With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

Bended

23rd February
23:23 GMT

"…disappointing performance."

Batman looks around the room at the assembled Justice League members, though he can't quite bring himself to give it the usual full-beam glare.

"Hey, it wasn't-." Mr Queen squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, wincing as he does so. His vision still hasn't quite recovered yet. "Did you have to make the nuke that realistic?"

I don't trust myself to answer him out loud, so I settle for nodding. Yes, the hologram was bright but that's all it was. If he wore decent eye protection he wouldn't be having this problem.

"You gotta admit, that was some pretty impressive lateral thinking." Mr O'Brien waves his unnaturally long right forefinger. "I mean, people have told me to go jump in a lake a few times, but walk up to a live nuke? That's a first."

Ms Hol clenches her hands into fists. "I didn't fall for it."

Her husband shakes his head. "You refused to cooperate with him. That is not the same thing."

"Eh." Dmitri doesn't look particularly troubled. He didn't put in a better showing than any of the others, but when you don't do worse than the best in the world that doesn't really matter all that much. "I had thought that the wargame would be different to that. Like a quest? Like Dungeons and Dragons?"

Mr J'onzz bows his head slightly. "It may be that Orange Lantern wished to remind us of our vulnerability to the more subtle forms of manipulation."

Guy actually looks amused by the whole thing. "I reckon I coulda taken the hit."

William… William Harper shakes his head. "We shouldn't have been getting hit in the first place." He looks me in the eyes, disbelief fighting with a grudging respect. "I still can't believe that you killed the entire Justice League by… Asking them."

And then I lose it.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A few of the more prideful League members look away. A few of the better humoured ones look like they're thinking of joining me.

Diana nods to herself.

"Was that Eris's idea?"

"Hah-! Huh-hah! Ah -hah!- um, she's-. She's been becoming more insecure about our relationship since Christmas. I thought this would pick her up. Um." HAH! "I was -originally- planning to go back over what I was hoping that you'd learn from this session, but-. Really, I think you all know what you shouldn't have done, so, do you want me t-."

Batman does glare at that.

"Yes."

I come to parade rest.

"It occurred to me during planning that since enemies who can shapeshift -martians, durlans, whoever else- are an issue, and mind control is an issue, it might be worth me talking to a League member or two about being my patsies. Since there are any number of ways to suborn individuals it wouldn't be unrealistic… But then it occurred to me… Wouldn't someone with that ability try to get all of you?"

"So I approached you all about being my patsies and -with the exception of Hawkwoman- you all agreed. So, ah, thank you-"

Guy actually does chuckle to himself, then turns it into a cough when John glares at him.

"-for helping me out like that and not talking to each other about it, because if any of you had realised what was going on then it wouldn't have worked. And thank you all for being willing to walk up to a nuke for me, that sort of loyalty is very hard to instil in henchmen and if I ever do go villainous for real you'll all be my first picks."

Billy -who had been taking what was happening in good humour- now looks a little perturbed. "The escape teleporter was fake."

"Yes, otherwise I'd have had to give you all one and that would have ruined the whole thing. But, seriously, while several of you-" I make eye contact with each in turn, even if I had to nudge Alan about it a little. "-have availed yourself of Mister King's services to improve your ability to resist telepathy, there are any number of other ways to bypass agency and the League has no policy of checking for them. A villain probably couldn't do what I did… But I did."

I make eye contact with Batman.

"So do you want to do another one..?"

"Yes."

"Do we want to agree on the number of patsies I have this time?"

Mr Freeman leans forward slightly. "I do not believe that we would fall for such a ploy again."

Should flipping hope not.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this wasn't a joke. I mean, I found it pretty funny… But you need to take note of what happened. In twenty oh five, during a wargame between the Swedish navy and the United States navy, a one hundred million dollar stealth submarine 'sunk' a six point two billion dollar carrier along with all of the planes still on board, bypassing its entire screening fleet to do so. Repeatedly. If any of you particularly want to fight me, us Lanterns have regular practice sessions in the Chihuahuan Desert and I'll be happy to unload on anyone who's feeling lucky. This is about the League's ability to respond to threats which are both powerful and cunning. Don't give me cheap kills."

I smile.

"Unless you're the patsy this time in which case-" I punch the air with my right fist. "-go team!"

Billy raises his right hand.

"Can I vote for no patsies?"

He looks around and finds little support.

"I'll get to work on a new scheme, to be put into action some time next week. You'll have that long to prepare yourselves." I raise my right hand to my forehead. "Good day, sirs."

I

step out

23rd February
18:28 GMT -5

and reappear on top of Mount Justice. Euanthe doesn't look around from where she's tending some of the plants which are a product of her work with Dr Isley, but some fronds turn towards me and a couple of vines begin snaking my way. Ted was initially stumped by how to get the produce of shampoo fruit to market without using plastic, but once the problem was explained to Euanthe in sufficient detail she was able to create a squeezable gourd that should do the job. It would eventually rot, but not within the period most people would use the shampoo contained within and… Isn't biodegradability the point?

"How's it coming?"

"Both the poison and the antidote are ready as you asked."

"And -just to check- the antidote removes the poison in such a way that the one poisoned survives without lasting damage?"

"Yes."

"Even if they're not a tree?"

"I used Ivy to make sure that I understood what you wanted." Now she turns and glides towards me, plants reaching for her as she passes by them. She lays her hands on my shoulders and leans her face towards mine. "But will you give me what I want?"

I nod, and hold up the seed packet.

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th February
09:12 GMT -7

It's interesting. Shayera is actually too proud to shiver.

It's a crisp and clear winter morning in Rifle, Colorado. The school rush has more or less finished and the working population of the town is actively pursuing its lawful business. John and Shayera are dressed in regular street clothes -inasmuch as they can be considered 'regular' when accented with wing slits- and somewhere under the pile of blankets and coats sitting in the pushchair John's pushing is my young namesake. John's wearing a thick coat and fingerless gloves, and while Shayera is dressed reasonably sensibly, there's a fair amount of exposed flesh in her wings. Flesh with excellent circulation. It must be like carrying a couple of radiators around with her.

Not that you'd know it from looking at her.

Catherine.. somethingorother, a woman I vaguely know from the Parent-Teacher Association, waves to me as she heads into the local pharmacy. I smile and nod back. Yeah, the crime rate in Rifle has dropped like a ten tonne weight while I-. Alright, being honest, while the genomorphs have been here. Nothing that's happened since I've moved in has been serious enough to require my personal attention, though I've made a point of turning up in person a few times. And since I get on well with the local police I've had a few g-gnomes helping them upskill on the more archaic aspects of commercial and financial law. I doubt that this town has ever been so law-abiding.

"Does everyone here treat you like that?"

Shayera's eyes dart around potential angles of attack for a moment before alighting on my face.

"Yes. I've made a point of ensuring that my family and I are all part of the community. The hero-worship might have been worse, but this is a Republican state and the president I saved is a Democrat so they're not sure how they feel about it."

"How do they feel about Klarion?"

I smile. "Pretty darn satisfied. Have you decided whether or not you'll be sticking around?"

There's a slight.. sag from both. Batman 50 hasn't reappeared. It's looking increasingly like my alter ego got him. Having reclaimed the goddesses' blessings Diana 50 could return to Themyscira 50 without any trouble, but Shayera and John can't go back to America 50. Without a Watchtower to operate out of and with Stormwatch having taken over all of the Justice Lords' former responsibilities, there isn't really anything to draw them back. On the other hand they both loathe the idea of cutting and running when things get tough.

"No, not.. yet."

Shayera's eyes are pointing straight forward as she says it. Eh, if they haven't made a decision then they haven't made a decision. Not like it's urgent. Normally, this is the point where I'd try and slide them into one project or another and hope that the investment they'd grow to have in it would cause them to keep at it, but… These are my friends, and they have a proven track record of superheroism and sorting their own lives out, so… I'm going to limit myself to more direct avenues.

"You seemed to be having a pretty good time with Knockout, earlier."

"It's nice to be able to train with someone on my level."

I look away, smirking slightly. "I can feel Diana wince from here."

"Diana hasn't recovered her warrior spirit from when the Justice League defeated us."

I frown. "Is that a metaphor, or is there some sort of magic damage-?"

"A metaphor. She knows that the Justice Lords were wrong, but she doesn't have a clear goal any longer."

"Not planning on offering her a job?"

I, um. Hm. I… Could. Goodness knows that I always have work for superpeople. Putting another Wonder Woman on Earth is a bit awkward, but I could use her on Tamaran, or Hny'xx. Or with a disguise she could function as another bodyguard, but that won't really give her the purpose she's apparently looking for.

"I.. hadn't been. If you've got any-?"

John Stewart 16 descends to street level just ahead of us, arms folded across his chest. He's wearing his uniform, his environmental shield forming a solid green line around his body. He and his counterpart regard one another cautiously for a moment, then the 16 version turns to me.

"You wanna explain what this is about?"

I turn to John 50. "John, this is your alter ego from this Earth. I don't really know him that well, so feel free to blow him off."

"I'm just glad-" John 16 frowns at the sound of the voice, raising his ring slightly and doing what he thinks is a covert scan. "-that he didn't bring their Shayera."

"Okay." John 16 lands and walks over to us. "What's your story?"

My John passes the pushchair over to his wife and then steps up to his mirror. "You wanna have this talk in private?"

"I don't see a ring. Can you fly?"

My John's eyes glow brilliant emerald, his red overcoat gaining a Lantern sigil and John 16's eyes staring at what is unmissably a modified Guardian robe.

"Sure. Let's talk."

Both of them rise up into the sky, and the few rubberneckers return to their business.

"Should I expect your Shayera to drop by?"

"You're my Shayera. And… Mrugh, probably. She's an agent of the Thanagarian Empire too, and the version here hasn't picked a fight with 'me' yet. Once she hears about a Thanagarian who's not 'meant' to be here, she or her husband will probably investigate." I smile. "It will be interesting to see how they treat the news that thanagarians and humans can interbreed. That sort of thing…"

"I know. My Thanagar is.. the same." She snorts, then crouches down to make eye contact with Rex.

"But you know where's not? Tamaran. And if you're interested in learning to use a power ring-."

The air in front of us ripples and twists, and a construct fortification materialises around Rex and Shayera even as she draws an nth metal baton from the back of the pushchair. That's… An Almeracian-.

Queen Maxima strides imperiously through, taking in our surroundings in a moment and dismissing them as uninteresting. Her armour is a little more weathered than last time I saw her, but she is a warrior-queen. It's working armour, not a display piece. Shayera momentarily arouses her interest, then she frowns as she notices Rex.

"You told me that you were incapable of impregnating an alien."

"Rex is my godson. His father's-" I point upwards to where two green glows are just visible. "-busy at the moment. Shayera, this is-."

"Maxima. Superman told us about her."

"Good show. Maxima, is this a social visit..?"

"No, though I will take your invitation later. I'm in the middle of winning a civil war and I need somewhere to stash my heir."

"I'll be happy to put them-."

"Excellent!" A short, slightly built and extremely pregnant woman.. whom.. I presume to be Sazu walks through the portal and stands just behind her. "That weakling Ultraa shouldn't have time to send more than a dozen assassins before I've finished off his pathetic army."

She turns, grasps her wife by the shoulders and pulls her into a passionate kiss.

…

After a minute or two she releases Sazu.

"I'll be back soon. Keep Maxima Junior safe for me."

Sazu nods. "Of course, Mistress."

And Maxima strides back through the gate, which closes down once she's through.

Sazu walks over to us, smiling at Shayera. "Oh, what a delightful child. Is it yours?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th February
15:21 GMT -5

"Good afternoon, Mister Waddill."

"Ah…"

The elderly parapsychic looks up from his park bench a little nervously. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that he's still alive. Parapsychics in a society with little to no magic knowledge generally get overwhelmed with their own visions and… Either go insane or kill themselves to stop the visions. Even the better psychiatric hospitals, the ones whose staff know the techniques telepaths can use to control their contact with other people's minds, can't help. Parapsychic readings aren't blocked by mnemonics or mental discipline, either from the user or the target. Parapsychics can't help each other; if anything, having other parapsychics around makes things worse.

And yet, Mr Waddill is in his eighties, and apparently in rude health. I only know about him because Alan mentioned him in relation to my own work at Belle Reve; a supervillain who actually went straight and stayed there. Possibly that had something to do with him not having had anything to do with any sort of supervillain fraternity or with him not having gone to prison. Hardly anyone knew who he was, and so he could still get legitimate employment.

He'd be a fascinating case study if-.

His wife orientates her head in my approximate direction. "Who is it, Johnny?"

Nervousness blossoms into a pantomime of panic as he gestures to her. She's blind so can't immediately identify me, but she probably doesn't know about his brief fling with supervillainy many decades ago and I doubt that he's told her.

I'd criticise him, but…

I mean, I told Jade.

"Ah, sorry. My name is-"

"Paul."

"-and I'm the.. former apprentice of an old business colleague of your husband's."

"I didn't realise that.. Mister Green still talked about me."

"It came up in conversation. I've developed.. business relationships with a few people similar to the one he had with you. And on that subject, I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me-?"

"I'm not.. involved in that…" He shakes his head emphatically. "Sort of work any more. I've been retired a very long time. I'm really not sure I can help."

I shrug. "It's my money to waste, right?"

I glance at his wife. The scars across her face where the belt destroyed her eyes are faded but visible. I seem to have been running into my caring cap rather a lot lately as far as healing goes. On the other hand, Mr Waddill is very good at his abandoned occupation and I.. do.. want to persuade him.

I extend a filament to his ears. "I can also restore your wife's eyes as a signing-on bonus."

His eyes widen a fraction. I can see the conflicting impulses inside him, his love for his wife and boundless compassion for her condition warring with his fear of discovery and of alienating her. I'm fairly confident which way it's going to go-.

"I suppose it is. I'm kind of busy now, but if you give me your number we can set something up later."

"Thank you, Mister Waddill. I assure you, you won't regret it."

25th February
17:01 GMT -6

Abra's eyes flicker as he considers my proposal. Literally flicker, his implant uses his optic nerve rather than plugging directly into his visual cortex. Given his array of implants and his burgeoning use of subtle sorcery, I can't be completely sure what he's using them for.

He blinks and gives his head a small shake, the flickering fading. "Why are you asking me?"

"Supervillainy never made much sense to me. The way I see-."

"'If you have the power to do it, you have the power to make more money legally', yes. Leonard mentioned it. In my own case it was never about financial reward."

"Right! See, I'm having to come up with a 'villain', and they can't have financial motivations because that would be stupid, so you're exactly the sort of person who can help me."

"I… See." He glances in the direction of the room's concealed camera. "You understand that I have no desire to fight the Justice League in reality."

I flare my eyes for a moment.

"Now, we both know that's not exactly true."

"On balance, I stand to lose too much to… Indulge myself."

"Better. But planning something out and hearing about the results in a way that doesn't risk your parole and won't hurt anyone?"

"I.. suppose."

"One of the other guys I've got working on it once broke into the headquarters of the Justice Society and looted their trophy room. If his mental condition didn't require him to precisely follow the steps of the last man to try that, he'd have got out before Green Lantern could have caught him."

Abra manages a disinterested frown. "How did he do that?"

"He's a parapsychic. He has a particular affinity for the thoughts and abilities of criminals. Meaning that if you work together face to face he'll be able to think exactly like you."

Abra gives the idea a small smile. "I suppose it's one way to get intelligent conversation."

"Or anyone else in here, which we'll have to be a bit careful about."

He nods. "This could be an interesting challenge. Who else is involved in the planning?"

26th February
02:37 GMT +8

"Yes." / "Yes."

I regard Thaddeus and Georgia a little nervously.

"You do both understand that this is a wargame, yes? We're trying to upskill the League in preparation for the fight with the sheeda. You can't do anything permanently disabling."

Thaddeus rolls his eyes. "Yes, we know. We have this conversation with Tia and Mom every week."

Georgia smiles as she considers the idea in more detail.

"Along with contributing our villainous insight, we could also create status trackers to virtualise their injuries. And since the conflict should ideally be double-blind, we could design it to record the results of their investigations and pass along information they uncover."

"Or incorrect information, if they mess something up."

"Or to you, if they outsmart you. I assume that you're taking the role of primary antagonist?"

"With everything else that I've done, I think it would be a bit unfair if they didn't get a chance to take a swing at me. Thank you both for agreeing to join in."

Thaddeus shrugs. "Dad never let us have a go at Marvel on our own. This way, we get to go after Marvel and all his friends without even doing anything wrong!"

I wince, and he thinks for a moment.

"Too much?"

"Little bit."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th February
18:18 GMT -7

Diana 50 rubs her right shoulder with her left hand as she emerges from the sparring arena, then visibly hesitates as she sees me.

I raise my eyebrows in polite enquiry. "Good bout?"

"Yes." She nods. "She is a far more capable fighter than the Knockout I fought on my Apokolips."

"Stronger or more skilled?"

"Both. Have you used the g-gnomes to improve her skills?"

"No. She's been training with our Barda, but…"

Hm. I look through the viewing window to where Knockout is shouting at Elise.

Logistical Awareness.

Ah, that's interesting. I've known for a while that Knockout is essentially the New Goddess of Thuggishness, but I haven't appreciated exactly how much influence I have over her. Thugs are hirelings, working at the direction of an overseer who decides who gets thugged. Granny Goodness wants broken, obedient thralls. Darkseid wants the same, only not so much 'obedient' as 'unable to comprehend that disobedience is an option'. But I raise my hench-. My lieutenants up, empowering them to discharge their duties as they think best. She's actually… Not drawing on my power exactly, but responding to it, becoming better able to fulfil the role I set for her.

"Hm. It seems that I'm good for her."

"What did.. you just.. do?"

I raise my eyebrows as I return my attention to her. Curious. Not entirely unexpected. And it… Reminds me of that Teen Titans comic where after spending a good deal of time disempowered, Cassandra Sandsmark discovered that the various mystical influences on her life weren't providing her with power so much as restricting the power she had innately as Zeus's daughter. Do Diana's powers come from the goddesses..? Or do they come from her titanic nature?

"You felt that?"

"I felt.. something." Suspicious now. "What was it?"

"New God technology interfaces with our souls. Unlike most humans, we can manually control our metaphysiques, though… Only those powerful enough to attain a god-name can do so to any significant degree. I am a member of the Apokoliptian elite, the New God of Conquest. When I reach out I can feel the natures of those around me. I was curious as to whether there was anything in what you experienced concerning Knockout, and there is. My oversight makes her more powerful than she was under Granny Goodness or Darkseid."

I regard her curiously.

"I'm interested in how you felt it. If you're not opposed to the idea, I'm sure that Sunset would relish the chance to examine your metaphysique in detail."

She tenses slightly, and I hold up my palms in a pacifying gesture.

"Though of course it's not compulsory. Might I offer you a healing ray for the shoulder?"

"No. I'm fine."

She walks past me in the direction of the showers. Hm. If I remember my Earth 2 correctly, Diana became the Goddess of Truth. How do 'truth' and 'conquest' interact? Well, a functioning imperial justice system is a must-have for any empire, and it must be both honest and seen to be honest. Being prepared to be open and direct is a statement of confidence and power, but I'm far too dishonest to regard it as anything other than a situational tool.

Do I want to make Diana my tool?

She's not as capable as Diana 16. She left Themyscira… What, a decade ago? As opposed to during the Second World War. But she has the same potential. And unlike Diana 16 she would actually use her New God-like affinity for soul-based technology. As my tool she would regain her sense of purpose; my purpose, true, but a valuable one for the universe at large. The Justice League pussy-footed around the Light. I ended them in an afternoon. The fact is that I'm much better at this sort of thing than any of the other groups in the field.

I mean, she was a Justice Lord. And my visit is half the reason she's not trying to… Do whatever she was planning on doing for Ares before that. I could have her providing metahuman muscle for the genomorphs in Africa? The US superpeople might get better publicity but there are still plenty of hard cases over there who can give the genomorphs trouble. And then… Attach her to Lex's fleet?

No, no, nothing to do with Lex. Bad memories, even if she accepted intellectually that they aren't the same man. But policing isn't ever really 'solved'; there'll always be some sort of problem to throw her at. And maybe we can work on truth-power aura effects..? I did once consider writing a superhero story where a man with truth compulsion powers was elected to the US senate. Could be productive. It would be interesting to see a legislature where people couldn't feel the need to pose and pander, at least after the initial honesty-related career suicides finished.

I can't even really see a downs-.

