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

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
18:09 GMT

"Orange Lantern to Osiris?"

"Yes? Orange Lantern?"

"Good-."

"You're back? Do you have a solution?"

"I've got most of what I need. Can I enter Kahndaqi territory so we can talk about-"

"Yes! Of course!"

"-it in person." I breathe a sigh of relief. "Coming down now."

I have no idea what the current size of the North African safe zone is, so I aim for a mostly empty spot north west of Shiruta and fly downwards at speed.

"Did you know about the alien fleet near the moon?"

"A fleet? How many ships?"

"They were jamming my scans and not trying to move or fight. I'd guess that they had twelve capital ships, but they might just be converted freighters or troop transports. Twelve large ships, certainly."

"What does that mean for us?"

"Depends on whether Mannheim takes umbrage or not. It's too far for anyone except top tier superheroes or supervillains to attack. I'm a bit worried about what they're taking from Har-Zod's database, but hopefully it's encrypted to the point where no normal decryption tool can manage it."

"We are not ready to respond to attacks."

"And I suspect that they know that. If it's… Below a certain level then we'll pretty much have to ignore it. Heck, we couldn't even allow them to just do what they like to Mannheim's territory, not if we want to-"

I level off as I reach ground level, and land purely to enjoy the sensation of having my feet down on my homeworld again.

"-reclaim the planet in reasonable condition. Alright, I'm dead on twenty eight latitude and thirty four longitude. I'm stealthed but you can probably hear me."

"Yes." I look up as he comes in to land next to me. "But it would be harder if you were phased."

"Is it safe to reveal myself?"

"Earth is not safe at all. But as far as we can tell, Mannheim doesn't care about individual people."

I deactivate my armour's stealth system, and his head turns just a little from where he thought I was to where I am.

"How is Adom holding up?"

"He lives, though…" He looks pensive. "His strength wanes. Physically, there is nothing wrong with him, but he… Struggles to… Do certain things. To focus his mind. My sister uses her magic to fortify him, but there are many things that require her attention."

Hm. "Channelling that much magic continuously could do that."

"With Atlantis still isolating itself there is little we can do if his affliction is magic. Unless… You..?"

"You can have my purple healing ray, but I assume you've tried that." He nods disappointedly. "I can take a look at him, but since I'm not a magician there's not much I can do about it if it is magical. And I'm sure that whatever his problem is will be easier to deal with without the Anti-Life corrupting everything."

He nods. "What is your solution?"

"We seize the centre of the broadcast network and use seven different colours of power ring to channel pure life energy into it."

"You have seven different power rings?"

"No. I've got six. We're going to have to fake the seventh using either magic or the Medusa Mask. Should still work, though obviously it's not ideal."

"And what will that do?"

"The Anti-Life needs to convince people that it's true in order to control them. Once our broadcast goes out, everyone will instinctively reject it. I think."

He gives me a concerned frown. "How confident are you?"

"Well, there are no certainties, but it… Should work. There's nowhere I can go to test it other than Apokolips, and… I don't want Apokolips to learn about this."

"Will they not find out when we do it?"

"I'm not planning on giving Mannheim a step-by-step guide. He'll know that something happened, and we'll need to watch out for operatives coming from Apokolips for… Forever, probably. But I don't want to give him the specifics."

"But you have told me. Sharing information is a risk."

"Amon, last time they tried Anti-Lifeing you, you told them to go fuck themselves without super powered assistance. I consider you to be completely reliable."

He ducks his head slightly. "Thank you."

"But, yes, don't spread it out to anyone who doesn't need to know."

I should have thought that through a little better. Because he's right, even if it doesn't matter with him. If it was Kon or Richard I'd have told them, and they're nothing like as leak-proof. Would it matter? Probably not, but I didn't mean for Amalak to learn about General Zod and look what happened.

"What else has happened while I was gone?"

"Themyscira has… Gone. We are not sure where, though Wonder Woman has said that she is sure that it was not destroyed."

I think for a moment. "Reformation Island had some sort of shielding spell on it when I left. Is it like that?"

"No. There was a storm and it vanished, and the sea where it once was flowed over the hole it left."

That's-. That's annoying.

"And… Robin, Artemis, Match and Canis were… They confronted Mannheim himself."

Without really thinking I try to feel any of them. I get nothing. "How are they? Are they d-?"

"No. No. But they were exposed to the Anti-Life. They have not yet recovered."

"Not a problem. They'll be purged when the planet is." I frown. "Canis?"

"Mannheim told him that Darkseid was genuine when he cast him out. That it was not a test. And that he doesn't like his art."

Mildly… Surprised he hadn't realised that. I realised it during our first conversation. I didn't think that I needed to tell him… Perhaps I was wrong. Or perhaps he wouldn't have believed me.

"The victims of the Anti-Life who have taken control of cities, Mannheim is visiting them and taking something from their souls. It makes his power over the Anti-Life stronger."

"Is that what's making it difficult for Adom?"

"No, he began ailing before Mannheim began acting as he now does."

I nod. "Right then. No reason to waste time. How do I get in touch with Batman?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:20 GMT -2

The stygian depths of the Atlantic are unusually atramentous today, with the floating continent blocking out what little light might ordinarily reach the ocean floor. Though I'm being guided by the illusionary display on Sunset's stuff detector, the fact that Atlantis has pretty much been sheared off the bedrock means that the perfectly flat plain in front of me is almost entirely free of loose sediment or other subaquatic detritus.

"Grayven here. Depositing the last Argoribble."

I step away from the closest bunch of rocks and take out my spade. Normally I wouldn't bother, but Ahri'ahn strikes me as the sort of person who could probably track power ring activation. So manual digging is the order of the day.

"Why are you calling it that?"

Dig, and make sure that I keep each different sea floor layer separate so that I don't leave some sort of obvious sign to anyone who comes looking.

"Reality.. Generating Orb.. Radiating Baseline Earth?"

"You obviously just made that up."

"Fine, it's from an animated series I watched when I was a boy. The second time around."

"I gave it a perfectly good name."

"No, you gave it a literal description. I didn't call Wilson 'Intelligent Quadruped Planet', did I?"

"No-?"

"And that's literally what it is. No other planet in the universe has as many intelligent quadrupeds as your world." Okay, that's deep enough. I detach the last Argoribble from my harness and drop it in the hole, then put my back into covering it up. "Which is better, Argoribble or Iq'p?"

"Actually, Iq'p is a pretty close to an actual Equestrian word."

"What does it mean?"

"A plain with clear lines of sight."

Darn, that would actually work.

"Except it's not exactly 'Iq'p', it's a snort followed by an inhalation that would sound a bit like 'Iq'p' if you were trying to write Equestrian phonemes with English characters."

Someone's been spending too much time with Twilight. "Does it work in languages other than Modern Equestrian?"

"Ah… No."

"So when you get something that the diamond dogs, griffons, sphinxes and dragons all agree on, you can toss 'Wilson' out." I attach my spade back to my harness. "It's in. Stepping back now."

"Understood. Powering them up-"

"If the continent lands on me, tell Luna that I love her."

"-now and that won't happen. Returning Atlantis to normal won't be anything like that easy. And, ah… I haven't calculated it exactly, but I don't think you'd die if it landed on you."

"Yeah, but I'd get embedded in the upper sediment and digging myself out would be a huge pain, because the boom tube aperture needs-."

"Turning them on now."

Curious, I watch the desolate aquatic plain. There's no light down here, so…

Huh. Felt something just then, but didn't see a thing. Though if I felt it, Ahri'ahn certainly did. Guess now's the time to start the active infiltration part.

"Moon of my heart, are you prepared?"

"We are. We have the location of a somnolent mind, and shall begin Our ingress at once."

"Good show. See you up there."

And communication off, because I can pretty much guarantee that Ahri'ahn will have a way of listening in on it. Swimming is even worse, because between the weight of water above me and my own non-existent buoyancy I'd have to kick up a mountain of silt to get up there.

Mother Box, Hush Tube to Lex's airport.

Ping.
I Am Conquest.
And I walk through, into a faint snowfall onto an ice-slicked runway.
I Am Conquest.
The only part of Atlantis to stick up though the ocean surface is now adding its name to the list of the world's tallest mountains at approximately seven kilometres in height.
Mountain.
Air's thin enough that most people would struggle to breathe without assistance and the slippery coating is a fairly good way to get into extreme tobogganing.
Air.
The view would be amazing if I could see anything through the fog.
Fog.
I close my eyes for a moment and try to get a feel for the magic warping this place. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like anything; snow is snow and air is air.
Snow.
Wait, what?
Snow.
I bend down and scoop up a handful of crystals of solidified water. Since when does snow know what it is?
Snow.
I close my right fist, and wait for the warmth of my body to melt the snow trapped between my fingers.
Snow.
It doesn't melt.
Snow.
Doesn't necessarily prove anything; the air is extremely cold here. And while I could take shelter in one of the buildings and turn on a heater to see what happened, it's not exactly of primary importance anyway. Speaking of…
Snow.
I drop the snow and march towards the small air traffic control building. Since this was only a small airport for relatively small volumes of freight, there should only be seven non-Atlantean people stationed here.

The door is magnetically locked, but the only resistance as I push it open comes from the ice that has worked its way into the crack.

"Hello? I'm here to rescue you." Authority and Order.

"Mister Grayven, sir?" A man wrapped in multiple layers of clothing and at least two coats waddles in from the employee break room. "Oh, thank God. What the hell's going on?"

"Evil wizard refloated Atlantis. Is it just you?"

"Short of-. Short of breath. They're laying down around the heater."

I nod approvingly. "Good plan." I walk towards the break room, picking up the man as I go. As he said, the other six are huddled up against the cold around a large electronic heater. Interesting that the generator is still working. "The airport is closed indefinitely, so I'm sending you back to LexCorp's Metropolis office."

Muffled thanks greets the pronouncement.

Mother Box, hush tube.

Ping.

Since it's not visible, I just toss the man I'm carrying through before repeating the process with the rest of them before closing the tube.

"They could have walked."

I turn to Luna… Who is dressed in the manner of an Atlantean royal, hints of the armour I made for her poking through her dress here and there. Looks good on her, actually. And she's having no trouble standing upright or breathing.

"Are you managing?"

"Honestly, this is the most comfortable I have felt in this realm. I am curious to see whether that will remain true when we visit with Queen Clea."

I nod. "You and me both."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:24 GMT -5

"The old hometown just… Looks the same,
Like a derelict man who had died out of shame."

But that's Gotham, I suppose.

This place is going to need a lot of work once this is over. Not a lot of people out on the streets, and those are a mixture of long term homeless and… People who just don't have any real objective. Within their limits the homeless are better able to care for themselves…

Wasn't there an Authority comic where something like that happened? Someone broadcast a signal that made socially dominant people kill themselves? They haven't quite gotten to that stage yet, but they can see it from where they are.

Empathic vision shows threads of black clogging up everything in everyone I can see. No broadcaster, and no obvious organisation by a strong man figure.

"Orange Lantern to Justice League assets. Please respond."

"Orange Lantern. Proceed to New York."

"Mister Atom?"

"Ah, I apologise. Proceed to New York now."

"Right." I turn towards New York and accelerate. "You're working with the League?"

"I judged it to be the course of action most likely to result in there being a world for me to rule in thirty nine point four years. Approximated."

"What's happening in New York?"

"A group of Justified are attempting to raise an Anti-Life broadcast tower. A Task Force X group were assigned to stop them, but both groups are under attack from a group not on file."

"There are aliens parked around the moon."

"We do not have the resources to fight them effectively. Vexing."

The United States flashes by beneath me. Nice to see that the fires have gone out. "Lawrence Crock isn't there, right?"

"No. Currently in need of rescue: Cameron Mahkent, Tuppence Beresford, Wade Eiling and Abra Kadabra."

"Has Mannheim learned to do Anti-Life feedback through a power ring scan?"

"No."

I form a railgun construct and start scanning New York, wincing a little as I… Hear the whispers of the Anti-Life, and see that the state of the place is much more orderly than Gotham. Gunfire appears to be coming from Newark, and there's an Apokoliptian structure-.

Figures in airborne power armour use plasma throwers to force the… I recognise some of them as Alliance members, but their uniforms now have a degree of actual uniformity. Along with the helmets that mark them as Justified. Another alien in power armour is attaching… Teleport beacons to the large antennae sticking out of the top of the structure.

A building's front explodes, chunks of rubble shooting out as Eiling and… Anthony Woodward, try punching each other! Eiling's efforts have the most visible effect, but Woodward's metal face just snaps back into place while the tears in Eiling's skin aren't healing anything like as fast.

Woodward isn't vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses and I don't have a specific anti-metal weapon. Anything I could hit him with would do just as much damage to Eiling. On the other hand I doubt that Eiling is going to die in the next thirty seconds, so there's no particular rush.

Woodward somehow manifests a mechanical crusher from his chest and uses it to grab Eiling's head.

Okay, he is going to die in the next thirty seconds.

Particle beam.

Compliance.

A pale blue beam lances out, cutting a groove across Eiling's right shoulder and hitting Woodward full in the face. A tiny shift in the angle of the beam and it slices across the top of Woodward's head, confusing whatever passes for his mind enough that Eiling is able to free his right hand and tear the clamp off.

And now I've arrived.

Eiling shoves his hands through the hole in Woodward's chest and pulls, tearing a vertical cleft in him and literally ripping him apart. I grab both halves and shove them into two separate furnace constructs, melting them into solid masses before freezing both and dumping them on the floor.

Eiling grimaces at me as he gets his breath back.

"Lantern."

"Eiling. Situation?"

"Kadabra's still in the tower, Mahkent's laying face down in a ditch and the Terror girl got disintegrated." He grimaces. "And I got a voice in my head telling me it was all inevitable."

"You're not pardoned yet. Find enemies to kill."

He grunts, then leaps in the direction of the broadcaster. I scan to try and find where Mahkent ended up… Not in a ditch, but a squad of… Justified soldiers are demonstrating that if you don't mind killing the target it's perfectly possible to fight supervillains with guns. I rapid-fly in his direction, crumblers on construct cables punching through their helmets and jamming their central nervous systems. The one half-coated in ice gets a quick blast of hot air while I pull out my purple healing ray.

"Icicle!"

"Haah. Hahh. Hahh."

I drop the soldiers and dash into a building site, my construct barrier blocking the blast of ice he sends my way for a second before realising that I'm a friendly. The expression of guilt on his face would be funny of not for the three bullet holes in the upper right side of his chest, and the blood covering his hands.

"You look-" Filaments touch him and I begin knitting his flesh together. "-like shit."

"Fuck you, Lantern. Fuck this hurts."

"I realise it's not stylish, but I suggest body armour."

The bullets made a mess on their way out, but on the positive side that means that they're out. After I finish fixing the holes in his lungs and ribs and also give him a courtesy dry clean.

"Not worth it. They all use tungsten bullets. Go right through anyway." He grunts, then pulls himself up. "Where's everyone else?"

"Kadabra and Eiling are at the tower. Apparently Tuppence got disintegrated."

"Ah, shit. I liked her. So..?"

"Up and at 'em, champ."

He takes a deep breath, then nods. I fly up-.

The antennae on the top of the broadcaster shimmers for a moment and then vanishes. The aliens take that as their sign to evacuate as well, throwing plasma grenades at the ground-bound Justified before activating their armours' flight systems and going for height.

Railgun.

I fire three times, knocking out the main thruster from the alien closest to me before punching through their leg armour with the follow up shots. I don't hear a cry, but they fall out of the air a moment later.

Mr. Mahkent dashes along below me, throwing up walls of ice to cover his flanks. Eiling is at the tower, and takes advantage of the explosions going off to rip the entrance door out of the walls.

"Kadabra! Get out here! Time to go, before-!"

BOOM!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:28 GMT -5

I grab the armour with a construct and bring it over to me. Having trouble scanning through it, but I can tell there's someone inside and that they're in pain through simple body language analysis.

"Pop your armour and get medical attention. Stay inside and I have to cut you out."

Mr. Mahkent looks decidedly unnerved as we both look for the aperture. "We need to go, dude."

Eiling pauses by the doorway. "Kadabra!" And then he heads back towards me, head turning to keep his eyes on potential avenues of attack. "Lantern, the icicle's right. Mission's complete."

I leave the person in the armour to think about it.

"What's incoming?"

"Whatever fucked up thing Mannheim's come up with this week. Y'know, sometimes, I don't think he even cares about the broadcasters. He just-."

His eyes widen, his arms come up and the ice flies… And pins a pigeon to a wall.

It flaps its wings pitifully for a moment, then is still.

"Still got fire control issues, Junior?"

"Fuck you."

Eiling snorts. "Couple weeks ago it was human-animal hybrids with super strength. Couple weeks before that, we got-."

"Death is life's objective."

Abra sprints out of the tower, then keeps running past us. I fly up into an overwatch position as Eiling and Mahkent begin falling back, orange bonds wrapped around the figure in power armour.

"Everyone else hear that?"

"Death is life done right!"

Eiling snorts. "At least the animals didn't talk."

"So lock and load!"

I deploy point defence constructs, ready to fire.

"And hit the road!"

"Where is the evacuation point? I can just fly-."

There's a green blur, and for a fraction of a second as my thoughts turn to orange light I see… Humanoid, small, cybernetic modifications making its head look a little like a skull. Going by the size-.

It skull-grins at me.

"The Jockeys ride tonight!"

The-. That's a radiation symbol shield!

The other side of the shield goes white as the nuclear device the… Thing? Was carrying detonates! I reinforce the shield as the pressure of the detonation pushes me back, and expand it as the nuclear fury expands outwards! Kadabra points his wand at it, muttering something under his breath, while Eiling grabs Mahkent and pushes him to the ground underneath him as the heat washes over us!

That was a person.

They're using nuclear suicide bombers.

I alter the targetting parameters of my point defence drone constructs.

The initial release of energy has pretty much stopped, the shockwave and incandescent light have passed us by. The area is still hot and radioactive, but we can move. I attach filaments to everyone and transition-.

Unable to comply.

That's not good. Okay, ah, flying? I can fly everyone out, but that would make us very visible so I'd rather get away on the ground first.

Kadabra waves his wand and a cold field envelopes the molten concrete around the site of the detonation.

"Everyone alright?"

Eiling's back smoulders as he pulls himself upright. Mahkent's ice skin is.. sweating a little, and his mouth is hanging open.

"Was that a nuke?"

"Sure, they got the rest of the US arsenal." Eiling pats out some burning… Skin. "Why wouldn't they have the nukes?"

"I hadn't realised that the US had suitcase-sized nukes. I mean, I know the Russians did-."

"Prototype fission hand grenades. Probably some Davy Crockett rounds someplace."

I shake the alien in power armour. "Are you paying attention in there? Is your armour nuke-proof?"

I-

"Hah hah-!"

My point defence constructs fire as I shift my construct shield around to cover the new direction, rays of light punching holes in the head of the-. Whatever these are. It falls to the ground as the flight system gets damaged, and-.

"Fun game!"

A third bomber appears, and all I've got time to do is change my barrier into a dome before-.

The world outside of my barrier turns white as its bomb goes off! I'm pushed.. down into the ground, Mahkent cringing as the space between the dome and the pavement shrinks! Kadabra's waving-. Making an electromagnetic field to encourage the plasma to expand away from us. Okay, good thinking-.

Eiling looks up. "Would it help if I push?"

"No, but thank you for offering."

CRACK!

Secondary layer, let the first fail and be replaced. Don't need to worry about the second bomb. Fission bombs don't cook off because they need explosive compression to begin the fission reaction. But there could be more coming in.

