27th June 2012
01:53 GMT +5:30
A superhero's work is never done.
It's sort of the reverse of Yagami Light's plan of killing the worst people in the world, even if the worst weren't very bad. There's always something you can be doing, even if it's not all that significant.
In my case, that's using the 'opportunity' provided by the Sheeda depopulating vast areas of Indian slums to replace the cramped and unsanitary hovels with something a little more fit for human sanitation. I also deposited a few hundred tonnes of L.E.G.I.O.N. humanoid-safe field rations from the ships who finally put in an appearance in the hands of local aid agencies, because even though the attacks have stopped this year's harvest has been massively disrupted. And the looting and fire-setting didn't exactly help. Despite how hard it got hit, India looks like it will pull through with its government structures more or less intact.
Unlike South America. Or most of Africa.
Another media reference: a Doctor Who episode in which the leader of a group of humans who'd been fighting the daleks remarked that there wasn't any point in having medics, because the daleks never inflicted non-fatal injuries. The Sheeda appear to act on a similar paradigm. I have moved medical supplies around, but there's no actual increase in requirements. It's more that the economy and transport links are so messed up that nothing can get anywhere. Guy moved a few Dolmen Gates and I don't think that prejudice against magic healing will survive this conflict, but Atlantis simply doesn't have enough physicians to replace the international medicine trade.
Major fighting has fallen off, and while no one's said anything to me directly I suspect that world leaders took Dr. Sivana's deal. Or maybe without the Queen ordering what may well have been distraction attacks the other Highborn are playing it safe. Or maybe without the Castle Revolving's time drive they're stuck whenever they are… At least until Dr. Sivana gets together enough suspendium to open a portal from this side.
The people I brought back were generally traumatised. Aside from facing their own deaths and witnessing a great many of their fellow captives go through the Sheeda's processing, most of them lost family to the rendering vats or to the attack that resulted in their capture. Some of their families were delighted to have them back, others horrified that we weren't able to recover more. That those few people were all that had survived.
Batman can decide how to deal with Mr. Allen. It's not that I don't understand. I'm not even angry with him. But that's… Things are going to change, now. With the League fighting an actual war and not just fighting crime. With League members killing. The ones who haven't are now in a clear minority versus those who have, a complete reverse of the situation ante bellum.
I guess this proves I was right. I'm glad I don't feel better about it.
Incoming phone call from approved source.
Please not Truggs.
Call originates at the Galaxy Broadcasting System headquarters.
Heh. Alright, put it through.
"Orange Lantern Illustres here. I'm free to talk, but I'm otherwise occupied."
"Hey! Alice Gilmore, GBS. Are you free to-? Live. Talk TV live. Ah, live, in a minute?"
Despite the devastation before me, I can't help but smile a little.
"Were you told to make that point very clear, or are scare stories being passed around the office?"
"Um, ah, both..?"
"Yes, I think I can manage that. And I did tell your superiors that firing Ms. Dearden was an overreaction."
"I… But… No one's seen her in months. Before the Sheeda. She did those interviews, then just vanished.. So no one really wants to go down that road."
Oh.
"Well, I… Promise I won't make you disappear. How about that?"
"Okay! Just a sec!"
I… Seem to vaguely remember that she was… Alright? I-. I can't remember clearly my… Last conversation with her? If there was a problem, wouldn't someone have-.
"Good evening, Orange Lantern!"
"Good morning, Ms. Grant. It's about two o'clock in the morning where I am."
"Can you tell me anything about the Justice League's recent fighting against the Sheeda?"
"I haven't kept track of recent Justice League releases, so I apologise if I'm repeating something. The Sheeda ruler, Queen Gloriana Tenebrae, was killed, and their command ship was crippled, in an attack by the Justice League. A.. small number of abductees were recovered, and have been returned to their places of origin."
"The League already confirmed that. Were you involved in the attack?"
"Yes. Well, if you already knew I suppose I should try and say something new. Has knowledge that Doctor Thaddeus Sivana has offered to annihilate all surviving Sheeda holdouts entered the public domain yet?"
"… No. … Why? I thought he was.. completely evil."
"It is my opinion that he is a psychopath. However, he's more disinterested in other people's wellbeing than actively hostile to it. I am also of the opinion that he could carry out the process more swiftly and mercilessly than the Justice League. In case you're wondering, his price is a pardon for all his previous crimes as he wants to retire from villainy."
"Is that..? Something that can happen?"
"Retiring? Sure. It's not very common, but it does happen. Yellow Wasp retired uncaught and never committed any further offences." Unless kidnapping counts as 'ongoing'. "If you mean the pardon, most states have a mechanism for commuting sentences. I don't think any criminal has bargained in quite this way before, but there's a first time for everything."
"How does he know enough about the Sheeda to do something like that?"
"He lived in their time period for years, then they tried to kill his family. He's also very very clever."
"He knew about the Sheeda coming here-. To our time, in advance?"
"A lot of people did. The Justice League knew, I knew, various people in governments received threat reports... We just didn't know exactly when; we thought we had a while or I wouldn't have been off-planet when they turned up. Then again, given the timing of Harrowings, they could have turned up a decade ago. Or fifty years ago. If that had happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
I sigh as I build a rainwater collection system into the sewers to improve flow.
"Despite everything, all in all… Earth is in a peaceful area of space. This is the first wide scale planetary attack we've had to deal with. Despite everyone that died, usually when the Sheeda Harrow a place they kill just about everyone. For an attack like this, on a planet as unprepared as we were… I'm afraid this is what a good result looks like. And if anyone wants to see a picture of a bad result, I'm willing to show them one."
"What sorts of thing should the world learn from this attack?"
"We're blessed, really. Not one inhabited world in a thousand has access to magic. We produce genius inventors and technologists at a rate that's basically unheard of, build devices that are near-incomprehensible to civilisations far more advanced than ours. I've… Banged this drum before. But… We don't do anything with it. Things that could improve the lives of billions, don't. And I think… In my own mind, I look around and I think that none of this needed to happen."
"The magic detection network I proposed last year and that could have been built in the seventies, that could have detected Sheeda attacks as they appeared, got thrown up in a rush during the last month. Outside a handful of superheroes no one's been to the moon in decades, Mars… Ever. If the Earth is destroyed then that's our civilisation dead. There are a still only a handful of magic users outside of Atlantis. And what so many people don't understand is that not using what you have doesn't stop other people using what they have. People like the Sheeda, for example. This is the price of… Blind introversion. This is.. the price of mediocrity. And there's no excuse, not when a species has the opportunities that we do."
"There's no one bad actor I can point to, no one point of failure, just thousands of failures taken over the course of decades. A wilful embrace of 'getting by'. This is the price of mediocrity. And I really don't want anyone to ever have to pay it again."
