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

16th September 2012
17:16 GMT -4

Archon. Not Queen. Hippolyta did say that Diana's creation was the closest that she ever came to being overthrown. But… Greeks usually just sent unpopular tyrants into exile, if only because the people casting them down were usually well aware that they might end up sharing that fate at some point and didn't want to establish an unfortunate precedent.

"How did you get through the wards?" Ginger Amazon has relaxed very slightly since I've continued behaving myself, but it's the sort of 'dealing with a total stranger I don't want to inadvertently provoke with a display of anger' thing. "Are you some sort of god?"

"That's a bit complicated, but I don't meet most of the requirements to be regarded as a god." I smile. "You know, like how a plucked chicken isn't a man."

"I agree, a.. plucked chicken is not a man."

Her facial expression hasn't really changed, but it sounds like she isn't familiar with Diogenes. That's a problem with Amazons; they've been on the island since the Mythic Greek period, meaning that they often have a gap when it comes to knowledge of Classical Greece. I'll fabricate a copy of Parallel Lives for her before I leave.

"I don't think anyone else will be getting in, if that's what you're worried about."

"Even if your intent is pure, the wards would not know that you were bringing an Amazon home for healing."

"Yes, but their concept of 'permission' may be a little broader than you've assumed. They know that I'm allowed inside, so even if most of the people inside don't think that someone like me should be able to get inside, I can get inside."

The geography may be the same, but the architecture is radically different. The regular multi-storey stone and brick buildings from Themyscira 16 are entirely absent. Instead, they appear to have gone in for a much more individualistic approach, buildings drawing on a wide variety of pre-modern styles and eras.

"The way you're looking at the buildings. You've been here before."

"Sort of."

"How?"

How to put this? I don't think there's any relevant mythological reference I could make. On the other hand, Amazons are generally fairly well educated and used to things other people would consider very strange.

"How different would life be if we all made different choices? What if Queen Hippolyta had led the Amazons north rather than south? What if Amazons regrouped on the island for a time and then reached outward towards their new neighbours rather than remaining isolated? What if Zeus was a faithful husband?" I shrug. "So many possibilities."

"Do you mean that you got through the wards because it is possible that you would have been permitted through the wards if people had made different choices?"

"Not exactly. Imagine if there were a world… Out there, somewhere, where different choices had been made. Imagine it was possible to move between them. One where I'm a journalist in a country you've never heard of, and another where I'm a Themysciran citizen."

She stops, glaring intensely at me.

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I didn't build the universe; I just work here."

"They made a man a citizen?"

"Five, actually. One citizen married-. A man, and they had a son, and the Crown Princess adopted two sons and trained a male student. That's me. Hello!"

She looks like she strongly suspects that I'm lying, but can't prove it right away.

"Your.. Themyscira must be a very different place."

"I haven't seen enough of this one to say. Oh, do you want your-"

She leads us out into a small plaza, and I look up to see the party ready to receive us.

"-arrow back?"

Wonder Woman 10 kneels, receiving a nod from the figure in the extravagant robes in return. She has scars on the left side of her face and her left eye is covered by a patch, but… I don't remember any Amazon on Themyscira 16 looking like that.

"Hail Egeria, Archon of Themyscira."

"Hail Wonder Woman."

Ah, Philippus's predecessor. I assume that in this timeline she survived her injuries. I… Suppose that she'd have been in the running. She'd certainly have demonstrated the sort of martial ability and selflessness that the Amazons respect. Philippus herself is standing at her right hand, still wearing the Captain's armour.

I float the arrow back into the new Wonder Woman's quiver as I bow.

"Archon."

"As a citizen, you are entitled to petition me. Though if all you want is aid for one of our sisters I cannot imagine that I will refuse."

How did she-? Okay, I… Guess they've got radios or something.

"Did you overhear the part about worlds where different choices were made?"

"I did. This may be your first audience, but it is customary to introduce yourself."

Oh. Darn.

"I apologise. The Amazons back home usually call me 'Pavlos'. I hold the rank of Illustres in the Orange Lantern Corps. But about that.. aid. If you're minded to grant the request, I doubt that her condition is going to improve for getting it to her more slowly."

"The healers will be here to examine her shortly."

"Might I request-? I don't know how different your history is, but is your Magala still alive? Given the nature of Diana's injuries, I think it would be a good idea to include a dedicated human magic user."

Egeria turns her head slightly to the right and nods, one of the guards nodding back and leaving at a jog.

"If she is willing, it shall be as you ask."

"Thank you. I'd really like to get her back on her feet."

"Who is she?"

"Um. Okay, my version of Themyscira is ruled by a woman named Hippolyta."

"Yes. We were as well."

"Right. So about eighty years ago she got a bit broody and arranged to have a daughter sculpted from clay and then brought to life by magic. That's a version of her. Incid-."

I stop talking, because even I can read the room better than to continue.

"A daughter?"

"Um. Yes. I mean, that's not your version. As far as I know, she's from a world where a hugely powerful demon twisted everything and everyone with its magic. She had a helmet which was warping her mind, which I destroyed before bringing her here."

"She is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta."

"I haven't had a coherent conversation with her, but that seems most likely. I mean, I don’t know what sort of state-"

Three priestesses dressed as clerics of Apollo enter the plaza and immediately head towards Diana with a stretcher. I lay her out on it before removing my construct hold on her.

"-she'll be in when she wakes up. I imagine that she'll want to go home. Archon, I feel like I'm missing some pertinent information that would allow me to better understand what's going on."

She nods. "It seems that you are. Allow me to explain the state of things."

 

16th September 2012
17:32 GMT -4

"It was Hippolyta."

Egeria nods. "When she did not return, we assumed that she had died. I would thank you for the closure your news brought were it not for the fact that her having a daughter here will simply maintain those feelings."

"I mean, I only recently arrived myself. I don't know for certain that she's dead."

But this world doesn’t use magic. Which means that the human/kryptonian technology used in their databases isn't warded.

"Hang on-. You're right, it's an upset. Let me see if I can find out for certain one way or the other."

Ring, access American and German databases. Allied superheroes from the Second World War. What happened to Hippolyta?

Accessing. Archival images available.

I take a hologram projector out of subspace and activate it, displaying the images. Allied propaganda pictures which were widely distributed at the time appear to have survived well enough despite the book burning. A picture of a fairly familiar Justice Society line-up is most popular in modern publications, with Queen Hippolyta standing next to Ted Grant. The German intelligence file on her is fairly limited, mostly relating to public displays of her abilities. A few mission reports, and…

"Reports from near the end of the war are fairly chaotic. The Germans think she died during the Battle of New York, but a lot of the weapons they used didn't leave much in the way of remains and they never confirmed it. There are a few people around who might remember in more detail, but the Americans weren't interested in providing information to the people occupying their country and the Germans were spread too thin to track down everyone." I shrug. "I'm sorry."

"She never had a daughter. After three thousand years, the idea of having anyone else as queen…"

I nod. "I expected as much. It would probably be the same on my Themyscira. Before Diana, when they told the woman who was technically Crown Princess that she was first in line to the throne, she's supposed to have said 'Are you sure?'"

Egeria takes a moment to study the image.

"Those were her companions?"

I nod. "Yes. Other warriors with more than human abilities. Unfortunately, the Germans had far better weapons, and… Overman."

"Yes. We are aware of him. And what his people did with the tools they took from his birth-pod."

"To be fair, they did what they could to hide that stuff from him."

"That they did it is enough."

I hold my hands up. "I'm not trying to defend the Nazis. Just… Him, personally. He was an adolescent, fighting for his country. He wasn't really in any position to reflect on what happens and I know that he bitterly regrets it now. I'd rather that he hadn't fought -the alternate version of my original home nation was on the losing side- but there's not much we can do about it now."

"No, I suppose not." She sighs thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what I would do if we knew who killed her. Revenge seems… Pointless."

"It usually is. Unless you're going somewhere with it. But, ah… That does lead on to the other thing I wanted to sound you out about."

"Yes?"

"Though, first. Do you want me to repair your eye?"

"I was blinded by a demon's claw. Magic cannot heal the wound."

"My rings aren't magic. Yes, I know that it looks similar and Greeks traditionally didn't distinguish between extreme feats of skill and pure magic, but it's technically not. Also, I've seen demon-inflicted wounds before and I strongly suspect that sufficiently sophisticated magic could heal it."

"What are you? I have seen the Green Lantern, and if you are speaking the truth then your abilities far outstrip his."

They've seen..?

"As I understand it, his ring was damaged a few centuries ago when its creators were betrayed by the one wielding it. Mine are-." I glance at Larfleeze's old ring. "Well, one of them is in better repair." I shrug. "If you want a demonstration I can cut my right arm off and reattach it."

Egeria leans forward slightly. "You say that you are an Amazon."

"I'm a citizen of Themyscira. I'm not fully acculturated."

"What gods do you worship?"

"I pay due homage to the Gods of Olympus, naturally. I have gods that I am closer to than others, if that's what you mean."

"Name them."

"Hephaestus and Ploutos. Hades." I raise my hands defensively. "I know that a lot of versions of him aren't particularly nice, but the one from my world is a good person. Thoroughly committed to being a good king to the dead."

"Your people are fortunate."

I nod. "I know. He already intervened on my behalf with another pantheon that tried to poach me the first time I died."

"Is he your particular patron?"

"Ah… No. That would be Eris."

And the tension is back at once. Egeria straightens slightly, leaning forward in her seat so that she can leap into action. Philippus's hand returns to the pommel of her sword, while New Wonder Woman's leans slightly so that she can leap at me should the need arise.

"Eris sent you here?"

"No, Eris trusts me to provide her with entertainment without needing to intervene personally. I search for status quos that I find iniquitous and change them, causing havoc with established social systems. My job here… Well, do you want anything from me?"

"I want to know what 'minor requests' you intend to make before I indebt us to you."

"Horrible as the Nazi World Order is, it's still better than how things are on the version of Earth that this Diana came from. We're trying to either fix that, or at least cut it off from other Earths like this one. And the Nazis are almost wholly ignorant of magic. I certainly don't expect you to feel any camaraderie with them, but an invasion of possessed demigods would be bad for you as well, since they would actually have some idea of how to get through your wards."

"Sound reasoning. And in return?"

"What do you want?" I shrug. "Amazons on my Earth couldn't heal certain types of long-term injury. Fully restoring them was one of the first things I did after gaining citizenship. I remember… Seeing an opinion piece years ago which claimed that if everyone on Earth became unageing, people still wouldn't usually live past eight hundred due to disease and injury. I've restored limbs, fingers, eyes, ears-. And I can use this ring to enable one woman to make another pregnant; that's been increasingly popular."

One woman standing behind Egeria stands a little straighter.

"There's little I can't do with sufficient motivation, and my concern is more about time than ability. So." I shrug again. "What is it that you want?"

 

16th September 2012
21:57 GMT

"What do I want?"

Nommo Balewa 10 regards me tiredly. He wasn't even hiding, really. No anti-detection wards at all. Really, why would he have them? The Reich doesn't have magicians who could try to find him or technology advanced enough to be turned aside by that sort of ward, and the other shamen… They've got better things to do than bother him.

"Even if there were something, why would you be allowed to geev it to us?"

His English isn't quite as good as Nommo Balewa 16. He hasn't had much reason to practise since the Reich took formal control of the African territories of Britain and Belgium after the Second World War.

"I realise that this is-. That this sounds strange, but-"

"You are not of this Earth. But you are human. There are other versions of Earth, then, that exist in reality and not merely in the reflections of the Dream?"

"Yes. I was able to find you because-."

"Yes, I am not eh fool."

He holds my gaze for a few moments before turning away with a sigh and walking through the village.

I follow. I get a few glances from the locals but they look away once they're sure that I'm not heading towards them. They're not afraid of me personally but white people being around isn't usually a good sign.

"Do you know how we live?"

I look around. It's all pretty backwards and primitive, but people live like this on Earth 16 in places. And I'm pretty sure they live like this in places on Earth Prime.

"Not in any detail."

"We are barred from having any technology judged to be 'outside of our cultural milieu'. Anything from Europe is banned. Anything from Asia is banned. The most productive farmlands are taken by white settlers while we are driven into reservations like this."

I frown. "How do they judge whether a thing is 'European-?" I shake my head. "Sorry, for a moment there I forgot we were talking about Nazis."

"It depends. In some places, anything that is not in copyright will be accepted. In others, even the wheel is prohibited. It depends on how vindictively the local Group Leader of the African SS wishes to behave."

"But magic's fine."

"Yes. And I know why you are here. The German Empire is being attacked by demons."

"Yes. And.. I-."

"No."

"You haven't heard my offer."

"And you have not lived in eh Reservation. We may only farm and hunt inside the Reservation, and we can only live where we are told. We cannot use the building techniques which would let us build better and we cannot use chemical medicine. If we could migrate then disease would be less of a problem, but we must stay in one place. It is a slow death."

"Would you all like to leave?"

He stops walking and turns back to face me.

"You do not have the influence to change the policy of the Empire."

"I don't need to. The possessed come from an alternate Earth. Not mine, and not this one. So many people have died on the other side that there's more than enough space for everyone who wants to leave. If you take part, you'll have the opportunity to study the portals in detail. When it's over, you could just portal everyone yourself, assuming that they weren't willing to let you go in the name of the full ethnic cleansing of this Earth."

"True. Perhaps appealing. But that is no reason for me to involve myself now."

"The demons aren't going to differentiate between black people and white people."

"The Empire says that magic is for negroes. They say that it is a sign of foolishness and mental weakness."

"I'm not trying to defend-."

"I will not let this Earth be destroyed. But I think that the interests of the world are best served by letting the Empire bleed a little. I think it is best if they test their devotion of their ideals in difficult circumstances, where the answers are not handed to them by aliens or by men from the future. I think it is best that they see that they need magic as the negro people of Africa need medicine."

"Yeah, that's…" I look away for a moment. "I can't say that's not fair. The version of you from my home parallel is usually pretty non-interventionist, too."

"Why would you ask me, if even he would refuse you?"

"No, I don't think he'd refuse. Not in a situation like this. He doesn't like people with super powers dominating civilisation."

"So he would remove Overman first. And Overman is already gone. Perhaps I should take as many of the Empire's heroes through the portal as I can, and then strand them there with him."

"Given how old you are, I'd be surprised if you were that vengeful. But no. He might have destroyed Overman's pod if he'd been on the ball in the thirties, but I think he'd find the idea that there was an Earth that was ruined by a single possessed man far more offensive than one cruel and racist empire. You can't tell me that you haven't seen things like this before."

"I have seen rulers offering advantages to their own tribe within an empire before. I have even seen tribes slaughtered before. But I have never seen it on this scale before. And before, there was somewhere to flee to."

"You could have a whole Earth to flee to."

"I will watch what happens. But I have no interest in involving myself to aid the Empire."

"I understand. Thank you for hearing me out." I offer him my right hand, and after a brief hesitation he takes it. "Let me know if you change your mind, so that we can coordinate properly."

"I will."

I raise my right hand to my forehead,

step out

and return to the material universe in what would on Earth 16 be Bialya. To be more precise, the site of Nabu's tomb. Scans show nothing, and given that Doctor Fate was on the Justice Society it's most likely that he was either destroyed or is already in Nazi captivity. Assuming that this is one of the dominant Nabus. It could just as well be one of the purely advisory ones.

I step out again and

16th September 2012
18:01 GMT -4

appear in Themyscira's hospital. "Any news?"

The first priestess to recover from the surprise of my reappearance nods.

"She wakes, but she is confused. Her mind is clouded."

I nod. "Let's see if I can help with that."

 

16th September 2012
18:03 GMT -4

"Good evening, Princess."

Diana looked at me the moment I entered the room, though I don't know if that was because she recognised me from our fight or because she wasn't expecting a man on Themyscira. I suppose there's an outside chance that she knew the 'me' from her parallel. I'm not completely sure that I could stop a demonically-empowered Superman, and I was at the upper end of the power curve during the multi-me meet-up.

"No. No, it isn't."

She's lying on a bed, head propped up slightly by the pillow. She tries to push herself upright only for her right hand to slide out from under her.

"I-."

"You have just been freed from possession. I doubt that you're going to be up to much for a while."

"Themyscira-. Themyscira was destroyed. Where am I?"

"An alternate reality. Earth Ten, if that means anything to you."

She nods. "Uncle-. Uncle Sam."

"Ah… He's around somewhere. I don't know what you're expecting, but at this point the Allies have lost pretty comprehensively. Look, is there anything we can do for you? The Diana from my home parallel usually heals pretty quickly, but I don't think she's ever been through what you did."

She flops back, barely-open eyes looking at the ceiling.

"I have a healing-."

"Earth."

Earth? Oh earth, yes, clear as mud.

"Understood."

I attach a filament to her and lift her up.

"Where are you-?"

"Earth." I look at the priestess who asked and shrug. "I assume it's a magical thing?"

"R-return."

Diana hasn't ever mentioned anything special about her and soil to me. I don't remember anything about the subject from any of her mission reports. Still, given the usual Themyscira attitude to sacred ritual magic I shouldn't be completely surprised if she considered it a sacred trust.

I head out of the room with Diana floating supine behind me, two of the priestesses following on behind. The nearest piece of greenery… A small park, meant for convalescents taking constitutionals. Small stone path, a few trees… The roots of one of the trees have drained the soil of water enough to kill the grass and expose themselves.

I tilt her slightly so that she can look where I'm pointing.

"There?"

A weak nod.

"Alright."

I float her over to the bare soil and lay her awkwardly on it. She.. squirms, clearly not entirely in control of her body but trying to get her bare skin into contact with the ground. I reposition her slightly to make it easier.

"What are-?"

The colour washes from her skin as her flesh turns-. Clay, she's turning herself back into clay!

Um. Um.

I didn't see any black. Yes, her internal connections were kind of a mess and I couldn’t read them reliably, but black is noticeable. If she intended to kill herself then I'd have seen some sign of it. So that's not what this is.

"She can turn herself back into clay?" The older priestess frowns at me. "She can do that?"

"That's what I'm hoping."

Her frown deepens. "You don't know?"

"I've known her for about half an hour longer than you. How well do you think I know her?"

"I-." Her frown fades slightly and she nods. "I suppose that you have a valid point. What can we do for her?"

"I met Gaea once, and that was for a few seconds. I don't know what this involves or what she hopes to get out of it."

"You met Gaea?"

"A demon abducted and warped a dryad. I freed her and healed her and then brought her to my Themyscira. Gaea appeared to check up on her. This is new."

I take out a rune stone and… Yes, magic is happening. Fairly intense magic, but I've never seen a woman made of clay brought to life before. It is at least reassuring that something has this in hand.

"So… You get out a lot?"

"Your meaning?"

"Do you get off the island a lot?"

"No, not at all."

"So, do you know much about the outside world?"

"Our sisters of the Bana-Mighdall brought us much knowledge when they fled from the Reich."

