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

[Mr Zoat]

29th July 2013
10:46 GMT

The one guy you're trying to avoid at a party…

Metron leans slightly forwards in his chair. "You're not supposed to exist." "Tell me your secrets."

"And you're not supposed to be blue, but you don't see me hassling you about it. Don't feel bad though: multiple time travellers have had no idea who I am either. I've actually sponsored an archiving project on my homeworld-" One run by Dubbilex. "-to try to ensure that as much information as possible survives our next disaster because clearly future historians have no idea what they're talking about. Can I interest you in some Sheeda body parts?"

He glances aside, perhaps contemplating the offer. The he returns his full attention to me. "No, I have some from their last Harvest. Though I suppose that I should thank you for increasing their rarity value." "Show me your nature."

"Anti-Life transmission pillars? We have quite a few."

"P-lease. Who do you think designed them?"

… Ah… "I was hoping it was Virman Vundabar, but I can't say that I'm surprised."

He actually looks mildly offended. "That small-minded sycophant? His mind is as monocular as that ridiculous eyepiece he wears."

"And… Why did you devise a way to spread the Anti-Life faster?"

"So that Darkseid would allow me to study it. He's usually exceedingly jealous of it, but the opportunity to spread its effect without needing to be personally present was too great a lure."

"More likely he hoped you'd fall under its thrall."

"Then he hopes in vain. But returning to your own anomalous nature, I would appreciate an answer." "ANSWER ME!"

"You haven't exactly sold me on your moral probity. But…" Ring, strip me.

Compliance.

From the other side of the 'party', Alan turns away from Ganthet to give me a puzzled look as my armour and outerwear vanish, but I wave him off.

Metron seems somewhat taken aback by the sight, whether that's because he's unusually prudish or because even he can't change mental directions that quickly.

"See these marks?"

"I'm familiar with most forms of magic."

"See how they're designed to throw off detection and gradually build up power?"

"Yes. But that shouldn't erase you from the minds of time travellers."

"Yeah, but I've been exposed to a lot of weird energies over the last couple of years, and it's designed to absorb all of them. And the orange light does that even more strongly." I have the ring restore my clothing. "Temporal energy, the Anti-Life itself, the Dream… I don't think anyone's done anything quite like this, so… Who knows what it could do?"

"An interesting puzzle. Would you object to-?"

"Yes. You designed the Anti-Life broadcasters, and hence cannot be trusted. Excuse me."

I turn away, feeling a little warm at his disgruntled expression. Hardly just recompense for what he did to Earth, but I'll take it for now. Highfather is talking to Appa Ali Apsa, and they seem to be getting on. Malvolio is talking rather stiffly to Chaselon while Priest is giving pointers to the recruits. Ogandu Onna Oslan is staring off the side of Supertown while Guy keeps an eye on him. I can feel the immense capacity for mental focus within him, but it's… Blurry. I think that's an indication that he doesn't have anything to focus on, exactly. Flying head vanished once the transformation was over, and gold armour is… Watching me, though now that I've moved away from Metron he appears to be a little more relaxed.

"Guardian. Alan."

"That guy hassling you?"

"Turns out that he designed the Anti-Life broadcasters."

"You-." He turns to glare at Metron, who appears to be silently contemplating matters. "What?"

"He's completely amoral. I'm surprised in the specific, not in the general." I clap my hands together. "Guardian Ganthet! I think the three of us are overdue for a talk."

"I agree. Follow me."

He rises into the air at speed, Alan and I following swiftly at his heels. We reach just to the edge of the atmosphere before Ganthet stops, creating a shield around us.

"There. We may now speak privately."

Alan looks mildly puzzled. "Okay? Paul told me you might be working on blue rings yourself."

"I am. I had thought that pairing Blue Lanterns with Green Lanterns might grant them an alternate viewpoint to guard against institutional groupthink. Green Lanterns have a proud history of service but I have noticed over the long millennia that they can sometimes be excessively bullish. Furthermore, the green light does not in itself guarantee that they will be morally good people. I cannot help but think that if we had been less blinkered we would have noticed the direction Thaal Sinestro was heading in early enough to intervene."

Alan shakes his head. "I don't think any of Earth's Lanterns are in any danger, except maybe Carol."

"She was like that when we got her. Also, thank you for not saying me."

"Don't mention it."

Though maybe you could have mentioned Batman. But… Conversation for another day.

"How did you persuade a Weaponer to make it for you?"

"Weaponers feel hope. Just not over things anyone else would actually want to happen."

Ganthet nods dejectedly. "I did not think that would work. It has been some time since I have felt hope for myself."

Alan frowns in concern. "Why's that?"

"Becoming a Guardian reduced my emotional range. We are all profoundly rational beings."

Alan considers the idea for a moment. "I don't know that I'd want to live like that."

"I can change, but that would involve leaving my current responsibilities and brotherhood, and even with our lost brother returned to us, I do not think that would be wise. Still, if you are willing to share your personal lantern's data, it would assist me in my own project."

Alan looks to me for advice.

"I don't see any harm in it. Guardian Ganthet's a good person."

"It is kind of you to say so."

"Alright." Alan calls his lantern out of subspace. "Sure. Fill your boots."

"Oh, ah, Ganthet?" He turns to me as he raises his right hand towards Alan's lantern. "Have any Green Lanterns been near Daxam recently?"

His eyes flicker green. "Do you mean 'inside the system?" I nod. "Not for several years. They have made their desire for isolation very clear."

"Huh." I nod. A dead end, then. Disappointing, but… It happens. Still, I know who I can talk to to get more information. "Okay. Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th July 2013
23:38 GMT

Ken Lee starts in a very understated manner when I appear in front of him, before regaining his composure. "Oh El."

I blink at hearing him call me that, and for one strange moment consider the idea that Wallace might have visited here before me.

He raises his eyebrows. "Did I say something untoward?"

"No, I was just puzzled by the appellation."

"An abbreviation of your title 'Orange Lantern'. We shouldn't be disturbed -my wife took our children to visit her parents- but just in case we receive a surprise visitor I don't want there to be anything to overhear or-" He glances at my ring. "-see, which shouts 'alien'."

I nod, moving my rings to my toes before switching my clothing to something local-looking and minimising my environmental shield. He checks me over, then nods.

I look around at his… Home? Wood and plaster rather than stone or brick, but well made. Some of the more backwards parts of Themyscira are built like this, and the Daxamites don't have the advantage of indefinite lifespans. I don't know if being a lawyer would be a full-time job here or if he'd be a smallholder as well… But I probably don't need to.

"So."

"So, you want information."

"And you appeared to be a rational man when we spoke on the Watchtower."

"And you didn't kill me, despite having cause."

"Outside of the Reach war zone, I'm primarily a police officer. My aim is to detain criminals, circumstances permitting."

"And yet you had that powdered lead ready to go."

"I knew that it would remove your powers and that it wouldn't kill you quickly. So it made a good low-lethality weapon."

"Hm." He nods. "I can tell you what I know, though that isn't everything. And-."

"You want something in return, yes. This isn't my first one of these. How much 'not everything' are we talking about?"

"I…" He sighs. "I'm not an Elder. I'm not involved in the decision-making when it comes to our reliquaries. Not… Usually. But I have done some work for the Yat family before, and Cara Yat consulted with me on the matter of precedence relating to their use. Then, when the Eradicator Program was activated, I was… I had a front row seat. As I said, I wasn't making decisions, but I was included in the councils where they were made."

"Alright, that sounds useful. What is it that you want?"

He looks away from me, towards a family portrait on one of the walls. Just below it there's a wooden chest, inside which-. Children's toys in wood and metal.

"Having children… Changes your perspective on some things. I'm not… Cara Yat's approach-. That's not how we usually do things, I don't want you to get that impression. I know it's difficult for her, her son being a heretic, but she was obviously being hysterical in how she was handling it. Or…" He shrugs. "Maybe I'd be like that if it was one of my daughters. I hope not, but I suppose I won't ever know."

"Ah."

He turns back to me. "Mm?"

"Oh, I just thought… Never mind."

"I'm not abandoning my people, Oh El. I watched some of your transmissions when we entered your system." He shakes his head, whatever he saw clearly having disturbed him. "I will choose my words with more care than Cara Yat and say that your way of life is not for me."

"O.. kay..? So what are you asking this alien to give you? You're not getting the Doomsday, if that's what-."

"No."

"I can give you an emergency beacon, in case someone comes here in more force than your defences can repel."

"That-. That would be nice, but that is not what I want." I make a circling gesture with my right hand. "When our forebears came here, Kem-El infected us with a retrovirus that altered our DNA. We are cultural puritans. This is… Ever since I was told of his evil in my earliest schooling, it is almost as if there's something… Crawling, inside my body."

"You want me to turn you back into a regular kryptonian?"

"Myself, and my children. Can you do it?"

"Not your wife?"

"I'd like her to, but she considers being touched by alien technology to be worse."

"Or anyone else?"

"There's no one I could tell, not unless I wished to risk accusations of heresy."

"True ones."

"A few seconds under the effects of your ring would free me from a lifetime of Kem-El's retrovirus. Neither choice is entirely pure, but to my mind one is better than the other."

"Alright. Ah, do you have samples of Kem-El's retrovirus?"

