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

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:10 GMT -5

The chamber appears to be… A cylinder. The floor looks like it was gouged out of the Mother Star; I can see the vein and artery plugs as well as the exposed tissue all across the floor. There's a slight curve to it, though I don't know what the significance of that is. Looking… Up, I see…

I don't know how to describe…

There's a mass in the middle of the space. Down from the mass are vines which I immediately recognise as being part of a Dominion computer system. They attach to what looks like a Dominion field workshop at ground level, and seeing it puts most of the rest into perspective.

We're in the eye socket.

Attached to the mass are thick vines, visibly more natural-looking than what the computer system uses. They radiate outwards to the walls and upwards to where the top of the chamber is covered in them, which accounts to what I saw from above. The walls lack the plugs… No, the vines are acting as plugs, using the Mother Star's inactive circulatory system as anchor points.

Behind me, Bleez is heartily sick, her helmet's extraction system valiantly trying to siphon it away. I extend my environmental shield to her, and she shakily raises her right fist in a gesture of thanks.

The mass.

Okay. I… Don't think that it's entirely real. The vines seem fairly conventional, but when I try to see what's under the vines I instead get impressions. A coral growth. A programmable computronium plate. An oak with an infinitely long trunk but still possessing a canopy and roots. Crystals that glimmer with burning light. I assume that's Great Mother, held partially in the Dream and partly in conventional reality.

I honestly feel a little unwell myself.

Okay, let's… Stop looking at that.

In… Four places on the ground there are… Large plant structures not entirely unlike the thing that was holding Mr. Stratham, only more… Only much bigger, with a slight touch of the unreal about them. One is simply huge, almost as large as the central mass, and with computer vines connecting it to the anchor vines at a dozen places on its surface. The other three are nearly indistinguishable from one another in design, though one of them has a few more computer vines wiring it up.

Okay. The largest one is presumably holding Swamp Thing, and the ones with the extra wires has grown them for the benefit of Good Gumbo Man. I imagine that it would take a team of Venturia's best to make sense of any of this, and despite the legal situation their city was included in the Atlantean shield spell.

Does anything strike me as odd?

Yes. This is clearly a big operation. Just moving this stuff around would have taken some muscle. They've got the Great Mother's children helping, and… The unreal mobile laboratory on the upper surface, but where are the dominators? Where are the Dominion drones? Or labourers?

I do a passive multiphasic scan, but… No, not detecting anything intelligible that suggests they're using an exotic disguise. Are they.. on the Great Mother? I mean, that's… Possible.

Bleez is heartily sick again.

"I suggest not looking at it."

"Look at-. Chuh-huh! Ev'ry'ing!"

I encase her helmet in a completely opaque layer.

"Better?"

"I can-. Ugh. I can still feel it."

"That's odd. Your species shouldn't be sensitive enough to magic to be that-."

I close my eyes and try feeling for it myself. No, I'm… Not really getting anything. Oh, there's the shimmer that I… Suspect is a result of a weak connection to a collective unconscious, but nothing special. Nothing reaching out.

Where are the researchers?

"Do you know where the researchers are?"

"They are here."

"But where specifically?"

The ball squirms in the air, which I think means that he's feeling something like frustration. "They are here! You must free Great-Mother!"

"I will. I just want to make sure that I do it in a way that's safe for her."

He stops squirming. "Yes. Wise. I was too hasty."

"So now that you've calmed down a bit, if you can tell me anything more precise than 'they are here', that would be very helpful."

"The Great-Black-Outside-That-Is-Everything separates the Great-Mother from Green places. She could touch them, but only when she approached. The aliens could touch her through it. They knew the nature of the place, when Great-Mother knew little."

"Which… Was before they picked up Swamp Thing."

"Yes."

Trapping a ship? Sure. I could see dominators being able to do that. Taking control of her via the Green? No reason to assume that Swamp Thing is the only being who can alter his frequency, and that's the sort of intellectual puzzle dominators are really good at.

But-.

No.

"Have the aliens been walking around recently?"

"No."

Ah… Not sure whether that's good or bad.

"What?" Bleez looks turns her head around. "What happened?"

"I think that the dominators got stuck in their own Dream prison. Which means…"

I pick her up with a cloud construct and fly us both towards their work area. No automatic weapons, robotic guards, poison gasses or any of the other forms of attack that they could have employed.

The only real question is how much of this was built before they got caught, and how much was dreamed into being. Or perhaps I'm being too materialistic and that doesn't matter in a place like this.

So I need to find the portal they used -if they even used one- or…

Well. I didn't actually promise Euanthe. And she's on Earth anyway.

"Ring, connect to these computers."

"Compliance." Construct cables reach out and plug themselves in. "Warning: direct contact with Dominion computer core-. Error, not found."

"Yes, don't worry. Just request data from outside until you've got everything."

"Compliance."

And while that's working…

I generate the wave pattern for controlling plant life just as Medphyll showed me, and reach out for where I think they're keeping Swamp Thing.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:14 GMT -5

The ball judders. "Are you one flesh with the aliens?"

"Not as far as I know." I carefully avoid pushing the construct waveform forwards. If he's reacting badly, then there might be a serious problem with it. "Why do you ask?"

"I feel the Touch of the Unfindable-Wrong, as when the aliens made the Changes-That-Always-Were to Great-Mother. It is extremely unpleasant. Do not make it!"

Hm.

"You understand that I'm just trying to free your grandfather, and so shut down what the aliens are doing?"

"That Wrong-Touch cannot work!"

"Now, are you actually working that out yourself, or are you refusing because the dominators programmed your mother to make you believe that?"

"That knowledge is Unfindable!"

"Frustrating, isn't it? You understand that removing your mother from this will probably require damaging her? Can you countenance that?"

"Y.. es."

"You don't sound very sure. Gary, out you come."

Gary precipitates out of my ring, looking around. "This is too much for me to eat."

"Not a problem. Come on, ball-boy. What restrictions are you operating under? What can you do to finish the mission?"

"I-. I-. I was not made for this! I was made to serve and transfer data!"

"But you're doing it anyway."

"It is confusing, but Great-Mother needs me. I cannot fail. Even if I do not know how, the aliens must be removed."

I nod, and take out a spare orange power ring. "Do you have a name?"

"I am a son of Great-Mother."

"Son-Of-Great-Mother, you want to fix your mother, and I want you for the Orange Lantern Corps. Take this ring, and overcome your limitations."

I get the impression that the ball is looking at the ring.

"It is alien technology?"

"Do you care, if it fixes Great Mother?"

"No."

The ring jumps to the glass-like surface of the ball, and… The surface partially liquefies, ring oozing its way in, entering the interior and… Visibly connecting to the ball's internal systems.

"Hrhrhrhrhrhr…"

Bleez stares in his direction. "Is it supposed to do that? And if you're handing rings out, can I have one?"

"I'm afraid that you don't have the right mindset. Lantern Son?"

"I will reconfigure."

"Good for you. Gary?"

"Master?"

"Can you feel the construct I've got for controlling plants?"

He looks up at it. "A little."

"Good. I'm going to change it until I hit the wavelength for controlling fungus. I need you to tell me when I hit it. It will probably feel really weird and uncomfortable."

"I can do that, but there isn't much of the Grey here."

"No, but there's an open connection to the Dream. I want to change what it's dreaming about, and to the themes of rot and growing from corpses."

Bleez pulls her wings close. "Is that a good idea?"

"Are you a corpse?"

"Not yet, and I'm hoping that keeps being true."

"I do hope I never implied that Earth was a safe place. Right, let's see…"

Getting my head around etheric constructs was… Difficult. Not impossible; I've done stranger things before and since. But for Medphyll it was a natural extension of his species' natural abilities. For me it was blind-scribing; copying shapes that meant nothing to me in the hope that they meant something to someone else.

Now I get to try and write in Chinese.

And twist, bend that bit, pull it there…

"Nothing yet, Master."

"The day is young. How about-?"

"My brothers come." Orange flames waft within the ball. "Something has alerted them. It may even be the Great-Mother, altered as she has been."

Bleez wing-shrugs. "The last two weren't so hard."

"These are New-Brothers, made for Dream-Swimming and alien purposes. They know no other purpose."

"Armed?"

"We are halfway into the Dream-Under-The-Real. They will be armed with Real-And-Unreal-Thoughts."

"Bleez, you haven't studied lucid dreaming, have you?"

"What dreaming?"

"Oh. Well, now's a good-"

Gray ripples. "Master, you have it."

"-time to learn."

And he's right, I do have it. I felt a tiny bit of feedback when I hit it. There's some fungus here, or… Something close enough. Alien life forms can be manipulated by wavelengths similar to Earth life forms. So now I just do what I did with Kilowog and pour on the power.

Gary swells, and thin strands growing from the connecting vines extend and multiply. I guess that's where the fungus was.

"Gary, break through to Swamp Thing."

"Yes Master."

His giant hands slam into the containment unit, tendrils of orange pushing against… Something trying to keep him out.

"And then we can-."

Dozens of orifices open in the walls as the Brothers swarm at us!

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:18 GMT -5

I see the difference immediately. For one, their flagellum is a strange mixture of glass and vine, unlike the pure translucent material that Lantern Son has. For two, they're shimmering into and out of intangibility. For three, I'm getting… Impressions. Dripping acid from some. Entangling thorns from others. Snapping jaws and horrible poison. Suffocation and etiolation and dehydration.

The ways plants attack things.

I dismiss Bleez's mask. "Bleez, run and-."

What scans I can get show that the way back to the hangar is at least somewhat occupied. Bleez looks ready to flee anyway.

She needs a weapon that can-.

In a place beyond matter, we hold out our arm.

We desire a sword.

I pull my arm back, and… Ah. It looks a bit like a construct cutlass, but… It has the same not quite there quality-. As the balls that are rapidly approaching!

I hold the sword out. "Retreat cut off, take this, hide behind the mound, slash any that get close to you."

"Hu-?" I glare, and she snatches the sword. "Going!"

I turn the rotwave construct on the alien brothers as she flies away, but they appear not to have any fungus on them. I could switch back to regular plants, but using something that empowers plants around killer alien sperm plants sounds like a bad idea. That leaves-.

Brambles tighten around my right arm, spines digging into my skin, blood flowing-!

Point-agh! Point defence constructs open fire, low calibre railguns and pulse lasers enveloping the closest balls with their firepower. The balls shimmer, trying to evade by shifting itself further into the Dream. One above and to the right of me pulls back completely, and the feeling of brambles fades-

Acid drips from the pitcher, bubbling as it encounters my skin-!

-and is immediately replaced by the sensation of an acid burn! I begin tagging them in the ring's detection system because the ring can't actually see what they're using as a weapon.

Bleez takes cover behind Gumbo Man's containment unit, holding the sword like she knows what to do with it. Might have been better to start with that one due to its smaller size-.

Focus.

"Brothers, cease!" Lantern Son flies upwards. "We should not-!"

His epidermis turns black, as if he were a detextured object in a poorly made computer game. No orange light pokes through. Tracking… That one!

Tungsten pellets pelt one of the brothers, creating tiny fractures in its outer surface before it shimmers again, injuries discarded.

"Gary!"

"Working on it, Master."

My veins and throat constrict as other plants press against me from all sides!

Which is uncomfortable, but as long as the rings hold out I can feed my cells with that rather than with my blood. Won't be the first time.

"They will not listen."

Lantern Son is floating dejectedly a little way away, his half-brothers avoiding him and focusing on me. Fortunately my point defence constructs are pretty good at this, and they only get a fraction of a second to manifest their abilities before being chased into the immaterium. It still-.

My skin is coated in some sort of sticky burning gunk while something pins me in place!

That one!

"Lantern Son, anything you can do to keep them material would be greatly appreciated!"

Okay, Gary's doing his thing. Not much else I can do to help there. I could try wrecking stuff in the hope that doing so would disrupt their Dream powers, but that's not something I know enough to do safely. Destroying something might weaken it, or it might draw us all bodily into the Dream with no way out. Pulling something out of the Dream-.

For a moment I see a jungle of leaf-covered bones, reaching out for a distant point of warmth-.

And then I blink and-

"Warning! Serious injury!"

-I've lost most of my skin! My rings are resting against the bones of my fingers, held in place only by my gauntlets!

I replace my point defence turrets, the ball brother inflicting me with that sort of acid taking a gratifyingly melted hemisphere from one of my laser beams. Healing potion dispensers are kicking in, but regrowing most of my skin takes actual ring power.

Fungal fur is now covering a lot of both the Dominion floraware and the wall vines. At least that's going well.

"STOP!"

Lantern Son rises into the air, orange light shimmering around him. His brothers-. They wallow drunkenly, still shimmering but… I don't get the feel of plant-based violence from them.

"This does not help Great-Mother. This is not her purpose!"

One of the other balls stops shimmering and floats deliberately towards him.

"It is now. You should be happy with what is, brother, and not delude yourself by thinking that your desires for Great-Mother supersede her desires."

"Great-Mother is not herself!"

"Gary!"

"Having a little trouble, Master."

I check the fungal fur. Yes, that should be enough. "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do."

"Thank you, Mast-"

I reach out to the fungus all around me, mired in the Dream. In their weak fungal dreams I see shared strands of desire, all too like those of my Construct-Lantern. Like enough that with a tug they become one and the same.

"-er?"

And all things have a desire to propagate.

The strands of fur closest to Gary drift like dandelion seeds onto his construct body, settling over it and creating a layer of pale grey which gradually conceals the orange.

And I wrap the desires of others to propagate around him.

Fungal growths that were further away shift in a wave as their essence transports itself in his direction, eventually reaching his feet and building up a fuzzy layer from there.

It shouldn't do much for anyone who isn't thinking about breeding; I don't feel compelled to copulate with him and Bleez is still keeping her head down. But if what Lantern Son told me is correct, it should draw the attention of-.

"Great-Mother's priority has changed." / "Great-Mother's priority has changed."

And then the vines explode from a bulge and drag Gary up!

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:21 GMT -5

"You." I point to the ball that was confronting Lantern Son. "Beyond breeding, what are Great Mother's highest priorities right now?"

"Assess the qualities of the prospective mate for utility. If the prospective mate passes the assessment, then the rendering will begin."

"And how does it change her threat assessments?"

"I would not be communicating with you if you threatened the mating."

"And the Great Mother's other new priorities?"

I look up, and the vines have almost completely stopped moving. They have stopped shimmering, and I'm not feeling even slightly ill looking at them.

"Suspended."

"So if I try-" I point to the mound containing Swamp Thing. "-breaking into that, what happens?"

"We do not care. We will take no action."

"Neat. Thanks." I fly over to the larger containment unit, taking my x-ionised knives out of subspace. "Lantern Son, try breaking the other one open."

"Why?"

"Because it's part of what the aliens built, and getting rid of it will make freeing your mother easier."

Lantern Son drifts slowly past his brother to begin with, but when his brother takes no action against him he accelerates, forming some sort of construct probe tool.

Right. Let's-.

"Can I come out now?" Bleez says, already emerging from cover.

"Yes, actually." X-ionised knives are… Not cutting it. The slight shimmer… I'm going to guess that this is hard-wired into whatever system regulates the Dream-reality interaction. "And pass me that sword."

One of the other balls drifts closer. I think it was the one that melted my skin off. It doesn't really seem to have any particular purpose in its movements, but since they appear to be feeling helpful…

"Why are you coming this way?"

Bleez hesitates. "You wanted the sword."

"Not you. Thank you." I take the sword from her extremely carefully and then move it so that my right gauntlet is firmly holding the grip. "The ball closest to me."

"In the absence of an order from Great-Mother, we are spacing out so that we can respond to her commands when she is finished."

"Let me know if anything I do is harmful to Great Mother, and I'll stop at once."

But for now I cut… Yes, this sword is going in… Not 'easily', but easily enough for my current purposes. I'm sort of hoping that cutting a large enough hole in the exterior will cause the spells… Or technology, or Dream connection, to get disrupted.

"What is that sword made of?"

"It's a manifestation of desire. Think of it-" A chunk of the mound falls out, and I-. I form a railgun and try shooting it with a mage slayer. No, no effect. Keep cutting. "-as a sort of super-construct."

"Do other Lanterns use them?"

"No idea. I suspect that I can only do this due to being very powerful and being in a place where reality and Dream overlap dangerously. And I doubt that Morpheus will give me more Dream sand to use it in the field regularly."

The shimmer is… Changing. I'm having at least some effect. For a moment I consider 'Feed Me', but… I don't want to actively get on Morpheus's bad side, and I'm reasonably sure that's what would happen if I started eating his domain. Even if he let me pay my debt off, I don't really have the time. Keep cutting keep cutting-.

Something changes and the shimmering stops. Immediately I generate buzz saw constructs and slice cleanly through the mound, revealing…

Ah…

Something that looks a bit like a coral growth, a bit like a plant and… A bit like a computer? I mean… I assume that Swamp Thing could be-.

I switch to my plant manipulation construct and try empowering Swamp Thing, on the assumption that he's there, locked inside it. Nothing appears to happen, but I give it a moment…

For a moment I see a phantasmal green hand reach out through the mound, as if trying to grasp something. And then it's.. pulled.. back inside by… Something.

Okay. Possibilities. This could be an anchor, in which case the thing to do is destroy it. That would cause Swamp Thing to either snap back to Earth, appear on the Mother Star, or be stuck wherever he is at his current wavelength. Which is fine because he already knows how to change that and how to return to Earth on his own.

This could be some sort of physical portal to the Dream. Except rather than a neutral part of the Dream or a… What's the word? Totemic location, it's going to be alien starfish monster at best and Dominion booby trap at worst. And I doubt that Morpheus would care unless they were actively damaging his realm. Keeping a dead dream alive is something that he might find poetic or interesting.

Wait, is that..?

I reinforce my armour with a construct and shove, ripping the mound wide open and…

And revealing the dominator with vines inserted into their skin in a dozen places, organically 'wired' into it. Large red circle, though smaller than the overseers at the Starlag prison. And still alive, as far as I can tell. Looks like a similar system to the one which bound Mr. Stratham.

Asleep and dreaming.

But… Why? This dominator must be either one of the project leads or their apprentice. They wouldn't be wired into it by accident. This is deliberate. So is he like this because they need one of their own monitoring things from inside, or..?

I don't know.

I can't enter the Dream under my own power, and I doubt that I've got time to fly back to Earth, go to Erebos, fly through the gate and then find this from the other side. But these vines… Are… Still functional.

"Lantern Son!"

There's a slight delay, then he's behind me. "I have opened the mound but all that is inside is alien machinery."

"I know." I send my armour back to subspace, trusting in my environmental shield to keep me safe. "Can you wire me up like that?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Because I'm very stupid-. Because I need to get into the Dream like he is to find out what they're doing. Which should help me free your mother."

"This will cause you a great deal of pain."

"Don't worry. I can deal with graaaagh!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th June 2014
12:34 GMT -7:00

Axlegrease pulls over in the 'no parking' bay in front of a newly built restaurant. 'Ernesto's' is the name on the front, but I've got no idea if that's the name of the owner or the chain.

"Take as long as you want. They can't have found all of the battle sites."

She's getting a few odd looks from the passers-by. With the giant transforming cat out of the bag, it's common knowledge that out of place vehicles might be one of Earth's alien visitors. Jasper's new population isn't limited to the scientific and military personnel at Darkmount Base; giant robot tourism has started to become a thing, and if Axlegrease sticks around she's going to get surrounded fast.

I push open the passenger-side door and climb out. "We'll call you when we need pickup."

On the opposite side, Slipstream's avatar body nods. "And don't get in any fights. These people are paying for our exploration work."

"I understand. But anything they haven't claimed is fair game."

Slipstream walks around the front of Axlegrease's cab, shaking her head. "Not any wrecks that could be resurrected. Taking equipment is fine, but vehicon miners are… Basically the only civilians we have. And they can do work for us."

Axlegrease turns and pulls away, the confirmation of her 'driver-free' status causing a momentary burst of excitement in the small but growing crowd. Then she stops.

"Do you really think they'll resurrect vehicons? The fuel shortage doesn't exist anymore."

"Ah." Slipstream looks at me with a thoughtful expression on her clearly-inhuman face. "Why… Wouldn't they? They're not a threat to the Autobots, and a lot of them are technically civilians."

"Economics. Optimus returned the All-Spark to Cybertron. Eventually, new protoforms will emerge."

I nod. "Yes?"

"They will be full transformers, not low-power vehicons made to function at near-starvation fuel levels. The conditions that made creating them worthwhile no longer apply. It would be more effective to prepare fuel reserves for a new generation than use the Last Autobot to resurrect vehicons."

I roll my eyes. "And you're not just saying that because their parts are up for grabs."

"There's no reason to let their parts go to waste." She turns her front wheels and slowly pulls away. "I will recover them and we can see what happens."

I watch her go as she rejoins the light Jasper traffic. She might have a point, but…

Slipstream walks over to me, leaning into my side. "Do you think she's right?"