No idea who they are. I don't remember anything about them from either the comics or Earth 16. Is that what they call the Amazons who went back to Greece here? Have to ask my Diana about them.

"Were the Reich the ones who did this to her? Was this the result of their magic?"

"No, the Reich know nothing of magic. Their ideology forbids it. This was an action taken by one of their other enemies."

"The Reich killed Queen Hippolyta. Why would their enemies do this to one of our sisters?"

"Because the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, and nothing more. Neither side has any interest in cooperating with you. The only difference is that-."

Diana swells slightly, then a thin outer layer of clay flakes off her fully restored skin as she pushes herself upright.

"Feeling better, sir?"

"My body is hale, but my spirit may never recover." She looks around, right hand rising up to brush clay fragments from her hair. "This is Themyscira on Earth Ten?"

"Yes."

"You are native to this world."

"No, Earth Sixteen. A group of supervillains from my Earth have been raiding your Earth for technology while all the survivors are occupied. This parallel is being attacked by-."

"I know. I was a part of it." She exhales. "Nazis."

"Nazis who can still learn to be better."

She gives me an odd look.

"Perhaps. Who rules here? I must discuss the matter with them."

 

16th September 2012
18:14 GMT -4

"There was no sign that I could see. One day the greatest, most noble man I knew simply… Took leave of his reason."

Diana hesitates for a moment, then presses on. Egeria appears to have cleared her schedule, because this meeting of the government of Themyscira assembled very quickly once I made it known that Diana wanted to meet them. In addition to the Archon herself there's the local Wonder Woman, Philippus, leading priestesses, senators and even Magala lurking in the background.

"He tore apart his home city, killing many of those who were his friends. Then he rose into the sky and laid waste to the entire world. Themyscira was… Burned. There were no survivors."

"No idea why, at all?"

"From the overwhelming power of the demonic magic that now blankets the world, I think that he was somehow possessed." She shakes her head. "The few magic users who weren't driven mad by the sudden change in Earth's magic systems… He killed them during our counterattack."

"I'm sorry to press you like this, but if there was any indication of which demon, or who might have conjured it, or anything that would help banish it…"

She gives her head a small shake.

"Zatanna tried to discover its name. She could not find a match in any of her tomes. Jason Blood conjured demons to interrogate, and none of them knew either. Perhaps… Perhaps it was not a demon, but some combination of telepathic control and mutagen?"

"How did you end up with the crown?"

"I don't clearly remember. I remember being defeated by Superman, and then everything is a blur of fury and madness."

"Can you stomach working with the local Nazis in order to defeat him?"

"I will have to. A reckoning for them will come eventually."

"Could we not have a reckoning and instead use the fact that they're having peaceful contact with other cultures who don't share their viewpoint to encourage a gradual social reform process?" She looks mildly puzzled. "We're going to be working with their version of Superman, and while he's fully aware of how bad Nazi society is he isn't quite ready to sign off on burning the whole system down."

Philippus frowns. "One man devastated a world? I'm sorry, Princess,-"

That title gets her a few looks.

"-but I don’t see how that's possible."

"Superman's strength puts Herakles to shame. His endurance would put Atlas to shame, and his swiftness…"

Diana pushes her chair back, stands, and then floats into the air. About half the audience check her feet, presumably looking for the Demon Earth version of the Sandals. And then she's gone, reappearing on the other side of the room to the stares of the crowd.

"The Five blessed me with abilities far greater than those of mortal women. I can move with supernatural speed when I must. Superman usually holds himself back to avoid causing unnecessary harm." She lands and walks slowly back, making eye contact with each member of the audience as she does. "He did not hold back during our fight."

I nod, generating a small stone tower construct. "Unlike Herakles, Superman has natural flight. If Herakles wants to destroy a building and he punches it-"

I make a construct Herakles and have him punch the tower.

"-he goes flying because he can't grip the ground well enough to keep his feet."

The tower cracks slightly and Herakles goes flying backwards. Artemis and Philippus nod, both being familiar with the Gauntlets. Most of the others look to them for confirmation.

"Superman can fly faster than sound. If he wants to destroy a building-"

An orange blur strikes the tower, which collapses to rubble.

"-that happens. Now imagine that rather than a building, he flew into the ground hard enough to make the ground shake."

I pull the image out and show a city of towers falling.

"Or punches straight through it to the magma beneath."

I pull the image out further and show the likely outcome of Kal-El punching through the planet's crust. Dust and rock fly into the atmosphere, magma vomits free and the land is levelled for miles around.

"And then you've got the knock-on effect on the atmosphere. Civilisation is only ever two meals from collapse, and enough dust in the upper atmosphere and you can go years without sun."

"He was more inclined to use heat vision or throw things." Diana retakes her seat. "But the point is well-made."

Egeria nods. "That is frightful power to be in any man's hands. What aid do you want?"

"There would be little point in bringing an army. But if-" Diana makes eye contact with Wonder Woman 10, who nods. "-your Wonder Woman will accompany me, it will greatly improve our ability to fight through the corrupted warriors who will oppose our attacks."

"And Superman himself?"

"Basically, prepare banishment effects before we go in, then let Superman Sixteen and Overman pin him in place while we use them. I've also got weapons that he's weak against, but I'm a little reluctant to just kill someone that full of demon magic in case the result is worse than leaving him there. We haven't planned in any detail yet because we still don't know what resources we're going to have available."

Hm.

"Speaking of that, can I borrow your smiths for a few hours? I've learned a lot about armour transmutation, but I can't do that part of the forging process myself. I-" I look at Diana. "-doubt that you really want to go into a fight wearing demonic armour."

"Have you made armor for the version of me from your world?"

"It was a team effort with Io, Ted Kord and an Atlantean thaumaturgist named Sephtian. The armour will still be good without Sephtian, it just won't have some extra magic effects." I shrug. "I can also make you a sword, but… It depends on what sort of proportion of the possessed people you think can be saved."

She nods solemnly. "It is a hard decision, but I believe that saving what is left of my world must come before saving my friends and comrades."

I nod. "Rightoh. Sword and shield then?" She nods, and I turn to the other Artemis. "And for you?"

"I am content with the weapons which I already have."

Egeria nods. "Io will be able to work with you on creating your armour. Is that all?"

"It would be really helpful if Magala could help with opening the portal. We've got one guy recovering in hospital who knows how they work, and the Reich doesn't encourage magic study."

Egeria looks back and Magala, who nods reluctantly. Diana smiles at her.

"Then we are ready to begin."

 

16th September 2012
23:37 GMT +1

Atom Man watches as I bring the plane construct in to land on the Wewelsburg landing area. Diana looks godly in her golden orichalcum armour, even if she's going to reek of sweat in an hour or so. Wonder Woman 10 -her name's Artemis, and I kind of remember an Amazon by that name- looks like a Wonder Woman.

"Orange Lantern. You were successful, or are these friends from your home country?"

"Both. Allow me to properly introduce Princess Diana of Themyscira Six Six Six-" A number which was just asking for something like this to happen. "-and Artemis of Themyscira Ten."

He regards them each for a moment.

"And what is their racial background?"

…

Because he's a Nazi. I sigh internally and scan Artemis.

"Ah… The red head appears to be a mixture of Middle-Eastern and European descent and the Princess is… Clay brought to life by the Hellenistic gods, so I don't know what that counts as?"

"A golem? I've had bad experiences-."

"Wrong god. Look, do you have some sort of museum for equipment taken from Allied superheroes during the Second World War?"

"Museum? No. We have research laboratories, but everything from the Second Great War has been studied extensively. Anything that wasn't destroyed would be in secure storage."

"Can you check whether that includes a golden lasso? You were right, there was a Wonder Woman who fought for the allies, and if any of her equipment survived-."

"Then we would keep it and not return it to the allies of our former enemies."

"Have you checked? Because if you haven't got it, then this will be a pointless argument."

"Hold on." He's quiet for several moments. "Yes. Ah. Under the circumstances, I believe that we can release it to you."

"Oh?"

"It appears to be a magic artefact, and causes psychological harm to anyone who touches it. We tried to destroy it several times"

"Don’t try and destroy it. I've seen what happens, it's not good."

"The researchers got interested when they couldn't, but they couldn't get a sample of the material. It's actually on the site, if-."

There's a bang and a crash and shouts from somewhere south of us, then Diana and Artemis fly back onto the landing pad. Diana has the lasso twisted around her right arm and Artemis dusts some brick dust off her right shoulder.

"I have it."

"Diana, I understand how important the lasso is in Amazon culture, but we're going to have to persuade groups of people who don’t like each other to work together to make this work, and it would be helpful if you didn't demolish their buildings."

"No, no." Atom Man is studying her. "National Socialist ideology respects strength. And she's the first person we've seen who could wield it since the original Wonder Woman. It's worthwhile data."

Artemis narrows her eyes. "You aren't getting it back."

"Artemis, were you listening to me? We haven't agreed any terms, and committing yourself to a position at this point…"

She floats upwards and then shoots into the air with a sneer.

"I'm sorry about-."

Atom Man's eyes follow her as she vanishes from sight.

"No, no, that's fine. Is she married?"

Diana's jaw tightens.

"Um. I.. didn't think-."

"She's European. It doesn't matter if she comes from an isolated island somewhere. She can learn culture."

"I don't think it would work, and please leave off pursuing her until after the mission is complete."

"Who is in command here?"

Atom Man turns back to Diana. "The Bat. But he's an old man and he's in bed. Donner should have heard-."

Ms. Brauer lands on the landing pad, clenches her fists as she sees Diana and then relaxes slightly as she sees me.

"Lantern?"

"Restoring Diana was completely successful. Glad to see that you're feeling better. I also got a magic user, though one of my-"

Magala nervously sticks her head out of the construct aircraft.

"-other possibles turned me down."

Ms. Brauer walks up to Diana and extends her right hand.

"Hallo. I'm Donner."

Diana steps forward to shake the proffered limb. "Diana. Will you be taking part in the attack?"

"That's what I'm for. Is the lasso part of the plan for defeating the Over Overman?"

"It might be. The lasso is unbreakable. We might be able to use it to restrain Superman." She turns to me. "What do you mean, you know what happens if it breaks?"

"The concept of truth breaks down and reality becomes perception. Please don't break it. And please accept that however much you don't like it, if someone bound by it says something then they're speaking the truth."

"That sounded specific. How do you know-?"

"This isn't my first parallel universe. Things happen. Donner, is the wizard awake yet?"

"Yes, but he's not very coherent."

Diana nods. "I will talk to him. Perhaps our shared experiences will enable me able to reach him."

"I'll prepare a ritual space for him to work. Atom Man, can you tell the garrison commander to work with me? I suspect that we'll need fortifications, and I imagine you'd prefer it if they weren't AI controlled."

"I will do that. Will we need human sacrifices?"

"I… Really hope not?"

"I ask because we don't have any detainment centres near here, so if you want them here within an hour we should notify them now."

"Let's-. Let's not jump the gun. I'll get to work."

 

17th September 2012
02:13 GMT +1

José Luis Lopez shakily finishes off the last of the inscriptions, glancing back at Magala as he cautiously rises to his feet. She waves her hands at the whole layout with her eyes half-closed, then nods.

"That's it?" The large moustachioed man with metal skin who was introduced to me as 'Reichsmark' doesn't look convinced. "You think we can just walk through now?"

Mr. Lopez opens his mouth to respond. Then he hesitates, prompting Reichsmark to make a contemptuous hiss through his teeth.

"Then why-?"

"Reichsmark." The Bat shakes his head. "This is a focusing aid for the magic, which comes from them. They can't open a portal without it, but as soon as they start using magic then anyone on the other side will know it."

The almost cartoonishly obvious vampire next to him nods. 'Count Berlin', real name not provided, is a survivor from the Reich's early super soldier experiments. I'm sort of assuming that he was from this universe's Nazi version of the Creature Commandoes, but that information hasn't been volunteered.

"Like a drop of blood in the water calling sharks. It would be foolish to begin that part of the process until we are ready."

Reichsmark shrugs. "I'm ready now."

There's a clank as Baron Gestapo -and for goodness sake, some of these names- sets his squad of hulking robots to ready mode. The Baron himself has a more defensively-weighted version of Atom Man's power armour, and as I understand it functions as a minion controller rather than a front line fighter.

"We're all ready now, Sven. That's what the design being complete means." Reichsmark gives him a slight glare before turning away in an attempt to imply that Gestapo isn't worth his time to argue with. "Well, boy?"

"I-I can begin opening it. If they try to stop me then it won't work, but… I don't think they will. They-. They want people."

The dark brown thing introduced to me as Shadow of War floats a little closer. Apparently there's a female metahuman under there somewhere, rather than the wraith I originally assumed she was. No idea whether whatever that is turns off or not.

"They will learn that war is no kinder to demons than it is to mortal men."

The Bat nods. "We're ready. Open the portal, boy."

Mr. Lopez plants his crosier at the focus of the ritual space and starts quietly praying. The symbols he's been drawing start glowing with white/blue light, dimly at first but with gradually increasing intensity.

Reichsmark grimaces. "That's not what the portals look like."

"That's because he's not using demon magic. Mister Lopez has a far higher calling."

Baroness Reiter straightens slightly in surprise. "His magic comes from God?"

"No. If it came from Yahweh, it would burn with golden fire and the Count would be dust. This is pure human faith manifesting. I know that you don't really know enough to understand it, but achieving something like this through faith alone is actually extremely impressive. Most magicians would need to make pacts with various supernatural beings or access to high powered magic artefacts to do something like this."

White Dragon's hulking armour stomps forward.

"If you want to suck your pet greaser off that badly, wait until after the mission."

I can't help but chuckle at the fact that in a room full of German Nazis, it's the token American on the team who's racist about the Mexican.

The Baroness appears to agree. "Dragon, he's in control of the portal. Do you want to be left behind?"

"It's…" Mr. Lopez bows his head slightly. "It's opening. You should go through as quickly as possible."

The Bat nods. "Baroness, Lantern. You-."

Reichsmark gives him a glare of protest.

"Fine. Baroness, Lantern, Reichsmark. Go through first. Scout the area and attempt to contact Overman and Overgirl. If you can signal us within the first minute, we will deploy at your direction. Otherwise we're coming through shooting after that. Once it's secure -unless we're all dead-"

Reichsmark snorts.

"-Crusader will join us on the far side while Ms. Magala will hold the portal open from this side."

A blue/white film descends vertically across the ritual space, rippling for a moment before stabilising.

"Go. God-"

Reichsmark grins. "Yes sir!"

"-be with you."

The Baroness vanishes in a yellow blur.

I fly through and Reichsmark leaps after me. Through to the other side… Some ruins, dust and ash and craters where something hit the ground hard.

"Orange Lantern to Superman."

I rise up into the air as the Baroness zigzags across the countryside. Reichsmark just sort of stumbles to a disappointed halt. "Where are all the demons?"

"Orange Lantern to Superman."

"Superman here. You make it out alright?"

"I made it to Angelika's home parallel. And brought back… People with whom we can temporarily align ourselves."

"You mean Nazis."

"And the local Wonder Woman, as well as the Wonder Woman from this parallel whom we managed to purify. How are things in South America?"

"We haven't been discovered. We could attack any time, but unless we've got some way to remove the demon magic from everyone I don't know what we're going to do with them."

"Could you get everyone out of the Fortress and then wreck it? That should disrupt the ritual space."

"We can do that."

"I'll send a map of the interior to Overgirl's personal computer."

"Is there anything I should look for inside?"

"The Spear of Destiny. If we're really lucky, that is what is creating the world wide corruption effect. Get it out of his hands, and we just have to deal with Demon Superman."

"And if we're not, we should still get it out of his hands anyway. I don't suppose you could do anything with it, could you?"

"I don't think so. And there's probably still a Larfleeze in this universe-." Hm. "But there's a magician from here we purified on the other side of our portal. If we gave it to him, that might help."

"Alright, we'll do that. You should hear from us in a couple of minutes. Where are you?"

"Western Germany. We'll expect you when you get here."

"Superman out."

Baroness Reiter comes to a halt back at the portal.

"All clear. Ruins, wreckages and hovels."

"No one attacked the portal in the last thirty seconds."

I head back down. "Overman is in good health and will be heading here after hitting a target in South America. I think we can call in the team."

 

17th September 2012
02:21 GMT +1

Atom Man takes a moment to look down at the state of central Europe.

"It's strange. I've never thought what it would be like if Overman turned his wrath on us."

"Your suit has kryptonite lasers."

"Yes. But that was to prepare for a theoretical risk. Seeing it in person is different."

"You could treat this as a trial run. If you can kill an Overman fortified by magic, you can probably beat the actual one."

"Yes, I just… It's Overman. The idea that anyone could beat him-."

"It can be done." Diana's voice has a hard edge to it. "It has been done before and it will be done again."

"I've got some gold kryptonite if you can switch the crystal?"

"That is not possible. We-."

Alert! Incoming-.

A roar of displaced air hurricanes past us, and then Overman, Superman and Angelika are-

"Angelika!"

-there, Baroness Reiter flying over at high speed to embrace her friend. Angelika enthusiastically returns her affection, pulling her into her chest with a smile.

"Gisela!"

Overman smiles in a slightly strained manner as he floats down towards the ground bound members of Axis Germania.

"Gentlemen. Ladies. Brothers and sisters in arms. Thank you for coming."

The Bat smiles. "Overman. I assumed that you would survive, but it is reassuring to see it directly."

Overgirl and the Baroness drift down towards Ms. Brauer, while Diana flies towards Superman. He proffers the spear.

"Can you do anything with this?"

She watches him for a few moments, studying his face-.

Superman shakes his head. "I'm… Sorry, I'm not him."

"No. But it's nice to be reminded of what he was, before…" She glances around. "This. I can't do anything with the Spear, but we're hoping that the Crusader can."

"I don't know if I like handing this over to a Nazi."

"No." She shakes her head. "Crusader is from this Earth. He's not a Nazi. He's just a devout Catholic who made an unfortunate choice with his name."

"Oh." Superman nods. "That's a little more reassuring. Who's in charge here?"

Overman raises his right arm to beckon Superman and Diana down. Superman nods, and the pair of them join him and The Bat for a discussion.

Didn't see much of Central Germany the first time. I don't know if Demon Superman bothered converting local superheroes. Actually, I've been assuming that was him, but actually it might just as well have been Wolf Krieger who did it. That could mean that the problem will resolve itself in short order, which would be nice.

Except that it might just make it easier for Truggs to loot the place, since he wouldn't have to worry about Demon Superman taking exception, or any of the other demonically-twisted crazies. Is that something he'd-? Yes, yes it is. Sic the superheroes on the problem, take advantage when everyone relaxes. But there's not much-.

Bats swarm in the sky to my left, eventually resolving into Count Berlin. He makes sure that he has my attention for a moment and then points eastward.

"There. Lantern. Can you see?"

I scan in that direction. "Looks like a refugee caravan. Or it could just be a caravan. Given all the changes to the atmosphere, farming has become quite difficult."

