[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

31st December
23:20 GMT -6

I fire and the barrier shatters, gouging a furrow in the floor, walls and ceiling where it intersected with them. My companions race ahead as I try to scan -denied- and send out optic sensor constructs. A Crumbler round destroys the double doors just before Kon and Donna reach them. I'm not sure that their cross country speed is any greater than that of the Beresfords but corridors aren't a great place for super strength bounding. There's another arcane barrier blocking the entrance to the laundry room and my Mageslayer destroys it just as easily as the first. Between that and Klarion I'm going to have to try and get Sephtian to make me some more. I'm not at emergency levels yet but I don't want to risk running out in the middle of a fight.

With the barrier and doorway gone I can get a clear look at the laundry room. I can see where the wall was patched over after Kon punched his way through during the failed escape attempt three and a half months ago. Of course, since M'gann had already downed Miss Frost their timetable was up the spout anyway… There are three robed and tattooed cultists kneeling equidistantly apart inside a large circle in the empty area of the floor, more or less where I thought it would be. The two guards have been.. posed somehow, standing straight facing each other with their arms pointing forwards, forming an arc. I don’t know enough about Indian magic traditions to even attempt to analyse the design.

Several washer dryers have been overturned to provide a degree of cover for two rotary guns and the seven cultists providing protection to the ritual site. They open fire as soon as they see a target. Kon pulls ahead slightly so that he can take the shots on his armour but I wince in sympathy as several rounds strike Donna's more lightweight protective gear. Thomas and Tuppence's position at ground level and further back prevents them from drawing fire immediately as I extend a filament to try to strike the guns. It fizzles out on the outer line of the warding circle. I try using a Vertigo Inducer as well only for the cultists to completely ignore it.

The magicians don’t look around as my team mates charge in but their chanting does get a little louder. Sounds like some sort of evocation, but I heard the names Shesha and Manasa in there so I doubt they're asking someone to put in a personal appearance. Might just be a mantra prayer to aid their focus with.. whatever they're doing. Kon and Donna take evasive action as Tuppence picks up the washer dryer she was standing behind and hurls it at the closest gun nest. I transition into position next to her and send a Mageslayer round ahead of it, nullifying the ward barrier a moment before it strikes.

"Agh!" / "AIEEGH!"

Oh. They were completely faithful that the barrier would protect them and so didn't bother pulling back. The gun's crushed but… They're not dead at least. Two cultists were manning the gun and while the man bracing it got away with a mere compound fracture of his left arm the woman firing the thing had the full weight of the machine land on her arms before rolling onto her legs and abdomen. I see her hyperventilate, trying to use her ruined arms to push it off. That could well be a fatal injury if we don’t get this finished quickly. She's already losing consciousness.

I generate a heavy construct shield as the second rotary gun crew turn their attention to us, while in the air Kon and Donna make brute force strikes on the ward shield. It shimmers, strains and then collapses as the rounds striking my shield rip chips out of the far side. Immediately the crew abandon the gun and retreat behind the next ward. Ablative shield wards? A decent delaying tactic I suppose and if those are all separate wards I'm not sure I have enough Mageslayers to shoot through all of them, but they don't have anything like enough here to stop Team Fist just punching through.

The cultist with the fractured arm scrambles to his feet and tries to follow his compatriots over the ward line. Fortunately for me he's not wearing a personal ward. ShockCrown, gas and he can live with the arm. I shove him out of the way. Next comes the crippled gunner. Medical scan… Mashed forearms and hands, crushed pelvis and right thigh, squished intestine and right kidney… Right. My team mates start going to town on the next layer of the ward as I close the blood vessels next to the affected areas and lift the washer dryer off her. She's unconscious and her breathing is extremely shallow and.. I'm having motivational problems. The chance of her ever being rehabilitated is just so low that as I see it her getting better would just present new problems.

A flare as the next ward fails and the cultists retreat again. But if she dies it'll be the first person Tuppence has killed. Random violence is one thing but I don't want her internalising 'killing is okay'. I think I might have an opening with her now and I know from Doctor Munro that she isn't a lost cause just yet. Okay, mend the spine, leave the hips. Repair and reattach the severed muscle tissue. Organs next and these are a little more complicated.

The side door to the prison staff part of the prison is pushed open and four more cultists charge out! Bolts from their plasma rifles strike Kon and Thomas. Kon is knocked backwards in the air while Thomas is knocked from his feet, clothes burned from his chest and the flesh beneath blackened and charred.

"Tommy!"

Donna turns aside a couple of bolts sent at her with her bracers. They don't have the force field effect thing that Diana's enchanted versions do but they're thicker than the rest of her armour and can take a few hits. I grab Thomas and float him back behind my construct shield. He groans and tries to sit up. Right, Danner regeneration. I'm not seeing anything life threatening but that probably hurts quite a lot. I suppress his nervous activity in the burned area and then excise the dead tissue. It destroyed a chunk of his skin but failed to penetrate the muscle.

Tuppence throws herself at the barrier between her and the firing cultists while Donna and Kon go evasive. Before she can get her fool self killed I stick construct armour around her and fire another Mageslayer at the last layer of ward between the doorway and us. It goes down in a flash and Tuppence is on them. The first is smacked into the far wall.. with broken ribs and concussion, nothing life threatening. The other three scatter as someone else comes through the door and Tuppence swings at him instead.

Jeffrey Burr turns her arm aside and executes a flawless throw, sending her flying past him. "Oh, how exciting." He takes a second to assess as Donna and Kon swoop down on two of the cultists who hit the floor to avoid Tuppence and steps into the warded area a heartbeat before I can get a filament to him. Tuppence recovers and leaps at him but the ward absorbs her impact. As she falls back he reaches through and grabs her right ankle, causing her to flip over and land on her face. "I see a few familiar faces have turned up to see us off." Okay, yes, he's a highly skilled martial artist. He's still not strong enough to actually hurt any of us. Kon proved that on Santa Prisca.

He steps back apparently unconcerned as Kon and Donna come in again, downing another barrier. I could use another Mageslayer but I'd rather conserve them in the event that something turns up I actually need them for. Right, they can deal with that. Kidney.. done. Intestine next-. Wait, if Burr's here, where's Strange? Ah, I can find him after the scan ward is down. Intestine.. done.

"Did you know that the Cult of the Kobra has branches in nearly every country on Earth?" Another backwards step. "It's amazing how many different cultures revere the serpent. Take the people of Benin for example. I have no time for Christianity or Islam but the Vodunists there have preserved some rather interesting rituals." He glances at the corpse arc. "And since my allies appear to be indisposed…" The three wizards fall on their faces in supplication as I finish work on the cultist's small intestine. Heartbeat.. irregular, but that should stabilise now that her organs are all in place. Burr raises his hands to the ceiling. "Gbi, Li, Liwui, Fa. Grant your fellow snake god your power."

Thomas rises to a crouch as I start firing Mageslayers at the last warded barrier. Too late! Burr's skin grows noticeably scaly and his eyes flash sickly green as some elemental creatures I've never heard of grant him their favour. This apparently is the sign the rest of the cultists have been waiting for as they take out needles of some sort of unhealthy looking red/orange substance and inject it into their arms. Not too sure what that is but-. Muscles bulging: it was Venom. Unfortunate but manageable, they're still far weaker than the other four and a little weaker than my power armour. I aim another Mageslayer at the last ward layer as Kon and Donna back away in anticipation of a rush.

Burr blurs into my scope as I fire, sticks his right hand through the barrier, catches the round and tosses it aside. Snake god of speed? The Mageslayers only activate when they strike head on, catching it around the sides does work to bypass the drain effect. He makes eye contact with me and offers me a cold smile. "I don't believe that we met on Santa Prisca. I am Kobra, incarnate god and herald of the inevitable return to the glories of the age of Satya Yuga through the destruction of this corrupt and decadent era."

Monologuers, got to love them. Squashed cultist is now fixed enough that I can shove her to the side of the room before expanding my shield construct into something that surrounds Thomas and I completely. "Hey Jeff." I think his face hardens slightly. The scales make it a bit hard to tell. "I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. Nice to meet you. Sorry for not introducing myself on Santa Prisca, I was a bit busy drowning Mister Flinders." I frown. "Actually, where is he?"

"Mammoth is busy taking part in the distraction. My liberation is the primary goal of this entire exercise."

"Oh, is that what they told you." He straightens slightly. "Can't help but notice that neither Truggs nor Crock are still here. Now, I'd very much appreciate it if you could surrender."

His eyes narrow slightly. "Take them."

 

31st December
23:24 GMT -6

The five remaining cultists blur into movement! Not just Venom, they must have mixed Velocity 9 in as well! I reinforce my personal barrier as Kon, Donna and Tuppence are shoved back against the walls and blows start raining down on the bubble barrier around myself and Thomas. I… Wait. Velocity 9 should be making them Flash fast, at least temporarily. He doesn't quite hit at force equals mass times acceleration but he joined Guy and me for our training session a month or so back and I know what having him punch my barriers feels like. This is… This is far weaker.

Tuppence gets over her initial surprise fastest and swings her right arm across the space occupied by the cultist who doesn't see it coming and is sent flying. Kon just flies straight up to get away while Donna attempts a clinch hold. Thomas looks at me for an idea as very faint cracks start to appear in my barrier. We're over thinking this. If the combination of drugs doesn't kill them they still aren't-. Kon's attacker wall runs and lands a punch on his face. He turns his head with the blow and doesn't seem noticeably injured.

All cultists outside the wards? Good. I extend filaments in all directions and deposit six Vertigo Inducers onto the floor, maximum intensity. Tuppence's first target -broken right arm, collarbone, ribs and dislocated right shoulder- gives up trying to get up, shakes and then vomits across the floor. One of the two who were half way up the wall trying to get at Kon falls to the ground, spasming as 'down' is suddenly in twenty directions at once. The other misses her jump and slams into a wall at near super speed, leaving a crater and being rendered unconscious. Donna finds herself supporting her opponent’s weight as he more or less collapses on top of her. She's already kneed him in the diaphragm before working out what happened… Ew. I'll clean her armour later.

The two pounding on my bubble careen out of control, trip and collapse, their momentum causing them to bounce and roll some distance. Maybe six Inducers was overkill? I connect filaments to the fallen cultists. I'm not sure exactly what that drug combination would do, but I can purge each individually. And once the protective effect of the Venom is gone, ShockCrowning and gassing them is simplicity itself.

Thomas rises to his feet. Aside from an angry red patch his injury is mostly healed. I remove the bubble shield and put construct armour around him as my team resume their ready stance. "Would you be prepared to surrender now?"

Burr looks over his fallen subordinates. "Disappointing. Still, bringing about the new era is my sacred r-" He's in my face, his fingers jammed through my construct face plate! "-ole." Thomas swings at him but Burr turns his arm aside, holds it and hits him in the construct faceplate with his left. "The speed of Fa." Thomas takes it and tries to jab with his left. It hits Burr's face, snapping his head back… Then he straightens his neck and looks at Thomas with a faint smile. "The vitality of Gbi." His hand blurs as he hammers punches into his trapped opponent. The construct armour's just about holding but Thomas can't strike back effectively!

Tuppence lunges at Burr to protect her brother and he moves aside with a quiet chuckle. I reseal my construct armour and extend a filament cloud at him. He steps forward and strikes Tuppence in the throat with the blade of his hand as my filaments fail to find purchase. "The protection of Li." Tuppence falls, choking, as Kon and Donna move to surround Burr. I put a filament to Tuppence's throat and undo the damage as Burr effortlessly steps around his attackers, striking at their pressure points. Less effect than he was looking for as their armour proves to be up to the task. I try gassing him but he doesn't stay still long enough and I don’t want to risk overdosing the fallen cultists by just pumping the stuff out.

He's keeping moving around my team mates as they try to hit him but doesn't seem to be moving around the space much. Point blank grenade? Point blank grenade. Two detonations cover the area in shrapnel and smoke. He's not hurt but his momentary surprise allows Kon to get a solid shot to the centre of his chest, forcing him back. He stabilises a moment later with no visible injury. "And, most interestingly of all-" I'm being stupid, the gate is still there. Railgun. "-water control from Liwui." He points at me and.. nothing happens. Guess Liwui can't see me either.

Kon and Donna fly at him as I fire the railgun twice, battering down the last two barriers around the foul gateway. "No!" He tries to interpose himself but one of the other things I learned practising against Mister Allen was the value of area denial. I create a construct barrier along my line of fire and shoot a Mageslayer directly at the arcane vortex. I take a moment to process the image of fractures appearing along the barrier as he chases after the round as it heads towards its target. He fails to get at it. It hits and oh thank goodness I can scan again!

Burr looks for an exit as his scales start to recede. Exit not found. Thomas hits him first, a solid right hook to the face which sends him flying backwards. He recovers but he's now even more trapped than before. The wizards appear to be content just to watch the fight but I train a maser construct on each of them anyway. Burr goes for Donna, shoving aside her defence and managing a palm strike to her face before Kon punches him in the side.

He's thrown away from the attack but doesn't look seriously hurt. And that's why super strength versus super strength brawls shouldn't be conducted with striking attacks. On the other hand with his power fading away they just need to keep him off balance and his skill level is still probably higher than theirs.

Tuppence and Thomas run at him. He slides between them, striking at their abdomens. His blows hit but they aren't strong enough to do lasting damage any more and he left himself open to Donna, who gladly takes the clear shot to the back of his head. He stumbles and the siblings turn and punch him hard enough in the stomach to knock him over to me.

"You know-" He leaps up and punches impotently at my construct armour before jumping back. "-my power comes from a snake too. Ophidian the Temptress, Embodiment of Avarice."

Through the rings I can dimly feel the connection to my personal lantern and to the Embodiment within. I feel her awareness extending in my direction. I suppose I shouldn't leave her out. I create a construct body for her just behind me. A large one, about fifteen metres of coils. This room's big enough. I feel my control of it slip away as she takes hold and stares down at the stunned cult leader.

"What's the matter, Kobra god? You were talking yourself up a moment ago. Come on. Muster your cultists. Call up your gods." I float towards him, orange aura at full intensity. He backs away, not even noticing the filament at his ankles before it trips him. "Hit us!" The Ophidian leans over me and smells him with her tongue. "Fight us!" The Ophidian rears up as I tilt my head slightly to the left. "Give us a hug."

For a moment he looks bewildered, then the Ophidian lunges down, her mouth wide open! "Nooooo!"

"Ah, hey!" Thomas and Tuppence both look more than a little freaked out by the giant snake manifestation, but only Thomas is looking at me.

"Oh, don't worry." The Ophidian construct melts away, revealing Mister Burr on his knees with a glowing orange brand on his forehead. "The Ophidian's not that desperate for servants. Anyone seriously hurt?"

"What the fuck was that fucking thang!?" Tuppence might not have been offended by me apparently killing someone but I suppose a giant snake will put a dampener on anyone's day.

Kon pauses in checking over his armour. "The Ophidian. A giant snake spirit thing that lives in his lantern." He looks at me. "Was that really her?"

"No, just a construct she was remote controlling. Right, you three-" I turn to look at the wizards. "-do you intend to come quietly or do you want a beating first?"

The two at the side look at the one in the middle. "Can Lord Kobra understand us in his current state?"

"Not what I asked."

"We have a message for him. We will surrender peacefully once it is delivered."

I start loading the fallen up onto stretcher constructs. "Oh, go crazy."

His eyes roll back in his head and when he speaks again his voice is different. The pitch is higher and the accent is changed. "Jeffrey Franklin Burr. Compounding your earlier failure to secure an alliance with the Light you have once more been defeated. Even with every advantage at your command you were unable to extricate yourself from the American prison. The only conclusion I can draw is that I was mistaken in my reading of the scriptures, and in identifying you as our saviour. Fortunately there is another who fits the description. Your titles are hereby revoked. You are no longer worthy of the role of Kobra."

He twitches slightly, but I'm careful to dampen down any desires he starts to feel as his body starts to shrivel and his skin darken from his normal green-tinted cream to a more Caucasian hue. Fascinating. I knew that he didn't originally look like that but I had no idea how the change occurred. He shakes as his reversion completes. He looks a great deal more like his brother like this.

I turn my attention back to the wizard. "Who exactly is speaking?"

The wizard turns his sightless eyes on me. "I cannot see you, but I hear your voice. I am the high priestess of the Cult of the Kobra. You may call me… Lady Eve. You will be hearing from me... From the Cult of the Kobra, again."

 

31st December
23:31 GMT -6

I fly above the armoured prison lorry as it heads for the outer gate at full speed. Smiling, I blink and the rings show me Tuppence and Thomas escorting the remaining prisoners to the mens’ side cells. There were a few inmates we'd missed but Kon and Donna will have winkled them out before too long. Certainly before the National Guard or anyone like that get here.

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Belle Reve is secure, though it'll need some rebuilding work. No fatalities in the process, but two guards had been killed by the time we arrived and there are quite a few injuries."

There's some sort of background noise.. and sirens, I think? "Well done. Have you -uhhf- found Strange?"

I look down at the lorry. Mister Crock took the time to find a reasonably well fitting guard uniform before abandoning prison. I can't scan him but the lorry was a bit of a giveaway that someone was somewhere they shouldn't be. Given how dark it is and the fact that I'm flying using the belt I don't think he's spotted me. Thinking about it, there's no reason to suppose that he knows I'm here at all. Strange is in the passenger seat next to him, looking quite nervous. Kidnapped or retreating in the face of superior force? His fears are further from the surface than I'd have thought they would be if he were unwilling; he knows how dangerous Mister Crock is to other squishy people. But, that might just mean that he has good self control.

"Yes." Worth seeing where he's going? No, I shouldn't hang about, I might be needed elsewhere. "I'm about to recover him. How's the fighting going?"

"Haah!" For a moment I hear heavy breathing. "Well. We have blocked their movement towards Houma and taken many of the escapees into custody. The rest appear to have scattered."

"Did you end up calling in the Rush Hours?"

"Yes. They have impressed me." I hear a rush of displaced air as she takes off, then the sound filter compensates. "I note that the younger is on your list of possible recruits for the team."

Vasi Kaur, seventeen years of age. Can't imagine why Diana was most interested in the female member of the trio. "Yes, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend approaching her at the moment. She's in the same situation Troia's in with her exams…"

"Perhaps she could spend some time in the mountain over the summer?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Has Nabu had any luck overcoming the scry wards?"

She exhales in frustration. "I haven't been able to reach him. It's unlike him to be-."

"Um." Bollocks. "Did you check secure storeroom B?"

"Why? Was he trying to catalogue objects Savage and the Nazis might have stolen?"

Double bollocks. "Noo sir. You see, I wasn't really sure how long those chains would hold Klarion… I mean, if he really put effort into breaking them. And.. since Nabu was already chained up.. and is the most similar thing to Klarion I had on hand… I left him there." Seems a lot less funny now.

"You… You left him there?"

"Y-eaaah. It will be a very thorough test.. but I appreciate that it's probably not the most efficient use of his time at the moment. Sorry."

I hear a sigh. "We'll talk about it later. How can he be released?"

"Just a simple mechanical lock. The chain's supposed to be immune to direct magic manipulation and it'll use the wearer’s magic to resist brute force attacks." Silence. "That's actually a new feature with this version, I was actually rather pleased-. I'll just get Strange, shall I?"

"That would be for the best. I will have Kid Flash free Fate."

"Orange Lantern out."

Damn it. I mean, massively warded prison. He might actually have been useful here. I'd rather have John but he's going to be busy either resting or preparing. I still can't touch the corpses making the arch safely. And I felt so good when I shoved Nabu in there too. That's my mellow thoroughly harshed.

I point both hands down at the lorry below me, extrude a couple of filaments and put a flight aura around it, lifting it off the ground. Mister Crock goes for his shotgun immediately while Strange just tenses in surprise. I raise the lorry up higher and turn it around to face me before waving through the front windscreen at the alleged master mercenary. He sticks his shotgun out of the side window one-handed and takes aim at me.

I tilt my head to the left a little and shrug in a 'what-exactly-do-you-think-that's-going-to-do' sort of way. Ah, may as well have a little fun while I still have functioning ears. "Hi, Casey Jones! How you been?"

He sticks out his right arm, loops it around Doctor Strange's neck and reorientates the shotgun so it points at his head. "How much do you want the Doctor alive, cake boy?" I hold my right hand out flat in front of me and wiggle it back and forth. He tries to stare me down. Did… Did he seriously not learn anything from last time? "Well you better make a decision, because if I-"

"Is that an antimatter shotgun?" Just in case, ring? Is it? No, not an antimatter shotgun. Just a regular shotgun with buckshot.

He shoves the gun into the side of the now very scared Doctor Strange's head. "Doesn't need to be antimatter to blow-."

A filament connects me to Doctor Strange and I transition him into the air beside me. "Look! No hands!"

"Whu-?" Doctor Strange flails around in confusion as he tries to work out what just happened.

"Couple of messages, Casey Jones-."

"What did you call me?"

"Casey Jones, because you fight people while wearing a hockey mask and armed with sports equipment. I told Jade about it, she found it hilarious." Boom! The shotgun's pointing out of the window again and he fires at me either on pure optimism or pure spite. I let the pellets cause small indents in the orange construct barrier protecting Strange and myself. "Your mum says 'hi', your dad's going to carry on pretending you don't exist-."

"Um, that sort of taunting is not likely to be helpful to Lawrence's recovery."

I turn my head to where he floats beside me at a slight forward tilt. "Doctor Strange, I can see people's souls. Trust me when I say that there is no way that he is ever going to be rehabilitated." He really isn't. Solid green structures with orange decoration. I ShockCrown him and transition him to the air on the other side of me.

"Your daughters' comments vary from 'fuck off' to 'fuck off and die'. I think Jade's actually going to make a go of going straight this time." There's a tiny sliver of red but it isn't even slightly close to breaking free and influencing his behaviour. "Paula's healed up nicely… Not that she's going to be visiting you. Ever."

It's larger than the sort of object I usually do this to, but the lorry is just about small enough that I can put it into subspace.

"I-I really don't think-."

A flicker of blue as I continue to ignore him. "You should really watch that hope, Doctor. It's suspicious."

"Whatever do you mean by that?"

"The League's been focusing on the supervillains, but they'll be turning their attention to the disappearing guards soon enough. And since Wonder Woman's on the case, they'll be truth lassoed. And so will you. Something to think about while you're waiting for Waller to get here to witness it."

 

31st December
23:43 GMT -6

"Now you stay there, Casey Jones, and you think about what you've done." I slide shut the cell door behind Mister Crock and dismiss the heavy restraint constructs before turning to Doctor Strange.

"Why ever have you put my staff in the cells?"