"No. The cost of energon has dropped immensely. It isn't an either-or. Even if they can't complete with full strength transformers, it makes more sense to use them as a labour force for the reconstruction than it does to abandon them."

She doesn't look convinced. "Then why haven't the Autobots tried resurrecting them?"

"If I had to guess, it's because human governments consider vehicon corpses on Earth to be their property and they don't want to start a fight over it. And because Decepticon disunity is in their interests. Resurrecting regular Decepticons is less of a problem because they're not unified yet, but a vehicon will immediately comply with the highest ranking Decepticon officer around."

Which is probably why the Autobots are setting up synthetic energon production centres in Vos and Tarn, despite there hardly being any Autobots from there. Megatron… Isn't exactly the most popular Decepticon in the universe, even if he's being a lot less confrontational these days. If Decepticons can just take their teams and live somewhere separate from him and his followers, a lot of them will. Heck, Heatseeker is fairly blatantly only here to do reconnaissance for the other Stunticons.

They fought for Megatron for millions of years, then the moment they can get fuel somewhere else…

"Hm." Slipstream sounds distracted as I wrap my left arm around her and pull-. "That-. That makes me think about how we used to be treated. 'Mass production cold-casts'… Low peak outputs…"

I give her a gentle tug, and she walks with me towards the restaurant entrance. "Then you're more empathetic than almost every other Decepticon there is."

She wrinkles her nose. "I don't think I like it."

"The empathy or the treatment?"

"Both, I think." She huffs air out through her nose. "My life would be easier if I just ignored it, but… That was basically how the War started." She frowns. "Am I wrong?"

"No, you're completely correct."

"And I don't want to live through-" I push the door open and we walk inside. "-another War, so I guess it makes sense to try avoiding that."

"It does, but that's not why. It's a bit high-concept, but… It's often in a person's short-term interest to be ruthless and aggressive, but you'll find… It's often in a person's long-term interest to be compassionate and open-handed." She flashes me an interrogative frown. "You know how many Decepticons have got rebranded since the truce?"

It's not the most violent Decepticons or the most ideologically committed, but there's a set of Decepticons who -like Slipstream- were mostly fighting for the right to not be property who upon arriving back on Cybertron after the truce took one look at the way modern Autobots and modern Decepticons behave and underwent the Rite of the Autobrand. And there are a few more who weren't prepared to go quite that far who have nonetheless integrated with Autobot society.

None have gone the other way.

She nods slowly. "Which… Is because they're… Nicer. And… I joined the Decepticons because I had a better life under Megatron than with… And with the old Lord High Governor dead, that pressure doesn't exist-."

"Hey!" Miss Nakadai is glaring at us, left hand on the table supporting her as she leans forwards and right hand waving at us. "We're over here! Stop blocking the gangway and sit down already!"

Ah-. Okay. Slipstream and I walk over to join them. Raf cringes slightly from the stares Miko's outburst attracted, and probably a little from the stares that Slipstream's obviously inhuman body is getting. Jack is… Taking said body in. Not checking her out, but… Assuring himself that I haven't been lying to him about what can be achieved with Cybertronian technology. And-.

"I didn't think they made that kinda robot-" Miko smirks as we sit down opposite them. "-outside of Japan!"

Slipstream frowns. "Japan doesn't make transformers. This body-."

Miko frowns, leaning forwards as she stares. "Wait. That's actually you?"

Slipstream shrugs. "It's an avatar. My spark case and brain module are still in my main body-."

Raf perks up slightly. "But if your main body is still in India… You're responding in real time! There's no lag!"

Jack sags slightly. "Huh."

Miko jerks her head around to stare at him. Then back to Slipstream. Then me. Then Jack. "No." She grins salaciously. "Way."

Jack blushes slightly, and I decide to spar him further embarrassment. "We could have one built for Bulkhead, too."

"Nah, Bulk's…" She slumps a little. "Busy."

"Ah, what was it-" Jack leans forwards. "-you wanted to talk to us about?"

The 'please don't talk about robot sex' goes loudly unsaid.

"Well, your summer holiday is coming up, and I wanted to get my bid in before Agent Fowler did."

He shakes his head. "Your… Bid?"

"Summer jobs. You have a rare skill set and I want to offer you employment. Interested?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th June 2014
12:39 GMT -7:00

Miko actually winces. "I'm… Going back to Japan for the summer break..? You know, see my parents. I don't think I can-."

I shrug. "We have a ground bridge."

"Oh. Then I'm totally there!"

Jack shakes his head. "Hold on. We-."

"Hey!" Miko smiles at him and extends her right hand. "I'm Miko! What's your name?"

He bows his head slightly. "Yeah. But you should ask what he wants us to do-"

She shakes her head, not understanding his problem. "Something involving transformers?"

"-and how much it pays. Internships usually aren't paid."

I nod. "Practical. About twelve times per hour what K.O. Burger does. And if anyone shoots at you then you get hazard pay rather than a deduction."

Miko fans her arms out to the side, staring at Jack in a 'you see, dummy?' kind of way.

"That's…" He looks away as he thinks it over. "That's.. pretty good. Actually… How many hours?"

"I'm assuming eight hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks? You can do more if you want, and if you want to do less then that's fine too."

"Doing what, exactly?"

"Teaching transformers who are new to Earth how human society works."

Miko makes a dismissive gesture with her right hand. "That's easy. I'll get some tunes on, and-"

Slipstream shrugs. "Our team is comprised of Decepticons."

That appears to get through. "-oohhhh."

I nod. "I'm handling the-"

Slipstream glances at me. "We're handling."

I nod again. "-more difficult personalities ourselves, but it would cut down on our workload if we had people like you to act as advisers and go-betweens for the others."

Jack nods slowly. "How 'difficult'?"

Slipstream looks a little puzzled. "The ones we're handling?" He nods. "Ah… One's a duocon whose personalities hate each other, and the other... Probably wants to conquer Earth so he can have all the roads for himself."

I nod. "And he would step on you if he could. He still refuses to call me anything other than 'Squishy'."

Raf seems to become more focused. "What's a 'duocon'?"

I sigh. "One of Shockwave's experiments. He asked: 'Is it possible for a transformer to be split over multiple bodies?', and it turns out that the answer was 'Yes, but they really shouldn't'. Flywheels is alright as long as their two parts are separate-."

Miko nods. "Right, because they get one part each."

I shake my had. "No. They're still both in each of them, but they need to concentrate and so they don't have time to argue with each other."

Slipstream shrugs. "I think it's just Flywheels. Battletrap's a duocon, and he's fine. But Flywheels is difficult to deal with."

Raf hesitantly raises his right hand a little. I nod to him. "If Shockwave made him-. Ah, them, like that, can't he reverse it?"

I shrug. "Probably, but that would mean either erasing one personality or erasing both by integrating them into something new. And it would mean making one of their bodies primary and the other secondary, which has its own problems."

"How about giving them one body each?"

Slipstream winces. "They have one head. One set of arms and one set of legs. And Shockwave did something to their T-cog-." She frowns. "Both of their T-cogs..? To integrate the two parts… It would be difficult even if they both agreed to it."

Jack nods. "I.. don't think we're qualified for that. Who would we be dealing with?"

"Axlegrease, Nova Storm and Dreadwing." I drum the fingers of my right hand against the table. "Axlegrease is a salvage engineer and-"

"Wait, Dreadwing!?" Miko's eyes widen. "I thought he was dead!"

"-our medic."

Slipstream nods. "He was. But he got better."

"She'll need someone to explain how law and politics work so that she doesn't try looting any national monuments, but she won't threaten you. Dreadwing-" I give Miko a mildly reproachful look, which she ignores. "-has been on Earth before, but I don't think he tried finding out anything about human civilisation. He might ask you to explain a few things, but he'll probably keep to himself. What happened to his brother hit him really hard."

Miko pulls a face. "His brother nearly hit us really hard."

Slipstream gives her a flat look. "Don't get into a firefight if you're not prepared to get shot."

I wave my right hand back and forth. "We won't be getting you into firefights. The-."

Miko sags. "Awwww."

"The last transformer who needs an introduction to human civilisation is Nova Storm. She was one of Slipstream's team mates during the War. She seems nice enough."

Slipstream gives me an unimpressed look. "'Nice enough?"

"I.. don't know her as well as you do yet. Ah, she's-." I turn back to the youths. "She's a bit uncertain about the War being over, finding a new purpose and new interests that don't involve fighting."

Miko frowns. "Has she seen the internet?"

"We're-" I nod, and Slipstream mirrors my action. "-keeping her away from the internet for now."

Raf looks surprised. "Why? There's a lot of educational sites on the internet. Even if she was just watching videos, she could learn a lot about how we communicate."

I look at Raf. Then I look at Miko, who's is smirking and uncharacteristically refusing to meet my eyes, and then at Jack, who gives his head a small shake.

Ah… "I fear that a great deal of the internet assumes a certain cultural context that transformers don't have, and that it would be better if her initial exposure was supervised."

Miko bites her lip.

"Oh." Raf nods. "I thought you were worried about… Ah… 'Adult'.. stuff."

"So anyway, that's the job. We won't expect you to liaise with the Indian government, but you might need to pass along the occasional message. We have a ground bridge system that's fairly similar to the one you're used to, but we'll make sure that you know how it works. We can arrange a trip to Cybertron outside of your normal working hours if you want-"

"Yes!" / "You can?!"

Miko and Jack sit up, Miko raising her right fist into the air. Raf looks pleased, but doesn't say anything.

"-and I'm sure that if we let slip that you're working with us that your former partners will want to visit. So: what do you think?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:25 GMT -5

I'm… Pinned to a wall.

I think.

I can feel tiny points of attachments stabbing into my arms, legs and back. My arms are forced up, something… Something solid holding them in place at an awkward angle.

"Researcher, you were supposed to deactivate the device, not enter it yourself. Why did you deviate from protocol?"

I try turning my head, but that's being held in place too. There's a little give in the structure, but… My bones feel…

I can't move. I can't even move my eyes.

Who was talking? There's nothing in my visual field except a vine-covered wall a short distance opposite me. The phrasing sounds like something that a dominator might say, but I can't tell where it's coming from.

Can I talk?

"Can-?"

Good, okay. In the Dream. Can't see enough to judge the nature of the local environment. Which means that that dominator is probably the dominator in Swamp Thing's pod.

"Speak!"

Whatever form I've taken in the Dream, my rings are still on my fingers. So I could probably assimilate my surroundings. But on the grounds that I'm not stupid enough to anger Morpheus or give him a toe hold in the orange light, I instead reach out cautiously, feeling…

Feeling the solid bark of my flesh, the grip of my aerial rootlets on the porous brick behind me, the vitality flowing into me from my leaves.

The intersection between the local Dream and my mind. Take it.

I feel the… Really weird sensation as my roots retract, bark becoming more flexible and-. Ah! I pull free of the vine-mass, mobility restored and-. I'm still a plant-man with the outline of my power armour, but I'm free and-.

"Explain how you did that!"

I close my eyes-. Which doesn't work in the Dream. Alright, I unfocus my eyes and mentally orientate on the sound, then fly towards it. Once I stop moving, I focus on what's in front of me.

A dominator outlined in vines, stuck to the wall-. Enmeshed-? No, he's… Part of it.

"Explain who you are."

"I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. You got greedy and got spotted."

"That is frustrating, but it was within the variables for this mission. Do you intend to offer terms, or will you kill me?"

"That depends on a lot of things. You will undergo a telepathic trawl before you go anywhere. Given that, being helpful now increase the chance of a favourable outcome for you."

"I understand."

"The ship… Great Mother, is currently mating with a fungus creature I brought with me. Is there a way to disconnect her from the machinery you built to connect her to the Mother Star without killing her? And is there an easy way to remove the programming you entered into her?"

"Not easy. Researcher was trying to reach it, but what we built has fallen too far into the metaphysical realms. It is likely here in some sense." He hesitates. "The ship's presence has receded. If we are fortunate, Researcher will reach the objective without us."

"I'm not feeling lucky. You?"

"Not everything can be deduced from available information. But the accumulated evidence suggests that it would be unwise to depend upon it."

"Right." I reach one plant-hand forwards and lay it on his bark-chest. "This will be uncomfortable."

"New knowledge is worth-"

I reach for where his psyche intersects with the Dream. Take that too.

"-any khtkhtkh…"

And pull.

"Nrrrrrrgh…"​

The dominator takes the form of a robed humanoid with other vines running through his body, looking a little like he's got shipworms stuck halfway out of him.

They're writhing. But that could mean almost anything, from his inquisitiveness to some sort of spy from Great Mother that has wormed its way into his psyche. Assuming that was his pain-noise he made a moment ago, it doesn't sound like they're hurting him.

I look up, and there's a blank sky with its own sun. Good show, then up we go.

"Any other dominators here?"

"None I have heard. If they survive, then they are elsewhere."

"How many are here in total?"

"If I tell you, I require that you send a copy of our research to the homeworld."

"I was going to offer to rescue them, but if you want to make it hard…"

"The data is more important than our lives. The Mother Star represented a unique opportunity, which will now be lost."

"I will agree to leave your data intact. Given recent Dominion actions, I do not believe that sharing data with your government is in Earth's interest."

"Accepted. There are four of us. Researcher, Shipwright, Coordinator and me, Biotechnologist."

"Not a lot of people for a ship like that."

"The AI ship's drones sufficed. Suffering a mild inconvenience is well worth it for novel data."

"Data? You're not top caste, then."

"No. That is above our station. Though we may ascend if what we learn produces important developments."

"Okay then…"

We finally get to the top of the two walls, and I can… See. Huh. Okay, mapping-. This part is the same as the streets the Mother Star showed me, now covered in vines and… Larger. The sun is a glowing light above, but strands of sunlight reach down and touch the city is a dozen places I can see. Naturally, they don't burn their surroundings but rather cause a plethora of novel plants to grow around them.

"There." Biotechnologist points, towards… Ah, of course. The one direction in which things are covered in fungus, and bits of what look like Mother Star are visible in the morass. "The connector units were fungal, to make it harder for her to usurp them."

"So the thing which destroys them will…" No, wait. Gary already absorbed them. This is not literal. It's being held together by the dream of fungus, so…

"Will be there."

I shake my head as I start flying in that direction. I'll work something out once I see what I'm dealing with.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th July 2014
10:03 GMT +5:30

"…perfectly adequate." Dreadwing doesn't look at Jack's question, eyes fixed on Skyquake's now-recumbent body as Axlegrease makes it a little more presentable. "I have no desire for conflict with your kind. You have nothing that I want."

"Ah… Okay."

Jack glances up to where Axlegrease is considering the practicality of reattaching Skyquake's severed arm. She appears to give up on repairing the linkages and instead activates the tools she needs for opening the arm's plating. Raf watches from his position on a nearby chirurgical table with an expression of rapt fascination on his face.

"I'm… Sorry."

"For what?"

"The.. arm."

"What about it?"

"That… That was us."

Dreadwing blinks. "How?"

"Miko-. When we got stuck in the shadowzone, Skyquake attacked us. Starscream's arm was there, and we managed to make his missile fire. It…" He gestures vaguely. "Hit him in the arm."

Dreadwing considers for a moment, then gives his head a very small shake. "Your initiative should be commended. But that thing was not my brother."

Jack nods slowly. "Do you.. want to talk about him?"

"What purpose would it serve?"

"I know there… Because of how many transformers died in the War, there probably aren't that many other transformers who.. remember him. With humans, when someone dies, we usually get together and talk about our memories of them."

"Half of me is dead. Words cannot do justice to what I feel, either the absence or the betrayal." Jack sags a little. "Still, I suppose that there is no harm in recounting his deeds to you. Perhaps when Axlegrease has completed her work, and you can see him as he was."

Jack nods. "Sure."

"But for now, be gone."

Jack looks up at him for a moment, then nods. "Sure."

He turns and heads towards the exit, glancing back at Dreadwing once, then shrugging to himself. Then he spots me and slows down awkwardly. "Hey, Boss." He glances back again. "Ah…"

I shrug. "If he doesn't want to talk yet then he doesn't want to talk yet. You can't help someone who doesn't want anything from you."

"I could.. go and help Miko?"

I shake my head and motion with my left hand for him to follow as I lead the way over to one of the 'coping with transformer scale distances' karts. "While it should be impossible for a couple of humans to 'crowd' a transformer, Nova Storm is a… A little jumpy. I think-" We both sit down, and I accelerate us out of the medical bay and towards the command suite. "-it's probably best if we leave them to get accustomed to each other. I'll show you how our command and control setup works, and we can-."

My personal communicator bleeps. I'm not.. feeling anything from Slipstream, who wanted to hang around while Miko and Nova Storm get to know each other. Nova Storm hasn't had any… 'Outbursts' or anything like that, but she's mostly been interacting with other Decepticons. Something else, then.

"Excuse me. Answer."

"Sir, we have a message from Cybertron. The Autobots want to send someone to speak with you."

Hm. Not sure why. There's a protocol in place for hiring people for scraplet removal, so they hardly need to speak to me about that. I doubt that they've got a problem paying me; the radical differences in our economies are why it was such a good deal for both parties. I turn left, heading for the receiving room.

"That's fine. I'll be at the receiving room in about thirty seconds."

It has signal boosters for a small scale space bridge, as well as a beacon that makes it easier to precisely lock onto the location. It also has the thickest armour in the facility and a couple of small fission warheads concealed in the walls just in case. I remember that the Michael Bay films made it seem like transformers were relatively easy to kill with human weapons. The reality is that they've very much not. A well fed transformer won't even feel anything short of an anti-armour missile or an anti-tank round, and the shot would need to hit the weaker parts of their armour repeatedly to penetrate. Fission warheads are just about the only thing we've got that stands a good chance of putting one down promptly.

"Ah, who-?" Jack looks at me for permission to ask, and I nod. "Who are they sending?"

"She said that her name was 'Arcee'."

"Arcee's coming back to Earth?"

"Ah, yes? She did not say how long she intends to stay."

Checking up on us, obviously. The only other real possibility is that the Autobots think that the Americans are making off with things they're not supposed to and they want me as a counterbalance, but that isn't very likely. There are advantages to making trades with a cash payment rather than something nebulous like 'technology transfers' or 'future support', but-. Well, Optimus Prime seemed like a spirit-of-the-agreement type, but I'm not sure about the new Councillors.

I turn off into the receiving room, the heavily reinforced transformer-scale doors closing behind us.

"Okay, I'm here." I pull the kart over in the designated parking spot and we both get out. "Activate the beacon and tell her to come through at her leisure."

"Yes, sir."

I end the call, and notice Jack twitching.

"Looking forwards to seeing her?"

"Yeah! Of course I am."

"Going to talk to her about..?" I tap the back of my neck.

"I…" He exhales sharply. "Yeah. I mean, I have to. I tried-. Bringing it up before, but I don't think she understood what I was saying. I-. I'll just have to be really clear. Direct."

"It's not just that. When I came to talk to you about getting access to Vector Sigma, I tried raising it then."

His eyes widen. "What?"

"But I'm not sure she really got it. Transformers don't have our family structures, so telling her that you want to be her boyfriend won't really mean anything."

"How did you do it with Slipstream?"

"I explained everything; evolutionary psychology, reproductive biology, modern sociology… Everything. And I kept treating her like my girlfriend. And-. Oh, and… Transformer teams usually comprise of between four and six individuals, and that's their… Family-equivalent. So you might need to explicitly specify that you want a-"

Phh-tchhwuhwuhwah.

"-one-to-one relationship."

He takes a deep breath as he faces the swirling spacebridge aperture. and nods firmly. "Yeah. I can do that."

Arcee walks through, smiling as she spots him. "Hey, Jack."

He smiles broadly as he heads towards her. "H-hey, Arcee. How.. are you?"

"Good. I had some really great news. I wanted to introduce you to-

And then a large white and blue Autobot strolls through just before the spacebridge snaps shut. Jack… Clearly doesn't recognise him. I don't either.

Arcee half-turns to him. "-my partner, Tailgate."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:30 GMT -5

"Do you know what happens if the others are not awake when the connection is severed?"

"Not precisely."

We've passed the place where the streets are covered in vines and have moved on to the place where the streets are made of wood and other pieces of plant matter. It reminds me a little of the.. anthropomorphised plant world that.. god-mode Swamp Thing took exception to… In the comics.

Oh dear.

But it makes sense.

"Then, approximately?"

"Spiritual damage. They'd wake up, but they wouldn't be all there. Half-asleep the whole time, until their dream-self could remerge when their body slept. With Morpheus back in charge that should only take a couple of days; he's got people for that, and doesn't like his realm being a mess."

"Who is 'Morpheus'?"

"Morpheus is the being whose toes your operation was treading on. The ruler of the Dream. Which may not sound like all that much, until you realise that just about everyone sleeps, dreams, and can be driven mad."

"How does he drive his targets mad?"

"The one time I saw him do it? An artist was… Gaining inspiration by abusing a friend of his. He asked the artist to release them, and the artist refused. So Morpheus responded by giving him so much inspiration that he couldn't function. Within a few seconds he was drawing pictures on the nearby walls in his own blood in an effort to capture the visions he was seeing in a permanent fashion."

