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

[Mr Zoat]

0 086 936.M41
And a bit
Seriously, did the Emperor abolish minutes or something?

"Hmm." Fio'Vre Lar'shi Manuur Shiirr stares at the orange aura protecting my left arm for a moment, then carefully applies a smart syringe to my cephalic vein. Nothing happens. "This may be easier if you turn off your force field."

"Sorry, hang on."

I turn the fingers of my left hand so that they're pointing right, then reach across with my right hand and pull the ring off. And.. this is the first time I've felt even remotely safe enough to do this. Nearly two weeks of dodging everything while desperately trying to grab enough data not to fly into the Maelstrom. To just.. find out where the blasted Tau Empire even was. 'Galactic East' narrowed it down to a mere 2 trillion cubic light years, then between the ring's bullshit hacking and translation I was just about able to find it without getting stopped.

Fucking warp travel and astrotelepathy. No one flies between solar systems through normal space, so I couldn't find isolated vessels to examine. No one sends exotic transmissions by bending physics merely a little, so there was nothing to intercept. No, I had to dodge system monitoring stations and get right up close to some truly terrifying thingamies. I haven't seen any Chaos-tainted ships yet, but I did see a world the tyranids were in the process of stripping, a small necron flotilla and.. a few stranger ships whose designs I didn't recognise.

Huh. I suppose I can find out for sure whether it's pronounced tee-ranid or tie-ranid. Just need to find a human who's heard of them and doesn't feel obliged to shoot me.

"Oo'rshi prrakah quanh voor?"

Mr Manuur has.. already removed the syringe. That was painless. No need for a bandage either, apparently. I shake my head. "I can't understand you." I slide the ring back on. "The ring has a translation function. Without it I'm stuck speaking a language that… No one but me and the Emperor remember."

High Gothic doesn't actually sound anything like Latin, any more than any of the hundreds of forms of Low Gothic I've heard sound like English.

"I asked: how urgent is this? Do you have a reason to believe that you are ill? Our facilities are not designed to perform complex diagnostic procedures upon humans, and despite your efforts we have many more casualties still to tend to."

"Oh, it's not urgent at all." I look around the small diagnostic laboratory we're in. The door's closed, monitoring is.. on automatic… "I just wanted to get you alone for a moment."

His facial cleft tightens momentarily. "That is.. not an efficient use of my time. We have many more wounded-."

"I wanted to speak to you so that I could alert you to an… Epidemic I detected amongst the crew when I came on board. Fio'Vre, I appreciate that you are a medical doctor and not a xenobiological researcher and.. that the Tau may be completely unfamiliar with the phenomenon… But do you know what a Genestealer Cultist is?"

"Gene-stealer. That is what humans call the y'he elite assault creatures."

I hold out my right hand and generate an image of one, drawing particular attention to its reproductive organ. "They don't really use these in battle, but when they're performing long range infiltration missions they use these to implant some sort of.. viral DNA in their victims."

"Plausible. Do they use a disease weapon to weaken the target population before an invasion?"

If only. "No. It does.. several things. Firstly, it ties the victim to their brood telepathy. Once the infection really gets going they're as much a part of the brood as the genestealers themselves; they'll do anything to further its interests, regardless of what they believed beforehand. Secondly, it alters their reproductive system so that their offspring are… We call them genestealer hybrids-."

"That sounds somewhat implausible. The modifications that would be required in order to undertake such a change in physiology would be extensive, and altering the brain of a human to make it in any way compatible with those of the y'he would kill the host more than often than not." He turns away, reaching for a computer console. "Still, there is much that is not understood regarding y'he biotechnology. It may well be that you are simply-."

"Ah, what are you doing?"

He glances back. "This is not the Imperium, human. We do not closet information away from those who need it. A simple enquiry-."

"Who gets notified that you're making such an enquiry?"

His hands stop moving. "Certain enquiries trigger automatic messages to the commanding officer, senior security officer and highest ranking Aun. Kor'Vre Vhel'ua was killed by the strike on the bridge, along with-." He shudders. "Aun'Vre Vuraul. And our security complement have other things to worry about."

"But there would be a record."

"Yes. You want me to simply take your word for it that they have these abilities, and.. presumably have subordinated a part of the crew. Would it be the Tarellians, by any chance?"

"Ah, no. All appeared to be tau, most likely Brood Brothers and Sisters. On an Imperial ship I'd be worried about purestrains as well, but from the looks of things tau ships are actually… Sensibly organised, rather than being gothic space churches."

"And what do you believe will happen if they do discover that I am making queries about them?"

"I don't know." Hm. "Usually when a cult is discovered they either hide or attack. We're on a space ship and there aren't that many of them. I'm not sure." Except… These are tau brood members, not ignorant and superstitious humans. "Though… If they've taken samples of the virus which the purestrains use, they.. could go on an injection rampage or… Maybe aerosolise it?"

"I am doing nothing until I can confirm that they even have these abilities. I am grateful for the lives of those you have healed, but this is-."

The door opens and a gangly tau in green and brown robes strides in, Miss Tsua'm just behind… Him? His head is taller and narrower, and his facial cleft is a little smaller than those of the other tau I've seen. An Ethereal, though given that Doctor Manuur just told me that the leading Ethereal died I've got no idea how senior he is. Ring, is he-? No, good.

He stops, taking a moment to study me. "Gue'vesa, I am Aun'Saal Lar'shi Bo'ohk."

"Ah, someone my rank. That will cut down on the saluting."

He blinks, his head turning slightly towards Miss Tsua'm. She leans forward slightly. "A human military greeting exchanged between superior and subordinate, my lord."

"Ah. Indeed, no. I had believed that I would need to minister to the dying, but it seems that your intervention has spared me that duty. You have the thanks of the tau, and since you have expressed an interest in learning of the Greater Good I am willing to make time to instruct you in it."

I nod. "Thank you." Ring, shut the door. "But we have a more immediate problem to deal with first."

Doctor Manuur steps away from the console, eyes slightly down. "My lord, the human believes that a portion of the crew have been… 'Infested' by the y'he. I cannot confirm that they have the capacity he described without accessing computer records and he is concerned that they may be monitoring the archive. It is-."

Mr Bo'ohk's cleft wrinkles. "Yes, I know of this. The gene stealers. There are infected tau on board this ship?"

I hold up my left hand. "This ring's AI isn't clever enough to lie."

He walks past me and Doctor Manuur to the computer console. "I have codes for accessing our data files without leaving a record." He activates it, presses a few buttons and then steps back. "I regret, Fio'Vre, that our knowledge is far from comprehensive, but it is now available to you."

A holographic projection appears, and Doctor Manuur's eyes dart over it before he walks up to the console and starts pressing buttons to call up additional data. "Mm. We have no record of inter-tau transmission. There must be a purestrain somewhere, most likely many. I can begin a round of blood tests on all members of the crew, and isolate those who show the signature physical anomalies."

I shake my head. "You'll need to drug them. With brood telepathy, if the others detect their fellows being picked up-."

"Yes. Wise. Even so, it may not be entirely reliable. We may need to simply identify them and release them temporarily. Dealing with intelligent diseases is beyond my field of expertise."

"Fio'Vre, Aun'Saal, if you believe me when I tell you that they exist, why not simply let me mark them out for you? You could pick them up in one go, perform your tests to make sure that I'm not lying and then… Either try to cure them or euthanize them."

Doctor Manuur looks at Mr Bo'ohk for guidance, but Mr Bo'ohk merely makes a.. palm outward gesture with both hands. "Disease outbreak containment is part of your sphere of responsibility. I will support your decision."

Doctor Manuur looks down for a moment, then makes a close fisted gesture with his right hand. "We will need to create additional holding areas. And this will have to wait until the casualties from the ork attack have been stabilised. But I will begin making plans now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Afternoon
Equestria

Lightning Dust looks askance at Tempest Shadow's horn stump.

"You can cast spells with that?"

Tempest doesn't seem much moved by what must be a pretty big insult. I guess she's either used to it, or thinks that someone she's going to be fighting beside deserves to know.

"No. I just fire energy blasts."

"Like, at one third power..? 'Cause you've got a third of a horn?"

Tempest's eyes narrow slightly and her horn crackles a little more.

"You tell me."

Lightning blasts from Tempest's horn, striking Dust and making her convulse-. For a fraction of a second. Then she spreads her wings and water vapour precipitates out of the air, forming a small and very black cloud sheath around them which crackles with electricity. Dust looks at them nervously for a moment, then grins confidently.

Tempest looks at her curiously, then nods. "Impressive reactions."

"Impressive lightning blast. How'd you build up so fast?"

"I'm always built up."

"Oh yeah?" Dust saunters closer. "How's about-?" A small discharge from her doom clouds hits her in the left ear. "Ow."

Tempest raises her eyebrows.

"Let me just deal with this real quick."

She flies over to a window, kicks it open and with a flap throws the clouds outside before flying back down.

"Owowowowow!"

"How's about-?" She blinks, but Tempest and Buckface have already caught up with me at the other end of the corridor. "Hey!"

Buckface turns his head back towards her.

"Get a bloady move ohn."

Dust grimaces, then with one powerful flap shoots over to join us. Looks like Super Lesbian Horse RPG is back on. Best of luck to her. I return my attention to the door and knock lightly.

"Enter."

I push the door open and trot inside, the other three following me. Luna has several sheets of paper floating in her thaumokinetic grip and a book on guard procedures in front of her. Celestia is laying on a chaise longue, sipping tea from a cup. She looks at my hirelings curiously while Luna sets her paperwork down to greet us with a smile.

"Grayven. We understand that you have retained the service of these trainers to improve Our guard. How goes it?"

"Not great. Tempest?"

Tempest steps forward. "The Royal Guard are in reasonable physical condition, but their training and equipment are badly outdated. Ponies have a bad reputation for focusing on their special talents to the exclusion of other skills and whoever came up with the Guard's procedure manual did exactly that."

"Thou wouldst rather that they focus on what they are worst at?"

"When training an army, you need everyone to have standard skills. You need everyone to know what the soldiers next to them can do, even if they don't know them personally. If you don't have standard spells for unicorns, the commander can't know what the magic users under their command can do. If pegasi aren't taught standard weather manipulation techniques you can end up making a plan requiring dense fog only to discover that no one knows how to make it or use it. And as for earth ponies-."

"Theys a right buncha pantywastars a'right."

Tempest keeps her face carefully blank, but she does glance at Buckface in a way which indicates that she's decidedly unimpressed.

"They cannae even break wee little stones wi' their hooves. And I tried wrasslin' one o' them an' his leg snapped like a tweg."

Celestia sits up, looking slightly concerned.

"You broke his leg?"

Tempest takes a half-step forward. "Princess, injuries during training happen. If anything, the fact that.. 'Buckface' could injure them so easily is part of the problem."

Luna looks at me. "'Buckface'?"

I close my eyes, shake my head and raise my right forehoof.

"I see. And what remedy do you suggest?"

"My training techniques are a bit more realistic than running into sandbags, princess. I'll bring them up to scratch."

Luna nods. "We will assign you a platoon to train, that you may show Us the fruits of your labour. Grayven tells Us that you desire Our aid in restoring your horn." Tempest stiffens. "How didst thou receive so grievous an injury?"

"I ran into a cave after a ball. The cave had an ursa in it."

Luna blinks. "Thou wert attacked by an ursa?"

"Yes, princess."

"At what age?"

"I was six, princess." She hesitates for a moment. "Princess, can you fix it?"

"Such chirurgies exist, but they are slow and difficult to bring to fruition. We will consult with Our physicians on the best way to proceed."

"Thank you, princess."

"We will also need the location of that ursa. If it dwells so close to a pony settlement that foals are endangered We will need to encourage it to seek new accommodation."

Tempest grins cruelly. "If you wait until my platoon is ready, we can handle that."

"We think it best to handle it at once, and not wait until Our soldiers are trained adequately. Fear not, Tempest Shadow, if the time since Our return has taught Us anything it is that thou shall have enemies aplenty. For now, consult with Our Captains as to who will be assigned to thine training platoon."

Tempest bows. "Princess."

She turns to leave, Dust and Buckface following and closing the door behind them.

Luna looks at me. "Buckface?"

"A nickname he acquired after a fight with an adult dragon, where he received the injury you saw. He comes from your species' original homeland on the other side of the planet."

"You've been travelling? Did you bring me a gift?"

"Naturally." I take the wrapped box out of subspace, Celestia frowning slightly as I pass it to Luna.

She smiles in pleasure and she takes it in her thaumokinetic grip, undoes the ribbon and paper, opens the box lid and lifts out Queen Chrysalis's severed head.

 

[Mr Zoat]

The Badlands
An Hour Ago

"…blood oath you have sworn,
Pick a fight with an alicorn."

I raise my daiklave as I advance towards where the trembling Changeling Queen lies nursing her shattered right foreleg. I give it a little swing to test my grip, then raise it up high.

"Dumb ways to di-ie,
So many dumb ways to die."

Canterlot
Now

Luna regards me levelly for a few moments, the head floating in her thaumokinetic grip. Celestia puts her teacup down and stands, regarding me with shock.

A drop of green goo drips from the neck stump.

"You slew her... For me?"

"She was an enemy of the state still at large, and I am acting in your stead at the moment."

Luna.. blushes very slightly, not meeting my eyes. Celestia spots how she's responding and glares at her. Luna meets her eyes and lifts her head again, clearing her throat.

"We trust that she did not suffer overmuch?"

I shake my head. "No. No. I treated the occasion with the solemnity it deserved. There are now a few thousand leaderless Changelings hanging out in a hive in the Badlands. Be careful, though, there's some sort of anti-magic field." I shrug. "Didn't do anything to disrupt my technology, but it would probably make things difficult for you."

Luna nods, drawing herself up slightly.

"We thank you for this token-."

Celestia frowns. "Lu-na!"

Luna looks at her sister. "Do you know how long it has been since a knight brought Us such a token? A vile monster slain in Our name, its head to be-. Pikes, We must find a pike, that Our ponies may know-."

"We're not displaying a severed head!"

Luna blinks in confusion. "Then how will our citizens know that they are safe under Our aegis?"

"It's fine, you don't need to display it for my sake." I step closer to Luna. "It's enough for me to know that you like it."

Her horn glows, and the head shimmers for a moment.

"There. We shall mount it upon our mantel as a memento."

I lean towards her and she tilts her head up towards me. I've never kissed a horse before, but-.

A golden harness forms around my chest and drags me away, Celestia glaring at me in a pointed manner.

I Will Not Be Restrained!

The harness flickers and then dissolves, Celestia jerking her head back as it vanishes.

Luna doesn't look impressed. "We do not recall ever acting against your swains in such a manner."

"My 'swains' had not just presented me with a head."

"Did not knights and sorcerers swear to perform mighty deeds that they might earn your favour?"

"Yes, but they didn't gift wrap the proof."

"Perhaps they lacked the-."

There's a knock at the door. Both princesses look around.

"Come!" / "Enter!"

A guard I don't recognise enters the room slightly nervously.

"Your majesties, Princess Twilight Sparkle asked me to inform you that Sunset Shimmer is ready for her d-."

He spots the head and visibly double-takes.

"Ah, her demonstration."

Celestia nods. "Where is it taking place?"

"The West Drawing Room, Princess."

"Please inform Twilight that we will be there presently."

The guard nods and heads out of the room at a canter. Time to put my hoof down.

"Celestia, do you have an objection to me being romantically involved with Luna?"

Luna raises her eyebrows, her eyes fixed on her sister.

"I have concerns, but Luna is an adult mare and can make her own decisions."

"Thank you for remembering that, Sister."

"Do you have a problem with me killing Chrysalis?"

"Not in principle, but the cavalier way in which you presented Luna with her head concerns me."

"I refuse to feel bad about killing people like her, but that's not my usual way of handling conflicts. Chrysalis was not ensorced, deceived, possessed or insane. She was just unnecessarily malevolent and nearly enslaved your species and destroyed the world. And I didn't get her head for you."

"Of all the projects you could have chosen, why is it the military that you decided to help us with?"

"Because getting involved in your economics would require me to have massive amounts of information that I don't have, while the flaws of your military were obvious and dangerous to your civilisation. Protecting its citizens is the most basic job of a national government and… While I'm prepared to assume that despite appearances you aren't intentionally undermining it-."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You didn't tell the guard about Nightmare Moon, Discord or Sombra. You trusted Discord to capture Tirek ahead of any part of the military, and early on Tirek could easily have been killed by crossbows. You didn't pursue Chrysalis or develop changeling detection spells. Magical megaweapons are very nice to have, but given how temperamental they can be relying on them is not wise. Perhaps more to the point, Luna has led armies and she's at least as good a fighter as anyone in the employ of the Equestrian government. You might have welcomed her back as your equal but you haven't helped her become your equal in fact as well as theory. I will."

"Because you wish to court her."

"No, because improving political institutions is what I do. See my cutie mark?"

She glances at my haunches.

"Strength through unity."

"Unity means the parts who know what's going on telling the parts who need to do something about it. And at the moment, your soldiers are…"

Music again, but this time I'm the one who's going to be singing.

"Everyone is
Weak and wary
All is scary
Tell me, where is
Sanctu'ry?"

An image of the guards who panicked at the sight of me, another of the guards being gooped by changelings, blasted aside by Nightmare Moon, drained by Tirek…

"Tire the strong
Shield the frail
A strategy
Doomed to fail"

Celestia getting blasted by Chrysalis, Cadance collapsing in exhaustion from the strain of shielding the Crystal City by herself.

"I love to change the world"

I head out of the room, light leaping from my yellow ring, transmuting the guards' armour into something a little more sensible.

"And I know just what to do"

I glance back at the princesses as they follow me.

"And I wonder: do you too?"

West Drawing Room is this way.

"All your people
Keep on needing
Never heeding
Leaders bleeding
Truculence"

An image of Celestia, Luna and Cadance lying on the floor of the throne room with Tirek standing over them.

"Life is easy
Skies are breezy
Learn to struggle?
Who needs trouble?"

I glare at some civil servant ponies who throw themselves out of our way.

"Indolence."

I stop and turn around to face them.

"I love to change the world
And I know just what to do
And I wonder: do you too?"

I walk up to Luna and this time Celestia doesn't restrain me.

"Luna"

"Diminution
Is no solution
Revolution
Restitution
What's wrong and right?
What's strength for?"

I look at the two of them.

"Princesses
Win your war"

I turn away and continue towards the West Drawing Room, where Sunset will usher in a new era, whether Equestria's ready or not. Especially whether the princesses are ready or not.

"She loves to change the world
Sunset knows just what to do
Why don't you join us too?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Canterlot
Afternoon

I throw the doors open wide when we reach the Drawing Room and get a clear view of the ponies gathered inside. Twilight is pacing nervously just outside of Sunset's arcane inscriptions while Sunset calmly does a last minute check. The rest of the Bearerherd and Cadance stand off to the side, presumably having decided to stick around after Sunset's tests. An-.

Huh.

An alicorn I don't recognise stands a little closer, watching Sunset with…

"Circe?"

She turns my way. "Grayven. You didn't tell me that this was happening today."

"Fifteen to one time ratio." Green pelt, pink-purple mane and tail and staff whose head is glowing with arcane power as a cutie mark. No, hang on: there's a broken and rusted sword underneath it. "And the timing is Sunset's decision. How did you-?"

"Jean anticipated your order."

"Ah." I nod. Hadn't realised that she was awake. I suppose that one of the g-gnomes probably notified her.

Sunset glances towards the door as Celestia and Luna come inside, Celestia hanging back slightly while Luna trots up alongside me.

"Grayven, will you introduce us?"

"Princess Luna, this is Circe." I frown slightly. "Do you bother with titles?"

Circe sighs. "With an introduction like that I can hardly do so now." She smiles at Luna. "A pleasure to meet you, Luna."

"And what is thine involvement in this affair?"