"No. The smell is wrong."

"How so?"

"Like another vampire, but… Different."

"I say ag-."

"I do not meet other vampires frequently. Only a few times. I have little to compare it to, but it's… Off."

"Orange Lantern to everyone. We might have a dozen or so vampires of indeterminate power heading this way."

"Count Berlin." Overman looks around, his eyes pointing in the direction they're coming from. "Take Orange Lantern and speak with them. We have no interest in fighting them, but will do so if necessary."

"Yes, Overman." He doesn't bother looking at me, instead heading towards their current location at moderate speed.

I fly alongside him.

"How does the Reich treat vampires generally?"

"They are exterminated. I was exempted due to my war record and loyal service." His eyes narrow slightly as our target gets into visual range. "But we are not here to destroy subhumans. Just to end a threat to the Reich."

"A valiant sacrifice on your part?"

"I will not talk about it with you."

He swoops down, and I hang back slightly to offer support without crowding some refugees. In densely populated cities vampires can make arrangements for blood. Heck, it wouldn't be hard for me to set up a synthetic blood still for them. Ms. Barr has been living off it for over a year at this point.

One of the vampires pulls his horse to a stop and waves.

"Hello, cousin!"

"State your business. We're busy."

"We're here to feed on the surviving humans of Germany, of course! Pickings are getting rather thin out east."

"You are from Russia?"

"From Markovia."

"Then return to there. Germany is not for you."

The other man looks mildly affronted. "You're claiming all of Germany as your feeding ground?"

"I'm claiming all of Germany as my Fatherland. Is your night vision so bad that you cannot see the swastika?"

The Markovian vampire looks puzzled.

"You're actually a Nazi? I thought it was just for decoration."

"I am a proud National Socialist and a loyal son of the Fatherland."

"Then perhaps you should be concerned to know that I have left followers in every town that I have passed. They are ordered to send a supply of blood to sustain us… But they can be ordered to-"

Ring, scan likely route of travel, towns and other settlements they might have encountered. Locate animate humanoids without heartbeats.

Located.

"-kill everyone just as easily-"

I

step out

 

17th September 2012
02:25 GMT +1

Mildly interesting fact: the whole thing about wooden stakes is a myth. It's just that most vampires can heal fast enough that stab wounds such as might be inflicted by a narrow stabbing weapon don't really threaten their existence. A wide wound through the heart on the other hand is virtually impossible to heal, and those tough enough to survive it are obviously impaired by the lack of blood flow.

Point is, it's-

"AGHYOUFUCKINGCRAZYBASTARD! I'LL EAT YOUR MOTHER!"

-not the wood.

Construct hooks work just fine.

"How are you still moving?"

"WE ARE A SUPERIOR FUCKING BREED!"

"Superior to humans?"

"TO-! GAH!" The vampire reaches up to the construct hook sticking through her chest with both hands, but isn't able to muster enough strength to damage it. "WEAKER VAMPIRES!"

"Ah." I nod. "Just wanted to be certain. What exactly do you mean by that?"

"WE ARE IMMUNE-! FUCK, TAKE THIS OUT OF MY CHEST!"

"That doesn't sound like a good idea. Though I am impressed that you're still functional."

I look over to the Tree of Pain that I've set up, the other vampires on it somehow still being animate.

"Orange Lantern to Count Berlin. I've identified and removed all vampires in the region."

"Finally. Out."

I bring the hook a little closer.

"Immune to what?"

"SUNLIGHT! GARLIC! RIVERS! ARRRRGHHAHAH!"

"And crosses?"

"YESYESFUCKINGYES!"

"How about religious symbols from other religions?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Seeds?"

"WHAT?"

"Well." I pull a vial of what I suspect to be an alchemical solution out of her clothes. "It's interesting, anyway."

I put construct clamps on her arms and legs, remove the hook-

She gasps with relief.

-and impale her on the Tree.

"AHNOAH-H-H!"

And then pick up the Tree.

"AAAAGHUUHHHH!"

And fly back to where the boss vampire was talking to Count Berlin.

Boss vampire is shivering on the floor, trying to crawl away from Shadow of War. Reichsmark-

"Stand up and fight, trouser-shitter!"

-is squaring up to a vampire who has already had half of their face caved in but gamely throws himself at the metal-skinned git, claws and surviving teeth extended. Reichsmark takes a stance and extends, the blade of his right hand punching right through the vampire's chest and spine.

A vampire who feels lucky lunges at Baroness Reiter, and he completes his lunge in the form of dust as a torrent of pink energy erupts from her face and disintegrates him.

Angelika floats down over the caravan.

"Would everyone who would like to surrender-"

Energy pulses from Baron Gestapo's robots begin hitting home as they lumber into view.

"-please come over here-"

Ms. Brauer picks her opponent up and hurls them into a wooden caravan face first. The vampire punches through the side, then the other side, and lands under Angelika.

"-and adopt a submissive posture."

I replant the Tree. Angelika regards it for a moment.

"Impaling yourself is not necessary."

White Dragon looks up from where he's incinerating a couple of vampires.

"And suddenly I respect you."

"The difference is that they can answer questions, and can amend their lives and live moral lives in-" His flames are turned away by a construct barrier. "-future."

"Faggot."

"I will take that as a compliment."

"I surrender! I surrender!"

A quick-thinking vampire uses their just-short-of-super speed to dive and cower under Angelika. The other survivors cringingly scurry in the same direction, another flame blast from White Dragon hitting another construct shield.

"I bet you're the kind of faggot who fucks his own asshole."

"That would require my penis to be about fourteen inches long. Are you sure that's the insult you wish to make?"

White Dragon stares at me for a moment, then turns around and stomps back towards the portal site.

"Good." Angelika puts her hands on hips and looks down at the bedraggled-looking undead below her. "Now, who is in charge?"

"Prince Roderick!"

Multiple fingers point towards the man cowering before Shadow of War.

"And why are you following him?"

"We would starve if we did not!"

"Miss Talkative over there-" I point to the Tree. "-was trying to feed me a line about vampiric superiority?"

"She does that with everything! Even before she was a vampire!"

"Starvation shouldn't be a problem. I can build you a machine to create new blood for you."

"Really?"

"Yes. But I'm afraid that we're going to need some things from you in return."

 

16th September 2012
21:02 GMT -5

"Shadow of War, in position."

In Babylon 5, the character Mr Morden once told the character Prime Minister Londo Mollari, 'What are you going to do, Mollari, eh? Blow up the island?'. And Mollari replies, 'Actually…'.

"Baron Gestapo, in position."

In the comics, that… Weird, Middle Eastern Zod once turned the sun red in order to weaken Superman. I could do that, eventually, but it wouldn't be very healthy for the Earth or the Sun. Instead, I'm creating a giant filter and surrounding it with gold kryptonite crystals. Superman, Overman and Overgirl know not to come anywhere near this, but demons aren't known for their sound judgement.

"Baroness Reiter in position."

Of course, it's still dark where the Demon Superman is, but this is a misdirect/trap, so-.

Gosh… Darn he's huge. I thought the big heat vision beam when we first arrived was… I don't know, diffusion in the atmosphere due to the distance. Nope. That's just how big possession has made him. Somehow. I… Don't know enough about demon magic to know how that could happen. I mean, I'm hoping it's just a result of the presence of the demon, because… I don't know what we'll do if he's stuck like that.

Heh-.

Ahcrap I think he just looked at me. I think. He looked this way and he was using telescopic vision, I know that for certain. But I don't know if he was looking at me specifically.

Aahhh, I hate the fact that cold fields don't work in a vacuum. I've set up some cold-field-gas-contained-by-force fields traps, but I'm pretty sure he can just fly around those. But I'm as ready as I'm going to get.

I generate a gold kryptonite laser.

"Orange Lantern in position."

Bombarding Demon Superman with kryptonite won't work when he's got no pressing reason to stay in one place. And I can't do it while he's fighting because we've got three kryptonians on our side who will be affected as well. And that's assuming that I can keep up when they're moving at maximum speed, which…

Probably not.

I watch as… Yes, they actually found Demon Flash. The local one is an older Wallace West, according to Diana. According to her, Demon Superman had him attacking the few people who managed to resist the corruption effect in America, but she had no idea what he'd been doing recently. I watch as the red blur runs back into Metropolis, completely ignoring the various people trying to scratch out a living from the ruins. It passes them in a f-. Second, and few of them bother to react.

Demon Superman doesn't look around. Instead, he lowers his head and looks back across the Atlantic to where our kryptonians are waiting.

And doesn't react at all as Baroness Reiter dashes past him wearing Flash's stolen uniform, x-ionised knife flying from her right hand to bite into his right ankle.

That gets a reaction. Red light blasts from his eyes but she's still moving, not faster than the beam but faster than his head can turn. Or at least is turning at the moment. He still hasn't got up from his customary seat in the wreckage of the Daily Planet but the expression on his face has gotten just a little more wrathful.

I fire the kryptonite laser.

From this far away I actually get to count a few seconds before-.

It hits, but all the reaction it gets is a quick look up-.

Plasma shots from Baron Gestapo's robots slam into his left side from their position on the ruins of the Statue of Providence in the harbour. Okay, he's not affected by gold kryptonite.

"It looks like he's not affected by gold kryptonite."

"Counter-fire read-."

Heat vision ignites the air between Demon Superman and the Statue, only to vanish as three of the other robots fire cold beams into its path. Some radiation gets through, but they're easily tough enough to survive it.

"Ready." Baron Gestapo can't keep the smugness out of his voice. "I told you that the targetting-."

Demon Superman lowers his gaze, moving the heat beam so that it's pointing at the water of the bay. The cold gun armed robots match his angle even as their brethren continue to pepper him with shots. We were pretty sure that they wouldn't do any damage, but that's not what they're supposed to do.

"That the targetting system would be able to cope."

Another knife buries itself into Demon Superman's leg as Baroness Reiter dashes past him on the opposite side, and I see it as his right hand turns the rubble it's resting on into dust.

He's not hurt, but he's getting annoyed. Okay, can I do anything about his protective aura? If he stays exactly where he is, maybe. Diana said that they didn't have any specifically anti-magic weapons, so he's probably never encountered anything exactly like my mage slayers before.

I'm mostly supposed to be a distraction until he gets up, so… Yes. I change the laser construct into a teleport gun construct, because a railgun shot would be far too slow. It won't hit hard enough to hurt him… Heck, if he makes an effort he could still dodge it. But it looks like we haven't annoyed him enough to even get up yet.

What is he waiting for?

A few miles south west Demon Citizen Steel is intercepted by a vampire enthralled to Count Berlin. The vampire won't be able to hurt him significantly but the reverse is also true as the vampire can turn into mist or a cloud of bats to evade Heywood's punches. If we're really lucky the vampire will be able to mesmerise him, but we don't need that to happen.

We don't want anyone providing cover for Demon Superman, and we want him to know that we're blocking them. We're not.. sure what the mechanism is for him getting corrupted superhumans to aid him. Diana said that he couldn't do it when he first transformed, but that it definitely predated Wolf's efforts. If we could work it out… We might have tried interfering with it using magic. But those vampires can earn their clemency.

The sea between the bay and the statue is completely frozen and Demon Superman cuts off his heat vision. He's smiling faintly. Okay, so-?

Hordes of rag-clad cultists charge out from the city and begin the run towards the statue.

"Raaahhhh!"

Ah, that would explain-.

The plasma gun armed robots shift their fire-. And he's using the stun setting, thank goodness. We had a talk about the inadvisability of killing people in an area affected by demonic magic, but it's nice to see that it actually sunk in.

Baroness Reiter dashes past again, this time running directly in front of him. He ignores the hit, instead, using… Flashes of heat vision to turn the broken ground into a series of molten pits that will make it far harder for her to travel there again.

There's a flash of light next to-

"No mark?"

-me as a twisted version of Michael Holt appears, T-spheres with a pentagram decorating their face floating around him.

"No life."

Filaments flash out from my construct armour, reaching for-. Passing through him. Phasing? I can get around-.

The T-spheres glow and agh!

 

16th September 2012
21:05 GMT -5

Pain!

"Con-tact."

Hellfire burns around my armour and scorches my body. And inside, I can feel it burn at my metaphysique, my constructs and environmental shield shimmering as it's attacked directly. And I realise that Michael Holt is a lot more intelligent than any demon.

"Fuel for Him."

Feed Me.

Flames burning in the void shimmer orange as I try and ingest whatever he's using to power this.

"Do you-"

The pain lessens and my body knits itself back together.

"-need help?"

"Not yet, thank-"

I lash out at the T-Spheres as they form a sphere around me, but they shimmer out of phase with reality before I can hit them. Terrific himself floats back slowly, none of the insane passion every other corrupted human has had visible on his mask-covered face.

"-you. Engaging Mister Terrific."

Back on Earth 16, Michael Holt is still building his company and hasn't shown any interest in superheroing. I hope that the Sheeda invasion hasn't butterflied that.

I form a railgun as Terrific continues to watch me impassively, not reacting as I fire mage slayer and phasic rounds at him. Not even a blur as they pass through the space his image occupies.

And another wave of fire! The T-Spheres-! A three dimensional pentagram! That's how it's hitting me despite my tattoos!

I fly down, moving a hundred metres closer to the distant Earth. Terrific keeps pace without making any apparent movement, but the T-Spheres lag behind and lose formation as they accelerate after me. Alright, try phasic and mage slayer rounds at a few of those… Negative impact. Right, fine, but they're interacting with the physical universe somehow or they wouldn't be able to move. Not magnetism, not a self-generated force field otherwise I'd be able to detect the plasma surrounding them.

So gravity. Which means that if I generate an impeller construct and twist-.

The T-Spheres jerk, shifting their acceleration from me and towards a central point in their formation. For a second, at which point they go ballistic-

Shoot them again!

-with their gravity drives deactivated so that I can no longer interact with them by manipulating their motive system, but.. that doesn't mean that the magic keeping them out of normal space stops working. Can I..? Combine phasing and magic-draining into a single round? Not without a trip to Sephtian.

"Interesting."

Nth metal would probably work, but I'm all out. I could in theory make more, but-.

T-Spheres swirl, forming-move!

I dart aside as a portal opens between the T-Spheres, some sort of shimmering… Vapour? Gas? Drifts out. I spot the edge of the patch touch one of my gas traps and dissolve it, the gas being frozen by the cold field as the force field breaches before being so totally unmade that I can't even detect radiation that might be given off by a conventional disintegration effect.

Need to get Terrific himself.

I try staring into his soul, but he's not actually here. There's nothing to see… But… I'm the focus of his thoughts and desires at the moment. I should be able to-.

Agh!

Stabbed! Smaller portals have opened beneath me, dull grey needles jutting out and penetrating my legs! But those-. Portals!

Mine.

The wavering area around the edge of the portals turns orange, the T-Spheres trying to back away but being… Stuck, by their own innate magics. The spines retract as I choke the flow of magic… Ow, ow, definitely demon magic but it's working for me.

The other T-Spheres float closer, one flying by its fellows to try and work out what's wrong with them. Move the portal and stab!

Dead T-Sphere!

It fades fully into the material universe and I get a good look at its internals. Spell circuitry of a sort that's… I recognise some things, but demon magic isn't studied much in Atlantis and I've never asked Mammon to share more but if I understand the general design correctly-.

Orange tendrils grab components and move them around, plugging certain demonic runes into others and dispensing with irrelevant parts-.

Hah!

Assimilate that mess so I can sort-of control it, press there and railgun!

Two more T-Spheres are torn apart, and the rest I can see disappear in a puff of blue flame. The two on the portal appear to be stuck there, which I'll accept.

"Troublesome."

I thrust the portal in his direction, and… Connect my bodged anti-T-Sphere to my metaphysique directly. Now extend my tendrils along the spines and

tell

them what I want from them.

Mr. Terrific doesn't move as they approach, settling for watching the stolen portal. Why-? Countermeasures. He's probably given a good deal of thought to the question of how to kill a Green Lantern, but he didn't know that there were other colours, much less the differences in their abilities. Green Lanterns can't do this.

The spines leap at his image, vanishing as they hit it. I make a point of folding my arms across my chest and repairing my armour. Mr. Terrific waves at something out of shot -probably preparing some sort of Super T-Sphere or something- then falls to the ground as the spines explode from his legs and arms.

His image vanishes, and I shoot both of the remaining T-Spheres maintaining my stolen portal. Helpful as it might be I don't know enough about that demon or the portals to want to risk it.

"Mister Terrific has fallen back injured." I look back towards Metropolis. "Please up-?"

There's a giant Superman shaped blur in the centre of Metropolis smashing apart buildings as if they were of no consideration. Three other blurs dash around it, tiny red lines briefly connecting them to the larger blur. They're all staying close to the ground, which if I had to guess is because Demon Superman doesn't want to risk getting pushed to the outskirts of the thaumosphere.

"The Kryptonians have engaged. Baron-" Diana only hesitates for an instant. "-Gestapo has fallen back safely and Baroness Blitzkrieg is preparing for the next stage. Are you injured?"

"Fine fettle and raring to go. What do you need?"

"Stand by to evacuate our allies if they are injured. Crusader is almost ready-."

There's a blast wave as Demon Superman backhands Overman, sending him flying through half the city and then heat visioning-.

Transition!

 

16th September 2012
21:07 GMT -5

Demon Superman turns his head towards-.

Shield.

THIS ONE IS OURS!

The buildings on either side of me sag as the heat of Demon Superman's gaze melts the metal of their superstructure and causes glass to spray in all directions, propelled by the vaporisation of the material closer to the heat course. Concrete explodes, anything or anyone still inside the buildings catches fire and my shield is already cracking!

Through the wavering shield construct I see Angelika hit him hard in the back of the neck, buying me a fraction of a second as the red-hot pit around us gets a moment to cool off. My shield expands, and I add cold guns that I know he can just avoid but which might stop-.

Another blast of overwhelming heat, cold gun constructs really not cutting it. I think he's actually making an effort now. Position clearly untenable, Overman… Still down. I take a purple healing ray out of subspace and use the otherwise ineffectual cold gun constructs to prevent it melting, then turn it on Overman.

"Overman?"

"Ah-. Overman Awake."

He pulls himself upright, hands sticking to the semi-molten detritus around us as he gets his bearings. A slight wince as he ducks his head into the purple ray, then a circle of displaced semi-molten detritus as he launches back into the-

Transition.

-fight.

"Overman recovered, resuming overwatch."

"Understood."

Diana's probably itching to get stuck in, but until he's been weakened there isn't any point. He's far stronger than her like this, and the demon magic means that he lacks magic as a point of vulnerability. I know that she won't break discipline, but the Nazis… Quick check…

Baron Gestapo is advancing. Er… Ah, no, there's a reason. More cultists are pouring in to the area of the fight. I can see where collisions and near-misses have already taken a toll on them. He actually needs to stun more of them to keep them alive. White Dragon is being babysat by The Bat, and they're acting as mobile blockers. Right now they're fighting… Ah… Scorch, I think? And Sandy Hawkins, who is currently a barely-mobile lump of fused glass. Scorch is trying to teleport to keep up with the owlwing but it just isn't happening. They seem-.