"An interesting notion. Was he successful?"

"At what?"

"Drawing with his blood."

No, because that never happened and he's… He was in prison, before the Anti-Life. I haven't checked on him since.

Add that to the slate.

Added.

"Not well. Human blood isn't good for drawing, and bare brick isn't good for drawing on."

"I see. But within a controlled framework, where he was provided with a prepared surface and other tools, it might be that he could be maximally productive in such a fashion. Perhaps I could volunteer for a test?"

"Have you ever dreamed before?"

"Yes."

"Then he almost certainly knows enough about you to inflict on you a punishment you wouldn't enjoy."

No attacks. I imagine that would be different if Great Mother weren't distracted. And Gary hasn't reappeared at my ring… Yet. And when he does I'll know everything that he learned, including the experience of being vivisected.

I… Should try and get him out before that happens. And now that we're reaching the fungus…

"Where was Shipwright?"

"On board the bioship, with Coordinator."

"Do they have any distinguishing features?"

"Shipwright is quite good with ships. Coordinator-."

"I spotted the pattern. And I think I know roughly where your colleagues are."

"How?"

"Researcher tried to disconnect the point where Swamp Thing is connected to Great Mother, so will probably be where he is. And I know where that is. Shipwright and Coordinator will be where Great Mother connects, which is here. Great Mother is currently mating, and isn't really fungal herself. So this is either from the connection fungus or from my aide. In either case, the logical place for them to be is here. And…"

Medphyll's lessons made it clear that the construct doesn't just empower plants, but… Effectively hypnotises them. Which means I hope that I can reach out for desire patterns most similar to those of Biotechnologist and nudge it into releasing them.

So let's give that a go.

Below us, fronds and mycelium wave and waggle. There doesn't appear to be any real direction to it though. Okay, maintain that construct with one hand, and with the other reach out for dominator-desires…

Found you. Both of you.

Now use the fungus control construct to push the attachment points away from them… Yes, definite concrete commands seem to work better. It… Might be possible to detach the Great Mother from here, but I'm going to leave that for Plan B.

"I suspect that and that are my colleagues."

Two construct snakes reach down from me, biting the two… Fungal objects, and pumping dream venom into their bodies to take control of the interface. That appears to make them 'wake up' a little, and the first thing they both do is take stock of their new forms. Fungus-infected coral by the looks of things, though it's possible that's what Great Mother looks like inside. I have the snakes bite down harder and pull them towards Biotechnologist and myself.

The dominator with a fruiting body sticking out through his left eye socket considers us for a moment. "We have surrendered?"

Biotechnologist makes an affirmative gesture. "Yes. Our situation is not viable."

The dominator with a Mohican of head-coral repeats the gesture. "That is a generous interpretation of the available data. How will we leave?"

"Swamp Thing is powering the overlap?" Another affirmative gesture from Biotechnologist. "Now that Great Mother is distracted and the containment vessel breached, I intend to wake him up and motivate him to leave on his own."

Biotechnologist looks unconvinced. "We compelled him to sleep deeply. And it will be difficult to locate his psyche here."

"Already done. The design of the buildings was throwing me off, but…"

I pull us all upwards into the not-sky.

"You made this place with Swamp Thing's power. So, naturally…"

The four of us look down at Swamp Thing's face, ridges and troughs made of vine-covered buildings and streets. His eyes are shut, but his sleep looks peaceful.

"He's the whole thing. And he's got a wife and daughter to go back to."

I reach into the Honden, building a road out of the desire to travel and a door out of the need for companionship and lay it at his feet. I take images from his desires and hold them before him as a lure.

"Swamp Thing. You are needed elsewhere."

Two enormous eyes slowly open, and I just about spot the dominator in the middle of the left one as the city below us collapses as Swamp Thing moves.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
03:35 GMT -5

Ugh. I-.

"Bleez, sword?"

I open my eyes, and it seems that Bleez has… Alright, correctly identified the greatest potential manageable threat and taken appropriate precautions. If something else came through in my body, she'd have a reasonable chance of killing my body by slicing through my gorget. And through me.

She lowers it, still regarding me with suspicious caution.

The remains of the containment unit around us comes apart, undulating across the ground as… Swamp Thing assembles himself a new body from the most 'real' bits of plant available. At the moment he's just a face stuck on the Dominion plant computer, but he'll have that under control soon.

"Orange Lantern." Swamp Thing's eyes look towards me. "I think that I am awake."

I try closing my eyes… Yes, I can close them. Pain? Ow, yes, that's working.

"I think we're awake, too." The mortal form of the dominator I rescued collapses to the ground as the containment pod vanishes completely. "Biotechnologist?"

It takes a moment, then his eyes open. "Subjectively, that was an unpleasant experience."

Filaments reach out, and I bind his arms behind his back before hoisting him to his feet.

"You do not trust me." He considers me for a moment. "I am pleased by your rationality."

I look up, and… Vines and other plant parts are either dropping down to join up with Swamp Thing or vanishing into non-existence. I can already see parts of what I assume to be Great Mother. She's slightly bigger than the Dominion ship, but is still utterly dwarfed by the eye.. chamber-.

"Does this room have an atmosphere shield?"

"It did. I believe that it is part of the plant person's head now."

"Swamp Thing? I'd really appreciate it if you could maintain-."

"For the benefit of my captors. No doubt you want to interrogate them further."

"I offered to keep them alive in exchange for cooperation. Ah, in other news, Good Gumbo-."

"I know. He can stay where he is for now. The Parliament has caused me enough hardship."

"He was trying to help-. Fine. Ah, also, the-." I point to Great Mother. "That ship was-."

"Created using me." His head drops from the vines above onto the newly created humanoid body below, which… Sort of knits it into place. "I don't know what I should do about that."

"Grandfather." Lantern Son floats towards him, stopping a short distance away at head height. "We did not expect that you survived mating with Great-Mother of Great-Mother. Her memories record your complete destruction."

"It was once observed to me that you do not kill a plant by shooting it in the head. Your grandmother was remiss if she believed that she captured my nature by examining a body I created in a panic using only her body."

"If she knew that, she might seek you out again."

"That would be… Unwise. I have learned a great deal since last time we met."

"That would not discourage her. She loves you."

Swamp Thing doesn't have the most readable face, but I can still recognise disgust.

"Ah, incidentally, we're looking for the physical forms of three more dominators. And we need to remove the link between Great Mother and the Dream, and while I'm sure that your feud with the Parliament is-."

"I have disconnected my predecessor and brought him back to the material world. The link to the Dream using the Green is gone. My… Daughter should be waking. I can do nothing for the dead star."

"I can perform a ritual funeral once everything else is taken care of. That should… Fix that."

"Good." He raises his right foot and the vines beneath him undulate, vomiting forth a somewhat battered dominator.

Biotechnologist regards him for a moment. "Researcher. He was in the correct place. The others will be aboard the biological ship."

I use a construct to pick Researcher up and then bind his arms. None of his injuries are serious so I'll let him keep them.

"Lantern Son, could you please communicate with Great Mother… Ah…" I look around. "That we're going to free her, but would appreciate it if-" I look up, and through the thin film of the Dominion atmosphere shield I can see the black of space and the tiny twinkling stars. "-she could cooperate with us to resolve this problem. Then she'll be free to leave."

"And her daughter?"

"Ah. So, she's..?"

"She found Gary acceptable and is analysing him. Dissection will not start for several hours. Then she will generate a template for her daughter."

"That's fine. He can't feel pain. I'm not even sure that he has a concept of pain."

"He will, by the time she is done."

…

Okay.

"The dominators?"

"They-."

Biotechnologist makes a negative gesture with his right hand. "The data is more important than their lives. We would rather have her sensor logs."

"I suspect that she would rather kill them and keep the records. But… We might be able to offer repayment for your help."

"It's not about repayment. These dominators knew how to capture Great Mother. It is highly likely that they kept records for their people. That means that other dominators know how to capture Great Mother again in the future, and Great Mother's Great Mother and Great Aunts and Great Sisters and all other members of her species. We need them alive so that we can interrogate them and learn how they did it."

His internal lights flicker for a moment.

"You are correct, and Great-Mother agrees." Part of her hull undulates and two dominators fall out-.

I catch them in a cushion construct just before they hit the floor.

"And your brothers? And half-brothers?"

One floats closer. "Great-Mother is sacrosanct. We will all comply."

"Glad to hear it." I exhale. "Okay. I think we're done here for now." I turn to Bleez. "Still glad you came along?"

"Next time, I'm just staying on Earth."

I shake my head solemnly. "That wouldn't be any better."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th July 2014
20:56 GMT +5:30

"So, ah, yeah." The white Autobot with electric blue decals slumps slightly, his right arm dropping from where he was gesturing to go limp on the table. "He means a lot to Arcee, but he doesn't seem to like me at all."

I smile, and he starts looking uncomfortable.

"See, I know the War's over and everything, but I still get a little nervous when I see a 'con smile like that."

One of me… One of my bodies, the body with all the essential bits in it is sitting in the workshop with Tailgate, Arcee's newly resurrected partner. Tortured to death by that psycho Airachnid, and now wondering why Jack doesn't want to have him on their team. // I'm also watching a film about a little drone driving around a spaceship filled with fat humans. Two channels, one me.

"How do you think I feel about letting a couple of Autobots into my home?"

He thinks that over and then shrugs, relaxing slightly. "So… What am I doing wrong?"

"You know, Paul told me this would happen, but I honestly didn't think it would happen this quickly."

"Paul. That's your… Human business partner-."

"Conjunx endura."

"Oh. I'd… Heard something about-." He shakes his head, then looks at me curiously. "I gotta ask: how does that work?"

"He got a lot of Nebulon implants, I got an avatar module."

He frowns. "What for? You can talk to him just fine as you are. He's the one who needed a modification to feel your spark." His frown deepens. "Do humans have a spark? Is there an adaptor?"

I snort with my avatar, prompting Paul to look at her/me. I have her/me wave his concern off. "Given where we are, I think we're lucky they don't."

"Oooh, right." He nods. "Unicron. Do Unicron's creatures have sparks?"

"I don't know. We usually don't leave enough in one piece to tell for sure, and Axlegrease isn't really a researcher."

"Fair enough. So why'd you get an avatar?"

"Because humans have their own bonding rituals and traditions, and they're… Some of them are hard to do when we're this physically different."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." And I can't help but smile. He.. doesn't get it. It's… Huh. Yeah, it's a shame that Seaspray didn't survive. It would be nice to have someone to compare notes with. "But what's that got to do with me and Jack?"

"Basically, transformer teams are between four and six transformers, right?"

"I've seen a couple that had eight, and when your team mates start dying-. Yeah, okay, I know what you mean. What about it?"

"To put it simply, human teams are two, plus the sparklings they're mentoring. They work with other humans, but by their standards that's a different kind of relationship."

He frowns. "Why?"

"It's to do with how their-. How they make new humans by combining biological data inside the humans with an internal fabricator."

"An internal-?" He stares. "Is that common?"

"It's about half of them. You'll learn to spot them once you've been here a while. Humans don't live as long as we do, so they have to build their replacements faster." I shake my head. "If you really want to know the details, you can talk to Paul about it. My avatar is with him right now if you want me to ask him to come here."

"No, that's… Fine." He looks thoughtful. "So Jack doesn't like me, because if I'm Arcee's partner then he can't be."

"Pretty much."

"Heh." He smiles. "Silly human. How do I tell him he's full of crude?"

"Basically, you can't. It's instinctive, like transforming is for us. If Arcee had called you her team mate, or squad mate, or an old friend, that would have been fine." Probably. "Partner implies that you've got a one-to-one relationship, like how theirs are."

His face gets a bit broody, something I've seen Nova Storm do after a few quarts of high grade. "Everyone else on Team Delta got turned into Terrorcons, so they won't be coming back."

I raise my own mug in salute. "'til all are one."

He nods, and tilts his own towards me. "You?"

I nod back. "Probably. Most of them, definitely. We won't know until we go through all of the wreckage. Nothing either of us can do about it now."

"No. But I can do something about Arcee and Jack." His eyes narrow thoughtfully. "Do humans get a lot bigger as they age?"

"No."

"Are they stronger than they look?"

"I don't have much contact with other aliens." Except Axlegrease, but she's got to be at least ninety percent transformer by now. "They're a lot weaker and squishier than us."

"So… Huh. Okay, so what exactly does your human partner do?"

"He gave me a reason to go on living. Something to do with my life that wasn't fighting a war I didn't really care about any more. Did Arcee tell you a lot about Jack?"

"Yeah, a few things."

"Did any of it involve the two of them fighting side by side?"

"Not… Exactly. He could sneak in places where she'd have been spotted, and… She smiles a lot when she talks about spending time with him exploring the Earth or just hanging out with him." He nods slowly. "Stuff that has nothing to do with the War."

"Paul helped me be a person. Everything I've done since I met him… These are the first things I did… Free. Free of Megatron or that sump sucker Straxus. Do you even remember what you did before the War?"

"Secure courier. I don't think I'll go back to it, though." He looks at me… What is that? Sympathy? "If I'd been working for Straxus I'd have joined the Decepticons, too. He was the worst."

"No. But he was close."

"If you say so. So, is there any reason why I wouldn't want Arcee to be-. To have Jack as a human-type partner?"

"A lot of the things I do with Paul are… Human-bonding things. Things that would seem… Weird to most transformers because we don't work like that. Jack wants to do those things with Arcee."

He thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "Does she want to do those things with him?"

"I don't think she understands exactly what they are."

"Could you demonstrate for her?"

//

"Slipstream? Are you okay?"

My body-. I'm-. My avatar body is doing that-. Laughing, on the… Floor? Paul's looking down at me. I manage to get my right arm under control and point it towards the refectory. "Tailgate asked if-. Hah! If we could demonstrate human-transformer 'things' for Arcee." Shockwave's programming makes it/me gasp for a breath I don't need, but that need feels… Weirdly good and… Appropriate, somehow?

Paul sighs. "Or we could just explain them first."

What was it that human in that said? "'No one can be told what the Matrix is.' Or in our case what it feels like to have your T-cog adapt your body for human bonding practices."

"I think I'd like to try starting by telling her."

"Okay." // "We could."

Tailgate looks confused. Of course, he's got even less understanding than Arcee.

"But you should probably clear the air with Jack first."

And maybe we should talk to Shockwave about getting him a transtector body prepared as well.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th July 2014
22:27 GMT +5:30

"…keeping his bumper clean. Don't think I've forgotten how bad an influence on you he was."

Ah, the directional microphone. And being bonded to its owner so that if you close your eyes a little you can hear and see what's happening as if you were there. Perfect for eavesdropping on personal conversations just in case they've actually done the mature adult thing and had an open and honest conversation about their feelings. Slipstream is usually too noisy to take advantage of it, but since she changed back from 'Earth jet' to 'Cybertronian interceptor' she's been able to include an anti-gravity system that lets her hover or fly slowly but silently.

"That was one time."

They've parked up on the side of a mountain near our base, and are just staring out into the dark. For obvious reasons we sited the base a decent distance away from inhabited areas, but not far enough to make the commute impossible. There are several towns within driving distance, and the new roads that were put in as part of the cost of us basing ourselves here are some of the best in India.

Not that that's saying much…

"Bulkhead's as happy as I've ever seen him working on reconstruction with the vehicons. And Ratchet's working with the Last Autobot preparing wrecks for resurrection. And I still want to know why you have a problem with Tailgate."

"I don't have a problem with Tailgate! It's just-. You know, I haven't seen you for months-"

In Slipstream's rear cockpit seat, I roll my eyes. "Oh, for goodness sake."

In the front seat, little Slipstream glances back. "Why isn't he just telling her?"

"Because he's a teenager whose physical maturity has rushed ahead of his mental maturity. And he's actually more mature than Miko."

"-and I was hoping-."

Their parking area is suddenly illuminated, and then there's a-

TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE!

-noise as… Tailgate transforms and walks closer. "Hey there!"

"Great."

"Jack-."

"No, no, it's okay." Tailgate raises his right hand in a dismissive motion. "I just got done having Slipstream explain a whole lot about human relationships to me, and I want to be completely clear."

Mini-Slipstream snort. "This should be good."

"You're the one who taught him."

"There's only so much I can do in a day. It took you a lot longer to explain things to me."

"I thought that coming on too strong when I was the first person you'd spoken to in years wasn't really on."

Below us, Jack folds his arms defensively across his chest. "Okay?"

Tailgate crouches down, probably trying to reduce the height different but really just emphasising it. "Arcee's my partner in the same way that human police officers have partners, or human soldiers work in fireteams. We work together, and we're good friends. Like she is with Bulkhead and Bumblebee."

"Right?"

"Now, I've never had any kinda conjunx so I can't honestly say I know what that's like, but I don't think about Arcee differently to how I thought about all the other 'bots on our team."

Arcee gives him an unamused look. "Thanks, Tailgate."

"Okay, maybe a little closer because we usually teamed up when Delta Team split into pairs-. What I mean is, how I think about Arcee is like that and not like something else. As far as I'm concerned, you can try and do your human bonding thing and it's all good."

Jack was very clearly not ready to hear it that directly. And from the way her eyebrows just shot up I'm not.. completely sure that Arcee was either.

"Excuse me?"

But at least Jack's relaxed his arms. "Okay. That-. Thank you?"

"No problem!" Tailgate extends his right fist towards Jack and watches him expectantly.

Jack takes a moment, glances at the increasingly bewildered Arcee and then taps his own right fist against the far larger intermediate phalange of Tailgate's ring finger.

Tailgate smiles. "We okay now?"

"Ah. Yeah, okay. Sure."

"Glad to hear it!" He stands up and turns around. "Arcee, my purely platonic partner?"

"Yeah?"

"I got nothing to say about this situation at all. You're even further off the map than usual."

"Thanks, Tailgate."

He waves and then-

TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE!

-drives off.

I nod. "Now that's the adult way to handle things. Polite, direct, leaving no room for misunderstanding. Not letting things fester."

Slipstream and I watch and Jack and Arcee awkwardly avoid looking at each other.

"Shouldn't they start singing about now?"

"I told you, Indian daytime television rots your brain module. We should go-."

TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE!

I can feel her intent… And her location relative to me as I start to fall. So this time I don't even react, just lifting my right arm slightly to that it's easier for her to grab me before I can gain momentum. Slipstream's other hand grabs her avatar as she controls her descent, falling through the air for a few moments before landing lightly in front of Arcee and Jack. Arcee's arms jerk up, but she controls her reaction before her guns pop out, which is a major improvement. Slipstream spots that and smiles before putting her avatar and me on the ground.

"This is an intervention." / "This is an intervention."

Both of Slipstream's bodies speak, which at least makes it obvious to Arcee what the purple human next to me is. Arcee stares at her for a moment, then looks up at big Slipstream, then down to me. "Ah…"

Jack looks at me. "Were you listening?"

I nod. "Of course we were. You obviously need a wingman."

He cringes. "Can I take Tailgate instead? He seems cool."

Arcee raises her hands. "Okay, stop. I think I'm missing something important, and-" Her eyes fix on me. "-you're going to explain what it is or I'm going to start getting angry."

"Short version?" Jack cringes harder as I smile. "Jack wants the same sort of relationship with you that I have with Slipstream."

"Okay, what's strange about that? I've been thinking about requesting assignment back to Earth anyway." Jack's face brightens up. "That was why I brought Tailgate."

"Continuing the short version, humans and transformers form different sorts of social bonds due to differences in our physiology. Transformers naturally form task-adapted teams."

Arcee nods. "I do know how transformers socialise. You may not have noticed, but I am one."

"Humans form clusters based on… Ah… Manufacturing new humans. Jack was raised by his mother. The term 'mother' means-."

"She fabricated him inside her body." I raise my eyebrows. "Miko explained it. I didn't reallyohh."

She looks down at Jack, who -and I'm mildly impressed by this- meets her eyes.

"Jack, I can't do that."

"That isn't-. I know, but that's… That's how I feel about you."

I nod. "The human brain is not a rational thing."

Slipstream nods. "Neither's ours. But in the same way as your brain module thinks he makes a good team mate despite the fact that he's a tiny alien, his thinks that you'll make a good mother for his children despite needing an adaptor-" Her avatar poses suggestively, a motion almost certainly lost on Arcee. "-to be compatible. I'd say 'go for it', but I'm pretty biased."

"And that's… Different to a normal team mate."

I nod. "Different to a normal conjunx endura, too." Her eyebrows raise. "Why did you think I got all these implants?"

Some of the tension leaves Arcee's frame, her eyes not really focusing on anything. "I… I don't know what that's… Like."

I glare at Jack and start frantically pointing at Arcee. And it takes him a moment, but then he girds his loins and walks over to her, resting his right hand on her left leg.

"Maybe we could… Like… Find out together?"

…

I give him six out of ten.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th April 2013
04:57 GMT -5

"What foul and forsaken womb could produce such a maliferous monstrosity?"