"Sunset and I are 'study buddies'." Circe twists her head towards Sunset. "Isn't that right, Sun-"

Finishing her last check, Sunset makes momentary eye contact with Celestia and then prances over to nuzzle Circe.

"-set." Circe hesitates for a moment, then cranes her neck down and attempts to reciprocate the gesture. "Are you prepared?"

Sunset pulls back slightly. "As much as I can be. I've confirmed my hypothesis as much as I can without experimental data. The only thing I can do now is cast the spell."

"I meant: are you ready?"

"I…" She sounds uncertain, her head dropping slightly and her eyes roaming around the room. Then she sees Celestia and her expression hardens. "I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Anything else is just cowardice."

"Good." Circe kisses the top of her head and then steps back. "But just in case anything goes wrong, I'll be here and so will Grayven."

I nod. "Pretty much anything short of you being plastered all over the walls, I'll be able to fix."

"Thanks, Grayven, that's exactly the mental image I needed."

"Yes, me sticking you back together. So don't worry."

She shakes her head and walks back to her diagram.

"Just get out of the way."

I consider prodding her to say something to Celestia, but… No. Instead, I walk around the side of the diagram and and pull up next to Pinkie Pie.

"How's the family?"

"Bigger! The other mes weren't the only ponies in the Mirror Pool."

"Oh? Who else?"

"Granny Pie! Which I shoulda realised because she couldn't have known how it worked without using it at least once!" Makes sense, I suppose. Pinkie grins. "Granny Pie died five years ago! Mom was so happy to see her that she screamed and fainted!"

I regard her fondly for a moment. "Ah, Pinkie. Never change."

"Hey, how'd you know I wasn't one of the other mes?"

"I guessed that the others are being held somewhere pending being rehoused, so the only other you you could be is Party Popper. And I know you're not her."

"Oh. How?"

"I've.. sort of.. marked her. It will take a while to wear off."

Pinkie looks a little uncomfortable. "And you didn't let her have a shower afterwards? That's kind of… Icky, don't you think? I mean, I guess what two consenting adults do in private is their own business, but you've both been walking all over Canterlot and I'm not-."

"Not… That… Not 'marked' like I-. Ew!"

"So how did you 'mark' her, exactly?" She shakes her head. "Because all the ideas I'm coming up with-."

"If I could have everypony's attention!"

Sunset's standing in the middle of the arcane diagram, which is glowing in the same colour as her horn's aura. Celestia stops lurking in the doorway, but is still standing back from the rest of the audience.

"My name is Sunset Shimmer and today is the day I finally become an alicorn. As I'm sure you know, an alicorn is a type of pony who possesses the magic of all three tribes, which combine to make them even more powerful than any normal pony."

Twilight shakes her head. "I didn't get that much of a power boost."

Sunset gives her a mild glare. "Maybe if you used your non-unicorn magics a little, you'd have noticed it a little more."

Twilight opens her mouth, but Applejack looks at her with raised eyebrows and Rainbow Dash just nods. Twilight slumps slightly.

"So as I was saying, becoming an alicorn requires the magic of all three tribes. So far, that's happened using a powerful magic discharge from ponies of all three tribes perfectly aligning with the recipient's special talent or a spell which called upon the magic of all tribes through ponies with whom the recipient had a strong emotional bond. I will be using a third technique, a more controlled version of the method Cadenza lucked into. This network will draw on the platonic ideal forms of the magics of all three tribes via the magic networks covering Equestria… Harmony, if you like. I will use this to alter my own metaphysique into that of an alicorn. From the outside, all you should see is a quick flash of light. From inside… I don't know. I think Twilight's visit to an 'astral plane' was a byproduct of the inefficiency of the spell she used, but…"

She shakes her head.

"The whole thing should only take a few seconds, so here goes!"

Sunset's horn glows brilliantly, the strength of the glow mirrored by her diagram. I glance around the circle and both Circe and Celestia have their horns low level glowing. Not sure what Celestia's planning; there's no way she understands the process.

"First stage is fine, now I unbind my magics to enable the change. That should happen fairly auto-."

The centre of the diagram flashes, though not brightly enough to interfere with my vision. Sunset isn't there.. any longer. Or rather, her outline is gone. I'm.. slightly concerned-.

Then the light vanishes, the glow of the diagram drops off and oh goodness me.

Sunset takes a breath, then looks around the room. Then she flares her new wings and looks down at herself, then left and right at herself.

Then she looks at Celestia and grins.

"Yes! Tallest alicorn!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Canterlot
Afternoon

I clear my throat as Circe and Sunset continue casting spells on the newly ascended alicorn to make sure everything worked as intended.

"'Tallest'?"

"What?" She glances in my direction. "Tallest actual alicorn, not an… Apokoliptian who got turned into one by Starswirl's mirror."

"So 'second tallest alicorn', then?"

"You don't count."

"Sure thing, shorty." She gives me a mild glare, but there's no bite to it. "So what does this mean for your human form?"

"Ah, actually? I was thinking of just boom tubing back. I mean, hands are great and all, but I've been a pony for a lot longer than I was a human. Picking things up with my magic still feels more natural than using my hands."

"Okay." I nod. "You can do that. As long as you don't mind getting mobbed whenever you go anywhere due to being an adorable little pony."

"Ah, 'regal, big pony'."

"Haven't you measured yourself yet? You're bigger than all ponies who aren't me-"

"So all the pony-ponies."

"-but in absolute terms you're not all that big. You're not even horse-size yet." She frowns and looks to Circe for confirmation. "Not only are you the wrong shape for the environment, you're an ultra-cute version of something people think of as a riding animal. Little girls will be coming up to you to feed you sugar cubes." Her eyes unfocus slightly as she sees the disadvantage. "And I can identify as 'pony' if I want. Respect my species-identity."

"Your species-identity is 'ass'."

"Whow, go easy on the specieism, there. You're an alicorn now; you have to set an example."

She huffs and turns to her mentor. "Circe, how did I do?"

"Yes, Sunset, you're quite tall."

"I meant the spell."

"As far as I can tell, everything is as you intended." She leans up slightly to nuzzle her. "Well done."

"Thank you." Sunset bows her head slightly. "For all the help you've given me, and… For everything."

"That's quite alright, Sunset."

"And…" She looks at me. "Thank you, Grayven. Without you, this… I wouldn't-."

"Have got here, I know."

"Have got here for a few more years. But… Yeah. And you could be right about being a pony while on Earth. I'm still going to try it, but I guess all the attention could be a bit aggravating."

Circe raises her eyebrows. "And what about all of the attention your human form gets you?"

"Ah. It's not that much? Misa helps me out-."

"I believe what Circe is referring to is how your human form will change to reflect your new pony form. The animated mane, larger size… Assuming that your growth is proportionate you won't be all that much shorter than me."

"Ooooh."

"And while I'm no judge of equine beauty, I'm going to hazard a guess that-."

Sunset's gaze grows a little vacant. "I'm going to be some sort of amazonian supermodel."

I smile. "The Amazons do like strapping young women. I don't think that they really have models-."

"No, it's okay. I can just stay in the mountain-." She frowns, looking at me. "I can make myself one of those illusion charms you use." Rats. "But… Maybe I'll… Try it, first. As a pony, and… As a human."

Circe smiles. "And what will you do with your time now?"

"Do? I've got two completely new forms of pony magic to master, plus whatever I get by combining them, plus relearning everything I can do as a human to take this change into account. I'm not exactly going to be underemployed."

"But you won't miss having an overarching goal?"

"No, this was always just one step on the journey. Yes, it's an important one that proves that my approach is correct and gives me all the time in the universe to work on the rest, but it was never my end goal. I wasn't going to turn myself into an alicorn and just retire." She takes a deep breath. "But seeing as my magic is working just fine…"

She extends her wings and lightly flaps, rising off the floor with barely a whisper of wind. Then she spreads her wings and just.. floats there.

"Huh. That was easy."

I frown. "How are you-?"

Rainbow Dash darts in, staring at her. Then she flits around to examine Sunset's wings, then from another angle. Then she drifts back slightly and puts her right hoof to her chin.

"Huh. You're making air currents to stay up." She twists her head around. "Hey, Twilight, how come you can't do that?"

Twilight's eyes widen slightly at being put on the spot like that. "I… Er… Probably can."

Sunset nods. "You should be able to. Your special talent is magic, after all. The same as mine."

Twilight sort of goldfishes for a moment before Sunset shakes her head.

"I'm just messing with you. I studied pegasus magic for years when I was living here. And I'm guessing you didn't."

"I.. studied the applications, and the history of-."

"Of course you did." Sunset pauses for a moment then lands, sighing. "No, sorry. I shouldn't use the fact that I know something you don't to make you feel bad." Twilight looks slightly mollified. "But you should learn this."

Rainbow Dash nods. "Maybe if somepony wasn't slacking off on her flying lessons, she wouldn't get shown up like this."

"And trust me-" Sunset flexes her right wing, creating a small spark of electricity which she tosses to her left and then tosses to.. just in front of her, where it forms a small, crackling ball. She smiles. "-if you like magic this is every bit as interesting as unicorn magic."

Twilight smiles. "I suppose it can't hurt." She looks Sunset over. "But I don't understand how you're so big. I know I've gotten taller since my ascension, but… We tested your magic and you were only about as strong as me."

"Oh, that's simple. You're going to keep growing until you get to roughly my size. But the spell you used was designed to be as safe as possible because Starswirl didn't understand exactly how the process worked and he didn't want to risk killing Celestia or Luna. So you only grow slowly. Since I knew exactly what I was doing I decided to skip the wait and empower myself fully from the start." She thinks for a moment. "Actually, Luna? I can't make you any bigger, but now that you're back on Equestria you're probably going to start growing again."

For a fraction of a second Luna looks incredibly pleased with herself, then schools her expression.

"That will be an interesting experience."

"But right now-."

Celestia steps forwards. "Sunset-."

"Y.. eah…" Sunset nods. "We probably need to.. talk."

"I spoke with Grayven, concerning... You. I will try to avoid offending you if you will agree to have patience if I fail."

Sunset nods again and trots forward. "Yeah. Okay. And then we can…"

…

…

Pinkie twitches, then resolutely shakes her head.

…

…

The door bursts open as Party Popper storms in, guards hanging from her barrel!

"HAVE A PARTY!"

She collapses to the ground panting. I regard her impassively.

"What? I was at the other end of the palace. Even if you cue me in I can only gallop so fast."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Day 297
Mid morning

In my late teens, I spent about six months' worth of Saturdays working on a local farm. I wasn't much good at it and I didn't like it at all. Now, looking around the farm lands which will keep the people of Thundera from starving this winter, I'm…

Okay. Pride is in the mix, but I can't honestly say I did a whole lot of physical farm work myself. Fortunately neither the rats nor the low-caste cats who make up most of the local population have any aversion to manual labour. Between the lizard clans and Mumm-Ra's followers all of the food reserves which the fallen nation had put aside were taken or destroyed. But I organised this, kept disparate and mutually antagonistic people focused and working. And now most of them will survive.

Those whom I didn't have to kill in order to make this happen, at least.

Even as I think it, my eyes drift towards the gibbet in the centre of town, and its desiccated inhabitant with the 'I STOLE FOOD' sign around his neck. Most people don't even look at it now, which is the way I prefer it. A few do glance my way… Hm. They don't back away or.. attempt to shield their children. I look for a moment at the ring on my right middle finger as I contemplate the matter. They know what I've done for them, the farmlands I've organised, the order I've brought… The very basics of civilisation. But they don't love me, nor shall they.

Nor should they.

'I TRADED SLAVES'

"Ah, my lord?"

Most of them don't love me. I suppose if you save a mother's children from starvation and make her your de facto number two, you shouldn't be surprised if she becomes somewhat attached to you.

I smile at her as she approaches, note pad in hand. "Khoah, what news?"

'I WAS A MURDERER'

"The fourth tilling machine is back in operation."

I nod again. Third Earth has all manner of technology, but for whatever reason the various species often aren't anything like as sophisticated as it is. Presumably, that's because it was never in Mumm-Ra's interest to tell his slaves how any of it worked. As a result, when they finally broke free there.. just weren't enough people who knew enough for them to sustain the level of civilisation they were used to. Just.. digging around their ruins enabled me to get enough data to construct simple tractors. An offer of sanctuary to one of the few races who know anything useful about engineering got me power generation. Of course, I still had to teach a bunch of superstitious peasants how to use any of it…

"That's good to hear. I was concerned that we might not be able to manufacture the parts we need. What does that do for our production in the next growing season?"

"Assuming a reasonable growing year, we should have a moderate surplus. And it will allow us to extend the roads to the last of the farms." I nod again. It still strikes me as strange, how little infrastructure even a relatively advanced place like Thundera had. The city itself was solid stone, mined from local quarries. But the surrounding area… "We might be able to make it as far as the City, depending on when the rains come."

"Not Mount Plun-darr?"

"Not without a lot more resources, and…" Her eyes drift unavoidably to the sword at my side, and stone in its guard. With them, a hour's meditation on fear causes the ring to recover about two percent of its maximum charge. In practice, that means that I can't risk a long range scavenger hunt more than once a month or so. "The cats don't want to go back there."

Because that's where most of the slaves taken by the lizards were sold, and where many of their fellows were worked to death. Foolish superstition again. "Oh, I think seeing the rats and lizards benefit from central heating next winter will change their minds quickly enough." But it's going to be a problem. Thundrillium isn't anything like as high a priority as stone or wood or iron, to say nothing of food, but we're going to need it before Mumm-Ra sends any serious force in our direction. There just isn't enough wood around here-.

I hear the dull hum of one of the anti-gravity vehicles we took from Mumm-Ra's forces. Ring? Ah, it seems that my third in command is heading back from patrol, with a few guests. Given that the guests have manacles around their wrists and ankles and bags over their heads, I'm going to assume that the encounter was hostile.

Khoah's ears twitch. "She's back early."

What happens next depends on exactly what they did. If they're just desperate refugees who turned to banditry to avoid starvation, they get a tattoo and a period of punishment duty. If they're career bandits or slavers, I will publically execute them. Pumyra will be taking them to the plaza in front of my manor. Pumyra understands the utility of fear rather well, and is quite supportive of my judicial theatre.

"Yes." I offer her my right hand. "Shall we?"

"Um." While she's not afraid of violence, Khoah has never gotten used to the sort of extreme I'm prepared to go to when doling out punishment. In a survival situation like this, the purpose of the punishment for the first offence isn't just to prevent a second offence in the one being punished, but in all of those watching as well. "Of.. course, my lord."

I nod, and extend the ring's flight aura around us to lift us both into the sky. "How are your children getting on with their new teacher?"

She shakes off whatever disquiet she's feeling, smiling at the thought of them.

"They're very fond of him. Every day when they come home they can't stop talking about all of the fascinating things they've learned."

Her older two.. left home shortly after the death of their father. Some of the refugees from the city mentioned seeing kittens matching their description, but… Realistically, those could have been anyone. The remaining two were left fairly withdrawn, but one of the few advantages of the current crisis is that they're regularly in contact with other children their age. And they're young enough that they'll grow up surrounded by technology and consider it normal.

A small crowd has gathered as we come in to land on the small stage on the manor side of the plaza. My official residence, and the seat of my 'government'. I'll probably end up abandoning it in a few years so that I can set up a capital somewhere more central, more defensible. But for now the wood and stone building is perfectly serviceable. We land, and I sit in a heavy wooden chair in the centre while Khoah stands next to me just as the grav-floater swings into the plaza. Pumyra and two other soldiers with four prisoners; one adult male, one adult female and two children. A family, perhaps? Probably best to leave the children's bags on if she intends for me to-.

"Ho, Lord Protector! I think today's my lucky day!"

"Pumyra!" The grav-floater drifts to a halt in front of the stage, the rat at the controls clearly enjoying her role. "What do you have for me today?"

She's grinning as she steps back from the crew station towards the adult male, shoving him forward. Odd. Pumyra isn't really the grinning sort. Ever since I dug her out from under the rubble during the flight from the capital, she's been a veritable font of bile and barely controlled rage. "The person I hate most on all of Third Earth." She rips off the bag, and… Ah.

Lion-O blinks in the light for a moment, before focusing his attention fully on me. He's.. younger than the version I grew up watching… Physically, anyway. His hair… Should that be 'mane'? Is a good deal shorter and is at least paying lip service to the laws of physics.

"Lion-O."

"King Lion-O."

"King?" I look around the crowd. The lizards look decidedly unsettled, but it's the cats I'm most concerned about. The last thing I need is any doubt about who is in charge. "You abandoned your people in favour of chasing after Mumm-Ra. You left them as slaves, or starving in the wilderness. You are the last person with any right to claim authority here." He grits his teeth and tests the chains as I visually dismiss him. "Pumyra, who are the others?"

She nods, and her dog soldier pulls the bag off the adult woman. I assume that's the continuity's Cheetara. She's some sort of warrior-priestess here, though I don't know the details. And quite possibly the last living member of her sect. If there's any way to get her to stay on as a teacher it would be worth pursuing… But I doubt it would work. Unlike Lion-O she isn't looking at my face, but she is trying hard not to stare at the energy stone in my sword.

Khoah gasps is shock as the bags are pulled from the heads of the children, and she's dashing forwards even as the surprised whisper of 'Mama?' reaches my ears. WilyKit and WilyKat. Normally I'd be delighted, but right now the issue requires seriousness.

"Pumyra, release the kittens into the care of their mother, and bring the other two inside." I stand and turn away, letting my yellow-sigiled cape swirl about me. "We can decide what to do with them at our leisure."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Day 297
Mid morning

Patience.

"…my people. I'm their king…"

Patience, and fixing him with a steady stare while the rest of my face remains completely still. And not responding with word or gesture.

"…like you run the place while I'm fighting…"

I can feel Khoah's love and hope as tiny disruptions in the aura of fear that usually surrounds me. People see my closest confidant so obviously happy… No, no, it isn't a problem.

"…forcing people to work…"

Or rather, it's not an existential problem for the community. We're.. not at the level of desperation which we were after the sacking of the City of Thundera. I can afford to be something other than a stern-faced judge and executioner. After all, it is best to be loved and feared rather than either alone.

"…stole my sword…"

The boy is unnerved, and that as much as anything else is making him irrational. And he knows it. He knows that he's failing some sort of unspoken test, but he just can't control himself. I'd assign blame to his youth, but the people of this land can't afford to wait for him to get his head on straight.

"…say something!"

I wait a moment as Lion-O glares and gets his breath back, but he doesn't appear to feel the need to continue his rant. Cheetara's remained quiet, but her eyes occasionally drift to the Sword of Omens now at Pumyra's hip. I'm not sure if whatever supernatural abilities this version has would allow her to break out of the wrought iron bonds holding her wrists behind her back. But even if she can, I'm confident that I can deal with it.

I lean forward slightly.

"If you've quite finished?"

"Let us-" He takes a half-pace forward and beside me Pumyra's right hand tightens on her newly acquired sword. Cheetara spots that, her fear for Lion-O flaring momentarily as she realises that she might not be able to save him if he persists in his stupidity. "-go, you-."

I raise my right hand, glowing construct chains attaching themselves to his arms, legs and neck and pulling him to the ground to grovel before me. I add a solid faceplate to cover his mouth and then force him into a kneeling position.

And then I walk over to him and bend down, so that my mouth is closer to his right ear.

"If you've quite finished?"

"Mrrrrrrugh!"

I straighten up and go back to staring down at him. Since my… Harrowing meditation under the ring's influence I've found that certain things -such as staring unflinchingly- are far easier than they once were. He doesn't have that advantage, and he's trying to maintain eye contact anyway. Again, it just makes him appear weak.

"Then in no particular order. You are the king of no-one. Thundera fell. Its rulers dead or… Fled."

"Mry ruruh urgh!"