"Because this situation reeks of inside involvement and I can't tell exactly who was involved."

"That is completely unnecessary. While you may be right about.. the involvement of some members of staff, surely they would have fled as soon as the break out started?"

"Unless they wanted us to think that." Still, with the wards in the prison non-functional and with them not wearing scry protection themselves… I look over to the control room and nod at Abra. "Abra, open the doors to the staff cells."

He nods and there's a clunk as their doors disengage. Doctor Strange looks at him and grimaces. "And putting prisoners in charge. I know you've been meeting with Abra and Thomas, but what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking, 'isn't it odd how all but one of the staff still here were Warden Waller's original hires while none of the ones who absented themselves are?'."

"That's… Highly circumstantial."

I nod. "True. But at the very least it suggests there's been a fairly major problem with your vetting processes." The staff start to leave their cells. Bendemann regards me levelly for a moment then his eyes narrow when he sees his boss. A couple of the guards take a moment to get a better look at the not-a-plasma-elemental while Doctor Quinzel-

"Doc!"

-beelines directly for Doctor Strange, a broad smile on her face.

"Doctor Quinzel, I'm so glad that you-." She throws her arms around him and puts her head on his shoulder. For a moment he looks as though he doesn't know what to do, starting to return the hug only as she starts to pull back.

"I thawt Kobra were gonna kill you fer shuwer."

"Fortunately, Jeffrey wanted me alive as a hostage."

I look down at the ground floor as Donna and Kon drag in the last few holdouts and lead them to their cells. Jeffrey hasn't moved since I put him in the cell and removed the brand. I tried asking him a few questions but it looks like yanking the 'Kobraness' out of him has messed up his head to the point where he can't respond even if he wants to. How much of what he did was actually him? I barely remember him from the comics at all, except that he got killed by Adom's group before they took Kahndaq by force. Was he a cult leader with super powers or just some guy that 'Lady Eve' woman thought fit the requirements of their holy texts? Did she ensorce him, or did the physical alterations come with the job?

"Hey, ah, Paul?" I look around as Thomas comes up the steps. "Not that ah'm eager or anythang, but… Looks lahk y'all about finished here. You need me an' Tuppy to git back in our cells?"

Doctor Strange nods. "Thank you Thomas, I really think that might be for the b-."

"No." Strange jerks his head in my direction before looking down and exhaling slightly. "I'll need you on hand when the Justice League and the National Guard start bringing the escapees back here."

"Orange Lantern, may I remind you that I am the Warden of this facility. Thomas, Tuppence and Abra have-."

"I have a signed executive order that says otherwise." I shrug. "Sorry Doctor Strange, but when something like this happens the person in charge has to be removed while the investigation takes place. You remember, like what happened with Warden Waller."

"Well, I… Yes, I thought I might have time to…" He shakes his head to clear it. "Who..? Is in charge of Belle Reve now?"

"Waller's restoration to her former role is being expedited, but at the moment the senior member of staff on site is Assistant Deputy Warden Bendemann."

Bendemann looks around when he hears his name and starts walking over. "Does that mean you're likely to listen to me?"

"Up to a point, yes. If there's anything you want to say that might encourage me to accept your innocence..?"

He holds my gaze for a moment and then nods. "I've been keeping in touch with Waller. She should be able to vouch for me."

Strange's eyes widen. "William, that was completely unprofessional! Not to mention a-a criminal offence! I strongly recommend that you don't say anything else until you've spoken to a lawyer."

"Two of my guys are dead, Strange. Screw lawyers."

"They were my people too! Do you think I don't care?"

"Bendemann, I will have to testify to anything I hear."

"Charley DuPrit and Abel Ardoin. The two guys I had getting close to your new hires."

"Well… I… Clearly, some of the people I…" Doctor Quinzel pulls away from him. "Oh, for all we know they drove my people away to use as hostages later."

"They told me they saw snake tattoos on at least three of them."

More accusing eyes are turned in Strange's direction. He takes in the hostility and goes to speak before deciding better of it. He takes a moment to collect himself. "You've clearly made up your mind. I'm not going to say anything else until I've spoken with counsel."

Kon and Donna float back up to our level and take in the scene. Diana's busy so an immediate truth lassoing is out of the question. Branding's even less likely to result in something we can use in court. Heck, even I wouldn't want to rely on it like that and I'm the bloke who does it. But if we still have time to stop whatever's left of this plan we really need any information we can get. "Yes, because superheroes are known for their conformity with the niceties of due process. Abra! Have you got to the section on Atlantean witness testimony procedures?"

He smiles slightly and raises his wand, teleporting himself across the short distance from the guard station to the landing. "I think I could come up with something."

Strange is trying to back away but there really isn't anywhere for him to go. "This is a violation of my rights! And it will certainly prevent any court hearing any charges you may wish to bring in the future!"

"Actually, it doesn't. Magic derived testimony is only legally equivalent to hearsay evidence in the US, even if actual juries tend to treat it as being more important. Neither Abra nor I are police officers or prison wardens. As long as I have reasonable suspicion that you're involved in something likely to endanger Human life there's a surprising amount of leeway in what courts will accept." Orange manacles attach to his legs and arms, locking him in place. "Abra, quite a lot is riding on you getting this right."

"Oh, please." He points his wand at the floor of the landing. "The Atlanteans have refined this spell to near perfection." Pulses of a diffuse blue plasma drop from the tip of his wand and burn the required sigils and markings into the metal. "Even a neophyte such as I could hardly miscast it. I take it that you have also studied the rules concerning witness questioning?"

"Of course. Ready?" Abra nods. Strange is visibly sweating now and tries to pull against his bonds. "First question. Doctor Hugo Strange: were you willingly and actively involved in assisting inmates in escaping Belle Reve Penitentiary?"

He's shaking, his mouth shuddering as he tries to prevent himself from speaking. An Atlantean jury would probably convict on that alone. "Yes." His eyes widen, then dart to the prison workers he's betrayed.

"Second question. Doctor Hugo Strange: did you attempt to encourage prison officers to leave Belle Reve so that you could replace them with people willing to assist you in activity relating to the first question?"

"Yes."

"Third question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, what was the purpose of the ritual Kobra's magicians were performing?"

"It was s-s-supposed to be a long range transportation spell of some kind. It also created a protective effect over the whole of the prison."

"Fourth question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, why didn't the transportation effect work?"

"Someone was supposed to be on the other end to complete the circuit. For some reason that didn't happen."

"Fifth question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, who was that person?"

His mouth goldfishes, the inscriptions in the circle starting to shine to increase the force of the compulsion. "Klarion."

From the looks of the guards I'd say that he didn't so much sign his own death warrant as build his own scaffold. And most of the prisoners listening below don't look a lot happier about it. "Thank you, Doctor Strange. That will be all."

 

1st January
00:01 GMT -6

"And that, Mister Phillips, is why we don't pick fights with anyone with an 'S' on their chest."

He sits up a little straighter and tries wiggling the fingers of his newly repaired right hand. "Yeah, I think I'll remember that. And yet still not as tough a crowd as the eight year olds on Coney Island."

"You know, if you're interested, I could probably find a buyer for that xenotech cache you and your wife found."

He looks puzzled. "Ah, I don't get it."

"Get what?"

He leans forwards and makes a circling motion with his right hand. "You know. The punch line? Why is Jewelee and I selling out to you funny?"

Rapidly losing hope… "How's about 'unrepentant supervillain makes pile of money from someone else's work and retires in a cloud of smug'?"

He exhales slowly as he thinks about it. Then he shakes his head. "Nahhh… It's missing something."

Well, I tried. "I don't have your comedic expertise. Maybe you could work on it?"

"Sure. I mean, there's definitely some potential there. Maybe if we sold the same thing to different people..?"

I step back and wave my right hand to close the cell door. Xenotechnology advanced enough to make joke weapons a serious threat and no one knows where they got it from or who the original owner was. They're clearly not in it for the money but… Oh well. Jewelee gave pretty much the same answer when I asked her. At least he didn't try cupping me. My power armour meant that I didn't feel anything and I only noticed when the inmates on the other side of the cellblock started jeering. My frantic back-pedalling actually got a laugh out of Tuppence so at least the humiliation wasn't completely pointless.

One last person to talk to before Waller gets here and he's in the next cell along with Doctor Ojo. Ojo's still here because the destruction of the power suppression system apparently damaged his cybernetics at the same time and he didn’t fancy trying to navigate the bayou in the dark with his vision glitching in and out. Ojo doesn't bother looking around as I appear in front of their cell door but the man I'm here to see looks around and sneers at me. "What? I know STAR Labs got my stuff."

"I know. That's where I came across it. Thing is, Mister Tuttle… I'm a huge fan."

"Fuck you."

"No, seriously. I've been using Crumble based equipment since early September. It works great. I mean-" I take a Crumbler railgun round out of subspace and hold it up. "-I use these with my railgun constructs, they destroy pretty much anything. I made these-" I take an Arrow of Unmaking out as well and have it float in front of the cell doors. "-for my bow-using colleagues. Your Crumble gear is shockingly underutilised-."

He leaps to his feet and lunges at the bars. "You stole my designs!"

"No, the courts confiscat-."

"You total shit! Do you know what I went through to make that stuff work!?"

Um. Not sure why he's… "Doctor Quinzel did give me some id-."

"You! You! You! I'll KILL YOU!" I take a couple of steps back. "You and the green one and all of the fucking Arrows!" He's now shaking on the bars in a determined attempt to bring the bars down. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Nullify sound.

Doctor Quinzel walks up beside me. "Coulda told you that would happen."

"I knew he was a bit temperamental, but…"

"You know about him and his dad, roight?" I nod. "His whole ego's tied up in his invention bein' good fer somethin'-"

"But I.. proved that it is?"

"-but at the same time he's gotta be the one provin' it. You showed him his tech was good, but because it was you, you made it look t' him like he was the problem."

I look at Mister Tuttle where he's still silently screaming at me. Ojo's covered his ears with his hands. "He.. sort of is."

"Weeeell…" She looks at him and then half turns away. "Maybe. He was actually on the borderline for goin' to a secuwah hospital insteada here. But straight up tellin' them don't really help none."

Mister Tuttle appears to give up and with one last snarl at me throws himself back down to where he'd been sitting on the floor. "Yeah. Guess I'd got used to it being a bit easy."

"Ahhh… Oh! I wanted to ask you somethin'."

"Yes?"

"Well, durin' our sessions Tommy and Tuppy both mentioned being in contact with a 'Doctor Munro'?" I nod. "They both seemed to be respondin' really well t' him but I noticed that his name was only on the visitor register that one time. You think there's any chance he could come in fer another visit?"

"He lives and works in India… I suppose I could bring him over here if he had time. He'd definitely be up for some sort of video conference though." She nods and smiles. "I'll talk to him. How.. are you holding up?"

She looks away and takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "Oh, y'know. My mentor, the guy who got me the job in Arkham and then specifically asked fer me when he took over here turns out to be a massive stoopid criminal jerk who's working with the largest mass murderer on the face of the Earth and it turns out that he only gowt me the job because he thinks I'm 'easily manipulated by powerful and charismatic male authority figures'."

She's starting to tear up. I cautiously put my right hand on her left shoulder. "Okay, well-."

"I mean, what is this, the fifties? An' the guards don't say anythin' t' me but even though I'm the only one of his new people who didn't run when it all stawted, they all think I was in on it. I liked Charley, I thoughwt we were friends, an' it turns out he was only tawkin' t' me to get the scoop on the Doc." She bows her head slightly and wipes her eyes with her right hand before pulling herself together and raising her head to look back at me. "But other than that, pretty good."

"Um..."

"I think you made a real breakthrough with Tuppy tonight." She looks up at where Tuppence and Thomas are leaning on the landing banister. "She's actually been tawkin' t' me and she usually hates doin' that." She pauses. "Well, she said a couple a' words, anyway."

"And what do you think about Abra?"

She looks up at where the Elemental is still floating over our heads. "Couldn't be happier. I think he's actually looking forward t' getting back to his cell so he can go through that database." For a second her smile reappears. "You think Waller will really be okay with his implants stayin' own?"

"I don't really know." Comic Waller wouldn't be. This one? Maybe. Depends on how she's feeling about my assistance. "Maybe if we-."

There's a blinding flash of golden light! Coming from an ankh shape. Wonderful. Nabu appears on the landing near the control room, along with Waller and a squad of heavily armed people in full tactical armour. Waller herself has a flak jacket and a pistol. Nabu appears to just be gazing forwards but numerous golden sigils float around him. I record them as he points his arms forwards and fires a stream of golden ankhs into the Elemental, destroying it completely as Abra has his wand snatched and his arms forced behind his back by a couple of the soldiers.

Bendemann starts heading towards Waller and gets a rifle shoved in his face for his trouble. He raises his hands and makes a silent appeal to his boss. She nods and the gun gets lowered. She then looks down at me and makes a sideways motion with her head. Right. Better get this sorted out then.

 

1st January
00:11 GMT -6

Waller picks up the nameplate with Doctor Strange's name on it from the Warden's desk and looks at it for a moment. "Hmpf." She then walks around the side of the desk and negligently tosses it into the bin on her way to her newly reclaimed seat. Two of the soldiers she brought with her have taken up station on either side and another two are standing outside the door to the office. Nabu didn't bother saying anything to me about his stay in the storage vault. He just did something to bind the Bestowed -apparently that's the proper name for Kobra wizards- and then headed off to deal with the macabre gate thing. The last thing we need is Klarion using it to come here.

Bendemann's standing on my left and looking mildly pleased with the situation. "What's next, Warden?"

"The first truckload of escaped prisoners should be here in about an hour, hour and a half. How much of the prison can we have safe by then?"

He and I look at each other for a moment. "I can have all the internal walls fixed… Probably the power suppression system."

"We're going to be mighty short-staffed, sir."

She waves her right hand. "I've got a mess of DC pencil pushers tracking down everyone who worked for me before Strange took over. Should get a whole heap of them back by this time tomorrow. In the meantime, liaise with Major Gadison for whatever you need. After a stunt like this they can't complain about being kept in their cells all day." Bendemann nods.

"Warden Waller, my Praexis… Constructs are just about clever enough to obey simple instructions. And they can't die. Might be worth assigning them to the soldiers."

She nods. "At the Major's discretion." I close my eyes for a moment as I reach out through the orange light to Fatty and his offspring, instructing them to follow the soldiers around. "Now. Quinzel."

"Far as I can tell she's completely genuine. Everyone else Strange hired is gone."

Waller raises her eyebrows slightly and looks to Bendemann for confirmation.

"I… It's suspicious as hell, but we never got anything on her." He shrugs.

Waller nods at me. "You're probably right." She takes hold of the radio attached to front of her shoulder and presses the 'talk' button. "You can let Quinzel out of the cell but she stays inside of Belle Reve."

"Yes, Warden."

I thought that putting her back in a cell was a little harsh, but I suppose I can see where Waller was coming from. At least she didn't follow through on her initial impulse to stick her in one of the isolation cells along with Burr and Strange.

Waller makes eye contact with the two of us. "Does she have a future here?"

Bendemann tilts his head to the side. "Even if she wasn't in on it, I don't know how comfortable I'd be keeping her around anyway."

"How many other people are you going to get applying for the job now? Particularly with a relevant background."

"When Strange applied he was one of three I thought were worth interviewing. Now… You're probably right. She can stay for now, I'll think on it later."

"Warden, can we talk about-?"

"Kadabra and the Terrors." She locks onto me with steely eyes. "What exactly did you think you were doing giving convicts free range in my prison?"

"They already had free range. The Beresfords used that freedom to take down nine other inmates and protect a member of staff and Kadabra was also quite helpful in securing the place. Mister Fisher made himself useful as well. At the very least they're going to need to be housed separately from the other prisoners."

"Are you really trying to tell me that you couldn't have taken care of business without them?"

"The three of us.. probably could have done. But the risks would have been greater, especially for the remaining guards. And Quinzel would almost certainly have been killed."

Bendemann nods. "Strange was trying to get the kids transferred out of here and they were both engaging with the education program. And he's right about them mixing with the other prisoners, there's no way that would be safe."

Waller leans forwards slightly, puts her elbows on the desk and massages her forehead with her right hand. "You just love making work for me, don't you? And Kadabra? From the way Fate reacted I'm guessing that was a real live magic creature and not one of his usual holograms."

"That was the deal I made for his cooperation."

"You know Belle Reve isn't set up to handle magic users! Hell, you pointed it out when we met in DC! I'm going to have to talk to the Atlantean ambassador about getting those Kobra wizards transferred as it is!"

"Kadabra's been a model prisoner for as long as he's been here. And.. we might be able to improve your facilities so you can handle them; I'll need to talk to my Atlantean contacts first."

"We aren't going to have time for them to mess around putting spells on the whole building. I'm not even sure that's legal."

"In Louisiana? Er, religious blessings and evocations aren't. But we've developed a type of chain that drains and confines magic power and I don't.. think it breaks any laws. They'd have to wear it all the time but I think that would be covered by the exemption you already have for the collars."

"You got one here now?"

"Sorry, no. Mine's in use-" I don't know where the one Kon put on Nabu ended up, though I wouldn't put it past him to have destroyed it as soon as he was freed. Adom wasn't carrying his with him when he left but that might be just about anywhere by now. "-but the League might have a couple they could spare."

"That's it? Three?"

"They're a recent development and.. quite resource intensive to produce. There's… There are lesser versions but they're not exactly easy to move around in."

"Look at my face and ask if that worries me."

It appears that it doesn't. I nod. "Rightyoh. Is there anything else?"

"One last thing. Apparently Strange said that he was working with Klarion. Do you have some way to stop him if he comes looking for his partner in crime?"

"Klarion's been… Stopped. For the moment at least."

She straightens up. "What? Why hasn't the League shouted it out to the world?"

"It happened about six hours ago and we're still not sure exactly what happened to him. We wouldn't want to announce his death only for him to turn up a few months later."

"I suppose not." She waves her left hand at us. "Okay, dismissed. I need Belle Reve up and running as soon as possible."

Bendemann and I turn to leave but before we reach the door Nabu pushes it open from the other side. His helmet orientates on me. "You."

"Nabu. Have you cleared up the mess in the laundry room?"

"It has been made safe. The bodies may now be removed." I nod. "Wonder Woman has told me that you designed the chains as a way of confining Klarion. I did not believe that to be possible but you have surprised me before. I trust that you have all of the experimental data that you need. I have no interest in taking part in another test."

"Unless you know where I can find another Lord of Chaos, that's about as tested as I can make it. I appreciate your cooperation."

Mister Zatara's stolen eyes narrow at me through the Helmet's vision slits. "The first group of prisoners will arrive shortly. I suggest that you attend to your work."

 

1st January
07:17 GMT -6

I smile as Deva slams into the asphalt just in front of me. She tries to raise her head then slumps back to the ground, unmoving. In my own arms Doctor Desmond redoubles his efforts to escape my own hold, and I respond by pushing harder.

"GAAAAAGHH!"

With a cracking sound his right thumb snaps and he suddenly seems less inclined to flee. I turn to look at Barda as she walks towards her fallen opponent. "See? Isn't this more fun than the two of us duking it out in some tiny, sweaty gym?" "Tell me you're not enjoying this."

"It certainly does less harm to their insurance premiums." "It has a.. certain satisfying quality to it."

Doctor Desmond tries to push himself up again. I know that he's feeling pain; he wouldn't be crying out if he wasn't. Why on Earth is he continuing to fight me when he's so clearly lost? I shift my hold and apply pressure, bending his right wrist sideways and-

"YYAAAGH!"

-snapping several bones. This is a fascinating study in leverage, actually. He's quite a bit larger than I was at my largest and has much greater reach. Confining myself to physical attacks -because there'd be no challenge at all to it otherwise- I had trouble getting within grappling range. Heh, as an unfortunate Chevrolet bore witness when it cushioned my landing. The blow didn't hurt at all but it was easily strong enough to overcome the friction between my feet and the road surface. Note to self: next time don't let the sister in law bait you into a 'no weapons' playthrough.

"Just knock him out." "Torturing a defeated enemy isn't very heroic."

"It's not that easy." "Different strokes…"

"RAAARH!"

"I can't shift my hold without risking him knocking me away again, and even if I could he's got basically no neck. I'd have to crush a good chunk of his upper chest to throttle him. I don't think he feels pain like a normal human so that's out. I said no weapons so gas is out. I suppose I could gouge out his eyes-"

"AAAAGHH!"

"-or something but I'm not sure even that would work."

"You've already taken longer than I did."

"I haven't focused on hand-to-hand combat training, alright? This is your strongest skill set and my weakest. See how well you get on with a flipping power ring."

This is getting embarrassing. A crowd who really should know better than to hang around at the edge of a super fight are creeping back into the periphery of my vision and, ahhgh, they're taking their phones out to record it. And it looks like I'm torturing a beaten man. Come on, how can I… Ah, of course! Fire hydrant, one of those convenient American ones that stick out of the ground. Destruction of public property… Oh, they live in a swamp. They can't be short of water.

I stamp down heavily on Doctor Desmond's left little toe-

"rrRRRRHH!"

-and move my left arm to grab his right thigh and lift him up onto my shoulders. Excellent. Any move he tries to make will result in him trying to use bits I've already dislocated or broken. Or both. There's no way, ehh, he can bring enough force to bear to break free and.. if I.. walk closer to the hydrant.. shift my grip and swing him around by his leg like the proverbial cat…

"DAHH!"

Hydrant upright damaged and highly pressurised water spurting forth. Slam Desmond into the ground, move my hold to his right shoulder where the compound fracture is-

"EHHGblgblgblgblg."

-and force his mouth and nose into the stream. Whatever chemical changes have taken place in his body he certainly still needs to breathe.

"Creative."

I shake my head and shove him forwards a bit further. "Hardly." His free arm flails around but his own bulk is working against him.

"Who's next on the list?"

"Snart. Hardly requires both of us, I'd be astonished if he's had the time or resources to throw a cold gun together yet."

"Do you have his location?"

Ring? "Yes, he's in…" Oh, come on!

"Where?"

"Conn's Home Plus, which stocks an extensive range of home electronic equipment. Alright, he's got a cold gun." From the way Desmond is jerking I'd guess that he's run out of air. His lungs have quite a decent volume but he burns through it faster than a normal Human and had no chance to take a breath before I thrust him into the stream. A few moments more…

Behind us I hear the collection lorry pull up. With the main power suppression unit destroyed they're reduced to using the stand alone collars and their limited battery life. I have a couple in subspace but using them would invalidate the challenge. Barda slings Deva over her shoulder and carries her over to them for transport back to Belle Reve. Desmond's starting to go limp. Ordinarily I'd judge this by scanning his brain with the ring. As it is I'm forced to utilise my sadly neglected 'god sense'. Grayven… I'm the God of Conquest. Is Desmond conquered yet? Feels like… Yes. I haul him back out of the water and drag him in the direction of the transport vehicle. One of the soldiers holds out an extra large collar and I take it with my right hand and affix it to where Doctor Desmond's neck used to be before slinging him through the lorry's open rear door.