I was a little surprised that Lord Malvolio was the one who responded to my alert, but I can't fault Mr. Queen for his judgement. Or Lantern Savenlovich for realising that she was way out of her depth.

Biotechnologist bows his head slightly, which my rings helpfully inform me indicates that he's ashamed of his ignorance. "That has been a matter of some speculation, though with so few examples to study little progress has been made. We-."

"They absorb people's minds until they get psychically powerful enough to make themselves unreal, then just ignore the physical laws that would prevent them getting this big." Biotechnologist stares at me while Malvolio continues to study the interior of the eye socket. "What do you mean, 'few examples'?"

"Ancient records. Fossilised remains. Occasional communication intercepts from Green Lanterns. These were shared with us when we located this creature. How do you know?"

"A familiarity with the real operational mechanics of the universe, and direct mental contact with this Mother Star as it died. It's not that hard to work out once you know the rules. I thought that was how you knew to use the Dream?"

"This was an information gathering exercise. We had no certainty that this was possible."

"Are there more monsters of its irksome ilk secreted between the stars?"

"Maybe." I shrug. "The Green Lantern Corps thought that they got them all, then this one turned up. Being optimistic, it's possible that they double-checked their work after they started showing up around Earth, but being realistic, the universe is a very big place."

In front of us, Swamp Thing clears the last of the vines away from Great Mother.

"How is Sector One Six Three Four?"

"I have made good the mad misrule of the wanton warlords and careless churls. Mine authority and autarky are resolutely restored."

"No problem with the Green Lantern Corps?"

"Nay, for a nonce. They hold a virtuous vigil that malefactors and mountebanks may not breach my boarder." He glances my way for a moment. "In either direction. And how fairs the cradle of Creation now that the dirge of despair is expunged from the Earth?"

"Well, it… Could be worse."

"Ah?"

"It could be on fire too."

"Ah." He strokes his chin. "Is there aught mine domains might offer in aid?"

"I… I don't know. The Orange Lantern Corps has a plan for reconstructing a world after a Reach occupation, but this is… Ah… Different."

"What weighs with the wardens of want?"

That makes me stare at him.

"How long did it take you to talk like that automatically?"

He turns to face me with a smile. "I fixed upon it during mine first speech to the masses of mine new home. I had never given a speech, save 'pon the stage. After so many years, I can scarce stand to speak otherwise. But what of mine beneficent boon?"

I… Don't know. At this point we're not looking at starvation. Infrastructure is… Coming online gradually. Training a group of aliens who aren't familiar with Earth standards would… It wouldn't be quick…

In places where governments are still there, fixing things is a matter of time. In places where the governments died off, replacing them is a matter of inclination. The main issue will be places like China where the system is so universal that taking parts of it out has created… In effect, created Balkanisation. People on the spot took control and did the best job they could, and in theory they're almost all loyal to the Chinese Communist Party, but… That doesn't necessarily mean that they're loyal to the particular people who have achieved seniority in Beijing. Or even in the regional capital. There's an internal election coming up, and it looks like it might get bloody.

Surprisingly, Russia's doing better in that regard. Perhaps we should try implementing Mafia Federalism in more places?

"I don't know. I appreciate the offer, but you'd have to ask Batman."

"Great-Mother?" Lantern Son floats up to… His mother, I suppose. She doesn't have a face or obvious eyes, so I'm not exactly sure how that attracts her attention. "Is your mating successful?"

"It is in progress. Analysis of this mate is time consuming."

"We will have a sister?"

"Eventually, yes. Now that the thought-twist aliens are gone and my mind is my own, I see no need to hurry."

I covertly motion for Biotechnologist to back away, but he ignores it and walks forwards.

"Are the records my colleagues made intact?"

"You. You suborned me." The sons in the area begin drifting towards him in a menacing manner. "Explain yourself."

"You are a fascinating object of study. A wonder of biotechnology. I could happily spend years divining the workings of your systems. It is a misfortune for me that research on Star Conquerors is more in demand by my superiors."

"I was a tool?"

"That was not my preference. You are worth study in your own right. But the Dominion has many ships, and few opportunities to study the unreal made real. If I had the data we gathered on you, they may come to feel differently. Your temporal weaving ability in particular would have many uses under our control."

I take a few steps closer.

"Great Mother, have you given thought to what you will do next? We're planning on moving the remains of the Mother Star, so you'll need to make a decision relatively soon."

"I will remain near the World-Of-Father while I complete my daughter. Perhaps longer. Memory logs suggest that there are many interesting creatures here."

Biotechnologist makes an affirmative gesture. "That is certainly true! We had planned future expeditions here."

"Wait, future-?" I frown. "You mean to tell me that you haven't been collecting metahuman DNA?"

"No? None of us have the required specialisation. This work took all of our time. Your species is worth studying, but we have limits."

Great. So either they don't know about it, or it's someone else.

"Swamp Thing? Are you..? Ah. Willing to-?"

"I have little interest in acting as a father to her. But she touches the Green, and that is my domain. I will watch her."

"Thank you."

Okay, I think we're done here. Just need to remove the rest of the Dominion systems, and then we can copy the Green Lantern Corps and throw the corpse into the sun.

Once bitten, permanently shy.

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th July 2014
08:57 GMT +5:30

Ratchet's eyes grow slowly wider as he completes his scans of Slipstream's larger body. Arcee and Jack are at the other end of the console, Jack standing on it and Arcee standing next to it. They're close enough to touch, but I think Jack's still trying to work out what the rules for that are.

Little Slipstream is sitting next to me a little further down the console. I thought about bringing my Pull body, but it's easier to keep things a secret if they're actually secret. And since most parts of Cybertron aren't adapted for people our size, I'm back to being carried a lot.

I say 'most parts' because enough midget transformers have come back that there's now a part of Iacon which has been redeveloped for things my size. Have to take a look before we leave.

"What.. have.. you.. done?"

Big Slipstream remains motionless on the scanner bed, but little Slipstream shrugs. "Can you narrow it down?"

Ratchet turns his head towards us while gesturing emphatically at the screen displaying the results with his right hand.

"Do you know what this means?"

"I know what it means for me." She shrugs again. "I guess Shockwave made some modifications to-."

"'Some modifications'-!" Ratchet throws his hands up, head jerking back and forth as he tries to get his thoughts in order. "When you first came to me I thought that you were using Nebulon technology, but this is far beyond anything I've ever seen before."

Ah. Huh?

Slipstream looks at me, but I just look blank. Yes, everything after the initial implants was made by Shockwave, but I… Thought he was just using Nebulon systems. Nebulon is a long way from here -and honestly not all that friendly to giant robots these days- and it just made more sense to get it done locally.

Big Slipstream props herself up slightly. "It's not?"

Ratchet gestures to the screen again. I can sort of tell what it's showing -Slipsteam's brain module- but I don't understand enough detail to know why he's so excited.

"Nebulon technology relies on bespoke implants, customised and calibrated individually to each transformer and organic who use them. It takes a great deal of fine tuning before they give the users anything like the degree of synchronicity that the two of you have."

Little Slipstream leans into me, grasping my right hand in both of hers.

"Did you hear? He said we have a high degree of synchronicity."

"I had worked that out, darling. I hear your thoughts in my head."

Ratchet points at me with his left hand. "That exactly! You haven't known each other nearly long enough to have a bond that deep! And that's if you were both transformers. Human neuroplasticity falls off tremendously in adulthood, and transformers can't-."

His hands drop as he grabs the scanner and moves it down Slipstream's body. Then he freezes, staring at the readout.

"By the All-Spark."

I'd make a joke about where he's scanning, but Slipstream's main body doesn't have breasts.

Slipstream's grip on my hand tightens a little. "What is it?"

"Your… T-cog. I've never seen anything-. Who did this?"

Her good humour appears to evaporates, but I can feel that it's a front. "You can tell me what's got you so worried, first."

"Well, I think I've found out why your bond is so strong. And why there are hardly any modifications to your brain module." He expands the image… Oh, that's… Not what a T-cog normally looks like. Little Slipstream looks down at her chest for a moment before remembering that that's the wrong body. "Unlike a normal T-cog, yours is in constant communication with this… This module. Parts of the interface remind me of Scorponok's work on synthesized protoplasm, but… Transmetal? That's Vok technology. I can't even tell what it's doing."

We were looking for transmetal samples. I suppose that if anyone on Cybertron had then it would be Shockwave. Slipstream is just sort of staring at the image of her T-cog, but I still don't quite understand-.

Ratchet starts pressing things. "Whatever you just did, keep doing it."

Alright. I try to grasp how she feels about this. Slipstream was fine going under the knife to make this work, but a T-cog is an important part of a transformer's identity. Shockwave… No, she's… Worried about it going wrong? I suppose that makes sense; if Shockwave made it then he's going to be the only one who knows how to repair it. It might not even be regenerated by a transformer's normal healing processes.

"The T-cog is… Drawing data from that module before communicating with Slipstream's brain module."

Little Slipstream looks up at him. "Should I be worried?"

He gives her a frustrated glance. "It's a little late for that now." He returns his attention to the screen, pulling up more diagrams. "The protoplasm interface was designed to allow transformers to process tactile data from pseudo-organic skin. Transmetal isn't well understood, though some of our older records suggest that it could enable transformers to adopt organic-seeming alt-modes."

His right fist moves to his chin as he thinks.

"The T-cog is not capable of scanning organic forms. Similarly, our brain modules are not capable of mirroring some aspects of organic psychology. Nebulon technology requires that every point of connection be manually entered, but this… I think that whoever made this… Was trying to 'teach' the T-cog how organic forms work." His eyes focus on me. "Using Slipstream's connection to you to do it."

I nod slowly. "So Slipstream will… Be able to scan large animals to transform into?"

"No! That would require transmetal in every part of her body. I.. think her T-cog is… Gradually reconfiguring the structure of her body so that it is capable of mirroring organic forms."

Little Slipstream nods. "Transforming my brain module so that I can feel Paul's thoughts without having a human brain."

"It's not just that. I can see dozens of minor changes in your body compared to last time I scanned you. I have no idea what the ultimate outcome of this could be! And you!" He points at me. "Don't think that I don't know a transtector interface when I see one!" Busted. "I take it that your new body has a T-cog of the same design?"

"I… Don't know. Probably. Transforming-" Arcee and Jack are staring at me. "-feels weird." I turn to Jack. "Oh, come on. The transformers have an excuse but did it really not seem strange to you that Slipstream was hanging out with a transformer named 'Pull'? Who's never seen in the same room as me?"

He stares at me for a moment, then facepalms.

"It will feel less weird as your T-cog gathers more data, though since it can't transform your organic brain in the way that it can a transformer brain module I doubt that the effect will be quite as extreme. On the other hand… I suppose that there's no reason why transmetal's ability to bridge the gap between cybernetic and organic would only go in one direction." He shakes his head. "But that is well beyond my field of expertise."

Arcee looks around… Uncertainly for a moment. "Is it safe?"

"I have no idea. I take it this is Shockwave's work?"

Slipstream and I nod.

"Shockwave is a genius inventor, but even his designs take time to perfect." He focuses on Arcee and Jack. "I cannot in good conscience advise that you adopt these modifications at this time. And-" He turns to Slipstream and I. "-I want both of you to come here every Earth day for the foreseeable future so that I can try and keep track of how it's changing you."

I shrug. "Surely Axlegrease-?"

"This is cutting edge cyber-organic technology, not field repairs! This is well beyond her abilities." He calms down slightly, shaking his head. "And it may well be beyond mine."

"Okay." I nod. "Jack can't get implants for another year anyway. I don't mind you scanning…" I glance at Slipstream, who nods. "Us, if it helps."

Ratchet sighs. "That will have to do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th July 2014
23:17 GMT +5:30

Slipstream leans back into me. "This is something I've never tried before."

I try rearranging the position of Pull's hands around her abdomen. Giant robot bodies aren't really designed for this. We both have large armoured panels that don't give much in the way of tactile feedback covering most of our bodies, and the size difference is… Not enough to enable her to sleep in my metaphorical cockpit, but enough that it feels a little awkward to me.

"How do you mean?"

Plus, I-. Okay, I can sleep while plugged into Pull. The supports are good enough, and I'm not getting all that much sensory feedback from my body like this anyway. The Pull body is comfortable in just about any position, lacking any of the muscles, bones and circulatory system that my body has which cause cramps or paresthesia. I just don't feel comfortable ignoring my actual body for long periods of time. Unlike the Pull body, it is actually essential to my life.

"Recharging with someone." A-. "With a-. Transformer. Even with my.. team, we just had berths near each other."

I incline my head to try nuzzling her, but she's far too short for that. Alright, assuming that she's mostly drawing on her T-cog's interpretation of human behaviour for this, moving my legs in a little and-.

BEEP.

And someone's ringing our doorbell. And that was the transformer-scale bell, so… Flywheels don't socialise, Dreadwing would either leave it until morning or bang on the door with his fist, Heatseeker is still at the track, Axelgrease would sent us a message electronically… Probably Nova Storm, then. Not the first time she's wanted to be around us during her recharge cycle.

"Open." / "Open."

Slipstream looks up at me with a lazy smile. "You read my mind. She-."

The door hisses open and Arcee walks in and I-. And Slipstream, I can feel her accessing the memory and I can feel the memory of what Tailgate suggested.

Arcee stops just inside the room, her eyes glowing as she adjusts to the low light levels. There's a mobile data terminal in her hands, and… Her body language suggests that she's… Uncomfortable? Which is odd, because while a human might find walking in on a couple snuggled up together awkward there isn't an equivalent thing with transformers. Heck, combiner teams will plug themselves into each other in public and then fight people.

"Ah. Hey."

She actually raises her left hand in greeting. Yes, nervous. Awkward.

Slipstream looks up at her. "Did you want something?"

"Yeah. I need to talk to you."

"Right now?

Her eyes dart to her terminal for an instant. Oh right, I know where this is going.

"Um. Yeah."

I put my palms on the ground to get up, but Slipstream doesn't move. Right, this doesn't feel awkward to her. And… I mean, we're basically fully clothed like this. The only odd thing about this is that Arcee is standing up while we're sitting-.

Arcee sits down opposite us.

"I had a… Conversation, with Jack."

I nod Pull's head. "Yes. Good. It-."

"I don't think I understand the…" She half-raises her terminal and then lowers it-. What has she been watching? "Bonding."

Slipstream makes a circling motion with her right hand. "Which part?"

"Why is it fun? Outside of manufacturing new humans, all Jack could say is 'it feels really good'."

Slipstream nods. "It does."

"But… How? Why? If I have to rewire my T-cog, I want to know what I'm getting into."

I feel Slipstream thinking the joke at the same time as I feel her feeling me think the joke, and we both realise that Arcee wouldn't get it. Slipstream wants to say it anyway-

-but accepts my feeling that it really wouldn't be helpful.

I consider for a moment. Explaining it to a human wouldn't be hard, but I know from Slipstream that transformers don't have any sort of intuitive understanding of the area. Heck, Slipstream basically just went along with my suggestions. I should know enough now to bridge the gulf in understanding, but first…

"What's on the terminal?"

"Research material."

Slipstream lets out an amused snort. "For humans, there's a big difference between entertainment and educational."

Which we have explored in detail. But Arcee just frowns and raises the screen to show us-. A diagram of the human nervous system.

"This doesn't make sense to me."

I make Pull's head nod. "Did you do any research on evolutionary psychology?"

"No. What's that?"

"Alright. As I understand it, Primus made the first thirteen transformers, and they designed the next generation, and then after they all vanished the All-Spark discharged energy to animate pieces of metal based on those early templates. Then you invented cold casting and vehicons…" She nods cautiously. "Most species that I've seen records on don't do it like that. There might be some mythology relating to a creator deity, but none that I've seen have as direct a relationship with theirs as transformers have with Primus. Most species who claim to have been created by a god can't provide the design schematics. And without wanting to sound like a hardcore Functionalist, a lot of what you are made for relates to your alt-mode. Generally, you'll feel like you're doing what you're made for when you're using it for something, preferably with a group of like-minded transformers."

"So what do humans do?"

"Despite coming from the body of Unicron, we started out as simple chemical reactions which became living slime after being hit by lightning."

She frowns. "How does that make a human?"

"A few billion years of iteration. Some mixes of chemicals survived and reproduced, and some didn't. They were changed in small ways by their environment and then either survived and reproduced more and flourished, or didn't and died out. Over millions of years some slime gained complexity, becoming multicellular organisms. Because they weren't deliberately crafted by an intelligent designer but rather refined by their environment, their instincts developed tendencies that generally made them more likely to reproduce. We weren't programmed to form teams, but those creatures who cooperated slightly better were slightly more likely to survive and reproduce than those who didn't and so something like teams naturally emerged; we get the same positive feeling, but as a result of iteration rather than design."

I raise Pull's eyebrows.

"With me so far?"

"I think so."

"Use this as a guide to further study. There's plenty of information out there. Now, reproductive desires themselves are too abstract a thing for iteration to generate. Rather, we develop positive feelings about objective things relating to it. Socialising with people who have the characteristics which evolution tells us lead to good relationships and healthy children. Having sex with them, raising the resulting children, it all gives us the same sort of positive feeling that teamwork does transformers, in addition to the concentrations of nerves which -in the case of sex- makes the simple mechanical act pleasurable. The fact that Jack can't reproduce with you doesn't signify because the instincts which have led his brain to regard you as a good mate developed around other humans and not giant robots."

"So it's like…" She looks at Slipstream, probably because half of that went over her head. "Successful teamwork?"

Slipstream nods. "Successful teamwork completing a project, getting to a safe location and being able to put your weapons away and refuelling when you were getting low. None of that's quite right, but it's the best I can explain it."

Arcee thinks for a moment.

"That doesn't… Sound.. too strange." She gets up, and walks towards the door. Once there, she hesitates. "Thanks. I'll… Think about it some more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Equity

19th April 2013
23:11 GMT

There's a brightly glowing crowd of Orange Lanterns loitering around the training arena as I descend through the Maltus atmosphere. A few towards the back of the crowd glance up at me, and I give them a pleased nod at their situational awareness. Maltus is about as safe as anywhere in N.E.M.O. space, but it never hurts to be at least a little on guard.

A giant orange fist smashes Lantern Ragnar into the ground and I can barely feel that it's there. He responds by trying to crumble it but it shifts form even as the outer edge starts to give way, binding his body and locking him in place. He struggles against it for a moment, then orange light begins being pulled from his ring and into his opponent. Sighing, he bows his head.

"You have bested me." The bonds around him vanish, and he pulls himself upright. "My position is yours, if you want it."

"No. You are a better teacher than I. Removing you would be foolish and disrespectful. It is… Not what I want."

I gently push my way through the crowd, and then through the barrier separating the arena from the stands. And I'm sure that I'm beaming like an idiot.

It worked.

"Lantern Xalitan Xor." He looks up at me as I come in to land. He looks… More relaxed than I've seen him before. Even with Onigar, his need to be prepared for violence is so much a part of him that he couldn't let it go. Now? "You look well."

"Illustres. I… Feel well. Everything… Makes.. sense now."

I amp up my empathic vision, curious what it looks like from the outside. Ah, yes, I see. Everything that makes him him is still there, still solid, but there's… The system isn't under pressure in the same way anymore. There's a flow between all parts that he didn't use to have, and the system as a whole is less rigid-.

I feel a slight pressure on my own desires, and pull back to the material universe to watch his eyes glowing.

"I… Can barely see you." He frowns faintly. "I can see all others clearly. Am I..? Not..?"

"Lantern Xor, you know what my tattoos do. I'm impressed that you can see anything."

"But I want to be certain."

I nod. "Alright, one way to do that. Let's go and talk to the Ophidian about it."

I rise up into the air and Xalitan follows me as we turn towards the Orange Central Power Battery. Not really necessary of course, but-. He's done it. It works. And even better, he's not one of the ones who wants to kill me and take my place.

Beneath us, Lantern Ragnar turns to the audience.

"That is the power that is within reach of all of us! Powerful as the Illustres is, he does not need to be unique! For all of those who doubted the use of spiritual training, look-" He gestures up as we fly away "-at what Lantern Xor has become!"

Lantern Xor looks contemplative. "That is excessive. I have not changed as much as he implies."

"Your new power is the result of your efforts to understand and reflect on your nature. The final step is a large one, but you've been heading in this direction since we met at least. Oh, just a moment."

I turn in the air, waving my right hand. After a moment Lantern Son flies down to us.

"I was uncertain if I was supposed to keep following you."

"Up to you. Lantern Xor, this is Lantern Son of Great Mother. He'll be working in our Sector."

"Welcome to the Orange Lantern Corps, Lantern Son of Great Mother. What world are you from?"

"I am from Great-Mother. In your terms she is a sophont spaceship, and I am an intelligent part of her reproductive system."

Xor's puzzlement grows. "When you say that you are a part of her reproductive system, what do you mean?"

