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

3rd October
13:11 GMT -5

"…going straight home! Whatever did you think you were doing?"

"You got a phone call and ran down an alleyway. When I got to the end of the alley you weren’t there. I wanted to know where you’d gone; I haven’t seen you all week!"

Perhaps I should redefine what the ring counts as ‘attempting to access’? I wonder if insatiable curiosity is a wizard thing, or just a Constantine thing? Ooh, that’s an idea, would Gemma prefer to go to an Atlantean school rather than wherever she’s going to in Liverpool at the moment? Anyway, sounds like Mister Zatara had a freak out when he heard about what I’d done and cut short a father-daughter visit to San Francisco. I was surprised when I learned that they didn’t live there, but maybe I’m just misremembering the comics.

"You know my work with the Justice League can call me away at short notice!"

My team mates are waiting for Black Canary to arrive. She hasn’t actually arranged a training session, but there’ll probably be one for anyone who’s interested. I know Robin and Wallace have been looking forward to it. This is presumably why they haven’t left the room while the father/daughter conflab takes place, loudly. Reacting to the social discomfort they’ve retreated across the room. I’m signed off from practice on a no-heavy-lifting-or-heavy-thinking order, but... I have been agitating for a team thaumaturgist for a while now and Zatanna was near the top of my list of preferred candidates. Might be tricky now that I see how protective Mister Zatara’s being.

Time to break them up, I think.

"Excuse me sir?"

They both look around. Mister Zatara’s face is a picture of controlled irritation. "Orange Lantern, this is a private conversation."

"Not at that volume it isn’t, sir. Look, I think we all-" I gesture with both arms to my team mates who are checking the ceiling and floor for cracks. "-all know that you aren’t happy about Miss Zatara -hello! I’m Orange Lantern, pleased to meet you- being here, but since she is here I’d like to point out that inside a mountain surrounded by superheroes is a lot safer than, for example, all of New York."

M’gann, Robin and the sphere enter from the direction of the lifts. Robin’s in casual clothing.

"No attacks by evil wizards since... Ooh, last Tuesday, wasn’t it?"

Mister Zatara schools his features. "That was contained extremely quickly."

"What I’m saying is, now she’s here, where’s the harm in introducing her to everyone?"

I can virtually see him counting to five. He breathes out.

"I suppose you’re right." He half turns back to her. "Go and say hello. I need to look into how you were even able to get through the zeta tube."

"Miss Zatara? If you’d care to accompany me?" I hold out my right arm.

"Um. Thank you." She looks a little puzzled, but smiles and comes alongside me. We link arms as we start to walk in the direction of my team mates.

"Sorry if I’m interrupting your practice."

"Eh, I’m skipping anyway."

Apparently having learned from what happened when Artemis first got here, Kaldur steps forwards first.

"Miss Zatara, welcome to the cave. I am-."

"Wally. I’m Wally. He’s not, he’s Kaldur, that’s Artemis, Kon, over there’s Rob, M’gann and The Sphere, you’ve already met Paul, that’s Teekl and that is Wolf. Hi!"

Wallace holds out his hand. For a moment she’s taken aback. Then she gets a better look at the puppy.

"Aw, he’s so cute!"

Zatanna pulls free of me and walks past Wallace over to Teekl. She bends slightly to stroke Wolf’s head. Wallace sags. Kon steps protectively towards his pet.

"Wolf’s a girl."

"How long have you had her? How old is she? And.. why is this cat orange?" She pulls her hand back and gives Teekl the eye.

"Ah, two days, ‘bout a week. Paul turned her into a construct."

"Teekl talk for Teekl. Who you?"

She blinks. "Did your cat just talk?"

I waggle my right forefinger left and right. "That won’t even be the strangest thing you see today. But yes, Teekl has near human intelligence."

She scans my face to check I’m being serious, then looks back at Teekl. "Um, well, I’m Zatanna Zatara, I’m a magician-."

"I’m something of a student of the mystic arts myself." Artemis gives Wallace a sceptical look. "No, really. I’ve been studying Atlantean alchemy."

"Uh huh."

He reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a small bottle. "Prepare to be amazed, nonbelievers."

He unscrews the pipette lid, holds it over his head and allows five drops of the clear liquid within to drop onto him. He then puts the lid back onto the bottle and returns it to his pocket.

"A little activation energy..."

He puts both hands in his hair and ruffles it at super speed for a couple of seconds. When he takes his hands away...

His hair is now blue. Completely blue. Brilliant blue, actually. There’s no blue colour on his hands or the skin around his hair... If that’s simple alchemy he could put hair dye manufacturers out of business in a few years. Or blackmail them into paying him not to.

"What d’ya think? Not bad for a guy who didn’t even believe in magic until a couple of months ago. No chemical basis for the blue coloration at all."

I think Zatanna is trying not to laugh.

Artemis doesn’t have her subtlety. "You look ridiculous."

"For obvious reasons liquid dyes are not common in Atlantis. I am impressed you were able to produce this simply from book study."

"Took like fifty tries... Hey Zatanna, you joining us for training?"

"Um, I don’t know. What sort of training?"

"This week? Unarmed combat. Black Canary’s taking over from your dad as our supervisor."

"Hooray for punching week. This is why I got the tattoos done now."

"They let you off practice… To get a tattoo."

"No, they let me off practice because I’m currently experiencing arcane overload. Magic makes me drunk, basically."

She frowns. "Why would tattoos..?"

I make a vague 'wave forwards' gesture at my team leader. "Kaldur, you wanna..?"

"It is common practice in Atlantis for mages to have energy channels inscribed on their skin to aid in their spell casting." He holds out his right arm and slowly twists it, showing off his design. From a distance it looks like a thick black line, but close up there are a lot of slight differences in tone and pattern across the tattooed area. They glow for a moment, and electricity dances around his hand.

"Oh, I see. Well, what do your tattoos do?"

"I’ll show you."

Ring, remove my jacket and vest.

 

3rd October
13:15 GMT -5

"And now no one’s looking at my magic hair."

Zatanna’s jaw goes slack and her cheeks colour slightly.

"I don’t really understand exactly what’s involved, but this bit over my heart-" I point. "-stands for the core of my being. The one-" I turn around and bend back slightly. Ah, Artemis is paying attention as well. Good to know. "-at the base of my neck, does something to spread the effect throughout my body using my nervous system as a conduit. This one-" I straighten and pull my trousers down a little at the back, revealing the symbol at the base of my spine. "-is the focus of the system binding the power generated to my body."

I pull the trousers back up and turn back to the gang.

"On my arms -see here?- there’s the marks for drawing power from local mana flows. Or something, I was a bit out of it when they started talking about that part. Plan is, if this all works like it’s supposed to then I can go on to get some other stuff done. I’m thinking passive buffs rather than active stuff like Kaldur has."

Zatanna seems a little distracted. "Buff... Yes..."

The sphere reaches Teekl and warbles at her. Teekl responds by ignoring it, sitting down and licking her left forepaw while being careful to keep Wolf balanced in place. Artemis shifts her weight to her left hip, left arm across her hip, right elbow on left hand and right fingers at her mouth.

"Hey, um, Kaldur. Can we have a look at your tattoos too? You know, for comparative purposes."

He thinks for a moment. "You would have to undergo several years of study before you would be able to make use of tattoos like mine. If you are interested, you are welcome to look at my school books-."

"Can you... Just, put your shirt back on?"

"Sure, Wallace. Ring?"

"Compliance."

I roll my shoulders as the vest and jacket reappear.

"So, um, what do those tattoos do?"

"Ah, there’s a story there. I come from a parallel universe entirely without magic and as a consequence, I don’t have a soul."

She blinks. Artemis suddenly loses interest. She leans over to whisper something to M’gann who starts, then blushes. Has she heard this story before? I think I-?

"That’s not possible. Everyone has a soul."

"Different parallel, different set of physical laws. It isn’t possible for someone here to survive more than a few days without a soul, but Humans where I’m from evolved under different conditions. The tattoos are designed to pull tiny amounts of magic to me and lock it in place."

"You’re trying to build yourself a soul?"

"Exactly. Fighting Klarion without one was not fun. No driving, no operating heavy machinery and no fighting superheroes hand-to-hand until I’m back to full... Um, what’s the word?"

Artemis smiles. "Coherency?"

I frown. "No, that’s not it..."

Robin grins at Zatanna. "Are you joining the team?"

"I hadn’t even... I didn’t know there was a team until just now."

"Do you have a costume?"

"Um, well…"

I flap my right hand back and forth. "Ah, come on, it can’t be any worse than Superman’s. I don’t think anyone’s noticed, but-" I raise my eyebrows. "-he wears his underwear on the outside! And a cape. I mean, really?"

"I didn’t exactly plan to come here today. Buuuut…" She closes her eyes for a moment, and takes a deep breath. "Emit ot yrt tuo eht wen kool!"

A puff of smoke and she strikes a pose. "How do I look?"

Oh dear. White blouse and bowtie, pale yellow waistcoat, black jacket with tails, black… Hot pants? Tights and high heeled calf length boots. I guess you can get sillier than Superman’s costume. That’s her costume from the comics -more or less- but if she tries getting into a fight like that...

"It looks great!" M’gann? "It’s so elegant!"

Yes, it looks nice, but... Oh, I need to sit down for this. I walk across to Teekl and turn around.

Teekl, backrest.

