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

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
22:53 GMT +1

"I had another vision."

Mr. Wasem doesn't look at me. He's sitting opposite me with his body facing me, but his head is turned off to the side. The three pilots I rescued are sitting in that general direction but I don't think he's looking at them.

"I had another vision, and-."

"And it was Mannheim. I'm sorry."

"He is… Doing something to the world, isn't he? After you took the hel-helmet off, I felt… The crushing despair. All my devotion-. I just wanted to help people-. I-I…"

"To be clear, Mannheim isn't God. False visions happen, as do lying false prophets. You were trying to do good for good reasons. God knows that."

"Perhaps… Perhaps it is just the… Shock… But at the moment, I do not know what to think. What I think. To think there is such… Evil in the universe."

"I realise that Kahndaq-."

His face turns back towards me, and for the first time I see a little of the real him. "No. That was the evil of men. The sort of evil that happened for all of history. What I feel in my soul, that is something… Something beyond."

"I know what you mean."

"I suppose… I suppose that you do." He shakes his head. "I was in the community centre. Then… Then it started. It was like…"

"Yeah."

"Like everything I had worked for was… It was a waste of time, like I had made the situation worse and that there was nothing that anyone could have done to make things better. To begin with, it was just… Something external, someone telling me that. People were screaming, panicking, and I tried… Tried calming them down. It… It didn't… Didn't work. I couldn't do it. Then… Then it wasn't outside any more. It was me, I believed it."

"Was that because they put the helmet on you?"

He bows his head slightly, then shakes it.

"No. No, it was not. When they-. When they came, with the helmets, I… I stepped forward. I wanted it, wanted… Wanted to complete the.. change, to… Accept what was happening, to know why it was happening. With the helmet on, I… Felt that I was a.. tiny, completely replaceable part of some… Great machine."

I nod. "And that was the right place for you, and it was right that the machine was there. And standing-"

He stares directly at me, his eyes widening slightly as he nods.

"-over it all is a malevolent divine power."

"Yes. Yes."

"If you're worried about anything… Anything blasphemous prayers you might have shouted while under the influence, don't. Heaven knows that mind control exists. God knows your heart."

"But what if my heart has been corrupted with my mouth?"

"Then you need to get to work on uncorrupting it. The people who put the helmet on you, were they wearing helmets themselves?"

"No. I recognized some of them from the Alliance. Superheroes, or just people who wanted to do some good in the world but didn't have faith in God."

"They weren't wearing helmets?"

He shakes his head.

"Were they wearing anything similar? Any… Sort of device that had the same design on it?"

"No, not… Not that I saw."

"Were there any other members of the Congregation there with you?"

"One man. He was affected in the same way that I was."

"Can you hear the rest of them?"

"I'm-." He shakes his head, then goes back to looking away. "I'm.. blocking it. We can still have privacy. I'm-. I am afraid of what I would feel."

I nod. "Understandable. Can you tell me what happened between them putting the helmet on you and you appearing here?"

"It-. It's not… With… That in my head, being all I could.. think of, where I was, what I was doing… It didn't matter. Just being part of the machine, doing what G-. What he wanted. Shooting you, shooting myself…" He trembles as he shakes his head. "It didn't matter. It was all the same."

"I don't suppose you got any sort of… Feel, for what other plans he might have?"

"No. Only that they were great and terrible and inevitable. I..?"

"Yes."

"How is..? Gotham? And Kahndaq?"

"Kahndaq's okay, actually. Teth Adom is able to use his magic to keep the Anti-Life out-."

"That's what it's called? I suppose it's appropriate."

"Yes, so Adrianna's leading the defence. It's one of two places in the world that look like they're holding out."

I look around, trying to get a feel of the mind state of the people of Norway. The Anti-Life is all around, but with a little help from Guy it's… Mostly at bay. I… Maybe Dr. Balewa can use Scandinavia to see what other tweaks he can make to keep things normal? If we can prevent them from physically invading, they can't have an infinite number of helmets. Even if they're getting them from Apokolips, it's just a matter of travelling there and destroying the factory.

"Look, I need to get back to it. Gotham is even less safe than normal, so I can leave you here or take you to Kahndaq."

He nods. "Is it a sign of weakness that I want to go to Kahndaq?"

"I don't think it's that unreasonable, given what happened to you."

"I would rather shelter under a pagan god…"

"I'm pretty sure that Kahndaq is going to play a major role when we retake the Earth, so feel free to volunteer when you've recovered a bit. To be honest, from the looks of things you wouldn't be much use at the moment."

He nods again. "No, I suppose not. Thank you."

"Orange Lantern to Blue Lantern."

"Go ahead."

"Robot defeated, Justifiers… I'll send you the file. One survivor, technique for fighting the robot acquired. I'm heading to Kahndaq now, but if you need me somewhere else..?"

"It looks like the Justifiers sent some people to your place in Bir Tawil. I think maybe you should take a look at it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
00:02 GMT +2

"…know precisely how far Teth Adom's purification aura extends?"

"As far as Kahndaq's borders. But that does not just mean our 'official' borders. If the people hail him as their king, his power shields them."

I nod as I come up on… My home away from home.

"Does that include Bir Tawil? I can see the greenery from here."

"No." Falil sounds quite sure. "Mighty Adom discussed the matter, and it was decided that your use of that place required that it be part of no nation."

"Thank you. I'll let you get back to it."

I lower my ring, wincing.

This is a trade post which I upgraded slightly to be more suited for long term habitation. It was never precisely a fortress. But it has-. Had force fields and automated weapons of varying degrees of lethality. It.. technically still has armour that should turn aside most Earth-built anti-armour weapons.

Someone smashed right through it all. That's… Within the combined abilities of people the Alliance has on its rolls, I think. If Marcus-.

I look over at the blasted-open anti-ship silos.

Ring, scan for atmospheric disturbances commensurate to-. Yes.

Marcus's ship has some pretty solid shields. From the residual ionisation in the air it looks like it took a few hits, and then…

I float over to the closest silo and try connecting to the control system. No, it's been destroyed. Local backup? Destroyed. Targetting data in the gun itself? No.

"Orange Lantern to Blue Lantern. Bir Tawil's been attacked. Exterior defences appear to have been destroyed by a force that included Alpha Centurion's ship."

"Yeah, that's what we picked up. You got any idea how worried we should be about him just… Flying to another planet in it?"

"Don't know. Mister Wasem told me that Alliance members didn't need to wear the helmet to be under the sway of the Anti-Life. Otherwise I'd have guessed that they had to stay in range of the Earth's thaumosphere. If anyone is going to have been heavily dosed, it's Marcus. And he has the coordinates of every inhabited world in this region, so if he…"

"He can just fly off any time he wants to."

Ah.

"No, because he doesn't have access to the Justice League's interdiction system. He could fly off, but it would take him months to get outside the affected area at least. There's still boom tubes… Do we have a count on the number of simultaneous boom tubes they've used?"

"I don't think so. Our coverage isn't what it was." He sighs. "Gotham and New York are little slices of Hell right now, Paul. The people who aren't catatonic are… They're lashing out at everyone and everything."

"Unlikely. There's almost certainly a pattern."

"That's what Riddler says. One thing I don't get, maybe you can explain it to me: if Mannheim's trying to take over the world with mind control, why is he letting them tear it apart?"

"Could be several reasons. I doubt he could produce enough helmets for everyone in secret. So he sets this off, we're distracted and he has the time to finish his work. Or he might not be trying to conquer the Earth."

"No?"

"This universe contains seven galaxies. Each contains about a hundred billion stars. The Reach are trying to conquer them reasonably conventionally, subverting their neighbours before annexing and exterminating them. By N.E.M.O.'s calculations, they might just about finish before the universe runs out of energy. Apokolips haven't been on a conquest-spree for longer than humans have had the wheel. Darkseid is trying to learn more about the Anti-Life because universal mind control is more practical than conquering everything."

"So that's all it's about."

"That would be my guess. He's been able to negate Lanterns since the Green Lantern Corps' failed invasion. That's not new. But the sort of arcane technology Earth's developing is new. Maybe he wanted to see how they interact?"

"But why bother attacking your place? What do you have in there?"

"Some weapons they either couldn't or didn't try to take in one piece." I don't suppose I can scan..? No, that would have been too much. "Not sure about the interior. I've got-. I had a couple of purple healing rays here, but they don't seem all that worried about their people dying. I'm going to look inside."

"Do you need help?"

"Doesn't look like there's anyone still here." And we're in the Anti-Life zone. We don't have enough people who can resist on their own. "I'll handle it. Probably just a matter of recording the damage. I didn't keep anything unique here."

I release Lantern Thornton and send him forwards, flying in through the gaping wound in my breakfast room.

"It's clear."

I follow him in. Am I even going to rebuild this? Yes, yes of course I am, but getting one of my…

Yes, first world problem, but I doubt that Jade's flat is in one piece either.

"Damage to the interior is precise, targeted at defence systems. Some blood on the floor, and the… Pattern of dust and clothes suggests to me that wounded Justifiers were vitality drained. Estimate… Thirty minimum killed in the initial part of the attack."

The outer defences escalate to human-lethal, but they start at 'stun'. Or… It's possible that they interact with the Anti-Life in a way that causes more damage. There aren't all that many long-term Anti-Life exposure cases off Apokolips itself. We're probably going to be a gold mine for researchers.

"Still clear. The place is empty."

I continue on, maintaining my alert just in case. Living area looks like someone threw an explosive into it. Orange light spills out from my left ring and begins reassembling the settee, though if I'm going to have to redecorate I should probably run it past Jade first. Dismissing my own efforts, I float into the working areas.

"Workshop and storage room were ignored as far as I can tell. The defence systems are destroyed and there are more remains, but it doesn't look like they took anything or destroyed anything that wasn't directly in their way."

"What sort of things did they ignore?"

"Space-age tools. A couple of infantry weapon prototypes. Useful things that normal supervillains would loot. Not what Mannheim wanted, so they didn't even look at it."

Next is medical. I float over the molten remains of the door.

Darn it.

"One of the purple rays is gone. Parts of the computer have been carefully removed and taken. Three cloning tanks and my three backup bodies have also been removed."

"Your three-? Oh, because you can move yourself.. into one if you die."

"I'm not sure if I can do it on a thaumically active world, but that's the idea."

Though obviously I can't risk it now.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
00:06 GMT +2

"Did they just..? I don't know, destroy them? If they're going to try and kill you, they wouldn't want you coming back."

"They took all the equipment required to keep them in suspended animation."

"Are you.. saying, they're alive?"

"Living tissue. There's no activity in their brains. They're really no physically different to how I'd be if I died and was immediately frozen. Only with less of an arcane presence."

"You're sure they can't just… I don't know, wake them up?"

"Depending on what technology they've got access to, probably. The machines I had them plugged into weren't designed to do anything like that." I check, and-. Yes, they removed the rune-inscribed plates that were supposed to ease my entry into them. "There's a resurrection protocol programmed into the system, but that's only supposed to trigger if it detects me in them."

"What would happen if someone triggered it when you weren't… Ah, 'in there'?"

"It would be like taking a brain dead coma patient off life support. They'd lie there, and eventually die."

"So they can't just… Wake up as you."

"No, Alan, that would be slavery and murder."

"Alright, but you understand how it sounds, don't you?"

"Would it help if you thought of them as cloned organs for transplant?"

"No, not really. Back in the fifties, I ran into some space pirates who said the same thing about some people they abducted."

"Could those people talk? Did they have actively functioning brains?"

"Yeah, they did."

"Mine don't. And can't, without the sort of work that you'd need to do in order to make a body fresh from the cemetery get up and walk around again."

"Okay, that's… That makes me feel a little better about the whole thing. Is that common, out in space?"

"Clone-doning does happen in some places, but it's exactly the sort of lazy-evil that I despise. If you have the technology to clone an adult, then you have the technology to clone individual organs and keep them alive. The only place I know of where it was common was Krypton, but they didn't allow the clones to develop mentally-. Meaning they were brain dead not that they were children."

"I don't remember Superman talking about it."

"They stopped a long time ago. After a major war. The trigger was a really messed up case where a woman called Nyra Vor-Z tried to marry her son to a clone of herself and he murdered them both and then tried to kill himself… Krypton abandoned cloning but decided that memory-dubbing was still fine. I'd have gone the other way…"

"So what can they do with them?"

"I'm not sure. There are some magic rituals that require parts of a person's body, but they barely count, thaumically. I don't taste any better than most people, so I doubt that it's for consumption."

Alan makes an awkward-sounding cough-laugh.

"That's a little dark."

"Who's growing crops right now? Rearing animals? Who's transporting them to cities that don't produce any of their own food? Every society is only three meals away from chaos. And I'd have to destroy them now, anyway."

Ah, who am I kidding?

"I mean, obviously Mannheim's going to animate them and make me fight them in such a way that he gains whichever of us wins, but I've got no idea what the mechanism he's going to use is and since I don't know where they are there isn't much I can do about it." I sigh, calling Lantern Thornton back to my ring. "Alright, there's nothing else for me to do here. Any new orders?"

"Just a moment." … "Batman wants you to try talking to Euanthe or Poison Ivy. If one of them gets infected by the Anti-Life, we're in… A lot more trouble than we are already."

I fly out of the wreck of my home and turn west, accelerating across the scrubland on the edge of Adrianna's regreened area.

"I can check on them, but I don't really have any way to keep them Anti-Life free. Unless we have something?"

"Mist thinks he might be able to put something together, but we need to know it's safe first. He's going to have to work it out as he goes."

"Which he can't do if every bit of plant matter in his body is trying to kill him. Has Batman said anything about that thing in Hub City?"

"He thinks there's more than one, probably hidden all around the world. We're going to need to hit all of them. I… I think you made the right decision."

"I expected. I'm not sure."

"It's like you said, about virtue ethics. You don't act virtuously because that's guaranteed to give you the outcome you want. You act virtuously because it usually does. Because it generally does. Yeah, if that was the only place like it that Mannheim had, you might have fixed the whole thing by taking a shot. Do you think someone who pulled off something like this would just have one site?"

"Possible, but unlikely."

"Right, so you'd have killed them for no good. But if they're alive and we can free them, we could… I don't know, build something like the machine they were plugged into so we can… Reverse the Anti-Life, or shield people and places from it. I… I do see the usefulness of being able to kill people without hesitating. I don't like it, but I… I do understand. But I'm glad you didn't. And-. And don't say 'we'll find out if I was right later', because that's not how it works."

"Yeah. Thanks, Alan. Okay, coming up on the coast now. I'll get back in touch if anything significant happens."

"Blue Lantern out."

31st December 2012
19:09 GMT -3

And there's Rio de Janeiro, not looking much worse than normal. Interesting fact that with the money and drugs more or less gone, large criminal gangs are more or less a thing of the past. Plenty of small gangs, and I can hear gunfire from here, but the Accala have almost completely cut off drug production in South America. And the reduced size of the government gives far less opportunity for corruption.

"Orange Lantern to Accalacan. Literally anyone, please come in."

Scans of the jungle are confused, as per normal. The Accala had nothing to do with the Alliance of the Just, due to not needing external help in policing themselves and having a barely measurable crime rate. Also, a healthy dislike of foreigners and no infrastructure. Point is, I'm not expecting any Justifiers out here-.

"Lantern. What the Hell is happening to us?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:12 GMT -3

The Accala in… Ah, this village, are subdued, but it looks like they're still functional. Just the occasional hesitation or shudder to indicate what they're going through. Huh. Maybe I was wrong about the people in North Africa not being so badly affected because they're used to it. Maybe a more simple way of life and good social networks just makes people better able to resist the Anti-Life than the complex and socially isolated lives of city-dwellers? Don't know. A few people look up as I fly overhead, but for the most part they just focus on whatever they were doing before.

Hugo himself is sitting cross-legged on the top of a ancient flat-topped pyramid. Tourism has become a lot more difficult since the Accala and Euanthe destroyed the interior's road networks. A few brave souls still make the journey, but otherwise they're mostly used as meeting points. The Accala aren't Aztecs after all, and their culture has diverged quite a lot from the Mayans. He's just sort of staring out into space, and I don't think he's aware that I'm here.

"Mister Danner?"

He blinks, rousing himself from his stupor.

"Anti-Life. That's what this is?"

"Yes. May I ask what you're feeling?"

"Desolation and despair. It's as if I never left prison, never saw that the Accala survived, never found a new purpose. Does it go away?"

"Uh, it's being broadcast and we're working on stopping that."

"I mean, does it stop affecting a person?"

"Probably, but it requires a degree of profound spiritual awakening that is highly unusual. I'm not affected at all by the broadcast and Lantern Gardner can easily ignore it. Everyone else gets what you get; Superman, Batman… The only other way it wears off is if you internalise it and accept it. But don't do that."

"I wasn't planning to. Once was enough. Is there anything we can do to help the Justice League?"

I create a binder with a summary of everything we've learned and pass it over.

"I don't know how good your communication links are, and I think that the person behind this is using the Green as a transmission medium, but if you can relay this to the whole of Accalacan that would let everyone know what's going on."

"The Green? That explains-. You're here to check on Isley and Euanthe, aren't you?"

"Something wrong?"

"Our tribe's druids said something about her wanting us to stay away from Brasília. I sent some runners, and it looks like they've fortified the place. They didn't want to get too close, because when a goddess tells you to keep away it's a good idea to keep away, but from what I've heard you're not the type to listen."

"Doing things sensible people wouldn't is what being a superhero's all about. Did she say anything other than 'stay away'?"

"The druids aren't saying anything coherent. I thought they were just getting a stronger version of whatever's affecting everyone, but there could be more to it."

"I assume that Accala druids are Dannered-up too?"

"Yes."

"Keep an eye on them. When a person accepts the Anti-Life, they fall under the control of the person causing this."

He nods. "I'll give the orders."

"Doctor Mist thinks that he might be able to use the Green to push the Anti-Life out. We can't promise anything, but do we have your permission to try?"

"God, yes."

I nod, floating upwards. "I'll get back to you when I know what's happening in Brasília."

I turn north and accelerate, shooting over the revitalised greenery towards the former capital. Scans show… Something like the Sleeping Beauty's castle, thorns everywhere. And not just thorns. I recognise those hairs. Passive defences might be manageable with patience but that doesn't mean that they can't kill you. Or make you wish they could. Interesting that she hasn't put a dome over the city, but I suppose that she doesn't want to cut off the sunlight.

Or perhaps it's meant to serve as a lure.

There is an exterior wall, a giant wall of brambles solid enough to stop someone walking through it but not solid enough to climb. And… Something about it…

I hold up a rune stone, which glows as it nears the wood.

Active magic. A step up from what Dr. Isley could use last time I visited her. Depending on how advanced it is, those things could be projecting an aura of conceptual agony and poison for about a metre or so. And constant exposure will overwhelm my defences.

If I fly over and they've got any defences on automatic, I could get in serious trouble. They don't have a radio or any other kind of modern communications infrastructure. How do I signal that I'm friendly?

I release Lantern Thornton from my ring and send him forward over the wall. He narrowly makes it over the top before vines shoot out and pierce him, sending him back to my ring. I release him again and send him higher. A mile up he easily passes over the wall before drifting down into the spike-infested former street-.

And he's back in the ring, without seeing what destroyed him.

Alright, that's not working. The only alternative involves doing something that Euanthe specifically asked me not to do, but she should recognise that I'm the one doing it.