Are we anywhere near a sewer or storm drain?

No.

Never mind. Crumbler construct, bore down. I can always dig towards-

"Peek-a-boo!"

-freedom-. Fuck!

"Do I-? Do I try freezing it?"

Eiling snorts. "On your best day, you couldn't freeze a nuke."

No cracking this time, but I can feel the outer layers of my construct barrier being peeled off. Use the borer to dig out a cave and seal it against water.

"Eiling, down the hole. Icicle, after him."

"Right." He doesn't look back as he jumps down.

Mahkent looks down uncertainly, then looks up at the nuclear blast and makes his decision, jumping down and using ice claws to control his descent.

The brilliant lights are fading a little, and I see-.

External Motivation = External Control

A figure in dark armour appears through the burning and shoves their hand through my construct!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:31 GMT -5

They haven't punched through with force, I notice almost immediately. Rather, they've pushed through and the construct is… Almost treating them like they're part of it, merging with-.

My eyes widen slightly as I realise that the orange light is slowly flowing from my construct up grooves in their armour.

External Motivation = External Control

"Kadabra, grab the alien and get down the hole."

"Ah-."

Oh heck. I activate my gauntlet's crumbler function and punch the Justifier's grasping hand! Their hand jerks back, but their armour is only slightly abraded, and… It's acquired a faint orange glow.

"Kadabra. By that rationale we're all controlled by things outside of ourselves." The Justifier recovers and swings with their left hand, prompting me to open a hole in the construct and putting a kinetic barrier in place instead. "We're only a slave to what other people dangle in front of us if we choose to be. If the price is too high, it's always correct to walk away."

He blinks, shaking slightly as he comes back to his senses as I take advantage of the Justifier being off-balance to wrap tungsten chains around their extended arm.

"Yess… Yes." He flicks his wand at the alien, who floats off the ground and then shoots over to the hole. Kadabra then gets on the armour's cuirass before causing it to descend with a wand poke. He rubs his forehead with his left hand as he drops out of sight.

I create a construct plug over the hole behind them and then I give the Justifier my full attention.

"Are you still aware in there?"

External Motivation = External Control

"Yes, you said. I'm not sure why you think that changes anything for me. I mean, what's the alternative supposed to be? Purely internal motivation with no reference to the external universe? If I wanted to be a lump of rock I'd have transmuted myself into one."

The Justifier isn't pulling to try to free themselves. I think they're looking at me, but the helmet makes it a little hard to tell. They don't have super strength and they can only absorb my constructs through direct contact. Though concerning, that's hardly my only avenue of attack.

In fact, since no new Jockeys have appeared and I've got them trapped, I should probably see about getting their helmet off. It's not… An efficient way to undermine Mannheim, because we don't have a safe space to put everyone we could free and we can't even guarantee that we can keep them free. But it looks like Apokolips has a new anti-Lantern ability and so I need to know more about it.

"I'm going to try removing your helmet now. Please, try to stay still."

Background heat and radiation are at levels my armour and environmental shield can easily deal with. I stick a construct manhole cover over the hole I dug, then drop the construct dome.

"I realise that as a Justifier you don't value your life, but please remember that as long as you're alive you have utility to Mannheim."

I transmute a solid metal clamp and attach it to their helmet before trying to find the seal, except… There doesn't seem to be one. No, there it is, but it's currently undone. I can just lift the helmet off.

I don't trust it.

I check very carefully for any sign that there's a booby trap or suicide device, but I can't… See anything.

I give myself construct armour and put a construct shield between us anyway.

"I'm going to lift your helmet off now. I realise that it's going to be a shock, but please try to stay calm."

I use the clamp to pull the helmet off over their-. His head, and-.

And my own face stares back at me.

So that's what he did with… At least one of the clones.

The clone stares at me. He's lost a little fat in his face, and his sclera are reddened by very visible veins, but otherwise… I mean, he's not me; the brains of the clones were blanks that I could load myself into, not conscious and functioning brains in suspended animation. It wouldn't be impossible to… Edit them into something functional, but that wouldn't make the resulting person think anything like me.

Though it probably means that he doesn't have an 'un-Anti-Lifed' form. So in that case I should… Kill him?

There's a flicker of orange in eyes, which… Which is awkward, because it suggests that he can have desires of his own. And if he can do that, then he.. could be his own person.

Okay. Um. There's… Actually no Anti-Life transmitter in his helmet, which means… That his brain is fully acclimatised to the Anti-Life and doesn't need constant reinforcement.

"Can you actually talk?"

He's not… Staring at me with hatred in his eyes. Or any surprise that we share a face. I think that Dr. Balewa might-.

"Boo!"

Hu-?

The light and the pressure's back, but my construct armour can take it. My clone's head on the other hand can't, and it's… He's… Ash. His armour-. What little I can see of it, appears to be surviving intact. So… What was the point? He can't have been trying to make me feel guilty. It might work on some superheroes, but I originally created the clone to body jack.

I shake my head and walk towards the hole. I should fill that in after I drop down, because-.

Charging. Charging. Ch-cha-ch-cha-chaaaaaa…

What? What just-?

There's a… Dark patch in my construct armour. And it's… Expanding, spreading out-.

I try dismissing that part of the construct, and it doesn't happen.

Um.

Move to the plug, activate crumbler gauntlet. Okay, if I get out of-. This armour should be able to take exposure to the aftermath of a low grade nuclear-

"Knock knock!"

E-h!

Ah…

The dark patch is spreading, and I-. My other clones are Anti-Lifed, so that's a no, even if it could have worked. My armour might be able to take nuclear detonations, but not at this close a range. Leaving the area risks the other three and our prisoner.

I don't know what that is. I'd guess something… Anti-Life orientated. Clone-me gets infected and then transfers it into me the same way I would have transferred myself into it. But I've been exposed to the Anti-Life before and while it was unpleasant it didn't have much of a lasting effect. Then again, Mannheim wouldn't do this unless he thought it could work.

I create a new bubble shield and-. It's got the same dull orange permeating it. Push it out, dismiss the cap, step in and start filling it in as I drop. Kadabra and Mahkent can deal with-.

External Motivation = External Control

Ah…

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:37 GMT -2

Our pathway through the Venturian streets curves upwards towards the third story of the palace and away from the main thoroughfare of which it is a part. Or rather was. Luna strides forwards with a degree of confidence that I find… Interesting, while I trail on behind.

The citizenry around us…

Venturia isn't the sort of place to segregate on the grounds of form. The ruling family are pureblood because their ancestors could afford that version of the spells, but it's been a very long time since they made a distinction between purebloods, gill necks and those with overt fishlike qualities. In my visits to Venturia I saw a wide variety of peoples swimming around the palace district without anyone finding it odd.

That is no longer the case.

The palace is now dry, where before Queen Clea held parts of it dry as a demonstration of power. Logically, if she were continuing the same policy now then she would keep parts of it submerged. Instead, the submerged areas are restricted to the outskirts and occasional displays of aquatic plant life in public areas.

The buildings look a little different too. Like they were built in the pre-sinking style, and are actually capable of maintaining their structure while out of the water. Windows and doors made of wood and metal have made a reappearance, entry points away from the ground floor have vanished so that there's no sign they were ever there.

Looks a little like Themyscira, to be honest. Aside from the occasional displays of overt magic. And the existence of men.

"Honeybun, are you sure they can't see us?"

"Neigh, they can see us most readily." She raises her right hand in casual greeting to a palace servant as they clean the interior of a window we pass, and the servant nods deferentially back. "But they can only comprehend us in terms of the dream in which they are trapped. Were We in Equestria, We would rouse them to full consciousness that we might discuss what had happened to them, but here that would be contrary to our purpose."

"And Ahri'ahn isn't going to notice this?"

"We are doing what We can to prevent our presence here from disrupting the dream, though your presence is far more perceptible than Our own. There is little that We may do to prevent him noticing us should he turn his attention this way due to some unrelated matter, though We suspect that he will focus his gaze on Poseidonis during this time."

"Is there anything I can do to make it easier for you?"

"Neigh, there is not. Your nature as a New God means that you hold fast where others bend. Your passing leaves a wake. That is why we should avoid proximity to others."

"And you can wake Clea up?"

Luna nods as we approach the target balcony. "Verily. That is the greater risk. If Ahri'ahn has realised that she is your ally, he may monitor her more closely. We will attempt to unpick his magecraft, but in such matters there are no guarantees."

The railing bends aside as we step onto the balcony, and the pathway which brought us here… Sort of fades into the… Wall? The ground below us? Like it was made of things from its environment and sort of..? Stopped being twisted out of place.
Reality is R-.
Luna gasps, her head jerking around to glare at me. "Stop that at once! We could feel you trying to layer the rules of the waking world 'pon the sleeping one! Our foes will feel that at once!"

"Sorry, sorry, it's just… I find this profoundly unsettling, you know?"

She smiles. "We do. And We are pleased that you are able to admit a failing to Us. It is… Gratifying, to aid you and in some small part pay back the aid you have given Us."

"It's nice to see you in your element like this."

"It is nice for Our element to be rel-e-vant…" Her expression changes to one of mild guilt. "Ah."

"Ah?"

"We may have… Changed your clothing… Somewhat."

I look down and… Now we match. I'm too broad for the look to really work; I look like a bodybuilder at a renaissance faire, but… I'll live with it. Particularly given how in-tune she would have to be with my God-Name to do something like that without me feeling it. If it weren't for Father, I'd propose at once because there just isn't a greater level of trust or intimacy.

"Nice. Now let's get in there and find Clea."

Luna leads the way once more, looking neither left nor right as she unerringly homes in on wherever Clea is. I don't know how it works exactly, but journeys in dreams-.

A golden barrier flares into being just as she steps out into an intersection, blocking my path.

"Your power and skill recommend you, magician."

Voice is coming from the… Left. They can't see me from where they are. I might be able to force the barrier, but that would definitely draw attention to me.

"I could scarcely feel your presence at all. I did not think that anyone in Atlantis studied Dream magic, but it seems that your family had its secrets."

Wait. Wait. I recognise that voice. I stabbed him in the face.

"We are Princess Luna. To whom do we speak, who is clearly not submerged in this baleful delirium?"

"I am Nabu of Cilia, Magi of Order."

Darn it! I knew he was going to reincarnate, I just thought he'd have the sense to keep his head down! The barrier… I don't know, it's glowing. The sword should have removed all of his accumulated power, but… Yes, okay, there wasn't anything stopping him building back up again. Klarion didn't, but he never really struck me as a strategic planner.

"And for what reason would one who prizes order above all merge the material world with the world of dreams?"

A… Passageway which wasn't there before has suddenly always been there to my right. I nod and follow it.

"I used the flaws of each to bring order to the other. Humans are messy in the contact of their affairs, but they are creatures of pattern. This in turn creates structure within the realm of Dream."

I can still hear them perfectly well, a grate in the upper part of the wall which used to exist for the purpose of allowing water pressure to equalise serving to allow me to eavesdrop.

"And your magic compels them to walk evermore within such patterns."

"Just so. They are still themselves, and can still make choices in their lives. But-."

"Those choices are bound by your power and art. And that of Ahri'ahn."

The passage turns off, and I quietly step out behind Nabu. I'm not sure if his original form was human-seeming or if he's had so many hosts in the intervening period that he now identified with that form more than any other, but there he is. Light Atlantean robes, shoulder length white hair and beard and that's about all I can tell from the back. There's a golden shield keeping Luna where she is but nothing at all between me and him.

"He is proud and arrogant, but he is powerful and highly skilled. Still, I am puzzled as to how he did not detect a dream magician as skilled as you. He should have done, and your wards are clearly only as good as they are due to your access to dreamstuff. Are you a child of Morpheus?"

"We are charged with ensuring that what you have done here doth not come to pass amongst Our own people." She raises her right hand, dark blue wisps effusing towards the golden barrier between them. "And We shall stop you here."

I draw the Sword of the Fallen.

"That is unlikely. I am here in the dream role of court magician. There is no story here that will allow you to best me in a contest of magics."

I step up to him, put the sword to his throat and resting my left hand on his shoulder. "But I think perhaps that one who has killed you before may be excluded."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:43 GMT -2

He freezes, though I note that it's not because he's afraid. He's merely recognised the danger and is frantically trying to work out how to handle it. I assume. I can't see his face from here.

"To refresh your memory, after you tried to possess Giovanni Zatara, I turned you into a construct and left you in place as his-."

"Slave. Yes. I remember."

"Advisor and power source. But as you went increasingly peculiar, I was eventually persuaded to stab you-" I tap the flat surface of the Sword of the Fallen against his breastbone. "-with this, destroying your construct-self and causing you to pop back into fleshy existence as you are now. I imagine that was a blast from the past."

"Do you expect me to thank you?"

"Nabu, you thanking me would be the one thing you could do to convince me that I was in the wrong. How's being alive treating you?"

"What do you want?"

"You can start by dropping the barriers trapping Luna."

"She could remove them herself; she has the strength."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "Yeah, but that sort of thing is easier for third parties to detect."

"You have learned. Or did you take that knowledge from me?"

"I wouldn't want you in my head. Still have enough trouble remembering parts of Vandal Savage's life. No, I've learned, and-. Oh. Did you know that I'm from Apokolips? Or was that after you were reduced to being a construct?"

"I was informed by Ahri'ahn."

"So, shield coming down, or I start altering your attitude with my ring."

There's a momentary delay, then the barriers turn from solid planes to golden mist before vanishing entirely.

Luna walks forward. "Nabu of Cilia, this evil enchantment will not stand. You may aid us as we undo Ahri'ahn and all his works, or you may stand against us and be cast down."

"I am devoted to Order. There is no torture you can inflict that will sway me from my path."

I nod. "I can respect that. Another question, then. When I stabbed Klarion with this-" I tap him again. "-thing, he came back without any particular magical ability. Now, I suspect that it left him with his knowledge but put him back to square one as far as power acquisition was concerned."

"A reasonable deduction."

"But why couldn't he just build himself up from scratch? He did it once after all. Now… Maybe, it takes time. Or he just didn't have the patience any longer. You'd have patience, wouldn't you?"

"I am as patient as stone."

"Mm, except, you see, you're… Not. Decades of Klarion not wrecking the world while Nelson left you on the shelf, and the moment you get a body again you act like your ability to counteract him is suddenly super important. You chose to become a helmet rather than do as nature intended and die. You never really trained up a successor; Kent gaining knowledge of magic was a side effect of you possessing him periodically, not something you actually worked at. So either you're astonishingly arrogant and actually believe that you are irreplaceable… Or you're simply rather fond of existing. Being alive in the world. Or both."

"But would you make a deal with Ahri'ahn to make the world more orderly? Maybe. Except I can't see him making the world more orderly. He strikes me as the sort to create a people of god-wizards who do whatever they like. No. I think that Klarion didn't get his magic back because he couldn't. And I think you made a deal with Ahri'ahn because a dream-warped world is the only place where you could regain yours."

"Then kill me. Again."

"No reincarnation this time, Nabu. Just you and the default afterlife. Maybe they'll put you and Klarion next to each other."

Navy blue mist swirls around Luna's hands. "Grayven. We have spent time enough on this miscreant."

The mist flows over Nabu's arms and neck. I release my hold and step back as it solidifies into a set of magic suppression chains.

"Honeybun, you know that thing we did-" She glances at me in alarm. "-where we used my honesty to conjure a connection to the Element?"

"You wonder if we could repeat the process here and compel him to speak truthfully." She stares at Nabu as she thinks it over. "That was a moment of revelation on your part. Is there some truth of equal magnitude that you are concealing?"

"Um. Having thought about it, I'm actually a little grateful to Nabu to give me the impetus to start defying the Justice League?"

…

Nothing.

"Perhaps why hearing his confession matters so much to you."

Hm. How to put my thoughts into words?

Honesty. It's not just about friendship. At a basic level honesty is required for any sort of social interaction to function properly. A merchant has to be honest about the quality of their goods for potential buyers to make a decision. But it's often in their short term interest to lie, or shade the truth so much that they may as well be lying. In a democracy, the citizenry need accurate information about the alternatives they are choosing between for the system to work, but those involved know that lies are much more effective in the short term. They get themselves into office at the cost of the faith of the people in the system and the respect they once had for the office. Honesty is giving true faith to civilisation over the cost of temporary embarrassment or discomfort.
Builder Of Civilisation.
"If Nabu genuinely believed that he was essential, then he needs a dose of honest self-reflection. If he didn't, then he's a hypocrite who sustained himself at a great cost to others. And either way, I want him to confront that, because my life becomes a lot simpler if I can just kill him and I need a better reason not to than I have at the moment."

"And I must hear this lecture from one who will not even use his own name? Who lies with every sight and breath?"

"Oh, sure. Just kill Darkseid for me and I'll tell everyone everything. I'd much rather do that, actually, because this whole New God thing comes with instincts that I didn't have before and they're telling me that I'm doing the wrong thing. Besides, this me is Grayven with 'my' virtues shot into him after absorbing 'my' soul, so I'm the only Grayven around."
Honesty Exultant!
"Perhaps this will aid Us." Luna holds up… The Lasso of Truth? I frown at her, because I can't see Diana handing that off. It's a sacred trust. "Neigh, it is not the real thing, but that has existed long enough to gain a substance in the realm of dream. We wove the strands of your truth and called this into being."

"Hit him."

"Perhaps we should ask about Ahri'ahn instead?"

Oh. Right. "Okay, but can we at least ask about his magic? I'm probably going to stab Ahri'ahn with it before too long and I want to know if it'll stick. So how about it, Nabu? Are you prepared to face yourself?"

"Are you?"

"Have you not been paying attention? Yes. Luna." I lower my left arm, grabbing Nabu's left forearm and holding it out. "Loop that around both of us."

"That seems unwise, given our mission."

"No good, dear heart. Nabu here has challenged me to a god-off. If I step back I lose power. But when I win, he won't be able to refute anything any longer. Ahri'ahn will keep. Vindication won't."

She doesn't look convinced. But she drops the noose around us both anyway.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:47 GMT -2

The corridor around us fades into the background as I-.

Huh. Maybe using absolute truth in an area halfway to the Dream wasn't such a good idea? I really just wanted him to talk-.

Lie.

Nabu fades from my grip in the same way that the world has, and… I see… Ideas, linked together. Some close, some distant, and there's a sort of… Membrane? Linking them? Sunset would probably know what it is.

Attend.

But the big orange glowing.. burning idea right in front of me feels unimpressed.

"Alright, I want a lot of things from him, but most of them would be satisfied by him talking openly and honestly about why he did what he did. I don't even hate him enough to want him to fall on his face. Ah, not as a matter of policy. Obviously I'd laugh at a pratfall, but as long as his… Malforming of my civilisation stops I'd be satisfied."

Truth.

Things come back into focus slightly. Luna, the corridor, Nabu stepping away from me-.

"Hey!"

Attend.

"What? Ah. I don't really feel even slightly grateful about Nabu setting me against the Justice League. I just intellectually realised that him doing that made breaking up with them psychologically easier later on. I really just associate him with getting angry."

Truth. Attend.

"What? I physically can't tell you my original name. At this point I'm as much-. I'm about as much Grayven as I can be without having been the original one, to the best of my knowledge."

Excuse.

"I mean, I could probably work around it. Let someone know. Is that what you want? There's no documentation with it on this Earth, and… Frankly, I don't think that anyone on my original Earth would connect me to the person I used to be. At this point I'm... More Grayven than I am who I was."

Truth.