The corporal nods at me. "Thank you, sir, ma'am. We'll get these two back to Belle Reve as quick as we can."

"Good show. Carry on." He nods and turns away to get in the drivers seat as one of his colleagues closes the rear door. Maybe Lantern Stewart will have the place usable by the time they get there. In a rather amusing turn of events with much of the League not fully fit a good deal of the work of chasing down runners has been left to our team while they attacked and made safe the prison. Jeffrey Burr, aka 'Kobra' escaped with a group of cultists through some sort of magic portal shortly before they arrived and the rest of the inmates had a good go at wrecking the place when they realised that they weren't on the 'approved for escape' list. From the grim tone of Diana's voice I'm going to assume that there were fatalities amongst the staff.

I restore the hydrant as Barda takes out her Mega Rod and puts her thumb to the activator. Really wish she'd let me tweak that recalcitrant Mother Box of hers a little. Just.. open its mind a little bit. Connect it to the Sphere… Agh, should have thought of that before! The Sphere should be able to talk it around! Shaking my head in frustration at my own mental sloth I walk over to Barda and put my hands on her shoulders for transport. Turns out New Gods are much less touch shy than Englishmen but since this does actually require a physical connection I've compromised this far. There's a blast of light as we vanish and reappear in the Conn's car park. The front doors have been smashed in and I see that the car carrying the police first responders has been hit by an ice gun, the two police officers taking cover behind it. Their heads jerk up as we stride past.

"Do you think he will try to fight?"

I nod. "Almost certainly."

"Can his weapon harm us?" I stop just in front of the doors and take a close look at the brickwork and the thin line of frost that runs around the floor, walls and ceiling of the antechamber. Clever. From the amused curl on Barda's lips I'm going to guess that she hasn't spotted it. "Are you that worried?"

"Justifiably cautious." I crouch down and pick up a piece of debris, then stand and toss it over the threshold. There's a flash of white as the freeze trap triggers, water vapour from the air turning to ice and the brickwork I threw flash-freezing before landing hard and shattering. "They're not all stupid."

 

1st January
07:22 GMT -5

Joy of joys, she decided that I could lead the way. Bedroom furniture to the right of me, living room furniture to the left. Electronics is.. left and onwards a bit?

"I understand that he developed the technique to fight the Flash. Reduce molecular vibration in a particular area to zero.. or close enough. The Flash runs through it and suddenly he isn't moving at superspeed any more."

Can't see anyone from here. Would he run? No, doesn't fit his profile. Not if he could lure either Mister Allen or Wallace out.

"He can build such a device using parts taken from household appliances?"

"He's a very intelligent man. No formal higher education either. He worked out the operating principles by personal study, stole the components and built his first cold gun himself."

"Surely such a technology is worth more than he can steal with it?" "Does he use it to destroy because that is his god-role?"

"Dear sister-in-law, I realise that you've only been on Earth for nine years, but one thing you'll come to understand is that there are people here who are shockingly brilliant at their chosen field -near equals of any New God- who are nonetheless completely rubbish at applying that brilliance in a rational way." Televisions, no… Ah, a gutted microwave. Getting closer, though it looks like it was torn apart. Odd. He's usually more careful than that. "Leonard Snart, genius cryonics physicist and engineer, uses his cold gun to rob banks. Robbing a bank is a poor enough prospect when the heist is well planned. Running in through the front doors in an easy to identify costume, a novelty weapon and no escape route?" I shake my head. "And he's hardly the only one. Where Gotham has insanity, Central City has really stupid geniuses. I'd call them idiot savants were it not for the fact that many of them have quite good social skills." "You may be on to something there, but if so it isn't built in to his soul. It's in the structures of his mind that the idea he must be a certain way exists."

"A strange way to exist."

"Hmm." "Welcome to the Fifth World."

That gets a look. "You mean to say-?"

"Werl look what we got here, Tuppy!" Thomas Beresford strolls out from the computer games section and cracks his knuckles. "I wuz gettin' t' thinkin' we'd be here all day 'fore anyone showed up."

Looks like he's taken the time to change his clothes from prison orange to something a little more like his 'costume'. Black combat trousers and a white t-shirt. He appears to have foregone his signature padlock around the neck and I guess Conn's don't stock braces. Or maybe he just got bored looking at clothes and the possibilities of having a power supply and top of the range games machines on hand just got too appealing.

Tuppence walks in from the around the side of the outer display stands, slush puppy in hand, cold and hard eyes scanning us as she takes a slurp. "I dunno Tommy. I don't recognize 'em. You sure they're heroes?"

Oh goodness me, it's going to be like fighting Team Rocket. "I think I ate a hero once."

This appears to throw Thomas off his stride. "Wait, fer real? We're kinda new at this."

"Of course for real. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." "And sometimes just stupid stupid."

He screws up his face. "Aw man, that's gross! What tha hell you do that fower?"

"It's a quote, Tommy. That creepy British guy says it in Silence o' tha Lambs." She takes another slurp, realises that it's empty and tosses it aside. No manners at all. "An' I do recognize him. He wuz helpin' out Wonder Woman aftah that thing with the kids disappearin'."

"No good deed ever goes unpunished. Why are you hanging out with Mister Snart?"

"He's takin' us under his wing. Helpin' us make connections with other supervillains." Thomas actually looks happy about the situation. Really. Even Mahkent Senior… Even Brickwell would have been a better choice of role model. At least they run organisations.

Barda crouches slightly. "Why are we still talking?"

Thomas looks at her and then at me. "You brung yer sister along too?"

I shake my head and wave my right hand dismissively. "Sister-in-law. My brother was busy." Ring, scan for medical purposes.

By your command.

Oh, that's interesting. Some sort of chemical in every living cell in their bodies. I.. don't recognise it, but the situation suggests that it's the source of their unusual vitality. I'll add it to the research slate. "They, dear Barda, are still talking because Snart's up to something. I'm still talking because-" I tap the left bracer of my armour to activate the Garrick infuser. "-I want-" There's a slight hiss as it takes effect. "-to-" I cross the space between myself and Thomas at what feels like a jogging pace while around me everything slows to a crawl. At glacial speed Tuppence starts to raise her hands to a simple guard. I can watch in slow motion as Thomas' eyelids come down in a blink that probably takes him only a fraction of a second.

And then his right arm's bent up behind his back with my right hand at his wrist and my left around his neck and squeezing. "-catch them off guard."

"H-!?"

"Tommy!"

He bends his legs to try to jump and I respond by lifting him off the ground by his own neck. Tuppence dives at us but gets punched right in the diaphragm by Barda. She folds up around the blow, a look of total shock on her face for a moment. Barda pulls back, grabs the back of Tuppence's head with her right hand and slams her face into her oncoming left fist. Ah, ambidexterity. Tuppence blearily tries to focus on her attacker so Barda repeats the blow. Thomas is striking my armour with his legs and left arm but it's far easier to prevent a man sized target from getting leverage and my armour can takes this easily.

"I didn't know you could move like that."

"Short bursts only." And that's true. I tried dosing myself with it but it turns out that after a few seconds my New God physiology just reverts any changes. Great for short bursts but useless for strategic purposes. "Hey, Thomas? You know what's funny?"

"Khkhkhkhkhkh."

"Didn't actually know you were here. Plus, there's an amusing symmetry between your upbringing and Mister Snart's. Your father left permanently when you were… Nine, wasn't it? His mother left when he was the same age. Of course, in his case that was because his father was beating her-."

A sizzling sound and I swivel to interpose Thomas between myself and the freeze ray. Behind his goggles Mister Snart scowls at me. "That's about enough of that." As expected, he started with temperatures that would be painful but not lethal to a baseline Human. Thomas' chest gets coated with ice before the beam from the rifle-sized weapon cuts off. "Human shield. Classy." Snart pulls some sort of lever so I reach aside, pick up a display stand and throw it at him. He dodges, but the freeze trap he set up is wasted. Another thrown stand and he has to dive for the floor, allowing me to score a direct and disarming hit with a thrown Thomas. The ice covering him shatters on impact but he was barely conscious anyway. Snart just about manages to keep hold of his weapon with one hand but I'm already moving towards him before he can bring it to bear. "Vertigo, now!"

The sensation of nausea which follows is far weaker than what I detected him using in the bayou. I may not have the ring's protection at present but divine aura and the divine protective fortifications of my Apokoliptian armour reduce it to far below the level it would need to be at to disable me. I grab a widescreen plasma television from a wall stand and thrust it forwards to block a hastily aimed freeze ray then I jab my hand into Snart's stomach.

"Bowagh!"

Supervillain number four has done his best with Conn's wares to match his preferred classy apparel but fell somewhat short. He's now backing away from me slowly while frantically trying to retune his cobbled together Vertigo Inducer to a wavelength that will affect me. "Give it up, Vertigo."

With a barely suppressed snarl he lowers his hands to his side. "That's Count Vertigo, peasant."

"No it isn't. Didn't you hear? Your title's been revoked. Cancelled. Made extinct and invalid. And… Not that I'm one for nepotism, but I am the son of the ruler of the planet Apokolips. My name is Prince Grayven…" I appear to consider for a moment. "Peasant. But you may address me as Your Highness."

 

1st January
Uuuuuughh

Alert!

Huh, what? I jerk awake and start trying to pull my arms free of the duvet.

Connection made to monitored telephone line.

I stop, sagging back under the duvet.

Location: second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

Oh, for goodness sake. I've had… Ring, time?

Twelve twenty two GMT minus five.

Four and a half hours' sleep. All of my friends are asleep as well… Oh. Okay, Zatanna isn't, and Holly and Karon aren't… Need to talk to Zatanna about that. I wiggle up into an upright position. Still wearing my old pyjamas. Nice thing about the ring: it keeps me at a comfortable temperature no matter what duvet I have on. I find it much easier to sleep with something heavy on top of me and now I can have a thick winter duvet in the middle of summer. Or in a climate controlled mountain base.

And now I'm awake, darn it.

"Ring, who is it?"

"Speaker has identified themselves as Nylor Tr-"

I'm yanking back sheets and hurrying to get off the bed! "Track him!"

-uggs. Unable to comply."

I just manage to get my feet on the floor without falling over before stopping to stare at the obstinate jewellery. "Why the heck not?"

"Trace terminates at a junction box in Metropolis." I get an image of the box in question. Wires, more wires and.. a space I can't see. "Unable to follow further." Something magical. I can tell it's there because it's interrupting my sight of the things around it. Ugh, I'll pick whatever it is up later but there's not a lot to be gained by rushing.

I hold out my right hand and call the Stewart-ring from the dressing table. "You got anything to add?"

"Analysis of the area surrounding the target shows several other probable locations for communication relays utilising similar stealth technology."

I do not need this right now! What does he even want to talk to me about? I know he got away! He knows I know! I sigh, then hold the left ring up to my ear. "Answer."

"-what it is yer doing now. So, aaaanyway-"

Some sort of birdsong in the background… No, the ring says it's a recording.

"-I wanted to ask-."

"Truggs, I was asleep. If you're going to be a criminal you could at least try not being an arsehole."

"Oh, hey Paul. I was wondering-."

"What? What? What do you want?"

"Hey, I don't know what you've got to complain about. I had to swim two hundred kilometres out into the Gulf of Mexico today."

"Please don't tell me that was all about you."

"Hey, some people value my contribution. Was.. sort of... expecting.. Kobra to be joining me… Hey, was that you?"

Nothing to stop his people sending someone to visit a prisoner later. "It was a team effort."

"I gotta admit: I thought you'd go fer the mob heading to Houma. Thought they'd send.. I don't know, Robin or someone into the prison. If you even survived the Watchtower."

"Truggs-."

"Crock and me tossed for who got to do the swim…"

"I'm hanging up."

"Oh, come on. Don't be that guy. I just.. called to say… Well done. I honestly thought the Nazis would get yeh. Or at least hold you up a bit. Far as I can see you people just blitzed straight through."

"And you know that how?"

"Satellite mounted camera pointed at the Watchtower's windows. Didn't.. see how it ended. Hey, I know it's a bit of an ask, but could yeh tell me what happened t' Klarion? I… Heh, I don't like it when I can't see where he is."

I put my right hand to my forehead. "How did you even get this number?"

"A really pissed off GBS intern."

Ughh. I asked them not to fire her. "Why should I tell you? What's in it for me?"

"Future knowledge? Aaaah? I got a problem, I don't mind coming at it from multiple angles."

"What problem?"

"You remember I said my future was 'crummy'? Thing that makes it like that? Noooot all that far away."

"Uhh, fine. He went through a portal into what was probably Valhalla." In the background the birdsong quietens and is steadily replaced by whale song. "Captain Nazi, Krieger and bits of Savage too. I don't know where they are now."

"Huh. Wonder what the spread on that was."

"Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No, you get a little story first. Aah, what's that sport you British people invented that you're really bad at now?"

"Most of them?"

"Huh. I guess. Llllet's go with Cricket. Earth in my time is kinda like you people and cricket. I mean, you look around now and… We've got technology that can go toe to toe with the best in the universe. I mean, you've seen that, right?" I 'mm' noncommittally. "We got superheroes -most places don't have those- and most importantly? Isolation. And then… We didn't. About a decade from now, Earth gets hit hard. Orbital bombardment, billions dead." Shiiit. I can't.. take that as gospel. Should be able to check with Abra… "You know, with the bombardment and the slavery and the vivisection and that... The deportations, even by my time there's only about a tenth as many people on Earth as there are now? And that's after we recovered."

"Who was it?"

"They're called 'The Reach', but let's be honest here: it could have been Khundians or Apokoliptians or.. any of a hundred civilisations." Don't really remember much about the Reach in the comics. Didn't that Mexican Blue Beetle boy have one of their scarab armour things? "You get weak… People take advantage."

"But why does it matter to you? You… You said you're from after that happened?"

"You like losing at Cricket to everyone who can throw a team together? All the places you used to rule?" He exhales. "It's like… You train really hard at somethin'… Hundred metre sprint. You go to the Olympics. You win yer heat, you win yer semi and you come second in the final. What do you remember?"

Supervillain answer? "Not getting gold?"

"Bin-go. Earth coulda been a contender, not some damn Thanagarian protectorate. I can't even hate them. If they hadn't swung by we wouldn't have.. anything. Our history was just gone with our data networks."

"I can't believe that the Justice League just... What, all died?"

"I can't either but I don't know. Records 'r pretty good up to… Y'know. Then there's a huge blank."

"That doesn't justify what you're doing. If you're really that concerned -and it sounds like you've got reason to be- then-."

"Wanna know somethin' really interesting? Guess who wears an orange power ring and isn't in the database."

"I'm not a League member."

"No, I got mission reports. Things like that. I know who was workin' with the League. You weren't listed at all. You weren't in that timeline. Which.. says to me… You're the only other guy that can fix this. You're doin' the kinda things I would, sorta. And you're workin' with the League."

"Yes. I still believe they can be taught. Truggs, you can-."

The sounds cuts off. He's hung up. I lower the ring to my side.

What now? I raise my right hand to chest height. "Stewart-ring. Talk to me about The Reach."

 

1st January
18:38 GMT -5

Wallace is slouched on the settee with a large bowl of popcorn on his lap. He looks around as I walk in. "Oh, hey Oh El." He takes another handful of popcorn and tosses a couple of pieces into his mouth as something on the screen explodes.

"You.. do know my name, right?"

"Hm." He thinks for a moment. "Guess I kinda got used to calling you that."

"Look, if me calling you 'Wallace' is bothering you I can just stop. I manage to call Robert 'Rob'."

"Eh, it's sort of your thing now." He straightens up a little. "You got any plans for the weekend?"

"Upgrading my Ice Fortress. Thanks to Lantern Stewart I can finally give it a decent power source."

He looks puzzled. "Really? I'm not one for slacking off but we just had three missions back to back. You sure you don’t wanna take it easy for a bit?"

"It is easy. Me, the arctic wastes, the dulcet tones of Sandi Toksvig on the radio…"

"Who?"

"BBC Radio four presenter."

"Not taking Zatanna with you?"

"No. She.. left some homework to the last minute. Plus, I don't think she'd find it very interesting."

He returns his attention to the screen as.. someone drives a car off a raised section of road. Onto the rear of a lorry. There's no way that would work. "Just make sure you don't paint a giant skull on the side or anything."

I smile as I take the seat to his right. "You know, I wasn't going to… But now I'm thinking about it. What are your plans?"

"After Wednesday, last night and this morning? I plan on doing as little as possible. Oh, hey, you know that Rush Hour girl, right?"

"Actually, no." He raises his right eyebrow. "I know of her but we've never actually spoken."

"You know how her superspeed works?"

"How it works, the mechanism? No. The trigger is a mantra -same as Missus Tyler- but I've tried just saying it myself. " I shrug. "No change." He nods. "You made a decision about Nyssa yet?"

"Is there.. like, some way we can tell her and be sure it won't get back to Luthor?"

"No. There's no way to be certain Luthor won't find out. Heck, we don't know that Savage didn't have Mister Allen take samples of his own blood and post them to him while he was being mind controlled."

His eyes widen. "You don't think he did, right?"

"No, it too obviously links Lex to the attack." I think for a moment. "They might have posted it to the Brain…"

"Would that work?"

"No idea but I really hope not. If you're worried about Nyssa there are.. magically binding contracts. I don't know how eager she'd be to sign one. Plus, you've got everyone else who works there-."

"Including Doctor Sivana. Nice going there."

"Better than leaving him in the wild. And the recording equipment. You'd have to get her to agree to do nothing at the research centre. Heck, Truggs had a version of the Thinking Cap. Even thinking about it might be a risk."

He sinks back into the cushions. "Great. Think I'll try talking to… What was her name?"

"Until she tells you otherwise, 'Rush Hour'."

"Oh, come on. Bet you didn't ask her."

"True. But insufficient. I violated her secret identity for professional reasons. This is personal. Plus you're already planning to hit on her."

"I!" He looks aside. "Am.. not…"

"It sounded like Diana wanted to recruit her anyway."

"Oh yeah?" He smiles. "How'd she take you locking Nabu in the store room?"

I wince. "The dressing down I received was both entirely deserved and proportionate. Nabu didn't give you any trouble when you let him out, I hope?"

"He teleported away as soon as I took the chains off. Heh. Still can't believe you just left him there."

"I had a lot going on! I meant to go back for him, just.. sort of.. didn't get round to it." I still don't quite know how I managed that one. I actually checked for telepathic interference but no, just me being a numpty. I thought four hours would be sufficient to get out if he could but then the prison break happened…

"Did he give you any trouble?"

"No, he accepted my explanation. Not that it exactly helps; even if Klarion can't get the chain off himself one of the others should be able to."

"Kinda surprised. I thought he'd bear a grudge."

"Maybe it's an Order thing; he thinks I'm Diana's problem to discipline, that happened, therefore it's resolved."

"Could be." He returns his attention to the television and feeds himself some more popcorn.

"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you. I mean, not about that."

"What was it?"

"What happened to Kent Nelson's walking stick?"

"Uh? Oh, it got burned up powering the shield spell Kent put around us. Well, most of it; I put the Helmet on before the handle got destroyed. I thought about putting it in the trophy room, but we had the Helmet…"

"And where is it now?"

"It's in my room. I mean, my room here. Why, you want it for something?"

"I was going to ask Sephtian… That Atlantean guy I work with?" He nods. "To have a look at it, see if he could get anything useful out of it. If we had a shield spell like the one Mister Nelson used it could be very useful." To say nothing of the fact that it would be a perfect focusing aid for the séance I have planned for this evening.

"I kinda figured Fate probably set the cane up for him."

"Right, but we can still work out what those spells were. You know, reverse engineer the thing."

He waves his left hand in a show of indifference. "Hey, if you want it, it's on the dresser."

"Thank you. That will be most helpful."

 

1st January
18:47 GMT -5

"Welcome, Orange Lantern two eight one four. Welcome, Teekl."

Only one zeta tube in the world greets us like that. I smile and take a look at the zeta tube's computer terminal as I pass. I think this part of the Zatara residence used to be a smoking room, old tasteful furniture, wooden panelling and a slightly stuffy scent. No dust, of course. Zatanna told me that there's a whole slew of spells built into the structure of the place. I have no idea who did it; the Zataras only moved in seven years ago. It was probably by the same people who thought that 'Shadowcrest' was a clever thing to call an enchanted house.

Another place where I can't scan things. I open the door to the main hallway and look around. A lot of the rooms aren't in regular use. It shouldn't take that long to-.

"…about you. About him."

Teekl's ears prick up and she looks around. I.. don't recognise that voice. The house reacts violently to hostile people -heck, I got smacked in the face by a floorboard when I tried scratching the leg of a chair to see what would happen- so he can't be an intruder.

"I'm.. I'm sorry about the performances-." She sounds distressed. I transition to the open area just inside the front door and start heading towards the kitchen.

"I don't care about the stage show, Zatanna. I want to know that my friend's alright. That you're alright." Yep, in the kitchen. "It's been two months and I haven't heard a word from him. John's missed performances before, but-." I push open the door. Zatanna's sitting at the kitchen table, a pad of paper, two textbooks and some writing implements in front of her, along with a cup of tea on a saucer. Sitting across from her is a frustrated looking man of oriental extraction in black jeans, blue striped shirt and pale brown jacket. There's a nearly empty mug of coffee in front of him. He looks up as soon as I walk in and then looks away. "Speak of the devil…"

Zatanna looks at me, then him and then back to me. "Paul, this is Uncle Ch-. Um, Charles Tong. He's Dad's manager."

Oh, right. I dip my head in his direction as I approach. "Good evening, Mister Tong."

He nods back as I walk around the table to Zatanna. "Hello Paul. Maybe you can tell me what's going on."

I put the head of Mister Nelson's cane down next to Zatanna while keeping my eyes on him. The ring makes lying so easy, perfect control of what would otherwise be involuntary physical reflexes. "With.. regard to..?"

"I want. To know. Where John is."

"Annnnnd…" I glance at Zatanna. "You haven't been told?"

"I know what the League told the world is bullcrap! What's going on!?"

"Mister Zatara was possessed by a Lich." There's a slight intake of breath from Zatanna. "The League are currently working to free him but it's fairly heavy going as the creature does not want to be removed."