I point my hands at the wall and focus on the mandala which Lantern Medphyll uses for manipulating plant life. True to Euanthe's request I haven't practised with this at all, so there's little chance that it will be less annoying to her than last time.

Ah well.

I form a connection to the Green via local plant life, and add a tiny amount of unformatted orange light in the direction of growth, which should be uncontroversial, r-?

Thorn vines erupt towards me, spines spinning around each other like a rock crusher! I fly backwards, away from-. Towards the other trees shit disintegrate and fly up and deploy physical shields!

The trees outside the barrier died in response to my energy pulse, but the wall of vines didn't and it's still coming-.

Thorn darts slam into my metal shield. It's not an exotic material but it should be tough enough to deal with anything a plant can throw and it's not. Hardened… Spines? Have bent the metal with every impact, tearing through the metal in several places. I'm honestly impressed, though I'd rather it wasn't shooting at me.

Okay, mandala, focus on the spine, see if I can trigger-.

That's not a spine-.

Vines lash out as I back up but they're already around me, grabbing onto my armour and pulling me towards the seed! Disintegrate, full reverse, cut the vines off-.

Ah…

This is… New.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:17 GMT -3

For a confused moment I think it's dragged me down into the city, but what I initially thought were plant-covered ruined tower blocks are… Actually rotting trees, towering over the streets even as the inside of their trunks rot and great fronds of fungus sprout from their sides. Vines wrap around them and hang between them, but they don't look all that healthy either. Their leaves have holes in them and the vines themselves seem shrivelled and woody. The ground is hard and dry earth, dead roots poking through here and there to break up the surface.

I… Think I'm in the Green. Looks like a mess.

"Hello?"

Metal shield and its associated seeds -interesting choice of projectile- didn't come through with me. I've still got my armour and rings, so I generate construct armour, and…

A branch falls from high above, hitting the ground in front of me and exploding into dry rot.

Oh, this isn't good.

I'm not going to try manipulating the Green from inside the Green, but if I get a little height I might be able to spot Euanthe or Isley. If they're here.

Well, someone fired those seed pods at me, and low-lethality isn't the way Apokolips does things. So, presumably, someone wants me here. And if there are Apokoliptians here, somehow, then fighting them is part of my job so them finding me just saves me time.

"Orange Lantern T-. Illustres here!"

I look over at the closest dying tree as I float upwards. It's alive but barely, and in parts. But while this is more the idea of a tree than an actual tree, I should be able to patch it up. I look around to see if there's any obvious point of interest but it really just looks like more of the same. Dingy, too, as the plant's idea of the sun is obscured by the plant's idea of rain clouds.

Okay, time to fix the plant. Fixing the inner wood is pretty simple, it's the outer bark that's the complex part. And I've got no idea what these… Spiritual reflections of trees are supposed to look like outside of their general structure. Should I make… Side branches? Leaves? Are they trying to mimic the structure of buildings, or is this a model of a successful tree, choking out all rivals in a show of strength of the sort every plant wishes it could replicate?

Let's just fix the obvious stuff and hope that-

"No."

-it-.

A wave of dark specks pass over me, each one settling into a self-created divot on my construct armour and… Spreading out, polluting and draining it. I part the armour away from the direction of the attack, flying back and thrusting the construct away before dismissing it and creating a replacement.

Where did that-?

Another cloud descends from above, and it-. Moves like dust, moving with impetus-.

Construct fan, blow it back the way it came. The dust is somewhat affected, but where it touches either the vines or the tree it starts eating at them. Okay, not what I wanted. Wide-beam maser construct, wait for-. There, movement near the top of the tree. I fire the maser, which-. Does nothing because the Green has no concept of microwave radiation. Switch to chemical flame thrower and back up back up, transmute fuel, aim and fire!

My fuel spurts out, the dust cloud igniting a moment later, and-. And that was highly flammable! I fly back and then up, trying to spot whatever it was that I saw a moment ago. Just more manky-looking wood, but-.

"Rot."

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

And I see it. Looks a little like the fungus person I saw on Alstair, only partially submerged in rotten wood.

"Oi! You!"

"Wither and die, feed-."

I lash out with an orange beam. I mostly want to grab… It? And try interrogating it, rather than just kill it. If that's even possible here. But my target ducks back into the wood and disappears before the beam can reach it.

Okay, if that's how you want to play it.

I trace the outline of the tree it's attached to and insert filaments into the trunk-.

A new.. spore cloud, bursts from one of the fungal growths. That simplifies matters. I open up with my flame thrower again, allowing the relatively normal burst of heat to waft over my construct armour. Then I send construct cables into the frond and tear it free, setting my ring to work on fixing the tree beneath.

Good. Now, if I guess right and the fungoid can't move through healthy wood, it should-.

Another cloud, another burst of flame to incinerate it. If I was a druid myself I'd consider some sort of burn off ritual to renew the area, but since I'm not I'm going to have to do it a little slower. Can't.. see the fungoid, but I don't need to see to repair the tree.

"Decay from within."

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

Sound coming from there, keep up the flame throwing and send cables to make repairs to the wood here and here.

And then-.

"Die-"

The flames billow and something lands on me as I try to evade. I'm seeing damp rotting wood and fungal growths in a humanoid shape, black-glowing talons which-

"-and feed me!"

Pull the cables back and bind its arms!

-is disturbing, but perfectly-.

The weakened wood of the arms falls apart, releasing a new wave of spores at point blank-

Backupbackupbackup!

-range!

Abandon construct armour again, cables constrict further and assimilate, because you're a rot creature and you're trying to kill everything.

"Decay from without!"

Connection lost.

Then increase the temperature on the flame thrower.

Compliance.

"GYAAAAAGH!"

Wood crackles and burns, flames clearly visible under the exterior wooden shell as damp rot loses moisture!

"Constructs don't burn. Your choice. Assimilate."

No resistance detected. Identity theft complete. Nameless fungoid of the rot, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps.

And…

And the flames die down, and I see the rest of them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:21 GMT -3

Dozens of lumpy fungoid faces staring at me from their perches in the rotten boughs of the Green. I mark their locations as I slowly gain height. There doesn't seem to be a 'roof' to this place, but at a certain point there are fewer tree-representations trying to reach for it.

I create a giant construct of myself.

"Yeah?! You want some too?! This is the Green!"

I continue making repairs to this tree while I still have their attention.

"And you're invaders! Leave, or be cast out!"

Most vanish back inside their trees, with a few staying on lookout duty. The trees they're in don't seem to be getting… Notably worse, so I assume that they're building something to fight me. Still not seeing Euanthe or Isley, but the tree I'm working on is almost back in a functional state. In fact, that's the last of the rotten sections gone and all the bark is connected up.

But it still feels… Incomplete.

I wince as I form the mandala. Okay, what could I have been doing wrong? Everyone I know who does this is a weird plant person either naturally or by adoption. I try to command plant life. Does that sound like something that Euanthe would do? No. Euanthe considers herself to be part of the plant continuum. She nudges and encourages, she doesn't just restructure piece by piece as she will.

The body is earth, the blood is magma. Think like a tree-. No, feel like a tree.

Not blood. Desires. The world is the soil where my roots grow and feed. Those concepts that I need to form the shape of myself flow up my skin and to the parts of me that need them. I reach out, taking what I need to grow.

I want to be… A tree.

Ah. I think that's working.

I mean, I've got no idea how to do anything complicated, manipulating it this indirectly. But for just getting the whole thing started up again, that appears to be doing it. I can see the tree looking more… Alive, than it did before. Parts that I didn't know what to do with are sprouting, small branches growing and leaf buds appearing.

One down, an entire plane to go.

"Tree, have you got any idea where Euanthe is?"

The tree says nothing.

"Fine. Fungoid, your name is now 'Gary'. Confirm directive."

"I confirm."

"What's going on, Gary?"

"We are led to a land of food which enriches the soul, nourishing us."

"This food would be… These living spiritual representations of plants?"

"They were alive. We struggle to eat the living wood. But something made them smell of death, taste of death. Taste of food."

I remember a film reviewer once saying that when the squids arose from the sea to dominate the Earth, Hellboy would serve as evidence of our casual anti-squid racism. I don't want to be racist against fungi. I'm sure that they serve a very useful ecological niche, and the fact that they're usually found on dying trees isn't proof that they made them die, any more than finding maggots in rotting flesh is proof that they made it rot.

But still.

"What has to happen for your kind to leave?"

"We will leave when there is nothing to eat."

"The place you were before this. What was it like?"

"Waiting, as a spore waits to germinate. Sometimes we would hear food and we would extrude one of us to consume it. But all there are as we are."

Ah, it's the old 'rabbits in Australia' problem. In a creature's own ecosystem there are all sorts of other creatures that live in balance with it, eating it or otherwise using it. Take it out of that, and it reproduces uncontrollably.

"How mentally complex are you?"

"What?"

Right. It's never been anything else; how would it know how to compare itself to anything else? It's an elemental creature, not a normal person who happens to be fungus-based. Even if it can engage in conversation, that doesn't mean that it can be persuaded to act out of its element any more than Euanthe can.

"Am I correct in assuming that you're some sort of fungus elemental?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what it was that made this place feel edible?"

"No."

"What were those decay-related abilities you used on me?"

"An extension of my nature. I am decay to things that are not like me."

"You can induce decay, and not just feed on it."

"It is tiring. But I am well-fed." For the first time it forms an expression. I think it's confused. "I was well-fed."

"Are there intelligent beings here who are not like you?"

"Yes."

"The tree I healed. Does it feel tasty to you?"

"Not… Now. But if I was not like this…"

Its structure changes, odd fronds projecting from its head and neck and waving in the air.

"Yes."

Which means that I can't leave it to the mercy of the others… Wait.

"Using your abilities on things that aren't rotting uses your strength. Whatever it is that made this place feel edible didn't actually make it edible. You had to use your powers to fully rot these trees, didn't you?" It nods as it pulls its fronds back in. "So how come you aren't all starving to death here?"

"There is more to eat."

Then… They have to be a symptom. Or possible a distraction. Magic loci resist being changed; you can't just take one and then add its strength to your own without losing something. Did something… Magnify their ability to rot things? And if so, where is the connection to this realm?

I want to defend something I've built, but I don't think that's the correct thing to do here. I need to find something more significant to work on.

"Take me to where you came in."

"Yes, Master."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:26 GMT -3

I fire another wave of flames down, the spore cloud that had been rising to meet us crackling and burning. No, not a cloud; it's more like a mist, diffuse and all-enveloping. The spacing is enough that I can't just burn the whole thing with a single gout of fire, though it does clear out the area around me. Which suggests that it's not aimed at me.

"Gary, you attacked me with spore clouds. This isn't an attack. What is it?"

"Home."

"Your home is filled with spores all of the time. You consider that normal."

"Yes, but that is not all. This will make this place part of home. When we are everywhere and everything."

Ah.

"Can you manipulate the spores?"

"I can make more."

"But can you control them?"

"No." Again, he… It? Makes a confused expression. "Can you control your seeds?"

"Yes, but it's not a common ability." And Jade finds it unsettling. "Are the others of your kind doing this deliberately, or is it automatic?"

"This..?" It floats down and waves its left arm through the miasma. Interestingly, they don't try settling on it or leaching its power. "No. This is simply a product of us being here."

"Can you destroy them?"

"Yes. It isn't hard. But not more easily than you can with fire."

"Can you recall them-" It gurns at me. I.. suppose I can see where it's coming from. "-or shut down the things producing them?"

"I could go lower and tear them out of the food. That would stop them. But they would become more faster than I could do it."

I peer down through the spore mist and spot the places where the growth is just beginning. Purging fire is looking more and more like the best option.

"Fine. Carry on."

He doesn't bother coming back up, flying through the upper part of the miasma in the direction of what I hope to be the origin point. The land below is looking more like a swamp rather than a forest of rotting redwoods, though I don't know if that's just because the fungus has been working here longer or because this is a different region of the Green.

Ring, are we..? Getting anything useful?

Lack of baselines makes accurate analysis difficult. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by human standards. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by observed dryad standards.

More emotionally simple than Euanthe.

Yes.

Naturally, or is that the Anti-Life?

Unknown. Lack of baselines-.

Yes-. Yes. "Gary, what do you want-" I let out another blast of fire to clear my way. "-out of life?"

"Nothing. I exist in continuity with my environment and nature."

"But you can talk."

"I was told that elementals emerge from the world's magic as a result of human expectations. I mimic humanity. I do not possess it. I am a fungus that can talk, not a human with fungus magic."

"Do you know the name 'Mannheim'?"

"I do now."

"Did you know it before now?"

"No. Maybe. I don't register human names. Just whether they smell like food or not."

"How about 'Darkseid' or 'Anti-Life'?"

"No."

"'No' as in 'definitely not', or 'no' as in ' I didn't register it'."

"Darkseid is just a name. Anti-Life, that has meaning. If someone had told me that something was Anti-Life, I would remember it. We near it."

I frown. "Anti-Life?"

"Home."

Then it's time to put a little more effort in. A huge fuel tank construct forms behind me, orange light being transmuted directly into fuel. Twelve fuel hoses project down, pilot lights burning faintly as I plot a firing solution. And… Burn.

WOOOOSH!

"Faster, please."

It accelerates down through the murk… Definitely reduced levels of illumination down here. Other fungoids… Larger ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture… For a few seconds before my hoses reach them and render them a non-issue. The ground they were hiding in proves to be a little more resilient to my attentions, the moisture oozing back from underground.

Don't worry about that. Flames to the sides and above, and follow Gary.

And… Huh. Some of the plants lying close to the ground aren't-. Don't appear to be dead. Not much: a few leaves and small sprouts. I move the flames to avoid burning them, using constructs to shield those that are too close to major piles of rot to be avoided. No coherent response from the fungoids, but I suppose… Fungi aren't exactly known for being proactive, and it's not as if I'm making a real difference to their numbers.

"We are near."

"Alright, what does-?"

And there's a huge tree, standing a good two hundred metres tall and.. sort of.. bent over. There's a faint green glow around it which appears to be keeping the spores at bay… Mostly. I see a small conk growing near the base, only for some sort of Venus flytrap mouth to chomp into it and tear it off. The wood beneath repairs itself a moment later. Further on, a part of the tree appears to be growing into the ground, the green glow there more intense.

"It look like."

Around the tree I see rows of the same sort of brambles around Brasília. The fungoids are attempting to break through, but they appear poorly organised. Their rot-based powers appear to make a degree of headway, only for a surge of growth to make good the Green's losses and cut into them.

I fly upwards to try and get a better view. The shape of the tree is… Odd. It looks more like three or four trees are growing together, which would make sense if the growth were directed, but-.

Oh.

The giant wooden form of Doctor Pamela Isley slowly turns its head to look at me.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:30 GMT -3

I shift the flamethrowers into a defensive position, setting up a wall of fire around giant Doctor Isley.

"Doctor Isley, can I help?"

"… Hard… To concentrate…"

The voice isn't exactly coming from her throat. That part of her plant body looks too rigid, but various outer parts making up a… Cloak? Of smaller branches and leaves. They're branches and leaves that give the impression of forming a cloak rather than a literal leaf-cloak, but there's enough structure there to form some sort of sound-making organ.

"What do you need?"

"… Can't…"

Alright. Form the mandala, picture the vital processes in terms of desires and-

Cross my fingers.

-go.

There's a sort of… Exhalation. Or it could just be air moving in an uncontrolled way through her leaves. Ah, okay, can I project her desires into this system? Should be.. possible, I can't see them at the moment but I remember what she looked like last time I saw her and I doubt that she's undergone a fundamental restructuring… Just don't be too precise. Just tease the basics into the right general direction-.

Her head tilts back slightly, her eyes unfocused.

"Aaaaaah."

I'm not sure whether that's a good 'ah' or a bad 'ah', but she doesn't look like she's in pain, and the spores are still failing to find purchase-.

"Paul."

I float up into her line of sight. "Doctor Isley. Earth's under attack by the Anti-Life. I'm here to help you defend Accalacan. What's happening with the Green?"

"I…" She ponderously shakes her head. "I can't maintain the connection well enough to fix it-!"

I raise my hands. "Slow down. From the beginning. Unless something's super-urgent, then go to that."

"Creatures of Grey. The despair of the Green itself called them here, the idea of constant failure and die-off, acid rain and deforestation."

"It's that easy?"

"The emotion was always there, ever since the first woodsman swung the first axe. But with this… Anti-life reverberating through the Green, it's overwhelming."

"Why are you a tree?"

"I'm not. I needed a plant form to come here. My meat body is still in Brasília. Euanthe is helping me."

"But I'm.. here. There was a seed-."

"I'm a human who can use Green magic. You're-. Whatever you are." She looks down towards where her 'hands' are clamped together. "I'm holding their entry point closed because I'm hoping there's some way to destroy the ones that are already here. I'm not strong enough to fix this."

"Alright, all I need to do is shut down the linking point? I should be able to do that. If not, the League's got a few wizards outside of the Anti-Life effect area. We can-."

"There's barely any Green left. We don't have time for the League's wizards to work it out from first principles!"

"Then let me-."

"If I let go, the Green starts merging with the Grey. More than it is right now."

"And that kills all plant life on Earth?"

"Everywhere not protected by a.. goddess, or something. Look, I've got a solution. It's not-. I'm not happy about it, but the world's dying and I can.. do this."

"Do what?"

"Swamp Thing used to be a man named Doctor Alexander Holland. I know you know how to recreate the bio-restorative formula that made him transform. If you-."

"No he didn't."

"What?"

"Alec Holland is dead. The Green created Swamp Thing's mind based on the state of Doctor Holland's mind when he died. It's a copy, not the original. That's why he's so mentally slow."

"So you do know how it works."

"I know how it worked. I don't know how to repeat it reliably. I also know that the Green has a strict 'one champion at a time' policy. So let's leave that until after we've tried other things."

"How does it work?"

"You burn to death."

"That's it?"

"It's probably a lot more complicated, but basically, yes. Burn to death surrounded by greenery, and if there's an opening then the Parliament of Trees might decide to create a Champion based on your template. But it isn't worth taking a chance on without absolute necessity and an assurance that they'll actually do it. Now: restoring the Green. If I burn the whole place, can it be restored?"

"Euanthe… She thinks so. That's why she remained outside: to maintain as much Green energy outside of this place as possible."

"Is that a 'yes'?"

"I don't know. We were desperate and just.. hoped we could make it work."

"I-."

Huh. The waves of fungoids have stopped attacking. I suppose that they're not mindless: when they saw no way to progress, there wasn't any reason for them to keep trying.

"If I burn the infestation out of a particular area, can you… Fortify it?"

"No, it's taking everything I have to keep this portal closed. I'm nothing like strong enough to do that as well. If you need to burn my actual body-"

"We're not there yet, Doctor."

Alright, scan the plants that started sprouting and… Make more. Connect them to the Green-.

"I see what you're trying to do, but that won't work. There's so… Little left that they-. It can't think."

"The Green isn't currently mentally complex enough to feel the Anti-Life."

"Even if you could repair the Green manually, the moment it was complex enough this would all start again."

"We've got a plan for that. We just need to clear out the fungoid infestation, then Doctor Mist can fortify the whole place. I just.. need…"

Huh. Looks like I've burned off most of the spores in the area. And their sources. That's good. I-.

"All Things Decay!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:33 GMT -3

"EEYAGH!"