I sit, lean back, and fall over because the bloody cat’s moved. She tilts her head slightly to stare down at me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it’s the magic Kon, don’t worry. Just going to stay down here for a bit."

"So, what else can you do?"

The only member of the team I showed my ‘potential recruit’ files to is Kaldur, so Artemis doesn’t know how Zatanna’s abilities work. I don’t know how they work, but I do have a rough idea of the limits of the backwards talking thing.

"In theory? Just about anything, but all magic requires energy and it usually has to come from within. Plus, I need to know the incantation cold, or else have time to prep it. I can’t just make the impossible happen at will."

Guess the energy thing is why demons are so popular. Map uses London, Adom and Marvel use their gods. Papa Midnight -would Mister Zatara know about him?- uses his club. John uses the tiny amount he’s got really well and Atlanteans start magic exercising their metaphysiques in primary school. But if long incantations are a problem...

"Couldn’t you get pretty far with just... I don’t know... Erif?"

"It’s a bit more complicated than that. If I didn’t say what I wanted the fire to do it would probably just set light to my hand."

Artemis considers. "So you can do nearly anything, but you’ve only got so much power and you have to consciously activate it?"

"Yes..? That’s right."

Artemis’ head looms over me and she nudges me in the ribs with one of her feet. "Sound familiar, Paul?"

 

3rd October
13:18 GMT -5

"Well, fun as this was 'till someone decided to pull a Chippendale routine I need to get changed for Black Canary’s lesson. Rob?"

"Right with you, Wally."

Kaldur considers. "I think it would be wise for me to gain more practice fighting in Ocean Master’s armour."

The three of them head off in the direction of the armoury, Robin sparing a wave and a smile for the new girl. I need to do something about her costume.

"Zatanna, about that costume..."

"What about it?"

"It’s... It’s a great costume for a stage magician. It’s just that, well, even if a show goes really badly, the audience generally doesn’t try and shoot you."

She blinks. "Dad wears his stage costume when he’s out on League missions."

I push myself up to a sitting position, wincing slightly. "Mister Zatara uses a shield spell. Is your gear enchanted?"

"M... No? You’re wearing a leather jacket, how much protection does that give you?"

"Oh this isn’t my uniform. I just stick Lantern sigils on it ‘cause it’s a theme. This is my actual armour."

I’ve thought about trying to upgrade, but Batman gave this armour his seal of approval and I haven’t been able to find anything better. Yet.

"Someone could fire an Uzi at my chest from five metres away, and I’d barely feel it, even without the ring generating a shield."

Ah... Need to avoid this turning into another me versus Artemis. Not.. sure.. how to do that...

"Doesn’t Wonder Woman go around in a swim suit?"

"Okay, leaving aside the fact that Wonder Woman could tank anti-tank rounds naked, she can get away with that due to her bustier having been made by Hephaestus, Olympian God of Smiths. It’s orichalcum plate held together with mithril chain, and loaded with more defensive spells than you've ever cast. You’re suggesting wearing a silk shirt and tails which -while classy, and may I say quite flattering- do not protect against bullets. Or knives. Or blunt instrument trauma."

Agh, too much. Her head’s bowed and she’s not meeting my eyes. Lighten the mood.

"I mean, I’d wear her gear if it fit me."

"Huh?"

My jacket and trousers vanish into subspace as I jump to my feet, and a glowing orange construct bustier forms around my torso in their place.

"What d’you think? Good look for me?"

The construct is opaque, but I’m pretty sure I don’t look good in drag. Zatanna’s giggles and Artemis’ bark of laughter suggest they share the opinion. Kon’s watching me blankly.

Think maybe someone needs to have a talk with him.

Clothes.

"Robin and Wallace both wear armour. M’gann vetoed my idea of stealing something from the Martian military for her, Kaldur’s got that natty suit we took off Ocean Master... Armour’s just sensible in our line of work. Artemis, back me up here."

"Ah, actually, you wear more armor than I do."

My eyes and hers drop to her exposed midriff. We both hold for a few seconds.

"Well, now I feel stupid."

"Yeah. Me too."

We contemplate her navel for a moment.

"Not even a bit armoured?"

"... Stab resistant."

Oh Artemis... I’m reminded of a post I read years ago now about some sort of superhero RPG. The guy who wrote it played as an archer, but found that his character kept getting defeated. One of the other players suggested that he give the character body armour, which in that particular system was highly effective. As a result, a baseline Human armed with a pointy stick launcher was basically ignoring small arms and the guy playing him found it unsatisfactory. He went away and read some Green Arrow comics and found that when Green Arrow got shot he generally folded like wet tissue paper, then decided that he would remove the armour from his character’s inventory in order to stay true to the source material.

I do this as a memorial to your pointless suffering, nameless RPG archer guy.

"Alright, I'm dragging you both out shopping. There’s a guy in Metropolis, made my armour, does great work."

Zatanna looks scandalised. "I can’t just go to Metropolis!"

"Yeah you can. Watch. Mister Zatara! Is it alright if we take Zatanna home?!"

He looks up for a moment from the main holo console before returning to trying to trace the power ring’s undetectable alterations. "Yes, that is fine. Zatanna, I will be home by seven."

"There. Now we’ve got.. five hours?"

"Doesn’t the zeta tube log where everyone who uses it goes?"

"Power rings are awesome. Are we doing this? We can always visit some of Metropolis’ other shops while we’re there. They’re open on Sunday, right?"

"Um, can I come?" M’gann's posture suggests nervous exuberance.

"Peter Gambi doesn’t do shape shifting armour I’m afraid, but, sure?"

The girls make eye contact with each other and start grinning. And I’m starting to think that maybe I should just have measured the two of them with the ring and sent Mister Gambi their measurements. Artemis leading the way, they start walking over to the zeta tube.

"Um..."

Kon looks a little despondent. It’s not like any conventional armour could survive him wearing it, but perhaps another approach?

"Kon, do you remember when M’gann took you shopping for shirts?"

His eyes glaze. He did not have fun that afternoon. "Yeah?"

"Like that, but for five hours, and there’s three of them."

I keep my face passive as the horror dawns on him. "Oh. Okay." He reaches forward with his right hand and pats me on my left shoulder.

I nod, and reach across to lay my right hand on his for a moment. "Thank you."

Ring, wolf milk.

The bottle materialises in my left hand and I pass it to him. He takes it with his left and releases my shoulder. Taking a deep breath I turn and follow the girls to the zeta tube. Oh, what the heck. I need some winter clothes anyway.

Ah, they were waiting for me. That was nice of them. M’gann shifts into Megan and-

"Egnahc kcab ot ym dlo kool."

-Zatanna changes back into her normal outfit. Artemis looks at me and I nod.

"Normal clothes, please."

I felt like I was walking on eggshells when I asked Artemis if she wanted me to keep hold of a change of clothes for her, but she took the suggestion at face value without being offended by the apparent impropriety.

"Recognised, Artemis, B zero eight, Zatanna Zatara, A zero six, Miss Martian, B zero five, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

 

3rd October
15:38 GMT -5

"And then Superman says, 'Oh, no, I don't use it for body protection."

It takes Zatanna a moment to get it, then her eyes go wide, her cheeks go red and she covers her mouth with both hands. Artemis is just behind, spluttering in incoherent disgust. M'gann…

"I don't get the joke."

The visit to Mister Gambi went off without incident. I told him when I bought my own armour that I would do what I could to find him other clients. Feel a bit bad about taking this long, but I swiftly redirected the intrapsychic arousal into irritation with Green Arrow for letting his new student run around the place with a ‘shoot me’ sign on her stomach. Black Canary too. Wasn’t she supposed to be the responsible one? Really, what were they thinking?

We’re taking a break at a cafe in the Collyer Center, sitting at a table overlooking the third floor balcony. Since we’re here in civilian mode I haven’t put my bags in subspace. I think this is more clothes than I’ve ever bought in one session before.

"The implication is that Superman is so strong that-."

"Pots gniklat!"

I wait a moment, looking at Zatanna with a smirk. Then:

"Doesn't work." I pull the thong with the Spell Eater on it out of my vest. "Knowing that attack by magic was both possible and very dangerous to me, I upgraded my defensive equipment. Spell Eater Ward."

Upon realising that I had virtually unlimited funds, Artemis decided that it would be fun to treat me like a Human dress up doll. When I turned out to be better at hiding my discomfort than Kon, M’- Megan joined in. Zatanna still seemed a bit uncertain about the whole thing. I say that I was hiding my discomfort, but actually, having other people pick out clothes made the whole thing a good deal less stressful than I usually find clothes shopping. Plus, I should really have realised that Artemis wouldn’t have much -if any- disposable income. Not like superheroing leaves time for a part time job.

"Where did you find something like that?"

Interesting. Doesn’t look like she felt the usual discomfort. "I didn’t find it, I know the man who invented it. An Atlantean artificer by the name of Sephtian."

Artemis takes a closer look at it. "Were you serious about getting all of us one for Christmas?"

"Well, I’m not sure exactly what would happen if an actual magic user tried wearing one, have to try that out with Kaldur, but yes."

"How much do they cost?"

"They don’t." I shrug. "I traded Sephtian about three hundred dollars' worth of science textbooks for this one, but that was more because I wanted to improve his knowledge of surface world science than because I thought that was a fair trade. For the ones I’m getting you for Christmas he just wanted me to fabricate a few extras. About two minutes' work each."