"Is this working up to me saying 'I am Grayven' and actually meaning it?"

No. Attend.

I stop trying to work out what's happening back in reality… Or 'reality', and focus on Honesty itself. Or Truth? There's quite a lot of overlap, but a person can be dishonest without being untruthful.

No, come on. I just gave this speech.

Reality fades away completely as I picture the perfect empire that lies within my soul. Is my soul. The conceptual lights move around it, taking up their rightful place in its metaphysical structures. Perfect and impossible, like the Source itself. I will never create this empire; I cannot. No one can. That's the thing about ideal forms.

And yeah, there's the palace, and the high court, and the light of truth shining from them both and making that happen must be a full time job-.

"Yes, obviously I'd like to make that happen. But I'm not God-King of Earth. I'm only Suzerain because Darkseid finds it funny. Or… Something. Are you asking for me to make a point of including you? Because I have sort of thought about openly using truth compulsion in legal processes, like the Atlanteans…"

Huh.

"Did."

I consider how the concept of truth would relate to this situation.

"Guess you're pretty annoyed, huh?"

Lies.

"I was going to fix it anyway-."

Lies.

I look at the perfected empire again.

"Yeah, no. I get it. No using the Dream to cheat. It's a process, an end you're never supposed to reach. Something to make you want to do better than whatever you're doing. I'm not going to cheapen my own soul with shortcuts."

"yAAAGH!"

The perfect empire fades into… It's still there, but it's slightly out of focus. Nabu swims back into focus, only now he's fighting with… Someone? A figure made of the golden order-magic he usually uses, is holding him by the throat. A smooth and featureless face looks down at him and I can feel the contempt. Nabu himself appears to be having some sort of fit, spasming… It's not that he's being throttled, it's… Something else? I don't know what's going on in his head.

"Nabu, this is a test of honesty! Whatever you said to wind it up, take it back!"

"No!"

"It's your neck. You know that I'm perfectly happy for you to die. But the one constant in all your problems is you, and… Looks like whatever that is agrees with me."

"It's me."

I frown. "That's what Cilians look like?"

"It is when they ascend to a state of pure Order! But for you, it is the form I would still occup-guh!"

The glowing figure keeps its upper arms around his neck and shoves the lower ones into his abdomen!

"It doesn't like lying, Nabu. You're ancient. What's so bad that you won't admit it?"

"It's you, those like you! Do you understand what it feels like to have a body after spending centuries as a being of pure arcane Order?"

"… Nice?"

"Horrifying! Revolting! And so… Right! To have touch again, to feel the air on my skin! You cannot understand it until you have denied it to yourself!"

I frown. "Wouldn't you have gone a bit peculiar without it, if it was that big a deal to you?"

"When I had my own body I taught myself to ignore it! But once I transcended, maintaining that discipline seemed… Pointless. How could flesh compete with the purity of Order?"

"Really, really easily." Huh. "Okay, you made a bad decision and then got hooked. I'm actually a little sympathetic -just a little- but I'm also hurt by your ingratitude. I got you a body back. And you could probably have worked out an indirect way to use Order magic if you needed that as well. Why are you working with Ahri'ahn?"

"Because I'm weak! I wanted..! I want both, and in the Dream I can have both!"

The glowing golden figure tosses him to the ground, as the Venturian corridor fades back into being.

I watch him as he lays on the floor, trying to regain his comportment.

"You know…" I hold out my arm as Luna steps closer to remove the lasso. "There's no reason for you to stay here. People have physically entered the Dream before. When we win, you can petition Morpheus."

"No." He shakes his head. "That wasn't just a Cilian. That was… Me. I refuse to be this weak. I will aid you, and then I will enter a hermitage and I will not emerge until I have reached equanimity. One way or the other."

I nod. "Alright then. So what's Ahri'ahn up to?"

"World domination. Naturally."

 

[Mr Zoat]

External Motivation = External Control

Pull a thread, apart comes the garment.

External Motivation = External Control

And apart come I.

External Motivation = External Control

The weakness of eudemonia; the greatness of even a virtuous man can be torn asunder by bad luck, or… Just being outmatched. Virtues of character are useful, but not a guarantee of worldly success. In Christian morality it's completely different; virtue is always rewarded by God in Heaven, whatever tribulations are endured on Earth.

External Motivation = External Control

It feels bad. It feels bad.

External Motivation = External Control

I can be-. Have been-.

"Aaaaagh!"

"Kadabra! He's awake."

"Yes, yes. Hold still."

"We're still in a combat zone. Work and walk."

"MAaaaagh!"

"Can you shut him up?"

"Why don't we just take the rings off?"

"Possibly." Ugh. "And because they're a central part of his metaphysical self. That would risk making things worse."

"Doesn't the Bible say 'if the self offends you, cut it off'? Seriously, I'll-"

"Don't do-"

"-take 'em-"

"-that!"

"-off-."

"Wha-?"

I'm staring at… Eiling's chest. I'm draped over his shoulder, his right shoulder, his right arm anchoring me in place. Kadabra and Mahkent are close by, and Mahkent's got both of my rings.

"Okay. What happened?"

Eiling shifts slightly. "Kadabra, he himself again?"

"He is… Not right, but whatever was affecting him has abated."

Mahkent smirks, though his eyes don't leave my rings. "Told you."

Eiling picks me up and drops me on the ground next to him, and I just about manage to get my feet under me.

"What happened?"

Eiling looks down at me, weighing me up. "You tell us. You came down the hole raving like a God damned Section Eight. Kadabra and me had to punch a hole through to the storm drain."

"I-. I had clones of myself around in case I needed another body to jump into. Mannheim captured them. Did.. something to one to put part of the Anti-Life into it. Once it touched my construct it started absorbing the orange light. When the Suicide Jockeys killed it, the Anti-Life… It bypassed my normal protections."

"You need to get checked out?"

"I should be fine until-. Until we get back to the Tower."

"Yeah, that's a problem." Eiling nods at Kadabra, who waves his wand to call up a holographic image of the city.

Oh. That's a lot of soldiers.

"What makes you so interesting?"

"There's… A chance that Mannheim could use me to corrupt the concept of avarice."

Eiling narrows his eyes. "If he can do that, why the hell are you in the field?"

"Didn't know he could do that. Really hoped he couldn't. My plan for… Beating them rather hinges on it."

"Huh?" Mahkent looks away from my rings. "You know how to win?"

"Probably. But as you can see, I very definitely can be wrong about things. You finished with those?"

"What?" He blinks, then jerks his head back to the rings. "Oh. Ah, you..? Sure you should be touching these?"

"They're an Anti-Life infection vector, and I'm the only one here immune to the lure of the orange light, which is why you're finding them so entrancing."

I-.

"What happened to my armour?"

"Too awkward to carry. Tore you out of it. Same with-" I see the alien on his other shoulder. "-this guy."

"What species is he?"

He reaches across with his right hand and picks the alien up, then lowers him to where I can look at his face. "Same species as Kanjar Ro, whatever they are."

Weirdly skinny, pointed nose, large eyes and digitigrade legs.

"Dhorians. I thought they'd be too busy to bother anyone."

Kadabra raises his right eyebrow. "Why?"

"I gave one of their neighbours a major technological boost. Their cold war should be going hot against fairly soon. Okay, put him back."

Eiling does, though he's clearly agitated. "So, because of you, they're here to put the boot in?"

I shrug. "Kanjar Ro knew about us already. Looked like they were trying to steal Apokoliptian technology. And I suspect that they kidnapped Tuppence as well, but Kanjar Ro tried that with the Justice League so she's in good company."

I have-. Had data on Dhorian teleportation systems, so there's a chance that we can escape that way. Depends on how much attention they're paying. If it's automatic-.

"Far as I can tell-" Eiling points at the map. "-our best route out is to head towards the waterfront and then punch a hole so we come up through one of these buildings. There's no way they're not watching the exit, but if we're lucky, we should be able to hide out until they reposition their troops."

"How lucky do you feel?"

"With you combat-ineffective, not too lucky. Got a better idea?"

I reach into my pouch and slip the yellow ring on.

Nar.

14th February 2013
15:16 GMT -5

Yellow light flares as I remember the Anti-Life clawing at my soul and trying to take away my ability to act on the universe. No, don't be submerged. Focus it.

"That's a solid 'maybe'. Kadabra, wake him up. We need a chat. And Mister Mahkent? Give me my rings back."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:17 GMT -5

"I won't tell you anything."

Fortunate that this ring has a database on Dhorian physiology, though creating the constructs I needed to communicate the information to Kadabra was… Uncomfortable.

It's not about being afraid. It's holding your mind in a position where you're thinking about the thing you're afraid of, you're on the cusp of a physiological response, but you hold it off. Fear-edging, basically.

"Let me guess." Eiling cracks his huge knuckles. "He ain't going to talk."

Because naturally, the alien doesn't speak English, and his translator was built into his armour. This yellow ring translates for me just fine, but I'm not confident enough in my control to try extending that affect to the others. Kadabra's implants are analysing his speech and will start providing him with a translation eventually. Apparently the Antares four-way war was… 'Resolved' by the Reach before Kadabra's era and as a result he doesn't have their language on-file.

"Everyone talks. You know that."

"Not quite everyone. Some people die first."

Dhorians don't sweat or twitch as a nervous response. They pant and blink. Our friend is doing both, which would be nice if I wanted a power boost but doesn't really help me with fine control.

"Do you know who I am?"

A double-blink. "A Lantern."

"Me in particular."

Eiling shakes his head. "That didn't sound like name, rank, serial number."

"He knows the 'I won't talk' is bravado, I know it's bravado. He's just saying so that he can square it with himself when he eventually gives in."

"N-? No?"

"This isn't my first interrogation. Now, I know that you come from Dhor. I'm not sure what you're doing here, though I have suspicions. How's the war going?"

"We will soon triumph over our enemies!"

"All of them?" I sigh, rolling my eyes. "The whole reason why the war has gone on this long is because whenever someone pulls ahead, the other three gang up on them. No one even really tries anymore."

"We try. We just guard our strength."

I consider asking when the last time his people landed troops on one of their enemies' planets was, but that's getting away from our point.

"A bit of a risk you're taking, coming here. Weakness invites attack."

"Your world doesn't have the technology."

"No, I mean, back home. That's not a huge number of ships, but it's not a small number, either. They'll notice the change in your deployments. Strength invites coalition building but obvious weakness invites attack."

"Or maybe it reassures them that we are not a threat. Not when Alstair grows stronger every season."

"So Alstair's about to win and this is a desperation move." I nod. "Okay. Explains why you grabbed Tuppence Terror rather than the Justice League like last time."

"'Last time'? There was no 'last time'."

"Because Kanjar Ro tried the exact-."

"Kanjar Ro is a miserable traitor to Dhor! We aren't just copying him! This 'Tuppence Terror' was a target of opportunity!"

"Oh, so you're here for the Apokoliptian technology, then."

Three blinks, then he pulls in on himself and stops talking.

"I don't understand why you think that would be a problem. We certainly don't want it here."

"What?"

"We're being invaded, and you want to steal our invaders' weapons. Good."

"… Oh."

"Now, we don't want you kidnapping our people, but… I mean, why did you think we'd want to stop you taking stuff from our enemies?"

"No, now you… Put it like that, it.. doesn't make sense."

"The governments of Earth have no contact with anyone in Antares. The Justice League fought Kanjar Ro a few years ago, but I get the impression that you don't care much about him."

"He is a thief and a traitor."

"So there's no dispute there either. Now, be honest: do you think we could come to terms with whoever's in charge of your fleet?"

"Your people have been fighting this invasion for some time, yes?"

"Month and a half."

"Do you have examples of their technology?"

"Of course. Mostly, we're using it to try and decipher how it works so that we can counter it, but I'm sure we've got a few spare pieces we wouldn't mind parting with."

"So… You want to give us their technology, and for us to give you our prisoners back?"

I nod. "Yes, that's about the size of it. We've also got maps of where they've got interesting pieces located that we're happy to share if you want to attack them."

"That would be very valuable to us. I don't have the authority to actually agree anything, but I can-. Ah, if you get my armour back I can repair my communication gear and send a message."

"No teleport system?"

"Miniaturising the stabilising beacons is hard. I don't want to take chances with my molecular stability."

"Perfectly reasonable. Whereabouts in the armour is it?"

"The transmitter is in top of the backpack, and the rest is in the helmet."

"Thank you." I turn towards Mr. Mahkent. "Icicle, would you mind going back and grabbing the helmet and backpack of this chap's armour?"

He looks a little disgruntled. "Well, yeah, kinda. Why me?"

"Because Eiling can punch through walls if we need to escape and Kadabra needs to keep listening for his translator to recalibrate itself. And that wasn't a question, it was a politely phrased order. It's a British thing."

"Okay." He turns away. "I'm going. Don't blame me if I break the wrong bit."

"I won't." I turn back to the Dhorian. "So what's your name, anyway?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:25 GMT -5

Abra and the newly introduced Nohnar Ko are working on repairing his communication system. Looks like Team Mannheim did a bit more damage than I thought, and Eiling tearing him out of it didn't do it any favours. Eiling is sitting at the side of the tunnel and has his eyes shut. Not sure whether he's resting his eyes or 'resting his eyes', but I imagine that high-intensity combat still tires a person out, even with his augmentations.

Mr. Mahkent is.. giving me an odd look. And avoiding making eye contact when I turn to see if he wants to ask me something.

"Icicle, if this is about me asking you to go back and pick up the armour-."

"No-." He glances at the other three, and awkwardly sidles over to me. "Kinda?"

"I generally make a point of not looking into someone's head unless there's a good, mission-based reason to do it, so you're going to have to explain that one with… You know, words."

Finally, he looks me straight in the eye. "You really take the Terrors to the moon?"

"Yes. Made a giant draughts board and a toilet cubicle, and tried to encourage them to do something more productive with their abilities."

He frowns. "Tommy said it was checkers."

"That's what we call checkers in Britain."

"And… That was it." He looks bewildered. "You talk to them, and suddenly they're playing for the hero team?"

"No. Tommy started understanding that they might have been going about things in the wrong way, and Tuppence started thinking that there might be other right ways to get things. Where they are now is a result of engaging with Doctor Quinzel, building emotional bonds to upstanding citizens and me finding them an outlet for their abilities and… Frankly, their psychopathology."

"Tearing up ships with their bare hands."

"Nothing wrong with smashing stuff. It's a matter of finding things other people want you to smash. Take you for example. Is anything you've done fighting Mannheim anything you haven't done in your criminal career?"

"Killed a couple of guys. Hadn't done that before." He scratches his forehead with his right hand, then shakes his head. "Don't know if they were all there. Kinda… Hope they weren't."

"Mister Mahkent, are you hoping I can talk you back onto the straight and narrow?"

"I-. Kinda-. Don't.. know? I mean, if we're all getting pardoned after this, it-. It seems like I'm wasting an opportunity, y'know? I'm a 'steal stuff' kinda villain, not a 'burn the whole world down' kinda villain. And the world… It's kinda been burned down, y'know?"

"You would be wasting an opportunity, if you went right back into criminality. At the very least you should consider completing your education before getting back into it."

"'Stay in school'?" He frowns. "Seriously, dude? Not feeling the super persuasion right now."

"It gives you more options. More chances to find something that you might like to do with your life. Being honest? From my own education I use… Basic maths, English for report writing, and geography and history for general knowledge. That's about it. As a criminal you probably don't need to worry so much about written reports, but you could use accounting. And there's a lot of money in narcotics, so history, geography and chemistry would come in handy."

He gives me a small smile. "Ah, I dunno what school you went to? But they don't teach you how to make crack at Smith O'Neil High School."

"No, but they teach you how to handle laboratory equipment. It's all about transferable skills. It's not like I write reports on Shakespeare for Batman, is it?"

He straightens up, throwing his hands into the air. "You see! This is the sort of thing I-."

He grunts, cutting himself off. Not sure what that's about, but I think the best thing to do here is let him talk himself around to it.

"Try… Considering what society is going to look like when we win."

"If we win."

"If you're Anti-Lifed or dead, it's hardly going to matter what career you wanted to pursue. Better to have something to aim for."

He nods. Then starts nodding more slowly. Then stops.

"Ah. I got nothing."

"Massive infrastructure collapse. Economic collapse. Heck, honestly, the global economy was severely shaken up by the Sheeda invasion. This is going to finish it off."

"So… What?"

"So goods aren't going to be transported around anymore. Did you know that ninety percent of Earth's advanced semiconductors are made in Taiwan? They're used for basically everything with computer chips in them, which is… Everything. And Taiwan had no defence against Anti-Life, so that's not happening anymore. And with all the deaths, it might not start up again."

"So… I shoulda gone to electronics class?"

"If you know a supervillain who's into electronics, see if they need electricity-free cooling to start a business. Honestly-." I frown. "When you manifest ice, does it just turn back into water when it melts?"

"Ah, yeah? What else would it turn into?"

"How pure is the water?"

"Ah…" He frowns. "I think it's pure? I've been putting it in drinks and no one's said anything. Why?"

"Because the water supply is probably going to be messed up too. If you can make any amount of clean water wherever you are, that's a good money maker. See, my ice… Guy is-."

"Captain Cold, yeah, I know." He rolls his eyes. "Everyone knows."

"But he can't do that. His cold gun freezes what it hits. If he wants to cover something in ice then he needs a water source or one of his gel packs. He can't just make ice out of nothing."

"Yeah, but…" He screws up his face. "Water?"

"Do you seriously not understand how valuable water is? There are whole… Chunks of the country that would pay you to drop a couple of gallons on them once a week. Drive up, wave your hands around for a few hours, then leave. Completely legal."

He sort of gawps for a few seconds, then closes his mouth and shakes his head.

"Particularly after a disaster. Clean water is hard to come by. Now, with a total economic collapse, you probably won't be able to make much money, but you'll be able to barter very effectively. Use that to build connections with the community and invest in long term assets that will gain value as civilisation reasserts itself."

"I… Dunno. That's a lot to take in."

"It's like I told Thomas: if you make more money following the law than committing crime, you need to either go legit or find a better law to break."

"Orange Lantern!" Abra looks up from his work, smiling. "We have contact."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:29 GMT -5

"Trooper Nohnar Ko. Status?"

"I am in dreadful danger. Activating suicide charge."

Mahkent actually takes a step away, but I trust Kadabra to have found any self-destruct charge in the armour pieces we're working with.

"Understood. Contamination?"

"I've been better. But I might have an antidote."

"Stand by."

The communicator goes onto standby. Ko looks up at me. "It's a standard call and response set-up. They saw me go down in hostile territory, and the… What do you call them?"

"The soldiers are called Justifiers. The small flying ones with the bombs are Suicide Jockeys. They're using Apokoliptian technology, but they're not actually Apokoliptians themselves…" I look to Eiling. "Do we have a name for them?"

"What, everyone working for Mannheim? Bad guys. Charlie. Does it matter?"

Mahkent raises his right hand. "I'm pretty sure I'm a bad guy. Could we call them something more definitive, like evil guys?"

"You're fighting to save the world, Icicle. That makes you a good guy."

"Aw, I didn't know you c-."

"Today."

"No, we don't have a collective name for them. They're all people that Mannheim controls through the Anti-Life."

"We were kind of assuming that it was some sort of group within your society that made a deal with a more advanced species. This was all just… One man?"

"He had help, and a lot of the damage you can see from orbit is from the last invasion, but yes."

He thinks for a moment. "We're quite a long way from Dhor, but we'd probably be willing to send you construction equipment in exchange for mercenaries. We've made deals like that before."