The construct hoses of my flamethrowers sprout holes, fuel spraying in all directions before igniting in an uncontrolled wall of flame! I shut it down at once, sending the fuel into subspace as the tank construct similarly decays and fades.

And then I cough as my chest starts decaying in the same way.

"Buh-grugh."

Rep-repair that. And I'm guessing that the armour-. Yep, yep, repair and replace. In fact-.

By the power of seniphobia, I reject decay!

Owf, that's better! There's a extra layer to my environmental shield now as I channel my poor mental health into a useful output. For a moment I'm reminded of the clicker burrow-guards and really hope that Dox doesn't try inducing that sort of thing to see if the result is a net gain in performance.

Or that if he does, he does it in people who aren't him.

"Isley?"

She's… She doesn't look good. Bark's decaying in several places and her regeneration isn't able to keep up. Looks like she's concentrating on maintaining her hands and arms to ensure that the portal stays blocked, but if I remember the technique she's using correctly then she's feeling like she's got Ebola right now.

I strobe out solid beams of orange light, trying to hit or feel whatever just did that-.

"Gary, what was that?"

"All of us."

The concentration of spores is increasing, so I counter by spraying out small quantities of fuel and igniting it.

"Expand."

"We exist in continuity with our nature and one another. We are one, we are all."

Ah… Parse that…

"You're part of a gestalt. Not just an energy, there's a higher order mind there."

"There can be."

I see… Not a movement in the spore cloud, but a movement of it. As if some sort of wind that I can't feel had blown through it.

"Does it have a name?"

"No."

Tracking wind… Movement? Density of cloud-.

My constructs abrade and decay into nothing.

"All Is Rot!"

Shieldsallaroundlinkedtomytattoos!

Conks made of black light appear on my shields, the energy-.

Dump, dump the construct, I do not want that inside me.

Compliance.

The construct starts to fail, only for black stands mimicking its outline to remain in place-. Railgun, crumbler, shoot them out!

The crumbler detonates early as the spore cloud eats through-.

This is the natural outcome of building anything: it falls apart and is picked over by people who could never imagine its glory. The universe is inhabited by children smashing stained glass windows because they love to hear the sound of shattering-.

Through it!

Plasmaplasmashoot a hole through and then crumbler again!

Haah. Haah.

Okay, I…

That was disturbing.

"Isley, I'm going to try and draw it away."

The leaves and other fripperies are gone, the bark looks like it falling off completely would be a mercy and I can see parts of the interior wood decaying.

"Aah-hhhngrgh."

"Hang in there."

I generate a large construct replica of myself, which starts falling apart almost immediately. I try releasing fuel and setting fire to the outer edge, and that… Works a little.

"Over here!"

And fly up and away from the things I can't see and that I'm not sure I can hurt. Okay, physical attacks are just getting destroyed by the spores and there's nothing behind them to hit anyway. I didn't think to ask Queen Hyathis how to use magic to affect fungoids, which is something I should… Fix. That leaves assimilation, but I don't really see anything to assimilate.

I could… Try assimilating it via the spore clouds? I should be able to eat them faster than they eat-

A piece of rotting wood hits the back of my armour. It bounces off and then… Moves around me and continues on its way.

-me.

And another and another until I'm forced to put a burning shield in the way as a hail of rotting wood slams into me! It's not-. I don't think it's being thrown as a projectile, and the burning-. I can see where they're going through the murk as the broken pieces continue on their way. I can see-.

See.

See the outline of a six-eyed cancerous head, and the hulking mass of a body whose shape I can't fully make out. Then the fires are quashed and I can't see it any longer and that's not reassuring.

"Hello, giant rot creature. I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Can we talk about this?"

"You will be consumed. All Exists To Feed Us."

"That's not-."

A hurricane of spores roars past and around me! I try dumping extra fuel out but it's even feeding on the fire! Giant construct me is gone and I'm frantically replacing the shield and burnable fuel as the spores decay through them!

"And what then?!"

"There is nothing else."

That.. sounds familia-.

Warning: low power. Twenty percent remaining.

Marvellous.

"Okay, but did you feel like that-"

"Feed the Grey."

"-yesterday?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:35 GMT -3

Ah.

So that's what it feels like to have fungus growing out of you.

And-and not… Tech-technically decay-.

Instinctively I reach up with my left hand to remove whatever's obscuring the vision on my left side, only to remember that I'm wearing power armour and-.

Utter rejection.

And there are better ways to get fungus out of your eye socket than pulling it out manually.

"E-huhg."

And out of your face.

Warning: low power. Fifteen percent remaining.

And rings. Assimilate!

"You would feed upon the Gray?"

"It's the circle of life! You feed on rotting wood and animals and other animals feed on you! It doesn't matter to you as long as there are fungi left, because fungi as a class keep existing! You need wood to eat and if you kill all the plants here then that will immediately stop being the case!"

"We must feed!"

"But do you need to eat everything right now?!"

"It may be gone."

"It's been here for billions of years. Why would it go now?"

"It may be gone."

"What is killing the Green right now?" Through the burning spores and smoke I can dimly see… Something. An outline, the occasional hard edge. Parts of it are moving, and I think it's getting closer but given its size I think my sense of scale is being thrown off. "Because it looks like it's you. You're trying to permanently kill the thing the Grey needs to feed off. The Green doesn't care about you eating the occasional plant that was dying anyway, but this will doom you both! And I know-"

"We are doomed anyway. We must fight for every moment."

"-that you feel like it's all inevitable anyway, but that's the result of a spell!"

"No, we are too vast, too old-."

"Everything's being affected. The fungoid told me that he thought that the trees here are edible because of some sort of magic. You feel that too, right?"

"It was different, but that does not matter."

"No! It matters! You've been entranced!"

"Impossible."

"Did you feel like this yesterday?"

"Yesterday..?"

"Or the day before, or the day before?"

"No…"

"What changed, then? The lesser fungoids might just be acting on instinct, but you're more complex than that. Aren't you?"

"It feels like you're lying to protect this growth."

"'This is the natural outcome of building anything: it falls apart and is picked over by people who could never imagine its glory.' That's what you're thinking, isn't it? That's what I felt when my power touched yours."

"It is. Among other things."

"You feel it so deeply that you can't even imagine building anything anymore. You can't see any point. All that's left is grabgrabgrab, to take everything you can in whatever time you have."

"Yes."

"It's lying to you. The Anti-Life is a cynical, miserablist lie. My allies and I are fighting to get it removed. Do you want that?"

"You would try to control me?"

"I would try to remove the control that's already there! Because it's not just you, but you being affected affects everything else. Do you like feeling like this?"

"No."

"Do you want to go back to feeling like you did yesterday?"

"I am not sure that there was a yesterday."

"That's part of what it does. Look, if you back off-." There's a movement in the murk. "For a moment, for a moment! I can help you remember how things are supposed to be, supposed to feel."

"I saw what you did to Gary."

Ah.

"Not like that. With you-. The whole of you, that would make things worse. Earth needs the Grey to exist, and the Grey needs the Earth to exist. Apokolips doesn't, and they're the ones who are making you feel like this."

It doesn't respond immediately, and in the quiet I can hear… Weakened wood breaking, bursting as rotten fibres give up the ghost.

"I'm sorry to have to rush you, but the Green is on the verge of death."

"What do I need to do?"

That sounded different. Not in tone, in the… Presence, behind it.

"Do you remember the area that you and yours used to occupy?"

"Yes."

"Can you call all of your kind who are here, all the fungoids, all the spores, everything, through the opening and return there?"

"Yes."

"Without doing more damage to the Green?"

"… Yes."

"I'm just writing off the things you've already destroyed. If a plant's dead then it's dead."

"Yes. And then?"

"I'll come through with you and try and fix it. If I can't, I'll call in other people better equipped than me. Is that acceptable?"

Spores fall from the air, and I get a oh my that is a big fellow!

"Yes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:48 GMT -3

There's not a.. lot left.

The fungoids walked out. Some in their basic forms, others taking the conks and rotten wood of their new homes with them. What's left is… Good soil and sunlight, a little moss, a few tiny sprouting plants and the one tree I stuck back together.

"What's the knock-on effect of this likely to be?"

Giant Wooden Doctor Isley shakes her head as she pointedly avoids looking away from the leaving column of fungusfolk.

"I don't know enough about thaumaturgy to tell. A huge focus of Green magic just got destroyed. Even if Euanthe can manage to… Partially restore it, the bonds between the world's plants and this place just got… Totalled. Plants will grow more slowly -if.. they grow at all- and fruit yields will be way down."

"I'm worried that no one will be farming at all."

"That might have been the point. If the Green wasn't… If it was healthy, we could help out. Do what Swamp Thing did to Gotham. Or Euanthe could talk to the other dryads into visiting places and helping out. Now, we can't do that." She shudders a little. "If they could even manage to work through the Anti-Life."

"What did it feel like to you?"

"You mean, 'what does it feel like to me'."

"Oh."

"It's like I'm still Poison Ivy, but I'm not crazy enough to just go with it."

I float closer, and lay my right gauntlet on the middle phalanges of her right index finger.

"Then you're not Poison Ivy, because that was her defining trait. You've managed the Brazil-Accalacan situation really well, you and Euanthe, and what you're feeling now that you weren't yesterday is the result of the Anti-Life."

She nods, her left hand coming around to put the tip of her left index finger on top of my right hand.

"Thanks."

"So I've been wondering: are you and Euanthe romantically involved?"

Her hands are withdrawn.

"Uh-aah, what?"

"Because it would be something to look forward to? Because that would mean that you're a prospective violet power ring user? Because it would be a sign of your psychological normalisation?"

"I don't think-. I haven't really… Thought about her that way. I don't think she thinks about humans that way."

"She's open to the idea."

She looks at me askance. "Should you be using your power like that? Isn't that unethical?"

"I didn't use my power. She came onto me. In a way that suggested that she didn't exactly get human interactions but thought it might be something I'd enjoy."

"And… Did..?"

"No. But you've spent a lot more time with her than I have, and you're more on her wavelength."

The last of the fungoids tramp through the pale grey hole in space.

"If you think she needs advice on the meatspace aspect, I'm happy to wingman for you."

"So.. I'll have something to not go crazy for."

"Yes indeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pacify the fungoids and you-."

"I need to rebuild the Green with Euanthe. I.. guess that works for a date?"

"Given how long you've been living together, I'd say that you should be a bit direct about things. If that's what you want. Excuse me."

I fly through the portal, and…

Huh.

It's a bit like a snowstorm. Or some sort of duststorm or smog. Light-coloured… Fog? Mist, or… Dust? Is everywhere, but unlike back in the ruins of the Green there's strong light coming from… Somewhere. Yes, diffuse snow is what it reminds me of. The fungoids I was following have… More or less vanished. I can see a few as they walk away but none of them are paying me any attention.

What little of the of the landscape I can see appears to be made of giant conks and fruiting bodies. Colours… Are accurate, when I'm close enough that whatever is filling the air doesn't obscure it. I'm not going to prod things, not when things are tense and not with power armour. I'm not… Sure what they're growing on. There's a definite floor here, but unlike in the Green where it was soft earth I'm… Not really sure what it's made of.

Okay, may as well get started. I unfocus my mind slightly… Ah, yes, there it is. The pale of the Anti-Life, cast over an otherwise functioning area of the Earth's thaumosphere. It's not the same as… Erebos, and it's definitely not the same as the attitude of Melinoë and family. They accept that things naturally end where I cling to them and demand that they last forever. Anti-Life is magical nihilism; rushing towards annihilation and nothingness.

I don't know how fungus thinks, but I can't immediately come up with a reason why it would be all that different from plants. Other than the fact that they make less use of animals as a vector.

"Gary, do any of you have friends?"

"Some."

"Who?"

"Odd wizards and druids. Sometimes we go into the world and meet people. It's confusing."

"But there aren't any fungus dryads."

"No."

So the fungoids are at least a degree less human-like than Euanthe, who struggles to understand humans at the best of times and certainly doesn't value human stuff in the way that humans do.

On the other hand, I've touched the Ophidian's mind.

I draw away from myself and surround myself with the Grey. It feels like dying, but that's because they're part of the system that breaks human remains down. They're not agents of primal annihilation, not in their inner selves.

I think for a moment of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, but honestly the underlying nature of the Grey is so… Simple, that I think that MRS GREN is more appropriate.

But it's not just the characteristics of life in themselves that will act as a fix, and I can feel the fungoid's habits of movement in the same thought as I feel a ring of fungal spore pods advancing across a lawn. Or the alien way fungi sense the world around them by dampness and something like a sense of smell. No, it's the idea that those things are sufficient. That acting in accordance with those impulses are satisfactory in themselves, that living is sufficient.

I feel the Anti-Life try to tie itself around particular impulses in opposition to my efforts, but it seems to have lost its 'in'.

"A life well-lived is its own reward."

Pulling back in to my own consciousness, it seems… The Anti-Life is still all around, but it's less tied to the spiritual energies of the Grey. It's influencing them less.

Good.

Now it's time to call in Dr. Balewa.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December 2012
19:59 GMT -3

"I did not realise that you were capable of such subtle manipulation."

Dr. Balewa walks through the Grey, hands shimmering faintly as he does his best to ward the plane against the influence of the Anti-Life. It turns out that it's currently impossible to block it, and the best he can do is limit its influence. At least until we can work out how to purge the Earth's thaumosphere completely.

"I just worked it out. But I don't think that I can get better than this."

"Could Lantern Gardner do the same thing?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I think that the mental process involved might be antithetical to the green light, but I could be wrong. I've never tried to work out what a strong-willing plant would be like. Or what would motivate one to become strong-willed."

"Adversity, I think."

"The fungoids seemed a bit too fatalistic for it to work for them. What have I missed?"

"We hev… A plan. It is not a plan which makes me… I do not like it. But it is all we hev."

"Okay? What don't you like about it?"

"The Anti-Life encourages people affected by it to behave according to certain patterns. Scott Free spoke to us of the Lowlies of Apokolips."

I nod.

"It seems that if a person acts as a New God, the Lowlies will instinctively treat that person as one. Even if they are not the source of the Anti-Life broadcast."

"Even if they're not a New God?"

"So it appears."

I can't help but smile. "So the League are going to act like New Gods. In order to stabilise their home cities."

"It will turn the Earth into a war zone, as those enslaved to Mannheim fight against the people ruling everywhere else. This… Pattern has already begun to emerge as strong-willed brutes dominate those around them." He shakes his head in frustration. "Because why not?"

"Because.. the things that usually stop people doing things like that are suppressed by the Anti-Life. Morals aren't important. Righteousness and piety are… Lies. Lies, before the unmeetable stare of Mannheim."

"Yes."

"Can they cope?"

"I don't know. I don't know." He shakes his head. "We think thet the robot will need some time to repair itself. Members of 'Task Force X' are being sent to hunt and destroy the helmets where they are stored and made. We can hold. If they are not reinforced from Apokolips, we can hold. And… I hev no better answer."

"I've still got a few hours left. Is there anything else I can do?"

"Betman wants you to gather information. To see what the rest of the world is like. There are… Only so many people who can risk taking part in this mission. And there are people whom we wish you to bring to a place of safety, and to relay messages."

"There aren't enough Justice League members… Even if you include the entire trainee team, there aren't enough to righteously dominate more than a tiny portion of Earth. Are people being nominated?"

He nods sadly. "There is a list of superhumans whom we think can do what is necessary. Not all will be protected… Outside what is offered by their new role."

"If that's the best you can come up with, then it's probably the best option that there is."

"It is a failure on my part."

"But think how much worse it would be-"

We step through the green portal in the air leading back into the Green, and Dr. Balewa closes it behind us once we're through.

"-if you hadn't joined the Justice League."

The area around the portal is a maze of thorns, thick and dangerous. They look like the wall outside of Brasília, but in an even more elemental place I'm going to assume that they're even less constrained by mundane matter.

We stop and wait for a moment, then the thorns shift aside to give us access to the rest of the Green.

It's… Better?

There's grass, and t-. Ah.

They didn't try rebuilding the Green from scratch. They shifted Brasília here. Yes, if they put all the Green energy they could into the city, then shifting in here would be the best way to restore the locus. There's a haze of mist in the air, but now it's regular water vapour in the manner of a damp jungle during summer and not doom spores.

And in the distance, outside the limits of the city, I can see my tree, now by far the tallest structure here.

It's… A sound decision, and Euanthe appears to have demilitarised the place enough that the plants look leafy and fruitful. My only concern is where Swamp Thing is and where the Parliament ended up, because either could form a back door, and… I don't think this is something that we could repeat.

"I will see to the wards."

"I'll find Euanthe."

I rise into the air, then freeze as plants shift into a defensive posture, flowers and leaves vanishing and hardened seedpods emerging. I raise my hands.

"Friends, plants. Friends."

I wait, uncertain if they're… Considering it, or if they're reporting to Euanthe for review, or… Something along those lines. After a few moments they relax slightly, leaves still in a defensive posture. But the offensive parts return to their 'at rest' mode, and I take that as a sign that I can move. I go up, trying to-.

Ah. There she is.

I fly at speed towards the grass field outside the city limits that Euanthe is walking through. She's in her combat body, antediluvian thorn armour on display and blades at the ready. Where she walks, plants of various kinds emerge from her footsteps, a wave of growth which spreads in all directions.

"Euanthe?"

She ignores me, walking… In the direction marked by my tree.

I drift after her, watching the plants springing up in her wake.

"The souls of trees, ancient and primal. And now… They are gone. Mortality, even in the eternal Green."

"I'm sorry."

"I would not weep for a single tree, a single bush, but this… I don't have words, I don't have… Thoughts!" She shakes her head in anguish. "I don't know if I can make it again, if I can bring the souls of plantkind here and make them home. Dryads are near-meat, near-Red. It shouldn't be me who has to-!"

"What happened to the Parliament?"

"I don't know. They didn't come to me, didn't stay to die with their charges. The Great Champion is in the world somewhere and I don't know where."

"Things don't go the way they should. They go the way they go. And if you're here, and they're not… If you're doing the job and they're not… Hail Queen Euanthe of the Green."

At that she stops, turning back to me with her hard wooden head staring at me.

"Queen. Eldest sister. I have grown much since we first met, and I wish with all my heartwood that I had never left Mother's glades. I wish I could run carefree through field and glen, troubled only by faun or woodsman. I wish I could be so simple once more. But if there is no one else, then I must."

"Well…" I look over to the tree, where Dr. Isley is checking its health. "You don't need to do it on your own."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th December 1998
07:21 GMT -7

I can't help but feel that I'm being indolent about the whole thing, but… I've gotten into the habit of having breakfast in a café.

"For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness."

Nothing crazy; though I could use the ring to deal with the consequences of a daily Full English Breakfast, given my current role I don't want to become that sort of person. It's disingenuous to lecture people about sin and the virtue of self-sacrifice while gorging yourself on meals that your forebears ate because lunch hadn't been invented yet and it had to see them through until the evening.

"What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death."

I've really got to sort out something regarding my residential status. I don't think that I can just buy whatever the American equivalent of Indefinite Leave to Remain is, which is really inconvenient. I have no documentation for anywhere, and… I don't think that I want to become a citizen. I think that the possibility of conscripting people with superpowers is something that the US military probably shouldn't be tempted with.

Particularly given that most of the available superhumans come from hell, apparently.

