4th February
19:40 GMT -5
I
jab a crumbler round into the
gauntlet construct as it attempts to tighten its grip, causing it to-
"Grugh!"
-dissipate in a cloud of yellow-
"Recognized, Zorina Zatara, Made Man of Owlman."
-vapour
what? I half turn as Zatanna materialises, looking just as confused as I feel at our emergence into a room which looks like a somewhat
wrecked version of the hangar we just left. Zorina? Negative Fourteen, we're on Negative Fourteen. Which means-.
Wonder Woman…
Olympia, that's what my alter ego's files called her, dives at the still off-balance Zatanna, spear outstretched! I form a construct palisade-.
"Pots!"
Olympia jerks, snarls, then her skin shimmers as she breaks the rushed spell. Why can't
Diana learn what I've been trying to teach her like that?
"Ehtaerb ni erif!"
Three yellow construct Olympias appear, the one just in front of me being shattered by a crumbler round almost immediately. This is their Alan, isn't it? What's he
playing at? Another appears just behind Zatanna, swinging the shaft of its construct spear down onto the top of her head. Zatanna's armour shimmers faintly and the shaft is halted an inch from her scalp as the fire she conjured pours down the real Olympia's throat, causing her to wheeze and then
dive for the pool. The fire was orange so it's probably not hot enough to do lasting damage to someone as tough as her, but I imagine that it's fairly painful. Her target gone, Zatanna steps forward and turns to confront the construct just as I destroy it with another crumbler shot.
The third construct hangs back,
growing a shield to accompany its spear.
"Mister Scott, what are you
doing? If you want our help just
ask!
"
"Devorpmi lanosrep dleihs." Zatanna glances my way. "Mister
Scott?"
The air next to the construct Olympia shimmers as Capo Alan 'Al' Scott appears. Disappointingly, he isn't wearing a recolour of
my Alan's uniform, but rather a grey, loose-fitting suit that escaped from the nineteen thirties. The ring on his right middle finger
glows with power, and there's a pin in his lapel with-. Ah,
not the yellow sigil. It's a circle with lines radiating off in a… V? No, an X. Huh,
old school.
"Mister Scott. You're looking less skeletal.
"
"
Hnh." He nods, smiling, his eyes visible beneath the brim of his trilby as
glowing dots. "
People are remembering why their grandfolks were so afraid of me.
Does a man a power of good."
Olympia shoots up out of the water,
glaring at Zatanna as she pulls her right arm back to throw her spear-.
"
That'll do, Olympia." Alan raises his right hand in a 'stop' gesture. "
I doubt that they'd go down easily, and we can't afford to linger here."
Olympia's eyes flick towards him, but she obeys his instruction and floats through the air to land next to him.
"If you have a
request, you can just
make it.
"
"
I find making a forceful impression more useful in the longer run." He shrugs nonchalantly. "
But I suppose there's a time and a place.
Howsabout you come along with us, and I'll explain what this is about someplace more convivial."
"Howsabout fuck you?
"
His smile broadens slightly. "
Howsabout fuck me?"
"You're a senior career criminal, and Olympia is an enforcer and hitwoman. And I'm assuming given the-
" I look around.
"-state of disrepair this place is in that President Slade is still winning. You might be in a hurry, but Zatanna and I are innocent bystanders and we're
not.
"
He nods thoughtfully. "
True.
You might be able to cut a deal.
But Slade's people are shooting first and leaving the questions for the morticians these days, and the two of you look just like known Syndicate members.
And maybe you could fight your way out anyway, but…
Well, I may not know exactly how good you are, but you don't know exactly how good they are, either."
"The zeta tube is right
there.
"
"
Yeah, and it's just released a good deal of easily tracked radiation on a wavelength Slade's people know we used to use.
Chances are, they're already calling a team together.
And unless you know how to make zeta streams cross between parallel universes, I don't see how that does you much good."
Zatanna shakes her head. "You're still not making much of an argument. We can
both teleport. We don't need
you to evade whoever they're sending."
"
Teleport blockers, countermagic specialists, all kinds of exotic-."
Olympia takes a step forward. "The 'peaceful' wing of the Syndicate is being threatened with extermination by President Slade, which will result in a slaughter which serves no one's interest. There is no point in being queen of a
pyre. If you wish to avoid this, you will aid us."
Zatanna and I look at one another. Empathic vision shows that she's inclined to follow my lead. Olympia and Mister Scott are both blocking me so I can't get anything from either of
them-.
There's a flicker in my empathic vision on the other side of the room, which then moves to get into cover. Someone using optical camouflage and a remarkably quiet teleportation system. But they're not attacking and my construct armour is still up. I'm curious as to who it is, but I don't recognise their desires well enough to identify them without taking a closer look.
But we do need the time to gather information. And talking to my alter ego's allies-. Actually, where
is he? He and Zorina are the obvious people to send on a job like this. Mister Scott must have gotten a full report from him, he knows that I was willing to help-.
Be awkward if he's
dead.
"Fine. We'll hear you out. How are you planning on getting us out of a fortified mountain?
"
He
waves his right hand and a circle appears on the floor. "Magic. Their countermeasures eliminate frequencies each time we use 'em. We just have to change faster than they can catch up. Take a minute to punch through the general countermagic field Medea put over the country."
I take my power armour out of subspace and take a moment to check the controls. If there's already someone here, I doubt that it will take longer than-.
Space
twists, and a silver-skinned man in blue trousers appears in the exact point the other person teleported in at moments before. He… Looks like a mash-up of Captain Atom and Major Force, which means that he's probably this world's equivalent of the latter.
Olympia immediately brings her spear to bear. "Have they sent you in to die alone, Q-Ranger?"
"I'm just the tip-" He clenches his fists, green mist rising from each of them. "-of the spear."
Constructs failing.
My construct armour and Mister Scott's construct Olympia fail immediately.
Probably a way around that, but I don't
really want to start a fight with the man on behalf of some mobster supervillains.
"But when it comes to taking down power rings-"
The circle construct Mister Scott was creating dies as well. I appear to still have my environmental shield, though my construct armour is gone. So, area effect construct disruption and it's blocking our host's preferred form of egress. Still not
completely convinced that I care, and… If I initiate hostilities it will severely undermine my claims of neutrality later. My armour doesn't have much in the way of integrated weapons, but assuming that Q-Ranger matches Captain Atom's power output I'm not
too concerned.
"-the tip is all you need."
He stalks forward, then rises a little way into the air as Olympia moves to intercept him. I raise my right hand, the kinetic belt in my armour causing him to walk into what probably feels like an invisible wall. He pushes it with his glowing fists to no obvious effect, and I use the kinetic energy he's providing to dig a shallow trench matching the dimensions of the circle Mister Scott created with his ring. I jog towards it with Zatanna just behind me as Q-Ranger raises his hands and fires an energy bolt at Olympia. It passes unimpeded through my kinetic barrier but she effortlessly blocks it with her bracers.
Mister Scott frowns at me, checks the floor and then nods as Zatanna and I cross the threshold and joins us. "Olympia. Now."
She backs up, blocking an increasingly frantic series of shots from Q-Ranger with a cruel smirk on her face. "How long?"
"About three second-" She blocks one more shot and then flies backwards at speed, crossing the perimeter just as the space around us turns to star-filled purple. "-s."
And then the hangar vanishes.