"I took charge because I had the power to protect those who submitted to my authority and the power to enforce my rule. People stayed because I was able to organise them into a society that is capable of feeding itself. Their numbers further bolstered by those cats I freed from lizard and rat slavers… And the lizards I freed from Slithe."

Cheetara frowns. "Why would Slithe take other lizards prisoner?"

"Because they don't serve Mumm-Ra." I keep staring at Lion-O as I answer her. "For the most part, the lizards who attacked Thundera did so to reclaim the lands the cats took from them and to prevent any possibility of another reversal. Slithe was their war chief, not their king. With their objective complete, they want to go home. Slithe won't allow that, and he's been quite brutal in making examples of those who challenge his orders."

"Moving swiftly on." Lion-O's eyes are watering and he's forced to look away. "You don't rule here because, as I said, you left. You ran after Mumm-Ra rather than protect your people. And while I'm willing to blame that on your youth and inexperience rather than any underlying defect of character, that abandonment means that there's little residual affection for you here. Pumyra in particular was quite put out that you didn't stop to dig her out of the rubble as you ran right past her on your way out."

"People here work so that there is food. The lizards' army fed itself by taking food from local farms and granaries. The farmers then fled. Before I started doing this no one was planting. And if the fields are not planted then there will be no food. Everyone will starve." I bring my face closer to his. "Do you understand why that is bad?"

He briefly meets my eyes again, and gives me a small nod. I pull back, my eyes still locked on his, and dismiss the construct chains holding him.

"I don't know why you're here. I'm mildly concerned that your presence will prove disruptive, but that potential damage is minimised by you leaving promptly. As for your sword? It will be returned when you leave."

I feel the change in Pumyra's posture. No, I didn't expect that would make her happy. And there is a.. value in having another weapon like my own sword around. But the Sword of Omens would just make us too big of a target, and without a personal lantern I can't fight the sort of force Mumm-Ra could throw at me. Oh, I'd be fine, but everything I've been building would be utterly destroyed. And while I'm sure that she'll demand an explanation, I've taught her to do things like that in private. And even if I hadn't, she wouldn't undermine me in front of the man she hates.

"Is there anything else?"

He cautiously rises to his feet. "We're still-. We need to fight Mumm-Ra-."

"I think you over-estimate what I 'need' to do. But, yes, I am willing to participate. Once there's an actual plan. That has a hope in hell of working. Though if by some miracle you find a lantern with this-" I hold my right hand up so he can get a clear look at the sigil. "-sigil on it, you can pretty much name your price."

Because if I get that, oh, things become a lot easier. I only had a quick look at the flying pyramid that Mumm-Ra calls a ship, but I rather imagine that bringing it up to full functionality would dramatically improve my situation.

And then… Sinestro did want his Corps to be a force for universal order, didn't he?

"I'll keep that in mind. We.. need some supplies."

"We have just a little more than the bare minimum of food we need for everyone to live. And you want supplies?"

"No, not food. For our tank. We need help with the repairs-."

"Fine. Talk to the berbils. Anything else?"

"No, that's-."

"Good. Off you go." He hesitates, and I make a flapping motion with both hands as I use the ring to unlock their metal chains. "Shoo. Pumyra will escort you."

"Ah. … Thanks."

He steps away, rubbing his wrists as he does so.

"Cheetara, stay a moment, would you? I have a few questions for you."

Lion-O looks back in alarm, but Cheetara shakes her head. He hesitates a moment, then Pumyra walks up and shoves him forward. Cheetara and I both wait until the door closes behind them, then look at one another. Her, I don't stare down. And-. Ah, smile.

"What did you want to ask?" Her expression is guarded, but there's no sign that she's preparing for an attack. Hopeful.

"I'm not a cat. Obviously." I turn away and walk over to my cabinet. "May I offer you a drink? I'm afraid all we have is water."

"Thank you."

I pour water from the clay jug into two plain clay cups, then turn and pass one to her. Then I take a drink, which she watches carefully before sipping from her own cup.

"There are things I don't understand about cat society, and I can't afford to look ignorant before my people. But since you're leaving soon anyway, there's no harm in me asking you. And as a cleric, I imagine that you're well placed to answer."

"What did you want to know?"

"After the death of a spouse-" She blinks. "-what is the appropriate period of mourning before entertaining a new suitor?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I am extremely fond of Khoah, and… She's fond of me. Her husband died a while ago, and he was by all accounts a fine man. I have no desire to insult his memory, but I would like to pursue her romantically. So I would like to know how long I should leave it."

"Ah."

Oh, of course. Mustn't forget. "We also have a graveyard. I've tried my best, but all too often people died before I arrived or were too badly injured for me to heal. If you have the time to consecrate it while you're here, I'm sure that it would be a comfort to-."

"I'm.. not that kind of cleric. I'm a warrior and a keeper of secret knowledge, not a.. priestess."

I frown. "Oh. Are you at all familiar with the relevant rites?"

"I know the death-rites. If you think it will help people-" I nod. "-then I can say a few words. And there isn't a 'standard' period of mourning. If she.. likes you then it's probably okay."

I smile pleasantly. "Thank you. I will bear that in mind."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Day 297
Mid evening

"Are you our Pa now?"

I.. freeze in the act of tucking Wilykin into bed, and the slight rustling of the sheets suggests that his sister has squirmed her way out from under the covers and is watching me as well. I can't see her expression in this light, though I'm sure they can both see mine perfectly well. Their low light vision is far better than mine, when I'm not enhancing it with the ring anyway.

"Why do you ask?"

"'kit and 'kat wanted to know." Something else occurs to him. "Is it really them?"

"Don't you recognise them?"

He squirms uncomfortable. "I dunno. They went away…"

I nod. "I suppose that must seem like a long time for you. And they're a bit bigger now." He looks at me for a moment, then nods. "I can assure you that they are in fact your missing brother and sister. Your mother remembers what they look like extremely well."

"Did you-" Wilytab wriggles a little further out of bed. "-use your ring?"

"Yes, I used my ring. It's definitely them."

Of course, I only did a DNA check. I haven't seen anything on this planet that could fake that, but given the vast range of levels of technical sophistication that exists here it wouldn't come as a total surprise if something like that happened. Or magic, perhaps. But I think I'll keep my fears to myself.

"So are you?"

While I fully intend to have a slightly more nuanced version of this conversation with Khoah in a little while, I think the kittens can have the simplified version.

"I could never replace your father. But in his absence, perhaps I can substitute for him."

"What does 'substute' mean?"

I nod and smile. "You know how when I go away sometimes and people have questions for me, and your mother answers them?"

"Uh-huh."

"When that happens, your mother is my substitute. She's not becoming me, but she's doing my job for a little while."

"So you're doing Pa's job?"

I lean forward, kiss his forehead and ruffle his hair with my right hand. "Yes, I am."

"Okay." He wriggles around so that he's lying on his side. "'night, Substitute Pa."

"Goodnight Wilykin." I stand up. "Goodnight Wilytab."

"'night."

I smile at her, then turn around and walk out of the room, carefully closing the door behind-.

"'Substitute Pa'."

Wilykit and Wilykat are looking at me in a way which suggests that they're extremely dubious about me. These two kittens have been through the wringer since leaving home, and Khoah has been delighted to have them back. I make eye contact with each of them, then move my right forefinger to my lips in a 'shush' gesture. Wilykit glances at the door behind me and grimaces slightly while Wilykat glares at me with his arms folded across his chest.

I lead the way down the corridor into a currently unused meeting room. This room has a battery powered electric light in the centre of the table, so I reach over and turn it on low as the older kittens file in behind me.

"Will the two of you be staying once-?"

"What are you doing with Mama?"

I look up to see that Wilykit has joined in with her brother's mock scowling. Oh. No, that isn't supposed to be mock scowling. That's.. adorable.

"Keeping the cats alive. Your mother's farm was far enough away from Thundera that the lizards didn't loot it. There was good farmland, but not enough people to work it. Plus, your mother had an excellent knowledge of farming. Starting the new settlement here just made sense."

"No. What are you doing with her?" Her eyes momentarily widen. "Are you controlling her with your magic ring?"

"No." I shake my head. "Yellow rings can't control people. And even if I could, I don't have enough power to waste on something like that." They're both watching me intently. "Khoah has been invaluable in making this place work. I'd be quite lost without her. Is… Something worrying you?"

Wilykat starts. "You have people tied to posts! With signs around their necks telling everyone what you killed them for!"

I nod. "And you don't think that Khoah would accept that."

"You killed a guy for stealing food! We-."

He stops talking, and his sister's eyes widen in horror. Ah.

"Children, there's a big difference between stealing food because you're starving in a place that has plenty of food, and stealing food when you've been given as much to eat as everyone else in a place that has barely enough for everyone to survive. Khoah wasn't comfortable with it." For stealing food, anyway. No problem with the death penalty for slavery and murder. "However, she's lived on the frontier long enough to know that sometimes there isn't a lot of room for finesse in maintaining order. And generally, that's my responsibility."

Wilykat frowns thoughtfully while Wilykit looks away. Wilykat then looks up at me as his brow smoothes.

"Do you intend to stay? Or carry on travelling with Lion-O? I know that Khoah would like you to stay, and…" Huh. "I would as well. You're far too young to be out by yourselves."

Wilykit scowls petulantly. "We're not by ourselves."

Wilykat nods, arms folded across his chest as he juts his chin out defiantly. "Yeah. Lion-O never would have got to the Book of Omens without us."

Whatever that is.

I nod. "Alright. Please know that you have a home here whenever you want to return." They look at me suspiciously, then give me a small nod. "And you can explain why you're leaving to your mother."

A pair of winces.

"Now, I think you two should probably be getting to bed as well."

"Hey." Wilykat tries to glare again. "We're adventurers now-."

"I'll send your mother up to tell you a bed time story. How about that?"

They look at each other for a moment, then turn around and file out.

That appears to be going… Alright. They don't despise me, at least. I can't see the confrontation with Mumm-Ra lasting more than a few years, so I'll have plenty of time to build bridges with them later. I turn off the lamp and then head out of the room, turn left and down the stairs into the living area.

Khoah looks up from the.. books she brought from her old home. She was going through them with the kittens a little earlier and I didn't want to disturb them.

"How did the meeting go?"

"Lion-O may be salvageable." I cross the room and sit down on the sofa next to her. "Cheetara was a bit useless, though. Apparently clerics here are very different to where I'm from."

"Why did you want a cleric?"

Oh, there's no point dancing around the subject any longer.

"Because I love you and want-" She blinks several times in quick succession. "-to ask you to marry me, but I was concerned that you might still be in the formal mourning period for your late husband." I shrug. "Are you? I'll quite understand if you are, or if you're just not interested in me in that way-."

"Um. No. Wilytom's… Death left a.. hole in my life I.. didn't know if I would ever fill. But you… Everything you've done…"

I lean forwards carefully and embrace her. She hugs me back, the right side of her face rubbing against my cheek.

"I'm delighted to hear you say that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Canterlot
Late Afternoon

"…grow larger?"

Luna appears to be taking her status as third shortest alicorn in her stride. Cadance appears to not be all that curious about Sunset's achievement, which… Strikes me as a little odd. While, yes, I'm going to credit her with the intelligence to have talked to Shining Armour about the life expectancy difference I'd have thought that she'd be all over this.

Circe nods. "It's inevitable. As you-." She hesitates. "Has Sunset shown you her equations?"

"Yes, though We do not yet fully grasp their meaning."

"Essentially, becoming an alicorn changes the proportion of 'you' that is made of arcane energy rather than flesh. An alicorn as old as Celestia has almost certainly reached her full size, barring any further transformations." Circe frowns. "Do you know exactly how old she is? Sunset said that Celestia is over a thousand, but she wasn't able to find a precise figure."

"I would think so. Celestia is Our sister. She is one thousand one hundred and nineteen."

"One thousand-." I frown. "Really? I assumed-. But then you're only-."

"One hundred and sixteen, if one discounts the time during which Nightmare Moon was in possession of Our body." She rolls her eyes. "Did you assume that We were some ancient demi-goddess? There are mortal ponies who are Our senior."

"So more of a middle-aged demi-goddess?" She gives me a mildly reproachful glare. "What? I'm not exactly in the first flush of youth myself, and-" I lower my head and voice slightly "-you're the one sort of Christmas Cake I'd-."

She looks away, smiling, her ears twitching and her tail flicking my haunches.

"Hie away, you incorrigible scoundrel."

"Oh you love it."

Cadance smiles at our exchange, then looks thoughtfully at Circe. "Does that mean that I'm going to grow as well?"

"Almost certainly. I'm afraid that accelerating the process with an existing alicorn is rather more difficult than-."

"Oh, no no no. I'm not jealous. I'm glad that Sunset was able to get what she wants."

I smirk. "Because now you don't have to worry about her turning up in your room at night with a dissection kit."

She looks away. "Well… Ah, how do you think her talk with Princess Celestia is going?"

"Nothing's exploded yet and-" I glance out of a nearby window. "-the sun's still on course, so I suppose that it's going about as well as it could."

"I know you don't like Celestia very much, but when Sunset was her student they really cared about each other-." My expression appears to give me away. "And maybe Celestia didn't communicate very well, and maybe Sunset was a lot angrier than was healthy, but that love doesn't just go away." She looks thoughtful. "Maybe I could remind them of that feeling-."

I scowl. "Use-."

'Use unnatural mental influence spells on any member of my retinue and I will treat it as an act of war.'

I glance at Luna, who looks curious as to where I was going with that.

No. No.

Cadance stops to see what I wanted to say, and… I do want to make clear clear my opposition, but less vehemently.

"I feel that it's important to let them work out their differences themselves, and I would very much appreciate it if you didn't ever interfere with their thoughts with magic."

Cadance gapes for a moment.

"… O-oh."

Oh… Great. Managed to be rude anyway. Ugh. I look away. I suppose that I should check on them. It's not as if Sunset doesn't know how to nullify sound or kill someone quietly.

"Excuse me."

I turn and trot away. To be absolutely fair, I don't know precisely how severe her mental compulsions are, but… That's not really a question a person should have to consider. After what Chrysalis did to Shining Armour she should know better than that.

Ugh.

Speaking of the stallion, he's over there talking to Shadow Tempest. I'm not sure exactly how much the state of the Royal Guard is his fault, how much is Celestia and how much is the combined failure of the institution over the course of a thousand years, but-.

"Hey." Rainbow Dash appears in the air directly in front of me. "What were you planning on using on me?"

I stop walking, raising my eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"The thing. Like the clones and Spike and Rarity and the Diamond Dogs. What were you planning on springing on me?"

"Didn't really have anything, to be honest. Maybe something about the ennui involved in wanting to join the Wonderbolts when you're already a better flier and fighter than they are, but at this point you're more aware of your faults than I am."

She flaps twice, then frowns.

"Why would I need an emu to join the Wonderbolts? Emus can't fly."

…

I.. don't trust myself to keep a straight face, so I walk past her in the direction of-. No, they're gone. Ah, Twilight Sparkle. I should ask her about mental influence spells and see how warranted my concerns are. I mean, I'm confident that Sunset can defend herself-.

"Hey, Gravy!" / "Hey, Gravy!"

I stop again, turning to see… Pinkie Pie and Party Popper.

Wait, 'gravy'? Blood sauce? I mean, I know that she's a baker, but… I wouldn't have thought that ponies… No, she might mean that white sauce stuff that Americans think is gravy.

"Pinkie Pie. Party Popper. What can I do for you?"

"Okay, but which is which?" / "Okay, but which is which?"

Creepy party twins alert.

I point to Party Popper. "Popper." And then to Pinkie Pie. "Pie."

No… Wait. I look closer.

"No. You're not."

The Pinkie clone grins even wider. "You actually can tell!"

"Yes..? May I ask what you're doing in Canterlot?"

"I'm gunna be the Canterlot Pinkie! Because it would be super-confusing if we all went to the same place, and I got sent here. Party Popper got Manehattan because of course she did-"

"Uh-huh."

"-and Original Pinkie got Ponyville and everypinkie else got somewhere else!"

"It will be a party extravaganza, I'm-."

"Sunset, that isn't what I meant."

Hurried hoofsteps cause me and.. most of the room to turn in the direction of the door to Celestia's garden. Sunset comes through first, water leaking from her eyes. An alarmed-looking Celestia follows swiftly at her heels. Sunset stops for a moment, her eyes alighting on me for a moment before turning back to Celestia.

"What else could you mean? What more could I learn when I've already achieved what your 'lessons' were supposed to teach me to do?"

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but-."

Sunset's face falls. "Yes. You are, aren't you?" She shakes her head. "I don't know what I-." She turns away from Celestia and trots over to me. "Grayven, can we.. go? Just… Call a boom tube?"

I look from her to Celestia, who gives her head a small pleading shake. And then back to Sunset.

"Certainly. Luna, I'll be back tomorrow. Mother Box."

Boom!

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April
23:31 GMT -6

The boom tube closes behind us and I open a new one to her laboratory almost immediately.

"I realise that you're a little fraught, but you should probably switch the time ratio-."

"Yeah." She trots forward. "Yeah."

I follow her through, and… Looks like she didn't clear away the conjured ropes she used to bind Twilight. Sunset's horn glows as she points it at the inscriptions trapping the Earth 16 end of the portal in place, a ripple of power washing over it.

"There. One to one. Circe will only be out by about a minute."

I pick up the remains of the bondage gear in a construct.

"What happened with this? And Twilight's tour?"

"Fifteen to one, remember?" She levitates it out of my construct and places in it a thaumically isolating crate. "I'd barely gotten her untied before we felt Luna's magic through the mirror. I guess I'll… Give Twilight a tour some other time."

"So.. you're… Alright with Twilight?"

"Yeaah..? It's not like I thought I was Celestia's only student ever or anything. And… If we're right about her planning on using me to help Luna and… She didn't tell Twilight more than she told me… None of this… Was Twilight's fault." She gives her head a small shake. "And I got what I wanted anyway…"

"Anger isn't really rational like that."

"No. No, it's-. She's fine." She snorts quietly. "And maybe I can help open her mind to… Things that Celestia won't teach her."

I nod. "Like bondage."

She makes a small horse-splutter noise. "Not according to a rumour I heard-. That was you."

I grin and nod. "Not the bondage part specifically, but I told a few guards that alicornism was sexually transmitted."

Sunset looks at me for a moment, head tilted slightly to the right. "That's… A horribly you thing to say."

"Thank you. And I hope you're not going to have a story about you creeping into Celestia's room with a-."

"No! No, Grayven, that's-. Gross. And… And disgusting and it wouldn't even have worked." She shudders. "Uugh. I feel like I need a shower."

"Slight problem with that."

She frowns, then looks down at herself. "I'll just.. use the g-troll shower. They.. have one, right?"

"Yes, but… Remember we're not actually that tall, just… Bigger than the other ponies."

"Speak for yourself. I think I'm as tall like this as I am as a human."

We stand in her laboratory for a few moments.

"So… Celestia?"

She waves her head from left to right.

"I don't.. know..? I don't know what I wanted, I don't know what I was expecting… I don't know."

I nod, and lay down on the floor.

"Okay, so, what did the two of you talk about?"

"I, um. We.. started with… Just.. the first time I was in the garden. I didn't really remember it. Wasn't really paying any attention to anything that wasn't her."

"How long ago..?"

"I don't know. A few weeks after I went to live in Canterlot? I grew up on the other side of the country and I was getting a bit overwhelmed with everything. We just.. chatted. Which was weird, because-. We don't exactly deify Celestia, but if you don't live close enough to Canterlot to actually see her, she's kind of…"

"A sort of living myth."

Sunset nods. "And not like Superman, or.. you. We don't have TV or radio. We haven't even had colour photography for all that long. And suddenly she's there and talking to me."

"You left your friends behind." She looks at me with an interrogative frown. "When you moved."

"Oh. Yeah. No one I was super close to, but… Yeah."

I nod. No local friends, not much in common…

"Did the other foals at the school mostly come from Canterlot?"