"I'm afraid that everyone worth taking would be better employed working here to fix our planet. And given the distance involved, it wouldn't be all that easy for you to-."

The communicator buzzes, and Mr. Ko gives it his full attention.

"Not dead then, Trooper?"

Ko straightens up slightly. "I am in dreadful danger, s-."

"We've boosted the bandwidth to make this line secure. Though I approve of your communications discipline."

"Thank you, sir. No sir, I'm not dead. I was wounded in the legs but the local primitive faction healed me. They want us to agree a truce with them, and they're willing to trade 'Apokoliptian' technology to us."

"That's interesting. I assume that they're listening to what you're saying now?"

"Yes, but only one of them has a translator. He's a Lantern. The other three can't understand us."

"Put him on."

He shuffles away from his helmet, looking at me and gesturing to it. I take his place and pick the helmet up.

"Illustres here. Who am I speaking to?"

"I am Commodore Volgar Zo of the Republican Navy of Dhor. What authority do you have to negotiate?"

"The 'primitive' faction is commanded by a group called the Justice League. They listen to me, though under the circumstances I doubt their deliberations will take long. I personally have little negotiating authority."

"I would rather speak to a member of this 'Justice League'. I seem to remember… They're the ones Kanjar Ro tried to use in his coup, aren't they?"

"Yes. Though I didn't know it was a coup attempt."

Might explain Ko's visceral response, though I don't know if that was because Ro genuinely did a lot of damage or because the people in charge wanted to give the impression that trying to overthrow them was bad for everyone.

"You can study our history later. What can your people offer?"

"All of the Apokoliptian weapons and technology you came here to acquire. The surplus we currently hold, the stuff we don't need anymore once the war is over, all of our field intelligence on locations you can't see from space. Things like that."

"Prisoners?"

"No point. The only one who knows anything about their technology is Mannheim himself, and if you can take him then you've got whatever you need."

"No. I assume that you want back the ones which we already have."

"Yes, naturally. If you have no interest in cooperating with us, that's fine, but obviously we can't tolerate our people being abducted."

"Does that include the Apokolips-aligned humans?"

"They're mind-controlled, and we're hopeful of our ability to fix them. We're happy to share everything we've learned about how it works, but we want them back. Afterwards, if you want to offer people employment, that's between you and them."

"And if we don't?"

"I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I can't bring my Corps to bear on this planet because they're not resistant to the Anti-Life. But your fleet is far enough away that they're not affected by it. And I doubt that your ships are Reach-quality. I have no active desire to fight you, but I'm responsible for my people."

"The Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps?"

"I know there aren't many Orange Lanterns active in this region of space, but I assure you-."

"We got a report about the self-moving planet. I don't doubt your organisation's existence."

"Good. So, we'll need a little while to make contact with our overseers, but once we do we'll pass on-."

"I also remember a report about someone with that title visiting Alstair. Just before their technological capacities began improving in leaps and bounds."

"Yeah, that was me. I needed their help with something. And now I need yours. I'm usually open-handed with trading partners."

"How… Nice."

There's a moment of silence. I look at Ko for some sort of guidance-.

The world around me glows blue, and I see blue auras flare around my comrades-.

And then we're in a cell, with a lot of guns pointing at us.

Eiling snorts. "This it?"

"No." A figure carrying-. Shit, that's a gamma gong! I send a beam out-. Too late! He strikes the gong, and everything-.

Stops.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:33 GMT -5

I try moving my right arm, and nothing happens. I-. I can't blink? Blink or move my eyes. Breathing is.. difficult. There's a small amount of give, enough that I can take shallow breaths, but that's it. It's not much of a problem for me as the ring can oxygenate my body fine without me breathing, but the other three are going to have difficulty.

The man with the gong carefully puts it down on a stand before walking closer. Nohnar Ko steps out in front of us and salutes him.

"Sir."

"Good work, trooper." Ah, so that's Volgar Zo. "Introduce me to your prisoners."

I think he's pointing at me, but I can't move my eyes to check and he's right in the periphery of my visual field.

"This one is an Orange Lantern. Two rings. I don't know what that signifies."

"Where are they now?"

"In one of the pouches in his undersuit. But they acted as a conduit to the Apokoliptian mind control effect. They might just be broken now."

I try moving my arms again. Nothing. I never asked Diana about the gamma gong; it just sounded like a stupid gimmick weapon, and… Kanjar Ro just wasn't that big a part of their history and had no affect on Earth in general. Supposedly, three strikes on that thing will stop an entire world in its tracks. One strike stopped the Justice League, though I've got no idea how Kanjar Ro was planning on making them actively do his bidding.

How is it doing that?

Kalcan ne zes-.

Demonstrate visually.

"A yellow ring? I thought that only Sinestro had those." Volgar Zo steps right up close so that he's the only thing in my field of view. "Did you kill him? Or do you work for him?"

Since I can't move my eyes I can't roll-

"Oh! Silly me."

-them. The git smirks at me.

"And the others? The large one?"

The ring shows me a field of pressure surrounding me and the other three. Nothing around the Dhorian soldiers, which means that it's… Directed by intent?

Is the field strength decaying?

Ri-.

With images. Actually, make that the default.

Hm. No, it's not. It's completely constant. Not activating my tattoos that I can feel, so it's not magic. Not plasma or magnetic, I could break out of those easily enough. Is the field present anywhere else?

Yes. Around the gamma gong itself.

"He is called Eiling. He is monstrously strong. He made a hole from their dugout to their sewer by punching the soil. This one is Kadabra. He's… Some sort of technologist. The pointer in his hand is a multi-tool."

I don't think they're looking at me. Force field only goes that far, so… I try sending a filament outside the boundary. It doesn't work, the yellow band hitting the field and going no further. Alright, I've got just enough room around my body that if I separate the components I can create a cold gun. Let's try that.

"And the living ice statue?"

"They called him Icicle. I didn't see him do anything."

"Could he actually be a living ice statue?"

"I don't know, sir."

"There are a great many strange things on this planet." He enters my field of vision again as he walks away. "Trooper, head to medical and get your injuries checked."

"I feel fine, sir."

"And you may well be fine, but I'd rather be sure. If you are, get down to the armoury and get issued replacement equipment, then consider yourself dismissed for the duty cycle."

Cold gun in place, so-.

A roar of displaced air and the crackling of ice crystals exploding out of… Mahkent's hands! His angle isn't good and he can't really aim with his hands, but it looks like he can change the angle a little as an act of will. Ice coats a strip across the deck towards the gamma gong, enveloping Nohnar Ko and two other soldiers along the way but missing Volgar Zo as he dives aside!

And fire.

My cold beam scythes through the embarkation area, and-. Gets blocked by the plasma shields of every single Dhorian including Zo. Ko won't be wearing one, but there's no point shooting the only Dhorian here who isn't wearing a force field.

I can break shields, but my crumbler rounds are in my other rings' subspace pockets.

Can I crumble the gamma gong's paralysation field? Try that.

Still can't move my arms. Fire again, wide beam. The soldiers are wearing helmets, but it doesn't look like they have their own oxygen supplies. If I freeze the air completely, then they're stu-.

Every soldier except for Ko flashes blue and then vanishes.

Oh. They've all got teleport beacons, and we're on their ship. There's no reason why they couldn't just leave. Ko's still stuck and they had to leave the gamma gong behind, but we've got nowhere to go-.

That's ice. Frozen water. Not the gel that Leonard uses. He's going to suffocate.

Mahkent tried firing ice again, but it's… Sporadic, pulses of ice erupting where he points. I didn't think to ask how cold his ice comes out, though I doubt that he's giving it anything less than his best.

Okay. Next thing. Cold beam at the gamma gong itself. Let's see if that works. No visible response from the gong, but let's see if I can move…

A tiny amount, and if the structure of the thing works remotely like normal matter then it's currently sitting at absolute zero. I can't make it any colder, and if it can still function then there isn't anything else I can do to it with a cold… Beam.

Would a heat beam work? I think the cold beam technology could be used to excite molecular vibration rather than suppress it, but I don't really have a good enough theoretical understanding of the physics involved to make the modification on the fly. I think I need to try manipulating a different type.. of-.

Mahkent is using his pulses of ice to… Push the ice he's already created towards the gamma gong. I'm not entirely sure what will happen when his ice finally envelops it, but the areas already about as cold as I can make-.

What if we strike the thing? Ordinarily I'd say that hitting a hit-activated artefact you don't understand is a terrible idea, but since none of us have any better options I… It's probably worth it.

Mahkent's ice pile-up just misses enveloping the gong, building up over and around it. But his ice isn't that cold, so if I super-cool that bit…

The ice cracks, and a lump falls and strikes the gong on the top, causing a small vibration-.

I step forwards as the field effect ends, Kadabra and Mahkent stumbling as they regain mobility.

Eiling collapses bonelessly to the deck, just as a shimmering blue light heralds the arrival of the Dhorian marines.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:37 GMT -5

I crouch and throw up a wall construct and-. Jam teleport scanners because they could just teleport us into space. Kadabra darts over to check on Eiling and Mahkent.. freezes up.

"Icicle!"

The teleport finishes and the soldiers open fire on us at once, high energy plasma projectors shooting violet bolts of charged particles into my construct, which… It's going to hold for at least ten seconds as long as I don't do anything else.

"Wall!"

"Ah-? What-?" He raises his hands, pointing it at my construct. "Yeah-yeah!"

A layer of ice forms with a wave of his hands as he-. He's blinking quite a lot.

"You alright?"

"It's my-! My eyes. They feel weird."

"You couldn't blink for two minutes. Give your tear ducts a chance to work and they'll be fine."

"What was that?"

"Gamma gong."

My construct breaks, and the soldiers start melting through Mahkent's wall.

"What?"

"Kadabra, status!"

"My eyes are a little dry-."

"Of Eiling!"

I wait until there's a hole in the ice wall and then fire, my energy pulse pushing through a soldier's personal shield and slamming into the armour beneath! They go flying backwards-.

And then awkwardly climb back onto their feet. I'm not hitting at anything like the power I'm used to. And I'm not inspiring enough fear to overcome that.

"He was suffocating. He requires greater volumes of air than we do. I'm transmuting nitrogen to oxygen to revitalise him."

Wall again, maintain teleport jammer.

"Icicle, when the next wall falls, cover them in ice."

"What if they just teleport away and then come right back?"

"I'm jamming the teleport sensor. It'll be difficult for them at least."

"But their guns still work."

"Want one?"

He grins. Slightly awkwardly, but he manages it. "Hey, are we in space?"

"Probably. I think we're on their ships in orbit around the moon."

"Yeah?" He smiles excitedly. "Far out!"

"It's not that far." My construct starts to fracture as the soldiers focus their fire at a single point in the centre. "Ready."

"Ah-."

"Wasn't a question. You are ready. Dropping the wall in two, one, now!"

I drop the wall, plasma fire bursting through the centre of the ice wall a second later. I send a grabbing arm construct through, tearing guns out of the soldiers grips a fraction of a second before Mahkent throws an arc of ice over their position. Soldiers are trapped in place once more, and this time they shouldn't be able to get away-.

Wait, why are they looking at-?

"Icicle, block the vents with ice. Kadabra, they're gassing us. How long until Eiling can move?"

"Uuuuugh-huh." There are two thumps, his right knee and right fist hitting the floor as he slowly levers himself upright. "God damn."

"Eiling, you alright?"

"Peachy. Where are we?"

"Alien ship." I step through the hole in the ice wall and pick up one of the Dhorian guns. Seems simple enough, and there's no palm reader. Despite the advantages, most stellar nations abandon that particular security feature the first time their enemies cut their soldiers' hands off so they can use their guns. "I don't think they're negotiating in good faith."

"Objective?"

"Recover captured humans, recover useful equipment, get them to go away."

He walks slowly towards the soldiers struggling to free themselves-.

I cut a hole through the ice to Ko, who gasps for air!

"Not clever. I-."

I hear a crunch, and turn to see that Eiling has his hands covered in blood and brain where he-. He grabbed a Dhorian soldier and crushed his head in his hands.

I feel the slight fizz as ambient fear increases, the soldiers realising that there's nothing they can do to stop us killing every one of them.

Eiling grins as he steps towards the next closest soldier, hands reaching-.

"That'll do, Eiling."

"You got a prison camp for them?"

"I was planning to disarm them, lock them in one crippled ship and send them home."

Eiling thrusts his hands into the ice and rips a soldier out by his head.

"You feel like talking?"

"Soldier, Eiling would like you to escort us to wherever you're keeping your prisoners. Now, our rules of engagement don't allow us to kill you if you cooperate-"

"Says you."

"-so it's-. Eiling, he can't understand you."

"What did he say?"

"I… Wouldn't worry about that. Because you're going to tell us what we want to know, aren't you? So it won't matter. Look, you clearly can't offer meaningful resistance. You're not slowing us down. Telling us what we want to know prevents us rampaging through your entire ship, because we'll just go to the places we want to go to."

"I-. Okay, okay. I'll tell you the way."

"Good show. But remember, if you were thinking of leading us into an ambush, you'll be going through the doors first."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:40 GMT -5

Eiling frowns as he crushes the guns that Mahkent and I aren't using. "But if you're jamming the teleporter, what's stopping them beaming these guys out the moment you leave?"

"Nothing. I could destroy the beacons in their armour, which should stop them beaming out."

Kadabra prods the armour our prisoner exited at our request. "That should not be necessary. I believe…" He waves his wand, then taps the armour twice. There's a faint 'hiss' as something overloads, which is echoed a moment later by every other suit of armour in the room. Kadabra stands up, looking pleased with himself. "A little feedback, because all of the beacons work on the same-."

"Talk yourself up after the mission." But Eiling does look slightly mollified as he prods our prisoner. "Lead the way."

He complies as I scan the ship's interior… I actually get a little more from the inside than I got from the outside. Either the shield is only designed to stop scans from the exterior or it isn't designed to stop yellow rings. Weaponer design, maybe? They wouldn't want to block rings they might use, but I don't plan on picking up an antithesis ring to check. No space that I can detect shouts 'holding cells', but at least I know where the bridge, drive and main generator are now.

Mr. Mahkent edges closer to me as we enter an adjoining corridor, holding his gun slightly awkwardly. "These are just 'point and shoot', right?"

"They're plasma-based, so there's far less recoil than with a projectile rifle. Though more than with a laser. The pulses will act up around strong magnetic fields, but otherwise, yes. Ah, no offence meant, but… You haven't used a gun before?"

He looks… Awkward, then… Kind of sad. "Dad always said… He wanted me to use my powers. Said I shouldn't need a gun."

"Huh. Well, it's.. good that you've focused on your powers, otherwise you'd probably have killed someone by now. But you should try and get some time in at a shooting range."

"I didn't think the Justice League liked guns?"

"Most members don't, but they're not hypocritical enough to complain about it when Superman has a super laser in each eye. I started shooting with a pistol a few days after I got my ring, and it's saved my life."

Eiling snorts. "No one taught you to use a gun? That's un-American. I taught Randy to-."

He stops for a moment, his shoulders tensing. The Dhorian stops as well, looking back at the hulking man as if he expects Eiling to kill him. But Eiling isn't the sort to let his current relationship with his stepchildren interfere with the mission.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mahkent isn't as sensitive to the mood as I am.

"Randy? That your kid?"

Eiling doesn't immediately answer, instead pointing down the corridor and giving our prisoner a small shove. He gets the message at once.

"I'll say this once, Icicle. DO NOT ask me about my family."

"You're the one-." I shake my head, which he spots. "Ah, sure dude. Whatever."

Kadabra looks thoughtful. "Do you expect to capture this ship, or is that merely the ideal situation?"

"We sort of need to. Unless they've got a very peculiar build, each of the larger ships can perform planetary bombardments. Along with their ship-to-surface teleporters, that's an immediate strategic threat that we need to deal with."

"I could try to access their computer system."

"Unless they've changed their designs a lot, Dhorian ships don't use central computers precisely to stop people taking control of their ships like that."

Eiling nods. "Smart. Lantern, ask this guy where all the soldiers are."

"Trooper, where is everyone?"

"P-protocol in case of boarding is for everyone to hunker in place until marines can counterattack. But they won't bother trying to secure empty corridors."

"They've taken cover until their marines remove us."

"He know where?"

"Where will the attack come?"

"I don't know. We've done drills for attacks from anywhere."

Eiling's jaw hardens. "That didn't sound like a location."

"Apparently there isn't any one 'intercept here' point. They've trained to do it anywhere. My guess would be prisoner containment."

"Going in or coming out?"

"Depends on the state of the prisoners. They won't want us to get reinforcements, but if the prisoners are in bad condition it would be easier to let us get in first. The real problem would be if they did the smart thing."

"Surrender?"

"Abandon this ship and have the other ships bombard it."

The guide shakes, though he manages to keep his footing.

Eilings nods. "That would do it. Think they will?"

"Not until at least one dedicated effort to stop us fails. They might not do it even if we free them. Depends what it looks like we're doing."

"How fast could they kill this ship?"

"Don't know. Ask me again if we reach their gunnery or bridge. I doubt that they can remotely deactivate this ship's shield, but we can't manoeuvre or fire back without complete control of the ship."

"Do they use fighter ships? Or bombers?"

"Not usually. They've probably got a few shuttles, but laser point defences and force fields generally make attack craft a waste of resources."

"Navy rather than air force, huh?"

"Basically. There are exceptions; some forms of technology that don't scale up well, that sort of thing. Thanagarians use Nth metal attack craft because they're far tougher, faster and more agile than anything else in the region. But that's about it."

Our guide stops in front of a heavy bulkhead door. He tries to open it with his security authorisation, but naturally it's been cancelled.

Kadabra steps forward to take care of it-.

"What's through here?"

"Cargo lift two. It can take you down to the cells."

"Kadabra, please have the lift rise to the top of the ship and then lock it in place."

"That should be possible." I hear a quiet rumble as the lift leaves. "And then the door opens…"

The door opens, revealing the lift shaft. I step up to the opening, carefully looking up and down. No soldiers sticking their guns out through the other openings in the shaft, none attached to the side of the shaft and no one obvious at the bottom.

"Looks clear."

I extend-. I extend-.

"Ah, sorry, normally I'd fly everyone down but I'm having trouble with using this ring…"

Eiling wraps his right arm around our guide and his left around Kadabra and jumps down, bending his legs lightly when he hits the bottom about fifty metres down. Mahkent points his right hand at the side of the shaft and fires a steam of ice, creating a pathway around the edge. I just step off and float down, landing at the bottom-

BOOM!

-just as the lift at the top of the shaft explodes!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:44 GMT -5

"Fuck!"

Mahkent splits his focus, right hand creating an increasingly steep spiral around the shaft while the left fires upwards in an attempt to create a barrier to block the lift-.

I throw up a… Spider web construct in an attempt to aid him, only to feel it snap almost immediately. Another and it breaks as well and another-.

Eiling plants his feet and punches the door into the holding section, bending the tough metal. He punches again, a thin gap appearing at the bottom of the door as the metal deforms. He then ducks and heaves upwards, door control systems utterly overpowered by his raw strength.

Kadabra tries something with the emergency controls at the bottom of the shaft but swiftly abandons it and takes a running dive under the door the moment that Eiling creates an opening.

Our guide follows him a moment later, with considerably less grace.

Another, and, ah… Construct vehicle lift to try and keep it from hitting the ground before we're out of the way. Mahkent does a staggering run off the end of his ice slide, corrects course and lunges into a slide under the door. Eiling gives it another pull and then awkwardly ducks under it and-

Transition? No.