"Orange Lantern to The Bat. Carapax approaching from the north."

"Should I be-" The owlwing twists in the air, using its gravity drive to air brake and throwing off Scorch's expectations of where it would be when she reappeared. One air taser shot later and she's falling to the ground. "-worried?"

"He's an upload with a robot body. I don't know what technology he's using, but Mister Terrific is a technological genius."

"Does he have a soul?"

"I haven't checked. His computer core is in the chest, so you should be able to blow off the extremities without any problem."

"How refreshing. Ah, I see him. The Bat out."

Shadow of War is getting into position, drifting through the partially-collapsed Metropolis storm drains. She is ethereal, so damage from the results of having four Kryptonians smashing the place apart isn't a huge problem, but Demon Superman's possession means that he could probably hurt her if he paid her any serious attention.

Not her time yet.

Miles away from the main fight, Reichsmark takes a moment away from knocking the Underworlders around to watch the mushroom cloud of debris thrown up by Demon Superman being kicked into the ground. Count Berlin uses the distraction to transform back from mist into his vampire form behind Kathana and bite down on his neck in an unhelpfully stereotypical way.

Doesn't look like being under the control of a demon who doesn't care whether you live or die is much healthier for the superpeople than it is for the proles. A normal tyrant would keep an elite bodyguard on hand, but whatever's controlling the local Superman doesn't appear to have bothered. As far as I can tell, the people responding are just the people who happened to be in the area.

Which means that it was definitely worth going after Wolf first, if nothing else.

"Raaaaagh!"

Demon Superman flies upward, but our kryptonians dodge him easily enough. His initial charge having missed, Demon Superman actually stops and looks around at a speed low enough that I can see it unaided. Looks like our team were focusing their own heat vision on his eyes, because I can see the damage they've done.

"Diana to Baroness Blitzkrieg. Superman reports that they're nearly ready."

"Crusader doesn't know if the streets will still work if they're molten."

Fair point.

"Five-"

I form a new cold gun construct.

"-seconds."

Cold beams lance downwards as our kryptonians take turns in flying at Demon Superman's head at maximum speed. Superman could deal with that by listening carefully, something Luminus learned the hard way. I don't know if the Demon hasn't bothered with his other abilities or if it's just concussed, but that idea doesn't seem to be occurring.

"Overman to Shadow of War. Now."

Demon Superman opens his mouth and the Metropolitan air freezes, water droplets turning to ice and coating everything. That shouldn't threaten the lives of our side, but it's an area effect attack that will slow them down a little which is probably what he was going for. But he's not watching the ground beneath him, allowing Shadow of War to rise upward. We're not entirely sure what her empathic abilities will do to a demon, but we're hoping that she can either reach Kal-El in there or give the demon visions that it doesn't like.

Demons only like war when other people bleed.

Apparently realising that arctic breath isn't going to do anything, Demon Superman inhales-.

And Shadow of War latches onto his head.

"Diana!"

"-off! Me!"

Diana and Artemis fly in at speed, Lasso of Truth suspended between them. Atom Man's approach is slower, taking his time to overcharge his kryptonite lasers and target Demon Superman's exposed skin. I've… Yes, finished solidifying the roads we need. I turn my cold gun into a teleportation gun, load mage slayers and fire.

There's a momentary delay and then something shimmers over Demon Superman's skin.

"Atom M-."

Atom Man fires into Demon Superman's face-

"Not blind."

-as the Wonder Women wind the Lasso around his legs and pull them out from underneath him!

 

16th September 2012
21:09 GMT -5

Which wouldn't usually do very much, but between the eye damage, kryptonite radiation and concussive head trauma, he doesn't think to use his flying ability to negate their pull. Demon Superman goes down hard, face first into the rubble, which looks impressive but doesn't do anything to injure him further and makes it impossible for us to hit his eyes any further.

I fire another mage slayer round and wait for orders as Diana and Artemis begin to tie him up and Shadow of War settles back down on his head.

"I know that he was a great man." Atom Man floats closer, another charged shot pointing at the top of Demon Superman's head. "But would it not be kinder to kill him? If I had done this to the Fatherland, I would not thank you-"

Overman and Superman slam into opposite sides of Demon Superman's head, the air buckling and blasting outwards at hurricane force!

Atom Man leans into it, the push of the wind fighting against his flight system.

"-for sparing me."

"Think it through, Atom Man. This world is a wreck. They need him alive to put it back together again."

"Ah. Cruel, but practical."

Demon Superman manages to move his right hand, scrabbling for something to push against. I fire another teleported mage slayer and Atom Man shoots the questing hand, causing visible burns to appear on the back and making it spasm and draw back.

"Baroness, bring in Crusader. Orange Lantern, shield him."

"Sir."

A red blur and then Baroness Reiter appears, carrying Crusader in both arms while he in turn carries the Spear. They're-. Heh, appropriate, on the Daily Planet ruin/throne. Crusader kneels in prayer with the Spear clasped before him while-

I transition down and erect a construct shield.

-Baroness Reiter twitches the twitch of someone used to moving fast who has now stopped moving.

"I've got this. You can-."

"I need to stay in case Crusader needs to be repositioned."

I nod. "Holy water go down okay?"

She nods, standing so that she can keep Demon Superman-

Overman and Superman fly into his head again.

-and Crusader in view as the blue light begins to spread out across the city.

"How do you know this ritual?"

"Got possessed by an elemental, once. Met an exorcist called Father Mattias. After we had to interrupt a major summoning I made sure I knew the procedure."

"Is that common on your Earth?"

"Common? No, but it happens. How are you handling the added speed?"

Because when you've got Flash mind controlled and know the procedure for bestowing speed, what sort of ninny doesn't use it?

"It works. I would be dead without it." She pauses for a moment. "Would it help if I prayed as well?"

"The words don't matter. Faith matters. If you don’t have it, don't bother."

"Do you?"

"No. No faith in any benevolent higher power. I make pacts with gods I can trust as I would anyone else."

Probably best that I don't mention my interactions with the Host within hearing range of Crusader.

"You?"

"Today I found out that demons are real and faith in God can ward them off."

"Alright, but I'll warn you that faith in the Source cannot be authentically combined with National Socialism. The Source does not care when you hold the Sabbath or what colour your skin is. That 'camel through the eye of a needle' stuff was right on the money."

"You believe something like that and you say that you don't have religious faith?"

"I can describe a belief set without holding to it myself. Though if you were wondering, the Hellenic gods don't care about those things either. Though they're more forgiving on the subject of covetousness."

The blue light spreads slowly at first, moving sluggishly over the ground tainted by demon magic. Then it finds the path that she and Crusader ran earlier and flashes along it, guided by the sanctified water splashed from his thurible. It's not literally being conducted by the water, but partially by the ideas mankind has about sacred spaces and partially by the faith Crusader José Luis Lopez has in the divine plan and his role in it.

The Lasso of Truth is binding Demon Superman's arms, now, and it looks like he's either too insensible to move or has given up on trying to break out.

"We will free you, Clark!"

Demon Superman raises his head at the mention of his host's name, only for Angelika to strike him in the back of the head with both feet. Atom Man also takes the opportunity to shoot him in the face, though between the low power of the shot and Demon Superman's partially regenerated demonic aura it does little but make him instinctively jerk away.

Hm.

The blue light is spreading faster, and I see it as it reaches the first unconscious Marked cultists. It… Laps around them, wafting up and over their bodies for a moment before glowing and expanding with greater vigour. Their bodies seem… Perhaps more relaxed? Afterwards.

It's working.

But just in case. Railgun. Because there are three other kryptonians in close proximity, and-.

Overman and Superman dive in for another attack as I see Demon Superman's throat bulge.

"Caution."

Demon Superman convulses, his head thrown back as a red.. ball-shaped thing erupts from his throat and flies at Overman, talons outstretched and mouth open to bite! He fires heat vision at it, but it ignores the searing red beams as it reaches for him-.

And then my angel feather rounds hit it in the chest and head.

"Gahhhhhh!"

Golden fire envelops… Whatever the heck it is that caused all of this. No mortal flesh to hide in any longer.

"Nooo! I can still-."

Diana punches it in the bulbous chest, and it… Bursts, the few parts of its foul body not consumed by golden fire vaporising as the blue light of Crusader's spell flows over Superman's recumbent body.

And I hear… Something that makes my soul shudder at the unclean feeling it evokes. I can't… Put it in words. As if some foul presence that felt itself master of the world found that its hold was not as sure as it thought. And felt unimaginable malice for those involved in thwarting it.

And then it's quiet once more. Crusader sags, Spear falling from his grip as his spell rushes for the horizon in all directions. Superman's body shrinks, and Diana darts down to check on him.

 

16th September 2012
23:21 GMT -5

"Mr Holt?"

His company Cyberwear is the tech company version of Image Comics. No actual technological development is done by its employees. Rather, it exists to handle sales, distribution and fabrication of its owner's creative vision.

It has very clearly seen better days.

Something smashed the front doors apart, the hinges holding on while the doors themselves lie in the foyer. Along with a great many neatly-stacked bodies in varying states of decay whose blood has been used to draw demonic sigils on the floor and walls. Mr. Holt is an omnidisciplinary genius and it appears that his genius extended itself to demon magic.

"Mr Holt?"

The intercom crackles.

"Lantern."

"I can't find you with all these wards up. Where are you?"

"Why?"

"So I can fix your arms and legs."

The lift doors clank open and Mr. Holt clunks out, supported by a bodged but solid looking mechanical frame.

"I'll say again." His mask makes it hard to tell what his exact expression is, but his voice sounds like a man who's been through the wringer. Which, obviously, he has. "Why?"

His wounds are bound with some sort of elasticised bandage, each of the spikes I saw go into him having either vanished back to hell or been physically removed.

"Because everyone's been through the same thing as you, and we need someone intelligent enough to put things back together." I raise my left hand slightly, hesitantly pointing my ring at him. "Lex Luthor is confirmed dead, and I haven't been able to find out what happened to Batman."

"Put a gun in his mouth when he started changing." He shakes his head. "I just assumed it was a telepathic attack. I shielded this place against-." He cuts himself off. "Yeah. It makes sense. It's going to have to be me." He looks at my ring. "Is it going to hurt?"

"No."

An orange beam connects us, his body showing the same signs of extreme stress as the various cultists I've patched up in addition to the Glasgow grin and puncture wounds. When the light fades he checks the movement of his hands and then triggers the 'unlock' mechanism on his frame.

"Parallel universe?"

"Two different parallel universes. Diana and Crusader are from this one, Superman and I from Universe Sixteen and the rest from Universe Ten."

"I recognized some of them from Axis Amerika. Is that a parallel where villains are heroes?"

"Um."

"Oh. So what the hell-?" He shudders at his own choice of words. "What are they doing here?"

"Wolf Krieger was trying to expand onto their Earth. They know nothing about magic or parallel universes. They're just here to fix the problem at its source."

"Nazis are playing nice?"

"It's…"

"You went with what you could get."

"In a decent civilisation, you can remain a reasonably moral individual by just doing what everyone around you is. For someone born in a world ruled by fascists, it takes… Effort, most people won't make, in order to become better than you were raised to be."

"True, but if they go right back-. We're in no condition to rehabilitate them here, even if they wanted to stay."

"I know." I shake my head. "I'm just here to dump information on you to get you up to speed. I'll be talking through our ongoing 'rehabilitation' efforts with their Superman."

"What happened with our Superman?"

"Hasn't regained consciousness since we got the demon possessing him out of him and destroyed it. Any idea what happened to him?"

Mr. Holt shakes his head. "It was an actual demon?" I transmit the recording to his mask. His stance changes slightly as he gets confirmation. "A parasite. All of this…"

"With my parallel it was time travellers." I give what I hope is a sympathetic shrug. "Not quite this bad, but we lost a few countries."

"What's the global picture?"

"Morgan le Fay now rules Britain, and she's got things somewhat under control. The Marked were attacking her fortifications but that's not an issue any longer and she probably doesn't need help. Zandia has some religious organisation who was able to keep everyone safe."

…

"What about everywhere..?" He realises. "Else."

"That's it. Everywhere else… The more urban, the worse things are. I'm sure-."

Alert.

"Ah. Mister Richard Swift has returned to Opal City. I was hoping that he'd recover. It appears that Crusader's spell worked on even individuals with unusual physiology."

"So all the supervillains who survived are back in action."

"Yes, but all of the ones who used their powers for theft just became irrelevant. There's no economy. Even superhuman warlordism-."

"Would actually stabilise things. And probably keep regular people out of the line of fire." He sighs. "I had to burn my T-Spheres to avoid memetic contamination."

"You can just say 'magic'."

"That's imprecise." He looks around. He's not just seeing the bodies for the first time, but he's showing me that he's looking. "I knew these people. When I cut them up, they were happy to be used like that. What did this, I can't think of anything more evil. And I'm not even going to be able to bury them. We don't have time. I'm going to have to drag them outside and cremate them."

"No. I'll handle that. You need to get started on your T-Spheres."

He stares for a few moments longer, then nods.

"How long can you stay for?"

"At the moment, the Nazis are still on-task, hunting down Wolf Krieger and other villains who might be able to make a portal to Earth Ten. But that won't remain the case for long, and I can't leave them unsupervised. Call it three days."

He nods. "Do you have a spare power ring?"

"I can make rings, but orange rings are memetic hazards too. I've gone crazy a few times using it, but-."

Alert! Will detected!

A green power ring flies in through the open door.

"But it looks like that's been taken care of."

 

17th September 2012
21:32 GMT -7

"Psst!"

I frown in puzzlement as I look around-. Yes, pony doing what they think is a stealthy approach outside the bay windows. A quick scan reveals it to be one Prince Blueblood, an individual with whom I have had next to no interaction during my time in Equestria. I think he's… Something in the diplomatic service? Whatever it is, it's nothing to do with the internal modernisation program that Luna is pursuing. Even the military stuff; when a foreign nation can already throw a sun or a moon at you, there's little reason to worry about them having a slightly more effective transportation infrastructure as well.

"Grayven?"

Luna cocks her head slightly to the side as she notices my attention straying from the engineers she was talking to. The occasion of my birthday was a good excuse to gather the pony faces for a few projects we're getting off the ground together without making it a full-on state occasion. They all seem fairly competent, though with all due deference to Miss Glimmer they all have the appropriate cutie marks. I rather imagine that once a concern gets above a certain size you get more ponies with business cutie marks rather than manufacturing cutie marks and that's something I'm going to have to watch out for.

I lean in and nuzzle the side of her face.

"I'm sorry, dear heart, but I do believe that someone is trying to get my attention."

She leans into my nuzzle, the sides of our lips briefly pressing against one another. Then she looks around, spotting the prince almost immediately.

"Ah. Then you may take your leave. We believe that We can hold the fort until your return."

"Back shortly."

I actually turn my head to kiss her on the cheek before stepping away from the conversation and trotting out of the palace and into the garden. Of course, nothing about running a company requires the managers to understand the product. But such people are useless for innovation and the state's monopsony means that there won't really be a capitalist economy to manage.

"How might I be of assistance, Prince Blueblood?"

He sticks his head out from behind a bush.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Magic."

"Ah. Yes." He looks around to check that the way is clear, then cautiously walks out from around the bush. "At your service, sir."

"And I, yours."

"You've made my life a little more interesting, you know."

"Oh? One of the obvious things, or are you getting blowback in the foreign office?"

"My title comes from the fact that I'm the heir of Princess Platinum of Unicornia. The title had become… Something of a joke, given that the only other equivalents for over a thousand years were alicorns. But thanks to you, we know that Old Unicornia is not an eternally frozen wasteland inhabited only by windigos."

"So you actually own land over there?"

"In theory. In practice I rather doubt that the residents would accept that idea. Fortunately, I'm also the Duke of Canterlot, so I imagine that I will survive."

"I rather got the impression that Celestia was an autocrat."

"Yes, but she's only one mare. It's true that she holds political authority due to her own power without needing feudal supporters, but she still needs educated ponies to form the government and enact her will. Equestria is far more egalitarian than Unicornia was, but even today a fair few major landowners and wealthy businessponies have titles they can trace back to the old homelands."

I nod.

"No legal privileges?"

"There's no inheritance tax on estates, but other than that, no."

Hm. Interesting. "What was it that you wanted?"

"You were recently seen in the company of Miss Rarity of Ponyville."

"Yes?"

"That was after you had a… Public dispute with her?" I nod. "I was wondering if you could… Share your insight. In how you patched things up."

"It's nothing complicated. I was clear about the reasons why I behaved as I did and I offered to make it up to her. Why do you ask?"

He shifts awkwardly. "Have you been told about the Grand Galloping Gala?"

"Big once a year party at the palace for Equestria's great and good?"

"That's the one. I was… Taking a stroll in the gardens to get a few moments to myself, and… A mare I didn't recognise approached me."

"That mare being that national heroine Rarity, Bearer of the Element of Generosity."

"Obviously I know that now! But at the time, Aunt Celestia was keeping a lid on what happened to return Aunt Luna to us. They weren't anything like the figures of national renown that they are now."

"So she was offended that you didn't recognise her? That shouldn't be-" He cringes. "-too.. big a problem?"

"I… Um."

"Yes?"

He sighs, looking guilty. "I assumed that she was a gold digger and decided that I'd deal with the situation by being rude enough to drive her away."

I nod, though from what I remember of Rarity's motivations his deduction was entirely correct if you replaced 'gold' with 'status'.

"Awkward, but I imagine that a stallion in your position has to dodge-."

"It didn't work. I went from impolite to abrasive to rude and she nonetheless kept with me until I used her as cover against an… Errant cake. Giving everything else that happened that evening I didn't think much of it at the time, and then…"

"And you found out when?"

"It wasn't until Nightmare Night, when Aunt Luna showed me a picture of the Ponyville celebrations. She mentioned that Twilight's friend Rarity didn't appear due to stressing herself over all of the costumes she was designing. I made a few.. enquiries, and it seems that I made an ass of myself. Ah-." He looks over my shoulder towards the gardener. "No offence intended."

"None taken."

"Well, there's no magic word that will fix things. If you really want, I can have a word about it with her and smooth things over sufficiently for you to explain your actions. But really, the best thing to do might well be to simply turn up in Ponyville and… Metaphorically tear the bandage off in one go. Ah… Maybe with Twilight serving as a moderator?"

He regards me sceptically.

"Is that really all you did?"

"I agreed to wear a ridiculous outfit at her behest and gave her some business advice. It might help if there was something you had prepared to do that. Something that you could use to demonstrate that you were really far more humble and self-effacing than the impression you originally gave."

He shifts uncomfortably.

"How ridiculous, exactly?"