"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

The British government can issue a draft, but it requires an Act of Parliament, and that's not going to happen. I mean, 1998? That's before the War on Terror. From the news reports I've caught on the televisions I've seen in various bars the Kosovo War is currently going on. Honestly, I'd forgotten that even happened until I saw a news report… Here. And I don't even remember that much about it now. The best I've been able to dredge up is that every ethnic group in the Balkans hate each other and will kill each other at the drop of a hat, but after the Bosnia War other countries were actually paying attention this time and Serbia got bombed until they stopped. And that Paddy Ashdown ran the government for a while after stepping down from the leadership of the Liberal Democrat party.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

It was probably a lot more complicated.

I could involve myself, but it's the Balkans. It's a byword for fractiousness and violence and has been for over a century. I don't have enough charge to just fly around doing whatever I want. Without something specific to do, not only would I out myself and perhaps the others, I wouldn't do anything that American airpower won't do in a few months anyway. So it-.

The priest pulls out the chair opposite me and slumps down. For a moment he just looks around at the passers-by who had been trying to ignore him. Then he turns his attention to me.

"What did you think?"

"I… Don't really have anything to compare it to. Though I do respect your willingness to engage in public oratory. Goodness knows I wouldn't want to."

"No. No." He leans forward. He's… I'd guess in his fifties, jaw length grey hair parted in the middle and combed back behind his ears. Face is.. angular, and to be honest his focus is a little off-putting. "Romans Six. I hear that you have an interest in theology."

R-ight, what was-. Ah, shazbot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you."

"Oh, I don't think that matters. After all, I didn't write it."

"It's a little more merciful than reality, I suppose." I shrug. "The wages of sin aren't death; they're eternal torment."

"Is that worse?"

"I'd say not, but I've never experienced eternal torment and a straw poll of those who have suggests that it's not an easy choice to make. I wonder if the verse was intended for the ears of Roman pagans, who could understand the idea of a god rewarding them with eternal life in heaven in exchange for obeying its laws more easily than the idea that that god had always been in control of things." I gesture to him with my right hand. "I'm sure you know better than me."

"I do." He nods. "I do. Which is why I really don't understand…" His face hardens. "Why you're pushing me on this."

I blink. "Really? You just read chapter and verse declaring that people should be righteous in exchange for eternal life, and that not doing so would result in oblivion, and you don't understand why I'm pushing you?"

"Oh, you think you're in the right." He fishes a bible out of his cassock. "Do you want me to find the parts about obedience to the will of God?"

I shrug.

"'If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them.'"

I shrug again.

"And if I remember correctly, the Catholic Church is in the middle of a massive paedophilia cover-up at the moment, so I'm less inclined than might otherwise be the case to take their advice on the nature of God when I can't check their sources. Though if you're trying to warn me about the sin of pride, first, thank you. Second, I know that the powerful are inclined to forget that might doesn't make right because they don't need to remember it as much as less powerful people and I'm trying to make sure that I can take input from other people in the spirit in which it is intended."

"The people you're trying to save had their chance, the same chance everyone gets. Them being sent back where they belong is exactly what they deserve."

"See, I hear what you're saying, but you don't have the… Best reputation for honesty. My.. sponsor.. told me a few stories-."

"Your sponsor literally has a forked tongue."

"And it's playing to my prejudices, I did spot that. But the thing is, my sponsor has been nothing but helpful. Whereas you've been a dick. Not just to Detective Stone, but… Every time you meet him, you're encouraging vice amongst the people he sees you with."

"Tempting people is kinda my job."

"'I was just doing my job' hasn't been a valid excuse since the Nuremberg Trials. And probably a bit before that." I shrug. "Are you under some sort of obligation? Because… It occurs to me that… You know, if you've got enough freedom to get yourself into this position, you've probably got enough freedom to take a different approach to your work. Have you ever tried..? Not subjecting people to eternal torment?"

"Every job has some perks. I've seen every evil mankind has heaped upon itself, and I know perfectly well that the people it was dumped onto would return the favour if they could. Like your friend Miss DuBare, for instance."

I look away.

"Should have seen this coming."

He favours me with a hard smile. "You really should. Because since 'Zeke' is no longer reliable, I've been forced to bring in extra help."

"No, you chose to. It's your decision. Don't be so cowardly as to pretend otherwise."

"Alright." His posture relaxes, his smile becoming a little more honest. "I chose to bring in extra help. If I'd realised how cheaply they were prepared to work I wouldn't have bothered with Detective Stone in the first place."

"So now you value personal satisfaction above discharging your responsibilities effectively?"

"Oh, there's no need to worry. When you become one of my special guests, I'll be sure to give you the attention you deserve."

"Why, thank you, but I wonder if you've really thought this though."

"Oh, go on. I'm fascinated to hear what you have to say."

"If Miss DuBare takes an impromptu trip downstairs, then the only way for me to recover her… Is to pull the metaphorical trigger, get you fired and take your place."

He sniggers to himself.

Hm. I lean forward a little.

"If you don't think-."

He leans forward suddenly, staring into my eyes from an inch away.

"Take it as a sign of how much I hate you that I'm tempted to let you have it."

Then he leans back and stands, face back to normal. He flashes me an obviously fake smile.

"I'll see you on Sunday!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Fleet Traction

Earth 534834

7th February 1992
23:12 GMT +3

The stars are out, the wind is gentle and I'm sure that if I turned towards the sea I'd see a sight that would put me in awe of the natural world when transformed by the multi-million dollar investment of a burgeoning tourist industry.

But darn does Anne-Marie fill out that bikini… Delightfully. And… I know it's not her power that does it. Sure, that gives her strength, but Ashley Crawford's strong in her augmented form and she's… Nothing like this sculpted. No, super strength actually makes staying in shape more difficult, because you seldom have to exert yourself in the way that makes the human body build muscle. Her stomach is flat with just a hint of muscle because she's spent a lot of time under one of the X-Gym's pneumatic presses, exerting herself against colossal weights.

Her breasts on the other hand are the result of a combination of good genes and good diet, though I appreciate them every bit as much. Her hips are in perfect proportion, her neck elegant and her mouth smiling as her eyes look directly at me…

I maintain eye contact for a few moments.

"In my defence, you look really good."

"Ah don't see no problem with you lookin', sugah." She leans against the balcony's railing, hair flipped back and chest thrust forward, something she doesn't really need to do. "Long as you don't mind me lookin' back some."

"I have no objection, though I'm.. honestly not sure that I'd notice."

"Aw, you don't got no need-" She walks over to me, placing her right hand on my left pectoral muscle and her left on my abdomen. "-to worry none. You're pretty pleasin' to the eye yourself."

I smile a.. little awkwardly, even as I feel my ring start to shine entirely on its own without any input from me at all. I'm not really sure where it's okay to put my.. hands in this sort of-.

Anne-Marie looks mildly disgruntled for a moment, then takes a half-step back.

"Anne-Marie-." / "Is there some-?"

I stop, waiting slightly nervously for her to resume talking. She looks… Nervously back at me.

"Is there..? Some kinda problem..?"

"Problem?"

"You..?"

We look at each other in nervous incomprehension for a moment.

"D'y'all..? Not… Find me attractive?"

I blink. "I find you extremely attractive. Um. I'm just-. Sometimes I'm not sure-. I mean, don't know exactly what I'm meant to do..?"

"'cause y'all were just gawpin' like a-"

"Oh! Right, sorry, I-"

"-landed catfish-"

"-wasn't-. Catfish?"

"-and ah was… Hopin'…" She blushes faintly, looking away.

"Hoping..?"

"We've been together more 'an two months, an' we still ain't…" She looks me directly in the eyes, as if trying to prompt me to-.

"Are you talking about having sex?"

"… Yes, Gawd. Ah weren't expectin' nothin' on the first date, then it was two, an' three, and a month-"

"Oh, I-."

"-and two, an' you tole me you weren't religious-"

"No, but I thought-."

"-so is there some kinda problem?" She looks down at my crotch. Then blinks. "'cause it sure don't look like there's a problem."

"Ah, no, it's-. I know Americans are generally more religious than British people and I thought that you'd wait until we were married." I shrug as her eyes go back to my face. "I didn't-. I am very much interested, and… I told you what the ring does where my desires are concerned, and I.. sometimes have to reel it in a bit, but that's not because I don't want to have sex with you."

"Oh. That's…" She looks awkward, raising her right hand to brush a wayward strand of hair out of her face. "Real… Ah. Gentlemanly."

We look at each other awkwardly, but the… The tension is… Reduced, at least.

"Y'all know.. I don't go to church no more."

"Yes, but… I thought that was because you… Associate it with where you.. grew up, and-. Well, the fact that you don't go doesn't mean that you don't still… That you don't still think that's the right way to live."

"Oh." She looks away, blushing a little more. "So how long were you figuring on keeping me waiting, s-?"

"I currently intend to propose to you on the fifth of September."

She blinks. "Okay? What's so special about the fifth of September?"

"It's precisely nine months after I realised that I love you. I-." I frown. "I did tell you, didn't I? I'm sure I-."

"No, you-. You tole me. Thought you were going to pick me up and carry me upstairs."

"I'll…" I nod. "Remember to do that, though-."

No, now isn't the time to tell her that I read Gone With The Wind when I was fourteen because Mum said that I was reading too much science fiction and fantasy, and that I ended up wanting every named character except Melanie to be hanged.

"Though it wasn't a line, or-. Look, if you don't want to-. If you want to have sex before that, I'm perfectly-. Perfectly happy…"

She frowning thoughtfully. "Why nine months?"

"Oh, the… The human brain is… The infatuation period of the relationship lasts… About six months? And the brain sort of encourages you to fixate on your partner and ignore any… Potential problems? I'm…" I bow my head slightly, smiling. "I'm besotted with you. I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else, but I also know that I'm… Sort of not in my right mind at the moment, and… Rationally, it would be more sensible to wait until we both… Were, before making a lifetime commitment."

She looks like she doesn't quite know what to think.

"That… That might not have been the best decision I ever made. Um. But I… I remember that we're superheroes, and… That's not about doing what you feel like, but about setting the best possible example, and…"

And I shouldn't mention that I got that from Thermoman.

"And you're worth waiting another seven months for? I mean, look at you. And everything you've done. You're extremely desirable, and I do desire you."

She thinks for a moment, eyes not meeting mine. Then she walks right up to me and wraps her arms around my neck, staring me in the eyes with a look of ferocious sincerity.

"Ah ain't. Waitin'. Seven. Months."

"Um. Caution to the wind, then? Can you give me five minutes to grab an engagement-?"

And then heavily armoured soldiers break down the door and tase us both.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
14:58 GMT -5

"I can't…" Oliver glances at me and then looks away pensively. "I can't help feeling that we're playing into Mannheim's hands, here."

"Yes. You are."

He jerks his head back around. "What? Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Because he wins coming and going. If human society descends into collapse and misery then it's easier for him to finish his work and take over the planet. But if you arrest that collapse by fitting into his paradigm then it increases the chance that he'll get you along with the planet, just a little later. And maybe give his master a greater insight into that part of the Anti-Life."

His mouth hangs slightly open for a moment, then he masters himself.

"He really does. So all we can do is hang in there, try and keep ourselves together and work out how to stop him before it goes too far."

"That's the best option we've been able to come up with. The alternative is evacuating Earth with as many people as we can and then bombarding it from orbit."

"Half right." He reaches back with his right hand to rub the fresh tattoo on the back of his neck. "And this isn't reliable."

"You won't be able to know how to act without being able to feel some things. But if you want to work towards enlightenment-" I look over to where Connor Hawke is talking to Paula Nguyen. "-then he's probably the best person to talk to."

"I only got into Buddhism for the girls."

"Bald girls, huh? So does Canary still wear a wig..?"

"Whu-?" He blinks. "No." He blinks again. "Sometimes. She's not bald, that's her hair, but..." He shakes his head. "Okay, you got me out of the spiral, good work."

"The perils of living with a psychologist. I-."

"Chime!"

I nod, Oliver looking first at my ring and then at my face. "Time for you to go?"

"Yes. Excuse me."

I walk over to where Paula is sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a small statue of Buddha. I never really… Asked about her religious beliefs. I've nagged Jade about picking one and I.. know that I mentioned the utility to Paula once. I just assumed that she'd go with Vietnamese not-Shinto. I nod to Mr. Hawke, but his eyes are closed as he… Prays, probably. Or centres himself for the trying times to come because there isn't much more antithetical to Buddhist ideals than the mission he's about to undertake.

Paula on the other hand has open eyes, staring at the incense stick burning just in front of her. Of course, I… Don't know that she isn't praying too, but unlike Mr. Hawke I actually do need to speak to her.

"Paula?"

I need to speak to her because she was in Gotham when the Anti-Life hit and she didn't have any particular resistance. She didn't kill anyone, but the area around her home is a good deal less riotous than other places due to the fact that she… 'Established control'.

"You are leaving."

Her face is fairly blank as she says it.

"I am. How are you doing?"

"Attachment is the source of all suffering. So I am putting all of my attachments away in a box in my mind, that I will open when this is over."

I.. nod. That might work, or the Anti-Life might eat the box.

"Does that help?"

"It means that I no longer mind. I will be able to help Batwoman more effectively this way."

Because Batman's going to be spending most of his time organising our counterattacks, he's left Gotham in the care of his wife. She knows how to be a cult-leader, and she won't hesitate to dominate in the way most reliable Justice League-affiliates might. And if she could move away from the League of Shadows despite all of their indoctrination then she can probably manage Anti-Life exposure better than most people.

I think.

I hope.

"Okay, well I'll… I'll let Jade know that you're managing."

She nods. "Once this is over, I will appreciate that you did that."

But it doesn't exactly reassure me, seeing how she's dimmed her own lights.

"I'll leave you to your meditations." I take a step back. "Orange Lantern to Mister Miracle. Tube to low Earth orbit, please."

BOOM!

I turn and fly through the tube, looking down at Earth.

Damn it.

The Hawk family are conquering North Africa in the name of Teth Adom. Not that that involves much actual fighting. Hopefully, that will be an Anti-Life compliant way of throwing off the Anti-Life. Between Adrianna and Euanthe, the situation with the Earth's plants should be handled.

Everywhere else I looked…

It's going to take a very long time to fix this.

But I don't have time for this any more.

I warp space, accelerating towards the edge of the system. Without really thinking about it I end up flying past the corpse of the Mother Star, its dead eye staring towards Earth.

That's a… Nice image to leave with.

Alright, stop. Can't really feel any of the Anti-Life aura out here, though it's disturbingly easy to look back and see where it's focused. I

step out

and reappear over Sereaven. Six months ago I rescued all of their eggs from a Reach booby trap cum amnion extractor and moved them into a N.E.M.O. incubator. Since then the locals have wholeheartedly converted to N.E.M.O. and created underground fortifications to contain the new generation of incubators designed and built by them. The defence platforms and docking gantries are a bit primitive at the moment, but they're expanding constantly and the first locally-build ships should be completed within a year.

The L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet in system wasn't built here, but as a testament to the strength of our alliance it's here anyway. Virtually all of the ships are L.E.G.I.O.N. standard pattern designs with only a small amount of variation to take into account differences in preferred living conditions of their crews. Darting hither and thither or just hanging in space are my Lanterns. Not… As many as there were in the earlier stages of the war. This is really supposed to be a job for the fleet, with Lanterns only around to deal with Scarab Warriors. It doesn't do to get dependent, especially when we know that the Reach are working on anti-Lantern weapons. Darkstars will be on the planet to assist the garrison in the event of a landing, or at teleport stations ready to board enemy ships should an opportunity become available.

We look ready.

Let's find out if we are.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 534834

8th February 1992
02:34 GMT +3

"You know… Ororo, I've been meaning to bring this up for a while."

Ororo's keeping an eye on the floodlight-lit playing field below us where the remains of the Genosha 'Self-Defence Force' are kneeling with their hands behind their backs. We're both more than a little concerned that the resistance fighters and mutant civilians policing our temporary holding area might take the opportunity to just kill them all. Not quite sure what we're going to do with them. They're the locals, after all.

"You are free to speak."

"Team balance. I realise that Charles took whatever mutants he could get when he started the X-Men, and that it was mostly to train them in using their abilities safely and usefully rather than crafting the best possible field team, but… It seems to me that we've got quite a lot of D-. People who can shoot things or smash them, but not a lot of people who can absorb damage or heal."

"I do not know of any mutants who have powers that allow them to heal others."

I frown. "Huh. Really?"

"If such powers were commonplace, mutants would be more widely accepted. People fear fighters more than physicians."

I nod. "So there aren't any, or we just haven't heard of them?"

"Mutant powers emerge without rhyme or reason. Though there is no reason to believe that healing powers cannot exist, if there were mutants with the power to heal, we would have no easy way to hear of them."

"Well, I'm going to count that as evidence in my favour." She gives me a dubious look. "Oh, come on, what's more evolutionarily useful: the ability for a member of a species that already has guns to fire low-grade explosives from their hands, or the ability to heal rapidly?"

"Evolution is seldom so simple. And the absence of an obvious precursor ability does not 'prove' the involvement of alien biologists."

I grin. "So are you taking the bet? It's just you and Henry who are holding out."

She'd clearly like to be able to say 'yes', but she masters herself. "No, though I will be happy to review any evidence you find. Should you actually find any."

"And I'll be happy to present it to you. How about tanks?"

"Tanks?"

"People who can take hits. A taser doesn't do much to me, but they hit Anne-Marie hard enough to stun her."

Of course, I only had to hold them off for the few moments it took her to activate the Impact Beam Ring, and then we were both immune to just about every weapon they had. The robots and power armour slowed us down a little, but Anne-Marie and I both have far more resilience than they could cope with. Well, when her ring's active in her case. It took a lot of electricity to down her, but she's actually quite a lot less tough than she is strong, something I hadn't really… Picked up on before.

"There are several such people in Cerebro's database, but most of them have made choices that would make joining the X-Men difficult."

Henry is a bit tougher than a normal human, but not by all that much and he's in gaol at the moment in any case. Logan heals faster, but he's not actually all that much harder to hurt than a normal human. And he made it very clear when I asked that while he's more used to being hurt than most people, it still hurts him just as much as anyone else. Apparently he gave up wearing body armour because it wasn't effective enough to make up for the pain of pulling partially-melted steel plates off his skin. Which is pretty fair.

"The easiest thing would be for people to find us, but that draws attention to the school, which… Has its own problems."

She nods solemnly.

"…mutant citizens of Gehosha will not tolerate…"

I wince as a man I recognise as the leader of a resistance group called 'The Acolytes' starts grandstanding for the benefit of the other mutant tourists. Apparently, the Acolytes are big fans of Magneto, which is a little odd because as far as I know he's never met them and he's always on the lookout for new mutant henchmen. Not sure how much of that attachment is a reaction to the radical anti-mutant practices of the Gehosha government, being drawn to his mutant-supremacist teaching as a result. Or I suppose they could be natural mutant-supremacists. As Sir Terry Pratchett wrote, 'Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority, it doesn't mean that they're not a nasty, small-minded little jerk.'

I turn to Ororo. "Do you want to get that, or shall I?"

"I think that it may do him some good to interact with humans-"

There's a tiny hesitation which lasts nearly long enough to make me raise my eyebrows.

"-who are not mutants."

I smile and nod in gratitude, because it took a while for the X-Men to understand the point I was making there, and her acceptance of my terminology is a minor victory for both science and integration.

I give her a jaunty salute and then fly over to where Mr. Cortez is holding court. Surprising that a man of his mindset hasn't picked a 'mutant name', but I haven't had enough exposure to the mutant subculture to really be sure what that signifies.

A couple of his friends spot me as I get closer, but he himself doesn't react to me until I drop into his line of sight.

"Mister Cortez?" I smile warmly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not any longer." He looks.. genuinely pleased to see me, though living out in the Genoshan wilds hasn't exactly lent itself to regular washing. "Now we are free of our oppressors!"

The Genoshan government database says that he's Spanish, so I'm not all that sure how they were oppressing him from here. I don't want to… Imply anything, but for an island off the coast of Africa the Acolytes…

I'd be surprised if they were local, let's put it like that.

"Do any of you-"

He's turned back to the crowd. "We will establish Genosha as a home for all mutantkind!"

"-have any government experience, because-"

"Free from all who would enslave us!"

"-running a country is actually quite hard-."

"Free from all humans who hate and fear their us as their superiors!"

"Mister Cortez, I'm human."

That brings him up short. He turns on the spot. "What?"

I hold up my left hand, showing my glowing ring. "No x-gene, I'm afraid. Just an alien ring." I shrug. "I just really don't like slavery, and my.. girlfriend does have an x-gene. So if you could tone down the racism a bit, that would be splendid. Also, if you keep trying to incite a crowd to murder our prisoners, I'm not going to be very impressed. Look." I move my eyes from him to the now slightly less riled up crowd of holidaying mutants. "You've all had a very hard time. Why don't you head over to the hotels and get some rest in an actual bed. Then we can all get together and decide what to do with this lot tom-. Later today, when we're all thinking a bit more clearly?"

Mr. Cortez grimaces, then marches off, his Acolytes following behind him. One of them, a red haired woman, glances back for a moment before writing me off. With them gone, the rest of the crowd decide to-.

Somewhere near the back of the crowd I spot a hulking great man I recognise as the time traveller Cable. We make momentary eye contact and then he's gone, vanishing into the darkness. I could go after him, but… That sounds like a bad idea.

Alright, demagogue sent away, crowd dispersed, prisoners not going anywhere. Now all that's left-.

"So sugah." Anne-Marie drifts down to stand beside me. She's thrown a blouse and sarong on, but those really do more to emphasise the thing they're concealing than to actually conceal it. "What was that about a ring?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:24 GMT

I know that the timings were approximate, but it is a little aggravating that the Reach aren't more prompt.

My ring blinks again. I take a moment to feel the location of the Lantern trying to contact me, and close the call.

Bit of a dick move on my part, I suppose. They're sure to be happier confirming my identity. But as good as our security procedures are, protocol in situations like this is to avoid confirming my location to anyone until the engagement begins. My general armour style has been copied by enough humanoid Lanterns that it's not that distinctive and my environmental shield doesn't really look all that different to what the others have.

So I can't talk to anyone. Not locally and not throughout N.E.M.O. because the more places I communicate with, the more likely it is that the Reach will pick up on it. I'm not going to head deep into Reach territory and remind them why they keep their inner circle fleets there without checking with Dox first. So unless Dox directly gives me a new order I'm stuck waiting for the enemy fleet to arrive.

…

Wonder if I should build an X-Box into this thing? Or an emulator, anyway. With the components I can get access to, it wouldn't be all that hard. Just have to work out how to manage the control pad. By comparison these gauntlets are so light they'd throw off my instincts.

…

The waiting isn't the worst of it, it's just the most annoying. Because the Reach are wasting my time. I could phase out, but the Reach have phasing technology and it would probably do more to draw their attention than to deflect it.

"Twenty Orange Lanterns in the wall,
Twenty Orange Lan-terns-."

No, the rhyme scheme doesn't work.

I peer in the general direction of Reach space, 'rimward' and 'down' of this system's orbital plane. I could reach out and try and perceive them, but again, that might be something they can detect.

Though this could be a strategy. If they haven't found a way to block me, I should be able to increase their desire to be more aggressive and feed us ships. I-.

"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach vessels have arrived at the edge of the interdiction area. All ship captains are to manoeuvre in accordance with plan three."

I've never met Scratch-Click. They were a borderline case for joining the Corps -and a borderline case for burrow-guard syndrome- but it was felt that having as many experienced fleet officers loyal to Maltus in strategic command positions outweighed the possible good they could do with a power ring. But there are… A lot of fleets this size, and a lot of admirals.

Compared to most fleets in this region of space, L.E.G.I.O.N. ships are far more agile than others of their mass. Getting them moving is a simple matter, and they turn and accelerate in a way that puts me in mind of Star Fleet ships. Citadel and Gordanian ships are far clumsier, and the Reach are not quite as agile. They're not heading directly into the enemy; that's a good way to get flanked by a second fleet jumping in on a different vector. But since we can see at least one fleet, it doesn't make sense to hold station in high orbit any longer. We're going to have to fight them before too long, so we might as well position to intercept them even if we're not doing that immediately.

Some Lanterns -the most war-hungry- head off with the vanguard, while others hang back in case they need to reposition the larger ships in a hurry. A couple actually sit on the hulls, which doesn't do much to save ring power but does add to the spectacle as their brain starts interpreting the hull as 'ground'. I've seen some Lanterns try to vomit as a result of the vertigo when other ships move around theirs.

I hold back with the sternguard. Details are coming in about the Reach fleet, and it's… Nothing exciting. And it's doing that annoying thing where they fly around the edge of the system just inside the interdiction field without coming deeper. That's something out of 'Baby's First Fleet Tactics'. If it works, it draws the defenders out of position so that a strike fleet of high acceleration ships can dart in once the defenders are out of position, destroy the main target and then everyone can fly away. Even if the defenders don't take the bait, the fleet in being can force the defenders to leave a large fleet in position for a substantial period of time.

Lanterns are a fairly solid counter for that sort of thing, since we're not affected by the defenders' interdiction field. I could take that fleet. The rest would probably gang up on individual ships before falling back to recover, but they'd eat through the fleet unless it fell back.

So that can't be the main attacking force. Hm. I wonder-.

Ah. I smile as our artillery ships line up their long axis weapons. Faster than light weapons designed specifically to counter this sort of nonsense. Reach fleets usually prefer to close the range and overwhelm their enemies with their short ranged weapons and deployed Scarab warriors. It didn't take them long to realise that that didn't work against fleets backed by Lanterns, so they reconfigured. And so we had to modify one of our carrier designs so that the launch bays and crew habitation areas were replaced with a giant gun. At the moment it's not a perfect counter; it's weak at any range other than extreme range and isn't anything like powerful enough to destroy a fleet. But it does mean that-

Two green lines shine out from one of the smaller Reach ships and flow back towards the artillery ships. Always a little confusing that FTL weapons look like that. And that's another problem: they don't hit all that hard. We're not Apokoliptians and we can't build our own hyper blasters. These… Well, that Reach destroyer is going to limp back to the shipyards, or-.

The artillery ships fire again and the destroyer's hull evaporates, atmosphere burning and energy stores exploding. I remember that in Babylon 5 one of the station's maintenance engineers said that he could tell who lost a ship in a furball by the colour of the explosion caused by differences in the ship's atmosphere. Of course, in this reality most humanoids breathe atmosphere so similar in composition that that doesn't really factor into things.

Another volley, this time targetting one of the larger Reach ships. Looks like they've improved the armour-. And they're turning in-system. Yes, sitting at long range is a far less appealing prospect now, isn't it? And of course there's the fact that the defender can always turn off their interdiction system and jump onto your fleet to consider. Not a good idea most of the time, as the systems need time to propagate and fade away and if the attacker's navigator is on the ball they can return the favour by jumping onto whatever you were defending… But they have to keep the possibility in mind.

"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach vessels have turned inwards and are accelerating. All ship captains are to advance with plan three."

That means that the whole fleet will advance a little, while leaving us enough time to move back if another fleet appears elsewhere. Reach ships don't have the range to fire on the planet from anywhere near their current location with their energy weapons, but it isn't all that hard to fire missiles or kinetic rounds if they've switched some of their ships over to that. We should be able to detect that and the planet's defences should be able to stop anything hitting the surface, but the usual plan is for the fleet to try and intercept Hail Mary shots before that becomes necessary.

Alright, so far so normal. But that's not an inner circle fleet. That's a normal periphery raiding fleet. We can't ignore it but it doesn't make sense for them to use it this aggressively. Even without Lanterns, this L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet would be able to destroy it without undue losses.

I know there's a trick.

I just don't know what it is.

The L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet is well away from Sereaven now. Just about far enough away that it would be awkward to turn back, but-. Yes, longer range weapons on the battleships are firing on the Reach, who don't quite have the range to fire back yet. The Reach are committing to a full burn, charging directly for us with only minimal evasive action. Fire ships? No, no, the mass distortion shows that they're still conforming to normal ship profiles. Which could be faked, but just chucking fire ships at a fully mobile fleet isn't going to-.

Warning: fear detect-

There's a shimmer as a Yellow Lantern transitions into the system, with a… Small space station held in their construct grip. A Scarab, blue armour with yellow highlights, they transition away immediately.

-ed.

"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach have deployed an interdiction system. Plan four is-."

I brace myself as the system's gravity begins to warp.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:32 GMT

Ring?

It's focusing on our fleet, but it's not a gravity weapon. It's bending space around the ships to… Prevent them turning back?

Ring, is that plausible? Macro-gravity gives me a headache.

Suggestion is plausible.

The Lanterns should be able to fly around it, but-. There go the Scarabs, and the Reach fleet is getting into range. The N.E.M.O. force should win the engagement, but I'm assuming-.

Warning.

The Scarab Lantern reappears, this time towing a Reach troop ship. It forms a giant cannon construct and a construct shield which blocks the shots incoming from the planetary defence network. It then returns fire, yellow energy lancing out and cleaving the closest defence platform in two.

Looks like this is a job for m-.

The Scarab's gun construct swivels and fires at me. It's sub-light so I evade easily enough, but the Scarab Lantern has registered me as the priority threat.

"Good eff-"

The troop transport accelerates towards the surface, construct shield still protecting it as more orbital and ground defences target it. It uses its thrusters to take evasive action, but the shield-.

"-ort."

The shield actually takes it fairly well. I don't think that this Scarab has attained fear enlightenment; I remember the distinct feel of the soul of my alter-ego who had managed that and I'll not forget it any time soon.

Construct armour.

Compliance.

Is Sinestro siding with the Reach, or just using them to test his techniques? Or us?

Railguns.

Compliance.

I fire a volley of crumbler rounds, but at this range the Scarab Lantern will-.

Point defence lasers appear on its shoulders, thin rays of ultraviolet light lancing out and piercing each of the crumbler rounds in turn. Yes, it can still use its integrated weapons along with the power ring. Didn't bother dodging, though, and I've still got some armoured crumblers left over from my fight with the Apokoliptian robot.

"Meat."

The Scarab Lantern is flying backwards, staying close enough to the transport to shield it while facing me so that it can maintain focus. I accelerate, construct boosters behind me because I've seen the construct interdiction system it's created on its back. I'm too well-drilled by my sparring sessions against Guy to even try that.

"Bug."

I smile inside my armour, turn my railgun towards the gravity distortion device the Scarab Lantern brought here and fire a volley of crumbler rounds. It's not close to where we are, but spatial dynamics means that-.

That it only has to bend space a little for them to miss, yes. And-. I see emotions-. Emotion. Fear. There are people on there, and they-.

They're fuelling the Scarab Lantern's constructs. He brought his construct booster with him. Passably clever-.

No, it's the Reach. Flooding the place with a fear toxin equivalent wouldn't be enough. This Scarab will have made sure that they're afraid of it. Overwhelmingly. Not sure how long the Reach had to work on the problem or what their relationship with Sinestro is. Rescuing them would be ideal, destroying that structure and killing them would weaken the Scarab Lantern and free up the fleet.

No. I can manage. I'll prioritise that if any other Yellow Lanterns or a second fleet appear, but failing that I should be able to manage.

Another shot from its construct cannon and this time I intercept it with a construct shield rather than evading. This is our world, interloper, thief, bandit. Try to take it from us and we will squash you.

The shot hits but doesn't penetrate, force endured and attack not sustained. Probably because the Scarab didn't think it would be necessary or useful. The hit was about as hard as a moderate hit from Guy pre-Enlightenment, and I doubt that it was as hard as this Scarab can hit.

Still, it does suggest a perfectly winnable fight.

Magnification shows me the moment that the Scarab realises that I took their hit without slowing. A small sneer, then their face stills for a moment. Then the Scarab abandons their shield construct and uses their Scarab's booster system to fly away from the ship and towards me.

The ship takes a couple of hits and then phases, lasers and plasma beams passing through it without damage. Defence station railguns loaded with phasic rounds open fire, but the volume of space is vast and the projectiles relatively slow. Some might hit, and with the ship's other defences effectively useless in a phased state they might get a kill. Or maybe not.

Deal with the oncoming Scarab Lantern first.

It fires again, beam hitting my shield and once more failing to break it. Then the beam changes, turning into a giant construct drill and spinning to try and bore its way through instead.

It makes a few scratches before my crumbler ram construct hits it in the side and shatters it.

"Did Sinestro not train with you before sending you out?"

I fire the ram towards the Scarab Lantern. Its point defence lasers do nothing, so it throws up a construct shield to block it. Predictably, it's a single layer construct and crumbles instantly, forcing the Scarab to dodge the attack with a snarl.

"Did you think that Reach records of us was all you'd need?"

It accelerates towards me using its booster, blades forming on both of its arms. They have a glowing yellow edge which suggests to me that they'll hit a little harder than normal Scarab swords. It also suggests to me that whoever this is really hasn't integrated the niceties of Lantern combat… Either that or it's too arrogant to deviate from Reach training when it doesn't absolutely have to.

Construct crumbler gauntlets, x-ionised shards and… Load phasic rounds. The Reach ship is flying almost directly away from me and I'm closer than the defence platforms. Aim a few shots at the Scarab Lantern to tie up its point defences and fire.

The Scarab loses a little mass from its booster pack to reform its point defences, but they intercept my shots easily enough.

"Pathetic."

"Yes, because I'm rather bad-"

I smile as the ship shudders and undergoes an emergency phase-in, its primary drive in ruins.

"-at this."

The Scarab Lantern glances back at the ship, but doesn't change course.

"…useless…"

Thing about power rings, is that they make environmental catastrophes easy to deal with. Even if that ship manages to hit a somnolent super volcano, it'll only take a couple of Lanterns a few hours to tidy things up so well that you'd never know that it happened. As it-.

There's little sound in space, so I don't hear it as the Reach ship is repeatedly struck by the local defence systems and torn apart, whatever was inside being spread out across the planet's upper atmosphere.

As it is, it looks like it was just a troop ship.

And now for the Scarab Lantern.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:34 GMT

How to further weaken a Yellow Lantern? Induce fear? I don't think I can intimidate a Scarab Warrior. They're fanatical enough that even knowing how many of them I've killed to date, even knowing that fact that I came back from the dead, they're perfectly happy to throw themselves at me. Not willing to, actually happy-.

But I might be able to make it angry.

"What, you can't carry more than one ship?"

We're close enough to meaningfully fight now and we both know it. I switch to yellow laser constructs to bypass its construct defences and fire, keeping the beams on the Scarab Lantern's chest with reasonable accuracy. All it really does is discolour its armour as the plates regenerate, but Scarab armour can only regenerate so much and so quickly.

I also patch myself into the defence satellite control systems and feed them my targeting data. Usually, Scarab Warriors are too small and agile to target effectively by anti-ship weapons, but if a Lantern's painting it then things are a little different.

"Don't worry; we all come up a little short sometimes."

The Scarab's retaliation is some sort of charged particle beam-. Ah, charged anti-matter beam, that's a little cleverer. Anti-matter's a bit of a waste against Lantern in space because it does nothing to matter-free constructs and there isn't usually enough matter or anti-matter around to reliably kill Lanterns with explosions. It's really more of a finisher to be used against ships whose shields have already been downed. Which is not to say that even a mole of anti-matter wouldn't do a number on my armour if it got a direct hit in.

Anyway, the beam hits my construct armour to little effect, other than spraying atoms of anti-matter out-.

A few small releases of radiation where the atoms encounter stellar dust or debris, but as efficient as an anti-matter detonation is at turning matter to energy, they're still only single atoms. Against some people that would throw off their sensors, but I'm a Lantern.

The Scarab is charging almost exactly in a straight line-. And could be doing exactly what I'm doing using that gravity distortion station. Ring, disrupt communications.

Compliance.

Now, we don't think that Scarabs can block power ring communications. Power rings can, obviously, but the Scarab doesn't seem to be using it for that.

The fact that the Scarab is charging in a straight line means that I can have the defence stations fire at a predictable cone of space, which I do. Then I build a barricade construct and crumbler rams. A normal Scarab can futz around with momentum a little, but still has to mostly fly in a physics-compliant way. Lanterns don't, which means that the Scarab Lantern's best move is to switch to ring-flight to move around my defensive construct and attack me from the side.

So crumbler rams at the ready, and-.

The Scarab Lantern adds overdrive boosters and hurtles towards me, the sudden acceleration causing most of the flanking fire to miss. The few hits cause its constructs to flicker but they endure, and… Its head morphs into some sort of ram? The Scarab Lantern slams into my barricade, sword constructs actually managing to bite into it while the ram… Some sort of construct disruptor. Not as good as a crumbler -and my construct rams are swinging to intercept- but still notable.

Defence satellite fire follows the Scarab Lantern, hitting my construct barricade and… That shouldn't wreck it, but I guess its war head is weakening it more than I thought. Construct rams impacting-.

The thruster array is sucked back into its armour, replaced by spines that shoot outwards to intercept my attacks. It's.. partially successful, the spikes being crumbled and destroyed but the constructs being too disrupted to hit home with their crumbler function intact.

Not a problem.

I turn the construct barricade into a swarm of crumbler rams, imagine this Scarab Lantern as the embodiment of the cankerous soul of the Reach civilisation and slam them into it.

I see the flicker of yellow as its defensive constructs are crumbled, but mine don't survive inflicting the initial blow. Defence installation is hitting the Scarab armour as well as my construct armour, and between that and my lasers it's definitely getting the worse of it. I see… Blood? Leaking into space and free-boiling where the armour's regeneration can't quite keep up with the damage.

Given how Scarab Warriors usually self-destruct when we try to assimilate them… How would the ring interrupt that?

I spike the Scarab with a newly constructed construct-lance, running it through and shoving the point through its back. For a moment the structure around its head tries to repair itself, then collapses back into its body to patch more holes being shot into its back.

Assimilate.

My ring blinks.

Answer.

"Illustres. How fortunate."

"Sinestro, would you care to explain-"

"Identity Theft in progress. One percent complete."

"-why you're siding with the Reach?"

"Why would you assume that when you know that I didn't side with the Spider Guild?"

"Reach use extensive PR to avoid looking scary. The Spider Guild survive by scaring people into leaving them alone."

"There is value in subtlety. Unfortunately, Scarab Warriors do not make good students."

"Identity Theft in progress. Five percent complete."

For a moment I think about suggesting that he give Batman a try-out. I'm going to need a yellow ring at some point and having him just give it to my first choice of bearer would save me time. Fortunately, sanity prevails.

"Perhaps after reviewing this data they will be a little more prepared to listen to me."

"Sinestro, I'm-"

The Scarab Lantern forms a weak knife construct and stabs at the lance impaling it. It causes a few scratches before I send out manacle constructs to lock its arms in place. The Scarab implant lets the Warrior ignore little things like pain and traumatic blood loss, but only to a point.

"Identity Theft in progress. Eight percent complete."

"-all about making deals. Do you think that you and N.E.M.O. could come to terms instead? We actually know how to use power rings, and our students pay attention to their lessons."

"I would sooner cut off my own head than work for a Maltusian."

"Like you're currently working for the Reach? Come on, you know Dox would give you a good deal."

"I prefer to be a free agent."

"Alright. Let me know if you change you mind. I'm quite keen to have you helping us rather than our enemies."

"Perhaps. Dismiss deputy ring."

Sinestro's face disappears from above my ring, and the yellow aura battling to remain functional vanishes from the Scarab Warrior-

"Identity Theft in progress. Ten percent complete."

-who immediately self-destructs.

Darn.

I signal to the defence stations to stop firing, and head towards the gravity weapon.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:38 GMT

My gravity manipulation constructs wrestle with the technology of the Reach space station, gradually restoring space to its normal local curvature. I give it a moment to see if there are any backup devices, but it looks like it was designed with one specific purpose in mind. I send a construct probe forwards, crumbling its way through the force field and armour into the interior. The force field feels like an afterthought, but the armour's clearly designed to endure considerable stress. I assume that they weren't sure how much force it would experience when their Lantern threw it around and wanted to be on the safe side.

Alright, power plant is there, so take control so that they can't overload it or anything like that. Most ships don't have self-destruct systems for their physical structures because of the weakness that would involve introducing. Scarab Warriors do it with a program taking advantage of their innate protean nature rather than introducing something truly new. But with technology that it's essential to keep from the enemy, things are a little different.

Power plant under control I move to the main computer. A relatively mundane affair without any exceptional resistance. Shut down the gravity system first, and send a message to Scratch-Click to let them know. Did the Reach want to make sure that their own Lantern would be able to interface with it? Okay, so what were they..?

Pods. Two hundred and eighty life-support pods. Clearly designed to keep the people inside awake and alive for an extended period. Feeding tubes and catheters all around, and… Drugs to force wakefulness. Okay, and who-?

Quamen, from Qualar IV in Sector 2234. Of course, a species afraid of almost everything and whose natural response to fear is to do a fainting goat impression. Except with those drugs in their system they can't lose consciousness, and… Humans can't sustain a fear response for more than a certain amount of time, but quamen can.

I… See the logic, but that wouldn't have been what I'd have gone-.

An orange power ring floats over to me.

"Orange Lantern Flozz'm is deceased."

Gone with.

I take the ring and put it into one of my armour's pouches. I didn't know Flozz'm, but taking their ring and sending notice to their family is one of my jobs. It's going to be fairly boilerplate because I didn't know them, and I'm probably going to end up writing more about Sereaven and the war in general than them personally. Still, that's better than leaving it to Dox.

I check the medical pods. Yes, the excitative doesn't appear to have any other properties so I cut off the supply. Almost immediately there's a surge of relief as everyone on board loses consciousness. Send a general message that it should be visited by medical support and intelligence.

And then check that Scratch-Click's force has been triumphant.

Hm. Looks like the Reach fleet didn't try to disengage. Their heavier ships tanked damage to protect the rest of the fleet, which tried to get to get to point blank range. Short ranged weapon focus? Boarding? I'm not sure, but the satellite wasn't here long enough to prevent Scratch-Click from keeping his fleet at his preferred engagement range for most of the fight and they're just mopping up now.

"Illustres to Controller Hinon. Sereaven is secure for the moment. Inner circle fleet was a no-show."

"Nothing of note?"

"One Yellow Lantern, and it tried to get a boost by bringing a space station full of terrified people along with it. I'd estimate that it could have engaged one of our neophytes at a slight advantage even if its Scarab weapons are ignored."

"The next will be better."

Ring, send records direct to Controller Hinon.

Compliance.

"Hm. I think I need to talk to my cousins on Oa about this Thaal Sinestro person."

"In what regard?"

"Basic psychological screening as much as anything. His basic morals-. Have any of your homeworld's Lanterns mentioned ongoing psychological assessments?"

"I think Guy had a few checks after he woke up from his coma."

"Some rather sharp words, then. The Green Light causes fewer behavioural changes, not none. They should know better than leaving mortals unattended."

"I'm not sure that they've got the manpower. As First Lantern, Sinestro had the authority to duck out of that sort of thing anyway."

"That doesn't make it better. Ever since I came out of my coma it's as if everyone's taken leave of their senses."

"You're playing it up again, aren't you?"

"Somewhat. It is genuinely vexing. They are too old to be so foolish, and too old to be so ignorant of their own failings. Ah."

"Ah?"

"We have located the inner circle fleet. I'm sending you the coordinates-"

Karrakan. No no no no no.

"-now, and I think you should probably-."

I step out, seeking out the strong drives and confused execution that I remember from my previous meetings with

the people of Karrakan. Why the Reach are coming here I don't know. There's been some travel back and forth between here and Minosyss since the truce came into effect, but Sparta never fully unified Karrakan and while she was mistaken about there being no survivors it's a really hard place to live. We build unmanned monitor stations with interdiction systems more or less out of habit, but their interdiction fields are routinely deactivated to make patrolling easier. The Ascendant themselves are fine with that because they use boom tubes anyway-.

The Reach are also fighting Grayven. Grayven had-. Probably had dealings with Karrakan through Sparta. 'Ascendants' are compatible with New God technology in a way that gordanians aren't. Karrakan still has basically no industry. They didn't have anything to offer Grayven in terms of industrial output. But Sparta only had young Ascendants with her when she attacked New Cronos. They thought that she left the older Ascendants to die. But if she gave them to Grayven… Then they've got a very good reason for coming here. They want to choke off his supply.

Karrakan is a hellworld. The handful of asteroid mining stations the Ascendants built are the only thing worth coming here for, and that's what the ships of the Ascendants' fleet here are positioning to defend.

They are massively outnumbered by the Reach. And it seems that I've been underestimating the Reach's ship-building prowess by judging them by the ships that they deliberately put on show. The heavy ships of this fleet are larger that the biggest I've seen before: genuine battleships and dreadnoughts. But more than that, their power generation capacity is far greater, and their shields and weapons disproportionally powerful.

Their acceleration isn't bad either. Looks like they're heading for Karrakan, and some of their larger weapons are already firing. Not faster than light weapons, but their narrow beams and the size of their target means that they meaningfully hit it from halfway across the system.

I create construct interdiction field generators.

"This is the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps to the Reach Fleet."

"Ah, you're here. I should have thought that it was obvious."

"I don't suppose there's any chance that you'll tell me your name this time, is there? You're still down as 'Unnamed Assimilation Specialist' in our files."

"I try not to let ego get the better of me. But since you're here…"

Alert! Spatial distortions detected.

"Let's see if you can leave."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:42 GMT

The stars… Move, the universe 'above' and 'below' the system's orbital plane emptying of light sources while the rim becomes far brighter. I… Don't even want to think about the sort of gravity manipulation they've had to do to make that happen.

"Very pretty."

On the off-chance, I try warping space. I can manage a little, but the feedback I'm getting from my ring makes space-time feel unusually… Sticky. Which means that my second favourite form of faster than light travel is effectively unavailable unless I feel like trying to override their generator… Which could actually be outside of the system.

"I look forward to the day when we can do this to your home system."

"My home system?"

"Yes. Why, did you think we would grant it clemency?"

I try transitioning a test object, and… It works, but that system is dramatically slower than warping. Flying in normal space would make me deal with relativity and relativity is no fun at all. Honestly, when I imagine trying to get around Universe Prime with FTL probably being impossible I actually shudder.

"Tell you what. If you abandon your attack here, I'll take you there right now. I'll even escort your troops to the surface and do absolutely nothing to them."

"So you are a deviant even amongst your own kind."

A sternguard element of their fleet… Rotates with impressive speed to face me. They don't actually move in my direction, but their heaviest armour and main weapons are now pointing in my general direction while their existing momentum carries them along towards Karrakan.

"Oh, Earth. Did you know that we gained powered flight technology a hundred and ten years ago? Sixty six years later we had rockets capable of taking us to our moon. Giant moon. Whenever I stand on another planet and someone describes the moonrise as 'beautiful' I always end up squinting. 'That tiny thing?'"

Ring, cold gun.

Compliance.

Big cold gun.

Compliance.

"We've got hundreds of gods no one even worships because they're so common, humans with bodies made of mud, AIs that run on electromagnetic tape reels… A few weeks ago I had to fly through a pocket universe made of fragments of dreams. I call it 'hard mode' sometimes because I know of exactly no other planets that have the same range of madness that we have to deal with."

"Fascinating. Please, keep talking. This is helping me build a far more accurate psychological profile."

"And about ten years ago, a man with no higher education invented a gun that can reduce anything its beam hits to zero-"

Fire.

Compliance.

"-degrees Kelvin. Completely arrests molecular vibrations. How good's the thermal insulation on those ships?"

Okay, so don't point it at the star, unless it's a star no one's using and Leonard needs an ego boost. We're all in the inner part of the system but the beam won't hit anything for five minutes or so-

Realistic space combat sucks.

-unless… I focus on our desire and the desire of all within N.E.M.O. to strike at the Reach… No, let us draw upon the desires of species long since extinguished as well and add that to our force!

"I suppose that we'll find out in five minutes."

"Maybe."

Space wobbles like a rubber sheet, snapping back almost immediately. But the distortion carries with it a beam of max-strength cold ray, partially concealed by the ongoing beam I'm firing in the direction of those ships. No beam attenuation makes this a far better weapon for long-ranged sniping than a laser.

I watch as the Reach fleet manoeuvres, using gravity manipulation to shift a little at right angles to their main angle of thrust. Plenty to make sure that they're not on the same trajectory five minutes from now that they were when I fired. The sternguard do something-

My pulse hits the largest ship in the sternguard.

-similar, manoeuvring but not moving as far due to their lower speed.

Not that it matters.

The ship I hit tremors, but it keeps moving and manoeuvring. Maybe it-.

The hull cracks, a dozen rents appearing in the frontal armour and atmosphere venting from all of them. Usually there would be emergency force field or -given that this is the Reach- reactive armour automatically patching small holes. But it looks like those systems also just got wrecked by absolute zero and can't function. The ship isn't dead-dead, but it's severely-

"That's interesting."

-impaired in its functioning. I think I got about half of its frontal weapons, though the dorsal, ventral and side weapons are completely fine.

"Glad that you liked it."

"But can you do it again?"

"No, that's completely impossible."

We do it again, aiming at the next ship in line, predicting based on observed to-target time and manoeuvring pattern.

"Excuse me."

Ring, drop channel and try contacting the Ascendants in charge of those ships.

Compliance. Channel open.

"This is the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Please respond."

"Illustres! It is good to hear from you."

"Ascendant Thiva. Well done for still being alive. Any idea why the Reach are coming here?"

"This is the Reach? Their ships are different from our records."

"This is one of their inner sphere fleets. They use them to defend their core systems. People don't usually see them. Consider yourself honoured."

"It is an honour I would gladly pass. As to why they are here, we are evacuating the remains of Grandmother Rhea to be interred in New Orthys. We were going to finally abandon the system after that."

"Do you have them on board?"

"Yes."

"Can you make it to the edge of the system? Without being overhauled?"

"Perhaps."

"Try it. I don't think we've got the force here to defeat them in conventional fleet combat. Did you send an alert out?"

"Yes but… The system… Can they get in?"

Given how boom tubes work, probably not using those.

"We'll have to assume that we're it for now. What can the Ascendants you have on board do?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:46 GMT

"It's… This is the last of our people in this system. The very young and old. They.. cannot really… Help."

Their ships begin moving away from the larger asteroid base, accelerating hard. A moment later their secondary weapon systems activate, tearing the base apart.

At the same time I see tiny mushroom clouds erupt from the surface of Karrakan.

And as ever, everything about the Reach just aggravates us. We distort space once more and fire the cold gun. The time to target is even smaller this time, and the ship on the edge of the sternguard formation actually cracks. The whole frozen and brittle front quarter of the outer armour splits off from the rest, numerous systems struggling to remain functional.

"The planet. Is there anyone still there?"

"We tried to evacuate, but… Sparta's way was the only successful attempt at instilling any sort of unity. They would not hear us."

Darn. Looks like… Kinetic harpoon? Or I suppose it could have been one of Rhea's descendants throwing their weight around; I never found out what sort of power level they topped out at. I mean, the Reach could have shot them from where their ships are now using a graviton accelerator, but...

But you don't need a fleet this big to destroy a planet no one is defending. So… Capture? The Reach are good at mind control. New Gods are resistant to chemical and exotic manipulation… A Scarab? Occupation or destruction?

Okay, the Reach dreadnoughts will… Based on my estimate of their primary armament's effectiveness, be in a position to meaningfully bombard the planet in… Six minutes. Although given the sheer number of guns here they could start firing sooner, it would just be inefficient. The sternguard… Aren't moving towards me. If anything they appear to be accelerating away from me. More slowly than the rest of the fleet, but it's a change in behaviour. I suppose now that they know that I can shoot them there's no longer any reason to poke me.

That flotilla is pulling away from the main fleet, diverting towards the Ascendants' ships.

"I assume that your boom tubes are out."

"Yes. They use hyper-inflated-."

"Gravitons, yes, I know. I thought that New God technology could be enhanced by you putting your spiritual effort into it."

"It.. can, but that is most effective when the Ascendant has some skill, and… Most of the Ship Masters remained near Minosyss. Those of us here, we… We cannot push through."

Their small flotilla of six ships… Three aren't warships. They're heading for the asteroid belt around the system's first gas giant. At current speeds… The Reach ships pursuing them will get in probable weapon range before they arrive. And… Honestly, a standard gas giant won't do much to disrupt Reach sensors.

"What are your guns like?"

"Inadequate."

Of course I've got a spare orange ring, but she's an Ascendant and she's needed to keep the ship functioning. And to keep the mortal Karrakanians calm. And she hasn't studied Lantern combat. Against some fleets I'd just grab some likely looking local and give them a ring anyway, but the Reach are well-used to fighting Lanterns and an untrained Lantern would simply be killed out of hand.

"One moment. Ring, switch channel to Mister Unnamed Assimilation Specialist."

"Compliance."

"So what exactly are you planning to do, here?"

"Spread the Writ of the Reach to all parts of the universe."

Space bends with our need and the back tenth of a battleship in the middle of their formation suddenly experienced extreme thermal shock. Doesn't look like any of the vital systems are destroyed, but the crew in that part of the ship will be looking at severe frostbite.

"I mean, specifically. We're in a three way war here and if Grayven's really giving you that much trouble I'm fine with just letting you arm up on anti-New God weapons. I just want to help their ships evacuate."

"The ships are one of the things I want from this system."

"Alright, but-"

We bend a larger area, getting a better feel for their efforts to stop us. The desires of untold numbers of physicists whisper their dreams to us, and we increasingly make them reality. This time our attack envelops the same battleship, causing cracks to appear all over the hull. Its size makes it unlikely that a attack like this could kill it quickly, but with the majority of its weapons compromised it is more or less 'mission killed'.

"-how badly do you need all of them? Ah, were you on that ship?"

"I see no reason to compromise. As much as you're straining our ships' self-repair systems, the data we're gathering on your weapon is far more valuable. And, no."

"End. Signal… That dreadnought."

The one in the middle of the formation. Reach commanding officers we've encountered to date have been utilitarian in their positioning, neither eager for combat or afraid for their own safety. The most logical place for the senior officer to be therefore is in the largest class of ship in the centre of the formation, where they're best able to direct the response to attacks from any vector without unduly exposing themselves.

"Hello hello?"

An acknowledging 'ping', but that's all. It's not actually possible for most Lanterns to identity theft someone via a com signal, but the Reach don't like taking chances with that. Because…

Hm.

I don't think I can, but I could probably use it to home in on someone through the Honden.

"Don't know how much of that you heard, or how much strategic decision making authority you have. But I'd like to take the Ascendant's ships and go, and you can have the rest. How about it?"

"That is uncharacteristically-."

I roll my eyes.

"Really? A little girl voice? I'm entirely too psychotic for that to work."

"That's useful information too! But your offer is uncharacteristically generous, implying that there is something of value here that we don't know about."

"No-. Well, sort of. I'm trying to be a bit less kill-happy. In order to improve my relationship with my colleagues on my homeworld. They're not involved in the war, though you are welcome to travel to my homeworld to confirm that for yourself."

"Do you really expect us to believe that you'd make a deal with us to make your friends happy?"

"I gotta try, you know? I mean, I don't want to kill that Scarab Warrior who thinks I can't see it because they're phased… No, not phased, something else. Jumped out of your sternguard when I started shooting them? They've made good time. But when I kill it all I'll get is mild satisfaction. Having Alan or Kal-El tell me that they like the way I've altered my approach would make me feel far better. And it's not as if I have any sort of good feelings for Grayven and Company."

"That's a good point! But we're gunna kill you anyway!"

"We're going to make Scarabs an endangered species like this." I cut communications. "Alright, clever bug. Let's see what you've got."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:50 GMT

The faint whiff of exotic energy and desires changes its angle of approach slightly. We're aware that we're more immaterial than we've allowed ourself to be for a while, and that is making perceiving the desires and drives of the Reachians so obvious that for a moment we can't imagine not seeing them.

I raise my right hand and point at it, keeping my right finger trained on it as I reinforce my construct armour and add a cluster of small railguns for anti-Scarab work. Regular Scarabs… It's not that they're not a threat to me, but it's more on the level that Sodom and Gomorrah are to Kal-El. Yes, they could kill him, but once the initial transmutation didn't work it was pretty obvious which way the fight was going to go.

"I… See… You…"

And… Tiny flecks of-.

Move. Load phasic rounds, fire. Shoot the warp-assisted cold beam at-.

One of the Scarab's drones deactivates its phasic system and fires-.

And my giant cold gun construct is gone. Didn't register any conventional damage. Have they managed to replicate the crumbler effect? Tricky, but-.

Another drone -looks like there are four of them- phases in and fires at my armour. I'm using ablative construct plating instinctively, so I'm not too-.

A whole chunk of armour vanishes, leaving my right shoulder and the upper right portion of my torso exposed.

That wasn't a crumbler.

I shift plates around, taking small x-ionised plates out of subspace in order to-.

I just about spot the shift in desires as another drone phases in and takes a shot. I block this one with a metal plate at about thirty metres from my actual body. Block is… Successful. Looks like whatever that beam is doesn't do much to conventional matter. And the beam is… Light speed.

Rats rats rats.

Alright, I-.

Another drones shoots at the back of my helmet, the intensification of the desires associated with it giving me just enough time to block that shot.

It's behind me.

That means that I no longer have the advantage of my enemy being in a single arc.

"How many years at war with the Green Lantern Corps and now you develop-"

Two shots, two blocks. They're moving to surround me, but multi-channel processing isn't hard for us. Were they expecting someone other than me? Someone not from Earth, or.. just.. not the Illustres. A normal Lantern who had their defensive construct shot out would be a good deal more vulnerable, and even if they recovered they'd go through their ring charge much faster than normal in order to repair it.

"-anti-construct weapons? I mean-"

We block another two shots. It looks like there's a recharge time issue.

"-I'll take it as a sign of how seriously you're taking this."

"How are you tracking our drones?"

Just because I'm not communicating with him, that doesn't mean he can't communicate with me. I was just trying to reach the Scarab, but… Ah, why not?