"Where is he? I want to see him."

"Mister Tong, that wouldn't be safe. The spells containing him aren't reliable enough that non-practitioners are allowed anywhere near him, plus, he's being held in Atlantis. You can't breathe water and you couldn't survive the depth."

"Oh." He blinks and his eyes dip to the table for a moment. "I.. guess that makes sense. But what's with the subterfuge? Why wasn't Zatanna allowed to tell me?"

"The fewer people know the smaller the chance of some evil wizard trying to break in. Needless to say, we need you not to tell anyone about this."

"But-."

I nod and make a show of wincing. "Yes, Batman should.. probably have put you on an exceptions list or something. I'm sorry about that."

He shakes his head, not making eye contact. "But… That… I'm…" He looks back at me. "If John's not here, who's looking after Zatanna?"

"Uncle Charlie, I'm fourteen." I wince inwardly. "Not having dad around is.. hard, but I can manage for a little while."

"For two months?"

"You know Dad's family all live in Italy. And.. I can't contact Mom's family…"

"Batman and.. I, have been… You know… Around." That sounds so inadequate. The sagging I do isn't feigned.

He looks from me to her. "Yeah, I picked up on that."

I glance at Zatanna. "Have I come up in conversation?"

"Once or twice." A very faint smile. "Still, I suppose at her age-."

I shake my head. "Oh, no, we're not-." / "He's not my boyfriend."

Zatanna and I make eye contact for a moment before she looks away. "He made that.. clear." Huh, that was only.. this morning. Doesn't time fly.

"You're.. not staying here-" He makes a circling motion with his right index finger, taking in the whole of the house. "-all on your own, are you?"

"No, I've been staying… Um…"

"I think Green Arrow refers to it as a 'high-tech doss house', but it's actually quite nice. Certainly.. spacious."

He thinks for a moment. "You're living in Mount Justice?"

I knew it! I knew it!

"Yes, mostly. We, ah, installed a transportation device so I can go from here to there without appearing to leave the house. There's always other people around."

"Is.. that why the League recruited Fate? I mean, if he's the man who was part of the Justice Society he's got to be at least ninety years old by now."

"That was more to take on Mister Zatara's caseload as 'League wizard'. Nabu's not really a researcher, though he'll probably be involved.. um, 'at the death', as it were."

"Do they.. have any idea how long..?"

I shake my head. "Unknown territory, really. We know a couple of things that don't work. I came here because Zatanna and I were going to do some research on the subject."

"Is it something I can help with?"

"Do you know anything about necromancy?"

"I'm.. going to regret asking anything else, aren't I?"

Zatanna nods. "Probably."

"Okay. Well, I've got an answer I suppose. Zatanna,-" He reaches across the table and puts his right hand on hers. "-you know I'm always going to be here for you, alright? If you need someone who's not a superhero to talk to."

She nods and then pulls back to get up off her chair. I pick up the head of the walking stick as she walks around the table to hug him. "Thanks Uncle Charlie."

It… I had worried slightly that the adversarial path I've called for, keeping things from the League, might be cutting her off from other adult contact. It's a weight off to know that she has someone else. Someone not involved. "Right, well…" They separate, Mister Tong holding onto her hands for a moment and maintaining eye contact. She manages a small smile. "Zatanna, we need to stop off in London."

"Okay." She steps away from Mister Tong and heads for the door. "Let's do this."

 

1st January
23:53 GMT

I stick my head out of the deserted boathouse that houses the London zeta tube terminus. I've never been particularly keen on London. I'm a natural pedestrian and the place is just too big to walk around, to say nothing of the lines of sight. The London here… Well, I've read Hellblazer. I'm not spending any time here I don't have to.

"How long did he say?" I duck back in. Zatanna's sitting on a wooden bench with domesticus-sized Teekl ensconced on her lap, milking the attention for all it's worth.

"Should only be a minute or two."

"Wouldn't it be faster to pick him up?"

"Transitioning with arcane objects eats power. Plus, we're trying to keep what we're doing secret. Having me pick him up is a bit of a-" I hear a car pull up outside. I try getting the ring to show me but for some reason it doesn't… "He scry-warded Mister Chandler's cab." I hear footsteps. "And his own coat. I… I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"Guess you'll just… Uhh." John pushes the sliding door open wide enough for him to walk through. "Have to learn to use your eyes like the rest of us." He strolls over to Zatanna, who offers him the head of Mister Nelson's cane. He takes it and holds it up to study it.

Mister Chandler follows him in carrying a heavy looking bag. "Evening lady and gent. Oh, 'ere, thanks for the Christmas presents."

Warding amulets for himself, his wife and their daughter. Not Spelleaters as those would look a bit odd on a London cab driver but still effective in a conventional way. "You're welcome, Mister Chandler. I wasn't entirely sure they'd be well received."

He nods a little to the side. "Ye-ah, Renee nearly did her nut until I told her they weren't from John. Once she calmed down a bit she was well grateful."

"Are you accompanying us this evening?"

"Not bloody likely. Here." He throws the bag at me and I catch it with both arms, bending under the weight. I left the power armour in subspace because few things say 'call the police' like someone tramping through a graveyard in a glowing assault exoskeleton. It's only half a second away if I really need it and I've still got both rings. Those are concealed by weather appropriate ski gloves. Mister Chandler looks me over to check that I'm not going to collapse under the weight and then looks expectantly at John.

John keeps looking at the cane for a moment, then spots what Mister Chandler is doing, rolls his eyes and turns further away. "Yeah, good call. Should be able to get a nice resonance off-."

"Ah, come on John, it's New Year's Day! You know what Renee told me."

John points his right index finger at me. "This is all your fault."

Oh. That. I turn to Mister Chandler. "I'm.. happy to pay reasonable expenses. If you'll tell me what the fare is..?"

"You see, John? That's 'ow you get good service. Take a fuckin' lesson." John shakes his head and rolls his eyes again before slipping the cane handle into his coat pocket. "Busy time of year mate, but since you're a valued customer we'll call it twenty five quid."

I don't actually have a lot of British currency in subspace so I take a blank gold disk out instead and float it over to him. "Will this do?"

He takes hold of it in his right hand and scratches it with his thumbnail before giving me a satisfied smile. "That'll do nicely. Have fun with whatever John's dragged you into." He turns and heads back towards his cab, hands in pockets. I hear him start whistling as I close the door behind him.

John shakes his head. "I'm never going to hear the end of that. Right, where's the nearest zeta tube thingy to the Harmony Grove Cemetery?"

Zatanna picks Teekl up and sets her down on the bench next to her. "Close. The League put in a new zeta tube just a little after Nabu became a member."

"And we're sure Nabu's not there right now, are we?"

I nod. "Since he has no sense of fun and doesn't get tired he's taken monitor duty. That doesn't mean he's not aware of-."

John fishes around in his pockets and takes out three leather thongs. "These should stop us triggering anything for the next few hours." I go to op-. "Don't look inside." I think I'll take his word for it. I sling the bag's strap over my shoulder and put the thong around my neck. "You sure you can stop the tubes making a record?"

"It's just a machine and the Green Corpsmen are on Oa." I create a zeta tube construct. "After you."

John goes to walk through, then stops as he notices Teekl rubbing around his legs. She's only met him a couple of times but she seems rather taken with him. "Oh, right." He crouches down and she sits as he puts a thong around her neck as well. "Can't 'ave the cat giving the game away."

She looks down at it and sniffs. "Collar smell fun." Then she stands and gives John's leg another nuzzle. "Teekl like Laughing Magician. Laughing Magician fun man."

"Long as I've got the cat's approval." John awkwardly steps over her and through the zeta construct. Teekl trots after him, tail high.

"Why.. does Teekl like him so much?"

"You heard what Nabu said. John's probably about the second most Chaos-aligned person on the planet. Suffering and havoc his constant companions and all that jazz."

She nods a little uncertainly and walks through the portal. I take a moment to erase all traces of our presence here before following her through.

1st January
18:56 GMT -5

This one's in a garage. I take another moment to reset every part of it to how it was before we came though.

"So…" Zatanna looks at the wall for a moment and then back at John and I. "What.. do we do if Mister Nelson doesn't tell us anything? Or if the ritual doesn't work at all?"

John shrugs. "We keep tryin'. Paul was dead right about this being a long term thing. I mean, the chains worked so we know he's not invincible or anything, but we're a bit short on ways to actually stop him."

I nod at him. "And if head on attacks are off the menu, we could always try that thing you did to your father. But not with a cat. I like cats."

For a fraction of a second John's eyes narrow, then his face relaxes.

Zatanna's looking at him a little nervously. "What.. thing you did to your father?"

"Minor curse I did after we had a row and I was too young an' stupid to know any better." It was a bit more than that. We can't shelter her from the less pleasant side of magic, not against someone as powerful and well supported as Nabu. I'm not exactly looking forward to poisoning all of those animals myself, especially after we put them in little Nabu dresses. "Zatanna, d'you mind going on ahead? I need to talk to Paul about something real quick. Instructions are in the top of the bag."

"Um, okay. Gab emoceb sselthgiew dna taolf gnola htiw em."

The bag floats off my shoulder and drifts after her. She takes hold of the handles in her right hand and heads out of the door, Teekl trotting along behind her. I turn to John. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Something that's been buzzing around me for a while now." He takes a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and takes a moment to light it. "I-" He takes a drag. "-never told anyone 'cept Gemma about that. And I know she didn't tell you. I didn't tell you and I very much doubt that Dad did."

"Um."

He shrugs. "So maybe I got drunk sometime, blabbed it out to someone and the story drifted around. Wouldn't be the first time. Then again-" Another drag. "-it's not the first time for you either. Not many people know about the tattoos I did for Elle. Not many people know about Gabriel's wings. And if I asked you how I first got together with Chas, I'm betting you know." Oooh dear. "What I wanna know is…" He looks directly at me and there's no humour in his expression at all. "How in the name of bloody fuck do you know all this stuff?"

 

1st January
18:58 GMT -5

Um.

I try getting a look at his soul to try and work out how bad I've misjudged this, but… Oh, that's clever. Something -probably another bloody ward of some kind- is dampening down on my ability to see it precisely. I can see colours there but all the details get blurred when I try to make them out. I didn't notice it before because there is colour there.

Um.

"What's the matter? Teekl stole your tongue?"

"I'd been… Sssssort of hoping that no one would notice that thing you just noticed. Um."

He frowns. "What? You've been doing that around Batman and he hasn't asked about it?"

"I.. think he assumes it's the ring. Scan stuff, pillage databases." I shrug. "Superheroes have secrets."

"I'm not a superhero. And this could get Zatanna hurt."

"No! I wouldn't..!" I exhale and look down for a moment. I don't want to tell him. This could mess up everything. Gather information. "If… If I don’t tell you, what exactly happens?"

"Well, that's the question, innit?" He takes another drag while he considers, then breathes out a plume of smoke. "Can't very well dump Zatanna, not after what happened with her mother. Can't get rid of you." He looks me over. "Not easily anyway. And it's not like you've done anything to deserve it. Not as far as I know. 'Course, there was that one man on the tube who started shouting about crimes he'd committed… You know about that one, don’t you."

It was a statement not a question, but I nod anyway. "Sold his soul and his daughter's too. Nearly sold another baby for an extension. Probably would have if you hadn't stepped in."

"Right. He looked like a victim to start with and turned out to be a right tosser. So understand that I'm a little bit concerned about this. We're picking a fight with a sodding Lord of Order-" He takes the cigarette and jabs it at me. "-and I can't trust the bloke I'm supposed to be able to rely on."

"I didn't sell my soul to anything. Except possibly the Ophidian. I didn't used to have one." He raises his eyebrows. "I know perfectly well that doesn't mean that I sold it. According to the Atlanteans I shouldn't have been able to live like that. If I'd been in contact with a Demon you'd have picked up on it when you did my tattoos."

"That does rather leave the question of how you managed it."

"I told you, I come-."

"From a parallel universe. With no magic." He looks away, making a show of considering it. "Doesn't explain what you know though." A quick glance in my direction and then he goes back to studying the wall. "Look mate: I can't make you tell me. But as long as you don't, I'm going to be on edge the whole time waiting for the other shoe to drop. And honestly? I kinda think I deserve it."

"John, I haven't… I haven't told anyone. Diana doesn't know. Kon.. doesn’t know. I can't properly judge how knowing affects…"

"Now I'm getting really interested."

I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment. "It's… It's nothing here. It's nothing bad exactly. I was.. just a bit worried how… It's a bit mind bending."

"Wouldn't be the first time I'd heard something like that."

Tell or not? Oh, he's just going to keep at it until he works it out. A controlled release is far less risky. "I'm going to.. request, that you don't tell anyone else. It could completely mess up my whole life here and I really don't think the situation justifies it."

He nods. "Not asking me to promise? Or nip over to Themyscira and get Gaea to witness an oath?"

"No. Look, I basically trust you. If you need to release the information, do. But if you don't need to…"

He nods. "Alright, mate. Not going to mess up your life when you don't deserve it. Now. Let's see if the secret lives up to the build up, shall we?"

"Okay. Um." How to go about this? Point of reference. "You.. remember.. your friend. The one who was supplying the Family Man with his vic-."

"Jerry O'Flynn. Wasn't exactly his proudest moment but I don't want him remembered just for that." He thinks about it, then frowns at me. "You saying you didn't know his name?"

"The ring's.. improved my memory, but I don't remember everything I used to know and I never knew everything."

"Alright. Go on."

"You remember what happened.. the night he… Um. Disappeared?" The first glimmerings of realisation appear, his eyes becoming slightly unfocused. "I come from… Well, I suppose it was sort of like what happened to him, but in reverse."

He looks me over once more. "Seem to have adjusted alright?"

"This place… It's ludicrous, really. In a very fundamental way it just doesn't make sense to me. I suppose I should just be glad I got a body that works chemically."

"So where does the knowledge come from?"

I shrug. "It's not a secret where I'm from. The stories here fit story patterns I'm used to… Mostly. Some details differ. I was expecting Mister Zatara to have died in that ritual you did and not his wife. Other things too. And some things I just never bothered learning."

He nods. "And now you're off the reservation."

"Or on it. All a matter of perspective, really."

Another drag on the cigarette, then he lets out a chuckle. "You're right about it being mind bending. Not a lot of people coming through from your side, then?"

"As far as I know everyone thinks that it's impossible. Of course, where I am in relation to where I started… In Bleed terms…"

"Don't know much about that." Another brief chuckle. "Blimey. Anything else you wanna share?"

"I wouldn't say that I wanted to share that."

He raises his eyebrows. "Is there?"

"No. Can we.. go now?"

"Yeah." He straightens up a little. "Shouldn't leave a fourteen year old girl alone in a graveyard with only vast arcane power for protection and an intelligent cat for company. Starting to sound like a frigging Japanese cartoon."

"And.. you don't feel the need to share what I just told you?"

Another chuckle as he walks towards the door. "I think I'd be running up against something of a credibility problem there, mate. I don't know-" He turns the handle and waits for me to follow. "-if you're just mental or that's actually true."

"I don't know if it's actually true. Not like I can check."

"Confession's supposed to be good for the soul. You tried saying your name again?"

I try thinking it and stumble against the wall. "Still taboo."

"You know anything about what's going to happen next?"

I shake my head as we start down the street. "John, we're so far off my map theodolites haven't been invented yet."

 

1st January
19:09 GMT -5

John finishes pouring salt into the groove of the outer circle and hands the bag over to me before stepping back to admire his work. "Looks about right."

I used the ring to mark out the design around the grave and Zatanna filled the lines in with white sand. The sigils within are completely different from what he used in Poseidonis but the Enochian characters are the same as the ones I've seen mentioned in various Atlantean texts on this sort of ritual. The head of Mister Nelson's cane rests in the centre. Nothing looks massively out of place, which is just about the limit of my analytical abilities in these matters.

John also did.. something to the graveyard itself. Not exactly a popular time for visiting the departed anyway but anyone who tries will start to find themselves less eager to do so as they approach the front gate. The Tower of Fate is currently back in the nexus of the subtle realms, wherever that is. Nabu moved it out of Salem as soon as he took control of Mister Zatara. Thinking about it, Onomatopoeia, Zard and Faust are probably still in there. He certainly hasn't condescended to hand them over to the civil authorities.

Zatanna shifts her weight from her left foot to her right and then back again. "You don't sound very sure."

John tilts his head to the side for a moment. "Summoning's not really that hard, that's half the problem with it. Nelson was buried here, we've got an artefact that was important to him when he was alive and he's got no reason to feel vengeful. Even if it all goes tits up the salt ring'll stop him gettin' out before we can put him back down."

'Put him back down'? My eyes are drawn back to the headstones I've been trying to avoid looking at. "We're not.. animating his corpse, right?"

John rolls his eyes up and shakes his head. "Have a little faith. He might manifest from his body, but what we'll be gettin' is his spirit made visible by magic."

Teekl's sitting on the far side of the two headstones. She tries dawking the space above the salt ring but snatches her paw back with a look of shocked affront. Guess that means it's working?

Zatanna's still not meeting John's eyes. "What do we do when it's.. over?"

"I say 'I release you' and that's that. Look, Zatanna, I've summoned up some real miserable bastards before. A former superhero who -according to Nabu- wasn't in favour of what Nabu was doing anyway shouldn't be any trouble." John looks from her to me and then back again. "We doing this or what?"

She nods. "Yes, we're doing this." She sounds more certain now. I checked, and the Catholic Church does allow this sort of magic in criminal investigations as long as all other reasonable avenues have been exhausted. Pulling people out of Yahweh's loving embrace isn't supposed to be something you do casually. I.. have no idea whether or not Mister and Missus Nelson were Christian. I mean, they probably were, but if his contact with Nabu and other supernatural entities resulted in him going pagan his soul might have gone anywhere. Does Order even have an afterlife?

"Right then." John clears his throat. "In this sacred space we call out to the spirit of our departed colleague, Kent Nelson. We humbly request that he hear us and come to us that he might share his wisdom."

Nothing obvious happens. My turn then.

"We humbly beseech Doctor Kent Nelson to come among us and speak with us once more. We are sorely in need of his wise counsel."

I see a pale wisp of vapour rise from.. I'm not sure, actually. Could be from the sand or from the grave itself. Or both, I suppose. It isn't as if I've seen one of these things done before.

"Tnek Noslen, ew deen uoy."

The vapour shoots upwards, stopping at a point about a hundred and seventy centimetres from the ground and filling in Mister Nelson's form from the head downwards. As his head completes he looks around, taking in the sigils on the ground and his audience. The vapour next lends form to his chest and arms and he checks those over. "Hmm. Interesting being on this end of things for a change." He fixes his eyes on John as his waist and legs appear. "You must be John Constantine. I've heard about you."

John gives a shallow nod. "Yeah?"

Mister Nelson wiggles his right index finger at me. "Orange Lantern over there said I should consider handing the whole 'Fate' thing over to you."

John glances at me and raises his eyebrows. "He said. I wouldn't trust me with that sort of power."

"That's not necessarily a bad attitude to have. Anyway, Nabu would be the one exercising the power." He turns to me. His legs move but his feet aren't quite touching the ground. "Well? How was the funeral?"

"I didn't see the family funeral. All the surviving members of the Society turned up for the 'professional' one, along with a good chunk of the League. And my team, of course."

"Hope it wasn’t too depressing for you."

"Not really. I don't really… In a reality with demonstrable afterlives, I'm not really sure how I should feel about it."

He smiles faintly before turning to Zatanna. "Zatanna, you have no idea how glad I am that Nabu relented and released you. When he pushed my soul out of the Helmet I felt for sure…" He trails off. "What happened?"

"My father offered himself in my place. Nabu's still controlling him."

"For how long?"

"As long as he wants."

Mister Nelson sighs, tilting his head slightly downwards and shaking it. "Oh, Zatanna. I'm… I'm so sorry. If there'd been any way for me to prevent it…"

"Mister Nelson, we called you here because we're not taking this lying down. We intend to remove Nabu, by force if necessary."

He turns back to me. "You've got guts, kid. But it'll take a lot more than that to take down a Lord of Order."

"I know. That's why I want you to tell me where it was you first picked up the Helmet." He looks.. a little disconcerted. "Alan let us look through your diaries. The one covering that period-."

He waves his right hand to stop me. "I left it in the Tower for safe keeping and none of us can get in anymore. And anyway I.. don't know how much it would help."

"Sympathetic resonance. Some sort of artefact that he'd been in close proximity to for a long time would be idea-."

"You don't need to explain the operating principles of magic to me. But even if you did get something like that, what exactly would you do with it?"

"Weaken Nabu to the point where removing the Helmet without his permission became a possibility."

He nods. "You know, I can't help but feel a little responsible. If I hadn't left Nabu on the shelf for all those years he might not have felt this was necessary."

"Yeah, maybe." John! "But I've seen those diaries too. Maybe if he'd treated you decently you wouldn't have done that. Far as Giovanni Zatara's concerned, doesn't matter much either way. Nabu's where he is now, that's what we've got to deal with."

Mister Nelson nods. "My father and I found Nabu in a tomb just north of Jahra. There were a lot of biers all laid out in rows, one for each of his former hosts. I don't know why the last one didn't pass it on…" He looks down for a moment, remembering. "The skeleton in the oldest tomb wasn't human." We all look interested and he raises his hands to try to halt our enthusiasm. "Now, I don't know if it was actually his…"

"Can you show me the location?"

He holds out his right hand and the head of his cane rises to it. The remainder of the cane fills in with the same vapour making up the rest of his body. Once it's complete he holds up the head and a simple map of the area appears before him. Marvellous, it's in Bialya. "Take a look around when you get there. Might learn something from the hieroglyphics."

"Thank you. Do you know if Nabu has any particular weaknesses we could exploit?"

"Aside from needing a host?" He considers. "He's not very mentally flexible. Not sure if that'll help you any."

"Thank you Mister Nelson. There was.. one other thing."

"What is it?"

"The other thing that was in contact with him for a prolonged period of time was… Um, your head. Would you be prepared to.. let us..?"

"You want a piece of my body?" He thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "If you think it'll help. I'm sure not using it any more."

"Thank you. I…" I look at John and Zatanna. "I don't think there's anything else I want to-."

"Did you see her again?" Zatanna blinks at her own forthrightness as he turns back to her. "Your wife, Inza?"

This time his smile isn't half hearted. "Yeah. And she's still a real pistol."