I put the straw of my mango milkshake in my mouth and take a slurp in an attempt to forestall further questions along this line. Would she consider competition archery? Find a tournament offering reasonable prize money? Is there any money in competitive archery? If there is I can bypass all of the transportation costs. She’s in a pretty bad position, really. More expenditure per encounter than the rest of us, no power for me to work out how to monetise and no conveniently huge multinational company backing her.

Megan catches Zatanna’s eye. "So, how long have you been studying magic?"

Zatanna bought some sort of strong coffee, and has been delicately sipping it. So classy.

"Dad says that the first time he saw me cast a spell was when I was six, but I don’t really remember it. He started giving me formal lessons when I turned twelve. It’s a nice way for us to spend time together. How.. long have you been on Earth?"

"Five months, and I love it here!"

"How did you learn English?"

"From Earth TV. Oh, and I used telepathy for a few weeks when I first got here. Hello Megan, they’re not going to put everything on TV."

"You can telepathically translate any language?"

"Yes. Well, any humanoid language. It sometimes doesn’t work on species who are really different, like robots."

Worth finding out about. "Were you able to feel anything from Swamp Thing?"

She shakes her head. "I was too busy just staring at him to even try."

Zatana raises her left eyebrow. "Swamp... Thing..?"

I look at Artemis with my straw in my mouth. She picks up on it. "Yeah, he’s this giant.. plant elemental.. thing.. we met two days ago in Louisiana."

"Was he helping the Injustice League?"

"No. He was so mad about them using plants like that that he took away Poison-."

"Can we not call her that?"

"Everyone calls her that, except for you."

Zatanna’s looking confused. "Um... What.. do you want to call her?"

"Pamela Isley. Her name, in other words. I think calling them by their ‘supervillain name’ encourages them."

"Whatever. He took away her powers."

"Wait. Were you fighting the Injustice League?"

The three of us share a smug look. Is that inappropriate? A lot of people died, but I don’t think anyone else could have dealt with the situation any better than we did. Guy’s been working overtime clearing rubble ahead of his evaluation thingy. Not sure it’ll help with that, but it’s getting good publicity on Earth. He should be a shoo-in for the League now.

Artemis nods. "Batman sent us after them while the League dealt with the vine attacks."

"And a jolly good job we did of it, too. I’m particularly proud of what I managed to do with Teth Adom."

Artemis thinks for a moment, then narrows her eyes at me. "What exactly was in that ‘magic powder’ you gave him?"

"Oh, some herbs, some powdered bone to represent the link to his former self..." I tense the corners of my mouth. "Some.. lysergic acid diethylamide..."

It takes a second for her to work it out, then her eyes widen.

"You took LS-!"

Stop her!

A tiny ray gun like construct appears next to my right hand, and Artemis suddenly goes silent. She angrily shouts in silence for a few moments before sitting back in her seat, arms crossed and looking to the side.

"How about not shouting it out in the middle of a shopping centre?"

"I can’t believe you."

"Actually, mind altering substances have been used in magic rituals since time immemorial."

Megan and Artemis turn to Zatanna in surprise.

She blinks at them. "What?"

"Heh. Always the ones you least expect, isn’t it?"

 

3rd October
18:07 GMT -5

"You really can’t say your own name?"

We’re sitting in the living room of her home in New York. M’gann was meeting up with her uncle in Middletown -apparently that's a real place, and in a country with a place called Smallville I suppose I shouldn't be surprised- and Artemis was due out on patrol with Green Arrow.

"Can’t even think it. Not without collapsing. Of course, I haven’t tried using magic to reveal it yet."

"I could probably help with that."

Ring, remove Spell Eater.

"Be my guest."

"Kaeps ruoy eurt eman."

And I’m on the floor.

Zatanna looks stricken. "Are you okay?"

"Yep. Fine. How long have I been down here?"

"Ten seconds."

"Well there you go, you see: could be much worse. Feel like trying again?"

"I-is that a good idea?"

"Probably not, but I am rather tired of this whole situation. Do you know a spell for revealing the name of a person by looking at them?"

"I.. could.. probably... Ekat-."

"Wait, wait!" I lie fully on the floor. Sure, my environmental shield would probably stay active if I blacked out again, but no sense taking unnecessary risks. "Okay, go."

"Ekat sih eman morf eht Koob fo Ynitsed!"

I wait for something to happen. I don’t think I’ve moved...

"Paul?"

"Still with you. Get anything?"

"No. I don’t think I can have done it right."

"Ah well." I sit up and push myself back onto the settee. "If you think of something else to try feel free to let me know."

"That’s really strange. You said that Dad couldn’t detect any magic doing that to you?"

"Yep. I don’t suppose you know any... Name eating spirits, or whatever?"

"There are things like that, but being attacked by one of them has other effects as well, and you aren’t suffering from any of those."

I nod. Still bugging me.

"I’ve been thinking..?"

"What about?"

"Don’t you normally have to tell a zeta tube where you want to go?"

"Yes?"

"Because I didn’t. Even if someone had created a user profile for me I should have had to activate the relay, and I didn’t touch anything. There was what looked like an old cupboard someone had dumped in the alleyway, which I suppose must have been the zeta tube entrance. I opened the door to see if Dad was hiding or something and the next thing I know I’m inside the mountain."

"Yes, bit odd that. It’s almost as if someone with a xenotech hypercomputer was maintaining a constant connection to all zeta tube monitoring equipment, then used that access to undetectably create a new user profile and initiate transportation when someone they wanted to talk to stepped into a booth."

Understanding dawns.

"That’s.. oddly specific."

"Yes, it is. Did I mention that I think our team really needs a magic user?"

"Are you going to get in trouble for doing that?"

"Maybe, a bit, but Batman’s actually surprisingly reasonable. I mean, I don’t think I’d get away with doing this for someone who wasn’t already, y’know, part of the community, but about a month ago I gave him a file on potential future recruits and he didn’t mention there being a problem."

After my visit to the Batcave he asked for everything I’d put together. I had to spend a couple of hours rushing around to get it into a sensible format, and delete a couple where I couldn’t reasonably explain how I heard about them. I officially heard about Red Star from ‘an old Russian military server, now physically destroyed’.

"So, you recommended me?"

"Sort of. There were a few names sharing the magic skill set. You’re a bit more accessible than the other good candidates."

"Exactly how far down the list was I?"

"Your name starts with zed."

She folds her arms.

I wince. "Joint second."

"How many magicians our age do you know?"

"A few."

"Who was your first choice?"

"A guy called Timothy Hunter."

"Who?"

"Yeah, exactly. I couldn't find him."

Which means that either he doesn't exist here at all, he will exist but hasn't been born, he has been born but is five years old and hasn't left a trail or he's already studying at the White School and so is beyond my reach. John got rather evasive when I tried asking about him, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

"What makes him better than me?"

"Broader magic education. We already have people who can make ranged attacks -you're better than him at that-, but what we're really lacking is someone who knows how magic works."

"I thought Aqualad used magic."

"He does, but he’s only studied Atlantean style, and he stopped studying everything outside of combat magic when King Orin took him on."

At some point I’m going to need to return to the Conservatory and scan everything onto the ring. If they’ll let me, anyway. I may never be able to cast spells myself but being able to identify components with a quick scan would be an invaluable ability.

"And, joint second?"

"Rachel Roth, aka Raven. Couldn’t find her either. Much less range of ability but with a bit more combat focus. I.. have a bit of a problem detecting magic users who don’t want to be detected."

"So you want me on the team... because I’m the only one you could find?"

"Not- Well, sort of. Top three in the world isn’t bad. You know, I... Used to read a lot of comics, before coming here. Heh, bit pointless now. Seemed to me there were two things a team had to have if it didn’t want to get completely blindsided by certain types of opponent. Firstly, you have to have a telepath. Telepathic illusions and psychic shut down commands are an easy way to defeat anyone without the right defences. That’s pretty much what happened to us in Bialya. Not so much a problem now, I’ve learned telepathic defence constructs and M’gann’s had extra tuition from Mister J’onzz. Secondly, is you’ve got to have a magic user. Someone who knows how magic works. Like, we're walking down a corridor and there’s some runes on the ceiling. Is it just writing? A trap of some kind? What? I wouldn't know, and I don't think that anyone else on the team would either. I don’t expect you to fight directly without appropriate training, but we do need someone with your skill set. Do you think that getting that training is something you would be interested in?"

She’s not looking at me, weighing up her options.

"I..." She looks back at me with a small smile. "I think I would."

 

10th October
16:58 GMT -5

I hate punching week.

I drop and lunge forward under Kon’s swing, driving him back a little before rolling aside as he swings his arms down in a hammering motion.

Robin and Artemis are too good for me. Zatanna’s too bad, and I’m not good enough to teach her safely. Kon’s too strong for me to fight without the ring. But Kon’s too strong for anyone else to fight with their other powers unavailable. Diana can’t be here all the time, Donna’s busy and while Adom’s English is coming along really well I doubt the League will authorise him as an instructor anytime soon. Kon needs to practise too. For me, Guy’s on Oa, and I don’t want to risk messing things up for him by ringing -hah!- him.

Kon pushes off with his right leg to surge forwards, swinging his right arm around. I’ve learned all too well that a full strength Kryptonian can get away with clumsy blows. With my armour up it wouldn’t hurt, but it would knock me into a poor position. I sidestep, but he turns fast and goes for a grapple anyway. I strain to keep his arms apart while attempting to knee him in the diaphragm. He turns aside and his arms tighten, closing in on me.

