With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 16th bell

"A mighty warrior who opposes Skeletor, and through him Hordak? And he has a sword like this one?"

Her eyes dart for a moment to her Sword of Power, and I nod.

"You're… Simplifying things rather a lot, but that's an essentially true summary. I will say though that it's entirely possible that he's never heard of Hordak."

That gets a frown from Evelyn. "Never?"

"He's not the most studious sort, and his tutors have focused on warcraft and statecraft and rather let history go hang."

And to be fair, teaching the Crown Prince to swing a sword is a far better use of his time than having him study pre-invasion Eternia. That society will not come again, and interesting as its successes and failures are they won't have much impact on his life. The general state of He-Man's education can be deduced from his primitive attire; he's clearly from some tribe somewhere and only ever used a book to light fires.

"They never heard-!" Adora seems genuinely incensed. "How could they be unaware of the being whose invasion brought their world to its knees?!"

At least she's eating normal food now.

"Because one of the things that got ravaged was the education infrastructure. And also the data storage repositories and libraries. There are records, but a people who are forced into a subsistence existence are more interested in learning how to grow enough food for them to last the winter than learning about the history of centuries ago."

"And this 'He-Man'. He is their greatest champion?"

"Yes. Has Hordak mentioned his fights with King D'Vann Grayskull to you at all?"

"I was told that he was the Eternian ruler Hordak killed, though he was banished in return."

"Accurate. There's a certain amount of evidence which suggests that the sword He-Man wields belonged to him."

"A descendant, then?"

Huh. I hadn't really thought about it, but… Veena was his wife, but he passed authority onto the Elders as a collective body rather than to her or any children they might have had. Did they not have children? Or did he just not set any store by hereditary succession? Regardless, the Elders lived until Keldor's insurgency, while… His children didn't? I know that Zodak literally lived through the invasion… Eternian lifespans are weird, and I don't entirely understand why.

"Between the sword and the sheer size of the man, that seems likely."

"He is a warrior without equal." Evelyn makes sure to make eye contact with Adora as she says it. "I've yet to see him command any sort of army and he knows nothing of magic, but his sheer physical power makes enemies and obstacles alike a trivial inconvenience."

"Hordak would overcome him as he did his ancestor."

"Hordak isn't here. Are you his equal in might or intellect?"

Adora looks mildly surprised, then shakes her head. "No."

"Then you realise that attacking him yourself would be a fool's errand. So you must decide what you want to do. I know the location of the temple Skeletor used to contact Hordak."

"Is it near to here?"

"No. Travelling there would take several days, and require us to avoid detection. Alternately, we could disguise ourselves and conduct covert reconnaissance on the city of Eternos."

"Are you not known to them?"

Evelyn rises from her chair and waves her now-glowing staff in a circle. Purple mist billows around her for a moment, then disperses to reveal her altered form. Her turquoise and bronze outfit has been replaced by something in green with a red cloak, and the structure of her face has changed enough to render her unrecognisable.

"Not like this."

She's changed her voice as well. Her expression is pretty recognisable, and I wish we had some way of communicating without Adora overhearing because I.. don't really know where she's going with this. Taking Adora into Eternos puts her close to their army, the Masters and her natural parents. With overwhelming power available, detaining her by force would be a good deal easier, but I'm not sure how that actually helps bring her over to our side. I don’t at all remember how it was managed in the original animated series, which is annoying because I'm fairly sure that.. my.. cousin..? Owned the book version of the story.

I nod. "Anyone can wear a hooded cloak. If I leave the staff behind I'm not immediately recognisable. And you would not be known at all."

"They would not recognise my helmet? Surely there are some scholars amongst them?"

Evelyn nods. "You would have to change into something that would fit it. I'm sure that I can conjure something appropriate."

Getting her to take off her armour. And she can't carry the sword with her, so that stays here and we don’t need to worry about 'She-Woman' appearing by accident.

"Something I can wear over my armour?"

"The citizens of Eternos do not habitually wear armour. Those that do do not wear armour that looks like that. It's far too advanced."

"Too advanced? How primitive are these people?"

I perk up slightly. "Soldiers in most places are limited to armour made of steel plates. More advanced armour is available in a very small number of places new, or as valuable heirlooms handed down from before the invasion. I… Suppose we could paint it a different colour, if-"

"No."

"-you could accept that. Hordak heraldry hasn't changed in the intervening period. You might be able to get away with it at some sort of fancy dress party-"

"No."

"-but otherwise I'm afraid that it wouldn't work. If you don't want something conjured, there… May be something in your size in this castle?"

Adora nods uncertainly. "I could gather useful intelligence and take it back to Hordak once Shadow Weaver opens the portal once more."

Evelyn nods. "Or perhaps we could travel to Hordak's temple once we are more certain of the disposition of our enemies."

Adora nods. "Agreed."

I raise my right hand and think hard about a book on modern Eternian customs-.

A book flies from a book case and slams into my hand. I take a quick look at the cover -Diary of a Journeyman- and offer it to Adora.

"This should give you some idea of how Eternian society works. Evil-Lyn and I can go and look for some clothing while you read it."

She takes it, and I stand and follow Evelyn out of the library. I close and sneck the door behind us.

"So what are you planning?"

She looks down, looking at the lock for her staff.

"So what are you planning?"

"Get her to disarm herself, take her to Eternos… Hope that she works out that she's Adora for herself without us needing to tell her so that it's more convincing."

She smiles. "Precisely. Perhaps we could even deny it to make it more convincing?"

"I'm not sure-. I can't leave the castle entirely unattended. You can't go out unsupervised, and-."

"Even with the princess of Eternia?"

"Especially with her."

"Then I suppose that I will simply have to stay here. With the Sword of Power. And since no one else is available-."

Oh no.

"I have to transfer the power to you." Damn it. "Go and find her some clothes while I try working out how to modify the geas so that Teela Na won't put one on me when she finds out about this."

 

21st October 2012
15:04 GMT

The Pax Romana very visibly tracks the retreating starships with its primary weapons, though it makes no move to accelerate after them. The trio of ships in question don't look anything special; small freighters with a light armament, more focused on speed than armour. None of them have any alert flags, but at the same time Marcus isn't the sort to go around picking fights. Not picking up any weapon fire and none of the ships look damaged in any way…

Not sure what's happened there.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Pax Romana."

"Alpha Centurion responding. Were they friends of yours?"

"I have no information on those ships. Where were they flagged as coming from?"

"Timaron. A dead world."

"I know it. Commodore Amalak is one of my.. contacts in Vega. Useful fellow. If they're looking for more of their species I could send them his coordinates and contact details."

"They're not. They're looking for revenge."

"Ah."

"Did they hear of Superman from your lips?"

"No. That would have been an obvious mistake… But I didn't ask Koriand'r to avoid mentioning him. Or Adam Blake. Did they ask after him specifically?"

"No. They visited the Rao system and noticed that one of the moons had moved."

"Oh."

"They will not be the last. Krypton was known for its technological sophistication and military might. People have tried raiding the system before."

"And, what? They think that now someone has succeeded that must mean that the defences are off?"

"I suspect that they reached the conclusion that surviving kryptonians must be the ones who recovered their planetoid."

"So their plan is to visit every space-faring civilisation in the region to see who's putting them up?"

"Or perhaps see where they have established a colony. I don’t believe that they have visited Earth, but it is possibly to decipher radio waves from the edge of a system. Superman's face is widely known. In theory, they could have heard of him over a substantial area."

"Not easily. Assembling an actual picture or coherent speech from outside the Sol system would require huge amounts of processing power and detection equipment. That's not something that a random group of freebooters could put together. But I… Take your point."

I look around.

"Just the Pax out here, then?"

"You sent your ships to the Alignment."

"Yes, but the Russians have that launch cannon and Starfire's ship, and the US must be working on something by now. I know that someone got hold of Doctor Knight's cosmic converter technology from somewhere."

"Disappointing, is it not?"

"Yes. Yes, it is. I don't suppose that the virmiru are likely to pass comment?"

"I imagine that you could get a message to them more swiftly than I could. They are a people given to making long term plans. Their emissary to this region would have left long before I began my return journey, and I have had no contact with them since."

"I don't suppose anyone in the Alliance of the Just has a spaceship, do they?"

"Not as far as I know. Most are 'street level', as you might say. Those that aren't usually limit their interest to terrestrial events. Does the Justice League not have spacecraft?"

"Martian Manhunter has one, but it's effectively an upgunned civilian ship. The Hawks have another, but it's not designed for deep space operations. Batman has a glorified rocket plane. Then it's just the Lanterns."

"Then it's a mercy that we haven't been invaded before now."

"Thanagar and the Alignment were heading this way, if it makes you feel any better."

"Do you have the matter in hand?"

"That's a long way down the 'plan' list. To my mind, raising a interstellar navy on Earth would be a pretty clear sign that I'd decided to take over the world."

"But bringing an external navy across the Rubicon was not?"

"That was just something I had laying around. There's a difference between riding to an ally's aid and taking over the mechanisms of their state."

"True, I suppose. Might it be advantageous for me to coordinate my patrols with the Justice League? I have been working under the assumption that they would have acquired a long range detection system of some kind, but if that is not so then the sensor system of the Pax Romana could serve."

"The Hawks were kind enough to volunteer some Thanagarian monitoring devices."

Because the League are still pretending that the Watchtower doesn't exist, despite the fact that knowing there was a neutral station which could serve as space traffic control and somewhere to get a general alert from could serve as an excellent bypass to 'who owns space' arguments. The sort of thing that most spacefaring civilisations have above their homeworld, even the ones that never unified politically.

"As well as their interdiction equipment. The very bare bones are covered, but that's about all. I'll pass your comments along, and give Batman a bit of a nudge about it."

"Thank you. Are there other matters you wish to discuss?"

"Yesterday, a woman named Jill Carlyle attempted to kill the first Wildcat. That brought to light the fact that she was almost certainly responsible for a large number of deaths, and the League is investigating those. Three didn't appear to fit the pattern; they were Alliance members."

"And you want access to our records?"

"Records, personal recollections, anything that we could use to work out what is going on."

"I can arrange that. Who were they?"

"Vigilante, White Dragon and Black Orchid."

"Orchid?"

"Did you know her?"

"Yes, we worked together on several occasions. The other two I remember as short-sighted and violent, but she was intelligent and subtle. Has this Jill Carlyle killed a great many people?"

"Dozens of superheroes. We're not sure whether she's killed other people as well. We think she might be being controlled to an extent by evil spirits in her guns, but that's about as far as we've got."

"I see. Well then, let us return to the bosom of Tellus and I will gather the information that you seek."