"No? Do you need it? There might be preserved blood samples in the reliquaries, but I don't know for certain."

"Ideally, yes. I've only seen the genetic codes of a small number of kryptonians. Kem-El's work was clearly something that he intended to affect both the then-current generation and their descendants, which means that it affected your gametes. Without more samples, working on you would involve a good deal more guesswork than I'm comfortable with. If you're desperate, I might be able to do what you ask without them, but I don't think that's a good idea."

"I.. don't really know anything about how viruses actually work…"

I frown. "So how do you know what a retrovirus is?"

"I suppose I.. don't, really. We're just told the name and a rough description of what it did."

"Do you know what DNA is?"

"Again, not…" He shakes his head. "Not really. Do I need to know that?"

"Technically, no. Alright, do..? Are there any devices on Daxam which can detect power ring scans?"

"Not to my knowledge, but… Given what has just happened, I don't think anyone would be surprised if you were in the system and checking up on us."

"Fair point. Ring? General scan. Get me genetic profiles."

"Compliance."

Oooooooh. Huh. Right, so… That bit related to… The length of that molecule, which… Okay, that makes… As much sense as this sort of thing tends to. So if I sub out that part-.

Ah, yes, I see why it killed people. The side effect of doing that with a retrovirus… It wouldn't be as clean as a power ring.

"Yeah, I'm not… Taking a risk on that with what I know now. How long is your wife away for?"

"Four days. I gave us a margin like that because I thought that you might want to enter a reliquary."

I nod. "I can get more samples within that window. If I can't work it out from that, I'll… Try consulting with a specialist. Good day."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
16:22 GMT

Superman flies closer as I manoeuvre the last part of the Doomsday into position.

"I want to apologise."

Eradicators may be powerful for combat androids, but they aren't at the level of an actual empowered kryptonian or a competent Lantern. For better or worse our guests have been sent home, and the people of Daxam are masters of their own fate again. We even let them take their ship back with them, because they've got centuries of evidence that they're not going to actively threaten anyone with it. After leaving Ken Lee I fabricated some warning beacons in case of anyone poking around the system and then… Came home.

I check that it's a good connection and that the ship's crystalline regenerative systems are mending the gap.

"What for?"

"I nearly killed you."

"Kal-El, you had your mind rewritten by the Eradicator Program. I don't blame you for that any more than I blame Kara for what she did under the influence of the black kryptonite. Don't worry about it." Wait. "No, that's not quite right. Don't worry about nearly killing me. Do worry about how easy it is for that type of kryptonian technology to control you."

"I have been practicing the theta-wave state. It helped a little with the Anti-Life. But it did nothing at all to stop the Eradicator Program."

"Yes, it boasted about that. Did Har-Zod have anything to say about it?"

"He didn't even know it existed. Kem-El didn't go out of his way to tell anyone what he'd done or leave records, and neither the kryptonians or the daxamites wanted anything to do with each other." He sighs, his breathing mask briefly fogging from the moisture. "And isolationism made contact impossible."

"Did he have any ideas about how to stop it happening again?"

"Destroy the emitter before it can finish."

"Sound advice. Would you recognise it if it was happening again?"

"I.. don't know. I think so. I hope so, but I can't be sure."

"Perhaps you could ask-?"

He shakes his head. "I already spoke to J'onn. The theta-wave state would stop any sort of telepathic programming working properly. And normally that would be all I'd need, except that the Eradicator Program is better at it than I am."

"I was thinking of using magic, actually. It should be possible to create a mind-protection spell, especially now that Metis is active again."

He nods. "I'll talk to Doctor Mist about that."

"I don't suppose that you kept… The Eradicator Program's knowledge of how to manipulate construct energy, did you?"

He looks at me slightly awkwardly. "Not.. as such. I couldn't do it now, but I… I can sort of see how it could be done. Sorry."

"What?" I frown. "No? I didn't realise that Torquasm could be used like that, but I'm glad that you're improving. Don't stop learning on my account."

"I thought you'd be more worried about it."

"Yes, and if you weren't you then I'd be a good deal more concerned. But you are, and as long as you stay you then there's no problem. But… Maybe don't share that with Kara Two?"

"She hasn't really.. been taking part in the lessons anyway, but if it helps..? Is she really that much-"

"Yes."

"-work..? Ah, okay, in that case, thank you for keeping an eye on her."

"I can manage. Any plans on what to do with the ship?"

"Not really. It's too big to dock with Xenon or my Fortress. It sure won't fit in my apartment in Metropolis. I don't think the Daxamites would use it-"

"Sir-."

"-and I'm not really comfortable with them having that much firepower. Do you have any ideas?"

"That depends on the A.I.. Lantern Yat could use it."

"He's a little.. young."

"Oh, I don't mean that I'd send him into combat right away. But he could learn to use it, and then when he reached adulthood we'd have a nifty ship to use against the Reach. Alternately, we could send it to Lantern Ranx and let NEMO's research and development teams look at it."

"Do you think this is the only kryptonian ship left?"

Ah… "The Science Council ordered the navy scuttled, and I didn't see any ship remnants when I was in the Rao system. So, probably."

"Then I think I'd rather keep it in this star system. It's an important part of kryptonian heritage."

"And Earth could do with a decent warship. Do you intend to learn how to pilot it yourself?"

"I probably should." For the first time in the conversation he smiles slightly. "If only for the expression on Luthor's face when he finds out."

"I imagine he's making some fairly interesting expressions now, knowing that you beat his best power armour without breaking a sweat."

31st July 2013
11:24 GMT -5

I carefully study the revealed internal mechanisms of the battered power armour. And I smile.

"Good work, Doctor Colchin. I assume that you're working on improving the next generation?"

Doctor Colchin nods as he continues studying the telemetry data. "Yes, Mister Luthor. There really is nothing like field test data for identifying areas of weakness."

31st July 2013
16:24 GMT

"Ah, the self-repair has finished. Do you want to go on board?"

"I think I'll wait until all of Earth's kryptonians can get together. I just wanted to be here in case something went wrong. Did you know that Luthor has been asking-. Well, demanding, that we let some of his people take a look at it?"

"After he broke the law by not declaring it in the first place? I didn't know, but I'm not surprised. Why?"

"Because his researchers know more about kryptonian technology than anyone else."

"That may actually be true. But I think letting Har-Zod interrogate its A.I. is a better idea."

"And so do I. Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

I nod. "I plan on spending some time with Jade. It's been… Pointed out to me that I haven't been doing that enough lately."

He nods. "Have fun. You could use the time off."

31st July 2013
23:31 GMT

"Batman." Since Jade's exo-mantle includes scry wards and she hasn't taken off her helmet I'm not completely sure what her expression is, but I can guess. "You're going after Batman."

"Sort of."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
20:34 GMT

Jade looks at me mildly reproachfully. "I had that."

I look down at the… Okay, that is a Scarab Warrior, but from what I can tell it's one of the lower end ones. Looks like they stuck it on a local man without doing any of the preparation work or indoctrination because that shouldn't have been as easy as it was.

I look up at her, smiling. "I'm certain that you did. However..." Got it. "I can prevent this Scarab self-destructing and- "

The armour peels itself off the host, retreating back into the Scarab. I deploy a construct and pluck it from the man's spine.

"-capture it intact."

She looks curious. "How?"

"I can bypass previous generation anti-construct defences and alter the Scarab's desires, and since the Scarab now earnestly wants to help it volunteers."

"Hm." She nods, half-turning to where the rest of her squad are detaining the rest of the paramilitary militia. One looks at the Scarab floating in my construct clamp and sags in defeat. "How about current generation defences?"

"No luck yet. They self-destruct if they move outside of prescribed tolerances." I watch as the paramilitaries are cuffed and manacled before being handed over to the local security forces. I could just look it up, but… "What did this lot do?"

"Their group bombed a recruitment centre and murdered off-duty soldiers."

"Are they..?" I tap the side of my head with my right forefinger and she shrugs.

Jade shakes her head. "We haven't found any signs of it. There's probably a training cadre somewhere in the mountains who are, but most of them are true believers."

Ah. My eyes dip for a moment. "That's a shame."

But it's not a surprise. The Reach love mind control in every form. Purging it from places where we know it is, worlds newly brought under their control? Simple, if not easy. Once they're firmly in control they only take things slowly when they really have to. But we've been expecting more subtle efforts to spring up everywhere ever since the war began, and they haven't disappointed.

And sometimes it's not them at all.

Sometimes it's casualties, or the economic drain, or old industries becoming obsolete or being forced to work with their old enemies. And it's not like there are many sources on the Reach outside of NEMO so how do they know they can trust us?

Sometimes it's purely internal, and rational. Just… Incorrect.

"How are they going to handle the trials?"

"Maximum openness. Everything will be broadcast, with summaries on every news program."

"Likely response?"

A small smile. "A tour of the front lines so they can see what we're up against. Then, it depends how they respond."

"Is that the local punishment, or how Darkstar counterinsurgency wants it handled?"

"Mm. We advise, but it's their decision."

I nod. Then everything's working as it's supposed to.

"Vandal Savage appears to be working with Apokolips. Still."

"Are you sure he's not just using left over technology?"

"He had a squad of Apokoliptian commandos under his command. Now, they could have been working as mercenaries, but given the late Queen Bee's contact before Mannheim started hogging their attention I think that's unlikely."