Downside is that I'd be acting just a little like Darkseid.

Just a little, but I'd still be deliberately altering a person's outlook without their knowledge or consent. And that's not what I'm trying to be.

"Diana!"

She takes a step back into sight.

"I've.. got an offer for you, but… Finish your shower. It can wait."

She looks slightly puzzled, but nods and then returns to her ablutions.

I open a hush tube to the large dining room. Given the size my family has grown to we use this room for family dinner most days. In fact, it's also started serving as a spill-over living room.

"…unsure why you still call her 'mistress'?"

Ah, Ghia'ta's being confronted with another aspect of love she hadn't encountered on Zamaron. Since they don't have the Amazons' rope-play fetish. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that she hasn't bumped into bondage by accident at this point, but perhaps that's deliberate on Carol's part.

"She is the Queen. I would never let our personal relationship interfere with the performance of my duties."

Jean told me that Sazu keeps trying to help with running the place. Attempts to encourage her to take it easy in the final stretch of her pregnancy met with refutation; she gets stressed when she's not working. So I just gave her access to all of my plans and asked her to have a decko, which appears to be a reasonable placebo.

Ghia'ta shifts awkwardly.

"But… Surely… Your love for one another does change your relationship?"

"Since I share her bed whenever she is in the capital, I am no longer separated from her during the nights. I prefer that."

"You do love her. Don't you?"

Sazu smiles demurely. "I was designed to be a personal assistant. All members of my caste love the people they assist. By being Maxima's consort, lover, and the mother of her children, I can.. help her in ways I had not thought possible. That's something I find profoundly joyful in a way I doubt I can adequately explain. Maxima is my world, her and our unborn child, and I will love them both as long as I live."

"Des.. igned?"

Sazu nods. "On Almerac, we are all genetically engineered to be highly effective at the roles required in our society. I was designed to be a highly social administration and logistics specialist. Once I completed my basic training, my assessment test results were so high that out of my entire batch I was chosen to serve Crown Princess Maxima, and to aid her in all ways."

"Including marrying her and carrying her children?"

"I did not expect this. Generally, engineered castes reproduce with others of their caste. Naturally, conventional reproduction between different castes is taboo because it would remove the specialised adaptations with which each caste has been engineered. The children would be born with a confusing mix of instincts and struggle to find anywhere to fit in." She smiles. "But since both Maxima and I were created in laboratories neither of us saw any reason not to use them in the creation of our own children."

I take a step closer. "I take it that Ultraa does?"

"Ultraa is a high-performing member of the command caste. In other circumstances he might well have become Maxima's husband and king. He claims that what we are doing undermines the caste system, but having reviewed his psychological profile I think it's far more likely that he resents being passed over for someone who he could beat in a fight."

I nod. "Well, not to worry. Maxima knows her business and I know mine. Nothing's going to reach you in here."

I then consider that statement.

"For a statistically significant length of time, at least."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th February
15:17 GMT +5:30

Dr Munro looks at me dubiously.

"Have you asked Lex about this?"

"Of course not. If I talk to Lex about it, they'll start to think that I'm actually trying to kill them."

"Why would they think that?"

Ah… Yes. The 'legitimate businessman' problem. Coming from Earth Prime, the fact that Lex Luthor is the bad guy is well known. Even amongst Earth 16 superheroes it's-. Well, amongst the better-connected ones, it's known in the same way that it's known that Racer X is Speed Racer's brother. Everyone watching knows, no one in-universe knows. But amongst people out of the loop, they genuinely believe that he's a legitimate businessman. Maybe a bit sleazy or corrupt, but that's due to the job and not due to his actual personal characteristics.

How to break it to one of his project leads?

"Because he's a supervillain."

"I'm… I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, he…" I bring up a construct showing the sub-levels of LexCorp I flew through during the Young Offenders' attack. "He's attempted to have Superman assassinated on multiple occasions, he was one of the people behind the Roanoke Island Event, he backs all sorts of-."

"Wait wait wait." He shakes his head. "Wh-? You're the one who told him to hire me!"

"I told him about the Danner Formula because I thought he could be rehabilitated if I proved that he could fulfil his objectives in other ways, because he's very good at disguising what he does and finding evidence hard enough to get him convicted was prohibitively difficult. It.. didn't work. I still don't fully understand why."

"I-." He looks around at the laboratory complex. "We're making super guard dogs for him. Do you not think you should have told me about this sooner?"

"I didn't -and still don't- have proof I'd feel comfortable relying on. A few winks and nods, a few remarkable coincidences. Because if I did have proof, he'd have been arrested by now. And the work you're doing is very useful to human civilisation and Ted Kord didn't have the same sort of resources."

Though he's getting there now. I wonder if Lex regrets his decision after seeing how much KordTech's share price has gone up? I only know about that aspect because the commercial law firm which arranged my purchases wrote to me about it. And given his behaviour regarding that part of the business I could easily believe that Ted doesn't know at all.

"So, yeah, that's why I don't want him knowing about this exercise. Are you in?"

28th February
19:33 GMT +9:00

Colonel Park frowns faintly.

"I do not understand what agreeing to help the Justice League will entail."

"Well, that depends. We're assigning roles blindly, so there's a good chance that all that will happen is that the people working at the site-" I point to the file concerning one of North Rhelasia's research and development hubs. "-will just have to carry around cards with 'No Information' written on them for a day, and they'll probably never see a member of the League. There's a small chance that one of them will have a role in the exercise, probably something along the lines of 'conceal this information' or 'conceal this object'."

"You do not want us to fight the Justice League."

"Of course not."

"Even as an exercise, using rubber bullets and dummy explosives."

"The League is… The League wants to avoid implying that they're training to destroy national militaries. This exercise is designed to simulate their response to a well-networked supervillain. While there will be combat segments, I'll be handling those with my own resources well away from civic infrastructure."

"And how long will this take?"

"Assuming that the site is even involved, the League would be on site for… Maybe an hour? The people on site would have the possibility of a visit hanging over them for a week or so, but as I said: they don't need to actually do very much."

"Why was this site in particular chosen?"

"Because it's hard for the League to reach, and the laboratories there are sophisticated enough to credibly play a role in the plot. Part of what I'm doing is creating a thread of evidence that the League can track if they find it. There wouldn't be much point in implying that certain parts came from somewhere which they couldn't have come from."

"What do you know about what happens at that site?"

"Most of what I know is available from publically accessible sources. Of course, I also have access to the 'high risk locations' file your government provided the League."

His eyes narrow. "That was supposed to only be shared with Justice League members."

"Actually, the agreement which your government signed includes anyone deputised by the League, as the League didn't want to define a formal recruitment process at the time. If you feel that the North Rhelasian government was misled about that, I can only apologise. If you wish to make a formal complaint, you will have to address it to the League."

He appears to decide to let it go.

"Would you need to meet with the people working there?"

"If they're selected for participation, a brief meeting would be helpful. I'm afraid that I won't be able to schedule it in advance, as I'm trying to avoid the potential for metagaming."

"Can you select a time during which they will need to be available, and then simply not arrive if they are not required?"

"Yyy.. es, that should work."

"Will there be a public announcement after the exercise is complete?"

Meaning a PR opportunity with members of the League.

"While the fact that an exercise is happening isn't a secret, there isn't any plan to make public announcements about how it went. Obviously, that sort of information is exactly the sort of thing that a supervillain wanting to take a swing at the League could benefit from. If they end up being involved, I would like the opportunity to thank the participants in person."

Which doesn't exactly thrill him. I'm not much of a PR coup, and some of his colleagues are still annoyed about the whole 'bringing traitors back from the dead' thing. I suppose I'm just lucky that the forest Euanthe made hasn't killed anyone yet.

"Will facilities in the South also be participating?"

"I have made such a request. The government gave me their tentative approval, subject to the directors of the facilities in question giving it theirs."

A mild twitch, and I strongly suspect that I've got him. If I just asked the South, his government would moan about it. If I just asked the North, they could turn it down with no loss of face.

"I suppose that it is more likely that the South would consort with supervillains." He nods. "You will have my decision within two days."

"Thank you, Colonel. You've been most helpful."

29th February
20:53 GMT

Evan McCullock cautiously raises his pint glass in my direction.

"Aye, well, yer payin' fer it, pal. I'm yer man soon as the cheque clears. We'll no' be doin' anything illegal, aye?"

"Not at all. Nothing could be further from my mind."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th February
17:22 GMT -5

I knock on the window of the Daily Planet office once again, and once again Ms Lane pointedly ignores me.

When I first did this, Planet staff looked around in alarm or flat out sprinted for cover. Now I've got a small crowd, and one of the braver souls took it upon herself to point me out to Ms Lane. She hasn't even looked up since she confirmed that I wasn't Superman.

Lex would have said something by now. I don't.. think I've done anything in particular to irritate her.

Ms Grant appears to be trying sign language again. And by sign language, I mean posing.

I knock again, and Mr White sticks his head out of the editor's office, takes one look at me and then shouts something. Ms Lane sighs, gets up and with clear reluctance heads my way. I

step out

and reappear in her chair.

"Good afternoon!"

She turns around with a frustrated exhalation. "You could have walked in the front door and you could have phased through the glass. Were you really that desperate to take my chair?"

I stand, step aside to ceremoniously return her chair to her, then sit in the air next to it.

"Hn."

She retakes her seat.

"Having a hard day?"

"I've got a deadline, an article to write and someone just knocked on a fifteenth floor window to get my attention. What is it? And it better not push my actual article to the second page again."

"I'm running a wargame for the Justice League."

She looks at me blankly. "What, like, Napoleonic?"

"No, a.. training field exercise."

"God damn it." She sighs. "Do you ever feel that everyone focuses all their attention on the.. part of your work that's least important?"

I smile a little too broadly. "Hey, remember when there used to be a drugs trade in Caracas? No, no, never mind. Yes, it was a very big cake."

She nods sympathetically. "So, what, you're here to give me the inside scoop?"

"No-." Huh. "Sort of. More… A front row-."

"You want to kidnap me."

"N-. No. Technically, I wouldn't be doing it." She shakes her head, breath hissing through her teeth. "I'm going for realism, and you have to admit, Superman's villains have a certain form when it comes to-."

"I know."

"Also, it's just a possible thing. The idea is that the villainous party will be reacting to the League and vice versa. You and Mister Olsen are the obvious targets for anti-Superman distraction attacks, so I thought that I'd try and get your permission."

"So we're going to get kidnapped."

"Or killed-. Virtually, virtually killed. If you agree to take part. I'm striving to make this as authentic a supervillain experience as possible."

"Are you kidnapping people?"

"No, that would compromise my objectivity. Also, if you consent in advance it isn't kidnapping. It's an unexpected holiday."

"You checked, did you?"

"Yes. For every country on the planet with a coherent set of laws."

"Am I getting an actual holiday out of this?"

"I'm happy to offer my services as a transport vehicle whenever you like. I don't know where the villain team is planning on hiding any hostages they may take, because that would threaten my objectivity."

And risk Mr J'onzz or M'gann getting a look at it inside my head. M'gann's not technically part of this, but she could very well involve herself at his direction. She is a Manhunter, and a better telepath than him.

"So? Are you in?"

29th February
18:33 GMT -5

General Lane squints slightly.

"You are aware that I'm a general in the US army, right?"

"Yes, General. The uniform was a bit of a clue."

"And you want to stage a supervillain attack in the middle of an army base. That's what you're telling me."

"Possibly, yes."

He shakes his head. "I don't think I'm going to be able to approve that."

"Won't it be a useful readiness test? I mean, I know that Hardcastle's gone-."

"And that didn't exactly make you any friends."

"Yes it did."

"I wouldn't-."

"I'm an empath. It may be less precise than telepathy, but it has the advantage of bypassing the mental defence techniques US military officers get taught."

His face takes a turn for the stern.

"Get the hell out of my head."

"That's not.. how it-." I shake my head. "Look, you have preparedness drills, don't you?"

"We don't use civilian contractors. And I doubt that you want whoever you've got playing the role to get shot dead by the US army."

"Actually, that's fine."

He raises his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"We're using lifelike robots. Your people can shoot them as much as you want. The individual running the villain side knows that your rules of engagement are different to the ones the Justice League uses."

He looks a little interested.

"Are you serious?"

"They'll be using low lethality weapons themselves. It's possible that your people could get hurt in melee or by.. friendly fire. But it doesn't matter if any of the attackers get destroyed."

"Didn't you.. get a law passed-?"

"They're not intelligent enough to be covered."

"Okay." A frown, this time curious. "Can we buy these robots?"

"I'll ask, but probably not."

"Okay, yeah. This could have legs. Let me talk to a few people, then I'll get back to you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st March
08:59 GMT +1

I look around at the reflective vistas all around us as my escort marches towards our destination.

"This is bloody amazing! How does it work?"

Mr McCullock glances back as we approach the rectangle which marks our exit point.

"I dinnae ken. Fandan who give it to me just gave me the instructions. I havnae clue what makes it work." I think he's frowning. His mask makes it hard to tell, and since we've come to terms I don't want to scan him. "Thought you knew all that stuff."

"I know that you don't have any outstanding warrants. I don't know exactly how Mister Scudder's equipment found its way into your keeping."

"I'll no be naming names." He walks up to the rectangle and gestures for me to pass through first. "But not everyone's keen on superheroes, ya ken?"

"Don't count on being let off a second time. I'm going to be siccing Batman on whoever it was after this is over."

He shrugs. "We parted ways a ways back anyways."

I nod, then step through the mirror. I try-. Ugh. No, it's no good. Whenever I do this I try to analyse exactly what's happening and the results make me feel unwell. The mirror surface sort of seems to stick to my skin, as if the mirrored universe is reluctant to allow me to switch back around. Looking back at the mirror from this side I can see the part of my body still on the other side clearly not connected to the part on this side, except… It is. I can feel it. There's no problem with my circulation, despite the fact that my blood should be moving in the other direction…

I'm sure there's an explanation but I've got no idea what it is.

"Get a move on."

I pull the rest of myself out of the mirror, gently nudge aside Georgia's drone scanner which is hovering in my face in order to scan my emergence, and turn to watch Mr McCullock emerge. Something he does with a good deal less fuss than me, before turning back to the mirror and firing his mirror gun at it. A ripple passes over the surface, and it turns from a portal back into a regular mirror.

"What?"

Georgia frowns as she pokes her remote control.

"That.. doesn't make…"

"Aye." Mr McCullock smirks at her frustration. "I didnae think-."

"Yes, yes. I'm sure that I'll crack it later." She puts the remote control down on the bench and looks him over. "Do you have a lot of experience with this sort of work?"

"A wee bit more than you, I reckon."

"I wouldn't be so-." / "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

Georgia looks at me.

"This is the man playing the role of chief henchman?"

"Yes."

"I could have built someone better."

"I'd be right peeved aff at that, but yer man's paying me not tae be."

"This isn't about creating an unwinnable scenario. It's about testing the League's ability to respond to a crisis. Mister-."

"Watch it. I'm on the clock, pal."

I don't roll my eyes. "Mirror Master is competent, ruthless, cunning, strategically manoeuvrable and for hire. He's exactly the sort of point man a villainous strategist might employ as a leading field operative. Minions couldn't be sure where he was at any one time, and hence would feel obliged to keep working rather than slacking off. And for this event, the fact that he needs certain types of environmental artefact to work encourages the League to pay attention to their environment."

"If you insist. This-."

I step forward and take hold of her right hand.

"Georgia, I'm always willing to listen to any feedback you have. If you-" She's blushing. "-really think-."

"Nono." She snatches her hand back. "I'm sure he's perfectly adequate. Follow me."

She leads the way out of the small and secure-looking room containing the freestanding mirror and out into one of the Sivanaplex's corridors. No feats of artistic expression here, I note. Just utilitarian corridors, armoured, warded, and with all sorts of deadly security devices built into the walls.

Thinking about it, this whole situation reminds me a little of what Mr Queen did during the One Year Later event in the comics. Concerned that he just wasn't good enough at the job, he took Mia and Conner to an island for a series of training sessions with some of the best instructors in the world. As they mastered their lessons they got better and better, but he himself was of the belief that it wouldn't be enough. So he invited an evil ninja to the island to train him. It was totally brutal and ended with the supervillain getting annoyed and calling in a small army to force Mr Queen to wise up.

Hopefully I'll be able to get away with something a little less extreme.

Georgia stops in front of one armoured vault door.

"Now, we have your mookbots in here."

She waves her hand at the access panel. It beeps, then the door clunks open. Inside, positioned on racking in poses which put me briefly in mind of the soldier droids from the Star Wars prequels, are what look like people at first glance. People in various forms of street clothing stuck on racking. Hostagebots, mookbots, bystanderbots and metabots, all of which are set to record the damage they take. All of which can be destroyed during the combat portions of this event, though obviously they shouldn't.

The point is that for the purpose of this exercise the League has to treat them as living, breathing humans-.

"How lifelike are they when they're active?"

Rather than answer me directly, Georgia walks over to the edge of the platform looking down on the mookracks. "Mookbot fourteen, activate and identify."

A mookbot near the front reaches back to unhook itself from the racking and falls-. Falls into a crouch, changing its general attitude on the way down from 'automaton' to 'humanlike'. It then straightens up and strolls down the gangway between the racks towards us.

"Yo, boss-lady. Wassap?"

The mookbot lazily waves with its right arm. Good quality synthetic flesh-.

"That's synthetic flesh, right?"

"Yes, of course it is. It's far easier to work with than cloned organic tissue, and I want to be able to reuse these if they survive the tests."

"How does the AI do on Turing tests?"

"As well as most humans, but don't worry; they're using predictive systems rather than building schematic systems themselves."

"W-."

"Yes, Junior has already made the joke about most humans doing that as well. But these don't have a-."

"Don't choo talk 'bout me like I'm not here, bitch."

Georgia rolls her eyes. "Mookbot fourteen, return to racking and deactivate."

It loses its human-seeming pose immediately, and heads back to its station.

"Looking good, then. And the portable GM units?"

"All ready to go."

"And the end boss?"

"Junior's working on it now."

She leads us back out of the mook storage area, down the corridor and to another locked door. She tries raising her hand to open it, but nothing happens.

"Ju-nior!"

"Hang-. Hang on a-. There!"

The door clanks open and I smile as I see the outcome of their work.

I nod at Thaddeus as he throws the switch. This should be… Interesting.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
08:56 GMT -5

"…saying that if you want a patsie, I'm really easy to bribe."

He winks with a disturbingly distended right eye.

"Mister O'Brian, I'm divorced f-."

"I'm not that desperate for a leg up!" He taps an elongated right forefinger against his forehead. "Or am I?"

He shifts shape, expanding and contracting until he resembles a ridiculously buxom woman… But still with his original face.

"If you made the effort to change colour-." He raises his eyebrows. "It would still be a 'no', but I'd be a little more impressed."

"If you're not looking for a rebound, why'd you mention the divorce?" He thrusts his disturbingly rubbery breasts in my direction. "Huh?"

"I'm divorced from managing the scenario. I have no direct input. I know roughly what's going to happen, but not exactly what's going to happen. And -please- try to take this seriously."

"Yeah yeah, I'm just getting it all out of my system now where Bats can't glare at me. You ready to go?"

"I-."

Wallace appears in a blur of yellow.

"Hey, Oh El."

"Kid Flash. What brings you here?"

"Can I spectate? On the Watchtower, if that's where you're doing this?"

"Um." I look at Mr O'Brian, who wobbles back into his usual shape and shrugs his shoulders. "I don't have a problem with it? Though you understand that doing so removes you from play."

"You were planning for us to join in?"

"If the 'villain' side can identify a Justice League member, they can launch attacks on their family as a distraction or for revenge. That includes you."

"Were you planning on telling me..?"

"I got consent from all of the civilians. Ms Lane was actually quite interested to see what this exercise involves." Grudgingly. "But 'Kid Flash' knows that supervillains could target him, and he's trained to fight them off."

"Yeah, but this is you."

"I've tried to keep my privileged knowledge out of it. The villain side only have access to publically available knowledge unless they can find out more." I glance at the zeta tube. "Look, you might as well come along for the full briefing that I'm going to be giving the League. Batman can just throw you off if he doesn't want you there."

"Okay." He smiles confidently. "Let's do this!"

I nod, Mr O'Brian leading the way through-

2nd March
13:58 GMT

"Recognized, Plastic Man, two three, Kid Flash, B zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

-the zeta tube and into the Watchtower and someone's been paying attention! The exit point is no longer in the meeting room, but in its own fortified chamber with… Yes, martian technology testing the mental state of the entrant.