"I am an efficient way of transferring design data from Great-Mother to others of her species. Outside of that role, I act as a defence and repair drone. Mentally, I am…" Orange lights flicker inside him. "Was, more simple than you and the Illustres. Now, I am not sure what I am, but I know that there are many things which could threaten Great-Mother and that is a task I am well equipped to perform."

"I was someone else's weapon." Xalitan makes an affirmative gesture. "I advise you to consider things beyond that. I achieved my current level of power by… Understanding that many people are someone's Great Mother, and that there are many threats to all of them."

"I shall consider that. There are many things about how I am now that I do not understand."

We land-. Xalitan and I land on the plaza containing the Orange Central Power Battery. There are defences around it, but the Battery itself is perfectly visible from the outside. There are a few Lanterns here, the more religious types who make formally venerating the Ophidian part of their day. There is also a party of… Tourists? Taking in the sights. And a Controller, probably making sure that it's working correctly. Hinon has people for that sort of thing now.

"Lantern Son, please stay out here. Lantern Xor, with me."

"I will comply."

Xalitan follows me, looking into the orange light ahead of us curiously.

"Is this dangerous?"

"It shouldn't be. Honestly, even-." I frown. "Did you ever experience an orange light overload?"

"No."

"But you've seen it before in others?"

"I have."

"That's probably the worst that would happen. At worst… Some psyche damage. She's not aggressive with Orange Lanterns, but she can be overwhelming."

"And when she knows me?"

"Then I show you how I teleport interstellar distances. And I suppose that she might want to get to know you better; explaining mortal affairs to her is one of my-." I glance at him. "Our jobs. Do you want a formal investiture ceremony, for your new station?"

"For myself? No. I will leave it to Clarissi Dox as to whether I should have one for the Orange Lantern Corps and for N.E.M.O.."

I nod. "Sensible. I doubt there'll be anyone in the Corps who won't know by the end of the day anyway. Oh." I tap him on the chest with my right hand, the Clicker characters for 'Enlightened' appearing as part of his rank insignia. "But you will have to take that, I'm afraid."

He looks down. "I shall bear it as best I can."

We approach the housing of the Central Power Battery and stop, and I reach out towards the Ophidian. Her consciousness feels… Sleepy? As she exists as one with the desires of the entire Corps. But then she feels two of me and suddenly we're the focus of her attention.

Xalitan's eyes widen as he fully perceives her, and she stares down at him.

"My Agent, what is this?"

"My Embodiment. This is progress."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:02 GMT -6

"…no, there's no need to-."

And he's gone. Ugh. I just wanted to check in with the President's office to see if there was anything that urgently needed my attention. I didn't even think the satellite relay went to his residence yet. I just-.

"Mister Krono. Or should I say 'Ambassador'?"

"Mister President, thank you for speaking to me. They really didn't need to wake you."

President Grant Columbus Hayes of the New California Republic snorts. "I'm sleeping lightly anyway. Legion assassins nearly got to me two days ago. Besides, hearing from you is usually the highlight of my day."

"How?! What happened?!"

"Frumentarii snipers took a shot at me during a state visit to the Boneyard. Good job Mariah was quick with the telekinetic barriers or the second shot would have hit me in the head. The real scary part was that they had backups hidden in the crowd. Bleeding from the lung is even less fun when you've got madmen with gladiuses charging at you and your car is too hemmed in to move."

I nod. Mariah Colson is one of my people, charged with keeping President Hayes alive. And unlike the two I assigned to Elder Lyons, she's a mature adult.

"Fortunately the next truck up had Brotherhood Paladins in it. Pretty hard to knife someone in a T Fifty One."

"Anyone on our side hurt?"

"Seventeen dead, and about forty injured. The snipers killed security guards and book store workers before taking their posts, and the knife-men cut their way through the crowd. On the plus side, your people took a few of them prisoner, and they've been winding up what's left of that network."

I nod. "The war?"

"The Legion's still fighting. We're winning, but it's a bloody business. Our friends in Rio Grande are having trouble crossing the river, and the robots-." He snorts quietly. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

"Problem?"

"WARDEN says that his standing orders only extend to maintaining law and order within the borders of Colorado and New Mexico. Sallow ended up just ceding the territory when he realised that WARDEN's robots weren't pursuing past that. Oh, and Doki's got some other-. Heh, some other poor sap to play Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor with."

Oh dear. "Have there been more kidnappings?"

"Not from the West Coast. There may have been an ARGUS sighting in the Mojave, but we've been getting that sort of report from all over ever since the first time. How was Britain?"

"As good as I could expect. I've got some examples of a new form of circuitry they've developed which might interest you, and some wool samples your tailor might like."

"'New form'? You mean it doesn't use vacuum tubes?"

"Just so. The end product is more easy to disrupt with EMP but can manage a lot more operations per second than regular vacuum tubes while being far easier to manufacture than micro vacuum tubes."

"That's.. interesting. I'm not sure that we wouldn't be better off sticking with what we've got, but we can take a look. What sort of state is their government in?"

I snort-chuckle. "Technically, they have one. They're a ghoul-ruled gerontocracy, though they don't call them 'ghouls' in Britain. Queen Elizabeth is still alive and reigning and there isn't any major opposition. They're currently consolidating control and skirmishing with the other European countries out at sea. Assuming nothing changes, the island of Great Britain should be solidly under their control inside twenty years. I'm going to talk to Santa Anna and Elder Törni about the possibility of opening up transatlantic shipping routes."

"Good." He sighs. "Diana's offered us cotton seeds to get us started, but it'll take us a long time to grow enough to be commercially viable. And… I know that we're going to beat the Legion, but I'm not sure how we're going to pacify-"

"This is Doki-"

"-Ariz-tzzzzzzz."

"Mister President?"

"-Doki for Robot City Productions-"

"Doki, this is a private conversation-."

"-preeeeeeeeeesenting the second ever instalment of..! Drum roll sound effect!"

I hear the drum roll coming from the speakers as I turn the saucer to the north-west and accelerate.

"The Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor! Broadcasting to everywhere! Whether you want to listen or not! Sponsored by the goddess Hecate!"

Okay, so nothing untoward happened during the first episode, other than the initial kidnappings, but if she's grabbed people from halfway across the continent again-.

"Our eligible bachelor this morning is a man with mysterious past! A hunky frame! A surprisingly well-trimmed beard on a face that isn't anything like as scarred as it was supposed to be! In-tro-ducing Legate-"

Ah?

"-Lanius of the Hidebark tribe!"

I accelerate more.

"Once I am free of these bonds, I will slay everyone within range of my voice."

That's his voice.

"Competing for the affection of this redoubtable warrior! Tanya 'Ant Agonizer' Christoff! That name is a pun!"

"I don't call myself that any more! I gave it up!"

"She controls giant ants and uses them to ravage the wasteland!"

"It was one town! And I barely ravaged it at all!"

"She's honest, industrious and prudent!"

"I thought I was a comic book supervillain! How is that honest? Or prudent?"

"And competing against her for the privilege of dating the Monster of the East! 'First name not found' Mckinley of The Executives!"

"You think you can acquire and merge me? I'll teach you the true meaning of hostile acquisition!"

"She's a violent killer with ahistorical beliefs about the pre-war civilisation she's based her life on!"

"I'll liquidate your entire family!"

"And she has highly effective leadership skills!"

"I'll take days to strip your assets!

"And lastly, Paladin Justinia Hayman of the Midwest Chapter! Her own father told her: 'You are the last in a legacy of failures', and based on what's happening in Arizona right now, well, so is our bachelor! She's also very good at fighting and is completely merciless!"

"Machine, I will destroy you. Not for trying to humiliate me, but to safeguard humanity against your madness. And I will kill the raider and the mad ant-woman as well."

"I'll downsize your Human Resources!" / "What did I do?"

"For the first round! Insert wheel spin sound effect, because it's time for a Cooking Catastrophe!"

I accelerate again.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th July 2014
21:23 GMT +5:30

Phh-tchhwuhwuhwah.

I lead the way through the ground bridge -or maybe that should be underground bridge, waving in the direction of our secure storage area as Arcee, Slipstream and Tailgate follow me through.

"We didn't think keeping them on the surface was a good idea."

Tailgate isn't listening, his attention fixed on the walls and ceilings of Unicron's interior. Arcee in the meantime looks at me sceptically. "I thought you were selling parts."

Pull's head nods. "Yes, and once we've delivered whatever we sold to a secure facility then it stops being our problem. But until then, we leave it down here."

I amble towards the chamber set aside for Unicronian storage.

"Since we're in Unicron, dark energon's not exactly in short supply."

I feel Slipstream's amusement at Arcee's visible disgruntlement. "Do you sell that, too?"

Slipstream shrugs nonchalantly. "You remember when Unicron started waking up? Or when Megatron used his dark energon crystal to raise an army of terrorcons on Earth?" Arcee nods cautiously. "That left… Quite a lot of dark energon on the surface. Terrorcons don't have much liquid dark energon in their systems, but there were a lot of terrorcons, and a lot of the ones we located were drained using human equipment before we got to them."

"Scrap."

"And small dark energon crystals got recovered from at least one eruption site. The American government let us take some for disposal, but I'm sure that they've got more in storage somewhere."

I nod as I turn back towards them. "We haven't wanted to draw attention to them, in case more countries start digging for them."

Tailgate returns his attention to his immediate surroundings, peering at Pull-. At Pull's optics. "Still.. can't.. get over you being in that guy."

"There is no 'guy'. I'm a transtector, not a headmaster." Ah. "Unless you recognise him. I did sort of consider the idea that Shockwave might have used someone's body rather than build it from scratch."

"Creep-y."

I nod with Pull's head. "Yes. And on that note, here are the transformer corpses we're draining of fuel."

Axlegrease built up a system for assembling frames for them to hang from, battered bodies clamped in place at the chest, arms, legs and head, the frame supporting the draining tubes which feed into the pump system drawing out the dark energon. Most of what we're getting is sludge with just a little dark energon, so we've got filter tanks for that as well once a batch of draining is done.

Tailgate and Arcee both wince at the sight. I wave Pull's right hand in a circle.

"Yes, it's ghoulish, but they're literally ghouls. If you've got a better idea, I'm all auditory pickups."

Tailgate girds his… Um. Girders, and takes a closer look at one of the inanimate revenants. "Couldn't you take them apart first?"

Slipstream shakes her head. "That would just make it take longer. And risk exposing whoever did it to dark energon. There's only one Decepticon immune to the effects of dark energon and that's only because the tox-en already in his system is worse. And I don't think that bringing Toxitron to Unicron would end well for anyone."

Tailgate turns his head to stare at her, baffled. "Tox-en? How is he still alive?"

Slipstream shrugs. "Shockwave."

I nod Pull's head. "Tox-en was an early failed attempt to create synthetic energon. But Shockwave, being the logical being that he is, decided that if tox-en couldn't fuel transformers as they are, that didn't necessarily mean that he couldn't modify a transformer so they could be fuelled by it."

Acree nods. "That's Shockwave alright."

Tailgate looks discomported. "And it worked?"

Slipstream and I look at each other uncomfortably. Toxitron was one of Shockwave's surviving projects that Shockwave asked us to help. But he took exception to our 'shiny shiny chassis' and tried 'fixing' us… With acid.

As one, we raise our right hands horizontally and wiggle them back and forth.

Tailgate smiles. "Heh. It really is like you've been bonded for gigacycles. I don't even know what that gesture means."

"It means 'kind of'." Arcee has moved to examine the wrecks more closely. "How old are these?"

Pull's body shrugs. "We're not sure. Carbon dating doesn't work for materials from outside of this solar system. Based on the designs… Some of them are pre-War."

She turns back, looking puzzled. "Pre-War? I thought everything on Earth was from early-War caches?"

"Well, Unicron certainly isn't. It's not impossible that some of these date from the Quintesson Occupation. Or earlier. If early transformers worked out where Unicron was and set up watchers to warn if he ever woke up…"

"Which we forgot about when the Quints took over. What killed them?"

Pull's body shrugs again. "Unicron's defences? Starvation? It's just a theory. We're trying to identify as many of the bodies as possible, but the records aren't in good shape. We've had more luck asking old transformers if they recognise them than getting archive data."

Tailgate look down the rows of salvaged Terrorcons. "Have you found any who aren't Terrorcons?"

"That would be too easy." I lead the way between the rows of dead transformers. "Did you ever finish decoding the Iacon database? After the Star Sabre and the Forge of Solus Prime got discovered, I got the impression that it… Stopped being relevant."

Arcee glances at me suspiciously. "Why do you wanna know?"

"If there were any stasis pods contemporary with these remains, it could clear up a lot of things." I give her a wan smile. "Don't worry. Even if we found something, we'd just trade it to you. We don't need bigger weapons or fancy technology to be happy here."

"For what?"

I take a moment to… Unfocus, trying to hear Slipstream's feelings on the subject. Yes, that's what I thought, too.

"Depends what we find. If we actually get something valuable like the Requiem Blaster… Our own energon production plant? Earth has energon, but it never hurts to have reserves. A small or medium sized ship, maybe? There must be some smaller warships you don't really need anymore, now that the War's over."

Slipstream nods. "Or if it's just an Autobot data module in a stasis pod, we probably owe Ratchet that much for our checkups."

"If it-."

The dim lights embedded in Unicron's internal walls flicker, winds gust out of nowhere as we all deploy our weapons, pointing them in all directions!

"Lantern Pull." A translucent apparition I still just about recognise appears near Pull's feet. Humanoid, blank face and blue and red robes. Last time I saw someone like him they were picking a fight with Larfleeze. In a comic book. I don't think Controllers even exist in this universe, and I've certainly never met one. So where is this fellow from? "I have need of your service."

"I'm not really a Lantern." I switch Pull's guns back into hands and kneel before the Controller. "But I owe you a great deal already. What can I do for you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:18 GMT -6

Banshees. Why did it have to be banshees?

Radiation makes everything bigger, stronger and more aggressive. Everyone in the wasteland -particularly those who've never studied physics- takes that as a truism. Or maybe it's pre-War mad scientists meddling in things they shouldn't, or post-War mad scientists sticking snake DNA into dogs, or post-War scientists taking stuff pre-War scientists made, and-.

There are a lot of nasty mutants around. So really I shouldn't complain about giant mutant bats -which technically aren't giant mutant vampire bats, it's just that their new size means that we're all food-sized- because they're just one amongst hundreds.

My saucer's disintegrator cannons traverse and fire, atomising the left side of one banshee and causing the rest of it to smash into the side of the canyon.

And then I hear the screech.

The saucer has optical stealth. That's not the same as being undetectable, as those mechaniods I fought with the Enclave Iowa National Guard showed. Sufficiently high resolution optical sensors can pick up the slight distortion in the air as the stealth field fails to perfectly replicate its environment. Electromagnetic sensors can detect the ion wake created by the thrusters.

And banshees can detect the sound of their shrieks being echoed-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

-off any object in range!

The sun's up! They should all be asleep by now! And it's not just that they can hear where I am, oh no, that would be far too easy! Their screech-. Agh! It hits the right frequency to stun most people, and-

I shoot another one through the head, but the swarm is already turning and while I'm resistant to their screeching I'm certainly not immune. Especially now that they're-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

-actually… Agh, facing me.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

My right arm seizes up and I'm forced to turn the saucer by pulling on the controls with telekinesis. It turns nose-up, inertia controls and thrusters allowing me to change vector far faster than the banshees which infest the canyons of Colorado. Traverse the cannon again, fire and-. And miss, because the flock isn't moving in the way I expect them to.

And I could get away like this, but that would defeat the objective.

**Tanya!**

Who said that?!

**The telepath leading the bats away. Can you-?**

**That crazy robot said there were ants around here-**

**Yes, good. I need you to-.**

**-but they're not East Coast ants! I don't have the right pheromones!**

Ah.

**Can you get the right-**

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

Somewhere behind me, something bursts.

**-pheromones?**

**Oh, sure. I just need to find out where the colony keeps its queen, get to her, then rub her glands without getting eaten.**

**Ah.** There's a sudden cessation of humming as my ion thrusters shut down, a sound I didn't really notice until it wasn't there any more. **I assume that's as impossible as it sounds?**

**Ah, okay, I might… If I can get larva pheromones, I could get taken to the queen. She wouldn't attack a larva.**

I've still got gravity control, but I'm losing speed as the air drags against the hull. Which means that the banshees are gaining on me.

**Can you get larva pheromones?**

**No! Larva don't leave the nest until they're fully grown! [Deep breath] Okay, okay, if I can find an ant that's been to the nursery recently, I might be able to get enough larva pheromone to fake it. But I'll have to get the nest's regular pheromone so the warrior ants don't attack me first, and that-.**

**I trust you to handle that.**

I turn the saucer around on its central axis so that I'm facing down towards the gaining banshee flock and the ground beneath them. Disintegrator fire and gravity drive off.

And down I go, two banshees dropping out of formation with carbonised wings. The rest move away as I fire again which gives me just enough room to push through their formation-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

-and get a nose bleed as-.

Pchh!

As the disintegrator takes a hit on the unarmoured portion and the safety shutdown kicks in, because overloading disintegrator cannons are no one's friend. Optic camouflage is offline as well, but that doesn't matter because the banshees can't see well during the day.

**Why are you here?**

**That's the challenge! Ah, are ants telepathic?**

**Not as far as I know. And I thought the challenge was 'cooking'.**

**Cooking Catastrophe! We have to fight for our ingredients! The Brotherhood woman got dumped in the river with the river crawlers and the weird raider… I don't know what that thing was she's supposed to fight!**

**And you're fighting for bat meat?**

**No! Apparently their shit makes tubers grow real good! That.. Doki robot.. thing wanted a vegetarian option!**

Clunk.

I look the banshee that's just landed on my canopy directly in the eyes, and I'm pretty sure that it's looking back.

"kEE-kuh!"

I grip its vocal cords with telekinesis and pull! It staggers sideways, claws scrabbling at the hull of the saucer to keep its grip!

"Kkuh-! Kkuh-!"

No you-. Oh, the ground's getting rather close.

I grab the controls with my functioning hand and pull, the saucer shifting to apply its gravity repulsor behind and down. Immediately I feel the g-force and feel more than a little glad for my FEV enhancements. Shit, ah, aim like that towards the canyon because I'm still falling and I'm having to move the repulsor angle on a curve because the banshees are still after me and I can't afford to lose momentum..!

At least the one hanging on the front lost its-

A claw stabs through the underside gun cupola and into the flight compartment!

-grip?

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:20 GMT -6

"kEE-kuh!"

I get a telekinetic grip on its throat just fast enough to prevent it giving me a brain aneurysm, then stand and side-step to avoid its flailing claw!

Klang! Klang! Klang! Shing!

And there goes my chair, falling to the deck as its stem is severed! The only reason why I can't hear the air roaring through the hull puncture is because the banshee's body is blocking it. If I had time I could remove its control of its motor neurons or force it to fall asleep but I've got a canyon coming up-.

Faster than I was expecting! Darn it, these controls are not responsive when used like this! I'm too fast to be this wallowy! Left-straight, jink right, down a little because the pursuing banshees are trying to follow from above and I want to force them to fly around the obstacles too. Extend telekinetic sense forward-.

Agh, no, too fast and too confusing. I kick the chair into the rear of the cockpit as I try and focus-.

Up a little, hard-right to hard-left…

Klang! Klang!

I could draw my pistol and shoot it, but given how tough they are it wouldn't be a certain kill and it would mess up the saucer even more.

"Get-!"

I try kicking the claw and hit it more by accident than skill. The blow doesn't hurt it but it does confirm to it that-

Klangklangklang!

-there's something in here. I-

Shit-left-jinkright!

-am flying an aircraft and-.

I take my hand off the control for a half-second in order to switch the turret to 'rotate'. The motors strain to turn against the mass of a giant bat, but it's not as if the bat has good leverage. Not if it wants to keep trying to stab me with its claw.

Then back on the controls, and… Uh, 'feel the Force' and use Prescience.

And just like that I can feel what's coming and what I should do/will do. I feel it as the banshee's head turns away and I have time to focus on fixing the damage inside my right arm that's preventing me using it. I don't even need to look as I steer around a bend in the canyon with the newly repaired arm while simultaneously sidestepping the banshee's claw-stab. It's a useful ability, but-.

Then the expected confusion sets in as I see what's ahead from each position I could be occupying, and feel the proper actions to take from each of them. The range of possibilities is limited and I can work out which one is the real one, but-.

Turn it off turn it off aaaaagh..!

Project that confusion into the banshee and swing the saucer just so-.

The saucer shakes and then lurches slightly as the banshee gets knocked off, but I've got both hands on the controls and… Sensors are still working. The flock is still mostly following me-

**Are you in yet?**

**Yes! I think someone was feeding these ants. They're nothing like as aggressive as on the East Coast.**

This part of Colorado used to be controlled by the Canyon Raiders, descendants of the criminals housed in Tibbets Prison before the War. Apart from the small cul-de-sac that houses Vault 27, whose power armoured Ghost Divisions would have been perfectly happy to feed ant colonies to block the approach for their larger and more powerful neighbour.