 

2nd January
03:41 GMT +3

It's still pitch black as John, Zatanna and I approach the co-ordinates Mister Nelson gave us. At this altitude and time of the year it's bloody cold in the Bialyan desert so I've extended my environmental shield around both of them. We're a good long way away from any modern settlements, which goes some way to explain why no one has found the tomb since. Bialya's World Heritage sites are far to the west of here and we're far enough from water sources that it's unlikely anyone would just stumble across it. The tomb itself is warded -naturally- but the ring's seismic scans have no trouble picking it up. I suppose there was no reason for Nabu's ancient wearers to try protecting it from something like that.

"Laever lla secnefed." Zatanna points towards where the buried entrance is located. I've put thin orange lines on the dust and rock, showing the approximate size and shape of the subterranean space. A couple of tiny lights appear showing its still active protections.

"Antechamber looks clear." I hold out the phase shifters.

Zatanna takes hers and attaches it to her armour. John takes his and turns it around so that he can cast a sceptical gaze over it. "We could just astral project inside."

"Use magic to break into a place that houses dead hosts of the local Lord of Order?"

"As opposed to using a machine from the future you don't understand?"

"No, these were made here. Only the designs-."

"Evom em ot eht rebmahcetna." Zatanna rolls her eyes at us as she rises slightly off the ground and then floats clean through the ground in the direction of the tomb's entrance.

John wrinkles his face for a moment and then presses the shifter to his chest. I activate them both and then pull us through the ground. It's interesting; obviously the only light between the surface and the stonework below is what the rings are generating. If I had to guess what I'd be seeing I'd have said either a dull orange light or nothing. What's actually happening is the ring is interfacing with my optic nerve and nudging it to show me the results of the seismic scan as if I could actually see it. It's almost like floating through empty space. I didn't tell the rings to do this… Can't say I'd even thought about it. I do prefer it, though.

It only takes us a few moments to come out into the antechamber. Zatanna has already conjured a glowing ball of light and I watch as she gently lifts it into the air to float up towards the ceiling. I deposit John on the ground and he's only too happy to dispense with the shifter. Quick scan of the rock… The oldest parts were probably put together sometime around five thousand years ago. If they put all of the 'Fates' here that would make the oldest among them contemporary with Adom. Not sure when they stopped using it or how it ended up buried. I mean, the path of the Tigris and Euphrates has changed over the years… Maybe some sort of rockslide which resulted in dust getting trapped? Could it have been buried deliberately? Maybe there was a portion above ground which was destroyed and all that's left are the catacombs?

"Modest, wasn't he?" John's looking at the pictures on the wall surrounding the entrance. Someone wearing what is clearly the Helmet of Fate is seated, glowing ankh in hand, while the people around him bow down.

"No, the style's wrong. I think that was added later."

"Hm." He reaches for a cigarette.

"John!"

"Oh, come on, mate. It's not going to damage the place."

"We're underground. Your irreverence and smoking habits are well known and the smoke's got nowhere to go. He might spot it." He returns the cigarette packet to his pocket and buttons it closed. "If you need one that badly I can just stick some nicotine into your blood."

He shakes his head. "It's not the same."

"Are you two coming?" Zatanna looks back at us, having already gone a little way into the outer chamber. Another orb of light floats just above her and two Lamassu statues stand guard at her sides. I feel a glimmer of nervousness for a moment but the statues remain inanimate. They're.. still painted! Even after all this time! Bright blues and yellows on their wings, black hair and red helmets decorated with gold ankhs displaying their affiliation.

There are other statues, long haired and thickly bearded men seated and wearing robes. I don't know exactly what the images carved into their thrones and clothes mean but I take a scan of them anyway. This is… Simply amazing. Mister Nelson said that Nabu didn't want him to come back here but any modern archaeologist would give their right arm to see this!

Zatanna's stopped at the next doorway, just in front of the first still active defensive spell. "I.. don’t recognize this one."

John picks up the pace a little as I keep gawping. What would Queen Beatrice do if she knew about this place? Probably put a small army around it and have a team of archaeologists go through it very carefully. Does she have any wizards on the payroll? I don’t think so. Be a PR coup if the whole place didn't self destruct or something. Never really considered going after Nabu politically…

John kneels down and waves an unlit match at the faintly glowing rune. "Simple trap. Doesn't report back."

"What does it do?"

"Dunno. Paralysis, probably. Could be zombification."

"They can do that?"

"Yeah? Oh, not undead rotting corpse zombie. Like, it locks away part of your soul. Nasty stuff, but easy enough to undo if you know what you're doing. When this place was in use they probably checked a couple of times a week."

"How do we get past it?"

"Like this. By Laverna and by Eris, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The match flares as the light marking the protective spell goes out.

"Did you just quote Harry flipping Potter?"

He stands and carefully returns the match to his pocket. "Whatever works."

Zatanna leads the way once more. Given my lack of any sort of feeling for magic I'm happy to bring up the rear. The passageway is walled with stone bricks. It's all survived remarkably well… "Is there some sort of preservation effect on this place?"

John reaches out to the side and puts his hand on the wall for a moment. "Yep. Good housekeeping, really."

"So how come your place is a sty?"

"I think of it as 'lived in'. I mean-" We pause and look into a room on the left. "-this place is a tomb. Nothing organic. Nothing living. Thousands of years and nothing out of place. Don't feel natural to me." Just as Mister Nelson described, the rooms contain a series of biers with complete human skeletons resting on them. Most have protective spells on them and in any case I doubt that they'd be much more use than the fragments of Mister Nelson's skull I have sitting in subspace. There are a few artefacts: metal cups, metal staves and a few swords. I take a scan of the rooms before we continue onwards.

There are more chambers of the same design to the left and right as we press onwards. The room at the far end is the one housing the alien remains and that is where we're going. Of course, in a ying-yang sort of way it seems appropriate that the resting place of the disciples of the Lords of Order contains… I enter the room behind John. Zatanna's already looking at the remains of Doctor Sven Nelson and whatever the name of Nabu's most recent but three host was. Their remains are almost perfectly preserved. No rot at all, even after seventy years. Just a little dried out. Mister Nelson only put the Helmet on much later and there was no way he'd have been able to get the bodies out by himself. The sarcophagus the host was in has been turned into an ersatz bier while his father had been laid out with his arms clasping a bible to his chest.

"Come on." John gently puts his arm around Zatanna's shoulder and leads her to the bier at the end of the room. It's decorated with gold and is raised up higher than the others. The pictures on the back wall show a figure in blue and gold descending from the sky, backlit by a radiant ankh. Another scene, showing him with scholars and monarchs. Another showing him teaching students and the last… Shows him dead, his spirit passing into the Helmet, which in turn passed on to one of his students.

The bones are similar to those of a human but the structures are wrong. "Ring, identify the species."

"Individual identification impossible. Species identified as native of planet Cilia."

John holds his right hand over Nabu's skull for a moment with his eyes shut. "Not here and not passed on. I think we've got our man."

 

1st January
21:39 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine, Teekl, C zero one."

"…why he needed all of those dead mice." We head in the direction of the living quarters, Zatanna making a face as if she's swallowed something unpleasant. "Does he.. have a pet snake?"

I do a quick scan of the interior of the mountain as Teekl wanders off. Kaldur, Kon, M'gann, Donna, Artemis and Wallace are all in the living area. Depending on when Garth and Tula move in we may have to do something about enlarging it. "No, I'm afraid not. The idea is to use them as the effector component in a sym-."

"Sympathetic resonance spell using his bones to bypass his defenses." Her face stills as she considers it. "Since it's only connecting to the Nabu component and not…" She nods, then blinks in realisation. "John did that to his father! That's horrible!"

"He read about it in a book. He didn't actually think it would work." I generate a construct of Thomas Constantine in his prime. "John used a cat, dressed it up to look like his father, drew some squiggly lines around it and stuck it in a shed somewhere. When he saw it was actually working he went back to the book the spell was in, and there wasn't a reversal. In the end he stuck the cat in a jar of formaldehyde to stop it rotting further."

She frowns. "But that wouldn't reverse the effects. The link would still be active. How long did it take him to find out how..?" She sees me wince. "How long?"

"Couple of weeks after his father's murder. About twenty years in total."

Her eyes dip as she thinks about the magics involved. "The link would work.. both ways. If he died before the cat finished rotting away…" She shakes her head. "I've never heard of a case like that."

"I imagine that everyone would prefer it if you stayed away from that sort of magic. Where possible."

"What happened to him?"

"His soul was bound to the material world by the link to the cat. Even after his body was cremated his ghost just sort of hung around Gemma. She was the only one who could see him so people thought that she might be having some sort of episode. Or post traumatic amnesia. In the end she spoke to John about it, after the funeral. That reminded him about the cat. He dug it up and set fire to it to break the spell."

We take a turn towards the part of the mountain I occupy. The sociable thing would be to at least say hello to everyone first, but while I might not be physically tired I can get mentally exhausted. After all the excitement I really feel like I could do with turning my brain off for a bit. On that subject… "Are you.. planning on going home?"

"I… Probably not. You said you were going to be working on your Ice Fortress tomorrow?"

"Yes. I'm going to start by changing the power supply to something called a Bleed Membrane Instability Generator. Probably install a force field system. You're welcome to come along but I'm not sure how interesting you'll find it."

"No, that could be.. interesting."

"Are you sure? Because there's a whole herd of quantum-legged horses-."

She smiles. "You noticed that too?"

"That the number of legs they have changes from moment to moment? Yes."

"What do you think will happen to them? They can't stay on the Watchtower."

"Why not? They're going to have to replant a lot of the arboretum anyway, they can just include more grass. Hopefully Diana can get in touch with Odin… Now there's a sentence I couldn't imagine saying a year ago."

"If those were really Einherjar then Odin's sided with the Nazis."

"I'd be surprised if Odin was on anyone's side but Odin's. If he wants his people's remains and equipment back then he can negotiate." I stop just before reaching my door. "I.. don't suppose you've been sleeping any better?"

She looks away, towards her own door. "No. Not really."

"So.. do you want me to try..?" I raise my hands and just about stop myself making a grabbing gesture. My teacher Ms Terrill was quite clear about what not to do to scare off people who aren't used to being touched like that.

Zatanna flushes slightly. "Umm… I.. don't know…"

"Zatanna, you have school Monday and a fairly large amount of work to do. You need sleep and drugging yourself unconscious isn't a long term solution."

"It's not that. Um. How… How naked am I-?"

Hands raised defensively. "Oh, no no no. I mean, that's-" I gesture at what she's wearing now. "-fine, if you take off the coat. I'd certainly think it completely inappropriate to go beyond, you know, swimming costume level. And I completely understand if that's a bit much." She smiles a little in relief. "In any case since there's nothing actually wrong with your muscles I'm.. more or less trying to evoke the ancestral grooming response."

"Okay. Your room.. or mine?"

"Whichever makes you more comfortable. Though I should probably warn you that if we use mine the Ophidian will probably be watching."

"Mine it is then." She crosses the corridor and lays her right hand on the door. "Nepo emases." There's a brief puff of smoke from the doorframe and then the door opens slightly. Given that we've now had two attacks in here maybe I should think about up-fortifying the fixtures? "Can you give me a moment?"

I nod. "Of course."

She smiles. "Thanks." Keeping the door as closed as possible she slips into the room before closing it behind her. "Naelc pu yllaer ylkciuq!" Did she really think I'd care about her room being a bit of a mess? There's a sound of drawers and doors opening and then slamming shut. A moment later she opens the door widely. "Come on in."

"Thank you."

Her room -obviously- is spotless in the way that only magic and power rings can manage. The decorations are more pastel than my orange/grey colour scheme but the rooms are much of a muchness in terms of size and design. Her desk has a computer mine doesn't need and what in mine is a bare metal wall is covered with plaster and cream paint. We did that together a couple of days after she got here. The floor is wooden after she asked me to put one in. She said afterwards that she'd been joking, but she left it there anyway.

"So, where do you.. want me?"

"Do you have a brush?"

"Yes? Why.. do you need a brush?"

"Because it's clear that this is making you uncomfortable and the least 'massagy' thing I could do is brushing your hair. Like I said, relaxation is an instinctive response to being groomed. I think it would be a good place to start, at least while you get used to being in close physical proximity to me."

"Oh. Okay, that.. makes sense." She walks over to her chest of drawers, pulls open the top drawer and takes out a black handled brush. "Is this what you need?"

I link a filament to it and take it from her. "If that's what you usually use." I point to her bed. "Take a seat." She perches a little uncertainly on the edge of the bed. I subspace my boots and jacket before getting on her bed myself and taking up position cross legged just behind her.

And she tenses again. "I.. didn't realize… Um."

"How did you think I was going to brush your hair?" I gently lift it back over her shoulders with my left hand while readying the brush in my right. "I should probably warn you that I don't myself have any issues relating to physical proximity. If anything I do makes you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and I'll stop." I can't see any knots but I take care as I move it through her hair.

"No, that's…" I can both see and feel it as she starts to relax a little. "That's fine."

 

2nd January
08:18 GMT -5

Amazing what a good night's sleep can do for a person! Even Mister J'onzz sending us a message in the middle of breakfast in what sounded like a prelude to the fourth mission in as many days hasn't brought me down. And not just good sleep for me. Zatanna was nodding off when I left and she still hasn't -quick check- woken up yet. Didn't get much beyond a little neck work, but maybe next time. Worked though. She was also grateful that I'd been able to resolve the issue with Mister Tong. I wish she'd said something about that situation sooner.

M'gann smiles at me as she, Kon and I head to the training room where her uncle is waiting for us. "You and Zatanna were out pretty late last night."

"Not that late."

Kon glances at me before returning his attention to the path ahead. "I just thought you were trying to avoid Kaldur's cooking. Are Tula and Garth going to be 'all seaweed, all the time' as well?"

"I'm not…" Yes, probably. The Conservatory teaches arcane arts not culinary ones. "Maybe we should just avoid putting them on the rota for a while? Say something about.. letting them adapt to surface foods?"

"Fine with me."

"Soo..?"

M'gann's still looking at me. "So what?"

M'gann rolls her eyes. "What did you do? Where did you go?"

"Oh, not out as in 'date' out. It was mostly a magical research thing, though we did stop off at a restaurant in London. A friend of ours knows the owner."

"Was this friend with you?"

"No, he had some other stuff to do." Like buy a storage shed in London. I've got basically infinite money and even I thought those prices were ridiculous. Once that's taken care of it'll need to be warded and have the shelving put in… And something to deal with the smell of rotting flesh. Having a well meaning local breaking in because they smelt something bad would be disastrous. "We'd met the owner on a previous visit. If you like I can give you-" We come out of the corridor and into the training area. "-the address."

"And then?"

"And then.. we came back here." She looks unsatisfied. What would make her stop asking? "I did spend some time brushing her hair when we got back."

She frowns. "Why?"

"Oh. Right. Martian. Well, with humans, having our hair brushed feels relaxing."

She reaches back with her right hand, takes hold of a lock of her own hair and holds it out in front of her face. "It does?"

"Our distant ancestors came from equatorial Africa. They were covered in hair to keep the sun off. Unfortunately for them, this made them perfect hosts for blood drinking parasites. Since this was before combs were invented they groomed each other. You get the same thing with modern apes."

She moves the hair slightly further away. "Parasites?"

"Those aren't so much of an issue these days with modern hygiene but the instincts are all still there."

"Really?"

I tap the skin just to the outer side of my eyes with my index fingers. "Empathic vision. I can see that sort of drive these days."

"I usually just shapeshift mine into place. I suppose if you've got it stuck on your head the whole time you have to take care of it." She turns back to Kon as we reach the 'ready for lecture' point. "Kon, would you mind brushing my hair sometime?"

"Sure. Don't think mine's really brushable length."

M'gann tries tugging on the lock in her fingers. "I've never really tried-."

"Recognised, Martian Manhunter, zero seven."

Our heads turn in his direction as he walks out of the zeta tube. "Good morning M'gann, Kon, Paul."

"Good morning Uncle J'onn." / "Good morning, sir."

Kon just nods and Mister J'onzz assumes the lecturing position. "I have asked the three of you here in response to a request from the Department of Metahuman Affairs."

Kon frowns. "Kobra hasn't escaped again, has he?"

"No. But their efforts in getting staff for Belle Reve are requiring them to transfer people from other, less critical duties. They have.. requested that we provide an escort for a prisoner who is due to be deported today. Since the members of the League are either off planet or occupied ensuring that no further infiltration has taken place I was hoping that you would be willing to perform the task." He pauses. "You have had a busy few days. I will understand if you wish to turn this down."

Kon shrugs. "Who is it?"

"The prisoner…" Another pause. "I am sorry, this is a matter of some personal embarrassment for me. His name is J'onn J'aarkn, though he has taken to anglicising it to John Jackson." A holographic image appears of a green skinned man in a pair of purple shorts and a pale blue short sleeved shirt. Aside from the skin colour his general shape matches human norms far better than Mister J'onzz's 'Martian Manhunter' shape. He's even slightly overweight. He certainly doesn't look very threatening. Of course, for a Martian that sort of fat is just a way of concealing malleable bulk.

M'gann's eyes widen. "I didn't know there was another Martian on Earth!"

Mister J'onzz sighs. "Frankly, in his case I would prefer it if there were not."

Kon takes a closer took at the picture. "What did he do?"

Ring? Ooooooh. Oh. I can't say I'm entirely surprised.

"He entered the United States without an appropriate visa."

"Is.. that it?"

"He has also committed a variety of minor criminal offences. Mostly, they were as a result of his ignorance of human society. He is not considered to be a serious threat and has agreed to leave of his own volition."

"So, why do you need us?"

"On the last three occasions on which the DMA tried to enable his return he arranged to not be at the launch site at the designated time. Your job is to ensure that he is."

M'gann shifts her attention from the picture back to her uncle. "When did he come here? How did he come here?"

"He made the journey here shortly after I returned home for the first time. Apparently, he had become enamoured with the Earth through the tales I told of it." M'gann nods. "He came in a Martian Bio-Ship of a somewhat older design than that which you and I use. It is currently in the care of the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station."

"He.. made the journey here on his own? How did he cope with that?"

"I am uncertain. I do know that he chose a time when Earth and Mars were as close together as possible in which to make his crossing."

She nods in understanding. "And that's in less than a week from now."

"Wait, if he's being sent back to Mars, why don't I just take him back?"

"I did take the liberty of offering your services. Unfortunately, the people responsible for releasing him are being very particular about handling things 'their way'. Your job will be to escort him to his leaving party and then to see him on to his ship. He is unlikely to turn violent but he is highly likely to attempt to escape through misdirection. M'gann, his telepathic abilities are far weaker than yours but he is.. an accomplished, shapeshifter. Are you willing to take on this task?" We look at each other for a moment, then nod. "Thank you. I will arrange for your entry to the Pitchess Detention Center in San Fernando Valley in which he is being held. You are due to meet him in three hours."

 

2nd January
08:28 GMT -5

"Paul? What is it?"

I take a moment to ensure that my face is a picture of cherubic innocence before looking around from my console at the front of the Bio-Ship to face M'gann. "Whatever do you mean, M'gann?"

"You've been.. smirking, ever since Uncle J'onn finished the briefing."

"I've.. just.. been.. assembling a record of Mister J'aarkn's time on Earth. He's been quite a prolific actor."

"Oh? I've been thinking about studying drama myself. Do you think he could give me any pointers?"

I lose it. Both hands go to cover my face as I bend over, snorting with laughter. "I sincerely doubt it!"

"What?"

"Well…" I move my hands away and take a couple of deep breaths before straightening up and leaning back in my chair. "Ahhh. H-how about I start from the beginning. From what I can tell Mister J'aarkn came to Earth in nineteen eighty six. He never really made a secret of having super powers but he mostly pretended to be a green metahuman rather than revealing that he was a Martian. His human appearance is based on a…" I pause to clear my throat. "On that of a man named Ronald Hyatt."

"Did Mister Hyatt complain about it?"

"If he did, the police don't have a record of it. Why?"

"I just don't understand why Uncle J'onn has such a big problem with him. I'd love it if more Martians came to Earth. I mean, you're practically next door. If he could make the journey over twenty years ago I don't see why more Martians don't do the same."

"Well.. I.. can't answer the second question, but as to the first? Most of Mister J'aarkn's work has been in the genre of.. Adult Cinema."

Kon looks up. "Oh. Guess that explains it."

M'gann looks from him to me. "Adult.. Cinema..? Like, arthouse stuff?"

"No. Like, pornographic cinema, made for the sexual titillation-" Her face goes purple and her right hand goes to cover her mouth. "-of the viewing public. I couldn't find any footage of him in action that I'd feel entirely comfortable showing you. Suffice to say, he-" And upon occasion, she or er or it. "-takes full advantage of his shapeshifting abilities." It was actually a little tricky to track down everything he'd ever been in due to his tendency to invent new identities and appearances for each film in a lot of his early work.

"Oh."

"I think the reason why Mister J'onzz dislikes him -aside from, you know, possibly bringing Mars into disrepute- is that after Mister J'onzz became active as a superhero… Mister J'aarkn appeared in a highly successful film called 'Martian Womanhunter', in which he took the role of a.. thinly veiled erotic take on Mister J'onzz's own time on Earth." M'gann stares at me. Behind her fingers I see that her mouth has fallen open. "It was so successful that there have been a number of sequels… Anyway, after he became 'openly Martian' the immigration people started investigating him a bit harder."

Kon frowns. "Seems kinda harsh."

I shrug. "I'm not completely sure why they're being this aggressive about it but.. he is an illegal immigrant. Once his application for citizenship was rejected-" Despite his obvious unusual talents the judge felt that America was perfectly capable of generating its own erotic performers and as such his skills didn't warrant a green card. "-the only question was how he was going to be removed. Since they've got no way to deport him back to Mars they're relying on him being willing to leave by himself. His lawyer convinced the court that sending him back when Mars was further away would be 'cruel and unusual', so they can only try to do it on a few days every other year."

"R-right." M'gann recovers a little. She's still bright purple though. "I-if he made the journey on his own… I don't know how he could have coped."

Kon thinks for a moment. "Some sort of suspended animation pod?"

"The people he showed around his Bio-Ship don't mention it in their report. Of course, if his model can shapeshift then there's no reason to suppose it would have been visible. M'gann?"

"Um. We do have animation suspension systems, but they're designed for medical use and not for space exploration. If he used something like that and something went wrong he could have been killed if there was no one else there to wake him up safely."

"Quite a risk. I wonder why he was so eager to come here?"

Kon shrugs and looks at M'gann. "Plenty of Earth people find aliens attractive." M'gann smiles and pushes her hair back over her shoulder with her right hand. "Maybe some Martians like Earth people."

"He's not.. going to.. do anything, is he?"

"I've only got biographic details here. I don't know anything about his personality."