"How stupid do you-"

Block and block, block and block.

"-think we are?"

"'We'? Are you using an AI, perhaps?"

Fiddlesticks. On the other hand, not exactly a secret-secret. And without using the senses of the Ophidian portion of us, this wouldn't be possible.

"What's an 'AI', really, when you get down to it?"

"Or is it you who's the AI? Is that how you came back from being totally disintegrated?"

"Yes, you've found us-"

Since the drones appear to be holding off for now, let's have another shot at those ships. Can't take another shot with a giant cold gun without it being really obvious, but if gravity manipulation is the order of the day…

"-out. Curses, we are undone. Melon melon melon."

They're abandoning the system anyway.

Beam singularity projector. We have no idea what will happen when we fire this, but-

Drones fire and blocked.

-it should satisfy any number of the desires we feel to find out. Bend space between here and the target and fire!

We hit the central dreadnought and it… Shudders. There's a neat hole where we hit, and a neat hole at the far end. Presumably we hit everything between those two points, though the ship is disrupting our scans-

Blocked.

-too well for us to tell for certain. The ship… Doesn't appear to have changed its acceleration, so perhaps-.

There's a small bloom of heat from inside the ship. Wait, all this gravity manipulation and they can't even disrupt a singularity beam a little? If this whole space-bending thing turns out to be a macro-scale hologram I'm going to be annoyed. Or maybe I was right and the generator is outside of the affected area, and these ships only use gravity manipulation in a more normal way? Either way, I-.

The drones fire at us again, this time joined by the Scarab Warrior. Shots blocked, but I'm being delayed and… And this isn't a viable strategy for anyone who isn't me. And I couldn't do it if there were more drones, or if there was a lot of other things going on. In the brief moment it was in normal space the Scarab itself didn't look anything special. Larger guns mounted on the forearms, but I assume that's just what they're using to disrupt my constructs.

"It's amusing how dependent we become on certain things. The Reach has long relied on our Scarabs to be the last word in humanoid warriors. We scarcely made any effort to improve other weapons at that scale; our regular soldiers are far inferior, despite the fact that our oldest conquests were made with a conventional army."

"The Guardians depend on their Lanterns, despite the fact that they have always been perfectly capable of building both war fleets and other sorts of exotic weapons. That's a weakness that your 'N.E.M.O.' doesn't share. You personally don't rely on your constructs, which is wise of you."

"Thank you. From all of us."

We spot it as the Scarab Warrior prepares to fire once more, and-

-it emerges from its phased state-

and our construct armour vanishes.

"But you do rely on subspace storage. Kill him."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:52 GMT

No desires for you.

The inner orange lights of the scarab and host vanish, leaving the weaker corona of expectations marking its position.

I form a new construct shield but the drones down it at once and my construct ram isn't quite fast enough to destroy it while it's phased in. Fine then. I can still track them, they can't move as fast as my constructs can and they don't appear to have-.

We see the Scarab Warrior prepare to fire, and move-.

There's a sudden burst of heat along the armour of my right shoulder.

That wasn't a construct disruptor. That was… Ring?

Weapon was positron ray.

Partially deflected by my armour's force field and it still burned a line across my shoulder. Positron beams aren't light speed weapons, but at this range they're close enough for most purposes. This armour isn't rated against Scarab Warrior-level opponents.

A drone prepares to fire but I ignore it. I'm not doing badly for ring power, but I can't afford to just throw it-

The drone fires, hitting me in the chest-. And with an awkward gasp I realise that it just shut down my environmental shield and I'm having to breathe normally.

I-.

Ophidian?

Oh dear.

I don't know if they're going to fire but I'm going to evade anyway and-. Good choice! Re-establish contact and re-activate my environmental shield and there we go.

That was terrifying and dodge again and try and hit them with a laser construct which we drop a fraction of a second after it fires to stop the drones hitting it with their counter fire.

I don't think that the laser hit, but it wasn't that powerful a laser and to be honest the Scarab Warrior's self-repair system could easily handle it even if it did hit.

The scarab…

We reach out and restore our light to the host, and twist the desires of the parasite so that it actively wants to be inactive. We're not sure how much mental freedom scarabs have to disobey their hierarchy. Certainly, they haven't ever been slow to throw themselves at Maltus-aligned forces, but that might just be a combination of hate and arrogance programmed into them to ensure that they would always remain friendly to Reach interests.

Of course, if the host is Reach-loyal, that won't help. Or at least won't make me win. But A.I.s are a lot faster at well defined tasks than organics, so it might slow their shared reactions a little.

Dodge, dodge, miss with a hammer, miss with a laser, and the Scarab has stayed in its phased state for a little longer than it needs to. Waiting for an opportunity or grateful that it has agency again? Can't tell.

So okay, no subspace, and the sternguard have actually started accelerating in this direction. It looks like it'll take them a few minutes to reverse their momentum, but while a Scarab Warrior might be manageable without long lasting constructs an actual fleet isn't.

Can't access subspace, and blocking access is a lot easier than breaking in. The actual physics are well beyond me, so-. So I can't force my way through the block reliably. I mean, I can try to steal my own things because I did scan the device that the Sivanas used-.

Not reliable.

So.

Formation there, warp space and accelerate! Energy to matter transmutation would take too long. Use x-ionised blades to carve sheets off armour. Not big sheets, but-.

And a drone hit me with its ray and I'm alone in my own head again. It's only for seconds but the Ophidan's absence chills me to my soul.

Re-establish, and-. Well, that's tiny, but it'll do for now. X-ionise-

"What a fascinating-"

-and block, making sure to let go as the beam is intercepted and grasp it again once the drone falls back into its phased state.

"-technique."

"Thank-"

The Scarab Warrior is doing… Something, and it and the drones are moving to catch up with me. I use a ring scan to try and determine exactly what's different about this sort of phasing, but I don't get anything that means anything to me.

"-you."

Okay, construct scanner. Get me more detail. Work out what's happening there.

Compliance.

Block-block and calculate, and take back a small amount of my hate for normal physics and fly that way. Tricky to judge, but if I-.

Report available.

And I'm sure that Dox will find it fascinating, but is any of it actionable?

Yes.

Okay, that's good-. Or… Not. At least that explains how it blocked my access to subspace. A phased object -probably the scarab itself- is somehow keeping the rest in subspace. Or.. something like that. I think the ring is dumbing it down for me. So a phasic round could in theory hit the scarab, but those are fairly small targets and not exactly fragile. How the drones are managing… Slaved to the scarab? Fine, except I have no-.

Ring, keep-

Block and dodge, because the Scarab Warrior appears to have spotted that something is up and is shooting at us a lot more. We frantically alternate between interposing our small x-ionised plates and normal construct shields as we struggle to sniff out-.

For a moment the Scarab Warrior fully emerges into normal space. My laser hits it at once, but it forms a shield to prevent me hitting anywhere fragile and reconfigures… Something, before vanishing again with only trivial damage.

Looks like I can't just replicate Thaddeus and Georgia's trick and steal the body from subspace. Which is a shame, because a Scarab Warrior without a scarab probably can't self-terminate.

Alright, vector's good, scarab is as off its game as it gets. Let's try this again. I-.

Drones shoot at the same time as the scarab, anti-construct shots pass through the space where my construct shield would have gone if I hadn't opted to evade instead. Somewhere deep in Reach space their creator may be pleased that the function they designed into them worked as desired. We manoeuvre again and attempt to acquire the subspace band being used by the scarab to hide in, and-.

Drones firing constantly, the Scarab phases in and resets again. We calculate and use our body to shield our gravity manipulator construct as we bend space just-.

Ugh, hit again. But did it-

The Scarab Warrior phases out and-

-work-.

-reappears immediately, spinning out of control where the phasic round I fired earlier intersected with their scarab implant. The drones materialise at once and I-.

They melt, their self-destruct systems consuming any technology I could have recovered.

Now for the Ascendants.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:54 GMT

I sigh as I register the Reach fleet moving into orbit around Karrakan. I might be able to reach them before they kill everything on the surface, but… I… Don't think so. They could do enough damage to make the planet even more hellish than it already is, and if the locals aren't going to cooperate then I wouldn't be able to rescue them-.

Alright, it would technically be possible to seize a ship and put them there, but given the description Thiva gave me I don't think I really want them to get hold of a top of the line warship. Shame about the regular people but I doubt that the Reach are interested in them.

"Orange Lantern to the-."

"How did you manage that?"

"I'm pretty good at this whole Lanterning thing. And because you used your new technique on me, I'm going to be passing on my information into the rest of the Corps."

"You think that you learned more than we did?"

"Bored now, hanging up."

Hung up.

Ring, signal the ships in the flotilla chasing the Ascendants.

Compliance.

And message to Thiva.

"Illustres?"

"Sorry for the delay, they sicced an upgraded Scarab Warrior on me. I'm heading towards your pursuers now."

"How are you able to travel at faster than light speed?"

"I can overpower the Reach's gravity manipulation over a small area. Hard work though, and it's draining my power reserves faster than I'd like."

"Can you move our ships like that?"

"I.. don't think so, and I haven't examined the boundary."

"Then we will-. Do you want our warships to turn around and fight the Reach beside you?"

I take a moment to consider the relatively small Reach squadron pursuing them, and the slightly larger number of ships pursuing me. I don't know whether they're equipped with construct disrupters or not… But even if they are, ships of that size aren't anything like as agile as Scarab Warriors.

"Are the passengers all loaded on the transport ships, or are they just sort of packed in anywhere there's space?"

"When the Reach arrived, we just rushed to get everyone aboard-."

"Then keep evading them."

Communication from Reach vessels.

Good show. Hang up, answer.

Compliance.

"Hello there. I'm the Lantern chasing you."

"Ah. I had hoped that our Beetle was just carrying your rings."

"Sorry, no such skill. So listen, my record at killing Reach ships is really good."

"My record at killing agents of the Darkstars is similarly good."

"Which would be good for you… If I was a Darkstar. Ever killed a Lantern?"

There's no response.

"So I don't know exactly how the Reach handle personal initiative and impossible situations, but as I see it the problem is like this: your objective is to collect samples of Ascendant biology and technology. And I do mean collect, not scan. It's too different to things your people are familiar with for a few long ranged scans to do much good. Now, there are only wrecks left of their habitation platforms and not a lot of advanced stuff on the planet itself. These ships are valuable."

"Yes."

"Except… You can't. I'm going to catch up with you before you're in optimal weapons range. Your own sensors can confirm that."

"Assuming that you can keep up your pace."

"Assuming that I can keep up this pace, and not go faster. So given that you can't reliably cripple the ships you're chasing before I reach you, do you think that you can beat me?"

"Yes."

Hm.

"I've got no reason to fly past you, which means that it's rear-facing weapons only. You're nothing like as manoeuvrable as me, your maximum acceleration is less and you know that my weapons can destroy your ships."

"And?"

"And, if I destroy you, then you won't be able to fulfil your mission. So what I'm going to suggest is, your turn off and fly away, and so preserve your ships and personnel. You'll fail your mission, but once the Scarab Warrior failed to tie me up for longer that was a given. The only issue is whether your ships survive or not. Though I.. suppose that the information your side gathers on my destructive abilities might be worth something. I can't judge how the two things balance for you."

No response, though the channel is still open.

"Now, in other circumstances I might quite like to destroy this fleet. But as I understand it, you're just here for information to help you fight Grayven. I'd actually quite like you to learn more about fighting New Gods, which -unusually- means that it's in my interests to let you go. I wouldn't exactly be choked up about having to kill you all, but it's not my primary aim."

Still no response.

"I'm nearly in effective weapons range. If you want to take the offer, I'm going to need to hear something… Now."

The warp terminates, and… Ah. It's like a weight has been lifted from my metaphysique-. Which raises the worrying question as to whether or not I'd have been able to do this in a thaumically dead system. Or… Whether we would.

I should… Probably get a new medical exam.

"I'm afraid that I'm-"

I form a new giant cold gun.

"-going to need to rush-."

BOOM! INEXORABLE ASCENT!

Uh…

A boom tube has opened in the area of the Ascendants' former base, and I see Grayven's flagship fly through.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
20:57 GMT

I narrow my eyes slightly as the central Reach dreadnought's mid section is vaporised, the colossal beam of energy working its way back towards the Absolute Dominion's hyper blaster. RUINATION!

Heh.

"Ring, message to the Absolute Dominion: go get 'em, Grayven."

Other, smaller ships fly through the boom tube behind the Dominion. And… Those aren't gordanian ships. They're… More like what the Ascendants use, which makes perfect sense given the source. And they'll probably have-.

Was… Sparta talking complete nonsense about the state of Karrakan's surface? Was it actually fine and he was-? No, Thiva would have checked-.

"Ring, get me Thiva again."

Compliance.

"Holy Grandmother. Illustres, can you feel that? His… Power. Who is that?"

"That's Grayven, Sparta's sponsor. And I'm afraid that I can't-"

A second dreadnought is hit, its central section disintegrated, fore and aft drifting apart with surprising gentleness as the Reach fleet starts to try to reposition itself. RUINATION!

"-feel it as I'm not a god myself. I've got to ask: how much effort did you put in to trying to rescue people from Karrakan?"

"I don't understand."

"You see that the ships accompanying Grayven's flagship are very similar to the ones you're using? He had to get Ship Masters from somewhere."

"I spoke to several myself. Or-. I tried to. They would not hear me."

"Did they know that you were allied with Sparta? Or that Sparta had been overthrown? Because they might have turned you away for that reason."

"I didn't ask. I just…"

"Right, fine. He might be willing to take you on; if that's something you're interested in it would probably be best if you contacted him directly. Otherwise, I'm betting on him over the Reach, so we should be out of here soon."

"If he wishes to speak with us, he can come to New Othrys."

"I've got a suspicion he will. Ring, add the Reach ships in front of me to the channel."

"Compliance."

"So I'm guessing that you're getting new orders about now."

Their primary weapons open fire on the Ascendants. It's at the very limits of its effective range and New God shielding is very good, but the intent is clear.

"Yes. We are to deny Grayven all resources, no matter the cost."

"That's a real shame."

End. And fire.

The cold beam lances out, hitting the Reach ship closest to the Ascendants. Since I'm close enough not to worry about needing to warp space to make it hit, the beam is continuous. The ship I hit is completely enveloped with a beam of unceasing physics-violation. The armour seems to shrink in on itself as it dissolves into fragments, the interior freezing solid. Something I can identify because whatever they use to disrupt ring scans appears to have been one of the things I just destroyed.

"Would you care to reconsider? Think about the needs of the whole of the Reach, not just the local theatre."

Near Karrakan the more agile Reach ships are in full retreat, trying to get to the far side of the planet as the New God ships draw closer. The capital ships-.

I smile faintly as the last one is torn apart by the Dominion's primary weapon. RUINATION!

I know it's not an efficient design, but there's something about watching it tear through enemy capital ships that stirs a primal joy in the violent and uncivilised depths of my soul.

"The Writ is all."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I switch the cold cannon to the next target and fire. "Thiva, you handling it? Or do you need me to fly closer and shield you?"

"I think that Grayven's power is fortifying our shields."

I wince. Looks like he wants to preserve his investment.

The second ship I targeted comes apart like the first. Three left, and while they're gaining on the Ascendants their weapons aren't doing anything worth talking about to the shields at this distance.

"Come on, don't you have families to go home to?"

Nothing. Ring?

Channel ended.

Alright, signal the other three ships.

Compliance.

"Guys, you're not hurting their shields and I can one-shot your ships. Please give it up. If you're concerned that you'll be punished when you go home, I'll take you prisoner. I'll even let you scuttle your ships first so I can't gain useful intelligence. Please."

"The Writ is all." / "The Writ is all." / "The Writ is all."

Darn it.

I turn my cold cannon to the third ship and fire, watching… Yes, I'm actually saddened by it. These ships aren't an immediate threat to anyone but unless I destroy them and their crews they will become one. What do they think we're-?

"Has your government told you something about us treating prisoners badly? Because I assure you, it's just a high security prison black site. One round of telepathic interrogation, and then you'll be left to your own devices."

"No succour. Stop insulting us and kill us."

I sigh and fire at the second to last ship, which doesn't survive any better than the previous ones. The Ascendants-. They rotate their ships and begin applying thrust to reduce their speed.

"Thiva, what are you doing?"

"Helping." Strike!

Primary fore-mounted weapons from their warships fire, taking a few seconds to hit the last Reach ship in pursuit. Its shields crackle and flex, far better able to cope with nearly-normal weapon fire than the physics-defying wrath of a cold beam. The Reach ship responds by taking hopeful shots with its secondary batteries, but it's clear that's more a sign of their will to resist rather than something they expect to actually achieve anything.
Slay!
Another barrage from the Ascendants and their target's shield finally suffers a partial overload, failing and allowing the energetic assault to hit the hull. Again, that survives far better against their shots than it did against the cold beam, but there's never really any doubt-.

I nod as the front of the ship melts, and the interior is far less resilient that the armour.

I turn to face my own pursuers. They're still following, but-.

I stare in astonishment as the giant cold beam I fired at the beginning of the fight slams into the Absolute Dominion.

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st January 2013
21:00 GMT

Ah…

I kept that up for a while, punctuated by the warp pulses I used to make it hit the Reach ships in a timely manner. The Absolute Dominion has New God shielding and armour and Grayven is powerful, but… The voice we've half-heard sounded like it was more interested in attacking than defending.

We're a long way from the Absolute Dominion, but I think I can see a slight… Shimmering? Where the cold beam hit. It hasn't ceased firing, though given the smaller size of the remaining targets it's mostly using its secondary turrets rather than the hyper blaster. Using empathic vision-.

I wince at the uncomfortable backlash from his defences.

Well. He's still alive, at least.

The pursuing ships briefly pass between me and the fight around Karrakan.

Right. Them.

"Ring, message those ships."

"Compliance."

"Reach flotilla, your fleet is being destroyed and I killed these guys. I would respectfully suggest that this isn't the best use of your time, resources and lives. Please, go away."

I train the giant cold gun on them, making sure that the angle won't take the beam anywhere near Karrakan.

"I know you've probably got the same orders as the other squadron, but I suspect that the person who gave it is dead, and so it might be time to reassess."

I wince inside my armour as the second beam hits the Absolute Dominion. It's still firing but it's definitely slowed. The surviving Reach ships are doubling back towards it, trying to minimise the proportion of its guns that can fire on them while allowing them to fire back. The Absolute Dominions escorts are moving to intercept.

"I am also willing to cooperate on escaping this trap, if that makes more sense to you. Or you can just keep doing what you're doing and I can kill you all. But if I do that… How good is your self destruct? How good is your ability to flash your databases? Can you be certain that we won't get something useful out of your defeat? Because I know that Clarissi Dox will trade quite a lot for the remains of those battleships."

They're closing, and they're not actually that far from maximum weapons' range. Thiva's warships are moving perpendicular to them, with just enough off-axis movement to serve as an evasive flight path.

"Come on, make the intelligent choice. I know your effective ranges as well as you-."

"Can you return us to Karrakan?"

"Not while your interdiction field is active. And I doubt that Grayven will turn his off. If you want my help turning around, I can do that and give you a boost. Bit of a change of tune."

"Our Unifier is dead and the Negotiator is out of contact. In this situation-."

"Fine, I'll believe you." I dismiss my cold gun cannon. "Power down your weapons and position them at neutral, and I'll approach."

