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

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:32 GMT -5

"So what was up with the Sheeda?"

Nylor face-shrugs, his bindings making his shoulders immobile.

"I don't know. I never heard of them."

"Really? Because they seemed like a big deal. Even if Earth fought off the Harrowing Fleet, there would have been a lot of casualties. And it would have certainly influenced the Earth's reactions to the Reach."

Nylor sags as far as his bonds will allow him.

"You're forgetting something. What do the Sheeda want?"

"Raw material, food, slaves, a sense of superiority..." I nod. "If they looked back in time and saw a world devastated by the Reach, they wouldn't bother coming back."

"Bingo. Not t' this era. Maybe I should find a way t' warn Thanagar."

Huh.

"Was that us?"

"More you than me. You did a whole lot more t' improve things than I managed."

With his protective charms gone Nylor can't stop me looking into his soul. And… He's more prideful than I am, but it's easier to be angry at historical figures who created a situation when you don't know them personally. When you aren't aware of the difficulties they were dealing with, or how they actually felt about what happened. For him, teaming up with Vandal Savage or Lex Luthor would be like me teaming up with Blackbeard or Cecil Rhodes. Or raging at Karadeg for not doing a better job of fighting off the Romans.

"I mean, I woulda if I could… Not like I was planning on not being important enough t' change history."

For a moment I think about trying to encourage him. Given how long he can expect to live, a few decades in prison are nothing that he can't manage. And given Ms. Waller's moves to enable prisoners to work off their debts to society, it wouldn't be that bad. And then I remember the murders he's implicated in, and what are most likely others he's committed as well. And the one he actually confessed to, of the Japanese collector he killed to take the first Bozo.

Japan has the death penalty, but that's usually reserved for serial killers. If he only murdered one person, he'd be realistically looking at a thirty year stretch… Though diplomatic pressure could result in him serving it in Belle Reve.

"You didn't know about Klarion, right?"

"That he was deranged? Sure, but I don't make policy."

"That he was planning to murder that many children."

"I got told that I should prepare to get a hold of Starro's tissue samples while everyone was 'distracted'. I thought they were going t' call in a bomb threat."

I raise my eyebrows, looking unimpressed.

"Supervillain bomb threat. I mean, Gotham. Not what actually happened. Say, what's the chance of me getting the deal yah gave the big grey guy?"

"Remember when you said that if you'd known about me before you sided with the Light, you'd have picked me?"

He nods.

"That's the deal you'd have got if you'd changed sides then. Finish your sentence and we'll talk."

"You ever think that a retributive system of justice might not be all it's set up t' be?"

"I know it's not. But I do believe in the efficacy of retribution. You should have at least sent the superheroes of this era a message, Nylor."

"Yeah." He nods. "I think you're right. Might not of done anything, but at least I could tell yah I tried. I tell yah, I was spitting jealous when I found out what you were doing with magic."

"The Reach not into magic?"

"Couldn't use it on most of the worlds they moved humans to. Which meant they thought it was useless. What's your plan for getting around that restriction?"

"Study the Dream and work out how to make it connect to other places more intensely. Mother of Mercy gave me a vision where we.. had a thing called a Root of Yggdrasil which maintained an artificial connection, but I don't know whether those can actually exist or not."

"Was it actually a root of Yggdrasil, or was that just a brand name?"

"Brand name. It was actually a complex piece of thaumic engineering. I've got Venturia researching it now, but it will probably be decades before we get anywhere."

"And then, magic everywhere. No aliens are going to be ready for that."

"A few will be. Earth's not the only place with a magic tradition."

"But no one will be on our level."

"Yes, that's the-."

The floor explodes next to me! I see a brief blur of blue and red through the concrete dust before red light lashes out-

Armour!

-and scythes through Nylor's equipment.

"Someone, report!"

There's a bang as New Kara hits one of the cylinders and crumples it to wreckage as she keeps going, her impact being absorbed by the second cylinder.

"You do not bear the mark!"

Ah. Another Supergirl. Blue miniskirt and long-sleeved halter top with red cape. Her eyes glow red, her teeth are.. weirdly distended and there's a red 'S' burned into her forehead. The skin on her legs and hands appears to be cracking up to reveal a red light glowing from within.

"Nylor?"

"What, yah thought I was going t' come quietly?"

I glance-. He's causing the skin on his forehead to bioluminesce an 'S'.

Noriel and Angelika fly up through the hole, Angelika tanking zombie Supergirl's heat vision and metabolising it.

"No mark!"

Zombie Supergirl blurs forwards, striking Angelika on the side of the head before dipping under Noriel and punching her in the stomach!

"You're just compounding your-"

The zombie fires heat vision directly into Noriel's eyes-.

"Ah!"

-before backhanding her, sending her spinning into the ground, cratering the concrete. But with that heat vision boost Angelika's moving faster, fly-kicking zombie Supergirl directly in the kidneys and unlike the zombie she knows not to let up. Rather than kick and retreat she keeps on, shoving her target into and then through the wall!

"-problem."

"Ah, am I? How many Supergirls did you start with again?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:36 GMT -5

Angelika hurtles back through the room-

"No mark!"

-but recovers in the air, planting her feet on the far wall as the zombie flies at her.

"There's a planet full of people without House El tattoos out there, Nylor."

"Ah, yeah. Want to know-?"

I fire a construct into his neck, burning through enough of his spinal cord that even his regenerative abilities should struggle to restore his mobility anytime soon. Next I cut off his hands and feet and gouge out his eyes.

"No."

Fire ripples over Noriel as she pulls herself off the ground, and zombie Supergirl gets smacked out of the air as New Kara uses a medical cylinder like a baseball bat! I spend a fraction of a second cursing that I haven't had time to explain why that sort of thing is inefficient in super strength combat even as I form a kryptonite ray, then track and fire.

The golden beam hits zombie Supergirl in the left leg, and… Does nothing but get her shield!

My kinetic barrier judders and glitches on the first punch-

"Worship him!"

-resulting in her physically pulling the barrier apart with red-glowing fingernails. I'm forming a railgun construct as she pounds on my construct armour, her arms blurring to the point that even accelerated I can't see them as distinct objects. Come on come on! Construct done load-

My armour construct shatters and her next punch hits my power armour directly!

-mage slayer point and fire!

"RaGH!"

As she staggers back I see that the shot hit her in the chest, blasting off her halter top and revealing more angry red lines cut into the skin beneath.

"I smell a demon!"

Golden fire blazes over zombie Supergirl, and me, and Truggs. It… Agh, stings, my spell eater overheating and returning to subspace immediately while I feel hands, feet and eyes burning, the pain unmitigated by my rings!

"YAAAAAGH!"

I collapse in my armour as the pain recedes, my-. Yes, everything still there, apparently the Source just wanted to put me on notice. Walk it off.

"N-. Nugh. Noriel, what happened?"

"There was a sarcopha-huh." She coughs, wincing. "Sarcophagus, in the basement. The ditz opened it to 'free the mummy'."

"Kara, don't touch things!"

"Sorry!"

To be fair, she does actually look sorry. Zombie Kara is lying on the floor, the cracks in her skin being replaced by horribly burned flesh, her own… Body fat having bubbled up through the rends in her flesh. The 'S' brand… Appears to have actually been a tattoo and is still there, while her mouth…

Magic induced transformations are usually somewhat 'generous' when they're undone. Changes just revert to their 'before' state with only externally applied changes remaining. Not in her case. Her mouth has returned to normal size but the supernumerary teeth tried to stay, resulting in…

Some appear to have been pulverised, some are twisted… In some cases entirely out of their sockets, in others just… Sideways, tearing the gums as they went. I-. Right, clear her airway, check for injuries beyond the obvious and then put her in the recovery position. Reconstructive dentistry can wait.

"What happened to her?"

"A demonic curse of some kind. I have unmade it."

"I'm really sorry. Is that-?" New Kara floats closer, then puts her hands over her mouth as she gets a better look. "Did I do that?"

"No." Noriel folds her arms across her chest. "I did."

"Kara, she was already possessed, or… Ensorced. Your mistake was in opening a container you couldn't see inside without appropriate caution. These injuries are probably the least bad reasonably probable outcome that could occur."

"Okay." She nods her head three times in rapid succession. "Can we help her more?"

"Um." New Kara's spotted Truggs. "What..? Happened to him?"

"I made sure that he couldn't escape. He can regenerate, and if-."

"Oh! That's okay, then." She nods. "Maiming regenerators obviously doesn't matter."

Ah…

Ignore it.

"Noriel, does she need any other help?"

Noriel shrugs as New Kara takes off her cloak to-.

"No! No, don't put anything on the burns!" New Kara freezes, clutching her cloak to her chest. "Here." I take a purple healing ray out of subspace and hand it to her. "This will help with her injuries, but we'll leave a thorough examination until we can take her back to the Fortress under guard."

New Kara nods and begins playing it over the ex-possessed Supergirl.

"Of course, we still don't know what this Supergirl was doing here." I frown. "Where are the other two?"

Angelika stretches, wincing slightly when she pulls her bruises.

"They are still in the lower level. Should we take this as proof that Nylor Truggs was responsible for us being here?"

"No. After that stunt, he gets a full telepathic trawl until we know everything he's been up to. I'm not assuming anything. Noriel, with me. I'm going to scan that sarcophagus and then you're going to burn it."

"That is sensible. It is undoubtably tainted by unholy magic."

"Angelika, are you alright?"

"It has been a little while since someone hit me that hard. But I will recover."

"Okay. Kara, you and Angelika stay up here, Noriel, you're with me."

My armour glows as I patch it back up, a new spell eater slotting into place from my subspace arsenal. Lot of good the first one did, but I'm not really prepared to fight the Source yet. Once I'm in fighting shape I fly across the room and into the breach in the floor. Down through the dust and debris, and into… Some sort of secure holding warehouse. This isn't a recent thing; Truggs has been here for a while.

"Kara? Anything going on down here?"

"I found Nylor Truggs' kryptonite locker."

I land and head towards her voice.

"Are you alright?"

Kara drifts out of the dark, a shimmering black crystal in her right hand.

"Never better."

I smile. "Glad to hear it. Where's the sarcophagus?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:39 GMT -5

I study the sarcophagus for a few moments. As far as I can tell it's not actually all that interesting. It's a tool for confining people tainted with demon magic. Optimistically, I would guess that it might originally have been intended for holding them until an exorcist could be called in. But if whoever they were holding was that dangerous, how would they get them in there in the first place? The next possibility would be sample collection, and… I'm not sure when this would be a superior option to binding chains of some sort. They would even use the same sort of runes.

"Was there a lot of kryptonite?"

"Not much. Just a few small stones."

"And you're sure that you're alright?"

Kara smiles.

"Better than ever. Dana's cataloguing it now."

"She probably doesn't need to bother. I'm just going to destroy it all anyway."

"Oh? You aren't interested in what it does?"

"I know what it does. I took samples from your asteroid. But aside from gold or green they don't have any useful applications, and they only do anything to kryptonians anyway. Noriel, your opinion?"

"Kryptonite does nothing to members of the Host. However, since this human body is vulnerable to cancer I would prefer to avoid it."

"I meant about the sarcophagus. Though I thought that you were resistant to things like that?"

"'Resistant' is not 'immune'." Her flame aura flares. "The sarcophagus was made with demon magic. I will be glad to destroy it."

"Why would they make something to contain one of their own?"

"I see little gain in speculating. The hellspawn fight amongst themselves. One might wish to imprison a rival, or contain a feral demon to use as a weapon. Have you not heard of such things?"

"The demon Rosacarnis dealt with her invulnerable uncle by tricking him into drinking poison, then keeping his body submerged in more of the same poison. Sticking someone in something with a door and no other defences seems like asking for trouble."

Old Kara smiles. "Sounds like my kind of woman. Have you met her?"

"Yes, but only briefly. We didn't talk much."

Noriel's eyes narrow as she turns to glare at Old Kara. "Do not be too quick to praise the fiends of Hell."

"It was pretty clever. She wasn't very old when she came up with it." Hm. "Actually, I know that I said I wanted to destroy this, but the longer I look at it the more I consider possible trading-."

Golden fire blasts out of Noriel's eyes, washing over the sarcophagus. Some of the runes briefly light up but the unholy magic cannot stand before the wrath of Heaven's local contractor. The maybe-ceramic material gets hotter and hotter as the metal melts until-

BANG!

-it explodes! Red hot ceramic sprays across the warehouse, shattering against Kara's skin and stopping and dropping as it hits my kinetic shield.

Kara's eyes glow red. "Be careful!"

"I destroyed the magic; all that hit you was mundane matter."

"It would have taken me all of half a second to put up a shield. A little consideration wouldn't hurt."

"It was demon magic."

"And it being demon magic for an extra half-second would have hurt how?"

"If a piece of high purity uranium were in a reservoir, would you hesitate to remove it for fear that someone might be splashed?"

"I'd probably be making an umbrella construct at the same time as I made a fishing rod construct, Linda."

Noriel starts, then takes a deep breath. She looks away, nodding.

"That.. is not unreasonable."

"And..?"

Noriel faces Kara. "I apologise."

Kara's eyes dim slightly. "Don't do it again."

"Noriel, perhaps you could check this place for other demonic artefacts. And -please?- document before destroying. We will need to present what we find in court in order to convict Truggs."

She nods, then turns and flies away down the corridor.

"So; what now?"

"Now the clumsy bitch has gone? Why don't we talk about Jade?"

"I'd rather talk about that black kryptonite you're holding."

"This?" She lifts it up slightly, smiling at she stares into its depths. "What about it?"

"I'm not really clear what it does."

"I thought you tested them all."

"I tested them on cell cultures. Some things are only apparent on the macro scale. They're not healthy for kryptonians, but I've only got an approximate idea what this one does."

"Oh, and what does it do?"

"The description I heard is that it makes you evil. But I don't believe in evil."

"So you don't think it does anything?"

"It's clearly affecting your mind; you wouldn't normally get so angry about Noriel's poor judgement."

"You said I was right."

"You were, but as I said, you usually would have brushed it off. Would you say that you're feeling shorter tempered?"

"Would that make me evil?"

"No, but it might be associated. You know, poor impulse control. And what looks like increased self-confidence could just be the kryptonite making you blind to certain social conventions, like… 'Don't heat vision off this woman's face because she blew dust at me'."

She smiles pleasantly. "Are you worried about me?"

"I'm torn between worried and fascinated."

"But you want me to get rid of it."

"I think it's probably for the best."

"Alright. On one condition."

"I'm.. a little surprised that you're willing to agree. What is it that you want?"

"I want you to fuck me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:43 GMT -5

I frown, and since my helmet isn't designed to block exotic kryptonian visual modes she can probably see it.

"I'm curious as to 'why'."

"Oh, so many reasons. I think part of being blind to social conventions is that I'm more liberated about following through on my desires."

"Not necessarily. You also need confidence, otherwise you end up just finding social situations intimid-."

"Don't care." She takes a step close-. No, she struts a step closer. "I also want to own you."

"That sounds pretty evil."

"She likes you. She… Me, when I'm not using black kryptonite. You're safe, you're nice to her, you help her without asking for anything… She feels safe with you. It's all very primal." She shakes her head. "I don't think you learned anything from Zatanna at all."

"If I was supposed to learn not to be nice to girls, then no, I didn't."

"And if Jade… Win? Was on Earth right now I'd just go and kill her-"

"I'd rather that you didn't."

"-but she's hardly ever around. Which is ridiculous."

"She's doing good work."

"Villain or hero, she's being a weapon for other people. You went on about how happy you were that she changed, but she hasn't changed at all."

That… Sounds a little more plausible than I'm comfortable hearing. But she wanted something that was at least a little familiar. I'm going to need to talk to her about that.

"But why would evil you want to have sex with me?"

"Because I'll be forcing you to betray her, but you'll do it because there's no other way to make me drop this." She holds up the kryptonite and wiggles it at me. "It's the only way to make sure that precious little Kara Zor-El is safe. And everyone else I could kill."

"Okay, clearly Kara's been focusing on me in a way that's not entirely healthy and needs to meet more people."

"And Jade will split up with you because she can't cope with people betraying her trust, even for a good cause. And even if she agrees with your decision she'll never feel the same way again and because you're an empath you'll know, so that's the end of that relationship. And Kara will feel so bad about what I did that she'll try avoiding you, which will make you spend more time with her to try and make her understand-"

She pantomimes an expression of concern and remorse.

"-that it wasn't her fault at all. And that will bring the two of you together and then I can finally do what my dad wanted and get out of this primitive backwater."

"So you are unhappy here? Because I'm perfectly happy to move you somewhere."

"But that would make Kal unhappy, and she'd feel guilty." Kara rolls her eyes. "How long does it take for this to become permanent?"

"I don't know. I haven't experimented."

Just holding the crystal isn't anything like as intense as a laser, but she's got a point. With gold kryptonite there's a point where it kills all of the photoreceptive organelles. With green, there isn't an equivalent point… As far as I know. That sort of exposure would just be fatal to the kryptonian suffering from it.

"I don't mind if you want to wait. Frankly, I think I'd do a better job of being me than she would."

"Given that you're… For the sake of discussion let's say 'evil', how will I know that you'll follow through?"

"How will I hold onto it when both of my hands are busy?" Her eyes flick over my armour. "You're still wearing.. clothes."

"I'm sort of hoping that New Kara is going to hear us."

"I don't think that's going to happen. This section has a separate environmental filter and sound dampening system. She could probably hear if she made an effort, but I think she'd stop trying if she heard me talking about fucking you."

"Okay, how about you put the kryptonite in a lead-lined box and I talk to you about this when you're in your right-."

"EEEEEh. Wrong answer." Her eyes flick around our surroundings. "I'm going to count to five, and then I'm going to start killing people. One."

I scan the black kryptonite, isolating its vibrational frequency and form a small sonic cannon constru-.

Kara's eyes flash red as she destroys my construct.

"My senses aren't quite as good as 'New' Kara's, but I can still spot things like that. Two."

I bend the frequencies of the light around us, creating a wave of gold kryptonite radiation. Kara's eyes go out, and I start forming another sonic cannon construct.

"Kara, I need-"

Kara blurs, and my construct's gone again.

"Did you think you were the only one who noticed Dana's 'lucky' coin collection? That's three, by the way."

Okay… Filament through the floor. No immediate reaction. An environmental shield should be able to block kryptonite radiation immediately, but that won't do anything for what she's already soaked up. And I can't remember whether gold kryptonite exposure renders kryptonians immune to other colours of kryptonite. Brief exposure… Probably wouldn't, because the organelles are still there. Higher levels of exposure should grant immunity, but I don't know if I can actually inflict that on her before she can get away. Or how fast her behaviour would revert.