"Mostly from Canterlot. Canterlot's a mostly-unicorn city, the centre of government and.. the.. second?" She thinks for a moment, then nods. "Second most populous city. It's not that surprising."

But she was an outsider, and amongst the scions of powerful families she was selected for particular privilege. And she outperformed them all. Would that have discouraged ponies from befriending her, in the early days, before she got out of the habit? Don't know. And it's probably not relevant.

"And then?"

"She… Said that she hadn't banished me, and that she just wanted me to get some more experience outside of the palace before I started studying again. And that she was looking for a student because of Luna but that wasn't why she picked me, or why we had the relationship that we did."

"Do you believe her?"

"… Yeah. I mean, even if she didn't mean to when she started teaching me, I don't think-. She wouldn't have put up with me as long as she did if-. Once it was pretty clear that I wasn't going to be using the Elements."

"And did hearing that make you feel any better?"

"I don't know-. No. No, it didn't. Because it means that I didn't need to run through the mirror. There are plenty of other libraries in Equestria, especially in Canterlot. And I could-. Making friends wouldn't be that bad?"

"Would you have made friends?"

"No." She doesn't hesitate. "I was convinced that Celestia was holding out on me, because she was. I'd have kept looking. And I told her that, and wanted to know why she lied to me. And she-. She said that it was because I wasn't ready. I was sitting there.. as an alicorn, and she was telling me I wasn't ready."

"Huh?"

"Oh, she thinks I cheated. That I found some sort of.. nearly dark magic way around the 'natural'… Healthy way to become an alicorn. I think she wanted me to… I don't know, turn myself back, go back to Equestria and try learning what she was trying to teach me in the first place. And I wanted to know why she thought I'd want to, and she just-. She had no idea why I wouldn't. Like she literally couldn't understand what I was saying. And then I tried asking about all the stuff she obviously got wrong when she was teaching me, all the stuff she-. Should have done differently if she'd wanted me to end up like she said she wanted me to. I mean, if she wanted me to make friends so badly why didn't she say that instead of showing me the Mirror!"

And she's crying, snot running down her muzzle.

"Why-? And then she just-"

I raise my right wing.

"-couldn't understand why I thought she was part of the problem!"

She dives into my side, pressing herself up against me and sobbing into my barrel as I wrap my wing around her.

"Why doesn't she get it?!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Repetition

2nd April 2012
07:52 GMT -6

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

I look around as Bethany stares at me in fascination.

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

Lynne puts her hands on her hips.

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

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

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

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

"Sunset's a pony?"

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

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

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

She nuzzles me back. "Thank you Daddy!"

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

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

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

"She eats birds."

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

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

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

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

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

Bethany looks horrified. "What?"

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

"But she doesn't want to!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You don't look tiny."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Like making stuff float with your horn?"

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

"A human-shaped New God, right?"

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Daddy, are you a player?"

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

"What about Kara?"

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

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

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

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

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

Ping.

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

"Agh!"

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

…

The heck was that about?

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
09:12 GMT -5

Ghia'ta limply raises her left hand, and wafts of orange mist drift from my borrowed ring.

"It's.. a start. How does it feel?"

She drops her hand and the mist vanishes at once.

"I feel as if Queen Aga'po may appear at any moment to lecture me for this misdeed."

"I mean, in yourself."

"It isn't… I don't think that it really… Fits me."

"Ghia'ta." I lean closer. "It's just you and me. Your ring isn't reporting on your actions because you're not wearing it. It's okay to want things for yourself."

"I am aware of that; it is the exclusion of other feelings that feels unnatural to me." She takes it off and holds it out to me. "I doubt that you could change to using a violet ring any easier-"

I'm already pulling my rings off my fingers.

"-than I can-."

"Pass it over, then."

She blinks. And while that could be because since neither of us are wearing rings she's hearing me in English for the first time, I suspect that it's due to surprise. I haven't bothered ritualistically removing my ring for a while and she might well have assumed that I simply didn't take it off.

"Pass it-? You intend to use it?"

"Don't know. I haven't ever tried using another colour ring before." I shrug. "But I wasn't born as an enlightened avarice mystic. I know the theory, and perhaps I'll be able to help you better if I know what you're used to working with." I shrug, shaking my head. "You don't have to of course, but we know that humans as a species can use violet rings without deleterious mental effects…"

"You haven't tried a green ring?"

"No. I asked Guy once and he looked at me as if I'd asked to borrow his testicles. Offered him my ring in return and he jerked his hand back." I shrug. "I could ask Alan, but I didn't want to risk his health."

"I don't have a spare ring." She picks her ring up from the side table and awkwardly holds it out to me. "Please, be careful with it."

No, not picking it up. Let's see. I wonder what Jade's doing right now?

The ring rises unsteadily from Ghia'ta's hand and floats onto my right ring finger. Heh, well, eventually, but I wouldn't want Jade to get the wrong idea.

Now…

I flex my right hand, trying to see how the violet version of the environmental shield responds. It doesn't feel as natural as the orange light, but that's.. probably just me.

Jade would hate me giving up a weapon like this.

Glowing crystalline construct-armour covers my body as I rise into the air.

"See? It's not so bad."

Ghia'ta stares. Then she gets up and walks around me, still staring.

Ghia'ta stares. Then she gets up and walks around me, still staring.

Ghia'ta stares. Then she gets up and walks around me, still staring.

Ghia'ta-.

I frown. Wait, what?

Glowing crystalline construct-armour covers my body as I rise into the air.

"I don't have a spare ring." She picks her ring up from the side table-.

No, no, what?

I walk into the briefing room for my meeting with Ghia'ta, and I see that I'm already there.

"No. I asked Guy once and he looked at me as if I'd asked to borrow his testicles."

Time-? No, I didn't see this. Which could mean that this is an 'I hate temporal mechanics' situation, but I'm pretty sure-.

"Orange Lantern, we need-"

There's a figure in a purple robe standing a short distance from me. I don't seem to be able to move.

Jade hates people controlling her, too.

"-to leave at once-."

Something… Shatters, and I regain control of myself.

"What-?"

A violet repto-insectoid claw grips the figure around the chest and slams it into the wall-.

A violet repto-insectoid claw grips-.

A violet repto-insectoid claw tries to grip, but I misjudged the distance and it misses.

No, wait, I didn't. That just-.

"What you are experiencing is temporal dislocation. I'm using it to hide us. Anyone looking into this timeline from outside will see the future you, rather than the you whose timeline you are now living."

"I… Recognise you. We haven't met-."

"No. We have, but the event was erased from your personal timeline. You're remembering it because I'm partially removing you from the normal flow of time. Please don't attack me again, I don't have a great deal of leeway and our need is great."

"'Our' need?"

"The fallen Guardian Krona is abducting versions of you from alternate parallel universes and discontinued timelines in order to pry apart the universe at a fundamental level. I was only just able to escape." He pauses. "Do you know who I am?"

"The Time Trapper. I'm not exactly sure what that entails."

"It means that I tried to manipulate time in an unwise way, and was rendered outside it for my hubris. I have my own reasons for stopping Krona, quite aside from what he did to me in order to put his insane scheme into action. Come."

He turns and walks away.

"We will need to travel. I need you for your power and connection to your parallel alternate selves."

"Can I pick up my rings first?"

The Time Trapper pauses, then the hood glances back at me.

"You don't have your ring?"

"No, I have Ghia'ta's ring which I used for the first time a few seconds ago. My rings are back in there."

He stares at me, then lets out a peal of pained laughter.

"Of course they are. And no, you can't. He's almost certainly watching for us. I can't risk breaking cover." He turns away again and continues down the corridor. "I hope that you're a quick learner, for all our sakes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
09:12 GMT -5, again

I've read John's file on Krona, and it… Wasn't particularly helpful. Ancient Maltusian, tried looking at the start of the universe and got stripped of his physicality as punishment. Nekron managed to give him a new one so that he could attack Oa, but he was defeated and they assumed that was the end of the matter. My comic knowledge isn't much-. No any better. I know that he was the main villain of the JLA/Avengers crossover and… He was doing something during the Trinity event where Morgaine le Fey, Enigma and Despero tried to restructure the universe around them. And the Parallax-Guardian in the film might have been him.

Nothing I can use to help me decide anything.

"You escaped. Why did he abduct parallel universe versions of me and you?"

"Because I'm a living temporal anomaly. Are you aware that the Challengers of the Unknown freed themselves from the Book of Fate?" I nod. "Something like that. I have no past or future, no history or destiny. Now come. I can give you a fuller explanation once we're…" He pauses. "I was going to say 'safe', but that would be a lie. Safer."

"At the moment I only have your word that anything is even happening. And you're just some guy in a robe. I.. seem to remember that you sent me back to the present when Dox was planning to keep me in a cell. I'd be grateful, but I don't appreciate having my memories removed and I'm somewhat suspicious of what you're planning on asking me to do."

"This isn't-." He exhales. "Fine, I can show you proof but we need to go somewhere safer first. And if you think I'm trying to manipulate you then you should consider that I've already demonstrated the ability to leave you in temporal stasis. As attacks go that's fairly conclusive."

I suppose he's got a point, there. At least I can be confident that he wants something from me.

"Alright then. Where to?"

He starts walking again and I fly after him. "In a manner of speaking, a dream. A lucid dream held together by a species-wide telepathic gestalt. Don't worry, it won't hurt any of the locals."

He walks through a doorway to what I know leads to an emergency exit staircase, then reaches into his right sleeve and pulls out a small piece of red crystal. He holds it out, and…

The air around us turns red as a scarlet circle appears in the air before him, spinning and widening into what looks like a Dolmen Gate aperture. The edge is two dimensional, comprised of wisps of the original circle which continue moving through the air-. And the walls and floors, apparently unobstructed. Through the portal I can see… A landscape made of the same red crystal Time Trapper used to open it, the red skies decorated by… Floating balls of… Is that wax? Liquid flames? They're paler than their surroundings so they aren't the light source…

"Come." Time Trapper walks towards it as the aperture passes floor level. "All of the explanation you w-."

The wall to our right explodes, fragments of rock and concrete flying past us and into my construct armour! Time Trapper is forced to dive for safety as Overgirl strides forward, eyes glowing a baleful red!

"You!" She glares at him and fires, but he raises his right hand and the lance of heat energy stops in the air. "It was you!"

"We don't have time for this! Lantern!"

I hold up my hands in a calming motion as Angelika stalks forward, eye beams still on full.

"Angelika, talk to me. What are you doing? How do you know Time Trapper?"

"This portal! This is what opened over Aachen when I tried to stop the train! This man snatched me away from everyone I love!"

"That was Krona! What possible use are you to me?"

"Angelika, stop. If he can open portals then he can send you home. We can deal with whatever Krona is doing-."

The Time Trapper pulls himself up slightly as Angelika's advance slows to a crawl. "How are you even moving? From your point of view, time should-."

"Do you have any idea how I fixated on becoming Karl's equal?!"

"I don't even know who 'Carl' is! Lantern, please!"

For all that she frustrates me, Angelika is a friend, an individual who is gradually awakening to the idea that the things she believes are very wrong and doing her best to cope with that. And right now she's doing something harmful to her interests.

"Angelika, stop."

Golden kryptonite radiation plays over her.. to no apparent effect as she brute forces her way closer to her target.

"It took me years, but I learned how to power myself from things other than sunlight! Including the force you use to alter time!"

"Damn it! The one kryptonian who-!" The Time Trapper stands and steps backwards through the swirling portal. "Lantern, make a decision!"

It's for her own good.

Violet crystal forms on Angelika's back and rapidly grows to cover her torso. She's so fixated on Time Trapper that she doesn't notice until it reaches her shoulders. Then she twists her head around to glare at my betrayal.

"Why-!?"

Her head is covered, and.. the crystal is either holding against her heat vision or -as I hope- putting her into stasis.

"Thank you. Come, I'll show you-"

I pick up my crystallised colleague and carefully step through the portal.

"-what-. Why are you bringing a lunatic kryptonian?"

"She's not a lunatic. She's a friend of mine and since she's resistant to your abilities I think that keeping her with me is the sensible thing to do. Now, if you're really desperate-."

He waves his crystal and the portal closes.

"Fine. This way."

He leads me along a narrow path, spires of crystal rising up all around us.

"Some time ago I found that as a result of time travel my past no longer existed. As I'm sure that you can understand, this left me quite distraught. But it occurred to me that if I could survive without history, why not someone else? Why not dozens, millions, the untold billions of my uncreated temporal reality?"

"Because that's not how the universe works."

"Just so. But what if it did? What if it could? So I began experimenting."

Some distance in front of us there's a tall spire of crystal, tall enough to utterly dwarf the lesser spires around us. He appears to be leading me towards it.

"Did history 'snap back' from small changes? Were there consequences to the hubristic act of deliberately changing things? Was time inherently hostile and vengeful? Or mechanistic? While I was primarily interested in resurrecting my own timeline my preference was to alter the nature of the universe so that it could sustain multiple timelines. I love my own temporality. I don't hate those belonging to other people."

"Who would certainly try to resist if they found out that you were planning on erasing them."

"I would gladly fight and kill anyone if that was what it took. But… It wasn't going to. I found a way, a way to change the fundamental structure of reality. Some people would have been.. inconvenienced, in the short term, but given what we would all have gained I was confident that enough would volunteer to make the approach viable. And then Krona messed it all up."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
Indeterminate

"Because he was more interested in studying the universe than in changing it."

"I'd say 'typical Guardian', except that he isn't. A typical Guardian would just have shut me down. Krona.. is… Expanding things. Even I don't know what sort of damage he'll end up doing to time. For all I know he's deliberately trying to collapse the universe in order to gain experimental data."

"Is that a worst-case scenario, or a realistic assessment?"

"I don't know. He's expanded my work significantly beyond what I needed for my purposes. From a distance I have only an approximate idea of what he's doing. While I was his captive he spent most of his time simply insulting me rather than explaining himself."

"You escaped?"

"Krona was punished with incorporeality by the Guardians. He can work around it, but he still retains certain… Limits. Not all of his abductees came gently, and in the confusion I was able to free myself and one other. But that won't do much to hold him back. Not at this stage."

"Who else?"

He raises his right arm and points over to the base of the spire, where I see a woman in all-concealing red armour and robes. I don't recognise the ensemble, but from the scarlet arcs of energy swirling from her to the central pillar I'm going to assume that she has some sort of power relating to this place.

"Red Queen. Are we ready?"

Red Queen doesn't look around as we approach.

"I can open a portal to a different alternity. That's it. Krona has already taken enough crystal from here to prevent any second tries."

Oh. I suppose that it shouldn't be a complete surprise.

"Jade? Is that you under there? Or… A you?"

"The only me left. Krona acquired every one of my safety-alternaties before he came after this me."

"No, I... I'm not sure what you mean."

Time Trapper holds out the small crystal he used to open the portal to and from Mount Justice to her and she takes it and attaches it to her vambrace.

"I can create replica universes. Everything the same as the one I duplicate, except for anything I do there. But now Krona's using my.. abilities for something else. He captured too many of me for me to work around."

"Have we.. met before?"

"No. If there was ever a version of you in my original alternity, I never met him. I take it you've met one version of me before."

"Two, actually, though I'm on good terms with my native one."

"I'm not her. Try to remember that."

"Okay, I.. will. So what's the plan?"

Time Trapper turns towards me.

"Locate the alternate versions of you that he's targeting and bring them here before he can acquire them. Red Queen and I can shield them far more easily here than we can anywhere else."

"And then?"

"I rebuild my device and use it to negate his. Then we attack him directly and either kill him or at least damage him sufficiently that he can't come after me again."

"And what about your project?"

"I'll ask for volunteers while everyone is assembled in one place, but stopping Krona is far more important."

"I still haven't actually seen Krona yet."

Time Trapper's robes move in such a way as to suggest a shrug.

"You'll see him before the end. Unless you're unlucky, in which case you'll see him earlier. Are you ready?"

"Not quite. Can you get Angelika back to her home parallel?"

"Not.. now, but once Krona is defeated, yes, easily. And I'd far rather do that than let her take another swing at me."

I raise my right hand, then lower it, the crystal around her head decaying.

Angelika looks decidedly unimpressed with me, but her eyes aren't glowing. Yet.

"Angelika, these people have offered to send you home. They even want our help against the person who attacked your parallel. Can you control yourself for long enough to actually focus on the one responsible for what happened to your people?"

"Has he shown you evidence that anyone else is responsible?"

"Not yet, merely given a promise that such evidence will be forthcoming. But we can always kill him later if he fails to produce it. And if Krona really is responsible, would you really want to have killed an innocent man first?"

"I do not believe that anyone with such power could possibly be innocent."

"Innocent of the particular crime you're accusing him of. Innocent in general, probably not, but…" I smile. "Who here is?"

She grimaces, but dips her head.

"Let me out."

Ring, grant freedom.

The crystal melts and vanishes, nothing flowing back to the ring. Different, but-. Ring, power level.

Eighty eight percent to go.

Huh. I was half-expecting Jade's voice, but it's actually my Nan's. Anyway, it should be enough for me to play gopher. I'll need to grab an orange ring if I'm actually forced to fight someone in my weight class…

I turn to Time Trapper.

"Where are you sending us first?"

Angelika steps forward forcefully. "Send us to my world. Overman will ensure that we have the resources we need to succeed."

"No. Krona has already been to your world and taken what he needs. Temporal positioning isn't a concern here, but.. exposure… Krona will certainly notice if a large number of people from one parallel begin working across a multitude in concert."

Angelika doesn't look happy, but she appears to accept it.

"We're sending you to parallel thirty two. Locate your alter ego and impress upon them the urgency of our situation. It would also help if you can locate their version of Jade Nguyen, though she's less essential."

"Alright, what can you tell me about him?"

"Little. I had no reason to study his parallel. He has a red power ring, and appears to have acquired a soul." I nod. "Are you ready to depart?"

"Yes. Let's go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd January 2005
21:34 GMT -5

"…won't you stop them?!"

I lean back slightly in my chair as a slightly singed Mr Logan gesticulates at me.

I shrug. "Why..? Would I?"

Somewhere in the distance there's an explosion as the Red Guard open fire on… Something or other. From the state of Mr Logan I'm going to assume that it's the rest of the Teen Titans.

Komand'r nods, raising her eyebrows as she chews on a slice of pizza. The rest of the restaurant-goers are looking rather nervously in the direction of a plume of smoke…

"Because they're trying to kill a guy!"

"A.. guy who took part in mengelese biological experiments and thoroughly deserves it, yes. And.. anyway, I don't have the authority to give Senior Lantern Abysmus orders even if I wanted to."

"They're wrecking the city!"

"Then get out of their way. It's not going to take them more than a few minutes to kill him if your team don't interfere. Much less collateral damage." That doesn't seem to satisfy him. "Alright, tell you what." I take my-.

"ERRRRRwrrrrrrrrrrrrrahhHHH."

I sigh as my ring incinerates my personal computer. That's-.

"Here." Komand'r reaches into her purse and passes me her phone. "Try not to set it on fire as well."

I smile at her. "Thank you, oh light of my heavens." Okay, access file and-.

Komand'r looks around in a mild panic. "Not in public!"

"Oh, you love it, snookums." And the file is there. "Now, 'Beast Boy', I have the files on-"

A pillar of fire leaps into the sky a street away, and a couple of patrons throw money at their table as they sprint for the exit.

…

Looks like we're getting excellent service this evening.

"-the whole process. If you can watch the videos all the way through without throwing up, I'll talk to Senior Lantern Abysmus about pursuing their vengeance in a way that causes less collateral damage. Does that sound reason-"

He grabs the phone and taps the screen to play the first video. Ah, I know it well. A splendid aid to building up enough rage to incinerate someone who was 'just following orders'.

"-able?"

"No it doesn't, but if all I gotta do is watch some stupid-."