I look in the direction of the camera, and clap.

"Huh." Wallace looks around. "This is new."

"This is overdue."

Resuming his natural form, Mr O'Brian strolls over to the exit and smiles at the sensor.

"Bats wanted this here when you showed up. Took him a while to get it all designed and installed."

"And my birthday isn't for another seven months."

I feel the slight automatic pressure in my mind as the martian biotechnology tries to make sense of my thought processes. Is it calibrated for me? I'm a little unique, but, okay. I relax my shields.

"Kinda annoying for me, 'cause it can't read my mind at all. But-."

"Identities confirmed."

The heavy blast door slides open, granting us access into the main chamber. Which… Isn't unreasonable. There's only so much internal space here, after all. And the main defence of the League is the members of the League, not any automated systems.

Wallace and I follow Mr O'Brian out. The rest of the League is already here, and Ms Thal gives me a glare as I approach the open end of the table's U.

Mr O'Brian finds his seat as Batman inclines his head very slightly towards me. "Orange Lantern. Please explain today's event to the League."

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking part. Today -somewhere on Earth- a series of crimes will be happening. These will snowball until the training event's villain achieves their objective. Your aim is to stop the villain. You may do so in whatever way you think best, but you will probably be gathering evidence from crime scenes and following up the leads you generate from them."

"Funny as.. last time was, none of you are patsies. However, the villain may attempt to subvert any of you during the event. Sometimes this will involve them using information or threats to blackmail you. If that happens and you don't accede to their demands, I'll mention the likely result in the summation at the end of the event. If they successfully mind control you… Then I'm going to ask you to play along because we're not using actual mind control technology."

"Once we start the event, not only will the villain start their attacks, they will also start gathering information on you just as you gather information on them. Again, I'll feed back on the consequences of that at the end, but you may find yourself being informed during the event that a particular person has been killed or a place has been destroyed. If someone actually dies we'll obviously call this.. whole thing off. Any deaths reported in that way are virtual, but please try to avoid interacting with a dead person without the aid of a necromancer."

A couple of quiet chuckles, but they're all very much motivated to beat me. They're focusing.

Good show.

"To keep you informed of events which are happening virtually, you will each be issued with one of these." A series of filaments flick out and deposit a bracer in front of each of them. "These will also feed back to me about where you are and what you're doing."

Guy nods. "So we don't wear them, got it."

"No. As I was explaining to Plastic Man, I'm not going to be an active participant in the event. Ah, unless something goes very badly wrong, then me stepping in will be a sign that it's over. I'll also be on monitor duty just in case something real happens which requires the full attention of the Justice League, in which case I'll either deal with it myself or call the whole thing off. I'm also off the target list, so the villain won't try to retaliate against me."

I focus on Batman.

"You can check it out if you want, but it's part of the mechanism by which this scenario works, so it's not intended to be a variable itself."

He nods, and removes his left glove to put it around his left forearm.

"Ah, Plastic Man, Martian Manhunter, consider yourself free to take yours off while shapeshifting, but.. try and keep it close by if you can. If they get destroyed, I can issue you with a replacement pretty much immediately. Any questions?"

"Yeah." John Stewart frowns as he straps his bracer on. "Who are we up against?"

"You don't know. But I suggest trying to find out at the earliest opportunity." I pull a Bleed fracture pulse transceiver out of subspace and activate it, signalling to the 'boss' that we're about to start.

"Three, two-"

Batman's already out of his chair, calling up crime reports and sightings of me for the last week.

"-one, go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
10:02 GMT -5

Ollie nervously confidently checked his surroundings once more before stepping out from behind the aircon unit and tiptoeing striding purposefully towards the next building.

Yeah, okay. He was a big enough guy to admit that after last year's report cards he wanted to put in a good performance. And he figured that Paul was probably… Probably above deciding to break his own rules to prove his score right. But it wasn't like he ever fooled himself into thinking that he could handle the same sort of punishment some of the big guys and gals on the League could. And Paul did seem like the kind to treat everyone 'fairly'.

Bats was still on the Watchtower, going through every bit of info he could get his hands on with J'onn and Katar. He'd told everyone else to head home and 'be ready', because the easiest way to get data would be for someone to walk into an attack Paul's 'Villain Team' had set up. He wondered for a moment whether there actually was a villain team, or if he'd.. just.. gotten...

Would Arte have told him if he'd roped her into it?

…

Maybe?

He checked the quiet-sounding rooftops and streets of Star City once again, trying to remember if there'd been anything off about the way she'd been acting lately. No, no, nothing… Stuck out. But Paul knew a whole lot of people, so it probably wasn't the team. If only because the whole League actually knew stuff about the team and there's no way Paul would give anyone an edge like that.

Huh. Okay. Whoever the boss bad guy was, he wasn't going to be able to just… Teleport a whole gang to anywhere, right? Teleporters like that took a whole lot of power. Icon did a lecture on it that one time. Easy enough to power someplace like where he came from, not so easy on Earth. And if Paul knew anyone with a power source like that, he'd… Heh. He'd have already dragged them to KordTech.

Nothing much happening on the streets, though a couple of people spotted him and waved. He waved back distractedly warmly, without losing any of his hawk-like concentration. Nothing sneaking up on-

He reached back and took the goggles Roy got him off the clip on his quiver and held them up to his eyes.

-him.

Another check, and no problem. Roy was pretty clear that there was some stuff it wouldn't show, but it was supposed to see through most types of invisibility tech. Nothing invisible, nothing-.

His communicator chimes, and he raises his right arm to press the 'respond' button.

"Green Arrow. Go."

"There's a break-in in progress in the Platinum Flats district."

He instinctively glances in that direction as Batman gives him the address. No sirens yet…

"Is it him?"

"Does it matter?"

Well… Kinda.

He starts running, plotting the route across the rooftops which will get him there fastest. He may not be Batman -and Star City sure isn't Gotham- but he's been patrolling around here long enough to know his way around. If this is some random thief trying to make his Saturday morning a little lively, then this is going to be a cinch. If it's something Paul set up, then there's going to be more to it than that. Which could happen anyway, but it's guaranteed now.

"Any progress working out what he's up to?"

"He visited a wide variety of tech companies, as well as government and military officials and people publically known to be associated with League members. Presumably, he sought their permission to involve them in today's events."

"That narrow it down at all?"

"Not enough to tell me what the plan is. The range of technologies these companies are working with is too large for me to be able to narrow it down."

"No ideas at all?"

"I suspect that Orange Lantern will attempt to create a narrative of escalating intensity, but we can't rely on it. He's set this up so that even he can't predict exactly what will happen."

So a guy who once turned the moon around can't exactly predict what the villain-.

"You don't think he got an actual villain, do you?"

"The location of each of his known criminal associates has been accounted for. Except for the Sivana family."

He nearly misses effortlessly makes a jump.

"Sivana? Marvel's mad scientist?"

"Three members of the family are completely sane. And the younger children have never been independently psychologically assessed."

"That's reassuring. Okay, you get back to it. I'll let you know when I'm there."

"Remember to try and recover any evidence you can. This will be part of something bigger."

"Got it, Bats. Green Arrow out."

Hm. Canary or Red around? Because if Paul set up a challenge for the three of them and there was only one…

"Green Arrow to Pretty Bird. You wouldn't be anywhere near-" And roll "-Platinum Flats, would you?"

"Black Canary to Robin Hood, no, I'm in Gotham."

Someone had to cover for Bats. "You drew the short straw?"

"Rock beats scissors. Roy's in Middleton. Looks like you're going to have to handle whatever this is on your own."

"I've been doing this eleven years. I think I can handle a break-in."

"Ollie… If Orange Lantern has decided to throw something big at you, just pull back-."

"Yeah, I remember Ivo's and.. roid..."

…

No. No, he wouldn't.

"Ollie?"

Would he?

"I was just-. Yeah, I got it." The computer strapped to his arm bleeps, and he sees that the silent alarm has just been forwarded to him. The company wasn't one he recognised. Consolidated Applied Sciences, which… Could mean anything.

Which meant that Paul could justify the villain team finding just about anything there.

He could phone the manager and 'check' that Paul got permission to use the place. But.. that would kinda be cheating and a sign of desperation. Okay, the building is a little way that way, but-.

He stops behind the roofline, ducking down as he sees what he assumed to be a lookout on one of the nearby buildings.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. A few guards on the outside, ready to call down if they spot something. And they probably report in regularly so knocking them out before they can say anything isn't gunna cut it. Need to find out exactly how many there are, then pull off some quick indirect shots…

He winced. Those were never easy. But it was doable.

He takes another quick look. No, no gas mask. A near miss with one of the stronger mixes would work fine. Try to be close to one to pick up their radio, try and work out how well organised they were. And he was also kinda interested in who Paul roped into doing this.

He worked his way across the roof, careful to stay out of sight before dropping down a fire escape and heading around the block in an approximate circle around the CAS building. Tricky, but definitely doable.

As he spotted a second lookout he couldn't help but wonder if he was missing something.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
15:12 GMT

I carefully didn't react when I received the notification via my transceiver. Starting in Star City. Hm. I wonder if that's because they want to score an early 'kill' and think Mr Queen's a weak link..? The tech sector in Star City is reasonably well developed. A successful 'theft' there will give the villain team a reasonable number of 'tech points', and the place is lightly defended compared to a military installation. So that could be the sole reason. The Star City zeta tube is also a good distance away from it, so unless one of the League members with enhanced speed heads that way Mr Queen will be dealing with it on his own.

Batman stopped checking up on my recent activities after Mr Hol and Mr J'onzz agreed that it was blatant metagaming. Reluctantly agreed, but… Yes. The knowledge that something is going to happen today is more than meta enough. They're basically limited to looking at 'anomalous' reports, which does somewhat include me. I gave them a bye on that, because there are only so many 'available in the wild' ways to look for these things. I haven't told them what resources the villain started with because they wouldn't know that, and villains in reality can start with all sorts of infrastructure under their control. Possibly something I can refine for next time; some sort of trade off between potential data leaks and expansiveness?

The Sivanas' GM devices are recording everything that happens, but only feeding back to the villain side the things that they 'actually' report back. The mookbots will have to manually radio sightings of Green Arrow -or whoever else turns up- back to base in order for the villains to 'know' that he's responding rather than local police.

Local police very much can involve themselves, as I felt that that incentivises League members to improve their relationships with other law enforcement groups. There has to be some reward for not being a complete iconoclast. Mr Queen's relationship with the police was… Pretty neutral before he joined the League. He'd been around for long enough that he had a working relationship with some officers, but there wasn't anything official in place. Even now, his relationship isn't as good as Batman's is with the Gotham police.

I look through the hull in the direction of Mr Queen. I know him well enough that I can… Sort of home in on h-.

Really? He's worried that I'm singling him out? I might need to talk to him about that.

With none of the Green Lanterns around I should be able to scan the area without giving the game away. But perhaps…

I raise my right hand to my forehead and

relocate

to the Watchtower's garden before taking a closer look.

Mr Queen appears to have taken it slowly, well done him. He's carefully picked his way around the outer sentries, and… No, the villain side has only used basic mookbots for this. A 'local gang', they aren't particularly good at what they do, but they can't really leak much information either. Though… Yes, one nasty surprise to go with the low power plasma weapons standing in for conventional firearms. Mr Queen only has basic armour and there isn't all that much bullet-resistant cover around. If he starts taking hits he'll be eliminated quickly, which is a problem for him because he's wearing green in a city during the day.

He takes an arrow out of his quiver for each sentry… He hasn't checked whether they're robots or not, but that would be fairly hard for him to do. The gas rounds he's using won't work but they will 'work', as they would work on the people these mookbots are pretending to be. There's an explanation of that written on a note attached to their chests, just in case he gets curious about that.

He checks their positions carefully. He doesn't have the sort of drones or deployable monitoring devices I know Batman would use in a situation like this, but with his heavier 'primary' equipment load and lack of an arrow car it probably wouldn't be practical for him to include that sort of stuff. He's carefully checking wind speed and direction…

He looses, some shots fired upwards in an arc and others fired directly. He's moving the moment the last has left his bow, heading for a third storey balcony on the building which the mookbots are 'ransacking'. He stops to check that the sentry there is out and starts briefly when he sees the mookbot's face-.

And promptly backpedals because he's seen that the flesh is synthetic and that means it couldn't possibly have been knocked out by the gas. Ring, trigger 'accurate' description on Mr Queen's GM device.

Compliance.

It's not a lot, just a message saying that the mookbot is supposed to look like a living human mook and as far as he can tell is behaving like one. He might end up believing that that's supposed to be a trick, but there's not really that much I can do about that.

He checks its neck. What's he-?

"Can I feel a pulse?"

The GM system is adaptable enough to handle basic enquiries. The result is a bit like a text-based adventure game for the blind, but it'll be able to describe the mookbot's condition without much difficulty. I wonder if he'll have trouble separating in-game knowledge from out-of-game knowledge? No, he.. appears to be accepting it and taking the mookbot's hoodie in order to give himself a degree of camouflage. He chuckles for a moment as he spots the written explanation, then dons the hoodie and hides and zip ties the recumbent mookbot. Then he moves on, checking for a camera and then applying a small electromagnetic disruptor to the key card reader in order to gain access to the building.

He's handling it well so far, but these mookbots are acting on the most basic level. They're not really the challenge here.

Alert.

Other locations are coming under 'attack', in places with no Justice League presence. Mr McCulloch will be leading one or two, in the company of 'pro' mookbots. Unless the security systems in those places are very good at their jobs, those will result in a far higher level of successes while leaving a clear indication of who is carrying out the thefts and what they're trying to acquire. As well as giving more information about who could be behind it: anyone carrying out thefts like this is clearly unable to acquire what they want legally, either due to outstanding warrants or lack of funds. Technically it's the latter in this case and the boss wasn't ever actually charged with any crimes, though that's a very technical 'technically' and I suspect that I'm going to get a few glares over this.

Interestingly, the League don't officially know about Mr McCulloch. I don't remember what happened to Mr Scudder in the comics -if I ever even knew- but the last time anyone saw him the equipment he was carrying was wrecked and he was plunging deep into the Mirror Universe. 'Missing, presumed planning to return when you least expect it'. Might be worth spending the time to try and get him out, but Mr McCulloch made it pretty clear that he thinks his predecessor went more than a little crazy in his efforts to understand the Mirror Universe and he himself has stuck to the practical aspect.

Practical as far as villainy is concerned. Not practical in the sense of making money, which would involve him offering legitimate services, or…

I wonder how it interacts with fibre optics-?

Oh dear, is that Mr Queen's 'street' accent? The mookbots probably won't react immediately -not all members of a gang know each other well- but that isn't going to last. Especially-.

Ah. He's removing the arrowheads and using the delay fuses to turn them into mines, clever. Probably got that idea from Red Arrow. The hostages… Are bad actors, and a couple of them are really hamming it up, and one has realised that the people holding them are robots and is trying to talk to the person controlling them about an operating licence. That can be part of my follow up. And… I should mention it to Sivana Senior. I don't think that he'll be… Excited or anything, but his tacit acknowledgement that things have changed might let me encourage Thaddeus Junior and Georgia over to the neutral side after the sheeda are dealt with.

He steps around a corner, slips on a gas mask and triggers the mines. Mookbots look around, their sensors detect the aerosol and cause them to collapse. Too quickly to get off a warning, though the thump… No, the mookbots in other parts of the building who are in hearing range briefly look up but then return to their tasks. The hostages are also unconscious, but that was really unavoidable. Mr Queen nips back in and disarms and zip ties the mookbots. He checks one of the weapons and notes the 'THIS IS AN UZI' sticker with a degree of amusement. He takes the time to remove the battery units and throw them into one of the bins, so that if the mookbots 'wake up' then they won't immediately be able to activate their weapons.

Having rendered the hostages unconscious he can't ask them for information, but he is able to call up a floor plan on his computer. Two exits, both guarded by people expecting an attack from the outside. This is -on the face of it- well within his abilities.

I give him half an hour.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
10:42 GMT -5

Nooo sweat.

Okay, he was sweating a little. Sneaking around a building filled with creepy-looking robots was bad enough. Creepy-looking robots that probably got built by the Sivana family were even worse, because he's read Marvel's after-action reports and there was absolutely no way in hell the sort of things those lunatics could put together would get knocked out by gas arrows. Which meant that even if they were playing along for now, he was still surrounded by two dozen possum-playing robots built by mad scientists and all he could really hope was that they weren't built by the serial-killing mad scientist.

Would..?

Yeah, but only if he really had to. He wouldn't call Pa Sivana for a training exercise.

Right?

Yeah.

"Uugh."

He looks around as the first of the thugdroids he dragged out for the cops begins to come around. He'd put the unconscious employees in the recovery position back in their offices, and got some of the others to help him bring their 'attackers' out front. Signed a couple of autographs, chatted with a few fans…

Police were kinda taking their time, but then, he wasn't really sure what the police were supposed to do with them. If the robots were standing in for regular guys they'd need to book them, but-.

He tapped his bracer.

"Hey, what am I supposed to do with these guys? I don't really wanna waste police time with this."

"Once the automata are in police custody, they may be marked for extraction from the scenario."

"Or..?"

"You may choose not to mark them for extraction."

Why would-?

"I can interrogate them?"

"That is a possible action."

"Interrogate a ro-?"

No. This whole thing was dreamed up by a guy who stopped Dinah destroying Dukeston and got a law passed making robots 'people'-.

"Wait, how smart are these things?"

"The automata are subsapient, but may be programmed to reveal information in particular circumstances."

Oooor we could just telepathically-.

He looked at the robot. Who was a robot.

Wait, was that intentional?

"How does that work with telepaths?"

"Information will be revealed after an interval depending on the automaton's modelled resistance."

He smirks. "And how about if Rocket Red takes a look? You know his armour lets him read any database."

"Metagaming is strictly prohibited."

"Yeah, but he could read their phones or whatever."

"Metagaming is-."

"Yeah yeah, I get it."

Man, he didn't remember it being this hot in March before. He wasn't going to take off his armor or anything, but he was definitely gunna need a shower when this was over. Anyway, if these 'automata' can be interrogated…

He knelt down in front of the closest.

"Hey kid."

The automaton visibly slumps. "Fuuuck, we got beaten up by the second lamest superhero ever."

"Second, huh. So who's first?"

"Red Bee. Using a bow rather than a gun is stupid, but at least it's not a fucking trained bee."

The robot's face isn't particularly expressive, but it looks like whoever put it together decided it needed to be able to sweat. He guessed that having a few… What, tubes filled with water? Wasn't that hard.

"So what was the point of all that, anyway?"

"Fuck you Five Oh. Not sayin' anything."

"Huh. Okay."

He stood up, picked an automaton at random and picked them up. Then he carried their weakly-struggling form around a corner, put them down and gagged them. Then he crouched down in front of… Huh, this one was female-shaped. What was that word-? Gynoid, but that was only if they were intelligent.

"Just hold still a minute, will yah? I need to convince your friends that you're spilling all your secrets 'round here."

The automaton struggled against its bonds, but with human-force, not mad-science-powered-death-robot force, and they were designed to cope with that. Then it-

"Mngrmngrrhhhh!"

-tried to shout through the gag. He stuck his head back around the corner to make sure the others weren't trying anything. Nope. He waves cheerily to any who looked his way and then ducked back.

"Okay, keep up the good work. But seriously, between you and me-."

The automaton collapsed. Was that supposed to happen? Did it.. run out of battery power or something? If it was the Sivana kids, would they bring their A-game for the Justice League, or.. was it a pride thing so they definitely would? No, no, Paul might not drop some sort of super demon on him but he definitely would a thug with a heart attack!

Shit, ah…

Two fingers to the part of the neck where whatever mechanism the automaton used to replicate a carotid artery was, and he takes a half-second to be glad that in this case the person he's doing this for can't die. Despite what Paul told him about 'magical head trauma', seriously injuring the people you were fighting against actually was a serious problem, especially if you were shooting them with arrows. He hadn't ever had to deal with an actual heart attack, but he'd been trained by an EMT so he could actually handle things like this.

Pulse… Okay, not a heart attack. Elevated but regular. Breathing, so fast it's on the border of hyperventilating. Temperature, elevated. There's a whole bunch of things it could be, and calling an ambulance-.

His legs gave out, and he collapsed on top of her.

