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

Reader mode
31st May
18:58 GMT

"Oh, come in, come in!"

Mayor Johnson waves at me from where he stands next to some kind of mobile notice board. Pinned to it is what appears to be a line drawing of London, with roads and railway lines clearly marked out. There are also fourteen coloured pins stuck in various places. Apparently satisfied, he turns away and ambles back towards the table.

"Thank you, Mister Mayor." I push the door open the rest of the way and walk into the meeting room. "Not the Assembly meeting room this time?"

He stops dead mid paper shuffle. "Oh gosh. Did you want to?"

"No. Um, probably? You.. may need to run my proposal by a few people, but I can't think of any problem with presenting it to you first." He nods, looking a little relieved. "Do you mind if I ask-" I point towards the board. "-what that's about?"

He grins. "Finally got the RMT b-." He cuts himself off and has a quick check around the room. "Blighters on the back foot. It's your doing, you know. You and that Sephtian fellow and your wonderful portals."

I pull out the chair opposite him and sit down. "I haven't kept up to date. Is it still going down well?"

"What, you mean the ones in Battersea?" He finishes getting his papers together and puts the pile on one side before pulling out his chair and sitting down on it. "They aren't attracting quite so many visitors as they did when they were first installed, but they're on the itinerary of every tourist who comes here. You know, I was thinking." He brushes his hair back slightly with his right hand. "Do you think the Battersea Power Plant would work as a sort of… Hub, for them?"

"I was rather assuming that you'd want to follow the existing underground route." I think for a moment. "Maybe? A hub-based system could work, but it would get pretty darn crowded at peak time with everyone going through the same area."

"Oh, no no no. I don't mean for the final system. But I was talking to the Atlantean UN Ambassador chappie about the delivery timelines, and their best guess is that it's going to take years to make as many as we need to replace the tube network." He waves his left arm at the board. "This is just supposed to be a temporary thing. You know, take some pressure off the network-."

I smile. "And put some on the RMT."

He leans forward slightly, inclining his head. "You didn't hear that from me."

I nod, taking a look at the board. "In that case, yes, depending on your predicted footfall. I'd be happy to put them in place when you're ready to go… Um, assuming that I'm on the planet at the time." I turn back to him. "No problem getting approval for the system?"

"Oh, you know, normal union hot air. Nothing substantive. PM's fine with it, our lawyers say that there's no legal challenge that could be mounted that would stand much chance of success. Once we're ready to go we're ready to go."

I nod, smiling. "I'm glad to hear it."

"So, um." He rubs his hands together in front of his chest. "What was it you wanted to talk about? Terrorists? Supervillains? Some sort of demonic portal opening up under the streets of London?" He grins jovially.

I shake my head. "No, I shut the portal down months ago. It's really more-."

"Wait, what? You did?" His eyes widen. "There actually was a portal?"

"Yes sir. But it's closed, sealed, and everything that came through was destroyed."

"Ah." He relaxes slightly. "That's a relief. So what was it?"

"I need a favour. It's a fairly big one, and I'm perfectly happy to compensate the City of London for any costs incurred."

"Alright. What do you want?"

"I want to fight a supervillain here. To be precise, I wish to lure them here in order to fight them here."

"Um." Boris frowns, tiling his head slightly to the right. "Why?"

"The supervillain in question is a Lich. An.. undead magic user of considerable power. Among the various feats of magic it can perform is teleportation. Now, I can.. jam most forms of technology based teleportation… But.. I.. can't reliably block magic teleportation. Fortunately, the chief shaman of London can."

"Chief… Shaman..?" He clicks his fingers. "Oh, don't tell it, it's that chap… What'shisname… Met him once…"

"His name is Ken Ondaate and since he works for Transport for London you might have met him on a picket line at some point. Otherwise, I rather doubt it."

"Oh." He frowns. "No, I was going completely in the wrong direction with that one."

"Mister Ondaate is an extremely powerful magic user, but his influence only extends as far as the city does. That's why-."

Boris holds up his right hand. "Sorry, just… Transport for London employs a wizard?"

W-? Oh. "Not in his capacity as a wizard. He does cleaning and basic maintenance. He just.. likes walking around under his city."

"Mpf." Boris shrugs with both hands. "Who am I to judge? I suppose he may as well do it here as in Tibet or somewhere." He puffs out his cheeks, then exhales. "And he can stop this Lich escaping?"

"Testing it.. is.. somewhat tricky, but we believe so."

"And then you can take it in a fight?"

"Again, I can't give a complete guarantee, but…" I nod. "Yes. My team and I believe that we can."

He nods. "And the risk of collateral damage?"

"The best information we have is that it will attempt to leave, and if unable to do so will focus on its attackers. If we're all dead, it should simply leave. The main problem will be from… Missed attacks. A directed energy attack or a projectile weapon keeps going until it hits something. That's why I want to sort the whole thing out in advance."

"There are a lot of people in London. If you're talking about evacuating a large area, that's…" He shakes his head.

"My current plan is to have the fight take place as much as possible in Hyde Park. That way, clearing out the immediate area shouldn't be too difficult."

"What about Richmond Park? It's far larger. If you could keep the combat zone down to the middle we might not have to evacuate anyone."

"Mister Ondaate's magic is stronger the closer towards the city centre he is. Richmond Park is sufficiently far away that he's not sure that he could maintain the spell." Boris nods. "I can provide mobile force field generators for the periphery of the park and I can set up all kinds of wards in advance, but I would advise that the buildings on the edge of the park be evacuated before the fight starts."

"Right. And how long do we have?"

"I'm aiming for the seventh of July."

"Oh." He smiles for a second. "I thought this was going to be a bit more imminent."

"This sort of thing needs a lot of planning."

"I'm glad you appreciate that."

"Beyond the evacuation, we'd need a police cordon keeping people away, road blocks and… I'd certainly appreciate it if there were paramedics on standby. Again, I'm obviously prepared to pay for all of it."

"That will help. What happens if you don't?"

"Don't… Fight him here?" Boris nods. "Then I'll have to fight him somewhere else. London is the best place I've been able to find, but we could do it somewhere else. The trap would be far less reliable though… I.. wouldn't like our chances of keeping the Lich contained. If it helps..?" He raises his eyebrows. "I realise that this has the capacity to go very badly wrong. I am willing not merely to cover the costs, but to compensate for the risk."

"In what way?"

"One week of my time. With a power ring, I can…"

"Chase down criminals?"

"Yes. I can also remove industrial contamination from brown field sites that no one is prepared to build on. Or I can skip the middleman and build cheap housing myself. Just give me the plans. If you're having trouble with the tunnels for HS Two, I can do that. And I understand that you had plans to build an island in the Thames Estuary to build an airport on? Just give me the plans and I'll do it. I don't usually do… Industrial things, but I'm willing to make an exception here. This is very important to me."

"Right." He nods again. "Is it alright if I discuss this with people?"

"I'd rather you kept the need-to-know down, but if you need to talk to someone, yes, that's completely fine."

"Okay then. Let me think about this, and we'll meet up again… Same time next week?"

I nod. "Thank you, Boris."
 
31st May
13:17 GMT -6

I frown at the replay of the fight which took place in the Metropolis streets a few hours ago. "Something's not right here."

"I dunno, cock." Chester is leaning back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. "Feelin' pretty good about it meself."

His sister frowns slightly. "What d'you mean?"

Chester prevailed upon Doctor Robbins to open another tube for her once the fight got started. Apparently I had Mister Kipling sufficiently distracted that their attempt was successful. Miss Amane, Miss Selton, Mister Tawny and Doctor Robbins are also at the table. Miss Shimmer spent the whole incident in her laboratory. She didn't even realise that the mountain was in lockdown. Lynne is currently sitting on my lap and she isn't going to be moving for some time.

"Alright." I reach around my daughter to activate the holographic display. My people have monitoring equipment on them constantly, so reconstructing Chester's movements wasn't too difficult. "I stepped through the portal at twelve forty five-."

Doctor Robbins nods, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Without sending a drone through first. Or establishing contact by radio and asking Vera to come through."

Miss Amane scowls at her, but I nod. I'd like to have been able to spend some time in the mana infuser, but getting my eyes very nearly back in working condition has rather improved my outlook. "A valuable point, and one which you can work into the next SOP update. If I may continue?"

She gives me a curious look, then nods.

"A minute and a half later, Chester plonks himself down next to the man observing Iname and Miss Selton." Who is sitting at the far end of the table and trying not to look too intimidated. "Nothing on telepathy, so he tried conversation and managed to give away his own identity almost immediately. That prompted an immediate attack." The holographic image of Chester throws himself backwards as the other man lunges across the table, a pneumatic spike sprouting from his right hand and stabbing at my colleague. Chester finds his feet, spreads his arms wide and stares, his eyes glowing. His opponent crumbles into a mechanical heap. "Chester, for future reference, if you're not certain it's a robot, try leaving it in a shape which allows it to answer questions."

"It were one of Penny's, weren't it?"

"Probably, but you didn't know that."

"Fooker tries t'kill me, I'll kill him right back."

"Chester, I'm not saying 'don't cripple them', I'm just saying 'don't kill them before we can interrogate them if you can possibly avoid it'. If we don't know who we're fighting, we don't know who to strike back against."

"Dolmann's stuff is all remote operated. There wouldn't be anything t'salvage anyway."

"Lots of people build robots. The more intact they are, the better our chance of identifying them. Anyway." Chester looks for a moment like he wants to keep arguing the point, but he shrugs it off. "Moments later someone later identified as Jonathan Small -aka Tri-Man- flies through the front window of the shop containing Iname and Miss Selton."

We have surprisingly good footage of this part as well. Apparently, Metropolis is so well known for its superfights that shops invest in high quality cameras in the hope of getting sellable footage. I'm not sure whether to find that impressive or depressing. I am genuinely impressed by the speed at which Miss Amane reacts to their attacker, beaning him in the head with her handbag before grabbing a display stand to use as a weapon and signalling Doctor Robbins. The impact doesn't appear to hurt him, but being momentarily blinded causes him to veer off. Miss Selton reacts with wide-eyed astonishment before bringing her hands together in front of her and throwing a sheet of flame in Tri-Man's direction.

"A word of advice, Miss Selton? Creating broad swaths of fire in a room full of easily flammable objects should be avoided where at all possible."

"Um. Yeah. Okay."

"Short and precise ultra-hot bursts are the way to go when fighting for your life. Or running away."

"Ah." She glances at Chester. "You just told… Mister Black..?"

"Chester's a veteran professional. You're a teenaged civilian. I don't hold you to the same standards that I hold him." She nods. "Now, when Doctor Robbins gets the signal, she sends Mister Tawny and a group of G-Elves to the Centre for Paranormal Research-."

"Actually, I just meant to send the G-Elves." She glances at our newly-ascended Nishoba. "I didn't even realise that Mister Tawny could understand English."

"I am a fine example of a modern Tigris Sapien,
I'm combination Tiger, Man, and perhaps a little alien-."

"You don't need to prove it." Mister Tawny flicks his ears at her interruption. "I also sent a few drones, the ones with the advanced sensors. Those are what spotted the robot."

I nod. "I didn't see it pre-crushing. How big was it?"

Mister Tawny scratches his chin with the claw of his right index… Finger? "About eight metres, sole to scalp, and humanoid. I imagine that Ms Dolmann created it."

Vera nods. "The AI pilotin' it was The Brain. We used t' use it fer data analysis."

Chester exhales through his teeth. "Creepy fookin' thing."

"And the robot was flown into position by aerial drones -likewise invisible- which explains why no one crashed into it walking down busy Metropolis roads. And if we put the three images together-" I press a button on the holodisplay so that all three locations are showing, then play them from Chester sitting down. "-it looks like The Brain landed at the same time that Tri-Man launched his attack."

Vera nods. "So they both got their orders from Dolmann."

"While at the same time in Castle Doom I was busy pretending to be a child psychologist. So here's the question. Why? We knew that SHADE were interested in Miss Selton, but as far as anyone in…" I look at Vera. "Did your lot have a collective name?"

"Not realih."

"Kelly's Heroes knows, she's just one of many students at the Centre for Paranormal Research. Yes, one I've spoken to, but I've spoken to several and our first in-depth conversation was yesterday. That's not anything like enough time to build a giant robot, and I doubt that it's enough time to get one from the UK to the US either. Trying to snatch Lynne makes sense if they're trying to counter me, but why her?"

Doctor Robbins nods. "An informant? Do you think there's someone watching the Centre who tipped them off that you might be interested in her?"

"More likely a drone that removed itself once Dolmann realised that we could see through the invisibility, but it's possible. Except… I heard Kelly mention a 'Father T-' before Mister Kipling cut him off. And he mentioned 'friends'. The friends could be his superiors, but-."

"They could also be SHADE." Doctor Robbins turns to our tame Mancunians. "Either of you hear anything about your employers having anything to do with them?" A pair of shaking heads. "Okay, but so what? You think they made a deal with SHADE, trading information for Claire?"

"Could be. The other thing that bothers me is this." I shove the images of the ongoing fights between my people and Kelly's aside and open up a series of other pictures. "Kal-El doesn't respond to a fight in his own city because he's already dealing with a forest fire in California. Batman's been spending the day chasing around after someone called 'The Cluemaster' and apparently Doctor Poison has planted various toxic gasses in a number of cities and had the rest of the League rushing around to discover and defuse them. None of these cities-" I bring up a map. "-has a zeta tube, but each is within an hour's travelling distance of one that does. The League has zeta tubes in many major cities, and while their presence isn't exactly a secret, it isn't widely known. All that means that the Justice League has been fully occupied. We've been fully occupied and I strongly suspect that if I asked I'd find that my youthful former team mates were getting sent after Doctor Poison." I tap another button. "And there have been other crimes, keeping the attention of superheroes who aren't part of any larger groups. There isn't anything about today which suggests there's any reason for it to be a particularly high crime day, and the attackers don't have any known links."

"I was about to ask what's happening that no one with superpowers is around to see. But now I'm wondering who's looking after President Horne."
 
31st May
13:25 GMT -6

I frown into the middle distance as the White House Chief of Staff gives me the bad news over the construct-phone. "Adrian, are you seriously telling me that you don't know where the President of the United States of America is?"

"I had a meeting with the House Minority Leader, he had a security briefing. I… I mean, he can't just have disappeared. What's got you so worried?"

"All of the members of the Justice League are currently occupied and a group associated with SHADE has had a go at killing me. Plus, as I told you, they've got form."

"In a parallel universe. That doesn't mean-. Oh, hang on. Yeah? Okay, that's great. Panic over, we've found him."

"'Found' as in 'spoken to in person', or 'found' as in 'heard a voice over a telephone."

"Over a skype set. She saw his face, and Julie's known him for years. I'm not going to bust in on him because you're having an attack of the paranoids. There are things I'm not authorised to hear."

"Ah. In that case, I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"It's fine. I mean, I'm glad you're concerned, but in this case there's… Really no problem."

I look at the drone images in front of me, showing me the White House where a frenetic Adrian Myer is shouting at members of the Secret Service and is very definitely not on the phone to me. The voice is perfect, the manner of speech… Whoever's doing this is very good.

Not only are they good, Corpsman, they are not feeling even the slightest trace of fear.

I raise my eyebrows at the other people in the room, Miss Shimmer and my domitor. I couldn't begin to understand the inscriptions they've scrawled upon the floor but there's a definite sense of something or other going on. Mister Doom is holding a pendulum over a map and I can see a slight tugging.

"Okay. Would you mind seeing if you can find room for me in the diary? Nothing too urgent, but there are a few things the President needs to be apprised of."

"Can it wait for your next weekly meeting? The next few days are going to be kind of busy for us here."

Mister Doom looks my way and gives me a single sharp nod.

"Ah… Yes, I suppose. I'll send a written report through normal channels, give you a chance to read up on it."

"I'll look forward to getting that. Goodbye, Mister Grayven."

My construct-phone beeps as he hangs up. "Mister Doom?"

"They are in Washington DC, but I am afraid that your belief that they would be ignorant of the arcane may have been excessively optimistic. The map gives their location as the Washington Monument, which is clearly impossible. If you have your drones perform a thorough search, you may still find a trace of him."

Father Box, boom tube.

Ploong.

A portal opens, and I hear a few gasps as passers by hurry to get out of the way. "Mister Doom, would you please accompany me?"

He takes hold of his pendulum and nods again. "Of course. If I were to get closer it would be far easier for me to locate him."

Miss Shimmer looks a little nervous. "Do you need me as well?"

I shake my head. "Not unless you've become an expert battlemage in the last few months. Thank you for your assistance."

"You're welcome." For a moment she looks like she wants to say something else, but then slightly lowers her head.

I raise my right hand to my ear as Mister Doom heads through the tube and looks around him. "Chester, Vera, Iname, immediate deployment. We're heading to the Washington Monument. Tawny, Jean, secondary targets." Then I stride through the tube myself, closing it behind me.

31st May
14:28 GMT -5

Surprisingly, my presence seems to calm the crowd somewhat. Sinestro, find him. I've invested too much-.

Corpsman.

Sorry. The people who tried to abduct my daughter are currently winning.

Better. I can't find him, but there does appear to be a chamber below us.

Right. "Mister Doom? Anything new?"

"I am very much afraid-" My three colleagues step out of thin air. "-not."

"Manchester Black, scan everything." He hesitates for a second, then nods, his eyes glowing a ghastly black-tinted green colour. And I focus. This was far easier with the orange ring, but I can still used my yellow ring to see fear. I know from looking in a mirror that it turns my eyes into glowing points of bright yellow light surrounded by darkness. Like Parallax itself were staring out of my face. A quick that it's working -Chester fears powerlessness most strongly, Vera fears for him and Miss Amane fears failing me- and I look downwards.

Got you.

"No idea who grabbed the President, but I can feel the man himself clear as day." Chester's eyes normalise. "Right below us."

I look his way again, prompting him to frown as he sees my eyes. I blink them back to normal before nodding. "I agree."

Vera raises her eyebrows very slightly, shifting her forearms into their weapon configurations. "We going in by hush tube?"

Are we? Yes, of course. Tempting as making a giant yellow boring machine and burrowing through the ground is, whoever deposited him down there might just spot that and either kill him or-. Sinestro, teleport jam.

I was wondering when that would occur to you.

I've had a rough day. Father Box, open a hush tube close as you can to those coordinates and send in.. drone squadron two.

Ploong.

The reason I have subordinates is because they're useful. Yes, it's not exactly dramatic, but I'm standing next to a Human magician who is keeping a nontrivial amount of my soul in a small box. I'm feeling unusually cautious today.

Ploong.

Same to you. Alright, getting feedback from the drones. One President Horne, one… Muscular looking guy with a goatee. Looks familiar from somewhere. Sinestro, who is that man?

Doctor Joel Baines Cochin, Corpsman. I see that SHADE has high standards for its agents. He's a three-time Nobel Prize winner.

I've yet to see a man outthink my fists. I send the drones further in, moving around the subterranean workshop. Computers and.. a part-built robo-president. Excellent.

"One target, an unarmed scientist." I generate a construct of the room. "No real reason not to take him alive, but since he's probably going to be executed anyway don't strain yourselves. Ready?" I get nods. Father Box, hush tube.

I toss a flashbang through first, let it detonate, then step through myself.
 
31st May
14:30 GMT -5

I form a fusion cannon on my right forearm and point it at Doctor Cochin, who blinks to clear his eyes. "Hands where I can see them, Doctor."

"Gra-." President Horne looks somewhat the worse for wear. His suit is scuffed and torn, his face is cut and a magnetic sensor balaclava has been put over his head. "Grayven?"

"I apologise for the delay, Mister President. These bastards had someone take a shot at my daughter. You alright?"

"I'll... I'll mend."

Chester and Vera appear behind Doctor Cochin at the far end of the workshop. The Doctor himself doesn't seem unduly troubled by this. Oh, he looks over his shoulders one after the other to confirm their relative position, but he doesn't move otherwise. If anything, he looks a little bored.

Hmm.

"Chester, crush his robot, would you?"

"Sure thing, cock." He raises his right hand melodramatically, eyes glowing. Then he makes a sort of slapping motion, the partially complete president-bot coming apart at the seams.

I keep staring at Doctor Cochin. I think he might have just sighed a little, but that's about it. "Doctor Joel Cochin, you're-."

"Baines."

"Excuse me?"

"Professionally. Baines Cochin. I long ago decided that 'Joel' was too plebeian for someone of my abilities."

"Alright. B-Man, you're under arrest, dawg." Still no real reaction. Not hopelessness… Something's off here. "Though I think it unlikely, you may find the courts more merciful if you-."

"Why do you insist on doing that?"

Never pass up an opportunity to learn something of your opponent. "Doing what?"

"You aren't a well-educated brute. You don't even really like playing up to it all that much. And yet, you insist on doing it. I can only assume that you do so to be tiresome. If we could perhaps skip ahead a little? I am perfectly capable of writing and memorising the computer code my automaton requires in my head. You are not distracting me significantly."

"Yeah… And what were you planning on running that code on?"

"The robot I build after I either kill you or detach your arms and legs and blind you. I haven't decided which as of yet." He raises his left hand to his shoulder, pointing at Vera. "Miss Black I will kill. Mister Black I will almost certainly leave alive. I think that his abilities will remain useful to me."

"Think I might not be all that keen on werkin' for yeh if yeh killed me sister."

Doctor Cochin ignores him. "Do you know what the worst thing about telepathy is, Mister Grayven?"

"Finding out how boring people really are?"

"Close, but I already knew that the Human race was -by and large- insipid. No, it's finding out what sort of people telepathy itself is wasted on. Chester Black is a telepath and telekinetic almost without-."

"Telekine."

For the first time I see something other than boredom in his expression. "Excuse me?"

"Telekine. A telekine is someone with telekinetic abilities who can perform feats of telekinesis. It's one of those irregular-."

The workbench hits me in the face too fast for me to create a construct barrier. I'm knocked back a half-step as a combination of environmental shield and divine resistance absorbs what has to be five hundred pounds of metal travelling at about ten metres per second. My vision is momentarily obscured but I clearly hear a fizz as Vera opens fire and Chester's grunt as he struggles to apply telekinetic force.

"You see, I doubt that I've spent more than-" I shove the workbench aside and raise my right arm, fusion cannon glowing. "-a few hours with 'telekinetic abilities'-" Doctor Cochin is standing in the middle of a whirling bubble of green-black power. What's Chester doing? "-in my life, and I can already use the ability better-" The shield buckles slightly where Chester points, Vera rapidly deciding to abandon her coilguns for plasma. "-than the infamous Chester Black."

Doctor Cochin's eyes glow green-black, and Chester grabs his head with both hands.

"Gah!"

"I wasn't expecting you to win, but this is weak." His eyes glow again, and I feel a slight pressure around my mental shields. "Ah, that's a little better." Vera's plasma fails to breach his telekinetic barrier, so with a snarl she switches to purple death rays. "Perhaps I should reintroduce myself, Mister Grayven. I am-." His face twitches as Vera's beams strike his side, passing through his telekinetic barrier as if it weren't there. "Excuse me." He turns away from me towards Vera, a wave of green-black energy connecting them briefly as she goes flying backwards with her forearms crumpled. "There." He turns back around. "I am Agent Paragon of SHADE. 'Paragon' as in, better than everyone else. I'm stronger than you. I'm a better telepath than Chester Black and-" His body blurs and Miss Amane pinwheels out of the air next to him. I generate a grav-chute construct to catch her. "-faster than Amane Misa. I'm also more intelligent than President Horne, but let's be frank: that's no great challenge."

"So, what?" Sinestro, status of Vera and Chester? "You're SHADE's supersoldier? I'll admit to being impressed with your abilities, but I can't see why you're working for them."

"You just had your power ring check the health of your subordinates."