"Is Darkseid trying to attack Earth again?"

"I.. don't know. I'd say that I doubt it-. I was assuming that he'd give it a little while. I mean, he left us alone since the Renaissance…"

She flashes me a crooked smile. "Maybe you're too interesting to ignore?"

"Maybe. Ah." She looks closely at my face with a small frown. "I-."

"You haven't been ignoring me. Artemis and Mom live on Earth and I understand how important what you're doing there is."

"In… This instance, I was hoping to hit two birds with one stone."

She smiles faintly. "This should be good."

"I'm not much of an investigator. And.. I'm.. extremely concerned about some of the things Batman's doing while we're working on reconstruction. It would be… Helpful to me if you'd accept temporary reassignment to Earth. With a.. team, if you think it's appropriate."

She thinks for a moment. "Two birds."

"I miss you. I miss you not being around. I know we'd.. both be working a lot, but…"

She nods. "Still regret the five year thing, huh?"

"Yeah." I sigh. "I don't want you to ever think that.. I don't. If I could have thought of a better way for you to fulfil your professional ambitions I'd have suggested that-."

"Like what, Paul? Be honest."

"Infiltrating the Black Suns?"

"With who?"

"One of the… Sector's governments? I'm sure we could find.. someone doing something like that."

She looks at me fondly, but she's clearly not convinced. "There isn't always a perfect answer, Paul. I barely accepted the Darkstars. I only did it because I knew I wouldn't be getting any favors. If you'd persuaded someone to include me in an investigation just because you asked, it-. Wouldn't have worked."

I sigh. "Yeah."

"But…" She looks around as the rest of her squad hang around at maximum eavesdropping distance. "Since we're finished up here, I… Think I could accept getting reassigned. For a month or-"

I dart forwards, wrapping my arms around her.

"-so-."

She rolls her eyes, but fondly. And she's smiling properly.

"You'll need to arrange quarters for the rest of the squad."

"My place in Bir Tawil has plenty of room. Lanterns Coutara, Taranna and Yat are staying there."

"And is Kara still living next door?"

I nod. "With Bleez."

"Does she still do the thing with her towel?"

"Not.. really. It's on the equator. A towel's kind of… Superfluous."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

I nod. "Yes. You should."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
21:02 GMT

I smile as Director Jeddigar walks into the room. He's.. not wearing his usual suit-. "Director, I hope that I didn't wake you."

"I wouldn't worry about it." He sits down opposite me. "I've been sleeping much better since we started pushing the Reach back. I think I owe you a few hours."

"Well, thank you, but this isn't urgent. It could have waited."

He shrugs. "I'm awake now. What is it that you want?"

"I want to borrow a Darkstar investigation team for action on Earth. I'm not an investigator, and the people I would usually go to may be compromised. I intend to use them for… Perhaps two months? And since the only human in the Darkstars is-"

"Your lover."

"-Jade-. Yes. Ah. Look. I realise-."

"You realise that I assumed that you were asking for a favour when I gave her a position, but your culture frowns upon that sort of 'horse trading' and she does actually have the skills required for the job. And that you are actually asking for a favour now -Earth not being part of NEMO- but that while it is convenient for you she really is the best person to send?"

"That... Mostly. Earth has a great deal of Apokoliptian technology and while I've been assuming that the people still using it are sourcing it either directly or indirectly from Apokolips, it's entirely possible that it's actually coming from Grayven."

He raises his eyebrows. "Is it coming from Grayven?"

"Probably not. But humans are far more compatible with New God technology than most species, so it would actually make sense for him to try something like that."

"May our enemies ever live down to our hopes for them."

"It would be nice. So, is that a problem?"

"No, I'm happy to sign off on that-. I assume that she'd rather take her current squad?"

"Unless there's someone you think is particularly suited to it, yes."

"No, I try to avoid employing insane people as Darkstars." He smiles ruefully, and I mirror his expression. I suppose it is hard to see what sort of person would flourish on Earth. "But I imagine that they'll need time to adjust. You'll make the practical arrangements?"

"There are so many investigations going on that no one will be surprised by me turning up with a squad. I've already expanded the trade post Manga Khan built… Expanding it a little more won't take more than a few minutes."

He smiles, giving his head a small shake. "I'm not quite used to how much you outperform other Lanterns. That should be adequate. I'll draft the order at once. Unless there's anything else?"

I shrug. "Nothing from my end. Is there anything you think I need to know about?"

"Some of the Effigies have begun sparring with the more aggressive Lanterns. Lantern Ragnar has things under control, but it seems that there might be competition between your organisations as they expand."

I shrug. "We're both drawing from a limited recruit pool. Not everyone can both use an orange ring and not be driven mad by it, and not everyone is going to want to be turned into an effigy of themselves. We already assign Lanterns to roles based on how they think rather than the fact that they're Lanterns. Incorporating another form of heavy combatant into our order of battle isn't going to be that hard."

"And the NEMO Council?"

"Presumably, Jevek Jos Jar gets the third Controller seat, but that's up to them. We can think about there being a dedicated Effigy seat once there are a few more of them."

"That would give us an even number."

"If the vote is ever four to four we should probably rethink the proposal anyway. If you're asking what I think we should do if it was a problem, then I suppose giving a seat to an independent Controller would be the thing to do."

"You could give up yours. The Darkstars have one while the Orange Lantern Corps effectively has three. Vril Dox himself usually casts three votes."

"And virtually all decisions are unanimous anyway. Is this a matter of pride, or is it actually a problem?"

He takes a moment to think hard about that one.

"Both, if I'm honest. I know that the Darkstars weren't capable of holding the line. I know that my hope that our actions would promote some sort of unity amongst the Reach's neighbours was entirely unrealistic. But a lot of Darkstars have died attempting to achieve that thankless task."

"And a lot of our initial intake were Darkstars. In.. fact, I think a majority of our squad leaders are former Darkstars. Ring?"

"Former Darkstars account for forty five percent of non-commissioned officer positions in the Orange Lantern Corps."

"Ah. Guess we've had some promotions."

"Substantial increase in recruitment from member world militaries. Lower peak output balanced by superior discipline and combat theatre awareness."

"That's news to you?"

"General recruitment is Clarissi Dox's responsibility. But… Yeah, okay. I don't object in principle to losing my seat if that actually makes things easier." He nods. "Have you..? Given any thought to what you want to do after the war?"

"After-?" His eye widen, and then he blinks. "Retire probably, if I'm still alive."

"And the Darkstar organisation?"

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure. Pick the next most vile thing in the galaxy and switch to fighting that? Switch to the Sector system? We'll have to see who's left when it happens, because a lot of Orange Lanterns are only with the Corps to fight the Reach and I don't want to assume commitment beyond that. Or they'll switch to reconstruction, which will probably take the rest of their natural lives. And unlike the Green Lantern Corps we don't replace one for one."

"The next most vile? Apokolips?"

"Apokolips requires special skills most Lanterns probably won't be able to learn. I was thinking Spider Guild."

"Mm." He nods. "That's certainly worthwhile. I suppose that the Darkstars might work as a NEMO-wide policing and intelligence agency. We're effectively doing that now."

"That's certainly worthwhile as well. I do want this power bloc to outlast the war." He nods, more in acknowledgement than agreement. "Well." I stand, offering him my hand. "Thank you for your assistance."

"Think nothing of it." He shakes my hand, then something appears to occur to him. "Will I be getting reports from the team?"

"Ah… Yes? Perhaps not immediately, as it's hard to guarantee transmissions against Earth technology, but certainly once they get back. It shouldn't affect anything here, but I suppose it's worth reading for their performance reviews if nothing else."

"Ah." He nods, apparently satisfied. "Then I hope that your investigation is successful. Goodbye, Illustres."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
23:26 GMT

I nod respectfully at the hologram of Venus Sivana. "Thank you, Professor. Ah. You don't think that Thaddeus Senior would have… Set any defences to active, do you?"

"Oh, don't worry. If he has, they'll only activate if you try and enter the habitation section or leave."

The man himself isn't on Earth at the moment, and apparently the only one who spends any time there outside of Family Day is Thaddeus Senior himself. So the others left the security in his hands. And if I want to have an actual private conversation… Somewhere that emphasises what I'm saying, there isn't anywhere better than his home away from home.

"Did he update the program to recognise me?"

She nods. "I'm sure he has. He's usually very good about that sort of thing."

Behind me, one of the Darkstars starts to look concerned.

Not Jade though. She started looking concerned when I mentioned the name 'Sivana'.

"Well, it'll be a teaching moment if he hasn't. Thank you for your help."

"We both owe you a great deal for bringing us back together. He's changed so much, it's-. Really, ask us anything."

Behind me, Jade's expression doesn't change but she isn't quite able to prevent herself shifting her weight slightly to her right foot.

"Goodbye, Professor."

I end the call and generate a zeta tube construct before turning to the Darkstar team. "Now-."

Jade raises her eyebrows. "'Sivana'."

"I've been to Thaddeus Sivana's places of work before. The automated defences are really just there to keep out casual thieves."

There's a moment of hesitation, and then the Darkstars raise their masers and form up for a breach.

"Paul, Doctor Sivana might have put you on the guest list, but the rest of us aren't on it. The League of Shadows used to have a rule that if we saw any sign that he was around we were to abandon the mission."