No constructs and no flight. I’m being taught to respond in a stupid way. Yes, I know I need to learn how to do this, but I don’t want to develop these instincts.

Foot stomp foot stomp foot stomp. He grimaces in pain, but as when I fight Diana he can just take it and keep going. Agh! Arms are pinned against my sides! I try kicking again, but I can’t hit hard enough! Head butt!

Ow! Not clever!

"Good work everyone." Black Canary walks into the sparring area, and the floor lights dim. Kon loosens his grip on me. "In fact, it’s been a very productive week."

For some people. I’m going to get Guy some flowers or something when he gets back. Black Canary’s direct oversight resulted in a much bigger structured tuition element than Marvel’s or Mister Zatara’s, and it’s all stuff I don’t need. Not flat out useless, but still...

Artemis and Wallace step apart. Mister Gambi’s had to order in some parts for her and Zatanna’s armours and so they haven’t been completed yet. He said that teenage girls don’t really make up a big part of the market and so he generally doesn’t find it worth stocking equipment for them. Artemis’ design is quite a bit lighter than mine, as she isn’t as strong as me and is trained as an acrobatic style fighter. No point adding to her protection if she just gets hit a lot more to make up for it.

M’gann bulked out her humanoid body to spar with Ocean Master armoured Kaldur. As I watch her muscle mass deflates and she grows slightly taller, Wallace grimacing as he watches. Kaldur takes off the helmet and turns it around in his hands so he can look into the eyepieces. Apparently there’s some sort of bound spell on them which means that they don’t interfere with vision. Actually, from how he described it, it sounds like it improves his ability to see in low visibility situations.

Robin helps Zatanna up. He’s mostly been showing her things in this session. She’s in black jogging bottoms and a white... What’s that called? Really? Alright, white muscle vest. Mister Zatara allowed her to join us only very reluctantly, and has made it very clear that he doesn’t want her participating on missions any time soon or having anything to do with ‘that man’ at all.

"Martian Manhunter should be here in a couple of hours to start his shift. I’ve really enjoyed being your, ah, ‘den mother’ this week."

I don’t see any point in going directly against Mister Zatara’s prohibition, but I have been working with John to get her a complete copy of the Grimoire Verum; everything you wanted to know about demons but lost all your SAN points before you could ask. He had two partial copies, one he was left by his old friend Benjamin Cox after his death and another he said he took from a demon worshipping cult. Since all known copies of the Grimoire come from a single print run it was simple-ish for me to scan most of Europe for segments of text until I had enough to assemble a complete version. And to remove some of the extant copies from inappropriate hands. Add in Ben Cox’s research notes -and John’s, once I finish persuading him we need them- and we should be able to deal with any demon we encounter.

"Recognised, Zatara, one one."

Zatanna walks over to the zeta tube as her father materialises.

Ring, clean me and my armour, then change to civilian clothing.

Compliance.

Teekl stalks over. Wolf opened her eyes for the first time yesterday, but is still perfectly content to spend most of her time on the head of her feline steed.

"How was training today?"

Zatanna rubs her left shoulder with the right hand. "It was a.. learning experience. If this is what training is like then Paul was definitely right about the body armour."

Since it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission, we agreed that we wouldn’t tell Mister Zatara about our trip to see Mister Gambi until he agrees that armour is a good idea. Then I can just ‘get hold’ of it. According to her she will be able to call it to her from any distance without loading it into any sort of subspace pocket equivalent. Downside being that it isn’t protected, I suppose.

"Well..." Mister Zatara glances at me for a moment. "We’ll see."

The rest of us move into a team huddle. Haven’t been able to persuade the others to take advantage of the ring’s cleaning function yet.

**Do the rest of you get the impression we’re still on probation with Zatara?**

**M’gann, he’s concerned about his daughter. It’s hardly unreasonable.**

Robin raises his eyebrows at me. Oh come on, it’s not the same thing... You were a professional acrobat, Zatanna’s a glass cannon!

**But he’s been here every day!**

**Yeah, he totally needs to be worried about someone who can turn your blood into fire with a sentence.**

It appears Wallace has decided to take advantage of the fact that with telepathy he can eat and talk at the same time.

**It almost makes one nostalgic for Red Tornado’s tenure as our supervisor.**

I’m a little surprised. I honestly thought that if anyone would appreciate the stricter schedule it would be Kaldur. Mister Zatara walks over to speak to Black Canary. Zatanna’s frowning.

**Yeah, at least he trusted us.**

"Dluow uoy esaelp kaeps tuo duol."

"If you ignore the fact we shouldn’t have trusted him! It took them five seconds to turn him against us! That machine almost got us killed!"

Whoops.

Black Canary and Zatara jerk their heads around. Kon looks stunned for a moment, then scowls at Zatanna, who crosses her arms.

"You were doing it again."

Thing about training to fight together as a group? That’s where the mental ingroup is, and Zatanna isn’t fully part of that yet. M’gann explained it on Thursday the first time it happened, when the rest of us started laughing at something Wallace thought at us and Zatanna didn’t know why we were doing it. Her exclusion from the conversation wasn’t even intentional, she just isn’t an automatic include yet. Black Canary steps away from Zatara and towards us.

"Is there a problem?"

I look at Kaldur, but it’s Kon who responds. "Yes! It’s been weeks since Tornado’s attack, and the League hasn’t told us anything."

"The League is searching for Tornado, as well as the other androids that invaded the cave and their creator T.O. Morrow. Batman’s made tracking them down our highest priority."

Robin steps forward. "But you’ve found none of the above."

"Not yet. But Tornado is Justice League. The team is not to pursue this."

 

10th October
17:06 GMT -5

Well, that was completely predictable.

We’re in the bioship, heading away from the mountain at a reasonable pace, freshly recharged ring on my finger. I had to hack my own security system to get us out without notifying Black Canary and Mister Zatara. I’m not sure whether I should be glad I can do that or worried that someone like me could do that.

Artemis taps me on my shoulder. "Shouldn’t it be really easy to find Tornado or Morrow with a power ring?"

"Finding Morrow would be easy enough if they had a genetic sample or a recent photograph, which.. I.. don’t.. think they do. And photographs generate a lot of false positives anyway. Tornado... Maybe? Most of his components aren’t unique. If whoever took him disassembled him a bit..." I shrug. "We also don’t have any hard evidence it even was Morrow. He’s a hundred years old, if he’s even still alive."

Wallace frowns. "Who else could it be?"

"If I knew that, I’d have suggested it already."

That does it for Robin. "Where are we going!? Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and he’s searched for Tornado and Morrow in every logical location. If we’re gunna do better, we need an illogical solution."

Eh? He turns in his chair and looks at Wallace.

"A truly dumb idea."

How is that..? Why is everyone looking at Wallace? And why is he smiling about it?

"As a matter of fact... I juuust might. Morrow’s a mad scientist, right? So who else do we know who’s a mad scientist?"

Kon smiles. "Do super strong mutant rats count?"

"No, Ivo! He’s Morrow’s biggest competitor at building androids. He’d need to keep track of what he was doing so he didn’t fall behind."

"He’s also been on the run for years and in prison for a month. I don’t see how he’d..." Now everyone’s looking at me. I throw my arms up. "But if it’s a dumb idea we’re looking for..."

"Changing course for Belle Reve Penitentiary now."

Oooooh. Actually...

"If no one minds, I’ve been meaning to practise moving larger objects at FTL speeds for a while now. I could, you know..."

M’gann winces. "Is this going to be like when you moved me in Bialya?"

Now Wallace and Artemis look uncomfortable.

"No no no. Well, probably not. I can move individual people perfectly well now and I think the technique can work on-" I gesture at the bioship’s interior. "-vehicles. This mission isn’t time sensitive, so, could be useful to be able to do it and if I mess it up it doesn’t matter that much. I mean, if we’d got to Louisiana an hour earlier last week..."

"Your point is understood. Make the attempt. I will contact Interim Warden Strange and let him know that we are coming."

I nod.

Ring, environmental shield around the ship and plot FTL transfer for a mile outside the Belle Reve exclusion zone.

Compliance.

Orange light spreads out from where I sit, covering every surface and everyone inside the ship. Zatanna holds out her right hand and examines it.

"Is this supposed to happen?"

Erm.

"Prrrobably."

The view on the front screen skips, and the orange light disappears.

10th October
16:09 GMT -6

Transfer complete.

Wallace peers out at the new terrain. "That’s it? Not that I’m complaining."

"Usually, yeah, that’s all that happens. Um, we’re pretty near the edge of the prison’s no-fly zone here."

Kaldur presses something on the control panel in front of him. There’s a short delay as he listens to something. "Aqualad, with the Justice League. Please put me through to Interim Warden Strange. Yes, I will hold."

"Um, hey." I swivel my chair right around to face Artemis. "Mom wanted to know if you had any plans next Friday."

She’s speaking a little quietly.

"No, not really. Sort of depends on what Mister J’onzz has lined up for us and when Guy comes back from Oa. Why d’you ask?"

She squints a little with her eye and tilts her head a little to the side.

Oh!

"Right, dinner, sorry. Slipped my mind. Um yes, I should be free. Um. What sort of time..?"

"About seven?