O-kay, that's a little worrying. My mental shields are… Still there. Is he just good at reading people?

"And no. SHADE didn't make me. Fortuitous genetics made me the fine specimen of metahumanity you see here today."

Vera will need her arms replaced and Chester might well have concussion.

Beside me Miss Amane brings her warscythe to a guard position. Okay, Doctor Cochin is clearly the talkative sort. I need more information. Does he just happen to have speed and telepathy? I had been considering experimenting to see whether a cloned copy of Chester's brain would survive the Garrick Formula…

"So what can you do, exactly?"

"I combine all of the abilities of everyone within a radius of about five miles. Not robots, but everyone else goes into making me me. I was a little surprised that my abilities work on you… But becoming a god is only my due, really."

Hm. If he's using the intelligence of everyone within five miles it's probably far easier for him to learn telepathy than it is for Chester. And add to that my own divine aura of conquest boosting it…

I fire my fusion cannon while simultaneously firing cold fields at the air around him. "Iname, flee."

"Master, I-!"

"Now. Ten miles."

There's a crackle in the air as Doctor Cochin hits a cold field. "Ow!" If he's using my toughness as well-.

Ah fuck.

"Mister Doom, drain as much from me as you can without killing-" There's a wave of displaced air as Miss Amane runs. "-me."

There's another series of crackles as the cold fields are remotely triggered in a wave of green-black guh.

This time I'm ready. This time my environmental shield keeps me upright. But that doesn't seem to have slowed down Doctor Cochin anything like as much as I'd hoped that it would.

"Yes, yes. Remove my sources of power. Even yourself. But you see Mister Grayven, there are still hundreds of thousands of people within my range providing me with str-."

I take my radion blaster out of subspace and shoot him in the face.
 
31st May
14:34 GMT -5

I drop the radion blaster to the floor to recharge and lunge forward as he staggers back from the shot. Radion blasters aren't just deadly poisonous to us New Gods, they hit every bit as hard as normal blasters as well. I pull my daiklave to my hand as he begins to recover. The flesh has been burnt from his face, his eyes are destroyed -hah!- and the bone of his jaw is clearly visible around his mouth. Something around here is making him very tough and it certainly isn't me at the moment.

Yellow filaments flick out ahead of me, triggering the last two cold fields between us and clearing the way for my melee assault. As I begin my swing his empty eye sockets flare the familiar green-black and a wave of that same light expands outwards from him in all directions, passing over my environmental shield with no noticeable effect. My daiklave comes around towards his neck and his head turns towards it, the glare from his eye holes intensifying as he tries to push it away.

Normally I'd just… Power through, but… Agh…

I plant my feet and generate construct armour around myself as I try to wrestle my daiklave forwards. I can feel him scrabbling around the outside of my mental shields, and while they're good, with my divine aura's reinforcement basically gone they aren't inviolable. Sinestro, psi-baffle.

Added. The pressure doesn't vanish, but it does fall away somewhat. Though I would warn you-.

That he still isn't even slightly afraid and the only good source of fear is President Horne. I know. But now that I've got-

I make a little progress forwards.

-his full-

My right hand goes to the pommel and I shove the point of the daiklave towards his green-black glowing face.

-attention…

"Drones, fire."

Five drones drop stealth around the room, their blasters and purple death rays orientating on Doctor Cochin. His wide-spread telekinetic field lets him feel them almost immediately, the small wavering of his concentration allowing me to get the point of my blade to within a centimetre of his chest. I held the drones back because he could destroy them easily with Chester's abilities. But now? Now he can't afford to divert his efforts from stopping my sword.

"Gggguuuuraaaaaahhh!"

Beams and bolts strike his back and his sides. Automatic targeting is much less accurate than shots made with my spiritual guidance but that's offline until Mister Doom re-empowers me. The punishment he's taken makes his concentration waver again, and I start to feel the first trickle of fear.

Then the tip of my daiklave strikes his chest, biting into the left side of his chest between the second and third rib and cutting neatly through the flesh. I don't know exactly how far his toughness is boosted by his powers but it isn't anything like tough enough to stop an x-ionised sword.

"RAAAAAGH!"

His jaw falls open, his partially destroyed tongue flaps and his flesh evaporates as his telekinetic field collapses and the shots from my drones strike home unimpeded. My daiklave shoots forwards and I'm forced to use my armour's strength to hold it back.

Then I smile, and slice left.

His head and shoulders fall to the floor while his body remains upright for a moment. The continued fire from the purple death rays means that the blood doesn't spurt but it does pump and flow at a considerable rate.

"Drones, cease fire and resume cloak."

The fire cuts out immediately and the drones vanish.

I look down at Doctor Cochin's head, then pull the radion blaster back into my right hand and obliterate it completely with a single shot.

"Drones, heal my companions." Revitalising purple light plays over Chester and Vera. Chester stirs to life while Vera raises her ruined arms slightly and curses under her breath. "Don't move. Some of the cold fields are still active." I dismiss my construct armour and raise my right hand to my ear. "Sterling work, Mister Doom. Now, please restore me."

"Is the President well?"

I turn to where President Horne is perking up slightly under the influence of the purple healing ray. "He's been better, but nothing that a little rest won't cure."

"Very well. I should warn you that the loss in transition-."

"Don't worry about it. I'm already planning to spend tomorrow sitting on the mana infuser and doing as little as possible."

"As you wish."

I wait a moment and oh that's better. Now to-.

"Bit slow off the mark, weren't you?"

I half turn, making momentary eye contact with Vera. "I'm afraid that I'm the thinky type. We can go over what you want with your replacement prosthesis tomorrow."

"Oh, aye." She maintains eye contact for a moment, then turns to her recumbent brother. She takes two steps towards Chester and then nudges him with her right boot. "Oop you get, lazybones."

"Fukof."

I walk over to President Horne, stowing my daiklave on my back and my radion blaster in subspace as I do so. "Feeling better, sir?"

"Much." He nods. "Thank you."

I reach around his head, pull his balaclava up over his head and take a careful look at him. Sinestro?

No implants that I can detect. No bacterial, viral or nanotech agents. Some drug residue but the purple healing ray has dealt with it.

Good show. I reach down to the clamps holding his arms in place and pull them apart. "Soon have you out, sir."

"My family, are my family safe?"

"Their Secret Service bodyguard is presently being augmented by my people. Little gets past the G-Gnomes." I kneel and rip the clamps off his legs. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, ah…" He staggers free, stretching his legs and trying to bring them back to life. "What about the Republicans?"

Huh? "I.. doubt they were involved, sir. He clearly said-."

"No, they… He said, they only bothered picking me up because they were starting to think I could win the election next year. Which means they're probably going to target the potential Republican nominees. And if they're ready to grab me out of the White House I can't think of a reason for them to wait."

"Mister President, I have finite resources. I need to see you safe first." But he's got a point. Trying to arrest and dissect political opponents is awkward at the best of times. I stand, raising my right hand to my ear. "Doctor Robbins, send Miss Iname and groups of Genomorphs to the locations of the top… Three? People most likely to be the Republican candidates for the White House next year. Senator Knight and… What'stheirnames…"

"Already on it."

"Good." I lower my hand. "Father Box, boom tube to the Oval Office."

"Ploong."

President Horne looks puzzled. "What's a 'boom-'?"

BANG!

He jerks back, shielding his face with his right hand. "Aren't those usually quieter?"

"The President got kidnapped. Now is not the time to take the Secret Service by surprise."

"I suppose not. Well?"

I put construct armour around him before stepping through the portal. Six agents point their side arms at me. "Chill out, guys. Just me."

"Grayven!" Mister Myer emerges from behind the huddle. "Have you found-?"

"I'm okay, Adrian." President Horne walks through the boom tube. "Everyone, stand down." The guns are lowered, though the agents look decidedly unhappy with the situation. "Patrick." He looks at one of the agents. "The room where I was being held is on the other side of-" He glances back. "-that thing, along with the remains of my captor. Secure it."

"Yes sir."

Mister Myer hurries up to him as the Secret Service personnel dash past. "Jon, let me get you a doctor. You should-."

President Horne holds up his right hand to ward him off. "I'm fine, Adrian. I'm fine. What I want you to do for me is get a press conference assembled. I need to address the American people."

Myers looks at him sceptically. "Are you.. sure you-?"

"Never surer. Get it done."
 
31st May
15:04 GMT -5

I lean down slightly-. I check our immediate surroundings and crouch, bringing my mouth down to roughly the level of Mister Myer's ear. "Mister Myer, are you sure this is… Really a good idea?"

He watches as members of President Horne's media relations team scurry around to get things ready for his speech. His Press Secretary -a woman named Susan Elseth- appears to have given up on trying to dissuade him and is alternating between pacing and biting her right thumbnail. "Maybe. Maybe not." He tilts his head to the left for a moment. "And call me Adrian."

"Okay… Adrian… I ask because I know Humans-."

He look at me with his eyebrows slightly raised. "I know you don't quite get Human social mores, but that's usually the point where you'd tell me your first name."

I'm pretty sure that this isn't how press conferences are supposed to be organised. Horne himself is off in an office somewhere with Adrian's deputy.

"Apokoliptians don't go in for the personal name/family name name structure. Grayven is the entirety of my name." I don't know what's going to happen. That.. bothers me. "My sister in law took the second part of my brother's name as a family name when they moved to Earth, but that was just to help with fitting in."

"Oh, I hadn't realised. So your daughter is..?"

"Lynne Wayland. She kept her original name after I adopted her. Look, what exactly is the President planning?"

He looks away, nodding to himself. "You, ah… You actually study Jon's campaign? Any of his elections?"

"No. But I've invested quite a lot of time in-."

"You don't hear me complaining about you not giving us any idea what you were planning on saying when you got your Presidential Medal of Freedom. That whole 'trials in absentia' thing gave me a lot of work."

"Yes, I get that. And… I'm very nearly sorry. But I'm asking you-."

He chuckles under his breath. "Sorry. Oh… Jon… Jon's a good friend of mine. We've know each other for decades. He's a good man, a good administrator. But I'll admit that I don't think anyone's ever accused him of having the sort of presence or charisma a really great statesman has." He nods to himself. "Just occasionally, though-."

He cuts himself off as President Horne marches towards us down the corridor, Secret Service detail hurrying along behind him. "Adrian, they ready for me?"

"Yes sir."

The President looks up at me. "How are the loyal opposition?"

"Knight wants to talk to you now. The others are accepting my protection at face value."

He nods. "Bring Knight here, I'll talk to him right after this."

"Yes, Mister President. May I ask-?"

He smiles. "Keep watching. I'll think you'll like what I have to say."

"Yes, but-." I hesitantly raise my right hand as he brushes me off and walks past me, members of the press corps jumping to their feet as he comes into view and heads to the podium.

Oh, I am off my game. I should have been able to encourage him to at least give me a clue with my spiritual force… No. I need to settle things with Doom before I try that again.

President Horne takes his place and looks around the room at the press corps, making eye contact with a few and giving the occasional nod. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, everyone tuned in at home… Thank you for getting together on such short notice. There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about today, but I think the first item I need to tell you about is that a little over three hours ago I was kidnapped in broad daylight from this very building by a super powered criminal."

There are a few gasps, but it isn't the first time a President has been targeted by a supervillain.

"As best as the Secret Service and my associate Mister Grayven have been able to determine, his intent was to copy my brain and then replace me with a robot duplicate. The separation of powers means that taking control of the Oval Office wouldn't be quite enough to suborn the government of America, but it would have allowed his sponsors to advance their agenda contrary to the interests and the democratically expressed will of the American people."

"And perhaps the worst part of what happened is that this wasn't a costumed lunatic. No, this was something far worse. This action to circumvent our democracy was organised and funded by a federal agency." Eyes widen. "I don't know how many of you remember the All-Star Squadron. It was the government run superhero organization set up during World War Two to try and make a capable but disparate group of men and women into something we could use to beat the Nazis and the Japanese. To that end, the War Office brought together not just superheroes but intelligence people and experts in unconventional warfare, people whose job it was to make sure our people were where they needed to be and knew what they needed to know in order to get the job done. After the war, that part of the organisation became a federal agency called SHADE, the Super Human Advanced Defence Executive. Even today, they train and educate people throughout federal and state law enforcement in how to handle metahumans and supervillains."

"And it's those sons of bitches that just tried to have me killed."

President Horne takes a moment to gather his thoughts, his eyes drifting over the assembled news crews. "You know... I always figured that if something like this happened, it would be the NSA. Guess I owe those guys an apology."

I raise my right hand to my ear. "Grayven to Doctor Robbins. Hush tube Senator Knight to my position at your discretion."

"Will do, Gray. I'll be happy to stop listening to him moaning at the Genomorphs."

"…imagine what they hoped to gain by doing this, but the best I've been able to guess is that they think that there's something lacking in my response to recent superhuman attacks. Hesitancy is something I've been accused of on more than one occasion, and it's an accusation that I think it's time I addressed."

"Some members of the Republican party… Even some members of my own party, accused me of doing nothing in the aftermath of the Roanoke Island incident. And more than a few took the opportunity to run their mouths off about what they would have done, or what I was doing wrong. And it's true, I did not come up with any new policy initiative in the immediate aftermath. You want to know why? The truth is, not only did I not know the first thing about magic but hardly anyone in the US federal government knows anything about it. There was a truly astonishing gap in our knowledge and therefore in our ability to defend ourselves. What I was doing -rather than blowing a whole lot of hot air- was reaching out to our allies in Atlantis and to those Americans who do know something about the subject so that I could form informed policy."

"While I was doing that, Senator Knight brought forward a Bill that would have criminalized the few people in this country capable of helping us prevent anything like that happening again without doing a single thing to impede our enemies. And I seem to recall that he got an awful lot of good press out of it." Senator Knight walks out of a hush tube just in front of me, quickly orientating himself towards the stage. "A Bill which was brought up by King Orin during our discussions as a matter of considerable concern to his people, because virtually every Atlantean is a magic user. And as far as American citizens go… For God's sake, you don't close the nuclear missile gap by arresting nuclear physicists or rocket scientists. You close it by putting them to work for you."

Senator Knight's eyes widen. "Oh, you God damned…"

"And as for Senator Cray's idea of conscripting US superheroes… Senator, you're welcome to try serving Superman draft papers if you like, but this administration will have no part in it."

"What this administration will do is hunt down those criminals lurking in our government institutions. What this administration will do is bring forward laws that will allow law enforcement officials to use greater degrees of force in apprehending or if necessary killing super powered criminals. What this administration will do is create a new federal agency with a remit to study and where appropriate act against super powered threats to the citizens of this country. And in all these things this administration will be guided by evidence, not by rumor or fear-mongering."

"As of right now, SHADE no longer exists. Every federal agent acting under SHADE's authority now has a warrant out for their arrest. I will say to all those agents not involved in the conspiracy to replace me: hand yourselves in. You will be interviewed and then most likely released immediately. And to SHADE's senior employees, those who intentionally evaded congressional oversight for decades and just tried to kill their Commander-in-Chief… We're coming for you. And there isn't going to be any place where you can hide."
 
31st May
17:15 GMT -5

Mister Doom sets down the datapad he was reading from, his mouth turned down in distaste. "To think that they have fallen so far."

I take a moment to regard him across the table. "Are you satisfied as to the authenticity of the information?"

He looks directly at me. "Are you?"

"Yes, for the most-." Grh. "Could you… Not do that, please?"

"Hm." He picks up the pad again. "I see that a good deal of this was acquired from the League of Shadows."

"Yes."

"I have -upon occasion- had dealings with them myself. How would you characterise your relationship with them?"

I pause for a half-moment. No compulsion effect. "Thank you." A slight dip of his eyes. "I have a good working relationship with Ra's al Ghul and I am romantically involved with a serving Shadow. We're trying to-."

His eyes narrow. "You have a good… Working… I would like an explanation for that."

I briefly consider answering 'she needed the training and stayed on because she likes the work environment', but decide against it. "Ra's al Ghul makes money through murder, extortion and the selling of intelligence. So -more or less- do most nation states. More to the point, he has a longer term view than most rulers. He and I are part of an alliance which aims to improve the lot of Human civilisation. Part of our work requires the sorts of operatives that he commands. Not an ideal situation, obviously, but I hope to gradually encourage him to redirect his energies towards the less malevolent part of his work."

"The League of Shadows has been a pestilence on this world for over two hundred years."

"So I kill Ra's, and every League of Shadows cell on the planet goes underground. Someone grabs one of his hair follicles and sticks it in a Lazarus Pit. I lose him as a source and interrupt League operations hardly at all. Ra's voluntarily signed up with an organisation that is finally kick-starting the schizo tech revolution this planet has been crying out for for seventy years. I've even got plans for America's first magic school, and after today I think I can count on President Horne's support. I can't reliably stop him, but by establishing a rapport I can channel him."

"…had enough thinking time." The door to the meeting room is shoved open and Chester storms through. "Well?" He stares at me, throwing up his hands. "We goin' and getting' the bastards or what?"

I meet his stare calmly. "Or what."

"Are you serious? After everythin' that happened today, you're just gonna let them get away with it?"

"Chester, we weren't acting because we lack the information necessary to create a replacement government. Has anything that happened today-"

"The fook is your-"

"-changed that?"

"-problem!" He takes a right turn and starts pacing. "They try killin' me? Fine, just another rosy day at the office." He swivels sharply, facing me again. "But they went aftah Lynne! A school fulla kids! In America, which I'm shower is gunna go down great with your pal Jon Horne. What-?"

"Chester." I point to the far side of the room.

"What?" He frowns, looking around. "You playin' with dolls now?"

"Those are the original robots used by Eric Dolmann. I acquired them from Penny Dolmann's home half an hour ago. In their place, I left a robotic representation of her. Turn the key in the back and it bleeds from every orifice before exploding."

"'s start." He turns back around. "But what else?"

"Chester, I am completely furious about what happened. But fundamentally, nothing has changed except that the opposition have lost some resources. And before too long they will lose their allies in SHADE as well."

Most SHADE-certified agents responded to President Horne's edict almost immediately. Might take a while to process them, but as General Lane told me: most of them didn't know that SHADE was an actual organisation. Those who did and tried going to ground will be brought in presently.

Those conversations will be less polite.

"I am simply not prepared to send a civilised country collapsing into anarchy because one particular offence was personal. The timetable remains in effect. Continue your work. Once I have completed Vera's new arms I will send her to join you once more. Once you have completed your task, then we will move against our adversaries directly."

He tilts his head noticeably to the left, continuing to stare at me. "Are y-? Fine. Fine." He waves his right arm dismissively in my general direction and then he trudges back out of the door. He slams it behind him as he leaves.

I watch the door for a moment before during back to Mister Doom. "Is there anything else you would like to ask?"

"No, I don't believe so." He rises, pushing back his chair as he does so. "I do not trust you, Mister Grayven. But I find that I struggle to strongly disagree with those things that you have done to date. And I doubt that anyone else is engaged in the work of restoring the government of Britain to moral probity as you intend to. I will continue to watch you, however. If I detect any sign that your associates are converting you to their methods more than you are converting them to yours… You may well imagine what I will do."

"No."

His eyebrows rise very slightly. "Excuse me?"

"I am not prepared to be brought into line with threats. You just told me that you agree with what I'm doing. Do you make a habit of threatening your allies?"

"I would hardly describe us as that."

"Why ever not? In fact, why are you not volunteering to provide me with information yourself? The more I learn, the faster and more precisely I can act. The lower the quantity of collateral damage."

"Because I have been absent from this world for some time. Before I take such a risk, I would learn more about you and those whom you describe as your friends. I have no desire to unseat one corrupt establishment merely to replace it with another."

"Then join in. You can keep a better watch on me standing next to me than you can from a castle that is even now being occupied by armed police. And once you have assured yourself that I am genuine, you would be better placed to shape policy to something that is… Appropriately non-villainous."

"That is…" He bows his head and narrows his eyes as he considers the suggestion. "Not something I will reject out of hand, but… No, not yet." He looks up again. "But in the spirit of future cooperation, would you be so good as to open a portal that would return me to my customary abode? I believe that I have uninvited guests to evict."

"Certainly. Just as soon as you return the rest of my soul." His face tightens slightly. "I know perfectly well that knowing its shape gives you very nearly as many options for acting against me as holding it. But you having it diminishes me, makes me less capable. Apokoliptian technology works on the spiritual strength of the one wielding it. You taking a tough line on this could get me and mine killed. Not to mention the fact that it's damn rude."

He regards me passively for a moment. "I.. suppose that you may have a point. Very well." He raises his right hand and ah! Back in business! "But I will warn you: having granted you this reprieve I will now take any backsliding on your part as a personal insult."

I smile. "Then I will avoid giving you cause. Father Box, if you would?"

"Ploong."

The hole in space opens and Cursitor Doom sweeps majestically through it before it closes down.

I wait for a moment, then slip my new goggles over my eyes and check the area. Nothing that I can see. Sinestro?

So far as I can determine, Corpsman, the area is clear.

Good good. I rise and head for the door, gently pushing it open and walking out.
 
31st May
17:22 GMT -5

Chester falls in behind me as I walk in the direction of my secure communications room. "You all back in full werkin' order, then?"

"More or less. I didn't get back everything, but the reduction in power isn't anything significant."

He doesn't say anything for a moment. "Well?"

"Thank you, Chester. Very well done." I smile what I suspect is a moderately sinister smile. "Completely in line with your established character. I'm not sure how critical it was in convincing him that my actions were rational and sagacious, but I'm sure it played a part."

"Now that's somethin' I didn't get in me last job."

"What?"

"People sayin' 'thank you'. I mean, I'm still not exactly jumpin' fer joy about not going in and toppin' the wankers right now, but I get what you were sayin'."

"Good man."

"Still wanna know what took you so long with that Paragon prat."

I place my hand against the palm scanner leading to the Light's internal communication chamber. "I didn't know the full extent of his abilities and as far as I could tell your lives weren't immediately in danger. While it was generous of him to volunteer information about his capabilities, I couldn't just assume that he was telling the truth. Incidentally-" I turn my head to look at him. "-you should be certain to never do that."

"No fookin' fear, cock."

"In addition, my normal… Instincts, were absent due to what Mister Doom had done to me. If I left you hanging as a result, I apologise."

"To tell the truth, I'm more pissed off about him beatin' me at me own game. You wouldn't know any way t' help with that, by any chance?"

"I am happy to make the Awakening available to you. You may wish to train with the G-Gnomes. If so, consult Jean. There are… Amplification devices I could build for you, but most of the best utilise Apokoliptian technology. Files are on the database. Work out exactly what you want and I'll be only too happy to put it together for you."

"Eh, I'll take a gandeh." He nods at the door. "What you need to talk to the old Secret Society a' Super Villains about?"

"It's not easy to organise the infamously fractious supervillain fraternity to act in concert. Even just making the contacts you'd need to pay them to do it is a task fraught with difficulty. Now, SHADE might have done it using salvaged equipment, Doctor Cochin's power duplication and their own contacts… But the other group who could..?"

Chester frowns. "Your pals? What for?"

"Damned if I know, but I've been burned before for not checking what they were up to and I'm not about to do it again. Do you want anything else?"

"Nah. I'll go an' see how Vera's doin'."

I nod, then return my attention to the door. A quick tap and the force fields disengage and the bars unbar, allowing the door to fold away into subspace. I slowly walk into the room, the system already acknowledging my presence. Lights go from 'off' to 'conspiratorially dim' and the monitors which will show the faces of my fellow Light members activate.

"Mister Grayven. It is good to see you again."

Brain's already here then. I wonder if he ever leaves? Certainly, he could just leave his connection live at all times. His chassis isn't really designed for moving around a lot. "Brain. Hope you're keeping well." Wonder if he named himself after the other one? The Brain was built in nineteen sixty six, and when I finally got access to his university records I found that he was born in seventy eight, so… Might have done.