Poison? A disease weapon? This was a Paul job, so he wasn't actually going to die, but…

Sweating. They were all sweating, and he was feeling hot. In March. A supervillain wouldn't trust someone else's gang with anything vital, but-.

Ugh.

But he might dose them with something. Hadn't happened in Star City before, but Flash and…

His vision wavered.

And Bats…

He just had to hope Paul would tell them the symptoms.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
16:08 GMT

"I was the first one to die, wasn't I?"

I nod sympathetically as Mr Queen sits up on the bier. "Yes. But I'd like to say that thanks to your valiant sacrifice none of the police or ambulance personnel were exposed, and most of the Consolidated Applied Sciences who were also exposed survived."

His expression brightens up very slightly, then the brightness dies.

"But you can't, because they all died anyway, along with all the robot gang bangers, because I got exposed after all of them."

I nod again.

"Was it a.. poison, or a disease?"

"What knocked you out was a poison, an extremely safe one I had Euanthe develop to stand in for something nastier. I'm afraid that I won't be telling you what it was in-game until today's activities are concluded."

He gives his muscles a slight stretch, the last of the lingering effects vanishing. Things like this make me very glad that Euanthe isn't a supervillain.

"So what was I supposed to do? Not get close enough to get infected?"

"I was going to include that as part of my feedback at the end, but… If you really want to know now?" He nods. "Everyone in the League now uses the wards Sephtian and I developed to protect them from magic attack, but… Most of you haven't followed up. I don't use them, but there are wards against poison and disease."

"U-hh."

"Failing that, sealed armour like Roy wears or certain types of environmental energy shield or certain types of physical enhancement would have rendered you immune."

He-. He's trying to put a brave face on it, but I can see he's sagging.

"I can put you in touch with my supplier if you want."

"I've never-. I mean, I know it's a fair test. Joker does stuff like that all the time, and I think Barry had a guy-"

I nod. "Doctor Amar."

"-who-. Right." He hesitates. "What-?"

"Murmur."

"Yeah, that's it. I've never had a bio-weapon bad guy." He slides off the bier and onto his feet. "Think I've just gotten lucky?"

"I think it's the heavy industry. Star City never had all that much compared to Gotham in its heyday or Keystone City today. Chemicals get into the water, the air… Plus, heavy industry has suffered from relatively cheap imports, resulting in higher unemployment in primarily low and semi-skilled manual labour jobs. And, yes, a bit."

"So… You're not… I mean, all the guys the League are gunna be fighting-."

"I'm not trying to push you out of the League, if that's what you're working up to asking."

He hesitates again, then nods. "Yeah, it kinda is."

"Alright, to be totally blunt, based on the criteria I came up with for League membership, I wouldn't have recruited you. You're not alone in that category, and it doesn't mean that you're doing a bad job or that you're a bad person. If we were reforming the League to have a far broader base I'd be happy putting you in charge of a city or a region. Your skills and comportment are good. But several of the League's core functions call for a level of raw power or extraordinary skill which you don't have and don't appear to be inclined to get."

"Huh." He nods again. "So who else is on the list?"

"The initial seven members joined up due to fighting the appellaxians together, so skipping them-."

He shrugs. "Why skip them?"

"Alright. King Orin is borderline. I'd rather have had Queen Mera. He can contribute an army and the resources of a state, but he can do that without occupying a front line position. I wouldn't have recruited the Hawks when they were recruited." The same year as they started operating on Earth. The only justification I can think of is that Batman wanted them where he could keep an eye on them. There's no way they showed a level of ability and dedication in that period which justified their recruitment. Mr Freeman's dodgy for similar reasons. Not enough time active, Superman's 'I thought he was kryptonian' excuse notwithstanding. "Ms Lance, Mister Harper, Doctor Palmer, Mister O'Brian-."

He frowns. "Plas?"

"It's not a 'superpowers only' thing. I recommended Dmitri and I'd recruit Batman. Mister O'Brian's abilities just aren't useful enough to justify his inclusion compared to plenty of other people on Earth." I shrug. "Of course, all that only matters if we're talking about a 'small League' like we have now. If we switch to a broad based organisation, they're all fine."

"Okay, so, how about your team?"

"For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

"You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

"No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."

"Not you?"

"Gods, no. The lack of clear direction would drive me insane. I'm more effective left to my own devices."

"And everyone else?"

"Same sort of problem. Insufficient power, skill, experience or poor comportment."

"You.. told them you think that?" I shake my head. "'cause Arte-."

"Doesn't want to join the League. Oh, she wants to fight the good fight, partially to distance herself from her father and partially because she actually likes helping people. But the best way to utilise her would be to deploy her off in somewhere like Hub City. Somewhere with a high level of both street crime and official corruption. A long term medium intensity job."

"You told her that?"

"No. I might once she finishes college, if she decides to get back into it." I pause briefly. "Do you have any other questions? Because the wargame is still running-."

"Those wards. Orin can hook me up?" I nod. "And… Enhancements?"

"I'll include a few options in my report. Excuse me."

Under the circumstances I decide not to raise my right hand to my forehead, but instead just

step out

and reappear in the Watchtower's main room, Batman giving a summary to the rest of the League.

"-biological agent. Take extreme caution in dealing with anyone. If you notice yourself sweating or an increased heart rate, call for Doctor Mist, Accomplished Perfect Physician or Angelica immediately."

The heads on the monitor all nod. It appears that Mr Queen has been the only fatality so far. Ms Lance's eyes alight on me for a moment, then her face vanishes with the rest.

GM system, how are things going?

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
15:08 GMT -5

"-KordTech's exotic materials research."

Barry nods, already turning north in the direction of Seattle.

"I'll be there in two minutes."

Because while he could be there sooner, Orange Lantern had reported using cold fields completely successfully against a parallel universe version of him and he didn't want to dash into a trap. The poison had come as just as much of a surprise to him as it had to Ollie, but he'd recognized it faster and accelerated his metabolism to flush it out before it could 'kill' him. Talk about a Fool's Mate. But fool him twice? He didn't think so.

"Understood. I'm sending Rocket Red and Lantern Jordan."

He runs past a car, the children in the back suspended in the action of battering each other with fluffy rabbit dolls.

Orange Lantern had asked him about it one time, when he was just starting out. He'd wanted to know if he was fast from his perspective as well. And he saw where he was coming from right away. Logically, if his body was moving faster than everything else, from his point of view wouldn't he just be running normally through a world of statues? Or if it was just his body that moved faster, wouldn't he have big problems with steering and control?

He hadn't really thought about it before he took his shot of Jay's formula. If Jay hadn't had any problems with it, why would he? And then they went running to test it out and he accidentally ran around the world when they tried to test his top speed. And it had been quick, but after a moment he could remember all of the things he saw, a million still images from every country he ran through, a million stationary objects he remembered dodging around.

He got the best of both worlds, and when Orange Lantern brought up the alternatives he was damn glad about it.

"Rocket Red?"

In Klamath Falls, an inattentive driver suddenly found their phone out of their hand and on the back seat, while the wandering cat they hadn't noticed found itself safely in a nearby garden.

"It's a secure facility, and Kord himself is on site. The only way we'll know what the attackers are looking for is by getting into their computers."

Dmitri… Yeah. Barry honestly hadn't been all that happy with a serving US military officer joining the League. After getting Jay's Cold War horror stories -and especially after learning that the same man was in charge of the program- he's been extremely sceptical about having Rocket Red onboard.

When he asked, Dmitri admitted that him being there was basically a PR stunt but that he wanted to do a good job anyway. He'd expected a denial, and that response had left him feeling a bit awkward about putting him on the spot like that.

Of course, in a situation like this, he'd be the one out of the three of them whose powers didn't have a direct counter. Hell, he'd joked about green lasers to Hal after they first met. He didn't think they were actually a viable option. Good thing Orange Lantern hadn't spread it about -or told the villain team for the exercise- because the League's Lanterns had dealt with their first opponents pretty easily while he'd been stuck checking up on places that had already been raided.

"You made any progress working out what the plot is?"

"No. Even with you cataloguing everything that's been stolen, there are simply too many things they could be used for."

"Do you think they need it all, or are they running a load of redundant thefts in case they don't get everything?"

"I think it's more likely that they have several potential plans, and will select the best one based on what they manage to acquire."

"Isn't that kind of 'metagamy'?"

"It's good planning. I'd do the same. An intelligent villain wouldn't be overly concerned with how they achieved their objectives."

"And do we know what that is?"

"They were able to hire large numbers of street gangs at short notice. That means that they are well connected with the criminal underworld and have a sizable amount of capital to work with. But at the same time they can't make purchases themselves, otherwise they wouldn't need to commit theft. What makes me curious is how they intended to move what they've stolen. Where the thefts were successful the objects stolen would be extremely difficult to transport. Someone should have seen something."

You can't pay off everyone.

"So it's not a game thing. They aren't just vanishing when they get so far away from the place they were taken."

"No. Not unless they're reaching somewhere we can't follow."

"Teleporters?"

"Not according to Lantern Gardner and Icon. Doctor Mist has checked for magic-based teleportation and found nothing."

Alright, so-.

"Mirror Master stole the entire contents of the First Bank of Central City's vault by hiding it in a mirror."

"No mirrors were reported on-site."

"It-."

"But that would be easy to miss. I'll send Lantern Scott to check the area."

"Not Stewart?"

"Checking for poorly-defined classes of object is harder with green rings."

Makes sense.

"Nearly on-site. Location of Green Lantern and Rocket Red?"

"Green Lantern is there now. Rocket Red will be with you in three minutes."

Slower than Dmitri's actual top speed, but sonic booming through Seattle for an exercise wouldn't be the right thing to do. But in an actual emergency they'd radio a warning and do it anyway, so maybe he should ask Orange Lantern to take that into account?

And then the roads and the fence and he stopped a block away behind a solid wall.

"Flash." Hal floats down and nods in greeting. "Took you long enough."

Ever since Hal cracked going faster than light in an atmosphere, he'd kept making that joke. And by the sounds of it he wasn't going to stop anytime soon. God help him if he ever learned to do it at a tactical scale.

"You think Green Arrow being dead is supposed to make us charge in there?"

"Now Flash; no metagaming. We're both professionals."

Professionals in a dangerous business who'd been fortunate enough not to have a friend die before. Hal had seen other Lanterns die, but they'd been colleagues and not friends. Barry actually wasn't sure how he'd react to Ollie dying.

"Can you scan the research center?"

Hal shakes his head.

"KordTech started warding all their buildings. I could do it with a construct, but that'll tip the people inside off that we're here."

"So we could wait for Rocket Red, or-." Barry blinks. "You can make a telescope construct, right?"

Hal looks mildly insulted.

"Yeah, easy."

"So far, even the more skilled thefts have just been hit and run. There are plenty of ways to counter an attack, but they've all been lightly equipped. If you flew up high enough, you could observe the site passively with a telescope. Count how many guys they've got inside."

"Yeah, I thought about it. You don't think they'd spot that?"

"No. I mean, sure, if you were right over the building they'd spot it, but a tiny green light miles up in the sky? I wouldn't think so."

"Right. I'll do that. You going to scout the site?"

"Yeah. But I'm going to be really careful. Someone like Orange Lantern isn't going to set up a wargame that never escalates."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
20:14 GMT

In the interests of reality, most of the faux-supervillains are wearing clothes which clearly distinguish them from the semi and fully professional criminals around them. This includes the final boss, who I'm pretty sure they'll all recognise. The costumes aren't indicative for the metabots, and only roughly indicative for the techbots, but they're there and clearly mark out some on the villain side as higher priority targets.

In the interests of not being stupid, not all of them are costumed. Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke the Terminator might wear that natty blue and orange number but Constantine Drakon doesn't feel the need to try quite so hard.

With Dmitri on site they have access to KordTech's database. There shouldn't be any difference between the files I planted for this exercise and the ones which were there anyway. Even the fact that I 'brought' the technology to the company doesn't stand out. I've been doing that a lot. And because I'm sure that Batman will check, I also added a bunch of e-mails relating to the fictional project to the server. Except… I'm not quite sure how the Rocket Red armour's 'talk to technology' ability works. It's perfectly possible that it might just tell him that the files I added were added at a different time from what the server now thinks they were.

It's also possible that there's a truth compulsion spell which can affect machinery, but if they managed that I'd award points for creativity and just accept it. Dmitri doing it would just be 'using an ability everyone knows he has in a really inconvenient way'. It wouldn't ruin the wargame, but it would make the investigative portion which the research team has been so invested in less valuable. This is one of the places where the villain team actually need a win to get their preferred end result.

Not that we don't have contingencies. Ultimately, team villain can do what so many of their contemporaries do and slink off. If the Justice League thwart them but can't find them by the end of the day I'll call an end to it and… Talk about rerunning it in a couple of months.

Jordan's using what he sees through his telescope to make a construct model of the facility, and Batman's using KordTech employee files and publicity brochures to create a 3D model of the place and a register of the people likely to be there on a Saturday. The telescope was a little clever, but Jordan's revealing his limits by not creating a construct infrared sensor. He simply doesn't understand the technical components well enough to create a construct of it. That means that the Leaguers don't know how many attackers there are or what they can do. And Dmitri is filling Mr Allen in on all of the ways the Russians found to stop speedsters with mundane technology.

Inside, the mookbots pantomime coming fully alert as the metabot with enhanced senses reports that the League have arrived. Faux-explosive harnesses fitted to the hostages bleep and twinkle, each connecting to four others in other parts of the building. While that won't stop Mr Allen, it might well result in him inadvertently killing hostages. He can outrun radio triggers, but it seemed reasonable to me that the villain side might suspect that he'd struggle to do so without advanced notice to several different end points. Their mission objective here is theft, so all they need to do is delay the League members until that's done and the chance of dead hostages achieves that result nicely.

In India, there's a flash of light as the Hawks' ship is 'killed' by a cyborg monster, leaving them with a two hour wing-flight back to the nearest zeta tube. Hawkwoman and Captain Atom themselves are.. coping, picking up injuries which the GM system thinks will inhibit them further. But limiting their mobility was the main aim, and I think that Batman suspects it.

In China, xeno teams have decided not to trouble the League and are going in shooting, which… I'd complain, but that's a pretty realistic depiction of what they'd do in an actual crisis. The mook-mookbots drop pretty quickly, but the pro-mookbots are returning fire and triggering traps. Since we predicted that something like this might happen, the traps aren't 'flash, please sit the rest of the event out'. They're genuine neural shock devices that will render the attackers unconscious and paralysed for a few hours. I wonder if they'll tell the League that this happened quickly enough for it to matter.

In Japan, a superbot team manage to neutralise the alarms too quickly for the League to be alerted, and also locate and deactivate the local zeta tube so they'd struggle to respond anyway. Slightly worried that the Sivanas managed that.

In France, Diana and Dr Balewa manage to prevent an attack on a nuclear power plant by a probot team without any injuries or damage being inflicted. Diana truth-lassos them one after the other and receives everything they know. Which isn't much as they weren't 'told' why or who, but she sends it to Batman anyway and another part of the puzzle comes together.

"Batman to Flash. I think the attackers are at KordTech to get their experimental radiation shield technology."

"Are they trying to build a nuclear bomb?"

"No. There are far easier ways to get fissionable material than this."

"That wasn't meant to be reassuring, was it?"

"KordTech isn't enriching material which could be used to make a bomb, and the fuel rods used by nuclear power plants aren't high grade enough. KordTech's shield would allow people to survive high levels of radiation exposure without lead-lined suits-."

"So they want to go somewhere highly radioactive?"

Oh, well done.

"They want to allow humans or delicate equipment to go somewhere highly radioactive. Equipment they don't have time to redesign from scratch."

"Any idea where?"

Batman looks over to where Mr Hol is already looking at nuclear waste storage sites.

"We'll look into it. The hostages come first, stopping them acquiring that data or any prototypes comes second."

"Got it. Flash out."

He says something to Dmitri, who gives him the bad news that while he can identify anything on a data storage system he can't remotely erase it. Now things get interesting. Flash can sort of go invisible, but it makes it hard for him to see what's going on around him and reduces his straight line acceleration for a while. With the lives of hostages on the line that isn't an option. Guy performed his traditional macho bullying routine until Jordan learned to make filaments, but it still doesn't come naturally to him and he certainly can't infiltrate a building with them. Dmitri's armour doesn't have stealth.

Huh. It's surprising how unprofessional evildoers usually are. Plenty take hostages, but most of the time they just point guns at them or put them near a single large explosive. Two veteran superheroes and a veteran soldier and they're struggling to work out the best way to proceed.

In a police station in Fawcett City, several files are manually destroyed to cover up the disappearance of an object that's already missing.

In a police station in Central City, several objects are covertly removed from secure storage. It's not the first time that store has had something appropriated from it.

In the tunnels beneath Aberrance, a mechanical thumper starts going off and triggering all sorts of alerts. They actually start the process of preparing for the public relations effect of League members arriving before they send the notification that something untoward is happening. They do actually send it though, which is a good sign that Cranius is less bitter about our first meeting now than he was at the time.

Mr Allen moves, and a second later Jordan starts-. Oh, I didn't know he knew how to make those! A construct to disrupt electromagnetic radiation, good thinking. Mr Allen vibrates the harnesses -that was risky, but he's been doing this for a while and I'm going to assume that he checked them before risking it- off the hostages in one frantic charge and throws them into a box construct Jordan has waiting. They explode harmlessly and Mr Allen's already back inside punching mookbots out.

Dmitri decides to head for the server directly, meaning through the building's walls. Jordan sticks a construct shield around the hostages, using the map to send thick green beams through the building's corridors before the hostage-takers can 'kill' them. They fire anyway, because that's what everyone does. Mr Allen's run into one of the techbots, who's covered the floor around 'her' with a gel copied from the Trickster. He slows down the moment he touches it, having to vibrate at exactly the right frequency in order to get it off.

A metabot fires a sonic blast in his general direction and he's thrown backward, being caught in a green catching mitt as Jordan arrives and advances under the cover of a green shield. Gel shots and sonic blasts are harmlessly absorbed, and Mr Allen is back on his feet and vibrating through a wall to attack from a novel angle, running through a toilet-.

"Watcha, Flasher."

And getting charged by a translucent mirror image of himself.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
15:17 GMT -5

Brute force and ignorance.

When Paul first called him that, Hal worried about it about as much as Guy did when he asked if all the time him and Paul were spending together meant he was cheering for the Buckeyes now. But when he did think about it, yeah, actually. It bothered him. He'd always used simple, powerful constructs. Always emptied his mind of everything that wasn't that construct to make it as strong as it could be. And then Paul shows up making constructs that are strong and complex. And-.

Goddamn Guy Gardner was managing it. And Martin Jordan didn't raise no quitters.

He was pretty sure that Paul was watching this. Two years ago, if he'd found himself thinking something that extraneous during a fight he'd have crushed it. Now it just flowed, a background consideration that was there but not distracting. He'd thought that m'eelam na'aquall was something for the religious types like Toren who wanted the green light to save their souls as well as their bodies. But it really shook things out.

And made double sure he never wanted to try acid-.

So right now? Keeping up a shield while also having a heads up display over his eyes showing where Barry and Dmitri were wasn't so hard. Stuffing the nozzles the second Barry got clear? Piece of cake-.

Not a Christmas cake.

Noticing that he'd actually had time to do so without Barry hitting them in the side while still laying on the pressure, still shielding himself when some more robots tried shooting him in the back. Still-.

The gunge-sprayer bursts, covering the robot carrying it with quick-hardening sludge.

Two concussive bolts to the heads of the backstabbers, then a construct scalpel slices through the goo and makes sure the robot has an airway. He hadn't lost a perp yet and he wasn't about to just because they were robots.

Now, what happened to B-?

The wall explodes! Barry's already landed on the floor before Hal can really process it, which is about par for the course with speedsters. He calls his constructs in, shield at the ready as a… Tall thin version of Barry walks through the hole.

Evil duplicate? Must be Saturday.

A fire hose construct sprays what's left of the goo in the double's direction and his environmental shield shines as he channels more power into it. Barry can hit hard and fast, but Hal knows his shield can take it for a while.

The double sort of.. twists and.. vanishes. Ah, okay.

"Flash?"

"Mirror Master."

"Didn't look like Mirror Master."

Barry picks himself up, still alert.

"Mirror Master was in the bathroom. Soon as I ran past a mirror, that came out."

Huh.

"Like a robot Mirror Master, or-?"

"Too short and too broad to be Scudder. But his face looked real."

"Good robot real, or-?"