"I mean... I don't really know much about.. human mating." I raise my left eyebrow and glance at Kon. "I-I mean-! Not… That part."

"Didn't Mister J'onzz give you a basic explanation?"

"Um, he gave me a talk about human reproductive mechanics, but Martians don't work like that. I'm.. really just mimicking…" She glances at her chest. "Some.. things."

I glance at Kon again. **Is he aware-?**

"I've.. shown Kon what I really look like." **What I really really look like.** "Martian intimacy is more… Telepathic." Her face stills and she glances at Kon. "Not that we haven't kissed."

I raise my eyebrows. "I was there at New Year."

"And I've.. reconfigured my mouth to act like a human mouth. Including sensitivity to touch. Normally we don't really even have lips."

"But this sort of thing wasn't covered in the videos Mister J'onzz sent you when you lived on Mars."

She nods, some of the blush fading. "It.. really wasn't. I.. can understand how it works, I'm just not.. comfortable with the idea of being the one doing it."

"Hey." Kon gets up out of his seat and walks over to lay his right hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to feel pressured about it."

"I suppose.. if I wanted to know what it was like for a Martian… I could try asking him?"

"If he's been doing it professionally for this long he's probably got a slightly distorted viewpoint. Wouldn't Mister J'onzz.. be.. better able to provide advice?"

"I don't.. think he's been… Involved with anyone since he came here." In fifty five years? I don't know him well enough to judge how probable that is. "This.. party we're supposed to escort him to..?"

"Most of the guests are co-workers. I.. doubt there'll be any… Goings on, if that's what you're worried about. You're both.. sort of.. under the California age of consent. Mister J'onzz wouldn't have assigned you to the mission if he thought that was a risk."

"I'm going to be a bit nervous about scanning anyone's mind though."

"Don't worry about it. My empathic vision will work just fine, and we can just tell him that he's not allowed to wander off." Maybe a new topic? "So! Excited about Garfield starting school on Monday?"

 

2nd January
06:12 GMT -8

Our Department of Metahuman Affairs contact stands on the tarmac of the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station outside the hangar holding Mister J'aarkn's Bio-Ship. Our three hour advance notice was plenty of time for me to transition us from east to west coast as well as go over Mister J'aarkn's case history in a little more detail and thoroughly check out the party venue. Just a normal house, though I did detect that it has most likely been used for 'professional purposes' fairly frequently. Nothing like that going on when I scanned it, of course. It looked like some of the decorations had been put up in advance. There doesn't appear to be a guest list… And I happen to know that Sara Smart lives in this area and worked with Mister J'aarkn on at least one occasion.

The Bio-Ship descends through the sky as M'gann brings it in to land a few metres away from the DMA official. Her name's Kate Spencer and she was the lawyer who handled their part in the legal manoeuvrings that led us to this point. She's wearing a dark blue suit with a mauve blouse. Nothing particularly interesting in her background, though she was involved in a few supervillain cases on the defence side before her employment by the DMA. I don't remember anything about her from the comics so with any luck she really is just a lawyer.

M'gann drops the ramp and I lead the way out. With a three hour time difference between east and west coasts it's not quite dawn here yet. Odd, really. I've spent so much of my time in the States on the east coast I haven't really thought about how wide this country is. The spotlights around the base give us plenty of light and in any case with the ring I don't have a problem seeing in the dark.

"You're what the Justice League sent?" She doesn't sound all that impressed. Drawback of most of your work being secret-. "A Superman look-alike, Little Miss Martian and the Cake Man."

"I'll have you know that did wonders for fruitcake sales across the world. I may have single-handedly revived the market." A quick look into her soul tells me that she really wants Mister J'aarkn escorted off-planet with as little fuss as possible. Looks like she was also involved in their previous attempt to get rid of him.

"Please tell me you can fight with that ring as well?"

"Naturally. We wouldn't have been sent if we weren't up to the job."

"Okay, look." She makes brief eye contact with all three of us. "I know an oncoming car crash when I see one. That mess at Belle Reve meant that the guys who were supposed to be handling this got called away to Louisiana, because apparently a telepathic shapeshifting criminal is 'low priority'. All the planning we put into moving 'John Jackson', wasted. So here's what's going to happen: you're going to follow me and do exactly what I tell you and maybe, maybe by some miracle we'll actually get rid of the bastard this time."

O-key. Clearly I underestimated how irritated she is. That's the problem with analogue abilities I suppose. "Um, I could just fly him back to Mars myself. It would only take a couple of-."

"No!" I raise my eyebrows at her vehemence. "This is still -technically- a voluntary repatriation. If it looks like we're forcing him to leave his legal team will be all over it. I do not want him wriggling out of this."

Kon looks nonplussed while M'gann looks curious. "Why are you so angry? He hasn't hurt anyone…"

"Because he's been making us a laughing stock. Last time he somehow managed to get the people I had escorting him drunk and filmed them doing a conga line at his third leaving party. I do not want there to be a fifth." She takes a moment to collect herself. "Please tell me you have regular clothes with you?"

Kon shrugs. "Yeah, but, why?"

"The last thing we need is to make this more of a media circus than it already is." She looks past us at the news vans parked at the perimeter fence. "If they find out we had to call in superheroes to handle this…"

"Say no more." A wave of orange sends my armour to subspace to be replaced by a plain black suit with an orange tie. After a moment's hesitation I add the black sunglasses to complete the look. M'gann looks at me, smirks, then shifts her own clothing to match mine. She can't make glasses and instead of a tie she has a blue cravat with a red 'x' at the neck.

Missus Spencer closes her eyes in a clear prayer for divine patience. "You really..? Fine. Fine." She looks at Kon. "What about him?"

Kon sags and turns to re-enter the Bio-Ship. "Give me twenty minutes to get this armor off."

Ye-eah. Maybe I should see about getting him some armour that's both useful and ring friendly? No idea where I'd even start with that. Maybe Io will have some ideas next weekend?

Missus Spencer checks her watch. "We've got about fifty minutes before we're due to pick Johnson up." She looks at M'gann. "Do you know enough about Martian spacecraft to tell me whether or not his ship is in working order?"

"Yes, but Martian Bio-Ships are living creatures. She should be able to heal herself."

Missus Spencer's jaw tenses for a moment, then she looks over towards the hangar holding Mister J'aarkn's ship. "I'm not going to try loading him onto a ship that doesn’t work. Or get this far only for him to tell me it doesn't work with no way to confirm that for myself."

"I.. can take a look if you like?"

"This way." She turns away and heads towards the hangar, the two of us following on behind.

**You want to borrow some sunglasses?**

**I can barely see as it is. Why are you wearing those?**

**Because after the last few days I've run out of serious. Making sure a porn star gets on his flight out of the country just doesn't register on my 'important' list.**

**That doesn't explain the glasses.**

Just ahead of us Missus Spencer presents her identification to the guard at the hangar entrance. It gets checked and she receives a nod. I step up and hand over my own identification. The Justice League emblem gets a raised eyebrow and a glance at Missus Spencer. She nods and the guard hands it back. I walk past him as M'gann shows him hers.

**A physical joke that combines the tomfoolery of wearing sunglasses at night with becoming a ridiculous caricature of a government agent.**

**That's not very nice.** M'gann gets the nod and the three of us head into the hangar. **She's taking this very seriously and Uncle J'onn is relying on us to do a good job.**

I throw up my hands, earning a look of puzzlement from Missus Spencer. **Why? Worst case scenario here is that a.. basically law abiding man stays in the country a little longer than he should.**

Missus Spencer leads the way towards the other Bio-Ship. It's a medium-dark green colour with purple detail and rather than the cabin and sweeping wings of M'gann's Bio-Ship this one is a sort of crescent shape, passenger area at the front and wings sticking out and back from the sides. It's currently resting on some scaffolding which holds it off the ground. A quick scan shows nothing that could reasonably be described as a weapon.

Missus Spencer turns to M'gann. "Well?"

M'gann walks towards it and holds out her right hand towards the hull. "He's… Old. A lot older than my ship."

"How old? Will it fly?"

M'gann nods. "He thinks so. I don't know how old he is, though. I don't recognize his design and he's been asleep for too long for me to tell from a simple probe."

"Can you open it up?"

"Can I open him up?" Missus Spencer doesn't react to the correction. "Of course." A hole opens in the hull under the right wing. "Do you want to see inside yourself?"

Missus Spencer shakes her head. "It wouldn't mean anything to me. Just check it over."

M'gann nods and floats up inside. Should I follow? May as well.

 

2nd January
06:13 GMT -8

I jog merrily down the Bio-Ship's boarding ramp, smiling at our DMA contact. "Kate! Good to meet you in person at last."

"Grayven. Welcome to California." She's a little less effusive than I am, but she smiles as she extends her right hand to me. I take hold of it in my own for a moment before bending down to raise it to my lips. She glances aside and rolls her eyes. "Really."

I release her hand and turn back to the Bio-Ship as my team mates proceed out, Mister Tawny to the fore. "Kon, M'gann, Mister Tawny, I'd like to introduce Katherine Spencer."

Kon and M'gann stop just behind me while Mister Tawny strolls forwards in order to sniff her. He spent the Belle Reve episode glowering at prisoners who looked like they might have been thinking about trying to escape again. He'd much rather have come with me but he's rather hamstrung by his lack of low lethality options. Tooth and claw marks don't make for good PR. Mister Tawny's head comes up to the top of Kate's abdomen and he out masses her massively.

She leans away from him a little. "You have.. a Tiger?"

"Yes, and he's quite friendly. Try rubbing his ears, he always likes that."

She makes eye contact to see if I'm being serious, realises that I am, then somewhat tentatively extends her right hand to the left side of his head. She tries delicately stroking the fur. He understands my intent and leans into it, encouraging her to press harder. Once she does so to his satisfaction he closes his eyes and makes a sort of throaty grunting noise to indicate that he's satisfied. Seeing a big cat behave in what might be called a kittenish way usually does wonders for calming people down about him being around and it appears to be working on Kate. "How long have you had him?"

He half opens his right eye and I imagine that if he had distinct eyebrows one would be raised. "We've been together a little over two months."

"Did he.. grow up in a zoo?"

"No, a jungle in India. His manners are all him."

One last head nudge and Mister Tawny sits back on his haunches. Not sure that's a good idea, it makes him taller. He'd probably have been better off lying down… Oh, doesn't matter. Katherine looks my humanoid team mates over and her eyes rest on M'gann. "Grayven seemed pretty sure that J'aarkn wouldn't make any trouble for you."

M'gann nods. "He probably won't. I won't know for sure until I speak to him myself."

"Why is that?"

My smile broadens. "Martians have a skin colour based caste system." Kate blinks at me in surprise. "The Whites who make up about a third of the population are at the bottom, then the Greens who make up most of the rest. Reds like M'gann are at the top. Royalty, essentially. Obedience to them is ingrained within the Martian psyche."

"They…" Kate looks at M'gann for confirmation and gets a nod. "I had no idea." Something occurs. "Wait. Martians shapeshift. How can they have skin color based discrimination?"

"We're also telepathic." M'gann looks a little distant for a moment. "Even if we can't tell by looking at someone what type they are, they know."

"Well I…" Kate takes a moment to digest that. "For all the legal tricks his team have employed he hasn't once tried requesting asylum. I'm going to assume that he's genuinely green."

M'gann nods. "If he was White I might not have ordered him to leave. Martian society isn't exactly.. friendly, when you're White." Kon puts his right arm around her shoulders.

Katherine frowns. "I don't.. think he's White. But… How did that sort of prejudice develop?"

M'gann shakes her head. "It's been like that for so long… I don’t think anyone knows."

Kon shrugs. "Why does it ever develop? Maybe everyone needs to look down on someone. Kryptonians never had a reason for looking down on clones and aliens but they did anyway."

Looks like Kate didn't know that either. "Superman..?"

"Superman grew up on Earth. The stuff his birth father taught him about Krypton… He wanted him to think the best of it. And… I guess… Be the best of it."

She turns to me. "And.. your people?"

"Apokoliptians aren't prejudiced. We hate everyone equally. But we mostly take it out on the weak." There's a slight tension in the skin around her nose. "Why so surprised?"

She shakes her head slightly, looking down. "I.. guess I just hoped… It was something a species grew out of."

My right hand goes to her left shoulder. "Well… Maybe humans will be lucky." I think for a moment. "Or maybe finding an external hate figure will work."

"Um?" M'gann makes eye contact with Katherine and glances in the direction of the hangar. "Could we... See his Bio-Ship now?"

"Yes, of course. Please, come this way." M'gann takes the lead, walking alongside Kate. Kon and I follow along behind with Mister Tawny dawdling along in the rear. Not an accident; he's watching our backs while pretending to have merely animal intelligence. Must remember to speak to him about using further augmentative formulae on him before his growing divinity makes it impossible.

I'm inclined to follow M'gann's lead on this. I did suggest to her that I could switch Mister J'aarkn's Guardian programming off. She pointed out the obvious problem that he'd be going back to Mars. Not only would that blow the secret -I don't really care about that but apparently she does- but it would also put him somewhere where I wouldn't be around to keep him under constant observation. Her scans haven't shown any significant deviation since I made the change to her. There have been a few behavioural changes; she doesn't avoid fire anymore and has a little bit more self confidence. The randomly striking matches pretty much stopped once the novelty wore off.

"So… How did you meet her?" I look around at Kon as he nods at Kate.

"We haven't met, not in person. After that whole thing with Vertigo nearly getting away with mass murder I wanted to get in contact with someone inside the DMA who might be willing to help me understand the way things work here. A few enquiries later I ended up having a free and frank exchange of views-."

Kon smiles. "And she still talks to you?"

"We actually have a lot of common ground. We both think that the insanity plea is too readily granted, that justice is delayed too long… I think she might slightly resent that I get to deal with the simple end of things."

"Yeah, about that." Kate turns her head in my direction. "You seemed to be taking your time with those prisoners you apprehended."

"If one is concerned with minimising damage to the locale, bringing down a supervillain isn't as easy as we sometimes manage to make it look."

"Uh-huh."

"Beating up Vertigo is a pointless exercise. Once his stabilisers come off he can barely stand upright on his own. Anyway-" I turn back to Kon. "-we've been exchanging ideas for a while now."

"About what?"

Kate's face hardens. "About making sure supervillains actually get punished for their crimes."

Kon looks at her and then back to me. "Aren't they.. getting punished now?"

"Vertigo went on worldwide television and admitted to killing hundreds of people. He did so in a state with the death penalty. There is no doubt at all of his guilt and he doesn't have diplomatic immunity any longer. Why was he alive to escape?"

Kate nods. "I don't have a lot of good to say about the Chinese government, but they didn't waste time killing the people responsible for Roanoke Island. That's how it's supposed to work: commit the crime and you take the punishment. Instead, we spend years -not to mention millions of dollars- on trials and appeal after appeal." She shakes her head. "If we'd got our hands on them, they might have been in Belle Reve for years before we did what the Chinese did. That needs to change."

 

2nd January
06:17 GMT -8

The inside of Mister J'aarkn's ship is clearly set up for one person. The pilot's seat is quite different in shape to the one M'gann uses. I spend a moment trying to imagine him sitting in it as M'gann walks over to the nearest control panel and kneels down to touch it. How would..? Ah, of course! He wouldn't have looked human when he got here. Mister J'onzz would have mentioned if he'd known him personally, so he probably wouldn't have had a particularly good description of humans to work from. Assume that he is a bit more massive than M'gann… If he was lying on his back, his legs there… His arms would reach the controls left and right there and there.

M'gann squints slightly. **He's.. in good condition.**

**Surprised?**

**A little.**

**That's a bit harsh.**

She shakes her head. **No, not like that. Mister J'aarkn's been on Earth for decades. Even if he knew what he was doing, maintaining a Bio-Ship without Martian equipment and experts isn't easy.** I nod, and walk over to the front of the cabin. No view screen, I note. In fact the interior is fairly featureless. **I'm going to have to take my Bio-Ship back to Mars this summer so she can get checked out.**

**Anything I can help with?**

She give me a small smile. **Not really. There probably isn't anything wrong, but better safe than sorry, right?**

**Oh, definitely. I'd rather like it if I could get a trained power ring technician out here.** I nod at the panel she's touching. **Find out anything useful?**

She sits back. **Not much. This ship is… He's more mentally simple than mine. Annnnd.. I'm not his pilot. I'm not authorized to view all his files.**

**Can you.. press the matter?**

**Maybe. But I don't want to risk damaging him by going too far. Navigational logs should be okay…**

I nod. Can't do much to help with that. **Will he fly?**

**I think so. I'm not familiar with this model but everything looks okay.** Her eyes glow. **Okay, here we go. He was made in… Oh.**

**What?**

**He's older than I thought. Quite a lot older.**

**How old?**

**About a hundred and sixty Martian years old. That's about-.**

**Three hundred Earth years. Was something interesting happening on Mars back then?**

She shakes her head. **All sorts of things, but nothing I can think of that would make a ship special. And if it was special then the Martian government could just have asked Uncle J'onn to pick it up.**

**Does the design mean anything to you?**

**He looks like an old design, but it could just have been retro.** Her eyes dim. **He isn't as fast or as manoeuvrable as mine. I think his top acceleration outside of an atmosphere might be higher. There's some medical systems that mine doesn't have, but he's locking me out of them.**

**Makes sense. If he was planning on staying on Earth he'd want to know that he could be fixed up if he got injured.** I frown. **Your Bio-Ship doesn't have medical functions?**

She shrugs. **Do Earth cars come with built in doctors?**

**I suppose not.**

**My Bio-Ship isn't really anything special, not by Martian standards. Aside from the plasma beams, I mean. Those don't come as standard.**

**Still say gravitic accelerators would have been better.**

**We couldn't be sure they'd be compatible.**

**But plasma based weapons give away the invisible ship's position every time they fire!** I frown for a moment. **Why does a civilian aircraft come with invisibility?**

**Its whole shapeshifting thing is based on what a lot of Martian species can do naturally.** She shrugs. **It's actually more effort to make one that can't.**

**If the ship communicates with you telepathically… Does.. that mean it can move through solid objects?**

She shakes her head. **No, that requires telekinesis. There might be some military ships that can do it but civilian ones can't.**

**Martians have warships that can move through solid objects?**

*Um…** She thinks for a moment. **In theory? They just use telekinetic fields for defense… But I think the system could be adapted.** The telepathic amp designs in Lantern Stewart's database aren't for an organic technology using species. That might be something I could work on. Maybe if I had some sort of Martian Sephtian..? "Well, that's it." She stands up. "As far as I can tell the ship can get him home. I don't know how he'll manage all that time on his own though."

**What, a week? I know you find isolation unpleasant…**

She shudders. **I don't think I could explain it to a human, not so you could understand what it's like for one of us. Even when we're not actively contacting the minds around we Martians can always feel them. Being in deep space… Or even just away from an inhabited planet… Imagine if you were inside your room back in the Mountain, and whenever you opened the door there was just nothingness. The wardrobe was full of nothing, the drawers were full of nothing and all the pictures had nothingness over everyone's faces.**

**That would be quite weird.**

**There probably isn't a real human equivalent. I tried to explain it to Henry as well and he didn't really get it until I shared the feeling.** "There isn't really anything else I can learn here. We might as well go and meet Mister J'aarkn."

There's a brief glimpse of yellow in her aura. Ah, yes, that makes sense. "Are you alright with meeting him in person? I don't know how good your mental control is but…"

"He's going to spot me. Being White." She shuffles uncomfortably. "I don't think he'll make a big deal out of it. At worst he'll just refuse to talk to me."

"You don't think he's White himself?"

"He might be… But it isn't very likely. I suppose I'll find out when we get there."

"I don't know how good your shields are, but could you just switch back to your civilian appearance and pretend to not be Martian?"

She shakes her head. "Not if I wanted to use telepathy. Martian telepathy doesn't feel like human telepathy and he'd pick it up right away. Well, unless he was really weak, anyway."

"How about if he'd been away from other Martians for twenty four years?"

She shakes her head. "No, that wouldn't be enough. Particularly given how rare human telepaths are. I.. suppose we may as well get it over with." She looks over at the place on the floor where she made the entry hole.

"Before we do that… Um." I suppose she doesn't exactly have anyone with whom she can talk about this particular difficulty in her adaptation to Earth… "If you wanted to talk about… Human style tessellation mating-" Her eyes widen and her face goes purple again. "-if you had any questions and wanted to discuss it with someone who wouldn't find it weird or laugh… And wasn't your uncle. You know where to find me."

"Uh-huh." She nods once and then drops through the floor.

 

2nd January
06:28 GMT -8

"…could work on the Fortress tomorrow or something?" Through the front view screen I get a brief look at the Pitchess Detention Centre as M'gann brings us in. Missus Spencer got permission for us to land next to his isolation cell. I rather got the impression that the prison governor will be glad to be rid of him.

"No, it's fine." Zatanna sounds only mildly disappointed, but that could just be her being polite. "I've got school work I need to get done anyway." She was still asleep when we left and thanks to the geomantic wards the Ophidian and I transmuted into the rock of the mountain I can't scan inwards from the outside easily anymore.

I feel bad about leaving her behind. I stuck a note on her door but I felt obliged to say something directly as well. "Okay then. We're coming into the prison now. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens."

"Bye."

I dismiss the phone construct and lower my left hand as the Bio-Ship touches down. Missus Spencer is the first onto her feet. It seems that she really wasn't comfortable being on board. I suppose that if my first exposure to Martians was Mister J'aarkn I'd be a little hesitant to sit down on a shapeshifting seat as well.

Kon stands next. He joined in on the suit wearing but he looks more than a little uncomfortable. I'm not sure he's ever worn one before. He starts to leave the cabin before realising that M'gann is still sitting down and turns back to her. **M'gann? Come on, you don't have to be worried about this jerk.**

**I.. know.** She stands somewhat hesitantly before girding her mental loins and joining him before the two of them head down the exit ramp together.

I take a moment to check that my glow is set to minimum and run through a few of the basic mental defence exercises Mister King taught me. I also put a neural chaff grenade and an electrolaser pistol in holsters on the inside of the jacket. Probably excessive but it doesn't hurt to be sure. The carbon nanotubes in the jacket -plus good tailoring- ensure that it doesn't deform and give the game away. Sunglasses? Check. Everything in readiness I follow Kon and M'gann out of the Bio-Ship.

Missus Spencer leads the way towards the building which houses Mister J'aarkn. "The party starts at seven AM local time. He gets three hours at most, then we're flying him back to Channel Islands." Looks like quite a nice area, actually. There are quite a few trees and contrary to my expectations there's a fair bit of grass on the ground as well. In front of the entrance a couple of guards in riot gear wait along with the governor. Assistant Sheriff McDonald looks relieved to see us, though I do detect a slight frown when her gaze passes over the three of us. "Sheriff."