"Oh, like this, like that. I had until recently been involved in untangling the geometry of a parallel universe somewhat unlike this one. That it defied my analysis was a source of some frustration, given the timeline… But, I believe that I am making progress."

"Alien geometries aren't really my thing, but if there's anything I can help with..?"

"Perhaps I should say no more until we are all-" Savage's monitor comes on, followed a moment later by the one belonging to Ra's. "-fully assembled."

"Savage. Ra's. I apologise for the short notice."

"That is quite alright, Grayven." Savage looks… Happy. Hopefully that just means that someone's delivered him a new truckload of underage baboons, but I'm always a little nervous when Captain Caveman looks pleased about something. "With matters advancing, it is important to ensure that all members of the Light are on the same page."

Ra's' face appears to be in neutral at the moment. I give him a nod as the screen for Lex comes on and his eyes flick in the direction of each screen as he confirms who's already here. I nod to him as well -getting one in return- then focus my attention on the screen for Mordru.

I give him twelve seconds. "Our.. Noble Friend does know how to work-?" Mordru's face appears, though he doesn't appear to have actually turned the thing on. Some sort of communication spell using the technological link as an arcane one. Sort of impressive that he can do it while also showing a degree of laziness that he hasn't bothered to learn to use the same technology as the rest of us. A possible weakness?

"Now then, Grayven." Savage leans forwards slightly. "What is it that you wish to discuss?"

"Today's attacks across America. SHADE's being blamed, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't us before I perjured myself." Lex chuckles quietly, bowing his head. "So, was it?"

Savage nods. "I felt that it would be useful if the Justice League were fully engaged while I saw to certain matters."

I nod. I would like it if someday he managed to surpass my expectations in a good way. "Business or pleasure?"

"Both."

Of course it was. I don't roll my eyes. "I misspoke. Light business or personal business?"

"The final destruction of the Justice League."

…

I fan out my hands. "Did I miss a meeting?"

"No, Gra-."

"Because I understood that becoming a member of the Light meant that I got told what was happening. I don't remember us discussing killing the Justice League in concrete terms. I certainly don't remember voting on it. So what happened?"

At least Savage isn't smiling any longer. "The matter was decided upon before you joined us. Your being here does grant a certain… Flexibility that did not exist before."

"For future reference, Savage, I expect to be notified of plans I'm involved in."

"The original version did not involve you. The League would simply be drawn to the battleground of our choosing and eliminated. Without the protection of the Earth's premier super heroes, the nations of mankind would be forced to look to their own protections. Now, an alternative has presented itself."

Eliminated? A nuclear weapon of sufficient yield would probably do it, but the League don't habitually gather in the same place on Earth. "And what would that be?"

"That we may have our cake and eat it, Mister Grayven." I switch my attention to Brain. "Your argument that at the Earth's current level of technology certain threats are best met by superheroes was most convincing. In the original plan, we would have simply… Taken the risk. But… You have excellent relations with the governments of both China and the United States. Worldwide, you are a very popular man."

Lex nods. "We have one or two other operatives in mind, but the ideal outcome for us is for the entire League to die. You would then replace them with a new team, working in accordance with guidelines set by the Light."

"And how exactly are we planning on killing the Justice League?"

"Grayven."

I don't like the way Mordru is grinning.

"Have you ever heard of the King of Tears?"
 
Undermined
  • Threadmarks
    • Undermined

    10th June
    14:57 GMT -5

    Ted leans closer to me as we wait off-stage.

    "We're good to go, right?"

    I take a moment to look at one of the television screens showing the crowd of people gathered in front of the stage set up outside New York's newest power plant. Quite a lot of people. Journalists and technology correspondents mostly, and a few people who were invited specifically. I gave Boris a lift here at his request, and I think I've got an inkling that a station like this will be on his wish list. Diana's here as well as a show of support for me and my work and Alan arm-twisted an invitation from someone at his old agency. Just about everyone else I know is either at school or at work.

    "Ted, the only thing that I can check which you can't is the generators themselves."

    "Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm so worried? Usually before one of these presentations I keep myself busy checking everything but this place is so simple that I've got nothing to do."

    "You check everything?"

    "Uh-huh."

    "Don't you… Own the company?"

    "Technically the shareholders do." He sets his jaw to the side as he thinks about it. "Though I have been thinking of buying back an absolute majority. Y'know, given the work we're doing… Just in case some of them turn out to be evil or something."

    "Stupid worries me more than evil, but whatever you think best." Naturally, I've bought enough KordTech shares that we command an absolute majority between us. He's right; given the work we're doing, anything less would be foolish. Having Lex Luthor or Edwin Alva or… Some other business villain trying to stick their oar in would be irritating. I haven't told him because I don't want to look like I'm muscling in on his thing. Also… Because -and I don't like to think this- at some point I might need to nudge him out. Or at least into a different role. He really isn't temperamentally inclined to let the people beneath him do their jobs. In a small company, that's great. In a large company… Lex Luthor doesn't spend time in the flipping post room because he worries about falling out of touch.

    Agh, and I feel bad about doing it. He's such a nice guy.

    "You guys about ready?" Mayor Bloomberg raises his eyebrows slightly as he looks at us. "Because at this point it's kind of late not to be."

    Last check… "Everything's ready to go, sir. The system functions as designed."

    "I hope you don't mind me not cutting the city off from the nation's power supply just yet, Orange Lantern."

    "Oh no, sir. To be honest…" I look at the screens again. "I'm half-expecting a supervillain attack the moment you throw the switch."

    This whole thing has actually gone okay, potential supervillain threat notwithstanding. I mean, our project to rewire New York is nothing like complete. The substations are all done, but there are still people with houses covered in lead paint so I'm not exactly surprised that we haven't gotten around to rewiring everyone's homes in the time available to us. But we do have an agreement from the mayor that all future wiring will be made from Jovium and since we're the only source of the stuff that pretty much gives us a monopoly. All in all, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about this whole thing.

    "Is there some information you didn't pass on to the New York Police Department?"

    Ted looks confused. "How would that help?" Mayor Bloomberg looks mildly affronted. "I mean, Orange Lantern's here and Wonder Woman's in the audience. And there are already police all around."

    There were a few protests around the site as Ted's people put it together, mostly amateur physicists who want me to believe they know anything about the Bleed and its potential dangers. Reminds me a bit about the people who went to court to try and stop the Large Hadron Collider being turned on in the belief that it stood a significant chance of creating a black hole. A few were families of people employed in conventional energy generation protesting about the jobs we'll be destroying. I don't feel bad about coal, gas or oil based production, but harming research into other forms of power does rather go against my stated aims.

    "No, Mister Mayor. It's just that in my line of work supervillains tend to just… Show up. Um, we're ready when you are."

    Mayor Bloomberg huffs. "You realise that I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for supervillains the whole time now?"

    I shake my head. "I'm probably just being paranoid, sir." Um. "But just in case." I take a small portable force field generator and hand it to him. "You may want to clip this onto your jacket."

    "A-?" He stares at me for a moment, before attaching it to his lapel. "Alright then. I think we're about ready to start."

    I nod, and lead the way out onto the stage. No flashes. Ah, to have been alive in the age of flash photography. I still remember the little flash cube thing I used on my first camera. My last camera too, as it happened. Never could be bothered to put them in albums. Think I ended up throwing the lot out.

    I stop at the podium emblazoned with the KordTech logo and look out at the crowd, making a point of making eye contact with Alan and Diana. Then I return my gaze to the approximate middle of the crowd. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming. It's, ah… It's been a little under five months since I announced that I was getting into the power generation business. A little less than that since Mayor Bloomberg was kind enough to allow us to use New York City as the first location to build one of these. And in a minute or so, you'll be able to see the system formally connected to the New York electrical grid."

    No supervillains as yet. Promising.

    "Now, I've been hearing…" I look theatrically over at where the protestors are standing at the far side of the fence. "One or two complaints at my use of alien technology to… One moment." I pull a copy of the Washington Post out of subspace and make sure the title piece is visible as I rifle through it until I come to the interview. "'Unfairly distort the energy supply market in this country, and reduce the ability of other parties to remain competitive.'" I shrug theatrically, paper in hand. "I'm sorry, I thought we were running businesses in a free market economy here! I didn't realise I was supposed to hobble myself so you can keep doing what you've been doing for the last… Hundred years? Human civilisation is crying out for better sources of energy. I'm not stopping anyone else doing what I've done. But I sure hope I'm stopping people who were planning on sitting on their arses. Ah." I switch my hands to a 'hold on' position. "I'm sorry, American audience. Their asses. Asses."

    That gets a small laugh.

    "Innovate or… Expect to go out of business. Part of the reason why I got involved in building this place is so that I can light a fire under the energy sector. And every year they don't come up with something that will let them compete, I'll open more. Our order book will be full for the foreseeable future. Get to work. Innovate. You've had decades and the most exciting thing that's happened recently is that you've learned to get oil out of sand." I nod a couple of times. "Very twenty first century. Sand… Really makes me feel space aged."

    "We're only going to be providing part of New York's power for the next four months while we assure people that there aren't any problems with the system. After that, we'll be taking over all power supply for the whole city… And maybe a little beyond that. Anyone living in that area can expect to see their bills cut to one tenth, and we'll be investing that profit into charge points for electrical cars. Because it's going to be cheaper to fill up a battery than a petrol…" I frown. "Hang on, I have an app for this." I pull out my phone and press a few buttons. "Gas, yes, because it's a liquid and that makes perfect sense. Electricity will be a lot cheaper than gas."

    I think I just saw Boris write something in his notebook.

    "I'm not doing this for the money. Not only am I rich already, I don't get paid for this. Not one penny of the profit for this enterprise comes to me. I'm doing this in an attempt to kick start Human technological progress. To make sure that we have a tech-base fit for a twenty-first century space age civilisation. I don't want this to be a.. just-me thing." I bring my hands to my chest. "That defeats the object. I want lots of people to try and do the sorts of thing that I am. Human scientists with the knowledge power companies need in order to keep up with me are out there. So, to my competitors… Go find them."

    "And now, to press the big red button and connect us to the New York power grid, please give a warm welcome to Mayor Bloomberg!"
     
  • Threadmarks
    • 10th June
    16:19 GMT -5

    Lois Lane looks at the outer casing of the Bleed Torsion Generator. "I was expecting something bigger. And more sparkly. And… Orange."

    "I can go and get some glitter or paint if you think it would make a better visual, Ms Lane."

    She gives me half of a small smile before turning to Mister Olsen. "Jimmy?"

    The young photographer gives her a helpless shrug. "It's a grey box, Ms Lane. There's only so much I can do to make it look interesting."

    "If you don't mind me asking… I was a little surprised that the Planet sent you."

    "Oh? And what's wrong with me?"

    "You aren't the Planet's technology or economics correspondent. I mean no offence, but wouldn't a-?"

    Ted puts his right hand on my left shoulder and smiles at her. "Not that it's a problem. We've got people from plenty of tech magazines to talk to later."

    She nods. "It's a reasonable question. The answer is, I got the gig because I'm the Planet's main superhero correspondent and because we've met before."

    "I was rather hoping not to see everything I do get pigeonholed as 'super life'. This sort of work has the potential to revolutionise Human civilisation."

    "I'll try and take it as seriously as it should be." I nod. "Though while we're on the subject, I didn't see Prince Kon-El in the audience. You had some kind of falling out?"

    "No, but he's at school at the moment, and… It wasn't really practical to do this outside of school hours."

    She knows from his original 'coming out' interview that he goes to school in the US, though obviously we didn't tell her which one.

    "And the rumor that you're dating a former League of Shadows assassin?"

    "I asked, she said no. She served the sentence for the crimes she was convicted of, and she's never been convicted of killing anyone."

    "Okay then." She waves her tablet in the direction of the Generator. "For someone who isn't a technology correspondent, how does this thing work?"

    Ted politely pushes me back a little. "Most forms of electricity generation work using what is basically a boiler. You burn coal, or methane or biomass, and you use the energy given off to heat water and generate high pressure steam. This steam then turns a turbine which converts the energy from the steam into electricity. Now, that's not even a twentieth century technology. A British guy called Sir Charles Parsons came up with the basic design in eighteen eighty four. There've been improvements since, but it's essentially the same device. Even nuclear power does pretty much the same thing, generating steam and funnelling it into a turbine."

    "Then you've got renewables. Geothermal power gets its heat from the Earth's mantle, and wind and hydroelectric generators take their kinetic energy directly from their environment. Then you've got-." He grins. "Hey, I always get a kick out of this. Did you know that the photovoltaic effect was first noticed in eighteen thirty nine? A French physicist called Edmond Becquerel wrote a paper on it when he was nineteen. Of course, it wasn't until the nineteen fifties that anyone could make a solar panel that was anywhere near commercially viable."

    "Thank you, NASA and the Soviet Space Program."

    Ted glances at me, nodding. "Yeah, they needed something to power satellites and spacecraft once they were in space, and batteries just didn't have the life expectancy they were starting to need. Um, anyway…" Ted momentarily has the look of someone who has the chance to explain a subject he loves to someone who volunteered for the lecture, but doesn't want to scare them off and isn't certain where their 'scare point' is. "Okay, what do you know about thermodynamics?"

    "Ah…" Ms Lane looks like she's not sure what he's decided her scare point is either. She's probably covered enough super… Stuff over the years that he could go in a little higher than that. "Energy can't be created or destroyed."

    "Okay, but why not?"

    "That's the First Law of Thermodynamics."

    "What, so someone will come and arrest you if you create energy ex nihilo?"

    I think he's pushing her. "No, that's just not how the universe works."

    "Why not? Wouldn't it be really convenient if we could ignore thermodynamics and create energy wherever we want?"

    "I suppose it would. Is that how it works? You're altering a universal law to make electricity?"

    "Well… I think this is…" He turns to me. "Paul, you wanna handle this bit?"

    I nod. "What I'm about to say is wrong in every particular, but is a… Lie that the greatest physicists in the universe use to have a hope in hell of understanding what's actually going on. The Bleed is the raw chaos from which stable universes emerge. The Bleed.. has no rules… Except when it does. The Bleed is infinite and yet full of finite spaces. Like all others, our universe is in the Bleed and yet held apart from it by the laws which give it definition. These generators-" I wave at the closest with my right hand. "-exist partially outside those laws. And if they're outside the laws, they can just create energy."

    "And that doesn't risk causing our universe to collapse back into this… Bleed, right?"

    "No, that can't happen. The maths proving it is… Far more complicated than I could understand. In slightly more comprehensible terms, lots of species use this technology. Earth is very much not the centre of the universe. If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now."

    "How do they work?"

    "Very well. Next question." That gets me a mildly indignant glare. "I don't understand how they work. I have a schematic, I build the object described, they work. That sort of ignorance is why I really hope that someone comes up with something better that they can understand."

    "Like who?"

    Ted shrugs. "Plenty of superheroes and supervillains come up with their own exotic power supplies. Any one of them could have become titanically rich by selling the technology. I mean, take Doctor Morrow, the guy who built Red Tornado. He built a robot that can make hurricane force winds. That could turn a turbine pretty well. People with the right skill are out there."

    "Or Star Man One. He was operating from nineteen thirty seven and could fly into orbit with a stick-" I hold my hands out, palms spread to the length of the Gravity Rod. "-this big."

    Ms Lane frowns. "So why didn't someone ask him?"

    I do a mini frustration dance, forearms raised, head shaking. "I don't know. I mean, how clever do you have to be to work out that a device that can do that might be worth using to generate electricity?"

    Mister Olsen shrugs. "I don't know. How clever do you have to be?"

    "If you can build it, if in the nineteen thirties you can build a device that can generate force fields and allow a man to fly, then you should be clever enough. And if you're not clever enough, then at least one of the people in the electricity industry whose job it is to work out how to make electricity cheaply should be able to do it for you. I mean, they'd have destroyed the competition…" I turn away slightly, exhaling and shaking my head.

    Ms Lane looks from Ted to me. "Is that going to be your next thing?"

    "No, it-." / "We don't-."

    Ted and I look at each other.

    "One of the aims of this is to spur other companies into action. I have a power ring with a massive xenotechnology database. I know dozens of ways of generating electricity. I'm not aiming to establish a monopoly. If that happened, I'd consider the whole thing a failure."

    "So you're leaving options available for other people?" I nod. "You wanna give them any hints?"

    "Certainly. With Atlantis back in contact with the rest of the world, magic-based methods would be worth looking into. If that's too much like hard work, using Dolmen Gates to transfer power from a remote generation point to the point of need means that someone could… Stick some giant photovoltaic panels in near-Earth orbit and run a cable through a Gate directly to the ground."

    "Dolmen Gates are those things that the Mayor of London wants to use to replace trains."

    "And now anyone with ten million dollars burning a hole in their back pocket can buy a pair." She gives me an incredulous look. "We're hoping to bring the price down, but at the moment the production facilities just haven't been built."

    Ms Lane nods. "Wouldn't mind doing a story on that."

    "Then why don't you just ask me?"
     
    10th June
    19:54 GMT -5

    Ugh.

    "Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

    I step out of the zeta tube and into the hangar. I don't mind doing interviews, but there were a lot of them today and it did get a bit repetitive. I had thought that I might feel a bit triumphant now, having completed that project. But I don't. It's like I've ticked one item off a very long list and immediately there's another item to get on with.

    "Hey Paul. How'd it go?"

    I look up from the rock floor as M'gann smiles down at me. She's wearing her uniform and a set of telekinetic amplifiers I created for her based on the designs I found on Lantern Stewart's ring. Since they can't shapeshift with her she's been a little slow to take advantage of them, and like any device that someone's not used to they need a lot of practice time before the user can get the most out of them. The amplifiers take the form of a thin cream band wrapped around the palm and the back of the hand, with tiny glowing purple spots dotted along the outer edge.

    "The Bleed Torsion Generators are now providing New York with power. No significant problems were encountered."

    Her smile grows. "That's great! Did you-?"

    She cuts off as a huge, steam-wreathed wave leaps from the hangar pool and heads straight for us. I raise my hands, rings glowing, but M'gann's already ahead of me. She holds out her hands, her eyes glowing white as the water slams into an invisible barrier and splashes back towards the pool. "Careful!"

    Garth's head comes out of the water- "Sorry!" -before ducking back down again.

    Aquatic combat was the bread and butter of our Atlantean colleagues' training before they came here, and they haven't used it once while on the team. More than that, what the team really needs from them is their knowledge of thaumaturgy and their training was more focused on learning magics directly applicable to combat. They've pretty much been forced to multiclass during a time in their training in which they are supposed to be learning how to function as part of an Atlantean military unit. Usually there's a separate training track for battlemages and pure arcanists, with the latter not being attached to particular military units.

    **Who else is here?**

    M'gann turns back, looking pleased that I spoke mind-to-mind rather than by… 'Flapping my meat'. I've been making an effort since our visit to Mars back in April. I actually had to go back and study some of the less effective techniques for dealing with telepaths, since those revolve around misdirection rather than outright blocking them. But, I've got to a point where I'm prepared to engage with her in something like the fashion I used to.

    I instinctively raise my barriers before I even think 'less than a month to go'. But at least I drop them immediately afterwards.

    **Conner is sparring with Artemis in the training room. Robert and Zatanna are… Um.** She looks at me slightly awkwardly. "Doing something..? Together..?** She trails off and I nod in an attempt to encourage her to continue. Yes, I could just scan the place but passing on information like this is the fur cleaning of modern Human society. That, and our magic users at least are practising scry-deflection so my scan isn't as reliable as it used to be.

    **Okay.**

    She hesitates a moment before resuming. **Kaldur was sparring with Canis, but they should be heading-**

    The lift doors open.

    "…utterly pedestrian!" Strain the leash!

    Kaldur leads the way out of the lift, wearing his Ocean Master gear and carrying the Trident. "I appreciate your concerns, but my training was primarily in the manipulation of an aquatic environment. Though I am reluctant to admit it, it is possible that I lack what is required to truly master the Trident of Neptune."

    Canis follows on behind him. "What sort of talk is that?! I did not master hit and run warfare inside of a few months! It takes time and dedicated application." He shakes his head viciously. "Only a fool would give up an artefact of such power simply because it temporarily defies their mastery!" Nip the alpha's heels!

    Kaldur stops and half turns back towards him. He's got good self control, but I've known him long enough to spot when he's forcing himself to maintain his usual level of politeness. "If you have some insight you wish to share, I am willing to listen."

    Canis' eyes narrow as he nods. "You are not a God as I am, but your arcane power and the tattoos upon your body allow your metaphysique to act a little like mine. My divine powers are an outward expression of my soul, my passions. When I am moved to create it is as if the universe itself moves with my tools. But… If you asked me to study an.. architectural plan…" He shakes his head. "It would merely be my own intellect that undertook the task."

    Kaldur nods. "You think that I should focus less on studying the spells that can be cast using the Trident, and instead redirect my efforts to using it for spells with which I am already accustomed."

    Canis scowls. "Noo. Are you incapable of seeing it as anything other than a weapon?"

    "I am a soldier. Combat is my occupation. If I cannot use it as a weapon-."

    Canis tosses his head. "Only a Lowlie has their purpose assigned to them by their master, existing not at all beyond it. If you are any sort of person worth speaking to, there must be more to you than that! Open your soul to the Trident. Commune with the magics inherent to it, then… Do not fight. Express yourself through it."

    Kaldur keeps looking at him as he considers the suggestion. "There… May be wisdom in that." He nods. "How do you suggest that I begin?"

    **-this way now.**

    I nod. **Nice to see Canis trying to make friends. Anyone else around?**

    **I don't think so. I know Robin's out with Batman and Arsenal is helping Squire with learning to use her new power armor.**

    I glance at the lift doors. Inexperienced power armour users are a recipe for widespread environmental damage… No. She and Roy are sensible people. I'm sure that they'll take the necessary precautions. Or at least call me if something goes wrong.

    **Right, well… I should probably go and do some more work on the runic designs for Diana's armour. Oh, how are you finding-** I flick my right forefinger at her amps. **-the amplify-?**

    Water explodes upwards from the pool, the plumes waving in a Helix around the place where Kaldur is crouching on the water's surface. The water immediately under him isn't frozen… It looks like he's just increased the surface tension to the point where it can support his weight. He leaps sideways, spinning in the air and bringing the Trident around in an arc, making the plumes shift and follow him. His right foot touches the surface and he bounds back into the air, back flipping while bringing the Trident over his head. The water helix inverts, opening an air passage under the water into which he dives head first. The head and base of the trident are connected to the two streams, he's hanging off it as it drags him at high speed down and then across the pool near to the pool's bed before turning upwards again. Water is peeled away from the surface as his air tunnel breaks the surface again and lifts him high into the air above the hangar. The plumes then bend, creating an ice platform just underneath the apex of his leap. He lands lightly and then leans forward, the water protuberances following his lead and allowing the ice platform to slide towards the Bio-Ship's platform.

    Canis is staring at him, eyes wide and breathing hard. And he's smiling. "Remarkable." "Stirring!"

    Kaldur steps lightly from the ice platform, which then tumbles back into the pool. Following its descent, I notice that Tula and Garth have both surfaced and are staring at Kaldur too.

    Kaldur holds the Trident out in front of him, looking it over. "It seems that you were correct. I was too narrow in my focus."

    Canis steps towards him, his hands going to Kaldur's shoulders. "I have not seen someone embrace the concept so readily. It took me many years, even with the guidance of Mother Box, before I learned how to exist in such a harmonious fashion. This is no slight achievement! It should be commemorated!"

    "If you think that it is appropriate, you may-."

    Canis pulls him into a clinch and kisses him passionately on the lips.

