14th March
22:47 GMT +1
I step out through the bar's doorway and hold out my left hand.
"Orange Lantern.
"
Guy's head appears, and he looks less than amused. The German passers-by around me on the other hand look decidedly amused, beginning to form a rough circle around me.
"You plannin' on tellin' us she was a Nazi?"
Perhaps it would be best if I..? Yes.
I fly directly upwards fifty metres, high enough that the crowd can't hear me but low enough not to trouble aircraft.
"No. I felt that it would be prejudicial-
"
He bows his head slightly
"Ahh."
"-to her rehabilitation if everyone around her was reacting to that facet of her character.
"
"Rehab."
"Well, yes. What did you think I was going to do with her? She couldn't very well miss that we were a somewhat more diverse society than she was used to.
"
"Coulda kept her in Supe's Fortress."
"For an indefinite period of time?
"
"For a day or two, 'till we work somethin' else out."
"I've got her sitting and talking peacefully with two gay women in a gay bar.
"
"Huh?"
"Denazification progress I wouldn't have made if she was still in the Fortress.
"
"Come a long way since blowin' up the whole Citadel Empire there, Orange."
"There wasn't anything to rehabilitate the Citadel
to.
" I shake my head.
"How's the research on the portal coming?
"
"What you askin' me for?" He looks away from his ring for a moment.
"Only thing I've done is fetch some a' Overgirl's skin cells and blood from the-"
Idiot! Of course there'd be-!
"-place you picked her up. Dunno if they're actually gettin' anythin' useful off them."
"Have you spoken to the Guardians?
"
"'bout this? No. This is just normal Earth crap, right? Why, you think I should?"
"I don't know anyone else on Earth I could meaningfully ask for input. That means I'm down to asking either Dox, Kalmin-
"
"Hell no."
"-or Hinon. I don't know enough about whatever that portal was to offer anything myself. Have you unlocked some sort of Bleed control construct from the archives?
"
"I could prob'ly shut it down if it opened up again, but that's it."
"Really?
"
"Yeah, it's-. Kinda not relevant."
"So what, you just called me to complain about me not taking the time out to tell you that Earth Ten is where Kal-El landed in Nazi Germany and the Nazis won the War with Kryptonian technology?
"
"Oh. That how it happened?"
"I haven't asked for a moment by moment account, but that's what she told me.
"
"All it woulda taken for the Nazis to win would be Supe's pa gettin' the landin' zone wrong."
"And not putting any security on the ship's database. Them just getting to bring up Overman would have been
bad but hardly
catastrophic.
"
He smiles.
"Reckon Al coulda taken him, do yah?"
Difficult to say. Alan would have had the edge in experience, but
most of his early career involved him fighting mundane criminals rather than high-powered superpeople. If the Nazis had been prepared to take people off front line duties in order to train him…
"Not sure. Alan died on their Earth, but if other things were a little different…
"
"An' what happened to their me?"
"Unless you were conceived before nineteen thirty eight then I doubt that you were ever born.
"
"Yeah? How 'bout you?"
"I haven't asked, but she didn't appear to recognise me. And since I come from a parallel universe anyway, there probably
aren't versions of me in other parallels-.
"
In a
sane multiverse. Blue-me does rather suggest that things don't work as I think they should. But... I mean, why would there be? We couldn't all come from Earth Prime, and even if there were multiple similar parallels the chance of multiple versions of me being transferred at the same time must be astronomically small. There wasn't a native version of me, after all. I could accept
one instance of another me as chance, but if it turns out that I'm
everywhere...
"Ah, hey, Bats wants ta know if she's got someplace to stay tonight."
"We haven't really got that far. I can book her into a hotel if someone hasn't cracked the portal by then.
"
"You okay ta keep lookin' aftah her?"
"Yes, though I'm not
entirely sure that she'll be okay with me continuing to be her escort. She's not exactly happy about having to confront how non-Nazi our Earth is.
"
"Sucks t' be her. Hey, they got any Lanterns ovah there?"
"Some Nazi got Alan's ring after they killed him. Otherwise, their Earth doesn't have any Lanterns.
"
"Think we could take 'em?"
"I'm not sure why picking a fight with a planet of National Socialists would be a sensible thing to do. If you're talking about having the League fight the New Statesmen-
"
"That what they call themselves?"
"-then I'd bet on you… You do have kryptonite on you, right?
"
"Seems like a crutch."
"Their Overman has an extra fifty years' experience and is used to killing. In a fight he'd probably beat ours.
"
"Hn. I'll tell Supes you said-"
There's a blast of displaced air as Overgirl appears next to me.
"-that."
"As you will. Signing off.
"
My ring fades as I lower my left hand.
"Angelika, I think I've been pushing you harder than-.
"
"I have not enjoyed this, but it has not exactly been a re-education centre."
"True, but I've… Pretty much played my hand. How about you pick somewhere, and we go there?
"
She nod thoughtfully.
"I think that I would like to see my home. Take me to
Wewelsburg Castle."