"Yeah, she… Knows. But it was still her powers that got them killed. She feels guilty."
I suppose it was inevitable that Miss Kane would discover that the car crash which killed her family was the result of a flare in her magnetic abilities. Natural that after being around superheroes and being trained to investigate crimes that she'd want to look into it. But as the song goes, 'Knowledge can also destroy'.

As I said, with any luck she won't fall down. This Frances has a lot more support than the comics version. She might hate herself for a while, but with enough people telling her it wasn't her fault, she
might actually start to accept it.
"You and Master Xu getting on alright?"
"Uh-huh." She glances around. "Uh."
Heh, young godly love. Or infatuation. Not everyone meets the One in their first relationship. That's usually the one where you learn the pitfalls of other people...
"What?"
"I've got three arrows left."
Heh, bit worried about her role as 'pointy stick launcher'? Seriously,
diversification, girl. Should have got more weapons when she had the chance...
"If you'd added an Apokoliptian blaster when you were upgrading-."
"Can you make more?"
Yes, that's totally the best use of your time... Then again, you don't seem to be getting anywhere anyway...
"Yyyes, because fletching is something I'm super interested in, as bows are the cutting edge of space age weaponry."
She rolls her eyes.
Okay, Grayven, dial it back a little. There's sarcasm, and then there's being an
asshole.
"I mean with your Mother Box or whatever."
"Puuuuuuugggggh-."
Boy, it's a good thing Mother Boxes can't vomit. She sounds like she's suffering the world's biggest hangover, and it just. Won't.
Stop.
I pat Mother Box's case lightly. "Don't strain yourself. And the answer is maybe. Usually I do most of my fabrication work by power ring with Mother Box's guidance, but my rings are out of power and Mother Box is struggling. And I don't have any other equipment or raw materials."
"How about this.. coral..? Stuff?"
Workable, if you find enough straightish pieces of it. Even if it weren't her Godly archery powers would probably compensate a little.
"Yes, I guess I could build a simple lathe and shape a shaft." I stop for a moment and tap an outcrop with my right forefinger. "Don't know how it would shoot without fletching, but the stuff does seem to be surviving here."
"I'd cope. It's that or keep reusing these arrows. Apokoliptian arrows are kinda deadly."
...Yes, and? That's like complaining that the Sun shines. Or that water is wet. Apokalips doesn't particularly do non-lethal, not willingly at least.
"Well… Yes."
"Look, I… Get it. Killing… But I don't wanna kill someone unless I have to."
Oh, sure, you've never had someone you shoot at move slightly while the arrow's in flight, and turn a wounding shot into a riskier hit? Arrows are not the most gentle of weapons, you know.
"She probably had torture arrows." I shrug. I don't remember there being an Apokoliptian archer, but it wouldn't exactly astonish me. "Besides, target arrows aren't exactly low-lethality at your level of strength."
"I can shoot to wound. With my… 'God powers'. So long as the arrows don't explode."
True, there is that. I mean, she can probably shoot around corners by now.
"Fair point. Okay, once we get somewhere I'll see about sorting you out. When did you last eat?"
"This morning. How long can… We, go without eating?"
And that's quite a good question. Have there ever been scenes of New Gods going hungry in the comics? After they awakened their Godhood, that is. There's no doubt Granny's charges often went to be with empty bellies...
"I don't know. It's never really come up before. Hunger weakens us, but I've never heard of a New God dying of hunger." … "But that's probably more because we lack the patience to wait for each other to die than any indication of immunity."
"Great." She huffs. "How're we getting back to the present, anyway?"
On to more important topics. No-nonsense, I like that. Not sure whether you'd want to eat anything here anyway.
"Depends when we are. If it turns out that we're in the past I can just build a stasis chamber of some sort and we can wait it out." I remember a comic where the Justice Society did exactly that. Bit of a plot hole about why Black Adam didn't kill them off while he was in evil mode, but the idea was sound. "Depending on when we are. I'm hoping that the skies will clear and we can work it out roughly from the stars."
I remember that storyline. I suspect 'evil' Adam just didn't care, or he felt a duty of honour not to harm them. Or the writer forgot that detail, as so often happens.
"And if we're in the future?"
"Then.. we.. have to hope that the Castle Revolving comes back at some point, or some other time traveller comes to pick us up. Failing that, we can settle in for the long haul and build a portal to a parallel universe."
A parallel universe where you can recharge the rings and get out from under the Vampire Sun's light. Good planning. Wonder how you can manage it without conventional technology.
"And just abandon everyone? What about your kids?!"
"By this point… I mean, if we are in the future, then I imagine that they're long dead, along with everyone else we know."
Perspective. For all they know, the Human race has died out completely after one of those alien invasions, that seem to happen every Thursday in the comics. Admittedly, even if they haven't died out, you'd be hard pressed to recognise them as human anyway.
"And that's… Fine?"
"They're alive in the past. Either we get back, in which case I continue to raise them to the best of my ability, or we don't and… It stopped being a problem a long time ago." I shrug. "I can work out how annoyed I should get once we have a better idea of when we are."
Good plan. Don't sweat stuff you can't do anything about. The obvious goals now are food, shelter, and information. And a passing Sheeda patrol would fix at least two of those things.
She nods, and we continue to walk in silence for a few… I'm not sure, actually. With no power rings and with Mother Box not doing all that well I don't have any reliable way to tell the time. Never occurred to me to make a New God watch.
Those actually do exist.
Heh. Semi-intelligent chronometers that are precise down to the femto-second. Just the thing to time a speedster when they do speedstery things.
"So you're… Dating a pony."
"Princess Luna of Equestria. We have a magic portal which links an area of Sunset's laboratory to a mirror in her palace. Going through turns humans into ponies and ponies into humans."
Thankfully they haven't progressed past the dating phase. Can you imagine the fun Grayven could have, oversharing his, shall we say, bedroom successes? But, a
gentleman doesn't tell.
"That's how Sunset got here in the first place, right?"
I nod. "Do you want to go through and frolic in a meadow as a quadruped? I'm sure you're due some downtime after this."
Honestly, she probably could use something like that, between the Sheeda invasion and the 'Mister Sivana's wild ride' trip they're on here. Would be interesting to see team members take him up on that offer, even if they Boom Tube there.
"I don't think that's really me…"
"I frolic. I sang musical numbers with magic ponies."
"M-musical numbers?" She doesn't look like she believes me. "Really?"
Oh, yes. Spontaneous Choreography and everything. Amazing what a world-spanning magical field with a sense of humour can do when it flexes.
"Yeah, they just sort of happen there. It's like a Disney film. Bit PG in places…"
"I don't think I need to know-."