I hear a very quiet sawing sound from the phone's speaker.

"-video, then I-"

He catches sight of the screen and is instantly entranced.

"-can-."

I lean forwards and grab the phone from his hands just before the wave of gastric juices erupts from his mouth and splashes all over the restaurant floor. I wait for him to finish, then look over towards the counter, make eye contact with one of the servers and smile at him.

"Would you be so good as to clean that up? I'll be sure to tip appropriately."

The server I'm looking at checks his immediate surroundings in case I could possibly have been looking at anyone else, then nods. Excellent! I pass the phone back to Komand'r, who snatches it out of my hand and checks it for vomit before checking Mr Logan's progress.

"How far did he get?"

"Vivisecting the guy with the sticking out spine. They just stuck the third hook in."

I frowns and lean forward as Mr Logan starts to pick himself up.

"Are you sure you're in the right line of work?"

"Why do you even have that on your phone?"

"To remind me why what I do is... If not 'justice' then at least 'just-ish'."

Mr Logan looks blank while Komand'r rolls eyes and picks up another slice of pizza.

"'Just-ish'-? No, never-"

There's a bang from just outside, and a spray of gravel and dust billows past the window.

"-mind."

Komand'r leaps into the air, fists balled and glowing purple-.

"Not inside the pizzeria, honey-bun."

Her fist-flames gutter and she glances at me with a cringe I nearly miss before she regains her focus. "Stop. Saying things like that!"

"Oh stop pretending, love-kitten. I know what public displays of affection do to you." I lean forward slightly and point to my back with my right forefinger. "I've still got the burns on-."

She flies out of the pizzeria. But through the door rather than through the window. And her thighs are pressed together. Hopefully, the Red Guard outside last long enough that she works out her aggression but not so long that her arousal winds down. Keeping up with a tamaranean requires intense stamina-training, but it's well worth the effort.

I get to my feet and offer Mr Logan a hand up, which he accepts.

"It looks like the Red Guard are about to make it justifiable self-defence. And getting between me and my hot-to-trot fiancée is something I cannot abide."

My ring drips red light as I stalk after Komand'r. I suspect that this is going to hurt. My armour's back at home, and red rings are rubbish at defensive constructs. The Red Guard know that I'm nominally on their side, but their training erred very much on the 'no pulling punches' side of things. On the other hand I'm wearing a personal force field and… Heck, Grayson's no tougher than me and he's still alive. I'll see if I can talk some sense into those algebators and then…

That's… Not a Red Guard.

It's even less of a Red Guard after a rictus-grinning Komand'r slams it into the ground and then shoves her burning right hand into its eyes while her left wraps around its throat, but my puzzlement causes my aura to flicker.

"Mister Logan, what is that?"

Hands on his stomach, he walks out of the restaurant behind me, taking in the scene and then looking towards the last known location of his comrades.

"I dunno dude, but I gotta go." He morphs into a bird form, flapping for all he's worth towards the most recent explosion.

Komand'r's right hand finally burns through the facial armour, so she hooks her fingers around and-

"HaaaAAAARRRH!"

-rips it free before flying over to me, frowning at it.

"Do the Red Guard use robots?"

"They have scout automata. They don't use them in combat, though. Who was that?"

"She said she was looking for you, so I thought-."

The woman Komand'r just defaced activates some sort of thrusters in her… Armour? And staggers upright, crippled face staring at me.

"Red Lantern located. No man escapes the Manhunters."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Angelika and I float in the air off the Atlantic coast, the portal swirling shut behind us.

"Ring, when and-?"

I exhale sharply through my nose, bowing my head. No, can't do it like that any more.

"Angelika, I never thought to ask. Do you have a significant other waiting for you back home?"

She doesn't look at me, instead peering at the coastline.

"I told you. I am infertile."

Ring, when and where?

3rd January 2005
21:36 GMT -5

"And I do not appreciate you bringing it up."

"I'm… Okay, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to rub it in, but there are probably plenty of people who wouldn't care, and then there's adoption or biotechnolo-."

"Are you going to tell Jade Nguyen?"

"Ah? Tell her what?"

Ring, find me.

I think I can manage that.

A violet waypoint appears in my visual field and I fly towards it. After a momentary delay Angelika follows.

"About your feelings."

"I-." She's clearly referring to something that I've missed. "So that we don't spend the next ten minutes talking past each other, could you please assume that I've got no idea what you're talking about and just tell me directly?"

"Violet rings are catalysed by love. You were able to use it to… 'Help' me, then you asked if I was dating someone. I had wondered why you were so much more eager to spend time with me than your friends."

"Ahh-?"

Oh. Okay. She…

"You know that these don't depend solely on-."

"-on romantic love, yes. Is that what you are claiming? That what you feel is not romantic love? Even after asking me if I am single?"

Of all the conversations I didn't think I'd be having today…

"Angelika, I like you, but I'm perfectly happy with the relationship that I'm in."

"That does not stop some people."

"I'm not carrying on behind Jade's back and -attractive as you are- I don't plan on starting. While I'm sympathetic to your situation, your intense racism is simply too unpleasant, and with my empathic vision I see it all the time."

A coastal city up ahead. Neither it not the area around it precisely map onto anywhere in America 16, but-.

There's a.. tower shaped like a 'T' on a small island oh gods I'm in Teen Titans. A Red Lantern me ended up here?

"Ah." Angelika seems to cringe slightly in the air. "I… Ah. I apologise-."

"Don't worry about it. Harmless mistake." I flash her a reassuring smile but she's.. shut down. Gone into full business mode. We'll talk about it later. Possibly with Harleen? "Can you see anything?"

"A group of metahumans are fighting either soldiers in power armour or combat robots. They are shielded against my vision so I cannot see inside."

I see clouds of brick and concrete dust drifting through the air in several places, while a.. few small fires are burning in a couple of places. The local fire brigade appears to be following the same sort of rules of engagement as their America 16 alter egos: hanging way back to douse the area of the fires more to keep them from spreading than to put them out. They can't risk bringing enough people into the area of a metahuman fight to put it out properly.

No freeze rays, though. Are there people in the buildings, or do they just not have them?

"Follow me."

I fly off the coast and down one of the main roads. I can see my objective up ahead, his anger and hate focused into a scalpel-point. But just under that, his intense love for… Komand'r, apparently. I thought that the Teen Titan version of her was kind of a psycho, but I suppose that their version of Jade wasn't any better.

And… Quite a bit younger, if I remember correct-

"No man escapes the Manhunters!"

-ly.

A surprisingly female-looking robot shoots off the ground below, the pulse plasma guns built into its forearms opening fire!

Not confident of my ability to block shots from a Manhunter with this ring, I opt to evade and leave the smashing to my companion.

"Robot! Smash away!"

Shots from its forearms strobe through the air, missing me and mostly hitting nothing. A few punch through the windows and walls of the surrounding buildings. That needs to st-.

Angelika blinks twice, red rays burning through the cowling around the Manhunter's guns and causing a flashback in the fuel cell. The forearms explode, the Manhunter wheeling to face the new thre-.

Angelika's there and ripping, some.. thing coming out of its chest and being tossed aside, another flash of heat vision burning through its eyes, blinding it for the fraction of a second it remains whole before she shoves her hands deeper and pulls it in two.

Then she floats down to street level and carefully puts them down, so as to not add to the property damage.

"Where does this robot keep its memory?"

I float down after her and give it a scan.

"Not sure. Guardians don't share data on Manhunter layouts, and these are different enough to the models the Controllers are familiar with that I'm not sure how much is applic-. No, there it is."

I point to an armoured compartment where the lower lungs would be in a human.

"Long term data storage. We'll be lucky if we can actually read it, but-."

"-last one, so if I find it first then-."

Komand'r 32 and my own alter ego fly out of a side street and immediately spot us. I raise my right hand in greeting.

"Good evening, me."

He looks… Thinner, and he has the characteristic glowing irises which often accompany ring usage. But he's not spitting acid blood, which is a good sign.

"No, just an evening."

"Ah, Red?" Komand'r floats a little closer to him, the purple plasma around her hands fading slightly. "You got a brother you didn't tell me about?"

"Parallel universe." / "Parallel universe."

He raises his eyebrows slightly. "Old hat for you?"

"You're the second 'us' I've actually met. But we've all got a problem. Krona the Fallen Guardian is picking different instances of us up to make a giant inter-planar tuning fork. I assume you're up for stopping him?"

He tilts his head back and sighs. "I just wanted a quiet evening."

I hold my hands out to the side. "Events, dear boy, events."

"Right. I'll get my armour and sort out the sidekick team, then I'll be with you."

"I also need to locate your version of Jade Nguyen. Apparently she's the second pick."

He shakes his head, frowning slightly. "Who?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd January 2005
21:41 GMT -5

A sword made of red light slices through another Manhunter… Womanhunter? No, they call themselves Manhunters, but… I'm struggling to come up with a reason why Krona would have built gynoids. Manhunters usually have a masculine appearance for the same reason that men do: additional physical strength and resilience from a more powerful frame. Manhunters don't need to give birth or lactate, so unless losing his physical form caused him to rediscover his sex drive, it just…

The Red Lantern me glances back at me, regarding me with a degree of scepticism.

"What..? Do violet rings do, exactly?"

"Ugh, sorry, I usually use an orange ring, but Ghia'ta and I were doing some cross-training and apparently Time Trapper can't send me back to pick up my equipment-"

"No man esc-."

Beams of purple light blaze from Komand'r's eyes and slam into the Manhunter's back, knocking it towards an inhabited build-!

Angelika intercepts, punching the gynoid in the chest and reversing its direction of trav-.

Grinning, Komand'r flies after it and punches it back towards Angelika, who just catches it, rips out the battery and lays it on the pavement.

Komand'r moues in disappointment.

"-until we're finished. There aren't any spare orange rings around here, are there?"

"No. I haven't checked Okaara in any detail, but I haven't seen any anywhere else or heard about Larfleeze being active. I assume that you beat him?"

I nod. "We're trying to rehabilitate him."

He frowns. "Why?"

"Because he's the most extreme example of orange light psychosis in existence and we're making an Orange Lantern Corps. Studying him is teaching us how to avoid everyone else-" He's nodding and looking for new targets. "-going the same way."

"Makes sense. Can you do anything with that ring?"

"Basic things only. That's why I'm hanging back."

But finding the local Jade…

"Ah, I've located your Jade."

Currently in South Rhelasia. Or… Korea, possibly. Can't get a good record of her age, but I'd guess… Fourteen? The bunches make her look younger, and their length is… Entirely impractical.

"I haven't heard about anyone blowing up a country."

"She's probably a little-"

Komand'r intercepts another gynoid, this time avoiding energy blasts in favour of grappling. She performs a mid-air straight armbar while using her flight to pull the Manhunter off target and slam it face first into the side of a bridge. She then flexes, breaking the robot's elbow and tearing the arm free at the shoulder.

"-young for that."

"What's so important about her, anyway? Or us, for that matter?"

"With us, I'd guess it's our point of origin. I think he'd be interested in that sort of thing. Jade… Don't know. I'm dating my version, but there's nothing about her that would be of obvious interest to Krona."

"Or the Time Trapper."

"I considered that, but his plan involves putting us in position to strike him very hard if this is just a ruse."

"Of course, I've only got your word for it."

"True. I-." He veers off as Komand'r flies up to look for more targets. "Where are you going?"

"This is my house." He stands outside a fortified door while it scans him. "Do you.. want to come in?"

"No, I'll go and pick up your Jade."

He pauses for a moment, then nods, heading further inside what looks more like a fortified airlock than a porch. The outer door clanks shut before the inner door opens, so I've got no idea what-

Some sort of.. white with blue trimmings monster truck-tank thing roars past me down the middle of the road, turret tracking a small group of humanoids in red power armour. They're surprisingly agile, dodging from building to building, taking it in turns to make themselves appealing targets and then evading once it gets a lock on them.

…

-his interior decoration is like.

"Ah, Princess Komand'r, do you know-?"

A red, green, yellow and black motor cycle screeches around a nearby corner and-.

I pick both it and the rider off the ground and float them over to me.

The local Richard Grayson is… Ah, his hair is very slightly spikier. And his mask is a little narrower and there's a little more green in the costume at the expense of some black. Otherwise, I'm looking at the same person.. who also looks exactly the same.

"Red Lantern, this isn't-!" His eyes widen and then narrow. "Who are you?"

"Parallel universe doppelgänger. A fallen Guardian of the-" I think 'Galaxy'. "-Universe named Krona is trying to do something unwise with time and the Bleed that might see us all spontaneously have never existed. What's up with you?"

"Alien super soldiers are trying to kill the lab tech who cleaned test tubes for the people who made them, because they already killed everyone actually responsible."

I put him down.

"I think mine has priority. Angelika!"

She appears beside me.

"Would you please give Robin-" He blinks, surprised for some reason. "-the data core?"

"Why?"

"I can't do data decryption with a violet ring, Red Lantern can't do it with his and Robins can generally get their hands on the best conventional technology on the planet. We need to find out if Krona actually told them-"

Two Manhunters fly out of an alley, weapons orientating immediately on Richard and me! I raise a violet shield, soaking the first couple of shots before it becomes visibly abraded. Angelika shoots forward, grabbing the head of the closest with her right hand and its left arm with her left hand and.. pulling, the body turning one way and the head the other. The second takes an EMP grenade to the chest from Richard, which it ignores and continues firing. Richard dodges while I reinforce my shield and try to reduce my profile-.

Two nearby cars glow.. black? For a moment and then fling themselves at the Manhunter, wrapping themselves around it and then shrinking.. downwards, until they cover an area far smaller than the gynoid would need in order to have remained humanoid. Then the anti-glow fades and Raven steps out of a nearby patch of shadows.

"Yay. More robots."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th January 2005
11:44 GMT +9

"Throw kni-"

Two knives klink off-. Embed themselves in my construct shield.

"-ves. Jump onto the wall to close-"

Jade 32 jumps and then scrambles up the wall.

"-the distance, then lunge."

She stops moving, staring at me.

I smile. "It's an interesting question, how much of our actions are the result of anything we might call 'free will'. You know metahumans with strange powers exist and while you think that everything you just did was of your own volition… Suddenly you're not sure."

She climbs up the rest of the way and then stands on the edge of the roof, facing me.

"Of course, if I can influence you, the most intelligent thing you can do is leave as quickly as possible. But since you're not going to do that, how about a commission?"

Her mask tilts thirty degrees anticlockwise.

"I have reason to believe that an evil god is abducting parallel universe versions of the two of us in order to pull apart the multiverse. I want to hire you to help stop him."

She extends her right hand from her voluminous sleeve and rubs the tips of her thumb and forefinger together.

I take a bag of gold coins precisely equal in value to what I paid my Jade for her help with Nabu out of subspace and toss it to Jade Junior. She catches it in her left sleeve… Somehow opens it and picks out a coin, scratching it enough to reveal the softness of the metal. Then she returns the coin to the pouch, draws it into her kimono for safekeeping and nods to me.

I step forward and extend my right hand. She steps forward and-. Taps the sharp surface of her knuckle claws against my palm, making pointed eye to mask eye contact.

"I'm sorry, but compared to an evil god, a girl with knives just isn't that scary."

She jingles.

"Because it was less trouble than using force."

She nods, and actually takes my hand.

"The version of you from my parallel is a lot more talkative." But you're enough like her that I can still transition-

3rd January 2005
21:46 GMT -5

-us back-.

I skip us backwards as a… The local version of Victor Stone appears to have.. merged with a transformed version of his APC and is recovering from being hit by a hulking green alien with a red power ring. He rebounds, wheels screeching against the tarmac as he evades the Red Lantern's punch, then deploys a mechanical shield to block its acid vomit attack.

"Oh, I thought-"

Jade steps into space, claws at the ready, as my alter ego emerges from his home in armour reminiscent of my… Third suit of armour? The last field non-power armour I bothered with.

"-he'd have finished by now."

A green-. Beastboy, turns into a roc and claws at the Red Lantern's face. Moving with surprising agility the alien grabs his left leg and slams him into a wall, stunning him.

"How berserk are the local Red Lanterns?"

He raises his left eyebrow for a moment, then raises his ring so that I can see it clearly.

"Other than you."

The local Koriand'r dives at the Red Lantern, hitting him? It? In the chest with both fists and driving it back for long enough for the cyborg-transformer to get enough time to charge some sort of energy cannon. A beam of scintillating blue-white energy leaps forth, completely missing the alien as he steps aside and punching through a nearby building.

"Um. Should we-?"

"No, they're nearly done. Despite appearances, Abysmus has a keen, tactical mind."

"Azarath metrion zinthos!"

Raven tries to hit him with a levitated chunk of wall, only for it to be met with a gout of red light before she can get any momentum behind it. Not only does the brick melt, but the spell holding it as well, a wave of distortion passing along it until-.

"rRRRAAAAGH!"

She bellows in rage, spasming in the air and.. gaining an extra set of red glowing eyes-.

"Friend Raven!"

Raven turns to focus on the local Koriand'r, black light boiling around her fists-

"KAR EN TUK!"

-and resolving into claws as she flings herself at her friend!

"Oh, Infectious Rage is hard to inflict through someone else's magic."

Koriand'r dodges the first two wild swings, but she's backed up against a wall with black claws biting into the brick at either side! She freezes for a moment, gasping in shock as Raven opens her mouth to vomit forth black fire! Koriand'r bends, grabbing the two claws and pushing downwards to slide out from between them a moment before the flames melt the brick!

"They're.. children."

"If Abysmus wanted to kill them then they'd be dead. But he does-"

Abysmus grapples Super Cyborg, spitting acid at the armour covering the torso and ripping it off, exposing Mr Stone. Mr Stone uses his armour's secondary weapons to take a shot at Abysmus's face which forces him to back off for a moment, but then he's back on the offensive and Mr Stone can't do much more than block the blows on his forearms' armour.

"-n't. He was a child soldier himself. He's sympathetic, particularly to Mr Stone."

"Yes, he… Looks it." I take a moment to look at the devastation that has already been wrought on this city. "And you're not worried about the Justice League turning up?"

He shakes his head. "No, they never come here."

"They… Just leave their adolescent wards entirely to their own devices?"

"Yeah. Not really sure why, but given all the people I kill it's really convenient. Shouldn't be-."

"RRARH!"

Abysmus -who was holding Mr Stone's mech over his head- stops still and tosses it aside. Then he breathes in and a red mist flows from Raven into his mouth. She drops to the floor, stunned, and Koriand'r runs over to check on her.

Abysmus lumbers in our direction.

"All done. We'll leave now."

"Um, why?"

"I was a distraction. My brothers and sisters were the kill-team. Killing the target is easier when his protection is busy."

He turns away and shoots off into the sky, Komand'r and Angelika coming back with more Manhunter remains as he does so.

"Let's see what Robin's got for us."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd January 2005
21:58 GMT -5

From the window of the main living room slash work area of the Titans' tower I look out across the wounded city.

"Does this.. city have the best civil engineers in the universe or.. something, because the city seems to be going back to normal surprisingly quickly?"

Garfield nods. "Fights like this happen a lot around here. People started reinforcing their buildings, stuff like that. After the first few city-wide alerts people just got used to it." He glares at my alter ego. "What did that guy do to Raven?"

Red-Me looks up from his phone. "Infectious rage. He made her feel a fraction of the rage he does. She should be fine in a few days."

"That's not good enough!"

He shrugs helplessly. "I'm a Red Lantern. I can't heal people. I could make it worse if you want-?"

"I probably could. You haven't seen an orange power ring anywhere, have you?"

"What?" Garfield frowns at me. "No, what's wrong with the ring you've got?"

"I've been using it for ten minutes, and interfering with someone's brain is one of those things you shouldn't do unless you're certain you know what you're doing." On the other hand, Richard 16 was able to heal his uncle without prior training… "Unless one of you is in love with her, because when that happens violet rings become a lot more user friendly."