-I fly under just as the pressure from above overwhelms my construct and shatters it.

"Okay, everyone-?"

And then the wreckage lands behind me and flame washes over us! Block block block! No, not just me, everyone!

Mahkent throws out his arms and frost coats the whole area, his eyes wide. "The fuck was that?"

Kadabra shakes as he waves his wand at his burns, slowly healing them. Eiling just pats himself out while-. Eiling prods the flash fried corpse of our escort with his right foot. Looks like Kadabra was trying to do something with the controls which put him slightly out of the line of fire, with Eiling standing next to him. What just-?

"Bomb in the elevator. Probably supposed to go off when we opened the doors to ride down. They set it off once we were underneath, and-. It split the lift in half and threw the bottom half at us. That was the air inside the lift. Kadabra, I have a healing ray in my orange rings' subspace pocket. Do you need me to try to access it?"

"No, don't worry. I've never felt better." He smiles manically. "The shaking isn't from pain, it's from opioids."

"Are you alright to heal yourself like that?"

"Ah…" He looks around. "These burns should hurt but they won't actually slow me down. We're on an alien space ship, so the chance of infection is minimal. I suppose that could stop-."

"No, that's fine then. Fix yourself up."

"Hey, ah…" Mahkent looks a little spooked, but he has it under control. "Are-? There gunna be a bunch of laser turrets popping out of the walls?"

"Probably not. Lasers make sense for anti-missile and anti-attack craft work, but on the interior you really want something that-."

"Or any other kind of guns."

Scan.

"No. There are gas dispensers in the cells and internal bastions, but they've been abandoned. We've got a clear run, unless they've got interior scan disruptors."

"And if they do?"

I generate construct armour around myself.

"I suggest staying behind Eiling and I."

Okay, the layout is… Two interior bastions just inside the section. Offices immediately on the left side, prisoner processing on the right-. No, it's been converted for prisoner processing, but it doesn't look like a dedicated facility. A store room? That would make sense… So perhaps they only put prisoners on one ship? Technology on one of the others and supplies on the rest?

As Tuvok would say, logical, if speculative.

The actual cells consist of-. Yes, the bars are attached to a raised lip front and back, which is the easiest way to stick bars in front of what would otherwise be a storage module. There's a force field generator as well, built into the same unit. If it's supposed to contain someone with Tuppence's level of strength then the field would have to be on the inside of the bars.

Ah. I'd like to be able to refer to a database, but I don't think that the Dhorians have any material that can resist Tuppence's level of strength.

"Kadabra, Eiling, please check the control office. If you can get control of the local computers, please do so. Icicle, with me."

Eiling gives Kadabra a slightly sceptical look, but rips out the office's armoured door and leads the way inside. Mahkent looks around uncertainly.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a lot smaller than Eiling."

I nod as we head through prisoner processing and out into the first level of the cell block. "You could try creating ice around your body and reshaping it as you go."

"My power doesn't work like that. I can't move it or make it go away. Once it comes out, it's just there."

"Said the bishop to the actress."

"What?"

"But you could make a shield of ice, right?"

"It's… Heavy, but, sure. Would that do anything?"

"Against laser, plasma or explosive projectile, yes. Anything else, maybe. Also, there's probably some sort of magic amulet that can improve your ability to manipulate ice. Ask about it once we get back."

"You saying they're holding out on us?"

"I doubt that the people who could help you have the time to really focus on that." I glance at him. "If that was something you wanted, you should have asked before you got sent to Belle Reve."

"Yeah, but… Still…"

There's another bastion just inside the cell block, and then we're through into the corridor with the cells. No one in the cells closest to entrance-.

"Tuppence Terror! Shout if you're here!"

I start walking, and there's… A dishevelled man lying in one of the cells.

"Sir? Can you hear me?"

He doesn't look up, his gaze focused on the deck in a way that's all too familiar. Anti-Lifed.

"Orange Lantern, the cells are isolated." I nod as Kadabra's voice come over the intercom. "A woman matching Tuppence's description is seventeen cells in and on your left."

"Thank you."

I dash past.. several occupied cells, because Tuppence might be useful while as sympathetic as I am Anti-Lifed people will be dead weight. She looks up in surprise as I draw level with her cell door, and mouths something at me. I shrug, and generate a probe construct to start working on freeing her.

"Ah, dude?"

"Yes?" He's looking behind me as I interface with the cell's computer and fear that the AI isn't intelligent enough to handle this.

"Isn't that..?"

I turn around to see Nylor Truggs waving at me.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:48 GMT -5

I was wondering what Light-affiliates had been doing.

I don't wave back. Instead, I turn around and focus on infiltrating the security of the cell. Doesn't appear to be designed to resist construct infiltration, but since I don't know a thing about their computer security I just feel out the connections until…

There it is. A small pulse of electromagnetic energy and the field shuts down, a faint shimmer at the back of the cell showing me that it affected all six interior surfaces.

"Are you in one piece,-"

She stalks towards the bars, grabs two of them and pushes them apart!

"-Tuppence?"

"Yeah." She crouches slightly and twists aside to fit through the gap she just made. "Ah'm good."

"I'm glad to hear it. Any residual affect of-?"

She walks past me, though I notice a certain lack of her usual anger in her steps. It's more like she's actually having to make an effort to move.

"Tuppence, if you're injured, we need to know."

"Ah don't like bein' locked up, is awl." She looks around the cell block, taking everything in. "How we geh'in out?"

"That's a work in progress."

"Dude..?" Mahkent nods towards Nylor's cell. "I think that guy's trying to get your attention."

"Most likely." Tuppence tense but not angry? Not sure what's going on there, but I can worry about that once we're out. "I'm going to need to manually open each cell unless Kadabra can work something out and I'm not sure how much time we have. Tuppence, did you see anyone who might be useful, or is it all-?"

Tuppence punches the control unit for the cell next to hers, which causes the force field to lock in the 'active' position.

"Please don't do that."

"Why didn' that shut it awf?"

"Because that's not how anyone designs their cells."

I extrude a filament and try poking the surviving circuitry. Yes, she's tripped the safety feature and I'm not entirely sure how to reverse it. I don't recognise the person inside, but they're coherent enough to have perked up when they saw me. Good, they'll be able to move under their own power.

"Dude, I think he's signing something."

"Ignore him."

"If he takes off his pants, I'm gunna go hang out with Kadabra."

Could I create a crumbler device without a copy of the schematic? I've used it a lot, but it's a good deal more complicated than a cold gun.

I exhale, walk over to Nylor's cell and deactivate the force field.

"What?"

"Ah, if yah don't open the doors, the cell autamatically gasses the guy inside."

"I'm sure that you'll live. Do you know something useful?"

"Y'got Abra Kadabra with you?" He shrugs. "I know how he can jam the teleport scanner with his wand…"

"Tuppence, please break his bars."

"Oh, y'all suddenly fergot how yewer rings work?"

Nylor points at my hand. "Yellow. Not orange. They use your clones to Anti-Life ya?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Only reason yah'd take 'em off. The clever part's how I knew about the clones."

"Truggs, we-."

"Nylor." He grins.

"We're on a hostile spacecraft with an indeterminate number of prisoners we need to-"

"Twen'y seven."

"-rescue, thank you, and the Earth's still Anti-Lifed. Please, just… Stop. Wind me up later if you must."

"But you can fix it. You wouldn't be back if you couldn't."

"That doesn't mean it's alright to dick around while human society keeps collapsing."

"Nah, at this point-" he shakes his head. "-it won't make much-" Tuppence plants her feet and rips a bar out. "-difference. Thank you. That paralysis gong thing was pretty weird, huh?"

Tuppence glares at him for a few moments, then jerks her right hand so that the bar whistles through the air and stops next to Truggs' head.

"Bein' trapped, no bein' able ta move at all-."

I wrap my right hand around the bar as Tuppence draws it back. She could easily overpower me, obviously, but the feedback appears to snap her out of the impulse.

"We get it, Truggs. Kadabra is in the office at the entrance. Let me know when you're jamming the teleporter, because splitting my attention with an unfamiliar ring is actually a bit tricky."

He grins, nods to Tuppence and then turns and strides away.

"Ah…" Mahkent looks confused. "What was that?"

"Truggs and I share a personal philosophy, but have very different approaches to fulfilling it. I find him rather aggravating."

Tuppence grimaces. "He's an asshole."

"We'll need to talk about that later in private, but I'm afraid that if I feel compassionate right now the teleport jammer would turn off."

I walk over to the cell she damaged and start rooting around for the power supply. I can… Actually feel the fear of the prisoners, fear of captivity and their captors, and, in a few cases, a fear of being released. And I can feel how much easier that's making it to punch through the armour around the cables powering the force field. For a non-dedicated space this is pretty well designed.

There's a faint hum as the force field deactivates.

"There you are. Tuppence?"

She tosses her bar aside and rips the door out of the cell. I smile at the woman inside.

"I'm Orange Lantern, with the Justice League. Please join our colleagues at the cell block entrance. I'll be with you once the rest of the cells are evacuated."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
14:49 GMT -6

"…intended to inspire dreamers."

The Caliph stands at the edge of his balcony, hands on the railing. Luna, Nabu and I sit on the cushions behind him as he considers what we've said.

"It was not intended to allow one wizard to impose his will upon the world."

Nabu's Dream Baghdad transformation has just changed his robes a little and given him a turban. I've been transformed into something like a djinn… Or maybe an ifrit? I've never learned the physical difference, but my mystical senses have been brought to the fore while my mundane ones have receded a little. I'm wearing armour over my chest, but the Tron lines of my armour are now tattoos. Luna… Has ended up in something a little more risqué, though since it still covers more than what she wears as a pony I don't think she's really noticed.

"If I may ask, O Caliph, what did he ask when he came before you?"

Nice that he doesn't seem to object to her taking the lead.

"Ahri'ahn has visited my city many times, offering tales and artefacts to trade for knowledge and reagents. His latest scheme seemed grand, but I am the last man to think poorly of a man of ambition. He told me that he wished to see his homeland raised to the greatness that it had in his youth." He bows his head slightly. "And he showed me what had befallen my land since I chose to remove all wonder from it."

Luna nods. "The dreams of my own world are shallow compared to what you have here. Could they not rebuild what you once had?"

"It was my assumption that they would. That they would dream of my city and seek to recreate it. But, alas, it was not to be."

"You wish to reverse your own decree?"

"I do not believe that the Lord of Dreams would grant such a request. But I had hoped to play a more direct role in recreating the greatness my home once knew. Ahri'ahn told me that it was possible."

I frown. "Forgive my ignorance, O Caliph, but I did not think that a follower of Mohammad was supposed to engage in such practices."

"There is some debate amongst the scholars of my court how much involvement with magic is permissible for a Muslim. It is not ideal, of course, but I am responsible for the wellbeing of my people. Demons and foul sorcerers exist, and ignorance protects no one. For the most part, I employ infidels to handle… Direct matters, so as not to taint the souls of the faithful." He takes a deep breath. "Allah has granted the domain of Dreams to the Lord of Dreams, and so I may treat with him as I would with a foreign sovereign."

Total bollocks. He literally made himself a magical creature while his fleshy remains were left to live out their days broken in mind and spirit, basically the definition of what Mohammad banned when he cleared the animist shrines out of Mecca. All because he was afraid of something happening that he then deliberately made happen! It's a basic component of Judaeo-Christian-Islamic morality: you're not supposed to try and live forever! You're not supposed to sniff your own farts so hard that you can't take the idea that things in the future might be a little different and you're certainly not supposed to deliberately sacrifice other people upon the altar of your ego! You're supposed to spend your life striving to be worthy of Heaven! Fix what you can! Endure what you can't! He-!

Whooo.

I'm… Honestly a little surprised about how personally I'm taking this.

Ah…

Just… fix the table…

Haroun Al Raschid turns back to us as the glow dies down. He probably felt that, or something. He's basically the concept of a perfect king, and knowing when an ambassador is angry enough to accidentally break your furniture is probably a part of that.

"Is there a ruler in the lands of the Holy Prophet in whom I might place my faith instead?"

I mentally run through the list. There are plenty who aren't terrible, but none of them are exactly in danger of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire or anything.

"The current ruler of Kahndaq is a most excellent man, well liked by his people and dedicated to their care. But you would call him an infidel."

He waves that off. "My own ancestors were infidels before the coming of the Prophet. I shall consult my sages and consider his worth."

A fairly noncommittal answer, but I'll warn Adom once we get out.

Luna draws herself up slightly. "What aid did you give Ahri'ahn?"

He gestures to the other balcony, the one looking out over Poseidonis.

"He bound dreams of my city to his own homeland. He shared my insights with his king, those of my sorcerers with their magicians, the habits of my people with his. But… Not. He used his own magic to alter things. To change the way those virtues manifested." He walks over to that balcony. "It has been interesting to watch, but he has broken our agreement by attempting to extend his control over my lands. A shame."

I look at Nabu as he nods. He hasn't said much while we've been here. I would have thought that this is the sort of place that his order-instincts would hate, but maybe the Dream has been around so long that it's part of the systems of rules that govern the universe?

"Then will we have your aid in undoing his working?"

"My aid? No. I will merely withdraw my support. He will have to sustain his enchantment with his own magic, and I would warn you that his magic is substantial."

I don't grunt. But I will admit that even as a wave of something passes through the Poseidonis streets I grimace a little.

"I am uncertain of your intent, O Caliph. Do you wish for us to negotiate with him, now that he is weakened?"

"He has broken the terms of our agreement." He idly waves his right hand. "He is no longer my concern."

"I hear what you say, but that doesn't mean that you don't have a preference. I prefer to avoid alienating people where it is not necessary to do so."

"Hm." He nods. "Blessed are the peacemakers. What gods do your people worship, I wonder?"

"We worship the Source, a single supreme unified divine power. For practical purposes you may identify it with your god, though the manner of our worship is different."

"And are peacemakers blessed amongst your people?"

"Amongst my people? If they actually managed to make peace, they would have to have been blessed."

He nods. "And you, Princess?"

"My people do not worship a particular deity as yours do. But there are… Principles which we consider sacred. We value peace, but we have been at peace for so long that there are no noted peacemakers amongst us. In truth, our greatest heroes are those who still know how to fight, despite the lassitude brought about by a thousand years of peace."

"A thousand years of peace? Even I did not manage that." He exhales slowly. "My feelings on the matter… He does what he thinks is right for his people. It would be… More satisfying if he were encouraged to see the error of his ways, that he may repent and seek forgiveness from Allah. But if that proves impossible, then I will take no action against you."

I rise, and bow to him.

"Thank you for speaking with us, O Caliph. I will advise Teth Adom that you wish to speak with him."

"Do you think that he will respond well?"

"I think that converting him will be an uphill battle. But I imagine that it has been some time since you have had a challenge."

"True." He nods. "You are dismissed. I wish you fortune in your mission."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:57 GMT -5

"I don't wanna… I don't wanna go back."

The large Native American man at the end of the line is pointedly sitting at the back of his cell. He isn't actually Anti-Lifed, but… I get where he's coming from.

"Okay. Tell you what. If we capture this ship, you can stay up here."

That gives him something concrete to latch on to. He shakes his head, trying to focus through the fear. "The aliens took something from me. A glowing rock on a thong."

"I'll see what I can do. Do you know how to use a gun?"

"Yeah." He gets up and approaches the bars cautiously. "Fourteen years in the army. I know how to use a gun."

I nod, smiling. "Tuppence, if you please."

Another couple of yanks… And another yank, this is a big bloke, and he's out. I pass him my gun and he instinctively checks it, frowning as he fails to find an ammunition cartridge or firing mechanism.

"What is this?"

"Pulse plasma gun. It-."

He brings it to his shoulder and fires a shot down the prison unit, hitting the far wall and melting a circle of metal. Maintaining his aim he holds the trigger down, sending pulses of energy directly into the original impact point.

He lowers the gun. "Not a lot of recoil. With the glow, it's like firing tracers. Easy to correct your aim."

"Glad you approve. This way, please."

I fly back towards prisoner processing. I wasn't really scanning for magic rocks when I came through… And with my rune stones in my orange ring's subspace pocket I'd have struggled with that anyway. Okay, there are storage bins which could be for prisoner property. Would the Dhorians put weapons close to their owners?

Possibly. If they were planning on using them as slave soldiers or if they only converted one ship for secure transportation, it would make sense. Most people don't prepare for Earth-grade madness. There wouldn't be much risk of them escaping from containment cells like that, and there would always be guards around in normal operating conditions.

"Orange Lantern to Abra Kadabra. I'm looking for a glowing rock on a thong. Any idea where they're keeping it?"

"Bottom row, seventh along."

"Thank you." I force open the safe and take out the… Glowing rock on a thong, and… A furry helmet. Ah, I've seen worse. "Got it!"

He walks in a moment later and I hand both objects to him. He takes the glowing rock first and loops the thong around his neck, settling it between his pectorals. The helmet-.

"What.. cha'll wearin'?" Tuppence looks completely mystified.

"It covers my face."

He slides it over his head… Giving up all of his peripheral vision, as far as I can tell. But maybe the rock needs it to work? I've seen stranger things than that as well. So this is Super Chief 16. I only really remember the 52 version and the Ultimen version from Justice League Unlimited. So I'm going to try to keep him alive longer than both of them.

"Right, through here."

Everyone's waiting at the entrance. The Anti-Lifed people tend to obey instructions when they're issued in a commanding tone of voice, but they'll obviously be no use in a fight. The Dhorians have probably set up their marines throughout the ship by now, so it's going to be-.

"Hey, Orange!" Truggs smiles and languidly waves his right hand at me. "I talk to you for a sec?"

"If you must. We can-."

"Wait." Eiling has turned away from the exit and is staring at our latest recruit. "That you, Sergeant Standing Bear?"

"Yeah. What's it to you?"

"Heh." Eiling smiles with the left side of his face. "Nothing. I don't think we'll be attending any funerals for these guys, anyway."

Not.. sure what that's about, but I follow Truggs as he leads me into what was formerly the warden's office.

"What?"

"Guess you're wandren why I'm here."

"No. It's not my problem. Whatever bullshittery your employers are up to, I've got more important things to worry about."

"Like how these guys got here? Or why they're here?"

I roll my eyes in frustration. "Was it you?"

"No. More… You."

"Because I was dealing with Alstair?"

"And… O. And a few other places."

"And how do you know about O?"

"You included it in the information you gave that video game-" Oh for-! Goodness sake. "-company, who were making that Vega game for yeh."

That's.. right, I did. Not sure how he.. got hold of it. I mean, their office security wouldn't have kept someone of his calibre out and it wasn't exactly a secret, but it seems like a weird thing for him to have bothered with.

That game's never going to get finished now, is it?

"What's O got to do with-?"

"You gave them Dominion technology. Dominators don't like sharing."

"Right, but that was just an out of date computer. My supplier was confident that they wouldn't care."

"Eh." Truggs looks up at the ceiling for a moment. "They prob'ly wouldn't care if that was it, but the people of O and Alstair, they're clever people. Creative, you know?"

My heart sinks. "So they created improved versions and the Dominion found out about it. And took offence?"

"So they started wondering what else you'd taken. And they found out about that gate you gave Commodore Amalak-."

"That's not Dominion technology."

"Yeah, but it walks and quacks like Dominion technology. So the Dominion are now officially 'interested' in Earth."

"Great. And..?"

"And, they already have some infrastructure set up on Earth. Forward planning. They decided to rent it to the Dhorians as a test run."