I nod. "I’ll be there. Um, I don’t know how it works in America, am I supposed to bring something..?"

A moment of incredulity and she shakes her head. "You don’t need to bring anything. She also wanted to know if there was anything you particularly wanted to eat."

Hmm. "How about something Vietnamese? I’ve been there a couple of times, but I’ve never had the courage to try the local food."

She raises her right eyebrow. "You sure about that? ‘Cause when Mom cooks Vietnamese, she cooks properly Vietnamese."

"Funny story about that. I’m in my last year of secondary school, just the exams left to go. Now, Willingdon used to rent its building out to foreign schools during the summer holidays, so I was in for a revision class at the same time as a group of Chinese students were there. They were using the cookery rooms, and one of them noticed I was watching and offered me this little foil packet. I couldn’t read it, but I opened it, and inside was a duck's foot. I had no idea how to go about eating it or even which bits were edible, but she’s given it to me."

I put my hands together on my right and then bring them to the centre of my chest.

"And I know the Chinese eat that sort of thing so I’m not going to insult her by refusing it, right? So I gingerly-" I mime bringing something up to my mouth. "-gingerly take a tiny little bite out of what looks like a meaty bit, then pull it away to see if there’s a clue yet. Nope, still no idea, so another little nibble. And another. The taste isn’t very strong but I’m finding the texture really weird. And there’s a couple of them watching me by now, and the one who gave it to me says ‘You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it’."

I shrug.

"But that just means that as well as risking insulting her, it’s a challenge, so I keep going. Must have taken me about ten minutes, but all that’s left is bone and webbing and I think I can safely put that in the bin. And then she’s got this puzzled look on her face and she says ‘Do you like it?’ and I nod and say: ‘It was very interesting, thank you’."

Artemis turns her face to the floor and sniggers for a moment.

"Now, it may be, that I won’t like it. But it won’t kill me, and it’ll be an interesting new experience. So yes, I’m sure."

 

10th October
16:12 GMT -6

The bioship touches down just outside the main prison complex. At Strange's request M'gann deactivated the stealth system so we're fully visible to their anti-aircraft weapons. Not sure exactly how tough this thing is, but we're here invited after all. Bit of a change of pace to be welcomed here; no matter how many times I made myself as unobtrusive as possible Waller always took the time to appear and scowl at me. She certainly wouldn't have tolerated me flying this close to the prison.

I don't remember Strange much from the comics. The only thing I remember him from was... Batman and the Monster Men..? Don't remember exactly what it was called. He was a bad guy in Arkham City as well, but here his time in charge of Arkham is notable only for the fact that he didn't go insane, get killed or kill himself. Unlike every single one of his predecessors. Apart from that one guy in the twenties who just disappeared. Maybe he just transferred away too soon for it to work its foul magic on him? Should I suggest getting the place exorcised? I vaguely remember something from Shadowpact about Gotham being the home of some sort of eldritch abomination. Couldn't hurt to check...

We're a bit around the side of the building from the place I (and the rest of the visitors) usually come in. I think this is the entry point for guards and official visitors, but I've never been in this part of the prison before. Doctor Strange and a guard I don't recognise are standing next to our designated landing area. Kaldur leads the way out of the bioship, closely followed by Robin and Wallace.

"Interim Warden Strange, thank you for agreeing to our request."

"Oh, no trouble at all Aqualad. I am only too pleased to help the Justice League in whatever way I can. I'm having Professor Ivo brought up to one of the interview rooms now." He turns to lead the way inside the prison. "A fascinating case. Did you know that he..."

I tune him out, hanging back a bit. The gun towers aren't tracking us. They don't need to, but that never stopped them under Waller. Hm, what does it say about my life at the moment that I notice when guns aren't pointing at me? I shake my head and start after the others, bringing up the rear... Oh. No I'm not. I didn't see Artemis..? I turn my head and see her lagging behind me.

"Artemis?"

"Maybe I should stay here. Don't really wanna risk running into, y'know..."

Hm. This isn't exactly hostile territory, but this is a personal conversation. Access her communicator.

"Cheshire isn't here anymore. She transferred to Gloria McDonald Prison last week. I thought you knew?"

She relaxes slightly, and joins me in walking towards the entrance while a new guard glowers at us. Ah, that's more like it. "I knew she was getting moved. Didn't know it had already happened."

"You.. could visit her, you know? It isn't that far-" I smile at the guard as we walk past him. Not going to risk saying 'from our base', even at whisper volume. "-or I could take you?"

She grimaces, and starts hurrying to catch up with the others. "We really don't have that sort of relationship."

I pick up the pace to keep up with her. "It's not about what you have. It's about what you want."

She raises her right hand to wave me off. I slow to normal walking pace and she leaves me in her wake. Right. Hang on, did we just pass a security door? I check the corridor wall. We did. Like the one I went through with Bendemann the first time I visited Jade. But.. the doors weren't closed at either end. Did Strange arrange that for us, or is there a policy change regarding security procedures during normal operation? Hmm. Not sure I approve, but I suppose I'm not the one running the place.

Kon stops for a moment as Artemis catches up with Kaldur. He looks puzzled. As I reach him he puts out his right arm to stop me.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Are you dating Artemis?"

I blink. "No? Why do you ask?"

"You’re having dinner with her."

"I have dinner with you and M'gann most evenings."

"She kissed you in front of everyone."

Right. I’d sort of forgotten about that one. "She also slapped me."

"She hits Wally all the time." He frowns for a moment. "I think she might have issues."

"Superhero teams are not a good place to avoid people with issues. Look, shall we?"

We resume walking through the prison.

"Kon, I'm trying to learn to be a gregarious person, trying to use this ring to help people. I find it easier to help people I'm already invested in; you, Kid Flash, Robin and, yes, Artemis. But, dating? Even ignoring the age difference I think it would be a bit creepy to exchange.. y'know, ring favours for dates, or something like that."

That's.. one of the things which has prevented me talking to Kon about... Well. I've seen the adoration with which he looks at Diana these days, but she only started tutoring him because I asked her to. I can't... I'd hate to somehow give the impression that I was holding that over him. Even subconsciously. The power inequality is just-.

"So you're not dating anyone?"

"Not at present, no."

"Oh. Okay."

The corridor comes out on a square room with resilient-looking doors leading off from it and another corridor leading to a security door which I assume leads to the area of the prison inhabited by the prisoners. That one is sealed tight. Each of the doors has a number over it as well as an 'In Use' sign. Only one sign is illuminated. As well as Strange's escort two other guards are here. They're wearing standard prison officer uniform rather than the heavier armour they sometimes wear, and are carrying conventional looking firearms. I suppose heavier weapons aren't really needed with Ivo. Or was Waller putting on a show for my benefit?

Strange clasps his hands in front of his chest and addresses Kaldur.

"Professor Ivo is being held in room three. I'll leave you to it, shall I? Just ask Corrections Officer Cooper when you're ready to leave."

Cooper I do recognise. Usually he's fairly stern, but he makes eye contact with me after passing his gaze over my team mates and I'm treated to a minute nod and the ghost of a smile. I smile back. He was one of the guards escorting Freeze when the break out attempt started, and I saved him from a lengthy stay in hospital.

Kaldur nods in acknowledgement. "Thank you Doctor Strange. You have been most helpful."

Strange smiles and walks past us, back down the corridor. We begin to form a huddle around Kaldur. He nods at M'gann and her eyes glow for a moment as the telepathic link is established.

**I will ask Ivo for the information, but it is unlikely that he will be prepared to volunteer it. Miss Martian, if he does not cooperate I want you to take the location from him.**

**Right.**

Zatanna looks at me. **Can P-. Can Orange Lantern use his ring to read Ivo’s mind?**

I shake my head. **No. The ring can only read a person’s brain, not their mind. I could probably identify a complete fiction or total honesty based on which parts of the brain were most active, but that’s about it. Randomly shouting out coordinates and see if anything triggers isn't a good option.**

And neither's turning him into a construct. Only if the fate of the planet is on the line would I even consider doing that. No one's actually asked exactly what the limits are. I assume that Batman's already realised, but I haven't wanted to make a point of pointing it out. 'I can kill you all and make you my slaves forever' doesn't seem like a sensible thing to say to anyone ever.

Kaldur considers her. **Zatanna, do you know a spell that could force him to reveal the information we require?**

She thinks for a moment. **I think so. I haven't tried it before, but it should be simple enough.**

He nods, and leads the way to the interview room door.

**In the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis we were taught to be extremely careful of mental manipulation magics. Let Miss Martian try first. If she is unsuccessful then attempt to compel him to speak.**

 

10th October
16:21 GMT -6

Smug git. ‘As if I’d never faced a telepath before’. Hah! Reminds me, actually, I need to find out what happened to Henry King Junior. I remember reading his name on his father’s League profile but I never followed up on it. But seriously, Henry King was the earliest telepath on record and Ivo prepared for that and not arcane compulsion?

I brace myself against the roof of the bioship as we climb into the air. In a marked departure from his predecessor’s attitude -though I suppose she’s not technically pre yet- Doctor Strange was perfectly happy for us to land in the prison grounds. And to grant us access to Professor Ivo without kicking up the sort of fuss that Warden Waller did during my first visit. Funny, I was expecting him to be a minor supervillain and her to be a major part of America’s government metahuman program. Wrong on both counts.

"Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Do you want me to drop us right on top of him, or do you want to come in from further away?"