"Ahhh…"

"I will attempt it!" Koriand'r zips over to me. "I am having the great love for all of my friends, and nothing would make me happier than making friend Raven better!"

…

Why is she talking like that? Tamaraneans absorb language knowledge through physical contact, she should be grammatically correct. Shouldn't she?

The local Richard sticks his head up from the pile of technology which he and Victor are using to attempt to read the Manhunter's drive.

"Starfire, she's gunna be okay, and like…"

He looks at me.

"Orange Lantern. Usually."

"Orange Lantern says, it's not a good idea to use technology you don't understand on someone's brain."

Koriand'r nods reluctantly, sinking to the ground.

"Violet-Orange Lantern, why are you here?"

"A man called Time Trapper has alleged that his efforts to reengineer time have been hijacked by a man named Krona. Krona's plan allegedly involved acquiring parallel universe versions of me and-" I gesture to Local Jade with my right hand. "-Jade, so he sent me here to collect them."

Garfield frowns. "So what's with the robots?"

"Krona used to be a Guardian. Manhunter androids -or.. gynoids, apparently- were their first attempt at a police force before they started using Green Lanterns. Krona was one of their designers. Given that we've confirmed that they were targeting myself and my-" I gesture to Red-Me. "-local counterpart, it seems reasonable to conclude that Krona kept a few after they were decommissioned. We're waiting on confirmation."

"Parallel universe, huh? So we've all got, like, copies of ourselves living there?"

"I don't think we've got a Raven, but the rest of you, yes. Our version of you goes to school in Happy Harbour, so I usually see him a couple of times a week."

He brightens up a little. "Maybe we could team up sometime. We could have a whole team of Beast Boys-."

"He's not a Beast Boy. I'm not sure what caused you to become… This, but he hasn't been exposed to it. Plus, he's a few years younger than you and I don't think his mother would like it."

His eyes widen. "His m-? Ah-. And-" He smiles unconvincingly. "-what about everyone else?"

"I've met Cyborg's father a few times, though I've never met him. Our Robin is on my team, usually serving as a squad leader. Both Komand'r and Koriand'r are Orange Lanterns, operating in Vega to maintain order after the destruction of the Citadel Empire."

"And..." Koriand'r looks nervous. "What has happened to Tamaran?"

"They're.. recovering. Rebuilding their educational infrastructure and fleet are the first priorities. I.. haven't spent much time there recently."

"The Gordanians?"

"The clans most closely aligned to the Citadel either fled or got conquered and the rest were allowed to surrender. The psions were just exterminated. It will take a while for the security fleets to finish off all of the pirate groups, but Vega isn't such a bad place to live at the moment."

"And my parents?"

"Alive and well last time I spoke to th-."

"I think we've got something!"

Something flickers on the room's main screen, an image of-.

"Um, you might want to skip that."

Richard doesn't look around. "This could have vital intelligence on what Krona-."

"That's a planet in Sector Six Six Six. The Sector where the Manhunters killed every living thing-" The image shows the Manhunter squadron this unit was part of assaulting a ship, tearing apart the hull and spacing the people inside. Looks like the ship was packed to the gunnels with refugees. Who weren't wearing space suits. "-before the Guardians shut-"

Richard skips the recording forwards.

"-them down."

The ship is gone, and we get a momentary shot of heavily damaged Manhunters floating in space. Then a portal like the one Time Trapper used opens and the remains are sucked through. On the far side there's a.. small base on what looks like an asteroid. Slowly the Manhunters are drawn towards it, and as they are their bodies flicker with red light. Damaged and broken parts knit back together as the damage of the intervening millennia is undone. Once they've recovered sufficiently they orientate themselves on the asteroid and begin moving using their own thrusters. And when they clear the side-.

A tuning fork. It's a tuning fork. All over its surface are.. versions of myself and Jade, apparently aware and in a degree of distress. Some of the mes look like they've had a rather hard time of it. Manhunters -some quite a bit larger than the ones who attacked us here- are keeping station around it, while others are building equipment and a small squad-.

The image moves away before I can see what the squad next to the pile of power rings were doing.

Richard looks at me. "Do you know where that is?"

"No."

Ring, Jades need rescuing. And I didn't get to check in with mine before I left.

We've got the tape.

"But I know a man who does."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
Or… Not, I suppose

Time Trapper watches the recording through for the ninth time, pausing it at the pile of power rings.

"You see here?"

"Every one of us has been disarmed. So they don't need to be using their rings for whatever Krona's doing."

"Yes, but I was referring to the colours. Mostly orange. No white and no black."

Red's eyes narrow slightly. "Is that important?"

"I gained some slight insight into Krona's mindset while he was pulling me apart to find out how I work. If he could get an even mixture of each then he would."

"So what does that mean for us?"

Komand'r floats down a little. "And where is that, anyway?"

"Vanishing Point. A facility at the end of time, after the physical laws of the universe have broken down but before it collapses into the Bleed. Our.. orange friend was taken there by the Legion of Super-Heroes after he was involved in a temporal event."

"What's so special about it?"

"It's after.. conventional time. When you're there, you can alter time as much as you like without risk to yourself. Among other things. If you can get there quickly enough. I tolerated Dox there because he could help me with my work. Krona simply invaded the place."

"So are we trying to get there or trying to not get there?"

"First the latter, then the former. An army of Manhunters is a little more than we're prepared for, particularly given that he can reach into just about any parallel universe or timeline without issue."

"So he has infinite soldiers."

"Hmm. No, that would risk destabilising Vanishing Point itself. It would be more true to say that he has a large number of soldiers with infinite reinforcements."

"Uugh." / "Uugh."

Red and I make momentary eye contact and quietly chuckle. Something we both hate, apparently: infinite respawns.

Angelika looks at me curiously for a moment, then returns her attention to Time Trapper.

"Where are we going next?"

"I need to know why there isn't a larger variation in the rings you received. That might be critical to understanding your origin."

Red and I look at one another again.

"Prime." / "Prime."

Time Trapper inclines his cowl slightly. "Yes. And that should not be possible. It's.. curious, to think that you may have been some sort of planar event before any of this happened."

I shake my head. "Controller Hinon made my ring. It didn't shatter from a… From an original white ring, or anything like that. And if I hadn't had it when I arrived then I would have died from vacuum exposure."

"Unprotected humans can't survive the Bleed. But it isn't possible to access Earth Prime. Believe-" He glances at Red Queen, who is staring deeply into the crystal spire. "-me, we've tried. Red Queen, have you located a version of him with a white ring?"

"No." She turns away from the spire and looks at him. "And only one with a black ring. Do you want to open a portal there?"

"Or we could go somewhere where Nekron isn't about to emerge into the material universe. How about somewhere where I have a spare orange ring?"

"We're trying to keep the number of trips down to the smallest number we have to make. If it comes to it, you saw the number of orange rings he's already collected. When we're finally ready to confront him, just summon one of those."

"I'm not especially eager to fight a Guardian without an orange ring."

"Hopefully it won't ever become an issue. If I can shut Krona down without needing to brawl with him then I definitely prefer that option." He nods to Red Queen. "Open the portal to the Black Lantern."

Red half-raises his right hand. "Question. Does he need to be alive, undead, or can he be dead?"

"Any are fine. Essentially, what matters is not his characteristics in themselves but the degree to which he's similar to the rest of you. Animate is probably slightly better but him being a vector for Nekron is far worse. Just don't disintegrate him. Red Queen, does that alternity have a Jade?"

"No."

"Okay." Blackfire cracks her knuckles. "Let's get-."

Red Queen shakes her head. "No, not you."

"Excuse me?"

"We're trying to disguise our location. I can disguise your boyfriend-"

Red perks up slightly. "Fiancé."

"-using the fact that there's another version of him already there. You're a red flag."

Angelika nods-.

"No, I can send you. Just try to avoid Germany."

I glance at Jade 32, but she just shrugs and tosses her coin pouch. Fair enough. Willingness is paid for but enthusiasm is expecting too much.

Red Queen gestures, and a red crystal arch grows out of the ground, the night sky beyond flickering into view the moment it's whole. I rise-.

Red's gone, flying out at full speed. I follow at a more sedate pace, passing through the portal-.

Your spell eater is heating up a bit.

Huh. Yes. Just a little, but I can't see anything that could be targeting me visually, and my wards are still working.

"Angelika, are you wearing your ward?"

"Naturally."

I nod.

Contact Red.

Getting in touch with him now.

His face appears just in front of me.

"There is at least one wide-area spell at work. Are you warded?"

"A.. bit. Are you?"

"Yes, very well."

"Do you have a spare?"

"Left it in my other ring."

"Okay, I'll just do reconnaissance." He smiles. "What do you think the chance is that this isn't a piece of fiction we're familiar with?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:24 GMT -7

The revenant before me lifts the elderly homeless man up by the shirt and looks at him critically.

"I 'unno. You carrying anything?"

"Don't have anything, don't have any money. Just leave me alone."

"You smell good." The revenant shakes its head. "Which is kinda freaky, to be honest. You sure don't look like you should smell good-. I mean, ew, right? I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But something about this whole situation really sets me off."

The revenant bangs him against the wall behind me a couple of times, like a cat toying with something that might be able to resist a little more if it were properly motivated. It's curious how many of them act like that. I've certainly never felt the drive, but then.. I.. suppose I'm not exactly like the rest.

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

The revenant looks around at the voice, its eyes narrowing slightly as it tries to pick me out in the dark. Their… Alright, our, vision is better than what humans have, but between my body's lack of vital function and my environmental shield I don't make much noise or reflect much light.

"Oh, hey." The revenant smiles. "Didn't see you there."

Clearly. But that's a statement of fact. I'm not sure what it expects me to say.

"You been here long?"

"About a minute and a half."

"No, no, I mean Sunnydale. Is this, like, your patch? Are you in charge?"

It seems to find the idea… Entertaining?

"I only got out of the ground last week, y'know? Still finding my feet with this whole 'vampire' thing? Is this face normal? Did Anne Rice lie to me?"

I take a couple of slow steps forward. "I did not know that. You seem to be managing. Yes, that face is normal, and I do not believe so."

It frowns. "Huh?"

"It is unlikely that Anne Rice has any real knowledge of the supernatural. As such, her misrepresentation would not be a lie."

"Oh. Yeah. Huh, you're English? Are all English vampires, like, super old and think American vampires are making all our kind look bad?"

"I am indeed English. I can't speak for English vampires in general but I myself have existed in this state for less than a year. And while American revenants do 'make us look bad', that same appears to be true for every nationality of vampire."

"Hah, yeah, I guess the whole 'eating people' thing never really looks…" It frowns. "You wanna share or something? Usually their blood pressure drops real quick when I feed and I end up having to bite them in a bunch of different places or just…" It grins. "Pull off their arms and shit and just let the blood spurt into my mouth, but if you-"

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

"-wanna share-? Or are hearts your thing? Oh, have you ever ripped someone's still-beating heart out of their chest and shown it to them? 'Cause I tried-"

"Yes."

"-that once and their ribs kinda ripped-. You have?" It looks excited, and I can see the strong confluence of lights in its chest. "That is so cool! Can I just feed on this guy a little bit and then give him to you so you can show me?"

A direct question.

"Yes."

"Mhhrrrrrrrnonononno."

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

"Is that like your ring tone or something?" The revenant grins. "Hah!"

"No."

"Whatever, dude." It holds the man out in my direction. "Come on! Go for it!"

Wasn't I supposed to say-. Ah, yes.

"You may wish to remove your outer garments."

"Yeah, kinda gets my engine running, too. Though that's not a vampire thing; I was kinda bitchy when I was a human, too."

"Strictly speaking, you were never human."

It looks at me with a frown. "Ah, pretty sure I remember being human, dude."

"Revenants such as yourself are demon-possessed corpses. You retain human memories because the brain of your host body has them, but you'll notice that you instinctively relate to them in a very different way. And I do not find violence arousing."

It frowns, then nods. "Does explain a few things. But-. Oh right! You're not draining him first! He's gunna splatter all over the place! Just a sec."

It passes me the homeless man and then takes off its coat and.. blouse, dropping them on the lid of a nearby bin. It then removes its skirt, depositing them on the pile. Then it strikes a pose.

"Yeah, demon-possessed corpse? Ultimate diet plan. And my family buried me in cheap shitty-ass clothes anyway. Guess I need to go back home and get my wardrobe back." It smiles at me and then nods at the homeless man. "Okay." It steps a little closer and holds its arms out to the side. "Hit me."

I thrust my right hand through its exposed chest and yank it back with its heart between my fingers.

It looks at it for an instant.

"Huh."

And then its entire body turns to dust.

"Feed."

The heart remains in my hand for a moment. Not beating, because why would it start now, but clearly existing separate from its former home. Then it etherealises, orange light being sucked into my ring.

"Power level two point two percent."

And then I remember the wonderful feeling of selfishness, of wanting and taking things for myself. I let the homeless man go and rummage through the revenant's clothing for-. Ah! Its purse! The first few times I did this I didn't separate the clothing first, and for some reason it turned to dust along with the rest, but now I usually manage to remember.

"Here." I hold it out to the homeless man. "Not a huge amount, but it's probably worth a meal or two."

He's sort of collapsed to the floor, just staring at-.

"Heart ready for harvesting."

Yes, he.. would be a good source. But I don't want to, and for now I remember that, and remember why. And there are plenty of more acceptable targets I can get a fear-filled heart from in a place like Sunnydale. And then rage and maybe hope, and then…

And then I'll start to feel a little more alive.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:29 GMT -7

The fact that the library is called the Sunnydale Library doesn't mean that this is that Sunnydale. America has a line in places with odd names, Jump City being the case in point. Apparently it was a mishearing of a word from the local tribal dialect when the area was first settled by Europeans, though 'Sunnydale' sounds more like a fifties New Town.

If this is that Sunnydale, then was my orange alter-ego's ward set off by the mayor directly, or by whatever area effect thing he has that makes people actually want to live here? Atrocitus was kind enough to give me some basic lessons on blood magic, and I can do a few simple rituals, but anything sophisticated is beyond me. One of the simplest things I can do is blood divination, and that's probably going to be quicker than wandering around at random or asking my ring.

Of course, since I'm a neophyte, what I can actually get out of this is a bit basic.

I raise my hands, calling upon the spirits of the vengeful dead to answer my-

"Ah. Hey."

-call-.

I lower my hands and look at the…

That's Oz. This is that Sunnydale.

So many glorious targets. If the mayor isn't immortal yet then I'm pretty sure I could kill the serial killing monster baiting shit. I mean, the whole 'masquerade' thing barely made sense when it was just Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. Because if magic exists and has existed since human prehistory, on a power level where a few years' study grants the ability to conjure observable phenomena, civilisation should be unrecognisable. At the very least, the knowledge shouldn't be ring fenced like it is here.

I wonder if I can talk Time Trapper or Red Queen into sending me back here?

"Hello." I drift a little closer. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you..? A vampire?"

He sounds more curious than afraid. I land a short distance from him.

"No. I'm a superhero."

"Right. But a superhero who's a vampire, or a superhero who's not a vampire?"

"I'm not a vampire. Though I am looking for an undead. They should look like me, with a black ring?"

"Ah…" He shakes his head. "Haven't seen him."

"Do you know where I might find some undead?"

He manages a small shrug. "Have you..? Tried the graveyard?"

"I wouldn't have thought that established undead would spend much time there." Another small shrug. "Thank you for your suggestion, but I think that I'll leave it as a last resort."

He nods, frowning in thought.

"Are superheroes a thing? 'Cause, I only just started finding out about vampires being a thing. Which makes me think that other things I didn't think were things might be things as well."

"I can't speak for Sunnydale, but if there are people with supernatural or preternatural abilities who devote themselves to the greater good, then yes, even if they don't follow the usual tropes of superheroism. Costumes aren't required, though armour is recommended. I come from a parallel universe so I can't speak for any local colleagues who may or may not exist."

"Huh."

"Well, pleasant talking to you, but I really must-."

Dust and lumps of tarmac explode past me, and I blast a line between me and the impact zone clear! Cars parked on the roads around us get the worst of it: the windows and panelling facing the centre of the blast are smashed and caved, alarms blaring pointlessly into the night.

"Mister Oz, are you alright?"

He takes a moment to check himself over, then brushes off the dust that got past me. "Uh, yeah. Surprisingly, actually."

"Any idea what that was?"

"Ah… No."

I nod. "Ordinarily, I'd suggest running, but since I don't know what it was, I'll leave that up to you."

Pieces of debris that were thrown directly upwards rain down as the dust clouds begin to clear, and through them I see a shape. Humanoid. Clothing seems loose…

"Stupid ground!"

Female voice. Adult. Not in distress. Someone new to super strength navigation? She.. strides out of the clouds. Pale skin, unkempt blonde hair and… Hospital uniform? Bare left foot, and she kicks off what's left of her right shoe a moment later. She doesn't look injured.

She fixes her eyes on me, heading my way at walking pace.

"You."

"How may I be of service?"

"Yes, you, new minion. Open a portal for me."

"Where would you like to go?"

"Home. Back to my own dimension."

"I'm afraid that I can't open that sort of portal myself, but if you like I can ask someone who can if they can help you?"

She stops. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Certainly. It doesn't cost me anything to ask. And if it turns out that you're a problem I can always kill you later."

She tilts her head slightly to the left, an open-mouthed smile on her lips.

"Huh. Yeah, about-"

She blurs forward but I'm already shooting upward and her grasping hand narrowly fails to snag my right boot. A dash back and her follow up leap misses.

"-that-."

An energy pulse from me destroys the paving slab she uses as an ersatz projectile and then I've had about enough of her shit. I open my mouth and douse her with a stream of the Butcher's blood, the highly caustic substance melting-.

Her clothes and-.

"Heh."

I just turned her hair from dull blonde to peroxide blonde.

…

All of her hair.

…

I feel my anger falter at the sheer ridiculousness of it, and my flight aura wobbles.

The woman looks at her arm, noticing that the sleeve is gone. Then she checks her body. Then she takes hold of a strand of her hair in her right hand and holds it in front of her eyes.

Then she drops it and glares at me.

"Oh, very mature."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:33 GMT -7

"Hehahahah." I shake my head. "Okay, look: who are you and what the heck is your problem?"

"I just want to go home! Why is this so difficult for everyone to understand?!"

"From the looks of things, because you're being a colossal bitch about it! Who are you, anyw-?"

And then she's there, grabbing-. Ah! My left arm as she leaps and dragging me down with her!

"I'm Glorificus, and as a goddess I really don't think I should have to deal with-. With pond scum with delusions of adequacy, like humans and-" She turns her face away. "-werewolves and don't think I didn't see you trying to sneak aw-."

Red vomit to the eyes red electrified chains to the arms, neck and legs! She loosens her grip more in surprise than anything else, but as I rise she squeezes-.

"Hah!" She lands on her rump as pain flares through my body! "Got your arm! And I'm going to pull your dog-pal-."

Killing the bitch.

My blood stops spurting, mixing with the red light and coagulating in the form of a replacement limb. Red horns form upon my brow in the shape of the red sigil. This woman ate the sanity of others to keep herself in control of the body she shares with… Whatever his name was, who murdered and stole and generally rampaged through life without a care save for the convenience her actions brought her. And those idiots who didn't just kill her or the 'key' when they had the chance.

The blood-fingers of my new left arm form into razor blades, enhanced not just by my hate but by the righteous anger of all those she-.

Violet's Supergirl strikes her like the wrath of Rao! The shocked Glory is knocked onto her back, then her attacker goes to work, punching face and diaphragm, heat vision burning into her eyes for a second before Supergirl's thumbs dart in-.

The bitch is stealing my kill-. No. No! No, not stealing my kill, helping me.

Helping me.

This is why I don't fight with people who aren't Komand'r.

