of the locations of every launch-capable nuclear warhead on Earth which we have been able to discover."

"Do their owners know that you know this?"

Superman tilts his head to his left for a moment. "We haven't told them, but that doesn't mean that they don't suspect that we know."

Diana smiles faintly as she looks at me. "The reason I asked you here today-."

And it clicks into place. "Is that in the event of a nuclear war it's our job to stop them."

This time Batman nods. "Essentially, yes. Intercepting-" The globe moves and various military vehicles and missiles appear. "-aircraft and missiles requires a very particular power set, including but not limited to supersonic flight and the ability to absorb and inflict significant damage." I glance across at King Orin, then back at Batman. "The Atlantean military monitors all sea-based nuclear launch platforms."

"It's a little more than that, Batman." Orin turns to me. "We also have battle mages on hand who could disable or sink them at short notice." A wry smiles plays over his lips. "A job which the recent popularity of anti-scrying wards hasn't made any easier."

"Sorry, sir."

"It's not your fault. Something like this was inevitable, eventually. I won't really start to worry until they start using wards strong enough to actually keep us out."

Superman nods. "I can sympathise. It surprised me quite how quickly the army took advantage of the fact that I can't see through lead."

I remember that in the comic which featured Fernus the Burning they had to intercept a group of nuclear missiles launched by the American military. They missed one, but that was with a seven person League and zero notice. I turn to my left. "I thought you Greenies weren't allowed-?"

Jordan scowls. "What, you really think we prioritize being in the Corps over all life on Earth?"

John nods. "We checked, and we think we'd have about half an hour before our rings were deactivated. Short range nuclear miss'les only take minutes to reach their targets. Even Salaak can't revoke our status that fast."

Guy rolls his eyes. "Oh, good job, now you said it out loud."

Then... I can't help but look over at Major Adams. I'm not sure exactly what rules he's acting under these days, but to my inexpert ears this is starting to sound a bit.. treasony.

He notices. "I'm not about to see millions of Americans die if I can prevent it. And they can only arrest me if there's still a government left."

"Ah, alright, well, I'm in. Haven't really... Thought about this much. Do we.. each have a.. sector, or..?"

Batman shakes his head. "Given how quickly we predict that events would occur, that just isn't practical. Since most League members are based in the US-" The globe stops rotating and icons showing the 'home locations' of the League members present appear. "-we would most likely be relying on Doctor Fate and the Lanterns to cover the rest of the world. Realistically, I doubt that even under favorable conditions we would be able to stop all of the missiles, but every one destroyed en route or prevented from launching will spare the lives of tens of thousands of people."

I nod. "Have you discussed more... Aggressive action against launch sites? It would be... Far faster to destroy them than to disable them."

William takes a steadying breath. He really doesn't look comfortable. "Have you ever seen the film 'War Games'?"

"Not all the way through, but.. I'm... Assuming you're referring to the opening scene where the launch operator wasn't prepared to fire despite receiving valid orders."

"So..." He shrugs. "How do you know the guy who's been ordered to fire is actually gunna do it? And if we don't stop all of them, well... We're gunna have to do a lot of work... Afterwards. People probably expect us to try and stop the missiles, but if we actually attack someplace then people might start seeing us as the enemy."

He does have a point. I could probably tell whether or not the people in a particular silo or onboard a particular plane would actually do it, but not from a great distance and not quickly enough to go from place to place for each of the thousands of sites worldwide. Personally, I think it would be more sensible to just do it, but... No, if this happens we'd have to start immediately. A limited exchange wouldn't necessarily result in all out war. Unless someone started destroying their launch sites. And by the time everywhere got their go-codes...

Batman nods again. "In the event of all out war, if even one percent of the nuclear powers' devices reached their targets-"

The world hologram changes, showing arcs representing nuclear weapons flying from their points of origin. First strike weapons like ICBMs and fighter-mounted missiles streak ahead. Ninety nine in every hundred wink out... A hundred and fifty are left. I remember that belligerent powers generally don't target population centres. The UK does because Trident's got poor accuracy, but the US and Russia generally point theirs at military and government targets. Of course, those are usually located in cities. Looks like the League think that India and Pakistan have the same lack of precision.

"-the immediate death toll might well be in the region of one billion people. In the aftermath, as the only active Lantern on Earth we would be relying on you to do what you could to minimise the effects of the dust clouds. A nuclear winter which destroyed that year's harvest would kill even more people than the initial nuclear exchange."

"You know, if... " I glance left. "If you'd be out of the Corps anyway... There's really no reason not to let Alan recharge himself. I mean, I could do the whole planet eventually but this is something that needs to be done as quickly as possible."

Guy and Jordan nod. Stewart glances at Jordan first, then nods as well. Jordan leans forwards to make eye contact with me. "Not sure how much time we'd have, but sure. We can try doing that." His jaw moves slightly to the left and his eyes drop to the table for a moment. "Look, I've never been 'okay' with the way that the Guardians insisted on freezing Alan out. It just wasn't my call to make."

I shake my head. "Never thought it was."

Batman waits a moment to see if we want to say anything else, then presses on. "You will be required to memorize the locations displayed on the screen, though given that you have eidetic memory that shouldn't prove too difficult. We meet here once a month to go over any changes in our target locations. Since we started these meetings the world hasn't come close to a nuclear exchange. In the event that it did, we would meet more frequently. It should go without saying that you are not to tell anyone about this."

"Thank you for not phrasing it as an order, sir, but yes. I realised." Do I ask? "Sir, there are things I could do to make it easier to stop an exchange. Laser drones placed along likely flight paths, that sort of thing? Do you want me to look into it?"

"No. I do not believe that a nuclear exchange is likely to occur in the immediate future, and the damage that would be caused to both the League and to international relations if your efforts were discovered makes it too much of a risk."

Major Adams nods. "He's right. Remember how the Russians acted when President Phillips tried restarting the Strategic Defense Initiative?"

I nod. Not 'Phillips' of course, but I do. "Very well, sir. Thank you for trusting me with this. If the worst happens, you won't find me wanting."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Escalation

15th May
10:37 GMT -6

"Okay, now, just sort of… Lean forwards a bit?"

Harleen tries to follow my instruction, starts to drift and then immediately straightens up again. I suppose it's a bit like using a Segway. All your instincts tell you that you're about to fall over, despite the fact that that's very unlikely.

I smile encouragingly. "Okay, and again?"

For a second she looks up at me, then her eyes drop back down to the ground. Which is about a metre away. "This ain't easy, y'know. How long did it take you t'learn, anyways?"

"I got the basics after half an hour or so." That earns me a minor scowl. "But, I had been flying with the ring for months before that, so I'd got used to the whole 'being in the air apparently unsupported' thing. Look, it's pretty much impossible for anything to go wrong. Even if you just fall out of the air, hitting the ground won't hurt. The belt absorbs kinetic energy."

"I dunno. That shuwer sounds like somethin' that'd hurt."

I hold up my hands, pull the left ring off with my right hand and then pull the right ring off with my left. I then stow them both in one of the chest pouches in my overalls. "There we go. Just the belt holding me up. Next?"

I flip over, the sky spinning across my field of vision until I can see the ground again. Ugh, that always feels weird when I do it without the rings. The kinetic belt has some inertial stabilising but it's got nothing on a proper environmental shield. Then I shoot forward, accelerating rapidly and boong, ramming face first into the grass-covered ground.

There's a sharp intake of breath from my flying-buddy.

"And I'm fine." Precise manoeuvring with these things is more difficult than large movements, but I twist around while still balancing on my head. "See? No problem."

"Okay." She blinks. "That's a thing."

"You wanna try?"

"I think I'll stick t'normal flyin'."

"Well, go on then."

"Oooooh… Kaaaaay?" She leans forwards in the air, accelerating slowly forwards and upwards. "How'm I doin'?"

"Like a toddler on her first tricycle, but you're going forwards and that's the main thing." I clench slightly, causing my own belt to reverse me back upwards. Then I twist, briefly moving to a position parallel to the ground before accelerating up to Harleen. "Come on! It's really instinctive. Inasmuch as there is a trick, it's to not think about it too much. I mean… You were a gymnast. You didn't think about where every part of your body was the whole time, did you?"

"Okay, but-" She moves her right forefinger into lecture position. "-if this goes wrong you bettuh catch me."

"I won't need to. Unless you fly into a laser or an electricity pylon-" I look around, seeing none of either. "-you're pretty much proof against anything that could hurt you."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then leans forwards and jerks her hands back. Immediately she accelerates forward, forcing me to duck and dive to avoid being hit. "Wwaaahhhoooooo!"

I hold my right hand up to my mouth as she rockets away. "See!" Uh. Maybe I should get after..? Yes, yes I should. I assume the position and fly along in her wake as she powers through the sky… Well, so close to the ground perhaps I should say through the air, above the Kisatchie National Forest. She seems to be enjoying 'forwards' well enough, but the tree line is coming up and-.

She looks back. "This is great!"

"Pull up! Pull up!"

"Huh?" She turns her head to face forwards. "Ah!" She leans back, probably trying to stop. Unfortunately for her, the belt interprets that a desire to change direction, so rather than going at about fifty miles an hour straight forwards she's now going fifty miles an hour straight up. "Agh!" She flails briefly in surprise, then calms down a little and gets herself back under control, slowing to a stop about a mile above the forest canopy.

I follow after her at a slightly reduced rate, giving her a moment to get used to being in the air and to appreciate the view. She glances my way as I come up alongside her. "Well?"

"That was… Heh." She's panting, but the smile on her face says 'excitement' rather than 'terror'. "That was pretty great. Hah."

"Okay, next lesson: flying into the ground at full speed."

"Oh no. No." She shakes her head definitively. "That ain't happenin'."

I lean back in the air, lounging on nothing. "Alright. What do you want to do next?"

Another deep breath. "I wanna…" She nods to herself. "I.. wanna talk aboud last night. While I'm still buzzin' with adrenaline an' not.. fellin' self conscious aboud it."

"Okay." I nod. "Reasonable. Eris is-."

"Tha Greek Goddess of Chaos. An' you work fer Wonder Woman so I guess it makes sense, you knowin' her."

"I.. am actually a Hellenist. I do literally worship her."

"But that don't explain what she wuz doin' showin' up at my house, an'… Dressed.. in that."

"How.. blunt do you want me to be?"

She gives me a flat look. "Hey, I'm a counsellor heyah."

"Okay. I asked her to find a particular arcane artefact for me, and the owner was available to negotiate with right then. As to why she was dressed like that, I'm… I've been somewhat reticent on matters of romance and sex. Depending on how the mood takes her, she finds that either amusing or irritating. She dressed like that as a wind up."

"Ooh. That makes sense. I mean, she's still kind of a bitch, but…"

"Yeah." I clear my throat, momentarily averting my gaze. "Also… She wants me to end my reticence… Deliberately."

Harleen frowns, baffled. "How d'ja mean 'deliberately'? Like, you can't fall on someone?"