"What did you do to her?"

"I ripped them out of her clothes, knocked her out and stuck her in a storage crate."

"Restrained of you."

"She's a hostage. You don't know anyone around here, but if I make it clear that I'm going to kill her first then that gives you a personal investment. You always said that you care more about the people you know-." She frowns quizzically. "Would it work if I held myself hostage? How much do you care about Kara?"

"Kara is a friend of mine."

"Four." She widen her eyes and smiles. "Oh, hey, I just thought of something. How hot would it be if this wore off half way through, and she woke up with you inside her?"

"You're not selling me on the idea."

"I don't care what you think; you're a means to an end. Oh, and the spots on Kryptonian women are in just about the same place as on human women and that's five. Is that armour coming off, or do I start crushing skulls with my bare hands?" Her face takes on an air of curiosity. "I wonder what brain feels like it oozes through fingers?"

Okay. Construct up, tag the underside of her foot and block kryptonite radiation.

She doesn't react, but she doesn't look dissuaded either. Taking off my armour should buy a little more time, and it's not like it would stop kryptonian-strength hits anyway. I send my helmet back into subspace.

Kara puts her right forefinger into her mouth.

"Shoulda brought some music-."

"Step away, deviant."

Kara turns as Noriel floats back in, her flames billowing.

"Oh. You. It's such a shame this doesn't affect you. I'd have much more fun with Linda."

Kara lunges at Noriel, fists outstretched!

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:47 GMT -5

My helmet goes back on as Noriel's flames wash over Kara-

"Guess what?"

-who completely ignores them as she punches Noriel right in the sternum, sending her flying backwards. Storage crates crumple and splinter, the far wall cracking as it breaks her fall.

"With these coins I'm not vulnerable to magic any more." She glances back at me as I set the environmental shield to feed her carbon monoxide. "And don't think I haven't noticed this environmental shield you've stuck around me. I can go without breathing for hours."

Ah.

I extend a filament from the environmental shield and try attaching it to the crystal, but she spots it and waves her hand through it to break it.

"Do you want me to swallow it? Or crush it and breathe in the dust?"

No. No, I don't. Getting it out of her stomach is perfectly possible; humans aren't any different from kryptonians with regard to how their bodies flush out the upper portion of their digestive system. But getting it out of her lungs would be difficult, and I still don't know if there's a point at which it becomes permanent.

"There are hundreds of different parallel universe versions of me. I'm sure that you could be happy with one of the single ones."

"Not how this works!" Noriel stumbles slightly as she pulls herself out of the wall, her flames billowing. Kara's eyes narrow. "And don't think I haven't noticed that you're nothing like as tough as a real kryptonian. Paul, do you like this one?"

"She's an acquired taste, but I respect that she's trying to better herself."

"Because I don't. I remember all the things she said about having life handed to me on a plate just after I found out that nearly every member of my species-"

There's a boom and-. Noriel drops, blood running from her forehead. Kara's right hand is in a post-flicking position.

"-was dead, and I don't remember God, or the Source, stepping in to help them."

"The Lord giveth and-" Noriel raises her right hand to her forehead, sees the blood on her fingers and then wipes it away. "-the Lord taketh away."

"Paul, do you have a plan for killing God?"

"Not a reliable one. It turns out that preparing for a being with poorly defined limitations is extremely difficult."

"Working on it. Hmm." She looks directly at Noriel. "Hey Linda-bitch, can you die? I mean, if I kill you do you just go right back to Heaven?"

"I do not know."

"Let's f-."

Armour on construct power armour on lunge forwards chainsaw chains wrapping around Kara and ripping at-.

She spins, smashing my construct apart as her uniform falls apart. Kryptonians project a force field a few millimetres from their bodies but it looks like the coins don't. Now where are-?

"Find."

Fingers! Fingers through my faceplate, pulling it apart with a horrifying tearing noise!

"Out." She smiles patiently at me. "Naughty boy."

Things… Blur…

I… Stumble, I-. She hit me-. Focus.

I see Noriel spin as Kara hits her around the head with my armour's left leg. Which is now not on the armour I'm… Only wearing parts of.

"You know, this is kinda fun. I should beat people to death more often."

Noriel increases the intensity of her flaming aura, setting the loose material in the room on fire and incinerating the scraps that were left of Kara's costume. No change. Where the heck are the coins? Did she swallow them or are they… 'Secret compartmented'.

"Huh. Tickles."

Kara darts forward, wrapping her hands around Noriel's throat and steadily applying pressure.

"Come on, Paul. You know what I want. Give it to me, or we see if angels can get brain damage from oxygen deprivation."

The heat is now so intense that Kara's hair is blowing straight back, not that it's bothering her at all. Noriel grabs at her head and tries gouging her eyes, and Kara responds by biting into the fingers of Noriel's right hand.

We remove our power

from her, but there doesn't appear to be any change in her behaviour. Nothing for it.

Ultra-heavy duty machinery constructs appear around Kara, culled from my records of the efforts of a dozen mad scientists to beat Kal-El with brute force and combined with the latest in alien technology. She loses her grip on Noriel as her arms are jerked apart, and Noriel uses the opportunity to dart away from her and pant to get her breath back. I doubt that I'll hold her for long-

The machinery is already straining as she pulls against it.

-but I use the opportunity to send the kryptonite into subspace.

"Good effort, lover. But you won't-"

Sonic cannons.

"-stop me-"

Two cannons appear, one either side of her head. I don't know exactly how tough she is, but intense sonic energy should be able to render her unconscious.

"-with-. Ugh-huh."

The air around her head hums.

"Hit her!"

Noriel rallies, abandoning her fire generation in favour of empowering her body as she punches Kara in the left side of her temple.

And then pulls back again, massaging her hand as Kara smiles.

"I think I might like this. Hope you like receiving-"

She vibrates in place, my construct starting to come apart almost at once. I didn't design it with that in-! I add in a kinetic barrier element and that slows her down a little but she powers through!

"-as much as giving!"

"H."

Dana limps in, clothing torn where Kara stole her coins but H-dial in hand.

"E."

Kara rips her way free of my construct and punches Noriel in the diaphragm.

"I studied the H-Dial. Let's see what lame power it gives you."

"R. O!"

There's a.. puff of smoke, and then-.

Kara tilts her head to the side.

"Looks like… Hoover Girl? I think I can take you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
09:50 GMT -5

"That's The Sensational Sucker to you!"

How.. to describe.. what we're looking at?

Imagine a vacuum cleaner. Not an old bag-based vacuum cleaner or a modern Dyson. No, imagine a Henry; the red and black ones with the smiley face on it. Imagine that it was lilac and grey rather than red and black. Now imagine that rather than having a hose coming out of the nose it instead has two hoses, each coming out of one of the shoulders. The hoses appear to be able to move on their own recognisance but don't appear to have a significant amount of strength behind them.

Now add a skirt, because this is a child-friendly technological abomination.

Thank you H-Dial.

Kara is clearly as puzzled as I am, but at least this new stimulus has her attention.

"Does it come with instructions?"

"Ah… No, actually."

Dana rolls back on her wheels a metre, then stops. Then she trundles forward at the same low speed.

"Okay, I think I've got it."

I use the opportunity to quash the fires Noriel generated when she ignited the packaging material. Kara doesn't appear to feel threatened, and since I've got the kryptonite she should start recovering. The more she's delayed, the better.

"We do need this place cleaned up a little. I mean, you definitely can't hurt me with those things."

"Okay, let me-."

WWWWWRRRRHHHHHHH!

The vacuum hoses spring to life, writhing around and drawing all of the loose material in the room towards them.

Oh gods I can already see where this is going. The Dial must have some sort of twisted artificial intelligence.

Kara looks around as the hot debris is drawn into the hoses. I'd guess it's all ending up in the Sensational Sucker's storage vessel, but I suppose that it might equally just be being annihilated.

"Yes, good. Can you suck bigger objects too?"

"Let's find out, bitch."

The Sensational Sucker raises her suckers and points them at Kara. The only result I can see is that Kara's hair is now blowing towards the nozzles, and she raises her left arm to keep it out of her face.

"Yes. Terrifying. I was wondering how hard it would be to rip my way out of your dust compartment, but it looks like you can't even manage that much. Hey, Paul, what happens if someone using the Hero Dial is killed while they're transformed?"

"Not going to try a HORROR transformation?"

"Not for our first time."

"There is no record of anyone being killed while using the Hero Dial."

"Then it looks like Dana gets to contribute to the cause of science. Don't worry: I'll make sure you're fully credited."

Dana thrusts her hoses at Kara as she drifts closer, forcing her to wrap her hair around her left hand with an eye roll. Much like normal vacuums, when the end of the nozzle makes contact with skin it forms a seal, causing the skin to bow outwards slightly.

"Hey, that ticklehey!"

Kara starts to lunge, then falls to the ground as the coins are sucked out of her.

"OOgh!"

I immediately wrap her in construct chains and haul her out of the way-

"Ugh. Hah!"

-before adding a straitjacket -.

"Kinky."

Underwear and a straitjacket.

Kara pulls against them for a moment, then relaxes. "What now, lover boy?"

"That depends on whether you overdosed on black kryptonite or not. If not -and that's what I'm hoping- then you'll turn back into a moderately traumatised Kara Zor-El. I will describe your behaviour in detail after I have destroyed all of the black kryptonite on Earth."

"And if I have overdosed?"

"Then we'll have to try something radical." I scan her, getting a picture of her brain and monitoring it to see how the patterns of activation deviate from her baselines. "Well done, Dana."

"Ah…"

"Yes, what-?"

A now enlarged suction hose is pointing at my face.

"Dana."

"Yeah, see, now I feel bad about this? But I work for the Legion of Super-Heroes, and… You're… Kind of accused of breaking the law."

"Do you have a lawful warrant for this state?"

"Not in… This century?"

"You said Earth was part of the Thanagarian Empire. Are you a law enforcement officer in the Thanagarian Empire?"

"No, but the human species is part of the United Planets. It's covered by the fact that our historical origins-."

"Do the Thanagarians agree with that interpretation?"

"No, but they don't-."

Behind her, Noriel presses the 'deactivate' button on the Hero Dial. Another puff of smoke and Dana reappears in her human form, a neat pile of debris-

I grab the coins from the top of the pile with a construct claw and affix them to my undersuit.

-made from all of the material she sucked up materialising next to her.

"Thank you, Noriel. Dana Dearden, you are under arrest for police impersonation, specifics to-"

"He-y!"

"-be determined once I find out how that works in this state."

"I wasn't impersonating a police officer!"

"You falsely claimed to have the authority to arrest me and I need something to put on the form when I send you to gaol. It will most likely not go to trial, but I really want to put this whole Legion mess to bed."

"Paul?" New Kara descends into the underground level, looking around as she tries to spot me. "Something happened with-. What happened to you? Why is Other Kara tied up like that?"

"Sometimes adults-."

I gag Old Kara.

"Had a bit of an accident with some kryptonite. Nothing to worry about, but-."

There's a blast of air and she's gone.

"But you-."

She reappears, a crate of glowing rocks in each hand!

She sees my expression and shakes her head.

"Don't worry! Kryptonite doesn't work on kryptonians from parallel universes! I'll go and throw this into the sun right away!"

Another blast of air and she's gone.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
10:11 GMT -5

I look at the place where Nylor Truggs used to be.

"Kara, please explain to me where Nylor Truggs is?"

"'Poof'."

"Poof?"

"He was sitting there, then 'poof', there was a cloud, and when it vanished he was gone."

"Kara, your visual enhancements-."

"Super vision!"

"If you had supervision, today would be rather different. Could you see what happened inside the cloud?"

She nods. "'P-'."

"Don't say 'poof'."

"But that's what happennnnned!"

"Am I to understand that you were unable to see through the smoke?"

"Yeah, it was really weird. I've been able to see through almost everything since I got hey!" She suddenly frowns. "What do you mean, 'if I had supervision'?"

I glance over to where Lantern Stewart is loading Demon Supergirl into a S.T.A.R. Labs metahuman ambulance. She hasn't woken up yet, though her wounds are less horrendous.

"I've been to parallel universes before. I didn't have any problem with the kryptonians not being compatible with my kryptonite samples."

She keeps frowning. "What do you mean, 'problem'? Kryptonite is super nasty."

"Fighting kryptonians is also s-. A rather difficult prospect, and not every parallel has someone as… Well-meaning as Kal-El Sixteen. And sometimes they have a Kal-El who is mind controlled. Or who isn't in possession of all the facts. And if it's necessary to fight Superman, I'd rather have something I know will turn off their powers without causing lasting harm rather than-."

"Turn him into a super ant?" She nods. "I understand."

"Given what happened to Kara, I was thinking more along the lines of 'turn him evil'. Kara, you didn't know that our kryptonite didn't affect you."

"Did too!"

"How? Did you at some point test samples of kryptonite on samples of your tissue?"

"N… No?"

"Are-?" I can barely believe that I'm about to say this. "Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I'm… Telling, but it's kryptonite."

"No, Kara. You just told me that kryptonite from one parallel doesn't work on kryptonians from another. That means that either kryptonians from one parallel are different to kryptonians from another, or kryptonite is. Which means that what I call 'kryptonite' and what you call 'kryptonite' might well be completely different crystals."

"Well…" She looks at the ground, swinging her right leg backwards and forwards. "But I didn't have any problem."

"Can you see through yourself?"

She frowns, this time in confusion rather than irritation. "Huh?"

"Kryptonite is still radioactive, even if it doesn't have any exotic effect on you. Can you examine yourself in sufficient detail that you know for a fact that it hasn't done something to you?"

Her eyes widen. "Have I got super-cancer?!"

"I don't know. I can't scan your interior. I wouldn't have thought so; kryptonite radiation is only weakly penetrative. But I don't know so, so please, a little more caution in future where no one's life is on the line?"

She nods. "Okay."

"Thank you. I don't suppose that you can hear Truggs, can you?"

She shakes her head. "I don't think he'd pick up the phone again."

"Not without hands, no."

"You know what I mean. That's something we can only do once."

"Yeah. And we still don't know why you're all here."

Angelika looks around from guarding Old Kara, frowning as she does so. "We don't know that? I thought that it was Nylor Truggs using the Hero Dial."

"The H-Dial alters the user to give them powers useful to their situation. Can you think of a situation where 'summon Supergirl' would be the simplest solution?"

"I cannot think of a situation where 'turn into a vacuum cleaner person' would be the simplest solution. It happened anyway." She shrugs. "I guess a power that lets you summon Supergirls is the simplest solution when you really need a Supergirl."

"No. I mean, the escape thing looks like it happened when Noriel turned off Dana's H-Dial transformation, so I assume that he just modified the Dial with an escape clause. But he didn't even have the Dial when Noriel merged with Linda."

Angelika looks thoughtful. "But it was before I arrived, yes?"

"Yes."

"And it was before Noriel formally took on the Supergirl name?"

"Yes." I nod. "But we have no idea when demon Supergirl arrived, and... It shouldn't work. We've had planeshift barriers up for longer than that-."

"Unless the H-Dial is sufficiently cleverer than us. It did not stop me, and it did not stop Krona."

"Yeah." I sigh. "Well, we've got the Dial, and we can study it. We can look at everything Truggs had here. And we can probably get rid of any members of the Legion still in this era."

Kara nods, looking concerned.

"Is demon-me going to be okay?"

"I'll call Ambrose Bierce. He's had experience in helping people who've been touched by demon magic. We can use gold kryptonite to remove her resilience and fix her teeth-"

"Unless she's from a parallel universe where it doesn't work."

"-and-. Yes." I look around, pick up some of her tooth remnants and expose them to gold kryptonite radiation. Try to crush-. Yes. "It works, so that will handle the physical problem. She can recover psychologically. I'm more worried about Kara. I… Don't know how long black kryptonite lasts."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th September 2012
18:22 GMT -6

I yank the pizza delivery girl up into the air, the Hawaiians she was carrying falling to the ground.

At least nothing of value was lost.

It's noteworthy that she doesn't react with fear. Rather, she does a quick test of her bonds and then goes limp, waiting to see what happens.

"You know, you're rather lucky."

"'cause crazy people kidnap me?"

"Because I found you ahead of the Chinese. Do you know what they do to Durlans?"

"What? What's a 'Dulan'?"

"Knock it off, Chameleon Boy. You didn't take the hint when I stopped Persuader killing Superman, but now you and yours are actually making my life difficult. The Chinese are really good at detecting Durlans, and their information sharing with the League covers the technology they use to do-"

Giving it up as a bad job, she reverts to his neutral humanoid form. Looks like the clothes weren't part of his body.

"-it. You can use your actual neutral form if you want; I know what it looks like."

"That's not a good look around humanoids." He tests his construct bonds again. "What happened?"

"Dana Dearden."

"What's she doing here?"

"I can only suggest that you ask Brainiac Five. I'm holding onto her coins until the four of you are back in the future where you belong."

"That won't stop us coming back again."

"Yes it will; this isn't your past any longer, something I'd have been happy to explain to you if you'd just asked."

"'Not our'-? Is that why our communicators stopped working?"

"I don't know what technology you use to communicate with the-." I wince. "It's not 'write a message and bury it', is it?"

"We tried that when the normal way didn't work, but we haven't had a response."

"And telepathy doesn't work worth a damn on Durlans because your minds can run on anything. How long have you been on Earth? In this era?"

"We got here just ahead of Persuader."

"'Just ahead-?"

"Time travel." / "Time travel."

I nod as I turn and fly across the town that the visiting members of the Legion of Superheroes have made into their base of operations.

"I'll give you a full explanation when the three of you are together, but the reason for you being here has been rendered null and void."

"Because you've already unmade our future?"

"Because it's not this timeline's future any longer. Seriously, if we gave you a time machine and you returned to your era, you wouldn't see the things you remember."

"That's what I said."

I generate a construct rope and suspend it in the air in front of him. The upper part has 'future' written on it, and the bottom 'present'.

"History. You arrived-"

I generate an arrow construct to point at the upper part of 'present'.

"-here. Krona and Time Trapper cut it off here."

I cut it off above 'present' and move the 'future' away from it.

"Your past has been restored already."

I have the 'future' rope extend downwards, forming a 'present'.

"And I don't know what our future looks like, but hopefully it involves fewer time travelling inconveniences. Probably won't involve the United Planets, because I'm going to devote a substantial portion of the next century to burning the Reach to the ground, but that's not your problem."