"Kate. We getting rid of him for real this time?"

"We'll do our best."

She nods at the three of us. "What happened to-?"

"Belle Reve." She turns back to look us over as well. "These three were what the Justice League offered to replace them."

"The Justice-?" We get another look. "Seriously? What, they leave their costumes at home or something?"

I take a few steps forwards. "I'm sorry, Assistant Sheriff. I rather got the impression that you wanted this low key. If I was mistaken..?"

"And who are you supposed to be? The Incredible G-Man?"

"Orange Lantern two eight one four." There's a flicker of recognition and she opens her mouth to ask. "Yes, the one with the cake." I hold out my right arm to indicate my colleagues. "Superboy and Miss Martian."

"Supe-? And another Martian? Is that really a good idea?"

"Human telepaths are a little thin on the ground."

"Ah, well, you can't do any worse than the last guys." Missus Spencer's face stiffens slightly. "Come on, may as well get this over with." The guard on the left mutters something into his radio and I hear the door unlock itself with a clunk. He goes through first, followed by the Assistant Sheriff, Missus Spencer and the three of us. Inside is a well lit reception area and another reinforced door with two new guards. I raise my left eyebrow at that. "Half my guards line their helmets with tinfoil these days."

M'gann looks puzzled. "That wouldn't do anything to stop a telepath."

"Sure, you know that and I know that, but after you've had Jackson shapeshifting into… Some extremely disconcerting forms while you're on duty you'll try most things."

"What sort of things?"

Assistant Sheriff McDonald shudders slightly as the inner door is opened. "Put it this way: he really liked his job and appears to want to continue practicing it here." She pauses before entering. "Or half the time, her job."

"You mean he..!"

"Hey, Terri!" On the other side of the bars inside the next room an overweight green skinned man lounges on his bed. "Come to see me off? Or are you finally taking me up on-."

Assistant Sheriff McDonald's face hardens. "I'd rather be intimate with a pig."

He nods in agreement. "I can do pig! How about I pencil you in for-. Oh. Hey Katie. Time already?"

"Jackson. Do you have your things?"

He waves his right hand dismissively, then swings his legs around to hang off the edge of the bed. "Nah, Simon's bringing everything I'll be taking back to Mars to the party. Can't believe you're making me have it in the morning this time."

"It'll be the last time, Jackson."

"Yeah yeah, I'll be good." He looks directly at me, smirk on his face and eyebrows slightly raised. "Eh? Eh?" I still my mind, letting everything flow away. After a moment he looks slightly puzzled, then shrugs. "Tough crowd. But just because you're a hard case-" His form shifts and melts, transforming… Into a slightly oversized copy of Jade. "-doesn't mean all your friends are." He hasn't quite got the voice right. Okay, how is he doing that? He didn't get it from my mind, I doubt he got it from M'gann. She… He struts towards the bars in a most unJadelike fashion. "How about you and me have some fun together at the party later?" I remain impassive. "No? Then how about-?" He shifts again and hell no.

The corners of my mouth are most certainly turned down as I look at Zatanna's face. "Knock it off. She's under age."

"She may be, but I'm not." Her voice he's getting exactly right. "How about if I mature-" She gains about half a foot in height and her secondary sexual characteristics become noticeably more apparent. "-it up a notch." Zatanna's casual wear melts away, being replaced by negligee and a translucent night dress. "You could pretend I'm her older cousin?" He adopts a faux-innocent pose. "Get in practice for the real-."

"Mister J'aarkn-."

Missus Spencer walks up to the cell door, grabs him by the collar of his nightie and pulls him against the bars. "Jackson, if you don't knock it off right now you'll go to the party in an ambulance."

He thinks for a moment before nodding cheerfully. "Sounds good to me! You got a paddle or you want me to-?"

**J'onn J'aarkn.** He shudders and rapidly regains his own form, his right hand going to his forehead. **Behave yourself!**

"Ughugr." He blinks heavily. "Forgotten what that was like." Missus Spencer lets go as he regains his feet. He shakes his head once and then looks over at M'gann, his expression one of curiosity. "Folks back home really miss me enough to send a Manhunter to pick me up?" He looks a little closer. "Hey. J'onzz? That you? When did you join the Feds?"

"My name is M'gann M'orzz and if you start shapeshifting into my friends and hitting on people I will mind blast you again."

"But I can hit on people looking like this?" He looks himself over. "I can work with that. Now let’s get this show on the road!"

 

2nd January
06:33 GMT -8

Kon politely but firmly pushes Mister J'aarkn down into the front right seat on the Bio-Ship before taking the seat just behind for himself. Missus Spencer remains standing behind the pilot station and I'm at mid left. Mister J'aarkn has a quick look at the dashboard before swivelling the chair around, clasping his hands behind his head and tilting the chair back with a smile. "Aaaah. All the comforts of home. This a new model?"

"She's newer than yours." M'gann moves her hands and the Bio-Ship rises off the ground. It's about a twenty minute flight at Bio-Ship cruising speed and the party isn't due to start until seven.

"You take a look at him? What did you think?"

"I'm babysitting you because Uncle J'onn asked me to. I don't particularly want to talk to you."

He rolls his eyes with a sigh, then turns a little more to look at Kon. "Hey stud muffin. See something you like?" He grins lasciviously, raises his hands to chest height and makes beckoning gestures with them.

"I don't think you're my type."

"How about-?" M'gann glares at him. "Oooor not. Waaaaait, are you two..?" He wiggles his right index finger back and forth between them. "Oh, hey, sorry. Hands and.. whatever, off your beefcake." He turns his chair back around, looking at Missus Spencer for a moment before turning his attention to me.

"Mister J'aarkn-."

"Call me 'John'. Seriously, I've been John for twenty five years now. You ask for Mister J'aarkn and I start looking for Daddy."

"How old are you?"

"Earth years?" He looks up at the ceiling as he tries to work it out. "Let's see… Sixty four, so… A hundred and.. forty seven. Yeah, that's it."

"As I understand it, Martians mature at about a third of the rate humans do?"

"Sort of. For emotional maturity when you're young that's probably true, but the amount of life experience is pretty different. I'm middle aged by human standards but you can't just project human behaviours onto me."

"So you coming to an alien planet and having as much sex as you can get isn't a Martian mid-life crisis."

"Hah! No, different psychological drives. Martians don't really…" He glances at M'gann, who refuses to meet his eyes. "You know how Martians fuck, right?"

"I heard a brief description."

"Not hormonal at all. We don't even have hormones like you do. What happened to me… Yeah, okay, I know I'm weird, but it doesn't have anything to do with a human male feeling the urge to sow his seed before he decays into physical obsolescence."

"So why did you come here?"

"Funny story, actually. I'm a biology teacher. College level equivalent." He nods his head to the side. "Used to be anyway. I think I'm still qualified but I haven't done any teaching…" He leers at Missus Spencer. "Well, you know. I've done that kind of teaching, I mean I haven't done classroom teaching. Not since I left Mars."

"Theoretical to practical?"

"I could do a lecture on the mating practices of just about any Mars native lifeform you care to name if you like, but no. Mars is parched. Next to nothing alive on the surface outside of a few preserves and everything in the caves is regulated, monitored… Not much for a biologist to do. When-" He turns to M'gann again. "-J'onzz started transmitting back to Manhunter headquarters from Earth I got fascinated. A whole new world, filled with fascinating alien life completely unknown to Martian science."

"I rather got the impression Martians weren't very interested in us."

He nods. "I think it's something to do with telepathic data transmission. When one of us passes on an image or an experience, the recipient gets the context and perspective of the one they got it from. It's like they lived it themselves, and if they did that…"

Kon nods. "Why bother doing it for real?"

Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "Or it could just be a modern cultural thing. My Bio-Ship was part of a limited run they made back when we were a bit more outgoing. It's designed to keep one person alive and sane while they travel from one place to another in space."

M'gann reluctantly look at him. "How does it do that?"

"In a bunch of different ways. When you turn the system on it sort of keeps you half asleep, and creates this ghost sensation of there being other minds around."

"Half asleep in space?"

"The thing about space, its basic distinguishing feature…"

J'aarkn nods. "Right. Empty. It's not like they were going to be doing interstellar flights or anything. Your Bio-Ship may be more sophisticated but the basic technology is the same. No need to check things every few hours, the telekinetic sensor means you can easily avoid any obstacle big enough to actually harm you. There's nothing to be awake for until you actually get somewhere. The original idea was for there to be a crew of three, but you can fly the thing with just one."

Kon frowns. "So how come it never got used?"

Mister J'aarkn sags slightly. "Before my time. The guy I bought it from seemed to think it was only ever a proof of concept type thing. You know, 'if we were going to do this, how would we do it?'"

"So, what? You heard about a planet of fascinating new sentients and hopped in a ship so you could go and have sex with them?"

"Wouldn't you?" I give him a level look. "No, it wasn't quite like that. We'd known that you humans were here for a while. We don't do a lot of deep space astronomy like you do but since Mars doesn't have much of an atmosphere we have to do a lot of local space monitoring. We'd been seeing artificial lights on Earth for centuries, we'd picked up your radio transmissions for decades… I mean, we had no idea what you were saying but we knew there was structure to it. Some of the really powerful telepathic types could even juuust about hear your thoughts when the planets were close together."

I look at M'gann and she nods. "It's barely noticeable unless I really strain-."

Mister J'aarkn's eyes open wide as he looks at her. "You're that powerful?"

"Yes. I am."

"I thought I was just being oversensitive when you shocked me earlier. Whaw." He frowns. "What you hiding out here for then? Wouldn't some tut-? Oh." M'gann looks a little sad and Mister J'aarkn looks like he's realised that he's put his foot in it. "Um. Right, sorry."

Would M'gann's educational prospects be curtailed due to her being White? Thinking about how racism affects people on Earth I suppose I shouldn’t be completely surprised but wouldn't there be somewhere for her to exercise her talents? Interesting that the lecherous ex-teacher doesn't care. "I'm still not sure why you made the trip."

"I got interested on what life was like here. I don't think he remembers me but I was part of the group J'onzz shared his memories with when he got back. Spent a couple of years analysing them, trying to understand how the biological systems here worked. Of course, he wasn't a biologist so the information he already had wasn't quite there. And as I kept looking… Darndest thing, I just.. started to find the way you people look appealing. Male, female, young, old… You're all so different from Martians anyway that you're clearly not appealing to the same parts of my brain as an attractive Martian would. I just.. wanted that. You, basically. Nearly went crazy with excitement and fear when I finally decided to make the trip. Was.. longer than my journey home will be and I did the stupid thing of not using the sleep system. Hoohoo, let me tell you: never again."

M'gann's starting to get interested now as well. "Then what happened?"

 

2nd January
06:37 GMT -8

"What happened is I started hallucinating. Constant things crawling around at the edge of my visual field. Even after I changed the shape of my head to get three sixty degree vision. Then the voices started. Think I had a long conversation with one of the walls but it's all a bit blurry. It was a twenty three day journey and I barely made two." M'gann shudders slightly. "You went the same way?"

"I.. didn't need to stay on the ship for as long, and I had Uncle J'onzz there."

"That would be better. Still not great?" She shakes her head. "Guess that's why we Martians never really got into space travel."

Kon frowns. "Couldn't you just build a bigger ship? If there were a lot of Martians on board it wouldn't be such a problem."

"Sure, yeah, we could do that. Problem is no one wants to." Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "The whole thing's just such a bad experience that we've been put off trying. It's like, if you wear a heavy metal gauntlet you can stick your hand in a sink waste disposal unit, but why would you?"

M'gann nods. "Our military use ships like that, but they don't really get big enough to go on long voyages."

"How did you..? Actually, how did Mister J'onzz manage it when he went back the first time?"

"Uncle J'onn used an advanced meditation technique. And he altered the atmospheric composition of the air inside the Bio-Ship so he'd feel sleepy all the time."

Mister J'aarkn leans forwards. "Sure, I can believe that of him, but how'd you do it?"

"My.. uncle Ma'alefa'ak was born without the ability to use telepathy."

"Ooh." Mister J'aarkn looks pained. "The poor bastard."

"Well, he lives on the surface. I visited him a lot when I was younger. I guess I just got used to the isolation. I mean, not totally. I couldn't have made the crossing if Uncle J'onn hadn't been there."

"Right. So, I just about manage to keep it together well enough to turn the system on. The rest of the trip is kind of a blur… Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if that was just because of me being a dummy about not using the system from the start. From how the food stores on board decreased I must have been eating something but…" He turns his palms upwards as he shrugs. "First thing I remember seeing clearly was the Earth when I reached high orbit and the collision detector came on. I was still a bit woooowh, you know? But I recognized the shape of the landmass J'onzz said he'd been on and nudged my Bio-Ship in that direction. I came down in the Death Valley National Park. You know how desolate that place is, right? When I staggered out I was so messed up I wasn't sure whether I was on Mars or Earth. Plus, I was still in, you know, alien mode."

"Alien mode?" Missus Spencer frowns. "That isn't how you look?"

"What, like a green human? You really thought that? Haah!"

"Jackson!"

"Oh, come on! I'm a shapeshifting alien! I didn't settle on this face for years."

"So, what, you look more like Manhunter? With red eyes-?"

Mister J'aarkn sniggers as he shakes his head. "Not even close. He picked that shape because he wanted something that looked mostly human but also a bit alien and intimidating." He widens his eyes. "What we actually look like would-" He jazz hands. "-blow your fragile, human-."

Kon shakes his head. "You're not that weird."

"Oh, ruin the rest of my fun why don't you. Wait a second." He looks back and forth between him and M'gann. "You went with green human and showed them the real you anyway? You guys must be pretty tight."

I nod and Kon crosses his arms across his chest. "Yeah. We are."

"So you were wandering around Death Valley in Martian mode..."

He grins again. "Scared the shit out of these hikers."

Missus Spencer doesn't appreciate the humour. "Jonathan Adams, Evan Morris and Vincent Myers."

"Aah, Jonny. You never forget your first."

"You sexually assaulted him."

"I did not! Okay, so I wasn't exactly who he thought I was at the time…"

"What did you do?"

"Since I didn't have any real idea where to go I just headed towards the nearest minds I could feel. They'd made their camp in this little.. gully, to keep the wind off. It was night time, and what with them having a fire going that ruined their night vision they didn't see me until I stepped right up to them. I just sat down next to, ahh…" He looks at Missus Spencer. "It was Evan, right? I just sat down and they're like 'AAAAAAGH!' Evan and Vincent run away. Jonny tried to but he tripped up and hit his head. So seeing him hurt pretty much snapped me out of my funk. I knew a bit about how human bodies worked so I had a rummage around the campsite for a medical kit or whatever. Dressed the wound, propped him up and had a rifle through his mind."

M'gann looks scandalised. "You did what!"

"I'd terrified two guys and gotten a third injured! I didn't want that to happen again when he woke up. So, I got the image of someone he liked from his memories…"

"Madison Burnett."

"Okay, I know it looks bad now, but at the time it seemed like a perfectly rational thing to do. I could use my knowledge of human physiology to replicate the bits he hadn't seen-."

"But not her clothes."

"I didn't realize those were important! I thought, familiar face, that'll give me a chance to talk to him. Okay, not talk exactly, I didn't know the language and hadn't got the hang of the-" He puts his right hand to his neck. "-human voice box yet. When he came around he must have thought he was dreaming or something. I asked him if there was anything I can do to make him feel better… He had some suggestions…" M'gann's gone purple again. "I didn't exactly know what the big deal was, not until I started mirroring his brain pathways."

"You mirrored his brain pathways!?" M'gann looks genuinely shocked. "But you only just met him!"

"It was in the name of science, Miss M'orzz. Science! And whaaaw did I ever not regret it. Guess you've got that stuff to look forward to."

"Leaving the Erotic Adventures of a Martian Womanhunter aside for a moment…"

"Well, eventually he went to sleep, I went back to my Ship. Since I'd learned the local language from him I spent some time listening in on radio broadcasts-."

"What about the other two? If they were alone in Death Valley…"

"Yeah. I mean, to a Martian? Death Valley isn't so scary. If I'd known more at the time I'd have gone to check up on them. Just didn’t occur to me. I found out later that they went back in the morning to check on Jonny." He grins again. "See, they thought the screams-."

"I get the picture."

"So I hid the Ship and used my new knowledge of human society to walk around a few towns, listen in on a few more thought processes. Eventually I started visiting libraries. I don't know if you know this, but these days on Mars writing things down is really only done for ceremonial purposes. Everything else is telepathically encoded. If I'd realized I could have gone to a library first... Just didn't think of it."

"But how did you go from anthropologist to adult film star?"

He shrugs. "I had to eat, needed a job and I enjoyed the work. Something about humans just works for me in a way Martians… Eeeeehh, kinda don't. I could mimic the stars of the day, assume male or female form or whatever else the director wanted. After a while, I switched over to focusing on that rather than my studies."

M'gann looks like she's swallowed something bitter. "Did you do any actual research?"

"Oh, sure! I've got a kuru pendant full of data. I don't know if anyone back home's actually going to care about it, but I've got it." He sits back with a sigh. "Good times. I'm really going to miss this place."

 

2nd January
06:56 GMT -8

It's only a little after dawn when we arrive at the house at which 'John Jackson's 4th Bi-Annual Leaving Party' is being held. The building is fairly large but there isn't quite enough space in the garden that I'd feel comfortable leaving the Bio-Ship on the ground. M'gann sets down in the car park to drop the rest of us off and then takes it up over the top of the house. We aren't on a flight path here so unless someone decides to fly a kite or something it shouldn't be a problem. M'gann can float herself back down invisibly when she's done.

Mister J'aarkn hurries up the path to the door and presses the doorbell while Missus Spencer, Kon and I follow on behind at a more sedate pace. Interesting that he doesn’t fly. I mean, it isn't as if he needs to pretend anything any more. I know that M'gann's telepathy is unusually strong but I actually have no idea how her other abilities compare. Probably worth finding out at some point.

A moment later the door is opened by a heavily made up Asian woman. "John!" They kiss each other's cheeks. "You're early! Did you escape from prison again?"

He shakes his head. "Sorry, Casi. I think they got me this time."

"Oh no! What have they done?"

"Well, you know. Set a thief to catch a thief. J'onzz decided to sic his niece on me."

She looks past him at the three of us. "Which one..?" I hear a soft tap as M'gann touches down on the paving stones, then she makes herself visible again. "Nice suit." Miss… Casi turns back to Mister J'aarkn. "For a moment I thought she was going to be like you."

"My job is going to be open." He half turns back to her with what I am coming to recognise as his signature leer. "What do you say, Miss M'orzz? Interested in showing another generation of humans the wonders of Martian physiology?" He wiggles his eyebrows in an attempt to wring as much embarrassment from her as possible.

And.. she.. doesn’t go for it. Just as she starts to purple again she tosses her head and shifts form. "No." Her hair shortens and turns black and her skin goes from green to pearl white. "And I don't want your friends mistaking me for you, either." Interesting. I've seen her White Martian form but I've never seen her wear white skin while human shaped before. Monochrome's a rather intense look. I like it.

"Ah well." Mister J'aarkn puts an arm around Casi's waist as he strolls into the house. There's a small porch which leads into an open plan living area. "Anyone you guys want to meet while you're here?"

"No." / "I don't really watch this kind of thing." / "Is Miss Smart likely to be in attendance?"

Kon and M'gann both stop dead to stare at me. Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "You'll have to give me more than that. Lots of people in this industry use different names. My first few movies were made with me listed as 'Jonathan Jerking'. Heh, or Joanne."

"Sara Smart. I believe she performs as 'Sally Sonic'."

Mister J'aarkn comes to an immediate stop. "That'ssss… Dangerous tastes you got there, kid." He actually looks a little nervous. "Listen, she's.. not good company. Why don't I just find you some nice-."

"I'm really more interested in her personal history."

"Oh. Well, I'll tell you now she doesn't talk about that."

"Will she be here?"

"Maybe." Miss Casi slips free of his arm and heads off into the house, looking just as uncomfortable as he does. He turns back to me. "Yeah, probably. She's got an invite anyway. Metaporn's not a huge genre." He sighs. "Ah, who am I kidding? She'd never miss an opportunity to wave her ageless tits in the sagging faces of her former co-workers. She'll be here."

"I understand that you've worked with her before."

"Yeah. Once." He flaps his hands dismissively at me. "Hey, it's your life. Talk to her if you want, just leave me out of it." He turns away, looking through the door at the far end of the room. "The four of you going to follow me everywhere? I kind of want to say 'goodbye' to my friends without you lurking over my shoulder the whole time."

Missus Spencer folds her arms across her chest. "I'm sticking to you like-." The leer reappears. "I'm staying close by you. The three of you can hang back. Check the perimeter or something."

"Rightyho." **Miss Martian, are we networked?**

**Yes. And don't worry about Jerking-.** Kon and I look at her. **About J'aarkn listening in.** Mister J'aarkn exits through the far door in the general direction of the heated swimming pool. Not sure it's really hot enough at this time of the morning, even in California. **His telepathy is fairly weak.**

**Any idea how he knew what Jade and Zatanna look like?**

**I think that was me.** Kon shrugs uncomfortably. **I felt.. something in my head. I was thinking about girls you might… You know. I'm sorry, but it was getting hard not to.**

**That's fine. Far better it be someone like him than someone actually hostile. Might be worth you joining in when Mister King next comes in though. I've found it really helpful for stopping that sort of thing.** He nods. **For now though, you and M'gann should probably stick together. Don't want him mentally nudging you off in the wrong direction.**

**Right.**

**M'gann, you can pick out his mind from just about anywhere around here, right?**

She shrugs. **He's the only other Martian around. Unless he's secretly a lot better than I think he is there's no way for him to hide from me.**

**Feel free to wander the grounds, then. Try to keep track of everyone who turns up and report anyone we should be concerned about. I'm going to try following Mister J'aarkn from a distance, just in case he tries anything with Missus Spencer.**

M'gann nods and turns to go back out through the front door. Kon goes to follow and then hesitates for a moment. **Um.**

**I know it's not standard bodyguarding protocol but our main concern is him. Mister J'onzz was right, he's got no history of violence.**

**No, it's…** He uncomfortably avoids meeting my eyes. **You wanted to…**

**Do you want to know why I asked after Miss Smart?**

M'gann looks curious too. **It does seem a little out of character. Not that… Whatever you…**

**Miss Smart is a human enhanced by magic. I'm mostly interested in her as an object of study.**

Two slightly relieved nods. **That makes more sense. What can she do?**

**She doesn't age. She's in her seventies now and doesn't look any different to how she did in her late teens. If that could be replicated… I don't even know what it would do.**

Kon looks thoughtful. **Why was J'aarkn so afraid of her?**

**She's had a rather hard life, and.. as a result, has become a complete bitch. She takes particular pleasure in seducing married men, videoing their time together and sharing the video with their wives.** Sometimes it's like they do everything they can to make you not want to help them. **Or vice versa. I mean, I'm a bit disappointed at how weak willed they're being but the pattern is a bit obvious.**

**Is she a criminal?**

**Nothing criminal about adults making sub par choices. Even with encouragement. If I'd found a smoking gun I'd already have acted on it.**

 

2nd January
07:22 GMT -8

I take another look around the pool area. **Anything interesting happening where you are?**

I hear her sigh through the mental link. **A few people have asked how long I've been in… You know, in the profession. I was sort of hoping that the suit would scare them off.**

**Should have added sunglasses and an earpiece.** Pretty good turnout considering the time of day. There's a little bit more flesh on display than I'm used to, but really no more than I might see on a Happy Harbour street in summer. The heavy makeup and.. um, 'forthright' mammaries are a more noticeable difference but I guess off the job people are just people. **Kon, anyone asked you that?**

**One guy did.**

**Conner glared at him so hard no one else has dared try.**

**If it's getting to be a problem just hang around Missus Spencer for a bit. Everyone here knows why she's here.**

**Has J'aarkn done anything?** I can hear a note of frustration in Kon's mental voice.

**He got a drink and then started doing the rounds. Right now he's talking to Mister Hyatt.** I look over to them. From the body language and the way they're laughing I'd guess that they were pretty good friends. Behind them Missus Spencer checks her watch.