"No, she means that I have to deliberately choose a particular person, not just… Go with the flow in a way I don't find objectionable. Can you believe that I didn't actually pick up on the fact that you were propositioning me?"

"Oh." She looks more puzzled than offended. "Rilly? 'Cause I thought I was bein' pretty direct there."

"Yeah. I mean, I see it now, it just-. At the time, it didn't…" I sigh. "Okay, did I ever tell you that I'm a metahuman? I don't mean the rings, I mean…" I make a circling motion with my right hand.

"No." She shakes her head. "What, you got a power and power rings?"

"Not exactly. I got my power as a result of the power rings. I'm empathic. I perceive the emotions of those around me as coloured light. Most.. importantly, I see love as violet light. Last time someone propositioned me I knew… Because I could see… Violet. They were interested in me, emotionally… So it made sense that they might want to have sex with me. You… You're not violet. Not even a little bit."

"Well… We don't know each other that well. I mean… If you wan'ed to wait…"

"The question is not.. why I don't. I can or not. My question is, why do you? I'm pleasant company and I'm good looking, but would you be enjoying this flying any.. more, if we'd had sex last night? At the.. restaurant in New York, you mentioned a teacher at Gotham University in the same breath as Doctor Strange. Then you said that you just needed to find a guy who wasn't a jerk. If I turned my empathic vision up, would I see myself filling that hole?"

"Huh." She looks me over with notably less enthusiasm. "Didn't think you were that insecuwah."

"I'm not. I'm concerned for you. Not only do you not love me, there's no flicker that could become true love. You're not particularly libidinous, so it's not just the endorphin release from sex that you're looking for. Why do you want me? Given.. your history… Do you.. really think that another.. relationship with a man is.. a solution? Eris considers going with the flow to be a sin, and I.. kind of see what she means. If you're just looking for the next Strange-."

"Oh, go t' hell!"

She turns face down and drops through the sky, tears leaking from her eyes.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Undermined

10th June
14:57 GMT -5

Ted leans closer to me as we wait off-stage.

"We're good to go, right?"

I take a moment to look at one of the television screens showing the crowd of people gathered in front of the stage set up outside New York's newest power plant. Quite a lot of people. Journalists and technology correspondents mostly, and a few people who were invited specifically. I gave Boris a lift here at his request, and I think I've got an inkling that a station like this will be on his wish list. Diana's here as well as a show of support for me and my work and Alan arm-twisted an invitation from someone at his old agency. Just about everyone else I know is either at school or at work.

"Ted, the only thing that I can check which you can't is the generators themselves."

"Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm so worried? Usually before one of these presentations I keep myself busy checking everything but this place is so simple that I've got nothing to do."

"You check everything?"

"Uh-huh."

"Don't you… Own the company?"

"Technically the shareholders do." He sets his jaw to the side as he thinks about it. "Though I have been thinking of buying back an absolute majority. Y'know, given the work we're doing… Just in case some of them turn out to be evil or something."

"Stupid worries me more than evil, but whatever you think best." Naturally, I've bought enough KordTech shares that we command an absolute majority between us. He's right; given the work we're doing, anything less would be foolish. Having Lex Luthor or Edwin Alva or… Some other business villain trying to stick their oar in would be irritating. I haven't told him because I don't want to look like I'm muscling in on his thing. Also… Because -and I don't like to think this- at some point I might need to nudge him out. Or at least into a different role. He really isn't temperamentally inclined to let the people beneath him do their jobs. In a small company, that's great. In a large company… Lex Luthor doesn't spend time in the flipping post room because he worries about falling out of touch.

Agh, and I feel bad about doing it. He's such a nice guy.

"You guys about ready?" Mayor Bloomberg raises his eyebrows slightly as he looks at us. "Because at this point it's kind of late not to be."

Last check… "Everything's ready to go, sir. The system functions as designed."

"I hope you don't mind me not cutting the city off from the nation's power supply just yet, Orange Lantern."

"Oh no, sir. To be honest…" I look at the screens again. "I'm half-expecting a supervillain attack the moment you throw the switch."

This whole thing has actually gone okay, potential supervillain threat notwithstanding. I mean, our project to rewire New York is nothing like complete. The substations are all done, but there are still people with houses covered in lead paint so I'm not exactly surprised that we haven't gotten around to rewiring everyone's homes in the time available to us. But we do have an agreement from the mayor that all future wiring will be made from Jovium and since we're the only source of the stuff that pretty much gives us a monopoly. All in all, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about this whole thing.

"Is there some information you didn't pass on to the New York Police Department?"

Ted looks confused. "How would that help?" Mayor Bloomberg looks mildly affronted. "I mean, Orange Lantern's here and Wonder Woman's in the audience. And there are already police all around."

There were a few protests around the site as Ted's people put it together, mostly amateur physicists who want me to believe they know anything about the Bleed and its potential dangers. Reminds me a bit about the people who went to court to try and stop the Large Hadron Collider being turned on in the belief that it stood a significant chance of creating a black hole. A few were families of people employed in conventional energy generation protesting about the jobs we'll be destroying. I don't feel bad about coal, gas or oil based production, but harming research into other forms of power does rather go against my stated aims.

"No, Mister Mayor. It's just that in my line of work supervillains tend to just… Show up. Um, we're ready when you are."

Mayor Bloomberg huffs. "You realise that I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for supervillains the whole time now?"

I shake my head. "I'm probably just being paranoid, sir." Um. "But just in case." I take a small portable force field generator and hand it to him. "You may want to clip this onto your jacket."

"A-?" He stares at me for a moment, before attaching it to his lapel. "Alright then. I think we're about ready to start."

I nod, and lead the way out onto the stage. No flashes. Ah, to have been alive in the age of flash photography. I still remember the little flash cube thing I used on my first camera. My last camera too, as it happened. Never could be bothered to put them in albums. Think I ended up throwing the lot out.

I stop at the podium emblazoned with the KordTech logo and look out at the crowd, making a point of making eye contact with Alan and Diana. Then I return my gaze to the approximate middle of the crowd. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming. It's, ah… It's been a little under five months since I announced that I was getting into the power generation business. A little less than that since Mayor Bloomberg was kind enough to allow us to use New York City as the first location to build one of these. And in a minute or so, you'll be able to see the system formally connected to the New York electrical grid."

No supervillains as yet. Promising.

"Now, I've been hearing…" I look theatrically over at where the protestors are standing at the far side of the fence. "One or two complaints at my use of alien technology to… One moment." I pull a copy of the Washington Post out of subspace and make sure the title piece is visible as I rifle through it until I come to the interview. "'Unfairly distort the energy supply market in this country, and reduce the ability of other parties to remain competitive.'" I shrug theatrically, paper in hand. "I'm sorry, I thought we were running businesses in a free market economy here! I didn't realise I was supposed to hobble myself so you can keep doing what you've been doing for the last… Hundred years? Human civilisation is crying out for better sources of energy. I'm not stopping anyone else doing what I've done. But I sure hope I'm stopping people who were planning on sitting on their arses. Ah." I switch my hands to a 'hold on' position. "I'm sorry, American audience. Their asses. Asses."

That gets a small laugh.

"Innovate or… Expect to go out of business. Part of the reason why I got involved in building this place is so that I can light a fire under the energy sector. And every year they don't come up with something that will let them compete, I'll open more. Our order book will be full for the foreseeable future. Get to work. Innovate. You've had decades and the most exciting thing that's happened recently is that you've learned to get oil out of sand." I nod a couple of times. "Very twenty first century. Sand… Really makes me feel space aged."

"We're only going to be providing part of New York's power for the next four months while we assure people that there aren't any problems with the system. After that, we'll be taking over all power supply for the whole city… And maybe a little beyond that. Anyone living in that area can expect to see their bills cut to one tenth, and we'll be investing that profit into charge points for electrical cars. Because it's going to be cheaper to fill up a battery than a petrol…" I frown. "Hang on, I have an app for this." I pull out my phone and press a few buttons. "Gas, yes, because it's a liquid and that makes perfect sense. Electricity will be a lot cheaper than gas."

I think I just saw Boris write something in his notebook.

"I'm not doing this for the money. Not only am I rich already, I don't get paid for this. Not one penny of the profit for this enterprise comes to me. I'm doing this in an attempt to kick start Human technological progress. To make sure that we have a tech-base fit for a twenty-first century space age civilisation. I don't want this to be a.. just-me thing." I bring my hands to my chest. "That defeats the object. I want lots of people to try and do the sorts of thing that I am. Human scientists with the knowledge power companies need in order to keep up with me are out there. So, to my competitors… Go find them."

"And now, to press the big red button and connect us to the New York power grid, please give a warm welcome to Mayor Bloomberg!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Titanfall

18th June
13:52 GMT -3

Shock.

Stillness.

Queen Mera is avoiding looking at anyone. I don't know what she's thinking. I doubt that she's thinking of the equivalence between King Orin's relationship with Kako and his mother's relationship with Thomas Curry. I can see the violet strands linking them. Theirs isn't a political marriage as his mother's was. I hope that when I considered the recent history of an elder surface-born son inheriting the throne in place of the Atlantean-born heir presumptive, I was worrying unnecessarily.

King Orin himself is staring at me, though his eyes aren't precisely-

"How long have you known?"

-focused. I could ask exactly what part he was asking about, but under the circumstances I think that an open and honest answer would serve us best.

"I discovered Koryak's existence and probable parentage ten months ago."

That focuses him. "And you didn't think to tell me!?"

I look him directly in the eyes. "Sir, I didn't know that you didn't know until just then. Early in my stay on this Earth I discovered any number of things that I would imagine people would rather I didn't share. So unless I've got a mission-related reason to do so-."

I watch as his jaw clenches, biting down his initial response. A moment later he's got a slightly better grip. "We'll.. table this for now." He turns his head left, towards the Atlantean officers. "Do we have communications with the surface yet?"

One of them nods. "Telephone only, majesty. The zeta tube won't be repaired for another hour. The Saremites knew exactly what to damage in order to wreck it."

King Orin closes his eyes for a moment before glaring at me. "I assume that you have her phone number?"

I nod. "Yes."

He takes a deep breath, then turns to Mister Kent. "I'll speak with Kako, but I think it would help if Batman and Fate visited the scene. If it really was my brother, he doesn't know much about surface world criminal investigation techniques."

"Majesty, I-." Another Atlantean officer hesitantly speaks up. "I don't see how it could be P-. The former Prince Orm. We all saw him dead."

"There are ways to come back from that."

"If my brother had been dealing with Demons-!"

"The Lazarus Pit." King Orin stops immediately he hears Queen Mera speak. "I performed an arcane reading of the zombies as the attack began. I had hoped to be able to undo whatever spell animated them. There were two distinct forms welded together to grant them their unnatural animation. One, water magics such as any Atlantean battlemage might command. The other, I did not immediately recognise." She looks at me. "The only thing I have felt like it was the samples of material taken from Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit which you sent to the Conservatory."

Diana nods. "If Ra's al Ghul did show Orm how to create Lazarus Pits, he could well have had one prepared in advance of his execution."