"He's mellowed out a lot."

"Illustres?" A Darkstar with skin of blue crystal glances at me. "How dangerous is this human? I thought that your species were only just entering the space age."

"I'm not totally sure that he couldn't -if he put his mind to it- build a weapon capable of unmaking all of reality. His younger son lives on Maltus and is outperforming the q'ardajin at scientific comprehension and weapon crafting. I've taken my eyes off his younger daughter and that may have been a mistake. He kidnapped a version of himself from a parallel universe to act as his guidance counsellor."

"You didn't read the human file?" A red-scaled Darkstar with an unusually flat head looks at his colleague in surprise. "My last Senior Agent had us all read it. Just in case, he said."

"I thought it was a joke."

"It's not a joke." / "It wasn't a joke."

I smile at Jade, who avoids meeting my eyes as she dons her helmet and engages her cloak. "On three."

The others signal affirmative, and don their own helmets. After a three count I feel the zeta radiation discharge as it conveys them across the universe. I count off the seconds until they arrive at the destination-

And consider why zeta gates aren't a common form of interstellar travel.

-before closing the construct down and

stepping out, homing in on the thin residue of Sivana-themed desires around Venus from their earlier trips there by spacecraft, the actual facility having long since been warded by things that I don't want to test. And then

it's back into the material universe and down through the clouds and towards the facility's main hangar. It's… Pretty, dropping through the raging death storm that's Venus's upper atmosphere and then it fades away as you get underneath it and you get a clear view of the layout of the whole place.

Pretty good way to hide the place, actually. Not a lot of sensors are going to detect much of anything through the storm. Even a shielded probe would probably be destroyed by it. You'd need a special hostile environment probe, and there's nothing on show from space that would make you think there's anything here to see.

I fly into the outer part of the hangar and signal the base computer. And… Two mechanical arms unfold from the walls, some sort of glowing scanning field appearing between them. It passes over me and the arms retract back into their vestibules. Then a-.

A small exterior panel slides down to reveal a hand scanner.

Alright. I doff my right gauntlet and press it to the scanner. Line up, line down, someone was in a retro mood when they made this. Green flash-. And an environmental shield deploys around the hangar exterior, a wave of force pushing the accumulated dust outwards. Only then does the exterior door open, retreating into the floor and roof.

Can't hear any shooting, so I'll take that as a good sign.

I fly.. slowly enough that the computer systems shouldn't mistake me for a missile or William, but faster than usual because it's been a couple of minutes and Dr. Sivana isn't a predictable man. A few Sivanadroids are still active, but everything else seems to be in standby mode as I'd expected. The zeta tube aperture should be-.

And that was a maser shot!

I pick up speed, grabbing a passing Sivanadroid with a construct as I shoot around the corners.

"Sivanadroid."

"Ready for-."

"Update guest list. Include Darkstar squad."

"Command prompt rec-."

"Sivanadroid, dismissed."

I set it down just before the final corner, hoping that's enough to-.

BOOM!

What?

Anarky dives across the kitchen, throwing some sort of-.

Thing I destroy with a point defence construct just as he reaches the boom tube aperture, vanishing from sight as the tube collapses.

Jade materialises a second later, jabbing a stun baton through the space the aperture was occupying a moment before. "Damn it." Her eyes lock onto me. "That was Anarky."

"Lonnie Machin, yes. I had.. no idea he was here. Did you see-?"

"A man in a blue trench coat and the Sane Hatter?" The other members of her squad walk out of a nearby corridor, and the flat-headed lizard shakes his head. "Yes, and they escaped too."

I can't help but smile. "Welcome to Earth."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
23:30 GMT

"It's a shame they couldn't stick around, actually. We're going after the same person." I gesture to the kitchen seating. "Take a seat, this isn't going to be-."

"Batman." Since Jade's exomantle includes scry wards and she hasn't taken off her helmet I'm not completely sure what her expression is, but I can guess. "You're going after Batman."

"Sort of."

Flat-headed lizard removes his helmet, and after a brief hesitation walks over to the table and pulls out a chair. After a brief comparison between his leg structure and the ergonomics of the chair, he perches on it before addressing me.

"Batman. Your people's de facto ruler and the Justice League's greatest strategist."

"It sounds like you read the file correctly."

"Our objective?"

Jade heads to the table, takes a seat and removes her helmet, and that seems to prompt the others to do the same. "Not assassination."

"Goodness me, I hope not. I mean, plan for it, in the sense that it makes sense to have contingencies for as many possible outcomes as you can, but that's definitely not what I'm aiming for. No, you're here to try and work out what he's doing and why, and provide me with that information. I'll decide what to do about it after that."

I take a hologram projector out of subspace and lay it on the table, setting it to generate an image of my solar system.

"Batman has a space station constructed at least partially of New God technology here-" I have the map display a ping. "-and he's using it to command and empower a legion of enhanced mind-scrubbed reconstruction engineers."

Flat head-. Darkstar Larksh, recoils. "Mind-scrubbed? I didn't think your species had that technology."

"We could have done it with a sufficiently powerful telepath and a good deal of time, but from the description that I've got that isn't what's happening here."

"I didn't think humans were telepathic, either."

"Less than one in a million humans are telepathic. Which means that every single human you meet might be telepathic, but that most of the time your anti-telepathic techniques won't do anything."

The squad's single clicker undulated in disbelief. "Is there not a register?"

"Not a reliable one. In some countries having unusual abilities is considered a private affair unless the individual chooses to go public with it. In others, they'd like to have a register, but since the technology to reliably test for it don't exist they're pretty much stuck using other telepaths to probe for it and that's impractical unless there's existing evidence of telepathy within a small geographic area. And of course the next planet out from the sun has a couple of billion telepathic shapeshifters on it."

Two members of the squad look to Jade for confirmation. She nods.

I fabricate data sticks for each of them and float them over.

"These contain… Everything. There's going to be a lot of background reading, but I'll give you a summary and then open the floor to questions. Seven months ago Earth was occupied by an Apokoliptian patsy and the population was exposed to a broadcast mind control meme. We fixed that, but the damage to every aspect of our civilisation was severe and our systems of governance underwent a partial collapse."

Calpri -the blue crystal Darkstar- nods. "Which is worse than a total collapse, because the parts that are left can't do their job but won't cooperate with you."

"You've done policing on reclaimed worlds?" An affirmative shimmer from them, and affirmative gestures from of the others. "More or less, but here it's more that we're trying to work with the parts that are left because they're part of our cultural traditions. Coming in as an external party is quite different."

Jade's controlling her expression quite well, but there's a small frown on her brow. "Is Batman bypassing the remaining governments?"

"Yes, but that's not my concern. That could just be a short term thing for a year or two. My concern is that it's radically out of character for him. I can see how a great strategist might find himself thrust into a position of autocratic authority after a crisis, and how that crisis might change him, and if that's all that's happened then so be it. But there are a lot of unnatural influences around here and I need to eliminate those as the source."

"Now, while you're doing that, I have other investigations that you can use as cover for activity on the surface. They're not your primary objective, but anything you learn would be useful. The immortal caveman Vandal Savage lent a group of Apokoliptian commandos his personal starship to take them to New Genesis recently to retrieve a very dangerous biological sample. Some friends and I stopped that… Mostly, but Savage himself is still at large and I want to know how that ship fell into his possession. Who knew he had it, and what else they might have gotten from the same place. While Earth has a somewhat functioning judicial system, the crimes he's committed are severe enough that there's a great deal of leeway in investigating him. The other ongoing investigation I've got going on is the aftermath of a custody dispute, but that's fairly low urgency."

I have the hologram ping the location of the Daxamite ship.

"After over a year, Lantern Yat's mother came looking for him. Almost the moment he arrived on Earth, which is a long way from Daxam. I'm investigating the Daxam end of things, but-."

The clicker rasps for attention. "We can go there and interrogate them."

"Read the file on Daxamites first."

She clicks twice to call up the file on her exomantle's computer.

"Oh."

"They're fanatically xenophobic, and we're still not sure what all of their reserves of pre-isolation kryptonian technology can do. You may decide to visit their planet, but do so with extreme care."

Larksh twitches. "What other NEMO assets are in the system?"

"Five Lanterns including me. One trade post that I'm living in, high security. My construct lanterns. And that's about it. I have various allies I can call upon, but the reason why I want a Darkstar squad on this is that I don't know where they stand and/or how compromised they are."

Jade arches her eyebrows. "Does that include my sister?"

"If Batman's using mind scrubbing? I'm afraid so. Artemis has a ward, but that doesn't grant invulnerability to exotic manipulation effects. You've been through subversion training, you know what people like the Reach can do with that technology."

"Has he?"

"Supposedly, all of the OMACs are volunteers. But-."

"If he can control their minds, that's extremely suspicious."

"And out of character for Batman. Using mind control doesn't make you immune to mind control." Okay, so… "My armour has a fracture pulse receiver, so if you need to communicate with me in the field you can do so. I've got an event to get to, then… All being well, I'll be back here. Any questions before I go?"

Calpri make an affirmative gesture. "Was there a particular event that altered Batman's mental state?"

"Me altering his thoughts to make him a better Yellow Lantern."

"Oh."