    Oooh…

    Whoops. No one's explained to him…

    He breaks his hold a moment later smiling in satisfaction, then turns away, a gobsmacked looking Kaldur staring after him. "You are a most impressive individual, Kaldur'ahm. Perhaps I should grace you with my presence more often."
     
    11th June
    09:36 GMT -6

    I touch the fingers of my right hand to Chester's forehead. Awaken.

    He continues staring at me, then turns his eyes upwards to look at my hand. "This gonna take long?"

    When Chester decided that he'd quite like to be Awakened, he grew somewhat frustrated by my suggested timeline for actually seeing a practical benefit. Spending time in the mana infuser didn't appeal to him either, not that I'd have been entirely happy with him doing that on company time. He complained about it loudly enough that Miss Shimmer overheard, which leads us to where we are now.

    Miss Shimmer's understanding of earthly magic has reached the point where she feels ready to undertake original research. Her suggestion was that I actively feed power from the mana infuser into Chester's soul at the same time as I perform the Awakening. While I wouldn't have been willing to do that during my first few attempts, Father Box has accumulated enough data on Human souls that it thinks that we should be able to do that safely. Miss Shimmer herself wanted a look at the process in action, and all of those factors together led us to where we are today.

    There's a slight something in the arcane sigils that Miss Shimmer has surrounding us. A little outside the regulation runic circle there are a number of Atlantean devices whose purpose I don't entirely understand. Miss Shimmer herself is wearing a lab coat and a pair of brass goggles of her own design which she tells me are capable of letting her perceive magic energy directly with her eyes, rather than indirectly and imprecisely via her soul.

    I must admit, I'm paying a little more attention to the process myself rather than just acting as a vector for Father Box. I can feel Chester's soul like this. When I Awakened Artemis I could feel her, but I had little understanding of what it was I was feeling. Now… I wouldn't be so bold as to call myself an expert, but I recognise certain… Parts? Flavours in the mix.

    "Ploong."

    I felt that! There's a definite reaction from Chester's soul as it begins to resist the power flow. I immediately remove my hand-.

    "Couldn't you keep going? Something was happening-."

    "I'm not going to risk something unfortunate happening to Chester's soul in order to improve your experimental data. Not while he's got work to do, and not unless the experiment is very important."

    "So… That's it?" Chester holds up his right hand. "I'm a god now?"

    "You're a weak New God. That felt like…" I turn my head towards Miss Shimmer. "Miss Shimmer? I'd have said about an eighth of what I've got."

    "Hm." She lifts the goggles off her eyes and walks over to what looks to me like a small stone tablet with decorative stone hoops around the edge. Her eyes unfocus slightly as she points it towards us. "Maybe, but you started at a much lower level than most people. He's only gained about one twentieth as much as you have above the normal baseline for non-practitioners."

    Chester shrugs. "Which means what, exactly?"

    Miss Shimmer beams. "I have no idea! You're the first Human telekine to have undergone this process!"

    "Oh, great."

    "So what I need you to do is go into the training room and run through some standardised exercises so I can compare-."

    "Errr… No thanks, pet." Miss Shimmer scowls at the back of his head as he returns his attention to me. "You need me fer anythin'?"

    "No, Chester. If Mister Talbot has no immediate need of your services, you may consider yourself dismissed for the day."

    "Cheers, cock." He puts his hands in his pockets and strolls towards the door. "I'm going to go and do some damage to me liver. If y'need t'get in touch, don't expect much intelligence out of me."

    "Remember, somewhere visible but not in the home city of a Justice League member."

    He waves his right hand dismissively as the door slides shut.

    "Hm." Miss Shimmer is looking at… Some sort of graph? "I suppose it's… Reasonable data."

    "Learn anything interesting?"

    She looks at me like I've said something stupid. "From a sample size of one? Hardly. Still, I had no idea that an Awakened soul would resist additional power." She stomps her right foot in an adorably horsey gesture. "If only I had a better way of monitoring what was happening!"

    "I'm perfectly happy to Awaken you, if you think it would help."

    Her eyes widen. "No! That would completely ruin my objectivity. Besides." She slumps slightly. "I don't think I'm compatible."

    "I had.. wondered. You've checked?"

    She nods. "Getting a Human body didn't give me a Human soul. Deep down where it counts I'm still one hundred percent Pony." She looks down at her instruments for a moment. "Do you remember why I came here? Why I left Equestria, I mean?"

    "You fell out with your mentor Princess Celestia over your desire to become an Alicorn."

    "Right. Alicorns exist. Before I left I read everything I could about them, and Celestia isn't the only one to ever exist. Which probably means that there's a spell or.. some other way for regular Ponies to become Alicorns. And even if there isn't, I know what Celestia's magic signature looked like. Even if there isn't an existing technique -And there totally is.- I should eventually be able to create one on my own."

    "So you need to study soul transformations."

    "And-" She exhales sharply. "-just about everything else as well. I'm spending most of my time trying to work out what all of the Equestrian spells I know look like in Atlantean thaumaturgical notation."

    "So that you can become an Alicorn even without Celestia's help?"

    "No. So I can go home to Equestria and ascend in her stupid judgemental face and show her what happens when she tries to get in the way of me reaching my full potential."

    Guess… Tearful reunion is off the agenda, then. "And then what?"

    She frowns. "Well, at that point I'd know more about Equestrian magic than anyone except her. I suppose I'd take students of my own, so they didn't have to deal with her non-teaching."

    "A word of warning?"

    "Does it go 'friendship blah blah friendship blah'?"

    I chuckle. "I don't think any Apokoliptian has ever said anything like that."

    She rolls her eyes. "Go ahead."

    "I would advise you to avoid defining yourself in terms of your opposition to Celestia. Instead, define yourself in terms of you, your traits, your characteristics, your skills and special talent. You're doing this to benefit you, not merely to spite her. She isn't worth getting fixated over."

    "Mrpfh." Miss Shimmer doesn't make eye contact, folding her arms across her chest and flicking her hair aside. "She kinda is."

    "Look, do you want to be the Alicorn of Magic or the Alicorn of Winding Up Celestia?"

    "…" She slumps slightly. "Magic."

    "Then there you go." I look around the room. "Can I leave you to clean up in here?"

    "That's what G-Prometheans are for. I'm going to the Center for Paranormal Studies for the rest of the day." She looks up, pressing her right forefinger to her right ear. "Doctor Robbins? Could I have a hush tube, please? Thank you." She strides off, disappearing into mid air.

    Hm.

    No. I've put this off long enough already. Father Box, hush tube.

    Ploong.

    Doctor Robbins looks around as I walk into the control room. "Oh? Made a decision, then?"

    "Yes. Much as it pains me, it seems that the Light are committed to their stupidity. Let's talk about what we're going to do about it."
     
    13th June
    06:28 GMT +5:30

    Canis holds the Kobra cultist up with his right hand, fingers wrapped around the struggling woman's neck. She's struggling viciously, kicks striking his arms and chest repeatedly. Canis ignores her efforts. "Kaldur expressed his disinterest.. politely. I understand that some part of my approach was ill-conceived, but cannot fathom exactly what."

    I generate a construct barrier between us and the Naga unit running out of the barracks, fire from their Kalashnikovs plinking off harmlessly. "You understand that Hum-. That in Earth-society, interpersonal relationships work somewhat differently to how they do on Apokolips?"

    "Naturally." He tosses the cultist away with some force. She strikes a nearby corrugated iron wall and slumps to the ground. "Obviously, the use of physical force as a coercive measure was quite out of the question."

    "Yes. … Good."

    Beryl appears for a moment, binding the arms and legs of the cultist with zip-ties. Donna drops from the night sky, directly into the middle of the Nagas. Thing about Nagas is that you're never sure whether they've got superpowers or not. Reconnaissance didn't show anything suggesting superpowers and the guns imply not. No, from the way they're reaching for knives and grenades or raising their guns I'm going to assume that these are the unpowered variety.

    "I respect his abilities as a warrior and I believe that he respects mine."

    "There's a bit more to it than that."

    Canis looks thoughtful for a moment. "Is he involved with someone? I am aware that Humans tend to be monogamous, but I have not seen evidence that he has an existing paramour."

    "No, I don't think he is." The thing with Dana which I was trying to encourage appears to have.. not happened. Kaldur's mostly focusing on work, but… He seems a bit more cheerful than he used to be, having the other two around. There's still violet, but… Eh.

    "I had thought that perhaps he and-." The door to the nearest hut opens and a woman dashes out… Nearly running right into Brut.

    "Gwrrrrrrr."

    "Ah!" She falls onto her arse and frantically tries to crawl away as he pads forwards, saliva dripping from his mouth. And.. she's.. four months pregnant? I send filaments into the hut… Nursery, right. Brut darts forward, closing his teeth around her right shoulder and lifting her to her feet. She'll have bruises later from that but I know that Brut won't break the skin without his master's instruction.

    "Canis, please ask him to stick her back inside and then have him guard the hut."

    "Very well." "Guard the den."

    Brut snorts, then jerks his muzzle in the direction of the doorway as he releases her. "Rhrw."

    "Madam, I strongly suggest that you get inside."

    Her eyes dart to me for a moment, then she turns and runs back inside. "Devil dog! Oh Kali, strike it down!"

    Ah, Kobra-brand Hinduism. I look around the settlement. Things seem to be dying down a little. I'll ask Tula and Garth to have a look at the particular form of scry wards this lot use. See if they were bodged together locally or they actually had a Bestowed in residence. Trying to track down every Kobra devotee is an exercise in futility, but they'll be a lot more manageable after a thorough decapitating.

    "As I was saying before the Lowlie interrupted, I had thought that perhaps he and the other Atlanteans would form a group. But when that did not happen, I concluded that he was available."

    "Do you want the short answer or the long answer?"

    He looks around as Artemis runs forwards into the centre of the camp, then shrugs. "The short, for now."

    "Most Humans tend only to be sexually interested in the other gender."

    "Oh." He frowns deeply. "Really?"

    "There are a lot of social factors affecting it… But basically yes."

    "So his rejection stems not from his relationship with me, but from the fact that I am male?"

    "The fact that he's not interested in men doesn't necessarily mean that if he were he'd definitely be interested-."

    Artemis glances back, arrow on string. "What're you two talking about?"

    "I am in search of relationship advice."

    Artemis boggles. "And you're asking him?"

    "He knows more of Apokoliptian culture than the rest of you. And he is involved with Zatanna. It seems reasonable to me."

    "He isn't-." She turns to me. "You're still not, right?"

    "No. Um, yes. Not."

    A small growl escapes his lips, causing Brut to turn an eye his way. "Humans are strange and annoying. Are we finished here?"

    I float upwards, over the huts. "Looks like. I'll do a full scan, then we can call in the Indian arm-."

    A hut over to my right is torn in half as a hulking figure explodes from within! Donna looks up from the last of the Naga just in time to interpose her bracers as his right fist slams down on her. Still she's driven back, a grimace on her face as the ground beneath her feet buckles.

    Quick as-. Nearly as quick as a Flash, Artemis looses a hard foam arrow at the… That looks like Venom Buster. At the Venom Buster enhancile's head. It strikes true, the payload swiftly enveloping his head. In a predictable response his hands go to his face and push as much of the gunk as he can along his cheeks. Usually that only works to cover the target's hands as well, but his large size makes it just about viable as a recovery technique. If Artemis hadn't fired twice more since then.

    "RAAAAAAGH!" Both legs and most of his torso are enveloped, and the stuff coating his arms is hardening up nicely.

    Donna glances at Artemis- "Thanks!" -before pulling back her right fist.

    "Troia! Lasso. Squire, check that-" Squire reappears in the hut he broke out of. "-hut."

    Artemis puts another hard foam arrow on her string as Donna unwinds her lasso. With Donna's divine origin established beyond reasonable doubt, Hippolyta opened the reliquary in order to give her a weapon equal to Diana's. The Lasso of Persuasion is a good deal less invasive than Branding or Assimilation, and harder to evade than telepathy. If the user has the strength of will to make it work.

    Donna throws the hoop over his head and pulls it tight. "Speak openly and honestly. Where is everyone?"

    His face twitches slightly. "All of those who remain loyal to Kobra are still here!"

    "And everyone else?"

    "Bah! Those worthless criminals who follow the False Kobra fled in the night of his overthrow. And those traitors who now follow the Cult of Savitr left here months ago. These are nearly all of the forces I have left. We aren't strong enough to do more than minor robberies any more."

    Guess not everyone was on board with Lady Eve throwing Jeffrey Burr aside. Never heard of the Cult of Savitr, but I'll pass that on to our contact in the Indian army.

    "Where did you get the Venom Buster?"

    "Brothers and sisters who work in South America. We have a network for transporting goods. I don't know everyone involved."

    Artemis and I grin as Donna nods. "You will tell me the names of the people you do know."
     
    18th June
    09:11 GMT -6

    "Does this sort of thing happen a lot around here, sir?"

    Ms Thal's mouth tightens slightly. "This is only the second time."

    Opposite us, her robotic doppelganger crouches slightly, sword and shield at the ready.

    "If whoever's controlling the robot is listening, the US military would love to buy your technology! You have absolutely no need to support yourself by theft!"

    "Has that ever worked?"

    "First time for everything, sir."

    Today's field exercise involves each member of the team being paired with a member of the Justice League whom they don't normally work with. Beryl's squiring for Superman, Kon's prowling the mean and probably under-levelled streets of Star City, Zatanna's enchanting Central City and I'm down here in St Roch with the Hawks.

    And someone's made a Hawkwoman robot.

    "Tactical assessment?"

    Scan. Ugh, surprise surprise. Sonic, infrared and radar? That's a little more helpful. "Single mechanical opponent of unknown strength, toughness, speed and skill level. Bystanders are already absenting themselves and she doesn't seem interested in taking hostages."

    "'She', huh?"

    "Unless there's something you want to tell me, sir. I can't detect any others and I don't detect any attacks on local financial institutions, indicating..? Pride attack? Personal vendetta?"

    "I'm not seeing any Nth Metal. That's just a shield and sword."

    Ms Thal's helmet isn't just for looking ridiculous. Though it does do that rather nicely. There are some pretty sophisticated sensors in there. That said… "Your sensors wouldn't detect the x-ionisation process reliably."

    "Fine then. No energy barrier or phasic component. No exotic radiation." She lifts her mace. "This shouldn't take long."

    "Sir, what exactly has it done?"

    "Brandishing a weapon in a pub-." She spots me looking at her mace. "I have a licence."

    "Yes sir, but-. Sorry, one moment." I turn back to the robot. "Excuse me ma'am, are you an artificial intelligence?"

    There's a slight change in the direction of her head.

    "I ask, because you may be unaware that recent changes in American law have granted AIs full citizenship, with all of the rights and responsibilities that entails." I hold out my hands, palms forward. "If you're under some sort of compulsion, we can-" I take a step towards her. "-modify-."

    She lunges forwards. "Hhaaaah!"

    My eyes widen and I transition a short distance aside to evade the swing of her sword. Okay, evading her should be simple enough. Then I can get a better idea of the technology being used and start working out who could have made it and where-.

    "HhhhhhhhhAYAH!"

    Ms Thal on the other hand opts to mirror the robot, pushing off thin air with a flap of her wings and pulling back her mace.

    W-? "Sir-!"

    The robot started turning back towards her as soon as I got out of its line of sight. As soon as it sees her coming on it accelerates again… Some sort of gravitic booster on the back or built into the feathers? The two of them crash together, mace discharging its fury against the robot's shield and sword slicing at Ms Thal's wing guard. The sword sends sparks flying as it slides along the surface and the shockwave generated from the shield's force field reflecting the power of the mace-strike sends dust and debris blasting away from the impact.

    Then their bodies come together and it's Ms Thal who gets knocked back. The robot wasn't moving significantly faster than her so it must have more mass. Ms Thal twists her mace, using the butt to lever the shield out of the way even as her back slams into the road.

    Then the chains from my crane construct wrap themselves around the robot and haul her off my supervisor and into the air. Ms Thal instinctively swings her mace at the robot as she's pulled away, narrowly missing. "Kkkkkkrah!"

    "Sir, if you don't use actual words my translator-."

    She rises, mace constantly at the ready and eyes fixed upon the struggling robot. "I'm not seeing any signs of sophisticated intelligence."

    "No, and empathic vision isn't showing anything. And that looked like attempted murder to me. Permission to dismantle?"

    "Do you let Wonder Woman have any fun?"

    "Sir?"

    She lowers her mace slightly. "Yes, fine, dismantle it."

    "Thank you, sir." Ring, visual inspection. Looks for a seam, weld or panel which could be re-.

    The robot's wings glow brilliant blue white, burning away my construct hoist and spitting… Something through the air at us. Ms Thal dives aside and I fortify my construct armour. Construct… Takes the hit, getting moderately damaged. Blue fire now burns in the robot's eyes, on its sword and its wings have become apparently solid sheets of flame. No, that's plasma. How..? Is it..? I mean, there's no way it's making that with gas from its environment, and its internal volume isn't anything like great enough-.

    It flicks its left wing, sending a sheet of highly energetic plasma in my direction. I generate a construct tower shield to hide behind and send a wide orange beam down into the road surface beneath me. My usual filaments really aren't going to cut it under these conditions. My shield is getting abraded, so I create a second behind it and then let it collapse.

    Ms Thal zooms past her doppelganger, mace swinging through the robot's left wing. The flames buckle and flare outwards from the point of impact, causing the robot to fall to the ground in a semi-controlled tumble. The attack on me suddenly drops in intensity and I take advantage, sending a blade-construct up through the asphalt beneath her and into her torso. She jerks back, a slash from her blazing sword destroying the construct, but I can see the cut in her abdomen where my blade entered. Okay, that works.

    I'm a little nervous about using a railgun inside a city, but I suppose it can't be helped. I move my railgun construct so that it's poking out around the shield construct, load a crumbler round and then-.

    Ms Thal swoops down on the robot's back like a…

    …

    Like a hawk. Fine, I thought it. Her mace strikes the top of the robot's head, the metal of the cranium noticeably compressing under the assault. The robot staggers forwards, trying to remain upright. Too close for another mace swing, Ms Thal hooks her left foot around the robot's left ankle and flaps backwards. This results in her disengaging as well as causing the robot to fall face first into the increasingly molten ground.

    Target centre of mass, fire.

    My railgun hums as the crumbler round is launched, covering the intervening space in a fraction of a second and striking dead on target. The left wing joint, left shoulder and a chunk of the left torso cease to be, the rest of the wing fading back into metal as it loses contact with the main body.

    Ms Thal immediately lunges at the opening, bringing her mace down for a final time on the left side of the torso. The robot's body cracks and shatters, legs going one way and the upper torso going the other as shrapnel from the outer casing and bits and pieces from the internal systems spray across the street. Ms Thal studies each part for a moment, presumably looking for anything that's still active or a self destruct device. Ring, see if you can scan-.

    She crouches, picking up the robot's sword. "Think this would make a good battle trophy?"
     
    18th June
    09:43 GMT -6

    "Peacock!" Ms Thal throws open the double doors leading to their St Roch residence. "We have returned from battle!"

    I follow on behind her, the remains of the robot floating in an orange aura. The location of the Hawks' residence in St Roch is known to the general public -pretty much unavoidable when you fly in and out of it- so Ms Thal didn't bother with any sort of subterfuge on our journey back. I think she rather likes the attention we got.

    Mister Hol looks up from his workstation, the holographic display in front of him playing a recording of our fight. Looks like it's from Ms Thal's point of view. He's wearing his basic uniform, but without the armoured plates or helmet. "Yes, I saw." He peers slightly to the side, getting a better look at it. "Thank you for bringing it back more intact than normal."

    Ms Thal stops just in front of him and waves her new sword back and forth. "Where do we have room for this?"

    "Oh, just put it on the bench there. I'll get to it in a little while." He gestures to the side with his right hand, indicating a work station as he gets up for a closer look at what's left of the robot. "I'm more interested in the robot's flight system. Powered flight of that sort on a planet like Earth could-."

    "Hey!" Ms Thal shoves him lightly with her left hand to get his attention. "This is a battle trophy. I'm not letting you dissect it, I'm putting it on display."

    "You still need to put it on the bench. I'll need to check that it isn't booby trapped before you hang it on our wall."

    She stares him directly in the eyes. "There better not be a single scratch on this."

    He nods, turning fully to face her with his wings slightly extended. "I'll try to stick to non-invasive methods, Magpie."

    "See that you do." She leans into him, reaching up to put her hands behind his head and pull it down to a more kissable-.

    I turn around, looking for a sensible place to put the robot. Ah, that's a… Holographic imaging tank. Okay. I run one last radiation scan over the head part. No electrical activity, no concentrations of heat, no alpha, beta or gamma radiation and… I take my rune stone out one of my armour's pockets and hold it close to the surface. A slight reaction, but it doesn't look like there are any aggressive enchantments running on it. That done, I deposit it at the far end of the tank and then repeat the process on the lower part before going back to trying to make sense of the smaller parts. I didn't get a great recording of where they came from and a lot of them were damaged by the impact and the heat. I think these.. sort of.. purple plasticy bits came from here-.

    "Oh, don't bother putting them in there." I look around as Mister Hol lifts his face away from his wife. "The holotank's only worth using for large pieces. I can look at the shrapnel later if I need to."

    "Right you are, sir. Ah." I look at the next table over. "Is there alright?"

    "Certainly. Just grab a container first."

    Container, contain-ah. I pick up a small plastic tub and deposit the shrapnel into it before putting it on the table. "Anything else, sir?" I look around to see Ms Thal leaving through a door in the far side of the room.

    Mister Hol has already moved up to the control systems on the holotank. "No, you're dismissed. Showers are through those doors and on the right."

    I… Don't know anything about Thanagarian attitudes to nudity, but-.

    "Shayera will be using the one in our room."

    "Oh. Right, yes. But I wasn't planning to have a shower, sir."

    "No?" He glances up. "Even in a short fight, you can work up quite a sweat. Particularly in fully enclosed power armour. I suppose it's not a problem for me as long as you keep the armour on, but you may find that other people don't look on it too kindly."

    "A benefit of environmental shields, sir." I return my armour to subspace. "I'm fresh as a daisy underneath."

    "Convenient." He presses a few buttons and the scanners on the holotank go to work. Nothing I can't replicate with the ring, but the drawback to having as much data as I do is that there's too much stuff. Mister Hol has his workshop to look for things that are likely to be there. Plus, it doesn't take ring charge. "Something like that would certainly make life aboard Thanagarian navy ships a good deal more comfortable."

    "I'm sorry to say, sir, that the shield is part of the whole thing. Force field based personal cleaning units have a… Patchy history."

    "I know. The last time Thanagar tried to implement one it took a layer of skin off the user one time in three. Green Lantern was talking to me about America's space program, and I found it a little depressing that we still use essentially the same system."

    "There are forms of techno-organic armour that deal with the problem rather well, sir… But you might not like who you have to deal with to get it."

    "Do you intend to keep calling me 'sir'?"

    "Sir?"

    "I don't hold any particular rank in the Justice League and I'm not a member of the Thanagarian police force any longer. You aren't required to address me as 'sir'."

    "Very well, sir. What would you like me to call you?"

    He looks up again, a smirk on his lips. "I thought the local form of address was 'Hawkman'."

    I exhale, bowing my head. "Yes sir, but to be frank I've always-."

    He frowns. "To be what?"

    "Frank. Er, open and honest? Oh! You're getting a-" I wave my right hand back and forth between us. "-translation. It usually manages a best match for non-literal turns of phrase."

    "Hah. Have you any idea how duplicitous it sounds to need to specify that you're being honest this time? Why would anyone believe you?"

    "I suppose… Sometimes people talk about a subject obliquely? Or hold things back?"