I knew that was going to happen! As soon as the body disappeared, I knew-! Ra's had been hoarding the knowledge, but if he started teaching people… We can't rely on anyone staying dead. I'm going to have to suggest that the League formally recommend that all executions include the body of the deceased being… Rendered mystically inert or something. And I'm going to have to talk to Nyssa about tracking down every single potential Lazarus Pit location on the Earth. If that's… Even how they work here.

I suppose logically there's no reason to assume it was Ra's. Nyssa does work for Lex Luthor. And several League of Shadow members would have the required knowledge. No. Ra's… That actually makes a lot of sense. I had thought it strange, how quickly Ra's was able to hide from ring scans. What if he just went to Orm? Orm would have any number of places he could hide a few surface worlders… Certainly he could block ring scans. And if he asked for the secrets of the Lazarus Pit in return, well… Ra's wasn't in any position to turn him down.

Mister Kent looks at each of his colleagues in turn, his eyes skipping over me. "Every member of the Justice League was attacked today, but this was the only attack that appears to have a larger objective. Does anyone have ideas what he could be planning to do with it?"

"Oceanus." / "Oceanus."

Diana and I look at each other for a moment, then she resumes. "The Saremites worship Oceanus, and those Elemental creatures which we fought reeked of his magic. Orm could only have gained their aid by offering to assist them in freeing their patron."

Mister Freeman frowns slightly. "I have not heard of a supervillain or sorcerer by that name. The only 'Oceanus' of whom I have heard is the mythological Titan."

Diana's face is more sombre than I've ever seen it before. "That there are myths about a thing should not be taken as a sign that it does not exist. Oceanus is the Titan of the Seas. Though he did not side with the other Titans during their war against the Gods, he quarrelled with the Olympians later as they established themselves. Quite what was done to him I do not know, but usually those Titans who made themselves the enemies of Olympus were bound in some way which prevents them from using their powers against the mortal world."

Mister Kent looks concerned. "Just how powerful is Oceanus?"

"He is the eldest son of Gaea and Uranus. Every Titan has the greatest arcane power over their own domain, and his is the oceans and all they contain."

"He's a god?"

"No. Most Gods are far younger than the Titans, and their domains are far less a part of them. I don't know precisely what he can do with it, but it is reasonable to assume that he is several orders of magnitude more powerful than the creatures we encountered when we first arrived."

"And he's definitely hostile?"

Diana frowns faintly. "I can't say for certain. Only the Gods and other Titans would have met him in person."

King Orin clenches his right hand into a fist. "I doubt that Orm would do all this to liberate him if he had friendly intentions. Do you have any idea where Oceanus is being contained?"

Diana shakes her head. "No. But just as soon as we're done here I can petition the Gods of Olympus to give me that information."

King Orin nods. "I think that it would be best if you learned that location as swiftly as possible."

Diana nods. "Agreed. Does Atlantis require any further aid?"

"No. We can manage the cleanup ourselves. I should be able to send forces out to attempt to locate Orm's base of operations within a few hours."

"Sirs." Four sets of eyes alight on me, one most unfriendly. "When Hawkman, Hawkwoman and I confronted Satanus outside the Hall of Justice, he mentioned that he'd been acquiring Atlantean thaumaturgical writing."

Queen Mera frowns slightly. "We do not make a habit of sharing our research with Demons."

"No, your majesty, but if Orm still has supporters in Poseidonis… Possibly amongst the student population..? They might have been sharing information with him, then he could share it with his allies."

There's a slight glow from her skin. "Then I will locate them exceedingly quickly."

Diana rises from the table, followed by Mister Kent and Mister Freeman. "Orange Lantern, we will need a zeta tube."

I nod, transition to the far side of the table and create a zeta tube construct.

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Superman, zero one, Icon, one eight, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Last Supper

Zerox
3rd Lunar Conjugation
Sun Resplendent

A view of the sea.

If you'd asked me a few days ago… Heck, a few hours ago, I would have guessed that if Mordru were inclined to even bother with a permanent stable home, he'd be the black-iron-and-granite-Fortress-of-Doom type. Like me. Alright, he'd have the souls of Demons and brutally slaughtered rivals bound into the fabric of the place instead of the Apokoliptian technology I use, but it would be a place designed to inspire a dread of the one who ruled there and to protect him against enemy incursions. A seat of power, that any looking upon it might know the nature of the being they faced.

Instead, he's got a relatively small and tastefully designed place with a good view of the Emerald Sea.

I mean, it's not small small. It's still a fortress in the medieval style with a thick stone curtain wall. But the wall isn't very high. It's not quite fairy tale castle, but it does lean more towards open spaces, courtyards and gardens than a purely defensive structure. I can see runic brass work attached to… No, it was attached to the stone by being melted and shaped in situ.

As for the bound souls of his enemies…

Suspended from the walls by relatively solid harnesses are what from a distance I took to be labourers, since they appeared to be either cleaning or otherwise working on the wall. Now that I'm closer, I see that they are in fact altering the runes laid into the brickwork, minor magics causing rock and metal to flow in their hands. But that's not the only thing I notice. I see that their robes are of a considerably finer cloth… If a little dishevelled, than would be wise for the work they are performing. Around their necks are ruby pendants attached to chains of the expected black metal, and despite the physically demanding work they appear to be engaged in they take care never to let the gem touch exposed flesh. Through the power ring on my right ring finger, I can taste the fear they feel for Mordru.

Hm. Well, Mordru was banished from the universe for a little under fifty years. I shouldn't be surprised that he felt the need to come down hard on his would-be successors.

Still, the sun is in the sky, the waves are breaking against the rocks and the sea birds… Um. Sort of bird-like creatures are calling to one another in the air around the rocky promontory this place is built on. And the walk; I do like walking. The whole thing is making me feel surprisingly relaxed.

Figures on the top of the wall gesture in my general direction, and I raise my right hand to give them a wave. While I might be able to sneak in, I really don't see any need to try. After all, I'm just one alien tyrant coming to see another with whom he is presently allied.

I expected that Alan would react positively to the news that my defection was feigned. Quite how strong the reaction was took me a little by surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting to get the orange personal lantern back until after completing the roundup of Light members. Still, it might well be useful. Crock and Dorrance could prove to be useful distractions, and this does open up the possibility of following through on my original impulse of assimilating the entire Light. Oh, the information I could get from Savage alone…

Of course, I have to survive this first.

I approach the gates, and… I'm not impressed. These clearly aren't built to survive sieges by conventional force. I could poke my little finger through that stonework. Then again, if you're an allegedly immortal sorcerer -and didn't care at all for the people nominally under your protection- I suppose that such things are really more for decoration than anything else.

The gates part, and a group of six… Oh my goodness, they're actually knights. Honest to goodness knights on the backs of some sort of six legged and vaguely insectoid creatures. There are two per creature, the ones at the front bearing a lance and the one at the rear aiming crossbows with crackling green energy in place of bolts. Four such teams, and a leader in a plume-covered helmet on a lizard-emu thing. The riders and the people on the walls all look pretty Human, but that's so expected at this stage that I don't think anything of it.

Corpsman, that has been your downfall before.

I mentally roll my eyes at him.

Says the red skinned Human look-alike.

There are any number of physiological distinctions between Korugarians and Humans.

There are probably any number of differences between Humans and them. But if it makes you feel any better, scan.

"Halt, stranger. You approach the keep of the Sorcerer Lord Mordru. Explain your business here."

I come to a halt, smiling pleasantly. They fear him as well, though it's more in the way a subordinate might fear a superior of unpredictable moods than the outright dread of those working on the walls. Hm. Assuming they age as Humans do, they'd all be too young to remember when he was last here. Unlike their construction-worker colleagues.

"I am Grayven of Apokolips. I am an ally of Lord Mordru and am here to request an audience with him."

He frowns. "You sent no word in advance?"

"Apokoliptian codes of behaviour are unlike those of Zerox. Sending an emissary… Would imply that he wasn't important enough to warrant my personal attention." Because Apokolips has had boom tubes and two way video communications for millennia while you people still ride around on animals.

I mean, yes, Dog Soldiers ride around on animals too, but that's because the Elite make them, not because we pretend that it actually makes some sort of sense.

The man on the… Raptor-mu..? Emu-tor? Need to find out what those are called. He tries to look down on me. Well, he is just about taller than me while on beast-back, but he must weigh about as much as I did before my upgrades. He is… Not intimidating to me in the slightest. "Accompany us. I will show you to the Chief Acolyte. She will decide whether you may meet with Lord Mordru."

"My pleasure." He pulls on the reins to turn his mount around, and I rise off the ground on my aero-discs in order to follow him. That gets me a few odd looks. Apparently, while they're the bee's knees where magic is concerned, other forms of advanced technology have rather passed the natives by. I make a point of floating alongside the.. officer? I presume? While the other knights fall in behind us. "Who are those fellows working on the walls?"

"The former ruling council. They usurped Lord Mordru's position during his absence and are now enduring his wrath."

I nod. "Doesn't seem all that harsh, as wraths go. Not that I'm criticising his judgement, you understand."

"The pendants they wear drain virtually all of their magic from them. They are forced to exert themselves mightily to cast even the simplest spells." We pass through the gate… Ah, good, murder-holes and more brass rune plates. Into the part of the gate house between the inner and outer portcullises and gates, and then out into the courtyard beyond. Clean lines, well maintained… My respect to Mordru's architect. "And if they do not complete their appointed tasks, they are flogged."

"Even so…"

"They thought themselves this world's rulers, and now they are in constant pain. And every one of them will break from the strain before long. Lord Mordru simply wishes to get work out of them before their inevitable deaths."

I nod. "Surprisingly rational. In their place, many people would have opted for a cycle of torture and healing. Maximising their suffering. My own father would have done something like that… As well as the occasional false escape, to allow them to build up hope for him to crush."

He leans away from me slightly, shifting awkwardly in his saddle. "… Yeeees… This way, Lord Grayven."

Once it becomes clear that we're heading for an entrance to one of the enclosed gardens I make a point of accelerating ahead of him. Pointless macho posturing, maybe, but it does reinforce my character before any witnesses. There's very little chance that Mordru doesn't already know that I'm here. The reason I came by boom tube and walked was to give him time to prepare himself. The leading knight doesn't say anything, though he does keep coming rather than simply leaving me to wander around on my own.

The garden has a stone pathway around the edge and a variety of well-tended plants on near-turquoise pseudo-grass. I float over it to have a closer look at some sort of woody bush-analogue with frilly orange flowers. I wonder if Jade would like a cutti-?

"Milady Mirabai, this is Lord-."

"Grayven, yes. The master told me to expect him."

I turn to see a red haired woman with a blue facial tattoo walking down the steps from one of the castle's keeps. Her low-slung trousers and breast-accentuating waistcoat rather distract from the medieval aesthetic… But maybe that's just how women dress here? I give her a polite nod. "Lady Mirabai. Would you be so good as to show me to the master of the house?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Falling Action

7th July
22:14 GMT

The hopes we had,
were much too high…

"This is my cause, this is my fight."