"Which is part of why it's my responsibility to get this fixed. Good luck."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
23:54 GMT

Superman, Kara and Ak-Var watch the screen as the image of a male kryptonian appears. He's wearing grey robes with the emblem of House Zod just under his rank insignia. Fleet Admiral, which means that this is-.

"Hey, that's Admiral Dru-Zod!" Ak-Var clearly recognises him. I… Suppose that he was still alive when Ak-Var was arrested. "He visited my school one time!"

"Hello, son or daughter of Krypton." The hologram's eyes aren't focusing, just staring in the direction he was looking in when he.. recorded this. That's a shame. I was mildly hopeful that we'd be getting another neural clone out of this. "If you're seeing this message, then at least one of us had the sense to overcome the Science Council's edict of isolation." He smiles ruefully, looking down for a moment before returning his eyes to the camera. "Or perhaps we were all very lucky, everyone came to their senses and I'm cringing as the Military Council watches this after I recovered the Doomsday myself." He sags slightly. "No. No. I won't even dare hope that has occurred. The demographics are too.. against us."

Kara's eyes are wide. "I didn't think this was real."

"But, you're here. I am or more likely was Admiral Dru-Zod of the Kryptonian Stellar Navy. This was my flagship, the Doomsday. I instructed it to entomb itself on a world far enough from Krypton that the Eradicators would struggle to find it in the hope that it would one day be returned to service. It is yours. If practical, I would urge you to use it as a reminder of the power and majesty of the Kryptonian military. Return it to Krypton and inspire our people to seize the stars once again. But given what I have done, I could hardly blame you if you wanted nothing to do with them."

"In either case, please take the time to examine my records. I loaded everything I could on strategy and tactics onto the Doomsday's computers, as well as records of every battle the navy ever fought. Do not waste this vessel's potential. May Rao shine upon you."

The hologram bows, and then fades away.

Ak-Var takes a step towards the controls, then hesitates and looks to Superman for approval. Superman shrugs. "I've never flown a kryptonian warship before. Have you?"

"Not a warship, but I've flown an air car a few times. It's basically the same." He glances at a console slightly to the side. "As long as I don't touch the weapons." He leans slightly closer to them, then his eyes widen. "Great Krypton that's a lot of weapons."

Superman pulls back slightly. "Maybe we should let Har-Zod check it over, first." He studies the console for a moment. "Now let's.. see. Fleet communications are…"

He presses two buttons and moves his right forefinger in a squiggle across a touchpad. "Har-Zod, are you reading me?"

"Yes, Kal-El. I am in communication with the Doomsday's computer now. Some areas are.. partitioned, and I'm afraid that if Dru-Zod locked them under his own codes it would be prohibitively difficult for me to access them."

"I don't really need Krypton's state secrets."

"Sorry to.. bother you, but do you have access to medical records?"

"Yes..? Why do you ask?"

"A Daxamite has asked me to undo what Kem-El did to them, and I'd like access to more kryptonian genetic samples so that I can make sure that I'm doing it correctly."

Superman looks at me sternly. Kara looks curious, then glances at Superman, then frowns at me. Ak-Var looks at them both, then looks confused. "What?"

Superman takes a moment to work out how to phrase it. "Orange Lantern… Sometimes…"

Kara sighs. "Sometimes he does things that make sense to him, but are a bit… Crazy."

Ak-Var raises his eyebrows. "Like letting people out of the Phantom Zone?"

Superman shakes his head. "No, like trying to resurrect everyone his girlfriend murdered while she was an assassin and getting pulled into Hell as a result."

Ak-Var looks at me for confirmation, and I shrug apologetically.

"My hit ratio isn't all that great. And even the things that work out can create a lot of work. But in this case I'm undoing Kem-El's work on three people. Kryptonians and daxamites are near enough genetically identical anyway. It's a handful of chemicals and I think I've already worked out how to do it. But with more examples I can be sure that I'm not just altering what would be part of the natural variation in the kryptonian species."

Kara frowns. "Why are you having anything to do with them?"

"Because I want to know what Vandal Savage was doing there, and there's a fairly small number of people who can tell me."

Superman frowns faintly. "If Arsenal's already got his ship, why does it matter?"

"Because of their reliquaries. Boom tubes bypass most interdiction systems. He could have flown in and picked up just about anything. Including a copy of the main Eradicator Program or Eradicator androids. Or it might not even have been Savage; for the Orange Lantern Corps I need to confirm that it wasn't Grayven. I mean…" I look him in the eye. "What do you think I'm going to do with kryptonian genetic data? Give it to Lex?"

Kara's face-.

"Oh, come on!"

Superman shrugs awkwardly. "I wasn't until you said it. But I guess he's already got my DNA anyway."

"I'm not giving it to Lex Luthor."

Kara squints. "Are you going to use it on yourself? Because-."

"Juhgh-. Kara, you know perfectly well that you can't just.. plug alien genes into an organism. I'd have to-."

She giggles, putting her right fist over her mouth. Superman's smiling too.

"Oh yes, very funny. Can I?"

Superman nods. "Go ahead."

Orange strands connect me to the computer system as I go looking for the data.

"I mean, I can research kryptonian-human genetic compatibility. I just stopped once Kon was happy with his body."

Superman shakes his head. "I… Think that's one kind of mad science you can leave to Luthor."

"Are you sure? I suspected that you'd want me to do that research eventually. Assuming that you and Miss Lane intend to have children."

"Don't take this personally, Paul. But if I can find anyone else who can help us with that, I'll ask them first."

"Files acquired."

"Very well. I believe that Doctor Sivana has a hole in his schedule."

Superman freezes for a moment. "Okay. Nearly anyone."

And show me the genes… Uh, this is mostly minor genetic tailoring the kryptonian navy gave its personnel. Useful, particularly as the retroviruses used are probably similar to what Kem-El used. But I think I need more. I might have offered him a beacon but I'd much rather get this right the first time.

Where else can I get-? Ugh, right, but what could I give him that he'd actually want?

I turn to the kryptonians. "Do you want me to delete the files when I'm finished?"

Superman shakes his head. "No, that's… Okay. We should probably have a backup somewhere anyway."

"Alright. Hopefully I'll be back to report to the League in half an hour or so." I look at Ak-Var. "Enjoy your driving lessons."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
14:02 GMT

It hasn't even been a year yet, and Chughraghahh is… Looking busy. The LEGION engineering battalion who constructed the gateway have long since done their work and left, the giant portal with faint wisps of blue not-lightning flickering around it being the focus of local traffic lanes.

Amalak regards me with curiosity. "Why is it that your people don't build more of those? I assumed they would link all the worlds of the NEMO alliance together, but Vran tells me that you hardly use them at all."

"They're a single object that's relatively easy to destroy, and they're easy to jam. They're fine in peaceful regions like this-"

He raises his left eyebrow and wiggles his Incident Report datapad.

"-but they'd be a bad idea anywhere near Reach space."

"So? Build them as far away from the conflict zone as you can, and you could link the opposite sides of NEMO together. The utility of being able to reinforce one part of your empire from another surely outweighs the irritation of occasional disruption."

"We find it's sometimes best not to encourage our various member-species to meet one another. Aside from the fact that some look monstrous to the others, the cultural differences can make cooperation difficult. With species who are near-neighbours -even ones who don't like each other- they're usually aware enough of one another's culture that it moderates the difficulty. That doesn't apply to species from five hundred light years apart. And… Frankly, we don't really want species from different regions to grow accustomed to supporting each other."

"No? One of the things my organisation does with new recruits is acculturate them to our way of doing things. I'm rather proud of the fact that they all meet the standards of my species's old military, both physical and social."

"Yes, but you're dealing with individuals. We're dealing with governments who are understandably concerned about signing up with a supranational agency and want to know that they'll retain as much power as possible. If they know that they'll mostly be cooperating with their neighbours under a mutually agreed upon framework which we monitor, that's a lot less of a problem than finding out that their fleet could be sent to the other side of the Orion Arm at a moment's notice."

"And if there's a major attack that local forces can't cope with?"

"Then we stick wizards on the ships of the Maltus reserve fleet and have either me or Illustres Xor tow it there. Or we carry out a spoiling attack a little further around the Periphery."

He nods, understanding but not necessarily convinced.

"In the interests of openness and transparency-" We share a small smile. "-I believe that I should report the presence of Reach merchants visiting here and using the gate."

"Merchants?"

"According to them."

"Are you worried about them, or what I'll do about them?"

"Realistically, both are concerns for me."

"I can get a Darkstar counter-intrusion squad sent here to educate your customs inspectors if you like. But… To be fair to the Reach, if these are the first Reach merchants in the area they probably are just here to trade and report back on what they see. They like to plan their annexations in detail before trying anything active. And…"

I shake my head.

"The Periphery is extremely porous. There's no realistic way for us to totally blockade them. I think we're trying to build up to the point where they can't move along certain segments, but that's about it. Trying to tell other stellar nations who they can and can't trade with is only going to irritate them. Still, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the Guilders. The Reach certainly aren't above taking advantage of local disputes to cause disruption."

He smiles. "I doubt that their present ruler would have much interest in having dealings with them."

"Oh?"

"She is your daughter, after all."

Ah-.

"Princess?"

"Obviously I wasn't going to set up a puppet ruler from the local population; that would be begging for trouble. So I offered it to the Queen, and she accepted."

"You realise that she's a synthetic mutant and the Spider Guild don't actually rely on queens to breed, right?"

"Of course, but the ability to manufacture reliable and loyal administrators was too much to pass up. I was sceptical when she appointed Princess as her Governor, but she's an intelligent young… Person. Excellent at negotiating with ambassadors; they find her quite disarming."

"You do understand that she's not actually my daughter, don't you?"

"Illustres…" He smiles. "You should just accept that you're never going to live it down."

"I-." I nod. "I do. And I don't mind people having a laugh about my alleged peccadilloes but I don't want people thinking that I'm a negligent father."

"Oh." He thinks for a moment. "I wouldn't worry about that. I'm sure that everyone realises that it's a joke."

"Right. Ah. Anyway, the main reason that I'm here is that I may know where I can get my hands on a Phantom Zone projector."

His face shifts into neutral. "What?"

"And I understand why you would be interested in such a device."

He inclines his head slightly forwards, glowering at me. "Is Zod there?"

"As far as I've been able to determine, yes. Ursa too."

He pulls himself upright, restoring his facial expression to normal levels of animation. "Clearly, I want their heads very much. Might I ask how you came by such a device?"

"Not at this stage."

"Alright." He nods. "And what will it cost me to finally avenge my people?"

"That you accept that you have avenged them."

He frowns for a moment-. Then he nods. "Because the people most likely to know how to create a Phantom Zone projector would be surviving kryptonians."

"You may conclude that. I couldn't possibly comment."

"There isn't much I wouldn't do to get Zod. Just keep the rest away from me and I'll cancel my bounties."

"There are other things."

"Get on with it, then."

"They want a trial. A public trial. Overseen by someone neutral."

"What? It's-. Ah." He manages a cruel smile. "Because you know that there's no way that Zod would escape conviction, but the kryptonians are sticklers for proper process. And presenting a case would cause me to associate the crime with him rather than the entire species, and because they wouldn't like the idea of handing someone over to an alien to be killed. They want a degree of separation."

"Something like that."

"My people's law?" I nod. "And I can choose the location?"

"And they can refuse it."

He nods slowly. "I should.. consult with the other survivors first. But I'm sure that we can come to terms."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
07:33 GMT -5

Kara frowns at me. "Shouldn't you be talking to Kal about this?"

I nod, shrugging. "Probably. But I thought I'd come to you first, because you grew up in an environment where it was still relevant and he didn't. His instinct would be-."

"That dragging-" She nods. "-someone out of the Phantom Zone just to kill them is wrong."

"And I'm aware that I don't have the best relationship with him personally… I don't want him to tear my head off metaphorically as well as literally-."

She blinks. "He what?"

"Oh, when we were… Fighting around where LexCorp were digging up the Doomsday's bridge? I mean, it was more…" I flatten my right hand and make a chopping motion. "Sliced off, but then the joke doesn't work."

The corners of her mouth turn down slightly. "Do you think maybe you're way too casual about being maimed?"

"Would panicking make the situation better?" She-. "Look, getting maimed doesn't have the same significance for me that it does for most people. And I've internalised that."

"I.. don't know if getting your head ripped-"

"Sliced."

"-off is… Something you should be able to internalise."

I look around, and then fly down onto the roof of the nearest flat-roofed building and beckon her to follow me. She lands next to me, frowning.

"What-?"

I lunge and shove her off the roof!

She falls backwards for a moment, eyes widening-. And then catches herself on the air. "What was-?!" … "Oh."

"Yes."

She thinks for a moment, then swivels in the air to look down at the ground twenty floors below us.

"Well, I was a bit worried. For a moment."

I shrug. "So was I. There was a very confused half-second where I couldn't work out why I couldn't feel anything in my entire body because I was spinning around and hadn't seen my own spurting neck stump yet."

She reorientates herself feet down and flies back to the rooftop, not quite landing. "And then you just.. called your ring over, and you were fine?"

"More 'no longer dying this instant' than fine, but…" I nod. "Yes."

"Huh. I guess it is kinda weird how quickly I adapted to…" She looks down at her uniform. "To everything."

Huh. "I never thought to ask, but did you ever meet your paternal grandfather?"

"Grandfather Seyg-El? Yes? Well, you know what Krypton was like, we didn't meet face-to-face that often." Her eyes narrow slightly. "He was still alive when Krypton exploded." Huh. "You..? Didn't know that?"

"No, I didn't."

"Oh. Well, Uncle Jor probably didn't mention him in any of the messages he left for Kal. Grandfather got on better with Dad than he did with Uncle Jor. Probably because Dad had enough sense not to talk about the planet exploding in public. Now I think about it, the only time I actually saw Grandfather Seyg-El and Uncle Jor together was when.. he was getting that award for stopping General Zod."

"I suppose it's nice to know that they patched things-" She winces. "-up?"

"Dad tried. It.. didn't work. And that was before he worked out the planet was going to blow up. He still wanted kryptonians to start travelling in space again. Grandfather said that General Zod was proof that we shouldn't…"

"They had a shouting match at the award ceremony?"

"Oh no." She shakes her head. "Grandfather would never have shouted in public. He just left.. early. I-. Hm." She looks down, frowning.

"What?"

"I was just wondering if… You know… While Krypton was exploding. They'd probably have had… Some time. I wonder if they tried calling each other. I hope so. But I guess I'll never know."

Ah… "No, I can't see how any record could have survived. Between the explosion and the radiation I doubt that there'd be any way to find out without time travel."

She raises her hands defensively. "I don't need to know that badly."

"I'm trying to go easy on the crazy."

She frowns in disbelief. "Really?"

"I'm taking it a day at a time. I'm currently at less than a day."

"What did you do?"

"I found out that my spider pseudo-daughter now rules a planet."

She stares at me for a moment, then nods.

"So about General Zod..?"

"Krypton hasn't really had the death penalty since we discovered the Phantom Zone. It's.. no different to them being dead from the point of view of everyone in the normal universe, and if it turned out they were wrongly convicted we could actually reverse it."

"And I suppose interactions with alien court systems was never an issue, because…" She nods. "You were isolationist and didn't have any."

"No, that was because we were xenophobic and held aliens in contempt. I don't think there's a kryptonian extradition law." She thinks for a moment. "Do you really think that's all Amalak-?" … "Right."

"Wants? I think I could talk him into accepting getting Zod and his leading collaborators."

"And then he'd share… What he knows about kryptonians?"

I nod. "I think I could talk him into it."

"Wasn't..? Non..? Brain damaged?"

"I've never spoken to him. If that's your concern, we could ask Amalak to find someone who could rule on the matter under his people's law who wasn't personally involved. Or we could just not tell him, because he didn't ask."

"And you really think he'd let us recreate my species?"

"I don't think he'd be happy about it, but if I agree to spend time recovering genetic material for his species -he did tell me that there aren't a lot of them- then he might accept it."

She sighs, nodding. "Then… Yes. I think we should. I'll… Talk to Ak-Var and Kal about it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
14:02 GMT

I watch as the dust plume erupts from the rubble as Ak-Var smashes the ruined buildings to rubble.

I remember when I first met Donna, trying to work out what the most efficient career for us was, one which would maximise the amount of time she could spend superheroing while still covering her living expenses. Now, for an actual kryptonian, it's easy: satellite launches. Donna's senses aren't quite enhanced enough to get the positioning right and she needs to breathe more than they do. A similar problem occurs in this post-Anti-Life era: kryptonians are great at certain classes of crisis, but (apologies to Richard Donner) can't actually rebuild things at super speed. Heck, even collecting things at super speed isn't all that easy because things that get hit by high speed unstoppable forces tend to break into lots of little pieces.

"Oh!" Ak-Var appears in front of me, looking a little dusty. "Hey, sir. Do you need something?"

"'Sir'? Is that a reference to my age? Because I'm pretty sure I'm younger than you."

"No, it's just…" He reaches up with his right hand to brush the worst of the dust out of his hair. "That's what Taranna calls you, so I guess I just… Copied her."

"I am Lantern Taranna's superior officer. You can just use my name. Unless you've picked a superhero name for yourself..?"

"I don't think 'Nightwing' really works in English, and Flamebird's a bit too destructive."

I blink, make sure that he's watching my eyes, and then look at the field of rubble he just created. He moves his head around to see where I'm looking-.

"Oh, that's not a-. The city council asked me to! There's a load of asbestos and lead in there, and they wanted to clear it so they can rebuild it into somewhere people actually want to live."

"Okay, and-."

A noise like a very loud industrial vacuum clearer pierces the air, sucking dust from the sky. A construct excavator bites down on a mound of rubble and transfers it to an industrial skip.

"And she can filter industrial pollutants from the ground?"

"Yeah." He nods. "She just has trouble destroying things that are just.. sitting there. And I can do that real easy."

"Alright, Flamebird."

"I'm not calling myself Flamebird. What did you want?"

"General Zod. While you were in the Phantom Zone, did you talk to him at all?"

He exhales sharply through his nose. "Oh, yeah. I got to talk to a bunch of Krypton's worst ever people. And Nam-Ek. He was okay for a guy who's basically our Judas."

"What sort of things did you talk about?"

He takes a deep breath in, then releases it. "How pathetic I was, what a disgusting waste of space I was, how I was a disgrace to Krypton, how insulted he was that I was sharing a prison with him…" He shrugs. "Things like that."

"Oh. Was that common?"

He thinks for a moment, then nods. "Yes. Jax-Ur tried giving me a physics lecture once, then gave up when he realised that he was way too advanced for me. That was about the closest I came to a civil conversation until Nam-Ek joined us." He sighs. "The only up side was that they were like that to each other as well. And that they couldn't physically hurt anyone, though Faora Hu-Ul really tried."

"How about Non?"

"Who?"

"Big chap, can't talk, used to work for General Dru-Zod?"

"I didn't see him. But we mostly communicated by talking, so if he couldn't do that…" He blinks, and shudders. "Great Rao, that's just about the only thing that could have made that place worse."

"Would you have a particular objection to handing General Zod and Ursa over to the survivors of the planet they ravaged for trial?"

"Ah, they destroyed a planet?"

"Timaron?" He looks blank. "It would have been a little while before his coup attempt? They carried out a rather thorough orbital bombardment, claiming that their government was holding samples of kryptonian technology from before the edict of isolation went into effect."

"Ah… I don't remember hearing anything about that-." He looks away, frowning thoughtfully. "Wait, he-." His eyes widen. "That's what he was boasting about! I didn't know-. Why wasn't that in the news?"

"As far as I can tell? Because Krypton didn't care what happened to aliens."

"How many people died?"

"About five billion."

"That's-. That's not a little thing. Even if it was just a.. small mention.. that should have…"

"I am quite familiar with the failings of Kryptonian society."

"Do you have a full record of that? I'd… Like to know more about what happened."

"I do, but if it goes to trial it might be better if you only knew what you know now."

"Oh. Yes, I suppose I might… Reinterpret what I knew in terms of…" He nods. "Yes, he should definitely be put on trial for that. Even if it's some sort of… Horrible misunderstanding, that's something that should be public knowledge."

"Please understand that any trial would be operating under Timaron law, and might order an execution."

"He ordered five billion."

"Okay. I tried arguing this with Kal-El just before we let you out and he wasn't convinced. But I think having you and Kara on my side will make the argument more convincing."

"Ah, which Kara?"

I raise my eyebrows slightly. "Ring, contact Superwoman."

"Compliance."

"Hey Paul! What's up?!"

"Ak-Var and I were-" She appears next to him in a roar of displaced air. "-just talking about the possibility of putting General Dru-Zod on trial for his crimes against Timaron."

She blinks, eyes wide. "The guy who built the Doomsday was a criminal?!"

"Ah, Admiral Dru-Zod of the Kryptonian Stellar navy wasn't supposed to send his ship off into space, but that would have been a disciplinary matter. No, I'm talking about his nephew, General Dru-Zod."

"We can't have Kryptonian military officers just doing whatever they like!" She affects a stern expression. "And just what did he do on Timaron!?"

"He's accused of killing about five billion p-."

"He's a bad guy! Kill him!"

I look at Ak-Var, and gesture to Kara 2 with my right hand.

He nods slowly. "Right."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
12:24 GMT -5

"Oh." Mitchell looks up in surprise. "Ah, what brings you here?"

I look around the café, which is located a convenient distance from the LexCorp office where Mitchell is for some reason interning. Plenty of witnesses, none of them showing any particular interest.

And I checked.

"Ah, well, I'd like to say that I'm checking up on a friend to see how his job's going-."

"But you need me for something."

"Ah… Sort of."

"Did you go and see Conner first?" I wince. "I think you kinda should."

"Yeah. I-." I'm repeating what I did at university, where I completely fell out of contact with everyone I knew in secondary school and college. I've got a better excuse this time, but I don't think I've had an actual conversation with him for three months. The occasional 'hey' when we see each other when we're both doing other things… "You're right, but-."

Yes, I do need to talk to someone else in the city, but I can leap from one side of the galaxy to the other in a thought.

"Yeah. you're right."

"You know he starts college this year, right?"

"I increasingly realise that I'm an unusually poor friend, but I honestly hadn't thought about it. What's-? I should ask him."

And now he's giving me the look everyone gives me. "Yeah you should."

"Are you going to college?"

"Ah. Are you going to obsess about this now?"

"I don't know? I know that I should have been putting effort into maintaining my relationships, but between reconstruction, the Corps and… Everything, I've let it slip. I shouldn't have done that, and this isn't something I can fix by doing a thing or two. I don't know. Obsessing over things is easier."

"Huh."

"So, are you?"

"No, I'm… Taking a year out. I don't really know what I want to do with my life, so I thought I'd stick with LexCorp for a year and see how it goes."

"Have you considered plumbing?"

He blinks. "No? Why?"

"It's regular, productive work. And if you're self-employed you can take an hour or two out here and there for.. personal projects."

He smiles, clearly surprised. "Okay, but why specifically?"

"Jeremy Clarkson. An automotive journalist from Yorkshire. He once said that he'd encourage his children to try plumbing rather than following in his footsteps because people will always need their pipes fixed whereas the demand for journalists is decreasing. In Britain at the time we had a bit of a shortage of qualified plumbers and started importing them from Poland, which was worth it for them because the shortage meant it was pretty well paid. I haven't checked, but with the increasing drive for people to go to college rather than technical schools I imagine the same is true in America as well."

"Huh."

"And… I honestly-. It's not really plumbing when I do it, but I do enjoy sorting out utilities. My ring lets me comprehend them in a way I couldn't without it."

"I guess I can trace leaks easier." He shakes his head. "I'd never really thought about a career as a plumber."

"Neither did I, until it was far too late."

"And I guess that would be useful on Themyscira, too."

"You'd probably need to import magic pumps. I think Diana knows some naiads?"

"I'll… Think about it. So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

I take a sound muffling charm out of subspace and put it on the table between us.

"Should we take this someplace else?"

"I think we're alright. So, ah... So, a few days ago we had a visit from Daxam."

"Mom told me."

"And I need more information about what's going on, and I'm… Not great at investigations when I can't acquire data via my ring. So I'm bribing a local to explain things."

His eyes dip to my rings for a moment before coming back up again. "Ah." He looks a little embarrassed that that's where his mind went.

"Yes, I could compel them, but I don't like doing that sort of thing when…" Batman. "When I don't need to. And I might want something from them later, and they've got two young children…"

"No, I'm not trying to say you should, just… I know you did that to Batman…"

"I didn't see an alternative there, and we were under time pressure. Here, I do, and we're not." Hm. "As far as I know."

"Okay." He nods. "So what do you need?"

"I raised the issue of the Phantom Zone prisoners a while ago with Superman."

"Right, there's where Ak-Var came from."

"Most of the rest are more serious criminals, and some of them committed crimes against other planets. I want to hand two over for trial. If I do that, I get access to everything Commodore Amalak knows about Krypton, all the kryptonian relics he's acquired… And he gives up his vendetta against all surviving kryptonians. And with that data, I hope that I can learn how to undo the work of the retrovirus Kem-El used on the Daxamites, which will cause Ken Lee to turn canary."

"Didn't you already interrogate him?"

"We were just trying to get the Daxamites out of here. Didn't do a thorough interrogation. And I suspect that he might have lied to me, given that he had no real reason to cooperate."

"Okay. So, what did the criminals do?"

"Ordered the-. He's accused of ordering the deaths of about five billion people."

"'Ordered' as in..?"

"'Point the guns down and fire'."

"And… You want my support when you try to persuade Superman to go for it?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, the survivors deserve the chance to punish him." He look puzzled by my surprise. "What, did you think you'd need to do something for me before I'd agree?"

"I suppose not. Ah, thank you. I'll… Go and see what Kon's up to now."

He smiles. "Say 'hi' for me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
12:33 GMT -5

"…idea, and I think this works for both of us." My ears prick up as I hear Donna's voice. "But I still feel… Dirty, doing it."

I couldn't find Kon with a scan, but a quick check on the zeta tube network showed that the last place he went to was the mountain. Where… I haven't been for a while. I… Didn't entirely move back in after… Clearing my room out before killing Nabu, but I…

Eh.

Lot of memories, here.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ah, good, he is here. "That's… How it is sometimes. Especially…"

"Yeah."

I round-.

"Rwrff?"

Wolf trots out of the kitchen, sniffing. She then locks her eyes onto me, staring for a moment and tilting her head slightly to the right. "Wrf."

"Hello, Wolf." Her tail starts wagging, and she dips her head slightly as she ambles towards me. I crouch down, right hand extended for her to sniff. "How have you been?"

She gives me a quick sniff, then give my fingertips a quick licks before pushing forwards and pressing her head against my chest. I smile, rubbing her head as her wags get more enthusiastic.

"Paul?"

Kon sticks his head out of the kitchen, staring at me in surprise. Wolf immediately turns around and trots back to her owner. "Urf!" And then sort of turns around and looks at me to make sure that he's seen me.

"Hello!" I straighten up. "Ah, friend part first-?"

"Mitchell called ahead."

"Oh." I transition past him into the kitchen, nodding to Donna as I appear. "Okay. Uh. Sorry."

He reorientates on my current location, while Wolf looks around in confusion. "It's okay. We're all busy, and you don't have school."

"Yeah, but I should have made time. So, I realise that I can't fix six months of minimal contact in an afternoon, and I.. mostly came to talk to you for professional reasons-."