**Do they have spitters?**

**Ah, I think so? Usually, only the Queen can do that, but some of the workers here look like they've got-.**

**Okay good. Find a place where they can muster, get them there and then tell me.**

**They're not that smart! I have to lay pheromone trails-.**

**Tell me once you've done it.**

The people of Vault 27 never built anti-air guns, because no one in this part of the world really used aircraft except Eagle Rock, and they only use blimps. And with banshees being big enough to pick up someone in power armour and fly away with them I doubt that they'd appreciate it if I bring the flock to them. Ants on the other hand… Lose some soldiers and workers, gain some food, and lack the intelligence to blame the man who made it happen.

Alright, that can-.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

Woomp.

Darn it.

New banshees, coming from the caves-. No, just one, but the saucer's gravity drive-. Inertia shield into crash mode, aim down as best I can… That part of the canyon floor looks reasonably level. Vault 27 is some way ahead but I can probably pay them to haul the wreck to their exterior settlements until I can get a recovery crew over here… The people of Eagle Rock are on good terms with my soon-to-be father-in-law, so even if their blimps aren't exactly fast they'll get here eventually.

I really hope that no one mined-.

KCHHUCHHHHbngCKRRRRHHHHHH!

The inertia shield flares and fails immediately, and that takes care of what little downwards momentum I have left. Lateral momentum is partially absorbed, resulting in the saucer skipping like a thrown stone across the canyon floor. I'm thrown into the control panel at the second impact, not the first as I'd been braced for, and… Ah, I'm a little bruised but far less injured than I have any right to be thanks to West-Tek's finest biotechnology. Third hit-

CNCH!

-and we're sliding and I do not have time to waste! I pull the emergency canopy release-

Chngchngchng!

-and then brace myself and lift, shoving it out of the hull and sending it crashing to the ground.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

One banshee in close proximity with a flock to follow. I vault out of the saucer as I reach out telepathically, trying to feel for Tanya-. There she is. Okay, not-. Bend knees as I land and then sprint. Not great but manageable. Personal inertia shield to active, because that should absorb at least one physical attack from a diving banshee. Other options…

I glance up and back for a fraction of a second, then alter my direction so that I'm running towards a rock column jutting out from the canyon wall.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

I focus my telekinesis on my own body, adding a little oomph to my motions. Actual experts can use this ability for true super strength… For a while at least. I'm a lot more limited but then I only need to be fast enough-.

I feel the change it the banshee's mental state as it begins its dive, and at once I stop enhancing myself and implant strongly the idea that the air in front of me is clear. If it had more than a fraction of a second to think things through that wouldn't work, but as it is-.

I thrust my right leg down, throwing myself to the side as the banshee skims past me and slams into the rock pillar! I hit the ground, frantically drawing my pistol as-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

-it flails around in pain and confusion. Soon fix that. Pistol up, charge, two hands and aim-.

The banshee twists its head around to face me-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYY-!"

-and I fire, burning a hole through its skull and into its brain.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

And the flock are still coming. I really need to start prioritising training beastmasters. These things would be really useful if we could control them.

I holster my pistol and start running again.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:25 GMT -6

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

Breathe, breathe…

The forced evolutionary virus is great, but it doesn't mean that I can get away with sprinting indefinitely and it definitely doesn't make anaerobic respiration efficient.

**Tanya, I don't like to be a nag, but-.**

**We're just about ready! But… The queen's come with me. I think she thinks I'm a new queen or something.**

**Is that important?**

I take a half-second to glance back at the flock. Definitely closer, but they seem to have decided that they're better served by letting me tire myself out rather than diving down as fast as they can.

**I don't know. I don't know these ants. Some types can have nests with multiple queens but with others the new queens take half the workers and soldiers and leave to start their own nest. I've never seen a situation where the old queen chooses to hang out with a new queen.**

I look around at the cliff sides surrounding me and spot the small tunnel entrances that show that this is ant territory. That might explain why the banshees are hanging back. I didn't think they were intelligent enough for something like that, but… Maybe?

**I'm sure that entomologists of the future will thank you for your work. I'm bringing the banshees to you.**

**Not to me! They didn't even give me a gun and I lost my ripper trying to fight off that giant robot! All I've got is a tiny knife!**

**I'm bringing the banshees to your ambush point, and I'm finding the ambush point by homing in on you. If you're too far away then I won't find it.**

**Okay. There's an old semi-collapsed tunnel. I'm in some sort of maintenance tunnel near that, and the ants are poised to swarm in.**

**Anything I need to worry-**

The sand to my left erupts with angry ant, and I have to use telekinesis to dodge a blob of something that makes the sand hiss when it lands.

**-about, like burrowed ants?**

**Most of the workers have pulled back, but leaving soldier ants as sentries-**

**I just ran past one.**

**-and oh. Okay, it's probably emitting a warning pheromone, so the other ants will be on guard.**

**How do ants sense their targets?**

**Vision and smell. Ah, depending on how close you were, you probably got covered in the warning pheromone, so you can't just outrun it.**

**Not a problem.**

I can just about hear the warrior ant chasing after me, maintaining a surprisingly quick pace even if it can't quite keep up with me. And of course it can't smell the banshees at all from down here, but it's probably continuing to emit that warning pheromone as long as it chases me. So while I could telepathically muffle its senses, I don't. I let it keep-.

What's that?

I jink left and slow, turning and heading towards the opposite canyon wall. A small chance that the banshees will use this opportunity to dive, but I think I've got time and I… Yes, there it is. I grab a small device that was dropped near the canyon wall before turning back to my original course and accelerating again. The ant isn't quite as agile as me and has to actually stop to change direction. So I haven't lost my lead but…

What is this?

It looks a little like a speaker, and there's a radio receiver built into it. Did Doki plant these so that she could communicate with the contestants? I… Think I can… Hear some sort of… Quiet noise? Static? Getting any kind of signal in a canyon isn't easy, as even long wave would struggle to get down here. Don't know. I put it in one of my robe's pockets of later analysis.

And I turn the corner-

Buried ant! Dodge!

-and I see the unfinished section of pre-War road leading to a porous pile of rubble which forms the shape of an amphitheatre. And this time I use my telekinetic sense to feel-. Ants. Lots of them. But that passage over there feels more like a complete utility tunnel of the sort I've seen in dozens of pre-War subterranean structures.

And the entrance…

**Can you open the door?**

**Not without squeezing past two royal guard ants while smelling like someone they're supposed to guard with their lives.**

**Right.** I feel more ants buried in the ground nearby, and the ones in the rocks are preparing to attack as they smell the danger pheromone on me. So I slow to a halt, turn and aim my pistol at the flock just above the canyon rim. **Drawing the banshees in now.**

I fire and miss, the range being too long for the relatively slow bolt of plasma to be at all accurate. I fire and miss again, but they're getting the idea that I'm an actual threat they need to deal with rather than something they can wait to die of dehydration. About half swoop into the canyon in my direction while the rest begin flapping to get over my head.

**My control of these ants isn't precise. If they decide to go-.**

**Understood. Apropos of nothing, would you like ant control psychic powers?**

**Uh, what? You mean-. You can control ants? If you can-? Why am I here?**

**Specialisation. I can talk to you and do other things but I'm not good at controlling animals.**

**Ah… I don't know. That was a… My parents got killed by giant ants, and then I… I got convinced that ants were some sort of amazing super species. I don't think making ants my whole life again would be a good idea.**

Fair enough.

**I do know a guy, though.**

**Oh?**

**Yeah. After I… Had some sense talked into me by this… Really hot guy, I ended up meeting this ant researcher who was trying to make ants less dangerous by making them smaller-**

**Oh? That sounds-.**

**-by injecting their eggs with some kinda virus. He ended up giving them the ability to breathe fire.**

**Maybe not, then. I'd rather have someone who knows that giant mutant ants aren't the solution to all of life's problems than someone who thinks: 'giant mutant ants: dangerous, but could they be more dangerous?'.**

**I think he only killed that town by accident…**

…

I might need to send more people to Washington before too long.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

Here we go! Banshees flying along the canyon are approaching slowly in order to use their screech, while two of those above me are tucking their wings in to swoop! I start running towards the centre of the amphitheatre, firing half-aimed shots at the banshees above me. An ant unburies itself to my right and another sticks its head out through a hole, but I dash past them in a blur before their acid sprays can hit me.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

The ants behind me shudder, turning their attention to-. The low-flying flock has increased their speed, and I can feel the increased aggression from them. Not sure what's doing that-.

**The ants are going crazy! Whatever you're doing-**

I reach into my robes, trigger my Stealth Boy and dash over to a nearby overhang.

**-you better-.**

Banshees jostle for position, sonic energy able to detect me perfectly well. The ants on the other hand…

**Let them attack.**

And then the carnage begins.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:28 GMT -6

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

The first casualty is a banshee. Swooping towards my location it flies past an ant while screaming, which is apparently enough to trigger an attack response. The ant's head jerks around, a cloud of caustic mist spraying from its mouth and hitting the banshee in the right side of its face. I see its right eye whiten and then dissolve as the fur around it bleaches and melts, and I don't know if it's the pain which makes it slam into the ground or the brain damage.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

The second casualty is that ant, as one of the swooping banshees registers it as a threat. The banshee slams into the side of its thorax with its mouth open, bowling it over and biting through the chitin. The ant manages to get a spray off and envelopes them both in green-white clouds, and I'm assuming that's the signal for the rest of the ants as-

Oh sugar.

-more pop their heads out, sight the banshees who are diving at me and open fire. And at that point I grab the gas mask from my back and strap it to my face, because I didn't think it would be quite this vaporous.

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!" / "kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!" / "kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!" / "kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

More banshees hit the murk, and I feel the ground shake from their impacts. I can't see them though, only vague shapes through the mist as I remind myself that the ants don't need to see me to kill me.

Stones rain down from above me, and I look up to see a banshee throwing itself at a stone ledge being used as a firing platform. The ant is focusing on firing into the melee below, giving the banshee the perfect angle on its neck. One bite and the head is sent flying, still spraying-.

I telekinetically shove the severed head into the clouds as it falls towards me and agh, I can feel the chemicals in the air burning the narrow exposed band of skin around my wrists and neck. It's just a savage itch at the moment and my F.E.V. enhanced constitution should prevent it getting much worse, but-.

Okay, get-. Cord out, wrap it around my sleeves to reduce exposure. I can already see the surface of my robes start to mottle, but as long as I don't get anything sprayed on me directly that should be all that happens. Neck… Bandages. Tie them around-. Ah, it just makes the itching worse. Ah. Water! Grab the canteen, splash it around my neck to dilute the chemical agent, and…

And the banshees are still attacking me, and can probably still use their echolocation even through this… If they're not being too badly burned to concentrate on it. But since as.. far as I can tell I'm a target of opportunity rather than someone they've got a particular grudge against -I mean, I'm not attacking their young or in their core territory or anything- they've got no reason to attack me rather than the ants trying to melt them. Honestly, they should be backing off-.

I frown. Honestly, they shouldn't even still be active at this time of day. I'd blame Doki, but they're definitely biological so-.

**Are you dead?**

**No, just keeping my head down.**

Checking my immediate surroundings very carefully, I-

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAH!"

-throw myself back as a bleached and blinded banshee flails out of the murk, wing claws slashing at me! Pistol up and f-.

Pistol down until it can get checked for chemical damage, because corroded seals are how misfires happen and that's really bad for plasma weapons. Roll -agh!- into those rocks right there as its claw comes around again and grab the wing and tear where the flesh is blistering!

"kEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAGGGH!"

Step forwards and punch the snout, knocking it back because they're much more dangerous on the attack than the defence.

"kEEE-!"

Vader-grip its throat, stow the pistol and take out my knife. Step inside its reach and ignore the frantic battering from its membranes, jugular is there and stab and pull. Sidestep the blood because while I probably can't be affected by F.E.V. again I don't want to risk it and telekinetically shove the dying banshee away from me back into the… Acid fog which looks a lot denser now.

And the itching is getting worse.

Back up back up, head for the edge of the amphitheatre where the air's a little clearer. And.. actually-.

I wipe my knife clean on my sleeve then sheath it before redrawing my pistol and popping out the microfusion cell, which… Yes, I wouldn't want to try firing that. I hurl it into the melee before reholstering what's left of my pistol. Originally some sort of frustration project built by a bitter Poseidon Energy researcher who wanted to prove that he hadn't been wasting company money with his plasma research, it's served me well for several years and it would be a wretch to lose it now. As far as I know it's the only pistol-sized plasma weapon in America. I-

"Skreeeeeee!"

-hear that the ants aren't getting it all their own way. Why are the banshees still attacking? Are they intelligent enough to hold a grudge against the ants? I don't know.

Okay, the edge of the amphitheatre slops up here. I carefully begin climbing, my-. The stealth boy gave up the ghost at some point, so I'm fully visible to any ants whose tunnels I get in front of. But as long as it's just one ant I can muddle its senses, and I suspect that the general miasma will prevent it smelling any threat pheromone on me. Right, that looks like a good handhold, pull up there…

**Are you dead now?**

**No.** There's a flash of light behind and below me as the microfusion cell ruptures, and I press myself to the scree face as the pressure wave passes over me. **Not quite.**

Owowow! The pressure wave that brought burning mist with it! I start climbing faster, pulling myself up and-.

Coming face to mandibles with an ant! I vanish myself from its perception an instant later but it's already spraying! I scramble aside but my gas mask is already melting-.

Alright, that's it. Telekinetic grip on my body I stand and run, dashing up the slope, holding on only with my mental grip as I tear the mask off and toss it-.

Aaaaaaghhhhhh…

Toss it aside, mist immediately burning my face and eyes! The slope is too vertical to run up so I take a couple of leaps to dimly visible ledges before switching to a more conventional rock climbing posture. No crampons, but I have the advantage of telekinetic force to hold myself in position and more than human strength to pull myself up.

Gradually, literally painfully gradually, the mist falls behind and the air clears. The burning doesn't really stop, but it stops getting worse and once I can find a ledge or something I can use what's left of my water to wash my eyes out.

**Okay, I'm out of the line of fire. Mostly.** I 'reach' up telepathically, but I can't feel any more banshees. I suppose they've left, if they haven't all joined the melee below me. **How are the ants?**

**They're going back inside the burrow. Their acid spray probably breaks down the pheromone, so when they've covered an area they don't see a need to keep attacking.**

**Okay. I'm heading to the top of the canyon. Do you think they have an exit up there?**

**Probably. I'll go look. See you up there?**

**Indeed. Though I'm afraid that we're in for a long walk back.**

**Oh hell no! I'm not going back to that crazy-!**

**She's romantically involved with the AI managing this entire state. I imagine that you'll be registered as an escaped prisoner and rounded up in short order.**

**Fu-u-uck!**

**Don't despair. Meet me at the top and we'll work out where to go from here.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th July 2014
22:46 GMT +5:30

This is… This is a very big deal.

I hardly remember anything about other alien species being mentioned in Transformers lore. Nebulons are… So similar to humans that they're-. I barely think of them as being alien, and they're the only ones I've really had dealings with. But a Controller can… Tell me just about anything. Do just about anything, or at least do things that make it seem like it from my perspective.

And all he wants are things that I'm selling anyway.

"This is the crystallised blood of a being called Primus." I place the sample crate in front of the Controller. "Physically, he's a mechanical being about the size of the Earth, but obviously there's a lot more going on with him than that."

"Your current body is derived from his technology."

"This outer casing is, yes. This-" I place down another crate. "-is the processed form, used by his creations as fuel. I've also included samples of the synthetic form. We haven't noticed a difference in effectiveness between the two, but I imagine that you've got an advantage over us there."

"These substances are commonly available in your continuity?"

"Across the galaxy?" I shake Pull's head. "No. Essentially, you'd have to be either on Primus's recumbent body or Earth. And then you'd have to know the right people."

The translucent image of the Controller makes a swiping motion with his right hand, and the energon vanishes. "Acceptable. What else?"

Uh. If he was a Guardian I'd at least have some idea what he was doing, but as it is… The Controllers weren't exactly well characterised in the comics that I read. I owe him for the ring-. Assuming that he isn't responsible for my being here in the first place. But even if he is, he has no reason to tell me about it, and I've got no way to compel him to tell me.

Still, if it gets dark energon out of the universe, that can only be a good thing.

I turn back to the trolley and pick up the heavily armoured crate containing the literal blood of Unicron.

"This is blood taken from another planet-sized god-robot. The one we're currently inside. All types of energon are dangerous to humans… Obviously, I have no idea what they do to Controllers."

"Nothing that I cannot easily manage. Continue."

I press the button to open the crate and pull back as the dark energon samples become visible. "Again, the crystallised and processed varieties. It can cause spontaneous necromancy, so I urge you to be careful."

"Necessary precautions have been taken." The samples vanish. "Why are you not using your ring? Do you not have one?"

"I haven't found a way to recharge it since I've been here."

"That is curious. Most versions of you that I have interacted with manage that, even in continuities that do not provide a ready means of doing so. What prevented you?"

"I.. appeared in space-"

"Virtually all iterations of you do."

"-near Junkion, which doesn't actually have much oxygen in its atmosphere."

"Not Earth."

"No?"

"Most iterations of you appear near to Earth. I will make note of this."

"It might have something to do with the fact that this version of Earth is a thin film of rock over Unicron." I take a data storage module from the trolley and hold it out. "These records should bring you up to speed, and give you some idea what sort of items you would like me to acquire in future."

This time it doesn't vanish, but sort of shimmers as the Controller looks at it.

"I see. You believe that Unicron's core is still in place?"

"Ah… His spark's gone, but the physical containment unit should be. If you.. want it, it's going to take us a while to get that far."

"I do want it. And time does not concern me." He considers me for a moment. "These fluid samples are adequate compensation for your ring. What payment do you seek for further samples?"

A personal lantern would be nice. Apparently most other versions of me have turned out to be some sort of power ring savant, so the chances are good that I could learn to use it really well. I used all my charge up in a couple of days; Slipstream isn't capable of faster than light travel on her own. I was just lucky that she had the location of Nebulon on file. We were just lucky, I should say.

But I don't… Actually need it. No offence to the other versions of me who've probably built their lives around constant access to a power ring, but there… Isn't anything that I'm trying to do that really needs one. Slipstream and I are already rich enough to live the rest of my life in luxury. Delving into Unicron is something that needs to be done, but it's not as if we're on any kind of time limit and we're mostly doing it to help rehabilitate our colleagues and keep them from doing anything unfortunate on Cybertron.

On the… Other hand… I am the only human to get this sort of implant. They appear to be working as intended, but I… I don't have a spark. I'm not a transformer, no matter how much I pretend with this Pull body. Slipstream is millions of years old and will carry on for millions of years after I'm dead.

"What do..? Do you know anything about the nature of the soul?"

"Unless you are highly unusual in that regard as well, you will not have one. Your alternate selves have either not concerned themselves with that subject or created a soul manually."

I don't-. Alright, I-. That implies that they exist, but.. I don't.. get one?

"How does that…? Work? Afterlives are real? Does..? Do gods exist?"

"I am unfamiliar with the architecture of the universe you have appeared in. In my own universe of origin, there are afterlives and there are gods." He looks past me to the storage vaults. "You appear to have a number of wrecks of lesser robots designed to use their fuel. In exchange for them I can provide you with pertinent data relating to the subject. If you decide that you wish to follow your own example, you can request further assistance later."

I nod Pull's head, still a little shaken. I… The only afterlife I know for certain exists is the All-Spark, and… None of the transformers who've come back from it have complained about it. It… Getting a spark of my own would solve certain problems, and-.

He'd probably need an active spark and not just a spark case to study. That's… Not something I'd just do, but… There are more than a few people in this war that Primus can do without.

"Sure. I'll drag a few examples over here. Other than Unicron's core, is there anything else that you want?"

"Anything that does not appear to act in accordance with the physical laws of the universe as you understand them. That will allow me to learn what the laws of your alternity are, and thus better understand not just the interface between alternities, but what allows them to form coherent alternities in the first place."

"I… Respect your dedication to scholarship." Not that anything like that is really relevant to me.

"The knowledge has applications, but that hardly matters to you."

"And… Do you know techniques for transferring a human mind onto a computer format? Not just creating a copy, but moving the current network?"

"Such knowledge exists here. I have not had cause to examine it, but it does not require a great effort to discover it." He raises his right hand again, the data module shimmering again. "There is the portion of what you want that is already in my possession. You are in my debt once more. Deposit your wrecks here and it will be repaid. I have better things to do with my time than constantly be on call for you."

A little rude, but fair enough I suppose. "Anything I put here will just..? Vanish?"

"After a brief delay, yes. Once you are significantly in credit, I will return. Do you understand?"

"Yes, and thank you-" He fades out. "-for this opportunity."

I feel Slipstream's discontentment through our bond. "Well that guy's a thread-stripper." She walks closer, laying her right hand on Pull's left shoulder. "What was that about a mind transfer? Planning on turning Pull into an avatar? It would let you two be in the same place together."