Oh, god, I wasn't
serious about sharing! Remember, Grayven, she's all of sixteen or so.
"No, I'm not… Boasting. They're just anatomically complete and don't wear any clothes. Their tails usually cover their genitals but they're definitely there."
"So I'd be 'frolicking' naked."
You'd be in good company? It's not like Ponies feel any shame about it.
"No, no, you can wear clothes. They just don't usually bother with that themselves."
"What do you look like as a pony?"
"Well, do you know what a Clydesdale is?"
"I'm huge and grey. Grey pelt, dark grey mane and tail, grey horn and membranous wings."
She stops, staring at me. "You turn into a flying unicorn pony?"
Technically, it's an Alicorn. Though that honour is getting more common by the day, if Sunset has her way.
I wiggle my eyebrows. "And you would, too. And… Not exactly on the 'flying'. Turns out that flying with two additional limbs is actually quite difficult. Luna got a laugh out of it, but I don't want to give the impression that it comes-."
"Did you kill my Dad?"
Whoa, hear the tire screech on that conversational swerve? Did Batman teach her that tactic?
That… Catches me a little off guard. Lying and covering up would be my usual approach, but we could be stuck here for a very long time, and I think she has a right to know.
"Yes."

Honesty!
She doesn't look surprised. I suppose that Paula would have had to explain the body somehow.
"When?"
Keep in mind, she didn't
like him. He may have been her father, but he wasn't her
Father.
"Santa Prisca, the first time."
She frowns, then her eyebrows shoot up. "That was-. Like, your first mission. You still looked human back then."
Amazing what one bad day can do to someone, isn't it?
"Yep."
"You didn't have your Apokoliptian memories back. You thought you were just some.. regular office worker guy, and you killed him."
Is it that surprising? I mean,
most supervillains didn't start as hand-wringing, evil-laugh-giving loonies like the Joker. Is it so hard to beleive a rookie hero might mess up?
"Yep. I had a power ring and he had a crossbow. Wasn't exactly hard and he definitely had it coming." I raise my eyebrows. "You going to tell me I'm wrong?"
"No…"
Sportsmaster
had a bodycount. Not as big as some of the Shadows' best agents, but he wasn't a nice guy, even if you ignore the abusive child-rearing methods.
"I was honestly surprised that no one called me on it at the time. Batman at least."
"And the-." Her eyes widen. "You injected yourself with venom buster on purpose! How did-?!"
As if you'd
try and inject someone you're fighting with a formula that makes them stronger, tougher and drives them into a murderous rage? Any other method would require The Renegade back then to have slapstick-tier clumsiness...
With a power ring.
"Obviously. How did I what?"
She stares at me in astonishment. "How did you get away with that?"
I shake my head, shrugging. "Pass. Ask Batman when you get back."
Batman probably guessed the truth day one. But he allowed it to pass because it made The Renegade more useful. If less covert, mind...