Way out of reach but we had to try…

"Shine through the void with orange light."

No need to hide, no need to run…

"I've claimed all within my sight."

'Cause all the answers come one by one.

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

I drop the last of the ten metre tall rampart sections in place, Zatanna strolling over to activate the shielding spells that should serve to protect the rest of London from what we're about to do. Down Mayfair I can see the police barricades and the curious people watching from behind them. On the side streets just inside the police cordon wait ambulances, ready to ferry any of us who fall to St Mary's Hospital to the north. The set up of this has to be reasonably quick. This is going to get televised, and if a member of the League should happen to watch BBC News 24 at the right moment…

That's why I'm mostly using flight auras and null-grav clamps. It makes it that much harder to identify me as 'Orange Lantern', rather than 'some bloke in power armour'. Adom's keeping out of sight as well, for much the same reason. His actions have been enough to prevent him becoming an international pariah, but it would still be 'cause for concern' if he started flying around Britain without prior notice.

I'm.. making fists. I hold my hands out slightly, uncurling my gauntlets before returning them to my sides.

"And you're not conflicted about this at all?"

I look over to where Jade sits atop the already-completed section of rampart. Her new armour is made of mithril, but where Zatanna's version has runes designed to assist her spellcasting, Jade's includes scry wards and the same sort of invisibility generator that mine has. Thanks to Ted and his volunteers, we now know roughly what the safe level of exposure for a person to adapt to it is. Which is good, because this plan revolved around us coordinating precise levels of vengefulness and having her go psychotic on us would be very bad.

"Not at this stage, no."

"I never got this close to killing a Justice League member when I was a villain. You're the most strait-laced guy I know."

"Maybe you should expand your circle of friends a little."

"Are you sure that-?"

"I don't like the fact that I'm-. That we're having to do this. And I'm not looking forward to the arguments I'll be having with.. people I generally admire and regard as friends." Alan in particular, he's going to be disappointed, and I… And Diana's certainly up there. "But I don't doubt that this is the right thing for us to do."

The violet glow around Zatanna dies down as she takes a last look at the runic network covering the rampart. "All done here."

I nod, a gesture probably obscured by my helmet. Jade isn't entirely mistaken, of course. I.. had really wanted to leave Earth on a high note.

"Orange Lantern to team. Final preparations."

I watch Jade work the mechanism on the Ace of Chaos, check her ammunition and then vanish from view. We don't want her actually shooting Nabu unless something goes badly wrong, but each Chaos-laden shot should disrupt his magics fairly nicely. Zatanna's preparation simply involves her touching the Star Sapphire to her forehead and closing her eyes. Above me, my ring augmented vision shows me Rob just shrug while Adom adopts a more alert posture. John won't show himself unless… Until things get violent. He's too much of a trigger for both Nabu and Zatara, especially given his recent elevation. And as for the other participant…

I float down to the grass next to Zatanna and use a construct to pry open the packing case containing our last best hope for peace. Nabu may have point blank rejected my offer of a golem body, but maybe with a complete one here ready for him to examine he'll feel differently. Unlike the one we made for Mister Siskin, this one is made of the same super-inert metal as Zatanna's staff, threaded through with orichalcum wire. John's not… Capable of using Order-related magic any longer, but Sephtian was perfectly happy to help Zatanna with my 'proof of concept'.

I suppress a twinge of guilt about involving him without telling him what's really going on. The League, I can justify to myself. They brought it on themselves when they voted Nabu onboard. But if this does turn violent, that golem is enough to strongly implicate him.

I breathe in, then out. Just something I'll live with. Like.. whatever it was that happened to Teekl. Like lying to my friends.

Still, there are still some things I can do properly. Diana's at a diplomatic event this evening… This afternoon, to discuss the regulation of magic and arcane technology. Which means that she isn't going to be at the embassy.

Ring, dial the embassy.

Compliance.

"Hello they'uh Pawl. Diana ain't here raht now, if that's who you'uh aftuh."

"No, no, thank you. Could you please pass on a message for me? It's not urgent."

"Sure, sugar."

"Could you please tell her that I'm declining. She'll know what it's about."

"Alraaht. Ah made a note raaht heyuh."

"Thank you very much, Miss Candy."

Ring, hang up.

Compliance.

I turn in the direction of a nearby patch of woodland. "Are you ready, Mister Ondaatie?"

The shadows flow into the shape of his face. Our wards don't do a thing to a man who's already here.

"Not all that easy to miss a Lord of Order. As long as one of you is alive, I'll stop him running."

"Thank you for your assistance."

The face nods, and then… All that's there is leaves and shadows.

"Mission starts, repeat, mission starts. John, bait."

There's a slight delay, then it's as if what little colour there is in our environment is gone, replaced by tones of grey which serve to give emphasis to the vivid red lines running across the ground. We don't know exactly what the normal Chaos ascension ritual looks like, but this should look exactly like the sort of big chaoticy thing that Nabu claims justifies his existence. He shouldn't be able to pass up the opportunity. If he does, I could try calling him in… But I'd rather not.

Heh. I'm fine with potentially killing a Justice League member, but misusing a radio is where I draw the line.

Hehehe.

"Okay, we're not waiting. John, apply the skull."

At this point the arrangement in the shed is irrelevant anyway. I don't know if Nabu just wasn't paying attention, but that should-.

A giant golden ankh appears in the air before us, Nabu materialising in the centre. Before his teleportation ankh has fully disappeared he raises his arms, firing a barrage of golden bolts at the glowing ground. The bait-magic fades immediately, colour returning to the surrounding area. Nabu lowers his arms, the golden protective aura in place around his body. He peers around, eyes alighting momentarily on Zatanna and myself before moving on. Having completed his review, he turns back to us, lowering himself to just above the ground. "Explain."

"This is a combination of intervention and ambush. I'm not prepared to tolerate you continuing to use Mister Giovanni Zatara's body. So we're going to have a talk about it, and if I'm not satisfied at the end we're going to take it back by force. Do you have any questions at this stage?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Vega, Baby

10th July
16:26 GMT -5

One last look at Kon, Zatanna, Rob and M'gann, then the air around me buckles as I warp myself out of the atmosphere. In an instant I go from bright afternoon sunlight to the dark of near-Earth space. I re-checked the ring's instructions on long distance faster than light travel after leaving Alan. Help.. take my mind off things a little. Technically I could have initiated the long range warp from the ground, but there were more than a few warnings about that sort of thing. Unintended.. effects that can occur related to the sort of intense local spatial distortions that it requires. I'm not sure if they were completely relevant to an orange ring as opposed to a green one -I don't need to maintain the same completely clear image of what I'm doing in my mind that they would- but I accept that the Guardians know quite a bit about power rings by now. No sense in ignoring their guidance just to spite them.

I take a moment to look down on the Earth. It occurs to me that this makes an interesting.. book end. I'm not actually where I first appeared; though my point of entry appears to be stable relative to the Earth, it's in geosynchronous orbit somewhere over India. Still, it's a pretty similar view. And once again, I'm… Off into the unknown.

I am slightly better equipped to handle it this time, of course.

Though the challenge rating is somewhat higher.

Is it worth stopping off to talk to the Green Man? He's assigned to Sector 2626. I haven't received any situation updates since I assimilated John's ring at New Year, and its records from before that weren't exactly detailed. No sense giving a Lantern information they weren't expected to use, and it allows the Guardians to monitor exactly which Lanterns have access to what. I imagine that their Honour Guard get a bit more at-will access…

I don't know. At one level, I'm fully aware that I'm heading into a den of vile criminals. Getting information on exactly what's happening when I don't intend to interact with them in complex ways seems like a bit of a waste of time. One syndicate on the ascendance rather than another won't make any difference to my plans. And I don't really want to get… Bogged down. This is a reconnaissance/low-hanging-fruit-picking exercise, not an intervention-in-depth.

Keep myself ignorant to stop myself caring.

I should probably feel worse about thinking that.

Okay. Vega isn't actually 25 light years away. It's more like 60, but looks less due to the same thing that makes the stars stay close together. The lensing is another reason a lot of people assume it's a gravity-related phenomena, light from multiple stars seeming to combine into one. It is a bit odd… Oh, I'll just see if I can get one of the Controllers interested in it.

For a moment I consider warping to somewhere a little closer and taking a day off before proceeding onwards. There won't really be any safe harbours in Vega itself. No. I really want to.. do something right now.

Ring, plot warp to… To the border of the Vega systems.

Compl-.

The outside of the border. Near Rashashoon.

Compliance. / Warning. Vega system off limits to Lanterns. Do not attempt transit. Failure to comply is a court-martial offence.

I raise my right hand a little, looking at John's former ring in surprise. It's been so long since it's said anything that it had rather slipped my mind that it sometimes did.

Stewart-ring, correct me if I'm wrong, but that regulation applies to Green Lanterns, yes?

Statement applies to all Guardian operatives.

Am I a Guardian operative?

You have a Guardian-forged power ring.

That isn't what I asked.

E-error.

And what are your instructions regarding people who aren't Guardian operatives heading to Vega?

Any traffic not suspected to be criminal is to pass unobstructed.

Glad to hear it. So there's no actual problem with me going there, is there?

E-error.

I guess that's all I'm getting. Left ring, you have the course?

Affirmative.

Estimate transit time?

Two minutes subjective, approximately thirty minutes Earth time.

Alright then. Let's warp on out of here.

Initiating interstellar spatial warp. Stand by.

The stars around me shimmer and twist, the Earth itself shrinking to a dot. Then my surroundings shift, patterns of light coming and going inside the stream. I'm going a lot faster here than I did when Kon and I travelled to the sun, but since I'm not heading directly towards a star the amount of light hitting me is a lot less. The stars… It's a bit like in Star Trek, where they turn into smears, but… The orange glow is rather obscuring it. I suppose I could just… Have the ring stimulate my visual cortex with a more accurate version, but… Not the same.

Maybe this was why Abin Sur flew around in a starship, rather than just recharging a whole lot? So he could see what was going on around him properly. Really appreciate it? Or maybe that was why the Indigo Lanterns in the comics had interstellar teleportation rather than having to fly from place to place. Give them time to appreciate things. Or… Make it so their interstellar travel either flat out works or doesn't.

Oh, damn it! I was going to stop just outside the Sol system to mark… Going outside it after completing my time in service! Slipped my mind. Ugh. Ring, make a note to remind me to stop there on my way back.

Compliance.

I mentally sigh to myself. Prince Markov was right; flying around might be amazing, but it can get really quite dull after a-.

Warp terminated.

10th July
16:57 GMT -5

The stars snap back into clarity and the constant orange glow fades back down to normal environmental shield levels. So. This is Vega.

As requested, this location is just outside the Vega moat.

Heh. And, looking, I can't tell it's even here. Because the thing about space is…

I turn in space, information on the relative location of the closest stars appears on my visual field, along with the distance both to me and to the worlds of the Vega systems… Yep, that's the Moat. Some things you can't see when you're right on top of them. Stewart-ring, everything match your records?

Stellar drift as expected.

I turn back towards Vega, data on my destination appearing before my eyes. None of Larfleeze's Construct-Lanterns around, I note. Long range scans show any number of small and medium sized ships, showing flags of various Gordanian clans and semi-legitimate traders. There's a Citadel Empire picket force, the ships looking noticeably better maintained than those belonging to the outsiders. Three distinct groupings: one close to the planet and two further out. Rashashoon is taxed, but what happens here is so much a part of the Citadel economy that its people aren't particularly oppressed by them. Unless they have the misfortune to be slaves, the trade of which is one of the many things that happen here.

Slavery isn't really a bulk thing here, though. Or rather, it is, but the bulk isn't traded. After the Karnans conclusively lost their long running war with the Gordanians for control of their shared homeworld, their entire population was technically enslaved. Mostly it just manifests as a 'not kicking your head in' tax. Bad, but liveable. As long as you keep your head down and don't have much in the way of ambition.

There are a few Branx ships as well. Hard, blocky, inelegant things. Those ones are armed merchants. While it isn't illegal to pirate inside Vega, it's generally a good way to get yourself killed. The Citadel doesn't like things that disrupt its income, and other groups -especially the Branx- will make a point of avenging a fallen comrade.

No Tamaranean ships, of course. They haven't had any since they went from client world to… Not sure what you'd call them now. 'Resource extraction source', perhaps. Or 'dehumanisation practice centre'. That's my next stop, but I want to take a look around, first.

Ring, check for interdiction fields.

Located. In addition to those based on the planet itself, the two Citadel fleets furthest from the planet possess additional devices.

Anything that would stop me?

Negative.

Alright then. Ring, warp to low orbit.

Compliance.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Tamanarama

12th July
11:03 GMT

The concierge waves as Felicity and I walk away from the front desk, left hand playing with one of the blank platinum disks I used to make payment. "Be sure to recommend us to your friends!"

I wave back absent-mindedly with my right hand as I hold my left to my ear. "Ring, connect me to the Thanagarian network. Flight Leader Karn, if at all possible."

Compliance.

Felicity steps out into the hotel's front garden, taking a moment to stretch in the natural sunlight. Though the off-worlder parts of the city are mostly set up to cater for piratical thugs, there are more salubrious venues for piratical chiefs and the occasional wealthy merchant or dignitary. Most things inside were scaled to be comfortable for those of a Citadelian build… And resilient enough to survive being used by them. They were willing to change it around for we smaller-framed humanoids, but I told them not to bother.

"Blades of Alstair, Flight Leader Karn responding. If you want to hire us, you should get in touch with-."

"No no, nothing like that."

There's a slight pause. "Orange Lantern. I hear we've got you to thank for yesterday."

"Hey, that fight was all the Omega Men's doing."

"I was referring to the fact that our contract's being terminated early. And from the sounds of it we're not likely to get much work in this region for the foreseeable future."

"I'm not sorry for that." I stroll out of the hotel, Felicity turning to blink slowly at me. Affection and general contentment. "So, you all shipping out?"

"The commander's making calls. We're packed up and ready to leave, but we'd much rather have a job to go to. Even if it's just babysitting a merchant convoy." I hear an amused exhalation. "I don't suppose you've got any use for five thousand Thanagarian mercenaries?"

"What sort of naval units do you have?"

"Mostly small attack craft. We've got a cruiser and a support-carrier, but those are more our bases of operation than things we'd want to use in a fight."

Huuh. "What sort of level of risk do you take?"

"We can talk prices over anything short of an outright suicide mission, but we prefer jobs to be either quick, local or low risk. Personally, I wouldn't mind a quick strike attack commission. Get the rust off my mace before I forget how to use it completely."

"How about..? Training work? If a planet was remilitarising and needed experienced people?"

"You can't defend a whole planet with what we've got, but if the threat wasn't imminent? We'd probably take it. Where did you have in mind?"

"Ohhh… My homeworld is probably going to start getting serious about space travel in the next few years. Is there somewhere I can get in touch with you again without chasing you down?"

"We've got feedsite links on Thanagar and Alstair, but that sounds like a long term contract. If we're busy then we won't be able to take it."

I nod. "Fair enough. I was planning to head to Thanagar in a little while anyway. Good luck finding a commission."

"Good fortune doing… Whatever it is you're planning on doing. Karn out."

I lower my left hand, increasing my pace to catch up with Felicity. "Ready to go?"

"Yes, Mast-"

"You don't need to-"

"-er."

"-call me that. Particularly after-."

"You're the one who offered to brush my hair." Another blink. "How could I have known that you only meant my mane?" I close my eyes, bowing my head slightly. "Do I not.. please you?"

"I will.. say this once, and then I'd.. quite like to drop the topic. I… Have what some may regard as an excessively romantic view of sex. Plus, my empathic abilities make me unusually aware of what you're feeling, and.. I'm.. proud enough to only want to have sex with people who want to have sex with me, not one who doesn't object to it."

"That isn't what I asked."

I look over the tight-fitting and.. 'well ventilated' clothing she's wearing. I did offer to get her something else, but she seems to prefer it. "Yes, I find you attractive."

She nods, looking pleased. "Will we be travelling by ship or by your ring?"

"Ring. There shouldn't be a problem with us spending a few days on the surface."

"Kalista.. told me that the Gordanians keep away visitors. Would we not stand out?"

"Yes, but they don't have good communication infrastructure. And Gordanian intelligence isn't particularly good. They probably won't even know that we're there."

Her ears straighten slightly. A nod. Right then. Ring, my armour, Karnan-friendly space armour for Felicity and then plot route to near-Rashashoon space.

Compliance.

A filament touches Felicity, a slightly upgraded version of the armour I lent her yesterday manifesting around her. I tried to work out if there was a way to allow her ears space without making the helmet huge or compromising the protection it provides, but as far as I can work out there isn't. But apparently pinning them flat against her head isn't that uncomfortable. She shifts slightly awkwardly, trying to get comfortable without accidentally brushing her fur backwards.

"Three, two, one, transition."

The street disappears, replaced by local space. Far less busy than it was when I first arrived, though I see a couple of local tugs picking up debris from one of the earlier fights. Admiral Dakyn is still around, but his fleet is on the far side of the planet at the moment.

Ring, plot warp to interstellar space just outside the Vega seventeen system.

Compliance. Course calculated.

"Next stop, the edge of the Tamaran system's Oort cloud. Warp in three, two-."

"Will it hurt?"

"No, of course not. I'm warping the space around us, not warping us. Two, one."

Once more the starfield shimmers, our surroundings turning orange. Almost as soon as it starts it ends, and the only obvious difference is that the planet behind us has disappeared.

"Is that.. it..?"

"We're not quite there yet." But now that no one's watching… I hold my right hand out in her direction, orange mist floating through her faceplate as the brand evaporates. "I want to see what the Gordanians have on hand before we go any further."

Ring?

An image appears in my mind. One… Space station at a Lagrange point. An old Tamaranean shipyard seized after the last war, uparmoured and upgunned. It has interdiction field generators, but they're not set up to stop any form of FTL I use. Three clanships, modified for launching kinetic torpedoes. Orbital strike weapons that most people around here don't bother with because they're next to useless in ship-to-ship combat. Just the thing for killing thousands of unprotected civilians, though. Nothing I can't.. take…

Tamaranean life signs on the station. I'll need to make sure they're safe before taking aggressive action.

Ring, plot warp to Tamaran. The side of the planet away from the station.

Compliance.

Warp.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Control

16th July
11:27 GMT

Busy, busy.

I do a fly-by of The Space Station Formerly Known As Scratching Post, letting the rings display a detailed image on the inside of my helmet. Thanagarian work crews are already hard at work, ferrying materials back and forth from their carrier and the docking section. It'll be a while before it's turned into something they can conveniently dock with, so they're using shuttles to go back and forth for the moment. A few point me out as I pass, and I give them a wave.

It'll be… I don't even know how long until Tamaran is a functioning space age civilisation again, but at least they're starting to head in the right direction now. The Princes and Princesses Regent of the other states were beginning to arrive in Tamarus for talks as I left. How to rebuild, who gets to focus on what and who profits are going to have to be hashed out at the beginning.. and… Probably again and again as power relationships shift. Myand'r sounded pretty upbeat about the talks and Karras said that he'd try to stop his parents doing anything foolishly confrontational… I hope it goes well, but at this point it isn't strictly speaking my problem any longer.

Transition.

And I'm outside of the Liot'r system. With the interdiction fields fully engaged even I can't warp where I please in-system any longer. They'd probably turn it off if I asked -me being just about the most popular person on the planet at the moment- but I don't think it's worth the risk in case someone in Citadel Complex turns out to be unusually on the ball. And it's not as if I'm aware of time passing while I transition anyway. But, warping is faster and the next leg of my journey is a lot longer than the brief flight here from Earth.

I could fly directly to Maltus. I know where it is, and I could enter it at a crawl while shooting messages towards it so that they have plenty of advanced knowledge that I'm on the way. The thing is… If they didn't respond to that Guardian ship I sent them, I'm worried that I might have seriously misjudged them. Maybe they know about Larfleeze and don't want anything to do with the orange light. Maybe they think I'm more likely to be a threat or a hindrance than a boon and they don't want anything to do with me in particular.

So, I need more information. Going to Oa seemed like a bad plan, at least until I know for certain whether these Guardians are the Alpha Lantern-Third Army creating versions or the stern but basically reasonable versions. Going to Zamaron? Hah, no. Where does that leave?

Ring, plot warp for the border of Reach space.

Compliance.

The Reach is… Huge. Not galaxy-huge, but according to the records -an orange tunnel forms around me as the warp activates- that were on John's ring, pretty darn big. The periphery zone, the area they're attempting to subvert but haven't formally seized yet, is wider than the Vega systems at their broadest point. From those reports I had access to from Lanterns in that general area, that appears to be where Darkstars are most active. In fact, their membership appears to be split evenly between some sort of pseudo-insect and species whose worlds are falling under Reach control. Or which already have.

Reach ships are good. Advanced technology and highly skilled crews. Not peak technology; a Psion or Qwardian warship would be more dangerous, but I wouldn't want to have to fight more than two or three of their actual war cruisers. The ships they use in the periphery zone tend to be more like armed merchantmen, so unless they actually have a Beetle onboard I'm not all that worried about them. Sure, they can kill me with weight of fire, but they have the advantage of being Reach; I have no problem whatsoever with destroying them and killing everyone on board.

Of course, if they do have a Beetle… They used to be the Reach's go-to Lantern killers, and they're still allowed to serve as bodyguards to Reach 'Negotiators'. If I go to a planet they're trying to absorb there will be one. I'm not… Sure how much of their kill count came from Lantern reticence in using lethal force and lack of practice at large scale engagements and how much from their own power. I'd rather avoid fighting one until I can check.

And… Now my longest warp so far. Maltus is on the other side of the galactic core from Earth, and Reach space is beyond that. If we take Games Workshop orientation as 'correct' then Earth is in the galactic west, Maltus is east and Oa is northeast. That sounds a bit like they should be close together but they're really not. The galaxy is about a hundred thousand light years across and -outside the core and ignoring the halo- about a thousand light years thick. There's more than enough space between them for even their egos.

Of course, the thing about space is, there's lots of space in it. Most of everything is nothing, and most of the rest is black holes, stars and gas giants. Actual small habitable worlds are rare enough that they're not worth fighting over. A species evolving in a system with small rocky worlds will almost always find it easier to render the others habitable than to take a small rocky world somewhere else. And then they'll find it easier to build their own space habitats than conquer someone else's planets. Unless they're absurdly close together as they are in Vega at least…

The only reason to try conquering someone is that you're an arsehole.

And the Reach… Are massive arseholes.

Warp terminating in three, two, one.

Space snaps back into focus.

We have arrived at our destination.

Hm. Haven't made bad time. Thirty thousand light years in a few minutes. Ring, scan.

Compliance.

Nothing nearby. I mean, turning around, the starfield looks different as the core is now in the 'wrong' direction. Heh, I wave in the direction of Earth. See me in thirty thousand years. Right then. Ring, scan… Scan the planets around the border. I'm looking for Darkstars, anywhere they've been active. Preferably fighting the Reach.

A sensor array construct appears as the ring gets to work. The Reach are perfectly capable of shielding their secure installations and core worlds, but places on the periphery should be a bit more accessible. Particularly since I already know where to look.

Hm.

Darkstar activity detected on Urrigen.

Show me.

A planet appears in my mind. Post-industrial, maybe a century more advanced than Earth-. Than Earth Prime. Asteroid mining and some off-planet settlement. The inhabitants are standard pattern humanoids with green skin. No contact with other intelligent species until the Reach arrived. Looks like Reach presence is relatively recent… Good show, the societal dependency shouldn't be all that advanced yet.

Ring, plot warp to-.

Warning: will detected.

I raise my left eyebrow at the same time as my construct armour. Sure, I know that Green Lanterns patrol the border-.

There's a small flare of green as the Green Lantern appears. Oh dear. Green swimsuit, gloves and thigh boots? Someone failed-. And a red cloak. This is a member of their Honour Guard. However daft she looks, she knows what she's doing with that ring.

Though it doesn't look like she's been to the anti-me lectures yet.

Stewart-ring, who is she?

Honour Guard Lantern K'ryssma, formerly of Sector One Eight Nine Zero.

Ring, open channel.

Compliance.

"Hello there, Lantern K'ryssma. What can I do for you?"

The glow around her ring brightens for a moment. A scan, probably. "Oh. You."

"Me indeed."

"I had intended to warn you that you were about to enter Reach space, in case you were an innocent traveller or merchant. Since it is you, I imagine that you think you know exactly what you're doing."

"An accurate surmise."

"Therefore, my only concern is that the Reach may see your presence as a breach of their treaty with the Guardians."

"I'm going to be aiding Controller agents. It should be fairly obvious who I work for."

"True." She pauses. "Orange Lantern, I have seen Reach space expand by twelve systems during my time overseeing this region. The Guardians' treaty may be better than all out war, but I would be more than happy to see the Reach suffer a reversal of fortunes."

I nod inside my armour. "I'll see what I can do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Headhunting

14th August
19:24 GMT

I get a few odd looks as I thread my way through the streets of the imaginatively named Korugar City. Actually, its name is rather emblematic of the political problems facing the whole of the planet. It used to be called Sinestro City, and before that it was a scrubby bit of nowhere whose sole claim to fame was not being part of the territory of any of the three belligerent powers whose conflict blighted the lives of everyone living on Korugar. When Sinestro took over he had the new planetary capital built here, making a point about new beginnings and moving on from old follies. The government he set up named it in his honour, a vote of thanks from the people he saved from neutronic self-annihilation. Then, when he was arrested by Jordan and his government collapsed, the new governors all wanted to move the parliament somewhere else but couldn't agree on where. Then they sort of agreed to a rotating system where they would go from old capital to old capital, but the money wasn't in the budget and the Anti-Nationalists didn't like the way it eroded central government and the smaller nations didn't like getting excluded and all the offices of state were in Sinestro City anyway…

"Wrong time place opportunity."

So they didn't so much agree to leave it here as fail to agree on how to move it. Then came the issue of the name of the place, which clearly had to be changed. It actually stayed as Sinestro City for three years while they argued over it, the names of various national heroes being mooted and dismissed, sometimes for blatantly partisan reasons and at others because they'd done truly monstrous things against the people now being expected to use their name for the planetary capital. For a while they were just going to call it 'Capital City', but it was pointed out that aliens would probably find that confusing and the generic nature of it was just sort of silly.

So, the Anti-Nationalists suggested Korugar City. The city that serves as the planetary capital of Korugar.

Makes perfect sense.

Not a lot of aliens come to Korugar these days, and those that do tend to stick to the areas around the starport. I'm not sure exactly why, but Korugarians don't have much variation in skin tone. Unless they're wearing makeup, the red-purple is pretty much universal, and black or dark grey hair is near-universal as well. Actual grey, rather than black interspersed with white as it is for Humans. I see a few dyed hairdos, but for the most part the locals seem inclined to leave the individuality in the styling.

"Colouration skin advertisement?"

Probably a fascinating case study for a sociologist. Humans might organise themselves into groups based on physical appearances, but a society of humanoids who don't have those differences? Maybe I could dump Miss Leelyu here? Not like she needs to stay on Tamaran any longer…

"Sexual consideration."

Quite a few security officers around, and even more monitor drones. I'm putting out a weak disruption field, but that's legal as long it isn't strong enough to obscure conventional power sources or chemical residues. Korugar knows what power rings can do, and having gone two for two I doubt that the police would make an exception based on colour. Violence has -unfortunately- become a part of Korugarian political discourse since Sinestro's ejection from office, all of those who embraced the gun to fight the tyrant finding that their interests no longer coincide. And since one of the few things that the nationalists agree on is that they don't want their current Green Lanterns setting foot here, that's probably going to rumble on until either the planetary government fails or…

Heh, until the Sinestro Corps occupies the place and reunifies everyone.

"Taste debris poisoning."

Shouldn't really.. joke about that. As far as I know, Sinestro doesn't have a Corps yet and he hasn't been back here for years. But if he ever did, an awful lot of people would die.

Target in sight.

"Thank you."

Since I'm not wearing a power ring, I've got.. limited translation. I remember reading a book a while ago where it was commented on that most of the world reads the internet in broken text because the stuff they want to read is in English and as they don't understand English they use Google translate to change it to something they can read. And since no one off Earth speaks English I.. really struggled to get a commercially available translator that would work at all. I'm wearing a pair of goggles which -after a second or two- will best-fit any text I look at. English is reasonably flexible, but it's not this flexible.

And the spoken version…

"Warm animal paste cup!"

Well.

Most travellers hear the universe like this, unless they take the time to learn the local language. In an area where the same few languages get used people might fine-tune the system to something a little less stupid-sounding, but the rest of us are stuck with something rough and ready.

Or we get a power ring.

The café up ahead does a good business at this time of day. It's close to the city's largest hospital and we're just past the shift change. It's also close to the city's medical school, which means that former students who have moved on to public practice tend to come back here. Including the woman I want to recruit.

I know full well that under other circumstances she might have ended up joining the Green Lantern Corps. But this Sector has at least one perfectly capable Greenie at the moment, and as far as I can tell she wouldn't have been recruited for… Let's see, newly qualified doctor to fully qualified surgeon… Six years? Thereabouts. In the mean time, I need a chief of medicine who can heal by wanting people to be better.

She's sitting at a table, distinctive double triangle tattoo on her left cheek. She's drinking… A tea, probably. The liquid is translucent and a sort of brown-orange. She's drinking slowly and trying to wind down from the work day. The café is busy and there's a spare seat across the table from her.

And here comes the awkward bit. Because while what I say is:

"Would you mind if I sat here?"

What comes out is:

"Seat object presence?"

She looks up in mild surprise, her eyes widening slightly when she realises that I'm no Korugarian. She blinks as she masters her expression, taking a moment to study the structure of my face.

And while I suspect that she says something along the lines of: "Ah, yeah, sure."

What I actually hear is: "Uncertain, acquiescence to request."

I smile. "Thank you." That's a reasonably safe bet. I sit down opposite her and a waitress hurries in my direction.

"Ingestion query?"

I know nothing about Korugarian food. As far as I know, the only other Human to have eaten anything here is Jordan and I never asked him about it. On the other hand, Dr Natu's tea smells palatable enough. I raise my right hand and point to her mug. "Copy, please."

Already I'm simplifying my vocabulary in order to be more likely to get a sensible translation, even if I do end up sounding like an idiot. Korugarians are probably used to the idea of how these sorts of translator make you sound. I hope. The waitress seems to get the idea, nodding and walking back towards the kitchen area.

"Alien presence Korugar?"

The level of illumination here is quite good, and the café's monitoring systems aren't as good as those on the main street. I could probably get away with using the ring to translate what she says to me, but going the other way contains far too much risk that she'll spot that my mouth isn't moving in the right way to create the sounds I'm apparently using. I reach my left hand into the pocket where my ring is secreted, touching the inner surface with the tip of my middle finger. I then raise my eyebrows and give my head a small shake.

"I said, what brings you to Korugar?"

I remove my finger. "Job. Headhunter."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Headhunted

14th August
20:24 GMT

Water vapour has long since stopped rising from Doctor Natu's drink, and given how her cup is tilting in her hands the only reason that it isn't spilling is that she'd already gotten most of the way through. From the expression on her face I think that she's torn between disbelief and horror.

"You.. destroyed a pirate base and killed everyone in it."

Obviously, the version of events I've told her is somewhat edited. No mention of a power ring, and the fighting was conducted with equipment I provided by soldiers I hired rather than mind controlled. And I've rather played down the numbers involved.

I nod. "Clone, no change. No picture. No song. No dance. Always fight. No care hurt. Could destroy. Did."

She shakes her head as if to rouse herself, putting her mug down and making a grasping motion with her right hand. "Okay, I can… In theory, I could see how a group of clones might be so similar to each other that there wasn't any deviation in their behaviour. Particularly if their total population was so small. And if the First was just using them as raiders and they used slaves for all of their non-combat roles… All the slaves were definitely evacuated?"

"Yes. Checked."

"What about the ones on the planet?"

"Slave no trust." And I checked that too. A large garrison, some Psion technical people and no slaves to throw a wrench in the Citadel Empire's greatest point of vulnerability. "No work."

"Alright. I know.. pirates kill a lot of people, so… I suppose that what you did is as near to lawful as places like that get. But if some of their fleet that survived… When they were in control, you said that they mostly took the money and left the settlements they dominated to their own devices. Wouldn't they just go on the offensive? Find somewhere new to set up shop and go back to their old ways?"

I nod. It's true, of course. Even with Komand'r having free rein to kill any ships that misbehaved, the surviving Citadel Empire fleet elements were bound to try occupying and raiding to shore up their position. Removing them was the only way to start moving Vega towards being a healthy region of space, but a lot of people will die before we get there. How to put that in a context that doesn't alienate her?

"Tripartite War. Eight million die?"

"It's…" She looks down at her mug, stirring the dregs with a small stick. "It's hard to judge. It depends on exactly when you consider the war to start, and what deaths you consider to have been caused by the war specifically. In reality, the figure should probably be higher."

"Eight official figure?"

"Our.. government.. sometimes likes to play down how bad things were before…"

"Sinestro."

People on three neighbouring tables glance around when they hear me mention his name, tiny flickers of fear in each of them. Not exactly associated with the man himself; he's been gone long enough that they're pretty confident that he's not coming back. The fear is more from the idea of being associated with him, with the potential for social sanction and police action. I wonder if he knows exactly how much fear his memory and name evoke here? I don't know if he's been back since picking up his yellow ring.

Doctor Natu looks around, smiling nervously at the other tables in what I imagine is an attempt to convince them to ignore the ignorant alien. After they return to their own conversations she looks back up at me. "Yes."

"He not rule? More die?"

"That depends on whose version you believe. Probably, yes. In the longer term, with all of the purges..? I don't know. I like to think no one would have actually launched neutron bombs, but…"

"After.. him?"

"The purges were stopped, people were let out of prison. There was violence afterwards, but things.. stabilised pretty quickly."

"Better he not rule?"

"It's impossible to know for certain. I.. don't think it would have been."

"Better he not go?"

"No." She shakes her head vehemently. "Children shouldn't be sent to prison for littering."

"Bad thing go. Situation not perfect."

She nods. "The war was worse, and I can't really think of any other way it could have been stopped. So, what? You're saying that what your mercenaries did was the only way to stop the Citadel?"

"Before left, told mercenary contact. Work opportunity."

"What's the commission on something like that?"

"Not much." Just making Amalak aware that there may be jobs available really isn't something he pays on. He only does commission if you handle the contract negotiation as well to make sure that there are definite offers of employment. Rashashoon at least isn't going to have to worry much unless there's a concerted attack of a sort I doubt that the surviving Citadelian ships are capable of mounting. The Branx can take care of themselves, as can the Okaarans. And fuck the Psions. "Not job."

"You did all that and it wasn't even what you were hired to do. What did your employers think about that?"

"Not care."

She sits back slightly, putting down her stirring stick. "They don't care about all the people who died, because it was a long way away and they got the new hires they wanted." She frowns. "Wait, you haven't said what happened when you attacked the prison yet. You killed hundreds of people and you didn't even get the man you were looking for. I don't know what to think; I've never met anyone who's killed that many people."

"Tripartite War commanders?"

She shakes her head. "I don't move in those sorts of circles. And I doubt they were quite as.. directly involved as you were. Does this sort of thing happen to you a great deal?"

"No. Perhaps future."

Actually, I rather hope not. I'm heading back to Earth soon -all being well- and if something like that happened on Earth… Alright, Klarion's total death toll might well have been greater… I mean, caused by me. Earth's home, I don't want to be in a position where killing that many people is the right thing to do.

"How did the people you hired to help you react when they found out that you weren't working for the chief you told them you were?"

For a moment I hear clearly the wailing sound they made when I removed the brands.

"Not happy. Very not happy."

"I can't imagine…" She shakes her head. "Did the security specialist you were trying to hire agree to work with you after all of that?"

"Yes. Not tell all."

"And if you're here then I assume that the attack on the prison went well?"

"Complicated. First, need example Dominator technology…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Do-Over

13th August
08:57 GMT -6

I bend my head to the left and try turning to look at my right shoulder. No, no, it's not happening. I can't even feel the G-Gnome it weighs so little, and my neck just doesn't bend far-.

"Grayven!" Sunset strides into the workshop area, a heavy looking satchel over her shoulder. "I'm going to spend the weekend at Zatanna's!"

I give up on meeting the G-Gnome eye to eye and turn towards Sunset. "Sunset, I like to think that at this point we've developed a reasonable interpersonal relationship-."

She puts her hands on her hips, staring up at me in mild frustration. "You told me you didn't need me. You told me there weren't even any decent magic users in the Vega Systems. You can't possibly have-."

"And while Zatanna is in many ways an excellent match for you, I feel obliged to point out that her religion is rather down on same-sex pairings." Sunset cringes and then freezes, a look of delicious mortification on her face. "So make sure to use spells of concealment and sound deadening when her father is-."

"Stop. STOP!" She stares at me with furious incredulity in her eyes. "Where did THAT come from!?"

"While I don't have all that much to contribute to your arcane education, I feel that as your primary adult caregiver-"

"You-you're-you think you're what?"

"-it falls upon me to see to your moral instruction. Since Celestia was making such a hash of it-" She makes an amused snort and semi-nods. "-and your natural parents aren't here-."

And the funny's gone. She holds out her right hand in a Roman salute style. "Stop."

I stop.

"I'm not doing… Anything like that with Zatanna. We're friends. Good friends, who share a common interest. I still don't find Humans attractive like that-."

I tilt my head slightly towards the G-Gnome. "You know that internet access here is monitored, r-?"

She blushes slightly, but rallies immediately. "I was briefly curious. It was a phase. A short phase. That has nothing to do with Zatanna."

"Okay, well, you girls have good, clean and exclusively thaumaturgy-based fun without me."

"I-." She closes her eyes and shakes her head in an effort to throw off me. "That's not why I came in here."

"You can't use my car, you haven't taken lessons."

"I'm trying to be serious, Grayven. I read your files on Vega." I nod. "How.. many..?" She stops, looking down for a moment. "You're going to kill a lot of people, aren't you?"

"Yep. Probably.. like…" I make a gesture with both hands of mildly frustrated uncertainty. "Five..? Million? Maybe twenty? The Psions and the Citadel basically have to go, but neither has particularly large populations. The Gordanians… Yeah, don't know. I'm mostly planning on leaving that up to Michael."

"He eats people."

"Not often. It's more that his mouth is a weapon than a dietary decision."

"Look. I.. know.. Humans and Apokoliptians have a… Different attitude to killing than Wilsonian Ponies, but-."

"No we don't. You don't have Windigo reserves, do you? You don't let Discord out for a day every year. You don't let Nightmare Moon eat a few children every Nightmare Night. You live in an age of peace because in ages past somepony stabbed more than a few very nasty people to death with her forehead spear."

"And how many of those twenty million are going to be innocent?"

Ah. "Like, totally innocent, or.. below-?"

"Grayven." Ghia'ta walks into the workshop behind Sunset, taking in her obvious frustration. "Are you being… You, again?"

I grin. "Hard as I can! Oh, and Sunset wants help asking out Zatanna." Sunset's eyes widen as I stride past her. "Bye!"

"You do?" / "Grayven!"

I upgrade my stride to a jog. I've got to be honest here… At least with myself. This whole Vega expedition thing will be a lot simpler if I leave as many morality pets as possible behin-.

Vrrrrm.

Curses, foiled again. "Sphere." She rolls out of a side passage, frontal lighting section shimmering. "I thought that you were in New Hampshire."

Beep rev chirp.

"Now… Come on. The only reason-."

Beep.

"I did not. I was simply aware of her particular skill-."

Rev rev.

"Fine! Fine. You can come, but it's a planet full of DeSaad fanclones. Hold me back and I will laugh in your…" I point vaguely at her… "Front.. blob… Thing."

Beep.

"Really? Oh, that's actually helpful. Okay, we're assembling in the embarkation room-."

Rev beep.

She turns and accelerates ahead of me, heading towards the chamber where my troops are mustering. And doesn't that just sound splendid. I follow on behind her at a stroll. And… Ugh.

**Jean, checking connection.**

**I hear you, Mister Grayven. I do hope that wasn't too painful?**

**I'll live. Everyone assembled?**

**All bar you and Miss Ghia'ta. And I see that the Sphere has returned.**

**Yeah, I'm-** I glance back. **-kind of hoping-.**

There's a flash just in front of me as Ghia'ta appears. **Hoping what?**

I smile as honestly as I'm able. **Hoping that you were able to give Sunset the tutoring she requires without feeling that you need to rush.**

Corpsman, are these people really necessary?

That actually brings me up short.

Yes, Sinestro. Frustrating as they may by turns be, yes they are.

I can't talk to you when you're like this, Corpsman.

"Sunset refused to speak of her love to me." Ghia'ta drifts along besides me. "I fear that I simply haven't bonded with her as well as you have-"

Ghghahahahaghrhaha!

"-in the time that I have been here."

"I'm.. sure that she'll come around."

The doors are still flapping from the Sphere's passage, but I make a point of stepping heavily into them and throwing them wide.

**My people!** My people!

On the right Michael stands towering over the Redcap-Breed G-Elves and G-Gnomes he's going to be taking to Karna. Given that he basically looks like a Karnan demigod I suspect that he'll have little trouble integrating himself into their resistance movement. That and his absolute lethality. The Redcaps were a side project of mine when I considered the fact that G-Elves are worse fighters in almost every regard than Humans, as they aren't designed to handle guns. A few visits to some perhaps-not-entirely legitimate Martian arms dealers saw me trade some Earth-made laboratory equipment for some rather neat psychoreactive biotechnology. That, and quite a lot of laboratory time resulted in a breed of G-Elf with telekinetically augmented claws and a telekinetic defensive shield. And a nifty red skullcap thing that gives them the ability to actually control their new additions. Like I told Dubbilex: you don't need new breeds, you need to improve the ones you have.

In the centre, Miss Amane twirls her scythe like a demented giggling gothic majorette… Which.. I.. suppose is actually a literal description of her. The Sphere rolls to a halt in front of her and gives her a warble, prompting Miss Amane to stop and crouch in front of her and pat her on the top of her dome. And on the left…

Ahhh…

I walk over and pick up the techno-seed in my right hand, then heft it onto my shoulder as my drone swarm swarms. Since I'm not completely sure what sorts of weapons we'll be facing I made drones capable of countering just about everything I could think of. And Sunset Shimmer's work on the techno-seed is sublime.

I smile at my assembled forces.

**My people. Let's go do some good.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

Respite

16th August
06:27 GMT

My eyelids open, pale blue filling my field of view. There's a heavy weight on my right side leaning against me and I think I've drooled slightly on the pillow. Where-? Ah, yes… Of course. I try moving my left arm around a bit, but it feels like Jade's already left. I'm a little surprised that I didn't wake up when she did. Waking up at six was something I've done for a while… Though I suppose that after enough time passes any habit can fall aside.

I reach up with my left arm, pulling the sheet and duvet away from my free side a little and gently trying to slide myself in that direction. My right arm is stuck under… I twist my head to the right in order to look at Kon's sleeping face. Alright, don't want to wake him up. He's had enough trouble adjusting to GMT without-.

"Uugh."

Mission failed. His left arm reflexively tightens around my right, pulling it to his chest as he half-consciously tries to squirm into a more comfortable position. His eyes half open… Quarter open really, a moment later.