18th September 2011
11:43 GMT -7

I watch as Blueblood checks his duck costume once more, nods to me, then proceeds inside Rarity's shop.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is AAAGH!"

 

22nd September 2012
07:21 GMT -5

"He-ey!" Holly smiles brightly at Jade as we stroll through Robinson Park. "You back for long?"

"No. But now that I've got some time off, I thought I should visit."

Jade does have a quantum entanglement communicator which she could use to stay in touch with Paula and Artemis, but I haven't checked that she is using it for that.

Her apartment is much nicer to live in when she's there than when she's not.

"How's the war against those evil Reach aliens going?"

"It's going as well as it could. We're keeping infiltration to a minimum, and that's what they usually do in order to win."

Holly nods. "I can't imagine what that would be like, fighting someone who can just control everyone's minds like that. Not being able to trust anyone, or knowing if what people were telling you to do was actually part of some alien master plan."

Jade nods. "It could make you paranoid. But right now, that's not my problem."

"How long d'you get off?"

"A month."

Holly frowns in surprise. "A whole month?"

"I haven't taken any time off since I started. Commander Aeoleton-" A pleasant humanoid with a pale-skinned head like something out of Lovecraft. "-has been on at me to get some relaxation for a while. And since Paul's agreed to stop working for a month, now seems like a good time."

Holly looks at me. "You're going to stop working. Isn't that a bit… Dangerous? I mean, for other people."

"I'm not the only superhero on the planet. And there are times… Particularly recently, when I could have left it to other people but jumped in myself instead. I haven't had a holiday since I arrived on this planet."

"I thought you liked being a superhero."

"I do, but… I want to be able to appreciate the improvements I'm making to the world, and… Not get so caught up in the moment that I start missing the bigger picture. Plus, Jade and I don't get to spend much time together, so…"

"So you're not doing anything?"

"World-ending emergencies only. The other Lanterns can contact me."

Jade looks Holly over as she stretches. "You've been keeping up with the exercise regime."

"Yeah. You know, trying to make something of myself." Holly takes a pose, and… While she doesn't have Jade's definition, she definitely looks like she's in better shape than he was when I first met her. "Healthy eating and clean living."

"You kept up with my diet plan as well?" Jade raises her eyebrows. "I'm a little impressed."

Holly mock-simpers. "Just a little, mistress?"

I-.

Jade's eyes are already on me. "I gave her and Karon a few self-defense lessons."

I nod. "Healthy eating and clean living."

Holly shrugs. "I mean, I wouldn't have minded…"

Jade's eyes flick away for a second before she forces her body language back into neutral. "Anything interesting happening in Gotham?"

"The Alliance opened a new training centre. Some guy called Orpheus is running it."

Jade frowns. "'Alliance'?

"Remember when you told me that the League of Shadows used to murder neophyte superheroes?" She nods. "The Alliance of the Just is what happened as a result of that stopping. Thousands of rookie would-be superheroes with no real idea what they're doing, and a handful of senior heroes led by a repentant gangster trying to train them."

"Orpheus knows what he's doing. I don't think you can even buy crack in Gotham any more."

"Well, good for him. I'm a little concerned that this sort of thing is going to make normal policing even more difficult-."

"But that would be work."

I nod at Jade's observation.

"But that would be work. If it's a problem, I'm sure that Batman or Blue Lantern can deal with it."

"Hey, are you voting in the election?"

"Ah, the Presidential Election?" Holly nods. "I'm not a US citizen. Jade?"

"Not registered. Also, I'm a convicted felon."

"Yes, but this is Connecticut." Jade gives me a slightly blank look. "They let you vote again once you get out of prison."

"Oh." She frowns. "Did they let Horne run again?"

"Uh-huh." Holly shrugs. "I don't know why. It's not like he really does anything. Hey, you-" She looks at me. "-know Senator Knight, right?"

"I've met him a few times. We're not friends or anything. He seemed to be on board with the idea of bringing magic into the mainstream, which is most of what I wanted out of him." I frown. "They really let Horne run again?"

Holly shrugs. "I didn't get the impression there was much competition. Wasn't that why he got the nomination the first time?"

"Yes, but that's because the Democratic front-runners thought it was unwinnable. This time… Okay, the Sheeda weren't.. really his fault, but people might associate it with him. And while Knight's personal life isn't quite as clean as Horne's, he isn't the type to have a romp with a couple of teenaged prostitutes."

Holly's eyes narrow slightly. "How do you know how clean his personal life is?"

"Given.. what happened with the former Vice President, I felt that looking into him a little more closely than usual was a good idea before I had dealings with him."

"Wait." Holly frowns. "Do you do that with a lot of people?"

I frown back. "Yes. Did..? You not realise that?"

"So you can just go around and know which of them are honest and which ones aren't?"

"You don't need to be an empath to know which of them are honest. And it wouldn't matter, anyway. Horne's honest, almost… Completely, actually. But if he's not saying anything anyone is interested in hearing, if he doesn't have what it takes to come up with an agenda for the government to.. deal with the post-Sheeda world and the adoption of magic into the mainstream… Why does it matter?"

"So… Vote Knight?"

"With political leaders, their mannerisms matter as much as their actual ideas." I shrug. "Knight isn't a miracle worker, but he can probably convince people that he might be better than Horne. That will calm down the financial markets somewhat, and a government program of some sort will calm them the rest of the way."

"What sort of program?"

"It doesn't matter." / "It doesn't matter."

Jade and I look at each other, and smile.

"Unless they print a truly stupid amount of money -and I don’t think he would- all he has to do is convince people that the government has things in hand, and then whether or not his actions would improve things by themselves, normalcy will return because people will convince themselves that it is returning. Knight won't be a great President, but he would actually do President stuff, and sometimes a placeholder is all that's required."

 

26th September 2012
10:02 GMT +3

Jade and I wave as the cocoa lorry drives away down the road.

Maybe I'm being a bit… Imperialistic, but I rather assumed that Kenya would have worse roads than this. Or-. Well, it looks fairly recently built, so maybe this was part of the post-Sheeda reconstruction?

I make a point of not having my ring just tell me.

Jade checks the balance of her backpack. "I think he's going to be dining out on that for a while."

"What?"

She peers at me quizzically, then… Then she smiles. "You don't know that you own this, do you?"

"What, the… Portal? I think they're leased."

"That truck, this road, that-" She points at the field of cocoa plants just the other side of the fence at the edge of the road. "-field, that-" Then points to the one on the opposite side of the road. "-field, and probably every field we're going to walk past for the rest of the day."

"Oh."

"It must be nice to be that rich."

I awkwardly adjust my own pack. "Money's just a tool?"

"Do you even know what your company is doing here?"

"Only very broadly. Farming equipment comes in, which helps areas ravaged by the Sheeda rebuild and export agricultural products back to Europe under contract for a guaranteed price."

"And you own the company outright, which means that all of the profit they make is yours."

I shrug. "I didn't want Kraft owning it."

She looks away as we start walking along the side of the road. My ring's environmental shield is keeping Kenya's Autumn sun off me, but Jade opted to just bear it. It's about as hot right now as a typical British mid-summer and I don't like British mid-summer. But I suppose that she's more used to generalised hardship than me. Or… Prides herself on her ability to withstand it more than I do.

"Do you know what other reconstruction work your company has done?"

"Ah… Some civic infrastructure? Primary schools, sanitation, that sort of thing. It's basically-. What do you know about Industrial Revolution Britain?"

"Not a great deal."

"Well, there was a huge movement of people from the countryside to the cities, which resulted in large numbers of people crammed into tiny, unsanitary hovels. But a precious few of the newly wealthy industrialists realised that treating their workers that badly was immoral, and.. spread diseases which they could catch. So they took to building model communities for their workforces. Bigger houses available at low rents, wider roads, ornate churches and uplifting entertainments. In the case of Cadbury's, they built Bournville. You still can't buy alcohol there."

"Because alcohol encourages immorality. Were they Puritans?"

"Quakers, but really devout, ball-games-banned-on-Sunday Quakers. So us doing this sort of thing is really traditional as far as British Industrialists in general and Cadbury's in particular are concerned. Felicity loves it."

"Flushing toilets are more useful than a concert hall."

"Or art, like the Medicis tried. The Cadburys didn't look at it as a way to assuage their own guilt at their wealth. They did it because they saw an opportunity to make the world a better place."

Jade smiles faintly.

"I thought you were just in it for the chocolate."

"In this heat?"

"It's not that hot."

"It is if you're chocolate. Ah, though the first generation to grow up in Bournville were just the right age to fight in the First World War, so… Maybe hope that history doesn't repeat in quite the same way."

"You shouldn't plan another war until you've finished the one you've already got."

"After the Reach, any other war would be a step down. I mean, the Dominion are the Reach without the social skills or cunning, the Spider Guild are the Reach without the technology or intelligence and also without the social skills or cunning. The only real threat would be Apokolips, and they don't really go in for mass combat."

She glances my way with a small smirk.

"Planning on conquering the galaxy?"

"No. Nothing I particularly want requires it. Dox… Might be interested, but I think he could probably do a good job at it. Besides, ruling the galaxy in any meaningful sort of way is actually really hard. It's just too many people and too big an area."

"What would that mean for Earth?"

"Probably nothing. I can't believe that we still haven't got a faster than light drive, yet. Of all the things for the Light not to steal…"

"You could steal something."

"No point. I already have access to dozens of forms of faster than light travel. I don't bring them here because I don't want people getting lazy."

"Theft is a growing sector of the economy."

"And requires all sorts of skills that lend themselves to a species earning a place in the wider universe." I frown mildly. "Have you ever been to Kenya before? Other than-"

"Yes."

"-those professional occasions I already know about."

"Good phrasing."

"Thank you, I've been practising."

"No, not apart from that."

I frown a little. "You joined the Shadows almost immediately after leaving home, right?"

"Yes?"

"Have you been working full time since then? That is to say, even longer than I have?"

"The League of Shadows has-. Had retreats. And no one really cared if I disappeared for a few days between jobs. But I wanted to prove myself."

"So no backpacking across Kenya?"

"We had wilderness survival lessons. And urban survival lessons. And practice. This wasn't something we did for fun. What about you?"

"Before I came to this world, the closest I got to Kenya was Sharm el-Sheikh."

"No backpacking?"

"With the Scouts a few times. But it was usually colder and raining. Last time I carried a load this heavy, I was still in Secondary School."

"Was it a camping trip?"

"Lockers in inconvenient places and a bus that left five minutes after the school day ended. Some textbooks can be surprisingly heavy."

 

27th September 2012
05:52 GMT -7

I've had the local villages under observation for a few days, and it seems that the adults at least make a point of rising just before dawn for what looks like a morning prayer. It's fascinating that a pony culture almost entirely disconnected from mainstream Equestrian society exists so close to Equestria-proper.

I suppose it's due to the transportation-.

"Euuuaaarghghuhhh!"

Raindow Dash yawns loudly next to me, sitting on her haunches and stretching out her forelegs and wings.

"Miss Dash." I gaze at her reproachfully. "Please remove your feathers from my nostril."

Her wing jerks back. "Ew." She takes a moment to check the snot-free condition of her feathers before ruffling her wings and returning them to her flanks. "Why'd you make me get up this early, anyway? Who are these ponies?"

"Based on their cutie marks and their injuries, these are some of the ponies who were holding Miss Do captive in the fort."

"Hm." She looks up in the air for a moment, then tilts her head downwards, frowning as she tries to puzzle something out. "So… You're not here to arrest anyone."

"No crime has been committed either in a place administered by me, or in Equestria."

"Ah, pretty sure taking control of the sun is a crime."

I say nothing for a moment, then raise my head to its full height and turn my head in the direction of distant Canterlot.

"I mean… I could arrest Celestia. I don't think Luna would appreciate it, mind."

"What?" Miss Dash frowns at me, this time. "What do you mean, 'arrest Celestia'?"

"You said that taking control of the sun is a crime. I take it that after the events of our initial meeting you've taken the time to read up on Equestrian law, and thus have become aware that-."

"Okay, stop." She holds up her right forehoof. "Stop."

I stop.

"Celestia controls the sun. I mean, usually."

I nod. "That's been true for at least a thousand years, certainly."

"A thousand-? Oh, right, the Heathwarming thing about unicorns doing it."

"But as we established with the Diamond Dogs..?"

"Ah, Celestia can't give ponies something she doesn't own? So she doesn't own the sun?"

"It's tricky to see what legal system would apply. Equestria doesn't have any off-world stations or starships, so it's difficult to see how you could make an exclusive claim to this star system. And without that, there's no obvious reason why Equestria should be the nation which decides who the sun belongs to."

"Aside from the fact that Celestia controls it and has done for a thousand years."

"The stones that fort was made of had been there for a while. If it was over a thousand years old, who's to say that they don't have a prior claim?"

Yeah, there they go. Ponies leaving their huts and heading to the area in front of the chief's hut. Just as they have each day since the g-elves found this village.

"Are you saying Celestia stole it?"

"No. I'm saying that given how bad historical records from that era are, we have no way to establish any sort of chain of custody and thus cannot establish ownership. Celestia has discharged her duties as custodian well enough that the planet hasn't burned or frozen, but that doesn't mean it's hers."

Miss Dash stares at me. Then she closes her eyes, raises her forehooves and presses them to either side of her head. I carry on watching the villagers as the… Chief comes out and joins the front of the herd as the sun rises first over the horizon and then over the canopy. As one, the village bows, stays bowed for about five seconds, then rises and begins to go about their day.

"You-. You're good at finding things that are wrong with things. Isn't that right?"

"I have an instinct for the proper discharge of personal responsibilities, certainly."

"Do you..? Not like Celestia?"

"I'm indifferent to her. Personally, she's quite pleasant. Professionally, she-."

"You want her to have time off 'cause you don’t like how she handles the sun! Admit it!"

"Okay. That's part of it."

"What's there not to like about it?!"

"If, say… Five years ago? Chrysalis infiltrated Canterlot, launched her invasion and killed Celestia, what would have happened with the sun?"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh… I guess.. it.. would stop moving? Or maybe Chrys-. Wait, Princess Celestia can die?"

"How do you want to test that?"

"Oh." She looks away. "Yeah."

"My kind can die. At least in our normal forms. We don’t age, we're tough and our technology is first rate, but we can be killed, even with conventional weapons. I've been assuming that since Starswirl's Mirror rendered me as an alicorn they were about as tough; very, but not insurmountably so. I have a Last Will and Testament. Should I die, I know who will have guardianship of my children and who will be charged with continuing my work."

"Celestia doesn't… Have any foals…" She frowns. "I think. But… Yeah, who would have controlled the sun? Can… Cadance do it?"

"I don't think so, but I haven't asked. And I don't know about Twilight Sparkle, but Sunset specifically told me that she wasn't taught how to manage the sun while she was Celestia's student. And hasn't been taught since her return and ascension. Luna told me that she can, but she really wouldn't want to."

"So we… We might actually need it. The fort.. ring things. I mean, I don't want to need it, because something would have to have happened to the princesses. But… It's, like, the whole world."

I nod, pleased. "Well done, Miss Dash. You'd be surprised how many people struggle with that lesson."

"I thought you were gunna complain about me destroying it just 'cause it was old." She looks genuinely distressed. "But you mean that you don't think it could override Celestia unless Celestia wasn't there."

"Something like that."

"I coulda destroyed the world when I broke those rings."

"Yes, but that's a secondary issue."

"Huh?"

"Did you know what destroying the rings did in advance?"

"Stop Ahuizotl?"

"Given that you believed that they had the power to control the sun, did you know for certain that their destruction would not destroy it?"

Miss Dash freezes. Just for a moment.

"No. I didn't."

"Celestia could move the sun back. Beat up Ahuizotl and his followers and Twilight Sparkle could probably have worked out how to use the rings to put the sun back in the right place. I hear she's quite good at magic. Destroy it and you better be lucky, because if you're not, bad things happen."

Miss Dash gulps. "Yeah."

"Virtuous actions guard against ill fortune. Don't destroy things unless you have to; you might need them. Don't hurt people you don't need to; same reason. If you don't know what's going on, then learn, so you don't do something stupid by mistake. And that's why-."

"You wanna talk to them, so you can talk to Ahuizotl. 'cause… We don't even really know why he wanted to control the sun, and those guys down there seem to really like it. So they can't have been trying to destroy it."

I nod approvingly. "Yes. Let's go and talk to them."

 

27th September 2012
05:59 GMT -7

"Good morning, fellow equines!"

The closest villagers freeze up for a moment, then relax into guarded caution as I smile warmly. Some further away don't even bother looking around at all, perhaps due to the lack of alarm calls. Flapping along beside me, the uncharacteristically sombre Rainbow Dash is drawing almost as much attention as I am, which is… Surprising.

Unless…

The first alicorns came into being post-migration. Given our location… Do they think I'm just a big mutant pony? Certainly aren't any unicorn ponies or other pegasus ponies around.

Miss Dash lands and trots over to the least afraid looking local.

"Ah, hi. I'm Rainbow Dash."

The young stallion who appears to be fletching darts blinks at her. "Pialli?"

"Hey, Pialli. Look, we need to talk to your chief or whatever. I'm… I kinda…"

"Miss Dash, they don't speak Modern Equestrian. Here."

A thick orange rope attaches me to Miss Dash, and an orange environmental shield envelops her.

But they also don't speak Ancient Equish. And I'm hoping that we're not about to hear everything in a ridiculous Scottish accent again, because that sort of lack of linguistic drift would make no sense at all.

Miss Dash holds up her right forehoof and pokes her glowing aura. "Is this on?"

The fletcher opposite her looks at her curiously. "Is what on?"

"Great! I can understand you! Okay, look, you know that fort thing that got destroyed a little while ago?"

"The Fortress of Talacon, the greatest of the monuments left by our forebears and the old seat of our king?"

"Ah. Yesssss. That one."

"My elder brother nearly died there. He was trapped under the rubble for four days."

Rainbow Dash winces, because of course they just galloped off without checking on the ponies they just entombed.

"I'm… Sorry about that. See… I'm… Kinda the one who brought it down."

The fletcher blinks.

"You did?"

"Yeah. See, Ahuizotl was going on about how it was going to usher in 'eight hundred years of unrelenting heat', and that sounded like something we needed to stop."

"How?"

"The… 'Rings of Scorchero'?"

The fletcher looks surprised. "They actually worked? I thought that was just a story."

"Well, we sort of… Don't know if they work, 'cause we destroyed them before Ahuizotl could use them."

"Okay, but why did you destroy the Fortress?"

"It just fell down once the rings got removed! I didn't know that was gunna happen!"

The fletcher nods. "That was probably the seepage."

"What seepage?"

"Didn't you see the water in the lower levels?"

"I… Saw the piranha pool?"

"The bottom of the Tenochtitlan Basin is below sea level. The water's been collecting inside the Fortress of Talacon every since it was built, and it's been eroding the stones and the mortar between the stones. And probably the ground underneath as well."