"Can you detect any surface activity at Yellowstone?"

Ring, grab a satellite and show me.

Compliance.

Images flick through my mind’s eye. "Yes, but nothing that looks mad sciencey. If you could be a bit more specific I could do a more detailed scan?"

"Is there anything in the specific area Professor Ivo mentioned?"

The bioship reaches cruising height and accelerates in the direction of Wyoming.

"There’s a... jogger..."

Wait a second.

"You remember that little robot inside Mister Twister?"

"Yes. It self destructed before we could take it into custody."

"There’s a guy just to the west of Ivo’s coordinates who looks just like it. One moment."

Ring? Does it blend?

Individual is Human.

Get me a name.

Probable match found: Brom Stikk. No known address. Degrees in robotics and mechanical engineering. Prior convictio-.

That’s fine. Weapons?

Presently unarmed.

"The ring says his name’s Brom Stikk. He’s a robotics engineer. This whole thing might well be him."

"Ivo was certain that Morrow was involved."

"Zatanna? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that spell would only cause him to give what he believes to be the correct answer, right? If he believed something that wasn’t true he’d still say it?"

"Well, yes. Do.. we need to go back?"

There's a pause while Kaldur thinks about it.

"No. Either way, interrogating Stikk is our next course of action."

How long would it take the Justice League to reach Yellowstone? Depends on whether the Greenies are on the ball. If they are, seconds. If they’re not, they have to fly in from Cheyenne. Except the Flash, obviously.

"Orange Lantern, when I give the command bring us down right on top of him. Robin, Superboy, prepare to deploy."

I smile, and focus on the target.

"Roger roger."

If the androids and gynoid are there, we should be able to beat them. Even with the geysers providing water ammunition I don’t think they can breach my armour constructs. Would Stikk have access to those really annoying scry jammers? Probably not, because I can detect him. Another robot? Maybe, but if anything I’d say that Twister was stronger than the other two. If the other two were built afterwards... And why would Stikk care about Red Tornado? Yeah, definitely don’t have the full picture here.

"Miss Martian, lock out all external communications. Soon Black Canary and Zatara -Batman too I imagine- will know of our ‘visit’ to Professor Ivo. We haven’t much time."

I half listen to Kaldur while I consider the situation. Do I need to message the League? I probably should. If Guy were on Earth I’d just tell him everything and ask him to wait ten minutes before passing it on. He’d be okay with that. Alan? No guarantee he’s even wearing his ring.

"Then let’s go! I’m way past ready to stuff Red Tornado into a trash compactor!"

Clearly Kon’s still angry about the whole thing. I’m not, curiously enough. I don’t even feel fear at the idea of confronting Red Bonfire again. Stuff Marshal Law, confidence comes with a power ring. Red Tornado wasn’t willing to share much information on his internal systems but I know that his armour will break if I hit it with railgun rounds and that I can now manoeuvre well enough to dodge his air currents. Without a scry ward I can track him through any cover he’s likely to be able to get. Where’s the threat?

"Are you so certain he cannot be redeemed?"

Diana? Maybe. I’m a bit... I don’t think she’d exactly be okay with this. Make the message vague?

"Are you so sure he can?!"

"Perhaps, perhaps not. But even so, that makes him but the victim of his creator’s programming. Certainly he deserves the chance to prove that he is more than the weapon others designed him to be."

Knew there was a reason he was in charge. Ring, charge?

Ninety percent remaining.

Hmm. Looks like transporting the bioship doesn’t cost much more than transporting just me. Ugh, alright, I’ll worry about informing the League later. If they had something strong enough to one shot an alert Lantern they wouldn’t be hiding.

"Still ready up here. Stikk’s in open ground at the moment."

"If everyone is prepared?"

A brief silence. Presumably they’re nodding to him.

"Orange Lantern, go."

Transition.

10th October
15:23 GMT -7

As the scenery skips I dive off the side of the hull, chaining the astonished Mister Stikk off the ground. Kon and Robin hit the ground next to him as I come in to land.

"I’m not a robot I’m not a robot I’m not a robot this time!"

Kon grabs hold of the front of his blue overalls. "Maybe we should check!"

Robin pushes him aside. "Where's Morrow?"

Bit of a risk, telling him we don’t know. Over my shoulder I see the still cloaked bioship moving away to a better landing zone.

"W-? W-? W-? M-? Morrow? He’s nowhere near here, it’s the other one. I mean, I didn’t really know what that crazy android was planning. You gotta stop him!"

Crazy android sounds bad, but Robin isn’t letting himself get turned aside.

"Where. Is. Morrow?"

Get over here, then muzzle.

The lines linking me to the chains pull taut and pull our prisoner in front of me.

"Mister Stikk, you are panicking. That’s annoying, so in a moment I am going to suppress your fear response and you are going to clearly and concisely explain what is happening. Are we clear? Just nod."

"Ummm!"

He nods.

"Glad to hear it. Ring, demuzzle and becalm."

 

10th October
15:25 GMT -7

"Morrow made an android of himself and it built a new super android that’s going to kill all life on Earth."

"You see, that wasn’t so hard. Now, what sort of opposition are we looking at?"

"Aaaah, Red Torpedo and Red Inferno are still down there."

Those sound so much better than what I guessed they were called. Kon steps over and yanks Stikk around to face him.

"What about Tornado?"

"He’s still in pieces. The Morrow Android didn’t have time to put him back together yet, but he’s already transferred all his memories of the Justice League to Red Volcano."

Volcano. I remember seeing a documentary on the probable damage that will be caused when Yellowstone finally erupts. Plus: air, fire, water and earth. Robin’s got his computer out to run a simulation.

"How much earth can Red Volcano move?"

"Well I don’t know exactly, we only just turned him on. But, in theory? If everything works out it should easily be enough-."

"-to trigger an extinction level volcanic eruption!"

"Why were you working for him!"

Think Kon’s a couple of seconds away from ripping his head off. Stikk looks like the fear’s coming back.

"It was too good an opportunity to pass up. I mean, Thomas Morrow, the greatest robotics engineer of all time! And he wanted my help! Obviously he wasn’t in any position to tell me anything, but he said that if I reactivated his android duplicate it could teach me everything he’d ever learned! And then the android wanted my help recovering some other robots, bring them back into working condition. I didn’t think it was gunna kill everyone!"

Robin’s eyes narrow. "Just the Justice League."

"Well-." Stikk realises a little late that that wasn’t the most intelligent thing to say. "It’s less than everyone."

I speak up before someone hits him. "Orange Lantern to team. Opposition located in underground base."

Ring, scan and transfer results to Robin’s personal computer and the bioship.

Compliance.

Also, construct armour.

"Opposition is believed to be comprised of four androids: Red Torpedo and Red Inferno who carried out the attack on our home last month, an android replica of Doctor Morrow and Red Volcano. Mister Stikk, exactly how super is Red Volcano?"

"The other two Morrow built seventy years ago."

Whow. I need to scan them. And Android Morrow’s memory if at all possible.

"Volcano’s top of the line modern, next generation processor, better armour, stronger, faster. There was some other stuff, but Morrow didn’t let me see what it was."

"Red Volcano, highly dangerous, full powers beyond earth control as yet undefined."

I’d like to think that there isn’t any form of man portable armour I can’t break. I certainly think it’s true, but Morrow was so far ahead of all others in his field...

**Link is up.**

I turn and see the others jogging across the grassland. The sun won’t be setting for another couple of hours, so there’s no point in stealth mode. And frankly, I don’t think it would do much good anyway.

**Aqualad, anything you want to ask him, or can I turn him loose?**

Angry stare from Kon. **Why should we let him go?**

**Because if we win we can pick him up later, and if we lose he’ll die anyway.**

**Only one question.** Kaldur walks up to Stikk, his face tranquil. "Why did Red Tornado help you? Did one of the other androids program him with a virus?"

"Wu-? No. They just had an authentication code. One that could only come from Morrow. Or an android replica of him. I wanted to use a virus, but Morrow said it would have taken too long and we didn’t know if Tornado had upgraded his own antivirus systems."

Kon looks at Kaldur, but he doesn’t look happy at his vindication.

**We will enquire further once we have disabled his brethren.**

"Oh, one last question from me. How mentally complex are the other androids?"

"They’d.. pass a Turing Test. Torpedo and Inferno passed themselves off as human for years."

Torpedo. James Lockhart. I only just made the connection. Alan called him ‘the only one of us who had the sense to quit’. Said he became a doctor.

"Who was Red Inferno!"

"Danette Reilly! Firebrand! She-."

I drop the construct in shock. "Nice woman. Took a.. bullet.. for Jay, in forty five."

"Well, more of a plasma beam, but yeah. Guess you’d know all about her."

How the hell. How. How the.

Alan must've known, wouldn’t he? Should I-? I share a bewildered look with Wallace. No, worry about this later.

"Get out of my sight."

"Rrrright."

He sidesteps our group and flees as fast as he can as Kaldur starts to lead the way to the target coordinates. As I numbly watch Stikk go I notice that Zatanna’s joined us. In her silks. Well, I can do better than that.

**Zatanna, might I suggest that’s not the most sensible choice of clothing-.**

"I-." **I know, but the armour isn’t ready yet.**

**You’re welcome to my older set. I can easily alter it to your size.**

**Can it protect me from killer androids?**

**No, but it’ll help with shrapnel and glancing blows.**

**Ah, alright then. What exactly..?**

Ring, alter my light armour to Zatanna’s dimensions.