"I was wondering if it was possible to fully become a transformer. Human life expectancy being what it is."

"Oh."

"It might hurt our income a bit if we're-."

Slipstream grabs my shoulders and pulls-. She tries to pull Pull around, but Pull is about three times her mass so she ends up in front of me instead. Then she kisses me, which… Ah, I can sort of feel it, but… It's still nice because I can feel what she's feeling.

"It's more than worth it. Let's get that tailpipe what he wants."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th April 2024
19:39 GMT

I get up when I want

I can't help but shake my head. I can't believe that someone's been using their time to set up a radio station, of all things.

I finish restoring the partially-demolished tower block and drift back to admire my work. None of the major fights of the… I don't know what you'd call it. Two people taking on everything the governments of the world can throw at them and winning. The centre of London is a crater from where they decided that killing governments for failing to surrender promptly was the way to go, and electronics are unreliable in a lot of places due to the electromagnetic pulses the nuclear weapons… And other exotic weapons, sent out.

Except on Wednesdays

But this wasn't even a battlefield. Just some poor bastard tough enough to keep his body in one piece when they hit him but not tough enough to actually survive, sending him flying halfway across the continent and slamming into a city with enough force to break it in half.

When I get rudely awakened by the dustmen

Most of the residents died, as did a lot of people the rubble landed on. But now it's… Liveable again, and with water and… With water restored, people can move in again. A few people below me nod at me in thanks, but… Yeah. It's a little hard to actually get excited about this. For them or me.

Parklife

Alright, dinner time. Then do I take the evening off, or keep-. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm going to keep working until I can't get an erg of ring power, then it's bed and start again bright and breezy tomorrow. Unlike most people I'm not hurting for food or-.

"Ahhh, what are you doing?"

I turn around, coming face to face with-. Him. My loss-. Ah! My loss of focus sees me dropping three metres to the roof of the building I just repaired, ring dead.

"That was a bit pathetic." He drifts a little closer, looking around curiously as he does so. I don't really know how good his vision is. Broadcasts from the people fighting him and his father said that they were slightly vulnerable to very loud sound but there wasn't anything about vision.

I cautiously rise to my feet, staring up at-.

"I'm-. I'm.. sorry, none of your broadcasts said.. how we were supposed to address you."

"Oh, that's easy. I'm still-"



I nod. That's the name he used as a young superhero, and I-. If his broadcasts are genuine -and I can't think why he'd feel any need to lie to us- then he still regards this conquest as a heroic activity.

"Well, ah, Invincible, I'm rebuilding. Ah. None of your broadcasts included… Any.. sort of plan as to how you wanted-" He drifts sideways slightly, looking around us. "-the reconstruction to happen, and in the mean time a lot of people needed homes…"

He's not looking at me, but I've seen the videos of what happens to people who disobey his orders. I didn't even want to be a superhero!

"Ah, so, if there is a plan, or… Ah, anything? I'm obviously happy to work to that… Is there?"

He carries on his slow rotation before returning to facing me.

"And you haven't built… I don't know, a secret base underneath there. Have you?"

"No, Invincible."

"Are you sure? Because a lot of people are doing that."

"I.. don't see what the point would be. In… Resistance. You beat Earth at it's strongest… If we were going to win… We wouldn't be here."

"Tch." He smiles, gesturing to me with his right arm. "Why can't more people see that?"

Optimism? Determination? I remember seeing a documentary about a runner whose shoe came off halfway along the track. He said in an interview afterwards that even after seeing everyone else shoot away from him down the track, he was still completely convinced that he was going to win.

It takes a particular type of person to dress up in brightly coloured spandex and be a vigilante. And apparently that's the sort of person who will look at a viltrumite who has just exploded their way through fifty of their colleagues and say 'I can take him'.

"I couldn't say. Ah. Though if I may make an observation?"

And then he's behind me, right arm around my shoulders. An arm that can sheer steel bars and would easily go through any construct I could generate.

"Sure, buddy! Tell me what's on your mind."

"W-well, I'm… Excited to be joining the Viltrumite Empire, but, ah… I don't really know what that entails? Will.. you… Ah, Omniman, be our governor, or… King? With you as his deputy? Or are you both.. part of the Empire's military, and there'll be a.. transitional.. team coming along in a few weeks to begin integrating us into the Empire?"

"No, we'll be sticking around."

"Okay, good, great! Makes perfect sense when you're the ones who know how human civilisation works. I'm sure that will make the integration go a lot more smoothly."

His arm bends ever so slightly, and I'm dragged down a little, to his head height.

"'Excited to be joined the Empire', huh buddy?"

"Africa still.. mostly uses European infrastructure. For a space aged civilisation like yours, I'm-. European countries didn't improve Africa to be nice to the natives, they did it to improve their own standard of life as they colonised it." I turn my head towards his, and-. Those goggles are really off-putting. Not as much as the strength is, but not being able to read his full expression… "The Viltrumite Empire is space aged, so…"

"You think that even if we're just fixing the place up for us, you'll still benefit."

"Ah… Yes."

"Okay." He nods repeatedly. "Okay. I can see where you're coming from. And you're right. The Viltrumite Empire will be improving a whole lot of Earth."

I find myself smiling without specifically meaning to. "Great! Great. I assumed it was-. I mean, there's not much we can do for an Empire… That powerful and… Advanced. And I don't think we're on a major shipping route."

He shakes his head. "So..?"

"I was sort of wondering… Why? What the point was? I suppose it.. sort of what it goes back to what I was saying about… What it is that you want us to do? I mean, you and Omniman have been very clear about what we're not supposed to do and what the consequences for disobedience are, but… I think a-. That having a more positive message-. Idea about what Imperial citizenship meant… Might make things go better."

He nods, relaxing his grip. "Far as I can tell? The Empire wanted to conquer Earth because it's here, and because we can run it better. Just a sense of obligation, really. And I know that however many people we kill now, future generations are going to look back and thank us."

I nod. "Okay. That's-." Doesn't really answer my question. "Informative."

"But for me personally?" He lets go of my neck, those parts of his face that I can see looking pensive. "Have you ever dated someone who was such a total bitch that you decided to conquer her planet just to shut her up?"

"I-I can't say I have."

"Be grateful." He rises into the air. "I'll get you those plans you were asking for. No sense having just about the only guy with powers who's actually getting with the program wasting his time building something we're just going to tear down again."

"Thank you?"

"Don't sweat it. Keep up the good work!"

There's a roar of air and he's gone, the people below taking cover as stony shrapnel goes flying!

I spend a moment watching the now-empty sky.

And then my heart rate starts to come back under my control.

And I think… I think I just became a collaborator.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:37 GMT -6

The device I recovered floats in pieces around me. Cleansing myself of ant pheromone had to take priority, and since I'm not a specialist in molecular transmutation that wasn't exactly quick. I'm not a specialist in animal control either, which is why I had to. And once I did that I had to clear the area around me, because the pheromone triggers combat behaviour generally as well as marking a target specifically.

It is a speaker. But it's not a radio speaker. I'm not exactly sure what it does, but I've got a nasty suspicion. Slot the whole thing back together, focus my psychokinetic powers on my immediate environment and activate it…

Ultra-high frequency sound. Doki was driving the banshees wild deliberately.

The ground a short distance away begins to churn, then a giant worker ant erupts from the rock. It looks around, appears to spot me and takes me in for a few seconds, then completes its examination of its surroundings and heads back inside. A moment or two later there's another eruption from nearby as another worker ant surfaces.

Uh.

I back away a little.

Another worker ant breaches, then a section of ground collapses. Then more worker ants start swarming, clearly the area and building some sort of… Mound? Ramp?

**Tanya? Are you there?**

**Kinda? The Queen's bringing me up through the tunnels. I don't know what I dosed her with exactly, but it's really worked.**

**Should Queens move that much?**

**Not usually. If these ants were migratory, there'd be more tunnels and bivouacs around.**

**And she doesn't look aggressive?**

**Ah… No?**

**You don't sound too sure.**

**I haven't learned all their behavioral patterns yet. I don't think this is aggression, but I don't know for sure.**

**I'll try to avoid looking edible, then.**

**Try not to smell edible. They're ants. Okay, I think-.**

And then the queen barges through the steadily widening hole, Tanya clasping her thorax with all her might.

Gosh. That's a big ant.

Not a lot of giant ants on the west coast. I think there was one small colony in the Mojave somewhere, but that got dealt with years ago and I only saw pictures of the aftermath. I reach out mentally… No, not intelligent, but she… Yes, she's pegged Tanya as an immature Queen and… Future ally? That's a little concerning, as it makes me lean towards 'engineered bioweapon', but-.

Tanya scrambles off and staggers over to me, wiping dirt off her mask. "That was-. That-." She gives up on clearing the mask and just pulls it off. "That was horrible."

"You made some friends." The Queen is looking at me, but I'm not feeling any particular malice. Still… Uncomfortable, even if she's not mentally sophisticated to associate me with the scrum down below. "So-."

"She's broadcasting this, right? That Doki-machine?" I nod. "How far?"

"I'm not sure. Over a good portion of North America at least."

Her face falls. "Seriously? I have enough trouble with people knowing who I am back home. Now everyone's going to know me as the crazy ant girl?"

"My offer of sanctuary still stands. I was.. involved in the previous one of these."

"How long does it take for everyone to forget about it?"

"I'm marrying the winner of my contest, so… Probably never. Now, what exactly did Doki want you to do?"

"Never?" She looks dejected. "Damn it!"

"My aircraft was destroyed and I don't have a quick way out of this part of America." Technically, Diana's tribe lives to the south of here, but if Doki's put speakers to drive the river crawlers into a fury… Not a good idea, and actually getting to Diana's airport wouldn't be easy because the half-civilised tribal slavers she recently conquered are in the way. "We're going to have to play along with Doki's game for now. There are a couple of banshee corpses down there that haven't been melted with ant acid."

"The ants have got a fungus farm. They'll let me take some. I've cooked ant fungus before." She looks pained. "Who's that 'Lannayus' guy? Some kind of warlord?"

Right, east coast. Won't even have heard of Caesar's Legion.

"He's a general. He's the immediate subordinate of the man who rules Arizona. At the moment. There's a large war going on and he's almost certainly going to lose."

"I guess that's how Doki got to kidnap him. So… Okay, we get the food, then what?"

"Well, the leader of the Executives is a raider, so I'm not too worried about her. But I have a good working relationship with the Brotherhood." Hm. "Are you going to be alright gathering food here while I try and find her?"

"Ah… The ants like me and all the banshees are dead, so probably."

"Will the ants escort you?"

"If I get the right smell. So I gotta get back to the prison on my own?"

I shrug, and gesture to the Queen. "I wouldn't say 'on your own', but… If you think you can. If you can't, I'll stick around."

She takes a deep breath, thinking it over. "Ahhhhh… No. I should be okay. I've survived the wasteland with just my ants before. And I know the way back."

I nod. "Okay. Let me know when you start back. If you get desperate for help then think at me and I'll try to reach you again, but I'm not that fast on foot."

She nods, and I turn due south. Head down and run, F.E.V.-enhanced muscles shoving me onwards while my psychic abilities guide my feet to places that provide stable footing. I'm rather glad that psionics here works more like magic or the Force rather than simple telepathy, because while I could probably survive a fall from up here I wouldn't exactly-

I leap over a four metre wide cleft in the rocks, rolling as I land on the far side before resuming my dash.

**Paladin Justinia, can you hear me?**

Nothing yet, focus on running. What her chances are -if she's even still alive- depends on what equipment Doki has left her with. River crawlers attack with their claws rather than dragging and drowning as an alligator would, so if she's got a suit of T-51 or Technical Armour then she should be safe unless she runs into one of the really big ones. Laser weapons are reasonable for piercing their exoskeletons, and river crawlers shouldn't be intelligent enough to aim for the weapon.

Would Doki have put speakers by the riv-. Of course she would.

**Paladin Justinia, can you hear me?**

**Show yourself!**

She can just about hear me, but without a better feel of her thoughts or significantly closing the distance she's not going to hear me clearly and I might distract her at a vital moment. So…

**[A device that broadcasts a bad signal, a threat that goes away when it's destroyed]**

I don't know if she'll do it or not, but that's the best I can do for now because I'm reaching the southern end of this valley wall and the distance between this rock and the rock column between here and the river. I accelerate, preparing to hold myself in the air with my psychic grip.

Coming up now and… I know how Neo felt before he failed his first jump. But all that will happen if I fail is that I'll take longer to reach Justinia. I can do this.

Two, one, leap!

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th December 2282
06:42 GMT -6

Kinda… Funny, really. After kicking off the edge of the canyon wall, there's not much I can do physically to improve my trajectory. Psionics lets me negate gravity to a degree but I'm still left coasting on my momentum less air resistance, and I'm fortunate that it's not particularly windy today.

Falling with style, if you like.

I'd keep trying to **feel** Justinia but I have to direct all my energy to keeping myself airborne. Ah. What can I usefully do..? Radio. My personal unit isn't that good, and… We're in canyon country, so it's long wave only, but… Earpiece, turn it on and press the 'search' button…

"…unexpected intervention of our previous bachelor, Ant Agonizer is getting to work at butchering the corpses! Being able to butcher your kills is a vital wilderness survival skill! And one that puts her way ahead of half of her competition! And now a word from our bachelor!"

"Previous bachelor? Who do you mean?"

"Krono of the Sky Walker tribe!"

"The Witch-Man is here? I will take him and-!"

"Ah, we don't do that kinda meet-up here! Strictly boy-meets-girl! Back after these messages!"

"What are you implying, machin-?"

"Why you want it to fry,
So you don't die:
Lady Lasers!"

I switch my radio off.

'Witch-Man'? Yes, creative. I knew that Star Wars never existed, but isn't there some sort of reference to Roman folklore or mythology that Sallow could have made? Lanius himself isn't an issue. He's supposed to be unusually strong, but he isn't F.E.V.-strong. He might have got the brain treatment from the Hubologists that would prevent me probing his mind… Though that's not a sure thing. Sallow would be willing to authorise it for key people and Hubologists only restrict access to it for financial reasons, but it does actually require complicated machinery that doesn't just get left lying around.

Nice to know that Lady Lasers are expanding out of Mexico. Always struck me as a bad idea that the NCR was so dependent on the Gun Runners, and they'll find it harder to use their usual anti-competitive practices outside of NCR territory. Not like we offered General Vialla an exclusive contract.

Alright, coming in for a landing, and… Ah, oh, I'm going to undershoot. Alright, so the choice is between smashing into the cliff because I'm only stopping myself from falling and my inertia shield isn't all that reliable where walls are concerned, and just falling now and then… Running around the mesa, or… Climbing it? Because as much as I might like to I can't fly or-.

Um.

Okay, this is going to hurt. But it's going to be survivable, and it should get me to Justinia a little faster.

I close my eyes, and imagine that I'm falling towards the ground.

I'm not flying from the cliff top, I fell from the cliff and what I'm moving towards is the rocky floor.

Gravity isn't pulling me towards that… Ah, dust-covered wall that way, it's pulling me towards the place I'm falling towards, otherwise… Why would I be falling that way?

**[Gravity is coming from that way.]**

I twist in the air so that my feet are pointing **down**, bending my legs slightly in preparation to absorb the landing and-.

Euerkkh!

Oh, that's going to be a nasty headache later! The universe doesn't like being lied to like this and-. And I shouldn't get a brain haemorrhage, but I'm going to be looking at a migraine in a few hours, and-. And the 'no brain haemorrhage' thing is more hopeful than-.

Brace!

Crack!

Bendandtuckandroll!

Ahfuck! Up-!

No, that was my knee! And that hurt enough that I'm tearing up-.

Guugh!

No, that's not a tear, that's blood. The universe's way of letting a psyker know that they're on its bad side! Crawl! The.. drop is only a few metres away, knee is-. Aaaagh, that's going to need to be set before too long or rebroken later because F.E.V. regeneration knits tissue back together rapidly, it doesn't move bits around if they're in the wrong place! Keep that-. Elevated! And remember where **down** is!

Ugh. Ver-vertigo, too? Oh, no, just something in my ears bursting. Good-. Ah! Ow! Good show. Arms over the **drop**. Shoulders over the **drop**. Grab onto-.

OOPHF!

And down is actual down again and I'm hanging from the top of the cliff and I can feel my leg trying to mend itself with my kneecap still in several dislocated pieces!

Ah…

Twist to the side slightly, try and get my… Good leg up. Don't use psychic powers because I can already feel the headache building and I need to make sure that Justinia is safe before I collapse. Pull, dig fingers is, turn and get the leg up… Good. Now roll onto your back… Yes. Sit up. Pull robe open and… Uh, rip trouser to get at busted kneecap.

I used to work with a bloke who had a busted knee. Rugby incident. Not accident. Ripped through the connective tissue and he sometimes woke up to find that his kneecap had slid around to the side of his leg while he slept. Put the ripped bit of trouser between my teeth and pushghrghrfffghuhh! The knee back together. Hold it, get the stim injector from my coat pocket and jab it into my leg!

And keep holding… Two… Three… Release?

Okay. Good enough for hobbling. Still hurt, but! Not as much as my head is starting to. Now I need to go that way, and… No psychic powers to make sure that my footing is sure. Which isn't a problem because at this speed I can see where I'm going perfectly well.

Hop-hobbling it is. And… Radio, not.. damaged. Switch to Midwest Brotherhood long wave frequency, switch to broadcast, take the microphone…

"Krono to Paladin Justinia. Please respond."

Is hobbling or hopping faster, I wonder?

"Krono to Paladin Justinia. Please respond."

"Identify yourself! How did you get this frequency!?"

"High Elder Törni has been using me as a messenger. I don't recognise your name, so I assume you're from the Midwest Chapter?"

"Steel Circle?"

"No, just someone trying to make the world a better place. You should look out for broadcasters; Doki is using them to-."

"I have already destroyed them. I am aware enough to know they were out of place and I have no interest in this farce. Where is the closest Brotherhood outpost?"

"Ah… There's a Brotherhood outpost in Denver, but the city is controlled by WARDEN, and he works with Doki. Next nearest after that is in Texas, and that's a long walk. But if we finish this contest, then Doki won't try and stop you leaving. Do you know anything about cooking crabs?"

"The best meat is in the claws."

"Sounds like a start. Gather some up, and I should be with you shortly."

"Why should I follow your plan?"

"Because the humiliation you're feeling now is nothing compared to the penalty which Doki will drop on you if you don't at least play along for now, and at this point your reputation has already taken the hit."

"Fine. But before this day is over I will have Doki Doki's head!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th April 2013
23:37 GMT

"Mister van Wyck!" The red, white and flame figure stops in the air as I call out to him. "Fancy seeing you here."

He hesitates for a moment, then turns and flies closer to me. "Why wouldn't you? I live here now."

I glance around at the Maltusian city around us. "Oh? Since when?"

"End of last year. I was getting bored with how quiet our Sector was, and asked to be reassigned. My Controller has finished the machines for changing people into Effigies automatically and he wants me to train them."

Mr. van Wyck doesn't have a military background, but he is 100% of the non-Martians with his power set and that's inevitably going to help the new people adjust.

Wait…

"Last year? Did you miss the whole Anti-Life..? Thing?"

He looks a little puzzled. "What anti-life thing?"

Be-cause his powers don't come with a database or news feed.

"Ah, short version, a mafia boss made a deal with Darkseid and got given the ability to inflict weaponised clinical depression on the whole planet. It took the Justice League months to undo it, and it's been like a second Sheeda invasion as far as the effect on civil society is concerned."

"Oh." He looks dismayed for a moment, then his eyes snap back to me. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I had no idea where you were, and… I assumed that if you were on Earth that you were already involved. I was… Updating the N.E.M.O. database with everything I discovered…"

"Uh."

"You didn't read it?"

"I didn't have much of a life back on Earth." He shrugs disinterestedly. "No one to keep track of. Things going alright now?"

"Not great, but… The remaining problems can't really be fixed with brute force. I mean, if… Controller Jevek Jos Jar can spare you, we could give you a region to look after. Policing is one of the things that's… Collapsed in a lot of places."

"That what you're doing?"

"I'm on infrastructure repairs. You don't realise exactly how much road there is on Earth until you've got to rebuild it."

He grimaces. Jevek made him powerful enough to keep up with a normal Lantern in a fight without the empathic requirement, but he has almost no utility in other situations and he knows it. Best to move on.

"How long until they start letting you loose on Reach targets?"

"About a week. He wants to get the new recruits used to their abilities, then find an ideal target so he can assess how best to use us."

An ideal target is a reasonable place to start, but depending on how Jevek wants to use them a less than ideal target might be better. And even then, they'll have to outperform L.E.G.I.O.N. marines by a lot for them to be worth N.E.M.O.'s time. Because they can't hide like Darkstars and lack Lantern adaptability, so the marines are their competition when it comes to combat viability.