Miss Dash turns to me.

"Ah, Grayven?"

"We haven't dug far enough down, yet. The g-trolls are trying to preserve the quality of the original stone as much as possible."

"So you don't know if it was destroying the rings that made it collapse?"

I shrug. "I'm not the Alicorn of Structural Engineering, Miss Dash. The genomorphs will work out what the problem was eventually." I take a step towards the fletcher. "Hello there. My name's Grayven, this is Rainbow Dash."

"Blow Pipe."

And I'm sure that he wasn't bullied at school at all.

"Right. So…" Rainbow Dash hesitates, then realises that it isn't helping. "We need to talk to whoever's in charge here. We wanna find out what was supposed to be happening in the Fortress of Talacone, and you seem like the guys to ask about that. So… Yeah. Can we do that?"

"Ah…" Blow Pipe looks around, finally noticing that most of the other villagers have backed off. "I don't know."

"They can talk to me, Blow Pipe."

A muscular stallion with a sizeable headdress marches towards us, two similarly buff stallions following just behind him. None look happy. And looking a little closer, I can see where their pelt nearly conceals the discoloured skin patches where they've been rather badly bruised recently.

"Chief Grain Store, this is Rainbow Dash and Grayven."

"Heeeey." Miss Dash's eyes narrow. "I remember you."

"And we remember you. Why are you here? Do you wish to destroy our homes as well as the homes of our ancestors?"

My right forehoof is already in motion as Miss Dash takes an angry step towards him.

"If you-!"

She walks into my outstretched hoof. She stops and looks down to identify the impediment. Then she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

I like this pony. She understands.

"Ahuizotl tried to feed Daring Do to the piranha and told us that the Rings of Scorchero would make eight hundred years of unrelenting heat. I don’t let anything turn my friends into fish food, and I don't let anything set the county on fire with the sun."

"Daring Do is a bandit, who has spent years stealing our history from our holy places. Being fed to piranha is the least of what she deserves."

"Stealing your-? You mean like the relics she takes out of tombs and stuff?"

"Our tombs. Our relics. Our history. How would you feel if I broke into your home and stole your property?"

"Oh."

"Well? How would you feel?"

"Ba-ad?"

I nod. "I'll notify Luna. We can have the Guard start tracking down all the things she stole, and put a warrant out for her arrest."

Miss Dash makes a sort of moaning noise for a moment, then reluctantly nods.

"And you might want to retain the services of a lawyer yourself."

"Huh? Why would-?" She spots the three beefy stallions glaring at her. "Oh. Right."

"I think you'd be acquitted, due to the limited information available to you and Ahuizotl's statements, but it would be best to make certain. Gentlemen, might it be possible to speak with Ahuizotl?"

 

27th September 2012
08:14 GMT -7

"In here."

The ziggurat we just climbed up is… Actually kind of unimpressive. There are no vine-covered houses abandoned due to some natural disaster surrounding it, no piles of dust where the people failed to outrun a pyroclastic flow. It's just kind of there, far enough up the valley wall to plant itself over a spring whose waters flow into the Basin proper but not so far up as to be easily visible.

Parts of the stonework have clearly been corroded by time, but in other places I see where someone has been making repairs. Not poor quality by any means, but noticeably of a different age to the slabs around it.

The fires in the braziers are obviously fairly recent, given that several large cats are curled up around them.

"Those are Ahuizotl's cats!"

I glance at Rainbow Dash, then at the diminutive example of felix catus currently licking its rear left leg. It raises its head for a moment to look at me, then returns industriously to its licking.

"Good show. Ah, Chief Grain Store, I've been wondering. You've got all these marvellous stone buildings, but you live in small huts. What's up with that?"

"Many generations ago, we began expanding outside of the Basin into lands where it was easier to farm. Then there was a civil war, and most of the survivors decided to make their homes in the new lands. And… Honestly, living in a home that is filled with death traps is not a pleasant way to spend time."

Rainbow Dash squints. "Why don't you just, y'know, turn them off?"

"They wouldn't be very good traps if you could just 'turn them off'. And even if you could, you would end up walking half way down a corridor and then thinking to yourself, 'Did I remember to turn it off this morning?'. And then you'd turn it off but you did turn it off that morning and now you've turned it on."

One of his bodyguards nods sombrely.

"And then there is the seepage. They were great buildings in their day, but only a few people would want to live there now."

I frown. "Okay, but if everyone else left, why are you still here?"

"These are some of the greatest monuments our people ever created. We still live here so that we can protect them and maintain them. Each tribe spends a year here on rotation, and tend their own lands the rest of the time."

"How many of you ponies are there?"

"Why would I tell you?"

Makes sense. Despite what modern Equestrian myth-making would have its citizens believe, there's no obvious reason why all of the ponies fleeing Ponyland would have gone in the same direction.

Grain Store trots up the steps to the small room at the top and knocks his left forehoof against the stone.

"Guardian Ahuizotl! Guests!"

The curtain serving as the chamber door is pulled aside in an instant, and the large black and blue baboon-looking creature stands proudly in the doorway.

Except that his left eye isn't quite focusing. And his tail-hand has a plaster cast with several decorative hoofprints on it. And while his fur covers it up fairly well, I can see patches of stuck-together fur where he's been cut and the wound has scabbed over. And his stance is lopsided where he's trying not to put too much weight on his left hand.

Whatever he is, he clearly doesn't come with accelerated healing.

He grins, taking a deep breath, presumably preparing to launch into some great villainous diatribe. Those are always fun, and I've been on both sides in my day. Then he sees something and deflates slightly.

"Chief Grain Store. Why are our 'guests' not tied up?"

"Because they're guests. Not… 'Guests'."

"Oh. Well, what do they-?" He blinks, then walks past Grain Store and towards myself and Rainbow Dash. "What do you want?"

I smile. "It has been brought to my attention that far from being a respectable archaeologist, Daring Do is in fact a serial antiquities thief who should face the full force of the law. I was interested to see if you would be willing to provide testimony for the investigators and eventually in court."

Ahuizotl stares at me for a moment. Then he blinks in confusion.

"What do you want?"

Ah, concussion. I nod, and a purple ray drone materialises behind him and shoots him with a purple healing beam. Grain Store takes a step back in surprise, but Ahuizotl himself blinks and starts to stand up a little straighter. Then he focuses on us.

"The blue one! You dare to face me?!"

"Ah, yeah, look, I've…"

"To the piranha pit!"

Grain Store shakes his head. "We don't have one. It was in the Fortress, and..."

"Oh. Crocodile pit?"

Miss Dash flies up to hover in front of him. "No pits! Look, it… It sounds like Daring Do was basically just stealing a bunch of stuff from your old buildings or whatever-" Ahuizotl's mouth falls open slightly and he stares at Miss Dash. "-but I still wanna know why you threatened everypony with eight hundred years of scorching heat."

Ahuizotl twists his head to the side.

"If I could actually bring about eight hundred years of scorching heat, don't you think I'd have done it by now?"

"Wait. So you-? It wouldn't have brought about eight hundred years-."

"No! I just had a great idea. What if rather than stealing all of the Tenochtitlan Basin's greatest treasures, I just make up a story about a fake one, make a pile of rings out of cheap stone and paint it gold and then put it somewhere where I can trap her! If she didn't take the bait then I wouldn't really lose anything, if she did then maybe I finally get her. At worst, she gets a worthless fake."

Miss Dash blinks in confusion.

"But… The whole Fortress collapsed."

"Yes." He nods sadly. "Seepage. It's very bad. The ancient ponies who lived in these lands built many remarkable buildings but knew basically nothing about drainage."

"So they couldn't control the sun?"

"Of course not. How would a-? They were made of chalk. I'm surprised they didn't fall apart when you picked them up."

Miss Dash opens her mouth to complain, then drops to stand on the stone surface of the ziggurat. Perhaps not entirely clear what she would be complaining about.

I take a step closer. "Mister Ahuizotl, would you be willing to detail all of Daring Do's thefts? I intend to lean on the Equestrian government to charge her criminally for her actions. Would you be prepared to testify?"

"She will be put in prison?"

"Yes, and the artefacts she stole will be returned and I imagine that Princess Celestia will want to establish some sort of regular government contact to prevent this sort of thing from happening again."

"Will there be piranha in this prison?"

"Probably not."

"Crocodiles?"

"No. No crocodiles. But how long has a crocodile actually been able to keep hold of her?"

Ahuizotl mutters to himself indecisively for a moment.

"I will testify. But can I be there when she is arrested?"

I nod. "I believe that we can make that happen."

 

29th September 2012
18:23 GMT +3

We decided not to simply call the town 'Bournville', because that could get confusing. And I suppose that Tanaville is the least bad of the various alternatives, despite implying that they grow tea and not cocoa. Certainly anything that explicitly mentioned me was right out. I may be fine with 'Jamestown' and 'New York' and 'Londonderry' but there's a limit to how much imperialism even I can hear without cringing.

"Do they have showers?"

"The barrack accommodation the farm workers use or the actual hotel I booked us into?"

Jade stops for a moment to mop her brow. Having rejected my offer of an environmental shield, two days' marching through the Kenyan winter heat has left her encrusted in her own dried sweat and her hair's the flattest I've ever seen it. It doesn't look like it's bothering her even slightly.

If it was me, I'd have called a ring after the first half hour.

"They have hotels?"

"Not like.. four star hotels or anything. But this is a major agricultural supply hub. That's why we built all the roads and other infrastructure. Plenty of people come through here all the time."

"I'm not sure we're getting the full experience."

"My Blue Lantern alter-ego spent his honeymoon on Odym, if you want something a little more back to nature."

"Where's that?"

"It's a planet in Sector Two Six Two Eight. Beautiful place. No intelligent life, no real predators, just a few scavengers to keep the place tidy. Amazingly colourful plants and animals and no intelligent life at all."

She smiles faintly.

"Or hotels."

"Or hotels, hot running water or toilets, and I've got no idea how he was planning to leave afterwards."

"Who did he marry?"

"Their version of Zatanna. Her name's Zorina."

"Didn't she set Mister Scott on fire?"

"Didn't you drug me with poisoned lipstick?"

Her smile broadens.

"Yes, but it ended alright for the Asian girl."

I put my hands on my hips. "I'm not sure what offends me most: the fact that I'm merely 'alright', or that despite the fact that it was a pivotal moment in our relationship you've forgotten that I said 'woman' and not 'girl'."

"Under twenty, it's 'girl'."

"Is it? I thought that psychological and emotional maturity were more significant. I know your father called you-."

Ah, shouldn't have said that. Jade looks away.

"That annoyed me because he meant it as an insult. With you… It's different."

"I'm in my thirties. Acknowledging your maturity makes it easier for me to forget about the chronological age gap, as well as encouraging me to remember that you're a strong-willed self-determined individual with her own wants and desires."

"How does an empath forget something like that?"

"My empathic abilities were far more limited back then, and I had to make an effort to see inside someone."

"I remember your snake eyes. You don't need to do that any more?"

"I have to make an effort not to have stronger empathy than that all the time. I can still do it, it just signifies that the Ophidian is personally looking out of my eyes."

She looks at me thoughtfully for a moment.

"Since we were talking about what I wanted to do with my life that didn't involve killing people…"

"Yes?"

"What did you want to do with your life that didn't involve being possessed by a giant snake?"

"Ah, well, as I said, my degree is in contemporary ethics and political philosophy, so… This, actually." I look around the mostly-newly constructed town. "The part I remember of the whole three year course was learning about the rapid industrialisation of Japan and Taiwan."

"What were you planning on doing with that degree?"

"I wasn't. My parents expected me to go to university, I didn't have a particular profession in mind, so I picked something that sounded interesting." I shrug. "It wasn't. Lesson learned."

"I don't know how student debt works in England."

"Oh, we moved off the mass grants system before I went to university, but I'd paid my loan off before I came to this Earth." I snort. "It's stupid, really. Student loans are issued by the government, but you don't have to pay them back until you're earning over a certain amount of money, and anything you haven't paid off before you're… I don't remember how old. Fifty or something? Gets written off. Which means that the student loan company is going to go bankrupt eventually because people aren't going to pay back the full value of their loan, so the government might as well have kept the grant system and saved themselves the cost of administering it. It's basically just a system for giving rich students who don't need it a cheaper-than-market-rate unsecured loan."

"So no private loans?"

"Private unsecured loans exist, but if the government is going to give better terms, why would anyone want one? Banks want to be paid back."

"What happens when the system collapses?"

I smile, snorting.

"A socialist revolution, probably." I wave my right hand dismissively. "I imagine that the government will bail it out with taxpayer money. We might get some sort of reform, but I'm not hopeful. How did the League pay for its operatives' education?"

"Ubus were educated by their parents. Their scholastic education mostly comes from their mothers. Most other operatives got educated in their civilian identities. I got an in-house tutor for most subjects. Payment was covered by the League's cut of our contracts once we were cleared for fieldwork."

"See, a system of grants for a limited number-. Oh, hang on." I slow to a stop outside of the local medical centre. "Our man in Tanaville works here. I want to see if I can catch him."

"Who is it?"

"An Irish doctor called Finnbar Brady. He's in charge of the local clinic. I've never met him, but he had excellent references."

She cocks her head slightly to the left, gazing at me interrogatively.

"Does that count as 'work'?"

"I… Wouldn't have thought so? Do..? You think it does?"

"That depends on whether he's secretly a supervillain or not."

I shake my head.

"Come on Jade. That's not very likely, is it?"

 

29th September 2012
18:35 GMT +3

"I'm looking for Doctor Brady?"

The woman manning the reception desk looks at the pair of us with a mild frown, then her eyes jerk to something on the wall to my left. It's out of my line of sight, but I can guess from the sudden flash of recognition what it shows.

When her eyes return to me, I smile and raise my left hand to display my ring, and she's already phoning through to the office.

"I will call heem at once."

I smile as Jade turns to look at the wall display. "Thank you."

The receptionist looks away from me for a moment as the phone rings, then looks back at me.

"Sia? Orange Lantern just walked een."

I smile, then turn away to join Jade. The display she's looking at includes images of the roads being laid down and some building work being done on the town. There's one of the Dolmen Gates being air lifted in, and… There's a rather nice one of me in full heroic raiment. Not completely sure where it's from. I've never been here before, but the League has released official publicity photos of most members of the team and plenty of people have taken less authorised images.

Oh, and there's one of some of the… Board? Or managers, possibly, of Cadbury's. I don't point out Oliver Queen because I haven't had it confirmed that Jade has seen through his tiny mask yet, but he's actually joining in with the road builders. Though to be fair to most of the Cadbury's executives, given their respective builds, he's probably the only one really suited to that sort of work.

"Looks like you're pretty popular."

"Give it a few centuries."

"Of course, now that you're here, they might get to see the real you."

"Less fan mail. Great! But…" I skim over the writing associated with the image. It's pretty much just a press release, though I recognise two phrases as coming directly from me. "But this is… For me, this is what success looks like. Superman's got a statue in Metropolis, and it's not because he donated to the right election campaign or because someone wanted to wind up Lex Luthor. It's the city saying 'we would literally all be dead if it wasn't for this guy'."

"'This town wouldn't be here if not for this guy'."

"Superman's a good man, but he doesn't build things that last. I don't care about statues or pictures, but I do care about the town. I mean… Unlike some of its neighbours, Kenya had itself reasonably in order before the Sheeda attack. Preserving that order once people accept it isn't all that hard. But you do actually need to do it."

"Or you leave a vulnerability that someone like the Reach could exploit."

"N-. Well, yes, obviously-."

"But that's not why you do it."

"It wasn't hard." I sigh. "I remember hearing a report on… I don't remember whether it was television or radio, that charity donations of clothing to Africa had basically killed off mass produced native textile production. Below cost production is hard to beat. There's no real reason why Africa can't be as wealthy as other parts of the world, it just needs… Some problems dealt with. Africa's actually got terrible rivers and coastlines, so it needs better transportation links. And law and order."

"And Cadbury's chocolate?"

"I fully support people's right to choose their chocolate brand, even if that means that their choice is objectively suboptimal and involves fake cheese or rotten milk that has no business being in chocolate."

"Rotten milk?"

"American chocolate. I have no interest in ruling the world but I certainly wouldn't mind running every purveyor of lipolysised chocolate out of business. Why any sane person would deliberately make chocolate that tastes like vomit-."

The door beside the reception desk bursts open and a somewhat dishevelled-. Blond man with what is either a close cropped beard or… I'd say about a ten o'clock shadow. Sideburns extend to his jaw line and his left ear is pierced with a hoop earring.

"Orange Lantern. Finn Brady, good to meet you."

He… Smiles, and for a moment I'm forced to blink and suppress my empathic vision further as I'm confronted by a man who genuinely wants to do nothing but help those around him. I reach out to take his hand and my environmental shield glitches out where he touches me.

We lucked out when we got this guy. And I'm probably staring a little long.

"Doctor Brady, likewise." I release his hand and gesture to Jade. "This is Jade Nguyen, my girlfriend."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss."

"Doctor."

He keeps smiling. "No one told me you were coming. Trying to keep things quiet?"

I shrug. "Sort of. This is supposed to be a holiday, but I'd feel like a bit of a heel if I didn't at least pop in and say hello."

"So it's not a surprise audit?"

Jade's face goes completely neutral. "Why? Do you need one?"

"No, but I've tried running these things before and it's amazing how much cash goes on graft if you don't watch it."

I shrug. "I'm sure that the foundation has people keeping an eye out. But I'm pretty sure that I don't have anything to worry about where you're concerned."

"Of course not. Ah, do you want a look around while you're here?"

"Yes please. And naturally you can use this opportunity to bypass your entire reporting chain and bring any problems at all to my attention."

He shrugs. "I don't really have any. Deliveries are all on time, we're getting all the vaccines we need… Are you planning on setting up a hospital?"

"Me personally? No. But that will probably happen at some point. None of the towns or villages we've set up so far are really big enough."

"Why does that matter? You've got those… gateways, so you can move anyone from wherever they are."

"We've also got a Gate in the capital, and within driving distance of quite a few other major cities." I shrug. "I can-."

Jade's eyebrow is raised.

"After my holiday is over, I can-" He smiles and nods. "-talk to people about it, but these clinics are designed to be able to cope with anything that happens on a regular basis. Any resistance to the purple healing ray?"

"No, everyone's fine about that. I had to have a word with a few kids who were daring each other to cut themselves so they could use it. Ah, listen, Sia and I were about to go and get dinner. Do you want to come along?"

 

29th September 2012
18:49 GMT +3

"…parents, because they want us to get married in a church."

Sia's a pleasant local woman-. Ah, she has a Kenyan accent, anyway. She's also six months pregnant. Finn reaches over and puts his hands on hers as she explains the situation to us.

"Are you not religious? Because I've personally been to Heaven and met angels. There's no need to doubt the reality of the mythology."