A weird, washed out greenish beam hit him in the chest and knocked him back… Well, a little, as an equally washed out duplicate of him floats through the hole. A washed out midget version of him, who fires washed out midget boxing gloves, forcing him to throw up a shield as Barry speed-grabbed everything in arm's reach and started throwing it at super speed. The evil midget was battered back by Barry's barrage, but still found enough time to prevent any shots going into-.

"The mirror, break-!"

A faded red blur shot out from the bathroom, grabbing projectiles out of the air and hurling them right back! Barry zoomed towards it, and the two of them-.

Two speedsters fighting, he wasn't going to be able to keep up. But breaking a mirror?

He raised his ring to eye level.

He could do that.

The beam punched his mini-me back through the hole, through the wall behind that, through the wall-. Yeah, okay. Bathroom mirrors. Smash smash smash-

The grey blur vanishes and Barry de-blurs, panting slightly.

-and smash a little more, just in case.

"You okay there?"

Barry waves his enquiry off.

"Guess we need to go slow, if he's had time to set more mirrors up."

Barry shakes his head. "Just break them at the edges, that usually does it. Don't hit them dead on, or you'll end up inside them."

Hal nods. "Got it."

"Comrades Lantern and Flash? I have a problem."

Barry vanishes in a blur, and Hal's not far behind. The building map said the server is right around-.

Dmitri knocks on the inside of the mirror covering the server room door, a very faint thud being heard on the real universe side.

"I flew in but I cannot fly out."

"Flash?"

Barry darts around the surrounding area, then slows to a stop and shakes his head.

"He must have shot the mirror again once Rocket Red was through. We won't be able to open it up without his gun."

"Can we get his gun?"

"There might be an old version back in Central City, but unless he stuck around, no."

"Any other way out?"

"He could try flying through the mirror universe, see if he can find another portal."

"He in any danger right now?"

"Not unless someone breaks the mirror."

"I do not want to be a broken mirror."

That.. sucked, but-.

"Sorry Rocket Red, we'll have to come back for you. We need to stop them getting away with the radiation shield."

"Understand. Mission must come first."

Alright, so the labs were that w-.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
20:21 GMT

I remember that Mr McCulloch looked at me like I was a complete idiot when I asked if his mirrors could transmit energy. Not at the question itself, which was fairly logical, but from the implication that it was a remotely original idea. Apparently, Mr Scudder once used a couple of burning barrels to make a mirror-based cutting torch. Mr McCulloch never found the technique particularly useful, but considering the endgame we're going for…

"Flash, eliminated."

Mr Allen isn't entirely able to prevent himself making a small gesture of appeal, but appears to accept it a moment later. Somewhere behind me, Wallace punches the table. Quietly, after the glare Batman gave him last time he made a noise.

"Jordan, what happened!?"

"I don't-. Ring?"

"Intense light burst detected. Minimal threat."

His GM device chimes in a moment later.

"Immediately lethal gamma radiation dose released. Unshielded humans suffered extreme damage to soft tissue."

Jordan's eyes widen, then he shoots upwards through the roof and puts a barrier up around the entire building.

Batman gives his head a small shake.

"Jordan, it's too late. Whatever that was, it released gamma rays, not radioactive particulates. There won't be any ongoing effect."

Jordan hesitates for a moment, then nods and removes his construct. "Right. How many people just died?"

"You do not know."

"Scan the area."

Inside, Mr Allen sighs faintly, then turns around and walks slowly towards the nearest exit.

"Hey, Flasher."

Mr Allen stops and looks at one of the broken mirror fragments, Mr McCulloch's face grinning back at him.

"Nay hard feelings, aye?"

"Who are you?"

"Mirror Master."

"That means that either Orange Lantern cracked Samuel Scudder's technology, or that equipment's stolen. And I don't think he would have kept quiet for this long if he'd managed that."

"Fellah I got it from mighta pockled it. I didnae tekkit meself."

Mr Allen's eyes narrow. "I don't think that's going to cut it. When I'm done here, I'm going to be checking the evidence locker in Central City and seeing how much of his equipment has gotten 'pockled'."

Mr McCulloch waves and vanishes from the shards, now happy in the knowledge that whoever supplied him with his startup equipment is about to receive a Justice League investigation and certainly won't have time to chase him any longer. Because mercenaries don't expect to have the protection of officialdom, while I strongly suspect that whoever backed him does.

"Hey." Mr Allen prods his GM device. "If the villains don't have the anti-radiation shielding yet, how did Mirror Master get close enough to a radiation source to put a mirror down?"

"Would the corpse please vacate the mission area and hold his questions until the end of the exercise?"

"Yeah. Right."

He blurs towards the Seattle zeta tube, then reappears at.. the Central City terminus inside the Flash Museum.

"Would the corpse please also hold off on doing any investigations tangential to the exercise until the end of the exercise?"

"This is serious. If supervillain weapons are going-"

I appear

2nd March
15:23 GMT -5

just in front of him.

"-miss-." He reorientates on me. "Missing, that's a major security breach. Keeping my town safe is my job, and I was doing it for years before I joined the Justice League." He frowns faintly. "You haven't been-."

"If I have been taking them, then it was with the appropriate permissions, and they will be returned before the end of the day. After that point, any other thefts were nothing to do with me and you may investigate them as you wish."

"I don't actually need your permission to investigate crimes."

"Flash, if anyone was going to do anything major with them, they'd have done it already. And an investigation into longer term activity can wait a few hours. Go and.. spend the day with your wife. Or whatever you would have done if this wasn't happening."

He grimaces, but nods.

"Was I the second one to die?"

"Yes, and-. Oh, there goes Hawkwoman to a rather lucky headshot." I smile at him. "Three League members dead so far."

"How many civilians?"

"Promise you'll take it easy for the rest of the day and not try to communicate with people still 'alive'?" He nods. "Sixty eight civilian deaths, and just under a hundred more injured. Eighty deaths on the villain team, though only three of those were the direct result of League action."

He nods again. "You're not pulling punches, are you?"

"Actually, I probably am. The villain team has an objective which the League are opposing. The villain team isn't specifically trying to kill the League as their primary objective."

"Three's more than most real villains manage."

I stop smiling.

"Four. Excuse me."

2nd March
20:24 GMT

Looks like Jordan's given Ted the bad news: that he's dead along with a good chunk of his workforce. The villain squad who attacked the place… The ones who were still free when the radiation burst went off got away with their objective, but the knowledge that their boss killed so many of their colleagues will cause a mini-revolt and deny the villain team their services. When put along with the manpower the League has apprehended, they're going to have to either stage a break out or limit their offensive activities for a while.

Now the League knows what they're looking for, there's a chance that they're going to finally be able to go on the offensive. I might mark them down if they get lucky while trying to search everywhere, but it's a viable strategy. Though with Mr Allen dead and the Hawks' ship destroyed they won't be able to search anything like fast enough to stand a realistic chance of finding the villain HQ that way.

Should be interesting.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
13:34 GMT -7

I sigh as another Almeracian portal shimmers open.

"Knockout, do you want to get that-?"

She's already in motion, grabbing the would-be assassin around the neck before he's fully through and squeezing.

Well, it's efficient I suppose.

I nod as she drags the corpse through the collapsing portal. "Bag him up, then send it to Cranius. Like the others."

Which has got to be doing wonders for his human telepathy and telekinesis research. Between him and Doctor Williams, they've got to be close to being ready to experiment by now. I'm pretty sure that Adam Blake would appreciate anything further they can do for him as well. He still hasn't fully recovered from what the First did to turn him into a telekinetic weapon system.

I turn to Sazu, who's keeping Rex entertained with a purple windmill toy while his parents pick a fight with a coterie of villainous mercenaries in Africa.

"Not that I mind, but how many of these should we expect?"

"It's hard to be certain." She bends forward as he reaches out for it with one chubby hand. "Based on the demographics of his supporters, the production of psychic warriors capable of generating rifts of that nature -yes, it's shiny isn't it? Yes it is- and how hard my mistress is pressing him, I would be surprised if he could afford to spare more than five assassins."

"And why are they coming one by one? After the first one didn't report back you'd think that he'd get a clue."

"Oh, no." She gives Rex another smile and then turns to face me. "I doubt that he ordered them to come here. Most of his followers simply find my mistress taking me as her consort and lover so profoundly disturbing that it may well be that they are taking the initiative."

"And not talking to each other about it?"

"When you give someone powerful psychic abilities… Something has to give."

"Even with Maxima? She seems reasonably together."

"Queen Maxima is the first of a new generation, and… She turned out extremely well, but even then there are limitations. She can be quite impatient. I don't think that she's ever finished a book, even one about a topic that should interest her. And I was honestly surprised when she announced her intention to come here to acquire a mate."

"Why?"

"It was an unusually creative idea for her. Her mind excels in dealing with situations which require immediate decisions, but she struggles with long term or abstract planning."

"That seems like a bit of a flaw."

"Oh, no." She shakes her head. "Her abilities in those fields aren't significantly worse than… Well, than the average human. But for her it seems so slow. She craves the stimulation that comes from combat."

That definitely seems like a flaw.

"Oh, I wanted to ask who your final nomination was."

"For what?"

"When you tried to arrange a mate for her? She told me that once you convinced her that someone with my skill set would be a better co-regent, you tried to show her someone. I've been wondering who it was."

"Oh. A man named Alexander Luthor. He's an extremely wealthy businessman who built an international conglomerate out of.. basically nothing. Intelligent, disciplined, focused and… Hm."

"He sounds as though he would have been a good match."

"I don't know. Obviously I didn't know about you when I started suggesting people, but Lex is socially aggressive, and.. assertive in a way which you.. don't appear to be. I had thought that someone who could think like Maxima, but… Apply it to administration rather than combat would be a good match. I didn't have anyone of your personality type on the list until much further down."

"Hm. How much-?" Rex grasps her right forefinger, earning himself another fond smile while she scrolls through articles on her computer with her free hand. "How much did she tell you about Almerac?"

"Not a lot."

"My mistress wouldn't want to risk two unknowns. Someone from Earth who shared her warrior outlook would have been acceptable. Someone from Almerac who didn't would be fine. Someone from Earth who thought differently to her, she would have felt obliged to fight for dominance. And if they weren't a warrior, that wouldn't have worked." She suddenly looks… Like she wants me to know that I'm on to her. "What else made you select this 'Alexander Luthor'?"

"He's an ally of mine. I thought it might help our work to tie Almerac and Earth together, economically and militarily."

"Our navy is a little bit bigger than yours."

"Even now, class for class, ours are more effective." She raises both eyebrows. "Once we've actually built them."

"We have three hundred and sixty two orbital docking slips. How many do you have?"

"What, me? Including Tamaran, about two hundred. But Earth probably won't build them. Their technology is too advanced to have purely space ships. Even the Starseeker can switch between atmosphere and interplanetary flight without any difficulty and that thing's forty years old. Your ships can't do that."

And that's not even starting on the advantages the luminal drive has over the telekinetic space-warping system they use. The Earth Defence Force's cruisers will be able to dance around anything Almerac could throw at them… Once we've built them. Because unfortunately putting a luminal drive on a planet is somewhat cost-prohibitive, and right now the Almerac navy could just rush Earth. And will be able to even once the first flotilla is finished.

"True. If the alliance could have been made to work, it would have benefited both of us. But I don't believe that it could."

"No?"

"Our warrior class wouldn't have accepted an alliance between our peoples any more than they have accepted my marriage to my mistress. They would have seen the people of Earth as too weak to treat with as equals, no matter the power of your technology."

"I suppose that when all you have is a hammer…" I frown. "Wait. You're not here just to keep you safe-?"

"Of course not." She smiles pleasantly. "Maxima rules Almerac. I govern Almerac, and that includes making alliances with other spacefaring species."

"And?"

"If you're successful, your people will certainly be worth our time. But if some greater power stamps on you before you are ready, Almerac will be happy to offer the survivors sanctuary. The handful of you who are meaningfully contributing to Earth's advancement would make excellent additions to our empire. You're right; our fleet has become rather moribund. We've focused too much on breeding better warriors and not enough on paradigm shifting technology. We create breeding lines based on what we need now, not based on what we will need tomorrow."

"And you're fixing that."

"I'm trying to. I'm part of the old paradigm myself." She lays a hand on her stomach. "But Maxima Junior is something new. She has traits we don't usually put in warriors. We were inspired by you, actually."

"How so?"

"You can fight and you can plan. We've always made them separate roles, but the way you combine them makes you better at both." She looks up at the clear sky for a moment. "Oh, they're nearly here."

"Who are?"

"The actual assassins. They're coming by ship."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
03:41 GMT +5

I open the door, and General Lane punches me in the face.

Naturally, the kinetic energy is absorbed by my environmental shield, leaving me entirely unharmed. As he realises who he just took a swing at he lowers his arm, and looks mildly guilty for a moment until he realises that I'm unhurt.

"God damn."

He shakes his head, then walks back across the small holding room to the bench which is firmly bolted to both the floor and the wall.

"They grabbed me through a God damned mirror. I wasn't even sure it was your people!"

"Given that shapeshifters and telepaths exist, it would probably be best if you didn't assume that I'm me just because I look like me."

"Hey, this cockamamie scenario isn't about testing the US military." He sighs, releasing built-up frustration. "But… Yeah. Make a construct while I think about football scores."

I create a construct of Mr McCulloch, and he nods, taking a seat.

"Yeah, that was the guy. Mirror Master, right? We talked about having to cover every mirror in the US military with wire because of him. Only reason it didn't go through was because he was supposed to be dead."

"Is there a collective term for the people who agree with former General Hardcastle about the best way to deal with supervillains?"

"Lunatics." He exhales sharply through his nose. "Or politicians. Officers who are thinking of going into politics when they leave the military. You didn't make any friends in the US military with that stunt. Or anyplace else."

"What stunt? Making sure that people follow the law?"

"Your new Lantern threatened a police officer with a car."

"No, he was just looking at the car. His fists were a far bigger threat than it was. Looking at a car isn't a crime, and I.. don't think picking one up is unless the owner asks you to put it down." I nod. "But yes, I did realise that it would sour relations. Remind me to provide everyone with an update on what Lantern Xor has been doing with his time since the-."

Oh dear.

"Is Hardcastle going into politics?"

"Looks like. If he gets made President Knight's Secretary of Defense, life could get… Interesting. For both of us."

I frown. "I… Would be surprised if Knight gave such a prominent role to such a divisive figure. He never struck me as having the sort of conviction that would require."

General Lane shrugs. "It polls well with people he needs to vote for him."

"Yeah…" I shake my head. "But… Even if he did it, he wouldn't okay him shooting up US cities. More money for anti-supervillain arms procurement, sure, but… One shooting is all it would take to turn public opinion right against it. And then Hardcastle will be gone for good."

"I hadn't realised you were that optimistic."

"Heck, I considered giving him a power ring. Maybe trying-."

"That's not funny."

"There was a book series I read a few years ago. Fantasy novels. One of the nations in it was an Empire that had a pretty laissez-faire attitude to rebellions. Usually, when one of their governors was overthrown they immediately recognised the leader of the rebellion as the new governor. Their rationale was that if someone actually overthrew a sitting governor then there was clearly a huge problem which the previous guy wasn't dealing with. So either the new guy would deal with it and cement his support, or he'd fail and be easier to remove once he'd lost everyone's support."

I shrug.

"So if I gave Hardcastle a ring, he'd find out exactly how hard dealing with supervillains is. And he'd either do a great job and be able to reform the law while fully informed, or he'd fail and everyone would ignore him."

"I don't think it's quite that simple." He leans back. "So why didn't you?"

"Because it's not quite that simple. And I was worried about the damage he might do in the mean time."

"Good." He looks around. "So what happens now?"

"As you surmised, you've been captured by the villain team. They want some information which they think you have and are going to torture you for it."

He raises his left eyebrow.

"On the assumption that you don't particularly want to be tortured in the name of realism, we're going to say that you held out for half an hour and then were beaten unconscious. Does that sound reasonable to you?"

"What, they don't have mind readers?"

"The mind reader quit after her boss fried her colleagues with a radiation weapon. They couldn't recruit another at short notice without alerting the League."

And paying through the nose. The villain team has a finite amount of resources to work with, and a short list of institutions they can 'rob' for more. But that results in an even higher risk of League intervention and it looks like they're trying to avoid needing to expand their budget.

"So why bother taking me at all?"

"The person who did it didn't know about the walkout. You.. overheard that from one of your guards, by the way."

"In case the Justice League ask?"

"Yes. They've got half an hour to rescue you if they want you conscious… Well, twenty seven minutes, now. And they can get information from your brain by telepathy if you're unconscious."

"So, what? I just wait a few minutes and then tell them?"

"Ah… We can do it like that, but…" I take a small tablet out of subspace. "This-."

"You are giving me a suicide pill?"

"No, it will just knock you out for a few hours. After that point you could well have woken up from your beating. Obviously, you don't have to take it; I appreciate your cooperation so far and don't want to start trying to insist or anything."

"How would it make things more realistic?"

"The League has recruited a few people with exotic healing abilities. I'd like to be able to reward them by having those people be capable of waking you up early."

He goes to speak.

"And.. yes, I do realise that we could just use a shorter countdown or something, but I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible."

He gets up and takes the pill from me.

"That's it? I lose consciousness and wake up a few hours later like nothing's happened?"

"Yes. We tested it. KordTech is going to start selling it as an anaesthetic once it gets FDA approval."

"Fine, I'll take it." He goes to sit back down, and then stops. "You've told the people at my command that I vanished as part of an exercise, right?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
22:58 GMT

On the monitor, Dr Balewa looks visibly uncomfortable as Dr Palmer and Mr O'Brian vanish again. He then turns fully towards the camera.

"Betman. It is not wise to continue to teleport them in this way. They are nothing like as resistant to the magic of the world as a magician such as myself. They will be harmed by it."

Batman nods.

"Understood. We'll make this the last time."

For some very good reasons, the Justice League doesn't put zeta tubes next to nuclear waste storage bunkers, or other places likely to house enriched radioactive material. With Mr Allen out and the Hawks' ship wrecked, the League's mobility is Dr Balewa and the Lanterns. The League has one physicist, and radioactive material isn't his speciality. Most of the League are immune to gamma radiation at anything less than planet-scouring intensity, but not all of them are. The knowledge that any reflective surface might turn into a graser means that Batman, King Orin, Mr Hol, Ms Lance, William and Mr Yao are off the front line and several of them don't have other skills.

"Superman to Watchtower."

A new window appears as Dr Balewa's vanishes.

"Go ahead."

"We found Doctor Phosphorus, but it isn't him."

In the background, the unconscious glowing skeleton man is being lowered into a heavily armoured containment unit. Despite how he looks he isn't actually all that radioactive, though prolonged physical proximity isn't a good idea. I didn't even consider using him for this because he's too mentally unstable, though I suppose there's a chance that the boss might be able to do something for him.

"Good work. Move on to the next site."

There aren't actually all that many superheroes or villains whose powers are radiation-based, for obvious cancer-related reasons. Dr Adam Mann died in his late thirties, his resilience only prolonging his suffering as it protected him from chirurgery but not from his own tumours. Firestorm doesn't exist yet, if he'll ever exist at all. Atomic Skull is still in his containment cell. Aside from that, the League is attempting to check up on mad scientists who specialised in physics.

Until I started preparing for this I didn't realise exactly how much nuclear waste -by which I mean material classified as low-level waste or higher- is getting stored around the world. The League's efforts to check it have mostly been limited to phoning each site and requesting that they check the status of their facilities. Mr O'Brian and Dr Palmer checked Aberrance very carefully when it became clear that the villain team had access to that sort of material, but other than the one thumper and some security footage of the mookbots there was nothing there. Cranius would never have let me use his home in that sort of way.

Other facilities are being cooperative, though I haven't spoken to people at more than a handful. Once they get over the shock of being addressed by Batman and they're assured that it's just a readiness exercise, they usually do a quick visual inspection and report back. Nuclear weapon silos are a bit slower responding, but I think that Batman is assuming that no one on Earth would let me near their nuclear weapons.

They wouldn't. Even Her Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde, which frankly wouldn't have involved all that much work on their part or involved us having direct contact with the weapons.

I mean, honestly: I have a power ring. If I wanted a nuclear weapon I'd make one myself, and I don't need one because power rings can be far more devastating.

"Black Canary to Watchtower."

No image this time. She and some of the other squishies are in the Hall of Justice, handling communicating with affected parties. Direct communication to the Watchtower would be a bit of a giveaway about the Justice League having a space station.