**Probably just waiting for us to drop our guard.**

**Maybe. Or maybe -since he isn't a supervillain- he's still capable of recognising an unwinnable situation when he sees one.**

**Are you able to look inside him and see for sure? I'd.. still rather not scan him telepathically if I can help it.**

**Already done.** I double check anyway. **Small amounts of yellow associated with us, Missus Spencer and going home and from the amount of orange I'm seeing I'm going to say that he was being completely honest about how desirable he finds humans. I can't see anything related to concrete escape plans.**

"Hey, are you with the Metahuman Department people?"

I half turn and-. Oh my goodness, it's porn star Barbie. **Excuse me a minute.** "I am indeed. What can I do for you?"

She beams at me. "You're English!"

"I was born in England, yes. I'm legally a Themysciran national."

"Themy-? Wait, like Wonder Woman?"

"Indeed."

"How did you manage that?"

"I did some work for Her Highness and -since I was stateless at the time- she.. made the offer."

"So are you, like,-" She makes a circling motion with her left hand. "-the only guy in the whole place?"

"One of two, though as I understand it male Olympians are free to visit whenever they like."

She pats my chest with her right hand. "Bet you're popular!"

"My first visit is next weekend so I can't say for certain. But I.. rather doubt it. Either that or we'll get mobbed as soon as we land."

"Wouldn't that be fun."

"Probably more awkward than fun." I glance across at Mister J'aarkn. Nope, still there.

Miss… Ring? Atchford? Okay. She follows my gaze. "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about John. He's a really nice guy. Why are you people going after him like this?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know. I only became involved in this case today, and in any case I wouldn't have any authority over the decision. From what I've seen of Missus Spencer she appears to be taking his previous 'no shows' somewhat personally."

"Is she allowed to do that?"

"Dispassionate professionalism might be the ideal but I doubt anyone will fault her. The conga line thing-"

She giggles. "Oh yeah, that was funny."

"-really didn't help matters. I have to ask, were their drinks spiked or something?"

"Hey, everyone here's clean." I raise my eyebrows and she looks away. "Theeeey might have had a bit of vodka in their beer. The.. barman probably misheard their order."

"Uh huh."

"So.. what do you do when you're not throwing people off the planet? You said you worked with Wonder Woman?"

I stare at her for a moment. "I can't believe it. It actually works."

She tries to frown but is defeated by botulinum toxin. "What works?"

"Glasses. Sorry,-" I shake my head. "-private joke. Um, I suppose the most accessible part of my job involves metal trading."

She looks at me sceptically. "Commodity trading? What, you work for the DMA in your spare time?"

"No, the three of us volunteered for this because they were short staffed. I've actually never worked for them before."

"Private security?"

"Superhero."

"Get outta town." I raise my palms to display the glowing sigils of the rings for a moment before closing them again. Her head jerks back slightly and she blinks repeatedly, first looking at my hands and then at my face. "Wait, I know you! You're-!

"Yes, the.. Cake Man." I'm starting to know how Lex feels.

"No, not that. You did that interview after that thing with all the kids disappearing."

"That wasn't exactly my proudest moment either."

"Really? 'Cause I thought it really brought home what a lot of people went through. I mean, my two spent the whole thing watching TV or sleeping, I didn't even think about what happened to kids on air planes. And, superheroes just usually seem to have it all together, you know? So perfect and distant and you were just so genuine."

Um. Right. I hadn't really had any interest in fallout from that interview. Hadn't bothered asking Ms Cobert how it played. I have another look around the poolside as I try to work out how to reply. "Thank you, I-." Oh, look who's trying to sneak away. "Would you excuse me for a moment?"

"Hey, look, I didn't-."

I stride in the direction of the woman heading for the door into the house. "Excuse me?"

"Wha-?" She stops and turns around. Brown skin, curly shoulder length hair and a facial structure unlike his usual faces. "Oh, you're one of the people looking after Jackson, right?"

"Mister J'aarkn, knock it off."

She shakes her head. "I'm not-."

I tilt my head forwards and let my glasses slide down my nose a little, revealing my orange eyes for a moment before pushing the glasses back up. "Empathic vision. You might have changed physically but you haven't changed spiritually." I raise my right index finger. "Don't mess me about again."

 

2nd January
07:32 GMT -8

"So, yeah, they got the Talk almost as soon as they could talk." Miss Atchford leans back in her chair and raises her right hand expressively. "I'm not proud of my job exactly, but I'm not going to lie to them about it. And I definitely don’t want Paige getting pregnant at nineteen like I did."

"I'm a little embarrassed to admit it-" I look around the room. "-especially here, but I honestly had no idea how human reproduction worked until sex education class in Primary School." More of Mister J'aarkn's fellow performers have drifted in since his first 'just testing you', though I don't think the party has reached critical mass as yet.

"So.. you were how old?"

"Eleven, I think."

"Doesn't sound unusual to me." We both consider that line and start to smirk. "I mean, yeah, okay, okay. I didn't get started that early."

"I'm glad to hear it. I don't ever remember having 'The Talk' with my parents at any point. I mean, I'm sure they'd have been willing to talk about anything I'd asked…"

"Do you have that.. abstinence.. thing.. in England?"

"Not outside of religious institutions. I mean, I might be a little out of date, but…" I shrug and shake my head. "For me it was always one of those crazy things Americans do."

She feigns offence. "Oh yeah?"

"Silver rings, playing rugby wearing body armour-"

"Oh, you do not get to mock football!"

"-calling it football despite the fact that the players spend most of the time carrying the ball in their hands! How did that name even catch on?"

"I don't know, that's just what it's called!" We share a giggle. You know, I kind of thought this job was going to be annoying, but I'm actually quite enjoying talking to Miss Atchford. "What do you call it in England then?"

"American Football. Because you're the only people who play it."

"Oh, that is not true! They play it in Canada."

"They do?" Ring?

"Yeah, I dated this Canadian guy for a while who couldn't stop talking about it."

Uhh, traitors. "I was unaware of that. But, still, US and Canada." And Australia, sort of.

"How long have you been in the US anyway? Or do you just fly over?"

"A little over six months, and I do live here."

She gets a little more serious. "How'd you get a green card?"

"I.. didn't. To start with.. I was technically on a sticky wicket but-."

"A what?"

"Um, cricket? The three sticks behind the batsman which the bowler aims for is called a wicket. 'Sticky wicket' means a difficult situation, just as a batsman might experience on a waterlogged pitch. Anyway, yes, I was technically in the country illegally-."

"Ohh. So it's okay for you to do it, but John has to get thrown off the planet."

"The difference is: he can go home. I come from a parallel universe. I have no way to go back. I suppose I could.. build a habitat on the moon or something." That could actually be an interesting anyway. "But otherwise there's nowhere for them to send me to. And anyway, now I have a Themysciran diplomatic passport, so I'm here legally."

"And that.. Kon guy?"

"Born in the US. I suppose he should really have joint citizenship."

"And the albino Martian girl?"

"Ah-uuuuhhh." Actually, what is M'gann's status? It's never really.. come up. "I don't actually know."

"Ah hah! She's an illegal immigrant too!"

"I'm sure her uncle sorted.. something out…" Ring? Oh, no he didn't. Megan Morse legally exists but M'gann as M'gann doesn't. "I think Justice League facilities count as extraterritorial…" Though that only helps as long as she never leaves the mountain… I might need to talk to her about that.

"No, no, that's fine. One rule for her and another for John. Seems perfectly okay to me."

"Look, if I was the one making the rules I wouldn't kick him out either. Missus Spencer's really got the bit in her teeth over this whole thing, I don't know… Did he do something to trigger this whole thing?"

"I don't think so. I mean, he might've? He's pretty libidinous off-set. Maybe he hit on the wrong girl? Or, you know, guy."

"Or turned into a Dog and humped the wrong leg."

"Hah! Long as it was only a leg! Yeah, I can see him doing that. I mean, he's a great guy to work with, you know? Most of the time a girl looks like she's getting off in a porno she's just faking it, but with him? You.. usually.. don't have to. I guess it comes from being a woman part of the time."

"Or his telepathy. He knows what his partner likes and he can feel it when they like it."

"Huh. Yeah, could be. He's actually a good person to get paired with if you're just getting into the business. Not like Ron the Hedgehog." Her eyes widen. "You need to know what you're doing if you're doing anything with that thing."

I nod. "I can imagine." Actually, where is Mister J'aarkn?

"Are your Martian and Kon a thing?"

"They're dating, yes."

"Lucky guy."

"They haven't quite got that f-oh for goodness sake!" I get to my feet. "Would you please excuse me again?"

"Why?" She nods as she realises. "What's he done now?" I hold out my right hand. She takes it and uses it to come to her feet and I transition us to the first floor bathroom. "Whoow. Is that-?" She spots Mister J'aarkn. "Ow, eww!"

He's bent over the toilet, his head, arms and upper torso extended into a narrow column that is vanishing down the pipe. Damn, that's nasty. I reach down and tap him on his right hip. I mean, I could intercept him before he gets away but I'd really rather not.

"Kinda busy here." I blink as a mouth appears on his lower back. "It would be a big help to me if you could-" An eye appears near the mouth. "-go and distract-" The eye focuses on me. "-my… Oh. Hey, Orange Lantern! I was just.. doing some plumbing."

"Uh-huh. Well, when you're done, I'll pull you out and clean you off, shall I?"

 

2nd January
07:45 GMT -8

"…chocolate sauce!" The man introduced to me as Dwayne looks up from the pool table and grins as he makes eye contact. "So that was the last time I worked with those assholes." I shudder theatrically and he chuckles as he returns to his shot. Dwayne is black, homosexual, and -from the string vest, short shorts and innuendo- clearly very much at peace with both characteristics. He takes aim at one of the striped balls -the American version of the game being played with striped and solid coloured balls rather than yellow and red ones- and takes a shot at the neatly arrayed balls. He doesn't use as much force as I would have done and as a consequence they remain fairly clustered up. He stands up, studies the table for a moment and then turns around, offering Miss Atchford the cue. "Bobbi? You playing?"

She waves him off with a shake of her head. "Oh… No… Not really my game."

Dwayne shrugs and turns to offer it to me instead. Ah, why not? "Okay, but I should probably warn you-."

"What? You some kind of limey pool shark or something?"

"No, I'm dreadful at the game." I walk up to the table, trying to get a feel for the layout. "I really mean it. You may want a helmet."

"Hey man, I always want helmet."

I wince as I bend slightly to check the shot I'm thinking of making. Sure, the ring could easily calculate the optimal trajectory and force, but the point of this is to have fun, not own all with an alien supercomputer. Okay, I think I can get the solid yellow one. Maybe. I bend a little further, put my left hand on the felt and bring the butt of the cue back-.

"Oh, hello!"

I close my eyes for a moment. "Hate to be a prima donna about this Dwayne, but could you possibly move a little further away?"

"No problem, man. No bigger black fan of Madonna than me!"

W-? No, never mind. I thrust the cue forwards, hitting the white ball cleanly and sending it into the yellow. Agh, angle was slightly off and it hit the green as well and it's… Well, at least Dwayne won't be able to pot it either. I straighten up and offer him the cue back. He makes a point of running his right hand down the shaft before taking hold of it. I step away from the table as he brushes past me and raise my eyebrows at Miss Atchford. She shrugs.

"So… Dwayne, how did you meet Mister J'aarkn?"

"Who?" He focuses on the table, walking around to the far side to get a better look.

"John, Dwayne. His Martian name is J'onn J'aarken."

"Really? I thought that was just his movie name."

"Most Martian languages use telepathy rather than the spoken word, but that's basically what it sounds like."

"Huh." He leans down to take a shot, using it to break up the ball cluster a bit more before holding out the cue butt first to me across the table. Again, he keeps his hand in place as I pull it free. "Was kind of going through a dry patch. See, there's work in gay porn, but there's more money in straight stuff. More people buying it. But since most of the people buying it are guys, they're mostly watching the girls. They're like, fucking them through you, you know? But they're all fat and hairy and whatever from spending all their time jerking off at their computers, so if you look too good, that's no good. Gay porn, no, you gotta look good for that. My body's my professional tool, know what I'm saying?" I nod and take aim at the ball with the green stripe. "And I can fuck girls. I mean, I'm usually thinking about something else at the time, 'cause if I can't I'm going to need a helping hand from Mister Blue, but I can do it."

I make the shot and-. Aww, it hits the side of the pocket and bounces out. "I'm not hearing about Mister J'aarkn's role in your career."

"Agent got me a job, fucking this ridiculous big titty thing. Script needs her to suck me off and give me a titty job. No way I could pretend I was doing a guy. The whole thing was doing nothing for me at all. They wanted a cumshot and I couldn't deliver." I pass him the cue and he leans forwards to make a shot almost immediately. The blue solid bounces off the yellow stripe and goes nowhere important. "Then, suddenly, I look down and there's this eight inch cock dangling down her leg. Now, I didn't sign up for no tranny movie but that definitely wasn't there when we started."

"Did that.. help?"

"Yeah, it helped. Like, half my movies are tranny movies now. Turns out, long as it's got a cock I don't much care about the rest." He stands up, looking contemplative. "Never would have found that out if it weren't for him."

"Ah. Well then, I'm happy for you."

"Real shame he's going away."

"Look, I get that he's a good guy. And I really hope-" Dwayne passes me the cue back. "-thank you, I really hope he can come back legally. But, right now, he's had all his appeals and he lost."

"I guess." Okay, even I can't miss-. Yes! Solid red number seven goes down the middle left pocket. I move around the table to take aim at solid purple. "You hang out with a lot of other superheroes?"

"From time to time. Please understand that I can't really-" Aagh, another miss. I pass the cue back. "-talk about most of what I know."

He takes a look at the table and then looks back at me. "You ever meet Superman?"

"Yes, a few times. I mean I don't.. know him well or anything. Are you a fan?"

"Something like that. Got a copy of his 'S' tattooed on the head of my-."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Because of how super it-."

"I-. I got it. I don't think I'll mention that to him if you don't mind."

"Not sure how you'd bring that up in con-"

**Get out!**

"-versation." A plume of water erupts from the pool as I look around. A somewhat stunned and bedraggled Mister J'aarkn swims slowly from the point of impact towards the water's edge. "Where'd he come from?"

**M'gann?**

**He tried 'just taking a look' at my Bio-Ship.**

**Everything under control?**

**How much longer do we have to stay here?**

**A couple of hours. Are you-?**

**It's fine, he's just… Ugh!**

"Flying practice."

"Looks like he's out of practice. You got any tattoos?"

"I'm sorry? Oh. Yes. Covered in the things."

"For real?"

"Tattoos and a few brands."

He raises his eyebrows and makes eye contact with Miss Atchford. "That's some heavy duty shit you got there."

"They're practical rather than decorative. You can get spells tattooed or branded onto your body and I needed a way to be more resistant to magic. Though speaking of heavy shit… What can you tell me about Sally Sonic?"

 

2nd January
08:24 GMT -8

"Simon!" Mister J'aarkn embraces his lawyer with a smile. "Good to see you!" He's shape shifted his clothing into swimming shorts but otherwise has kept his slightly overweight human form.

"John." Mister Leas hugs him back, if a little less enthusiastically. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and fawn coloured trousers. "Sorry I couldn't come up with-."

"No, no, it's fine." He pulls back a little, some of the sadness he feels showing on his face. Missus Spencer doesn't appear to be moved by it. "I'm just grateful you managed to put it off this long. Did you bring it?"

"Of course I did, John." He looks around for a moment before spotting a coffee table. "Shall we?"

Mister J'aarkn nods and they sit on the well cushioned chairs set up on either side of it. Mister Leas takes a small presentation case out of his pocket, sets it on the table and then pushes it over. Mister J'aarkn looks relieved. "Oh, you have no idea how glad I am to get these back." He turns to Missus Spencer. "Why'd you take these off me, anyway? I'd have thought you'd be glad for me to have something else to occupy my time."

"No alien technology in prison, Jackson."

"But they're just data recording devices! Look." He opens the case, revealing three gold coloured metal disks. Each one is about twelve centimetres across and divided into three concentric circles. The outer ring is blank, the middle ring is textured with what might be a representation of snake scales and the centre circle has what looks like it's supposed to be a representation of a Martian face. "Harmless." The case also contains a thin gold chain, which he attaches to one of the pendants before putting it around his neck.

Missus Spencer raises her right eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What's on it, your back catalogue?"

"Sure, but not just that. There's a copy of everything I know about human society on here. If I'm having to restart my life on Mars I need something to work with."

"I dread to think what they'll think of us learning about us from you."

"I don't know what you're complaining about. I like humans." He turns back to Mister Leas. "Haven't I always said how much I like humans?"

"Hey." Dwayne nudges me. "There she is." I follow his gaze as Miss Smart walks in behind the lawyer. Her hair is done up in a high ponytail and she's wearing a plain white t-shirt with calf length trousers of red denim. Her whistle's on a chain around her neck, tucked in to her t-shirt. She looks… Friendly. Innocent, even. I suppose that explains her appeal. "You sure you want to do this?"

I look across the room to where Kon and M'gann have taken up position. **M'gann?**

**Her mind is… Ugh. It's... She's exactly like they said.**

**If it were easy, it wouldn't require us. Will the approach Dwayne suggested work?**

**Probably.**

**Is provoking her really such a good idea? This isn't exactly a tough assignment and Missus Spencer wants us to keep a low profile.**

**I won't start anything, I just need to get a closer look at her.** Miss Smart walks around the seats, leans down over John's shoulder and whispers something in his ear. He keeps it together better than he did when we talked about her earlier. Looking into her I see orange, red and yellow, yellow of the outwards, 'inflicting on others' variety. The texture of the orange is a little off as well. Not exactly a desire coming from herself, not exactly one imposed from outside…

"Because if you're not, we can just do the smart thing and head back to the pool table." He pauses. "Or we can go somewhere and you can show me your tattoos."

I turn back to look at him and give a slight shake of my head. "I don't know, Dwayne. Maybe she's right. Maybe I am just that shallow."

He gives a slight wince, but carries on with the script anyway. "You're being too hard on yourself. She was just having a bad day. Just give her some time to calm down-."

"Hello Dwayne." Miss Smart's right behind me. Sounds like she's kept her original accent. Either that or she's done what I've done and accentuated it due to being surrounded by the colonials the whole time. "Who's your friend?"

"Ah, this is Paul. He's one of the people making sure John gets his flight this time."

"Ohhhhh." She walks around the side of me and confronts me with a perfect pout. Puts me in mind of something Buffy might have done. "And why do you think John deserves to be thrown off the planet? Is what he's done so bad?"

"I don't make policy, Miss..?"

"Call me Sally." They did say she didn't like being called Sara Smart ever, so that fits. She goes from pouting to winsome. "Are you sure you can't do anything about it? He's a really great guy."

No, it's like the blue half of her personality spectrum is just gone. That's really odd. "I'm sorry, Miss Sally-" She giggles. "-but the courts have made their decision. If he fills in a visa application properly I'm sure that his request will be considered the same as any applicant."

She leans her head against Dwayne's shoulder and I watch him tense up. "That's a real shame. I'll miss having him around."

That appears to be a genuine desire. I see-. Oh, goodness me. I suppose when you can't be hurt you can… A shapeshifter can reach places other people just can't. Seeing her essence like this makes the sensation rather more immediate than seeing a recording. I wonder if telepathy has the same effect on the user? "It's nice that he's got so many people willing to speak up for him."

"It really is." I just about manage to keep my face still. I saw red, but she doesn't..? It's just there, it isn't linked to anything. That doesn't make any sense! If I didn't know better I'd think it was getting piped into her from somewhere. "Say, I couldn't help overhearing you earlier. You said something about someone thinking that you're shallow?"

Yellow that time. I get a glimpse of a man's face and start running it through the ring's facial recognition program. "Oh, it's… Um, a friend of mine." I have the ring control my body language. 'Tough guy talking about something personal'. She's more likely to stay put if she smells blood in the water. "We had a… Well, a disagreement. I wasn't supposed to be working today… We had plans.. then.. this came up…"

"Oh, I'm sure your 'friend' is just annoyed. Have you tried calling her?" She blinks in surprise and then puts her right hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, you didn't say it was a girl friend."

"Yeah, it… She is." Her acting is superb. Talented or a result of forty years working in the industry?

Miss Smart looks around, over to where Kon and M'gann are keeping watch over Mister J'aarkn. "Not her, right? Or is it? I can go talk to her if you think it would help?"

"No, not her. But I appreciate the thought." My scans of the whistle aren't showing anything special but my scans of her are. Minute vibrations throughout her body. Sound as a conductive medium for a spell, maybe? That could work. Her brain isn't that of a sociopath. She should still be capable of emotionally engaging with people. Why isn't she?

"Hey, Dwayne,-" She straightens up and gives him a slight shove away. "-why don't you go get us a plate of crisps and some dip. This sounds like something Paul needs to get off his chest. I've always got a friendly ear for people in distress."