"I think Zod should go to trial." He shrugs sombrely as Wolf walks past him to check that I'm still me. "He never got tried for all the people he murdered, so it's not a double jeopardy thing. I don't know if we can convince Superman, but…" He nods.

"Do you think it's worth asking Har-Zod or Jor-El?"

He thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. "Neither of them really like making policy decisions."

Donna frowns. "Did the kryptonian government really not care at all about him killing all those people?"

"I don't know for certain, but… What would be the point? Their harshest penalty was indefinite detention in the Phantom Zone, and they'd already sentenced him to that. European countries don't extradite prisoners to places where they might be executed, so it's not even that weird."

"Yeah, but that's because they think it's immoral, not because they don't care about the victims."

"Well, that's a clean sweep of Earth's kryptonians, except the one who actually matters-"

Kon smiles faintly. "Thanks."

"-so I'll organise an appointment where we can get together and put our case to Superman. Now." I smile broadly, bringing my hands together at my chest with a clap. "What have you two been up to?"

Donna glances to the side for a moment. "We were kind of talking about you."

"Did I do something else wrong?"

"No, it-. It's about my sister."

Di-? "Wait, Deva?" She nods. "What happened to her, anyway?"

"She fought against Mannheim and took the pardon. She… Hasn't broken the law… Much since then."

"Okay, good?"

"We actually had a talk, back in January, and she basically needs to keep fighting to keep the magic making her alive going."

"And you want me to try and find an alternative?"

"I… Was thinking more that you could recruit her."

"A-ahh…"

Okay, unless I want to be a total hypocrite, I can't really complain about her being a murderer. And she hasn't murdered that many more people than Jade has, even if that's due to her mostly trying to kill people in her weight class and failing rather than personal reticence. She doesn't know much about space-age technology.. or magic, as far as I know. Super strong, super tough, aggressive, not too intelligent…

"Were you thinking marines?"

"That… Might involve a bit too much formal discipline. I was.. assuming that you'd give her a power ring?"

"Um. I'm not sure that she'd pass psychological screening. Maybe… Darkstar combat units..?" I shrug. "We should be able to work something out."

"Good, because I don't think the whole 'going straight' thing is going to last with her."

Okay, that's easy enough to-. "You haven't let her go anywhere near Tuppence, right?"

"No?"

"Oh good, because Deva's someone I think she'd learn all the wrong lessons from. So, how have you both been?"

"Good." Kon's leaning against the kitchen wall, Wolf sitting next to his legs and waiting, tongue panting. He stretches down his left hand to rub her head and nods, once.

"Glad to hear it. Donna?"

She looks at us in disbelief. "That's it?" Kon and I look at each other, then shrug at her. "Is that a guy thing?"

"Ah, okay. Mitchell said you were going to college in the next school year?"

"Yeah, me and M'gann. She's doing criminology. I'm doing economics."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"We figured… She could be a detective in her Megan Morse identity, like her uncle. And I should probably learn something that helps Themyscira get along with the rest of the world."

"And Demetrios Prokopios can probably tutor you, if you need it." He nods. "And knowing how economics works helps with financial crime, which isn't usually a kryptonian strong suit. Though I suppose it's an unusually cutting edge science at the moment. So, ah… Who wants lunch? My treat?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st August 2013
14:39 GMT -3

The three of us stop at the sound of-.

Someone-. A man, flies feet first out of the… Ah, restaurant, window, and keeps spinning until the back of his head hits the concrete. That arrests some of his motion but seems to cause him to pivot, going feet up for a moment before crashing down face first.

I scan for injuries, but he seems to be-.

"That the best you can do?" Deva follows her target, stepping through the frame. "Come on, I'll give you a free swing!"

The-. Ah. The Child of Dawn she just bounced scrambles back to his feet, staring in surprise.

Deva smiles, stretching her neck and cracking her knuckles. "Surprised?

He turns and leaps, clearing the row of shops opposite and heading for the former slum housing on the outskirts. I wait for Deva to pursue, but she just sags with a quiet grunt. "Great. Another coward!"

Donna takes a step forwards. "Hey… Deva. How's work?"

Deva turns her head towards us, narrowing her eyes slightly. Then she appears to decide that we aren't worth her time. "It was looking up, until that punk ran off. Did you know there's no actual war in South America any more?"

I.. frown. "Surely there's enough violence in the drugs trade that you can find employment?"

"Those guys used to be my best employers." She looks almost wistfully in the direction the Son of Dawn leapt in. "But it turns out that Hugo Danner is a straight edge. His people's 'take back the jungles' thing includes all the drug plantations, and all the people who used to run them are hiding or dead." She turns back to glowering at me. "And they won't even give me a good fight. But my 'sister' here tells me that you can."

"Certainly." I look through the window hole at the diners within. They had moved away from the combat zone, but now that the fight is over they're cautiously returning to their seats. "Is this place still open?"

"Yeah?" She frowns. "Why wouldn't-? Oh, no, stuff like this happens every week. That's why they hired me."

Kon smiles. "Is the food any good?"

She shrugs. "Eh."

Inside the restaurant, the man behind the counter looks up in offence. "Hey!"

Deva looks at the window hole as another member of staff comes over with a dustpan and broom and starts sweeping up the glass. "Maybe this time they'll just replace it with shutters. Be cheaper." She then ignores the mess, walking over to the restaurant's door heading inside. "Come on."

I let Donna lead the way as I lean towards Kon. "Did I miss a report?"

"I dunno." He shrugs. "Did you? You knew they took over Brazil."

"Yeah, but I thought they stopped when they hit the remaining coastal cities."

"They mostly did, but you know they think Brazil-. Portuguese society should just get out?" I nod, understanding dawning. "Some of them think it means all of Portuguese society."

"And they're hassling restaurants?"

"Some are. I don't think Danner knows about it, but he's just one guy and they tore down the telephone lines."

Marvellous.

As I walk in Deva sits down, grunting at her… Flattened lunch, some sort of white sauce splattered across the counter. "Hey, Cláudio, more thighs over here."

The chef nods. "And your friends?"

Deva glances at us. "They wouldn't fit in your fryer."

Donna nods. "Thighs are good."

Kon and I nod, taking seats with Donna between us and Deva. Given that no one's disturbed about her being here I doubt that she's going to act up, but it looks like Donna's the one who's had most contact with her. Deva leans forward slightly, looking at me.

"Donna says you've got a war for me."

"I have a war, certainly."

"Well, don't keep me waiting. How big is it?"

Hm. Well, comparatively…

I look out across the universe, seeking desires relating to mass violence and conquest. There and there and there… It's not surprising how common violent conflict is, not really. But between the ground-in feel of long-running low-intensity conflicts and the brief flares of short-lived wars-

"Hey! What are you looking at?!"

-I think I can say with confidence

that I'm staring at Deva's chest.

I redirect my eyes upwards. "Sorry, there was a war behind you."

"What?" She frowns, then turns her head around to look at the other side of the restaurant. The people there hunker down slightly. "What are you-" She turns back to me. "-talking about?"

"I can perceive the desires of any being that has them and doesn't have some very specific protections. I was gazing out across the universe to make sure that I could be honest when I claimed that I have the biggest war currently happening in this galaxy, and I can. Thousands of industrialised worlds on each side, millions of ships and billions of soldiers, sailors and others in various combat roles. We estimate that the opening stages, where we press our enemy back from the parts they've recently annexed and start directly threatening places they've fully absorbed and we cement our alliances and go into full war production, will take about four years from start to finish, and we're about a year into it. I have no idea what the total casualty count is but my own minor role has taken me to second place behind Vandal Savage as the biggest killer in human history."

She looks mildly impressed by the claim. "Really?"

"He's had a lot longer to work on his total. I might overtake him by the end of it, which could be anything from thirty years to a century from now. Interested?"

She grins. "Yes."

"Alright. I have a few concerns."

"What, my record? Why would-?"

"No." I shake my head. "Georgia Sivana is a mad scientist and Jade Nguyen was a member of the League of Shadows, and they fit in fine. My concern is your ability to work within a rigid structure for a sustained period of time."

"I can't exactly get you a reference. They're all dead. Besides, I thought Lanterns worked on their own."

"There, your record is a problem." She sets her jaw. "Orange power rings warp the minds of the people who use them. Plenty of good people with combat experience have episodes and have to be removed from the Corps, and some completely average people manage to cope just fine. Your life to date suggests that subjecting you to overwhelming avarice would be unwise."

"I don't hear Cronus's voice in my head any more. Not since Hephaestaean fixed the gates to Tartarus."

"Was he.. controlling you?"

"Not exactly, but he could reduce my power if I didn't obey him." She shrugs. "Anyway, his tasks were always great fun." She thinks for a moment, perhaps realising that that isn't the best approach to take. "But I can't hear him any more, and without him… I just want to fight things. If I'm not getting a power ring, what am I doing?"

"I think LEGION marines to start with. Go through the training-." She starts to frown. "I know you can fight. How often have you fought with space aged weapons or on a starship? Or as part of a military?" She grudgingly accepts that with a nod. "Go through the training and stick with the job for two years without serious incident and with a good reference from your commanding officer, and if you still want a ring, I'll oversee your training myself."

"Alright. I can live with that. Tell me more about the war."