I drop down and pick up my discarded arm in my remaining hand, then fly up out of lunge range before pushing it into the red light simulacrum. A sharp-

-bwugh-

-and then I'm whole again. For the moment. It's not a secure reattachment, but it'll do for now.

It didn't irritate her eyes or lungs. My acid vomit isn't a completely reliable attack, but the lack of non-comedic impact leaves me concerned about her exotic resistances. Supergirl's clearly doing some damage, but I'm only seeing tiny amounts of blood. Less than a normal person would show after another normal person attacked them like this. My constructs hit less hard, and I don't have another tool to leverage. That leaves using ritual magic to supercharge myself or that old fallback 'toss her into space'. I seem to remember that Willow teleported her into the air once and she couldn't fly-.

Glory headbutts Supergirl hard enough to knock her off, but she catches herself with her own flying ability after three metres and surges back down! Glory ends up with her head pushed back so far that it's underground, her face facing dirt while her body lies on the cracked pavement. Looks like Glory never learned to fight efficiently with her human-seeming body whereas Supergirl clearly has. Heh, I wonder if this is the real-world version of a bullet sponge boss? Glory's never going to manage to do anything to her, but Supergirl can't inflict enough damage quickly enough to beat her.

A shame that she won't actually kill her, but I think there was a prison in Angel that could actually cope with beings like her.

"Stop."

Glory manages to catch Supergirl's right wrist with her left hand, prompting Supergirl to twist into a position that lets her kick Glory in the fa-.

"Doing that!"

The air shimmers between Glory's right hand and Supergirl's face-. Her sanity-draining ability.

Supergirl isn't quite stunned, but she's clearly off her game for a moment and Glory slugs her hard enough to smash her into the front of the library. Ah, looks like-

I dip down, grab Glory around the waist with a construct and haul her into the air, keeping myself at a safe distance.

-plan 'lob a bitch' is back on. I gain height rapidly, hoping that this isn't the film version of Buffy where vampires could fly. No, no flying vampires and no mayor deciding to shoot me with demon lightning, just a patch of violet where my alter ego is heading into town-.

"How dare you even touch me you-"

"Heart ready for harvesting."

"-filthy-!"

Her chest bursts, a gore-covered.. hand poking through, and what I presume to be her heart held between its fingers. The heart glows a faint red for a moment before decaying and flowing back into… The black ring on the hand that had been holding it.

I drop the body at once, ignoring it as it continues in a ballistic arc towards the outskirts of town, and back the heck away from my super-zombie alter ego.

He looks pale, naturally enough, and unlike both myself and Orange he appears to have kept our long hair. He.. breathes in deeply as the red light he absorbed from Glory's heart flows through him, running from his ring and through his veins into his mind. My own ring pulses in sympathy as the stolen rage threatens to overwhelm him-. Which at least suggests that he's not a pawn of Nekron.

"Power level two point four percent."

Or not. We could perhaps try some sort of magic to pull his soul back into his body, but if he's ripping hearts out of people then I'm going to accept-.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

He's angry, yet coherent. Possibly a hopeful sign, except that I remember that Nekron had his Black Lanterns feign having the personalities of the bodies they animated. So… Is that his anger, or a form of concealment which uses hers?

Either way, there's no obvious benefit to lying. Time Trapper wants him. Glory is about as powerful as enemies get around here and he pulled her heart out.

"Or are you incapable of speech? Did you get a ring that makes you insane?"

"Yes, I can talk. Am I talking to Nekron, or-"

"Heart ready for harvesting."

I eye his ring.

"-am I talking to me?"

"Not yet. I take hearts to feel emotion. I'm only about half myself at the moment, and in a few hours I won't even be that." He regards me impassively for a moment. "Why are you here?"

"Krona's abducting versions of us from parallel universes. We all came from Earth Prime and we all got power rings, but you're the only Black Lantern."

"Lucky everyone else."

"I'm happy to help, but we need to deal with Krona first."

"Alright. I just need to make one stop first."

I frown. "Why?"

"I'm a vampire. I feed on blood to get stronger. And right now Glory's god-blood is going to waste on the Sunnydale pavements."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:41 GMT -7

Paul looks awkwardly at black-Paul as he drops the exsanguinated body. Halfway through him.. feeding upon it, it became a man, though that did not appear to trouble him. Was the false goddess possessing someone? If she was then that would be regrettable. I will pray for their soul once this mission is over.

"Better?"

"Stronger, at least."

I turn-. My mouth tightens slightly as pulses of pain radiate from my bruises. I have never learned to completely suppress my response to being injured. The Bat once said that it was because I wasn't injured often enough to become used to it. I… Sometimes wonder if it is because I.. am embarrassed to be so weak that I can be injured.

"Did you actually get any benefit from feeding on… Whatever his name was?"

"The two of them were so closely bound together that the only difference is that piercing his skin was easier."

Paul hasn't said anything. Either of them. Did he not notice? Not care? I'm still feeling too… Awkward about my.. accusation, to ask him.

Why did I think that?! Stupid girl!

But that.. 'Glorificus'? Was a clumsy fighter. In open ground, killing her from a distance would just be a matter of patience. I only fought her in melee in order to prevent the town being levelled, and even then-.

She was stronger than I am.

But not as skilled. She had not worked for her strength. She simply was.

Like Karl.

No, no, not like Karl. Karl worked to become better at what he did. More skilled.

"I thought that vampires here were demon-possessed corpses."

"Usually, yes. But black rings don't share."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

It's an instinctive response, not showing weakness, not being weak. And it's stupid as well because he can see perfectly well what I'm feeling. And his eyes tell me that he knows I know, but that if I don't want to talk about it now we can do it later.

He's going to want me to talk to that Jewess.

He might suggest someone else first, but that's what he wants, because he trusts her. Because he thinks that she'll do the best job. That she'll understand me.

Am I supposed to want to kill her?

I-. I don't. Karl wouldn't want me to, and she isn't… Doing anything... Jew-ish. I know that. In my head, I know that-.

"-go?"

Damn it!

"I'm sorry. I was distracted."

"Are you ready to go? Is there anything you want to do before we take a portal back?"

"Are there any orange power rings here?"

He closes his eyes for a moment. "None on Earth. And I couldn't call one from somewhere else quickly." He opens his eyes and looks at black-him as he takes out a phone. "You own a phone?"

"Mister Giles insisted."

Red-Paul looks around.

"Shouldn't there be some police by now? If only to cover things up more quickly."

"Normal police like to give everyone enough time to get away. The mayor's people learn to be cautious, or they learn to be dead."

"You haven't killed him?"

"I can barely motivate myself to move most-. Mister Giles, it's me. I'm being called away. I…"

I watch as the Red Paul flies away at speed, and I'm.. distracting myself by wondering how they both know about this place. They might be able to use their rings to access data networks, but if the history of this Earth is more similar to Earth 16 than my Earth then the data networks shouldn't be advanced.. enough…

Time Trapper said that a version of me exists here.

Perhaps not on Earth 16, but definitely here. Certainly here. Someone who made a life for herself, without alien genetics.

How would.. she..?

"Did you see where Red went?"

"Ah-?" I look in the direction he flew in, looking through the buildings to spot-.

In the distance a large pneumatic ram construct appears and slams repeatedly into a building.

"Oh, for goodness-. He couldn't wait a few hours?"

"Who was in there?"

"The local mayor is a magician who built a town over a portal to hell in order to make it easier to empower himself at the townspeople's expense. I think Red Lantern just killed him."

I nod. "Are you worried about being delayed?"

"I'm worried about setting off a mutual assurance of destruction exchange between the world's most powerful magicians because I jumped the gun. It's not killing sufficiently bad people that I have a problem with, it's failing to plan for the fallout."

"Like how the General Protection Squadron's obsession with exterminating every subhuman delayed the settlement of Greater Germany's new territory after the war?"

And he looks at me and I know I shouldn't have said that. Stupid girl!

"Um. Possibly? Though I.. imagine that a better comparison would be the lack of a handover plan from the Protection Squadron to the regular police." He shakes his head, and I know that I.. just.. disgusted him and he's still being nice about it. "I'm going to grab him. Black Lantern?"

"If I wasn't worried about Nekron drawing strength from his death I would have killed him myself."

"Magic mutually assured destruction. Wolfram and Hart have planar travel. Setting that off definitely risks Krona hearing about it."

"True, but I only just discovered that Krona was a problem."

"But you knew that Wolfram and Hart, and… The First Evil? And the legion of super vampires under the hellmouth? Were here."

"I feel emotion by ripping it from the hearts of others. I don't get to feel compassion very often."

"Okay. Angelika, look after Black. I'm going after Red."

He flies in the direction of the still-pounding piston.

I have a few minutes, but… If this is a greater risk of alerting Krona anyway…

"Black Lantern? Have you visited Germany?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th August 1997
08:52 GMT +2

"Ah, hallo?"

The woman who-. Doesn't.. actually look a great deal like either myself or my mother looks around, her eyes widening slightly as she sees me floating in the air above her. I.. think she looks like Aunt Katarin, but between her age and my kryptonian genetic modifications-. I should have realised that becoming part-Karl would change the way I look.

The two people she was talking to are staring as well, but I'm sure that the way I'm staring at.. me makes it obvious who I'm-.

Why are they smoking? It's a degenerate habit! Yes, I knew that without-. Without the social changes the National Socialist German Workers' Party made, some practices which-. I saw that on Earth 16. But seeing myself behave like that is… Worse. I understand that someone who… Had not grown up to regard preservation of the strength and purity of the race as a noble pursuit might.. become involved with other races. But why would any person wilfully poison themself like that?

"… Yes? Can I help you?"

I drop down to.. just above pavement level. The other two people are smoking as well. Are they being shunned by their peers? I can't see any armband.

"You are Angelika Köhler?"

"That.. was my maiden name. I'm Angelika Becker now." She smiles. "I have been for a while."

Married, with children. Yes.

"And your parents were Peter and Gabriele, from Danzig?"

"I don't think we're supposed to call it that." For some reason she is staring at the area around me. "How.. are you doing that?"

"Alien genetics which allow me to generate a biological force field."

She chuckles. "Aliens?"

I purse my lips and blow, the sudden wind extinguishing her cigarette. And freezing most of it. Her face falls in surprise, prompting her to raise the cigarette so that she can take a closer look. She then squeezes it between her thumb and forefinger, and watches as frost formed from the water vapour in the air around it begins to appear.

"My God."

"I think that the proper answer is: 'no, but people do make that mistake sometimes'." I land a short distance in front of her. "I could also demonstrate my strength, but… I would have to break something."

"What-?" She lowers her hand. "Who are you?"

"I'm you. A.. different version of you. From a parallel universe."

"Oh. I.. don't really know what to say." She looks me over. "I don't remember ever looking that good. Is that the… Alien genetics as well?"

"Yes, and an active lifestyle. Mostly the genetics."

"So… What-? Why are you here?"

Perhaps… Best not to mention the actual reason.

"I wanted to find out what my life would have been like if things.. had gone a little differently. I age only very slowly, but I've never married. I also can't have children."

The.. older version of me chuckles nervously as her co-smokers continue to stare.

"Do you want to borrow mine for a little while?"

"I.. do not think that I will have… Time. But you are happy? With the life you have lived? Working-" I look up at the Kirow Ardelt GmbH sign. "-here?"

"I…" She shakes her head. "Suppose? I haven't had another life to compare it to. Is that why you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes." No. "And… In this country?"

Another chuckle. "As opposed to where? Poland?"

"The Greater German Empire."

One of the observers hisses air in through his teeth, while my doppelgänger looks.. slightly nervous. Not.. afraid, but I can hear as her heart rate increases and see as the increasing flow of blood to her muscles causes a change in her body temperature.

"You're a..?"

"A National Socialist, yes. I am known as Overgirl. Which is… I understand that women are encouraged to have a greater role in the workforce on… Earths where the National Socialists were defeated. I have.. struggled to reconcile what.. the Party says is the proper role for women with how I actually live."

"And-?"

And now there's fear. A pure-blooded German who was.. afraid of a movement devoted to acting in the interests of her and her people.

"My adoptive father… He loathes it. The things he is expected to believe, expected to do. What he did for the Empire when he was too young to question it. He has tried to raise his concerns in public on a few occasions, but no one is listening. I thought-. I always thought that… Yes, that period of our history was violent, but it paved the way to something better. But I look around…"

I do just that, using what little temporal energy I retained from Time Trapper to see through the objects which would usually stop my vision. Not… Peaceful; this is after all a city during the morning rush hour. But at peace. Perhaps… Lacking the grandeur that my Leipzig possesses, but a fine city in its own right.

"It was all lies. It was all lies. We could have lost the Second Great War and everything would have been fine anyway. We could have just not.. fought it at all."

"Yes, that-" She nods vigorously. "-would have been much better."

It is as if some great… Knot has unravelled inside me. Not a knot of rope, but a knot that might be tied in a balloon. When you untie it, everything just.. flies out and.. nothing is left inside.

It's all…

It was all…

I barely feel it as my other self cautiously pulls me into a maternal hug, the fact that time travel has made her younger than me seeming irrelevant.

It must be so much worse for Karl. He actually-. And he stayed strong for-. For those parts of what he believed that were not… Lies. And for me. And…

This is so much more than.. a few little.. lies, to.. ease the minds of the public and not distract them from-.

"How did-." I pull out of her grip a little. "How did Germany..? Stop being a nation of National Socialists?"

"We lost the war. There were trials for the people most directly involved in what the National Socialists did. And ever since then we have been reminded of everything they did so that we never forget it. I don't think that would work in a world where Germany won the war. I think your people would probably learn the wrong lessons."

"Yes. I did. And I have more reason to question things than most."

I… I wipe my eyes. I breathe in slowly, then breathe out.

"I think-."

"Angelika, what the heck are you playing at?!"

I look around and-. Orange Paul has finished with the problems Red Paul was creating.

"I… Needed to talk to her."

He frowns at me and.. her.

"After Time Trapper specifically told you not to?" He shakes his head. "Come on. We're leaving. Hopefully, Krona won't pick up anything."

His ring blinks, his face falls, and he grabs me with a construct tether and we vanish.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:58 GMT -7

"A few hours, Angelika."

I shake my head at her, trying not to look at the burning pits Red-me burned into the Sunnydale landscape. It's not that I don't understand why. Empathic vision shows clearly that she's now part way towards resolving her internal contradictions. In any circumstances other than one in which we'd been told specifically not to encounter parallel universe versions of ourselves I'd be delighted.

"I-. I know."

"Fucking red wanker!"

"Heart ready for-"

There's a quiet poof as William the Bloody turns into a pile of dust.

"-harvesting."

Can't say Red isn't efficient. With Mayor Wilkins, Spike and Glory dead, I guess Buffy can take a year off to actually have a life. A few years, actually. I wonder if her desire to get her slayer-work done as quickly as possible would make her a good choice for an orange ring?

"Are you finished?"

Red nods. "That's it for now."

"We're work-." I make a point of flying through Red Queen's portal and waiting for them. Angelika is through a moment later, followed first by Red and then Black. "We're working for a time traveller. Why could none of you wait?"

"Red ring."

"And if you were a feral monster I'd accept that for an answer."

"I'm not making an excuse, I'm saying-. It encourages you to think-" The portal closes. "-in certain ways. And-."

"And I use an orange ring. I wanted them dead too, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't wait until we're done."

He frowns. "Really? I'd have thought that you'd have had to embrace our impulsive side."

"I learned not to indulge myself."

Komand'r flies over my head with an unpleasant chuckle. "Bet that makes your girlfriend happy." She kisses Red. Loudly. "Hey bae. Kill anyone good?"

"No, I only kill bad people. And you know vampires don't leave good skulls."

She floats on to take a look at Black. "And this is the new you?"

He leans away. "Tamaranean. I don't like sunlight."

"Yeah, I see that."

"The point I was making is that I've learned to act when I'm angry. The things that make me angry are -I think- things that a right-thinking person would get angry about, but condition themselves to accept. Time Trapper didn't tell us not to kill people, we know they're bad-."

"Get over here!"

We look around at Time Trapper's exclamation, then fly over to the spire.

"Alright, simple question: have any of you had any contact with parallel universe versions of yourselves before?"

Angelika glances awkwardly at me. Red and Black shake their heads, while I nod.

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Ten different versions. I met the blue version of me-. Us, from Earth negative fourteen. I also visited his parallel. I also.. got.. visions of three other versions of us; an indigo version, a version with an anti-green ring and-" I nod at Red. "-you."

"Me?"

"I saw you rescuing Komand'r from some police officers and… I think you had a good argument, there. And then I.. saw you return to your home with her, stow your armour-. You keep skulls?"

"I feel immense satisfaction whenever I look at them."

"You've met before?!"

"No, just-. Ambush Bug did something that made me see parts of their lives from their perspective. And then the next year I got visions of a yellow ring user, someone with angel wings grafted to his back and several other orange ring users."

"And you didn't think to mention that?"

"You came to me, having met me before. You didn't ask. I don't know how this works."

"And it was Ambush Bug who did it?"

"Irwin Schwab, yes."

"Wait." Komand'r's starting to smile. "Do you insist on using everyone's real name as well?" Her smile grows, and she elbows Red. "You do!"

"Indigo." The Time Trapper nods. "Indigo. We can work with that. The indigo light can serve as a link… Did he have a staff?"

"Yes." I frown. "Which… Seems a little unfair." I look at Red. "Did you-?"

He shakes his head. "Lord Atrocitus gave me one. You?"

"Alan Scott gave me his. Black?"

"I don't use a lantern. I don't even know where this ring came from."

"'This ring'?"

"Yes?"

"Say 'my ring'."

"Why?"

"I spent a year being literally incapable of saying 'my ring' until I met my ring's creator and she gave me the ability. It was always 'this ring' or 'the ring'."

Red raises his eyebrows. "You met your ring's creator?"

"You haven't?"

"No, this-. My ring, the ring I'm wearing now, was made by Lord Atrocitus. He took the ring I started with because he didn't trust it."

"Can you call it 'my ring'?"

"The ring-. The ring-." He blinks. "No, I can't."

"Did you ever talk to the Controllers?"

"Why would I? Lord Atrocitus hates them for being part of the Manhunter development program."

"Black?"

"If I left the Earth, I might forget 'why' and just float there for eternity."

Time Trapper exhales. "Though it does suggest that Controller Hinon is disturbingly insecure, it's just a memetic program. Red Queen, please open-."

A new portal opens.

"Thank you. You need to acquire this Indigo Lantern, or confirm his disappearance. If you get him, I can get to work on-."

"That portal isn't mine."

 

[Mr Zoat]

In
Between

Black focuses intently on the portal. "Hostile?"

"Of course it's hostile. I can feel the other versions of me he has hooked up to the machine he uses to generate it."

"And we're not being swarmed under with Manhunters because..?"

Time Trapper begins picking up shards of crystal and depositing them in his robe. "Because this place is protected. But imperfectly. Charging in will turn his assault force into an outwardly-directed blast of exotic radiation, but he can work around that problem given time." He looks at me. "Did Ambush Bug show you anything about how you should handle events like this?"

"No."

"Did he say anything that could be helpful?"

"No, but… When I met Doctor Schwab, he mentioned..? I don't know if it's important, but he mentioned that he was having some sort of contact with Grayven."

"Grayven? Darkseid's son?"

"I don't know anyone else with that name."

"What exactly did he say?"

"'Only from your point of view. From everyone else's, they got a quick lesson on the Antarctic's environment and an awesome fight with robots and pirates! And that Grayven guy, for the niche crossover appeal.'"

"Niche.. crossover-?"

I point at Red. "Teen Titans." Then at Black. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Red frowns. "What?"

"You don't know who the Teen Titans-?"

"No, I know who the Titans are. I just didn't recognise the exact line-up."

"You don't remember the animated series?"

"Not with that line-up. Why? Do.. you?"

"I remember a Buffy the Vampire Slayer film."

"But not the television series?"