The food in… Well, it's not really a restaurant so much as a canteen. Today it's serving fried tilapia, fried potato slices and… For some reason, coleslaw? The locals all appear to consider this perfectly normal, but I'm using my ring to covertly remove the mayonnaise from the otherwise acceptable shredded salad. The beer made with bananas is… Certainly interesting.

Finn shifts awkwardly. "I know. An angel killed my brother."

I lean back slightly, frowning. "I'm sympathetic, but… The angels generally-. I certainly-."

"Declan." Finn looks away for a moment. "Wasn't a very nice man. But he was my brother. I don't have any other family."

Is it a sign of deep seated religious prejudice that I'm surprised an Irishman only has one sibling? I mean, The Republic has a Protestant minority…

Jade gives me a sidelong look that implies to me that she's wondering whether I'm being intentionally obtuse. I mean, I could apologise, but I didn't ask the angels to attack other people, and I've yet to hear anything about them going after anyone who was innocent. I don't feel bad about Declan's death. The only thing I really feel is a desire to look him up to check whether my instinctive response can be supported by available evidence.

"Have you considered a different religion?"

He smiles weakly. "I'd prefer a civil ceremony, but I'd accept another religion if Sia's parents would."

Sia shakes her head. "My parents are strong Anglicans. Another religion would be even worse."

"Well, darn. I know both an angel and a marriage goddess, but it sounds like all I can offer you is sympathy, then."

Finn frowns. "You know an angel? I thought they tried to kill you?"

"'Tried' nothing. I got a burning sword shoved through my skull. How did you think I got to Heaven?"

"Do you think Declan got into Heaven, then?"

"It shouldn't be too hard to find out. Ah, usually Zauriel's not keen on answering that sort of question, but under the circumstances he would probably be prepared to answer you. Ah. Though I… Have to say, everyone else they killed-."

Finn bows his head, nodding. "He's probably in Hell."

"Depends. Do you know why they killed him? I mean, if it was apostasy then there's a fair chance that he went to a completely different afterlife or reincarnated."

"I went through his house after he died. What was… Left of it. I think he'd gotten involved with magic."

"Oh? Do you know what sort? Because they're usually-." He shakes his head. "To the best of my knowledge, they targeted two types of magician. Those who failed them in the past, and those who were seriously into demon magic. And if he was into demon magic, then he was probably operating within the monotheistic mythos."

"So you do think he's in Hell."

"I didn't know your brother. Did the angel kill anyone else in that area? Any confederates?"

"No? I.. don't think so."

"Then-."

"AHM."

Jade clears her throat louder than is strictly necessary.

Right. Work.

"Then… I suppose it doesn't matter. You don't want to get married in a church because angels killed him, not because you think they were objectively wrong about something. There are no facts in dispute. I could probably find a licensed registrar who could pretend to be a priest, if that's any good?"

"No. Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but…" He shakes his head. "It's no good. They want a church wedding, and I'm saying no to churches."

Jade nods. "Could you get married in a registry office and agree to have a religious ceremony later?"

Finn and Sia look at each other, and she nods.

"That is probably what we will end up doing. But I would prefer it if my parents would agree to be there."

Jade nods. And she's studying Finn's face. "Did the police look into it?"

"There wasn't really anything to investigate. We knew who did it."

"Had he been in contact with anyone suspicious?"

"He'd been on some odd websites. Occult stuff."

"Jade?"

She glance at me. "You don't see the resemblance?"

I take in Finn's features, trying to.. place…

"Okay, but there are a lot of blond men with that brow and chin and those eyes around the world." Finn frowns at me. "You look a little like someone we know. I wouldn't have thought about it, but you mentioned 'magic' and he's really into that."

"I look like-?" He looks uncertain. "Mam adopted me. I don't know who my blood family are."

"Well… Then, with your consent, in a month, I can do a genetic test and, if it's a match, I can see if they're okay about meeting you. Of course, it might be nothing."

Because while it wouldn't surprise me at all if John Constantine had bastard children around the place, even he isn't precocious enough to have started at… What, ten? I sort of assumed that Ambrose was older than John, but they don't look all that similar up close. And if Welsh John is anything like his apparent physical age then he's right out.

He and Sia make brief eye contact.

"Worth a try, I suppose. Just out of interest, if nothing else."

"Ah… Perhaps we should move onto lighter subjects? I didn't.. plan on digging like that."

He shrugs. "It just sort of comes up sometimes. Hollis -Father Hollis, he's the local priest- has a go at me about it whenever he sees me."

"Any trouble with the vaccination program?"

"No? Why would there be?"

"I've been living in America for the last-."

"Ah."

"Yes."

"No, no problem with that at all. The biggest problem is antivenoms. The snakes have taken a liking to hiding in the cocoa plants, and it takes too long to get back to the clinic with some types. And they can't take the antivenoms with them because they need to be refrigerated."

I nod. "I'm sure we can come up with something."

 

3rd Jahrdrung 2512
Morning

"Of course… You are welcome."

Marco Lupo holds his arms out to the sides, indicating the garden of his father's villa.

"It is simply that we usually get a little more notice before so notable a guest visits us."

I nod. "I.. know, and I'm sorry. My learning on the subject of international affairs has been fairly narrow, and while I knew that your father was a highly capable Tilean general, I… Somehow missed the fact that he actually ruled a city in addition to commanding armies."

"My father's fame must have spread wide indeed for that to be true."

"Indeed. Where I am from, the only Tilean considered to be his equal was Borgio the Besieger, and… Well…"

"My father was never bested by a toasting fork."

I shrug. "No man can be on guard at every moment of every day. But it does detract a little from tales of Borgio's military prowess."

"Yes. I have also heard stories of a strange orange wizard who could strike daemons down with impunity. I had assumed that they were… The ramblings of drunkards, and yet… Here you are."

"Drunkards do ramble. In my case…" I shake my head. "I am not a wizard. Any man may use an enchanted artefact, or even wear mundane armour of such solid construction that he can survive powerful attacks."

"I have heard that in Araby the most skilled magicians bind daemons to carpets which allow them to fly."

I nod. "Yes, it's… Because they're so far from the polar gates, the winds of magic flow weakly there. Their wizards must become proficient in slowly drawing upon the winds and infusing objects with power, or in carefully binding spirits to their service."

"And such men also made-" He gestures to my left hand with his right. "-the ring which you wear?"

"Oh gosh no. This was made by a species who are contemporaries of the Old Ones. I couldn't even begin to explain how it was made. It is able to permanently turn daemons into something that is enslaved to me and technically no longer a daemon. Do you want to see one?"

"I…" He glances at the plain clothed men with the rapiers lurking near at hand. "Think that I will live without."

"Wise." I shrug. "Bringing to bear the level of strength that is needed to physically harm the more powerful sort of daemons is still fairly difficult. Lesser daemons are far easier."

"And… I heard a story about you tricking a dwarf smith with a fake sword?"

"No, I don't think I did that? What sort of fake would trick a dwarf?"

"Supposedly, it bent when he tested it."

"Oh! No, that wasn't a fake sword, that was-. There isn't much a human can teach a dwarf master smith about metallurgy, so I thought I'd make him a curiosity that he couldn't replicate."

"A sword that bends?"

"Anyone can make a sword that bends. A copper sword will bend. I made a sword that can be bent and then spring back into shape."

Mr. Lupo looks puzzled. "If you are not a wizard..?"

"The secret is the element carbon." I generate a construct… Representation of a carbon atom. "Roughly half of wood is composed of carbon, and about twelve percent of a human. It's a very versatile material. These-" I point at the outer electron shell. "-let it attach to a wide variety of other materials in a variety of ways. If we arrange it as a lattice, we-"

I add more carbon atoms and pull out the view until the individual atoms are invisible.

"-get-"

I dismiss the construct and fabricate a diamond to replace it, reaching out with my right hand to catch it and then offering it to Mr. Lupo. He takes it and considers it very carefully.

"-a diamond."

"A.. diamond."

"But if we arrange it in layers…" I generate a new construct image. "We get a substance called graphite, and we use it in pencils. You see how each carbon atom has the same number of bonds?"

"So how does it differ-?"

I pull the image out again but this time fabricate a pencil, which he catches, having palmed the diamond.

"We use them for training children to write before we let them loose on pens."

"I am sure that your maids appreciate it." He looks closely at the sharpened tip, then scratches at it with his thumb nail and examines the material that has been scraped free. "And this is the same.. 'element' that the diamond is made from?"

"Yes. The diamond has a strong and rigid structure, while the layers of graphite can slide away from one another almost freely. But there are other forms of carbon structure as well, and it turns out that if you make tubes of carbon and incorporate it into the metal, you get-"

I fabricate an example in the form of a traditional Tilean duelling sword.

"-something like this."

I then attach a clamp construct to each end and bend it into a hoop. I then remove the clamp from the bade end and we both watch as the sword straightens itself. I then offer it to him.

"Master Thurgun found it amusing, but elects to hide it from his apprentices lest it give them inappropriate ideas. Please, keep it, the pencil and the diamond. An apology for disrupting your day."

He takes the sword and checks the edge and… Heh, he checks that it's actually made of metal.

"Thank you. A fascinating demonstration. I.. am curious. What was it that you wanted to speak with my father about that brought you so far?"

"I know that your father greatly reveres the most ancient traditions of your city, for example that he rigorously trains himself physically when a weaker man of his station might allow himself to go to seed. I was hopeful that his reverence might extend to my area of interest."

"He used to make my brothers and I join him when he trained as an oarsman." Marco smiles. "It left us with an abiding hatred of all boats, though I owe my life to the training of his wrestling master. Do you want to test yourself rowing against him? He's very good."

"Ah, no. My home country was once conquered by a city much like yours. They left us with a rich legacy of civic monuments, but the most useful was their roads. Rather than… Do what modern Tileans appear to which is have mercenaries standing around demanding money with menaces, they used soldiers not actively fighting the nation's enemies to build roads so high in quality that it was sixteen hundred years before we could surpass them. And many of their roads were around to see themselves being surpassed. I need to build a big road network. A very big road network of very big roads, such as would allow an army to march from one end of the Reikland Empire to the other at the best possible speed. The greatest architect in the world is currently engaged in building a rather large canal for me, but your father was the man I thought of first for roads."

"I do not think that my father would want to help someone invade the Empire-."

"No no no." I shake my head. "The Emperor has signed off on it, and he's leaning on the Electors to do the same. They all grudgingly accept that it's in everyone's interest that it happens. I wanted your father to have input at the planning stage so that we end up with a well planned network rather than a mess."

"Well, that is different, but…" He shakes his head. "My father has not to my knowledge shown interest in building roads himself."

"Ah, rats. I'm sorry to have wasted-."

"My brother Gaius on the other hand has been greatly involved in the building and maintenance of our city and its territory. I would be happy to give you a favourable introduction."

I smile broadly. "That would be excellent. Thank you."

 

3rd October 2012
11:13 GMT +7

Jade pulls her hat down to shade her face, and I can't help but notice that she's using makeup to lighten her complexion. Combined with the mirrored sunglasses, the effect is to make her look more like an American tourist, rather than a first generation emigrant.

"This is the opposite of disappearing."

And she's changed her accent, too. If not for my empathic vision, I'd be concerned that I'd sat down next to the wrong woman.

I watch as people walk past the table we're occupying outside a café without paying us any attention.

"You seem to be managing."

"Why aren't more people noticing you?"

I shrug. "All white people look the same?"

Vietnam got hit hard by the Sheeda. People fled to the countryside as invisible soldiers hunted people in the streets of all of their major cities, which only really made hunting them down take a little longer. Industry completely collapsed, and forget about tourism. Sadly for Alan's contemporaries, Vietnam followed China's example in killing off their superheroes when the revolution occurred, and unlike China they didn't have a population large enough to generate a team's worth of high-tier superhumans since the official change of policy. China could barely look after itself and help from further afield was sporadic at best.

Now, tourists are… Back, if not in the sort of numbers that they used to appear in. With former tourist hotspots in South America now under Accala control there are tourists out there, but most of them are holidaying in their own countries. Vietnam has also opened its doors to South American refugees looking to settle somewhere not under the control of a rampant plant goddess. Not out of any particular spirit of generosity, but just to get enough people to fill their population centres.

On.. the.. positive side, people who had been in prison since the Communist takeover either escaped or were released; the government doesn't have the spare manpower to maintain the same old police state. Combined with the influx of people from corrupt-but-nominally-democratic countries, I foresee some big changes in Vietnam's future.

"Okay, we've visited my grandmother-" And the carbonised stretches of forest where the automated defence systems I installed on a slow Wednesday afternoon dealt with the one Sheeda attack that bothered going anywhere near her. "-so I think we're done here."

"Any particular preference on where to go next?"

"Is there anywhere on Earth where we won't be recognised?"

"Ah… Maybe? At this point the Dolmen Gate network goes to just about every country, and I'm… Heavily associated with that. And with the arcane desalinisation system and storm controllers, those are getting quite a lot of use in a lot of places."

"So no."

"The price of not having a secret identity. And… Glowing faintly orange at all times."

Jade takes a moment to check her peripheries for autograph hunters.

"What about another planet?"

I nod. "We can go to another planet. Do you have anywhere in mind?"

"None of the planets I've been to would keep us away from work."

"I'd stand a good chance of being recognised on most of the planets I've been to. I mean, on Tamaran, everyone's orange anyway so that's less noticeable, but they've got their planetary communication system back up and running and I'm pretty sure that my picture is everywhere. Ah… The Crown Imperium highly regulates media broadcasts, so we could go to most places there and…"

Ah…

"Get arrested because they.. don’t really do tourist visas outside of a few port… Cities. Um. We could probably… Manage on Rashashoon?"

"What's wrong with Odym?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Except the complete lack of facilities."

She folds her arms across her chest and leans back slightly in her chair.

"I thought you were in the Eagle Scouts."

"Yes." I nod. "I've given roughing it a fair go and know from personal experience how much I don't like it. Though I'm perfectly happy to give it another try if you feel like going seriously back to nature. In Vega there's a planet of mollusc people where there are vast areas of habitable land with no people in them. Just… Don't mention that you're female to the locals and we'd be fine."

"Why would that be a problem?"

"They've got a weird reproductive system where the males look pretty humanoid but the females are giant slugs which… They're not intelligent, and they don't have a way to lay eggs, so the males hunt them-."

"Somewhere else."

"Emana? They've actually got a government now."

"What did they have before?"

"An informal understanding between megacorporations. I think they're.. still shaking out the bugs in the system-."

"And they'd probably appreciate your input."

"If they realised that I was there. But, yes."

"No work."

"Havania? It's a Thanagarian colony world. They have some contact with other species who aren't their serfs, and Bleez gave me an open invitation to visit."

"What's it like?"

"A cross between a pre-civil war American plantation and colonial Africa, with a more pleasant climate and the rulers have wings. There isn't much building on the surface because the thanagarians like flying over and hunting in pristine wilderness, but also like their creature comforts. But importantly, I don't have any obligations there, and the Orange Lantern Corps doesn't have any obligations there."

"Are you telling me they have slaves?"

"Yes. Ah, sort of. Technically they're serfs, but… Yes. It's not called the Thanagarian Empire because they're known for species-inclusivity. But I won't proselytise if that's what you're worried about. Just some site-seeing and culturally enriching diversions."

"Are we going to be walking past slaves being whipped?"

"Almost certainly not. They usually do the beatings in prison cells where it won't unsettle anyone's stomach. And honestly, things rarely get that far."

"Alright. Let's try Havania. I assume you need to call ahead?"

"I probably should." I reach down to my bag and take an LCD screen linked to a Bleed fracture pulse receiver. That shouldn't look particularly strange to anyone who sees it. "Calling Bleez."

Compliance.

"How did you meet her?"

"She was performing at a diplomatic meeting. She's actually a famous singer in the Empire, though it was rather lost on me. I've been sending her Earth music-."

Bleez appears on the screen. Or rather, her face and the hastily-wrapped towel covering her chest does.

"Hi there Paul! I-." She spots Jade. "I'll just go and put some clothes on. Be right back!"

 

3rd October 2012
18:47 GMT

Since Jade's Darkstar armour isn't rated for interstellar travel, I acquired a small transport craft from my home in Bir Tawil before we set off in the direction of the Thanagarian Empire.

"Are you ready to explain the towel?"

"It's like a sheet, but designed for absorbency."

Jade leans back into her seat slightly.

"Bleed fracture pulse communication has caller ID. She knew that you were calling."

"Almost certainly. Though she might have been expecting a call from someone else and not checked before answering."

The space between Earth and the Thanagarian Empire is almost completely safe. The only dodgy part is the actual border zone, due to the Thanagarian habit of aggressive 'patrolling' and intrusive 'anti-piracy' actions. With a transponder that very clearly identifies us as a L.E.G.I.O.N. vessel with me on board, we don't have anything to worry about.

"Does she answer you wearing a towel often?"

"Yes. Something like that. Sometimes it's a sweaty minimalistic exercise outfit. Sometimes she just covers herself in her wings, which steadily relax as the conversation carries on. Or one of her performance outfits. That was actually so relatively modest I'm wondering if she was really in the shower this time."

Jade regards me contemplatively.

"I know Thanagarians are usually direct, but that would mean that she'd tell you that she wanted you."

"Quite."

"She knows enough about human culture to know what human men find appealing. Feigned modesty while keeping her appeal firmly in your mind."

"She actually has a fairly good education in xenosociology. Plus the information she's gained from me, and I suspect that the Thals' reports have been making their way to her."

"How annoyed should I be that you haven't mentioned any of this?"

I shrug. "How annoyed should I be about the seven Themysciran women who hit on you last Christmas without you telling me?"

"How annoyed would you be if they were Themysciran men?"

I smile.

"How annoyed should I be if they were Themysciran men?"

"Superboy's dating and Silver Scarab's married, so fairly annoyed."

"Lucky day for Daniel." I shake my head. "But no. She's under… I don't know if it's 'orders' or just an informal request, from Thanagarian intelligence. They'd like it if she got into an actual relationship with me so that she could influence my decision making, but they'll settle for having a source who's friends with me."

"So she is trying to seduce you."

"Not really. I'm not sure if she's trying to convince me that she's still trying so that I think of her as an unthreatening ditz, or if she's trying to convince her handlers that she's still trying so that they don't bother her about her xenophilic music."

Jade tilts her head back so that she's looking at the cockpit ceiling.

"Speaking as an intelligence operative, it's generally not a good idea to make friends with enemy agents. Unless you're trying to turn them. And you're not trying to turn her."

"Yes, but I might want to do something with Thanagar at some point, and their whole internal political dynamic puts the old colonies at odds with the homeworld and newer colonies. Having a woman on the inside could be useful. And she's, you know, pretty good company."

"Does she understand enough about human culture to know that flashing someone else's boyfriend is inappropriate?"

"Yes. But in Thanagarian culture it's… Less..? It's not that they don't have a nudity taboo, but functional nudity doesn't have the same association. Their version of Men's Health is actually a health magazine."