I'm not sure whether Chameleon Boy usually does facial expressions, but he definitely isn't bothering now.

"How do you know about this?"

"Dana tried arresting me. With everything else that was going on, Justice League telepaths scanned her. Between her and Abra Kadabra's willing cooperation-."

"He really comes from the seventieth century?"

"Some point in the future, yes. So other than you, Magnet Boy and Saturn Girl, is there anyone else here? Anyone that Dana didn't know about?"

"It's Cosmic Boy."

"Does he manipulate magnetic fields or 'cosmic' fields?"

"Magnetic, but that's still not his name."

"Then he should have picked a name that's a little less risible."

I nod as I see Angelika fly in our direction, a young woman I assume to be Saturn Girl-. Yes, that's the brain of a telepathic human. And a Belle Reve issue power suppression collar because we know what the brains of telepathic humans look like. Saturn Girl flying just ahead of her using her Legion flight ring.

"Is there anyone else here? Because we've only got one time machine, so if we shove the four of you into it anyone else will be left behind."

"No."

"Now, we can't scan your brain, and Saturn Girl could probably keep us out if we weren't willing to inflict lasting psychological harm -and we're not- but I doubt that Magnet Boy is that resilient. Do you want to change your answer?"

"No. Aside from Dana, there's no one."

"Glad to hear it. What were you four even doing here, anyway?"

"Trying to work out what went wrong."

"And ignoring the fact that you're the ones from the bad future?"

"Lots of bad things happened in the past. For me, the Reach occupation of Earth-."

"Nine hundred years ago, and the Durlan Civil War was probably a bigger deal in your history class."

"Yeah."

"Good news! It's not your problem any more. Good luck with your future, and may you never darken our doors again."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th September 2012
19:31 GMT -5

"…expecting me to be happy about it. You're still stealing my property."

Rip Hunter glowers, but he doesn't look around as he continues to work on the time sphere.

Batman is unmoved.

"As I understand it, you wouldn't be able to use it for its original purpose anyway."

"No, I would be able to use it for its original purpose of historical research. I wouldn't be able to use it for the sort of nonsense I ended up getting dragged into because of people like him."

On the opposite side of the artefact, Jason Goldstein smiles at his former colleague.

"I'm happy for you to have it."

Batman is unmoved. "Allowing the construction of time machines would be a dereliction of duty on our part. You should be grateful that neither of you are in custody."

"Yeah, professor." Goldstein nods. "Now you've got time to actually write those books. Or are you having trouble finding a publisher?"

Hunter doesn't rise to the bait, but I know it's true. History publishers don't really know how to deal with a time traveller. A series of misadventures appear to have destroyed the majority of his recordings, so while he can describe the societies he saw in considerable detail he doesn't have any tangible proof. That means that they're reluctant to publish his accounts as factual works. Goldstein on the other hand went straight into historical fiction, and while he hasn't hit the best seller lists yet he's earned a solid reader base.

It doesn't help that as a result he's got more historical data into the public domain than Hunter.

"You could always go with them."

Batman shoots me a look, but I mean… Why not? We're not going to let him jump in a time sphere if we can help it, but if some other timeline doesn't share our attitude and we already know that he can't make major changes without just creating an alternate timeline. So even if one of them is evil, then they can't mess things up for anyone in an established timeline.

"Yeah, Hunter. Think about it: you'll never have to see me again. Heck, you could even find me in the past and kill me and it wouldn't affect me at all."

"I'll pass, but feel free to leave yourself."

"Why would I? I've got a book deal."

Ms. Lance walks in from the communications room. "Everyone's agreed. All of the devices blocking interdimensional-"

I don't cringe. I don't cringe.

"-travel will be shut down on our signal to let them go." She turns to me, smiling. "A timeline without you, huh? I wonder what that's like?"

I smile back, nodding.

"Probably still has Nabu in it."

"O-." She looks away awkwardly. "Okay."

"If it makes you feel any better, Truggs was pretty sure that the Sheeda didn't invade, so in objective terms they may still be in the lead."

The doors to the lounge area opens to let in the Legion members, Dana and Mr. Queen.

"…or the axe, and since we're pretty sure he can't make a new axe in this era, it's a whole lot safer for everyone if you just take it back with you."

Magnet Boy nods, floating the metal case containing the atomic axe alongside him. There probably are people in this era who can use the thing, but I can't even scan the interior. No idea how it was made, and I'll be mildly glad to see the back of it. Chameleon Boy glances in puzzlement at New Kara and Angelika, and Kara gives him a smile and wave.

Dana heads towards me. "So…"

"You're going with them, then?"

"Yeah, I think so. And hey, if we take recordings of the planar variance we can still come back." She takes in my expression. "I can come back to visit."

"I'm sure that your parents will appreciate that."

"Y-eah, that's-."

"And I would be reassured that you're still doing well."

"Yeah, okay." She swings her arms backwards and forwards distractedly. "A-bout my coins."

"While I should return them to the museum you stole them from, they were the idiots who put high-powered magic artefacts on public display."

I take the pouch containing them out of my harness and hand them over. She takes them, then hesitates.

"You cleaned these, r-?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"How are the Legion taking finding out about the source of your powers?"

"I'm not a member-member, though Rokk wasn't too happy about it." She shrugs as she slips the pouch into her cleav-. Br-. Clothing. She then takes a breath, then floats up a few centimetres into the air, beaming. "Great! Supergirl of the Future is back in action!"

"It's a bit wordy, but whatever makes you happy."

"So what happens to Truggs? You going to try and send him with us?"

"Oh no. The four of you were potential existential problems, but the worst we had on you was using a false federal ID. Truggs on the other hand has a long list of criminal offences and he will be punished for them."

Hunter closes the hatch he was working on and then stands up. "We're ready."

Dana and the others enter the time sphere. It's a little crowded in there, but it doesn't have to be comfortable for long. One jump sideways and then another jump forwards once they've got back in touch with their base and arrange a pickup. There's no joy -their mission was a failure from the start- but I think Saturn Girl and Magnet Boy are at least relieved. Something like I would be if I could return to my own time after months in medieval England.

A ripple in space time and they're gone, and I don't need to be here any longer. I raise my right hand to-.

"Orange Lantern." Ms. Lance hesitates for a moment. "Paul."

"Yes?" I lower my hand. "I'm sorry, the Nabu snap was uncalled for. Unless it turns out that they actually haven't gotten rid of him."

"No, that's-. Under the circumstances, I can see why you brought it up. Is there..? Anything you want to talk about?"

"How we're going to track down Truggs? What he's actually being charged with? I thought you'd-."

"No, Paul. Kara tried to rape you."

"Oh. Ah… No? She was clearly under the influence of the black kryptonite, so I'm not going to hold it against her. Maybe insist that she get a bit more training not directly related to control of her powers, but I don't think she's planning on making a habit of this."

"No, I don't mean, 'are you mad at her?'. I mean-."

"Do I feel like I was almost horribly violated?" She nods. "No, I don't. I like Kara. If she'd been in her right mind and I wasn't seeing Jade, I'd be all for it." I shrug. "And if having sex with an attractive woman prevents her going on a murderous rampage, that's fine too. Though, thank you. I do appreciate your concern." I smile at her. "Good evening."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th September 2012
20:02 GMT -5

The Kara formerly known as Demon Supergirl sits in the corner of her room, legs pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Her torso is… Bobbing back and forth slightly, eyes staring vacantly ahead and her lips…

"Any idea what she's saying?"

Ambrose nods. "Mark. Mark. The mark, his mark. Things like that."

The light inside the room is red. I don't want to constantly expose her to gold kryptonite but obviously we can't risk her regaining her strength.

"Any idea what happened to her?"

He shrugs. "Some. She wasn't possessed. She just comes from somewhere where there's so much demonic magic everywhere that it metastasized. Must be literal hell on Earth."

"Earth?"

He frowns for a moment, then nods.

"Never been to Krypton, but I know what Earth demons feel like. And that's what it feels like."

"'Feels'? She's still..?"

"What, you thought Noriel was capable of subtlety? It's sunk in. No part of her body or soul isn't marinated in it. Noriel just burned off the worst of it."

"Anything left that isn't made of demonic magic?"

"Pff, maybe." He shrugs. "I'll do what I can, but I can't see any kind of quick fix here. And that's before we even get to the psychological damage. If she started off a nice girl like the other Karas and then got exposed to an Earth consumed by Hell, I hate to think about the things she's seen. And…"

He glances into the cell.

"Probably done."

"How could something like that happen?"

"Big enough sacrifice, big enough violation of something sacred…" He signs wearily. "I couldn't tell you exactly because it's never been done before. Imagine if what Ishmael Gregor was trying to do kept expanding and expanding, more people getting… Caught up in it."

"Could that actually happen? I assumed that it would eventually burn itself out."

"Eventually. Yeah. Eventually whoever set it all up would destroy the world that fed them. But the embers could keep smouldering away for a very long time."

I nod. "Something else to watch out for, then. Thank you, Ambrose. Please let me know if there's any change."

He nods. "Will do. Listen…" He shifts awkwardly. "Have you had a chance to look up Constantine yet?"

"He specifically told me that he didn't want me to."

"Speaking as a member of the Trenchcoat Brigade, we don't always know what's best for us. I've had a look, and I can't find hide nor hair of him. Something about this isn't right. I don't know if he needs help or needs to be stopped from doing something-."

"Alright, I'll-. Add it-."

Old Kara rounds the corner, sees me and then backs away.

"-to the slate. Kara!"

I jog after her. If she really can't face me then she's more than fast enough to get away, but with any luck she won't.

"Kara?"

I turn the corner to see her leaning against the wall, arms wrapped defensively around her chest and eyes downcast.

"Feeling better?"

"Um. Not… Feeling evil, if… That's what you mean."

"Aside from being mildly frustrated that after telling New Kara off for opening something without-."

"Um. No, that-." She glances up for a moment. "Dana opened the-. The crate of kryptonite."

…

I could probably catch her.

"Then I can't even blame you for that. Look, mind control happens. If you're worried-."

"It didn't feel like I was being controlled. I just-. I wanted you. I'm-. I'm so sorry, I-."

"Don't… Worry about it. My main concern at the time was how you'd react when you snapped out of it. And maybe a bit what it said about the desires you're suppressing."

"I'm not planning on-. I mean, you're with Jade, and I-. I wouldn't-. Like that."

"No, I don't think you'd threaten mass murder in order to get a man while in your right mind." I extend my arms towards her. "Hug?"

She just… Stares at me for a moment.

"Kara, I've told you what I did the first time I bonded with the Ophidian. You know what the Justice League did when Klarion was controlling them, and you know what Zatanna was like when the Star Sapphire started unnaturally influencing her. This is the same sort of thing. Unless you voluntarily exposed yourself to it, it's not your fault. If the shock has… Made you re-evaluate your life in some way, that's fine. The-."

Ah…

"Evil persona wasn't particularly restrained, but… Heh. I'm the last person who's going to tell you not to follow your desires. The fact that the evil persona also wanted them shouldn't factor in your decisions. I appreciate that the… Switching between the two mental states is a shock, but try not to let it get you down too much, alright?"

"It was… I didn't become someone else. Everything I said, everything I did, that all grew out of something I-. I already-."

She's tearing up.

"Yes, that's what it's like for the more subtle forms of mind control. Come here."

She doesn't move.

"Seriously, come here."

Hesitantly, she moves slightly away from the wall, so I step forward and wrap my arms around her.

"See? You're safe and I'm safe. You can hear my breathing, my heart rate. Do I sound worried?"

"N-. No."

"Do I look worried? Smell worried?"

"No."

"Then don't worry that this is going to affect our relationship. Mind control happens and can be very dangerous when someone as strong as you gets affected, but it's not your fault. Okay?"

"M'kay."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Past Participant

15th September 2012
09:21 GMT -5

"How is Supergirl?"

I take a look around the Batcave interior as I approach Batman's main work station.

"Better. Not great. I've asked Zatanna to have a chat with her, which was a little awkward. Ah, if you don't mind me asking-?"

"I don't remember my actions under the influence of Starrotech." He switches tools as he continues his detailed examination of the H-Dial. "Other forms of mind control vary greatly in what the subject remembers. I remember clearly what I did under the influence of both Smilex and fear toxin."

"I remember everything the Ophidian and I did. The only reason that I don't remember everything we saw is that there was too much of it." I come to a halt on the other side of the work bench. "Any progress?"

"This technology is centuries ahead of anything native to Earth. But it's designed to look like a child's toy."

"If I had to guess, I'd say that it was a child's toy. The Reach were using humans as metahuman soldiers. Give things like that to a child when they're young, get them used to having their bodies suddenly changing and them needing to work out what they can do…"

"I doubt the Reach established a vast interstellar empire by expending resources unproductively."

"They're rich. They can throw away-" I start taking another look around, then stop myself. "-resources other people can't comprehend if it advances their goals. If a few dozen children die and they get one really useful metahuman out of it, that's well worth it. And they're good enough at social conditioning to make their serfs accept that reasoning."

"I'm more interested in detecting its use."

"Why?" I shrug. "That's not our future any more. That comes from what is now an alternate timeline, and there won't be any more."

"The Chinese don't like sharing intelligence data, but they've been raided by both durlans and dominators. Human biological data is already out in the galaxy."

"Neither of those races are going to share it. Dominators don't use proxies and.. durlans are severely endangered."

"Social changes happen. Or the durlans might get an offer they can't afford to refuse. Are you sure that the Reach wouldn't pay for information on your homeworld?"

"I suppose they… They probably would. But there's no flow of information from here to there. Local trade networks don't go that far, sensors don't reach that far…"

"You don't believe they could send ships here?"

"No, they totally could, but it's a very long way and there's no real reason for them to do so. I've mentioned Earth's name, but I haven't done anything that would lead them here."

"You brought a fleet here. How do you know they weren't monitored?"

I shrug. "By what? They'd probably know that the ships left, but there's next to no residue to track and they don't have monitoring equipment this far from their space. All communication from the ships are monitored and only the bridge crew get their actual location. And you better believe that the crew are thoroughly vetted."

"Very well."

"Any news on the assassination attempt?"

"I haven't been able to find anyone working on a weapon like the one you described. There's no chatter in the Gotham underworld about what happened."

He carefully runs a miniature vacuum nozzle along the holes in the dial.

"No one saw anything out of the ordinary. No one knows anything. If I were you, I would check to see if any members of the former government of the Alignment hired an assassin from off-world."

"No. The ones who survived the purge know they're being closely monitored, and the ones who didn't… Didn't. But, thank you. It's nice to know that for once no one is throwing weapons at the Gotham underworld and seeing what happens."

"It's certainly a change of pace."

"Have you tried that yourself?"

"No. I won't be attempting human trials for weeks, if at all. Everyone who used a variant of this device suffered psychological damage from repeated transformations."

I nod. Fair enough. Compared to abilities we can already produce… A random low-tier super power each time isn't all that useful. I could check it more myself, but if I'm not planning on spending much time in Gotham…

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

His eyes flick towards me for an instant before returning to the Dial.

"Yes."

"Have you ever thought about retiring from superheroism? I mean… When you started, Gotham's police department were mob enforcers in uniforms and Falcone ruled the city. Now the police are actually reasonably good at their jobs, the old crime families are gone, and… Even your supervillains are reasonably under control. You've pretty much won."

"I'm functionally insane, remember?"

"So..?"

"So it doesn't matter. There's always more work to do and I'm always driven to do it."

"Even if you could do more good doing something else?"

"Such as?"

"Running for political office, for example."

"It's a little late for an Oval Office bid."

"The mayor's office. Or the governor's. With the disruption to international trade, there's an opportunity to bring industry back to the US; to reverse the events that resulted in it becoming a high crime city in the first place. High employment means less crime. Gotham's problems could be completely solved."

"Have you ever thought about retiring?"

"I retire the moment I'm more of an impediment to my objectives than a boon. Not sure what I'd do with my time instead, but I'd be satisfied to see our civilisation improving."

"It wouldn't work for me. Without the violence, it doesn't feel like I'm making a difference. The proximate cause of my parents' death was a violent thug, and that association is indelibly linked in my mind. Even if I was completely certain that there was a better way to fight crime, a better way to bring about the world my parents would want for me, I wouldn't be able to do it. That's why it chilled me to hear that you considered becoming more like me a desirable option. To say nothing of what actually happened."

"I guess mentally stable people don't dress up in bright costumes and punch evildoers in the face."

"On the contrary. In my experience the people who take the route I was forced down and you chose for yourself are in the minority."

"But if you really think it's that bad for people… Why stay on it? You can change."

For a moment he stops working on the Dial and looks directly at me.

"Just because I realise that it's a bad way to live, that doesn't mean that I actually want to change. I like being Batman in a way that I've never liked being anything else."

I nod, turning away.

"And I'm the last person who'll criticise you for that. Thank you for your help."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2011
09:21 GMT

So this is Britain.

Amazing how fast things can move when someone in authority wants them to.

Kryptonian technology isn't something that humans can just make; even now we're centuries behind what they were able to make towards the end. And a lot of the more remote places… I imagine that they're much the same. But here in London, I wouldn't know it was the same country.

Aside from anything else, the trains run on time. And all the union officials got shot.

Overman regards me curiously. Which is probably the most open expression I've seen him use in my presence. I suppose that with just the two of us here he doesn't feel the need to play a role quite so much.

"How does it seem to you?"

The old parliament building was annihilated during Operation Sea Lion, absolutely levelled in a demonstration that there are some situations where you can't just keep calm and carry on. Once Prince Edward was reinstalled as King Edward VII, and… The immediate occupation ended, the country obviously needed a new centre of government.

It's… Not the Mother of Parliaments.

The old building was gothic. And I feel mildly bad for not remembering who designed it, but it came to being after the Great Fire of London destroyed the previous one. And I seem to remember that they celebrated the fire as providing a tremendous opportunity for architecture, so maybe I shouldn't feel quite so bad for forgetting their name. The new thing looks a bit Greek, a bit Roman, and a lot German.

"Did Adolf Hitler have any actual involvement in the design?"

"He looked at it once. By that time, he had begun to use amphetamines and his ability to command fine details was weakened."

"He took more than amphetamines in my timeline."

"By the end, he took more than amphetamines here as well. Conquering the world is easy when you have overwhelming power. Controlling the world was not so easy."

Which is why the Kingdom of Britain exists. It actually kept most of its pre-war territory, though the nature of that rule changed somewhat. And the government…

"Did they actually kill Baden-Powell?"

"I do not know that name."

"He was the man who invented the Scouts' Association, what Hitler based the Hitler Youth on. There's a funny story about an exchange the two organisations did before the war, actually. In an attempt to promote peace between Britain and Germany, he arranged for a platoon of ten year old boys from the Scout movement in Britain to go to Germany and stay with the families of Hitler Youth boys. They spent a summer learning about German culture, doing outdoors exercises… Normal youth group stuff. Then the next year the Hitler Youth sent a platoon of boys to Britain. Sixteen and seventeen year old boys who spent the summer bicycling around Britain drawing maps!"

He gives me an awkward smile.

"Did that really happen?"

"I've probably gotten some of the details wrong." I breathe out. "Okay, post war, Britain made a huge effort to attract people from the colonies to come and live in Britain. I'm going to assume that didn't happen here."

"British colonists returned from places awarded to Germany's allies."

"Ah, no. I meant black people from British territories in the Caribbean."

The awkward smile dies.

"No. That did not happen here."

I look down at the streets from our balcony on the up of the parliament building. Yeah, no… Non-white people. That wouldn't be too strange somewhere like Leonard Stanley, but immigrant communities in the post-War period generally went to live in major industrial cities. Even today… 'Today', people who can trace their descent from those immigrants are far more common in cities. This is weird for London. I mean, I didn't pick up on it immediately when I visited Eastbourne. The lack of Eastern Europeans would be more obvious there-.

Yes, that… That wouldn't have happened here either.

I think that the clothing is more conservative, but this is September in Britain. And it's not as if I knew anything about London fashion before I came here. The cars are all electronic, running quietly along well-ordered roads. No… Swastikas or anything like that, but there are a few touches which suggest… I don't know, that there was a bit of an 'Imperium chic' trend a while ago.

"What about..? India? I thought that people from that part of the world were officially okay."

"During the Chinese campaign, Germany was stretched thin due to the manpower required to hold its European territory. The Fuhrer authorised the use of biological weapons. Unfortunately-." He closes his eyes for a moment, takes a deep breath and huffs it out. "No. It was not a matter of fortune. The genetic elements which the organism targeted were shared between the Chinese and the majority of brown-skinned Indians. There are some who were more genetically similar to the people of the Middle East, but a large part of India was depopulated."

"Who lives there now?"

"Some people who survived in remote areas. Colonists from Britain, and other places. It is a… I do not remember the word in Englisch. A political entity which manages its internal affairs but is ruled by the King of Britain."

"Dominion?"

"If that is the word."

I suppose that with all of the natives dead, there would be more cultural commonality between Britain and India. The same religion, the same customs, and therefore no particular desire to be… Independent, but… That could be said of the United States of America as well, and look what happened there.

"Well, it's more advanced, obviously. The people as a whole are different. I imagine that they're taught German in schools?"

"Yes. Does that not happen in your timeline?"

"Ich kann nicht Deutsch gesprechen."

"That is not correct-. Ah, I see."

"It gets taught, but it's three hours a week from twelve to sixteen. And that's if you don't do French or Spanish instead. Beyond that, I can't really tell you until I've had a chance to experience a little more of modern Britain."

He nods.

"I have spoken with the editor of Die Tägliche Welt. He has agreed to sponsor your writing, though the censors are more strict in Germany than they are here. Also, a gift from me, for your birthday."

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a watch, offering it to me.

"It will never run out of battery power, it will work in extreme environments and it emits a sound that will allow me to find you." I take it from him and wrap it around my left wrist. "It also has an alarm function which will allow you to alert me if your life is threatened, though I will ask you to only use that if there is genuine need. Calls on my time are many."

"Thank you, and I'll try not to end up in peril. You know where I am if you need someone to bounce ideas off."

"Yes. Have a good day."

He looks up, and then shoots up into the sky. I watch him go as he gets smaller and smaller before vanishing from my sight, though I know perfectly well that he could still see me. And hear me, of course.

The official escort who had been hanging back while we spoke begin walking towards me. I get a small flat and a job as a journalist -and apparently as his Jimmy Olsen- and he gets to talk to someone who gets it. I suppose this is as good a life as I can reasonably expect, given the circumstances.

I shrug, and walk towards the functionaries, singing quietly to myself as I do so.

"Es gibt ein Haus in Neu-Berlin,
man nennt es Haus Abendrot.
Es war der Ruin vieler guter Jungs,
von mir, mein Gott litt ich Not."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
16:01 GMT

Jade relaxes her grip on her phase knife as she sees me pushing the byht fritters around the frying pan.

"I'll cancel the alert."

I smile at her as she sheathes it and actually puts it down rather than keeping it on her.

"No need."

She regards me sceptically, but she's smiling faintly as well.

"Someone broke into our secure accommodation."

"I'm pretty sure that I have permission to be here."

She comes closer, leaning into my right side so she can see what I'm doing.

"We're supposed to get notified anyway. That one's done."

It… Looks a slightly different shade of orange. Which matches the shades I've seen in local media narrowcasts. I was going to give it a little longer, but I scoop it up, give it a moment for the excess fat to drip off and then move it to the warmed plate sitting on the work surface.

"I wanted to surprise you. I was going to serve this to you in bed."

"We're being relocated again. I'm trying to adapt to another new sleep schedule."

I shrug. "Your squad medic should be able to prescribe something to help with that."

"I don't-. That-"

I move my spatula, dividing the fritters between the two plates along with the fried dough discs that remind me of scotch pancakes.

"-one is done as well. And you know I don't like using that sort of drug."

She steps away from me, picking up a plate and heading for the window side table. The view of the town outside is… Well, you've seen one majority humanoid mildly post-industrial world then you've seen enough of how they organise themselves to start to get very used to it. The new parts are low density because there's no need for high density living, but there's enough of the old parts left that high towers and mid-height complexes dot the sight lines. I watch the traffic as I walk over to sit down opposite her as she picks up her cutlery.

"What happened?"

"We got a couple more Supergirls."

"Parallel universes?"

I nod. "One was, the other probably was. Briefly had Truggs in custody… The main.. thing, was that our Kara got exposed to black kryptonite."

"The one that makes them evil. What did-?" She nods, cutting a slice of fritter but continuing to watch my face. "She hit on you. Of course she hit on you."

"Demanded that I have sex with her or she'd go on a murder spree, actually. We dealt with it, but it-." Her eyebrows go up slightly. "We dealt with it without sexual relations occurring."

"I thought so, but I prefer to hear it. How's she coping?"

"Not… Great. She accepts intellectually that she wasn't responsible for her actions, but she still remembers exactly what it felt like to think like that."

"Does she still want you?"

"I think it was more that the evil version wanted to sabotage relationships. Petty evil."

"So 'yes'."

"Some women find me attractive. And there aren't that many people on Earth who come from space aged societies, s-."

"And who aren't related to her?"

"So-. It probably doesn't help. The…" I shake my head. "The point is, it made me think about-. Well, alright, I was thinking about it anyway, but really brought home..."

"I miss you."

"We saw each other last week."

"I know. And I know the whole… Plan… Knock back the Reach, then get together full time… Was my suggestion. But I-. I've reluctantly reached the conclusion that everyone who j-. Who made jibes about it was right. I miss you being.. around all the time, and a… Couple of dates a week isn't enough. I want us to be together more."

"Did-" Her eyes move away for an instant before returning to my face. "-something happen to my apartment?"

"Oh, someone tried to murder either me or Dana Dearden, but the shield absorbed the shot. The place is fine, just…" I shrug again. "Feels empty."

She cuts off a piece of fruit and fried dough, eyes staring blankly at the plate as she considers what I've said. She doesn't like agreements being changed on her and she doesn't like people pressuring her to agree, but…

"Are you looking inside me?"

"No. Turned all the way down."

"Ok-ay. So… You'd move in here?"

"I can teleport in a way that no one else can. It's… Easier than building a giant zeta transmitter wherever you're stationed."

"And I doubt that you could get a building permit."

"No, that would be easy. Bir Tawil's building codes are extremely relaxed."

"You're living in the trade post now?"

"I am until I work out who took a shot at me. And I needed to redecorate it anyway. Your apartment just.. sort of reminds me that you're not in it."

"I hadn't realised this was such a big deal for you."

"I was keeping busy enough that I didn't really think about it much. And obviously, when we're actually together, you're there."

"We don't keep the same hours."

"My hours are very flexible. And I.. don't need to take part in your duties-."

"If I need an Orange Lantern then I'll call you in. I'm not that proud."

"And that's… Something else that came up. I talked to… Batman."

"Did you ask his permission for me to come-?"

"No." I shake my head. "No. He said… He said that he doesn't want to be anything other than Batman. Even though he's got other options. And it… I helped you join the Darkstars because it's a good fit for you. Because it's a framework for you to do the things you want. I didn't really think about whether or not this was something it.. was.. good for you to want."

"That's my decision."

"Yes." I nod. "But I want to support you. I should have considered it."

"Don't worry about that." Her expression softens slightly. "But I wouldn't mind you being around more either."

I smile.

"Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
13:24 GMT -5

I can't help but smile as I look down on the Earth. Sure, Jade had to go to work, so we didn't really have time to discuss things in detail, but… Yeah, feeling good. I-.

There's a near-hurricane force wind, and then New Kara is floating in front of me.

"Hey, Paul! How's Kara doing?"

"Which one?"

Her eyes widen. "Is Demongirl talking?"

"Ah, yes, but she's not responding to external stimuli."

She tilts her head to the left. "So how do you know her name's Kara?"

"Basic pattern recognition. She's not just a Supergirl, she's a kryptonian Supergirl. Based on all of the examples I have, those are called 'Kara'. But, yes, technically I don't know for certain."

She smiles, tilting her head back proudly.

"Then I'm technically right, and that's the best kind of right!"

"Sure. I don't know that her name's 'Kara'. The other Kara is recovering."

"So are you two going to date now?"

"No. Still dating Jade."

She looks at me uncertainly. "Are you dating Jade? I was starting to think she was Canadian."

"Yes, and after a brief talk about our relationship, we're going to be moving in together in the Darkstars barracks."

She blinks. "Are her parents okay about that?"

"Ah… Her mother is? … Did you want something?"

"Yes. I… Kinda need a job? Or something?"

"Oh, right."

"I've got plenty of qualifications but none of them of them are for Earth and… All my referees are dead. I could probably stay in High Admiral Har-Zod's asteroid, but it wasn't really designed for long-term habitation."

"Your Zor-El didn't send you with a device to seed your own Fortress of Solitude?"

"I would still need somewhere to put it, and everywhere is owned by someone."

"Not everywhere. Plenty of space in Bir Tawil. The sand should be enough for your c-."

Uh! Crushing!

"I can move in with you?! Thank you!"

There's a little more meat on this Kara than on Old Kara, and it's currently pressed against me as she celebrates her new residency. Alright, use the rings.

"While you can live in the trade post if you want, it's more that I was offering you somewhere to plant your crystals."

"I can live there while it grows?"

"Certainly. It'll add visual interest."

She leans back, grinning.

"So we'll be roomies?!"

"Ah-. No, as I said, I'll be living with Jade in the Darkstar barracks, so you'll… Pretty much have the place to yourself."

"Oh." She sinks in the air, mood subdued. "That sounds lonely. Are there any cute animals?"

"No, not really. There's basically nothing there; that's why no country actually wants it. You could.. always build a habitat?"

"Then I could have all the animals I want!"

"All the animals you can look after, certainly. Ah… Kara." I frown. "I've been meaning to ask: I don't seem to be able to see your emotions. You sound very upbeat, but if you're feeling-."

"Torquasm." She nods. "Uncle Jor was a huge fan of ancient Kryptonian society, and Grandpa Seyg actually let him study things like that, so he really encouraged us to learn it. It'll be fun to work on it with Angelika!"

"I'll be nice for her to have access to someone who could study the original texts. Ah, I don't.. really have anything that needs my attention right now, so I can help-"

"Connection made to monitored phone line."

"-you… Move in. Sorry. Answer?"

"Hey. Paul."

Truggs.

"Nice. Trick. With. Super. Hearing. Have. To. Use. Voice. Modulator. And. Even. Better. Sound. Proofing."

"Why are you phoning me, Truggs?"

"I'm. Explaining. My. Plan. We."

"I'm not interested in listening to you w-."

I glance at Kara.

"Pleasure yourself to the sound of your own voice, Truggs. I'd put up with it if I thought there was any chance of you turning your back on the Light, but that's clearly not going to happen."

"Demon. Supergirl. There. Are. More. Where. She. Came. From."

"Obviously."

"They. Know. We. Took. Her. And. They. Know. Where. We. Are."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Supervillain."

I could ask 'why?', but I don't suppose that it matters at this stage. There are plenty of reasons for travelling between parallel universes, and I can't check his motivation.

"You. Could. Send. Her. Back."

"I'll check with an expert or two, but I really doubt that Demon Earth will just give up like that. If they can reach us, we'll become their next expansion target. It's not worth trying to give them anything to delay things."

"Your. Choice."

"No, it's not, and I'll be warning the Justice League."

"Thank. You. For. Getting. Rid. Of. The. Legion. Not. Thank. You. For-."

"Just go away, Truggs. End."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
13:32 GMT -5

I lower my ring, and return my full attention to Kara.

"Right. Sorry about that. Did you have any design preferences, or do you just want to browse?"

"Shouldn't you do something about the demon invasion?"

"No. I told the Justice League what Truggs told me and told them that I'm happy to help. Working out how to defend the planet is their responsibility, so until they actually call on me I'm at your disposal."

She frowns with mock-crossness. "Defending the planet is everybody's responsibility."

"Yes, but organising it isn't. Complex endeavours like this require clear direction, and Angelica and Zauriel know more about demons and how to fight them than I do. Aquaman literally rules a country of wizards, every single one of whom is in a better position to ward the Earth than I am. When N.E.M.O. wants to use wizards, we have to go cap in hand to the Atlantean city states."

The frown has faded.

"The little fish?" She beams again. "He's so cute!"

"The.. fish-? No, not the fish; the umbrella organisation for the Maltusian military forces conducting our war against the Reach."

"Nemo?"

"Network for the Establishment and Maintenance of Order. In English anyway; they probably use something different in other languages."

"NftEaMoO?"

"Probably not. Anyway, would you prefer-"

Euanthe. She isn't in contact with the League. I don't know if her ability to manipulate antediluvian wood is limited to her avatar or something that she can do over an area.

"-something based on-"

The League doesn't have contact with Hell, as far as I know. I think Mammon would understand why it's better to ensure that there's a strong non-demonically dominated human population in order to ensure that there will always be people to corrupt. There are probably all sorts of things that the demons mostly keep to themselves.

"-old Krypton, or-"

If we're going to ward the planet then they're probably going to need to expand the runic satellite network and do it in a hurry, something that I could do faster than anyone else at their disposal.

"-more recent Krypton, or-"

"Nnno. Modern Krypton had dreadful style."

"-something else entirely?"

We both look at each other for a moment.

"I need to get on this, don't I?"

"No." She zips closer. "We need to get on this."

"Right." I hold out my right hand and fabricate an environmental protection harness. "Here. This will shield you against low to mid level radiation exposure and refresh the air around you."

She takes it from me.

"I don't care about radiation."

"Then in four hundred years from now, when you have super tumours, don't come crying to me."

"Oh. I thought you just meant kryptonite radiation. Because that can't affect me because it's from the wrong universe."

"We're dealing with parallel universes. They might have kryptonite that can affect you. But this will also deal with other radiation, and you still need to breathe."

"Not very often!"

"But you still need to breathe, we don't particularly want to have to deal with the hurricanes your deep breaths cause and at some point you might move away from a yellow sun."

"Okay!"

She clips it on over her uniform, and for a moment there's a very faint haze as the shield engages.

"Remember, it's not a true defence shield and can't deal with actual radiological weapons. It's for environmental exposure only."

She nods. "I understand."

"And one of these, it's called a Spell Eater. It will deal with ongoing magic effects placed on you but it won't completely stop sufficiently powerful spells cast directly at you."

"That means I'm basically unstoppable!"

"That's not what it means, it just means that if you have to take part in a counterattack that you should remain sane despite the exposure to demonic magic."

"What if someone throws a fireball at me?"

"Avoid it."

"What if I can't avoid it?"

"That depends on exactly what it is. If it's just conjured fire, it shouldn't do anything to you anyway, because it's almost exactly the same as if you stuck your hand in a bonfire. If the fire is itself magical then the Spell Eater will absorb the energy making it function, but only after it hits you."

"But I don't wanna be hit."

"Then avoid it. So our first stop is Brazil."

"I've never been to Brazil!"

"You've been here-. Okay. Do you have any kryptonian plant cultures or seeds with you?"

"Ah, well…" She squirms awkwardly. "I ate some fruit before I got into the pod-."

"Right." I hold up my right hand to stop her. "Right. I'm going to assume that passing through your supergut will have thoroughly destroyed them."

"I don't think that's how it works."

"Do you want to spend the rest of the day staring at mixed sewage until you spot the seeds?"

"Ew! No."

"Then they were destroyed. Euanthe-."

My rings blink.

"Illustres here."

Lantern Savenlovich's head appears.

"Orange Lantern, we have detected a powerful act of magic close to your current location. Please perform reconnaissance and report in."

"Demonic?"

"Yes. If you require additional help it can be provided."

"But you need everyone you have to work on countering a potential attack from Demon Earth. Don't worry. Kara and I will handle it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
12:37 GMT -6

Liberty, Iowa.

It used to be a medium sized farming town. Then farming techniques improved and farming itself became less profitable, and the vitality started ebbing away. And then some combination of John Constantine, the Resurrection Crusade and an actual resurrection of the town's war dead completely destroyed it. A few survivors were written off as delusional and are now either happily living somewhere else or guests of the state in various secure hospitals.

A ghost town. My rune stone says that it's mildly thaumically active, noticeably above background. I don't know whether it's a literal ghost town or not. All known sites at which the Resurrection Crusade practised magic ceased functioning when the last of their elders were killed, but no one ever checked the place over.

"Orange Lantern and Supergirl... Three, on-site. Beginning search."

"What are we looking for?"

"Anything that looks like a demon. Anything that looks like it comes from a parallel universe. Anything-. No."

I roll my eyes as Kara points to herself.

"Unless you're secretly a demon and want to mutter about no one else having 'the mark'."

She taps the middle of her chest with her right forefinger.

"I have the mark. It's the symbol of House El."

"I'm not sure it counts if it's worn on clothing, but well prepared."

Scanning for intruders… Nothing, but that's hardly a surprise. If you're establishing a bridgehead into hostile territory you either flood the place or you send a small team who won't be spotted easily. And with there being no one around…

"Are you seeing anything odd?"

"I don't know. I've never been here before." She sniffs. "There's a strange smell, though."

Ring? Oh. Chemicals consistent with burned flesh. Burned human flesh. Doesn't seem to go anywhere, though it does suggest that something strange is happening. Incendiaries were used when the town was destroyed but the residue shouldn't be airborne after over a decade.

"Do you know what it is?" She sniffs again. "It smells like bacon. I think I like it."

Ring, anything unexpected but not demonic?

Ah. Recent signs of habitation. A couple of the cars are out of place from where they were abandoned when the survivors fled the town. Wood has been removed from some of the less intact buildings, and it looks like someone has gone through the gardens.

Someone or some people has/have been living here. Living here for a while… But then Truggs didn't tell me how long Demongirl had been here for.

"Ooh! And I smell people!" Kara flies off to the north. "Over here!"

I fly after her, generating construct armour to go over my power armour. Nothing on infrared, nothing on sonics, someone is definitely hiding themselves. Only question is, are they magic-using hermits or are they our target?

"HELLO!"

I consider remonstrating with Kara as she puts her hands to her mouth to announce our presence. But we're hanging here in the open sky within easy view of the ground. Just announcing ourselves isn't a terrible way to go, especially if whoever is there is nothing to do with the Demon Earth.

"IS THERE ANYONE THERE?! WE'RE SUPERHEROES AND WE'RE HERE TO HELP!"

Kara bows her head slightly and closes her eyes. Trying to hear a response. I'm still not picking anything up, but I could try more exotic forms of scan if this doesn't-.

Kara's eyes snap open and she points to a house in reasonable repair. "That one."

"Sure?"

She nods. "The sounds don't match what I can see. And the-" She sniffs again. "-smells coming from it are weird."

"Weird how?"

"Like… There's one smell… And then there's a different smell? You know?"

"No, I don't know. Is the kryptonian sense of smell actually sensing chemicals in the air, or does it work in some other way?"

"I don't know. I've only had it for a couple of days, silly."

"Alright."

I free the hellwraith from my ring and send it forward towards the detached house indicated. Huh. Actually, this would be a decent place for a superhero base, if the superhero in question could do long distance teleportation. An attacker would find it very difficult to hide their approach, there's plenty of space and-.

"Mastaaaaaaaah!"

I watch as the hellwraith is consumed in golden fire as it enters the house's garden. I instruct it to pull back but the flames don't relent. It burns for a few seconds and then it's gone.

I give it a moment, but there's no sudden rush of knowledge that would come from it returning to my rings. I try deploying it again and nothing happens.

Couldn't happen to a nicer demon.

I create a megaphone construct.

"Whoever's in the house! This is the Justice League! Please come out with your hands visible and carrying no arcane paraphernalia! You have until the count of five to comply or reply, then we will force entry!"

"Stop! Stop!"

"Sir?! Are you under threat?!"

"I can't-! He won't let me take it off!"

I can't locate the speaker. Even looking right through the windows reveals nothing.

"Sir, please come out of the house, and we will endeavour to render aid."

"O-okay! I'm coming out with my hands up! Don't shoot, or whatever you do!"

I generate a construct railgun and load mage slayers.

"Sure!"

Kara frowns disapprovingly at me, and I dismiss the megaphone construct.

"I won't shoot. I just want it in place in case he does. This is a very precise instrument. I can use it to negate defensive and offensive spells without killing the caster, or injure them without killing them."

"Oh. Well, that's okay then."

"I'm at the door!"

"Alright sir, you can come on out."

The door swings open as far as its hinges will allow it, slamming into the house's outer wall and bouncing back. A man with pale skin dressed in loose fitting cotton and denim clothing slowly walks out, my eyes immediately drawn to the golden skull-helmet covering his entire head.

"Please, help me. It won't let me take it off."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
12:41 GMT -6

White mist rises from the eye holes, obscuring whoever is inside. Faint trails of green sludge run down from the tear ducts, the nasal area and the edges of the rictus-grinning teeth. Parts of the helmet look… Rusted? Or encrusted with something. I don't recognise it, and nothing's coming up in the database, but that definitely wasn't demonic magic.

"Sir, can you tell me your name?"

"Mich-. Mike Brown."

"Hello Mike, I'm Orange Lantern. And this is Supergirl."

Kara waves. "Hiyah!"

"That's an interesting helmet you've got there. Would you mind telling me where you got it?"

"I didn't want to put it on!"

"Alright. I'm not accusing you of putting it on of your own will. I'd just like to start by learning where you found it."

"He didn't give me any choice!"

"Mike, is anyone in danger?"

"Everyone is!" He turns his head, looking around. I… Can't see anything special that he might be looking at. "It's showing me… It's showing me such horrible things."

"I deal with horrible visions by shooting them until they die. I'm happy to help you do the same."

His head snaps to me, the white vapour emerging from his eyes briefly flowing sideways.

"Not on your best day, Lantern."

…

No.

I make a small effort, but I can't entirely prevent myself from smiling.

"Nabu? Lord of Order? Looks like you've seen better days."

"Order. It's offal. Just another name for the same old thing: the gurgle, ooze, purl and spurt of protoplasm, deluding itself that there is meaning."

"Is this your Goth phase? Should I get you some eye-liner?"

Since that's not his body, I won't offer him a razor blade.

"Do you think that your mockery of me has some meaning?"

"Makes me feel better. I realise this is supposed to be some sort of shocking turnabout, where we meet a demonically corrupted alternate of an ally of ours, but honestly? Our Nabu was an arsehole too, and I'm not exactly sad that I'm going to get to kill you so that it sticks."

I don't say 'again', because Kara's not in the loop and Mike Brown doesn't need to hear that.

"What difference do you think killing me makes to your miserable, delusional, monkey existence? Your feeble attempts to find meaning in a meaningless universe?"

"Oh you're one of those. Look, the thing as it is in an absolute sense is not the same as the thing as it is experienced. I know perfectly well that there's no absolute truth or value to our actions or thoughts, but you see these rings?" I hold my fists out. "Orange. I am the Superman. I make-."

"No you're not."

I frown at Kara.

"I'm sorry?"

"You're not Superman. I mean, he wears red and blue, and you wear grey and orange."

"No, not.. 'Superman' as in 'Kal-El, son of Jor-El'. The Superman, in the Nietzschean sense of someone who creates their own values rather than finding them in the external world."

Kara frowns. "That sounds weird. Why did he name that after Kal?"

"And this is the value you have created, Superman?"

Kara turns to him and frowns. "No, he literally just said that he's not Superman; he's the Superman." She turns back to me. "How come you don't like him, anyway?"

"It's to do with how Nabu -our version of Nabu- uses the bodies of the people he possesses. They put the helmet on, and then he gets control of their bodies for as long as he wants."

"But he's a hero. I'm sure he doesn't use their bodies for longer than he has to."

"Are you afraid to tell her the truth, Superman? The scent of murder is upon you."

"I've killed a lot of people. I've come pretty close to exterminating an entire species."

Kara clasps her hands to her mouth, her eyes going wide.

"But they were all really bad. Look, weird demon Nabu, you're a powerful magic helmet. If you can't think of anything to do with your time, pick something at random and stick with it. Sheer pride will eventually result in you valuing your skill, and there's really no material benefit to proving that what you're doing has some non-subjective value because even if 'true' reality exists we will always be stuck in our own perspective."

"I never said that I was a demon, fool."

"I never said you were a fool, demon. Mike, are you still with us?"

His shared head lolls for a moment, and he brings his right hand up to support it.

"They're… They're starving, and he smiles as he hears their despair!"

"Who is, Mike?"

"The.. people, everyone! On the world, their world! Everything's… Gone! Their civilisation, their… Hope."

"We'll get right on to fixing that, Mike, but right now we need to help you. Are you able to take the helmet off?"

"Yes, please take the helmet off."

"Change of plan: don't take the helmet off."

"It kills them. The cultists, they… They beg him but he makes them do it anyway! Oh God!"

"Taking off the helmet is fatal for the host?"

"The flesh melts off their face and their brains melt out of the skull!"

That's a little more difficult, and I don't have mana batteries prepared. I do however have suppression chains and this Nabu has no friends.

"Alright demon, are you going to come quietly, or do I have to beat you-."

Yellow lightning writhes around his body and then leaps for us!

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
12:45 GMT -6

Dodge shield low power shot chain fire.

Kara disappears, complying with my suggestion to avoid incoming fire extremely swiftly. My construct barrier goes up and then shatters almost immediately, but it appears to have soaked all of the attack. My railgun round hits Demon Nabu squarely in the forehead, causing his head to jerk back and the white mist rising from his eye holes to momentarily stop flowing.

I can't immediately think of any manifestations of demonic magic that involve golden lightning. It's not theurgy -that's a different shade- but instead looks far more like the colour of our Nabu's ankhs. Order magic? Can demons use order magic? I wouldn't have.. thought so-.

"I can't stop him! Please, help me!"

"Sir, I appreciate that this is distressing, but I've fought Lords of Order before. Any information you can give me-."

"He said if I put him on-. Put him on quick that I'd be able to-. My son, Jules, he found-. Oh God!"

He found the helmet and put it on. His father agreed to put it on so that Nabu would save his son from his injuries, but he was already dead and then Nabu was in the driving seat.

"Sir, is there anyone else here? We can evacuate-."

"Magic.. draining."

"Oh, what a world, what a world."

"But simple to-"

I shoot him in the forehead again, but this time an odd… Squiggle appears over his forehead before it strikes home. His head jerks back from the impact, but the glow from his eyes remains the same as he levels his head at me.

"-neutralise."

How did-? Did he just drain power from the enchantment on the round while it was in motion? I mean, sure, I dialled down the power quite a bit so the kinetic force didn't take his head off at the neck, but that's quick.

"The binding is interesting but the spell is weak. It is a simple matter for me to-."

"Drain it right back, yes yes. Clever, but hard-"

This time I fire an angel feather round.

"-ly incomprehensible."

The mandala forms again, but this time his right arm glows as well as it blurs to interpose itself, catching the round in Mike's bare hand. That would hurt, unless he's using a physical reinforcement spell of some kind.

"Angel magic? Is there nothing you won't do?"

"I have decided what I value the most, and am willing to give up everything else to obtain it if that turns out to be necessary."

Extra railgun, spread them out, load solid rounds, prepare assimilation tendrils, fire!

Demon Nabu waves, lightning blocking the metal slugs that I aimed at his head while the tendrils are… Being neutralised just before they can touch the shield causing them to be neutralised.

"I am ancient, Lantern. Do you believe there is anything that you can do-"

I increase power, strands of orange power scrabbling for purchase against his aura.

"-against a being such as-"

There's a click as Kara closes the collar of the suppression chain around his neck from behind him.

"-me?"

His defensive aura winks out and Kara gets away from him just before his helmet is enveloped in orange.

"You tell us."

Kara darts out of the way. "Or you could not tell us. I don't really want to listen to you."

"I'm sorry, Kara, but I was referring to myself and the Ophidian."

Demon Nabu pulls himself up slightly at the name, as orange light begins to invade the structure of his helmet.

"Heard of her, I take it?"

"The Great Tempter. The serpent of the Garden of Eden."

"Temptress, and I'm not convinced about Eden at all. So: tell us everything we want to know and accept subordinating yourself to Mike there, or I have her eat you."

"And eat him."

"She can be surprisingly discerning when she puts her mind to it."

"You think yourself a hero, do you?"

"I think myself the man with the giant snake plugged into his soul."

"This chain stops me drawing power from Order or Chaos, or even from the thaumosphere of this miserable planet."

"Tested it on our Nabu. He couldn't break out, either."

He reaches up and tugs at it, but the chain is unyielding. The orange light is now covering his helmet in a wire frame, fragments of rust-gunk flaking off as it spreads.

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Take me off, Mike."

Their arms drop.

"No!"

"Take me off, Mike."

Their arms start to rise, then Mike pulls them back down.

"OhGodnonono!"

Construct chains snap into place, binding all four limbs to a base plate construct. He's… Stronger than his muscle mass suggests, but I've tried this on Kon and Nabu is nowhere near that strong.

"Take me off, Mike! Take me off."

"Nnnnuuuuurrrrghhhh!"

Kara darts forward and punches him in the head. Presumably pulling the blow, given that his head doesn't explode. Their body jerks against my construct chains, but Nabu appears unfazed.

"Come on, Mike. Don't you just want this to be-?"

My mage slayer round hits him in the forehead, making his eyes blink out. Then Kara punches him again, and he lolls in my chains.

"Nabu of Cilia, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
18:52 GMT

Dr. Balewa cautiously studies the construct helmet.

"I can not feel anything of the demonic about it. Are you well, Mister Brown?"

"I don't-? I mean, what do you mean? This thing just… Killed my son. Of course I-. I'm not… 'Well'."

With the helmet being a construct, I can just about see his face through the translucent orange. He's clearly distraught, but now that the immediate danger has passed at least the yellow has receded a little.

"Are you seeing visions? Are you in pain?"

"No. No, he hasn't said anything or done anything since…" Mike glances at me. "Since Orange Lantern did this." He looks around Dr. Balewa's workshop in the Hall of Justice. "Can I-? Take it off? I mean, no disrespect or anything, but I don't wanna… Wanna be here."

Dr. Balewa raises his eyebrows at me. "Orange Lantern?"

"I.. don't know. I mean, there's not normally a problem with removing Construct-Lanterns from things, but I don't know what magic Nabu is using to keep himself anchored."

"Can you not order him to end it?"

"Only if he can end it. If it's part of the mechanism that allows him to bind himself to people, that won't help. And I'll have to order him to tell us."

"I am heppy to research at length, but Mister Brown wishes to return to his family, and we have urgent matters to attend to."

"Mike, do you mind me waking him up a little?"

"Just… Get it off."

"Nabu of Cilia, can you be removed safely?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No... Master."

"Can that state of affairs be changed by magics known to you?"

"There are… Rituals. Rites. Vitality transfer techniques. But my magics are embedded in the body and soul of my host. It is supposed to be hard to remove me. Master."

"Can you be hidden?"

"Hidden?"

"Made completely transparent and intangible, made so that people don't notice that you're there, or anything like that?"

"I… Can, yes."

"Explain in more detail."

"I am a being of spirit bound to an energy construct. This form is malleable in certain ways."

"Any side effects for the person wearing you or those around them?"

"Any halfway competent magician would feel my presence. And you appear to have-" Mike's turns his head to look at Dr. Balewa. "-those."

"Less of your lip, Nabu. Are you able to perform these alterations yourself?"

"No. I require use of my host."

"Then I'm afraid that's the best we can do for now, Mike. Obviously we'll keep working-."

"Where did this bastard even come from?"

"A parallel universe where Earth is ruled by demons. We intend to prevent-."

"What-? That's what it was showing me?"

"Probably."

"And they're coming here? Oh God."

I shake my head. "I wouldn't worry about it. We're trained for this sort of situation, and while it would be helpful to have access to Nabu here, we can probably manage without him."

"Shit. Ah, but… He could..? Could help?"

"He lived in their world. He knows what they're likely to be able to throw at us. Or… Just what you saw. I appreciate that you've had an extremely traumatic experience and you have my utmost sympathy, so once Nabu hides himself I can take you right back to-."

"But they're… They're still coming."

"Unless we ward them off or attack them…" I nod. "Yes, probably. But this is hardly the first time we've been attacked by demons or parallel universes. That contribution-."

"Shit, man, the Sheeda killed like a billion people!"

"Of course, if you would like to contribute, Doctor Mist is the best person you could describe what you saw to. The more we learn about their magic, the easier it will be for us to counter it."

"Then I've got to, haven't I?" He shrugs helplessly. "Ask whatever you want, Doc. Telling you… That's the least I can do."

Dr. Balewa nods. "I would appreciate thet. Orange Lantern, will Nabu remain obedient in your absence?"

"Yes." I lean over and put my right hand on Mike's left shoulder. "This is a good thing you're doing, Mike, and we really appreciate it."

"Just get those bastards for me."

"Can do."

I raise my left hand to my forehead and

step out, returning

16th September 2012
12:55 GMT -6

to the material universe above Liberty. Kara is comforting Mike's wife and their other two children, but there is only so much you can do when they've just seen their son and brother… Melt.

"Kara, Mike's fine and he's sharing what he learned. We can make Nabu invisible, but getting rid of him's going to be a longer term thing. I'm-."

My ring flashes.

"New job. Answer."

"Orange Lantern."

I smile faintly. "Green Arrow. What can I do for you?"

"Remember what happened before Overgirl showed up? We're picking up those signals again."

"Where?"

"Hamburg. I don't know-."

"Nazi Earth has a major physics research institution there. We might be getting intentional visitors. I'll grab Angelika now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:59 GMT +1

"I can see it."

Angelika is shaking with excitement, her hands clenching and unclenching as she tries to work out what to do with them.

"I can see it. They're coming!" Something occurs, and her hands still. "They're coming. What do I tell them?"

"Okay, firstly, we don't know for certain that it's them. It's a way to access parallel universes. This could be anyone. Secondly… This could just be a test. It's entirely possible that they're using the equipment for the first time but aren't going to send through anything more sophisticated than a biological sample container."

She nods. "I know."

"And given how injured you were, it's possible that nothing is going to come through intact."

She takes a moment to steady her breathing.

"Yes, yes, I know."

"But on the off-chance that someone comes through and it's not Karl Kant, have you thought about how you're going to handle it?"

"Almost every day since I have been here." She looks around, taking in 21st century non-national socialist Germany. "Most of the other New Statesmen or other heroes do not have improved vision, so they will not immediately see... Ah…"

"All the wanton degeneracy?"

"Ah. Yes. So that will be easier."

"Are you planning on going back?"

"That-. It would depend. If this portal can be maintained and I could travel back and forth, then I would rather visit home and then return here. If it is harder… It would depend on what the restrictions were." She frowns. "Why do you think this is happening now?"

"We did turn off the devices blocking travel to parallel universes for an hour a few days ago."

"It does not appear to be a barrier."

"Not an absolute barrier, no. But it blocked some types of inter-parallel sensors and disrupted some… Things it couldn't block completely. This could be the result of them now knowing that there's something here to access." I shrug. "Or… Something else. Maybe this is just how long it took."

"Are you worried that it might be the demons?"

I take out a rune stone and hold it towards the point of maximum oddity. No reaction.

"No. A demon portal would require huge amounts of magic. I'm honestly not sure if it's even possible to move from one parallel reality to another with magic."

"Are demons incapable of using machinery?"

"It's not that they can't, it just… Demons aren't usually good at technology. Even with everything Satanus devised, it relies on the presence of a high magic environment to allow the damned souls operating it to remain manifested. Or for the weapons themselves to work. A soul can't just step through a portal to the material universe and carry on as if nothing happened."

"So if demons from the Demonearth come through, then their weapons will not work."

"I'm not sure. Demon Supergirl wasn't possessed, just highly tainted. If they attack with infused cultists and metahumans, those should still function… For a while."

"And then what?"

"Without a source of demonic magic they would… Eventually lose most of the taint. I think. By default, anyway; there are ways to get around that with magic use."

"They would be freed?"

"Ah, they would no longer be compelled with demon magic. I imagine that after spending that long in such an environment that most of them would remain 'Markist'."

"Because even without the compulsion, it is what they are used to."

"I was thinking more that the shape of their thoughts would have been altered rather than it being a matter of pure habit, but, yes."

She's quiet for a moment.

"They would have a Kal-El, wouldn't they?"

"Probably, but I can't say for certain."

"They had a Supergirl."

"Yes, but one doesn't necessarily follow the other. For all we know, House El might have been involved with Earth for years before the whole demon thing happened. Or the fixation with the mark might come from a Kryptonian ship or data probe that arrived on Earth."

She looks at me.

"But you don't believe that."

"But I don't believe that."

"How much stronger would Kal-El be if he was given power by demons?"

"I'm not really sure how demons could give him power. He… Shouldn't be sufficiently in tune with Earth's thaumatic fields to use magic. They could make weapons for him; he'd be able to use those. But as for physically enhancing him, I wouldn't think so."

"We can fight him, then?"

"How much better than yours is New Kara's hearing?"

"I am only partially kryptonian. But her hearing is better than 'old' Kara's hearing as well." Angelika nods. "So the kryptonian of one universe is not the same as a kryptonian of another."

"And he'd be far more savage than the Kal-Els we're used to. He'd be fighting to kill from the start, and not at all concerned for collateral damage."

"Why is his mark so important?"

"It's important to their Kara. Nabu didn't seem bothered." She nods. "I don't know. It might be-."

Her eyes widen. "It's opening!"

Alright. Send a notification to the League and to the German government, prepare a railgun but keep it in the at rest position and generate construct armour-.

A red circle with black patches about two metres across swells into being, hands… Somehow holding the edges and pushing it open. I see the pale skin redden and blister as the owner somehow forces the primordial energies of the universe to comply with nothing but brute strength.

"Karl!"

Angelika darts forward, grabbing the edge of the portal from this side and helping the man I assume to be Overman maintain it. He notices her and smiles before shifting his body to this side. A three count and they both let go, allowing the portal to close up on itself.

Overman studies the area the portal was in for a moment, presumably checking that it's behaving as expected. Then he gives Angelika his full attention, smiling warmly at her.

"Angelika."

They both check each other over and then blur together, arms wrapped around one another, her face in the crook of his neck and his pressed into the top of her head.

"Karl."

Ah.

This… Feels awkward.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd July 2282
19:07 MTZ

I smile as I head away from the Pueblo City fortifications, the piles of burning super mutant corpses lighting up the evening behind me.

Cerberus is still a threat, but this particular thrust of his… Its? Army has been ended on the banks of the Arkansas River. Tomorrow, we press on and destroy their campsite and begin destroying the tendrils of Cerberus's flesh that have extended this far from Los with the aid of Brain's trained super mutant hunting giant mole rats, while AA-equipped sentry bots from the Denver Defence Network keep the cazadors off us. All around Cerberus's territory the peoples I've brought together are starting to engage Cerberus's forces in what I hope are overwhelming numbers; Guerra and Santa Anna working their way up from the south, Texas in the east and WARDEN in the north.

Caesar's Legion aren't helping, and that's why the NCR army has stopped on their own side of the Colorado River. Our planned offensive into Legion territory won't be happening for a while, and… Mr Sallow wasn't willing to make a pact that would see him joining in our crusade himself. There are a few Speculatores keeping an eye on us to make sure that we don't swing around and attack him from the east -which we will of course, but not until after Los is a burning hole in the ground filled with roasted Cerberus- but he's otherwise avoiding the whole mess. I imagine that he's hoping that we'll weaken each other so much that he'll have time to regroup and retrench.

What's actually going to happen is that as the result of Centurion Paullus's rampage everyone in both Mexico and New Mexico hates the Legion except President Vialla and I already turned him. Which means that this campaign will serve to unify-.

"Hey Krono!"

I tense up as the hulking form of a C-22 Humanoid Robot appears out of the darkness, then immediately relax again as I see the LED visor showing three pink hearts mounted on the front of its head.

"Good evening, Doki."

Even in the madness of the Wasteland, Doki Doki is an… Odd one. The result of an inexplicable series of upgrades made to a pre-War personal computer by the robotic juggernaut ARGOS, Doki Doki is a fully sentient pre-War Japanese dating simulator who rules the area of eastern Colorado around Robot City. Virtually the entire population of her lands are robots, some of whom were parts of the Denver Defence Network before the war and the others just… Just sort of wandered here because of ARGOS's beacon and the lack of any contrary orders. Once they arrive Doki loads a portion of her program into them, and…

I'm just glad that weird love polyhedron she was trying to set up between herself, ARGOS, ODYSSEUS and WARDEN is done with. I'm not completely sure that WARDEN understands what he won, but…

It gets pretty strange in Robot City, is what I'm saying.

The heart on the left is replaced with a waving hand, while the heart on the right is replaced by a winking eye. It's a strange thing to see on an eight foot tall war robot.

"Not yet, but it's going to get better!"

Okay, as far as I know Doki is largely indifferent to human suffering and death. Her thoughts revolve entirely around romantic relationships, which means that she prefers humans to the sterile asexual super mutants, but she's got a city full of robots with personalities derived from dating sim characters to play around with so she doesn't appear to feel the need to reach out to gather more toys.

"Oh? Who's the lucky man/woman/other?" Actually… "Have you found a female talking deathclaw? I heard rumours that-."

"No! But I was talking to Commander Carlton Alwyn-" The man in charge of the Sky Walkers' forces in this area. "-earlier and he told me that you're SINGLE!"

Oh shit.

"Doki, it's not-."

"And that you haven't even dated!"

"I've… Been busy. There've been quite a lot of wars-."

"You're a chief!" Wink eye becomes a crown. "You've done more for your tribe than any chief before you!" Waving hand becomes a 1st place medal. "Your whole tribe wants you to get married!"

"A… Few… People have… Mentioned something along those lines?"

I mean, I lost my virginity to Mesmerelda, a clinically insane raider who thought that she was a magician. And she was killed and eaten by an actual magician. It's not as if I was strongly attached to her or anything, but…

The robot lunges forward, all three emoticons replaced by smiling faces with hearts in their eyes!

"But that's okay! Because Doki Doki-"

"Doki Doki." / "Doki Doki." / "Doki Doki." / "Doki Doki." / "Doki Doki." / "Doki Doki."

I look around cautiously as I hear the other robots from the Robot City contingent echo her declaration.

"-is here to help!"

THUD.

"Okay? Do you..? Want to introduce me to some people?"

THUD.

"Yes!"

THUD.

I nod. Alright, I'm sure that I can survive a few dating minigames-

THUD.

Brilliant lights shine from the riverbank, provoking shouts of alarm from the encampment!

THUD.

"ARGOS HAS ARRIVED AT DESTINATION."

Thirty metres tall. Thirty metres wide. Sixty five metres long, not including the tail. Missile pods, anti-missile lasers, Gatling lasers, armour that would put a main battle tank to shame, six giant legs and a 'face' made up of a smiling speaker grille and a couple of armoured cameras.

"PRISONERS READY FOR RETURN."

"Ah, pr-?" I turn back to Doki. "Prisoners?"

The three emoticons now show a pair of interlocked rings, a ball and chain and a simple depiction of a map.

"PRISONERS of LOVE! ARGOS just needed to have his capture protocols edited a little!"

Oh no.

"All PRISONERS of LOVE have been selected for maximum compatibility based on available data!"

Oh no.

"Which wasn't very much!" Three question mark emoticons. "But I'm confident that at least one will be a good match!" Three green ticks.

"How..?" I glance at the huge robot standing on the shoreline. Huge and powerful, but not all that fast and not at all subtle. "How exactly did ARGOS capture them?"

"Satellite guided bondage missiles!"

…

I'm going to have a great many people to apologise to after this, aren't I?

"And... What happens to unsuccessful applicants?"

"They come back in the sequel to sabotage your relationship out of jealousy! No harem route here!"

"Okay. So, if this is a-"

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Argus turns and through a slot in the outside of one of ARGOS's hull-mounted prisoner detainment pods I get a glimpse of the enraged face of General Veronica Guerra, daughter of President Dante Guerra.

I mean… She's not incompatible with me. Or it didn't seem like she was in the meeting we were both in where we didn't exchange two words.

"-contest of some sort, where is it taking place?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
20:05 GMT +1

Behind me, Karl clears his throat, prompting me to turn back around. Something-. Yes, I think he recognises me.

"You are this reality's Paul Freeman."

I frown. "Half-right."

"Ah, of course. It is not his real name. Are you under the same restriction?"

I nod. "I can't say my name, and neither can any other version of me I've met. And I've met a lot of parallel versions of me, but I don't think I've met yours."

He glances at Angelika, and she nods.

"In our world… A person such as him would not be trusted with a power ring."

"Is this about our great grandfather? Because Angelika said it wasn't that big a deal."

"I do not understand. Did your great grandfather fight in the Second Great War?"

"It's more that he wasn't Anglo-Saxon." I frown. "I think he'd have been too old for the regular military in the Second World War, but I can't say that I ever checked."

Though in that timeline, if he existed, he would probably have been in a Home Guard unit. And probably killed during the invasion of Britain. Or given his likely appearance, shortly afterwards.

"Ah. No, it was not his genetic background, but his attitude to history and culture. He was imprisoned for a time, but is now free."

Angelika looks puzzled. "I have never met him." Karl looks slightly awkward. "Did you find him after I… Left?"

"I did not want you… You know that I did not like to expose you to that part of-."

"And look what happened!" Angelika spreads her arms out wide, indicating Germany. "Do you know how many people I carelessly insulted when I came here?"

"Ah, you two clearly need time to catch up, but is there anything that we need to talk about right now?"

Karl nods. "Have you attempted to access my universe?"

I shake my head. "We couldn't make sense of the portal Angelika came through. Without any sort of way to track which parallel she came from… I mean, we did try, but the technology isn't there."

"No one from here has come to our universe?"

"Not as far as I know." I shrug. "We haven't been completely open with the general public about where Angelika comes from, but they know that she's not from here originally. If someone from the Justice League has found time to open a portal they haven't told us about it, same with independent laboratories. Heck, we had worldwide jammers up in an attempt to prevent this sort of thing."

"You have had previous encounters with parallel universes, then?"

"I've met literally hundreds of different versions of me. We've had a couple of encounters with a parallel universe where the dominant super powered group was an international crime syndicate and a… Another without native human life which a man from the far future was using for biological experimentation, but I think we got international agreement on the jammers because people conflated parallel universe invasions with time travel invasions, and that was the big one."

"A time travel invasion?"

"The Sheeda. Humans from the far future, who I assume you haven't met because they're not in your future. But there's a reason why advanced physics research is getting very focused funding and people are being firmly discouraged from opening gateways to parallel universes. Why do you ask?"

"We have been attacked by demonically… Corrupted superhumans. I had feared that that was where Angelika had been sent, but even though I am-" He smiles at her. "-overjoyed that she is safe, that leaves open the question of where they come from."

I generate a construct of Demon Supergirl and the sarcophagus we found her in.

"Did they look like this?"

Overman flickers as he moves around the images to better study them.

"I do not recognise the sarcophagus, but the distortion of the mouth? Yes, that is what they look like. Who was she?"

"We think she is Kara Zor-El."

He looks mildly surprised. "She is alive?"

"Yes? By a combination of kryptonite and theurgy, we were able to take her down without… Lasting physical damage. She's still completely out of it mentally, so there isn't much point in trying to question her at this stage and I wouldn't want to risk a telepath's sanity to force the issue. We also might have captured their version of Nabu. Doctor Mist is interrogating him now." I frown. "You haven't captured any of them alive?"

"The cultists have suicide devices in their heads. I have not wanted to risk the lives of my soldiers in trying to take them alive. And I have not wanted to risk civilians by pulling my punches when I stop their superhumans."

Angelika's face falls. "How many have there been?"

"Fourteen with superhumans. Dozens without. Your team are all well, but there have been many deaths. We do not even know what they want."

"Your version of me. What power ring did he have when he appeared?"

"Orange, like you."

"If you want to find out what motivates someone, orange power rings have some rather useful functionality in that regard."

A mild frown. "He did not mention that."

"How long did he have it for?"

"Two days."

"There you go. I like to think that I'm pretty good with-" I hold up my rings. "-my rings, but I didn't get this good in two days. After two days I was struggling to maintain my focus in combat situations, let alone do anything clever."

"There is no particular reason why the ring could not be returned to him. But our tests showed that those who used it became mentally unstable."

"If you're not ready for it. I used to perform an hour of meditation a day, making sure I maintained an awareness of all of my desires and objectives. It is a risk, but it's a manageable one."

"He also does not have a lantern to recharge it with."

"I can sort him out there. I can make my.. own."

How likely do I think it is that Truggs has… What, provoked a planet full of demon-tainted superheroes into attacking a world with a national socialist-derived society? I mean, if someone asked them I could sort of see them trying to justify it in those terms, but… As Angelika said, the genocide was conducted before she was born. You could justify it if the people you were unleashing the demons against were the people who carried it out, but I hardly think that it's the same when the people you're attacking are their great grandchildren.

And it's not as if the demons would care anyway.

"How long has it been happening for?"

"It began not long after Angelika vanished. That was why I assumed that the two events were linked."

"Is anyone going to be following you?"

"No."

"Okay, then I think we need to head back to the Watchtower and find out what Dr. Mist has learned."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd July 2282
20:21 MTZ

Tibbets Prison. Unusually for the pre-War United States -and doubly so for anything related to Project Safehouse- it was a surprisingly moral institution, focusing on rehabilitating its inhabitants without torture or mind control or explosive neck braces. Really, the only thing dodgy about it is that some of the machinery was being field tested here and so wasn't completely reliable. Given that it was being field tested for the vaults, that means that it started breaking down after a mere century after the War rather than lasting until the present day. A lot of the people in the surrounding settlements can trace their ancestry back to prisoners who completed their sentences here and were released after the bombs fell.

And then that lunatic Victor Presper tried to trick the AI into wiping out most of the surviving American population, but he's been terminally dealt with now.

ODYSSEY's programming won't let us do the sensible thing and turn the prison into a town, but it was the best prison in the former United States. ODYSSEY has been perfectly happy to let WARDEN send prisoners here, and I've been able to convince President Kimball to send captured raiders this way rather than just shooting them. WARDEN has provided the resources to bring the place fully up to specification, and my specialists have been able to provide the design schematics necessary for ODYSSEY to make improvements.

The… Stage area is a new development.

Why did she pick today? We have a war to fight tomorrow. And yes, I'm not personally needed-.

**Chief Krono!**

The slight tremor in the mental signal implies that someone's using a booster choir to reach me here in Colorado. I don't need one to reply, but that sort of a thing is a strain to everyone involved.

**Krono here.**

**Miss Vialla has been abducted by a giant robot!**

I watch as ARGOS pulls up-

THUD.

-alongside the new inmate walkway and open his hatches, Miss Vialla cautiously exiting the third opening.

**Yes, I know. I'm looking at both her and the robot now. She appears unharmed.**

**Her bodyguards have already informed President Vialla.**

**[Calm] Then they're doing their job. Please assure President Vialla that I have the matter in hand. It will not be necessary to assemble a rescue team.**

**Ahhhh…**

**Ahhhh?**

**According to the Brotherhood of Steel, the robot also abducted Elder Katherine Törni of the Alamo Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. They were pursuing it in vertibirds.**

Ah yes. There she is. I don't know.. why; the Alamo Brotherhood represent the worst tech-stealing head-in-the-sand aspects of the Brotherhood's character. I spoke to her exactly once when I was trying to rally support in Mexico and got precisely nowhere. Once I talked Santa Anna into focusing on developing Mexico into a beacon of success and so encourage Texans to want to be governed by him I rather stopped thinking about them.

**And he jumped on board and is heading this way?**

**Yes.**

I'm a.. little surprised that they let him, but I suppose that they needed a local guide.

President Nguyen looks my way as she heads cautiously down her wire-enfenced walkway, and I awkwardly wave. I think she knows who Elder Törni is, but I doubt that she'll recognise Miss Vialla. Ah, there's General Guerra. And… That's Veronica Santangelo. She's a lesbian. And married. Why did-?

Crazy robot is crazy. Right.

**Have we had any other reports of a giant robot abducting people?**

**No.**

**Okay. Thank you for warning me. I do not believe further action is necessary, but please contact me again in eight hours for confirmation.**

THUD.

Another woman, dressed in the loose fitting homespun clothes I'm most familiar with being worn by New Canaanites, combined with face paints of the sort usually worn by Ammonites, disembarks from ARGOS. I don't even know who she is.

**Yes Krono.**

I blink as I lose the connection, the women who Doki thinks are suitably armigerous reaching the end of their walkways and taking positions at their podiums, the small electronic scoreboards attached to the front displaying 00.

"Doki, who is that?"

"Tears-In-The-Rain! She is the eldest daughter of Chief Balm-Upon-Wounds of the Ammonites! Her father wanted his children to grow up in houses rather than tents, and she wants to carry on their ascent up the civilization tree! She matches you on the metrics of aspiration and hard work!"

Her avatar robot's head rotates towards me, left and right emoticon being left and right curling biceps while the central one is a grinning face.

"Are you interested?!"

"I just.. didn't recognise her."

THUD.

"That's an Assaultron."

"She's an Assaultron! Definitely feminine!"

In the sense that they have nuclear power plants in the upper torsos while the cheaper Protectrons have batteries mounted mid-torso, along with legs designed for powerful thrusts rather than the slow toddle that Protectrons do, resulting in 'breasts' and broader hips. Someone in RobCo -and according to him it wasn't Robert Edwin House- decided that the thing to do therefore was give them all female voices.

"Her name is KL dash E dash Zero, but she accepts Kleo, and she likes killing and tools for killing!"

One of which she has built into her face. Though she doesn't appear to be unduly troubled by her environment, even taking the time to stroke one of ARGOS's missile pods with her right claw-hand before progressing down the gantry.

"And how is she a match for me?"

"Your strongest social relationship is with Mister Goris! He is stronger and faster than you, providing you with constant high-quality protection! As your girlfriend, Kleo could do the same, in addition to being able to interface with pre-War systems and technology!"

…

Just go with it.

That appears to be all of the contestants… Not sure whether to be relieved or horrified.

"No Diana?"

The left emoticon is the tree symbol of Twin Mothers, Diana's tribe. Then come an 'X', and lastly an image of Tlaloc. These are then replaced by the dread letters: 'O' 'T' and 'P'.

"And how can I argue with that?"

I look up to where all of the women are at their podiums, looking either nervous (Veronica and Tears-In-The-Rain), blank (Kleo) or angry (the rest). Looking up a little further I see that the inmates have gathered at viewing galleries all around the courtyard, looking down on the show with the same bewilderment that I feel.

**Ladies, I'm very sorry about this.**

Doki marches towards the centre of the courtyard, half-dragging me behind her.

And those are television cameras why are there television came-?

"WELCOME, CONTESTANTS, TO 'THE WASTELAND'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR'!"

…

**I promise that this wasn't my idea.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:16 GMT

"Hey Suuuuuuu…" Mr. Queen takes a better look at Overman's uniform. "You're not Supes."

Overman's expression doesn't display any nervousness he might be feeling. "English is not my first language. 'Soups' is my counterpart?"

Mr. Queen takes in the lightning bolt variant of the 'S' of House El on his chest, then stares at me in disbelief. "You wanna explain-."

"You are the Green Arrow."

"And you're Supernazi."

Overman's mouth widens involuntarily into a surprised smile, then he flicks his eyes up to the ceiling. "An entire world of Freemans."

"Free men. And yeah, it is."

Overman raises his right hand. "No, you misunderstand me. In my heart I disavowed national socialism decades ago. The people of much of my Earth have freedoms similar to what you are used to-."

"Your Jews are free, are they?"

"All of our Jews are dead, Green Arrow. And unless you have walked into a still-functioning murder factory yourself, as I have, please do not imply that you understand the horror of it. I am here to-."

"Recognized, Superman, zero one."

Overman looks curiously at the zeta tube. "That is not Kryptonian technology."

"Great, Supes can deal with this." Shaking his head, Mr. Queen heads towards the elevator, a path that takes him closer to me. "Paul, I'm gunna get a breath of fresh air."

I look out of the window at the Watchtower's internal forest. "Of course. But do I need to point out the fact that Overgirl-?"

"Yeah, don't assume I'm overjoyed about that either, but she wasn't born 'til it was over. That's a big distinction."

He looks back as Kal-El and Kal-El study each other. Then he shakes his head and completes his journey to the lift.

Superman offers Overman his right hand. "Welcome to Earth 16."

"Thank you." He takes it, watching his counterpart's eyes and they cautiously shake. Superman knows from his Torquasm lessons that Overman is a good deal stronger than him when he exerts himself. "I wish it were under better circumstances. Being invaded by demons is not a pleasant experience."

"I.. hope we can work together to solve that problem for both our worlds."

"I do as well. But I have met enough alternate versions of myself that I doubt that is the first question that comes to your mind."

Superman exhales. "Of course not. I am wondering what would have happened if my pod had landed somewhere else."

"You were a Kansas?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"Most of us are, whatever era they came to Earth in. When a thing happens often enough it is not hard to find one who has not kept it a secret. I met a Russian communist version of us once, and only avoided violence by pointing out the futility of us fighting one another."

"Guess I've got something else to be grateful to my parents for."

"You.. refer to your foster parents?"

"Yes. I.. almost hate to ask, but-."

Overman looks away awkwardly for a moment. "They always ask if it was Hitler. It wasn't Hitler."

"Well, who was it?"

"I did not have one." He shakes his head. "Hitler could not make up his mind. One week I was under the care of Artur Axmann, then next my father was Ulbrecht Kant. You would know him as the first Ubermensch."

"I think Diana.. may have mentioned him once or twice."

"His sister Helga was the closest I had to a stable mother figure. I found out later that it was deliberate; they did not want their 'Man of Tomorrow' to feel personal loyalty to any one person. Other than the Fuhrer, but it was clear to all but the most ideologically blind that he could not raise a child."

"Well, you… Seem to have gotten over the whole thing."

He closes his eyes, and for a moment I see-. Oh, goodness, it's not just the Nazi thing. He wants out of his life.

"No. But perhaps we should return to business. What progress have your magicians made with tracing the origin?"

Superman rises a little way into the air. "We can go and ask Doctor Mist. Orange Lantern's message said that you'd been working on the problem for a while. Why-?"

Overman follows him, and they fly in the direction of Dr. Mist's workshop. "After the Thulists were purged, there was little official tolerance for magicians. Atlantis cooperates with the surface world only as much as they must."

Superman frowns. "Surely if you're being invaded by demons-."

Angelika puts her right hand on my shoulder as I move to follow them, so I stop and look at her.

"Could you..? Make a shield?"

I nod, creating a bubble that should prevent even an augmented kryptonian from hearing us inside it. In addition to an extra-thick shield I add an excited plasma layer that should confuse any exotic elements to his hearing.

"Done."

"How bad is he?"

"Pretty darn bad. I'm honestly not sure that he wouldn't opt to stay here if we asked."

"What about Lena?"

"Who?"

She blinks. "I haven't mentioned her? Lena Kant?"

"Not that I remember. We haven't.. actually spent all that much time talking about your home life. Outside of the obvious."

"She is his wife."

Ah…

I shrug awkwardly. "I didn't…" I look in his direction. "If you.. had to characterise their relationship-."

"He wants to divorce her, doesn't he?"

"He wants to not be associated with her, but there's another desire to live up to certain parts of national socialist ideology relating to family structures."

Angelika shakes her head. "She would be disgraced if Karl ended the marriage. I told you that childless women-."

"Are disrespected. And Karl can't have children with a human woman." I think for a moment. "She hates you, doesn't she?"

"She hates a great many people. I think that she fell in love with Karl's propaganda image, and hates that he has failed to live up to her expectations. Or perhaps she was always a bitch; I only met her long after the romance had died."

"I.. think that's going to have to be a problem for another day." I drop the shield. "Let's go and see what Doctor Mist has learned."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:21 GMT

"…access their world."

So this is where the machine the Sivanas built to send us to Witch World ended up.

Dr. Balewa gestures to the inscriptions drawn onto a portion of the device controlling the start and end points. Further runes link that to the chair Mike's sitting on, Nabu's skull-helmet still on his head. Looks like… Steering and anchoring.

Not sure how I'll feel if it turns out that Dr. Balewa only needed an hour or so to bypass the whole 'need a host to use magic' restriction.

Overman is taking a closer look at the helmet.

"This came from their world?"

"Yes. That's one of the functions of the orange light; I can turn people into constructs. Then they become my slaves."

He looks understandably concerned. "Slaves-?"

"Do not be so confident. I have overcome domination spells before."

"I only use it in cases where the target is irredeemable and there's an operational reason to keep them around. In this case, we need access to his Earth and… You don't have to talk to him for long to realise that he's a lost cause."

"I had assumed that you would not use such methods."

Superman gives me a mildly disappointed look.

"We don't. The Justice League don't."

"But sometimes it's really convenient if someone who isn't a member does something and shares what they learned. Superman, I would honestly be happy to debate the efficacy of lethal force with you-. Oh."

I frown.

"Something wrong?"

"If the angels hadn't destroyed the Sword of the Fallen I might have been able to use it to turn him back. One of… Larfleeze's Construct-Lanterns is a Guardian. Even if he ended up back as… They used to be before bonding with their symbiotes, it would still have been a big help for the Green Lantern Corps." I shrug. "Missed opportunity. Sorry. Carry on."

"I would have bound him in ways just as unpleasant and far less reliable. With evil spirits, a magician's options are limited."

Superman looks at Nabu. "What happened to you?"

"I realised how worthless everything I'd ever done and every belief I'd ever had was."

"And so you decided to lash out at everyone around you?"

"You were most persuasive."

Superman blinks, then I see his eyes flick towards Overman for an instant.

"What happened?"

"No. You'll need me to pass undetected through their wards. I want to see your face when you-."

"You're not a free agent, Nabu. Tell him what he wants to know."

"You did."

Superman nods. "I thought that was what you meant. Was I-. Was there something wrong with me from the start?"

"No. You were a virtuous hero. Until you weren't. Or perhaps you were feigning virtue all along. That seems more likely. I certainly wouldn't have tolerated Lois Lane for as long as you did. How many times can a woman fall from a building before it becomes obvious that the problem is her? I wasn't there to witness the change myself, and by the time I returned to the material universe it seemed unimportant."

"So Demon Superman rules over the Earth."

"If you can call it ruling. He mostly just sits there and listens to the misery of the surviving population. I imagine that his super hearing allows him to hear all of it. I wonder how it will make you feel."

"Sick to my stomach, probably. But I'll sleep better at night knowing that I did something than knowing that I did nothing."

"I doubt that. But far be it for me to stop you."

Overman looks thoughtful.

"What is your Superman trying to achieve?"

"Little to nothing. Whatever the netherfiends whispering in his head tell him. I have no particular insight."

"And the other heroes?"

"They are his creatures now, ruined in mind and soul. Monstrous beasts without the intellect he himself maintains."

"And the mark thing?"

"Ritual humiliation. He breaks their will as he breaks their world."

"That doesn't sound like me. If anything, it sounds like Darkseid."

"Darkseid is hardly the only great evil in the universe. In time, you will be just as bad."

"I don't believe that for a moment. I just met a Nazi version of myself and even he's trying to be a better man." Superman looks over to Overman. "How old did you say you were?"

"I arrived on Earth in nineteen thirty nine. If that is when I was born, then I am seventy three."

"Then it sounds like I've got a little while. Doctor Mist, can you get us there?"

Dr. Balewa nods. "I can open a portal to their Earth. But if I went through myself, I may have difficulty adapting to a world saturated with demon magic."

"Angelica?"

"Yes?"

"Ah, no, Angelica Blaze. Her or Zauriel. Theurgy should still work, shouldn't it?"

He nods. "I believe so. But it would also draw the attention of the entire world."

"We can't fight everyone on the planet, not if we want to save them." Superman nods. "Call them in, but have them on stand by. What do you say, Overman?"

"You want to save them?"

"If an evil version of us has taken over and corrupted the place, I'd say it's our job to fix it."

Overman watches his face for a moment and then looks away, smiling.

"Yes. Let us save these poor huddled masses. I assume that you will not countenance the use of lethal force?"

Superman looks at me for a moment.

"If there-. If there are situations where you can't avoid it without innocent people dying… But try not to."

Overman nods, and Superman flies towards the portal.

"Doctor, send us through."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:26 GMT

Back on Earth Prime, there once was a deal between Marvel and Detective Comics wherein they gave each other the opportunity to use near-copies of each other's characters.

DC took Doctor Octopus, Magneto and Doctor Doom and made Gorgon, Doctor Diehard and Lord Havok. I never read any of the original comics, but they were brought back briefly when the Captain Atom version of Monarch went on a rampage in a fairly pointless crossover event that didn't go anywhere.

Marvel took the Justice League and made Squadron Supreme, which I didn't read either. But years later they brought them back in Supreme Power, which started strong and then sort of stopped. I bought the first couple of collections because I liked…

I glance awkwardly at Overman and Angelika as they survey the devastation below us.

Because I liked that take on Superman's origin. Obviously if his pod came to Earth in the modern era it would be detected by deep space monitoring equipment, to say nothing of the radar stations in the United States. So their Superman -eventually going by the name Hyperion- is found by farmers in Kansas, and then an hour or so later their home gets raided by a black operations assault team and the child is forcibly removed. He then gets brought up in…

That's not really relevant. But looking down at the mud plane that appears to have been created by the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam, I do remember a later issue where a scientist who studied him tries to accurately describe what would happen if he decided that he wanted to kill as many people as possible and quickly as possible.

Target infrastructure. Destroy a detached house in the country and you might get one family. Pull down a skyscraper in the middle of the working day and you'll get thousands of people. Target dams and cause floods and disrupt power generation, which kills…

I can recognise the demonic rune for 'greed' which someone cut into the world's largest oil producing regions. They're big enough to be visible from space with the naked human eye.

"Lantern." Overman doesn't look at me, but I see his eyes jumping from place to place as he takes in the devastation. "How many people are left?"

"Okay, so I'm trying to calculate when this happened based on the completion dates of infrastructure projects common to Earth Sixteen. I think-."

"I do not care about the infrastructure. Tell me about the people."

"But if you don't know how many people they were, you don't-."

"We can't save the dead. Understanding-. We do not need to understand at this moment."

Ring?

"Ah, well my rings are struggling with some things due to the magic, but something in the region of one point five billion."

"My Earth had that many people in eighteen sixty."

"If he targeted cities, it-. Pre-Industrial Revolution. They'll have to have adapted to the… Break down in infrastructure. Products not being transported from place to place. No fuel means that colder places aren't habitable, at least not by the same number. Damaged water infrastructure-."

"Yes, I know. It-."

His head snaps around, Superman's following an instant later.

"He knows we're here."

My rings aren't giving me a clear picture of Metropolis, but… That's the direction they're both looking in.

"How do you know?"

"He's talking to us."

I look down at the ground. I don't think we have to worry about conventional attacks. The sort of military weapons that could affect us require far more infrastructure than the survivors have.

I glance at Angelika, but she just shakes her head. Must require super duper hearing.

There aren't that many metahumans capable of flight in the world, perhaps a thousand at most. There won't be any Lanterns here because the Guardians aren't that stupid-.

"Ring, contact Lantern Tomar-Re."

"Not found."

Of course, if they tried fighting and lost, it would be Lanterns in neighbouring Sectors who are most likely to have been killed.

"Contact Lantern Green Man."

"Compliance."

Nothing happens for a moment, then his face appears over my ring.

"You're in a restricted area, Lantern. Leave now."

"I'm an Orange Lantern from a parallel universe. Please send whatever records you have relating to Earth, and ping the Guardians for the secure stuff."

"I am highly sceptical of your claims."

"You can check whether or not I'm a Green Lantern easily enough and you already know my location. If I'm already on Earth, there's no further downside to giving me information."

"It is a deathworld ruled by monsters."

"Yes, that's why we're here. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. Thank you, goodbye."

I hang up as Angelika watches my ring thoughtfully.

"We do not have a great deal of contact with the Green Lantern Corps. I only met Tomar-Re once, during negotiations on jurisdiction."

"You're internally unified and strong enough to hold off most external threats. There isn't any cause for them to have regular contact."

"They would have seen the worst of the mass murders."

"I don't think that they would hold that against subsequ-."

Superman blurs and I'm shoved-. Why did-?

Two thick beams of red burn through the air, hitting-

"Agh!" / "Ah!"

-Superman and Overman, while Angelika and I are out of their path. Idiot! Yes, I'm not quite as tough as him, but in a high magic environment-.

I generate a construct shield inscribed with demonic runes for nullification and entropy between us and the direction that shot came from as Angelika flies to check on them. Their uniforms are singed and their flesh is reddened, but they're still in the air. Just a bit groggy. I take a purple healing ray out of subspace-.

And frantically throw myself to the side as a harpy shimmers into being out of nowhere and dives for me, talons extended!

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:29 GMT

No, not a-

I fly up and invert, putting the flight path of the-

-harpy, the head is the wrong shape.

-creature below me. As it completes its lunge I punch down, my gauntlet hitting it in the back just between the wing joints.

"Gwk!"

I didn't feel anything break, but it's flying a good deal less steadily now. Hm, tougher than normal muscle without being super tough. Puts me a little in mind of the manhawks, or the aven from Magic: the Gathering. Bird people. So they fly with wings. Simple enough.

Three fly at Angelika but she pirouettes through the sky, striking wings and heads with relative gentleness, causing them to tumble down through the air without falling to their deaths. The birdpeople aren't wearing the 'S', so presumably they're not on Demon Superman's side.

"Do you have some way-"

She swerves, grabs a forearm and leg and swings her assailant into her neighbour.

"-to bind them?"

Er, okay, amount of lift required to keep a humanoid body in the air… Chains that bind their arms and legs that their claws-

Two scrabble at my construct shield as Overman and Superman recover enough to throw off the bird people trying to dog pile them. I see a few shallow cuts, but-

Two red rays blast from Overman's eyes, precisely trimming feathers from three of the closest and causing them to plummet towards the ground.

-nothing serious. The claws clearly have magic-enhanced sharpness, but if that wasn't enough of an edge-

Superman opts to open his mouth and the air before him turns to ice. It doesn't appear to disable any of our attackers, but the ones exposed to it are backing off in a hurry.

-to kill them, I think we can be confident that we have their measure. The ones attacking my barrier are piercing the construct but they aren't making it fall apart in the way some magic effects do.

-can't reach around to remove, while not being so heavy that they can't at least somewhat control their descent. I evade another birdman and then wrap him in construct chains.

"Gkhhharrr!"

Okay, titanium with carbon nanotubes should be strong enough, lock his forearms behind his back, bind them to the base of his wings to make flapping awkward and add iron weights and release. As required, the birdman falls but with one bitter glance up at me gets his wings into a glide position.

"It's a bit-"

I generate a construct mace and thump a birdwoman in the chest.

"-of a fiddle, but I can-"

Another bird shimmers into being behind Superman. He catches it around the throat and hurls it at one of its ice-coated colleagues. That's… Interesting. How are they teleporting here? They aren't teleporting around the combat zone themselves, so presumably something else is teleporting them to here. Okay, railgun, load mage slayers, see if I can get a shot through-.

"Orange Lantern." Superman gets hold of another bird person and-

Snap!

"G-caw!"

-breaks their wing part way along its length before dropping the owner. Another semi-controlled descent to the ground.

"Focus on undoing whatever demon magic-"

Angelika checks over Overman's wounds before copying his attack of choice, burning feathers with flashes from her eyes.

"-is controlling them. We can fight them just fine."

"Sir."

Al-right then. I fly down, catching up with the birdman I chained up.

"Hello there. Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Something about him -probably the magic running through his skin- is keeping me from getting a precise scan, but as far as I can tell he should be a sophont. The cranial volume and humanoid frame, combined with the tactical abilities and purpose they've displayed are strongly indicative, and I can't see any sign of remote external control.

"I've been authorised to experiment on you with magic. If you verbally respond, it's much likely to be a productive exchange."

Still nothing, though he tries to alter his flight path away from me and his eyes are moving around as he desperately looks for a way out. I'm not seeing fear, but that might just be due to the disruption.

Well, I've still got this railg-.

The sky above me turns red, the shield construct I had up there is destroyed and about a dozen birdmen are incinerated. Huh. Well-.

"You! You have brought his wrath!"

"Possibly." I shoot him in the chest, and the runes on his claws fade away. "But there's not much you can do about it other than persuade us to leave."

Though I am wondering how Demon Superman can see us. We're over the horizon, so unless he's firing through-.

Ring?

Oh. He's firing through the planet's crust. I can see the line of steam where he's boiled the waters of the Pacific. Right, there's nothing stopping him seeing me, but if he's using some sort of magic detection then he's blind to me.

"What did you do to my blessing!?"

"Nullified it. So is this your natural form?"

"Yes! We are not weak humans!"

"And not a demon. Interesting. Why did you attack us?"

"We cannot survive the Demon Superman's wrath! You are drawing it!"

"But if he just kills us, what's the problem for you?"

"For years he has just sat there! The last thing we want is for him to awaken!"

"And you couldn't have just told us that?"

"Mortal beings fighting amongst themselves amuses him. He would be content to watch."

"You don't appear to have the force to bring us down. Given that, would you be prepared to call the attack off? You can send us somewhere more dangerous and give someone else a chance to kill us?"

"Why are you even here?"

"Someone in this parallel opened a portal to the alternate reality we live in. We're here to stop the problem at the source."

"You want to fight the Demon Superman?"

"Purify him, ideally. But yes."

The bird man considers that.

"Unbind me, and I will take your words to our leader. He may decide to deal with you. Or he may destroy you himself."

I smile. "Deal."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:46 GMT

Zandia. A small volcanic island which grew out of the Tyrrhenian sea, and… Somehow it never became part of any other country. It looks like whatever spell their magicians used to throw avian soldiers at us was strictly one way; while those who were still in possession of functioning wings tried to keep up with us during our flight over Asia and Europe, they couldn't manage it.

Compared to the cities of China, Europe appears to have been less affected. The cities have still been bombarded, probably from orbit, but I can't see the same mass infrastructure damage… Not everywhere, anyway. Of… Course, given what I remember about Hellblazer that could be because they've got 'Friends on the Other Side' and so came to terms with their new overlord.

I've never been to Zandia before. It was sheltered enough not to need additional protection when Ocean Master sent Oceanus on the rampage, has next to no crime and no real resources other than good soil. Not a bad place to sit out the fall of civilisation, but an odd place to make a stand against a superhuman.

Superman glances at Overman. "You've never been here either?"

"No. I have flown over it, but Hitler was minded to leave it alone during the war. I was introduced to their ruler at a diplomatic reception, but I have met a great many people."

Angelika drifts closer to them.

"What was the Demon Superman saying to you?"

Overman gives his head a small shake. "Nothing to worry about, Overgirl. Just an evil man building a throne of his inadequacies."

Superman doesn't appear to share that view.

"He told us everything he destroyed and why. All the… Petty things he decided meant that it was okay to murder people."

Overman nods. "He also listed some of the people he killed and why he thought that his life was better without them. It meant less to me as our lives are too divergent. I assume that 'Lois Lane' is someone you know well?"

Superman nods, though Overman just frowns.

"I do not understand how a version of us could have become like that."

It doesn't seem to feel right to Angelika either. "Perhaps his mind is being controlled?"

"By who? Anyone who was deliberately causing.. this, would have emerged to take control by now."

"Could his mind be altered?"

I look at Superman and Overman as we come into land.

"I don't know. Could it?"

Superman shakes his head. "Maybe. I've taken precautions, all the League have. J'onn.. and Overgirl, have been very helpful. But I can't promise that there's nothing that could get through. And I can't promise that this Superman had the same caution. God knows I could be overconfident when I started out."

He turns his head, looking to the horizon where the ash cloud around Mount Vesuvius marks its location in the sky.

"I'd hate to do something like this because someone forced me."

"Sirs and lady?" A woman in a face-obscuring red robe walks slowly out of a nearby house. Scans say that there are no other living people in this part of the island. "Our leaders have sent me to talk with you."

Superman steps forward. "You know that I'm not the monster sitting in Metropolis."

"Of course you're not, though I suggest changing your shirt. Wearing that symbol tends to provoke a… Response."

That realisation hits him hard. "I, ah, didn't-."

I take a thick woolly jumper out of subspace and float it over to him. He looks at it, shrugs, then takes off his shirt and cape and holds them out to me. I subspace them as he puts on the jumper.

"What happened?"

The woman spreads her arms slightly. "A great many things. Only yesterday three new chicks were hatched in the farm of Paolo Ricci-."

"Superman going crazy. Assuming that he wasn't always like that."

"Far from it. He was a great warrior hero, the most favoured son of the City of Metropolis. I'm afraid that I don't know why he changed; I was here on Zandia when the explosions started."

"Had there been anything in the news? Was your Justice League fighting anyone in particular?"

"We're not exactly first with the international news here. I think there was something about a giant alien..?"

Superman shrugs. "That doesn't narrow it down too much. But why has he left your people alone?"

"We have nothing that he wants, and have done nothing that he finds particularly offensive. We know that there is nothing we could do to harm him. All that we can do is await the return of our Lord and Saviour, and pray that He does the needful."

"And other people?"

"We keep in contact with other settlements through the Church, but with inter-continental travel difficult and radio waves distorted, getting timely reports is extremely difficult. If Superman -our Superman- decided to destroy a city, we would probably see the smoke before we received a report."

Angelika looks at her curiously. "Where did the bird people come from?"

"They are from Greenland. Superman melted it for reasons known only to himself, and a portion of the population were able to escape. They would much rather fight him directly, but, well…"

"No kryptonite?"

"Removing all of the world's kryptonite was one of the first things he did. After burning cities lost its appeal."

"What about his… Thralls?"

She shrugs.

"Dangerous and deranged, but for the most part it is like they are not aware that a world exists outside of America."

Superman looks out to sea, to the coast of Italy. "When did this happen?"

"Nearly two years ago, now. I understand that the starvation was worst in the first year; we're fairly self-sufficient here. Would you mind if I asked a question of you?"

"Not at all." Superman shakes his head, looking… Noticeably less imposing in a jumper. He'll have to change back before we return home. "What do you want to know?"

"Where are you from?"

"An alternate Earth where this never happened. We'd like to help in any way we can."

"We would-" Overman glances at Superman. "-also like to know if you have heard of anyone on this Earth attempting to travel to other universes as well."

"Travelling to other universes?" She sounds amused as she shakes her head. "Most universities have been destroyed. Places with advanced technology… Anyone with that knowledge is dead or in hiding. People have all the motivation they could want to leave, they just don't have the ability."

Why would Truggs come here? Somewhere like this would irritate him even more than Earth 16. Brilliant people who could have revolutionised the world either killed or put in an environment where all they can do is scrub out a subsistence existence. Their work-.

Their work.

We're in a parallel universe.

"I think I might know what Truggs was doing."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
19:59 GMT +1

Prague has suffered raging fires that destroyed most of the historic parts of the town, spreading out from the sites of meteorite impacts. Though the fires have long since burned themselves out, between the flames and the shockwaves, there isn't much left but rubble.

Unless you know where to look.

I shove another pile of rubble to the side, and… Yes, here we are. I don't know where all of Doctor Sivana's hidey-holes are, but I know quite a few. Unlike the rest of the city, his bases are designed to take a pounding. Nothing that Superman couldn't force his way through with dedicated effort -very few hardened locations can make that boast, and fewer still make it honestly- but enough to survive near misses.

Superman takes a not entirely approving breath.

"Do I want to know how much time you spent with Sivana?"

"Probably not."

But 'survive' and 'survive untouched' aren't the same things. There's a clunk as my filaments shift a part of the door's mechanism, and then the hatch swings open.

"Okay, so unlike back home, the defences here aren't programmed to limit themselves in attacking me."

"They still attacked you when you were… Friends?"

"It was a sort of test."

"A test to find out what you could do?"

"A test to see whether it would drive me away." Hm. "I don't think they had any specifically anti-Kryptonian weapons here, but I-."

He raises his right hand to stop me. "I'll go first."

He leaps down the hole, his flying abilities keeping him from touching the floor once he's cleared the shaft. Nothing attacks him right away, which probably means that the guns are charging. I-.

My armour doesn't fit through the hole. Ah. I switch my heavy armour out for my medium suit and make doubly sure that my construct armour is in place, then drop down after him.

"I'm not seeing any sign that someone's been here."

"Can you see through the walls?"

"No. I'm guessing that the Sivanas use something a little more sophisticated than lead."

"Li-ttle bit." I take a look around the emergency exit. Not too much security here, because it's where they would go in an emergency. "Information request. Is Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana in residence?"

Nothing happens. Superman looks around cautiously.

"How long does it usually-?"

The air turns blue as plasma initiators deploy from the floor and ceiling, liberated electrons crackling harmlessly around my construct shield. Superman appears to be mildly in pain-.

He turns his head around the room, red rays flashing out from his eyes to destroy the initiators. I wave my left hand and pull the one closest to me out of the ceiling, taking the time to scan it in detail. Looks pretty much the same as what our Sivana uses.

"Is that the friendly greeting version, or the actively hostile version?"

"Depends whether there's robot follow-"

The door between us and the rest of the facility drops into the floor, revealing a bulky robot with multi-barrelled pulse plasma guns.

"-up."

"Die!"

Superman takes the majority of its wrath as he flies at it, fists extended! Each side has twelve guns on a single mount, and the green plasma washes over-.

And now there's a Superman-shaped hole in the middle. Interesting. No force field.

I fly closer to give it a thorough scan. Yes, that is odd. Usually I wouldn't be able to scan the interior mechanism unless they were deliberately letting me, but here there's no problem.

"Did you feel a force field bubble?"

"No. Should we expect more of them?"

"Yes. Ah, actually, they should already be here." Oh. That explains the lack of force field. "This has been in combat recently. See here?"

I point and Superman nods.

"The emitters were already burned out."

"There's more charring on the interior. I'd guess an EMP grenade, but… They'd be shielded against that."

Ring?

"There are weapons that could bypass the shielding that Sivana uses on this model. Can't.. think of anyone who uses them on Earth, mind."

Superman frowns, sniffing-. And he's gone.

Ring, air analysis? Ah.

I float after him, conducting a continual scan of my environment. Nothing like as hard as it is back home, most likely because they didn't have much contact with Lanterns here. As I follow in Superman's wake I see increased signs of battle damage unrelated to the impacts which destroyed the city above us; drone guns destroyed in their mounts, burns on the walls, ceiling and floor from plasma and laser shots. Someone working for Demon Superman? Local people just trying to find somewhere to hide out?

Another corner and there are two broken robots. Damage patterns consistent with EMP charring and anti-tank rocket impacts. The main warehouse…

Superman's checking the bodies, human bodies. They're wearing unmarked body armour and carrying the sort of science fiction armaments the actual military would give their eyeteeth to own. No unit markings. Their armour has taken repeated hits which have burned through the metal/ceramic composite plates, but…

It looks like they achieved their objective. The place has been looted.

Two are crouched next to the main computer access with cables plugged it, their own computer burned out from the defensive electrical discharge. A little further along the survivors have tried again; the floor has been removed and the cables stripped. No bodies there.

"Why did they leave the bodies?" Superman shakes his head in bewilderment. "I understand stealing from Sivana, but if they took out all this equipment, why not take the bodies with them?"

"Hell is in the ascendancy. They couldn't take the risk of bringing something back with them, or giving… Something, a channel to follow."

I take hold of a spare EMP grenade and give it a detailed scan. Not exactly the same wards that have entered common circulation back on our Earth, but similar enough in principle that I think I can conclude that they came from a common source. And the weapon itself bears more than a little resemblance to what I saw when I visited the subterranean parts of LexCorp.

"We'll need pictures of their faces. If Truggs is raiding other worlds… This has the potential to get very nasty."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th September 2012
13:03 GMT -7

Sigh.

It's got to be done.

I knock on the door to Celestia's office in the School for Gifted Unicorns, which isn't actually as tribalist as it sounds. I mean, it's pretty tribalist and anyone trying this in America would find themselves on the receiving end of a civil liberties lawsuit before you could say 'cause célèbre', but not quite as bad. Canterlot is a majority unicorn city. More to the point, it's a city inhabited by unicorn aristocrats. Naturally, when building a school they focused their efforts on ensuring that the needs of their own offspring would be met. Celestia's patronage and… Jedi-like recruiting habits were a much later addition.

The door glows with her golden aura for a moment, then swings open.

"Come in, my little pon-."

I stick my head through the door, and Celestia sees one of a short list of ponies she can't call 'little'.

Or 'hers' really, unless she wants to get into another fight with Luna.

"Grayven. I'm afraid that Luna is asleep."

Since she's not kicking me right out, I walk the rest of the way in and sit down opposite her. She watches me with mild concern, and her horn glows as the door clicks shut behind me. Yes, mild concern… I don't usually talk to her unless she's messed something up with Sunset, but the two of them have actually been doing better lately. Not because any of the underlying issues have been dealt with, but because Celestia has actually listened when I advise her on what not to do.

I'm still not convinced that she can internalise any of it, but perhaps they can get to the point where it's something they find it amusing to argue over, rather than a massive flashpoint in their relationship.

"That's not what I'm here for. And-." I spot the slight tinge of concern. "It's not Sunset either. Well, not… Directly, though I suppose it affects her. Or.. affected her. I was… Looking over Equestria's crime statistics, and I… I couldn't help but notice that the alumni of this school are… Um. Overrepresented."

I take a pile of police pony files out of subspace and put them on her desk one by one.

"Fireburst. Arson. Skitterweevil. 'Plague Calling'?" I shrug. "Gallowbraid. Destruction of property. Keening. Assault and Wounding. Sunset Shimmer, assault and unauthorised use of arcana. Sunburst. Indecent Exposure. Mortar Pointing. Building… Theft?"

Celestia nods. "That's why I've tried to take an active role in running the school. Ponies are driven to realise their special talents, and with unicorns whose talents relate to magic, that can produce some fairly extreme behaviours."

"Right, but… For example, you've never sent a sun nova, have you?"

Celestia blinks. "I don't know what that is."

"Ah. No, I suppose you wouldn't. Okay, here." I take a book on stellar dynamics out of subspace. Something I assembled myself, taking parts from more reader-friendly texts as well as mathematical explanations from university level books and translating the whole thing into Equestrian. "I was going to give this to you at some point. Consider it a down payment on Luna's bride price."

"Thank you." She levitates it to her side of her desk with a slight frown. "I hadn't realised that your relationship had reached that point." She considers for a moment, then manages a smile. "Though I'm happy for both of you, there isn't any requirement in Equestria to 'buy' a bride."

"No, I realise that. Page one hundred and forty seven." She flips through the pages with her magic. "And we're not. I was just… Trying to be witty."

"When Luna and I were younger, the dowry would be paid to the head of a herd. If you want to marry Luna, you should probably avoid implying that I'm above her."

"So, what, Starswirl? Luna's an old pony. I want to do things-"

Celestia's eyes widen and she leans away from the page as if it might leap up and bite her!

"-properly. Yes. Nova."

"This is… The end of the sun's life? It… Expands until it consumes all of the worlds in its orbit?"

"Depends on the size. Of course, your system might just continue on indefinitely because magic says so. But the point I was making is that you don't do that just because your special talent is suns."

Celestia takes a moment to steady her nerves after being confronted with what is for a pony an extremely unpleasant idea. Pony science isn't advanced enough to have even guessed any of that.

"My special talent is a little broader than that. While it's true that I control the sun, my talent relates to ensuring that my little ponies can live in a world which is stable and predictable. Stabilising the sun's movement around the world was simply the most obvious sign of that."

I nod. "Fair enough. But to return to the point I was trying to make, it's… It's not just Sunset. A great many ponies who come here don't seem to take the whole 'friendship' thing on board. So even if we take it as read that friendship-orientated education is a good idea, the current way it's being delivered isn't working."

Celestia nods, closing the book and pushing it aside. And then putting a stack of work to be marked on top of it.

"What do you suggest?"

"Well, it… Ah. Seems to me that… Ponies can be a fairly highly strung species, and… Getting their cutie mark is a major life transition. My understanding is that it's normal for ponies with thaumaturgy-related marks to apply or have applications submitted for them almost immediately after getting them."

"That's right."

"So… You've got ponies who are in the top percentage of magical ability… For unicorns, who are the most varied of the tribes in the way their magic manifests… And the moment they go through this life-defining experience you remove them from their family and other social support networks and move them to live in a boarding school in the capital city with the goddess-princess of the entire nation watching them. Bit of a… High stress environment."

"I-. Don't…

"I don't know exactly how it works for ponies, but that sounds like the sort of things that would make humans… Act out."

"I see." She adopts a thoughtful pose. "What do you suggest?"

"Sunset's working on a fixed point to fixed point teleportation system. For the younger students… Just stick one in their homes and let them teleport to school each day. You could keep the boarding facilities for the older students, but I'm… I think letting them transition gradually will reduce the stress and the mark-fixation."

Celestia sighs very quietly.

"Do you think that would have helped Sunset?"

"'Helped'? Honestly, I think you did the best you could for her." Celestia looks at me, pleasantly surprised. "If you hadn't pushed her away like that, she'd never have gotten as far as she has. 'Show Celestia how wrong she was' was a big part of her motivation." Her smile vanishes. "Though I appreciate that probably wasn't what you were aiming for."

"… No. I will speak about the removal of the option for boarding with the school staff. When will Sunset be able to arrange a demonstration?"

"Ah, a couple of days. She's having trouble adjusting to teaching completely magically illiterate students, so lesson planning is taking more of her time than she originally thought it would."

Celestia perks up a little at that.

"Do you think she would object to my help?"

"No? Probably not? Why do you ask?"

"After the defeat of Discord, Luna and I had the greatest knowledge of magic of any save for Starswirl himself. We taught the basics of magic to many students all across ponydom. I'm sure that I can manage a class of humans."

…

Should be interesting, anyway.