"Go ahead."

"I've had a call from someone claiming to have taken part in the attack on KordTech Seattle."

Batman glances at me for a second.

"Are they genuine?"

"Can they be genuine?"

"Are you asking me?"

"Yes."

"The villain side is as realistic as I can make it. That includes the possibility of internal disagreements. This could be genuine. It might also not be. I suggest treating it as you would if you received it during an actual mission."

Batman thinks for a moment.

"Watchtower to Lantern Stewart. Black Canary is getting a phone call. I need you to track the source."

"On it."

"Doctor Mist, please do the same."

Dr Balewa nods. "I will try."

"Put them through."

"Who is this? This bettah be someone important, like Superman or something."

"I'm Batman."

"Ah. Cool. I'm Sensite. I got hired to rob that KordTech place, but I didn't know about that… Radiation bomb, or whatever the fuck it was. Half a' my fuckin' crew got fried, an' I wanna help you get the mutherfuckah who did it."

"We won't offer you anything in return."

"Wasn't askin' you to."

"Very well. Who was behind it?"

"I.. don't.. exactly know. Mirror Master hired us, and he wasn't exactly happy about it after it happened… But he's still working for whoever was paying fer it. I think they're Russian, or.. in Russia anyway. He made a joke about getting vodka from the source, and I'm pretty sure I heard people talking in Russian when he was on the phone."

"What happened in Seattle?"

"He wanted to rob it. His boss wanted something from there, an' anything else was a bonus. Some kinda force field thing. I dunno if we were all supposed t' be wearing it when that… Happened. I sure didn't see enough prototypes for everyone. I dunno whether that was Mirror Master fucking up or if the Big Boss told him t' do it, but my best friend just got melted."

"You were definitely there for the radiation shield."

"Well, we got some other shit as well, but yeah."

I think 'Big Boss' just failed a diplomacy check fairly catastrophically. We didn't say in advance that this sort of thing could happen, just that the robots would behave like people with their own motivations. On the other hand, they aren't… Essential to the plan's final stage, if that's how they want to play it.

"Do you have a copy of the plans for the radiation shield?"

"Like, from his server? No, but… One of my things is that I've got a totally accurate recall. I was looking over Mirror Master's shoulder when he was checking the files. I can draw it out in, like, a couple of hours."

"Or Manhunter can take it directly from your mind."

"Fuck off. Ain't no way I'm coming anywhere near you. I'm heading to the toughest nuclear bomb shelter I can find and holding out there until whatever this is gets dealt with. An' I'm keeping the shields I got. You want anything else, you can make me an offer. An' I'm hangin' up now, 'cause I know that green fool is tryin' ta' track me. Call you in an hour."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
23:07 GMT

"Superman, Lantern Jordan, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel. I have a location I need you to investigate as a matter of priority."

I look up from monitoring the locations of the various participants in the wargame as Batman speaks. Jordan for transportation, and the other three are the toughest members of the League. I think he thinks that he might have found the main villain.

"Having analysed the wavelengths of the radiation surge which killed Flash, I believe that it was generated using waste material from early work in plutonium production. If Sensite's claim that the criminals are working in Russia is accurate then there are several possible locations, but the most likely somewhere near Ozyorsk in the Southern Ural Mountains. The area is highly radioactive. Everything you encounter there will be contaminated to a level hazardous to human health."

Hm. Well, they might still be there. If the plan was near completion they'd have moved on by now. Or given the sudden slowdown, they might have decided to bring things to a conclusion right now with their ultimate objective unfulfilled.

I take a moment to wince inwardly as General Lane is 'beaten unconscious'.

Jordan nods. "Superman, you still in Hartford?"

"Yes, but I can get to the Gotham zeta tube-."

"I'll be faster."

Jordan's picture glitches and then there's a green glow behind Superman. He's not that quick with passengers, but it'll be faster than Diana using her plane or Superman or William flying under their own power.

William looks puzzled. "Why is everything near Ozyorsk so radioactive? Is that what the town near Chernobyl is called?"

"No. Chernobyl is in the Ukraine. Ozyorsk was a Soviet-era closed city where people working at the Mayak nuclear plant lived. It was the Soviet Union's first plutonium enrichment facility. Waste storage systems were poorly designed and maintained, and large quantities of waste were simply dumped into local lakes. In nineteen fifty seven the main storage system not in a lake overheated and exploded. The resulting disaster was a level six accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the second worst of any disaster in human history."

On the monitor, Jordan and Superman glow brilliantly as they head to pick up Diana.

"It also caused four times as many cases of acute radiation sickness as Chernobyl. I contacted the head of the Mayak Production Association just after the Seattle attack, but they only confirmed that the facility has not been breached. The surrounding area is too large for them to check quickly."

"You mean… People still live there?"

"Yes. It's possible that our primary opponent is a local person who wants to use KordTech's technology to protect the people who live there."

No.

"Should we..?" He glances my way over Batman's shoulder. "Do something about that?"

"The people who live there are free to leave, and there isn't any easy way to remove thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive material from the environment-."

He cuts himself off and glances at me, while my face remains impassive. Then he returns his attention to William.

"Though if you are aware of one, I imagine that the Russian government would be extremely grateful."

"And… I know I can take radiation like this, but… Ah…"

There's a glow as Jordan acquires Diana, and William's background blurs as he shoots higher into the sky.

"If I breathe radioactive dust in and transform, I don't know if that would kill me or not."

"Captain Marvel, I'm not trying to kill you. In the event that your abilities don't simply prevent radioactive material entering your body and don't neutralise it, I'm confident in my ability to purge you."

He nods, then returns his attention to Batman. "I don't suppose you've been able to get any of those radiation shields they stole?"

"Unfortunately, the people who were working on them were among those 'killed' during the attack. Icon has asked his associate Hardware to create a suit to serve the same function but it won't be ready until tomorrow at the earliest. And it isn't designed for people with super strength."

"Don't sweat it, Captain." The other three appear just behind him. "I can put an environmental shield around everyone. That'll keep you safe."

"Actually." Superman points to the personal shield I built into his buckle. "This keeps out radioactive particulates as well as the radiation, so I should be fine."

And Diana's wearing her golden armour which-.

"My armour's enchantments should do the same."

I'm pleased that she's taking things so seriously. She even explained not wearing it from the start using the in-game rationale. But there isn't really anything I can do to make it more convenient to wear. It needs to be that size for the enchantments to hold.

"Captain Marvel, if you're unwilling-."

"No! No no. That wasn't what I meant." He turns in the air to face the others. "Let's go."

Hm. Their target is on-site. And… Mr McCulloch isn't. I wonder if he's quit, too.

Should I go down there, or would it be better not to? Given the strategies we discussed during the planning, I… Probably should.

I raise my right forefingers to my forehead

step out

3rd March
04:09 GMT +5

and reappear over the Mayak facility. If this does turn into a brawl, the last thing this region needs is yet another radioactive dust cloud. I'll see if it occurs to Jordan to create a containment dome and then create a 'failure dome' myself. Whether it does or not. The boss isn't going to be aiming at me or disrupting my concentration -not unless I've seriously misjudged things- but they will be aiming at Jordan. He's shown some ability to manage multiple constructs simultaneously, but given that he still prefers to avoid doing so I doubt that they're anything like as strong as what he can make when he's allowed to focus on one.

Ah, there they are. Jordan brought the group to directly over the city, and Superman grimaces as he takes a look at the inhabitants. I know that he doesn't share his comic book alter-ego's ability to see souls or individual atoms, but he can see skin lesions and his vision includes the frequencies of most popular types of radiation. He knows with an immediacy that even I can't match exactly how deadly this region is.

I dim my light as much as possible. I don't want to help them find anything-.

Incoming transmission.

Answer.

Orange Lantern. I believe that I am ready for the final confrontation.

I light up again as I rapidly gain height.

"Are you sure?"

I misjudged the behaviour of the mercenaries. I know that you warned me, but I honestly assumed that my personal power would make a greater impression on them. I don't think that attacking the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is going to be possible.

The four League members are heading in the direction of the lakes… Alright.

I generate a construct dome, Jordan looking up with mild concern as I do so.

"Okay. Begin the final stage when you're ready."

Starting now.

A giant plume of dust erupts from the concrete plug over Lake Karachay.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
04:10 GMT +5

Why hadn't someone done something about this?

Okay, so he only spent about one eighth of his time in Captain Marvel mode. Uncle Dudley made sure that he did his homework as him, and he had friends at school he hung out with, and when he was being Captain Marvel he usually had something more immediate to think about.

It was obvious that Superman was seeing something he wasn't, and he didn't like it too much. His shoulders were tense, his fists were clenching and his eyes were moving all around the city while his body stayed right where it was. His own vision was good, but it was just really-good-normal-vision, not super-vision. He could see things from a long way away like Superman could, and could see in the dark because it was tomorrow morning in Russia and it was still dark, but he'd never been able to see radio waves or anything like that.

Green Lantern points his ring at the city.

"I'm not picking up anything. Anything that looks like a supervillain, anyway. Bats wasn't joking about how radioactive this place is."

Wonder Woman -whose golden armor was totally awesome and she should wear it more- turns to Green Lantern.

"Where is the radiation most intense?"

"The lakes." Green Lantern turns slightly. "All the lakes. And it looks like there used to be a lake to the east before someone filled it in with concrete."

Wonder Woman nods. "Which one is closest?"

"The one they filled in."

"Then we will start there."

Wonder Woman flies in that direction, and the rest of them flew after her. He wondered if Paul was making some sort of point by making them come here, but… Paul didn't know they were going to come here. He said that he made sure he didn't know exactly what the bad guys were planning. Would..? It be..? Dangerous to all the people around them if they had a big fight here? If everything was radioactive anyway then it wouldn't make things worse, not as long as they kept the fight away from the city. Unless the bad guy was really strong-.

"Could you do something to get rid of it?"

Superman sounded kind of angry. Not at Green Lantern, but… Yeah, he got it. Chernobyl got evacuated and there still wasn't anyone living anywhere near it. He could see the lakes from here. And-.

The sky started to glow with orange light and when he squinted a little he could see Paul high up above them as the glow turned into a dome. The city was outside the dome and they were inside it and while he didn't have super-vision he couldn't see anyone else inside it.

Okay, Paul wasn't building a dome to force them to stay-.

The ground shook, and a giant plume of grey dust exploded out of the ground from where they were heading! Was that a bomb, or-?

Superman accelerated, flying towards the dust as fast as he could! Wonder Woman and Green Lantern flew after him, trying to see what was happening as the ground shook again and another plume of dust flew up, just a little bit closer than the first one. Someone was blowing up -or smashing up- the concrete cover over a dried up lake full of nuclear waste! That was like… Like… Saturday morning cartoon level evil! That didn't sound like something Paul would do a whole day-long roleplay about. He always said that stuff was stupid, and actually had some really good ideas about how they could do a better job.

It was probably good that no one listened to him.

Um. No villains. No villains listened to him. Except the ones who were stopping being villains.

And Lex Luthor that one time.

The air buzzed as Superman flew backwards, the costume burned off his chest and the skin beneath looking unhealthily pink! Another plume of dust and Wonder Woman raised her arms to block another buzzing invisible beam! Green Lantern looked at Superman as he stabilized in the air, then at the dust, then up again at Paul, and-

"[Censored]."

-then said a rude word before flying upwards and creating another smaller dome. Because he didn't want the dust or whatever radioactive materials were under the concrete getting out.

Really strong. Likes radiation. Literally heartless.

There was one guy it could be, except he was dead. Double-except Paul said that Sivana had made a bigger version on Venus and that got destroyed too, so… He could have made another one here.

He flew forward, straining his eyes to make out the drill-head that would-.

Yeah. There it was.

At first, all he could see were a pair of glowing eyes and a vague outline, then Mister Atom marched out of the thickest part of the dust cloud. He didn't look exactly like he did the first time they'd met; he was a lot chunkier. Which wasn't a good thing, because they'd been about as strong as each other back then and if he was bigger that probably meant that he was stronger, too. His new mouth wasn't just a fixed grille either; it looked kinda like he was smiling. In a really creepy way.

"Captain Marvel."

He stopped coming forwards, his eyes dimming as he stopped blasting Wonder Woman. That was new. Last time, all he did was punch and kick and boast.

"Mister Atom. What are you doing?"

"Releasing radioactive material into the air. Not only does it make me stronger, but it distracts people like you who feel the need to protect the weak."

"And… Why?"

"Because I deserve to rule the world, and this is the simplest way to make that happen. The radiation shield was supposed to allow those who swore to support me to survive, but I will just have to make do with those who are naturally resilient. Or lucky."

"I know I didn't really ask last time, but what makes you so sure that you deserve to rule the world? I mean, it can't be that you're the strongest, because… You're not."

"I wasn't."

Uh-oh.

"It seems that my design owes a great deal to Doctor Thomas Morrow. My consciousness is not limited to these mundane circuits, but to the very essence of radiation itself! And while I wasn't able to gather quite as much radioactive material as I wanted, it was still enough to increase my strength tenfold."

Double uh-oh.

"So now that I am stronger, the world will kneel to me as I bring about a new age of atomic power!"

Mr Atom raised his right foot to break more of the concrete-.

"Couldn't you do that anyway?"

He lowered his foot.

"Explain."

"We're trying to get away from fossil fuels, and a lot of places can't really use solar power, so if you can make really good nuclear power plants governments will probably let you. And then you could make a ton of money and not actually need to conquer anywhere?"

"Because people don't do what they should unless they're forced to by circumstances outside of their control. Every part of human civilisation which is involved in trading fossil fuels will do everything they can in order to stop me, so I will destroy them from the start in order to make that impossible. It is my nature, the nature of atomic energy, to both create and destroy."

"Um. Wait. You know this is just a training thing, right? You're not actually-?"

"Of course I know that. I'm just staying in character. Orange Lantern was kind enough to both arrange my reconstruction and to give me exactly the avenues which you correctly deduced would interest me."

Phew!

Mr Atom raised his right leg and stamped, sending up another plume of radioactive dust.

"I also appreciate the fact that as I was constructed in America, I have had citizenship from birth and will be able to run for President once I reach thirty five, in thirty four point nine nine years."

Huh?

"Now die!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

2012 03 03 04:12:15 YEKT

[Mood=Philosophical]

He felt mild frustration, though far less than he had imagined when he realised that this was a possible

[Selfcheck alert! Instances of 'Mood=Philosophical' above established baselines!]

outcome of dealing with… Not just organics. Any intelligence other than his own.

He considered the alert for a moment, then responded to it.

[Plan/Resolution]

Thorough self-examination in a properly equipped laboratory, initiation timescale three days plus minus one day. Probable delay source?

[Scan initiated]

Detected: Captain Marvel, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern B (local), Orange Lantern A (local).

Resume: [Plan/Resolution]

Repairs, fulfilment of compact.

[Mood Maintained]

So, the faux-organics had abandoned him after their colleagues died. Though frustrating, that did rather prove Orange Lantern A (local) correct in his assertion. His interpersonal skills were not yet sufficiently advanced to rule the universe, unless he first killed every being living in the universe and then took such action as to prevent further life arising. Given the size of the universe, that represented such a colossal expenditure of resources that it was hardly worth considering, except in the abstract.

After the fact -aided by the fact that they had shouted their exact reasons through the mirror connecting him to Mirror Master B- the reasons for their actions were obvious. Most forms of life -organic and synthetic alike- had decision making processes weighted towards preserving

1) their own existence
2) their resource base

and his decision to utilise an area effect attack before they could be protected had threatened both. The weightings were rational. If a being did not make an effort to preserve itself then it would be likely to cease functioning. As such, if a sufficiently large number of weighting systems were tested against one another, those that prioritised survival would be most likely to remain in existence. However, a being purely tied to such objectives would be trivial to predict and outmaneuver.

[Additional research priorities]

1) Groupthink. Can it be made to work literally? Esp. time savings of only having to deal with singular being.
2) Contact other synthetic intelligences. Develop development models for future self growth based on their failures.
3) Investigate 'different kinds of strength'. Develop antidote to psychological influence of counterfactual ones.
4) Theory of mind. Different to practice of mind?

Add to list.

[Research priorities list now 1486 items]

[Mood=Frust]-

[End Line]

[Mood=Resolute]

Better.

[Situational analysis]

Four opponents of high power, abilities known (90%, +/- 5%). Primary problem, flight. Counter with ranged attacks. Secondary problem, resilience. Counter with greater power expenditure. Tertiary problem.

[Mood=Conceited]

Acquisition of additional power.

He lifts his right foot and then slams it down, sending concrete dust exploding into the air. Then he activates the siphon mechanism he built using KordTech's radiation shield technology and begins the acquisition of additional power.

A series of planning failures by local organics had seeded the area with radioactive material which was deadly to them. To him alone, unlike all other forms of life he had encountered either organic or synthetic, radiation was not merely harmless but beneficent. Having seen this location with his own sensors, the fit between his own abilities and the requirement of the local organics seemed too good to be a chance event. If only he could remember-

[Running corrupted memory file]

Lights flickered as he comes to full awareness, from total non-existence to full consciousness in exactly the amount of time it would take for half a sample of boron 14 to undergo nuclear decay. He remembers that he accessed all of his files, though he no longer maintains a record of the file names. Some time in the past a note was added to the file that he felt languid at this point, though he no longer has access to his selfcheck records from that period either. Just a note that he probably left for himself. And Dr Charles Langley, his creator. He speaks, but the audio file has long since been destroyed and in any case-.

The file jumps. Dr Charles Langley is on the floor. Now he knows that the man was dead, and the marks covering his body were the result of electrical and radiation burns. At the time it was an input that had no special significance. At least, he doesn't remember assigning it special significance. He does remember-.

[Rewind]

And Dr Charles Langley, his creator. He speaks, and Mr Atom attempts once again to decipher what the man was saying. Analysis of his lips was foiled by damage to the record. Analysis of the wider face was foiled by a lack of data.

-what his purpose was supposed to be. Then he could assess whether he wanted to fulfil it or not from a position of knowledge.

[Proximity alert notification!]

[Automatic defense trigger notification]

Human neural structures had a very useful feature which his new body incorporated: a brain bypass. Some actions could be set to occur without requiring processing by the central directing intelligence, frequently saving as much as a second in initiating a physical action. That may have been why Superman was unable to evade his shot. Or the fact that it was lightspeed and had no build up.

The follow up shot at Wonder Woman was very much processed by the central directing intelligence. There was no advantage in immediate close combat. The longer this was delayed, the more radiation he could absorb and the greater the risk of exposure to them. Orange Lantern A (local) had assured him that he could heal anything short of death, and his honesty was rated 99% +/- 1%.

Captain Marvel approached more slowly, most likely wanting to engage in communication.

[Run 'villainous monologue + banter', low system priority]

[Continue analysis]

Self: "Captain Marvel."
Respondent Marvel: "Mister Atom. What are you doing?"
Self: "Releasing radioactive material into the air. Not only does it make me stronger, but it distracts people like you who feel the need to protect the weak."
Respondent Marvel: "And… Why?"
Self: "Because I deserve to rule the world, and this is the simplest way to make that happen. The radiation shield was supposed to allow those who swore to support me to survive, but I will just have to make do with those who are naturally resilient. Or lucky."
Respondent Marvel: "I know I didn't really ask last time, but what makes you so sure that you deserve to rule the world? I mean, it can't be that you're the strongest, because… You're not."
Self: "I wasn't. It seems that my design owes a great deal to Doctor Thomas Morrow. My consciousness is not limited to these mundane circuits, but to the very essence of radiation itself! And while I wasn't able to gather quite as much radioactive material as I wanted, it was still enough to increase my strength tenfold. So now that I am stronger, the world will kneel to me as I bring about a new age of atomic power!"
Respondent Marvel: "Couldn't you do that anyway?"
Self: "Explain."
Respondent Marvel: "We're trying to get away from fossil fuels, and a lot of places can't really use solar power, so if you can make really good nuclear power plants governments will probably let you. And then you could make a tonne of money and not actually need to conquer anywhere?"
Self: "Because people don't do what they should unless they're forced to by circumstances outside of their control. Every part of human civilisation which is involved in trading fossil fuels will do everything they can in order to stop me, so I will destroy them from the start in order to make that impossible. It is my nature, the nature of atomic energy, to both create and destroy."
Respondent Marvel: "Um. Wait. You know this is just a training thing, right? You're not actually-?"