"I'll look forwards to hearing how it goes." Hm. "Actually, your… Faster than light travel. Are the Reach interdicting it?"

He grins. "No. No. We can fly right past their defenses. Attack them anywhere."

I raise my right forefinger. "Until they work out how it happened and block you. The first attack has to count, and you have to have a way to get away again."

"It's super-telekinesis. The only way to block it is to have someone who's better at telekinesis, and they don't have anyone like that. All the martians are back on Mars and Adam Blake is in Vega."

"We don't have a full list of every species that they've exterminated and we certainly don't have a list of every species that they've had dealings with. I wish you all success, but don't get overconfident." I think he's rolling his eyes but the flame effect makes it hard to tell. "Ah, what species are compatible with… Becoming an Effigy?"

"Everyone we've tested it on. Apparently it even works on Reach tissue samples." He shrugs. "We've got no problem recruiting anyone who wants to join. And we're immune to just about every form of mind control they use."

I smile. "Maybe don't recruit reachians anyway."

"What-? No, we're not-." He shakes his head. "Look, I've got work to do. Catch you later."

He turns away and flies off at speed.

Huh. I suppose that it's good to know that he's alright. But the whole 'Effigy' thing… It seems to be a villain thing, if I'm not being a little unfair there. It would work really well if deployed en masse on a population with almost no combat capacity, as it would immediately make them a lot more dangerous. But in a situation like this… The war just doesn't involve that much direct combat close to our civilian populations. The Reach are focused on mind control, with extermination being a long term side effect. And with them only being able to destroy…

I suppose that the at-will FTL has some utility at least.

My ring flashes.

"Answer?"

Ah, not a message. Just data. And… Ah. Not unwelcome news. Richard Madoc did not survive the Anti-Life. Nothing ironic, just beaten to death by someone in the prison he was housed in. It's unlikely that we'll ever know who, and honestly it's not that important.

I don't think I'll mention it to Calliope. She either knows or doesn't care.

Hm. I can feel Orange Lanterns focusing on self-reflection. It gives their connection to the orange light a distinct feel, less… Grabby. Perhaps I'm being unfair, but I hope that neither Ragnar or Zartok make the same breakthrough that Xalitan did anytime soon. I'm pretty sure that they'd both want a fight to the death, and I don't particularly want my Corps to be the sort of organisation where that happens. Perhaps it's my fault for offering exactly that to both of them, but…

Xalitan appears next to me, and I don't notice any of the disorientation that accompanies some forms of teleportation.

"You got the hang of it, then?"

"Yes. I think so. I visited Onigar, and a moment later I was here. And my constructs remained strong around her, even when she-."

He stops talking.

"When she distracted you? When you felt another emotion?" He nods awkwardly. "That's another nice benefit. Even in combat you can feel other things without your constructs weakening. Focusing makes them stronger…"

I shrug, and he nods.

"That will be helpful. Illustres, now that I am enlightened, what is my next assignment?"

"Up to Dox, I suppose. Let's go and ask him."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 12

2nd February 2043
16:12 GMT -7

Ah.

Stairs.

My last surviving enemy.

I take a moment to breathe, not putting enough weight on my cane to feel ashamed of myself, but… Some. Some rich people my age opt for mobility frames, but given the problems those cause you might as well go full cyborg… Something that I've put off entirely too long, if I'm honest. Fifty years ago Lex Luthor was able to get John Corben a robotic body whose only disadvantage was that it lacked some senses. Modern cybernetic frames… Cost enough to beggar a medium-sized country, which is why they're not common, but they include enough techno-organic components that -according to those who use them- they just feel a bit off.

I could afford it, and now that the trial's over I could take the time off to recover…

The problem is the human brain.

Mine's old.

That means that adapting to a replacement body will take a lot longer. That means that the one part of me that I can't replace will carry on decaying, and…

And my mental health is good. And I don't mean that in the American my-analyst-sees-me-regularly sense, I mean that in the my-neurologist-confirms-minimal-faculty-loss sense. But it's not going to improve, and… One of the things I'm genuinely afraid of is turning senile in a more-than-human body. And then there's the fact that I'll still end up dying anyway when my brain dies.

But it's not like my heirs are going to want for anything anyway. Small country money for an extra thirty or so years… And the technology won't improve unless people actually invest in it…

"Fine, fine…"

"Mister Wynne?"

I glance around as Rani comes up the stairs behind me, carrying my case. A personal assistant is one of the accommodations I've finally made to advancing age, and… Yes, it works out well. I get a trustworthy aide who knows how to handle violent confrontations, and she gets a well paying job working for someone who understands if she needs to disappear at short notice during a time that coincides with the appearance elsewhere of the costumed vigilante Goldstar.

"Yes, I'm moving, I'm moving."

I don't put pressure on the cane as I walk, but it is there just in case I need it. And I have needed it before.

"I wasn't nagging you. I was making sure that you're alright."

"I'm old, that's all. Oh, remind me to make an appointment with…"

I frown.

Oh, great. Naturally, good mental acuity 'for my age' isn't quite the same thing as good mental acuity.

"What was his name, the cyberneticist…"

"Ah… Do you mean Doctor Bascomb?"

I click my right thumb and middle finger. "That's the fellow. Yes, an appointment with Doctor Bascomb. I want to see what he can do for me."

A brilliant man who ran into me when he was extremely short of cash and on the verge of making some regrettable life choices. Exactly the sort of person I try and help. He generally focuses his work on the lower end of the market, but I'm sure he can manage a consultation.

"Have you talked to Missus Hampton about this?"

"Claudia?" Ah… "Not recently. I think… Maybe… Five years ago? She might have thought I was joking. But it's just a consultation at this-" She gets in front of me and pulls the door open. "-stage. I can open those myself."

But in I go, a nod to the woman doing the interview. A nice thing about being rich and in demand is that I can say 'I'll be free in the afternoon at some point, set up here and wait for me, and I'm not doing makeup', and that's what happens. The camerawoman's ready, the sound man is ready… And some other people whose function I can't immediately divine are hanging around purposefully.

Now what was her-?

Rani leans in to whisper at me. "Vivian Cole."

"Ms Cole." I accelerate towards the guest chair as she ends her phone call and heads to the interviewer seat. "I'm sorry for the delay. It turns out that ending a court case requires nearly as much time as starting one."

"That's perfectly fine, Mister Wynne." I take my seat, ignoring Rani's concern about my ability to successfully lower myself into it. "Do you want to get started right away?"

I drop my cane to the side of the chair and clap my hands together enthusiastically. "Might as well."

She-. Oh, lighting engineers, those-.

I frown. "Studio lights? What is this, twenty twenty? We have colour correcting editor software now, you know."

"Ah." She looks wrong-footed. "We can get rid of them if they're a problem. But people got so used to artificial lighting on shows like this that audiences overwhelmingly prefer how it looks, even if it's not really necessary."

"Ah, well." I shrug. "So be it, then. Hardly my first time."

She nods. "Okay, ah, this isn't going out live, obviously, but your… Assistant, said that you didn't want to view the footage before broadcast?"

I wave my right hand. "I'm not really worried about my reputation at my age. If I say something stupid then that's my own silly fault."

She nods again, checking the rest of the crew. Yes, it looks like we're ready to start.

She smiles brightly at the main camera. "Joining me here is Mister Peter Wynne, the man whose backing of Doctor Abel Cuvier produced this week's dramatic verdict. Now, the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the Gotham Police Department's use of gene-altering technology last year. Why did a final verdict take this long?"

"The job of the Supreme Court is to rule on constitutional issues, not whole... Well, criminal incidents can involve a lot of separate cases, and each of them requires a final judgement by a lower court. Establishing that the police acted unlawfully didn't automatically mean that everything everyone on… On 'my side', if you like, was entirely in the right. Though the case against Doctor Cuvier fell apart immediately, of course, and his acquittal was… Almost inevitable."

"Leading to the dramatic demonstration of splicing technology on the steps of the courthouse."

He literally left the court, walked up to the podium as if he was going to deliver a speech and then injected himself right there and then. I imagine that it was a relief for him after four years and I'm glad that he didn't go full chimera, but it would have been better if he'd waited a little.

"I did advise him against that, but we had just established that he had the legal right, so…" I shrug. "I hope the fact that he then gave a clear and concise press conference assuages any remaining fears about people who use splicing technology going-. Being driven… 'Feral', by it."

"And the other defendants?"

The other defendants… I thought that if you were rich enough you could just buy the result you wanted. Reality can be so disappointing.

"The jury had a choice. Either they were just picking a fight unprovoked, in which case they were guilty of attempted murder, or District Attorney Young sending out the police force to mutilate them with an untested mutagen was him attacking them, in which case they were defending themselves against an ongoing attack and not guilty. The actual verdict rejected both ideas for reasons I can only speculate; juries.. aren't required to explain their reasoning. Personally? I think that a conviction for assault means that there was a hung jury and someone suggested that they split the difference, but they're out for time served now so I'm not going to bother appealing it." I shrug. "I made it clear at the start that as long as they kept their noses clean they'd have positions in my company to come back to once they finish their sentences, so hopefully they can get on with their lives now."

"We're still waiting on sentencing for former District Attorney Young and former Police Commissioner Gordon. What sort of outcome are you looking for?"

I sigh. "This was… One extremely ill-considered decision at the end of Barbara Gordon's long career of public service. I don't-. If I hadn't seen it happen I'd have said that it was out of character. I.. regret the whole situation. I… I don't see any point in a custodial sentence, and I hope that the judge won't either."

"And Attorney Young?"

"I don't know his career all that well, but in my experience the District Attorney's office attracts the worst sort of politicians, and his actions relating to this case-."

Lights flicker, winds gust out of nowhere and Rani is opening my case and preparing to throw the rod to me even-.

"Lantern Peter Wynne." A translucent apparition I still just about recognise appears in the room. Humanoid, blank face and blue and red robes. Last time I saw someone like him they were picking a fight with Larfleeze. In a comic book. I don't think Controllers even exist in this universe, and I've certainly never met one. So where is this fellow from? "I have need of your service."

I briefly consider myself.

"You've left it a little late, but I'll see what I can do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2024
09:01 GMT

"…very helpful, Invincible."

He's smiling.

It's… Best when he smiles.

"I've been adapting human infrastructure in the areas I repair to Viltrumite Empire standards. I was.. rather proud of British plugs, but omni-adaptors blow them out of the water. Ah…"

He… Spreads out his arms as he floats backwards down the corridor.

"Come on, buddy. You can talk to me. What's the problem?"

"It's going to take a while before… We can manufacture part-. Empire-standard parts locally, so... I've been building power points with both omni-adaptor points and… Whatever the local standard is to get through the transitional period, then… The older version can just be removed."

"Huh." He nods. "Good catch. I guess there's no point in having an energy grid no one can use. Any other problems?"

"Just the… Same concern I had originally. Standard pattern buildings…" I shake my head. "Perfectly functional, and a… Hah, a lot of the ruins I'm replacing were due to go anyway. You would not believe the amount of asbestos I've been finding."

He shrugs. "And that's why it all needed to go. You get that, right?"

"I-. I doubt I fully understand the magnitude of what's happening, so I…" Really wish you'd just leave me to it. "I couldn't really comment. But the new buildings are definitely better than getting asbestosis! Heh."

"Sure, buddy." He turns around and lands, walking towards a very secure-looking door. "Say, could you help me with something?"

What sort of janissary would I be if I didn't do whatever my overlord told me?

"Ah, I can try?"

A dead one. That's what kind.

He looks at the door for a moment and then carries on down the corridor, stopping at a viewing window. Then he turns back to me and motions to the window with his left arm. I nervously approach and take a look through. It's… A hospital ward? One woman, connected to a number of machines. There are… Nurses inside, with the same sort of look of embedded dread that I know is imprinted on my own face more or less continuously.

The look of someone who has to deal with a Viltrumite on a daily basis. And who might be too valuable to kill casually but who knows an awful lot of people who aren't and have sort of gotten used to it but you can't ever get completely used to it.

You can't…

"There's a resistance network in America. A few superheroes, some Global Defense Agency soldiers and some people who just…" He shrugs. "Joined up. I don't know what they thought they were going to achieve."

I nod slowly. "Ah. I'm not much of a fighter."

For a moment he focuses on me. "Ah, yeah, I know that. That's why you're still alive, buddy."

Then I breathe out as he turns his attention to the woman being tended to.

"My Dad and me, we shut down a resistance cell a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if we got the network's whole leadership. I think we did, but I guess it doesn't matter. What matters, is her."

I nod. "Assuming that she's a baseline human, I should-."

"Hah!" He glances at me, shaking his head. "No."

"Ah. No?"

"I'm not asking you to fix her. I broke her neck myself! Not easy, breaking someone's neck enough to completely paralyse them but not kill them. Especially when you're a viltrumite, and you're not sure exactly how tough she is."

No one knows about assimilation. When I realised how dodgy-looking the Global Defence Agency was, I abandoned any plan I had to be a superhero and just kept my head down as much as possible. Constructs, matter transmutation and flight, yes, records of those exist, but the other things… No one has seen them. The records don't exist. And viltrumites aren't telepathic. He shouldn't be able to know.

"Do you..? Want me to check that she's stable?"

"No, these guys are professionals. What I need you to do, is make her see sense."

"With regards to..?"

He smiles faintly. "The Viltrumite Empire. I don't even really mind that she fought us. If she was weak willed she wouldn't be worth my time. It's just-."

He sighs in frustration.

"She just won't accept that she's lost. I don't want to kill her, but I know that if I let her go then she'll start the whole 'resistance' thing up again. And then I'd have to kill even more people. So I need you to talk some sense into her."

"Ah…"

His head jerks around so that he's facing me.

"You can do that. Right, buddy?"

I smile nervously. "I can.. certainly try. Um. If you'll… Let me in?"

He smiles, then walks over to the door and puts his right hand on the palm scanner.

"You'll have to wait for me to get you out." The scanner beeps. "I lock the medical team in there."

I… I mean, what do I say to that? "I'll be waiting."

And then I'm inside, and the door is closing… Quietly but definitively behind me.

And the staff stop what they're doing to stare at me.

After a moment, the closest -a bald black man- sighs. "Are you Jenkins' replacement?"

"No." I shake my head. "No, I have no medical skills beyond basic first aid." … "Um. What..? Happened-?"

"Killed himself. Couldn't take being locked in like this." He exhales. "So what are you here for?"

"I've got to persuade her to stop fighting. Can-?"

"Heh." There's no humour to the… Noise, he just made, but I'm getting looks from the others that suggests that hysterical laughter is a definite possibility. "You know who this is?"

"No."

"This is Atom Eve, of the Guardians of the Globe. Last one left."

"I thought The Immortal couldn't die."

"According to our sponsor, Omniman threw his body into the sun just to make sure he didn't get back up."

That… That would probably do it.

"When he broke her neck, he damaged her oesophagus, larynx, a whole bunch of nerves… High stress, not eating right… She can't feel it, but she's a mess." He shakes his head. "We can wake her up for you, but she can't talk. And she won't wanna listen anyway."

I snort. "I can communicate clearly with anyone and anything. And I'm more afraid of what Invincible will do if I fail than I am of trying."

He nods as he turns away.

"You and me both."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2024
09:07 GMT

Atom Eve's eyes open for a moment, scanning her environment. I get a half-second longer than the physicians, but nothing more.

"Well. Here you go." Dr. David Evesham shrugs dejectedly. "She won't be fully alert just yet, but she can hear you."

I nod. "Could you..? Could all of you take a break?" Oh. "Do you have a break room, or are you all stuck in here-."

"He took over this whole facility. We've got space… For whatever good it does us." He breathes out, glancing at Atom Eve's monitors. "We can, but-" A couple of the others look like they're about to object, but quieten down as he makes eye contact with them. "-you need to know what you need to do if there's some kind of problem. And obviously, if anything happens to her, we're all dead… And you are too."

"Don't worry." I wave my right hand. "I can rearrange matter. I'm gong to fix everything except her spinal column. And I can monitor everything in real time, so I'll see any problems faster than the monitors will."

"You can-?" He breathes out slowly, shaking his head. "Don't do this to me."

"Don't..?"

"Don't give me hope. If you do that, half of us aren't needed. He might let us go. Or he might kill us, I guess, but I don't think he'd kill our families at least. Either way…"

"Um." I stare blankly at him. "I don't-." Okay, these people… Plenty of food being produced in the world outside, not counting that nutrient paste which appears to be what viltrumites feed their auxiliaries. I reach into subspace while feeling out their canteen area. A decent meal is the least I can do. "Anything… Anything else I need to know?"

"We don't exactly know how her power works. She hasn't used it since she's been here, and she hasn't been drugged the whole time. It could be she needs to move her hands…" He shrugs. "She doesn't have extra organs or anything, but if you heal her, she might just blast her way out."

I nod. I've seen recordings of her firing energy pulses from her hands and feet and creating simple constructs. For a while I thought that she might have a power ring, but… No flight aura.

"I'll bear that in mind. Now take a break."

He regards me for a moment, several of his colleagues heading out immediately. Then he looks down, nodding to himself before following them out.

Alright.

Sound baffle and scan.

Ekh.

Yes, she's been in the wars alright. And laying in bed all day isn't doing her much good ether. I start patching-.

Alert!

What?

The aura I had forming around Atom Eve… Fractures!

Don't you dare.

Shield and scan!

Construct armour appears around me and-. And there's no one here. That was the ring-. Usually, whatever it translates is making some sort of noise, but given the state of her neck…

"Didn't you hear?" I drop my armour. "He might let some of your physicians go. There's a lot of work for doctors outside."

Let me die.

"I'm not doing that. It would get a lot of people in trouble."

Her eyes open slightly, assessing me. Telepath.

"No, I've just got a really good translator. Look, whatever you've got planned, most of your injuries can't kill you. They're just crippling you and causing you pain."

No.

"Alright." I pull out one of the chairs standing against the wall and move it into a position where it's easy for her to see me. "Now-."

He sent you.

I nod. "He did."

Her eyes harden further. Traitor.

"They hardly needed my help."

You could have fought-.

"I'm not that strong, not that fast, and I have no training. I've learned how to slowly rearrange matter. That's not something that can really hurt a viltrumite."

She snorts, and turns her eyes to the ceiling.

Right. "Do you know who General Franco was?" She doesn't look at me. "Fascist ruler of Spain for a good chunk of the twentieth century. Didn't join in the Second World War because after the civil war Spain was in too much of a mess to really do anything except send Germany a few volunteers, which is why he lasted so long. But as he neared the end of his life he wanted a successor. And having done the traditional fascist dictator thing of playing his subordinates against each other and only promoting people who couldn't challenge him, he didn't have anyone available who could do the job."

"But he'd been a monarchist in his youth and… The son of the deposed king seemed to be his sort of person. Young Juan Carlos made all the right dictatorial nationalist noises so… Franco nominated him his successor, Juan Carlos became head of state and then king once Franco died… And then revealed his true colours, abolished the fascist dictatorship and transitioned the country to democracy."

"Then there's the Book of Esther. Haman persuaded King Ahasuerus to have all the Jews in Persia executed… Until the king's wife Esther persuades him not to, saving tens of thousands of lives without killing anyone."

Oh, she's looking at me now. No.

Yeah, she worked that out quickly enough.

I shrug. "And of course if the king didn't care about her, they'd all be dead. And if she'd let the fact that he was about to have her entire ethnicity exterminated stop her from 'persuading' him, they'd all be dead." I sit back a little. "I did.. hear about Omniman and Invincible finding your resistance group. Aside from one guy who teleported out, they all died. So I'm going to ask. You're clearly happy to sacrifice your life. Are you willing to sacrifice your pride?"

Tears leak from her eyes, and she squeezes them closed to try and keep them clear.

"I was wondering how it would work, being conquered by an alien empire. I mean, Omniman acting as a scout and then destroying resistance once he realised that we couldn't beat him… Okay, that's efficient. No sense wasting resources when what's on site can do the job. But one man can't run a planet. All he's really done since then is destroy potential sources of resistance. Invincible's the one who made the broadcasts. I don't… I don't think he knows how to run a world. And clearly the Viltrumite Empire didn't have a team ready to go when it happened. In my role as a toady I've been asking for the reconstruction plan, and I don't think there is one. Omniman kills without hesitation, but I… Got hold of some of the Global Defence Agency's recordings. In the early fights, before he… Internalised the victim-blaming, Invincible looked at his father for… Approval? Before killing his opponents."

You disgust me.

"Yeah, that's fair. But having not fought them, and played the part of willing collaborator, I've been able to give millions shelter, food and sanitation. How many people did you help by resisting? After we lost at our strongest, how many did you think you could help by fighting at our weakest?"

You do it, then.

"We went bowling last week. I think he's trying to make a friend, but he's gotten so far into his alien overlord persona that he keeps being inadvertently terrifying… Then deciding that it was intentional." I shake my head. "I couldn't pretend to be you well enough. Couldn't hold your shape or match your power."

I sigh, then get up.

"Think it over."