"No. I remember the comic series, which…" He frowns. "I watched Angel. I remember Buffy appearing in a few episodes. I didn't think it was important…"

Shit. Have I forgotten some sort of.. comic series, or Teen Titans reboot that.. I'm now living through? I didn't recognise how I was talking about my ring and I still can't say my name…

Time Trapper exhales sharply. "Your mental deficiencies are not pertinent at this stage. Were any of the versions of you which you've seen involved at all in parallel universe travel?"

"Blue's parallel has planeshifting technology, but they're a Crime Syndicate reality."

"That will have to-."

Red Queen tenses.

"They're-"

The universe around us shudders as the portal jerks wider, just in time to admit a huge robot.

"-through."

It's clearly a Manhunter, though at eight feet tall and nearly as wide it's far larger and less feminine than the previous batch we encountered. Its outer surface is red, shaped like a heroically proportioned humanoid sumo wrestler, the only breaks in colour being the purple-grey bands around its legs and forearms. Its chest-. The head is bucket-shaped, purple-grey face and two 'eyes' which I suspect are show. The front piece of the chest is transparent, clearly showing a woman-

Jade, that's a Jade.

-trapped there like I remember the pre-War of Light Manhunters did with captured Green Lanterns. It's using her in order to exist here.

"By the command of Krona, no man escapes the Manhunters."

My crystalline construct armour is already in place, and I put a shield in front of Red Queen and Time Trapper happens to be there. Red throws out construct magnets-on-poles, Angelika flies an evasive pattern while firing heat vision and Komand'r charges.

"Time-"

Angelika burns out its faux eyes, though the armour beneath proves far more resilient. Komand'r's eye beams hit the middle of the transparent section a second ahead of her fists. For a instant the Manhunter appears to be moving to block her, then the constructs hum and it trembles, not crippled but just slightly put off its stride.

"RRRRRAAAAGH!"

The Manhunter shakes at the hits, but isn't knocked back, much less actually damaged.

"-Trapper-"

The Manhunter's internal sections start to glow, and the crystal landscape around us starts to fracture.

"-what are-"

Time Trapper's hood jerks around. Great, he doesn't know what's happening either.

"-we doing?"

The spheres of bubbling wax twist and flow, moving through the air to form circles around the Manhunter.

Angelika darts to the Manhunter's right arm and grabs a finger, straining for a moment to bend it back and break it. A moment later it gives way and Red sprays red vomit into the breach-.

And then it moves.

Komand'r is pushed into the ground, fracturing crystal embedding itself in her flesh. Golden light flares around the hand Angelika is attacking, disintegrating an arc across her costume and leaving an angry red welt on her skin. The red light from Red's ring is redirected, drawn into a siphon deployed from the grey-purple bracer on its left forearm. And then it's in front of him, damaged face-.

Black hits it, ghostly white claws coating his hands and slicing through the Manhunter's chest-mounted containment unit-.

A small explosive detonates, and that Jade's head is reduced to a red smear.

No.

Violet crystal encases the Manhunter's arms and legs as Red grabs Komand'r and pulls back as fast as he can.

"Queen, anywhere."

"They're-. Jamming-."

The portal spasms again as the crystal around the Manhunter I trapped begins to crack. Their AIs aren't sophisticated enough to learn to feel love.

Red Queen sags as another, smaller portal opens. "Go."

Jade 32 appears from behind the spire and dives through, Time Trapper just behind her, and Angelika waits just long enough to get a nod from me before flying for it. Komand'r's gotten over her shock sufficiently to take Red through with her, while Black pulls back more slowly, alert for any sign of weapon-.

Another Manhunter drifts through their portal, opening fire as it comes! Black just tanks the shots-

"Go."

-and I fly through the portal.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Out
Again

I'm.. in some sort of.. workshop? Computer controlled assembly units are set into the walls, and as the lights furthest away from us blink on I see that there's plenty of space left over. Empty storage? For raw materials, or finished products. Red shoves Komand'r into cover and then flies for a wall-mounted first aid kit while Time Trapper types something on a computer interface built into one of the room's support columns. Cheshire 32 appears to have made herself scarce.

I take a moment to regain my focus, then create a ring of violet crystal around the portal aperture.

"…down, this place-"

Angelika lands next to Time Trapper as he keeps typing.

"-was programmed to be paranoid about kryptonians, although-"

There's a clunk as large energy cannons emerge from their roof-mounted housings, and in the distance I see lightly-armed drones flying in our direction.

"-in this case, that-"

Red Queen flies out of the portal, her armour smouldering as she hits the ground and tries to roll with her momentum. It doesn't quite work and she strikes a column side-first before recovering sufficiently to throw a crystal at the portal.

"-may be to our advantage."

It.. closes-.

I watch the air for a moment.

"Black?"

Red Queen gingerly pushes herself upright as Red Me begins cleaning Komand'r's wounds.

"He was overwhelmed."

She looks down at her armour, which shimmers faintly as it reknits itself.

"Alright." Time Trapper steps back as the guns above us point in a more neutral direction. "The system has accepted us for the time being. I'll begin fabricating the tuning fork. Queen, you'll need to liaise with whoever is running the local Lantern Corps at the moment."

There's a scarlet flicker as she vanishes.

"Where are we?"

"One of our backup sites." He walks over to a fabricator and inserts a data stick into its port. "It was built by the local Lex Luthor at the height of his anti-Superman paranoia. Since he disappeared, I think we're the only ones who know about it."

Red glares at me, then flicks his eyes in the direction of Angelika as he tends to Komand'r. What? She's a big girl, she can give herself first…

I take a slightly deeper look at Angelika, at her sense of self-worthlessness…

"Angelika, come over here."

She flies my way, and I-. Ow, her burns are.. quite a bit more serious than my initial assessment suggested. Soon fix that.

Ah. Unlike with an orange ring where the injuries just disappear, violet rings leave a sort of crystal… Scab? Angelika inhales sharply-.

"Did that hurt?"

"No." She performs a quick check of herself, pulling disintegrated uniform flaps aside. "No, the numbness was a surprise. Do you think that we will have time to create a replacement costume? This is a little.. draughty."

Ah. Yes, I suppose that it would be.

"Time Trapper?"

He doesn't look around as the fabricators whir to life. "What?"

"Can these machines make clothing?"

"Yes. Why would-?" He looks around and notes Angelika's state of dishabille. "One of the smaller units should be able to produce clothing. I never concerned myself with the full catalogue."

Angelika nods gratefully and flies slowly to one of the indicated units.

Komand'r pushes herself upright, blobs of dull green wound sealant drying across her skin. "How long do we have?"

"Luthor warded this facility with every defensive measure he could build, borrow or steal. It should be inviolate. On the other hand, Red Queen and I were able to find it. We upgraded the defences ourselves, but I don't want to offer you hollow promises of safety."

"Should we expect a visit from Mister Luthor?"

"No. He got into a fight with the Guardians of the Galaxy which resulted in a double knockout. Earth is now the base of operations for the Gold Lantern Corps, who we will be using to run interference."

"The Guardians of where?"

Time Trapper freezes for a moment.

"Universe. Sorry, I just call them that because they-"

"Because they don't guard the universe." / "-don't guard the whole universe."

Time Trapper maintains eye contact for a moment, then returns to the machines.

"I can make the tuning fork perfectly well from here, but without the Black Lantern… I'm not sure how to get it working."

"Indigo Lantern?"

"Might work as a substitute. I suppose we don't really have much choice."

Red frowns. "What the heck is a Gold Lantern?"

"Not all parallels use the same emotional spectrum system. Sometimes, the colour of the rings comes from the material used to make them."

I nod. "The pre-War of Light system."

"If you say so. I'll open-."

"What will happen to Black?"

Time Trapper steps away from the fabricator and faces Red.

"I don't know for sure. Studied, probably. The fact that he didn't pick him up early on suggests that Krona doesn't consider him vital. If Krona destroys him… If we're successful then I should be able to restore him."

"There wasn't really much going on in Indigo's parallel. Red can handle it on his own if you want to send me somewhere else."

"Somewhere e-?" His hands leave his sleeves, showing three crystals. "Three. That's what I managed to grab before we left. One-" He holds it up. "-will be used to improve our concealment. Two-" He holds it up as well. "-will be kept so that we can force their entry points shut. That leaves three, for letting you pick up Indigo. I couldn't send you somewhere else even if I had somewhere to send you."

I nod solemnly. "Okay." I turn to Red. "You should be able to find him easily enough. And he's-. Well, compassionate. There shouldn't be any trouble persuading him."

"No need to rush. It might actually be better if you're there rather than here. Without the spire we can't conceal you, but it should still be a little less obvious if you're on an Earth variant where there's one of you already."

He tosses the crystal to the ground, where it generates a portal.

Red steps forward, then hesitates.

"Does this put you at risk?"

"We're out of options, Red Lantern. If we can't complete our work here, then we're lost anyway."

Red shrugs, nodding, then steps through the portal.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd April 2011
23:03 GMT -5

The lead fire fighter looks at me with… Not fear exactly, but he's certainly… Nervous. I smile warmly, and there's a look of recognition in his eye as he spots my ring.

"Indigo Lantern. Didn't recognise you without the tassels."

"That's… Something I wear for photographs."

Though the urban camouflage which Thomas Koche from Red River suggested would have been nearly as bad, just from the opposite direction.

"Are your..? Team…"

I glance upward as Sarah -who abandoned the name 'Ladyfold' as soon as she could complete the paperwork- ushers residents out through an upper window, heading down a ladder which until a few minutes ago was her team mate Klanker. He's come on in leaps and bounds since we've been working together.

"Will be getting out of your way, saving that you think we can be useful."

I could deal with this myself. And it's… Hard, not to. People are afraid and in danger, but… Not only do the children need to prove themselves like this, other people need to know that there are superhumans other than me who are capable of acting to serve the greater good. Not just normal humans; people didn't stop getting super powers just because Vought-American American Consolidated became the most hated company on the planet. And… Scary though it is to be inside a burning building, I'm tracking everyone inside and there's no reason to believe that everyone won't get out.

Shadow phases through a wall, two small children clasped to her side. Altering the nerves she uses to trigger her ability was a little awkward, but all it needs now is that she presses her right thumb to her right palm, rather than… What it was before. I spot her open her hand and then push the children away from her in Charlotte and Bobby's direction before closing her hand again and darting back inside.

"You got an idea where there's still people inside?"

I create a three dimensional model with small dots marking their locations. Black Hole and Kid Camo -having at long last learned that they don't need to use their powers where there isn't an immediate need- are doing door to door and herding people towards the front door. They should be coming out-.

There's a small cheer from the crowd as the front doors open again and the residents begin pouring out. My two young colleagues are dressed similarly to myself; there's a clear visual link to their superhero costume but it isn't a costume. It's stab resistant, insulated and contains a gas mask.

"Looks like it's clear-." He turns away as the fire engine's ladder and hose are brought to bear. "Fifth floor, Steve! Fifth floor!"

Steve the Hose Operator nods and waves as the ladder extends.

"You need to warn Stool Shadow?"

"No, she's trained in how to deal with this sort of situation."

Actually, once we built up her confidence in her own abilities a little-. A lot, and after I repaired the effects of her mother's substance abuse upon her brain, she was a natural. I worried that I might need to make some sort of clothing out of her cloned skin or something, but it turns out that she can actually phase with a significant amount of additional mass.

"Always wondered about that name…"

"The… Original idea from the marketing department was that she would conceal herself and listen in to criminal conversations… In the sense of being a stool pigeon." He nods. "But it turns out that doing that wasn't really practical and people… Misunderstood the name-. You should have heard some of the ridiculous things people came up with." He nods again, then awkwardly looks away. "And with the previous Shadow being executed, after… What happened in Washington-" Another nod. "-there wasn't any reason not to change it to something which made more sense."

It wasn't that. When I became de facto team manager I was given access to the full files. The document -the single page- which contained the entire discussion on her nom de héroïque made it clear that their attitude was 'she's a shit hero who activates her power by shitting, let's not waste time with someone nobody cares about'.

I had a word about their attitude with the new head of Superhuman Development. I've been reassured that in future members of that department will put a little more effort into things. And I will be checking that.

The water blasts out of the hose, punching through the window and beginning the process of soaking the building's interior. Sarah takes the ladder down as soon as the last evacuee has reached the ground. The building is… Mostly evacuated, and Shadow is heading towards the last few inhabitants. Might be safer for them to stay where they are, actually. This isn't a huge fire, and the building is reasonably up to code.

Once Sarah reaches the ground, she raps her knuckles against Klanker's third rung in the pre-arranged 'tap tap, tap tap' pattern which he's learned means that he should change back. That was an essential lesson, as he can only turn into iron objects and he'd be both rather heavy and conducts heat dangerously well. He switches back to human form, staggering for a moment before righting himself with a smile.

"Is there anything else you need us for?"

The lead fire fighter takes a quick look around, then looks at my construct. Looks like the last few residents have made their way out.

"This here the bit that's on fire?" I nod. "Then… No, I think we've.. got it covered. Ah. Thank you."

I give him a small bow as I dismiss my construct. "I'll leave you to it, then. You know where to find us when you need an official statement."

He nods, then returns his attention to the building as I head over to Charlotte.

"I think that went well."

She looks up from the small boy she's reassuring. "Did everyone get out?"

"We're just waiting for Shadow."

Her attention immediately turns to the building, even as hot water vapour begins emerging from the middle floors. "Are you tracking her?"

I smile reassuringly. "Now now, Aunty. You have to let the ducklings swim on their own eventually."

A minor point of contention between the two of us. Having known that her job was to effectively be a live-in carer, she's… Having trouble adjusting to the fact that they can handle a lot of things for themselves these days. I on the other hand am… Occasionally too enthusiastic about the children's newfound skills. And their psychological ability to handle the stress involved. It.. sort of works when we're.. covering for each other's oversights, and the children themselves accept that we can disagree and still be good friends. But sometimes-.

Shadow steps out through a second storey wall, drifting to the ground before phasing back in. She's carrying a small bundle-. There weren't any babies-.

"Doggy!"

The small dog Shadow was carrying perks up at hearing its master, jumps off Shadow and dashes across the tarmac to jump at him and bark excitedly. Shadow pulls off her mask, smiling as she heads over to us at a more sedate pace.

"Shadow." Charlotte puts her hands on her hips. "It was very nice of you to rescue that dog, but you're not supposed to put yourself at risk when you do this."

"We weren't near the fire. He just got shut in and couldn't find his way out."

Charlotte can't quite maintain her stern expression in the face of Shadow's earnest desire to help. She exhales, bowing her head. "Alright then." Shadow beams. "Team!? We're leaving, now."

Black Hole and Kid Camo turn away from the people they were talking to. I smile. It's not all that long ago that people wouldn't have dared speak to a superhero, but patience, hard work and a moderate media presence have gradually won people-.

On the other side of the crowd I catch sight of a limousine containing our American Consolidated contact. She nods approvingly at me, then turns away and winds the passenger window up.

…

I turn around, smiling at the team.

"Yes, let's be off."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April 2011
23:03 GMT -5

"…that you could have dealt with any of these problems yourself." My interviewer shrugs. "So the obvious question is: why didn't you?"

"And the obvious answer is: training."

"Training?"

"Yes. Despite the.. former policies of the Superhuman Development Department, superhumans aren't born with an innate knowledge of how to use their powers, much less how to apply them productively. As our.. previous public statements have covered-."

"You leave people in burning houses so you can train?!"

After decades of being able to reliably source obsequious interviewers for things like this, American Consolidated has now.. grudgingly accepted that anyone they put up is going to get harangued. And that that haranguing isn't necessarily bad. Drummer Boy having a bit of a break down after an interviewer went completely off on him actually improved his popularity ratings.

"As part of-."

"You think that anyone who burned to death because you were standing around cares why!?"

I smile, and I wait.

"Well?!"

"You clearly hadn't finished your question when I started speaking. I apologise. I wanted to be sure that you'd asked everything you wanted to ask before I replied to your perfectly reasonable question."

I smile, wait, and raise my eyebrows.

I think I've wrong-footed him, but this isn't about scoring points, at least not in the 'deal with interview' minigame. As in 'Thank You For Smoking', I'm not trying to convince the man opposite me. I'm trying to convince the audience.

Ah. It appears that he had finished.

"As part of a training program which lasts several months, trainee superheroes are taught how to handle themselves in a variety of high-risk situations. That includes burning buildings, a module which is taught by a mixture of former and currently serving fire fighters. After that, we consider them competent to handle a real fire, but… Obviously, it's better if someone who could deal with the fire if it proved more than they could handle is on hand. That is why I try to be there. But, there is only one of me. The objective of the exercise is to train them to handle things when I'm not there."

Not having an ego is… Surprisingly restful. People can be rude to me as much as they want, and I feel… Nothing, aside perhaps from a little pity. Certainly, I'm aware on an intellectual level that the staff has done a number on my mind, but… Aside from that time Charlotte and I went on a date, I really haven't noticed any real drawback.

The morning afterwards was awkward, when I made it clear that I'm literally incapable of giving her what she wants. I suppose that in the very long term I should probably look into doing something about it, but… I'm never the most urgent thing.

"So, what, the millions in property damage and hundreds of people left homeless don't bother you?"

"Objectively, if you live in a building worth millions then, by the standards of the planet at large-."

"Oh, don't give me that bullcrap! I thought you people worked for American Consolidated! It was certainly American lives that were lost when your co-workers tore a hole through Washington!"

"And Russian lives that were lost when the former department manager attempted to carry out a coup in Russia on behalf of the Communist Party."

Goodness only knows why he thought that would work. Honestly, sometimes Stillwell is the perfect corporate sociopath, and then at other time he does the most bizarre things. I do not understand the man.

"And to Stormfront's 'holidays', and… I really don't think that having a 'suffer-off' is a sensible way.. to…"

I stare in dismay as a red-glowing figure wearing my face flies in from the wings.

They told me that they shut down their cloning facilities. If they didn't learn anything from the whole horrible mess with Black Noir then I'm going to be demonstratively upset.

"Good morning."

My voice, my approach, and… That's a red power ring. Is he alright?

I can't see anything wrong with him.

If that's a power ring then he.. can't be a clone of me. If American Consolidated had the ability to make power rings-. If I had the ability to make power rings, things would be very different.

So that's not what's happening. Which leaves-?

He nods. "Parallel uni-."

"Who the fuck are you?! Get the fuck off my fucking st-."

A red cocoon forms around him, cutting off all sound.

"Parallel universe. A few versions of us are trying to stop Krona the Ex-Guardian, and Time Trapper thinks you're what we need. Does this Earth have anything that can help?"

"Not.. that I would want to rely on-."

He grimaces, then glares at my staff.

"Is that thing trying to mind control me?"

I shake my head as I call it over to me, catching it in my right hand as I stand.

"Yes, but it takes a very long time to do anything, and as far as I can tell it's not permanent. Still, if it makes you uncomfortable, simply stay away from it."

Ring, scan for a portal of some sort?

Yes, I've found it.

I wave my staff, and we're floating in the air… On the other side of the country.

3rd May 2011
10:49 GMT -6

The portal is a red-ringed hole in the air. The Red Lantern glares around, then flies through it. I give him a moment to warn them of my arrival, then drift after him, passing through…

And.. coming out in a crater, construct armour glowing around the Red Lantern's body as he wheels around. Presumably trying to find a target. The clean curve of the crater walls suggest that whatever did this was recent, and.. the artificial placement of patches of stone and metal suggests that there was a building here until recently.

"Red Lantern?"

"What-? Happened? I was only gone-."

Gold lights flash in the air above us, and three men and a woman appear, floating in the air and held aloft by their… Gold power rings? The symbol on their chests is that of the Green Lantern Corps. Gold cages clang into being around us as they raise their rings, then their gold-armoured leader descends to a position a little closer to our levels.

Sinestro peers at my face.

"What are you supposed to be?"