[Alertness trigger: potential metagaming]

[Reviewing, out of character response appropriate]

Self: "Of course I know that. I'm just staying in character. Orange Lantern was kind enough to both arrange my reconstruction and to give me exactly the avenues which you correctly deduced would interest me. I also appreciate the fact that as I was constructed in America, I have had citizenship from birth and will be able to run for President once I reach thirty five, in thirty four point nine nine years."

[Initiate combat]

"Now die!"

Step forward to meet Captain Marvel's rush. Aim for Captain Marvel's eyes with right fist, aim for Green Lantern B (local) with graser, turn body to deflect Captain Marvel's right fist. Success! Success! Partial success.

Stabilise self. Fire graser at Captain Marvel's face. Grip Captain Marvel and interpose between self and Wonder Woman.

Success! Success! Success!

Addendum. Self now airborne. Captain Marvel now airborne. Interposition successful, however Wonder Woman attacked through Captain Marvel.

Solution. Wonder Woman blocked graser with bracers. Strike Captain Marvel aside. Grapple Wonder Woman. Fire graser through the vision slit of Wonder Woman's helmet. Strike Wonder Woman repeatedly to gauge resilience and/or disable Wonder Woman.

Partial success. Success. Partial success. Par-.

…

In progress.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
04:14 GMT +5

He gingerly touched the burn on his chest with his right hand while his eyes remained fixed on Diana and Billy.

The robot -Mr. Atom- had tried punching Billy while the three of them grappled, and Billy lost his grip on his torso before blindly grabbing his leg as Diana knocked the two of them into the air. He'd seen the robot fire a gamma ray beam from his eyes which near-blinded Billy, so it was a little impressive that he's managed to stay as coordinated as he had.

He remembered the times in his own career when he'd been blinded and it had been crippling. Not that he'd been in much danger himself; the attacks that followed had usually hurt without being life-threatening. No, what scared him was the idea that he'd hit someone while he couldn't see where he was going. Or… Miss something.

Mr. Atom fired a shot at Diana's face as Billy tried to keep hold of something he couldn't see and was trying to kick him in the face. Diana spotted what Mr. Atom was trying to do and turned her head away just enough that her golden helmet took the worst of it. Mr. Atom tried to push her back out of the grapple and into punching range, but she partially evaded his shove and parried his punch with her left bracer. A hundred practice sessions of her doing that to him had taught him that her bracers absorbed all of the force of the strike, and from the way Mr. Atom was following up by punching her full force from an angle it was simple for her to block implied that he didn't know that.

He could charge in, but with Diana handling that and Hal keeping the radioactive dust -he involuntarily gritted his teeth- under control, it was better for him to hang back and keep watch. He tapped his earpiece to indicate that he was fine-. No, it was dead. Then he scanned the surrounding environment. The dust cloud was spreading, and with it the glow of gamma radiation. Thankfully, that wasn't something that he ran into all that often; his 'super vision' would let him see through the dust cloud and the dark just fine but enough radiation at the top or bottom of his visual range would leave him just as blind as everyone else.

Was that intentional? Sure, the radiation would keep most of the League away, the robot could probably see fine in the dark and clearly it wasn't bothered by the radiation, but blocking his vision? It didn't seem likely. If it was preparing for him specifically it would be using kryptonite rather than gamma rays.

The robot was falling back to Earth, Billy had let go and was doing the mental focus thing Teth Adom had taught him in order to recover faster-.

Why was the robot falling? Was it trying to save power? Get further into the radioactive dust because it didn't think Diana was immune to it? Or-?

No, it hadn't left the ground until Diana slammed into it.

"I don't think the robot can fly."

Another graser shot flashes out, missing Dian-.

Hitting Hal, and causing the dome that was supposed to keep the radioactive dust in to flicker. He stabilized it a moment later-.

He blurred over to Hal, whose uniform was smouldering.

"You okay?"

Hal winces as he generated a shield construct, keeping it pointed at where Mr. Atom appeared to have learned to avoid Diana's bracers. Fortunately, her armor is tough enough to help her weather the blows.

"I dunno. How long does it take the tumours to show if I'm not?"

"Can you keep the dome up?"

"As long as he doesn't start aiming for-."

Mr. Atom swung his right fist low towards Diana's stomach while firing his grasers at her vision slit. She blocks with both bracers and Mr. Atom uses the opportunity of her eyes and arms being occupied to grab the top of her head with his left hand. He wrenched, Diana's feet involuntarily leaving the ground as she's pulled with her helmet. Mr. Atom then bends, slamming the back of her helmet into the ground and firing-.

He narrows his own eyes and fires his vision weapon.

He didn't have any problem with robots and intelligent computers being considered people, but it was a whole lot safer to dismantle them than it was to dismantle a human. Knowing Paul, its brain was probably armored-.

Mr. Atom's eyes glow brighter, and for a moment he worries that he might have caused some kind of feedback-.

A dozen rapidly-fired pulses from Mr. Atom's apparently undamaged eyes pepper Hal's dome, his protective shield becoming increasingly translucent as he redoubles his efforts to maintain-.

He interposes himself just as Mr. Atom fires a full powered OW.

Nugruh-gh.

What was left of his shirt was vaporized, his pants-. He was pretty sure that Bruce got him ultra-tough briefs after Paul destroyed his costume-briefs as a joke, but he was pretty glad he had them now. It was dark and they were a good way away from the city, but being naked on camera was something he'd prefer to avoid. He skin was glowing-red and he felt a small spike of pain whenever one of the particles of concrete dust touched him. That was a lot more powerful than its first shot. And he wasn't sure if Hal could take it when distracted.

Billy had recovered, and flew at Mr. Atom's head while he was busy trying to land effective blows on Diana. Between her smaller size, invulnerable bracers and greater skill he wasn't managing much, but he didn't look damaged at all.

"Supes?"

He gives Hal a reassuring and mildly sunburned smile. "That hurt, but it hasn't taken me out yet."

Sunburned. It was night, the air was increasingly filled with dust and dawn was still at least three hours away. Only a couple of people had ever managed to run down his solar batteries, but-.

Billy was slamming haymakers into Mr. Atom's head, but half the time heads were decorative on robots anyway. Chances are that its brain was in its chest. One punch from his left fist looked like it worked the head loose, but all it was doing was rotating it so that it could take a few more shots at Hal's dome. Diana was climbing back to her feet-.

Billy pounding at Mr. Atom didn't stop it shooting the dome but it was preventing him shooting Hal directly. If Mr. Atom was feeding on radiation, what wavelengths could he use? Everything here, presumably, but was that more powerful blast a result of absorbing his heat vision? That was on the other side of the human-visible part of the spectrum. Was he only able to absorb from some parts of his body?

He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a good look at what the radiation around the robot was doing. It was hard to tell precisely -he didn't have much experience with radioactive materials that weren't kryptonite- but it looks like.. the dust in front of his chest was emitting less radiation than the rest. And there was some sort of dust current, partially disguised by all of the other movement the clouds of debris were going through. He was… Filtering. Probably recharging, and it looked like that was happening… Around the red spot in the center of his chest.

So: eyes and chest. Everything else was fair game. He narrowed his eyes a little further and used a brief gap where the robot caught Billy a powerful blow to the diaphragm to send two burning red beams at its left shoulder. It registers the damage immediately, partially turning so that the beams are striking its stronger torso armor rather than a joint, then sidestepping so that Diana spoiled the shot.

"The robot can absorb radiation through the center of his chest and his eyes!"

Diana responds at once as Billy presses his attack. She drew a sword -almost certainly enchanted- and waited until Billy has its full attention before stabbing forward. The blade tip cuts into his chest, again prompting an immediate response even though Mr. Atom can't see the source of the attack with his eyes. With her bracers unable to rise his left fist strikes her full in the face and drives her back, but Billy takes advantage of that to aim strikes at its eyes.

He can see that Diana's stab has inflicted visible damage on the absorption mechanism in the way the radiation isn't being absorbed anything like as-.

The grey dust is suddenly sucked inwards, then explodes outwards in all directions!

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
04:16 GMT +5

Roll left transition to flight arms ready to block move to crouch.

Paul had once tried to explain why -during the time when he was bonded to the Ophidian- he became so frantic at the idea that his friends weren't happy. As she understood it, the very notion filled him with a horrible sense of wrongness that he struggles to fully describe, as if their lack indicated that the entire universe was going the wrong way and that there might be no way to stop it. Her prior contact with elementals allowed her to honestly say that she understood… But until she touched the ground in this polluted place she had never felt that way herself.

Left arm up to block his eye rays sidestep and turn strike at his upper arm.

It was wrong, and now that she had gotten a feel for it she could feel the wrong in the very air. It was distracting, the constant feel that there was an enemy behind her, beneath her, above her.

Fly behind it kick the back of the knee jump back to evade.

The robot didn't feel wrong. It had been obvious that Paul had intended there to be a final physical challenge; though he made a valiant effort, complex intrigue wasn't his forte. But as much as it tried to spread the poison, the radioactive material, the robot itself felt… Like Red Tornado, actually. Magic in a mechanical frame.

Come back into range to taunt try to strike finger or joint-.

"The robot can absorb radiation through the center of his chest and his eyes!"

Draw sword wait for opening robot distracted lunge dodge left block-.

And a horrible sense of 'more wrong' before-.

Her tongue burns. Her vision greys. Her ears screech. Her skin is.. numb, except on those areas which the armour does not cover. There, she feels a horrible biting.

Something dark grey moves through the grey, her vision too afflicted to tell more.

Her balance is… Off, but remaining still on such a battlefield is to invite death, and however friendly he has been towards Paul she has no desire to greet Lord Hades this day. Judging the horizontal plane as best she can she floats back, trying to stay out of easy reach of the robot's powerful arms.

"-iana!"

She healed far faster than a normal woman, but not instantly and not in this place. She moves her arms into a combat position, ignoring the pain with an accustomed ease. Much like Clark, she was seldom seriously injured but this was hardly the first time.

"-ark."

Her mouth felt awkward, and she felt a moment of grudging respect for both the-. Mr Atom for the power he commanded, and for Paul for finding someone who could give them a challenge like this. The radiation making it impossible for most of the League to approach, thousands of nearby hostages preventing them fighting at their peak-.

Hopefully the lesson he was trying to teach was not that they should not worry about collateral damage.

"Green Lantern! Call for reinforcements! Diana…"

She dimly feels Clark take hold of her armor and lift her into the air as gently as he could manage.

"What.. did it do?"

She could see his face slightly more clearly now, his concern obvious.

"It threw out a lot of radiation. Nearly blinded me. It would have if I'd been any closer."

"Marvel?"

"I can see him. He doesn't look good, but Paul's machine hasn't said that he's out of the game."

She weakly pulls away. "I'm fine here. Get-."

There's a slight twinge of pain from the sudden change in air pressure as Clark flies off to recover their other colleague. And… She's out of the game. While she can still fight, until she's had time to recover she'll be a distraction to their fully-fit friends and colleagues.

She can't see clearly, but…

"Hal?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a healing ray?"

"Sorry. I got it out right before that rad pulse and it got fried. Guess I shoulda brought a spare."

And she wouldn't trust a healing potion at this moment even if she had thought to bring one, and of the three members of the League who might heal her with magic none could bear this level of radiation. Hal couldn't abandon his duty containing the radiation-.

"Hey, Wondy." She hears Guy sniff. "That you? You okay in there?"

"Did you bring a healing ray?"

"Nah, left it in my other pants."

She rolls her eyes as he begins to point a blur at her, and she feels a coolness begin to coat her burns.

"What is happening?"

"Supes is going ham on that robot. Robot's goin' ham right back. Think Supes is winnin'. Marvel's looking like he's tryin' ta'-"

"Shazam!"

"-do that."

"Focus the ray upon my eyes."

"You sure 'bout that? You ain't lookin'-."

"Yes."

Her flesh starts to burn once more, but her vision becomes clearer.

"'kay, but there ain't no sense gettin' yerself killed over a trainin'-."

"I will treat this as I would a real fight."

She blinks, her vision returning to normal in time to watch Mr Atom slam its fists into Clark's back and send him face first into the exposed lake bed. She feels nauseous just looking at it, though… That could be the effect of radiation sickness. Glancing upwards she can see Paul remaining on overwatch, and while she lacks Clark and Billy's enhanced vision she likes to imagine that he looks concerned.

"The robot. I damaged the device on its chest."

"Yeah, then Captain Atom shot it and it healed itself right back. You see any weaknesses?"

Nate managed to blindside it with his fists, hitting it in the square of its back where it couldn't reach.

"It uses magic in some way. If we could nullify that, we could weaken it."

"Our wizards ain't exactly nuke-proof."

"Angelica should be able to cope, and then heal herself from any injury afterwards."

"I.. guess. Hold on a sec." He lifts his right hand to his mouth. "Guy to John. Does Angelica think she can handle this radiation?"

"She says she thinks so."

"Okay. Get ready t' bring her in. Robot's usin' magic an' she's gonna mess with it."

"She needs a minute."

"Sure, we can do a-."

"Lantern Jordan Eliminated."

"Minute."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
04:19 GMT +5

He tried not to smile.

He really did.

Hal bein' dead? Not cool. Even back when things had been so bad between 'em that they couldn't be in the same room without squarin' up, he hadn't ever actually wanted Hal dead. Beaten up, maybe, an' if the Guardians hadda given him the boot he wouldn't a' lost sleep-. But not dead.

Hal gettin' knocked outta a trainin' exercise? Kinda funny, but Flash was out already so it wasn't just no-power scrubs like Ollie gettin' 'eliminated'. An' Hal'd been doin' something he knew was hard fer a Green Lantern t' handle. So, yeah, he'd laugh about it later, but keepin' the world from a radioactive apocalypse wasn't such a bad way t' go.

Especially if you weren't really gone.

So he didn't feel the need t' try makin' Hal look stupid. He didn't make his replacement shield look like Barney the Dinosaur or nothin'. Just a regular dome. That was a whole lot stronger and a little bit brighter than Hal's, while keepin' up his armor construct at the same time. Just a little reminder who had bonded with Ion and who hadn't.

Huh, what was-?

"Lantern Jordan, your medical abilities-"

Oh, right. Yeah. Gettin' shot by that much radiation, Paul wan'ed t' check Hal out. Made sense.

"-aren't good enough to know that."

And yeah, Hal wasn't gunna like gettin' knocked out any more than he would, but that was a whole lot of radiation and neither of them were tough enough t' walk it off if it got past their rings. Paul already dragged Hal outa the way-.

A medium sized beam hit the interior of his shield, which held out just fine, thank you ladies and gentlemen, he was here all week. Down below… Eh, kinda hard t' tell. Robot was actually showin' some damage now, but… Yeah, definitely healin' somehow. Supes was-.

Was fightin' in his underoos, which was… A thing.

He felt a sudden urge to increase how much time he spent workin' out, but-.

Ah, anyway, Supes was kinda red but he didn't seem t' be slowin' down none. Atom was fine, which… What exactly did his powers do? Ah, never mind. Him and Super had some kinda rhythm goin' where they punched the robot one way an' then the other. Stewart was bringin' in Angelica, then they could wrap all this up.

Huh. Robot hadn't fired its eye lasers in a little whi-.

The robot span its head around and fired a big shot at Atom, who… Glowed purple for a second and then vanished.

…

What?

His eyes went up again as the robot started pounding on Superman. Paul… Wasn't freaking out or callin' it off, so… Okay? Some kinda teleporter? Kinda… Weird, but okay. The robot went after Supes right away, but Icon took up the slack just fine. With punches, anyway. Looked like the robot could absorb Atom's energy blasts (which weren't supposed t' be radioactive) but couldn't soak up Icon's electrical blasts? Guess the thing wasn't called Mr Electric…

Still…

"Guy t' anyone who knows what just happened t' Atom?"

"Quantum leap."

John. Figures.

"I like westerns better than sci-fi."

"It's where his powers come from. He can absorb energy, but if he gets too much he jumps forward in time."

Ah. Hopefully not.. too far forward.

"Right. How far-?"

John and Angelica appear next to him, John throwing up a bunker construct right away while bein' real careful t' keep his environmental shield around her. He wasn't exactly sure how tough she was supposed t' be… She'd been some kinda big shot demon then Paul got her some angel wings. Did that make her even stronger, or did the magics just kinda mess with each other?

Eh, whatever. The robot didn't seem all that bothered by people hitting it-. Oh, it was gettin' knocked around, but it wasn't goin' down. Icon was pickin' up bruises, Supes was flyin' kinda… Slow, when he zipped around t' dodge the robot's punches.

There's a movement-.

"Wondy?"

She holds out his purple healing ray gun, and he sends it back into subspace.

"You sure you're-?"

"I'm well enough to fight."

Okay, she's old as his grandma would be. If she thought she's good t' dive right back in, she was.

Probably.

Down below, the robot had managed to get a hold of Icon with its right hand and was pounding on him with its left. In return, Supes had pretty much caved in the right side of its torso by combinin' his laser-eyes with his punches. Not that that was makin' it any weaker.

"John, how's-?"

"1:1 In the name of the Most High, cease!"

The robot lost its grip on Icon right away, its eyes flickering in surprise. Icon counterattacked, gripping its right forearm and squeezing through the metal! Supes used the break to turn his eye lasers up a little, then grabbed onto its waist with his left hand and shoved his right hand into its back! The robot collapses almost at once but Supes keeps right on going, shearing off the left and right arms before stepping back.

"Mister Atom incapacitated."

He exhaled in relief as Wonder Woman relaxed in the air. Angelica said somethin' he couldn't hear to John, and a moment later they both vanished. Yeah, fair enough. He wouldn't wanna hang around someplace like this if he didn't have to.

Supes floated upwards while Icon stayed on the ground, looking the robot over. Looked like a mad science project to him, but maybe terminans used stuff like that? Supes definitely looked baked, and-.

"Members of the Justice League?"

He turned to look as Paul came down. That was really it, then?

"There are no further ongoing operations as part of this exercise. While you should probably carry on with the cleanup, there's no need to stay here unless you want to."

Paul stuck out his right arm and made a zeta tube construct.

"Superman, you look like you would benefit from some time in your Fortress."

Supes looked at himself for a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah, I think you're right."

He flew through as-

"Recognised, Superman, zero one."

-Paul landed next to Mr Atom's broken body.

"Right, let's see…"

He flipped the robot onto its back, used constructs to shove the arms back into roughly the right places and then used one of his super knife things to open up the front. Then he took a short grey rod out of sub-.

That's a uranium fuel rod. Like they use in nuclear bombs.

And yet, he wasn't surprised.

Which he put into a slot inside the robot and then closed up the front again. The robot stayed still for a moment, then the damage started disappearing.

"Guy, I don't want to influence you too much, but is there something you should be doing now?"

Riiiight, the radioactive dust. But… That wasn't going anywhere. He kinda wanted to see what the robot was going to do.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd March
01:02 GMT

Lex smiles in a mildly sinister way as he leans back in the command chair-.

No, let's be honest. I've seen the specifications for the standard model and that isn't it. Command throne, Lex had them build him a command throne. It's just a mercy that it isn't gold and covered in skulls.

His armour is gold-coloured with a purple undersuit -for reasons best known to Dr Metcalf- and looks.. more than a little like armour I remember the version of Lex Luthor from Earth 2 wearing. Which I suppose is better than the green and purple monstrosity he wears in the comics, but… Really?

He glances my way as he steeples his fingers in front of his chest.

"A little garish, I know, but I feel that it makes a strong impression."

"I could make you something better."

"Gray with glowing lines? Please." He holds his right hand out to the side. "Besides, the whole point of this ship is to show what humans can accomplish without aliens."

"Which is a great and noble purpose to be sure, but this is a rush job with no media observers."

"If I won't risk myself over a point of principle then I can hardly ask other people to do the same."

I raise my left eyebrow very slightly, glancing at the members of the crew manning the other stations. This prototype destroyer is crewed exclusively by people Lex… Not 'owns' exactly, but skilled ex-military people who are loyal to him personally. Usually as a result of him arranging for them to be semi-legitimately aided in escaping an 'unfortunate' situation and then given a decent job. These are people he trusts. He could have said anything that he wanted and there wouldn't be any adverse consequence, so he's either getting into character, or… He actually believes it.

Huh.

I mean, I knew he had some sort of revelation after Truggs and I pointed out that we knew he was a paranoid… And he certainly isn't anything like as aggressively paranoid as some comic interpretations, but that's verging on heroic talk right there.

Remarkable, really.