"Wait."

They don't try to reverse thrust, but they do begin rotating in space with the aim of turning their drive this way. Their weapons… Some return to their gunports, others turn to face along the hull of the ship.

"Is this what we want?"

I rotate in space and arm-shrug in the direction of Thiva's ship, and switch channel to reply to her only.

"If my enemies want to kill each other, who am I to stop them?"

And… Oh. Some of the Absolute Dominion's guns have stopped firing. Its escorts are swarming any ship that makes an attack run, taking visible damage themselves to keep their overlord safe. And the cold beam is still hitting… I'm not sure how. Yes, I moved it to keep it on the projected location of the dreadnoughts I was aiming at, but the Absolute Dominion only entered that cone by chance-.

Or did it? My use of gravity manipulation to alter the course of my phasic rounds was passably clever but not really innovative as space combat amongst species with gravitational manipulation technology goes. The current state of this system shows how good the Reach are at things like that. And they certainly have FTL sensors; they would know where the shot was going.

And of course, Grayven's force isn't like N.E.M.O.. If they kill me or Dox or Hinon, N.E.M.O. keeps going. Grayven is the driving force behind his faction's attack on the Reach. I doubt that the Citizenry would be prepared to follow whoever succeeds him as clan chief, or that the Ascendants would follow either.

Or maybe I'm mistaken. If the Darkstars have infiltrated Grayven's forces, they haven't forwarded an intelligence report to me.

Well, the Reach ships have stowed their guns. Time for me to do my bit.

We warp, flying towards them with one metaphorical hand on the brake, waiting for them to chance their arms. But, no, they don't, and I can approach to construct distance.

Oh, that's what the Ascendants were doing. They've grabbed enough Reach wrecks to create a physical barrier between the cold beam and the Absolute Dominion. Whatever the Reach were doing to make the beam hit in the first place, it looks like they can't use it to make the beam turn at right angles. The Absolute Dominion itself… It's accelerating sluggishly as the surviving Reach ships appear to decide that firing at point blank range is their best bet.

I generate a construct clamp around each of the nearest Reach ships and pull, increasing their turning rate to just apply under their theoretical maximum safe hull stress. No point ripping them up before they arrive. And I keep monitoring their weapons and keep an eye out in case they've decided to send a stealthy Scarab Warrior after me. No, nothing.

Yet.

Ships turned and rotation halted, I move along the line, though the ships next to these ones aren't close to one another in the conventional sense. Another series of construct clamps and another careful pulling twist as the first couple of ships I turned around begin accelerating back towards Karrakan. This means that they're currently going backwards, but the rate at which they're going backwards is slowing.

It's not just me that conventional physics has made its enemy.

We move down the line, redirecting their ships until they're all facing the right way. Then we draw upon the desires of the crews and of the Reach in general to destroy those who threaten their way of life and give them a little push.

And there they go, on their merry way, to death or victory. Not sure whether I want Grayven to have killed Unnamed Assimilation Specialist or not. I mean, we've bumped into each other a couple of times but it's not like with Truggs where I actually agree with some of what he's trying to do. There's clearly no way I could rehabilitate him while still leaving any part of his original personality intact. We'd have to start on a new behavioural profile but I'm sure that Dox would live.

"Illustres to Thiva. I think our best course of action would be to head to the edge of the system and see-."

Stars shoot overhead as the rest of the universe reappears, another Reach fleet flying in about a third of the way across the system from us and heading for Karrakan.

"Or that could happen. Can you open boom tubes?"

BOOM!

A glowing portal open in front of each of the ships, and I fly towards the closest.

"Then let's fall back and regroup for now. I'm interested to see what you've done with Minosyss."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 534834

8th February 1992
12:21 GMT

"…not a matter of cold feet, oh seraphim of my heart. But there are practical arrangements to make of a type I'm not supposed to tell you about in advance."

"Ah know ah-." I hear her make a frustrated exhalation. "Did ah come on too strong for ya? Ah know ya'll said-."

"Seven months' time is more sensible, but if you don't mind besotted-me-who-isn't-making-rational-decisions, I'm more than happy to acquiesce to your request."

"Since you ain't makin' rational decisions, vanishin' raight aftuh a conversation like that's not a real great way to start a new part of the relationship."

"Understood, won't happen again."

"Is it-?" … "Are you lookin' fer a ring?"

I look down at the rocky shore of Muir Island as I fly over it.

"Not right now."

"Ya'll don't have t' fight that Mandarin fellah again on mah behalf."

"No, but you know that if I don't he's going to turn up at the wedding, and that's just going to be a nuisance."

"That's awful presumptuous of ya. Ah don't remember ya'll askin' me."

"Or maybe it's more convenient for us to make him come to us? Sort of a team exercise. And anyway, I need a pair of engagement rings and a pair of wedding rings. That's four rings out of a set of ten, so then there'd be five left over and I don't like it when the numbers don't fit."

"Ah do expect ya'll to ask me."

"And I'm going to make it as romantic as I can, and also a bit of a surprise, which is why I'm not talking about specifics and definitely not because I'm panicking about not having any real idea how to do it."

"Yeyah. Ya'll ain't the only feelin' nervous. Lahk I got a whole mess a' butterflies flying around mah insades."

"I get a tingle in my extremities. A bit like pins and needles, only not as painful, combined with a dreadful sense of apprehension that I'm going to somehow make a tremendous mess of things."

"Hn. I guess we don't neither of us know what we're doin'."

"I'd like to be able to consult with my parents, but…"

"Oh."

"Sorry, that was a bit… I'm sure they'd be happy for us, but it would be nice to be able to discuss it with people who'd been married for over thirty years."

"Ah think ya'll 're gonna do faihn."

"And I think you will as well. Though I've got a very biased viewpoint." I see the Muir Island research institution up ahead, and fly towards it. "Okay, look, I need to do that thing I can't talk to you about…"

"An' ah need t' get back on guard duty. See ya'll back at the Mansion. Don't keep me waiting, now."

"Indeed you will. I love you."

I tap the ring to end my satellite connection, wrenching my thoughts back onto the job before I drop out of the air. Ah… Orange power rings are not love-friendly. I've been practicing, but… I might have to talk to Scott and Xavier about not getting paired with Anne-Marie on missions if I can't work out a way around it. A couple of other versions of me I met at Vanishing Point appeared to be managing, but from what they said it involved a level of spiritual development I… Just don't have.

I land at the front doors of the Muir Island laboratory and press the buzzer. Scan shows only one person present, which is what I expected. It might take them-.

"Who is it?"

"Orange Lantern. I'd like to speak with you face-to-face if that's at all possible, Doctor Adler."

"How did you get here?"

"I flew myself here."

"Ah. I.. see." There's a klunk as the door is remotely unlocked. "Come in. I'll be down shortly."

"Thank you."

I push the door open and stride inside. It's.. not really a reception. This isn't a customer-facing business, it's a laboratory for a mad scientist who very occasionally entertains guests. Largely funded by Mr. Worthington the Third, it's one of the few places where the x-gene is studied because… Between the Friends of Humanity on the one hand and mutant paramilitaries on the other, a remote Scottish island is just about the only place where it's safe to do things like this.

A door in the corridor swings open, and an Einstein-lookalike walks out to greet me.

"Orange Lantern. We're not really open to the public here. What exactly do you want?"

"Your permission to marry your adopted daughter, Ms. Darkhölme-."

"I don't know who that is-."

"The real Doctor Adler died on Genosha, which I recently-."

The plasma bolt hits me in the forehead -ow- and I feel a sharp burning pain as it's only mostly absorbed by my environmental shield. Strengthen that.

"Please don't-" She fires again, and this time I don't feel it. "-do that. It's irritating, and if it actually worked Anne-Marie would be quite upset." Forehead still hurts, so heal that.

He studies me for a few moments, then lowers his gun. "How did you find me?"

I don't say anything, but let my glowing eyes speak for themselves.

"You want my permission to date Rogue?"

"No, I want your permission to marry her. Naturally, I'll be hunting down Irene and Kurt for the full reunion, but -and forgive me if I'm being presumptuous here- it seemed to me that you occupied the paternal role in her life."

"Did she tell you to do this?"

"No, but I warned her that I wasn't up to making sensible decisions this early in the relationship and that we should probably wait a few months. She wasn't keen, so here we are."

She stares at me, gradually shifting back to her default blue-woman-in-white-dress form. "Are you rich? Powerful?"

I shrug. "I'm rich enough that I don't ask how much things cost, and I'm powerful enough to keep up my end of a fight."

"Do you love her?"

"Yes."

"Does your shield work against her power?"

"Yes, and I found a ring which lets her touch people, so she's not dependent on me."

She weighs that up for a moment.

"Then you have my permission."

"Great, thank you!" I consider hugging her, but decide that would be pushing my luck. "I'll let you know when we've got a date. Um. And please don't get arrested or do anything particularly evil in the meantime, because I know that Anne-Marie still loves you and it would make her upset."

"Of course not."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 534834

8th February 1992
13:47 GMT +1

"Good afternoon!"

I drop down onto the side of the field where the monks are preparing the ground for spring planting. I get a few shocked stares, but none of them flee in terror or anything. Flying superhumans aren't anything particularly new; the earliest flying superhuman fights in the historical record happened during World War Two and a couple were caught on camera film.

The monk closest to me looks around for a moment -diffusion of responsibility is a wonderful thing- before smiling awkwardly and coming a little closer.

"God be with you, stranger. I am Brother Johan. What brings you to our monastery?"

"I'm looking for a fellow-" Whom I don't look at, whose hood is currently covering his unusual features. "-called Kurt Wagner. I understand that he's a brother here? Ah, sorry if he.. took a new name when he took his vows, I don't.. really know how that works."

"And what do you want with Brother Kurt?"

"To invite him to my wedding. I'm getting married to his sister-"

I see the tip of his tail twitch under his habit, the tension in his frame and the slight gleam as his eyes fix on me.

"-in a little while, and I wanted to.. check that he could come. I mean, if his vows include staying on-site we can visit later, but it would be nice to have him there. Obviously, I'll cover the costs of travel-."

"Ah-h…" The monk… No computerised records, yes, so I can't just get his name. He actually looks around at Mr. Wagner, who walks off in the direction of the monastery barn. "I… I will need to speak to Brother Kurt to see if he can be disturbed. Many Brothers like to spend time away from the world in prayer and contemplation."

I smile and make a small wave with my right hand.

"I quite understand. If he's occupied, I'll just leave contact details and he can.. write a letter to me or something."

"Or his sister?"

"I'm trying to set it up as a surprise for her? I sort of… I'm pretty sure that I'm going to bungle the proposal, so the pleasant surprise is going to have to come from somewhere else, so I thought that I'd track down the whole family and invite them along." I shrug, then we just look at each other for a moment. "So..?"

He blinks, then nods.

"Oh, yes, of course. Please, come this way, and I will see if he can speak with you."

I follow him as he leads the way over the rough ground towards the monastery building. This place is… Well, it's not that remote, not as the crow flies, but with mountains all around I don't imagine that it's high on the priority list for electricity or plumbing.

So this monk clearly knows who Mr. Wagner is, but I don't know for certain that the rest do. An isolated monastery offering refuge to an abandoned child with an unsightly 'deformity' isn't exactly a new story, and… I remember in The Elenium, where after dealing with corruption in the church hierarchy for most of the story, they encounter a priest in an isolated village who is completely devout and only wants to help the main characters and his parishioners. One of them commented wryly that while he was the sort of person who was suppose to be drawn to the priesthood, he'd probably die if he got put into an actual leadership position that took him away from his flock.

"I don't believe that you told me your name."

"Ah. No, I…"

"I know. Costumed fighters do not use their names." He smiles at me. "When I was a boy, I had a Captain America poster on my bedroom wall."

"I go by Orange Lantern, but my actual name… I sort of freeze up when I try and say it." But fortunately Mr. LeBeau made me a name badge. I take it out of subspace and hold it up. "You seem like the trustworthy sort."

"Thank you." He smiles and then opens the side door to the… Main hall. "If you would like to wait here…"

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary."

I scan for Mr. Wagner's location and transition there. He's hanging upside down from one of the barn loft's roofing beams, staring at the main doors as he chants prayers and fingers his rosary. I invert myself and stand on the beam next to him.

"Bit of-" His head jerks around, and his cowl slips off his head. "-a shock."

He regards me for a moment. "But you are not shocked. You knew what I look like."

"I've seen a lot of strange things. You're not even top ten. No offence intended."

"And… My sister. I have a sister."

"Your natural mother adopted her, yes."

"You know who my mother is?"

"Yes. And I've already invited her."

"And she..? She is like me?"

"No, she has red hair."

He blinks, slowly. "No, I mean, she is… She looks…"

"She has blue skin. No fur though. And she can change her appearance at will." Huh. "So I suppose she might have fur and just never show it."

"This is… A lot… To take in."

"Okay, well, I can leave you here to think about it if you like. But if you've got any questions, now seems like a good time to ask them."

"Do you know my father as well?"

"Um, no. Sorry. He and your mother had separated before she.. adopted Anne-Marie."

"But you know who he is."

"Baron Christian Wagner. German. I.. think he's still alive." I shrug. I don't remember any version of X-Men I watched mentioning his name, because it didn't really matter. 'Sired a child on Mystique, reacted badly to him being a mutant' is his role and that doesn't require him to have a name. But in a real living world there are all sorts of records of things like that.

"Why was I abandoned? Is it because… I am.. like this?"

"Basically, yes. Your mother obviously wouldn't have a problem with it, but she's… She… Honestly, I don't know exactly why, but she's a member of a mutant paramilitary organisation and it's hard to bring up a young child in that sort of situation. Ah. Don't know about your father. If you want me to… Sound him out about talking to you, I can go and do that?"

"A… A paramilitary?"

"Yes, she's a founding member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Um, though the name is really for the intimidation factor rather than any real commitment to evil as an ideal. That's how she met my girlfriend; Anne-Marie got thrown out of the family home once her abilities manifested."

"She is… A criminal."

"She's not… Much worse than people like the Friends of Humanity. And it wasn't that long ago that the American government was sending out giant robots to abduct and imprison people with the X-gene without trial in a clear violation of the American constitution. It's.. not exactly paranoia when a lot of people actually are out to get you."

"Perhaps… Perhaps it would be best if you told me most about my sister. Or do I have any other brothers or sisters?"

…

"None who I'm going to be inviting."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 534834

8th February 1992
08:51 GMT -5

Guide dog sniffing cautiously at me from her position next to Irene Adler's legs, the woman herself faces my general direction with a frown on her forehead.

"I wasn't expecting to speak with you today."

And though I wouldn't be so gauche as to say it, I was expecting someone younger. Though I.. suppose that with her shapeshifting abilities, it's about as hard to guess Ms. Darkhölme's age as it is Logan's.

"Okay? I can leave if you want." I frown. "Ah. Does you not expecting to speak to me mean that I've got some sort of protection against prognostication or does it mean that I've inadvertently broken the universe?"

"I hope that the universe isn't that fragile." She pauses. "But you being here isn't helping. I know that I'm talking to you and I know nothing about this conversation."

I nod sympathetically. "I feel the same way, most of the time."

"Hm." She raises her right hand to her chin. "I heard nothing as you walked up the path. You might have been walking quietly, but I can hear your feet moving now. And you rang the bell. The other possibility is that you flew."

"The second one."

"Are you here to arrest me? My power doesn't lend itself to combat and I'm an old woman. I'd prefer to come quietly rather than be grabbed by a giant robot."

I shake my head. "Those aren't a thing anymore. And I can't arrest you unless I see you committing a crime right in front of me."

"One of Charles' adventurers?"

"One of his students. A.. mature student, obviously."

"Your name?"

The card's no good, because she's blind. I could add the Braille characters to it, but just thrusting something she can't see towards her seems a little rude. "I work under the name 'Orange Lantern'."

She steps back from her door. "You may as well come in. Try not to make too much of a commotion; I'm too old to keep moving every few years."

"Thank you." I frown. "I.. thought that your ability allowed you to walk around?"

She sidesteps around a hall table, a knob-ended cane lying on top of it. I follow her inside and shut the door, her dog coming forward to give me a few sniffs before returning to its mistress's side.

"It usually does. Anywhere where I will walk, I can look a moment or two ahead and use that to navigate. But with you here, I can't, because as far as my power knows there's no chance of this happening."

I nod. "And so no chance that you'll be where you are."

"Not talking to you." She leads the way into the kitchen. "There are any number of things that could cause me to be somewhere else in my own home."

I nod, glancing at the photographs on the wall. Some of a younger Ms. Adler and Ms. Darkhölme, some of other people I don't recognise. The one that draws my attention is a group picture of the two of them with Anne-Marie. Huh. I don't think she has a copy-.

"You've stopped. You're looking at the photograph."

"I was speaking to Ms. Darkhölme a few hours ago."

"Oh? How is she?"

"She was in good health. I think she's up to something evil, so I'm doing a three monkeys impression until it becomes overt." Wait a moment. "Don't you know?"

"I know roughly how well she's likely to be in a variety of situations. It's not the same."

I suppose that makes sense.

Inside the kitchen the dog walks over to its basket and flops down, watching its mistress. Ms. Adler picks up her abandoned mug of tea but leaves the newspaper where it is. Because she doesn't need to read it -she can't- but she can look into any future where she might read it and read it there.

"Well? What brought you here?"

"I read up on your file in Professor Xavier's records. I understand that you were going blind before your ability manifested?"

"That doesn't mean that my precognition didn't cause my blindness, just that it manifested first."

"If you like, I can give you a brain scan more accurate than anything available to human medicine. If it was a side effect or unrelated, it's easy for me to fix."

"Did Charles finally find a mutant healer?"

"Sorry, I don't have an x-gene. And I can only heal certain people. But in your case it's a service I'm happy to provide."

"And why am I part of the elect?"

"I'm Anne-Marie's boyfriend, and I'm here to invite you to our wedding."

I see the tea in her mug shake slightly, so she puts it down on the work surface.

"I didn't see that coming, either."

"No?"

"If anyone, I was expecting Gambit."

I frown. "Really? He didn't seem like the type."

"It wasn't likely. And you invited Raven."

"And Kurt."

"Kurt-? Did you tell Raven you were inviting him?"

"Yes. She didn't really react, but… I suppose that given how long it's been since she had anything to do with him, that.. may just be awkward for her rather than-."

"I wouldn't assume that." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "How long have the two of you been together?"

"About three months. I wanted to.. wait a little longer. She.. emphatically didn't. Um, Professor Xavier managed to transfer Carol Danvers' personality back into her so that's not an issue any more, and when she woke up she didn't seem to really remember Anne-Marie, so we… Probably got away with that."

"It was necessary."

I raise my right index finger. "It was probably necessary. I understand that sometimes you miss consequences."

"That's true." She nods. "And if I can't see you at all, then everything that I thought I knew about her future could be wrong."

"I love the Seldon Plan, and so does my good friend The Mule. But I'm not going to complain because if you hadn't done that I might not have met her. She might have stayed with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants-."

"It was supposed to be in apostrophes."

"I'm sorry?"

"'Evil Mutants'. A place for those cast out of polite society because they were different and so of course they were evil. Creed took it as a challenge." She shakes her head with a grimace. "I've got no idea what she saw in him."

"Okay, but can you come?"

"Do you have a date?"

"I haven't actually asked her yet. Um. Do you have..? Any advice on..? How to go about that?"

"Oh good grief."