Compliance.

Tough biker trousers appear over her tights and a tough biker jacket appears over her jacket. It’s still got my sigil and preferred colouration.

**Huh. Okaaay. Didn’t realize you were into motorcycles.**

**I’m not, but it was the only place in New York open when I arrived on this planet in my pyjamas. Nice people.**

**Oh? Where was it?**

**Bluebeards Bikes.**

She frowns. **I think I’ve heard of it. Didn’t everyone there get arrested for gun running and drug trafficking about two months ago?**

...

**They did? But they were so helpful.**

 

10th October
15:29 GMT -7

The hologram covering the entrance is obvious, now I’m here and looking for it. I haven’t detected any unusual seismic activity yet. Two ways we could get in.

**So, Aqualad. Do we go in through the door or should I smash our way down?**

Kaldur’s standing next to Robin, reviewing the map on his computer. **The interior of the complex does not seem to be particularly large. With no exterior sensors it is unlikely they are aware of our approach.**

I’ve located Torpedo and Inferno, standing against the wall in what appears to be the main workshop. A larger android -whom I presume to be Volcano- is standing next to a console, but I can’t see Morrow and Tornado is still disassembled. How the heck did they build this place? Tonnes of rock must have been excavated without anyone noticing. I don’t care if it was recent or back when Morrow was first active, someone should have noticed. Isn’t this area full of seismic monitoring equipment?

For the benefit of my team mates, I generate life sized images of our opponents. Looks like Morrow was able to rebuild Torpedo’s arm since our last encounter. Volcano is a big bastard. Don’t want to risk a more intrusive scan in case he can detect it.

Wind’s picking up a bit. I haven’t really bothered looking at a weather forecast since coming to this world, as I can ignore virtually all of it. No idea if this is typical weather for this time of year, but since Tornado is very definitely down I think I can ignore it.

Kaldur looks over at our newest recruit. **Zatanna, are you able to make yourself invisible?**

**No. I’ve got a spell which makes it hard for people to notice me, but it doesn’t work on cameras and I’ve never tried using it on robots before. I could.. try and come up with something.**

**No, it is too risky. Robin, Miss Martian, enter the base covertly and attempt to access the central com-.**

In an instant the winds go from gusty to hurricane force. Soil particles and small stones are sucked into the air around us and normal visibility drops away to the point where without the ring I wouldn’t be able to see my hand in front of my face.

**Gaah!**

**Agh!**

Even as I hear M'gann and Robin cry out I'm stabilising myself. Ring, armour everyone, HUD and orangevision.

Orange lines radiate outwards from me to each of my team mates, but one flickers out almost immediately.

Unable to fully comply. Aqualad’s armour resists-

Doof! A boulder smacks into my faceplate and I stagger back before bracing. Not hard enough to do noticeable damage, but it’s basically impossible to track individual rocks in this condition.

-construct attachment.

**Aqualad to team. Report!**

**Orange Lantern, I’m fine. Armoured constructs are up and they should be able to take this. How’s the visual enhancement working?**

**Miss Martian, I’m okay. I can’t see who’s doing this.**

**Zatanna, definitely talking to dad about armour when we get back.**

As the others report in I take a look around. Typhoon and Inferno are still where they were. Where’s Volcano? Does he do something other than earth control? Is this a pyroclastic flow? No, temperature’s too low, though the fast moving dust is starting to build up an electrical charge. Ring, identify the source of the wind.

No obvious meteorological source detected. Pattern matches wind generation technologies utilised by Red Tornado.

Another larger rock slams down onto my head.

Addendum: mass of airborne debris exceeds that which could be held aloft by air currents alone.

I check again, and I can see Red Tornado’s head on a workbench.

Ring, find Red Volcano!

An indicator flashes up on my HUD as the ring complies with my instruction. Red Volcano is very clearly of a different generation to Red Tornado. For a start, his silhouette is far more human. He’s built like a weight lifter and has abdominal tron lines. Tron abs. Jesus. There’s a glowing triangle with a dot in the middle between his pecs. There’s another smaller one on his forehead and I can’t work out whether it’s supposed to be a Masonic symbol or just decoration. Apparently next generation equals glowy.

"Your destruction is inevitable, humans."

Volcano’s voice? He sounds almost bored. Despite the roaring winds I can hear him clearly.

Ring, relay to team mates. Also, railgun, anti-tank size.

Compliance.

The three metre long barrel appears next to me.

**Aqualad, I have a shot.**

**As do I. Zatanna, are you able to remove the dust from the air?**

**Um, yes? I think. But that won’t stop Volcano just putting it back the next second.**

**I do not intend to give him a second. Robin, Kid Flash, when Zatanna removes the dust move to flank him. Superboy, frontal assault. Miss Martian, go above him and then go invisible. Orange Lantern, when Miss Martian tells you she’s clear remove the armor construct. Artemis, Orange Lantern, fire the moment you have a clear shot.**

A chorus of acknowledgements.

Charge gun, prepare to fire.

It starts to hum, but the iron jacketed tungsten projectiles are still in subspace.

**Zatanna. Now.**

"Dniw llits, dna pord lla tsud!"

I can barely hear her over the roar of the wind, but as soon as she finishes the roar drops away to nothing and the dust falls to the ground as if sucked by a vacuum cleaner. As it drops there’s a flash as static electricity jumps from every part of the dust cloud into Kaldur’s trident, which begins glowing brilliant white.

He jabs the trident in the direction of the now visible Red Volcano and a scintillating bolt of white flickers out at the android. Volcano’s standing on a rectangular pillar of stone, presumably pulled earth bender style from the ground beneath him. He staggers slightly as the lightning strikes him in the chest, but the winds are already returning and boulders are pulled from the ground to shield him from any follow up attack.

Rightyho then.

Automatic fire.

I can’t make out the hum over the sound of the wind but I do see the flare of colour as the dirt on the projectile’s flight path is converted to plasma. Even as his shielding rocks obscure line of sight my HUD reveals him, and the rocks are nowhere near dense enough to stop the slugs hitting him in the chest. The next second the shielding rocks are just gone as an Arrow of Unmaking hits them dead centre. Penetrating power isn’t something I designed those for, though an actual hit will mess him up.

And now I can see him tanking my shots like a peashooter.

"Inadequate. Red Tornado’s mem-."

Then Kon hits him in the chest and knocks him off his ledge. The wind disappears almost immediately.

"Grrrraaaaaww!"

Kon is hurled to the side. I might have made him stronger than he was, but he doesn’t weigh any more. There’s a yellow blur and Wallace dashes in with the EMP mines and I try to reacquire the target.

Got him. Target-.

Rock and soil explode away from his location, forming a triple layered star of rock. He rises into the air, a wind funnel full of medium sized rocks protecting him.

"Red Tornado’s memories and my next-gen processor make outthinking you children child’s play."

**Good thing we haven’t learned anything since he left. Artemis, I can take out his barrier.**

**I’ll use one of your arrows. Do it.**

I hold out my left hand, palm extended.

Destruction.

 

10th October
15:33 GMT -7

I find it hard to get into the right frame of mind for orange light energy pulses. I'd rather take an object apart, understand and try to learn from it. Against an unprotected living opponent it's just too powerful to risk. A normal human would be obliterated by a glancing blow, and it's hard to judge precisely when an energy shield will fail. But, from what Tornado was willing to share about his schematics he can survive on emergency power with just his head and I can't think of a reason why Volcano would be any different.

The pulse of orange light from the ring doesn't look like all that much. Bit like a really small photon torpedo. It takes longer to hit the target than a round from my sidearm would. The rail gun and the gamma cannon and the particle cannon, there's an obvious gun thing right there. This looks like it should be the real life equivalent of a pistol in Doom or a Chitin Short Bow from Morrowind. The weakest ranged attack of all.

Nope.

Orange light flares as it batters a metre wide hole through the three layers of rock protecting him and detonates inside the inner tornado. Rock? Gone. Dust? Gone. Wind? All of the energy he put into it just isn't there any more. If I knew more about physics, that would probably upset me.

"Emoceb desufnoc dna deredliweb!"

Volcano falls out of the air, slamming into the inside of his rear fortification as Artemis lets fly. The arrow moves in a perfect arc through the hole, striking Volcano in the right shoulder as he tries to stagger upright. There's a sort of swooshing noise, and his right upper arm and a chunk of the right of his torso crumble to nothing. He must be made of something very dense for it to destroy that little. His elemental control systems are probably located in the centre of his chest, so she'll need to hit it again. Don't want to waste this chance.

Ring, scan him in detail.

Processing.

"Grrraaaagghhh!"

The air shimmers as a wave of superheated air roars from Volcano! Magma fountains up from the ground around him and the outer ring of rocks glows red before liquefying and flying outwards, filling the air with molten rock. I see droplets land on my armour and on those of my team mates. Okay, still not enough to-.

The ground disappears beneath me! I lose track of my surroundings as I'm enveloped on all sides by molten rock. My armour holds... it should keep holding, but I've never tested it with magma before. How much energy..? I can't see out! Come on, why isn't the HUD..?

Depth increasing. Connection to external armour constructs lost.

Depth?

Current depth is three hundred thirteen metres below sea level and falling.

Display depth and rise!

Numbers appear on my HUD. I focus on trying to fly through the superheated rock, but my only guide is the compass and distance indicator. It's going down, but far more slowly than I would like.

**Still alive. Should be with you momentarily.**

I hear nothing in response. Oh goodness, can they survive that sort of attack without my armour? Kaldur and Kon should be able to take small amounts of molten rock...

Warning: magma pressure increasing.

The compass spins as something pushes me to the side. Keep going! Is this... Is he setting off the volcano?

Warning: armour integrity decreasing.

Reknit.

Warning: armour integrity decreasing. Armour will fail before surface is reached.

Um um um um um...

He can't have caused the eruption already...

Ring, width of the lava tube?

Boundary imprecise, approximately twenty metres.

Display closest edge!

Compliance.

I don't appear to be falling any further, but this is the slowest twenty metres I've ever flown. Does the fact that I'm not being pulled down further mean that Volcano's been killed or just distracted? Come on, move! Finally, my surroundings start to dim as I pass the boundary until the only light is coming from my own armour. Fine, drill, get me back to the surface. And -ugh- message to Green two eight one four A and B: assistance requested in Yellowstone Park. Supervolcano erupting. You're allowed to help with that, right?

Guhh!

Warning: rock pressure increasing.

Yes, I'd noticed. Right. Errr... Volcanoes generate extremely hard rock. Now that the bit I'm in is relatively solid there's nowhere for it to get moved to when I tunnel. And if Volcano keeps moving it around... Anyone above me? No? Right. I need to get back to my team mates. Destroy!

The pulse of orange light disintegrates a clean hole through the rock above me, and I rocket out after it. The place Volcano was standing is a volcano now, solid rock partially melted and forced upward by the pressure of magma Volcano is pulling. Nooooot good.

Status of team? A few burns, nothing immediately life threatening. Where's Volcano? Standing up to his waist in molten rock, being covered in flame.. by.. Red Inferno..? What? Volcano tries creating a magma tornado around himself only for Red Torpedo to quench it, causing it to collapse under its own weight. Volcano tries raising himself out of the lava with a solid rock platform only for Kon to leap across the molten pool to punch through it, shattering it and making our adversary fall. Might need to rethink his armour situation; his clothes have burned off and the skin beneath is reddening. Kryptonians might project a force field a few millimetres around their skin but Danner Formula enhanciles don't.

Inferno... Danette... Whatever, she drops on Volcano feet first, driving him under. Then.. she.. follows him down? Volcano tries to struggle free only for Torpedo to dive in and grapple his remaining arm.

No.

!Mine!

Transition.

Kon snaps his head around as I dive past him back into the magma. OrangeVision shows me the robots' positions. I force myself after them, throwing up a fountain of liquid rock behind me. The two older robots are visibly melting, and Volcano's disintegrating around the hole Artemis made.

For Alan.

The orange beams strike Inferno and Torpedo, forcing the magma away from their skin and holding their chassis together as best it can.

Mine.

Volcano jerks and dims as something critical gets melted. Right. We're out of here. Volcano's remains drop away as I pull Inferno and Torpedo with me out of the superheated morass.

Alert! Critical system damage to attendant robots.

Yikes, they look it. Don't have full scans of their systems... Improvise! I've got Volcano's scan... Do it. The ring starts repairs based on that template as we come in to land at the edge of the combat zone. Core systems only, cognition and main power. They're not going to be pretty, but I'll be bringing two of Alan's old colleagues back from the dead. Inferno collapses onto her front when we touch down, melted joints locking her limbs in place. Torpedo's legs are completely melted, leaving him as a torso propped up on his solidifying stumps.

And then a giant cloud of ash and dust shoots up into the air as the eruption begins in earnest.

 

10th October
15:36 GMT -7

Well, fiddlesticks.

"Paul!" Kon bounds over to us.

Um.

Clothes.

"Hello Superboy. Know anything about volcanoes?"

"You're alive!"

"No, I'm just pretending." He blinks. I sag inwardly. "Yes, I'm alive. My construct armour can take being submerged in molten rock. Just about. But seriously, volcanoes?"

He shakes his head. "Yeah, plenty, but not how to stop an erupting supervolcano."

**Oh El, that you?**

**Yes Kid Flash, I'm here.**

**Alright. Everyone! We're on the edge of a stage three supervolcano eruption. There's no turning back from that! We need to vent pressure fast, then we have to deal with an ash cloud big enough to cause a nuclear winter.**

I look up into the sky. Shiiiiit.

**Oh El, can you do something to contain the cloud?**

**I.. don't know... Constructs that big... I'll just have to try.**

Core system repair complete.

Maybe...

Use my memory of their voice and scans of Volcano to restore their vocal systems, and let them hear me.

Compliance.

I see explosions on the body of the volcanic protuberance. It stops growing, but begins vomiting forth even more ash.

"Doctor Lockhart, Ms Reilly. Got a bit of a volcanic eruption going on. Anything you can do to help?"

Inferno shakes for a moment, trying and failing to move her burned out limbs. "I do not believe there is anything I can do. I.. am sorry."

Freeze gun? I have the schematics of one of Captain Cold's older models on file. I somehow don't think it would be up to the task.

"I may be able to help."

Torpedo's head shudders slightly to the right in an attempt to look at me. The left side of his face is slag, while his red right eye flickers and flashes.

"With assistance, I should be able to manipulate atmospheric water to precipitate the ash from the air. Father showed us your fight with Mister Twister. Is Aqualad with you?"

**Aqualad, Zatanna, Red Torpedo thinks that we could clear the ash by making it rain. Could the three of you get enough water into the air to make that happen?**

**It is possible, but we need to move quickly. Can-?**

I extend the environmental shield around the robots and Kon. Transition.

We appear next to Kaldur. Wallace and Robin are trying to work something out on the latter's computer. Kaldur looks at me, then at what's left of Torpedo.

**Is he..?**

**His brain and water control system are fine.**

"Very well. Zatanna, we should be able to get the necessary quantities of water airborne but have no experience in creating rain."

"Um, neither do I. I'll try.. Okay! I think I've got it."

Kaldur raises his trident, and I shift Torpedo's torso around to be facing the same direction.

"Red Torpedo, on the count of three."

"I am prepared."

"One, two, three."

I've seen Kaldur move large volumes of water around with the trident before, during practice. Torpedo managed to raise the water level of the entire hangar. Now, I watch as a wall of water fifty metres across blasts into the air as if thrown by a high pressure hose. Where is that even coming from? There shouldn't be liquid water this close of an erupting volcano, surely?

"Retaw, esir otni eht yks dna niar no lla eht hsa!"

Right, okay, I need to get up there. Transition.

I reappear in what I think is low orbit. Looking towards the planet I see the tiny mushroom cloud of the Yellowstone eruption. I remember the scene in Supreme Power where a young Hyperion flies high into the air then holds out his hand to block his view of Earth. The ash cloud looks so tiny, so insignificant, yet I know that Wallace was correct in his assessment.

Closer.

The sky darkens as I reappear level with the top of the plume. A cloud isn't a solid body, and though I'm not in the main body of the ash particles are impacting on my armour construct. Looking down I can see the colossal amounts of water being thrown up, cutting into the mushroom stem. Magnify. Yep, that's working.

**Good work, the lower part of the ash cloud is falling to earth. If you increase pressure a little...**

**That.. would prove difficult. I am.. -ah!- struggling to maintain the current level of water flow.**

**Okay, er, how about I come down and pick up Torpedo? You could pass it up to him?**

**I do not believe that I would be able to relay sufficient water.**

**Right, right. Okay, I'll try something.**

The ash is being thrown aloft by hot air, right? I just need to drop it down to the level of the clouds Zatanna is creating. Ring, cold gun, wide beam.

Compliance.

The rifle-sized construct appears off to my left. There isn't enough water up here for the signature frost beam to appear, but a gouge is cut in the mushroom head as the air freezes and loses the ability to support the mass of detritus. Not fast enough. I'm only affecting a tiny part of it. Ring, remaining charge?

Sixty five percent remaining.

Plenty. Multiple cold guns. Break the cloud up.

I'm having an effect, but I have no idea how to tell whether this is working fast en-.

A giant green turbofan appears over the main body of the ash, blasting it down into the clouds.

"Yes, Orange Lantern, we are allowed to help with that."

I look around. Turbofan, of course it's Jordan. With most of the ash being forced down by the higher pressure air I focus the cold guns on the periphery. Once the high altitude is clear I move on to the rain clouds below. Don't want to cause a nuclear winter with steam clouds after all. Right, think that's about done. Atmosphere clearing, Jordan floats over to my position, keeping himself slightly higher in the air.

"You wanna explain what this is about?"

Should I leave that to Kaldur? Oh, it can't hurt to give him a summary.

"We found Thomas Morrow. Well, a Thomas Morrow android replica actually. He has-."

I look down. Hmm.

"Probably had, now. Had a base under Yellowstone where he was building another android, with the aim of activating the supervolcano and destroying all nonrobotic life on Earth. We beat the new android with the help of the two other androids who attacked the cave last month, not sure why but we can ask them later. The Morrow android had a human assistant who I was about to go and pick up. Team's basically in good condition and there were no civilian casualties but I regret to report that the new android got reduced to slag."

His eyes narrow slightly. "And Red Tornado?"

Um?

 

11th October
10:18 GMT -6

"So what happened to Tornado?"

"Hm? