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

[Mr Zoat]

Gammadion

4th March
12:35 GMT

"…which meant that we were able to prove that the entire corporate governance team were involved in breaking the embargo."

I nod as Jade and I slowly proceed through the gardens of the Grand Forum.

"Is that all the Reach have going on here?"

"It's the only plot that we know about that was anywhere near being completed."

We stop in front of a cascading, red-flowered mini-tree. Like a… Willow with roses, and those ornamental red leaves? The scent puts me a little in mind of oranges. The species which inhabits this planet is really into gardening, and it's considered an honour to be allowed to work on their communal gardens. Somewhere near the entrance a couple of Delegates and the richest woman on the planet are on their knees doing the weeding.

"Has their economy adapted to the sanctions?"

"They knew that trading with the Reach was a risk. Most of the 'reputable' companies who had operations on the Reach side of the border already had procedures in place to try and prevent them sending anything 'inappropriate' back."

I let out a hiss-chuckle.

"And how well was that working?"

"About as well as you think. Their procedures weren't terrible, but the Reach has a lot of ways to try and get past border security and before we got here the planets they target weren't sharing information. They didn't know about things they'd tried in other places, or how other planets stopped them."

I nod.

"And that's being fixed now?"

She nods. "That's why they invited me here. There are Darkstars stationed on about thirty percent of Periphery worlds, now. Even when there aren't enough of us to actually investigate anything, we share data between ourselves and then pass it on to the planet's police."

She looks up towards the lights marking the space dock where the planet's small LEGION fleet lies at anchor.

"And now that there's a neutral party to police the trade routes, they're trading more with their neighbors. Without having to worry about 'unaligned' raiders cutting into their profit margins."

"The Reach haven't upped their game?"

"They're still trying to pretend that they're a peaceful trading empire."

I look at her with an expression of complete incredulity on my face.

"Really?"

She nods as she takes hold of a branch and gently lifts a flower towards her nose.

"We think it's a cover; we're supposed to think that they're still in the 'diplomatic protest' stage while they ramp up their infiltration efforts."

I nod. Seems to make sense.

"So, what now?"

"Now,-" She drums out the names of her three clicker colleagues on the tree's bark. "-and I are switching to training the locals how to use Maltusian equipment. LEGION is building a recruitment and training center. It's not likely that the Reach will try anything else here until the war starts."

I nod again.

"Are you finding the work satisfying?"

"I am." She releases the branch and turns back to me. "But you know that, don't you?"

"I'm not-" I tap my right forefinger against the orbit of my right eye. "-looking, but you have sounded pretty happy."

"Aside from a few days after they found out that I come from a world that's much less technologically developed than this one, they… Respect me. Respect my skills. I have friends and allies in the local police forces. I'm doing useful work without needing to do.. 'evil'. And every day I see the people, the.. civilisation I'm protect-."

She frowns.

"Is this part of a plan to get me to take an orange ring?"

I shrug.

"It's a potential outcome that I've considered. It's not something I'm specifically aiming for. We've… Had a couple more Lanterns we've had to put in the Blue Cells, so…" She nods. "I'm not trying to herd you in that direction. Maybe you eventually decide to try a ring again…" I shrug. "Maybe you don't. Either is fine."

She nods, takes my proffered right arm and then we resume our precession around the garden's highlights.

"What happened to your third ring?"

"I gave it to the team's new Zamaron member."

"Zamaron?"

"Half-zamaron. The other half is korugari. You remember I said that-."

"Star Sapphire recruited her?"

"Yes, and once she stopped freaking out about someone using the orange light, I gave her a ring to play with."

"Shouldn't you be supervising her?"

"She hasn't even put it on yet. She hasn't gotten further than holding it. She's had it drummed into her from birth that the other colours are bad and I'm not even sure that she can use it."

She nods, then waves at a local couple with her free hand. My rings tell me that their expression at seeing her is one of mild awe. I don't rate a second glance.

I smile inwardly. Positive reinforcement, that's the thing!

"Your mother went out vigilanting with Artemis last night."

Jade smiles faintly.

"I hope she doesn't nag her about that as badly as she does her schoolwork."

"Did she used to nag you about your knifework?"

"I… Don't remember it that well. I never hated her as much as I did Dad, but… I can only remember a few of our lessons together clearly."

"What did she-?"

"Can we-?" She shifts uncomfortably. "Talk about something else?"

"Sure. Ah, I managed to kill four more Justice League members yesterday."

"How badly did they do in the wargame?"

"I'd give them a 'B' overall. I'll make it a B Plus if they actually upgrade their equipment this time. Better still, the Sivanas think that if Mister Atom could kill that many Justice League members that easily, they were right to focus on fighting the sheeda, because…"

Her smile is a little less faint now.

"Did you tell the League about that?"

"I thought it best not to."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Jungle Gym

15th March
20:46 GMT -5

I walk-.

"What-"

I wince-.

"-the-"

Raquel grabs me by the right arm and pulls me around.

"-fuck?!"

"There's no point whispering. She'll hear us perfectly well if she concentrates."

"What the fuck?"

"Her culture has engineered a visceral revulsion at the idea of underemployment, she wanted a job and-."

"A Nazi?!"

"You know Canis is worse, right?"

She grimaces, shaking her head. "He's not a Nazi, he's just a.. weird.. art.. guy."

"Did you..? Miss the bit where he mentioned leading Apokoliptian armies? You've read the files on Apokolips, what did you think they were doing?"

"Fighting a war?"

I don't laugh, even though that statement is ridiculous.

"The area around Apokolips is called 'The Waste', because whenever anyone tries settling there Apokoliptian armies go out, kill everyone and destroy everything. Canis personally led at least one campaign of outright extermination and sees nothing wrong with having done so, so, compared to that, the activities of someone who has mostly done the same sort of work as us but in the service of a far less pleasant society is less evil."

"So she is evil."

"Well that's an interesting philosophical-."

"Paul."

"No, it is! Let's assume that as a fully indoctrinated National Socialist-"

"Nazi."

"-she sees absolutely nothing wrong with killing someone from one of their scapegoat groups. However, as a result of frantic genocidal purging before her birth she's never met one. Jews are extinct, gypsies are extinct-."

She raises her eyebrows. "Niggers are extinct."

"Actually, no, but I got the impression that Kaldur was the first black person she'd ever spoken to. The point is, though she would take part in a genocide if asked, she never has. Likewise, she hasn't ferreted disabled people out of hiding to send them to the camps because there aren't any. She hasn't had the opportunity to do the evil she'd be willing to do. What she's actually done is crime fighting and disaster relief. So is she evil-"

"Yes."

"-or a good person working for an evil state?"

"Okay, kinda both. An evil person working for an evil state."

"You know she did dinner-" Raquel grimaces. "-tonight, right? Look… Why do we arrest people?"

"Yeah, I don't think Little Miss-"

"She's thirty nine."

"-Mz Nazi is gunna go join the Belle Reve Crew."

"Of course not. She hasn't committed a crime here yet."

Um. Except arguably wearing that red 's' symbol in Germany, where a very similar symbol was banned as part of post-war denazification and hasn't been unbanned. But fortunately America has much more broadly-phrased free speech laws.

"But we perform arrests rather than summary executions-"

"Because we're not Nazis."

"-because we try to rehabilitate people, Miss Breaking-and-Entering. We support a system in which people who break the rules are placed in confinement and gradually re-socialised. That is what I would like us to do for Angelika."

"I'm cool with confining the bitch."

"You… Ah, you.. mouthing off to her might be a bit of a hard test of her willingness to play along right now."

"Well excuse me, masser!"

I frown. "Oh, don't even. I'm not asking you to calm down a little because you're black, I'm asking you to do it because, firstly, her seeing you as a rational person undermines what she's been taught about black people, and second, because it means that if I've horribly misjudged the situation she's less likely to kill you."

"Oh, ah'm not going near her without my kinetic barrier-."

"She has heat vision."

She frowns. "Superboy didn't have heat vision."

"It's a different form of hybridisation. She can't match Superman's peak output but it'll still incinerate you."

She stands there for a moment with a decidedly disgruntled expression on her face.

"Oh that's a great way to introduce her to the team."

"Not… What I wanted to lead with. But I don't need to tell you not to make rude jokes about Darkseid in front of Canis despite the fact that-."

"Worse, yeah, I get it."

"If you want to see what true evil looks like I've got a few thousand hours' worth of recordings from Vega you can go through. Mid-firefight cannibalism is a high point, and the Citadelian slave-cages match anything the Nazis managed. Or heck, you ever watched a cowboys versus Indians film?"

"Yeah, but I never cheered the cavalry. Spotted that one."

"What tribes used to live where Dakota City is now? You live there, work there, and I don't see you calling for the city to be demolished."

"I wouldn'a invaded their land and killed them. She would."

"Okay, look: you don't have to have anything to do with her. I'd appreciate it if you'd help, because at the moment you're one of two black people she's been introduced to and I think you disprove Nazi propaganda pretty hard."

"Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome. But you don't have to, and she's probably only going to be here for a week or two anyway."

She sighs angrily.

"What's Superman sayin' about this, anyway?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Equestrian Girls

1st April
22:17 GMT -6

"So…"

I lean back slightly and fold my arms across my chest as Miss Shimmer cringes, eyes darting left and right as her brain frantically tries to come up with a justification for what just happened.

"How did the trip home go?"

She brings her fists up to just underneath her chin and grins slightly manically. "Funny story."

"Oh do tell."

"Okay, so-." She shakes her fists, then blinks at them-. Ah, she's forgotten to open them, reverting to her hoof-use mannerism. She takes a breath and focuses on her fingers, forcing them to uncurl. "So, the portal opened again, and I used the gems to switch the anchor point to here-."

"Yes, I was here for that."

"I just wanna go through it all in order, okay?"

I raise my eyebrows, sigh, then nod.

"So I anchored it, made sure that it wasn't going to close on me again, and then I went through. It was night time there, and the mirror was still in the same place as it was a year ago."

She hesitates, her mouth twitching a little. Ah. Yes. That probably means that no one bothered looking for you or even tried to work out where you'd gone. Uncertain whether to hug her or not, I settle for patting her limply on the right shoulder with my left hand. She reaches across with her left hand to lay it on top of mine for a moment, then pushes mine off.

"And they'd.. locked the door. And hadn't changed the lock. Took me a moment or two to get used to using unicorn magic again, but the lock wasn't any harder to pick than it was last time I did it. It was dark outside, so I headed for my room, dodging the guards-."

"Why?"

"I didn't have time to bring all my stuff with me when I came here the first time. I wanted to see whether to not it was still there."

"No, why did you dodge the guards?"

She squirms.

"Seeeee… Yeah, that… I.. might.. possibly..? Have left out a thing or two about… Y'know… It's a funny story, actually. Y'see-."

"Miss Shimmer, just tell me." This Is An Order.

"Ikindagotbanishedforlookingatevilmagicbooks."

I take a moment to parse that. "Books that were themselves inherently malicious, or regular books that contained potentially harmful spells?"

"Ah… Both? One of them was talking to me, trying to get me to raise an army of demon zombies." She frowns. "And I think it was written in blood."

"Doesn't blood make really bad ink?"

"… Magic? Anyway, I was really just trying to find information on the mirror, and that wasn't even a dark magic artefact."

I frown. "Then why did they put it in the dark magic sect-?"

"Can I just finish?" I nod. "So one of the librarians ran to tell Celestia, and she turned up and I… Said some things I.. probably shouldn't have. And.. she had the guards escort me out of the palace and you'd think she'd really have, heh, learned by now that two pegasus guards against a magic expert wasn't a remotely fair fight-."

I nod. "You beat up the guards."

"Stunning spells are perfectly safe, in moderation. And then I came through the mirror and had the most disorientating ten minutes of my life. So I didn't think asking the guards for directions was a good idea in case they remembered me, despite the head trauma. And I couldn't just.. run for it because I needed to come back through the mirror afterwards."

"Okay, that actually sounds reasonable. Then what?"

"I got there, and… It wasn't the same. I just sort of… When I walked in I was so surprised that I didn't realise that there was a pony in my bed. Or… Her bed, I guess. I was just.. looking around in a daze, and she woke up and I panicked."

I nod slowly, then turn my attention to where the young woman I assume is the human form of Twilight Sparkle is chained to a chair.

"'Panicked'."

"Mpmf!"

"She was making a noise in a palace full of guards and Celestia! And I knew a spell for tying ponies up really quickly-"

I look at the ball gag and raise my eyebrows.

"-and it was a really instructive book! And so I used that, but I couldn't risk staying there and I couldn't let her tell anyone I was there. So I brought her back."

She gulps.

"So… You thought that bringing her back, from a civilisation that undoubtedly has all sorts of magic-based tracking techniques, was a better way to handle the situation than pretending that you were a maid?"

"I wasn't wearing a maid uniform."

"And she would have seen that in the dark how?"

"I-." She looks away again. "Okay. Yes. That probably would have been a better plan."

I sigh. "Okay, right, not the best way to handle things, but given that you were exiled anyway we can probably still fix this."

"How?"

"I go through, carry the portal to somewhere outside Canterlot and we go from there. No guards and no Celestia until we're ready. Okay?"

"I.. guess… But what about-" She looks at Ms Sparkle. "-her?"

"Well, assuming that she's adapting to her human body just as well as you did, she won't be able to move, pick things up, use magic or speak any local languages. So she isn't really a security risk." I walk over and kneel down in front of her. "I'm going to take the gag off now. I realise that this is a very unpleasant situation for you, and I intend to return you to Equestria just as soon as we can without compromising our objectives."

"Mhra?"

I smile. "Just so. Hold still a moment." I reach forward and undo the gag preventing Miss Sparkle from speaking. "I'm very sorry about this." I pull the gag from her mouth and hand it to Miss Shimmer, who takes it, notes the saliva and puts it down on the workbench before wiping her hands on her trousers.

"Who are you? Where am I? What's going on? Why am I a monkey-? No, that's not right. No tail. Some kind of ape? But my hind limbs don't seem to have any grasping capacity? Maybe if I take these boots off-." Her chains rattle slightly. "Oh."

"My name is Grayven, you're presently in the Challenger Mountain facility on another world accessible through Starswirl's mirror. It appears to turn ponies who enter from your side into an example of the dominant local sophont species: humans. Humans are a type of ape adapted for the savannah. As such, they have hair on the top of their head to act as a sunshade but not anywhere else as they generally need to lose heat rather than retain it. As they spent more time walking on their hind legs and not climbing trees they lost the grasping capacity but gained land speed."

"Oh. So what other species are there-. Wait, another world?"

"Yes, but don't worry, the portal's staying open this time. I'm going to nip through now, and all being well we'll be returning you within the next hour. Miss Shimmer-."

"But another world!" Twilight beams excitedly, quite ignoring the chains. "That's amazing! I mean, I know Starswirl the Bearded wrote all kinds of fascinating spells, but I've never heard of one like this."

Miss Shimmer rolls her eyes. "Yeah, Celestia puts anything not friendship-related in the restricted-do-not-read-on-pain-of-banishment section. How about I give you a tour while Grayven hides the mirror?"

"Um." Miss Sparkle tries to move in the chains again. "That would be-." Miss Shimmer raises her right hand and clicks her fingers, a sympathetic effect causing the chains to unlock. "How did you do that?"

"You girls have fun while I'm away."

I stride towards the tape outline marking out this side of the mirror. How hard can being a pony be?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Equestrian Guise

Morning
Equestria

"Do.. you..?"

Luna looks away for a moment. We're sitting in her drawing room, the blues and purples not really being displayed to their best in the brilliant sunlight streaming through the windows. Party Popper came with us, then dashed off with a gasp when she realised that she still had to prepare Sunset's Ascension Party.

"Yes?"

She shuffles slightly on her… Fainting couch thing? Chaise longue? I've been a pony for less than a day and I already know that lying down or standing are both more comfortable than sitting. Our body structures aren't really designed for it, which has a knock-on effect to how ponies pose in social situations. Luna found a solid-looking couch for me to lie on, and so far it's bearing the burden of my considerable weight well.

"You mentioned that you found Us-."

Not a fluke, then.

"I'm a 'you' now?"

"We gained some comprehension of your society when We were studying your dream. You are the son of your people's ruler. 'tis improper to refer to you as Our social inferior."

I look down. "No. Well. At this point I think that I'm informally adopted or something, but as I said: I'm not actually… The original Grayven; the man most people think I am."

"And hast Darkseid granted you no lands or titles?"

"Okay… Yes, he granted me a fairly grand-sounding title, and he publically calls me 'son', it's just… You're the only person I've told this to. I haven't even told my children."

She nods.

"Verily, a disguise which exists in only one direction would in truth be of little value. We cannot offer you pardon for your deception, and We can understand why you maintain it. What plans have you made for its undoing?"

"Once Darkseid isn't a problem anymore I'll just confess to the whole thing. I doubt that my children will care much, and everyone else…" I try to wing-shrug but I mostly just get a twitch. "Sorry, I interrupted you; you were saying?"

"Do you truly find Us… Appealing?"

"I wanted to cuddle you the moment I saw you."

Her wings twitch again.

"Our world-."

"I call it 'Wilson'."

She frowns. "For what reason?"

"Sunset told me that this planet didn't have a name, just the individual nations. I picked 'Wilson' pretty much at random, which seems to me to be as fair a way to do it as any."

"Very well; our world of Wilson hath many intelligent species 'pon it, but… Intimate relations between them are usually limited to those which hath similar morphologies. You are naturally a balding bipedal. We are.. curious.. as to… What it is..?"

"Why I find a fur-covered quadruped appealing?" She nods. "It's not.. exactly.. erotic appeal. I… My original species was 'human', and while we're savannah-adapted apes, our distant ancestors were a lot hairier than us. And ponies have proportionally larger eyes than we do, in a way which.. in our species, is something our babies have. So some instinctual part of me is designed to find that combination of features appealing. But.. on a level with a rose bush in full bloom, or a willow tree gracefully arcing into a pond. While I find you physically appealing, it's not necessarily sexual."

"Were you lying about your…" She raises her eyebrows. "Pride?"

"No, that was a response to your behaviour. When I became a New God, some of my attitudes to certain things… Changed. I'm a lot more cerebral in my arousal these days. You're… My type. But I don't want to.. press my suit in a way which would make you uncomfortable. I do like you as an individual as well."

"We see." She nods again. "How do you intend to follow through on your offer to aid Us?"

"Okay, you're a thousand years out of date. What sort of lessons did Celestia arrange for you when you returned?"

"Lessons?"

"Yes." I nod. "You know, to start learning about all of the cultural and legal changes that have happened over the last thousand years so that you can carry out your duties as diarch from a position of knowledge?"

"Before your arrival last night I spent my time rearranging the curtains."

…

"Is that some sort of pony metaphor?"

"Neigh, it is not." She thinks for a moment. "It… May be one as well -Our use of the modern vernacular is imperfect- but We are not using it as one. Management of the royal household is one of the few areas where We are capable of acting."

…

"What?" I blink. "What? Why are-?" I shake my head. "No, no, a Princess Regnant should not be tending to draperies."

She looks down. "We are not able to-."

Okay, no. I put my right forehoof on the floor, and…

Um.

Wiggle my haunches across to the edge of the couch, lower my right leg into the floor, wiggle a little m-.

There's a burst of surprised laughter from Luna as I land on my back, legs waggling helplessly in the air. That'll do for now.

I pick myself up and put myself down on my four hooves, then walk around the table and lie down so that my face is close to Luna's.

Then I gently headbutt her in the face.

She blinks in surprise. "What dost-?"

"No moping, no feeling sorry for yourself and no feeling guilty. We're going to work to get you into position to actually function as half of the executive branch. And to start with: you should operate on the strategic level, the instructions given to the pony in charge of decorations, who in turn instructs the maids and stewards who physically change them."

"Such ponies do not operate at night. We are not even certain who those ponies are."

"Doesn't matter, because it's probably not worth your time anyway. What else do you do?"

"We.. visit the dreams of our little ponies, to keep them safe from their nightmares."

"Are these nightmares generally real, capable of causing death or physical injury, or manifesting into the waking world?"

"No, but-."

"Then it's not worth your time, either. At most, you should be gathering a group of psychologist unicorns and teaching them how to do it… Or perhaps your guard's information retrieval specialists. Unless somepony else is doing this already?"

"Not to the best of Our knowledge."

"Right then. One pony can't possibly reach everyone, but one pony can teach ponies who can teach ponies who can reach all of the most needy. Next… Legal and economic changes. How is your education coming along?"

"Slowly. We-."

"I have in my employ a species who can copy knowledge from one mind to another. If you can grab a few legal experts we can sort that out in a few hours."

"We see."

"Assuming that you want to?"

She stares at me for a moment, then smiles.

"Yes, Grayven. We want to very much."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Repetition

2nd April 2012
07:52 GMT -6

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

I look around as Bethany stares at me in fascination.

"Variety is the spice of life, honey. Want a ride?"

Lynne puts her hands on her hips.

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

"Sunset's portal opened up, and I wanted to give her moral support while she did her ascension thing." Lynne nods while Bethany just looks confused. "Sunset? The young woman with the red hair with yellow streaks? She's been here for a year, I'm sure you've seen her at some point."

"Yes-" Momentary reassurance-seeking glance at Eldest Adopted Sister. "-Daddy, I know who Sunset is."

"Right, well she's a magical pony from a world on the other side of a mirror, and the portal just opened again so she's getting back in touch with her-" Friends? No. Family? She didn't really mention them directly. They could be dead, or it could be like Shining Armor where he popped into existence at the end of series two. I'll nudge her about that in a couple of days. "-people."

"Sunset's a pony?"

"At the moment, yes. When you go through the portal it turns you into one."

Bethany's eyes light up. "Can I come?! Can I come please?!"

I trot closer and give her a nuzzle. "I'm sorry, but it isn't safe unless we know what being turned into a pony does to your medicine." Her head bows as she lets out a disappointed moan, but she reaches up to stroke my nose anyway. Oddly satisfying. "Tell you what. Sunset's locked the portal open now, so I'll check out what it does to your blood this week and you can pay them a visit this weekend. Does that sound alright?"

She nuzzles me back. "Thank you Daddy!"

"That's quite alright. Looking forward to your lesson with Ms Gloria this afternoon?"

Bethany frowns. "I don't think she's very nice."

"Then you're a good judge of character. But what makes you think that?"

"She eats birds."

"Honey, a chicken is a type of bird, and if you're telling me that you've gone off chicken then I'm going to have to sort out something else for dinner."

"No, not like chicken-bird, you know, like you buy in a shop. Like there was a little bird outside the classroom and she just kept staring at it the whole time? And Stephan asked her why and she said that she sometimes gets urges?"

"A lot of people get inappropriate urges. That doesn't make them bad people."

"But she isn't taking her medicine!" Oh… Right. "You said we couldn't stop ourselves killing-. Things… When we turn into monsters, but we are responsible for taking our medicine, because if we don't take it we turn back into monsters and then it's our fault. So if she still wants to eat wild animals then she's bad."

"I'm afraid that there isn't any medicine for Ms Gloria."

Bethany looks horrified. "What?"

"Ms Gloria isn't quite the same as you and your natural siblings. Her body just sort of ignores medicine. But she's an adult, and as long as it's just wild animals I decided that I should leave her to it."

"But she doesn't want to!"

"Tell you what: if you see her staring at a bird, walk over and give her a big hug. That should take her mind off it."

If only because I know that her husband -a pleasant if somewhat vacuous Chelsea player- has been carefully raising the idea of having children for a while. And while I suspect that at this point Ms Gloria isn't totally against the idea, there are some things a demonic body struggles with. On the other hand, if she gets the idea to have a demonology-focused magician take a look at my younger children, who knows what might happen?

"Okay Daddy." She takes a step back. "Have fun with the other ponies!"

I nod, smiling. "I'm sure I will."

She heads off into the Mountain to go and get her school accoutrements while Lynne looks at me thoughtfully. "What really happened?"

"Sunset kidnapped her successor, but we talked things out. Her banishment appears to have been rescinded, if only because Celestia realises that it won't serve its intended purpose. Ponies are really tiny and really cute."

"You don't look tiny."

I raise my eyebrows. "Ah, but I do look cute."

She rolls her eyes. "Do you want me to feed you a carrot?"

She's trying for teenage-sullen, but the smile ruins it.

"I don't know. I'm fine with it, but I'm worried it might be pony-racist or something." She looks away for a moment. "So you coming this weekend, or-?"

"Yes Daddy, of course I'm coming."

"You going to come as you are, or come as a pony?"

"Um." Her eyes move away from my face as she considers it. "What's it.. like?"

"Weird. You fall over a whole lot to start with. But in theory you get access to pony magic."

"Like making stuff float with your horn?"

"I didn't think I should try that in case I broke something. But I could clumsily fly, and I didn't get any physically weaker. Besides, it's only for a few hours. If you don't like it you can just-" I prance in place for a moment. "-trot back through the portal and you'll be a New God again."

"A human-shaped New God, right?"

…

"Tell you what: why don't you head down to Sunset's laboratory and I'll test that."

She looks concerned. "Daddy, are you going to get stuck like that?"

"No, no." I walk closer and give her a nuzzle. "Worst case scenario is that I'll need Sunset to fiddle with the Mirror to make it work properly. And the best part is-."

Her eyes widen. "No Anti-Life. I can't feel it in you."

She was feeling-? No, of course she was, but that's fine, it's gone.

"Yes. Gone completely. There's.. also another potential stepmother I need you and the others to audition, because-."

"Daddy, are you a player?"

I snort with amusement. "Gosh, no. If I was a player then I wouldn't be getting my children to do interviews. You'd never meet them."

"What about Kara?"

"I thought that she was treating me like an unexploded bomb. If you're telling me-."

The air around us.. glows.. red..? I generate construct armour around Lynne and myself and grasp my weapons as I activate all available drones to repel invaders.

Then the ceiling above us just sort of opens and a giant blue hand reaches down towards me!

"Acquisition successful. Locating local variant 'Grayven'."

Giant blue hand, meet godkiller sword! I stab upwards as-

Ping.

-Mother Box goes to work on the portal itself. The Sword of the Fallen pierces the tip of the grasping forefinger, yellow.. blood? Crackling out. I don't know exactly how good a hit the Sword needs to depower-.

"Agh!"

The hand is withdrawn, the tip of the finger landing on my dining table as the portal collapses and the red light fades.

…

The heck was that about?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Duplication

2nd April 2012
09:22 GMT -6

My day started strange, and now I'm surrounded by mini-ponies.

What a world.

I use a construct to shove one of the drawing room's doors open. Luna, a hoof -hah!- ful of guards and a couple of ponies I don't recognise are assembled within, guards at the doors, windows and attending Luna while the other three lie on chaise longues.

"Hey, Luna. I brought Jean and a few g-gnomes. Are these your experts?"

She nods, indicating an elderly looking mare. "Justice Heavy Heart has volunteered to aid Us in the matter."

I frown. "Is that 'Us' as in you, or 'us' as in us?"

"U-." She hesitates. "Both, we suppose. Doctor Hay Exchange-" She indicates a stallion with a cutie mark of a balance, a pile of scrolls on one side and a pile of coins on the other. "-has also expressed an interest in aiding Us in gaining an understanding of modern economics. And-. By 'Us' We mean 'me'."

"Right." I nod to him. "Slight problem. Jean didn't come through as a pony."

"What did she come through as?"

There's a general intake of breath as changeling queen Jean clops through the doorway, following by the g-gnome drones. They're a bit more mobile in this form than in their customary shape, which meant that we could get away without bringing the usual g-elf escort. From the way that the guards are starting to square up I think that bringing the combat genomorphs would have been a unnecessarily confrontational act.

"We see."

"Princess Luna?" Jean looks around and I point her out with my right forehoof. "My name is Jean, and I will be overseeing the process."

One of the guards glances at Luna.

"Princess..?"

Luna shakes her head. "Be not afeared, Our loyal protector. These are not in truth changelings. This is merely the result of the changes wrought by Starswirl's Mirror."

I nod. "She actually looks like this."

I generate a construct image of her native form. From the expression on the ponies' faces, they don't like it any better. I mentally shrug and then dismiss it and the transformed g-gnomes take position near Luna. Jean takes a step closer to Heavy Heart.

"Ms Heavy Heart?"

Heavy Heart doesn't look entirely sanguine. "… Jean. What exactly are you going to do to me?"

"With your permission, these g-gnomes will study the networks of schema in your mind relating to legal practice. They will then copy them into the mind of Princess Luna, and work to integrate them into her schematic systems so that she gains the same instinctive awareness of legal affairs that you have."

She nods. "And I won't forget anything."

"Since they are creating a copy, the original will be unaffected. You might find yourself having.. unusually acute recall of particular incidents while they work to locate them, but otherwise you should not notice a thing."

Luna leans forward, her nose a short distance from a blankly-staring g-gnome.

"And for Ourself?"

"Once we begin the dubbing process, you may experience a period of confusion while the integration is completed. Assuming that everything goes to plan, the worst that will happen will be surprising moments of insight; we can only integrate the memories so far. In the event that there are any problems, we can erase the new unintegrated memories quite easily."

"Do We need to do anything? To keep Our mind blank, perhaps?"

"On the contrary, we find that sort of thing unhelpful. All we would ask is that you remove any magic-based mental defences. We have no way to work around those ourselves. And if you could avoid casting for the duration, that would help as well."

Luna nods, then turns to Heavy Heart. "Are you ready, your honour?"

"I.. believe that I am. When will you begin?"

The horns of the g-gnome drones start glowing with a pale orange corona.

"Now."

Luna stares, a faint corona rippling over the surface of her horn.

"Fascinating."

I nod. Curious how the mirror adapted their abilities to magic. Genomorphs have next to no magic ability, as far as Sunset was able to tell. Barely any arcane presence at all, in fact. It's a problem that might fix itself over the next few generations, but otherwise I'll need to be adding it to Sunset's slate. Point is, the mirror didn't turn them into something with telepathic abilities, it gave them equivalent magical abilities instead. That warrants further investigation.

"How fares Our Sister's former student?"

"Ah… Emotionally overwrought. I… Don't think she's going to be coming back for a little while." Luna nods solemnly. "She was still in pony shape last time I saw her, so she's clearly not… Rejecting her equine existence or anything…" I frown. "Do her parents live in Canterlot?"

"We do not know. Our Sister hath not mentioned them." She frowns mildly. "We will send a missive once We hath determined their identity and place of residence, informing them of Sunset Shimmer's wellbeing and newfound status. She hath not spoken of them to you?"

"She mentioned that they exist. That's about all she told me about them."

"We see. That is unfortunate." Her eyes flick downwards. "Our Sister made it clear that she made no friends during her education; to be alienated from her family as well-"

I clop forwards, half turn and lie down next to her seat, the upper part of my trunk resting against her side.

"-would.. be…" She turns her head around to look me full in the face. "What are you doing?"

"Sounded like you were getting mopey, and there wasn't room on your seat." I tilt my head left until it's resting on her shoulder, then lean on her. "Go on."

"We…" She blinks and turns her head away, as if suddenly becoming aware of the other ponies in the room. She clears her throat, and the ones who were staring find something else to rest their eyes upon. "Would be rather sad."

"Yeah, it would. Speaking of family, is it alright if I bring mine for a visit?"

"Of course." Slight hesitation. "Who..?"

"My children. Lynne, Pa-"

I cough.

"-Bethany, Maeve, Stephan, Mary, Christopher, Clare and Sarah."

"You have..? Ah. Their.. mother..?"

"Their natural parents are dead. I adopted them. Oh, but my mother might visit at some point; I think Equestria could be good for her."

She nods in understanding. "And you wish for me to meet them that you may learn of my skills as a dam, and that your mother may assess my worth as a partner."

"Ah… Sort of. The children, pretty much. My mother, less so. I'm old enough and horrible enough to make mistakes-. Decisions!"

Her right wing bats me over the head. I smile at her.

"Decisions. Lynne can come over this afternoon, if you're up for it. Ease you into it."

"We believe that We are." Luna nods. "Is there anything regarding her that you feel that you should notify Us in advance?"

"She's a stronger telepath than the g-gnomes, and since she's a New God like me she'll probably come through as an alicorn. She grew up on a military base and was briefly used as an Anti-Life broadcaster so there's absolutely no need -or point- in shielding her from the harsher realities of life."

"We.. had meant regarding her hobbies or preferred foodstuffs. But I suppose that you would know the most pertinent insights."

"Princess Luna?" Jean gestures as the glow from the g-gnomes fades. "We are ready to begin the implantation."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Low Politics

4th April
09:12 GMT -1

I appear in the air over the mid-Atlantic, empathic vision scanning the seas below for the man who-. There he is. I

step out

and appear a short distance from him within his field of view. Lord-. No, King Cyprian is moving his hands, water rippling around them to unleash a destructive pressure blast before he's even consciously aware of who it is that just appeared. I raise my hands as his not-much-slower-off-the-mark bodyguards begin preparing their attacks as well.

"I'm sorry, but-"

He moves to conceal his hands as he dismisses the spell, consciously relaxing his posture to indicate that his guard should stand at ease. He's hoping that I didn't notice his preparedness, or the situation with the rest of Atlantis that caused it.

"-I urgently need-"

Spell dismissed, he raises his right hand to stand down the guard and straightens his posture.

"-to talk to you."

"Illustres Paul. You can simply make an appointment. Since we're working together I've put you on the 'priority approval' list."

"Too slow. I urgently need to hire as many archmages as you can spare."

He conceals his concern well, but whatever protections he routinely uses aren't blocking my empathy. I'll warn him about that after this meeting.

"What for?"

"Magic users are uncommon in the galaxy at large. A world under NEMO's protection is being threatened by a magic-based intelligence and it doesn't have a native magic tradition. NEMO doesn't have good access to magic users inside its territories and.. those it could get generally aren't as well educated as Atlanteans."

"What sort of intelligence?"

"Thousands of eyeballs floated into the sky, came together in blobs and started accusing the locals of 'breaking the covenant'."

"Ah. Yes, that does sound like magic."

I see a little spark of interest, swiftly doused.

"Do you know the nature of the covenant? If it's just a matter of making a votive offering-."

"No."

"I realise that it's concerning, but as king I make a number of ritual offerings and sacrifices each year to gods whom Venturia no longer worships. These-."

"I can't find out because my colleagues and I killed all of the priests."

"Oh. Yes, that.. would make things rather difficult."

"I don't want to negotiate. I want to kill it. I'm confident that the local Orange Lanterns and I can kill it, but I want to check that there won't be any blowback and that it isn't doing anything actively against the civilian population other than being really disturbing."

King Cyprian nods slowly. "We can help with that. Do you have any other requirements?"

"Everyone you select must be able to survive exposure to magic-based planes of reality, because that's how we'll be travelling."

"That cuts it down considerably. But I'm certain that we can-" He looks over to a courtier. "-draw up a list."

The courtier nods and activates a scrying pool.

"Given.. the.. international situation, I'm afraid that I can't simply release our archmages without getting something in return. I assume you're offering something in exchange?"

"Yes. A LEGION defence contract."

While I doubt that he'd usually offer one over something like this, Dox is rather interested in recruiting magic users on an ongoing basis. We didn't even know that Tillettit was mystically active, and if there's one thing Dox hates it's intelligence oversights.

"Is.. that..?"

"Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operations Network. NEMO's space fleet and marine corps. If you accept the pact, your security becomes our concern. Please note that this will only cover defensive operations. If you start a fight you can't finish, we don't care."

"I don't intend to. You're.. aware then that relations with Atlantis…"

"I know that you were crowned king and declared independence. I don't know enough about Atlantean law to know how problematic that is."

"Generally speaking, when part of your country decides that it doesn't want to be part of your country any longer, that means war."

"Is King Orin going to take that option?"

"I'm not sure that I've given him much choice. What do you know about the political situation?"

"Not much. And to be honest, it's not my problem."

"This agreement will make it your problem."

"No, it won't. I don't care who was right or wrong… Does this go back to Princess Diana's fight with Queen Clea?"

"No, before that."

I think for a moment, then shrug. "I still don't care. Your city has been disconnected for long enough that hardly anyone in Atlantis is going to be meaningfully affected. If the royal family had decades to fix the problem and didn't, then they don't have any cause for complaint. I would however respectfully suggest that it might be politically advantageous to hold a ballot on the subject, but otherwise it isn't my concern."

He regards me curiously. "A ballot?"

"King Orin grew up in America, a democracy. He's used to the idea that the will of the majority of the citizens should set the direction of policy. I assume that you have an up to date census?"

A mild frown. "Of course we do."

"Then invite a few observers from other city-states in and get your citizens to record their preference: independence or reunification. If you get a decent majority in favour of your position then he'll feel that he's in the wrong, and you could probably get him to agree to postpone things indefinitely."

"I hadn't.. considered… I assume that the observers are to demonstrate that we aren't strong-arming our citizens." I nod. "A curious way of doing things, but I take your point. Have you told him what you're offering us?"

"No. I'd rather that he didn't need to find out. But feel free to inform him if he threatens to invade."

"Can your LEGION fight in the ocean?"

"The guns we use? We don't really need to."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Plutonian

12th April
08:43 GMT -1

King Cyprian looks out across the foam-wreathed seascape surrounding Venturia's largest surface territory.

"You know, I came up here once as a young man."

His meeting with King Orin and company is scheduled to begin a little later today. It was agreed fairly early on that neither Venturia nor Poseidonis were appropriate venues. Aurania would have been even worse. Most other Atlantean cities were unacceptably close to Poseidonis, and Venturia didn't really have good relations with any of the ones who weren't. Thankfully, Queen Hippolyta was willing to host them both.

"What did you think?"

"I thought that the smell was unpleasant, and that at any moment I might fall into the horizon."

"Can't do much about the first, but in my experience the second is very uncommon."

"Obviously I knew that I wouldn't, but even in clear waters it isn't possible to see so far beneath the surface. And the sun…"

He looks up for a moment.

"It seemed so small. In the shallows the light diffuses through the water, so I assumed that as I kept going up it would become more diffuse. Instead, the sky was covered by silt and there was a tiny burning dot."

He gestures towards it with his right hand.

"It was a very strange experience. Though I'm proud to say that I toughed it out longer than all but one of my peers."

"And then what?"

"Then I was berated by my nursemaid, and then my father, and then my mother. And then my aunt, though for different reasons." He looks down for a moment. "My caregivers felt that I'd exposed myself to risk unnecessarily. My parents thought that I would harm my relationship with Queen Clea by reminding her of her defeat by Princess Diana, and thus reduce my chance of becoming her heir."

"And did it?"

"I don't think that it affected it one way or another. Most of my competition disqualified themselves in various ways. Sometimes, keeping your head down and your nose to the grindstone works." He lets out a quiet chuckle. "If attaining political power is your objective."

"Wasn't it yours?"

"No, not particularly. I was born to a high station, and I was aware of the responsibilities that gave me. I.. simply.. endeavoured to serve the state as best I could. As the more ambitious people around me crashed and burned."

Another quiet chuckle, this one not particularly happy.

"I didn't think that Queen Clea was ever actually going to die. Ah-." He shakes his head. "I know that's ridiculous; Atlantean Purebloods aren't immortal by any stretch of the imagination. But she defined our politics for so long, the idea of anyone -myself especially- taking over from her…"

"I think I know how you feel. Of course, I'm not in the frame to take over from Queen Elizabeth."

"I don't have any real objection to Lord-Lantern Manga Khan having it. The next class can just use one of the other islands. But what to do afterwards…"

"Trade with the surface?"

"I hesitate to say 'yes', but if Poseidonis can do it…" He takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "We planned extensively for what we would do if Poseidonis ever became aggressive. But even after Arthur Curry became Crown Prince, we never really planned for peaceful interaction with the surface."

"I'm told that you're not supposed to call him that."

He turns his head my way. "Is it not the name he was born to? That he was raised under? I don't know what Queen Atlanna was thinking."

"She was thinking that with a lot of the monarch's powers transferred to the senate, that her heir's focus should be international relations rather than internal affairs."

"It's a little disheartening that she thought so little of us."

"Did you ever try to reach out from your side?"

"Yes. To Prince Orm."

"Ah."

"Quite. It seemed like we had a lot in common." He shrugs. "I tell myself that he fooled a great many people, but if his duplicity hadn't been uncovered by someone-"

"Me."

"-then-." He frowns. "Honestly?"

"I disarmed and disabled him. Tracking him down was a team effort. You didn't know?"

"A disadvantage of isolationism is that we're generally last with the news."

"Well, word to the wise: if you're going to get into a fight, make sure that your invulnerable armour covers your entire body. Losing to a group of teenaged neophytes because it didn't can be rather embarrassing."

"I'm under no illusions about my martial abilities. Though I'm… I'm not sure. 'Disappointed' doesn't seem quite right considering what he was trying to do, but knowing that he was defeated like that seems a little… Off."

"Real life is frequently lacking in poetry. I suppose that ideally he should have been defeated in a climactic duel at the North Pole while undertaking a desperate attempt to pull off his master plan after having his identity revealed. But as it happened a group of youths only one of whom had ever met him before walked in on him and beat him into a coma. Heck, I can name a dozen American supervillains who died from gunshot wounds inflicted by random passers by, and a dozen more killed by police."

And a few like Yellow Wasp who retire with a bag full of loot and their nemesis' infant son as a trophy and finally die in a car crash years later having not gone down for so much as speeding. That's pretty unsatisfying too.

"I imagine-."

My ring blinks, and King Cyprian looks down at it.

"Is that our call?"

"Probably." I raise it to eye level. "Answer."

The head of Lantern Savenlovich appears over my ring.

"What news?"

"The Atlantean delegation has arrived and cleared the gate area. You are free to proceed."

A pretty reasonable arrangement. While they are both the monarchs of their respective countries, Atlantis is larger, older, and more prosperous than the City-State of Venturia. Which naturally means that King Orin comes ahead of King Cyprian in the order of precedence.

King Cyprian nods and raises his right hand towards his entourage, who begin moving towards us.

"We'll be with you shortly. Illustres out."

"I've been wondering about that. Is it wrong that I still consider myself Atlantean, even though I am no longer a resident of a part of the nation of Atlantis? It is our culture as much as theirs."

I smile.

"Try reading up on the Eastern Roman Empire some time."

 

[Mr Zoat]

A Week in the Life of

11th April 2011
00:43

I take a moment to regard the petty criminals sitting on some sort of large canine on the rooftop a short distance from me. The young woman in the dog mask.. is quietly growling. Odd. The young man in regency dress is subtly trying to nudge his hound backwards. The thickset man in leather is trying to appear completely calm while supporting the semi-conscious woman sharing his dog, wisps of the black.. material he appears able to control pooling around their feet.

"Undersiders. Please pay attention, for I will say this only once. I will be cleaning house in Brockton Bay. You may find legitimate employment, you may leave the city, or I will kill you. Am I understood?"

Regency looks down onto the street below, where the charred remains of Lung and the corpses of his retinue are slowly cooling.

"Yeah, I think we got the fucking message."

Leather's head dips for a moment, then returns to facing me. "What did you do to Tats?"

"Nothing deliberate. She appears-" I scan her body. "-to.. have unusual activity in the part of her brain controlling her superhuman abilities. I could attempt to turn it off, but that probably wouldn't be healthy for her. If she collapsed when I arrived, I would suggest removing her from my presence as quickly as possible."

"Yeah. How long you giving us?"

"I'm working from most serious to least serious. I will be checking on you shortly after Uber and Leet."

"That's.. after the Nazis and the Merchants?"

"And what's left of the Asian Bad Boys, naturally."

He snorts quietly. "Good luck with that."

"Thank you. Ah, I see that you all have the same brain abnormality. That will make this easier."

No sirens, I note. A man glowing with yellow light shoots a dragon in the brain with a positron beam, and no one calls the police. Clearly, I couldn't get here soon enough.

"So, like… Can we go?"

"Yes. Be about your business."

A series of somewhat frantic looks are exchanged between the two men, then the one in leathers carefully lays a hand on the dog girl's shoulder. She tenses, but after a moment she whistles and the canines turn away.

I hope that they make a sensible decision.

I float downwards, yellow filaments flicking out and plugging into the phones owned by members of the fallen dragon's retinue. I doubt they have much identifying information stored on them, but I'm perfectly capable of brute forcing the records held by their service providers, bankers and.. accessing city records to locate their registered addresses, scanning their home computers and-.

Why are there so many flies? And why aren't they being attracted to the corpses?

Hm.

In a city there are almost always going to be some observers. I turn slowly in the air, looking through the walls at the fears of those inside the buildings around me. Generally, I can tell how bad things are by how glad people are to see me, and from the look of things…

Things aren't too bad-.

Several small flies attempt to land in my hair. A scan of the local area reveals one person with the signature brain abnormality of the local superhumans. A young woman wearing a.. ersatz costume. Nothing about her in local records. I transition to just in front of her.

"May I help-"

Flying insects of many types swarm in from all directions, creating a cloud around my face as she hurriedly backs away.

"-you? I bear you no malice, my environmental shield is proof against insects and I can see where you are perfectly well without using my eyes. I am merely trying to ascertain your purpose here."

She's showing up rather brightly in my 'empathic vision' at the moment. She knows perfectly well that she wasn't ready for a confrontation like this, but-.

"If you're looking for the Undersiders, they've already left."

The insects are showing up in yellow as well. Curious. Simple insects shouldn't be mentally complex enough for true fear. And if they were, they wouldn't be behaving like this.

"Who are you? Are-? You a hero?"

"I would be somewhat sceptical of anyone who would describe themselves as a hero." I raise my hands to gesture to the cloud of flies. "Would you mind?"

The insects withdraw, forming a dense cloud around the young woman and settling on her body. She's trying to disguise her outline. Alright.

"You killed Lung."

"If violence troubles you, I suggest finding a new career. There's always work for a good exterminator."

"Why did you kill him?"

"He was a serial murderer who runs an organisation of rapists, slavers, murderers and drug peddling thugs. Would you like to reflect upon your question?"

She just stands there for a moment.

"Look, if there's nothing else I've got a lot of people to kill-."

"Are you-? Trying to be a hero? I mean, is this-? Normal?"

"How are you defining 'hero'?"

"How are you defining 'hero'?"

"A hero is someone who lives to improve the lives of others, rather than to improve their own. I look at the situation in Brockton Bay and I see rampant gangs and under-resourced law enforcement organisations with bad doctrine who are failing to bring the situation under control. Therefore, I will cull the criminal population until it reaches a level where civil peacekeeping becomes possible. Once I am done, I will move on to the next city and repeat the process."

"So you do think you're a hero."

"I'm trying to be one. Not that I want to imply that I think there's only one way to be a hero."

"And what about the Protectorate? Do you think they're heroes?"

"Probably not. The silly costumes were the first clue. Not that there's anything wrong with being a police officer or a soldier, or that people employed in those capacities can't be heroic or be heroes."

"But you wouldn't join them."

"No. They would hobble me and drag me down to their level of ineffectiveness. Though-" I smile. "-it could just be that I'm a pontificating serial killer with delusions of utility."

Another person with a super tumour is approaching… On a large motorcycle.

"I believe that the authorities are responding. You may wish to absent yourself."

"You.. know they're.. going to arrest you?"

I smile wryly as I turn away.

"If they couldn't arrest Lung then I very much doubt that they can successfully arrest me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Otherworld

I have no idea
Where I am

Elves.

Elves. Okay.

Because… Sure. Why wouldn't there be elves?

The black and purple combined with pierced heart, skull and thorny vine iconography makes me think 'Warhammer Dark Elf', but really those are generic enough that it's not really proof.

And I need to keep myself calm and focused on the outcome that I want because the one thing the brief fight I just had taught me is that this ring doesn't like me being afraid. Fear gets me shot with repeating crossbow bolts and I don't want that again.

On the deck of the ship just in front of me the crew kneel bound and gagged by glowing orange chains. If this is the Warhammer world, these would be corsairs, and… The cloaks do rather.. suggest…

Once I've dealt with this, I'll… Go and check.

I half-turn, taking in the fishing village they were in the process of raiding. A few wooden boats pulled up onto the shore. Wattle and daub houses with thatch roofs. A couple of the houses have visible timber frames, but this clearly isn't wealthy enough or close enough to a good quarry for stone buildings. Not sure why there aren't clay bricks…

The people here were scarpering as I arrived, the fastest making it to the tree line while the slowest were hit with bolts from the probably-corsairs. The bolts haven't actually pierced them anything like as deeply as I thought they would, and since the aim was to take slaves… Some sort of drugged tip? Since this is my first day as a… A Lantern, I decided not to take a chance on wound repair and left the bolts where they were after moving the wounded into one of the houses.

No one has reappeared since I defeated the attackers. Which makes sense; they probably think I'm a daemon.

But what happens next? This place is clearly too small to have a military presence. It certainly doesn't have a prison. Don't… The Bretonnians have a Knight of the Realm in every village or something? So this probably isn't Bretonnia, but those are definitely pale-skinned humans lying on the shore. So… What? Empire? Border Princes?

…

Did they..? Have a coast?

Oh, it.. doesn't matter.

Right. The pirates. Mixed sex crew, but with the males outnumbering the females. The man with the fancy armour is probably the captain, and the woman in the leather bikini who threw what I suspect was a doombolt at me is a sorceress. Given that they're a) pirates and b) completely evil, I should… Probably just kill them.

…

I'm an ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT! Last time I got in a fight with someone it lasted about ten seconds and we went our separate ways! And I don't even remember the time before that!

Okay. I need to.. find out what's going on.

Deep breath.

I remove the gag from the captain. He doesn't immediately respond, simply staring at me. I drift a little closer and a couple of my prisoners use the opportunity to test their bonds oh no you don't.

"Are you lost, little daemon?"

"Yes. Dreadfully." I float into a sitting position. I'm… Going to have to kill them. That's-. I mean, I know the physical act of killing isn't particularly complicated or difficult, but…

Ring, what sort of person am I looking at?

The ring shows me-. Augh. His satisfaction at lashing slaves, breaking their will and watching them suffer and die by inches. I turn my head a little and see that the rest aren't much different. The only real difference is that some don't have his patience and want to hurt and kill the thing right in front of them immediately.

I think I can bear killing these people.

"So I've got a deal for you."

His face remains impassive. "State it."

"I'm afraid that I'm rather against piracy and slavery."

"That is the advantage of being in a position of power; you may do as you like to those weaker."

I.. nod. "You're not wrong. Still, I'll give you a choice between three options. The first is: I kill you. I will endeavour to make it as swift and painless as possible. The second is: I hand you over to whoever represents the local judicial system. I imagine that will most likely result in your death in a way that is less swift and painless, but the option is there if you wish to die in accordance with local law. The third option is: I rewrite your personality with the orange light so that you're not… Evil."

His eyebrows go up very slightly, then his eyes dart for an instant to the sorceress.

I suppose it makes sense that this would be outside of his wheelhouse. I remove her muzzle.

"Be warned, sorceress, that if you attempt to use magic upon me I will take that as you choosing option one."

She looks at me with a sort of hungry fascination. "A daemon of Malal? I did not think that they existed."

"Yes, nice attempt at a divide by zero there. Malal is Chaos-as-contradiction, not stupid."

"I can feel nothing of the winds of magic from him, but his power is evident. Make your decision, captain: purity or survival. I've made mine."

"If it helps…" I look at the rest of the crew. "If one of you who is completely sure that they'll be choosing a clean death would kindly attempt to raise their right arm?"

There's a moment of hesitation as those who were testing their bonds freeze, then one jerks.

"Well volunteered." I remove his muzzle. "Please confirm your decision audibly."

"I would sooner die than be tainted by a human's magic. Or that of a slave to the Chaos Gods." He turns his head as much as his bonds allow to sneer at his fellows. "Show some pride and do not abase yourself before this thing."

I nod. "Those were good last words." I raise my left hand and want him dead, every part of his body crumbling and burning until nothing's left for being that obscenely vile.

An orange bolt hits him, and he dissolves into grey dust and blows away.

"That's as quick and as painless as I can make it. Now, I would like a volunteer to demonstrate the mind control option."

The captain continues to stare at me. "You will make us empty vessels?"

"No. I'll… Reach into your minds and… Change how you value things. Your desire to make things suffer will decrease, your desire to dominate will be suppressed… You won't want to be as evil. In their place, you will gain more pro-social desires. In case you were planning on escaping that way, I won't be maintaining the effect. Once it's in place, it's done. Even if I died, it would remain in effect."

The sorceress smiles.

"So there would be nothing to stop us carrying on exactly as we are?"

"You… Won't want to, but in theory, no."

"Then my choice is simple. Do your best, daemon."

I lift her up to float just in front of me, reaching into her… Revolting desires. No, remove that positive association with ritual murder. Add in one for… Aiding someone… Never? Okay, just… Create one. And-.

"Halt, vile daemon!"

I turn-. Oh. A knight. With a faintly glowing two-handed sword and faintly glowing eyes.

"Stand and face me!"

That could be bad.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Faed Away

Earth 12
15th January 2002
10:37 GMT -5

The Brown farm has clearly seen better days.

Back in 1997 a farmer by the name of Enoch Brown developed a growth hormone which could turn a normal farm animal into a giant farm animal. He first unveiled it to the public at the Gotham Agricultural Expo, where he displayed a sheep nine feet tall. He claimed that his work could end world hunger, which was obviously incorrect… But maybe he just made that claim for press release purposes.

But whatever his work could have done for the world of agriculture, his work came to a screeching halt when the sheep broke out of its cage and ran amuck. Mr. Brown gave it a sedative and no one was significantly hurt, but the resulting panic spooked a local judge into ordering him to cease his research and barring him from bringing giant animals into Gotham. I'm not… Quite sure how a judge had the authority to do that, but no one other than Mr. Brown was interested in contesting it at the time. I suppose that after the first few 'angry' scientists the people of Gotham rather lost patience with that sort of thing.

What happens next is a relatively predictable revenge story where a slighted scientist uses his work to take revenge on those who've wronged him, leading to a brief altercation with Mr. Wayne and his eventual incarceration.

Between the criminal damage, assault, blackmail and the attempted murder of a police officer, both Enoch Brown and his daughter Emmylou Brown received rather substantial prison sentences. And yet, a mere three years later, Emmylou Brown is out on parole at the family farmstead. I suppose criminals being in and out of incarceration is something else that Gotham has gotten used to, as I wasn't able to find a mention of it in the local papers. I only found out by chance, when I tried to get Detective Bullock to talk to me about some of the local… 'Characters', and he definitely hasn't forgiven her for trying to feed him to a giant pig.

Given that this is private property and I'm in America, I make a point of having my hands empty and clearly visible as I walk up the driveway. Neither she nor her still imprisoned father have any history of using firearms, but I imagine that's one of the things that prison life can teach you.

"Hello!?"

The newspapers said that the animals were removed after their arrest, a claim confirmed by Detective Bullock. He also said that some people 'from the Feds' went through the laboratory to make sure that it was safe. But while owner and daughter were in prison no one was doing any upkeep on the place. The fence around the farm has lost most of its paint to the elements and is rotting in places. The land is almost completely overgrown, and even the dirt lane from the closest road appears to have the weeds cut back only recently.

"Hello?! Miss Brown?!"

It's quiet out here. We're far enough from Gotham that there's barely any noise from the city other than the occasional muffled blast of a foghorn from the docks, and at this time of year the wildlife isn't particularly active.

"I'd like to talk to you about your father's work!? If that's at all possible!?"

The house and farm buildings look mildly dilapidated, but the house is more of a piece of cover for the underground bunker where most of Mr Brown's sensitive work took place. So once the mess the hazardous materials team made is cleared up it should still be perfectly habitable.

"Excuse m-?!"

A hard door slams and a well-built young woman in farm overalls strides out, glaring at me.

"WHAT?!"

I stop talking, because while Miss Brown isn't technically super strong she's still far stronger than someone of her proportions should be. Strong enough to lift an obese police detective over her head and throw him with no apparent effort.

"I'd like to talk to you about your father's work!"

She's striding towards me and looks irritated, though whether that's me or the situation I'm not at all sure.

She slows slightly, looking at me suspiciously as she gets to within non-shouting conversation distance.

"Who are you, anyhow?"

I smile warmly. "My name is Peter Wynne. I run a company called 'Schizo Applications'. We specialise in helping people bring.. exotic products to market, and fund research with the aim of turning good ideas into marketable ideas. I.. heard about your father's work while I was in Gotham-"

Deciding that if the local version of Pamela Isley was 'turning people into plants' crazy then she was a risk beyond what I'm willing to take.

"-and I thought that I'd see if anyone was home."

"This here's private property."

"And I'll leave at once if that's what you want. I.. did try phoning, but I couldn't get through-"

"They cut us off."

"-when I-. Yes. And you didn't reply to my letter."

"Mail man don't deliver 'round here."

"So I thought I'd pay you a visit in person. Though -as I said- if you'd rather I leave then I'm happy to do that."

She tilts her head to the right, her gaze more quizzical than suspicious.

"Who'd you say you worked for again?"

"'Schizo Applications'. And.. I don't work for them. I own the company. We… Recently became the largest supplier of electricity in both North America and Europe?"

"They cut the power, too."

"Ah." … "Sorry?"

"None'a Pa's work had anything to do with electricity."

"I've already got electricity. But I think that there's a market for enhanced farm animals… Perhaps not as enhanced as some of the ones which you and your father produced-"

"Mister Bleaty just got scared by alla them flash bulbs!"

"-but there's definitely a market there. As well as for your own enhancements."

She frowns.

"You work fer the gub'mint?"

"No. I mean, we probably supply them with electricity, and I've.. been involved in negotiations with various government bodies… I'm not sure what you're implying."

She nods, her face relaxing.

"Don't pay it no mind. My daddy's not here right now. But if ya'll come up to the house I'll listen to your offer."

I nod. "Thank you. Though before we can begin… Can I make sure that your release from prison was legitimate? It's just.. something the human resources department are a bit hot on."

"I ain't suppose to talk about it. Daddy made a deal, and I'm out."

"'Out' as in you were pardoned, or-?"

"I ain't suppose to talk about it."

"But nothing that will stop you being officially employed?"

"No."

"Well, that's.. fine, then."

I suspect that someone in the superhuman security apparatus pulled something. That or Lex Luthor paid someone off. But she's out and the local police aren't planning to try to arrest her, so that shouldn't be a problem.

"Have you been back long?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Summer's End

Late Summer, IC 687

Someone's done something stupid.

While I may be acknowledged as a deity in the Saderan Empire, my shrine isn't exactly a bustling place of worship. Ever since the local gods carried out their marginally clever plan to trap me here, they've also made an effort to keep me marginalised. Not a huge effort; I think they got a little bored when I decided not to struggle against it. But the more popular cults hereabouts make a point of making sure that visits here are discouraged, and I'm perfectly happy for them to do that. Even with my physical form limited to my old power ring… Larfleeze's old power ring I should say, I'm perfectly capable of reaching out with its sensors so as to avoid being driven peculiar by boredom. And the followers I do have appear to appreciate my more accessible approach when compared to the locals.

What I don't get is high-ranking government officials visiting me. Oh, sometimes they send aides, sometimes their younger children come looking for a path to power when they know that their older siblings will inherit everything… But my cult is far too 'fringe' for the politically conscious to be directly associated with it.

So why the heck are the Praetorian Guard in my antechamber?

"…few rules that the God of Ambition enforces, oh Emperor. Everyone speaks to him alone."

"And who are you to tell me who I may take with me?"

"No one!"

Oh, you and I are going to have words about pointing spears at my priests, Emperor Molt. I'm rather fond of young Daniel.

"No one! But last time someone did that he broke their legs!"

Which is still less than the local gods generally do: burning out a devotee to share a few words with the locals. The fact that I don't do that might be why he's coming to speak to me, almost certainly about that big blob of fear I can feel from Alnus Hill.

Molt stares Daniel down for a few moments before turning away and striding into my shrine, walking halfway across the small and plainly decorated room before stopping to stare up at… Me. The statue representing both my human form and the Ophidian, the two parts together holding the ring that is my connection to the material world.

So many years and I can still laugh about it. I'd known that gods generally couldn't manifest their full power in the material universe without a vast array of preparations but I didn't realise before I came through their oversized dolmen gate that by local standards I had reached that standard. And I couldn't do what Zeus did and create an avatar for myself because it doesn't work like that here. I'm still not sure whether it was intentional or a pure fluke on their part.

"Oh Great God of Ambition, I, Molt Sol Augustus, ruler of our great Empire, seek your blessing as we wage the holy war decreed by the gods!"

This sort of thing is really meant to be like a confession. A private session where people confess their heart's desires and I give them a little advice and guidance. He's left the door open and is trying to turn it into a small piece of state theatre. Probably planning to seize my ring as proof of his authority… And probably murder a few priests on the way out.

If I had lungs, I'd sigh.

Instead, I pull the doors closed behind him. His guards look a little concerned, but when Daniel doesn't react they appear to assume that it's just one of the mysteries of my cult. Molt himself tenses very slightly, but he doesn't look around even when the doors clonk shut.

"I don't remember decreeing a war. Are you sure that you've come to the right temple?"

Hearing my voice affects him more than the doors, but he's still respectably self-possessed.

"The Great Gate opened upon the Holy Hill. Such a thing is a sign from the gods."

"Not necessarily. Depending on the relationship between the worlds on either end, it could be the action of one powerful god. I certainly didn't have anything to do with it."

"Mf."

Ah, that's news, I see. Did he think that the gods of this land had any sort of internal unity? Oh, goodness me.

"And when this gate opened, what did you do?"

"The Empire did our sacred duty; we dispatched an army to conquer the barbarian lands on the far side."

I give him a few moments to continue.

…

Okay then.

"And why have you come here, to the temple of a god that you don't worship?"

"I am here to ask for your aid in our war with the barbarians, who even now threaten the holiest site in the Empire. The war is the pride of the Empire, a manifestation of our combined ambition to conquer all who stand before us!"

"That isn't how this works, Emperor Molt."

"If you wish to receive a sacrifice before you will offer your blessing-."

"How much effort did you put into finding out how my cult works?"

Another tiny flicker of emotion. He rushed this.

"Let me explain it to you, then. I do not give things to people who ask for them. The Empire's ambition belongs to the Empire. Your ambitions are your own. The struggles, the costs and rewards are yours. By taking away from that I would undermine myself, and that I will not do. At most, I offer guidance on how they can most effectively be realised."

"Then what should I do? What guidance can you give me that will allow me to crush the barbarians?"

Frankly, not a lot. Through the veil's dimness, I can see the fear, flames and conflagration, but the image isn't clear enough for me to see what the exact cause is.

"Tell me, did your army scout the barbarian lands before marching through? Did you send men disguised as merchants to learn their languages and customs, to study their warcraft and weapons? Did you send light cavalry, to reconnoitre their defensive positions and raid their supply lines?"

His face hardens.

"We did not."

"And you lost, didn't you? Whoever these barbarians are, they were strong enough to throw you back. I can see them, their position on this side of the gate. And if they could throw the legions back when caught unawares, they will do better when they are prepared."

He reluctantly nods.

"What is your ambition, Emperor Molt?"

"To see the Empire expand; to make its armies strong, its people wealthier-."

"Try again. Honestly, this time."

"I do want those things. But I want to become powerful enough to rule without those fools in the senate, to concentrate power and authority in the person of the Emperor. I believed this war would give me the opportunity to do that."

It still could, of course. A partial loss can be used by a sufficiently cunning politician to do all manner of things victory couldn't justify. And Emperor Molt is a reasonably cunning leader. With me advising him…

But he did threaten Daniel.

"If you want me to salvage the situation, I will need something from you."

"Name it, oh God of Ambition."

"Your son."

"Prince Zorzal El Caesar is-."

"No, not him."

He didn't even hesitate. Sad.

"The one who isn't a nitwit. If I'm going to take to the field I want a bearer who can keep up his end of an intelligent conversation. Grant Prince Diabo command of the Imperial forces in the area and then send him here. I will negotiate with the barbarians on your behalf. And then you and I will talk about the future of the Empire."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Cold Iron

25th June 2012
11:25 GMT

John and I simultaneously generate construct barriers to shield the population of the park, and I rise a short distance into the air as I use my ring to scan the area. Patchy return from the Sheeda units, and it looks like they're dropping off infantry in the town.

"Orders, Captain?"

More proof that the Justice League needs a better-. An actual command structure. Diana has command of the mission, but everyone else who went along only has the authority she chose to give them. I'm asking Major Adams for orders because he has seniority… Literally, a higher number, not because he's actually supposed to be in charge of anything. But if a man who fought in the Vietnam War is shy about ordering us to kill people…

I glance down and I see him reason through the issues associated with using League power in a situation like this. He isn't ignorant by any means, and I see my own face from multiple angles, his recollections of points I raised giving direction to his own-

"Military order. Stop the attack."

-intuitions.

"Good-"

Thin strands of orange light leap from my shield constructs, each one terminating in-. Okay, they dissolve into orange mist just before hitting the Sheeda. Fine, since the Sheeda seem to be members of the 'no helmet' club, I generate pulse laser constructs and open fire with those instead. Three, four drop, flies wallow in the air as their wings begin to burn-.

"-show."

The horde vanishes. I continue shooting at their predicted last locations, careful to aim upwards so that I don't risk hitting the town I'm trying to protect. Next, armour from subspace and-

The first entropic rays burn lines across the sky, but with my armour still optimised to withstand them I'm not all that worried.

-switch to sensor-based targeting. Visible light lasers aren't going to work on people using invisibility, so I switch to masers.

Below me, Beulah has her jezzail out and I hear a boom as she opens fire. Abednego is sheltering the theonomist who is clutching a cluster of small sigils and chanting quickly. Hopefully, some sort of mass-countermagic. Major Adams is receiving a frantic briefing from a British Army captain someone found him. Without any sort of augmented vision his ability to kill our attackers will be severely compromised.

There's a flash of light-. A tent I hadn't noted before is marked with the sword on a shield design of the Congregation glows brilliantly for a moment, then a group of five Congregationalists run out. They're not wearing their usual loose red clothes with white detailing any more; they're in light body armour with a runic design which.. a momentary review suggests is there to improve their energy discharges. Further flashes follow as more of them teleport in.

Whoever's firing those entropic rays has gotten their eye in. A series of beams strikes my cuirass, a flicker of light at first and then a continual beam. The origin point appears to be an empty space and if they're not worried about focused electromagnetic energy at all… Yes, the beams don't cut out when I point my masers their way.

But guess who's not the only one who can create entropic rays?

The maser constructs grow slightly but maintain their outlines, then the maser beams vanish and red beams flick out. I can't see the Sheeda, but I know their shape and can judge their approximate loc-.

Yes, there we go. Beams cut out and there, the gunfly and its passengers flicker back into visibility with chunks of their bodies missing. Fragile, then.

A cluster of Congregationalists are gathered at the south side of the park, glowing as they build up power. About half of the army contingent is forming up in a line behind them, all either wearing goggles or obviously shielding their eyes in preparation for the eventual discharge.

It's been a while since I've been to Ipswich, but the place looks reasonably intact. I don't think this area has seen sustained fighting-.

A crisp packet vanishes and I fire again, hitting a Sheeda soldier who had been too confident in his invisibility. Spraying fire at that area gets me another two kills and a dozen potholes. I've got no idea whether the Sheeda can see each other or what their drill is, so I don't know if there will be others close together like that… But the streets look relatively empty. I-.

The light flares and my world briefly goes dark. The town is blindingly illuminated, and-. I'm getting returns from the Sheeda. I stick with entropic beams, shooting out the heads of the flies with support weapons. There… Don't appear to be as many as I registered coming in. Pulled back? Teleported?

"You best with the soldiers or staying here?"

John might not be able to kill people without specific Guardian authorisation, but he can shield other people while they do it. And he can beat someone nearly to death and then leave them for someone else to finish off. And… If the Sheeda start using mass entropic ray fire on the refugees, he… Probably couldn't stop that. I could.

"Staying here. I've got the shields."

His constructs vanish and he heads to the front lines as the soldiers storm forwards, medics checking the collapsed Congregationalists and directing stretcher-bearers to move them back out of the way. Radio detection shows John relaying the positions of the Sheeda to the officers directing the attack while I continue my fly cull. Red beams flash out of a house in the path of the advance, but John's command of ablative barriers and his sheer bloody-mindedness allow him to keep his shield up for long enough to swing a wrecking ball construct into the wall next to them. Soldiers just behind him… Don't bother taking cover, which… Yes, with guns like these there wouldn't be much point. Instead they crouch to minimise their profile and open fire, shredding the interior of the upper floor of the house.

Not a lot of flies left. I'm leaving a few to try and tempt the Sheeda soldiers to cluster around them to try and escape, as well as shooting Sheeda in the path of the soldiers' advance to thin their numbers and reduce their ability to resist. I don't think they're taking it-.

Across the town, Sheeda soldiers fix shields in place while others move to whatever flat surfaces they can and trace out symbols-.

I begin sniping the ones doing the tracing, shifting guns around-.

Red beams from my right, outside of the cone affected by the Congregationalists! I shift focus, retraining my guns on the place the beams appear to come from and reinforcing-

"AAAAH!"

-the barrier protecting the panicking civilians below me. Major Adams takes a shot and the burned remains of a gunfly and its crew collapse and fall to the ground. Since the ground on that side is open fields I switch to railguns, loading Columbian-enchanted mageslayers and opening fire. I miss twice as the fly riders learn how to shoot and scoot, but clipping a single wing is all it takes to break the invisibility effect. Beulah hits my target with an incineration round a moment later and immolates them.

The rapidly-traced circles shimmer into… They look like Dolmen gates. I… No, Major Adams is in charge and my primary responsibility is to defend the civilian population.

I abandon my gun constructs, generate a large fly swatter construct and swing it through the area occupied by the distraction attack. Tiny disruptions mark where flies are struck and I extrude cables to assimilate them. As predicted, the local Sheeda are under the same onus as those in Columbia and decay the moment I get solid contact.

"Orange Lantern!" I look around to Major Adams. "Try and take some alive!"

I stop the swatter construct on its next hit and change it into a net, which wraps around something I can't see and binds it. Then… Drain.

There's a weight on the bottom of the construct as the fly and its passengers collapse, shimmering back into visibility as the enchantments on their chitin and armour are consumed. Looking back at Ipswich I see that all of the Sheeda who were rendered visible have retreated. Those still alive, anyway; rushed Dolmen gates appear to have a failure rate.

"Orange Lantern, stay on overwatch but keep listening. Green Lantern, stay with the soldiers as they sweep and clear. I need to find out what the hell is going on."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Over Reaching

May 7th 2012, 09:41 GMT -5

"Hey, Arte! You skipping school too, huh?"

The human-. Running… Guy. Flash something. Flash Kid? God, this is annoying-.

He's looking at me. He's expecting me to answer and I… Probably know him?

"My school's still closed."

I walk past him, still looking around. It's like visiting someplace I used to know really well but haven't seen in-. It's exactly like that, because that's what I'm doing. Not that anyone looking at me would know that. Dad taught me how to hide emotion, but the Sheeda taught me how to make it instinctual.

Is it messed up that I remember exactly what Dad looks like but whenever I look at Mom I keep trying to work out why this strange woman is talking to me?

"Did you get taller?"

He's following me. Is that-? I… Kinda remember him… Being.. annoying? But I don't remember if he was trying to start something or just had bad people skills.

"And buffer? And what's with your hair?"

"Sheeda hair care products."

"Ah." He stops walking as I carry on through the cave. Some of this is coming back to- "Are you okay?" -me.

I stop and.. take a quick glance at him, trying to read his body language. Were we close, before? How much is it useful to share-? No, that's… Sheeda-thinking. He's just being friendly.

"I'm.. a new normal."

"Normal… Good-normal?"

I turn to face him, folding my arms across my chest.

"We were in the future for a long time. I've changed."

"Are we talking… Like, a few weeks?" … "Months?"

"More like decades. Maybe longer." He blinks, his eyes widening. "We didn't have a good way to measure time. But I'm pretty sure I've spent more of my life in the Land of Summer's End than I have in the-." Don't use the Sheeda term. "In now."

"Oh. Ah… How are you… Y'know, handling being back?"

"Fine." I turn away. I think the kitchen was that way. "If you give me an hour or two I might even remember your name."

"Really? Whaw." This w-. "Always figured I was more memorable than that."

"What do you remember from a hundred years ago?"

"That's more than eighty years before I was born, so not all that much. But, seriously, are you okay?"

"Not yet. Grayven says I should try to ease back into my.. old life."

I wait for the door's bio-.

I push the definitely-not-alive door open and walk into the kitchen-diner.

Can't even get the doors.

No one else is here, but Flash Kid is still following me. Only now he's pulled his mask off his face. I take a close look at his face, and I spot the moment he realises that it isn't helping and I still don't recognise him.

"Oh."

I try smiling, but I'm not really in the mood and I don't think it comes across quite right. He's not looking at me, and that's fine b-.

Because with Sheeda that's a sign of respect. If he were Sheeda, he'd be treating me a little more like his supreme overlady. And that feels normal. But it's not normal because we were probably friends, and with humans looking away… Means you find something awkward?

I pull open one of the drawers. Egg cups, vegetable peelers and pastry cutters. Did I ever open this drawer when I used to work here? I think I remember cooking, but… I think that was at… 'Home'. It's kinda weird that none of the appliances are alive, but I always found it kinda weird when they were, too. Sure didn't do a lot of cooking in the Land of Summer's End.

"So, are you..? Staying on the team?"

Am I? I thought it was the thing to do. The only alternative would have been staying in the future. I mean, this… Was my life. Or-.

"It's that or conquer the world with Grayven again."

'cause at least I can remember Grayven's name. But there's no… Big purpose. Back in the future we were trying to fix the planet. I don't think conquering the world now would fix anything. And it's not like I liked being in charge. I just liked it better than any of them being in charge.

"Ye-ah… Don't do that?" He frowns. "Like, the whole world whole world?"

"I conquered half of it. He conquered the other half." Ttch. "We didn't realise that the we were in control of both major alliances until we were actually facing each other down in one of my fortresses."

"Bet… That was awkward?"

"I was just happy he wasn't dead."

The fridge I think I remember. Or at least I remember fridges in general. But the noise from the compressor is putting me on edge. Sheeda coolers don't sound like that.

"Guess you two got pretty close then."

"Pretty close."

I wonder if Mom would mind living in Challenger Mountain? Gotham-. It's not my home any more, and being away from Grayven just feels wrong. And I know he feels the same way. I got a room there yesterday-.

Huh.

"Do I have a room here?"

"Yeah, most of us do. I don't really know if you did anything with it. You.. don't remember?"

How can I even explain this? For him, this was all yesterday.

"You ever moved house?"

"Not since I was five, but, yeah?"

"You remember your old room?"

He screws up his face, pantomiming straining to remember.

"Kinda? A little?"

"Now imagine what you'd remember from ten times as far in the future. Or a hundred times, and you've been moving every year."

"Probably not much."

"Right." What now? I wanna do a tour of the place, and 'my' room is probably a good place to start. "Can you show me where it is?"

"Sure. This way."

He heads back out the door, and for a moment I frown at the door on the other side of the diner. I think there's a pool through there? Why would we have a pool? I shake my head and turn around to follow Flash Kid-.

"It's Wally."

"What is?"

"My name. It's Wally. Or Kid Flash, when we're on a mission."

I nod. Doesn't ring any bells, but at least I know who I'm talking to now.

"And… Ah… Have you..? Spoken to Tao yet?"

…

Oh. That's why people look away from things.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Back Seat

4th July 2012
14:01 GMT -2

"…afraid that with the war kicking off, I'm not going to be available for team missions or training."

Kaldur nods. "I understand. Are you sure that you can spare the time to tell me in person?"

I give him a mildly reproachful look. "Ow, Kaldur. Ow."

He looks away. "That was not what I meant."

"Clarissi Dox wants me as a mobile reserve, so I can jump in if things start to go pear shaped. And since I can appear and disappear at will on our side of the front line and could get blocked on the Reach side, being on Earth is actually better than being on the Reach side. Besides."

We both look over to where officials from various Atlantean city states-. And Venturia, are monitoring the counting of the votes in the plebiscite.

"I really think this sort of thing should be monitored by all of the interested parties so that no one can argue about it later."

This is actually the first time I've seen Proconsul Ptra, heir presumptive of Venturia. Presumed by Poseidonis, and presumed very incorrectly. King Cyprian greeted her with the exact minimum amount of enthusiasm not to give direct insult, and hasn't said a word to her since. She seems somewhat morose. I suppose she'd rather assumed that returning the wayward city to her stepmother's control was something she'd do just by existing, and here she is being told not merely by her cousin but by… About ninety eight percent of the adult population of her 'home city' that she was dead wrong.

I'm empathetic, but… Actually, not sympathetic. This situation could easily have been avoided. If they hadn't wanted me to shoot the hawk, they shouldn't have left it there.

"Lord-. King Cyprian has been scrupulously honest in his dealings."

"Good show. I assume that there's been discussion on the Atlantean end about how to handle trade, and an official border? Because there's two ways this can go, and not planning for one of them wouldn't be very clever."

"There are… Several outlines. For the most part, Atlantean cities do not greatly concern themselves with unclaimed territory outside of the city limits."

"Right, but they were all Atlantean city states. If the United States built an underwater colony I imagine that exactly where the border was would be rather important."

"Though they will be a separate country politically, culturally Venturia is still Atlantean. We still have more in common with them than with America, so they do not arouse the same degree of concern."

"I don't really know Atlantean inter-city politics. How much is this shaking things up?"

"King Orin has been quite… Vocal, about not wanting to be blindsided like this again. He intends to tour all of the Atlantean city states and confer in person with their leaders."

I raise my eyebrows-.

"He made such a tour when he first succeeded to the throne, but usually such things are left to the members of the national senate to bring to his attention if a problem arises. Given what happened here, he believes that he needs to become more directly involved."

"He's right." Kaldur glances at me. "He wouldn't have let this lie if he'd known about it, would he?"

"He would not."

He sighs, and looks around the counting hall once more.

"How is the war progressing?"

"The first day went about as well as it could have. On the other hand, we always knew that the Reach response to an attack would be weak to begin with, and that if the Reach Empire was the size of this room, the bit we've taken off them would be about the size of-"

I reach up and pull a single hair out of my head, then hold it out.

"-my hair. We've literally shaved a hair's breadth off their territory."

"It has only been a day."

"I know. I just want to manage expectations."

Looks like the counting is drawing to a close. The last of the ballot slips are being tabulated, three people signing off on each batch to make finding out who was at fault for any irregularities a little easier. That was a bit of a sticking point, actually. Cyprian was fine with a ballot, but had a little trouble with the concept of a secret ballot. He thought it seemed inherently dishonest, and… Having thought about it, I can sort of see where he was coming from. King Orin -coming from America- naturally assumed that ballots would be cast in secret. But in the end, we came up with a registration system which they could both live with.

Senior functionaries confer briefly, then the fellow from Shayeris whom the competing parties compromised on to oversee the whole thing approaches the two kings. I don't hear what they say, but from the relief on King Cyprian's face and the slight strain on King Orin's I don't think there's been any sort of surprise. But they shake hands, and I suppose that's as much as we can really hope for.

"Is Cheshire participating in your war?"

"Jade is, yes. Killed her first Scarab Warrior yesterday."

"You told us that they were what the Reach used to counter Lanterns during their war with the Green Lantern Corps."

"Yes, but they didn't do that by letting the Green Lantern Corps ambush them one at a time. In the early stages of the war Green Lanterns who'd been properly briefed took out the Scarabs on bodyguard duty fairly easily. Now that they know we're coming for them I'm sure that the Reach will be redeploying their elite warriors. I imagine we'll see… Clone infiltrators with implanted scarabs on our supply worlds within a few weeks. Ambush packs on worlds we liberate who will only go active if they get an Orange Lantern or L.E.G.I.O.N. officer on their own. They'll learn the most effective weapons to use against us, and… It'll get harder. And we managed this hair by bringing pretty much the entire Corps to bear on a single narrow front."

"And you cannot replicate that."

"We can, but that would mean leaving a colossal volume of space without Lantern support." I shake my head. "It wasn't really what I wanted, but we're probably going to have to copy the Green Lantern training system; bring people to Maltus for basic training and then have a field-mentorship with a more experienced Lantern."

Well. Field mentorships, because sending out a single neophyte with a single veteran is asking for the veteran to get mobbed and the new Lantern to be left panicking and unable to do anything. I suggested squads of five to Dox, one actual veteran, two with some experience and two just out of basic. He responded that a fixed number just told our enemies how many they had to watch out for, and he's not wrong. Reach intelligence on us is as bad as we can make it, but they're really good at keeping track of what's happening in their own territory and sharing that information. Data compilation and utilisation is their greatest strength, which is why my next stop is Mars.

"Will you speak to our other friends while you are here?"

"Of course. I'm not going to leave long-term without saying anything. And I need to talk to M'gann about the situation on Mars anyway."

"Do you believe that there has been a new development?"

"I hope not, because I want to borrow a lot of Manhunters, in the same sort of way that I'm borrowing Venturia's wizards."

"They may be reluctant to involve themselves in a war with the Reach."

"Then I won't involve them in that. There are a lot of uses for networked telepaths, and they do rather owe me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Back Door

6th July 2012
22:12 GMT +2

Mr. B'lanx looks out across the Bir Tawil desert.

"It does look a little like the surface of Mars. Though it feels a lot hotter."

"Is it a problem for you?"

His outline shifts as he assumes a humanoid shape and… Darkens his skin.

"No. Becoming a Black Martian makes-" I wince inwardly. "-this a good deal more comfortable."

"I thought the reason you didn't just go Green or Red was that other Martians could always tell."

"Ways of thinking… Parts of our core psychological identity, are transferred in the womb. But if we're changed enough by our experiences that we think in ways unlike the Whites back home… Why not become something else?"

"White pride?"

"You proved that there's no real difference between the colours. If that's true, why should I take pride in result of a coin toss?"

…

I need to get this guy off Earth, don't I?

"What did you think about Colu?"

"So much refined metal. I'd never seen so much in any one place before. And the animals were so… Tame. Constricted. On Mars the minds of the animals inside the rock are a constant presence wherever you go. In the one city I've ever lived in, anyway."

Yes, a bit of a shame about Colu's entire biosphere. Nothing was ever allowed to go entirely extinct, but the planet has absolutely no 'unregulated' wildlife. No forests or jungles outside of parks where everything is monitored and controlled. The Computer Tyrants were in the process of shutting a lot of them down, but the biological Coluans appear to like them.

"Do you miss them?"

"When you're working long shifts and banned from most public places of entertainment, you learn to make your own fun. Taming animals, training them… It was a fairly common pastime."

He gazes off towards the horizon for a few moments.

"Why are there no humans here?"

"The two neighbouring countries can't agree on who owns it. This is the part they both say that the other owns. Then Orange Lantern Manga Khan decided to build this trade post. We locked it down after he left and L.E.G.I.O.N. have been using it as an outpost. In the event of things working out differently on Mars I was planning on offering it to you."

"That doesn't explain why this area is so empty."

"Too hot, too dry, not enough natural resources. And no one wanted to pick a fight with me to break in during the gap between Khan leaving and L.E.G.I.O.N. arriving."

"Ah."

"So… As I said, you and your people are free to wander in the countries immediately abutting this territory, though you'll be expected to comply with local law. The L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet will be pulling out in a few weeks and your people will be able to travel with them then."

The Earth is… Recovering, from the Sheeda. We've regained satellite coverage and have a full accounting of the dead. More or less. I… Remember an age-of-sail style science fiction story where after a major civil war ravaged human space the most powerful worlds left were places that had been minor colonies when the war happened. That was because everywhere larger was smashed flat by mass drivers and then chain nuked just to make sure. The only places that weren't were the places no one could be bothered to attack.

Something not entirely unlike that is happening here, only it's the middle that was eliminated. Up and coming powers like Brazil-. Accalacan now, obviously, and India, were smashed. Large chunks of the population vanished, large pieces of infrastructure destroyed and government officials killed. India's.. actually undergoing an effective breakdown in central government, with minority Muslim and Sikh groups… Not pressing for independence so much as assuming it.

The top tier nations that could defend their populations somewhat effectively were least affected physically but were so dependent financially on global systems that aren't working now that they're having to engage in major… 'Restructuring'. Confidence in money is at an eighty year low, barter has re-emerged in a lot of places and unemployment has spiked.

The only real beneficiaries -other than the native tribes of South America, because even places outside of Accalacan are having to change their policies on that issue- are European farmers, who have found demand increasing both due to the difficulty in continuing imports and a new wave of government self-sufficiency initiatives. And even there, a lot of places have switched from tractors to horses due to the higher fuel costs, because the Sheeda were happy to target both oil wells and oil tankers.

Thank goodness for Atlantis. Otherwise I'd find myself using the phrase 'oceanic apocalypse' to describe what happened to our fish stocks.

"How do most humans feel about Martians?"

"About the same as how you feel about the Ungarans."

"The who?" … "Oh. But J'onn J'onzz has been on Earth for years?"

"Yes, but humans aren't usually telepathic. Only a very small percentage of our population has met him, and he usually adopts a human shape so they wouldn't necessarily know that they had."

"You don't have recording devices?"

"Yes, but picture and sound recordings are less immediate than telepathic records of sensory inputs. It's not as… Real. We have a lot of strange people flying around; one saying that he comes from Mars doesn't mean anything special."

"What about J'onn J'aarkn? Or M'gann M'orzz?"

"Mister J'aarkn was known to be an actor, and most people assume the rest is a special effect. M'gann hasn't been here all that long. And they both came here individually with great difficulty. A few thousand people all at once are a rather different prospect."

"Are they afraid of us?"

"No, it's not that. Imagine… You lived in an all White neighbourhood?"

"Yes."

"Now imagine if Prince J'emm walked down your street. He doesn't believe in Neapolitanism, but he looks a lot like the people who do and he could get you in a lot of trouble if he wanted to."

"Ah. I see."

"If you go for a walk, you'll be the first Martian virtually anyone you meet will have met. So make an effort to make a good impression."

"I will. And I think I will go for a flight now." He rises off the platform. "I'm not used to such freedom, and I doubt that I will have it as part of L.E.G.I.O.N."

"Probably not." I wave as he pulls away. "Have fun!"

"Is this how your days are usually spent?"

I look around as Lantern Gozzi approaches from the base's interior.

"Roughly. It's a very varied job. Are you staying on, or…" I hold out my right hand in a catching gesture. "Are you heading back to Amalak?"

"Do you have any plans to fight Vril Dox?"

"I don't. I would be astonished if Vril Dox the Second didn't. Why?"

"Part of why I stayed in Vega was to avoid him and his minions. If he were killed, I would have considerably more latitude in my movements."

"True. So do you want to head out with the fleet and find out what our Dox is planning before making a final decision?"

"Yes." She holds up her ring and stares at it for a moment. "I do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th July 2012
15:23 GMT

I frown as my armour's computer informs me of the exact time and date. Yes, I… Think that sort of thing was very important to

I want to remember. I loathe the idea of my recall decaying, of the mental networks that make me me becoming unreliable.

me-.

I wince as another strand of orange light extrudes from the Orange Central Power Battery and flows into me.

"Are you you yet?"

I don't change my posture, but shake my head as Hinon floats into my field of view.

"I don't know. No. No, I'm not. I've got… I've somehow recovered most of my memories… I think. At least enough of them to make sense of things… But I don't know what I've lost, and the… The self-awareness I had…"

I shake my head.

"I suppose it can't be self-awareness if those bits literally aren't part of my self any longer."

"Hm."

"As much as I appreciate you checking up on me, I've got a lot of mission reports to go through, so..?"

"I've got a present for you."

She removes her left hand from her sleeve, an orange power ring held between her thumb and forefinger.

"I had thought that next time you felt the need for a new ring, you would be the one making it yourself. Since you clearly can't do that, I made a rush order."

"I'm… Sorry."

"Whatever for?"

"For… Getting the rings destroyed. Larfleeze's ring, and the one you nearly killed yourself making-."

"Larfleeze's ring was a near-useless antique that I'm still not completely sure that Krona didn't have some sort of backdoor to. As for my ring… Frankly, that wasn't my best work."

"It wasn't?"

"As you correctly observed, I put myself into a coma creating it, splitting my focus in all too many ways. And then it went into the Bleed, and frankly it's a minor miracle that it wasn't completely destroyed."

I frown. "Miracle? Do you mean literally or metaphorically?"

"I know that you consider me old, but Triarch worship was well before my time." She shakes her head. "I doubt that any deity you know -most of whom are younger than me- would intervene to deliver a power ring to someone like you. And that's before even considering the awkwardness of delivering it to a reality like yours."

I carefully extend my left hand and take it from her.

"So this is… Better?"

"Better than the ones you were using. About as good as the ones we've forged for the rest of the Corps."

I frown, then nod. "Because all of the Controllers who've forged them have had access to the Orange Central Power Battery, so there's no reason for them to be any worse."

"They're slightly worse. There are… Things you can do, when you know the prospective Lantern as well as I know you."

"Hinon, I'm not sure that I know me at the moment."

"No, I do. You'll work to get back to full mission fitness, because you hate the idea of losing bits of yourself. Which means that you'll be the person I made this ring for eventually."

"I…" I nod. "Intend to, but I've got no idea how long that will take."

"Then you'll have a mildly-suboptimal ring until then. It should still be better than the one you were using." She frowns, turning to look at the Central Power Battery. "Have you tried talking to the Ophidian?"

"No. I didn't think that was a good idea. And I don't… Exactly remember what she's like."

"No?"

"I've got the records, and I remember some of what we did together, but I don't have the… Intuitive understanding of her mindset that I used to have. I remember that it.. used to feel like she was… Next to me, but invisible, the whole time." I shake my head. "And I really don't feel that way right now. Has..? Have any of the other Lanterns tried talking to her?"

"Talking at her, certainly. But she appears to be a one-Lantern snake."

I smile. "That's kind of nice."

I exhale, sliding the new-. No, no, my new power ring onto my left ring finger. My environmental shield engages at once-.

"Oh! Damn it!"

"Is something wrong?"

"I can't use the Honden at the moment. It would-. Probably take me years to fly back to Earth like this."

"Why would you want to return to Earth?"

"I don't right now. But I will probably want to within the next few years."

I stand, pointing my left hand at the Central Power Battery and wanting my-. Myself back. What had been occasional threads becomes a mist, and I-. It's quite a relief to-. Huh, ice cream. Not.. just ice cream, but the days out with the extended family association that had slipped my mind.

"So what actually happened?"

"You flew up to a Reach ship which contained a surprising amount of qwa-matter. The Weaponer's beside himself. It's the most entertainment I've had in ten thousand years."

"So..?"

"Normally I'd say something like 'so don't do that again you silly man', but the Reach can block most types of ring scan and we didn't have any reason to believe that they had anything like enough qwa-matter for something like that. The unfortunate truth is that it's not possible to predict everything a sufficiently clever enemy might try." She huffs. "Having examined the site, it looks like you were completely disintegrated."

"I woke up in a body."

"After you told Lantern Gozzi that you could see spirits, she decided to create a physical duplicate and hope for the best." Hinon frowns. "Normally, I'd warn you about a woman showing that much interest in your body, but since she's coluan you're probably alright."

"And… Between my affinity for the orange light and her ring… That was enough?"

Hinon looks at me like I've said something stupid.

"No, of course not. You drew a tiny portion of the Honden into the material universe, a part associated with the Leentniar. When your physical body was destroyed, it… Dumbing it down a great deal, it snapped back, taking a lot of you with it."

I nod.

"Do you have a plan for getting the rest back?"

"Yes. I'm going to need a wizard and a lift back to the Leentniar's system."

 

[Mr Zoat]

The Other Half

12th July 2012
11:12 GMT -2

"…derstand that you want to stand by your man, Clea, but politically it's a really bad idea."

Queen Clea's rejuvenation has progressed since I first awakened her. She's gone from well-preserved sixty something to athletic fifty something, though if you were seeing her every day you probably wouldn't notice the transition. This being Atlantis I'm sure that someone knows that she's changed magically but as far as I know no Atlantean magicians have had a chance to study the Awakening process.

"I've been assuming that Orin knows." She regards me with sceptical curiosity. "Do you honestly believe that he doesn't?"

Does Orin know? It wouldn't be hard to have a genomorph get close enough to check, but I've found it's a good idea not to do anything you might have to deny in court later. I'm pretty sure that he had no agents in Venturia before Clea attempted a rapprochement, but now..? He probably has agents in the city; the expansion of trade with the surface has required that a great deal more people receive permission to live in the city. But he almost certainly doesn't have agents in place to know about Mr. Hyde's visits, at least by palace intrigue means. If he knows, it's more likely that he has the city under external observation. Or he's been tracking the Manta Sub.

Though I suppose that after today it won't really matter.

"I'd… Guess that he doesn't. I think he'd be a lot more curious if he were able to link the three of us together, rather than just me with each of you."

"I don't much care whether he's pardoned or not."

"It's not the pardon I'm worried about risking, it's your easy economic integration with the rest of Atlantis. If you do end up marrying him… People here do remember his previous attacks."

"I suppose that's the disadvantage of reengaging with the rest of Atlantis. But honestly, treating a mercenary soldier as if they'd committed a crime by fighting in a war." She shakes her head. "I thought the surface world treated wars as morally neutral?"

"Wars are generally considered to be a bad thing, but as long as the soldiers involved act within certain bounds they aren't punished for the decisions of their political superiors. Other than by… Getting shot, obviously."

"There you are, then."

I frown, puzzled.

"Are you saying that if he'd acted against Venturia, you'd have been happy to let him go then?"

"If I'd already killed his employer, yes. If I hadn't, then I'd kill him as a message to both my people and to his employer. But if I took any of his troopers alive I wouldn't kill more than a few of them. Is that not how they do things on Apokolips?"

"Ah… It being understood that I hate the way Apokolips does things?" She nods. "We don't really have that sort of social dynamic. Darkseid is an autocrat-."

"I'm an autocrat."

"Yes, but there's 'autocracy' and 'autocracy'. You have supreme political power, but if you turned enough of your courtiers against you they could still kill you and replace you. You might not need their support legally but you need their support practically. Darkseid could quite cheerfully kill the entire Apokoliptian Elite himself with no help from anyone, and Apokolips would mostly carry on as it did before until he could replace them, if he even bothered."

"How can he rule like that?"

"A lack of interest in developing the talents of-. Oh, you mean in the practical sense." I shrug. "Beat someone often enough and ninety nine point nine nine… Percent of the time, they stop getting up. That, and actual mind control."

"He can puppet so many?"

"No, but the anti-life aura heavily discourages certain types of thought and action. A few -like my brother Scott- can resist, but for most… Myself included, it's… Acting against him is… Nearly unthinkable."

"But you did."

"Even Darkseid can't watch everyone all the time. Not yet, anyway. And I neither remember how I did it nor can say for certain that he didn't just let me. He let Scott escape, after all." I shake my head, snorting with amusement. "I find it funny when humans complain about the tyranny of one or other of their own governments. They really have no idea…"

"Ping!"

"Ah, they're starting." I bow. "Excuse me, your majesty."

She makes a shooing motion with her right hand.

"You are excused."

BOOM!

A portal opens in the Venturian embassy and I step through, emerging at the back of the Poseidonian throne room. David Hyde and two of his senior officers are kneeling in a pocket of air while a-. Oh, Queen Mera's doing it. I suppose that makes sense. She's taken small samples of their blood with a… Pen-like needle, which she's now using to write runes on the bottom of the vellum copy of their pardons. She doesn't need to write the whole thing in their blood -that would be impractical- but the anchor point for the spell needs something a little more emphatic than squid ink. Mr. Hyde and the others are in their usual scuba gear, though obviously they weren't allowed to bring weapons here.

She nods, and one of her aides takes the still-damp document and one of the pens to Mr. Hyde. He rises slightly, takes the pen and signs his name in his own blood before passing both back. A change of pen and his chief engineer does the same. Another change of pen and his senior marine signs his name. The document is then returned to Queen Mera, who checks it over with glowing hands. She breathes sharply, then nods and presents it to King Orin.

Orin does not look even slightly happy about this, though I'm glad Manta and Co. are keeping any sense of triumph they feel off their faces.

"You understand that once I sign this, if you commit any act of violent aggression in Atlantean territory, your blood will be immediately transmuted into seawater."

Mr. Hyde has resumed his kneeling position. He nods.

"Yes, your majesty. We understand."

Orin takes a new pen from an aide and jabs it into his arm. He gives it a moment, then pulls it out and puts it to the pardon.

"By the power vested in me as King of Atlantis, I, King Orin, hereby issue this pardon."

He signs his name, and there's a brief flicker of magic as it takes hold.

"Now get out of my sight."

The three of them rise, Mr. Hyde slightly ahead of the other two. They bow, then turn and head in my direction. Mera gets closer to Orin and mutters something, which seems to calm him down a little. Yeah, I need to do something nice for Atlantis to make up for this. At least if I want to do anything with the place in future, which I probably do.

I exert myself, generating an air pocket around myself for their benefit.

"So. You're free men."

Mr. Hyde nods. "In Atlantis, anyway. How much does Horne want for a US pardon?"

"I… Think in that case you'll probably be waiting for his successor. Or… Some fairly huge act of public penance that you're not getting paid for. I mean, you're not exactly… I don't know, Thaddeus Sivana, but there's a limit to who a US President can get away with pardoning."

"Maybe you should have called me in to help with the Sheeda."

"You aren't equipped for that sort of fight yet. You're an important asset, and I won't give you jobs if the risks aren't worth the returns." I shake my head and smile. "How are you planning to celebrate?"

"I think I'm going to tell my ex-junior gunnery officer and his floozy exactly what I think of them."

…

Ahhhhhhh!

 

[Mr Zoat]

Maladaptive

21st July 2012
08:47 GMT -7

"No, no, not the fights."

I shake my head as Lantern Rrab splits her attention between me and the Coast City traffic below us.

"I mean Earth societies. The way Earth civilisation works. I know what the fights are like, but I've never lived anywhere else for any length of time."

"Does this have something to do with why you sent me that book concerning… Human… Intimate relations?"

"Sort of. Any society is going to have to have laws against theft and assault in order to function, but rules and customs concerning personal conduct can… Vary more. Something that's perfectly normal where you come from might be highly offensive to people somewhere else, without there being an obvious sign you could see in advance. And since I've never been to your homeworld, I felt that a primer might help you avoid some of... You heard about the-?"

"The spider?" She ducks her head as she smiles. "Yes."

"So you see where I'm coming from."

"According to Ghia'ta, it's your behaviour towards Zatanna that I should avoid copying."

"So avoid copying it. But I wasn't just wondering whether or not you find humans attractive, because I know that you do. But relationships between people from different cultures can be awkward, and that's only made bigger if-."

"But you got me a book on relationships." Her eyes narrow slightly. "If Wonder Woman or Troia lassoed you and I asked you why you chose that subject, what would you say?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Green Lanterns must learn to be criminal investigators. Not every criminal will fly up to us wearing a colourful costume. So I've been spending time with Robin. He says that if someone volunteers something then they're probably thinking about it."

"Jordan's a good man. As my culture defines that concept. And that's not the only-"

Her eyes widen. "A-ahh…"

"-reasonable definition of good, and… I can understand why-."

"I didn't need-." She nods. "Hal's always been very clear about how he sees me. Even his mother's been mothering me."

"Okay. I'll consider that handled-."

"Ghia'ta thinks I should still… Try to change his mind. Slowly."

"Ghia'ta is a wonderful and undoubtably well-intentioned person. However, I think that she's been… Adversely affected by growing up in a single colour monocultural environment. Intellectually, I appreciate-."

Her ring blinks, then her eyes shimmer. Her eyes drop to the roads below us at once.

"Something important?"

"A report of dangerous driving."

I nod. Dangerous driving isn't necessarily a serious crime by itself, until the dangerousness overflows into vehicular manslaughter. And stopping a car is much less easy for normal police than it is for-

Lantern Rrab stoops and swoops, diving down towards one of the city's main thoroughfares.

-us. I wait a moment as I have my ring analyse patterns of traffic movement-. There we are. And then I raise my right forefingers to my forehead,

step out

and reappear just ahead of the hurtling car. They're driving fast, but a quick scan of the objects and vehicles that they've passed shows no damage at all. I watch as they weave around traffic at an intersection with considerable skill. If they're getting someone to hospital-.

I frown at the confused mess of entrapment and-. The man inside the car is banging on the sunroof, his hands off the steering wheel which is turning on its own. His foot's off both the accelerator and brake pedals but I can see the car do both.

Automatic drive system gone very wrong?

Lantern Rrab swoops down, a band of green energy reaching out and forming a car lift construct under the car. The car tries to swerve again as she lifts it clear of the road and up into the Coast City sky.

Huh. Clearly something odd going on there, but I'll let Lantern Rrab take the lead.

She flies level with the driver side window and looks at the man inside. Who rather than winding the window down and explaining himself instead beats his fists against the inside of the window. But no sound gets transmitted through the glass. Lantern Rrab frowns, then scans the door, light seeping around the locking mechanism.

Lantern Rrab looks confused. "I've forced the lock but the door's still stuck."

And the wheels are still turning. Continuing to look like automatic control gone wrong, except that I can't detect a control signal or any way to receive it. A more detailed scan of the car reveals no automatic drive system. It doesn't even have an automatic gearbox.

"I suggest cutting through the glass."

"Do human cars do this?"

"Not usually. This car doesn't appear to have any self-drive systems."

A protractor construct appears and scratches a circle in the glass. The man inside realises what Lantern Rrab is about to do and climbs into the back seat. Once he's clear the protractor spins up, slowly eating through the glass-.

There's a crack as it punches through, a neat circle of glass falling into the car.

"Oh thank God!" The man leans through the gap between the front seats. "Can you get me out of here?"

"The door's stuck; I'll have to rip it off."

"Go right ahead! I'm insured!"

Lantern Rrab nods, and a mechanical clamp construct unfolds on each side of the door, connected to a large robotic arm. The arm strains for a moment and then there's a tearing noise as the door comes free.

I extend a filament to the passenger and lift him out while Lantern Rrab scans the car.

"Sir?" He glances down at the city below us before returning his attention to me. "Do you know what happened?"

"The f-. Car started driving itself! I got in and turned the ignition, then the doors locked and it took off!"

"Do you know where it was heading?"

"That was… That was the route I usually take to work. But I never drive like that!"

"Did the car say anything to you?"

"Just the radio. It was playing, I didn't… Turn it on."

Curious. I turn to Lantern Rrab.

"It's your case. But I suggest taking this gentleman to his place of work."

She nods. "We'll start there."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Negetiations

2nd August 2012
09:00 GMT

"No, no, I like it."

I look up at the anatomy arena, as physicians, magicians, medically and theologically orientated Lanterns and a surprising number of Controllers look back.

"Very nineteenth century. And since that was when my country was at the peak of its relative power, I'm taking that as a good sign."

Hinon shakes her head.

"Please limit yourself to pertinent comments. Stand there."

Rather than nod or point, she merely looks at a point just a little back from the centre of the examination space. I shrug and stride over to my appointed place before turning back to her. I widen my stance and spread my arms a little.

"Like this?"

"Acceptable." She glances up at the audience for a moment before holding out her right hand and calling a small tool to her.

"Not a bad showing. How do you feel about the turnout?"

"If I recall correctly, don't your species wrap screens about crashed ground vehicles, in order to prevent others jamming your highways by ghoulishly staring at them?"

"No. Sometimes we just let people watch. We learn best from worked examples, and it's hard to get a better example than an actual wreck with actual mangled bodies in it."

"I'm sure that you're every bit as fascinating as a mangled piece of wreckage."

"High praise. But really. I know that you're ancient, but I'm reasonably well informed on Guardian history and I don't think you've had this sort of following amongst the younger races ever. The Controllers separated before they started up the Halla. Isn't this a novel experience for you?"

"I have personally created more species than are represented here. And many of them I created intentionally."

"Nothing?"

"As much as anything else."

"You want to swap places after this, see if I can fix that? It can't be a pleasant way to live."

"The day I trust an infant like you to 'fix' my psyche is the day I let you. It will not be swift in coming."

I smile. "Are you doing this? I didn't think you were a magician."

"Do you just not pay attention when I say how old I am? I don't habitually use magic because taking advantage of the etheric ripples created by beings younger and weaker than me is wasteful."

"So-?"

The three Lanterns who will be serving as her assistants enter. Lantern Natu I recognise at once. I raise my right hand in greeting, but she remains almost aggressively impassive. I've rather been avoiding her since she caved to common sense and picked up the ring I left with her, but I suppose the chance to study me was more than she could pass up.

The other two I don't immediately recognise, though I do recognise Lantern… Nax's? Species. Vagabond Dominator knock-offs, the Naidroth Collective are a minor but persistent nuisance across this galaxy, unnecessarily vivisecting people for data they could just as easily get by asking for a data file at a local hospital. I've firmly categorised them as 'Stupid Evil', though by Dungeons and Dragons definitions I suppose that they'd be 'Unwise Evil'. And the other fellow is…

Lantern Hieronymous the Under-Achiever. That's… That's actually the name on his file.

"I did recruit a number of wizards whose surnames aren't 'under-achiever'."

"No need to worry about that, Lord Illustres!" He's smiling too much for someone that far gone into the orange light. "My problem was always one of motivation!" I can see the sigils in his eyes. I'm… Genuinely surprised that he's functional. "And with the orange light driving me on, there's no stopping me!"

Oh. It… Looks like actually being able to do something useful is such a novel experience for him that even in what should be full megalomaniacal mode he's actually fairly placid.

"Okay, so where do you want to start?"

Lantern Natu nods. "Please remove your ring and your clothes."

"As you wish."

My robes vanish into subspace, followed by my underwear. My ring I float over to Controller Hinon. She looks at it for a moment, then sends it over to her equipment rack with a wave of her left hand.

"Okay, so what's ne-?"

My point of view jumps forward, and a humanoid-. That's the back of my head. There's also a non-trivial amount of pain, but that's far more manageable. Empathic vision is still working…

"This is strange."

Lantern Nax blinks at me.

"Are you not in pain?"

"A bit. What's happening?"

"I have physically separated your different body tissues so that we may more easily study them."

"Um. How?"

"My parents called it psychic vivisection. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I have never done it to anyone who didn't immediately start screaming in agony."

"It hurts, but I wouldn't say that it's scream-worthy. Then again, I suspect that I'm not an entirely physical intelligence any more."

I try moving, but my perspective doesn't change. I can however see my arm moving in front of me. So I assume that I'm floating off the ground, and… My tissues have been separated?

"We shall study how that works in detail. Lantern Natu?"

"The subject is an adult humanoid male of the human species, thirty one years of age. Currently occupying his third body after the first was destroyed by magic-using Source-worshippers-"

"And sword-using."

"-and the second was destroyed in a qwa-matter explosion."

I look up-. And wave up at Lantern Gozzi.

"The subject has used his ring to turn each body into a facsimile of his original, which he considered to be 'ideal'. Here, we will compare the structures of his body to his original and study the effect of intense orange light exposure on neurological structures. Please hold any questions until the end."

Oh joy.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Onslaught

20th August 2012
15:22 GMT

Xor is impassive as I look down at what was once the Alignment's largest military prison.

"Were they all on trumped up charges like you?"

"Many. Not all. We do not adapt well. We have a place for them. Those who were simply-" He sneers. "-evil, I killed."

"Good show. How are things back on the homeworld?"

"Anarchic. They eat one another in their panic." He hesitates. "Not literally."

"You get to a point like this, and I honestly have trouble working out how they got this far."

"Momentum, and the sacrifice of souls worthier than theirs."

I nod.

"Have you planned for the aftermath?"

"No. Onigar and her friends are planning for the aftermath. I know my strengths."

I nod. Fair enough. He's only in his teens.

"So what do you see yourself doing once the fighting is over?"

"I see myself becoming High Tribune, because that is what she has told me that I should do. I think I will like it."

I nod, and then frown as I stare into space.

"So are they actually coming, or-?"

The Alignment's fleet flashes-. Ah, no, I'm too used to L.E.G.I.O.N.'s way of doing things, the sort of precision a fleet dreamed up by a coluan and a Weaponer can muster. A handful of destroyers flash into normal space. Then there's a pause. Then a battleship. Then a couple of cruisers. Then it… Basically stops.

"On your word, Lantern Xor."

"We wait until their flagship appears."

The ships move, repositioning themselves into something approaching a combat formation. Xor's people had mostly been operating as a paramilitary organisation. Heh, with an interesting twist. Xor's fixation with justice has led to them singling out particularly malfeasant state agents and publicising their misdeeds. And usually killing them in public. Which has led to the Alignment government running into a problem that they can't deal with: control of all data networks means nothing when you're fighting against someone with a power ring. Most people aren't violently rebelling, but…

The ruling regime has finally hit an approval rating of zero.

It reminds me a little of Kahndaq, actually. By the end, there wasn't any question that Adom would be ruling the country. Even the soldiers of the army he defeated… Those who he didn't tear apart, didn't really try and resist him taking political authority. When that happens, people will rally around whoever the opposition is. And that's something else the Alignment doesn't know how to deal with. Whereas before they would send Warhounds after groups that got too organised, now they've lost almost all of those Warhounds to those groups. The regular fleet and army are still apparently following orders, but opposition groups win those fights on the ground and they're not quite ready to bombard their own industrial planets from orbit.

Or rather, they can't risk the fleet refusing to obey the order. Because as… Someone in the Honor Harrington series said, fleets are commanded by people. People who don't want to be shot dead by their own marines, or hanged by the incoming government while the population cheers.

Another cluster of destroyers appear, along with a… Battle cruiser? Ah, they're selecting ships for political loyalty. And to be fair, there's probably enough firepower coming to kill Xor. His people have been avoiding going directly against the Alignment fleet for the practical reason that they don't have the ships. But with Xor openly seizing control of Industrial Penal Colony A-17 the Alignment had to do something.

"This is the colony they were sending you to, right?"

"Onigar said it was poetic. It feels right to me as-"

Three battleships appear at the rear of the fleet. All gunboats, because with the Alignment's all-lightspeed weapon setup and high speed there's little point using carriers. The battleship on the left…

"-well. We attack."

We're both already moving as he gives the order, light speed rapid-traverse turrets mounted on all of the ships of the Alignment fleet sending flicking beams through space to try and catch us. It takes them seconds to reach us and at the speeds we can move that almost guarantees a miss. Against a Green Lantern it might work because Green Lantern doctrine emphasises holding your ground and that makes them easier to hit. It's not a terrible idea against a small fleet and when the Lantern in question is acting in a policing capacity, as it demonstrates the Lantern's strength and desire to avoid destruction. But since we're resolved to kill most of these people it doesn't really work for us.

The battleships are targeting IPC A-17 with their main guns, but we've already evacuated the settlements. Including the guards, as Lantern Xor found the idea of punishing people unjustly to be completely revolting. They'll fire, and in a couple of hours what little biosphere the planet has will be largely destroyed.

But the fight here will be over in minutes and intercepting the shots won't be any great challenge.

First a quick check that the people on the flagship have this coming. Mm, mostly, which is about as good as we're going to get. This isn't the Citadel Complex. These people are free-willed, and while many of them could be reformed it's equally true that many of them could have chosen to live different lives.

Xor is already heading for the fleet, orange pulses flying towards the ships agile enough to do anything meaningful. I go for speed instead, jinking my way around the larger ships' arc of fire as I head for the flag ship. Railguns appear, targeting the shields on the largest ships. The Alignment tend to use bubble shields, so they're a little stronger than area defence shields but when they go down…

Respect to their gunnery computers, they manage to intercept quite a lot of my shots. Since I'm closing the distance the to-target time is dropping to the point where they are actually hitting me, but that's what the construct armour with the reflective coating is for. They can't switch their whole fleet to focused orange beams without doing a lot more work than they have shipyards for, so while I'm not getting complacent…

Crumbler rounds get through and shield envelopes start collapsing, though I avoid hitting the flagship just yet. Those shields need to stay up for this to work. Xor takes advantage by firing beams of orange light at the newly exposed ships, but I settle for sniping their sensors. That should make their fire less accurate… Slightly, anyway.

"Final approach."

The flag ship is evading with commendable speed given its mass, but it's not exactly Lantern-fast. I target main engines

step out

and appear up the bridge, beams of orange light piercing the heads of each of the officers on duty. A construct fortress door appears in front of each of the points of egress, and then a Dominator portal generator appears out of subspace.

Fascinating devices. And the Khundian I bought that computer core from was right about them being rather proactive about the defence of their intellectual property. But the generators aren't that easy to detect remotely, especially at infantry scale. Dominators don't use them in this way; they're just as squishy as the rest of us and prefer long ranged combat. But since our infantry is tough enough to survive passage through a portal which liberally douses them with exotic radiation, why not use it?

Warhounds storm out onto the bridge of the only capital ship in the fleet that still has functioning shields. The first four stand guard at the cardinal points, then the next wave of older and more experienced Warhounds come through and take the bridge stations, tossing the still-warm corpses aside.

The one at the command station is one of Lantern Xor's first recruits, and he smiles as the computer acknowledges his stolen command codes.

"Target the battleships and open fire."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Medidiction

26th August 2012
15:15 GMT

"Hierarch-Illustres!"

I glance down, spotting the female humanoid with the hover camera waving at me. With most of their fleet away picketing a spherical warship with a total mass about seventy times that of said fleet, I felt that spending a little time on the planet might be advisable. A couple of the Lanterns I want to take to Karax with me can't be spared right this moment, and Thaddeus's duel isn't until tomorrow.

"Citizen-Journalist. What can I do for you?"

Carran social hierarchy is a curious thing. It reminds me a little of the turians in mass effect, only rather than being promoted by their superiors they're promoted by their peers. And it's all roles; this woman is a street life reporter who almost certainly encountered me by chance-

Though I give her and her equipment a scan anyway, because I'm not stupid. No, just what it looks like.

-and I actually prefer to do interviews like this rather than something staged. Dox likes controlling the message-

He likes it a lot, actually.

-and while a certain degree of consistency is useful you don't have to be super media savvy to recognise a line when you're being fed it. Something a little more genuine from the Illustres-right-brain side of the partnership should help our credibility with people whose suspicions… While unwarranted in our case, certainly aren't foolish.

"I just wanted to say how completely amazing it was how you disabled that entire ship in a few moments and tried to keep the Inert-Crew alive!"

Or… Maybe a roving reporter just… Isn't going to test me on a planet that already loves N.E.M.O. and hates and fears the Reach, and is genuinely completely happy to accept the party line.

I land and stand at ease.

"As I said to the Hierarch-Admiral, I'm here to fix the universe." I shrug. "As much as I can."

"That's wonderful!"

Oh. I smile and try to make it obvious that I'm trying to be self-depreciating, but I think I've misjudged the audience for that.

"Are we going to be attacked again?"

"We have no information that suggests an attack is imminent, but… As we keep saying, it's going to be a long war. I'd be surprised if your world wasn't in the firing line at least once or twice more before it ends."

"And why are you here now?"

"I thought I'd take a look at the new space docks and industrial sectors. I haven't had the opportunity to speak to the Lanterns involved yet, and I would be remiss in my responsibilities if I didn't look things over."

Because it's generally fairly obvious when a combat-focused Lantern is having a little episode, but when construction or education focused Lanterns start going off the rails it's sometimes not. But we need worlds like this in full production as quickly as possible, so we give power rings to people with a burning desire to learn and then tell them to get on with it. The psychologists follow with the L.E.G.I.O.N. engineering team, but we don't always know enough about the species involved to judge things precisely.

"And to reassure people. I can well appreciate that seeing a ship that size can be a little disturbing."

"I was terrified."

Something else about their culture: the carrans don't censor information releases. At all. Their logic is that someone who isn't fully apprised of the facts can't make educated decisions, so the moment the attacking ship was seen nearly everyone knew about it. And.. the response was fairly rational. Some panicking, no rioting and as far as I've been able to tell the population is still four-square behind the war effort.

"Well, on current timelines your planet should have its own L.E.G.I.O.N.-grade security fleet inside four months, so hopefully you won't need me to make a personal appearance."

"Were you involved in other fighting?"

"Yes. I destroyed one fleet and.. half of another before I arrived here. After that it was more a matter of supporting L.E.G.I.O.N. ships and other Orange Lanterns."

She frowns. "What happened to the other half?"

"They retreated further back into Reach space. Our science people are working on better counters for their guns, so next time I should be able to do a little better."

"When are the recordings going to be released?"

A fairly natural request from a carran. And… Honestly, given the effort that we've made to keep Reach infiltrators out of N.E.M.O. territory, not as much of a risk as it would be to, say, broadcast an equivalent recording on Earth about another earthly enemy. The Reach would need to have a monitoring device in the local data networks with a faster than light communicator, and the Darkstar counter-insurgency teams have been looking for things like that very thoroughly. Without that, even if there is a concealed infiltrator on the planet there's no way for them to tell their domitors. And given that the ships were Reach-controlled, it's unlikely that they don't already have complete recordings of the entire fight.

But it's usually not the technologies you know about that give you trouble.

"Not anytime soon. We're concerned that the Reach might be watching our transmissions to learn what we know about them, and we want their picture to be as inaccurate as possible. When it gets to the point where they can't gain any useful information from it, then we'll release them."

She frowns, because that's very much against her culture. But it looks like a combination of my rank -which implies that I know what I'm talking about- and the fact that she's dealing with an alien and aliens are weird, means that she's prepared to accept it for the moment. Though I suspect that her idea of 'soon' and Dox's are rather different.

"Will you be fighting the Reach again today?"

"No, not today. Today I've got to oversee a-" Duel. "-sparring session between two of our technologists, and then I'm working on improving our Orange Lantern training program."

She nods.

"To reduce their level of mental instability."

And she's fine with that, because… Senior officers don't generally achieve their ranks because they're better fighters than everyone else. They achieve their ranks because they're better at organising and planning. So the fact that I'm actually doing some organising isn't anything like as strange as, say, Kal-El announcing in the middle of the Sheeda invasion that he was taking time off from punching to do some accounting spreadsheets.

"Stability yes, but you have to understand… Power rings are empathic tools. Someone who learns to use them to the highest standards possible isn't going to be like the person they were at the start. It's more about how to manage the transition to avoid the negative potential consequences. Have you had a chance to read my book?"

"Only a summary."

"It explains my transformation fairly well. I have abilities that other Orange Lanterns don't, and this is… probably the only time in the war when it's going to be practical for me to experiment with helping other Lanterns to replicate what I can do."

"Have you selected any of our Lanterns for training?"

"That's part of why I'm here; I want to see if any of them are close to making the transformation that I did. However, they shouldn't be disheartened if the answer is 'no'. This is a new area of study, and… Well, much like how N.E.M.O. is focusing on developing worlds who are nearly advanced enough to fully participate in the war, I'm going to be focusing on Lanterns who have something close to my mental state to start with. Improvements to our training processes will later become available to all Lanterns."

She nods.

"Why are you needed to oversee a sparring session?"

…

"Why indeed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Veganism

1st September 2012
14:01 GMT

I smile as the Justice League taskforce walk or fly through the boom tube. There were a… Wide variety of places where we could have done this, but after some consideration I decided that the Orange Lantern Corps headquarters was the best place for it. Few things say 'I'm powerful and on my home turf' like having one of two Central Power Batteries in the universe standing in the background.

Scott and Barda are joining in, naturally. The League trust Scott to discover if the people in my domain are 'unfree' as Bruce just doesn't have the required knowledge on alien societies and J'onn knows perfectly well that Lynne could make him think that Apokolips was a liberal democracy. Which is probably why they've both gone to Rashashoon instead.

Just because hush tubes are difficult to detect doesn't mean I can't detect you.

Kal-El's here as well, because we're going to need his muscle. And because the League are quite rightly confident that he could take me in a fight. Me or.. other me, I suppose. Arnus is here to check our legal systems and enforcement processes. Oliver is here because he's trying to keep tabs on Artemis. In a… Concerned family friend sort of way, not in a 'she's a threat to the universe' sort of way.

Though I suppose that when we were in the far future, Earth was the universe. Darn, I had an opportunity to kill everyone in the universe and feel somewhat morally justified and I didn't take it. I could literally have been the last man in the universe.

And there wouldn't have been any sheep.

And Adam Blake -looking far healthier than he was last time he was here- is joining in because he genuinely likes the place and harbours me no ill feeling. Which is somewhat weird, but… Actually nice. Someone who's actually experienced the universe thinks that what I've done-. What I've admitted doing, is at least justifiable if not actually good. His telepathy hasn't really recovered from what the First did to him, but his telekinesis is stronger than ever. Cranius does good work, when he maintains his focus.

And Komand'r has flown forward to greet him personally because apparently standing in line isn't really a Tamaranean thing, and with me abandoning her for Luna and Duke Oswin preferring his own species she's a bit stuck for suitably armigerous men. A hero from Tamaran's doomed fight with the Citadel now rejuvenated with the help of the Un-Men might be just what Tamaranean politics wants.

Dinah's here for Artemis as well. And Patrick heard about the 'orange swimsuit model' thing and decided to tag along. I don't know how useful he'll be. I mean, it's hard to test how resilient someone is without honestly trying to kill them, I know that he's not… All that strong, his shapeshifting is somewhat irrelevant against people with advanced sensors or… Well, spaceships. Still, more Leaguers forming social bonds with Tamaraneans can only work in my favour.

Next to me, Weaponer Lysis studies each of them with interest.

"Is that one some sort of synthetic life form?"

I smile proudly.

"You never visited Earth, did you?"

"I hardly see what that has to do with anything."

"He's human. His body is made of some sort of ultra flexible-"

"Hey Comet, when do the rest of us get an orange bikini babe?"

"-ultra stretchy material now, but he started as organically human."

Komand'r uncoils herself from Adam a little.

"I have a sister, if you so desire?"

Which is an insult to Koriand'r, as Patrick has no particular status here and would drag her slightly down. And an insult to Patrick, as Komand'r knows that and is doing it deliberately. And they'd be horribly mismatched anyway, though I know from personal experience that Koriand'r would be up for letting him experiment with his abilities. And she'd experiment right back with her ring, so maybe I should nudge him in a different direction.

"Welcome to Tamaran!" I walk forwards, raising my right hand in greeting. "Thank you all for coming."

Kal-El nods. "I'm looking forward to having a look at what you've built here."

"Personally? Very little. Virtually all of the rebuilding has been done by the Tamaraneans themselves. I create opportunities for rebuilding." I half-turn. "This is Weaponer Diataria Lysis. She's been invaluable in bringing our fleet up to scratch."

I notice Kal-El giving her a very quick once-over with his expanded visual range. He's never dealt with any Qwardians himself, but I'm sure that he's been fully briefed on their activities. Then again, he's not going to stoop to species prejudice, no matter how warranted.

"My Clarissi, Vril Dox the Second." I gesture to Komand'r. "Princess Komand'r of Tamaran. And Sub-Commander Karsta Wor-Ul."

Who's giving the impression that Kal-El is an unusually incompetent recruit at her boot camp. They've never actually-

"You're kryptonian?"

"You're Seyg-El's grandson. I didn't like him either."

He's smiling hopefully. "What are you doing here?"

We decided not to tell Superman about the cloning, because the absolute last thing I want is the Justice League hanging around here long-term. On the other hand, lying isn't an option because Diana's right there.

"He needs someone to control the Doomsday."

"That sounds ominous. What is it?"

I make a show of looking mildly awkward, in the hope that it will reassure them to catch me out on a few things.

"You remember when the team got sent to investigate some excavation work Lex Luthor was carrying out in Texas?"

He clearly doesn't, but Diana nods.

"Turns out that when the Science Council ordered the Kryptonian Stellar Navy scuttled, Admiral Dru-Zod instead sent his flagship to some arse-end planet in the middle of nowhere. Earth, in other words. And since there wasn't much happening in Texas at the time, it buried itself there."

Kal-El's face stills.

"You're saying Lex Luthor has a kryptonian warship."

"No, I have a kryptonian warship because Lex Luthor works for me. It's in orbit now if you want to take a look."

"Why didn't you tell me about that sooner? Even if you wanted to keep it, that's a part of my history-."

Karsta's eyes narrow.

"Your history is being part of the family that ordered the fleet destroyed. Your history is your grandfather, great uncles and aunts and the rest of your house scuttling the fleet that could have saved our species when the planet fell apart. You've never even been to Krypton. You never saw Kryptonian society when it still existed. It's not a part of your history at all. I'm only letting you see my ship because Grayven asked me to."

"My family?" He frowns. "What are you talking about?"

Right, because Jor-El almost certainly didn't include that information on the data he sent Kal-El to Earth with.

"House El? The entire Science Council? The isolationist fools who-."

BOOM!

Huh? That's not-.

Kara shoots out of the tube opening and halts just in front of her cousin.

"Kal?"

"Yes? Who-?"

She wasn't supposed to put in an appearance just yet, but best foot forward.

"This is Kara Zor-El. Your cousin."

 

[Mr Zoat]

A Waltz in Orange and Green

10th September 2012
08:54 GMT

"Warning! Will Detected!" / "Warning! Will Detected!" / "Green Alert!" / Incoming Green Lantern.

Lanterns Xor, Dul and Onik look to me for direction, but all I can do is shrug.

"I'm not expecting anyone. Ring, contact Lantern Toren."

"Compliance."

Xor turns away and swings a giant hand construct, catching the outlaw transport ship around the middle of its hull and arresting its progress. Interestingly, it's Onik and not Dul who takes the lead in boarding operations. Dul is fully invested in realpolitik; the fact that the Guilders eat people only really bothers her because the people they eat might end up being thanagarians. Onik on the other hand is managing to internalise my 'ideal universe' ideology, and you don't have to be the Universe's Greatest Humanoidist to realise that the Guild isn't part of that.

My ring flickers, then Toren's face appears.

"Expecting company?"

"No. Are you?"

"Ah, I don't get alerts for Orange Lanterns but I'm not expecting anyone else, no. Why?"

"The ships' identification marks them as coming from Sector One Six Three Four."

Oh dear.

"Is it Lantern Priest?"

"No."

Oooooooooh sh-ugar.

"Has Lord Malvolio said what he wants?"

"As far as I could tell, he's here for tourism."

"That sounds astonishingly unlikely."

"I agree. How powerful is he?"

"If I'm not bonded to the Ophidian, he's more powerful than me. Given the period of history he's from I'd like to think that his understanding of science and technology is worse than mine, but he's had centuries to bring himself up to date and he struck me as being rather serious. And he has an entire Space Sector's worth of willing tutors who've hailed him as their god-king."

"I see."

"What have the Guardians told you about him?"

"That he's a murderous tyrant who killed a Green Lantern and stole his ring. Are you going to tell me that is untrue?"

"I'd be surprised if the Guardians told a direct lie I could easily disprove. It's incomplete, seeing as how his Sector was a war zone before I freed him. I haven't checked, how's it doing now?"

"I don't know. The Sector doesn't have a Green Lantern any longer."

"I would respectfully point out that that isn't true. It doesn't have a member of the Green Lantern Corps, but that doesn't mean the same thing."

Though… That probably means that Lantern Priest is dead. Either that or they promoted him to train up an Honour Guard taskforce. They might offer Malvolio the Larfleeze deal but I rather doubt that he'd take it. On the other hand… Beyond some measure of recompense for them imprisoning him, what does he actually want? Does he have something against me for Mr. Allen's breach of hospitality?

I suppose I should check…

"Is Lantern Priest dead?"

"I don't know. He isn't answering his ring, but ring communications can be blocked. Or he might have resigned."

Well, shazbot.

"Want me to go and talk to him?"

"Identity theft complete."

"I was going to suggest that you leave the Sector."

"We'll do that if that's what you want, but as far as I can tell he has more reason to hate you than me. I've got a slightly higher chance of finding out why he's here without violence."

"Identity theft complete."

"That statement is at odds with everything I know about you. Still, at least it will give me more time to prepare."

"I'll let you know how it goes. Illustres out."

"Identity theft complete."

I shut down the ring communication and look at my squadron. Xor is making the hull good for transport, while Onik is assimilating the crew. Dul on the other hand is giving me her full attention.

"More powerful than you?"

"Come and talk to me again in four hundred years."

"Humans don't live four hundred years."

"It's unusual, but it does happen. Vandal Savage is about forty eight thousand years old and Nommo Balewa is around eleven thousand."

She regards me with the scepticism of someone who fully expects to be wrong but who can't let that go unchallenged. "Forty eight thousand years."

"He doesn't have a lot to show for it, honestly. Other than the fact that most of my species is descended from him. But anyway, Lord Malvolio appears to have transcended his physiology by just being that good a Lantern. My friend Alan's done something similar with the blue light."

I turn back to our other colleagues.

"Can the two of you cope without us?"

"Yes, Illustres." / "Yes Illustres."

"Lantern Dul, you're on wingman duty. Both eyes open, speak only in response to direct questions. If things turn violent, run. Clear?"

"Run where?"

"Good question. Ah. Let's say 'Maltus'. Clearer?"

"Yes, Illustres."

"Right then. Warp in two, one, now."

Space bends and… I can see the brilliant green glow that marks Lord Malvolio's location. At least I hope that's Lord Malvolio, because otherwise there are two ludicrously powerful Green Lanterns around the place.

"Why do you think he's here?"

"This is the galaxy's centre for green light worship. I suspect he's here to pick up people interested in his heterodox version of the faith."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Sungate

11th September 2012
08:28 GMT

"-tres?"

Toren?

I take a moment to get my bearings. I'm in bed-. Right, all that stuff with Malvolio yesterday. His fleet is still in the system, and the people of Karax were getting a little excited about having a Green Central Power Battery come and visit them. But apart from booking Onik on a media relations course there wasn't anything for me to do about that.

Toren's on the other side of the door. The rooms aren't exactly spacious, but I was able to bring the bed up to my standards. I pull the duvet aside and float onto the floor.

"I'm awake. Do you need me immediately?"

"No, not immediately. I want to let you know that my partner has arrived."

"In case Malvolio comes back-" Light armour, check appearance… "-or are they here for me?"

"You, though she's not here as additional security." I walk over to the door and open it, greeting Lantern Toren with a nod. "Lantern Vode-M has been an active opponent of the Spider Guild. She wants to join you."

"Nifty. Did you know that we don't have a rule against members of the Orange Lantern Corps being members of other organisations?"

"I meant that she wants to join you in fighting against the Spider Guild. The Green Lantern Corps-."

"Has agreements that you can't breach due to wider concerns, which neatly illustrates the difference between the philosophies of the Guardians and the Controllers."

"Which is?"

"The Guardians would like to have two Lanterns in every Sector in the universe, whereas the Controllers would rather have a hundred Lanterns in the handful of Sectors that need it."

"Regardless of the repercussions?"

"Because of the repercussions. An Orange Lantern who has decided to kill someone isn't going to be put off by the fact that they have to kill them."

He leads the way through the monastery towards the knot of green light I see.

"That suggests a lack of discipline."

"We recognise it as an extrinsic good. Orange Lanterns who really want to make suicide attacks against Reach fleets aren't prevented from doing so, though it is explained to them that that's a really inefficient way to fight. If they can't make that want-the-end, want-the-means jump, then they're probably incapable of learning more anyway."

He glances at me with a disappointed expression on his face.

"Do you recruit many Lanterns like that?"

"No. Just a few, to test the viability of the system. Not only are people who sacrifice their 'self' to the orange light like that impossible to involve in any sort of complex battle plan, but it turns out that their surge power isn't all that great. A Lantern who trains for a few months and actually learns something can actually hit harder. So unless we're desperate for offensive power, the whole practice has been suspended."

"Ah."

He nods, mollified.

"So, Vode-M. Are you informing me of her presence, or warning me?"

"I'm not sure what you're expecting, but I've always found her quite easy to get along with."

I smile.

"How novel. Has she had breakfast yet?"

"She has a little trouble with Karaxian food. When she studied here she survived on noodles."

"Perhaps something from Earth would be easier?"

"That would be contrary to everything I know about your homeworld."

"Yeah, that's fair. Though if it helps, One Six Three Four is probably going to be more exciting in the next few years."

"The one Sector with another human in it."

"Two Eight Two Eight has a human in it."

He looks at me.

"Okay, bad example. But Malvolio is only half human."

"Do you know how rare it is for humanoid species to be capable of reproducing with one another?"

"H-eh."

I bow my head. Should I be proud or ashamed that humans are known for being fecund and dangerously crazy? I mean… As I said, it's not unreasonable.

"Of course, if that carries over into hybrids, it's really only a matter of time until everyone shares the ability."

I've been assuming that it's a product of Earth's high magic level, but that shouldn't apply to humans born away from the planet. So the universe should be relatively safe.

We emerge from the monastery corridor into one of their open air internal courtyards, Lantern Vode-M floating in a meditative pose in the centre. Relatively standard pattern humanoid, her skin has a slight orange tint to it and her hair is impractically long. Her eyes have been replaced by cybernetics which remind me of the ones some of the Qwardians have, curved lenses over the eye socket rather than anything designed to mimic the appearance of normal eyes. Thin black tattoos radiate out from the outer edge of each in jagged arcs. Her uniform is a black body stocking with green armoured boots, gauntlets and cuirass, and she appears to have followed Guy's lead in acquiring an ex-Halla stun gun.

Since her eyes don't move any longer I can't tell where she's looking, but I raise my right hand in greeting anyway.

"Lantern Vode-M. Am I parsing that correctly?"

"Yes."

She doesn't turn to face me, but I suppose that with how her visual field works that's probably irrelevant to her.

"I wish to join your crusade. I want to destroy the Spider Guild."

"Neat."

"Neat?"

"I'm fairly sure that our rules of engagement would get you thrown out of the Green Lantern Corps, so unless you're planning on jumping ship, this is something that we're going to have to discuss at length. Have you eaten?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Sungate, part 2

11th September 2012
20:00 GMT

My construct overshield comes up about half a second before the fleet's flak turrets decide that I'm the best target!

A thousand-

Seven hundred and ninety two.

-brilliant beams of energy strike from all directions, the orange orb protecting me puckering and blistering as the continuous rain strikes home. What are they hitting me with? No weapon whose profile I can immediately call to mind should be able to do this much damage.

Get out of their line of sight.

I fly directly towards one of the cruiser class ships, fire slacking off from that direction as the hull obscures my location. So what am I being hit with? Plasma? No, there's no ionised cloud residue. The only.. other thing that comes to mind is an Apokoliptian blaster, but these ships aren't of Apokoliptian design. Right, establish a new shield inside the old one, expand, drop the old one and-

The battleship and two cruisers open fire on New Cronus's launch bays. They're inside the main shield envelope, and the heavy firepower punches through the weaker near hull shields in moments before wrecking the hull beneath.

-transmit what I'm seeing to the interior. Alright, gravity manipulation is unlikely to be entirely reliable here. Let's try crumbler fire to the ship acting as my cover. I form a railgun and bend my shield bubble slightly to give in a clear line of sight to the target. Sight good, aperture minimal, charge and open fire.

The rate of fire is… Less than what I'm used to, but the shots fly across the void without significant deviation from projections… Right up until they hit the ship's shields, at which point they completely fail to crumble them. Not plasma or programmable matter based, then. Magic… Magic? I haven't had the opportunity to study starship scale magic shields, due to the fact that they wouldn't work away from a living world.

I cease fire, load mage slayer rounds and fire a quick volley of those. No… Greater penetration. Not magic. Or at least, not a simple magic barrier.

The battleship launches assault boats into the broken launch bays as the cruisers switch their attentions to New Cronus's main guns. For a moment I get the impression of the difference in the size of the two sides. New Cronus may be a broken moon, but it's still a moon; lunar size, rather than the tiny technically-a-moon that most planets have. And the future tech city, shield emitters and drive which covers it increases the mass even further. The battleship is barely a hundredth of that, and the cruisers less still.

From a distance, it would look like a toy.

And my overshield is gone as one of the cruisers manages to get a hit with one of its primary weapons. I'm lucky that they don't use all big gun ships. I dodge and weave, three more shots flying past me as it tries to adjust with no success. Lanterns just aren't that easy to draw a bead on.

Okay, I could have a go at those assault boats, but that would involve getting closer to the battleship with no idea how to get through the shields and board it. On the other hand, the angle would be awkward for their guns, I'd be shielded by the two largest objects in local space and it would slow the boarding efforts. And capturing an assault boat might make getting on board easier.

Still…

Orange energy roils around my left hand for a moment before I raise it towards the cruiser and fire! The shield… It's stressed, but I don't think I'm in danger of breaching it. I make a tugging gesture with my left arm, the beam of energy changing from a beam of destructive force to becoming a leaching beam instead. This time the shield is visibly weakened, flaring all across this side of the ship.

That's interesting. I really can't think of a shield system that acts like that.

Spell eater overheating.

Huh? Ah, replace it.

Compliance.

Is that..? From the shield?

Unable to confirm.

Great. I'm being affected by something magical. I can't see it, can't detect it, and it's impeding the techniques I'd usually use to try and deal with it. I-.

Ring, compare psychological responses to baselines.

Increased focus on intellectual enquiry. Reduced concern about combat.

Ugh. Someone found a way to largely bypass my magic resistance. And I'm sure that would be fascinating to study, but I'm in a war zone and need to focus on that.

Indirect wards. Doing something to change the nature of the region. There's still an energy exchange so I can still drain them, but only at a fraction of normal strength. Mage slayer rounds don't work because there's no single focus of energy to drain; it's spread throughout the region and constantly being replenished. I fire an x-ionised round at the cruiser and it gets close to the hull, but doesn't quite hit home. The basic physical laws are being altered by the invader in their favour.

So what still works? New God blasters. I don't have one of those, but I… Do still have one of those stupid disc launcher things the team picked up in Qurac in subspace. See if it works while the shield is stressed.

I take it out of subspace and put it on over my armour before firing, the resulting discs flying forwards and taking position around the most weakened portion of the shield and releasing-.

I dart forward through the gap, torn between being pleased that it worked and unsettled that the disc launcher turned out to not be completely useless after all. New God technology is unimpeded. Given typical New God behaviour…

This wouldn't usually work, but if they're stacking the deck…

As I hit the hull, I take an Apokoliptian lash out of subspace and use constructs to wrap it around the base of the closest flak turret. It sheers through the metal easily enough, tearing it free and sending it floating away through space. A construct knife… Cuts into the metal, but nothing like as deeply as it should. Great, but the whip is totally the wrong shape for penetrating a hull.

Which leaves…

I attach myself to the hull with a leaching beam, but instead of draining it into the orange light, I hook up my own tattoos and drain it into those. As Canis described it, that's basically how New God technology works, so-.

Ooh. This feels weird.

I form a battering ram construct, and… Not sure exactly what's happening, but while I imagined a simple cylinder what I actually get has… Ah, tron lines? Along the shaft and head. I smash it into the hull, and the hull armour fails, splintering and shattering in the area around where the ram struck. No escape of atmosphere, but I can't see any internal force field.

I dismiss the ram construct-. What's more important, boarding the ship or protecting New Cronus from boarding? There aren't that many ships, and the internal volume of the place is huge. I could get reasonable information by interrogating the crew of this ship, and-.

Warning! Information gathering receiving greater than usual priority.

Ugh. When did I get so comfortable with external mental influences?

I zip through the hull breach just as marines in full encounter armour storm through internal pressure door, guns firing. Plasma rather than blasters, I note, and nothing like powerful enough to destroy my construct barrier.

"Surrender, or I will take this ship by force."

"We do not bow to alien gods!" The squad leader draws a sword-. Yes, that's definitely Apokoliptian. "My life for Sparta!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Future Tense

13th September 2012
06:43 GMT -5

I

appear in Jade's living room, and…

I sigh.

That's one of the features of ultra-advanced home accessories. The home doesn't feel… Lived in. There's no patch of trodden-in dirt around the entrance where the highest frequency of footfalls land. No worn carpet, faded where the sun shines most brightly into the room. No residual scent from a spilled sauce of a hundred cooked meals. No perfumed smell from airing laundry.

It was alright when I was keeping the place going for Jade, but when I started working off-world for the Corps…

I don't know. Moving in together is a big deal in a couple's relationship but I'm basically just house sitting here, for someone who might not ever come back.

We're lucky if we get to see each other a couple of times a week.

I do actually have my own place, in the… Consulate? Manga Khan built in Bir Tawil. All-round views of desert and sea, if that's your thing. And if it isn't, at least it beats Gotham.

What's in the fridge..?

Not a lot. Artemis and Paula have a key, so I thought… Well, I suppose there wasn't much chance of them popping by when I wasn't even on the planet. Jade being Jade we've got plenty of emergency preserved stuff that's reasonably edible, but nothing that's up to my standard.

I guess this is military life for you.

Okay. Restocking isn't going to take me more than two hours. But am I restocking for one or two? I need to find out whether Jade's actually free or not. Her current assignment is counter-infiltration, which usually doesn't require a particular Darkstar to stay on site for the whole duration. But maybe she's near the end of an investigation?

There was a thing in the comics after Supergirl's arrival in Batman/Superman, where she got involved in a fight between the Justice Society and Solomon Grundy. They were struggling -which was bullshit by the way- and then she turned up and Grundy was down in a single punch. Me… Getting involved in certain types of fight is like that. The Reach deploy some sort of mind control agent to a planet, the Darkstars sneak around to try and uncover the plot without alienating the locals by violating their cultural taboos and power structures, then there's a fight with an infiltrator or two…

Beetles aren't a threat to me at the moment. Which wouldn't be a problem if we had a Batman/Superman responsibility split, but Jade's sensitive to my displays of overwhelming power and… Doesn't have Batman's networks yet. At least nothing I can't blow past with raw power in most of her postings.

I waggle my left hand as I transmit my 'I'm back for a bit' message to League-affiliated servers.

Darn, I'm feeling mopey right now.

Fix that.

I

step out and

13th September 2012
08:45 GMT -3

appear next to a flower stand in Sao Paulo… And this is part of the problem, isn't it? Twenty four hour society means that in a lot of places you can do anything at any time of day. No… Cycles. I'm not sure if that causes a magical problem, but it does change the way we interact with our environment.

And it almost certainly does cause a magical problem.

And I can literally appear anywhere at any time. I'm not a citizen of the country where I spend most of my time while on Earth, and while I do at least know the names of my-. Our? Neighbours, Jade knows the entire floor. I'm not integrated into my surroundings.

I look around at the flower displays, and… No. I nod at the locals, who are edging away from me. Unlike a lot of pre-Sheeda Brazil, Sao Paulo is still part of Brazil. In fact, with Brasília barely habitable it's unofficially become the capital, pending… I'm not entirely sure why what's left of the government hasn't committed yet, but it's pending something. The place is kept alive more or less entirely by being the main trading port with access to the novel plant species being created in the continent's interior, which is… Why I'm surrounded by flowers unknown to botany as of a few years ago.

I take a moment to sniff the bouquet.

"Can I help you, sir?"

I smile at the shop assistant brave enough to approach the glowing man.

"I'd like a combination that will make a home smell like home. My girlfriend's been away for a while."

"Sir, we specialise in novel plant species. If you want something that smells familiar… This may not be the best place."

"She's been off the planet for a while. I just want it to feel a bit less… Empty."

"Ah, in that case, I suggest these." She picks up a small pot containing long-necked purple flowers protruding from a base of fern-like leaves. "They're extremely hardy and release a pleasant floral scent for several months."

"Are they legal in America?"

"There's no ongoing magic effect, so they should be."

"Excellent. I'll take five. Do you still take dollars?"

"American dollars?"

Because when your government collapses, the world's favourite reserve currency is what you fall back on. And while no government is going to fail to print money during a global crisis, those places that were hit worst… Some of them have given up on even having their own currency for the time being.

"Whatever you want, though I imagine they're a little more fungible than bullion."

I create a construct cart for the pot plants, pay and

then

13th September 2012
06:48 GMT -5

return to Gotham, putting the plants on the kitchen table before dismissing the construct. Okay, one can go on the dressing table in the bedroo-.

The doorbell rings. Okay… Zeta tube? Wallace? I look through the wall, but I don't recognise the pattern of desires. No one outside of the League knows I'm back, so… Jehovah's Witness?

I shrug, put the plant I'm carrying down and open the door.

"Hey, Lantern."

I blink.

"Good morning, Dana. What..? Are you wearing?"

"Code names." She steps forward, pushing me back inside Jade's apartment with… More than human strength. I do a quick scan but everything I'm seeing matches up. "I'm 'Supergirl' now."

"That's… Taken." I close the door behind her, following her as she wanders into the living room and drops into a settee. "Ah, three times. Where have you been?"

"The future. Where the name 'Supergirl' isn't taken." She takes a deep breath. "We need to talk."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Past Participant

15th September 2012
09:21 GMT -5

"How is Supergirl?"

I take a look around the Batcave interior as I approach Batman's main work station.

"Better. Not great. I've asked Zatanna to have a chat with her, which was a little awkward. Ah, if you don't mind me asking-?"

"I don't remember my actions under the influence of Starrotech." He switches tools as he continues his detailed examination of the H-Dial. "Other forms of mind control vary greatly in what the subject remembers. I remember clearly what I did under the influence of both Smilex and fear toxin."

"I remember everything the Ophidian and I did. The only reason that I don't remember everything we saw is that there was too much of it." I come to a halt on the other side of the work bench. "Any progress?"

"This technology is centuries ahead of anything native to Earth. But it's designed to look like a child's toy."

"If I had to guess, I'd say that it was a child's toy. The Reach were using humans as metahuman soldiers. Give things like that to a child when they're young, get them used to having their bodies suddenly changing and them needing to work out what they can do…"

"I doubt the Reach established a vast interstellar empire by expending resources unproductively."

"They're rich. They can throw away-" I start taking another look around, then stop myself. "-resources other people can't comprehend if it advances their goals. If a few dozen children die and they get one really useful metahuman out of it, that's well worth it. And they're good enough at social conditioning to make their serfs accept that reasoning."

"I'm more interested in detecting its use."

"Why?" I shrug. "That's not our future any more. That comes from what is now an alternate timeline, and there won't be any more."

"The Chinese don't like sharing intelligence data, but they've been raided by both durlans and dominators. Human biological data is already out in the galaxy."

"Neither of those races are going to share it. Dominators don't use proxies and.. durlans are severely endangered."

"Social changes happen. Or the durlans might get an offer they can't afford to refuse. Are you sure that the Reach wouldn't pay for information on your homeworld?"

"I suppose they… They probably would. But there's no flow of information from here to there. Local trade networks don't go that far, sensors don't reach that far…"

"You don't believe they could send ships here?"

"No, they totally could, but it's a very long way and there's no real reason for them to do so. I've mentioned Earth's name, but I haven't done anything that would lead them here."

"You brought a fleet here. How do you know they weren't monitored?"

I shrug. "By what? They'd probably know that the ships left, but there's next to no residue to track and they don't have monitoring equipment this far from their space. All communication from the ships are monitored and only the bridge crew get their actual location. And you better believe that the crew are thoroughly vetted."

"Very well."

"Any news on the assassination attempt?"

"I haven't been able to find anyone working on a weapon like the one you described. There's no chatter in the Gotham underworld about what happened."

He carefully runs a miniature vacuum nozzle along the holes in the dial.

"No one saw anything out of the ordinary. No one knows anything. If I were you, I would check to see if any members of the former government of the Alignment hired an assassin from off-world."

"No. The ones who survived the purge know they're being closely monitored, and the ones who didn't… Didn't. But, thank you. It's nice to know that for once no one is throwing weapons at the Gotham underworld and seeing what happens."

"It's certainly a change of pace."

"Have you tried that yourself?"

"No. I won't be attempting human trials for weeks, if at all. Everyone who used a variant of this device suffered psychological damage from repeated transformations."

I nod. Fair enough. Compared to abilities we can already produce… A random low-tier super power each time isn't all that useful. I could check it more myself, but if I'm not planning on spending much time in Gotham…

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

His eyes flick towards me for an instant before returning to the Dial.

"Yes."

"Have you ever thought about retiring from superheroism? I mean… When you started, Gotham's police department were mob enforcers in uniforms and Falcone ruled the city. Now the police are actually reasonably good at their jobs, the old crime families are gone, and… Even your supervillains are reasonably under control. You've pretty much won."

"I'm functionally insane, remember?"

"So..?"

"So it doesn't matter. There's always more work to do and I'm always driven to do it."

"Even if you could do more good doing something else?"

"Such as?"

"Running for political office, for example."

"It's a little late for an Oval Office bid."

"The mayor's office. Or the governor's. With the disruption to international trade, there's an opportunity to bring industry back to the US; to reverse the events that resulted in it becoming a high crime city in the first place. High employment means less crime. Gotham's problems could be completely solved."

"Have you ever thought about retiring?"

"I retire the moment I'm more of an impediment to my objectives than a boon. Not sure what I'd do with my time instead, but I'd be satisfied to see our civilisation improving."

"It wouldn't work for me. Without the violence, it doesn't feel like I'm making a difference. The proximate cause of my parents' death was a violent thug, and that association is indelibly linked in my mind. Even if I was completely certain that there was a better way to fight crime, a better way to bring about the world my parents would want for me, I wouldn't be able to do it. That's why it chilled me to hear that you considered becoming more like me a desirable option. To say nothing of what actually happened."

"I guess mentally stable people don't dress up in bright costumes and punch evildoers in the face."

"On the contrary. In my experience the people who take the route I was forced down and you chose for yourself are in the minority."

"But if you really think it's that bad for people… Why stay on it? You can change."

For a moment he stops working on the Dial and looks directly at me.

"Just because I realise that it's a bad way to live, that doesn't mean that I actually want to change. I like being Batman in a way that I've never liked being anything else."

I nod, turning away.

"And I'm the last person who'll criticise you for that. Thank you for your help."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st May 2013
21:43 MTZ

The tiny human female groans quietly, her eyes adjusting to the dim light of-. Wait, her hands aren't bound. She was in Knock Out's trunk, then-.

Next to her, her overweight companion rubs his head as he sits up.

"What just happened?"

"I did."

She looks-. She looks up at the twenty foot tall purple robot-. A new Autobot-? No, she thinks as she sees the dark-purple-and-silver face on her wings. Decepticon.

Her companion glowers. "What, did you and Knock Out have a fight over who gets to hand us over to Megatron?"

"Heh. I don't work for Megatron. We're freelance peacekeeping agents. If your government will pay for our work, they can have you right back."

"'Freelance-?" He scowls. "You're a mercenary."

She makes a dismissive motion with her right hand. "Football, soccer."

"And who's 'we'?"

"Down here."

They both look down, spotting the purple jumpsuit-wearing human standing next to her left leg. He waves.

"I'll get in touch with General Bryce. You're worth a few tanks of energon, aren't you, Agent Fowler?"

The man frowns. "The United States government does not negotiate with terrorists."

"Yes you do? And you certainly pay private security operatives. We did rescue you from Knock Out. What do you think, a couple of barrels for you and Nurse Darby?"

"The United States government has no knowledge of any 'energon'."

The robot smiles. "We'll see. I suspect that your General will be quite interested in Cybertronian technology he can just buy."

Agent Fowler hesitates. While the Autobots kept up their end of the agreements regarding technology trades, they weren't exactly open-handed, and… Well, the US army was usually happy to buy any advantage it could. There were plenty of people in government and the top brass who would find a simple monetary transaction for an immediate payoff preferable to the slow drip Prime's team gave them, regardless of prior agreements.

The human man notices his hesitancy and smiles. "I'll go and get in touch now. Keep an eye on them, Slipstream."

The human man turns away, giving them both a quick glance at the cybernetic implants sticking out of the back of his neck. As he walks behind Slipstream to head towards the door he reaches up and-.

And slaps her on the as-. Aft as he goes.

Both remaining humans blink in surprise, while Slipstream just glances back with an amused expression on her face. "Do that again and I might just slap you back, partner."

A moment later the room's door slams shut behind him, and she goes back to watching their 'guests'.

"He said it was something humans do as a sign of physical attraction." Slipstream leans in closer, left eye narrowing. "Unless he was making that up. Was he making that up? Because if he was, then he's sleeping outside my cockpit tonight."

Nurse Darby and Agent Fowler glance at each other.

"No." The nurse decides to field that question, fearing all too much that a question that she'd carefully been avoiding asking her son and his 'partner' was about to make itself heard. "No, it-. Certainly can be. I'm.. just a little surprised."

Slipsteam straightens up slightly. "Why?"

Agent Fowler raises his hands. "Oh, we're not trying to imply that you're not an attractive.. giant.. robot.. woman..?"

Nurse Darby shoots him an incredulous look, and he shrugs helplessly.

"I'm not a woman."

"And there's nothing wrong with that. But you're still.. gi-"

Nurse Darby elbows him.

"-ant-?"

Slipsteam stares at him for a few moments, trying to work out how to bridge the obvious gulf in comprehension. Then she puts her left hand on her hip and points at Nurse Darby with her right forefinger.

"You're a female human, right? You have an internal factory unit for making smaller copies of yourself?"

"That's… Not exactly how it works."

Her finger move to Agent Fowler.

"And you're a male? You have a bio-data exchange injector?"

"Ah…"

Slipstream smiles. "Don't worry, I've seen them before."

"In… That case, yes."

"Why did you assume that I'm female?"

"Well…" Agent Fowler glances at Nurse Darby for help, but she's content to let him take the lead. "Your build, your voice, some parts of how you behave..."

"I have almost exactly the same build as Starscream." She frowns for a moment. "At least, the build he had last time I saw him. It's been a while." She shrugs. "We're both light frame aerial models. Seekers. I don't have any sort of internal fabricator. Very few Cybertronians do, because we don't make more of ourselves like that. My voice? I changed my default voice-" An unpleasant, screeching, grating and far lower pitched voice issues from her mouth. "-a long time ago because I wanted something unique, and I never had any reason to change it again. It's just a setting in my vocal processor; it doesn't signify anything."

Nurse Darby looks slightly interested. "Then how do you reproduce?"

"I was built on a production line during the Quintesson occupation of Cybertron. Other than when my spark case was brought online the entire process was automated. There might be other ways; they didn't bother telling slave soldiers anything they didn't need to know."

Agent Fowler's eyebrows shoot up. "You're a slave?"

"I was a slave. Most Decepticons were. That was why the uprising happened." She frowns. "Didn't Prime explain that to you?"

"The Decepticons… Were slaves-? Of the Autobots?"

"Mostly." Slipstream waves her right hand nonchalantly. "Not all Autobots owned slaves, but most of the old High Council did. And not all Decepticons were slaves. Megatron earned his freedom in the gladiator pits and I think Starscream ruled a city or something?"

"But you were a slave."

She nods.

"In Kaon, which was the first city Megatron liberated. And fighting as a Decepticon was better than being a slave. The food was much better, and we got some time to ourselves. But as the war ground Cybertron to scrap, I kind of lost my enthusiasm. Paul says that when I was freed I just traded one person giving me orders for another, and I think he's on to something. I need to be more selfish, you know? Finally find out how I want to live. Which is why I'm trading you back to your own people, rather than giving you to Megatron."

Agent Fowler clearly needs a moment to process that, so Nurse Darby decides that now is as good a time to ask as any.

"This… Paul. He's your partner?"

"That's right."

"Do you mean… Romantic partner?"

"That's not exactly how it works. I told you: we don't reproduce like you do. I'm not looking for someone to provide half the schematics for my 'minicons'. We don't have the family structures that you do, because we don't need to arrange everything around propagating ourselves and guarding our mini-mes."

"So he's a work partner?"

"Yes, but that means more than you think it does. We don't have 'parents' or 'children'. Our strongest emotional relationships are usually with the people we work with. A Team might work together for hundreds or thousands of Earth years, and get so used to each other that they can't imagine being apart. It's not really a romantic relationship in the way organics have them, but I suppose it's the nearest equivalent."

"What happened to your team?"

"The last of my team died in the war, and…" She pulls back slightly. "Paul is… There."

Fowler shakes his head to clear his daze. "How does that work? I mean… Physically."

Slipstream shrugs. "He has a cybernetic implant that makes it possible for us to engage in binary bonding."

"'Bonding' as in..?"

"We meld into one. Not like humans would; I don't have the components. And since we don't reproduce like that it probably doesn't have the same mental relevance to me. But it's extremely intimate and…" She smiles lasciviously. "Quite a lot of fun."

Nurse Darby shakes her head. "But if you don't have the comp-. The right parts, how does it-?"

"I can adapt to an entirely new body form in a few seconds just by scanning a vehicle. I switch from the mental patterns needed to control my robot form to the ones needed to control my aero fighter mode in less than a second. Adapting my cognition processors to stimuli that I couldn't normally experience isn't much harder. And it's a real rush." Her eyes narrow. "Why are you so interested? Do you have an eye on someone?"

"No! No. But my son insists that he's Arcee's partner-."

Slipstream's eyes light up.

"Does he want the cyber surgery? I can give him a discount. Since we're friends."

"No he does not want cyber surgery. He's sixteen!"

Agent Fowler looks at her sceptically. "When I was sixteen, if I'd had an opportunity to get it on with a hot alien woman who was also a cool motorbike, I'd-."

"Thank you Agent Fowler." Nurse Darby takes a moment to calm herself. "At least that explains why Arcee was so reluctant to call him her partner. Is that..? Sort of thing common where you're from?"

"On Cybertron? A planet with no organic life? No."

"But when you meet other species. Does it happen a lot?"

Slipstream smile becomes more cruel.

"Bulkhead's on Prime's team, isn't he? Why don't you ask him about his old team mate Seaspray? I'm sure he could explain how it works."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Workhorse

20th September 2012
17:11 GMT

Jade's eyes open very narrowly as I enter our bedroom.

"You missed your own birthday."

"Yes, yes I did." I take off my ring and lay it on the dressing table, followed by Larfleeze's ring and there's the consequence of three days without sleep. "Probably worth it."

Jade sits up slightly, her eyes opening fully. "What was it?"

"Ah… Parallel Earth corrupted by demon magic. They were attacking Nazi Earth and our Light were attacking them." I take off my jacket and put it on a force field hanger. "Their civilisation was wrecked. I spent most of my time making sure that they could get food into the cities."

"I thought you were taking a holiday."

"No, I'm just not-." I unbuckle my trousers and lower them enough to step out with my right leg. "Not working for the Corps at the moment. The work never ends." Left leg out, and-. Force field hangers are really great, actually.

"So it's not just the Reach."

"Hm?"

"It's not just the Reach." She actually sits up in bed, duvet held loosely against her chest. "If we waited until after the Reach were defeated, would you still disappear for days without warning?"

"Yes, but not very often."

Undershirt… How does this need cleaning already? My environmental shield should-. Ugh, laundry pile for tomorrow.

"If I'm trouble shooting the whole war I can be called away at any moment. There's literally no fight going on that wouldn't be going better if I was there. Dox doesn't call me in like that because we need to get L.E.G.I.O.N. blooded."

"And because he hates depending on you."

"Or looking like he's depending on me. But that's going to change. And Earth has the Justice League."

"So why did they send you?"

"They didn't. I was just there." I pull down my pants, right leg out then left leg out, and toss it into the laundry pile before sitting down on the edge of the bed to remove my socks. "And it was a Truggs thing."

"So is he officially your nemesis?"

"I would rather avoid calling him that."

She moves through the bed so that she can lean against my back, arms wrapping around my sides. I lean my head to the left, resting the side of my head against her forehead.

"That didn't sound like a 'no'."

"Come on, Jade. What did you use to think of people who fixated on relationships with people they hate?"

"I thought they were stupid. But I thought the same thing about people who did the things you do without getting paid, and my nemesis was probably my father."

"Okay, but how much of what you did day to day was about him?"

"I joined the Shadows to get away from him."

"Yes, but once you did that. Were you..? Picturing him every time you-?"

"No. But I always assumed that I'd kill him eventually."

"Do you want to?"

"No. He doesn't matter anymore."

"Have you got a new nemesis I should know about?"

"Why? Worried they're going to kidnap you and tie you to a railway track?"

"It's a classic." I twist around so that I can face her. "Truggs and I sometimes end up in the same place because we want to do the same things. Someone like… Jack Napier's just crazy, a Smilex overdose making him experience everything as the best joke he's ever heard. The only way to fix him would involve rewiring his brain. Truggs is just-. So close to doing something useful with his life. You know?"

She looks at me askance. "Should I be jealous?"

"Are you jealous of Leonard Snart? Or-."

"The others are all in prison."

"Alright, I'll admit to a greater degree of personal frustration with Truggs than the others, even at their most stubborn." I lean my head closer, so that our noses are almost touching. "But you have absolutely no need to be jealous. Though… There was something Kara said…"

"Was this when she was exposed to black kryptonite and trying to rape you?"

"Yes. So I'm not-. She wasn't in her right mind, but she did make-. She did say something…"

"Are you going to get broken up about what a crazy person said?"

"If they make sense, I.. do need to follow it up."

She pulls back slightly. "Fine. What did she say?"

"So… You… Joined the Darkstars because we were looking for ways for you to productively use your abilities. I didn't-. It didn't occur to me to… Ask if you want to do something else completely."

"No."

"Okay, but, so you think it… Might have been advantageous if you did? I mean… Was there any point in your life when you wanted to be something else?"

She looks thoughtful, and I avoid looking deeper. I don't want to 'cheat' on whether she's working out how to handle my question or whether she's genuinely trying to answer me.

"I wanted to just… Disappear."

"Disappear?"

"Just… Fade away. Why did you think I called myself 'Cheshire'?"

"I didn't really think about it." I shrug. "People in our profession pick all sorts of names for themselves."

"I just wanted to be able to appear, and… Say something confusing or pretentious, then disappear again. To just… Do my own thing without being tied down."

"Huh. I… Hope you don't mind being tied down a little bit?"

She raises her eyebrows. "Is that what you wanted for your birthday?"

Heh.

"Jade, you're never not appealing, but I'm knackered right now." She chuckles, pressing her forehead against mine. "I meant… With me."

"That's… Fine, but-"

"'Fine'?"

"-we-." She smiles, kissing me lightly on the lips. "Fine. But I am owed leave. If you think you could go that long without working."

"How long do you have?"

"A month."

"A month?"

"You wanted to spend more time together."

"A month without working?"

She tilts her head to the left.

"Do you think you can?"

…

Do I?

"I honestly don't know, but for you, I'm happy to try."