    "I only speak two Thanagarian languages, but I don't think that either of them has a phrase like that."

    "Is that a… Thanagar thing, or do the Lizarkon languages have the same feature?"

    "I don't know." He presses a button and a cutaway image of the robot appears. "You'd have to ask one of them. Hm."

    "Something interesting, sir?"

    "The basic structure is quite a lot like the robotic duplicate of Shayera that was built last year by-."

    "Johnny Law, sir. I contacted the prison where he's being held, and they confirmed that he's still there."

    "Good work. Similar basic structural layout… But the controlled plasma reaction is nothing like anything I've seen on Earth before. The gravitic slingshot could have come from Earth, but only from a handful of places." He presses other buttons, magnifying particular systems. "To get the effect you observed when the robot moved or attacked, the plasma would have to be expelled at extremely high pressure. But that's not consistent with the comparative lack of damage to the surrounding environment."

    "Some sort of exotic containment system, sir?"

    "Probably." He nods to himself. "You're.. going.. to keep calling me that, aren't you?"

    "I was planning to. But if you'd prefer 'Peacock'-?"

    "'Sir' is fine. Now,-" He leans forwards. "-let's take a closer look at this."
     
    18th June
    10:14 GMT -6

    "Which brings the list of possible supplier-species down to seventeen." Mister Hol takes a moment to review the images. "Assuming that it's a government-approved action. Any progress with those runes?"

    Without an obvious reactor or battery, all that power had to be coming from somewhere. That 'somewhere' appears to be three circles of rune-covered metal, with more plates of a similar design in other places throughout the robot's body. My rune stone glows a little more brightly when I bring it closer, though as far as I can tell the system is now 'dead'.

    "It's not Atlantean or Nordic." I sigh. "But yes, I've got a match. Remember the demonic incursion in Fawcett City?"

    "I'm unlikely to forget."

    "I've only matched two runes to what I saw there, and the quality of the design here is much higher. But the general composition matches runes I saw at the Beelzebub and Belial sacrifice sites, as well as on the tower."

    "Demon magic? That's a little surprising. Justice League files say that Demons are virtually incapable of doing anything creative."

    "I wrote that file, sir. And while it's true to the best of my knowledge, I'm willing to accept that there are things outside of my knowledge. I also don't have the full measure of what Demons consider to be old hat, or what they know instinctively."

    "A fully functional robot would be a significant departure."

    "I'm not exactly chuffed that my challenge to energy providers was taken up by Hell, sir. Still, Demons aren't the only ones who use magic drawn from Hell."

    "Cultists? Magic users who should really have known better?"

    "Honestly, my first guess would be an Atlantean. This is… Really sophisticated. The design, the way it's made… It's very strange for a surface world magic user to know how to do this, or think in this sort of way."

    "And Atlanteans do?"

    "They do now, thanks to Sephtian and I."

    "Arthur said that your projects have been quite a revolution. But from how he described it, it sounded like only a few people were fully in the know."

    "Yes. But… That doesn't necessarily mean that someone directly tied to my project was involved with making this robot. Sephtian has been telling everyone at least the broad strokes of how he does what he does. He's… Very good at arcane smithing, but there are others who are just as good and it's entirely possible that they could have done some… Parallel inventing. Then you've got the people supplying Atlantis with computer equipment, they'll have at least seen some designs."

    "Hn. Doesn't narrow it down as much as I'd hoped."

    "It isn't by eliminating the impossible that you get at the truth, however improbable; it is by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities."

    He nods. "Batman?"

    "My favourite author, Terry Pratchett. One of his leading characters is the Commander of the City Watch in a… Fantasy city that actually functions like a city. He had a bit of a thing about Sherlock Holmes types when his experience of the job said that half the time it was luck."

    "Hah! It's not quite that bad." He sighs. "Do you have any way of working out whether the magic elements of the design are doing anything other than powering the robot?"

    "Yes, but it's called 'phone a friend'. I only know enough about Demon magic to say 'yes, that's Demon magic'. Or summon something I really shouldn't, but that's actually worryingly easy."

    "I can't think of any species who have access to this technology and Demon magic other than Humans."

    "And Thanagarians."

    "Wh-?" He nods. "Thanagarians could get a hold of this technology, but we don't use magic. Certainly not to the extent that Humans do. If you meant that someone might have learned something from Shayera or I, we don't send home any information that detailed."

    "Actually, I was thinking about Syn, sir."

    He frowns, shaking his head. "I'm… Not sure I follow."

    "I may be mispronouncing it. Some sort of Thanagarian Demon? Inhabited a body made of Nth metal?"

    His frown deepens. "I… Are you talking about Onimar Synn?"

    "Maybe? The Guardians don't bother adding information about mythology to the rings of people who shouldn't even be in the Sector it refers to. I'm operating on incomplete information."

    "I suppose… It's possible. Before I came to Earth I assumed that he was either just a myth or… Some sort of alien whose presence survived only in myth. No one on Thanagar worships the Seven Devils. That would be like… Worshipping the Wicked Queen from Sleeping Beauty."

    "Not even people who've heard of Earth and know that Demons can be real?"

    His face hardens slightly. "I have to admit, it's possible. And I'm going to have to get in touch with my former commanding officer and make sure that the need-to-know on Earth is as small as it can be. But we've got sensors here capable of detecting significant concentrations of Nth metal and Nth metal is used in all Thanagarian starships. Our faster than light drives literally won't work without it. No Thanagarian ships other than ours have come to Earth while we've been here."

    I nod. "So we're left relying on pure luck?"

    "No." He uses some sort of tongs to move some of the Demon magic circles into a heavy duty container. "I'll get this to Doctor Fate. You take what's left to your consultants, and we'll see if we can learn anything." He closes down the hologram before turning to me. "The Demons who sponsored Sabbac. Didn't you report that Satanus managed to escape?"

    "If the Demon Constantine is to be believed, he may have set up the whole thing to get rid of the competition. Or have planned it with that potential outcome in mind."

    "Do you know anyone who knows anything about him?"

    "Most Demons would know something about him. The only one who'd be worth putting effort into locating would be his sister, Blaze. And the only thing I know about her is that she's red. In her default form. And she can almost certainly change it." I shrug. "I can ask when I speak to John, but I'm planning on heading to Poseidonis first because Sephtian is the most likely person to be able to work out what this is supposed to do."

    "I didn't think that Atlanteans used Demon magic."

    "It's a death penalty offence unless carried out under a royal warrant, though knowing about it isn't a crime. Sephtian has access to everything and has a warrant. And a secure arcane laboratory with lots of safety precautions."

    Mister Hol nods. "I'll forward our initial findings to Batman and then contact Doctor Fate. Then I'll ask local police to put out an appeal for information. I doubt that a flying robot-" There's a 'bang' as something hits the outside of the wall behind us, prompting us both to turn around. "-could have got-" Another bang and he's reaching for his mace. "-inside the city with no one seeing it."

    Two sections of the wall bulge and then liquefy, partially dissolved brick and metal collapsing as a demonic Caterpillar throws itself through and into the workshop. A more human figure with a burning pentagram on his chest strides through after it.

    "Harm believes he now has Its attention."
     
    18th June
    10:18 GMT -6

    A dragon talon construct grabs the front end of the caterpillar and shoves, bending its segmented body into a 'U' as it vomits. The blob of green slime slams into another section of wall and begins dissolving it.

    "Harm?"

    The man smiles. There are three red tattoos over the left side of his face, designed to look like a bleeding slash from some animal's claws. "Harm is pleased that It knows who Harm is."

    "It's a funny name for a Caterpillar, but who am I-" The Caterpillar bucks and writhes, but my construct's grip remains strong. "-to judge?" Strange creature looking like a large Caterpillar and spitting solvent? Ring, anything in the database?

    No good match found.

    Probably demonic. It was a bit much to hope that Devil Jizz was just going to go away. I have a filament pick up my rune stone and float it over.

    "Harm believes that It misunderstands. Harm is-."

    "William Hayes. The chap who stole the Sword of Beowulf and got beaten by Artemis in under a minute. How are the ribs? And the shoulder?" The rune stone glows. "I seem to remember that they were horribly crushed."

    Mister Hol is staring directly at Mister Hayes. "Orange Lantern, can you handle this man?"

    "Him and… About fifteen copies of him. Why?"

    "My home has numerous security devices. They have not activated. And Shayera does not usually take this long in the shower."

    Mister Hayes smiles. "Harm has used his time wisely and learned a lesson on the subject of teamwork."

    "It's fine, sir. I've got this."

    Mister Hol backs away, mace at the ready until he reaches the door and leaves the room. Right then. See if I can get some useful information out of this idiot.

    "So… Burning pentagram. I guess that makes you Sabbac Three. Congratulations on keeping your appearance Human."

    "Harm is not concerned with Its opinion of Harm's appearance."

    "Really? Because if you weren't a psychopathic murderer and… Maybe lost the tattoos..?" And I'm not even joking. He's a… Nice looking chap. And… Confident in his physical presence.

    Kind of like if… Jade was male…

    I take a half-second to check my Spell Eater.

    "Harm understands that his masculine beauty can be somewhat overwhelming, but Harm does not dally with prey."

    "Yeah, it probably wouldn't work. So. What are you and the Caterpillar here for?" He opens his mouth to respond. "Oh and… Thanks for clearing up who was behind the Devil Jizz." I shake my head. "I honestly hadn't worked that out. Satanus. Should have… Realised."

    He sneers. "Harm does not use simple narcotics. Harm has found a purer method for channelling the power of evil."

    "That's kind of impressive, actually. Usually it takes years to learn magic well enough to cast anything worthwhile."

    "Harm is nothing if not dedicated." The Caterpillar wiggles its legs in his direction, drawing his attention. His eyes narrow slightly. "Some of Harm's followers are less dedicated. This is not something which Harm is prepared to tolerate."

    What does-? My armour appears around me from subspace, construct armour appearing around both me and the Caterpillar. Just a little too slowly. Harm's right hand blurs and a huge gash appears in the Caterpillar's torso, corrosive Demon goop pouring out. Right, Sabbac, speedster.

    Accelerated Perception.

    I have no way to heal the Caterpillar in its current form. To repair it I'd need to return it to Human form. Sadly, the only anti-magic weapons I have on me at the moment are Mage slayer railgun rounds. I manifest ten from subspace on the inside of the construct armour that has just formed around most of its body and shove them inward. It begins deflating almost immediately.

    Mister Hayes has already thrown a blob of goop at me. Assuming that the goop is as solventy as the vomit- Yes, the construct armour I put over the Caterpillar's injury has been dissolved. -then it will pierce my construct armour and probably my power armour with little difficulty.

    Railgun, load Mage slayers.

    A thick lead sheet appears out of subspace directly in front of my face a relative second before the blob hits, bubbling and dripping as the demonic gunk gets to work. A ring scan of my surroundings shows Mister Hayes picking up and flinging goop, what's left of his gloves burning and his hands smouldering. I transition left, towards the demonically enchanted pieces of metal still on the table. Goop sails past and strikes various pieces of equipment across the room as I send my research materials into subspace.

    The Caterpillar has shrivelled significantly. It doesn't look Human yet, but- Mister Hayes tries to stick his right hand into its wound, then jerks his hand back with a scowl. -it looks like he can't get any more goop. What he's already thrown is busy eating through things and in doing so becoming neutralised. Mister Hayes glares at me, opens his mouth and exhales a cone of black/red fire. I transition right to avoid it, firing my railgun construct at his centre of mass.

    The former Caterpillar has now shrunk to little over normal Human size and the construct armour has shrunk along with… Her, as it turns out. With no more acid goop coming from the wound in her left side the armour now encompasses the whole of her body. Mister Hayes grabs it and swings it to intercept the Mage slayer round. At the comparatively low power I'm firing the construct armour I created is easily capable of absorbing the shot and isn't vulnerable to the magic nullification effect.

    Of course, if I don't hit the brain…

    I dial up the power and fire again, once more aiming for his centre of mass. He moves the Jizzer to block, putting her upper right torso in the path of the shot with a cruel grin.

    I drop the construct armour front and back.

    The material the Mage slayer is made of doesn't penetrate armour particularly well. Sure, with sufficient velocity all things become possible, but the spells bound to it won't last. But in this case all that intervenes is weak Human flesh and bone, not even enough magic left to trigger the spell. Her body jerks and in my accelerated state I can see the shockwave pass through her body and the burst as flesh and bone fragments explode from her back.

    Mister Hayes takes the rest of the shot directly in the centre of his chest, flying backwards with the pentagram on his chest flickering. I transition forwards, firing at his centre of mass again while I frantically try and knit back together the flesh of his Jizzer companion. Brain is… In less than stellar condition. Drug use, by the looks of things. Blood loss and shockwave damage aren't healthy but as I thought they are manageable.

    The second shot strikes Mister Hayes directly on the pentagram, slamming him into the floor and leaving a crater. The pentagram is almost extinguished at this point and the Jizzer's body is knitting back together nicely. Manacle constructs flow around his body, orange light battering at whatever remains of his Asmodeus-granted exotic attack resistance. Hm. Based on what the First did, the spells on him should maintain a constant link to the caster.

    Rings… Assimilate the spell.

    Unable to comply. Energy not compatible.

    I summon three Praexis Demons and desire them to swim along the bonds of arcane energy-.

    The pentagram fizzles out.

    Something is happening with Mister Hayes, but he's not-. I'm still accelerated. I drop back to normal speed. He's shuddering, gasping and choking. Can't see anything physically wrong-.

    There aren't any colours. He isn't feeling anything. His brain… Looks like it's ticking over, but his connection to the emotional spectrum is gone.

    Whatever spell turned him into Sabbac… It tore out his soul as well.
     
    18th June
    10:21 GMT -6

    The Hawks don't keep their medical equipment in their workshop, not the sorts of things I'll need anyway. Ring, remaining power?

    One hundred eighty three percent remaining.

    Right then. First step with the new Hollow Man is to keep his body alive while it tries to shut down. I hold out my right hand slightly and fabricate a heart rate stabiliser. This useful little gizmo sticks on the chest above the heart and maintains a constant heart rate. Quick scan of his body… No narcotics, though it looks like he's been injecting steroids. Next, I fabricate a… I call it a cortical stimulator, though that isn't its proper name. Just the thing to keep his brain ticking over. Hollow people aren't well understood even in Atlantis, but that covers what I need to keep his body functioning so that there's somewhere for his soul to go back to.

    Assuming that it's all in one piece, and not shredded by whatever unholy magic he used to become Sabbac.

    Then I take a set of titanium manacles out of subspace and bind him ankle, wrist and neck. Next come the magic suppression chains and spell eater. That should stop anyone funnelling power back into him. I don't… Think that he could be remotely reactivated with no soul, but it isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

    "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhgh."

    I turn around as the Jizzer moans. She's not in anything like fighting shape… I listen for sounds of a struggle coming from the rest of the house. Nothing. I'm going to assume that the lack of sound, smoke and broken walls means that if there was anything that they've got it under control. That gives me the time to finish up with these two.

    Ring, message to John. 'Got another man without a soul. Feel like making magic history? Also, less urgent, need to consult on thaumaturgical matters.'

    Message sent.

    Thank you.

    Getting a message to Sephtian is less easy. There's a Dolmen Gate between the now expanded Atlantean embassy in New York and Poseidonis and Sephtian has modern computer equipment, but there isn't the sort of communication network in Atlantis that there is up here.

    A set of conventional hand and leg cuffs emerge from subspace and attach themselves to her. As an afterthought, I also take out a set of overalls and put them on her. I don't know what she was wearing before she got jizzed up, but whatever it was it didn't survive her transition to Caterpillarhood.

    Five Praexis Demons appear from the rings, three taking up station above the prisoners and the other two floating over to the holes in the wall. Nothing on scans, sonic or infrared, or empathic vision. Right. The situation here is as stabilised as I can make it without leaving. I need to check on the Hawks first.

    "…"

    The heck?

    "…"

    I felt my mouth move and my throat move but no sound came out. Mister Hayes was talking fine a minute ago…

    No sound.

    I transition backwards to the door into the rest of the house, turning to face it as I do so. I hesitate at the door… Oh, the workshop will need to be rebuilt anyway. I accelerate to a jog, barging into the door in full power armour and smashing it, the casing and a chunk of the surrounding wall aside.

    It lands silently on the floor.

    Some sort of small demonic creature throws itself at me immediately, dark slashing claws darting towards my armour's neck. It looks a bit like a cross between a Monkey and a Praying Mantis and is about forty centimetres tall. I hit it with a bolt of orange energy and it falls back, outer carapace smoking. No screech, no thump. I stamp my right foot. I feel the vibration but hear no sound.

    Clever.

    I look down at the fallen imp-thing, and-. My vision goes blank and a rumbling-clicking sound enters my ears.

    "Orange Lantern to Hawkman."

    "Hawkman here. We're under attack by some kind of Demon." I send out a pulse of orange light, an image of my environment appearing in my head. "It can block senses."

    "I'm being blinded now."

    "Do you need assistance?"

    "No, I'm just having the ring put a map in my head. You?"

    "Thanagarians have excellent hearing as well as vision. I only saw the primary Demon briefly, but there are smaller ones everywhere."

    The little one that attacked me isn't there any longer. Evaporated or fled? No idea.

    "Hawkwoman?"

    "I'm here. Does your ring have data on Thanagarian physiology?"

    "Of course. Are you injur-?"

    My construct-armour buckles as something slashes it. Not breached, but… Where is the fucking thing? I manifest orange construct-blades around me and slash them in all directions. I don't… Feel any impacts. Still can't see it. Okay. I take my rune stone out of my equipment pouch and… Ah, no light. But there is a slight increase in heat when it detects something.

    "Orange Lantern?"

    "Still here. Something I couldn't see just hit my construct armour." I take a small biological specimen out of subspace and transition it a short distance in front of me. It reappears without any difficulty. Worth knowing. "Are you injured?"

    "A few light wounds. Nothing critical, but I hate being injured in combat."

    "I have good enough data to heal you as long as your central nervous system wasn't the part that was damaged. That would be trickier." I take a few steps into the large central area of the house. It's a bit too broad to be called a hallway, but its main purpose appears to be to connect other places to each other. "Can you tell me anything about the little ones?"

    "Fast, aggressive and they don't stay down."

    My construct armour registers another hit, this time on my upper right arm. Another swing with a construct blade. Nothing.

    "Where are you, sirs?"

    "Main hangar."

    The world reappears around me. Have I got sou-? Wha! Ring, stabilise armour.

    Compliance.

    Sound and sight, but touch is gone. I'm still in my armour, but I can't feel anything. My Spell Eater doesn't appear to be activating… That's some pretty sophisticated magic, affecting the world in a particular area without directly touching the physical. It's okay, the ring can just take direct control of my legs and keep me going. The hangar is through the aerial combat training area and down one level. Perfectly navigable. Feels… Well, it doesn't feel anything. How is it that I can still see if I'm numb? Ring, can you fake kinetic input?

    Attempting. … Attempt ineffectual.

    The construct armour on my back registers another hit and I transition backwards before swinging my blades around again. This time the Demon-thing is sliced through in six places, starting to evaporate even as it falls to the ground. Bit better. Armour, pick up the pace.

    Compliance.

    Three steps and the room goes dark again. The ring restores armour control to me automatically and I jog towards the next door highlighted in my head.
     
    18th June
    10:24 GMT -6

    The door to the Hawks' hangar flashes as something explodes on the other side. I know the Hawks haven't warded their property so the fact that my ring scans are being so unhelpful is decidedly irritating. I've been attacked twice more on my journey -negative impact on each side- and as I got closer the damage that the house has taken has become increasingly apparent. How did I not feel the vibrations from this?

    "Sirs, I'm outside of the door."

    "Have you-? Eh. Have you had any success in working out how to harm them?"

    "Not really, sir." Hitting them is easy, but they generally just disappear afterwards. No idea why the one which died like it was supposed to didn't do that… I didn't hit a different location or use a different technique. "My best suggestion would be to vary the type of assault until you find something they're not immune to."

    Infrared shows me nothing, because they have designed this place to control heat transfers. I'm not going to risk sonic pulsing people with hearing as acute as theirs while they are actively engaged in combat. Gravity sensor shows me… Nothing much useful. The Nth metal stands out, but it stands out so much that it overshadows everything else.

    Need to find time to practise with that…

    "I thought you-. Hrah!" Ms Thal's still fighting then. Good to know that her injury isn't too debilitating. "I thought you had anti-magic weapons for things like this!"

    "They appear and disappear too fast." The first slight hum from my railgun and they vanish from sight. I've never bothered with melee anti-magic weapons. Possible oversight? "Sir, do you need me-?"

    "Orange Lantern, search the house. Find the creature that is controlling the smaller ones. Destroy it."

    I nod inside my armour. "Sir." Put the directional magic sensor back on the 'want' pile. Maybe my next generation of power armour should be magic based? I turn away from the door, orange filaments radiating away in all directions. Assuming that the smaller ones are being continuously directed and not merely overseen, assimilating them is the best option for tracking their master.

    Numbness, and for a moment I feel a powerful vertigo before the ring takes over from my clearly malfunctioning senses again. Proprioception and balance? Interesting.

    "While you're doing that, do you know anyone who would want to steal our ship?"

    "Every technology company on the planet, sir." What sort of range would minion control have? "Though of all of the names in my files, only Nylor Truggs is familiar with Thanagarian technology."

    I start walking back through the house. Okay, minion control can have infinite range if the minions are bound closely to the caster, but the sensory deprivation effect doesn't appear to be coming from them. I didn't detect high levels of magic when I entered the building, so no one put some sort of ritual on the building in advance. That suggests proximity. I can't do Globe-Enshrouding Eyes without the Ophidian, but I should be able to fill a big enough volume of space with filaments to force whatever it is out of hiding. On the other hand, that Jizzer we ran into during the Star Conqueror incident could drain my power. Whoever set this up is considerably more intelligent than a drug-addled drop out. They would have seen that I was around before making this attack, and I doubt that they would have pressed on without some way to inconvenience me.

    Or am I being too paranoid?

    Everything goes dark again.

    I add a construct psi-baffle. To no avail.

    "Do you believe what he said about the future?"

    "Yes. It's logical." I float upwards towards the first floor with my rune stone out. "Given the Thanagarian Empire's rate of expansion and the time span involved, the Earth becoming a protectorate after getting stomped on by the Reach makes sense."

    "As proud as I am of my people, I don't believe for a moment that we could force the Reach off their prize."

    "We're a long way from Reach space. They might well have just taken what they wanted and left." Or the Orange Lantern Corps killed so much of their Empire off they couldn't support the outpost any longer. "How are you managing in the dark, sir?"

    "Sonic-" A tiny Demon twists itself through my filaments, stabbing at my head. "-sensors-" I shift the filaments, empowering them. "-in our-" It hits one. "-helmets."

    Assimilate.

    It evaporates before the ring can even report a connection. Properly dead. Well, as properly dead as Demons get.

    "I have had little cause to use it in this fashion since training."

    What changed? Filaments are weak and cheap. It's how I can afford to burn ring charge spreading them over such a large area. Vulnerability to orange light? Are they some kind of magic construct instead of being minor Demons, and the spells granting them existence got overloaded?

    The lights come back on and… I can't smell anything. Odd…

    Wait. Lights were off and it got hurt by orange light. Touch was gone and it got hurt by physical force.

    …

    How do I kill something with smell?

    A Demon flashes into existence and lunges at me, shattering my filaments. I fill the air between us with Skunk anal gland secretions, because if any smell can kill-. The Demon goes limp and then evaporates head to toe.

    Ah. That wasn't so hard.

    "Sirs, it appears that the Demons are vulnerable to attacks based on whatever sense is being blocked. Use sonics when you're deaf, lasers when you can't see and physical force when you can't feel."

    It's Ms Thal who responds. "Because of course we have those things in easy reach!"

    Okay, I've filled the whole house with filaments now. That just leaves the immediate outside. I take a small phase-drone out of subspace, set it to rematerialise after ten seconds and send it upwards. Appearing inside a wall just once was plenty of times for me. I swing the rune stone a few times just in case… No. Return it to my pouch.

    The drone reports no problem. I go invisible, phase and fly up after it, passing through the upper level of the Hawks' home, the loft and finally the roof before passing into the open air. Nothing visible. Now, with a combination of phasing, invisibility and scry wards I'm reasonably confident that if there's anything here it can't detect me. Down side, I can't detect them. The rune stone probably could, but it would become visible if I tried to use it. I turn slowly in the air, empathic vision turned up far enough that the dashes of colour I see from across the city actually start feeling… A little uncomfortable. Still nothing from my immediate environment. I turn in the air so that I can face downwards. The Hawks are clearly visible, moving around five-. Seven-. Four wisps of light I assume to be their attackers. Okay, that just means that there's a better ward on the boss Demon.

    …

    I'm not coming up with anything better than 'filaments everywhere'. Mass stealth drones with magic detection would work, as moving through the space the Demon occupied would trigger a response. But I don't have those and I don't think they'd be energy efficient…

    Filaments it-. No, strong Demon and I've got plenty of power. Don't do something that would allow it to disengage.

    An orange dome fifty metres in diameter appears around me as I drop invisibility and return to phase. The edge of the dome isn't a simple construct, it's shimmering and glowing with the orange light. Anything touches it, it gets an immediate burst of orange light and assimilation starts. It would take long enough that if someone is stupid enough to walk up to the outside they don't get turned into a construct immediately, but quickly enough that I don't think a Demon would want to fly through it.

    Then I turn the dome's interior orange as well.

    "Radiant Orange Presence!"

    If you absolutely must call your attacks, then do so after you use them.
     
    18th June
    10:27 GMT -6

    The Demon appears, floating over the rear of the house.

    Identity Theft in progress. One percent complete.

    Okay, that's… Weird.

    I know that Ezekiel describes Angels as wheels covered in eyes, and I think I'm looking at their dark alter-ego. The general structure reminds me a little of a fullerene ball, the hard outer frame poking out slightly from the dark blue flesh surrounding it. More of the smaller Demons making the attack below crawl over its surface, occasionally pushing their way into flaps in the flesh and making their way inside. Or pushing their way out. In other places the flesh has what seem to be sensory organs. A muscle unclenches on one part of its surface and reveals segments of flesh covered in eyes of various-.

    And the lights go out once more.

    Okay, it opens its eyes to see and no one else can. Now, the small ones aren't much of a threat to me but they're not sentient. The large one probably is. The rules of engagement are clear and I am in full agreement with them.

    "Demon, you are under arrest! Cease all offensive action at once! Failure to comply-"

    The lights come back on. The eye flap is closed once more and new flaps are open, these ones revealing some sort of membrane which twitches as I watch.

    "-!"

    Oh, those are ears. So, did it not hear me? Ring, low intensity sonic shot.

    Compliance.

    Transmit: 'Failure to comply will result in you being fired upon.'

    Message transm- And I'm covered in Demons. -itted.

    Fourteen Demons cling to the outer surface of my construct-armour, stabbing and slicing at it. A couple slip and fall off, hitting the roof and shimmering for a moment before disappearing. Sound returns for a moment as tentacles sprout from the boss Demon and I immediately lose feeling. Tentacles are touch. Okay.

    Identity Theft in progress. Two percent complete.

    The Demon-ball turns slightly, faintly burning runes lighting up on its outer frame. I tense for a moment, but they aren't the ones which the Tar-Covered Corpse used to drain the rings. What would-?

    A claw comes through my armour just in front of my face.

    For a second I go slightly cross-eyed. The blade has sigils along the cutting edge, glowing with faint red light. Ring, record those would you, then transition us the fuck away!

    Compliance.

    Thank you.

    The blade disappears from my vision, replaced by the orange glow of the Radiant Orange Presence. The assimilation is still in progress because the Presence allows me to maintain the connection constantly, a nifty little trick that could have come in really handy during my first encounter with Klarion.

    And keep moving!

    More of the small Demons appear around me, only to fall towards the ground as I'm no longer where they were aiming for. The Demon Ball -yep, that'll do for a name- appears to be spamming me, not just materialising Demons on me but saturating the area around me with the little menaces. I generate point defence constructs, but having to switch -there goes vision again- between different weapon types to be able to affect them at all is really trying. Light flicks back on and a laser beam is shrugged off. I switch to railguns and the lights disappear. All the time more small Demons -presumably the ones falling all around me- are crawling out of the flaps in the Demon Ball's skin.

    Oh, this is inefficient. Praexis horde, I choose you!

    Identity Theft in progress. Three percent complete.

    The point defence constructs evaporate as my pet Demons appear, dropping from the rings and throwing themselves at their opposite numbers. Two from the initial wave are cut through, disintegrating in a small cloud of orange light before re-emerging from the rings. Others manage to get their teeth into their foes or just swallow them whole. One unfortunate Praexis gets its target into its mouth only for the… Mantis Demon to shove its claws through from the inside. The Praexis thumps the outside of its jaw with its stubby arms, frantically trying to push them back inside so it can swallow.

    Most importantly, the rain of Demons falling on me is slacking off a little.

    "Sirs, I have engaged the larger Demon."

    "Yes, the little ones are not reappearing. Do you require help?"

    "Not presently, sir. Suggest you stay where you are just in case this was supposed to be a tech raid."

    "Very well-" The sound cuts out for a moment. "-changes."

    "Sir." I create an elongated construct bubble in the air next to me, and inside of that create a construct railgun. As US and Louisiana law currently stand, I am perfectly within my rights to destroy the thing.

    Identity Theft in progress. Four percent complete.

    I load an Angel feather round.

    "Demon, last chance. Surrender now or be destroyed."

    "Your mouths consume our hands."

    "I'm not hearing 'I surrender'."

    "Our hands are consumed by your mouths."

    The railgun hums, and as it fires a tiny breach opens in the end of the bubble. The Angel feather rounds blast towards the Demon Ball, a small Demon immediately appearing on its flight path and -numbness again- taking the hit, bursting into golden flame as it does so.

    Looks like whatever the Demon Ball is doing to mess around with the local universe, it doesn't work on Angel magic. Bit of a nuisance that it can just watch and teleport a meatshield into place… And has far more of them than I have Angel feather rounds.

    "Stolen magic destroys our hand. Are you also from Hell?"

    It can't feel my soul, but it can feel the orange light and see the Praexis Demons. Considering the possibility that I'm a Demon myself isn't all that unreasonable from its point of view… No one briefed it. The very first thing it should have been told is 'Orange Lantern is a very dangerous Human'. Communication problem, perhaps? I know I shouldn't assume that just because multiple enemies using Hell magic attack at the same time that they're working together. Even if they almost certainly are.

    Identity Theft in progress. Five percent complete.

    "What if I am?"

    "SKREEEEEEEEEEE!"

    The fleshy patches in the Ball Demon's frame are suddenly pulled inwards, and through the holes that are left in their place I can see-

    Identity Theft discontinued. Target no longer present.

    -the same shining sandstorm that I saw through the portal in Azerbaijan. The runes on the frame are glowing brighter and the sand is billowing out, swirling around the inside of the orange bubble I created.

    Ring..? Assimilate..?

    Unable to comply.

    The frame expands slightly, sections of it falling into the interior and being lost from my sight. The sand streams back into the newly enlarged opening and I'm getting pulled along with it! I resist as the Praexis Demons fly past me. Demons, suck the frame! No, no good, they can't keep their grip. Only mercy is that the Mantis Demons are going the same way.

    Right, no more interruptions. I form a tube stretching from the barrel of my railgun to the frame and load a Mage slayer. Fire. The structure cracks. Reload, recharge and fire again. The runes on the shot section flicker out and that part of the frame cracks and falls inward. The portal wobbles. Good. I move the end point, reload and fire again. Another piece of the frame falls inwards and the portal shuts down, what's left of the frame dropping to the Hawks' roof and smashing their tiles.
     
    18th June
    10:35 GMT -6

    Ms Thal scowls. "That's the thing that wrecked our home?"

    What's left of the Demon's frame is resting just in front of their spacecraft in the hangar. I'm recreating the missing parts with constructs. My rune stone shows that there's still a lot of magic in the thing, but a quick check with my runic database says that the structure should be inactive.

    "Not sure, sir." I check her over once more. "Feeling alright?"

    She checks the motion in her right arm, torso and wings, doing a quick visual inspection of each part. Fortunately there wasn't any damage to her body's Nth metal deposits. She unfurls her wings to full extension for a moment, then folds then behind her back. "Yes. Thank you." Then the frown returns. "What do you mean, you're not sure?"

    "I didn't recognise the type of Demon, but it looked like it voluntarily… 'Repatriated' itself. It's quite possible that this frame was part of a summoning or control apparatus of some kind, rather than being part of its body. If that's the case then it was more of a tactical withdrawal." I shake my head. "It may not even have lost very much."

    I -on the other hand- lost most of my Praexis Demons. I assume that they're all in Hell, probably wandering about and attempting to the best of their limited abilities to comply with my last orders. Maybe John could use what's left of the frame to work out exactly where they ended up and we could open a portal to bring them back? I mean… I don't use them all that much anyway and I can just feed the ones I have left in order to make more…

    Maybe I should have called out the Hellwraith, but that thing just creeps me the heck out.

    Mister Hol stands up from where he was making a visual inspection of their ship's undercarriage. "There is no damage that I can detect. If their aim was to put our ship out of use then they have failed."

    Like a lot of Thanagarian technology, the ship is a mixture of the highly sophisticated and the oddly primitive. Having access to Nth metal let the Thanagarians skip a lot of technological development. It's got a gravity manipulation system that's the envy of the galaxy but it has an ion drive for sublight propulsion that's not much more advanced than something Earth could build. The armoured plates show an advanced understanding of engineering… But the whole ensemble is designed to look like a Thanagarian bird of prey swooping down on its prey. Form over function? Who does that? Humans don't design warplanes to look like flying fists.

    "Sir, what do you want done with Mister Hayes and the woman?" I was a little surprised not to be able to identify her, but I'm only accessing databases. If the most recent image is out of date or there isn't one at all then not being able to get a match makes sense.

    Ms Thal looks at him curiously. "Katar? What are you thinking?"

    "That this attack makes little sense. Whoever is behind this, they might well not have known that Orange Lantern would be here when they released the robot. We do not know what control mechanism they had for the Demon. But we have made no effort to keep his presence a secret today. When Harm fought Artemis and Zatanna he was outmatched, but prior to that he showed great skill and resourcefulness." His eyes narrow slightly. "I find it difficult to believe that he did not perform basic reconnaissance."

    "Last time I fought a Sabbac, what everyone saw was me running away from him. We never publicised the role which the Sword of the Fallen played in what happened. Perhaps he thought that he could beat me because he thought that Mister Gregor did."

    He nods slowly. "It's certainly possible. When is he likely to regain consciousness?"

    "Never, probably." I look over to his recumbent body. "People don't usually survive long after having their soul torn out."

    Ms Thal frowns. "If we can't interrogate him, why did you bother keeping him alive? He has already been sentenced to death."

    "Several reasons. I'm not sure if his complete lack of spiritual presence would do anything to stop a telepath from taking a look, but I think it's worth experimenting. Assuming we can get the legal okay."

    That gets an amused snort. "Hey Katar, remember when we first read about Earth and it seemed that people in costumes could do whatever they wanted?"

    "I remember warning you at the time that it probably wasn't really like that."

    Ms Thal nods resignedly. "What other reasons?"

    "It… May be possible to restore him. It would be at the very cutting edge of thaumaturgical research-."

    Her eyes widen. "You want to bring that monster back to life?" Her right hand tightens around the shaft of her mace. "Oh, I'm finishing him right now!"

    "Sir, surely it's better to experiment on someone we don't care about, rather than trying an extremely risky arcano-medicinal procedure for the first time on someone we do?"

    She doesn't let go of her mace, but her wings droop back slightly in a way which suggests that she isn't going to dive across the room at either Mister Hayes.. or me. "You can do that? Call people back from their afterlife?"

    "Did you read my report on the Azerbaijan mission?"

    "I-" Her eyes dart to the side for a second. "-skimmed it."

    Mister Hol folds his arms across his chest. "I read it. You're saying that rather than calling a malevolent spirit back into someone else's body or into an energy construct, they could be summoned back into their own."

    "Oh, it doesn't have to be a malevolent spirit. In theory, any intact soul could be called back. Oh." I nod my head to the side. "Aaaa-part from anyone who's gone to the Silver City. They aren't keen on necromancy there. But if the technique works, we'd basically be curing death. Or at least making it a chronic disease rather than a terminal one."

    Ms Thal frowns. "'Making death a-'." She closes her mouth.

    "And then you've got the fact that right now his soul is in Hell. It might be in the process of becoming a Demon -and I doubt that he'll have much trouble integrating Hell's magic into himself- or at the very least it's providing power and entertainment to the locals. Who are Demons."

    Mister Hol nods. "That's the first good argument against the death penalty that I've ever heard. There is no point in killing someone if all that does is make your enemies stronger."

    "Making an artificial afterlife would be the best solution… Very few bad people actually want to go to Hell."

    Ms Thal's eyes drift away from him then focusing on the woman. "What about her?"

    "The one thing I know about her is that she has a history of drug abuse. I doubt that we'll get much useful out of her but you're welcome to try."

    "Oh, she'll talk to me." She gets up and walks towards the woman. "Wake her up."

    "Sir, I'm going to respectfully suggest that you put down the mace first. She's not going to be in any fit state to-."

    "She took part in an attack on my home and tried to kill us. I don't have any sympathy."

    My eyes shift to Mister Hol for a moment, but I don't see any sympathy there either. "Alright sir." A filament connects me to the woman for a moment, then her eyes flicker.

    "U-ugh?"

    Ms Thal pats the head of her mace against the palm of her left hand.

    "Orange Lantern." I look at Mister Hol. "I will contact the Manhunter and ask him to attempt to read our prisoner's mind."

    I nod. "Do you want me to get in touch with Poseidonis?"

    "No." He frowns slightly. "Something about this still does not sit right with me. Remain on duty for now." He looks back towards the door leading to the rest of the house. "Though if you are able to make repairs to my home, I would appreciate it."

    "Who do you work for!?"

    I wince at the shot of pure fear from the woman. "I'll get right on that, sir."
     
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    18th June
    10:45 GMT -6

    I activate the workshop's computer systems. Like just about every piece of Thanagarian technology it makes use of Nth metal circuitry, but I was able to salvage enough to make it functional again. Other systems -the holotank amongst them- are just going to have to wait until Mister Hol himself can attend to it. Whatever that Demon acid was, it's turned back into mundane chemicals and sludge since the attack. I'm not sure whether that's just how it works or if it turned back when the Caterpillar woman did. I should probably see if I -or someone else- can get a sample of Demon Jizz for…

    No, it's not really Sephtian's thing. I need to see if Nyssa's got time to take a look at it. But if it works as I think it does then I don't know anyone with the expertise to suggest ways to deal with it. Definitely going to ask Adom if he's heard anything from Blaze since his return to form, but other than that…

    If the prosecution can prove that the woman took the stuff voluntarily then she's due for a couple of years' stay in Belle Reve. Given how close we are to there they'll probably stick her in there with a magic suppression chain on up until the trial date. Mister Hayes is technically dead and has no next of kin to claim the body or make a decision about his life support. I'm not sure who I'd have to convince-.

    "Orange Lantern, is the communication system repaired yet?"

    I turn as Mister Hol walks into the room. "Should be, sir. Is there a problem?"

    "I am unable to contact either the Watchtower or the Hall of Justice." He steps towards the control panel I've been working on and I step aside for him. "I'm not certain how well you understand Thanagarian computer systems."

    "Not at all, sir. I just say 'ring, do the thing'. Circuitry can only work in so many ways."

    He brings up a diagram and checks it over. "I see."

    "How is the prisoner?"

    "Stewing pleasantly in her own fear. No, you're right. According to this we should be connected."

    "Sir, I'm really not sure that's the best way-."

    "Thanagarian law enforcement works to very different standards than Amazon law enforcement. We deal with actual crimes."

    "Sir, the captain of Queen Hippolyta's bodyguard tried to kill Wonder Woman before she was a week old."

    "I know. They tried to murder the infant daughter of their sovereign and their punishment was imprisonment." He presses a few more buttons, viewing each component in turn. "Do you think that the Demon might have done something to the system?"

    "The best information I have is that Demons struggle with hinges, let alone computers. Do you know how resistant Thanagarian technology is to magic?"

    "It would be rather hard to test, given that my species doesn't use magic. Why do you ask?"

    "Because it's not impossible that the acid had an additional spell bound to it. Or…" I look towards the external door. "Harm might have spent some time preparing the ground in advance with some sort of communication blockage ritual. Do you have a local contact who uses magic?"

    His jaw tenses slightly. Oh, come on. This is one of the few places in the country where it's relatively easy to find a minor magic user entirely competent in performing simple rituals! With the caster dead or fled destroying whatever effect is still lingering should be simple enough. "If that is the reason then we will have to contact Lord Fate and ask him to deal with it."

    "No need to do that, sir. I'm sure I can get hold of an Atlantean who can do that job perfectly well."

    "Would they be as skilled as he is?"

    "I can't answer that precisely as I don't know exactly how skilled he is. But… If I asked King Orin for a state-employed thaumaturgist then the person who reported should be skilled enough to identify and unpick anything that's likely to be there." I have a horrible thought. "If that's even what it is."

    Ring, locate Watchtower.

    "What do you mean by that?"

    "Maybe the problem is at the other end."

    Unable to comply.

    Oh shit. The rota for today had Mister Freeman and Major Adams on duty. Ring, locate area of space in which the Watchtower is supposed to be at the moment.

    Compliance.

    Empty space, stars… Match the positions they're supposed to be. Someone's trying to be clever.

    "I can't scan the Watchtower, but there's no debris. It probably hasn't been destroyed. Someone's messing about with my ability to detect things."

    He gives me a wry smile. "I feel slightly better about Thanagarian technology if our foes can manipulate a power ring as well."

    "Power rings don't do well against magic."

    "That sounds like a rather serious weakness."

    "Ideally, Lanterns would be trained to use magic as well. It's on my to-do list." I was surprised to learn that the Green Lantern Corps does have at least one active sorcerer among its ranks, the unfortunately named Torquemada of Sector 3521. Just one, however. Another failure of the Green Lantern Corps' training scheme. Or perhaps most species don't use magic because they can't? Don't know. I know that John says 'anyone can do it', but I doubt he's spent a great deal of time with aliens. "Ring, Hall of Justice?" A picture appears clearly in my mind. "Still there. Of course, it's a little easier to disrupt a building on the ground than a space station."

    "Would it not be far easier to disrupt your ring directly?"

    "Um." I take my rune stone out of my equipment pouch and run it over the ring. Weak reaction, which could be anything from a minor spell to residue from my recent fight. "Maybe. Ring, contact Green two eight one four B." I'm not actually sure where Guy is at the moment…

    Compliance.

    An image of Guy's head appears over my ring. "Yeah, Orange? What is it?"

    "Just testing whether this ring's communications were being disrupted. Are you on Earth?"

    "Not right now. You need me back?"

    "I don't think so, but don't start anything new just in case."

    "A'right. Gardner out."

    I lower the ring. "Sir, would you mind if I went to check on our allies myself?"

    "Are you able to transport our ship with you?"

    "I… Should be able to. I can find out very quickly."

    "Shayera and I will accompany you. The ship is the only truly irreplaceable device we have here." He starts pressing buttons again. "I will arm some of the more aggressive security measures we have in place."

    I shake my arms, several Praexis Demons dropping free. Fatty grins at me hopefully. "I'll leave these here as well. Next stop, the Hall of Justice."
     
    18th June
    10:47 GMT -6

    Lex waves at me languidly with his right hand. "So, what do you think of our colleague's work?"

    On my side of the secure communication link I hold up the data stick containing Brain's attempt to calculate the possible dimensional topography of the King of Tears. "It's… Impressive. Calculating theoretical models for parallel universes about which so little is known…"

    "I understand that he had some assistance from Klarion in gathering the original data."

    "And suddenly I'm less impressed."

    "Mordru checked it. It's all a little… Beyond me, I'm afraid." He shifts in his seat. "I realise that you are -quite understandably- upset about being excluded from the decision making on this."

    I nod. "What was the vote?"

    "The vote was on whether or not to use this method to destroy the Justice League, if it became plausible."

    "No, I mean… Who voted yea and who voted nay?"

    There's a very slight tensing of the skin around his eyes, but it vanishes as swiftly as it appears. "I'm not sure that it.. really matters."

    "I can ask Brain for the discussion logs. I just thought that I'd be courteous about it and ask you directly."

    "Very well. Savage, Ra's, Ocean Master, Brain and Klarion were in favor, while Queen Bee and I were against." Somehow I'm not surprised. The lunatics, immortals and the one being who might quite like learning what existing in eighteen dimensions is like. "To tell the truth, I'm still a little concerned. How do you rate your chances?"

    "Difficult to say for sure. Assuming that Brain's calculations are mostly or entirely correct, I give myself an eighty percent chance of killing the King of Tears with damage to our side being within acceptable parameters. A few percent more with the damage being significant but survivable. My death, that of my field team, up to forty percent of the Human population of this world… After that, things get exceedingly dicey."

    "The population was three billion in the nineteen sixties."

    "That's why I consider that a victory worth measuring. Dicier is eighty to ninety percent, which would destroy the current Human civilisation. Dicier is the King of Tears being here long enough to permanently warp local space and killing everyone who could do something about it. Dicier is the eight percent chance that the King of Tears wins outright. And that's assuming that Brain's calculations are accurate. You can shave five percent or so off for every minute the revisions take, assuming that Father Box can continue to function in close proximity to it. And then they could be wildly out."

    "Ploong."

    I nod. "Quite."

    Lex lightly strokes his chin with his right forefinger. "I take it then that you don't think this is a worthwhile endeavor."

    "What are the League preventing us doing right now?"

    He gives his head a very slight shake. "It isn't what they're actively preventing us from doing. It's about what they are passively discouraging the Human race from doing."

    "Have you been convinced, then, since the original vote?"

    "I'd rather the chance of victory was higher than eighty percent, but even if it is…" He makes a small shrug. "That's a four in five chance that the next day you'll be the head of the new Justice League and the biggest obstacle to our advancement of humanity will be gone."

    Third biggest, right after Human nature and people like the Light. "I realise that there isn't anyone better to calculate this sort of thing than Brain,-" Except possibly Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, and I can't find him. "-but I know that you employ a good many members of the second tier of physicists. I would appreciate it greatly if you could ask them to go over his work."

    He nods. "That's reasonable. It would be rather embarrassing to make a mistake here because his gorilla smudged his printout."

    "Thank you. I'll feel slightly better knowing that a few more pairs of eyes have gone over this."

    "It's no trouble. Was there anything else you wanted to ask?"

    "No, that's it. Thank you for speaking with me." He nods politely, then deactivates the link from his side.

    Hm.

    Father Box, Hush Tube.

    Ploong.

    I rise from my chair, turn and walk through the Tube into the White House's secure briefing room.

    18th June
    11:50 GMT -5

    Jon fans out his hands as I walk through. "Well? Good news or bad?"

    "Lex says that he voted against." I tilt my head slightly to the right as I walk around to take my seat. "It's probably true, both because that would be in character and because he knows that I can check."

    General Lane nods. "And the rest?"

    "All in favour."

    Adrian shakes his head. "I still don't think I understand what they were voting on."

    "Essentially, there's a life form called the King of Tears. It exists in a plane of reality divergent to but accessible from ours. Some time in the fifties a minor supervillain you've probably never heard of teleported there when a minor superhero you've never heard of shot his teleporter with an arrow. He came back a few years ago… Changed. He made contact with Savage, but without Orm or Klarion egging him on he isn't quite dumb enough to make common cause with such a person. Instead, he plans to use him as a lure for his master. And for the Justice League. A few blasts of reality warping power in population centres, then a nice big wibbly-wobbly thingy where they can't help but spot it. The League attack in force, the King of Tears emerges from his portal and kills them all. I come in, use Brain's knowledge of its physics combined with my power ring to kill it… Or send it back, and use my acclaim to become the founder of the new Light-friendly Justice League. The question they were voting on was 'Is it worth the risk?'."

    General Lane exhales sharply through his teeth. "I still say we should go after Luthor along with the rest. If he knew about this all along, that's treason and all kinds of other offences."

    Caroline shakes her head. "Not unless we're at war with the… Subtle Realms. We might be able to get him on terrorism charges, though." She looks at me. "Do you know how great his direct involvement is?"

    "As far as I can tell, very little. That's intentional on the Light's part, the public face doesn't involve himself directly in the most vile aspects of the work either in person or resources. Plus, he could always claim that he was doing what I am, waiting until a better time to act. That conviction might be a long time coming, and I doubt that it would really stop him."

    Jon holds up his right hand. "We'll table the Luthor matter for now. What about the rest?"

    Caroline indicates several large folders in front of her. "An attorney who only just passed their bar exam could convict the rest. Even Mordru, and that's without us having to use those anti-witchcraft laws too. These people are evil."

    "Adrian?"

    "Senator Knight's been falling over himself to help out, sir. We won't be able to get the Destructive Persons Act through in time for this, but it should be law before the end of the year."

    "Grayven? You sure about the timeline? If we had fifty days or so we could probably get a placeholder law passed to cover this."

    I shake my head. "I'm sorry sir. I had enough difficulty persuading them to give me a month."

    "Very well then. General."

    "Mister President."

    "It has been brought to my attention that a group calling itself 'The Light' is assisting a foreign power to invade the territory of the United States. As Commander in Chief, I order you to use any and all means to prevent this from occurring."

    General Lane smiles. "Yes sir."
     
    18th June
    10:55 GMT -5

    The Thanagarian ship is silent as it follows me into the sky while I send a filament in the direction of Washington DC. Someone clever is after me-. Ah, us, and I'm not going to assume that I can go wherever I want whenever I want. I'm not even completely certain that I can rely on a test transition if they can affect my senses like that. No, the Demon Ball could only block me, it couldn't do anything sophisticated. Though that does leave a question as to why I can't detect the Watchtower…

    "Orange Lantern, we're ready." I glance back at the fighter where Mister Hol is at the controls. "Transfer us when ready."

    "One moment, sir."

    My biological sample appears just fine… Okay, the choice is either I transition us there or fly us there at maximum conventional speed and that would take half an hour at least.

    "Transition in two, one, now."

    The sky flickers, St Roch being replaced by Washington. My need to know bypasses my usual discomfort at using omnicognisance, data flowing into my ring-expanded mind. Every road, person, car, molecule of air… No. Something's stopping me getting a good read on the Hall of Justice itself. And someone-.

    Something hits me! OW! My construct armour fails and my environmental shield flares and flickers. Another hit and the projectile is only lightly turned around by my armour's kinetic barrier before it triggers-. Crumbler tech! I don't bother with actual turrets, I just want lasers to fly from my body to intercept the remaining shots and they do, dozens of hair-thin beams shooting outwards and cutting them out of the air.

    "Taking fire, sirs."

    I widen my hands, an orange barricade made of hundreds of overlapping orange octagons appearing in front of us. The logical follow up for that attack would be-.

    Black/purple fire leaps from the plaza in front of the Hall and people run screaming! Two figures remain standing as the crowd flees, one powerfully built figure in robes and wearing a horned helmet and the other an emaciated man with long greasy brown hair. The Demon -I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess Satanus- is throwing the fire from his right hand while his left is clasped onto the smaller man's right shoulder.

    Oh shit that's Gary Lester.

    "Phased targets detected. Locking target-."

    "Civilian area, Shayera."

    "Destabilisation pulse and sonic disruptor. Orange Lantern, I need a better angle."

    The beam of fire is gouging its way through my barricade and this sort of barricade isn't cheap in terms of ring power. I remove my backup Spell Eater from an equipment pouch and shove it forwards, the barrier-octagons parting around it before reforming. As it touches the plume of flame the fire gutters and splutters and I don't hesitate, railgun turrets materialising and opening fire with Mage Slayer rounds at full power.

    Satanus turns his right arm slightly, giving up on the spell in order to-. That's a force field projector. My shots strike and waste themselves against his purely technological barrier. I switch to a mix of Crumbler rounds and Mage Slayers as we pass over the plaza and a wave of something blasts out from the Thanagarian fighter. On the rooftops overlooking the plaza power armoured figures appear-. That's the same armour Truggs' people used when they ambushed us in the Smoky Mountains. Similar, anyway. A series of focused sonic blasts from the fighter hits the closest cluster, knocking two down while their squad mate manages to activate some sort of personal force field.

    The first Crumbler round reduces Satanus' shield generator to a smoking ruin, and for a fraction of a second I allow myself to believe that I'm about to down the new ruler of Hell. A Mage Slayer shoots towards his face and a tiny yellow-grey portal opens just in front of it, swallowing it. For a half-second I watch it disappear into the distance in wherever he just portalled it to, then the portal closes and a series of new ones appears to consume the rest of my barrage. I grimace, then turn my railgun's attention to the newly unveiled mercenaries. Tungsten rounds slam into those who remained upright in the face of the Hawks' attack, personal force fields flickering and dying under the onslaught. Their armour fares slightly better, but with their energy barrier gone another blast from the Hawks' sonic weapon is able to put them down.

    "Lantern! You just made me lose a wager with Mister Truggs!" I can see Satanus' grinning mouth through the shadows his helmet casts over his face. "I was so certain that Superman or Fate would reach here first!"

    The portals are the same colour as the ones the Demon Ball used. I turn my guns back towards Satanus and fire a tungsten round. If he reacts in the same way -he does- then I'm not going to waste hard-to-replace Mage Slayer rounds. Just one shot at a time with two-seven-four second intervals. Force him to keep the spell going. And try to call the Praexis Demons back through.

    Food?

    Yes. This way for food.

    The Hawks' fighter makes a circuit around the plaza, another disruption pulse going off and revealing another small group of mercenaries. I recognise the gear used by the neo-Nazis on the Watchtower almost immediately and before they can bring their elemental attacks to bear I plug each one with a Mage Slayer round.

    "So swift! So certain! And so precise! What I would not give for men such as you to be among my own followers!"

    "Do I amuse you, Saturnus?" I drop the Hellwraith from the ring on my right hand, instructing it to float under the ground until it's in a position to attack him. Oh, I really wish I'd brought either the Ace or the Sword with me!

    "And you even pronounced it correctly! I take it that you have disposed of William Hayes?"

    "He's in custody."

    "Blackgate is going to need a few new guards. Though I should point out that he killed at least three of them before receiving the powers of Sabbac."

    "What did you do to the other Hell Lords?"

    He half-turns, showing me the back of his robe… And the faces I remember as belonging to the Demons whom the First sent back to Hell. "Normally their punishment would last only until the First forgot why he was wroth with them. But with the First's extended… Absence from his regular position, they remained vulnerable. Particularly to one whose power was already bound into theirs."

    "I imagine that you shortchanged Mister Hayes."

    "Not at all! He got nearly everything he asked for. I simply retained the ability to take it back once he failed. If he couldn't capitalise on the opportunity, then the fault was his! Perhaps he should have been less devoted to the idea of evil and a little more to rationality and intelligence! Did you like the Polyhedrite?"

    "I was just calling it 'Ball Demon'."

    "Yes, and you call the sublime work of alchemy which gives mortal Humans a taste of demonic power 'Devil Jizz'. I fear that naming things is not your strength."

    "I was impressed by the complexity of the thing. I take it that it wasn't a Demon?"

    "Oh no. It is a Lukhavim. The normal design stresses brute force, but Demons already have that in excessive quantities. By wiring in the intellectual capacities of the Human species using freshly damned souls in a technodemonic framework, I am able to create something far more sophisticated!"

    I am in position, Master.

    "All your own work?"

    "Belial helped. Though I have been expanding my library of late. There is some truly fascinating work coming out of Atlantis."

    With no further fire incoming I allow my barricade to fade away to a few plates, the Hawks manoeuvring their fighter to the opposite side of the plaza.

    "Still, it would have required a great deal of skill to adapt Earth-magic rune layouts for Hell-magic systems."

    "I take after my father in that regard."

    "What do you want here?"

    "I need more than arcane skill to establish myself as Hell's ruler. Destroying this monument to Human heroism -and killing a few of its defenders- will go some way to giving me the credentials of a war leader."

    I don't use Ophidian's Eyes on the Demon Lord.

    I generate seven additional railgun turrets. Internal only. "Sir, would you please shoot him with everything you have? I need a distraction."

    "Alright." Hawkwoman sounds far less eager than she did earlier. Perhaps she doesn't find this sort of combat as exciting. "On three. One. Two. Three."

    I open fire with tungsten rounds at the same time as the Thanagarian fighter opens fire with plasma repeaters.

    "Hahaha!" Satanus interposes more portals to absorb the shots. "A weak effort! I had expected-."

    Praexis Demons swarm from the rifts and latch onto his body while the Hellwraith rises through the pavement and grabs onto his cloak!
     
    18th June
    10:58 GMT -5

    Satanus staggers sideways as the horde swarms over him, though I imagine that he does so more in surprise than fear.

    "Aagh!"

    Mister Lester is less sanguine, cowering away as much as he can with Satanus' hand still clamped onto his shoulder. Okay, I didn't ask John about him directly as I assumed that his fate was a bit of a sore point, but to the best of my recollection he had Mnemoth sealed inside him then got bricked up in a small room in Linton Smith's basement. Not that I think he wouldn't have sold him on to Satanus if the price was right.

    Satanus responds, exhaling black/purple fire to burn through the Praexis Demon that had latched onto his face then turning his head in an arc to incinerate as many others as he can. They dissipate after a second or two then fall from the rings to renew their attack, several already showing the distended bellies which indicates that we're about to witness another wave of vomit-births.

    Joy.

    What next? The Praexis Demons can probably keep his attention but given how powerful I imagine him to be I doubt that they'll make much progress-

    Satanus is briefly surrounded by a storm of lightning, which fries the Praexis Demons all over him as well as the Hellwraith. He gets all of half a second's respite before they're all over him again.

    -in draining him completely, which is just about the only thing they can do to finish him. Tubbs!

    The Praexis Demon I call stops mid-air and turns towards me.

    Get into the Hall's zeta tube and fetch the Sword of the Fallen and the Ace of Winchesters from the mountain.

    But food?

    Go.

    He slumps slightly. I go. Then he flies off towards the entrance of the building.

    Satanus is lashing out with his free hand in a slightly more controlled way now. I think he's realised that the Demons aren't an immediate threat. Giving him think-time is not ideal.

    "Orange Lantern, your… Things aren't giving us a clear shot."

    Ms Thal sounds moderately disgusted by them. I wonder..? Oh, I'm a grandfather, that explains it. I suppose she won't have seen that happen before. "They can't die, sir. Feel free to fire through them. Alternatively, if you can secure the Hall or Mister Lester, that would be quite helpful."

    "Who is he?"

    "An associate of Mister Constantine." A grey/black portal opens next to Satanus and he grabs a struggling Praexis Demon by its head and shoves it through before closing the portal again. Yep, sending them to a different part of Hell will work perfectly well. "There's a rather unpleasant Famine Elemental called Mnemoth inside him. It killed eighty nine people last time it was in New York."

    Satanus opens another portal, this time showing watery sludge on the far side. Just in case he's having to concentrate on that I open up with my railguns once more.

    "Gah!"

    Yes, yes he does. And agh-!

    I drop through the air, construct armour gone and armour smouldering. Ring, what was that?

    Massive electrical discharge detected.

    And I didn't get advanced warning because..?

    Unable to detect prior to impact. Probability analysis strongly indicative of conjuration.

    Fair enough. I re-establish my construct armour and add an ablative sphere around me. Praexis Demons, next time he tries shoving one of you through a portal, try eating it.

    I get a vague impression of obedience back through the link.

    What exactly is this in aid of? Satanus is about as powerful as Demons come, yet he hasn't brought any backup with him that I can see. No cultists, none of those minor Demons that Mister Gregor or the Polyhedrite had. I mean, yes, I don't think I've done more than mildly inconvenience him so far…

    Ms Thal dives out of the rear hatch of the fighter and flies into the Hall at speed while her husband remains on overwatch. He attempts another volley of shots from the plasma repeaters, but all this does is remind Satanus that he's there. Turning suddenly in the fighter's direction he negligently backhands a Praexis Demon towards a portal leading to an area of densely piled and still animate skeletons. In a surprising display of coordination, two other Demons grab hold of it and shove it upwards so that it hits the portal mouth first. The Praexis gulps, its mouth expanding, being sucked along the outer surface of the portal. Satanus looks back from throwing fire at the fighter, staring at the Praexis with the first genuine concern that I've seen in this fight.

    The Praexis Demon grows, not getting fat but expanding, the solid orange of its body being corrupted with grey and brown.

    "Raaaaaarr!"

    "How-?!"

    Perfect. Angel Feather round, fire.

    A portal starts to form to intercept it but another Praexis gulps it down immediately, sloughing off to the side as it too begins its metamorphosis. Satanus is left wide open as the Source-touched round strikes him.

    "RAAAAAAAAGH!"

    Golden fire erupts all over his body, his clothing burned off and his skin blackening and charring!

    "Gabriel!" Golden sand swirls around him as he opens a rift to Hell with himself at the centre. The golden flames gutter and fail. I suppose that makes sense. According to John, Hell grew up around the First after God told him to 'get out of my sight'. Presumably the Source's presence doesn't extend there.

    "Enough of this!" Satanus releases Mister Lester's shoulder and the man falls to his knees before frantically scrabbling to get out of the way. "Clearly, I should have paid more attention when Truggs told me of your skill." I open fire with Mage Slayers again as he raises his right hand and blasts Mister Lester in the back. "Enjoy the reward of your labours."

    The rift collapses around him, taking him back to Hell with it as flies begin to crawl out of Mister Lester's charred body. Mnemoth will be joining us in a moment or two.

    "Katar! More soldiers in the Hall!"

    Hellwraith, go and assist her. Praexis Demons, eat as many flies as you can.

    The swarm swoop in, but the demonic flies are literally materialising from nowhere. It's quite possible that they're just a side effect of Mnemoth's spirit being close at hand rather than acting as his physical body. Plus, the Praexis Demons aren't the world's most agile fliers.

    "So full!"

    And I've got a distinct feeling that my new living Hell portals are going to be a problem. Okay, more flies and they're increasingly larger and more demonic-looking. The crowd -who had started to edge forwards like the filthy rubberneckers they are- start backing up again as the centre of the plaza blackens from the sheer mass of insect bodies.

    I don't think that the Polyhedrite had desires of its own. But I can see from the filthy orange glow emanating from its small avatar bodies that Mnemoth does. It wants people to suffer and starve so that it can spread. Of course, having desires of your own to which you are totally beholden isn't an entirely good idea when facing an Orange Lantern.

    Orange light envelopes the entire area in which it is trying to emerge, hundreds of connections forming between the rings and its central consciousness. It's intelligent but not particularly clever, as expected from a life form that flew into the blatant trap John and Mister Smith set up.

    Ring, can we assimilate it?

    Presence of intense unrestricted desire indicates little resistance to assimilation.

    I imagine a cloud of orange Demon-Flies covering the skies.

    No. I don't think I want that.
     
    18th June
    11:01 GMT -5

    Altering other people's desires is something I've been able to do for a while. I mean, I've probably been capable of it for as long as I've had this ring. Looking back I… I can certainly spot times when it's altered mine. Amplified them, anyway. Using that ability myself, compelling people in order to achieve my own ends… I'm not sure whether what I do is worse than telepathically altering someone or not. It certainly isn't any better. Doctor Jones hasn't shown any obvious signs of it lingering, but it's always a concern. I have little desire to turn other people into puppets on a permanent basis.

    But in this case it's a Famine Elemental. It was brought into being by suffering, in a way I imagine is similar to that of the Idea of Evil in Berserk. As it spreads, it causes starvation and recharges from the starvation it causes. Nutrition just disappears from people's bodies, sending them into a frenzy in which they will try to eat anything that might alleviate the feeling. It has little personality beyond that and its only window on humanity is its suffering.

    There are limits.

    Ophidian.

    I feel her awareness expand into me, and for a moment I/we see every moment of Human starvation, every crop failure and field-burning and plague that left farmers too weak to work their fields. And in that instance I/we see it as the Ophidian does. Barely relevant.

    I pull away from her a little.

    My Agent. Will we make it ours?

    I can hear a slight hint of confusion. To her, it's another thing, and having more things is better. She doesn't -probably can't- understand why I'm feeling the way I am.

    I don't want to ever end up like that.

    "No. It may not use our light. Desire nullification."

    Flies drop from the air as the Elemental's core self begins to fragment. It doesn't have much beyond its desires, and the more it tries to cling to them the worse it fractures as I dial them down. I can't quite cut it off completely, but it doesn't have anything else to cling to. I feel the parts of its soul begin to lose cohesion…

    And realise that having a huge pile of famine-magic do that in a major city probably isn't much better than having the Elemental itself freed.

    Praexis Demons with the portals!

    The two of them turn their heads… The top parts at least, in my direction.

    Lots of food coming! Do you see it?

    "Huh?" / "Yay!"

    I don't have time for their ineptitude! Praexis Demons, consume!

    They shudder, then throw their heads back… The top of their bodies peels off, the tops of their heads flapping down their backs. Inside them, the Hellgates flicker and flare in disturbingly lantern-like structures. The stunned and recumbent flies rise off the ground, drifting in lazy arcs around the plaza as they are drawn inexorably towards the portals.

    "Uh?"

    The other Praexis Demons look a little disturbed, actively avoiding the flies and flinching whenever they look at their brethren.

    "A-ah-ah."

    "Quiet! They'll hear you!"

    I turn my attention back to the crowd… Yellow, I see yellow. Why-?

    I look back at the mob of Demon-Constructs surrounding two big ones with built in Hellgates sucking in the remains of Mnemoth. On the far side I see Hell itself, and as the physical and etheric remains of the Elemental enter it, they bulge and grow. I myself am… Glowing brilliant orange, the orange sigil blazing on my forehead.

    Ah.

    Ophidian, thank you for your help.

    I gently push her presence away, and she acquiesces with only a brief sensation of confusion.

    "Got it! Got it!" Tubbs flies out of the Hall of Justice, short chubby arms cradling the scabbard I use for the Sword of the Fallen. He starts heading towards me, then stops dead in the air as he sees his swollen brethren. "Huh?"

    "Get over here."

    He shudders, then complies.

    Shayera comes next, Ace of Winchesters slung from its strap over her shoulder and her mace at the ready. Katar exits the Thanagarian fighter and swoops down to her as a haggard-looking tour group dashes out in her wake before-

    "Agh!"

    -stopping dead when they see my minions.

    The space inside the portals pulses and twists and I have no idea what it is doing. I created these things and I've got no idea how or why they work! I'm pouring more power into a spell I don't understand… Heck, I doubt that anyone understands what it's mutated into now!

    "Orange Lantern." Mister Hol flaps my way, taking care to skirt the Portal Demons. "Would you care to explain what just happened?"

    "When I confronted the Demon Ball, a number of my Praexis Demons were sucked through as it disappeared. The small portals Satanus used to block our shots linked to the same place, so I could call them back through to swarm him. He started using portals to different places to get rid of them, so I told them to eat the portals."

    Ms Thal clips her mace to her belt and raises the Ace, pointing it at the closest one. "What are they?"

    "I don't know."

    "Are they dangerous?"

    "I don't know." I shake my head. "Probably. It's just that everything else they've eaten so far, they've either just ingested it or turned it into new Praexis Demons. This is… New."

    Unstable Hellgates built into avarice monsters. And I presumed to lecture Ted about an Ape. If anything comes out, or if they change in some way…

    I take the sheath from Tubbs and attach it to my armour. "Thank you."

    Mister Hol grimaces. "Communications are still down. We have no way to contact Nabu."

    I draw the Sword and fly towards the closest Portal Demon. Upside down on the back of its head its eyes flick in my direction.

    "Uuuuuuh?"

    "I'm still not really sure how intelligent you are. But I'm sorry about this."

    I slash horizontally, cutting through its construct torso and head. The orange light of its body starts to fray, deforming and darkening. I think-. I quickly run my rune stone over it. Yep, whatever the Sword does to things just enabled the magic from the portal to run throughout the rest of it. I float upwards, slashing the portal and the lantern-structure anchoring it in place.

    "Lantern!"

    "Sir, this is the best idea I have and you told me that the League's expert wasn't available." I pull back slightly, watching as the Demon's face dissolves to mush. Come on, the portal should collapse without something keeping it anchored… It's certainly destabilising… Railgun. I fire a short volley of Crumbler and Mage Slayer rounds at the Portal Demon.

    There's a flare of light as the portal collapses inwards.

    Ring, did any of that mess end up inside you?

    "Construct Lantern did not return to this ring. No changes to structure detected."

    Good. I turn my attention to the second one.
     
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    18th June
    11:06 GMT -5

    Ms Thal looks down at her husband as he crouches in front of the bank of computers which run the Hall's internal systems. "And we still have no idea why communications are down?"

    "Everything seems to be in order here."

    "And either no one's answering their mobiles or somehow public networks are being affected as well. Permission to try civilian phone lines?" Mister Hol extracts himself for a moment to look me in the eyes. "Given that the Light already know who everyone is and Satanus is a member, there doesn't seem to be any added risk."

    "No, not yet. At New Year you were able to locate the Watchtower in spite of its cloaking technology. Could you do so again?"

    "Sadly, no."

    Ms Thal's mouth tightens. "Why not?"

    "You remember that meeting a little while ago where -among other things- I asked Nabu why he hadn't warded the Watchtower yet?"

    She nods in understanding. "He's warded it since."

    "Convenient as it would be for him to have ignored everything I said, he does have a reasonably intelligent head on his shoulders." Someone's shoulders, anyway. "It appears specifically designed to block out the sort of thing we used to get in last time. If we could get hold of Nabu himself or a mage of equivalent power we could get in anyway, but…"

    "If we could do that then we wouldn't have this problem." Mister Hol rises to his feet. "At this point I can't do anything more without replacing the whole system."

    "Could you just fly to the Watchtower?"

    "I can fly to its predicted location and wave some construct arms around. Alternatively, we could try the zeta tubes."

    Mister Hol bows his head slightly. "If our systems have been compromised to this degree, I would hesitate to use them."

    "The zeta tube system is designed to be isolated from the main computers, and it is extremely failsafe. Tubbs went through fine when he got the Sword and the Ace from their storage facility. If you're really concerned we can send him-" Ms Thal starts walking towards an equipment storage locker. "-and a robotic drone through first."

    She opens it and reaches inside. "I've got a better idea." She turns around and holds out… Ring? A Thanagarian designed uninterruptible transponder. "Give this to… 'Tubbs', then home in on its location."

    "Does it work through detection wards, sir?"