"I should talk to her about it. I think her handlers would accept that."

"Or they might tell her to look at it as a challenge to a duel."

She frowns, glancing my way for a moment. "That's something Thanagarians do?"

"If one party to the relationship is being indecisive and things need to be definitively settled. To be clear, I much prefer you-"

"I'm glad to hear it."

"-to her, so that tradition isn't strictly relevant-"

"And I'd win."

"-and you'd win, I'm not convinced that her handlers have the same understanding of human culture and don't trust them not to do something stupid. The current situation works well enough for both of us."

"Do you like seeing her like that?"

"Jade, we live in the era of the internet. And I have a power ring with a scanning capacity. And designs for gynoids. If I wanted to see naked women, I'm spoiled for choice. But that sort of thing… Doesn't interest me as much as it used to."

"That's what I get for dating a man in his thirties."

"Seeing what people want. If they're displaying themselves, but they're actually thinking about their career or what they're having for lunch or the hundreds of times they've done the same thing… I see that."

"'Hundreds of times'?" She raises her eyebrows. "I thought she was a professional singer."

"Not her. I mean in general. When I'm with you I see your beautiful whole, and how you feel about me and us. Bleez is perfectly pleasant, but knowing for certain that she's not that into me is a turn off."

"It's not usually a sex thing. Most of the time, it's a power thing. A woman who's famous and attractive and compelled to do what they want would be a powerful draw."

I shake my head. "Not to an empath. Who.. wasn't a psychopath. We're exposed intimately to the personhood of other people."

"That hasn't stopped you killing people."

"No. If I know they're that bad, why would it? But Bleez isn't a particularly bad person or genuinely interested in me."

Jade nods. "The Thanagarian slaves. Does she own any?"

"Ah, her mother does, as family matriarch. Or… Serfs, technically. You read my report on the Thanagarian undercity?"

"Thanagarians practice Darwinism amongst themselves. At least they're even-handed."

"The old colonies aren't. It's a species-based stratified society, but exactly what that means varies from place to place."

"Is Bleez her mother's heir?"

"Yes. Until she made enough money in her music career that she could live disconnected from her mother's purse strings. Their relationship has been difficult ever since."

"This sounds like something I should know more about before we arrive. Tell me about Havania."

 

4th October 2012
08:10 GMT

"Legion craft, you are cleared for descent. Remain within the indicated corridor."

Havania has nothing like the number of ships standing guard as Thanagar itself does, but it does have several large military defence stations and near-planet shipyards. The stations appear to be under the control of the Empire's military rather than local officials.

"L.E.G.I.O.N. acknowledges, Havania control. Course entered."

And down we go, into the atmosphere. Our ship is perfectly capable of maintaining a steeper angle of approach and a higher velocity, but quite understandably they don't want to take a chance on us suicide ramming something. Especially not the home of the planet's ruler.

"Why does she live in a castle?"

"It's not exactly a classical castle in the European style. The insides are perfectly modern. But when Thanagarians first came here they wanted defensible structures at high elevation, and it was easier to quarry stone using local corvée labour than to bake bricks or mix concrete. Now, it's tradition."

"'Corvée'."

"Technically."

"Given how badly you reacted to Zatara being enslaved, I'm a little surprised at how little you care about it."

"I reacted badly because I like Zatanna and respect Zatara, and because of the form his enslavement took. The Havanian native population were primitive hunter-gatherers before the Thanagarians arrived, and now they have access to technology they wouldn't have had for thousands of years, if at all."

"At least you're honest about being an imperialist. Didn't Truggs come back in time to stop that happening to Earth?"

"That was because it was the Reach. You know that anyone occupied by them gets exterminated eventually. Under the Thanagarians, the size of the native population has increased from the level it was at the start of colonisation due to better medicine and agricultural technology, as well as the elimination of internal violent conflict. It's like Britannia and Roman Empire. Besides, who around here is actually worth getting conquered by? The Ungarans?"

"Xudar?"

"Barely. They're mostly isolationist, so there's no access to any great trade network. They aren't especially skilled at societal management, and that's mostly what holds Earth back, so there's no benefit there. Now if Krypton was still a going concern then we'd have something to talk about."

That gets a raised eyebrow.

"Wouldn't Krypton have conquered us effortlessly?"

"Yes, because they were still empire-building a century or so ago. But they didn't really colonise in depth, so we'd get limited access to their technology without having to worry about our culture being destroyed."

"A century or so?"

"Yes?"

"So when the British Empire was at its peak?"

"Ah… Probably. Maybe slightly after its peak?"

Jade smiles faintly as she double checks our final approach vector.

"Landing zone sighted. What should I wear?"

"This isn't a state visit. Whatever you like."

"I'd like to wear my exo-mantle."

"You could. Thanagar is very proud of its military, and they won't be offended if you feel the same way."

"But Bleez won't."

"Thanagarian intelligence assets don't have a uniform. There's a formal mode of dress for Havanian nobility, but I doubt that she'll wear it. Oh, and-."

A minor eye roll.

"I'm not going to mention that you know that she's an informant. But do you want me to mention it if she knows that you know?"

"I'm pretty sure that she knows that I know."

"Then do you want me to mention it if she knows-"

"-that I know-"

"-that she knows?"

"I don't know. I don't know."

Jade lets out an amused snort as we land. Local custom dictates that nobles should only speak face to face while other communications are relayed via servants. Since we don't have a servant with us… Though I suppose that my construct lanterns would probably have counted. I think I could get away with direct personal communication, but now that we're here I want to give Princess Bleez the opportunity to decide how she wants people to see us.

Jade switches the ship's systems into standby and stands, taking a moment to shake out her outfit.

I raise my left hand slightly.

"Do you want me to-?"

"She's going to fly out wearing a bikini, isn't she?"

"Technically, no. Thanagarians aren't big on swimming."

…

"But as I've said, it's not a competition. Unless you want it to be, in which case, you win."

Jade takes in a deep breath, then snorts it out in a sharp exhalation. "She's pretty hot, isn't she?"

"Yes."

"Basic laundry, then-" I'm already running a laundry beam over her as we both get up and head towards the airlock. "-let's go."

"Have you got a flight-?" She pulls her blouse aside slightly to show me her kinetic belt. "Good show."

The airlock swings open and Jade confidently walks out, her eyes moving to take in as much of her environment as she can without getting distracted from-.

"Hey!" Bleez descends through the air from one of the upper towers, wings flared and body covered in what is basically a cut down halter top and a thong with streamers. She lands just in front of Jade and smiles warmly at her. "You're Jade, right! Paul's told me so much about you!"

Bleez makes a wing gesture of trust, extending the wing tips slightly in front of her so that she wouldn't be able to fly away quickly if Jade attacked her.

"It's so good to finally meet you!"

"I'm happy to be here."

Bleez turns her head to pout at me. "And I thought you were avoiding me."

"Perish the thought."

"Now you're here, we can-"

"Bleez? Where are you?"

"-get out of here before Mother catches up. Humans can fly, right?"

 

4th October 2012
08:32 GMT

Bleez tosses a blanket down on a pondside rock, then stares at its wrinkled lay for a moment before taking the time to pull it out flat.

"I usually get Toroz to arrange things for me before I get here, but he'd totally tell Mother where I went, you know?"

The rocks are far too regularly shaped and conveniently placed to be naturally occurring, but it's clear that whoever landscaped this area made an effort to include only plausibly natural elements. The depression in the side of the mountain could be natural, but ring scans are showing me where the rock was worked with chisels before all sign of that work was covered in vines and mosses to completely obscure it. The improbably mini-waterfall is similarly worked, dug channels funnelling rainfall from a large portion of the mountain into multiple streams which converge in the same place. For that, ring scans show that there is an option to turn it up by using the castle's systems to pump water into the channels, but it's currently not running. As a result, the fall is a background trickle rather than a wildlife shower.

Jade sits on the next rock along, giving her head a small shake as I raise my left hand and mouth 'want a blanket' to her. No, she wouldn't be relaxed enough to do something like that just yet.

"Is he your butler?"

"Hm? Noo." Bleez sits down on the edge of her blanket-covered rock and then leans back, supporting herself with her left arm while brushing her hair out of her face with her right. Then she tilts her head up and arches her back, posing for-.

She's posing, milking every action for everything it's worth as if this were a magazine photo shoot. I wonder why?

She twists around to kneel on the blanket with her wings slightly flared, then leans forward until she's on all fours and arches her back again. Then she lays down with her head supported by her bridged hands and her lower legs pointed upwards, her wings again slightly raised to that someone looking at her from the side would have an unobstructed view of the curves of her body while also seeing that her feathers and flight muscles were in excellent condition. Then her wings drop, and I see that the rock bier is just high enough that when she completely relaxes her flight muscles the tips of her wings don't quite reach the ground.

"He's my body slave."

I frown. The native species of Havania are raniform and about a third of the size of a standard pattern humanoid, so she can't mean-.

"You know, like a personal attendant who's bound to you for life?"

"I can't say that I do."

Bleez rolls her eyes and looks away.

"I didn't pick him, okay? He's just been, like, there, my whole life. That's one of the reasons I prefer performing off-world. His people aren't allowed to leave Havania so he can't come with."

"Bleez, why are we hiding from your mother?" Her shoulders droop slightly. "On Earth, dodging the lady of the house would be quite rude."

"Uh. I came back after my tour finished so I could work on some new songs, or maybe some adaptations of the kryptonian and human stuff you sent me? I haven't even put my bags down before she's trying to bundle me off to meet 'an excellent suitor of good breeding, I will not let your father's lineage die with you, he sacrificed too much building this sanctuary to let it go empty and become ransacked by the commoners below'."

She pulls herself up slightly as she mimics her mother's voice, sneering as she finishes.

Jade turns her head to carefully judge the distance to the glade's points of egress.

"Is that likely to happen?"

"No one's going to ransack anything. If I died without an heir the military would probably take it over. Not that that's going to happen."

I smile. "Oh? You have an eye on someone inappropriate and you want to wait until she's really desperate?"

"No… It's…" She frowns at me and then looks around. "Hey, could you check this place for monitoring equipment real quick?"

"Is that what you were posing for?"

She blinks in confusion. "'Posing'?" She checks her stance, then sags. "Uhr, I've been doing that so long it's just automatic now." … "I'm pressing my boobs together with my upper arms, aren't I?"

"I hadn't notic-"

"Yes."

"-ed."

"And done. They're just going to see us sunbathing and talking about music."

Bleez frowns. "Wait, there actually are-?" A frustrated exhalation. "Of course there are. Mother probably put them there."

"You are next in line to rule the planet. It wouldn't be too surprising that the Empire's government wants to keep an eye on you."

"Though if it was your mother, she knows where you are."

"If she remembers to look."

"I don't think you've spoken about your father much."

She makes a small wing-shrug. "He was one of the people who got Hyathis to cure the Equality Plague, and after she got thrown out he negotiated the settlement we have now with the government of Thanagar. They put him in prison for a while for working with her, which was total guano."

"Where is he now?"

"Oh, he's dead. And I'm his only child, which is why Mother is so fixated. If she wanted a bigger family, why couldn't she just remarry? I wouldn't have cared!"

"So there isn't someone inappropriate?"

"There will be. Probably. It's just-. I don't think she and I want to do the same things, you know? So she'll never accept anyone I actually want to marry, someone who wants the same things as I do for Havania." Another small shrug. "And since my marriage needs her approval, I.. just have to wait until she's dead."

"I hadn't realised that you actually had a manifesto."

She looks at me with an expression of faint disappointment.

"I've known that I was going to end up ruling Havania since I was three. Of course I've got plans. And the reason why I'm spying on you -and yes I know that you know that I know- is that I want to make sure the military give me the space to change things without throwing me in prison. That's why I learned to perform at all: so regular Thanagarians would have a positive image of me."

Jade smiles faintly. "What is it you want to do?"

"Abolish all legal restrictions on the aboriginals. Increase the size of our civilian economy and start trading outside the Empire. Remove travel restrictions so that all the dispossessed of the Empire can come here. Develop an actual culture outside of military service. And marry a man who wants the same things as I do and wants to change the Thanagarian Empire into something less brutal. Because it's really brutal. I mean, you saw Downside, but you only saw a bit of Downside and there's a lot more to it than that. They actually dump prisoners from the newer colonies there, did you know that? Any of the aliens who do something wrong gets taken away from their home and dumped Downside with no way back."

"And you want to fix it?"

"I just want to fix my little bit of it. And don't even think about giving me a power ring. The government will never let me do any of it if I've got a power ring."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Until the end of my holiday, anyway.

 

22nd Jahrdrung 2512
Midday

Gaius Gracchus Lupo gulps as he begins to take in the scale of the work being undertaken before him in the blazing Nehekharan heat.

Literal legions of Lybaras's skeleton labourers dig at the dead soil under the direction of whip-armed Necrotects, a handful of Tomb Princes standing watch to ensure that their queen's will is being properly made manifest. Huge animated statues pick up the largest buried stones and haul them out of the way, while merely large statues work at the ground at the front of the digging corridor with huge picks.

Gaius looks towards the sea, just visible through the shimmering heat, where the artificial bay is lapped by sea water. Skeletons and constructs have no need to breathe and as such are perfectly quiescent when asked to dig under water. Then he turns and gazes inland, where he can just about see tiny shapes moving as they work under the personal direction of Chief Necrotect Ramhotep the Visionary to bore a hole through the World's Edge Mountains.

"We considered cutting through from the Sour Sea through the Marshes of Madness to the Black Gulf. It would be a shorter route, but there are a lot of Orcs in the area and draining the Marsh would be a pain. And the Gulf isn't easily navigable. But taking it from the Gulf of Fear to the Ash River and onto the Great Mortis River, we can create a passage directly into the Great Ocean."

"Do you.. have a.. map?"

He doesn't look at me, but rather keeps staring.

"I can do better than that." I take a globe out of subspace and spin it around so that the portion displaying Nehekhara is facing him. "See here?"

"How far is it?"

"About fifteen hundred miles in total. The bit we're digging now is about five hundred, and it won't be all that deep or wide to start with. In the end we want it to be navigable by galleons, but to start with it will just be open to barges."

He looks at the globe.

Then he looks at the work.

Then at the mountains.

Then at the globe.

"This is a little larger than the road between Luccini and Verezzo."

"Yes, but given your reaction, you're a good deal more mentally stable than the person doing this."

"I can't imagine the mind that could conceive of a work like this."

"Um, thank you?"

His eyes widen. "You designed this?"

"No, just the conception. The design of the canal is the work of Necrotect Ramhotep."

"He is one of the undead."

"Yes indeed. And not.. really one of the sane ones. Though High Queen Khalida says that he was the same when he was alive."

"But… How..?"

"Sentient Undead range from glorified automatons to beings who have essentially the same mental processes as the living. Sophont Tomb Kings and Queens sometimes fixate on the patterns of the lives they lived when they were alive, and those ones are not easy to deal with. Others aren't much different from living sovereigns. High Queen Khalida is aware of herself sufficiently well to grasp opportunities like this. Ah, but it's probably not something you should try without knowing your target very well first."

Gaius nods, tracing the route across the globe. "If this is successful, Luccini would be the first port that a ship would reach in the Old World."

"Unless the captain felt like trying to head directly for Los Cabos, certainly."

"They would have to contend with the pirates of Sartosa, though I suppose no more than they do so presently."

"I believe that it may be necessary to deal with Sartosa. Once the canal has finished and the shipping routes change."

He spins the globe anticlockwise, viewing the world to the west of Nehekhara.

"This is Ind and Cathay?" I nod. "This will make passage far easier and swifter. And avoid having to deal with the elves at the Fortress of Dawn. You are not at all concerned about what they will do about their sudden drop in revenue?"

"The wonderful thing about dealing with the undead: raiding their settlements doesn't really do much. There's not a lot there to burn, and even if you smash every skeleton to pieces all it means is a little extra work for the Liche Priests." I shrug. "Should it prove necessary, I'll discuss the subject diplomatically above the level of whatever prince is running the place. I'd be astonished if elven vessels didn't end up using this canal as well."

"Queen Khalida's city is Lybaras?" I nod. "Near the western entrance. This will make her a very rich woman. Assuming that she cares for such things."

"She very much does. She also hopes that engaging with the wider world will aid in the mental recovery of her contemporaries. Or at least attract the foreign expertise that might be required to fix their problems."

"They… Seem to be managing well enough."

"Their priest told them that they would rise as golden demigods, and Nagash the Black made them rise as wizened corpses. They want to upgrade."

Gaius looks directly at me, and he appears to have calmed down a little.

"Is that possible?"

"Nothing is possible until someone does it. Who would have believed that a man could fly by strapping bed sheets to his back and flapping them with his legs before Daddallo did it?"

"I have seen him do it and I am not certain that I believe it." He nods. "But I understand what you mean. I cannot deny that the undead here are clearly working towards this goal, so I suppose that it does not matter whether it is ultimately possible or not so long as they believe that it is."

"So are you prepared to accept my commission?"

"I would feel somewhat foolish if I saw all of this and still did not accept. You do not mind if I inform my father about the additional shipping we can expect?"

"If it was a problem, I wouldn't have told you. Once we establish a working relationship, I will naturally be sharing more information with Luccini. A few years should be enough time for the construction of a few new docks, shouldn't it?"

"Yes, though I think -for the good of the city- it will need to be managed by someone else while I occupy myself with teaching Reikland peasants how to lay paving stones."

"Not just Reikland. The network is-."

"Yes, yes. But this is the Emperor's commission first. The peasants who I teach will be the foremen when the work expands into other Provinces. Reiklanders are not unfond of prestige. I will need to look at where stone can be quarried, and what carters might be hired…"

I nod. "I believe that the Emperor has scribes who can lay their hands on that information. You've seen enough, then?"

He nods slowly, once more looking over the diggings. "I believe that I will take what I have seen here to my grave."

"Would you like to meet the Queen before we leave?"

"Will she meet with me?"

"Probably. You're socially the equivalent of one of their princes, though I'm afraid that we're both barbarians in their eyes. Allow me to check. Back shortly."

I fly at speed, passing over the immense project area to the observation point where High Queen Khalida waits with her court. Where they've been waiting for weeks, unmoving, acting only when something actually requires their attention.

Prince Ahmose stares at me for a moment as I appear, then returns to his 'at rest' pose. High Queen Khalida on the other hand actually rises to greet me as I bow.

"Ambassador. Your archeotech has accepted the commission."

"Indeed, majesty. If you are willing, he would like to meet you before travelling to the Reikland to begin his work."

She walks closer, stopping within arm's reach in a way that is causing a slightly uncomfortable shift in the stance of her guards. They know her will but they don't adapt well to change.

"I am. First, however, you have a duty here." She reaches up and pulls off her restored mask, revealing the living but unfeeling flesh behind it, enchanted eyes gazing into mine.

"And I would hate to be delinquent." I lean forward to kiss her. "Khali."