"Which is how they got past the interdiction systems. I guessed it was either a zeta transporter or a boom tube." I think for a moment. "Why are you here?"

"My employers think we should get a small number of people away from Earth. Just in case. I needed to lure these ships-."

"You told the Dominion."

He shrugs awkwardly, smirking as if he finds being caught out more amusing than embarrassing.

"Every time-." I turn away, heading for the exit. "If they shoot you, I will laugh."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:02 GMT -5

Kadabra raises his wand like a conductor's baton.

"And… Go."

Eiling and Standing Bear exert themselves, pulling against my construct levers to completely remove the bulkhead door between the prison complex and the lift shaft. Tiny motes of glittering dust waft through as the hole increases in size, the soldiers we strongly suspect to be on guard waiting until they have a clearer target.

Kadabra's skills as an illusionist have increased to the point that if we were on a thaumically active world he wouldn't need a conductive medium like this. But we're far enough away from Earth that he's forced to revert to purely technological methods, creating a full-spectrum hologram showing that we haven't exited the prison yet.

Because as much as I'd like to do something clever like go out through a wall or something -and that is what I'd do if I had my orange rings and somewhere to put the civilians- smashing though to make an alternate exit would just result in them repositioning their troops thanks to the very obvious seismic shocks we'd be sending through the hull. But this is what happens when you're stuck at low power and can't just reshape the universe to your whims.

I sigh, quietly. I do not like this feeling, which is kind of stupid when you realise that I'm still more powerful than any human to have ever existed on Earth Prime. I guess it's what you've become used to.

A final clunking and tearing of metal, and Eiling and Standing Bear move the pieces of the bulkhead out of the way, allowing us a clear view of the shaft. Once the burning plasma fire guttered out there wasn't anything here to burn, though some of the metal is charred and warped. And above us…

My word. What a lot of guns.

Okay, as far as I can tell, the top part of the lift stayed at the top of the shaft where Kadabra wedged it, probably helped a bit by the explosion. But I doubt that it's solidly wedged, so it could fall down at any point.

Below that…

Troopers are positioned at every lift shaft opening, guns pointing down. Other troopers have clamped themselves around the shaft itself. They're all using standard pattern plasma pulse guns… I imagine it's because their doctrine calls for standardised production because Antares doesn't have a lot of free raw materials. Their soldiers have good armour and personal force fields because their people are a limited resource too, but they don't have wonder weapons because they're inefficient even if they work.

I don't hate these people. Objectively, they're no worse than Hyathis. Okay, a little worse; the deal she offered the Thanagarians was better than what the Dhorians offered their prisoners. But within the same division.

Can't see anyone with obvious officer markings. Alright, none of them are tracking me when I move, so I'm going to guess that Kadabra's hologram is working as intended.

"Shock and awe on my signal."

Eiling grunts, while Tuppence and Standing Bear nod.

Ring, connect to internal communications.

"Gentlemen, is there any chance that we could negotiate a peaceful settlement? I reiterate that as far as I'm concerned none of our core interests are in conflict here."

None of the soldiers move. Sealed armour, so it's perfectly possible that they don't get general broadcasts.

"A little while ago I spent some time with a man I admire, a kryptonian by the name of Kal-El. I've tried to incorporate some of his generous, open-handed and kind attitude into my work. And to a degree, it's worked. I'd really much rather work with you than against you, but we've reached the point where I can't afford to pull punches any longer. So we either reach an agreement, or we're going to do our level best to kill you all. And because we can't risk any reversal, after you're dead, I'll be travelling to your homeworld and permanently removing its ability to make war. Not because I hate your people, but because I have a duty to mine."

Still no response.

"So how about it? Everyone goes home with what they want, or no one goes home at all?"

I look up further. I.. don't know what I'm looking-

"A-huh wiener a-huh a-huh."

-for, and now I'm looking at Truggs, who's pretending to cough into his fist.

I guess sometimes you've got to be a bit of a wiener to stay a bit human.

And now I'm thinking of human sausage-.

"So how about it?"

"I don't know what part of us trying to kill you it is that you didn't understand, but the answer's 'no'." Volgar Zo. Still alive, still in command. "But if you surrender and-"

"Go."

Mahkent raises his hands, and a hurricane of ice shards roars up the shaft! Low level kinetic impacts, low level electrical discharges and thermal imaging disruption. Won't kill anyone but it's a big help. There are three woosh sounds as the strike team throw themselves upwards, because while we usually train super strong people to apply themselves precisely and carefully, they all… Well, can do things like this.

Throw their force around. Use your body as a projectile to smash someone else into paste. Superman doesn't want anyone to ever think about the fact that if he turns around at top speed and you're standing too close his cape will be moving fast enough to shear through your spine.

Because I need fear, and the Dhorians are similar enough to us that not being able to see the things that are killing them will do the job nicely.

Empathic vision shows me their fear as they suddenly don't know what they're supposed to be doing, and as Kadabra switches from illusion to jamming they find out that they can't retreat.

Shield.

The glowing yellow barrier appears, but it doesn't look like I'll need it for blocking many shots. There are some hitting, but it's doing more to catch the bodies of those torn loose from their moorings as the Dhorians keep their attention focused on the immediate threat fairly well.

But their fear is building because while they don't know if they're hitting anything or not they do know that the killing isn't stopping.

Huh. It actually feels… Good. I think there's some sort of feedback between my empathic vision and the ring…

"Heh."

But I remember that sensation, and I will not be indulging it, because it's impractical for Batman to confiscate my ring for a week this time.

One of the troopers tries struggling upright-.

"Stop moving. Yield. And I won't kill you immediately."

He stops moving at once.

"Good man. Helmet off, discard weapon."

He hurries to comply as a slight crackle indicates that someone wants to talk over the intercom.

"A-ah."

"Volgar Zo. Good to hear from you."

"Your offer, is-?"

"No. You can surrender, or you can try running. You have entirely exhausted my patience."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:09 GMT -5

No one on the bridge, either. Tuppence and a few of the unpowered prisoners are shoving those we captured into their cells while Mahkent recovers the gamma gong. Eiling, Kadabra and Standing Bear have come with me, Kadabra because I need someone other than me who can interface with the systems and the other two because I'm not convinced that I can trust them out of my sight.

I can feel the fear on the other ships.

"They're pulling away."

Eiling frowns. "Explain that to me. They outnumber us. Why are they leaving?"

Kadabra smiles. "Because they know that they're in teleporter range. And they know that you can kill them easily if you can reach them."

I nod. "I don't know whether they're fleeing the system or just getting out of teleporter range, but neither is acceptable. Interface."

Eiling nods. "And let me guess: they didn't scuttle the ship because they don't want to make that easy. Should still have been able to flash their drives."

Cables radiate out from my body and bury themselves into each of the consoles.

"'Top Secret' information wouldn't usually be on bridge systems, it would be on the commander's personal computer. The belligerent parties in the Antares system are so close to each other that it's not possible for them to keep 'Secret' level stuff secret from each other, and decentralisation means that there isn't any one location to flash."

Warm up the drive systems. And weapons, because they've got their shields down so they can devote power to drive systems. Pop turrets and target capital ship drive systems.

"Kadabra, are you able to interfere with their systems?"

"Tricky." He walks over to the communications suite and waves his wand around. "There's only so much I can do with a conventional communications array."

I nod as our primary guns begin tracking targets. On ships like these that use ion thrusters there's only so much you can do to armour that part of the ship. Like with weapons, their role requires them to be exposed in a way that bridges and engines don't. I'd like to fire right away, but the guns are cold and need more time to be readied to fire. Something that would be easier with a trained crew, though given that the Dhorians aren't bothering with weapons at this stage perhaps I'm misjudging.

"Do what you can."

Weapons charging…

I've got sensors, though I can't see where the Dominion's gate is supposed to be. Assuming that Truggs was telling the truth, which I probably shouldn't do. The Dhorian ships still under their control have started pulling away but they're hardly in a position-

This ship doesn't have an interdiction field generator.

-to get away.

Eiling walks over to the main screen. "So it's a stern chase. How does that work out for them?"

Weapons charging. Preparing to fire…

"Not great. None of us have shields or weapons active so that we can start our drives faster. There's only so much power the drives can turn into acceleration, so once that's-"

I feel the shields start activating on their ships.

"-ready they'll activate shields. Darn it."

He raises an eyebrow.

"They got their shields up just before I got weapons ready."

I retrain the guns so that they're focusing on a single ship, and fire them.

And.. I've been spoiled by having access to a fleet built with Maltusian and Coluan technology. Most spacefaring species don't have weapons that powerful or accurate. The ship I aimed at saw that they were being targetted and started using their manoeuvring thrusters. Combined with the weak containment systems in the guns themselves, that means that I'm not getting enough hits to actually damage anything. Even at basically point blank range. Explains why they do boarding actions: shooting each others' ships just takes too long. I could aim at the smaller ships, but they're already pulling ahead and they're smaller targets anyway.

Deactivate guns, transfer power to rapid engine start up system.

Eiling looks askance at me. "If we're in the same class of ship, how do you plan on catching them?"

"I don't. I plan on teleporting onto their bridge and wrecking them. There's no real benefit in grabbing the small ships so we can ignore those. Of the twelve capital ships three of them are our size and the other eight are slightly smaller. I suspect that if we take the three largest then Volgar Zo will be on one of them and we can force the rest to surrender in exchange for me not adding another count of genocide to my charge sheet. Kadabra?"

"I would be concerned about them having another gamma gong, but otherwise it sounds plausible."

"Everyone got a gun?"

Three nods.

"We were caught by the gamma gong the first time because we assumed that we were heading up for a peaceful discussion. This time we'll have the drop on them. The gong has to be exposed to be used. If you teleport in and see one, shoot everyone near it and grab it yourself as fast as you can. Kadabra, are our sensors good enough to lock on through their shields?"

"No, but their teleporter network is still active, as are their communication channels. I'm already inside, and… I have it. We can now use their sensors to teleport."

"Impressive work. In-."

Tuppence walks onto the bridge. "They all got done put in cages. When we gettin' the rest?"

"Ah, now, if you're up for it Kad-."

"I believe I know where Volgar Zo is. Only one ship is at the centre of all fleet communications."

"Good show." I hand a spare gun to Tuppence, but I get the impression that she's not all that familiar with them. "Ready?"

Three nods.

"Kadabra, give us a countdown."

He waves his wand and creates a shimmering column around us. "Three. Two. One."

I raise construct armour and rope darts.

"Now."

There's a flash, and we're surrounded by surprised Dhorians. I fire my darts, impaling the ones standing next to instrument panels. Tuppence throws herself at the closest marine, shoving her.. right hand into his arm before using him as a blunt instrument to bludgeon his comrades. Eiling is very clearly watching for a gamma gong, carefully maintaining his awareness as he strikes anyone within arms' reach. Standing Bear-

"Stand down! We surrender!"

-has gone for Zo himself and is currently standing with one hand around Zo's neck having already ripped the teleport system out of his armour.

"Everyone stop." Eiling does so immediately, Tuppence gets a couple more swings in before discarding her weapon as I approach Zo. "You will signal the rest of your fleet to surrender as well if you want your species to survive the week."

Clearly terrified, he nods in agreement.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
18:36 GMT -5

The assembled heavy cruisers point their guns down the gravity well and open fire, moon rock evaporating as the plasma hits the moon surface. It will take a while to dig down to the Dominion gate structure, but it inevitably will reach it. And then we'll have to keep an eye out for future infiltration attempts, but until then there won't be any more attacks from that avenue.

Zo told me that they had only one gamma gong on the fleet, and while I haven't gone room-to-room I certainly haven't seen any sign of there being more. Apparently, they're very resource-intensive to make, and it was only going to be used to contain prisoners. Plenty of time to check later.

The Dhorians have been loaded into two cruisers that I personally ripped the guns off, given a message to play in case Hyathis sends her fleet to finish them off on the way home and told to get out. I can see them heading for the edge of the interdiction zone now. It won't be a comfortable trip, but they'll make it. In a few months.

Eiling is watching the guns ravage the lunar surface.

"Lantern, are these ships American ships now?"

"Legally, their status is in limbo. The Dhorians declared war against Earth, but the disposition of any property would depend on the results of the final peace treaty negotiations. I'll be pushing for the Justice League to take full control of them, because it's legally far simpler. And less likely to cause friction between Earth nations in the post-Anti-Life period."

"Everyone who took part in this mission except you is American."

"And Abra Kadabra. Who… Still isn't an American citizen."

"He isn't?"

"He's a time traveller, so he isn't a natural born citizen, and then he was a convicted felon… But that's not the point."

"Isn't it? You know what the Chinese do with their metahumans, don't you?" I nod. "You could have gone to them. They'd probably have let you write your own ticket. You stuck with the Justice League. And sure, they're your friends. But is that why?"

"It's generally right to be on the side without concentration camps."

"Yeah. But it's not just metahumans, is it? Free speech, rule of law, free trade… All the things that makes America great. You spend most of your time on Earth in America. You signed up with an organisation that's run by Americans for a reason. I'm assuming it's because you like the way we do things."

"I like the way you do things when you do them like you're supposed to."

"You don't like me, you don't like what I do. Fine. Nate's lucky to have people on his side like you."

"No, it's not that. You want to sell weapons to America's enemies for whatever reason, I wouldn't care all that much. And your explanation made a lot of sense. My issue is what you did to Major Adams."

"That was the best I could do. It wasn't like I had an entirely free hand. Once Lemar and Yarrow decided to try and kill each other, I had to keep everything quiet."

"Why not clean house? After Lemar was dead, arrest Yarrow and Polk and have them killed while escaping. Then have the official report blame the three of them for the smuggling-."

"Officially there wasn't any smuggling. And it had to stay that way if the C.I.A. was going to get its money."

"Then come up with something else. It's not like Adams had a motive either."

Eiling shakes his head. "He'd have kept investigating. I'm not going to try and tell you that it played on my conscience for decades or anything like that. I've seen better men killed for less, and some of them were on my side. But given the objectives, there wasn't any other way to handle it."

"And did the C.I.A. do anything useful with that money?"

"Damn good question." He snorts. "I'd say 'no', but I didn't know that at the time."

"Same principle. I'm sure that whoever used these ships to throw an asteroid at someone you don't like would think they were doing the right thing. As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to pull the trigger in a situation like that, you better be right. Because the default setting shouldn't be 'ruthless bastard', it should be 'follow the rules'."

"How's that working out for you?"

"Reasonably well." I shrug. "I trust the League not to do anything disastrous, even if I'd rather that they pushed a bit harder sometimes. I don't trust the various parts of the United States government to do the same."

I look over his shoulder at the lunar surface as the guns finally break through to the Dominion gateway, smiling as it's destroyed.

Cease fire.

The guns stop shooting.

"That it?"

"Until next time. Hey." He looks around. "You'll actually get a pardon out of this, won't you?"

"Yeah. I'm too useful not to. Won't get my rank back. Won't get my kids back. But I'll get 'freed'. How long am I going to live for, anyway?"

"Between the stem cells and the Danner Formula, at least another century. Possibly longer. Possibly a lot longer. So I expect we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

"And I'll be seeing a lot of Adams. Great. So what's next?"

"If you're in need of a place to go?" Truggs strolls in, smiling smugly. "Then what's next is-."

"No. And don't pretend that was a fluke: you were obviously lurking by the door."

"No?"

"I have a plan for removing the Anti-Life from Earth. Unless it fails, there's no need to evacuate people."

"Do you need the ships for this plan of yours?"

"I need the resources that would otherwise be spent on checking potential colonists for Anti-Life infection. The ships would only be used as a distraction."

But the gong might be genuinely useful, if we can work out how it functions.

"What if they're already ready to go?"

Breathe. Breathe.

"That may be acceptable. Take it up with Batman when we return to Earth. Enjoy your stay in the prisoners' suite."

"Not the first time."

"Glad that you're happy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to report in."

He waves with exaggerated disinterest, and I fly down the corridor a way to get a little privacy.

"Orange Lantern to Lantern Gardner. I have a… Situation."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
20:48 GMT -6

"I thought… Things felt strange." King Orin runs his right hand down the side of his face. "Like I was-." His hand continues downwards as he pulls himself together, balling into a fist as it reaches the nadir of its descent. "What exactly has he done?"

"He hath caused you and your people to sleepwalk through the lives of your forebears. Shaded, we imagine, by his own beliefs and prejudices. There is not a place in Atlantis where 'Pureblood' and the 'impure' live at close quarters."

"Damn it."

I hunch my shoulders and make a circling motion with my right hand. "Given how things are, I could probably… Ah… Use my own power to fix things… But-."

"That would mean you mind controlling my people."

"It's more of an unnatural mental influence. But that's why I asked rather than just doing it. Alternately, I can perform the awakening on you, and you can do it."

"No. No more mind control. If there's a lingering problem afterwards, we can deal with it when we need to." He walks over to the window, looking out across Poseidonis towards the sea. "God, I never thought I'd get a view like this."

Behind him I wince, and wait for him to reason it out.

"It won't last, will it?"

"Neigh, it will not." Luna takes a step closer. "In truth, We are surprised that it has survived the removal of the Caliph's support. We can only imagine that it is of supreme importance to Ahri'ahn."

"It's not just him. This has been a dream for a lot of Atlanteans." He turns back to us, frowning at Nabu. "Is that something you can keep going?"

"Only by leaving your people half-consumed by the Dream. This subverts the natural magic flow of the world. It could only be maintained with an external power source of great power."

"Or." I raise my right forefinger. "Your people could put the effort into making it happen gradually. You can't tell me that Atlantis doesn't have spells for making things float. Or for making aquatic volcanoes erupt. Heck, I can get you an asteroid if it comes to it."

"That would-." He pauses and shakes his head. "Do you know how much of what I'm feeling are my own feelings and how much is a left over from Ahri'ahn? I grew up in Maine. I never thought that Atlantis should be anywhere but the sea floor before."

Luna nods. "Ahri'ahn still holds the dream over much of Atlantis. Until we confront and defeat him, We may only bend it a little. We suggest that you place a hold on important decisions until you are truly free."

"Alright. What's the plan? And why aren't I having this talk with the Justice League?"

"Ah, basically, I'm tough enough to survive hostile magic without being so overtly magical that Ahri'ahn would immediately detect me."

Luna nods. "And We are an expert in dream magic. Giovanni Zatara is powerful, but he lacks Our particular skills."

I nod. "And my absolute faith. Plan is, you turn up to your regular consultation as if you're still dreaming and lamp him. If that doesn't work, Luna and I will be one floor-punching away."

"'Floor punching'?"

"Look, this place is going to be wrecked by the sudden change in water pressure when it sinks again. Don't worry about the hole I have to make to reach you fast enough to stop one of the planet's top five magicians disintegrating you."

"Okay, that's-" He nods. "-a reasonable point. How much damage did he do raising Atlantis?"

"Not a lot. We were all over that. No one's going to hold the actions of one wizard against Atlantis as a whole." Hm. "Do you have a good place for us to hide?"

"Who else have you woken up?"

I shake my head. "No one. It would have made sneaking around harder and risked tipping off Ahri'ahn. And people should wake up by themselves after he's defeated."

"Defeated or dead?"

"Given his power level and the potential political fallout from taking him alive, I was planning on killing him."

"He's the founder of our magic traditions. The only reason why Atlantis still exists today."

I nod. "Yes, he's definitely outlived his usefulness, I agree. I suggest denying that you ever clarified that point and 'blaming' me."

"Are you sure that he's not being influenced by anything else?"