    She looks at Mister Hol, who strokes his chin with his right hand. "I somehow doubt that it's ever been tested. Still, it doesn't hurt to play it a little safer."

    I nod, and Tubbs floats forwards and reaches out with his stubby little arms for the device. "Does he understand what it is?"

    "Does he need to?"

    She presses the activation button before handing it over. Tubbs snatches it and looks at it speculatively.

    "No, don't eat it. Fly through the zeta tube to the Watchtower and wait."

    "I go." He zips off in the direction of the Hall's library.

    "We should probably be right behind him. Going in through the tube will be easier than flying up there."

    Mister Hol nods and the three of us fly after him through the Hall's corridors. Ms Thal pulls up alongside me. "I'm curious about the obvious contradiction in your beliefs about personal liberty."

    "What would that be?"

    "You were prepared to campaign with Luthor to get AIs rights, but you have Demons enslaved to your will." She smiles faintly. "I'm not even sure that's legal any more."

    "It isn't. Legally, they're constructs and not Demons. That means that they're not covered. And I had good faith on that until today."

    We come out into the library in time to see the flash of Tubbs' departure. "Recognized, Tubbs, C zero five."

    "As the law currently stands, I'm obliged to release them. And I'd gladly do that if I had the slightest idea how to. Really, I've been lucky that something like what happened outside hasn't happened before." I check the mechanism on the Ace. Everything appears to be in order.

    "Pass me the Sword." I look at Ms Thal. "You're going to be shooting and it's a lot more effective against Demons than my mace."

    I nod and detach the scabbard from my armour, then pass it to her. "Sir, be very careful with this weapon."

    She takes it, then clips the scabbard to her harness. "You'll get it back."

    "Sir, it's a barely understood arcane weapon. We don't know what it does to people it hits or people who use it."

    There's a ping, and Mister Hol looks up from his tracker. "Location confirmed. The Watchtower is where it's supposed to be. Any opposition?"

    Tubbs?

    I get an image of the Watchtower's meeting hall. Haven't taken my advice on moving the tube, I see. Tubbs can't identify weapons all that reliably, but there aren't any people around and no one is actively attacking him. "Looks clear, sirs. We can go right up."

    Ms Thal shrugs. "Never hurts to be prepared."

    "I'm not arguing." I hold out my right arm towards the tube. "Melee weapons first?"

    She draws the Sword.

    "Recognized, Hawkwoman, one zero, Hawkman, zero nine, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

    18th June
    16:09 GMT

    Ms Thal is floating near the large window into the arboretum. Mister Hol is trying to access the Watchtower's computer, a breathing mask extended over his face. He glances up as I try scanning the Watchtower from the inside. "It might have been nice to know that the atmosphere had been vented."

    "Sorry sir, but Tubbs doesn't breathe. He wouldn't have noticed. Are the two of you alright operating here?"

    "It's only one atmosphere's difference. There." All of the holodisplays in the room activate, displaying the message 'Main hall'. "That's being displayed all across the Watchtower. Hopefully-."

    Ms Thal flaps, diving out of the way as a beam of blue plasma blasts through the window. I fly towards the breach, creating a construct barrier between us and whoever that was who just took a shot at us.

    "Brilliant idea, Katar!"

    "Did you see who shot at you?"

    She nods. "And you're going to love it."

    Robot Hawkman ignites his wings and surges towards my barrier. I fire the Ace once, bullet failing to penetrate his outer casing. Then I pull myself aside and fire an orange beam from the ring. Some sort of pink energy flows over the android's joints as the beam hits, crackling as the pulse is… Absorbed, I think?

    Warning: power drain detected. One hundred two percent remaining.

    Yep. Absorbed. Wonderful.
     
    18th June
    16:10 GMT

    Still, it's not as if I don't usually attack indirectly anyway.

    Ms Thal flies directly at it with the Sword held slightly to her right side while Mister Hol flies directly upwards, presumably trying to make it harder for the robot to shoot him. Since the plasma beams were just plasma I erect a construct barrier along with two construct railguns.

    The robot flicks its right arm in her direction and Ms Thal takes a plasma beam to the chest. "Ough!" She's knocked back, her diving charge turning into an uncontrolled tumble. Plasma weapon is probably Earth-tech, given that her armour appears to have taken the worst of it.

    "More of you are up here already?" The robot's face doesn't have any capacity for expression, but the voice sounds confused. How am I hearing that? Internal communications. The ring is interpreting it as direct speech. "I was sure it would take longer than this. Bloody autistic systems."

    The voice is English… The armour is warded and insulated. That could actually be power armour, which is why I don't just shoot off the arms and legs as I move to protect Ms Thal with my construct barrier.

    "I realise that this isn't America, but if you'll stand down-" A beam of plasma from a device on his left wrist splashes off my construct barrier. "-I'm sure that I can prevail-."

    "Where are Captain Atom and Icon!?"

    The robot raises its right arm and fires a series of rapid pulses in Mister Hol's direction as he flies, weaving and jinking. "If they're where I left them, then they're still unconscious inside a secure cell. Let me just check."

    I blink, and he's suddenly smashing into Mister Hol, his mechanical wings ablaze with blue plasma that leaves a brilliant trail in his wake. "Yeah!" The two of them crash into the far wall. "They're fine!"

    "Eyh." Ms Thal pushes herself up as I switch from railgun to laser. Okay, automatic tracking, fire. The first quarter-second beam hits the middle of the robot's wings, but I can't see any damage. The second hits the rear of his knee. I see the metal reddening for a moment. Did the heat get transferred, or did I melt something? Not sure.

    Mister Hol drops his mace and gets an Nth metal knife out of his belt, stabbing at the robot's eyes. The robot recoils from the blow, giving Mister Hol space to punch it in the throat. "Ah." Which isn't a good idea when your opponent is made of metal and doesn't have normal organic vulnerabilities.

    The robot bends in the air and kicks off Mister Hol's chest before he can stab it again with his knife. It turns in the air, diving down towards-. The cheeky git is going for Mister Hol's mace! Though since they're now separate, cold gun, fire on the wings.

    The pale blue beam hits the burning wings and the heat dies wherever it touches.

    "Whaaaaa!"

    Then it's his turn to tumble out of control, slamming back down onto the deck next to the mace and scrabbling for it as his wings super cool. Ice doesn't form as there's no moist air around to supply the water but very cold metal becomes quite brittle. He rolls as he gets his hands around the shaft, interposing it between himself and my beam.

    So I make a second cold gun construct slightly offset from the first and fire that at his legs.

    "Hey, that's-!" He… Hops, trying to avoid a light speed weapon. I'm limiting myself to temperatures that the Human body can survive in case that is armour, but the Human body can survive temperatures far below what it actually likes. I alternate, shooting legs, arms and torso until the ring's scan says that it's as cold as a person can get without risking frostbite.

    Must remember to visit Mister Snart with a box of chocolates.

    I cut the beams and walk slowly towards him. He tries to push himself up, metal plates on the outer surface of his armour cracking as he does so. "I would very much appreciate it if you would surrender now."

    "You've super-cooled the metal!" He turns his head in my direction and I see where Mister Hol's knife has sliced into his head. Think I can be fairly confident that there wasn't anyone in there. "Truggs tried to tell me that the conductor system was a bad idea. That'll teach me not to listen!"

    "Indeed. I've learned to my misfortune that he's a-" Hawkman lands just behind me. "-remarkably sagacious fellow. What exactly are you?"

    "Oh, no. I'm not surrendering. I'm just not being a dick about beating you up." Pale pink light flows out of his joints and covers his entire body, silver metal darkening as it does so. "You see, cold doesn't do much to stop Dem-."

    I raise the Ace and fire.

    "YAAAAAAAGH!"

    He convulses as the golden fire passes over everywhere the pink light touches, burning through the outer casing and revealing the mechanisms within.

    "Sir, shots from the Ace of Winchesters destroy demonic magic. I strongly suggest that you stop using it."

    Wait a moment. Pink Demon magic and an English accent. One match found…

    "Richard Simpson?"

    Mister Hol glances at me. "You know this creature?"

    "He used to be one of John Constantine's friends."

    "Emphasis on the-. Guh. On the used." His face is mostly gone, his epidermal layers have been eaten through to the inner mechanism in several places and I've got no idea how he's speaking or hearing. "You know him too? Did he finally fuck things up for someone important enough that superheroes got called in?"

    "No. We're friends."

    "Hah! Won't be long, then. Okay, spiritual firewalls back in place. That gun is a nasty piece of work. Ah. Bloody hell, this thing's wrecked."

    Ms Thal leans forward slightly, Sword at the ready. "How can you tell?"

    "Internal cameras. I'm connected to this whole place. Well, all the networked bits. I've shifted myself as far out of this wrecked chassis as I can."

    "RaH!" Ms Thal lunges forwards, cutting through the metal with the Sword. The blade enters at the middle of the right shoulder then cuts diagonally down across the torso before exiting just above the left hip.

    "And just in time too, apparently. Now where's that communications laser? I need to get back to Earth."

    Ms Thal snarls, then turns her head my way. "I thought you said Demons had trouble with hinges."

    "Hah!" Oh, I see. The signal wasn't actually coming from the robot, it's coming from main communications. "He wasn't far wrong. Hey, if you know who I am, you can fill them in. If you're here, that means that my part in this mess is over."

    "Why are you working for Satanus!? You remember Newcastle, you remember what they're like!"

    "Satanus got me away from Agony and Ecstasy after twenty years rather than ten thousand. He's not such a bad guy-."

    "Excuse me! The Twins work for the First and I killed him."

    "Did you? Oh. Alright, but Satanus is still the one who's making sure the First stays dead. And he took the time to free me from my… Education program. But I'll tell you what. Since you helped, I won't completely wreck the computers on my way out. So long!"
     
    Last edited:
    18th June
    16:14 GMT

    Mister Hol goes to work on the Watchtower's computers immediately. Ms Thal looks at what's left of the robot for a moment, then lunges at it, punching the very cold metal in what's left of its chest with her right fist. Metal fractures and snaps as it gets knocked backwards and falls to the floor.

    I hold out my right hand and look at her expectantly. She keeps staring at the robot for several seconds, breathing hard. Then she remembers that I'm there and turns back around, looking at my hand with a frown. Then she resheathes the Sword, detaches the sheath from her belt, and passed it over.

    "Thank you, sir."

    She glances at the robot again. "Do I want to ask?"

    "Richard Simpson was a practitioner of a sort of computer-based parapsionics. He assisted John in investigating a religious group called the Resurrection Crusade. They had arcane computer defences… His mind and soul were inside their system when the defences triggered. His physical body was completely destroyed, and John just walked away without trying to help."

    "So he's become some sort of living computer program?"

    "No, that made him a weak arcane being. But… After that, John was trying to escape a powerful Demon called Nergal. He couldn't get away, so he used Mister Simpson's equipment to transfer himself into a local computer network while Mister Simpson occupied his body. Nergal caught him, got him to explain how the system worked and then went in after John."

    "Demons can do that?"

    "Apparently. Needless to say, if Mister Simpson was still Human I'd have recruited him for KordTech months ago. So, Nergal goes in, John tricks him into projecting himself into some sort of anti-Demon trap… Then Mister Simpson decides that he'd rather keep John's body."

    "Heh. Sounds like it serves him right."

    "Except that as John points out, his body has lung cancer and only a couple of months to live. But, Nergal's brain dead body is just sitting there. So they do a swap. John gets his own body back, and a little while later manages to trick the First and his brothers-" I tap the hilt of the Sword. "-into fixing his lungs. Mister Simpson takes Nergal's body and all the Demonic energy bound into it and reconfigures it. John told me that he claimed to have become some sort of technology Demon. Except, that isn't allowed, and a couple of high level Demons turned up to force him to go through the proper process."

    I sigh. "But with the First gone, the old rules of demonic society got thrown out of the window. If Satanus wants him freed with as much of his Human intelligence and initiative intact as possible, then that's what happens unless a Demon of equal power stands against him."

    I feel a slight wind against my skin as the air supply comes back on. Ring, give me the bad news; there wasn't any wind when the window was punctured. All of the horses are dead, aren't they?

    All horses are presently in their stable. Stable air supply still functional.

    Oh, that's a relief. The horses will be a bit grumpy about being shut in, but after a few…

    "Sir? Have you checked on Major Adams and Mister Freeman?"

    "They're fine, but I'm leaving the door to their cell sealed until the atmosphere is fully restored." He presses a few more buttons and the main holodisplay appears with Batman, Red Tornado and Ms Lance all showing incoming communications. "Watchtower to League. Hawkman here. We've-."

    Batman's first to react. "What's the situation?"

    "We've retaken the Watchtower from a Computer Demon… Thing." He glances my way. "I'm running a full reset of the Watchtower's systems now. The zeta tube network should have been unaffected. Captain Atom and Icon have non-life-threatening injures and we will take them to the infirmary as soon as the atmosphere is restored."

    "The horses are fine too."

    Ms Lance looks off to the side, making a very quiet sigh-laugh. The other two don't react.

    Ms Thal and I walk around to be comfortably within the arc of the camera. Now that I get a better look at him, Batman looks like he's been in combat. There's dirt and a little blood visible on his mask. Raquel was shadowing him today, hopefully demonstrating by example the advantages of a personal force field. Red Tornado looks fine, as does Ms Lance. Then again, I think she was working her civilian job today.

    Another window lights up and Mister Allen's face appears, his eyes flick swiftly around the other floating heads. "Everyone else get attacked too?"

    Batman nods. "A professional assassin by the name of Constantine Drakon."

    "At least that's one less assassin we'll have to worry about."

    Batman's head lowers slightly. "Unfortunately, he was able to disengage successfully. Were you also targeted?"

    "Yeah, it looks like we've got a new Mirror Master on the loose. Do you think I could talk Zatanna into making Central City her regular beat?"

    Ms Thal nods. "We had to deal with a robot, a Sabbac, a swarm of Demons-" I look away from the screen and cough quietly into my right fist. "-Satanus and a Demon-possessed robot."

    There's a slight whir from Red Tornado. "I was not subjected to a targeted attack. However, someone transformed several dozen people in my vicinity into monstrous beasts."

    Mister Allen frowns slightly. "That sounds like an attack to me."

    "If it was intended as such, then they failed in their objective. They were unable to control their creations. Most fled in a panic, others lashed out at whatever was close at hand."

    Ms Lance nods. "We were attacked by a huge alien with four arms."

    Batman's eyes narrow. "The League's being targeted. Now that communications are back up and running I'll try contacting everyone. Stay on your guard. Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Orange Lantern. Stay on the Watchtower until I relieve you. Everyone else, if you have dealt with your assailant go to the Watchtower and prepare to deploy. Batman out."

    Mister Hol nods, then deactivates the display and stares into space for a moment. "After today, I think we should try and persuade the others to reconsider their position on integrating weapons into the Watchtower's structure."

    Ms Thal nods. "Weapons, shields and a standing security force recruited from the armies of UN Security Council members."

    I blink in surprise. "Do you think there's any chance they'll go for that? I mean, I thought I was pushing things-."

    They both look at me like I'm an idiot. Yeah. Okay.

    "While we're on the subject of weapons, sirs." I take two cold guns out of subspace. "Might I offer you each one of these to augment your arsenals? I can be available to train you in their use just as soon as Batman-" Ms Thal takes the one closest to her and begins examining it closely. "-gives the all-clear."

    Mister Hol nods. "I think I will take you up on that." He holds out his hand and I pass the remaining gun to him. He takes it and looks at it thoughtfully for a moment. "I see that you've remodelled it based on Thanagarian designs."

    "Just these two, sir. I thought that it would help if it were familiar."

    He nods, smiling. "Given what has happened, I feel obliged to let you know that today's exercise was in part an opportunity to review members of your team who might be capable of serving in the Justice League. Diana warned us that you were an over-achiever, but seeing you in action was… Impressive."

    "Thank you, sir. But I was rather expecting to get black balled by Nabu."

    "True, you were. But Batman raised the idea of moving to qualified majority voting rather than unanimity. If we reach agreement on that, Nabu's objections will no longer be a barrier."

    I smile outwardly. "Well…. Thank you, sir. Ah-." I turn to Ms Thal, who looks up from her shiny new gun for long enough to roll her eyes and nod. "Thank you sirs. I'm not certain how frequently I'd-."

    Batman's face reappears on the holodisplay. "All available Justice League members capable of operating under the ocean are to deploy to Poseidonis at once. They're under a major attack."
     
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    18th June
    13:19 GMT -3

    Waterplough.

    I haven't practiced with it. It's just one of those weird alien devices that John's ring had in its database that I looked at for half a second, thought 'when would I ever use that?' and dismissed.

    I'm using it now.

    The Poseidonis zeta tube was the first target for whoever this is, and the Poseidonis-side of the Dolmen Gate pair between there and the Atlantean New York embassy was the second. That was what notified us that something was going on: Ambassador Vallambrosa frantically trying to get hold of the League while we were all under Mister Simpson's communications blackout. With no other transport links between the surface and Poseidonis we're reduced to either arcane teleportation -a risky prospect when the civilisation you're teleporting to is heavily populated by magic users- or brute forcing it like I'm doing.

    The waterplough construct does something to the hydrogen bonds in the water immediately before it, making it far less viscous than normal. I'm focusing on maintaining the construct while Mister Freeman, Diana and Mister Kent put their effort into shoving it forward. It's about four kilometres down to reach Poseidonis and we'll be there inside a minute. Just as soon as Nabu's freed himself from his opponent he'll be bringing another group down… Assuming that the fight is still going on. I sent out a call for the local Green Lanterns to return, but that would take anything up to half an hour.

    "Orange Lantern, are you getting anything?" Mister Kent is gazing forwards in a way I recognise from Kon, magnifying his vision just as far as he can. Down this far even his vision can't get enough light to see the part of the spectrum visible to normal Humans, and that won't change until we're in the immediate vicinity of the city. Water's too good a conductor of heat for infrared vision, there isn't enough electrical activity or radiation particles for the rest of a Kryptonian's visual abilities.

    Ring… Give me something!

    Unable to comply.

    "Sorry sir, but I can't. This isn't just normal warding, someone's made a real effort to keep me from scanning it."

    Magic sensors have gone up my priority list. As well as talking to the Controllers about whether it's possible for me to learn magic or not.

    Mister Freeman isn't fazed. "How long until we reach our destination?"

    "Assuming that the silt-cleared area is the same as it was before the attack, we'll arrive in twenty seconds." I think, and a countdown timer appears on our side of the waterplough.

    "Alright. We've got no idea what we're running into and none of us have any ranged attack options that work underwater. Wonder Woman, Orange Lantern: you're both more familiar with magic and Atlantis than Icon and I are. We're going to need you to guide us."

    "Sir." / "Of course."

    After Black Manta's embarrassingly successful attack on the city last year, the Atlantean military was put through some pretty intensive retraining on the subject of civil defence. One problem they've had is that there hasn't really been much for their military to do. The city-states don't fight each other anymore and no one else has the reach to attack Atlantis. Most of the things they do fight are dealt with by small groups of battlemages, not large combat formations. Superheroes rather than soldiers. I know that the High Command was showing a great deal of interest in the military applications in Sephtian's work, though I hadn't bothered keeping up with exactly what they were purchasing.

    After the purges that occurred in the wake of Orm's departure Poseidonis' military strength is greater than it's been at any point in its recent history. That, and with a good chunk of it coming from other city-states an attack on the capital is bound to enrage the entire country. Taking those two points together, this may well be the worst time to attack there's ever been.

    I hope.

    One.

    Zero.

    The silt remains in place for a moment, then vanishes.

    Diana reacts first, though I'm only a second behind. "Titanspawn."

    I dismiss the waterplough as we accelerate through the water under our own power. The group of figures we're moving towards are things called Water Wraiths, though that is technically inaccurate. They're very roughly humanoid shapes made of water bound together by their innate magics. As we close the distance it becomes possible to see the water-smoothed stones that form bone-like structures inside their transparent bodies. These creatures are supposed to be very rare. Their precise abilities and level of intelligence have never been properly assessed, their few recorded appearances not leaving enough survivors. Themysciran myth claims that they are surviving servitors left over from before the fall of the Titanocracy, though how literally 'titanspawn' describes them isn't known.

    Closer, and I can distinguish individual members of their group. Five of them, surrounded by smaller… Surrounded by man-sized figures, naked and with their partially rotten flesh exposed to the water. Aquatic zombies of some kind. The Water Wraiths must be about four metres tall, assuming that they can't just shift their forms. Already a sizeable chunk of the zombie horde are moving in our direction through the water, and doing so far faster than a traditional shambling zombie should be able to manage. The closest Water Wraith of the cluster half-turns and makes a curved gesture with its disproportionately long arms-.

    And the water around us solidifies. It doesn't turn to ice, it just becomes immobile, the super strong people around me struggling to move. Okay, for something like a Water Wraith, control of water must be pretty instinctive. Mage Slayers don't move all that well under water but I brought the Sword with me-.

    Wait a moment. If all it's done is make the water a solid unit... Ring, subspace it.

    Compliance.

    The water around us erupts into a storm of bubbles as the solidified section vanishes and the resulting vacuum sucks replacement water in. Diana has her own sword out and swims full speed towards the Wraith cluster while Mister Kent and Mister Freeman divert themselves into the densest concentrations of zombies. The first Water Wraith turns fully towards us, appearing to give us its full attention as another of its fellows diverts its attention our way as well. A superhero's task: draw the attention of horrifyingly powerful foes in the sure knowledge that we can take it better than anyone else they might take it upon themselves to go after.

    I take a moment to look at Poseidonis itself spread out before us, tiny flickers of light shining out as the defenders make use of their electrical discharge based weapons. Hard water hemispheres are in place around the palace and the Conservatory, dark dots I assume to be attackers speckled across the outer surface of both. No plumes of dust that would indicate the use of explosives by the attackers. None of the fires that would have sprung up by now on a surface city under this kind of attack. I can identify the areas that are held by Atlantean troops, patches which look like they're overrun by more zombies… Can't tell what's happening well enough to draw conclusions.

    Mister Kent and Mister Freeman reach the zombies and begin dismembering them. Punching and kicking don't really work underwater so they just grab and rip or squash. What sort of zombies..? I watch Mister Freeman crush a head and the rest of the body stops moving. Excellent, some sort of facsimile of life effect. That will make things simpler. The zombies' movements are reasonably quick, but other than grabbing and clawing they don't seem to have much offensive power and… What they've got isn't injuring the resilient League members.

    The horde tries to redirect its motion towards Diana and I fire out construct cables, directing them to the zombies' heads and then using the attachment to form vice-constructs which tighten and crush. Destroyed, next, destroyed, next, destroyed, next… Part of the horde swims my way and I ignore it. My construct armour isn't as tough as Mister Kent's skin but I'm not seeing anything that suggests that they'll be able to best it.

    The zombie huddle clawing at Mister Freeman explodes! Shredded body parts drift in the sudden current and Mister Freeman himself looks more than a little shaken. A Water Wraith makes a curling motion with its right hand and a focused shockwave blasts through the water towards Diana! She raises her bracers to block the attack, most of the force being deflected around the protective magics they contain. Even so, she stops dead in the water as the Wraiths throw out more pressure blasts in our general direction.

    Since they clearly decided that the zombies don't matter, I move my orange strands from anti-zombie duty to intercepting the oncoming pressure bombs. The first two I detonate prematurely, clearing Diana's way as she resumes her progress towards the Wraiths. The third expands as I hit it, destroying my strand without detonating the bomb. Mister Kent braces himself, but unlike Diana he relies on toughness and not damage reduction. He's knocked flying through the water back in the direction of the silt-wall. Is..? No, his breathing mask is still in place.

    Then a bomb hits me and I'm forced to focus on my own defence.
     
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