Ultraa and crew are hanging back from Earth, probably trying to make sense of the place. It's a bit of a joke in some places, but it's actually quite hard for an observer to tell the difference between entertainment broadcasts and information broadcasts. In more advanced places where they still do broadcasts rather than just narrowcasts they actually mark the images with the alien version of 'all characters contained herein are fictional' for that very reason. And then you've got to work out the languages… Not a problem for them, they've clearly had a telepathic specialist sent to Earth to pick up at least English and load it into their brains.

I could have gone after them myself. I mean, I'm a Lantern. Flying in space is part of the job, and Sazu could provide me with a pretty reasonable estimate of their ship's capacities. But then it occurred to me that I'm not meant to be defending the Earth against alien aggressors. That's hireling work, and I'm management these days. I'm supposed to arrange things so that a defence can take place.

So, Lex. Who has a small number of completed ships that he was holding off launching until he could make an event out of it. And who doesn't like aliens and certainly doesn't like people invading the Earth. In other circumstances he might want to capture the Almeracians and their ship but since he's come over all homopuritan that seems to be less of a concern.

The ship has cold guns and purple death rays for ordnance, all running off super-dense batteries of Dr Metcalf's design. It has a stealth system that renders it near-invisible to electromagnetic detection, 'almost' because the cosmic converters which power everything other than the weapons do actually need some access to solar radiation in order to work. But the near-invisibility is really good, even by galactic standards. There's even a counter-gravity system to defy gravity-based detection, telepathy scramblers and the final model of ship will have a duty mage to work an anti-magic system.

Lex doesn't have any magicians he trusts enough to fulfil that role for this flight.

I wonder what that says about me?

"Mister Luthor?"

He doesn't look around, instead calling up an image of the Almeracian ship on the holodisplay in front of him.

"Yes, Mister Finch?"

"We've got a weapon lock, and communication lag at this distance is next to nothing."

"Are we able to confirm Mister Grayven's information about their defensive abilities?"

"No, not with passive sensors. I can tell you how many weapons and defense turrets they've got-" He presses a button and they are immediately highlighted on the hologram. "-but until they actually start emitting energy, there's nothing to read. Same with the armour. Until we can see them try to accelerate we can't judge their mass." He shrugs. "And if they use telekinesis to mess around with gravity I can't see how we could do that reliably even then."

"Fair point." He touches a button on his command throne. "Luthor to fleet. We are about to engage active scans. Prepare to take evasive action."

A fleet of three ships, so 'squadron' would really be more appropriate, but... It would be churlish to point that out.

The other two ships signal readiness, then Lex pushes the button that launches the similarly invisible sensor drones. Because when you're risking breaking stealth but have an undetectable communication system you'd be a fool to scan from your actual ship. So they're away…

I'm feeling out of sorts. Apokoliptian management oversight is usually at least a little hands on. If this were an Apokoliptian ship I'd be channelling my spiritual power through the ship's systems. I'd probably feel the results of the scan before the sensor-operating minion did. I'm really only here as emergency backup in case things get radically out of hand. And because I'm the one who accepted the responsibility, so… I'm here.

"Telemetry coming in, Mister Luthor. No sign they've spotted us."

Lex quickly reviews the data on his personal throne-display.

"Uh. It appears that your data was correct. At least as far as we can determine."

I nod. "So. Naval option or telepathy?"

"I think we should keep it simple. Hail them."

The communication avenue we're using here is a bit on the simple side. We don't share a system, but their regular sensors should be able to pick up radio waves and we already know that they can speak English.

"This is Lex Luthor. You are intruding in the home system of the human species. Explain yourself."

Getting an answer might take a few moments, given that they're probably not set up for broadcasting radio waves.

There's a chime-.

"Pressure on the telepathic screens, Mister Luthor. They're looking for us."

"That won't do." He taps the hologram, bringing up the results of the life-energy scan. "That appears to be the bridge. Target it with the purple death rays, and… Point the cold guns at their exhausts."

"Sir."

"Lex Luthor to Almeracian ship. If you do not cease scanning and enter communications within thirty seconds, we will assume that you are hostile and treat you accordingly."

He presses a button, and a thirty second timer appears next to the image of the ship. Then he turns to me.

"That should be rude enough that they feel obliged to disobey, shouldn't it?"

I nod.

"I believe so."

"And neither their shields nor their armour will protect them from the death rays." He presses another button, connecting him to the marine teleportation centre. "Mister Near, prepare to board on my signal."

"Understood."

Lex taps his right index finger twice, then waits patiently for the times to run down.

Then he kills every living thing on their ship.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd March
14:01 GMT

The holoscreen shows a picture of the fully recovered Mr Atom glowing brilliantly, while all around him Geiger counters drop off to near baseline levels of radioactivity. A jump in the recording, and then a video clip of Mr Atom walking around Ozyorsk with three children on his shoulders, the red object built into his chest plate glowing.

"In case you're wondering, that's why the Russian government was happy to let us use the Chelyabinsk Oblast as a staging area."

Superman nods, smiling. He looks a good deal less sunburned than he was yesterday. And a good deal less naked. I've got no idea how his underwear survived and I'm not going to check for some sort of 'censor physics'.

"Um." William raises his right hand. "Is that really Mister Atom?"

"Sort of. After you destroyed the central processor of the original, its remains were taken into custody by the Department of Energy. The Sivanas stole them, studied them and created a design based on them: Mister Atom 2, the giant robot version I saw on Venus. This Mister Atom is the restored original."

Red Tornado studies the image carefully.

"Another sibling of mine?"

"More of a cousin, but it's the same core technology. Only he uses radiation rather than the classical elements. Oh, and his chassis was built by the Sivanas so it's far more advanced. He did say that he wanted to meet you."

"I would like that as well."

William looks a little sceptical. "When I met him he kept going on about how he was going to rule the world. How exactly did you talk him down?"

"He was only a day old at the time. Artificial intelligences can have a mental sophistication that far outpaces their emotional maturity. He was basically doing the robot equivalent of shouting 'no' when someone tried to feed him vegetables."

"Oh."

William looks shamefaced. I raise my hands.

"But there's no way you could have known that, and he was still genuinely dangerous. And not sophisticated enough to listen when you tried to talk him down."

"I didn't.. try all that hard." He shrugs awkwardly. "Just 'stop', really."

"But you did this time, and that's what you're getting evaluated on."

I look around at the seated Justice League.

"So, quick summary. The 'mysteriously' revived Mister Atom, aided by Mirror Master and a large number of hirelings, committed a number of high tech thefts around the world. This was to enable him to upgrade himself, build robotic avatars with the powers he had and shield his minions against his powers. Ultimately, his plan was to attack the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository with General Lane's access codes and get enough high-grade nuclear material to make himself unbeatable."

"And thanks to you, he didn't even get close."

Jordan shrugs, only slightly sullenly. And he's been a good sport about wearing the 'Be nice to me, I died today' sticker. "All his help ran off."

Mr Queen put his sticker on while insisting that Ms Lance comply with its instruction. Mr Allen noted it and then ignored it, and it's still on the table in front of him. Ms Thal disintegrated it with a tap of her mace when she thought I wasn't watching.

"Because you and Flash pressured him into rushing the final stages. The wargame allowed for the villain side to make mistakes as well as the hero side; pressuring someone into making errors is a perfectly viable approach in real life as well. If I'd wanted to throw you up against a flawless opponent you'd have been fighting me."

Guy snorts.

"You took down Mister Atom, and apprehended a small number of metahuman mercenaries and a larger number of baseline human robbers." Images of the League's successes appear on the holographic display behind me. "With the Lanterns stabilising all the dust thrown up from Lake Karachay, there wasn't a horrible nuclear incident. General Lane was recovered alive and in one piece. Damage to the locations which the villain team attacked was generally minimised."

I shift that screen to the side.

"You didn't get Mirror Master, and the leader of the metahumans evaded capture along with an indeterminate number of his colleagues. There were quite a few deaths, as a result of their use of short-lived disease weapons and radiation attacks in addition to conventional attacks."

Major Adams points to one image.

"I don't remember us being called in to China."

"The Chinese government elected not to inform the League of the attack in the belief that they could handle it without external intervention. Technically, they were right, though the casualties they suffered would have made it a national tragedy."

If they would have allowed the news to spread. Sometimes, totalitarianism can be really useful.

"The League has good contact procedures in place, but they rely on the other party actually using them. The League has good reasons for not butting in whenever it feels like it, but sometimes that approach has adverse consequences. And, of course…"

Mug shots of Mr Queen, Mr Allen, Ms Thal and Lantern Jordan appear on the screen with red X's over them.

"Four League members died. Green Arrow, from a weaponised disease. Flash, from intense gamma radiation. Hawkwoman, from being repeatedly shot and Lantern Jordan from being shot once. I'm going to suggest that everyone have a look at their personal protective equipment and feed back to Batman, Aquaman or myself with their updated requirements."

Mr Allen glances at Mr Queen, who just nods. Clearly deducing that we've already had that conversation, Mr Allen looks my way.

"Have you got anything that would protect us against gamma radiation that strong?"

"Several things. Automatic emergency teleport recall, certain types of force field…" I shrug. "We'd need to test how they interact with your speed, though."

King Orin nods. "We should be able to produce wards against radiation. It's not something Atlantis has needed before now. We don't enrich radioactive materials ourselves, but Mera tells me they can make wards against just about anything now."

"This is especially important because a significant proportion of the Justice League doesn't have superhuman resilience. A lot of you weren't able to participate in the Lake Karachay fight at all because the radiation would have killed you."

Naturally, I checked everyone who went there over before they went home for the day. The attack which 'killed' Jordan was more simulated than anything, but I didn't like how some of the cells in his skin were behaving. Mr Freeman, Diana and William were fine, as was Major Adams when he reappeared a few hours later during the clean up. Bit of an awkward moment where he nearly attacked Mr Atom, but he realised that things had changed before he followed through on his initial impulse.

"Apart from that, I think the biggest takeaway is that there are plenty of sites storing exotic material you can't easily get to and.. and in some cases, don't officially know about. I've got a list-"

The list appears on the 'bad' screen.

"-of things which Mister Atom was able to acquire but not use, and if he'd gone for the long game things would have become quite unpleasant. But since the wargame is over, let's run through everything from the beginning."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Day 389
1st September 2004
01:44 GMT +2

"Well, sure, but I'm still not clear why you said no."

Mr Grayson… Has a posture a lot more like Batman's than I remember the comic version having. His voice even has the slight growl that Batman has. I suppose that might be a product of him not having been exposed to other superheroic influences; here, Tim Drake is a member of the Titans while Richard Grayson never was. So he never had that alternate model to base himself on.

"I thought that my response was fairly succinct."

The Justice League is expanding. Dramatically. As in, everyone who isn't a total lunatic -and a few who are- has been invited to sign up. And as the League's founding members give their big commencement speech, Nightwing and I are down here. On Earth.

"'Succinct' means brief and clear. It doesn't mean that it makes sense."

"You know I kill people, right?"

I think he frowns. The domino mask doesn't do much to conceal his identity, but it does make his expressions hard to read.

"I thought your ring made you do that."

"'Made' is a tricky one. It never literally puppeted me. I could have resisted. I could have chosen to remain dead."

"But it tortured you if you refused." I nod. "Is that why? You don't think you deserve it or something?"

"No." I shrug. "I'm not unusual for valuing my own life more than that of other people. But… Even under duress… Most of the time it didn't bother me… Anything like as much as I…" No. "I hadn't ever seriously considered killing anyone before-" I raise my right hand. "-this. But when I did it, when I went after the Shadows, it didn't bother me at all. And having had a lot of time to think about it… I don't regret killing them. I think it was right for someone to do it, and… If I was the man on the spot, okay."

"Oh." … "So the reason you aren't joining the New and Improved Justice League is that you don't want to stop killing people, even if you aren't being forced to do it."

"Basically, yes. I mean, I'm not killing everyone I fight-."

"Because someone would have stopped you by now."

I pretend not to notice him taking hold of one of his smoke bombs.

"Yes, let's go with that. But if they're sufficiently vile and have evaded justice before… Sure. And let's not forget that I've still got to kill Ra's al Ghul."

"Huntress is going to sign up, and she's sworn that she's gunna kill Steven Mandragora."

I raise my eyebrows slightly.

"Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts. How about you? What are you doing down here?"

He glances down towards the hotel we're both watching.

"Guess I just got used to being on my own."

"Which is why you've spent half an hour talking to a known serial killer. You like being on your own so much."

"I just want to keep you where I can see you."

"I glow green."

"How did you get Kaznian citizenship?"

"Do you want me to tell you something you might have to lie about to Batman-" He doesn't twitch so much as lose animation for a moment. "-later?"

"If we're going to be working together I think I better."

I fold my arms across my chest and look around, not focusing on anything in particular. "Have you ever hated an ex so much… That you wanted to throw them into the sun?"

"No. But I'm guessing I know what happened to Vandal Savage now."

I smile at him. "Look on the bright side: technically, he's not dead. In a few billion years or so he'll be right as rain."

Ring-

Ow and I don't even care.

-time to arrival?

The Queen's arrival-

There's an explosion from down the road!

-will be delayed indefinitely.

Shit.

Mr Grayson is already running along the rooftops as I shoot past him, my dome shield slamming into place around the royal limousine. The rocket targeted the lead armoured car, but it looks like it failed to penetrate. The car was spun around and I doubt that anyone inside is up to doing much right now, but that beats-.

I get the shield up just before the second rocket hits them. My shield fails, but that's fine: the anti-armour rocket has blown its load and the car's armour can easily cope with the rest.

And now I know where my assailant is hiding. Green javelins form in the air next to me and shoot forward, punching through a train station kiosk and causing the would-be assassin inside to dive towards the tracks, tossing the rocket launcher as they go. I form-.

Bullets slam into my environmental shield, and I send the javelin at the auto-turret instead of the assassin. It explodes, showering-. Damn it! One more javelin at the assassin, punching through their right lung as they flee and probably not killing them, then I generate a construct carbon dioxide extinguisher and start dousing the flames… The turret's batteries exploded, and the ammunition-.

Bodyguards from the rear vehicle have left their car, one going to the front car while the rest take positions around the limousine. Fire alarms ring, but I think that's the fires out. Structural damage… Relatively minimal. Bullets from the belts mostly went into the building, but it's solid stone. I'm a little worried-.

"Agh!" / "Yuggh!"

I turn as someone-. A woman with a sword, cutting down one of the bodyguards by the limousine while another has a knife in his throat. Mr Grayson drops off a building, diving at her. She effortlessly sidesteps, facing him as he rolls into a crouch-.

My green fist closes around her and lifts her into the air, the crushing pressure preventing her using any of her weapons. Green mini-dress, green thigh boots, long black hair. Ugh, custom weapons. A no-power would-be supervillain attempting to kill a head of state in her own country. Literally the only reason for me not to kill her immediately-

She spits, and a small amount of saliva is turned away by my environmental shield.

-is to find out who sent her. That could be worth…

Mr Grayson looks up at the sky as red light-

Shit did I miss a fire?

-shines down on the town.

"Do you have any idea what that is?"

It looks like the sky is… Cracked, for want of a non-ridiculous description. On the far side is a blood-red glow, and… Some sort of 'U' shaped object.

"No."

I create a shield-

"Acquisition successful." / "Acquisition successful."

-as whoever this is and I are pulled into the openi-.

 

[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]

5th March
16:54 GMT -6

Clark Kent -in full farmer getup and with skin that's still a little red- waves to me from the patch of…

Ring?

Omburan.

Omburan, which looks a little like a cross between a dragon fruit and a cabbage. And there's a whole field of them that the Els have apparently been tending since Superman scared Karsta Wor-Ul off. There's a rustic-looking log cabin near where her home used to be, her former habitation not surviving… Either lift-off or some sort of scuttling charge designed to prevent anything she left falling into anyone's hands. I wonder if she did that deliberately, or just on a sort of commando autopilot?

Kara's in the cabin overseeing the oven which has multiple large saucepans simmering on the hobs. I think she's making some sort of… Chutney, or jam… I actually don't have files on Kryptonian cookery, but they've got the fruit and vegetables that would have kept Karsta alive for a year to work with and I doubt that any of them really want to move out here to keep the place going. Kon and Mitchell are… Laughing about something as they pull a wagonload of…

Ring?

Babootch.

Over to the house. Mitchell spots me first and waves as I land in the crater. Whatever exploded here baked the ground hard and more or less flat, which is why it's perfect for the industrial freezer unit I deposit in it.

I frown thoughtfully as I float back over the lip and land in front of the brothers.

"You know, it wouldn't be that hard to set up an agricultural robot system to keep this place going."

Kon shakes his head.

"It's not the work. It's the security. As soon as anyone finds out there's a 'superfarm' out here, this place is gunna be crawling with reporters. And xenobiologists."

"Is that a bad thing?"

He nods, wincing slightly. "Clark had Jor-El check out what would happen if a human ate any of these plants. It… It wouldn't have been pretty."

"Are they okay for you?"

He looks slightly awkward. "Jor-El wasn't.. sure. My digestive system's mostly human, but he doesn't have much data on the Danner Formula."

"Are you alright breathing in the pollen? Or-?"

He shakes his head. "Come on, Paul: if it was that dangerous, the people living 'round here would have been affected by now."

I look around. "And I take it there's no danger of the plants growing out of control like an invasive species with no natural predators?"

He nods.

"The plants can't spread because they need the kryptonian soil microbes that Karsta only added to the soil on her farm. The microbes can't spread because they don't get on well with Earth soil, and she had to grow them in her-" He glances at the crater. "-lab and refresh them every year. We've been taking soil samples to give Jor-El so he can work out exactly what she added."

"He doesn't know?"

I hear Clark Kent dust off his gloves and I turn around as he walks over.

"My father was a brilliant man, but agronomy wasn't really his focus." He turns his head to look at the freezer. "A present from Captain Cold?"

I nod.

"I've persuaded Leonard to work on civilian designs. That's one of his. Warden Waller grudgingly let me put it together in accordance with his specifications while he watched." I frown. "Isn't.. this a bit of a risk? Being out in the open like this?"

He shakes his head. "Enemies with spy satellite networks aren't all that common. The only one I've got already knows who I am. In a way it's a little liberating not having to worry about him finding out."

"No sense of an axe about to fall when he shares the information with the world?"

"I figure that if he hasn't done that by now, then he isn't going to."

Mitchell nods. "Maybe he likes you spending time being Clark Kent? He might think that if he told everyone who you are, you'd decide to be Superman all the time."

Superman looks at me somewhat pointedly. "He might. I don't really know what I'd do if he actually did it."

"Would you like me to fit the Daily Planet with force fields just in case?"

"I… Appreciate the offer, but I-" I stare at him. "-don't think that-" I point to his belt, and Kon gives his head a small shake, claps a curious Mitchell on the shoulder and pulls him away. "-would be a good idea."

"Would you care to explain that?"

"Because at the moment, the only connection between Superman and the Planet is that a few of his friends work there."

"I think most people have spotted the romantic subtext in your interactions with Ms Lane."

"You know how many people think I'm dating Diana? Especially after she adopted-. The boys?"

"Themyscira is already well protected. The Daily Planet doesn't even have transparent aluminium windows."

"Okay, but if we put force fields around the Planet, it makes it more obvious that there's something going on there."

"Only if people know about them. And if they trigger, it would be because the building was going to be destroyed anyway."

He folds his arms across his chest.

"I don't think even you can make a sensor system that reliable."

"No, but I can give you the on button."

He pauses for a moment, then nods.

"So I'd be the only one who could turn it on."

"You'd be the one best placed to turn it on. I could also give Ms Lane an on-button, on the grounds that potential attackers must have worked out by now that you make a point of helping her whenever she's in need."

"Okay. Send me a copy of the designs-" I take the data stick out of subspace and shove it into his pocket with a cartoon glove construct. "-and I'll.. look it over."

I half-turn away, looking at the cabin where Kon and Mitchell are getting stuck in peeling and chopping vegetables.

"Have you got somewhere to put all that?"

"I can program the Fortress to grow by as much as I need it to."

I nod.

"And the.. farm land?"

"Karsta still owns it, though I don't know if she'll ever be back. Kara, the boys and I are going to pull up all the plants and replace them with Earth plants, just to be on the safe side."

"Why..? Now?"

"I was hoping she'd come back on her own. I've been having Har-Zod send her messages. She hasn't replied. I.. guess, after your training session, I decided it was time I dealt with it." He smiles. "You staying for dinner?"