"Sure? No. But anything powerful enough to influence him… Well… Not a lot we can do about it at short notice. And… Honestly… Has anything he's done been out of character? For an Atlantean noble of his era?"

"Perhaps not. Alright, I've completed my appointments for the day, but I can get Ahri'ahn to discuss…" He frowns, the thoughts of his Dream-self colliding with those of Actual Arthur Curry. "Vassalage reform? That was-?"

"I imagine that his views on democracy are a little dated. Luna, do you have-?"

Luna hands him an enchanted lollipop stick. "Break this when it is time for us to intervene."

He nods. "I wouldn't visit his workshop, not while I was under his control. I'll call him to the east wing drawing room. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes. We'll be lying in wait."

He nods distractedly. "Maybe I can find out where he was going with all of this."

"I wouldn't recommend risking yourself to assuage your curiosity, but it's your life you're risking. Don't forget to dismiss your guards just in case things spill over."

He nods, then turns away and marches out of the royal apartments.

"Is this what it is like?"

I turn to Luna. "Is what what what's like?"

"Being a 'super hero'. We had largely assumed that it was something like being a knight errant, but no mere knight would be trusted to do what we have done today."

"Pretty sure that Celestia would dump it on Twilight."

"Not without a great deal more notice and preparatory material."

"I don't remember her getting a fat lot of preparatory material before being sent to fight Sombra. Didn't even get the Elements."

"You need not argue that point with Us. Having considered your viewpoint, we are in agreement."

"Twilight and maybe Rainbow Dash count. At our level, superheroism is about highly skilled and powerful people dealing with otherwise intractable problems that would otherwise cause widespread devastation. Both of us needed our full range of skills and resources to get this far, and our combat abilities will be tested before too long. There aren't many things that would require people in our weight class to apply themselves like this, but it's nice to be around when they come up."

She nods, looking pensive. "We think that We may desire… To participate in such incidents more often. To… Beat off the rust."

I smile. "I was rather hoping that-."

"And We believe that Our Sister may similarly wish to engage in such pugilistic events."

"Maybe Kal-El's got something for her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Ken World

12th July 2023
01:10 Local Time

At the risk of sounding like I've absorbed entirely too much local culture, I can't help but have a little skip in my step. Another success. Another group of oppressed people convinced that they can be more than they are. And another group sneaking into the back of the evacuation lorry to begin a new life somewhere where they can be more than their horribly misandrist society would allow them to be.

And based on normal response times I've still got a good half an hour before the bane of my existence turns up. And we should all be long gone by then.

I knock on the cab door, and a balaclava-covered head sticks out of the window.

"Boss?"

Professional driving is one of the few occupations the men of this blighted land are allowed to perform, so I could recruit help for that part of the job relatively easily. Trucker Ken is still maintaining his cover as… Well, as Trucker Ken, but he's happy to spend his free time freeing his brethren. Since the truck is the only thing he's had for the majority of his life that actually makes him happy, I…

Just made myself a little depressed thinking that sentence.

"I think you're about loaded. I'll check for waverers and then give you another knock."

"Ten-four, boss."

I stroll down the side of the lorry. This is a major life decision, and it's not surprising that even those Kens -and occasional Bens and Ryans and Randys- who are receptive to the idea aren't immediately willing to abandon their lives to jump in the back of a dilapidated lorry on my say-so. Even after seeing what Kens could achieve under Sigma Ken's leadership. And some are so unused to making their own decisions that they lack the will. But tonight, it looks like Farmer Ken is getting talked out of it by Gardener Ken and Gardener Ken Two.

"…even show us what it's like over there, man."

"So it's a challenge. That's the whole point. Do you want to spend the rest of your lives rearranging your Barbie's flowerbeds because she's changed her mind again? Because I want to farm animals that don't just look cute, but taste good too!"

"Gentlemen?" The three of them turn to me. "Is there any information you want me to give you?"

Farmer Ken shakes his head regretfully. "No. I think we're done here." He clambers up into the back of the lorry, Catwalk Ken giving him a hand up.

I nod, focusing my attention on the farmers. "No pressure guys, but we're not going to be coming back this way for about a year. In or out."

Gardener Ken Two turns away immediately, while Gardener Ken One spends a few moments looking at the lorry before shaking his head.

"Alright. You know where we meet if you need to talk to someone."

I turn away and close the rear doors of the lorry, trapping those Kens who are making the journey inside. Slide the locking mechanism in place and then-.

"Boss! Problem!"

Hot Nerd Ken dashes over, some sort of beeping computer tablet in his hands.

"I'm picking up a pressure wave and it's… It's her, isn't it?"

I check the reading, but there's only one other possibility and that clearly isn't Fighter Pilot Barbie. Just doing her pre-flight checks would take longer than this. But how did-?

A flash of brightly coloured hair in a nearby copse of trees suddenly clears that up. The two young sidekicks realise that I've spotted them immediately and duck back before turning to run.

No point chasing them. Damage already done.

"Hot Nerd Ken, get in the cab. Tell Trucker Ken to drive safely and to avoid drawing attention."

"But-but she's coming!

"Won't be the first time. I'll hold her attention. Go."

He sprints, and a moment later I hear the door open and then slam closed.

Right. I close my eyes for a moment, focusing my mind on the obligate-platonic fraternal love I feel from the community I've helped build. I think this is how the Zamarons do it as well, but as I launch myself into the air and towards the oncoming pressure wave it's the guys I'm thinking of.

She's got better vision than me, of course, and I'm not going to waste time on a detailed scan. I know what she looks like, and I need to focus on the shield and cudgel I'm going to be using in this fight.

Okay, yes, she's heading for me. I go for height and fly… Left, away from the direction Trucker Ken will be driving. Not too fast, don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to get away or anything, but not so slow that I can't evade when she-.

Evade!

Superhero Barbie zooms past, right fist reducing the edge of my shield to dust!

"Morning, Super Sparkle."

She turns, using her flight to arrest her momentum. She got super agility as part of her power package, and I know from painfully won experience that her three dimensional awareness is flawless.

"That's not my name. What are you doing here, Brown Haired Ken?"

I can't help but smile. "Your hypocrisy never ceases to amuse me, Super Sparkle."

She draws her right hand back, a glowing pink ball forming at her fingertips.

"Are you kidnapping Kens?"

"I am not committing any crime. Which I imagine is why President Barbie sent you instead of Policewoman Bar-."

"That's Police Barbie!" She puts her hands on her hips. "And where is your assigned Barbie!?"

I shrug. "I honestly don't know. So far I mostly prefer the company of Kens anyway."

Which technically isn't a male/female distinction. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one on this planet with reproductive organs.

"You should not be doing this."

"You're not this stupid, Super Sparkle. Try and be a little empathetic. How would you feel if you were treated like you treat your Ken?"

"Anyone who tried that would be very sorry."

I wait, but she's just doing that nearly-scowling thing that appears to serve as her war-face.

"Well, that's how just about every Barbie treats just about every Ken. And the Kens don't have super powers, so they're just deciding to leave. If you-."

"But Kens aren't Barbies. They're accessories. They're… Kens!"

"I'm sorry that you-."

Her head explodes! The echoing bang of the anti-material rifle shot reaches me a moment later as her body begins to fall to the ground.

W-what?

"Gotcha, bitch!"

Shit, track and down, landing just in front of the.. gynoid in the camouflage gear who's disassembling her gun.

"What, that was supposed to be a false flag?"

"Nah, brah." She pulls off her balaclava shows… A Barbie-like but legally distinct face. "SAS Sindy at chor service. Dun't seem loik bein' Ken's werkin' awt for yah. How's abaht bein' a Paul?"

"Oh… Kay?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
21:03 GMT -6

Luna stares into space for a moment, her eyes turning white. Then she blinks and looks at me.

"He has arrived."

I nod, relaxing my metaphysique to try and reduce the chance that he'll feel any disruption. Wonder if Orin will be willing to trade copies of whatever Ahri'ahn has written since he got back to Cranius by way of restitution?

I mean I… Could assimilate him. I'm not… Keen on it, but that's a lot of information to lose to death. The alternative is simply killing him and… Some sort of necromantic ritual? I doubt that calling him away from Orcus's domain would-.

"We have a… Question."

"I quite understand if you don't want to kill him-."

"Neigh, the sorcerer has earned his fate. It is more… When We were in the Dream realm, Our costume was clearly designed to draw the eye to Our mammaries and hips."

"Yes, it was. I believe that particular outfit is used for a form of exotic dancing."

"Your eyes were not drawn." Um. "Nabu looked, briefly. An instinctual response whose purpose We imagine that he barely remembers. Caliph Haroun al Raschid most certainly looked. We understand that Our equine form doth not hold your eye, but We had assumed that this.. bipedal form was more to your tastes."

"It's.. like I told you. I'm more cerebral in my arousal."

"There is 'cerebral' and then there is this." Her face falls a little. "We are quite put out that you do not find Us attractive at all."

"Luna, we're about to fight an ancient magician together, having infiltrated his home, robbed him of his power and thwarted his schemes." I step closer to her, leaning down as I intrude on her personal space. "I'm one metaphysical harmonisation away from tearing-."

Her head jerks up. "The trigger-."

"Right-oh."
My Might Cannot Be Contained!
I push off the floor, slamming into the ceiling and breaking through, sending stone flying in all directions as I enter the drawing room! Ahri'ahn looks a little more weathered than he did when he attacked Aberance, but glowing streams of water are already looping around his forearms as I form a fusion cannon in my left-

"Foul villain!"

Ahri'ahn withers, hair going from brown to white, flesh receding-.

I fire as Orin darts out of the way, Ahri'ahn barely being able to form the water into a defensive sigil-. Works though, my brilliantly burning beam blasting it to no effect-.

Ugh. Something in my throat and lungs, blocking, choking. Good job I don't need to breathe.
Eternal Labour.
Luna's got her spear out and is manoeuvring around to the left. I heft my daiklave and go for another shot as Ahri'ahn recovers enough to wave at Luna… Expanding the space between them and raise a gold-coloured sceptre to parry my swing. I knock him back, but between what's clearly a casting aid and his aged stick-like arms that should have either knocked him flying or crushed him.

He takes a moment to glare at me. "Creatures like-."

He dances to the side, body momentarily shifting into water as Luna teleports in behind him and swings her spear! Runes along the blade glow with freezing light as it narrowly clips his aquatic form, a tiny amount of water breaking away from the mass and freezing on the point. She follows up by turning that ice into a tiny cloud which she uses to fire a bolt of lightning at Ahri'ahn as he reforms.

Nice to see that Lightning Dust's lessons haven't gone to waste.

He batters it aside with a sword made of vapour but can't block my punch! This time he does go flying, wards in his clothing shunting furniture aside as he tumbles, landing face first on the floor. I leap after him, bringing my daiklave around for an overhead swing! His head comes up as the sword comes down, his body turning to water once more to flow away but I knew you'd do that!
Conquest Hungers!
Spears of orange light slam into the floor, furniture and Ahri'ahn's aquatic body, turning it faintly orange as I have a crack at assimilating him. It won't work of course, but-

"Unable to comply. Identity theft interrupted."

-he can only focus on so many things.

He reforms, or tries to. Some parts of his clothing are still water and are pinned by my spears. And his flesh hasn't fully reformed either, lending him a truly disturbing appearance. I order the spears not currently impaling him to swing in his direction, his eyes widening-.

He raises his right fist and then closes it, my constructs shattering and his body becoming more fleshy.

"I am not-!"

My yellow ring glows as the people of Atlantis begin to wake up and I use that extra oomph to pepper him with energy pulses. He winces at the first few as I charge across the room, then tries to raise a shield spell of some sort only for it to shatter as Luna's spear flies through the space it occupies. A flick of his wrists and some sort of liquid-. Acid, sprays out, eating through the stone of the floor and walls but mostly being neutralised by the spells on Luna's armour.

The glow of my ring brightens. He's losing his grip on them. Unfortunately he's also throwing off Luna's curse. His hair darkens to his original brown and his flesh becomes a little more vibrant.

"Not so easily-!"

Luna teleports behind him, catching her spear and spinning it at his side. A rune appears in the air next to it and it stops-
Bolster True Friend!
I swing my daiklave around, scything towards his chest only for a rune to shimmer into being and halt it-

And for a moment I feel.. every person in Atlantis. Every person in the world. All those sworn to be or willingly serving my purpose. And I feel Luna, her desire to fight with me, to share in my successes and failures!

-the runes fail, Luna's spear piercing Ahri'ahn's left side while my daiklave slices across his chest!

"Agh!"

Luna pulls her spear back, keeping it in him to neutralise his ability to magic himself out of this. I raise my daiklave for an overhead slash with my right hand while drawing the Sword of the Fallen with my left. Ahri'ahn grabs the haft of Luna's spear with his left hand and pushes himself off it while raising a shield with his right-.

Luna blasts him with lightning!
We Strike As One.
He shudders and wheezes as the air is forced from his lungs, his rushed shield failing to stop my descending daiklave! It bites into his left shoulder and keeps going, slicing through the middle of his chest and exiting through his right hip! He collapses, blood spurting and ruined organs falling onto the drawing room floor.

He stares at me with a look of absolute hatred for a few seconds before I put out his eyes with the Sword of the Fallen.

Haaaah.

I make eye contact with Luna. Armour's a bit beat up and there's a minor wound on her left cheek…
Your Wounds Are Mine.
My goodness.

"He's dead, then." Orin comes a little closer. "We'd better get ready for the cities to sink again."

"Can we leave that with you? Luna and I have…"

For someone not attracted to bipeds she's certainly breathing lustily enough. I can feel her desire.

"Something we urgently need to take care of."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Prep Time

15th February 2013
08:55 GMT -5

I nod as another wave of crew teleport up, the crew chief stepping forward to hand out orders. I give them a scan but I don't really expect… Lex Luthor to try anything. Because these are LexCorps employees with backgrounds in aeronautics, the space program or electronics, and they're the most mentally stable of the survivors.

Truggs isn't greeting them. Because that's something that could be used to prove prior collaboration, and Truggs has a long record of criminality.

Just a couple of things to take care of before I head back down to Earth.

I press the activation button on my pilfered Dhorian communicator. "Mister Standing Bear, are you occupied?"

"You want to talk?"

"Seems like a good time."

"There is no good time. I'm in my barrack."

"Be with you in a few moments."

It's not practical for us to replace the lift in the prison ship, but we captured this ship entirely undamaged. It's… Well, it's obviously not Maltusian quality, but the build is decent. Some of the signage was clearly designed for people with non-standard eyes, but otherwise it needs no work to make it habitable for humans. Kadabra's busy adding Earth languages to the control system so that people without power rings can actually use it. Fortunately, the Dhorians aren't advanced enough to use anything really weird, or biologically different enough to perceive things differently to have an inhuman control scheme.

Lex's people will adapt.

Mr. Standing Bear picked quarters as far away from everyone else as possible. He said something about not having anything to contribute now that the fighting is over, but I wouldn't have to be an empath to know that was rubbish. Dhorian soldiers had communal sleeping areas, and the officers had fold-away bunks in their offices. Mr. Standing Bear is so big that he had to push three beds together.

I knock on the door, and it opens.

He's taken his helmet and amulet off and stuck them on a shelf in the room's cupboard, doors open so that it's in view the whole time. The man himself is standing at parade rest at the foot of his freshly made bed. Well, I am an officer, so I suppose that's a reasonable approach to take.

"Let's get this out of the way. Eiling implied something about a funeral?"

His face hardens. "Yes."

"What happened?"

"I got acquitted. Army paid me to leave anyway."

"Right, but acquitted of what?"

"Murder. Man came at my squad with a gun. Shot him dead, bullets kept going and hit the people behind him. Three died."

"How does that relate to a funeral?"

"They came from a funeral. Didn't like American soldiers being near it. We were ordered to be there in case trouble broke out. It did."

"Sounds like military thinking to me." I bow my head slightly. "You got off because there was a clear and present danger. If he hadn't wanted to get shot then he shouldn't have drawn a gun. It's unfortunate that anyone else got hurt, but that's what happens when you draw a gun in a crowd."

"That's what my lawyer said. Didn't change much. Too many people decided to blame me."

I don't need to look particularly deep to understand the issue. The army gave him structure that was missing from the rest of his life. With the army gone, he didn't have anything. His friends were other soldiers, his family… I'm not seeing strong bonds there.

"You're assigned as security for this ship for the duration of this crisis. After we're done… I don't know if you're interested, but I suspect that Eiling will be able to find work for a man of your talents. If he isn't, I can."

"Mm."

"If you want to talk to anyone about-"

His face, which had been relaxing slightly, hardens up again.

"-your experiences under the Anti-Life, I'm effectively a chaplain. Or I can find someone else, if you prefer."

"As long as I don't have to go back to Earth, I'm just fine."

I'm sceptical, but there isn't anything to be gained by pushing him at this point.

"As you will. Thank you for speaking with me-. Oh, is there..? Anyone you want me to get in touch with? Tell them-."

"No."

"I see."

Honestly, it's more surprising that some organisation or other didn't pick him before now.

I turn and head out of the door. I've got a meeting set up with Batman and Mister Atom, but they're both very busy people and can't just drop everything to speak with me. I need to fix my rings at some point, but I've got no real idea how to do that.

I raise my right fist as I walk down the corridor.

"Ring, contact Controller Hinon."

Nothing happens for a moment, then a sort of static-laden crackling construct appears. That… Might be Hinon, I suppose.

"Controller Hin-"

The image collapses.

"-on?"

Now, radio communication works fine. I was able to notify Guy what had happened without any difficulty. Is range a problem? It shouldn't be. The orange light? Did the contamination get further than I though? Don't know, don't know. I can't just ask Guy to try with his ring because they're blocked from long range communication by the Guardians due to the potential for Anti-Life contamination. Alan should-.

"Hey." Tuppence is waiting by the lift entrance, looking… Pensive? It's not a normal expression for her.

"Hello Tuppence. How have you been?"

Her eyes narrow lightly. "What's that suppose ta mean?"

"It means you've been stuck in an environment with the Anti-Life for a prolonged period of time and I'm concerned about you."

She holds my gaze suspiciously for a moment before looking away. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Ah. Do you want me to put a privacy shield up?"

She shakes her head. "No."

"Is Thomas alright?"

She shakes her head again, but her face come up to meet my eyes again. "Nah, he's fahn. Last I saw him, anyways. Lahks bein' a heero."

"And you?"

"Got a voice in mah head, tellin' me ah'm a simple-minded killuh. An' ah don't think it's wrong. Only thing that troubled me 'boud this whole thang is when ah couldn't kill someone."

And I can see the need in her. Now that she's started talking, she wants to keep going, to unburden herself.

"Why don't we.. go to my quarters, where we can get some privacy? I can even magic up some of that cold tea you people like so much?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th February 2013
09:03 GMT -5

I dumped Volgar Zo's personal effects into the hold of the ship that we gave them to fly home with, minus anything that might contain useful data. As a result it's bare walls, bare bed and a bare desk and that's about it. Matter transmutation with a yellow ring appears to be more difficult than it was with orange rings, but with a little effort I manage to produce a glass containing a cool brown liquid.

Tuppence takes it, not looking entirely convinced.

"Sorry, new power ring."

"You ain't gaht no beer?"

"I could look around the pantry. The Dhorians do drink alcohol, I'm just not sure how it tastes to the human palate."

She shrugs, looking for somewhere to sit. I gesture to the desk chair, making a construct chair for myself.

"So…"

"What happened t'that..? Gong.. thing."