"Kon, I'm going to need that arm back."

He's actually pulled it far enough under him that I can feel M'gann on the far side. Flipping biofeedback circadian rhythm controls. I try pulling again. If he doesn't let go I'm going to have to either wake him up fully or put a glowing orange zero friction coating over my arm, and I don't really want to do either.

"Kon, you've got my arm there."

"Ugh?" He blinks blearily at me. I may have a built-in full wakeup in the form of my ring-derived control of my physiology, but the rest of my family have to make do with more mundane processes. "Uh?" His eyes clear a little and his grip weakens. "Oh, yeah, sorry. What time is it?"

I pull my right arm out from underneath him, rolling slightly to face him as I do so. "Half six."

"Upf." He turns his head away to face his pillow. "You, ah… You need me for anything?"

"No, I'm-." Oh, he's probably still too tired to remember. "Mother's visiting today. You shouldn't-."

His eyes come fully open, his arms coming up to allow him to raise his torso from the bed. "You-" He glances at M'gann's sleeping form. "Sure you don't want one of us to come with you?"

I reach over to him and pat him on the back with my right hand, gently pushing him back down. "I think it will take her a while to adapt to how Earth Sixteen is. Probably best not to crowd her right at the start."

"Okay." His eyelids dip again, and I lean forwards and kiss him on the lips before pulling away completely and getting off the bed.

Mother's visit today is going to be… Interesting. I walk towards the bedroom entrance, passing through the privacy screen and into the hallway. Somewhat essential when the earliest riser in the house doesn't have augmented vision, the screen blocks both sound and light which is why I'm not surprised that synthetic sunlight is streaming through the hall skylight.

Ring, clothes.

Compliance.

A set of clothing that is half suit and half Star Trek civilian wear appears around me. I frown for a moment but… Yeah, I guess that's appropriate. I walk-. I pause after a step and pull at the material until it settles in a slightly more comfortable way. Maybe make it a little looser? Okay. I walk through the dining room and into the kitchen. Now, what do I-?

There's a note on the work surface, and I pick it up as I head towards the fridge. I flick it open as I reach for the fridge door handle.

'Back 0630. Jade. XXX. P.S. Coffee and eggs.'

Ah, not this morning. But coffee and eggs I can do. I pull the fridge door open and lift out the egg holder at the same time as using the ring to pick up the kettle and float it over to the left kitchen sink. While the ring flips the kettle lid open and turns the tap on I put the eggs down on the work surface and take the orange juice carton and butter out of the fridge before closing the door. Next, I open the cupboard and take out the cafetière and the jar of beans. I use my ring to turn off the tap and float the now adequately filled kettle back over to its base station and turn it on. Frying pan and Pyrex bowl are down here, and I add them to the growing pile of utensils.

Heh. Power rings never stop being awesome.

Power ring generated blades neatly slice open the shells of four eggs and I add them to the bowl. Another set cut an ounce of butter from the block and drop it into the frying pan, which I place on the hob manually before turning it on. Using the ring for everything would just take all of the fun out of it. I add a sprinkle of salt and a few grinder-rotations of black pepper to the bowl and then use a construct whisk to thoroughly blend it.

How much bread is there left? Ah, good. Jade generally prefers her scrambled eggs on their own but I prefer the difference in texture that comes from eating them with toast. I lift the lid off the bread bin and use the ring to cut two medium thickness slices from the loaf. I then float them over to the grill before putting the lid back down. The butter has melted, so I pour the whisked eggs into the frying pan and pull a wooden spoon out of a drawer to keep beating them. The kettle makes a quiet clicking noise as the water reaches boiling point and I use that as my cue to create a grinder construct and tip coffee beans into it. Blades whir and butter crackles as the smell of breakfast fills the kitchen.

I hear our house's front door open as the eggs start to solidify and I'm tipping ground beans into the cafetière as Jade walks in wearing her exercise clothing. Oh, I love seeing her abdominal muscles covered in sweat, her slightly laboured breathing causing them to tense and relax slightly.

"Is my coffee ready yet?"

"Do you want me to brew it properly, or do you want to drink it like a savage?"

She wipes her forehead with her towel as she walks across the kitchen. "Which one's quicker?"

"Savage it is."

I pour the just off-boil water into the cafetière and use a construct spoon to give it a stir. "I'd suggest giving it a-" She drapes her towel across the back of a kitchen chair and approaches me with a smile. I turn the half toasted bread and have the ring take control of the egg mixing, turning away just in time for Jade to reach me.

"How was your run?"

"Quiet. I think I'm the only early-riser on this whole space station."

"People like to keep their own time zones. I only mandated GMT for the clocks because that's the space standard."

"I'm not complaining." She approaches to within touching distance, studying my face. "Looking forward to seeing your Mother today?"

"Um. Yes… No, that sounds wrong." I use the ring to put the lid on the cafetière and take a mug off the rack for her. "It's just, it's been so many years that I'd adapted to the idea of never seeing my fam-. You know, my parents, again. So the fact that I'm going to today just feels slightly strange rather than being exciting."

Another filament slices another ounce of butter from the pat and deposits it in the Pyrex bowl while I reach behind me and turn off the hob.

"I suppose that makes sense." She looks around the cooking area. "Mm. Coffee and eggs. Where's the third thing?"

Hm.

I smile as I bend down, her arms going around the back of my neck as we press against each other.

Life is good.

16th August 2018
06:33 GMT

 

[Mr Zoat]

Authority

21st August
18:29 GMT

Ms Mallor looks down at me as I sit cross-legged on the roof of the plain structure built to contain the Orange Central Power Battery. She's one of the political prisoners we liberated from Starlag along with Vril Dox, her exotic abilities putting her on the Dominators' 'to be researched' list.

"I understand that I am not to be included in your tuition session."

"That is correct."

"Why? Do you think that I am incapable of focusing my wants? Or that I would be driven insane as that creature in your cells has been?"

Her desires are a rather harmless mix of loyalty-affirmation with regards to her civilisation and a drive for… Interestingly, not revenge against the Dominion but she definitely wants them pushed back. Talok VIII fell under the Dominion's expanded sphere of influence some time ago, but they only heard about her comparatively recently. She knows that she's the only reason the Dominion bothered threatening her world and that they'd leave it alone once she was in their custody. That's why she surrendered herself rather than try fighting it out or running. Admirable behaviour.

"No."

Unfortunately, it makes her unsuitable for an orange ring. At least at this stage.

"Then why? Dox said that he had given you final refusal on his proposed candidates?"

"He has. But my selection criteria are quite specific." I open my eyes and look up at her. She's wearing a figure hugging blue/black body stocking thing. I didn't realise that look was popular outside of Earth-native superpeople. "Would you like some tea?"

"Tea?"

"It's a drink from my homeworld, made by putting dried leaves-."

"I know what tea is, I just don't understand why you're offering it to me."

"I don't want you to think that I harbour some sort of personal dislike for you. I want this to be a discussion rather than a confrontation. So: I offer you tea."

"Very well…" She hesitates for a moment as I wave my right hand vaguely to my right and bring a teapot and two china cups in the traditional style: white with blue artwork. "Why do you consider me inadequate?"

"I don't. Sugar?"

A mild frown. "No."

"Milk?"

She pulls a face. "I'm an adult. I don't drink milk."

I won't ask about lemon. I create a construct strainer and place it over the first cup, then pick up the teapot and begin pouring.

"You understand that the Orange Lantern Corps we're building is primarily designed to fight the Reach?"

"Yes."

"Orange ring users are unavoidably driven to satisfy their desires. You might well intellectually know that, when evaluated dispassionately, the Reach are worse than the Dominion. But the Dominion matters to you in a personal way which the Reach doesn't." Cup filled adequately, I stop pouring and move the strainer to the second cup. "Whatever you have decided that you should accept, it is the Dominion whom you truly wish to fight. As such, your effectiveness as an Orange Lantern would be impaired in the fights we are actually going to engage in. And that's assuming that you didn't suffer from the mind-altering effects of the orange light, and simply decide to go after the Dominion on your own initiative."

"I'm not so easily distracted." I put the teapot down, disintegrate the tea leaves in the strainer and then dismiss the strainer, and pass her a cup.

"That doesn't help. Forcing yourself to concentrate on something is a green light thing. Do it too much while wearing an orange ring and your ring would turn itself off. Given your other abilities, you might survive losing your environmental shield while in space, but it would significantly reduce your effectiveness."

She inclines her head slightly as she raises the cup to her face and sniffs it. Finding the smell not too repulsive, she tentatively takes a sip just to humour me and then puts the cup straight down again. "I understand that, but I believe that after training with other Lanterns and Darkstars I would come to see them as much as my people as I do other members of my species. And if I were exposed to the Reach's wrongdoings, I would come to loathe them just as much as they do."

I nod. "Quite possibly. That's how I learned to focus the orange light to serve my team mates' needs." I pick up my cup and take a mouthful. I don't actually.. like tea, but as a non-narcotic social tool it is quite useful.

"Then why-?"

I hold up my right hand to stop her, then swallow. "Because I haven't ever taught a proper class before. With Princess Komand'r and Princess Koriand'r I could afford to give them personal attention at all times. Here, I'm going to have to create a training program that others can carry out without my immediate supervision. That significantly magnifies the risk. So I don't want to take anyone who doesn't have the ideal psychological characteristics. In other circumstances, when I have a better idea about what I'm doing, I might consider you. But not for the first batch."

She looks down as she considers my answer, then reluctantly nods. "What other circumstances?"

"When Hinon's had a chance to study what happens when orange power rings interact with someone who has a link to the Shadowlands."

A thin wisp of tenebrous mist manifests around her, parts of her body suddenly looking as if they were drawn in place using a thick black pen. "What do you know of the Shadowlands?"

"That it's the former resting place of the Great Darkness, and is now a source of considerable arcane might as well as being inhabited by some rather disturbing creatures. An acquaintance of mine by the name of Richard Swift draws his power from there as well, and a handful of other individuals have abilities that are sufficiently similar that they may well come from there as well."

"The Great Darkness. That is what your people call the Father of Shadows?"

"It's… Likely that we're talking about the same being."

"When I was younger, I felt its rising. Ever since then, I've been able to control shadows, move them and make them physical. I've never met anyone else who could say the same. Is that how it was on your world?"

"I don't.. know for certain. For most of them the time line is possible. Except the Shade and Simon Culp, who got theirs about a hundred and eight years ago. When the Great Darkness would still have been there." Huh. Hadn't considered that part before. "Which is a little disturbing, now that I think about it. Though it might explain why they're so much more powerful than all of the others."

"They..?"

"But anyway, I hope that you consider staying on anyway. You might get offered a power ring eventually, and even if you don't I'm sure that the Darkstars would love to have someone with your abilities."

"Will you take me with you?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I've never met someone else with my abilities before. When you return to your homeworld, will you take me with you?"

Um. No reason not to, I suppose. "Alright, yes. Though I'll warn you now that I don't know how long it will be until that happens." She nods. "Is there anything else you want to ask?"