"Teleported to a Justice League holding centre before the first of Luthor's people came up." She frowns, confused. "Luthor's involved in quite a lot of criminal activity, and has been intelligent enough that it's been quite hard to prove any of it in court."

"Lex.. Luthor?" She frowns. "Y'all sayin' he's a criminal?"

"No, as I said, he hasn't been convicted of a crime."

She clearly doesn't get it.

"Alright, see, there's overt crimes, like those you and your brother committed, where no one's in any doubt that you're the ones who did them. You might outrun the pursuit, but if you ever got caught then you'd get convicted. Same with the Sivanas; Doctor Sivana Senior might try and hide what he was doing in a particular place and time, but he's generally perfectly happy for everyone to know that it was him who unleashed that giant robot. Then there's covert crimes, where something happens and it's not clear who did it, or even if it was criminal in the first place. For example, an elected official having a consultancy fee paid to an off-shore holding company they own and are the sole employee of for work relating to their district."

"Whut?"

"Okay, so an elected official probably shouldn't accept money for work for companies in their constituency, because it makes it look like they're taking a bribe. And when they get paid money it 'should' be paid to them and taxed at the appropriate rate, but if it gets paid to a non-US company then it's possible to avoid quite a lot of tax. And best of all, neither are necessarily illegal and both are quite lucrative. Especially when you compare them to the risks and rewards associated with smash-and-grab jobs."

"So he's secret-. Not-caught-yet criminal?"

"Yes."

She frowns. "What's he dun?"

"He's tried to have Superman murdered a dozen times or so. Plenty of financial chicanery, which may not sound impressive but it's made him a great deal of money. We're reasonably sure he was involved in that mass child murder thing a few years ago, though that connection's a little more tenuous. But I… Fear that we're getting away from the point."

She looks away, takes a sip of tea and then pulls a face before putting the glass down.

"I didn't lihk bein' froze up by th' gong."

"Yeah, I… I hate being powerless, too."

"Y'all gaht out of it."

"True, but it was a near thing. I don't think it would have worked if Icicle wasn't there."

She looks at me incredulously. "Yeah. Raht."

"No, seriously. I'm nothing like as good with a yellow ring as I am with orange rings. I could have frozen that whole room and been stuck there until I died. From dehydration." Hm. "Actually, I don't know it if would have stopped me recharging my ring, so it's possible that I would have stayed alive on an increasingly empty starship while Eiling, Icicle and Kadabra died of asphyxiation or dehydration."

Her face falls slightly.

"But they wouldn't have done that to you. They wanted to use you as a weapon. There wouldn't be any point in killing you."

"Ah ain't.. immortal. Raht?"

"That's correct. You can live a very long time and in good health, but you're not immortal. All of Hugo Danner's original Sons of Dawn died."

"'cause they got sick."

"Yes."

"Ah've bin in a lotta faghts. Got hurt sometimes." She looks away for a moment. "But ah ain't never been… Just… Stuck."

I nod sympathetically. "Not a lot of fun, feeling powerless. Especially when you're.. used to being able to change things."

She sort of nods and shrugs at the same time.

"Ah know the voice is… Anti-Life. We all geht it. Ah even… Talk ta Tommy abowt it, some."

"About being a weapon?" She nods. "We are… Basically using you as a weapon at the moment. I understand that helping people isn't really… Something that motivates you, but is there… Something that you want to.. do, outside of violence?"

"Dunno. Never thawt aboud it. An… Then ah… Ah nearly-. Ah felt like ah'd nevah get the choice."

"Now's not a great time for a voyage of self-discovery, but you nearly got pardoned after your last brush with heroism. This time it's a certainty. I can get you a tutor if you want to give school a try-. Kadabra's probably going to be busy learning magic."

"Ah ain't really one fer schoolin'."

"It was just a suggestion. And it could be different if you're doing it because you want to rather than because you're told to. I know that you're doing alright in Belle Reve's educational program. But hey, you can spend a few years smashing boats and seeing if anything appeals to you."

"How d'y'all stop a gamma gong?"

"If I knew how to block a gamma gong I wouldn't have been paralysed myself. Now that we've got one, I… When this is over, I could try having a look at it. Basically, I don't know."

She nods. "An… Y'all know why Tommy gehts somethin' outta this an' ah don't?"

I shrug. "You're different people with different drives. Being able to protect people makes him feel good about himself. If you really don't feel the same way… Then… You don't. It might come when you expand your social circle outside of violent criminals, build actual social relationships… Or maybe you'd do better in an organised structure. Once you're free then you can volunteer for my organisation if you want. Heh, and if that doesn't work there are some mushrooms I can recommend."

She frowns, then shakes her head.

"Ah'm sayin' 'no'."

"Good call. Anything else you want to talk about right now?"

She shakes her head, getting up with her tea untouched after the initial sip. "Thanks."

"No problem. If you want to talk about anything, you know where I am."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th February 2013
16:21 GMT -5

I try flexing my right arm, trying to test the range of motion. It's… It's actually about as good as my own power armour, but my armour wasn't designed to be something I could fight in. It was designed to be ablative. This is nothing like as tough. I suppose I should just be glad that the armour is flexible enough to cope with my size: most Dhorians are noticeably smaller than me.

The legs… Between their digitigrade legs and cloven feet, Dhorian leg armour isn't wearable by a human. And adapting them with a yellow ring is a lot harder than doing it with an orange ring would be. I've settled for bodging together shin guards and keeping my original boots.

And now the hard part.

"Orange Lantern to Abra Kadabra."

"Kadabra here."

"Do you have a moment? I'm about to take a look at my rings."

"I have tied the ship's computer to my implants, so it should be safe for-"

There's a quiet crackle and a slight breeze as he teleports to my location.

"-me to spend time away from the bridge."

"LexCorp not creating too much work?"

He hesitates for a moment. "Orange Lantern, I honestly believe that they are just glad to be away from the Anti-Life. Whatever Lex Luthor might want to do in other circumstances, I honestly believe that he's trying to help."

I look down. "Maybe."

"They were asking about bringing their families up here." He hesitates for a moment. "I know that you have a solution, but… They have children."

"And Mannheim's got a robot that can teleport up here whenever it wants to, and there aren't any child-sized space suits. Based on its demonstrated power, it could snap every one of these ships in half inside five minutes."

He nods slowly, right hand stroking his goatee. "Why has it not done so?"

"Mannheim might not know. He might not care. Or there might not be enough of Mannheim left to care."

"Darkseid does not care about Earth."

"We're mildly interesting, but he's conquered or razed worlds before. All he wants is to learn about the way we react to the Anti-Life." I sigh. "Which is the one problem with my plan, assuming that it works."

"We will become 'interesting'."

"I was always planning on killing Darkseid eventually. But we're nothing like ready yet. I.. don't even think we can distract him. But Earth can't survive like this, so… Just have to deal with it, I guess."

He nods, waving his wand at the area around me and creating a weak plasma field.

"I can monitor your brainwaves. I can detect signs of the Anti-Life in most people. But… Your thoughts are unusual."

"Oh. Um, while I've got you alone… How are you handling it?"

He smiles faintly. "There is little that the Anti-Life can use to get into me. I have almost everything I want, and after this? I will have everything that I want. All it accuses me of doing is trying to justify my criminal behavior."

"You sure? Because if there's anything you want to talk about, I'm right here."

"It… Ah. Also has some observations about my life before I returned to this era. It may be true, but as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter."

I nod approvingly.

Alright.

Visual inspection. I use my fear of losing my rings to float them out of my pouch and put them down on a workbench. Other than a slight dimming of their orange glow I can't see anything off about them.

Alright, you. Show me-.

External Motivation = External Control

Quieter than before. Though that might just be because I'm not wearing them.

"Could you hear that?"

Kadabra shakes his head. "What does it say?"

"External motivation equals external control. It actually relates to the concept of eudemonia, where even Aristotle had to accept that even a virtuous person might have their life wrecked by bad luck."

"And for a man who wants to change the universe, someone might unleash the Anti-Life on his homeworld."

"I'd get it if I'd acted against Apokolips, but this genuinely isn't my fault."

"Perhaps." He narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "But I don't remember anything about Apokolips showing an interest in Earth during this part of its history."

"Did the Reach have dealings with Apokolips?"

"The records I have show that they thought of Apokolips as an enemy. But…" He shrugs. "I don't know if that was how the record always was. But if it was not you and it was not me, why would Nylor Truggs involve Apokolips?"

"I wouldn't assume that we're the only time travellers. And it might have been some sort of convoluted series of knock-on factors. An-anyway, there are two basic ways to neutralise this. Accept it, or contradict it. Accepting it would mean accepting that we live in networks of causation constantly acting on one another and that things outside me do control me about as much as I control them. The Apokoliptan risk there is Darkseid-. Or Mannheim just saying 'and now that control is mine'. To refute it, I would need to believe that I control what I want, and therefore can disregard the external whenever I want. The problem there is that it implies I have no fixed character and so neutralises the 'I'."

"And would allow Darkseid to tell you to become something else, since you accept that possibility."

"Yep."

"Are there no alternatives?"

"My solution will cleanse my rings, as long as they're close enough to Earth. But I need either another Orange Lantern or an Indigo Lantern, because I assumed that I would be providing the orange. I could try having the Ophidian eat the Anti-Life infection, but that sounds like a bad idea."

"It sounds like the most sensible thing to do would be to dispatch one of these ships to Vega or the Alignment and reach an Orange Lantern from there. They could communicate with Maltus or come here themselves when you need them."

"Assuming that just having an Anti-Life infection in my rings isn't messing something significant up, yes."

External Motivation = External Control

"Or I could use the yellow ring to fly there myself. Which would mean that I didn't have to rely on LexCorp. But. There are two other clones I made myself, and Mannheim could have made more still. I need to learn how to deal with successful Anti-Life infections or I'm going to have to bench myself for the rest of the campaign."

External Motivation = External Control

I slide the yellow ring off my finger and reach for my rings.

"So what?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th February 2013
16:25 GMT -5

I can feel it, as I slide the rings onto my fingers. The structures of my desire networks, being… Pressed. Surrounded by something that's applying a constant compressive force without there being anywhere else for the structure to move to.

External Motivation = External Control

Oh, alright. I'm Anti-Lifed. The thing pressing against my desires and forcing them into shape is the 'external motivation'. I can feel that pressure, that discomfort, in a way that I couldn't before. Was it always there, and I just couldn't see it? Or is it just the result of the Anti-Life getting its hooks in my soul?

Both, obviously.

Because the thing about the Anti-Life is that it's true, but how you respond to that is up to you. Because it's not the whole of the truth. Certainly, the external pressure affects my desires, but depicting that pressure as being this oppressive is simply wrong. It doesn't force me into shape, it gives any of these structures meaning. There's no point in fighting if you're not fighting for something.

It's not a hostile thing. It's not self versus environment. We're not so rigidly separate from our environments, our cultures, our tangible realities. I would be a radically different person just from growing up somewhere different even if I was biologically identical. Heck, I've met versions of me who were not merely genetically identical but shared a little under three decades of life experience, and some of them were very different people to me.

There is no prison. It pushes against me, I push against it. That is the nature of things.

External… Motivation…. =…

"Equals external existence, you worthless waste of quanta."

The rings on my ring fingers are glowing properly. Glow brighter, form a sword and shield construct… Yes, good.

I turn to Kadabra. "Well?"

His face is unusually still. "Who were you talking to?"

"The Anti-Life."

Now he looks uncomfortable. "Is it intelligent?"

"Not as far as I know. But that was pure anthropomorphism on my part. My brain?"

He wiggles his wand. "It… Matches the records I have for your usual patterns of activity. But… Do you have some sort of subspacial memory expansion?"

"No. But my mind uses the orange light for some things, not just my brain. Is that-?"

"Ah. Yes. Those parts of your thoughts I cannot properly detect."

I dismiss my sword and shield and replace them with a railgun. Test the charge… Yes, that works. Subspace pocket… Still filled.

"Do you think that you could defy the Anti-Life in the field?"

"Not immediately. It's just-. Suddenly there's an alien perspective in your mind. It's not something I can casually ignore right away."

"But it isn't affecting you now."

"I… Should probably get checked over by an actual professional, but I think that's correct." I gesture to his plasmic circle and he dismisses it with a wave of his wand. "And… I should probably do something about my armour."

"It's still in Washington. What's left of it."

"No, it's-. If I can get nobbled like that, then my old design rationale doesn't apply. I need something I can move in, not just something that can take a hit."

I look down at my legs, the orange glow already reformatting my ersatz leg armour into something properly integrated. A few other systems could do with an upgrade, but it's a generally solid design.

Okay, while that's happening…

"Illustres to Controller Hinon. Please respond."

Nothing. Not even the static I got last time.

"So do I fly out, or do I stay here because I think they're deliberately isolating me?"

"Based on my analysis of your personality, you'll stay. But I don't think that's wise."

"I do need to get back in touch, otherwise they won't know when to send Orion. But that can wait until I've spoken to Guy or one of the other Lanterns in person. Or I can build a-."

"Ahh, Orange?"

I instinctively glance at the speaker. "Yes, Truggs?"

"It's Batman."

"What's Batman?"

"He's here. Ahh. Just teleported up."

Oh. I was expecting him to call ahead, but… Fine.

"Kadabra, can you teleport us to his location?"

He nods and flicks his wand. There's a crackling hum, and then we're… In the ship workshop. Batman is talking to Eiling, but cuts himself off and turns to us.

"Orange Lantern. It's good to have you back."

"That desperate, sir?"

"Frankly, yes. You said that you have a solution?"

"Combine the power of seven different power ring colours and funnel the resulting white light through the Anti-Life transmission network. That should expunge it completely, as well as undoing some of the damage."

"Do you have the rings?"

"Couldn't get an indigo ring, but I think we can probably bypass that using the Medusa Mask. Please tell me that we still have it."

"We don't."

Darn.

"Several of our holding centres were overrun before we could dispatch anyone to secure them. They usually had contacts amongst the superheroes who worked in their cities, and those superheroes were usually members of the Alliance of the Just. Is there another alternative?"

"Summon the Proselyte. Though that would have its own problems. Summon some other sort of compassion elemental… Summon Rachmiel the angel of mercy, love and compassion… Get hold of an actual Indigo Lantern. That's about it."

"Zauriel has informed us that no other angels will make themselves available. And I agree with you about the inadvisability of summoning an emotional entity. Another elemental is possible; consult with Zatara to see if there's anything that will work. Otherwise, try to locate the Medusa Mask. Obviously, removing the Anti-Life from Earth should be your top priority."

I nod. "Sir. I'll get right on that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th February 2013
16:52 GMT -5

"Sir?"

Batman looks up from the astronavigation console. Interesting that the LexCorp people aren't avoiding him. They don't even look nervous about him being here. I assume that's because Lex's conflict with the Justice League happens way above their level. Or that they've had a rethink after the third global disaster in three years.

"Yes?"

"Reviewing intelligence files. I've just got up to the… Mannheim's visit to Gotham. Has everyone..? Recovered? I know they've been cleared for.. active duty…"

He nods. "Yes. It was traumatic at the time, but with counselling and with help from Doctor Mist, everyone affected has made a full recovery. I've also made it clear that they should never have gone anywhere near Mannheim without Justice League support."

I nod. "The information they gained on the Anti-Life-."

"Could have been gained just as easily with far less risk. If we directly confront Mannheim, it will be with the full strength that we can bring to bear and not with one teenaged kryptonian." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "I should probably make you aware that the whole episode has prompted me to rethink my own approach to crime fighting."

"Sir?"

"You're aware that I originally chose the emblem of a bat because one flew through my study window after my first night out after returning to Gotham."

Ah…

"Holly Robinson is currently in a Justice League safe area. I believe that you mentioned it to her."

Yeah, I… Think I did.

"But I didn't tell her that she was the one who stabbed you. Did-?"

He looks away for a second, then looks back at me. "I hadn't realised. The most serious injury I suffered were bullet wounds from the police officers who arrested me. I'd almost forgotten about the underage prostitute who stabbed me. How did you work that out?"

"I asked about Holly's personal history. It came up when we were talking about when Selina got out of that line of work."

"Mm."

Okay, I think he bought it.

"Did you read the part about how the Anti-Life causes the emergence of city bosses?"

"Yes. I hadn't realised that it would work like that, but it makes sense."

"That's actually what made me reconsider the way I work."

"Sir?"

"The Anti-Life effectively rewards brutal strongmen and gang leaders. Tyrants, whose power is backed by force and by the fear their lootenants feel in them. After Robin was exposed to the Anti-Life I realised that I could easily have become a city boss myself."

"I don't think it would be a good idea, sir."

"No, it wouldn't. The day… Holly stabbed me was the day I decided to use the image of the bat to inspire fear in the Gotham criminal underworld. It was… Effective, for a time."

"Sir?"

"It can't have escaped your notice that the Joker isn't afraid of me. He regards mass murder as a game. I don't think there's any level of intimidation that I could bring to bear that would dissuade him."

"No, sir. He's mental."

"Having people afraid of me didn't stop Riddler, or Two Face. It didn't even stop Penguin or Catwoman. Gotham isn't as bad now as it was when I started, but even the regular gangs treat being hospitalised by me as the price of doing business rather than something to actually fear. Joining the Justice League should have made me reconsider how I operated, especially when I started talking to Superman-."

"Sir? I'm not.. sure.. where you're going with this?"

"It would have been easy for me to work within the confines of the Anti-Life, when that's the absolute last thing that I want. So I've decide to change some parts of the way I work."

…

"So… You're not treating criminals as a superstitious and cowardly lot?"

I get a mild frown, but he shakes his head. "I don't think they're more superstitious than anyone else, and I've had enough criminals pick fights with me when the only thing on the line was their pride to know that they're not cowardly. Not all cowardly, at least. It was really more that they weren't committed, and I saw plenty of people in the Gotham City Police Department who equally lacked that commitment."

"So you're..? Abandoning fear as a tool?"

"I think the Earth has seen enough fear."

Well… That's a… Problem. I mean, who's my backup option? Crane? I-.

Wait. Power Ring -16. He could do it, and he owes me, and apparently he's up to something with his version of Supergirl, so... Okay. Okay. Not a complete disaster.

Batman's looking at me.

"Is there a problem?"

"Bit of a surprise sir, but I'll live. Um. Okay, I've got a couple of possible locations to check out. Who's available to back me up?"

"Just Eiling's squad. Having you operate out of these ships should be fine in the medium term, but bringing anyone else here risks drawing Mannheim's attention."

I nod. "I agree. That was the reason I gave for not sheltering the crew's families."

He hesitates for a moment, looking a little uncomfortable. Then he nods.

"That is the correct decision. Keeping them out of the way will be more effective than putting them in a military facility like a warship. Have you decided where you're going to start looking?"

"The Medusa Mask was in S.T.A.R. Philadelphia, so I may as well start my search in that area. It will probably be easier to investigate on my own and call the others in if there's a fight."

He shakes his head. "Don't go alone. Take at least one member of your squad with you."

I nod. Kadabra would probably be most useful, but I need him here to operate the ship. Eiling is the most disciplined, so I should leave him behind to take charge of the others. Standing Bear isn't in any mental shape to enter an Anti-Life infected region. That leaves Mahkent and Tuppence. Mahkent doesn't look like a baseline human, so if I'm going to be sneaking around then Tuppence is the one I want.

"Will do. Anything else?"

"Make sure to report what you encounter. We still don't know exactly what Mannheim or his agents are doing, and every piece of information could be vital."

"Understood, sir. I'll let you know how it goes."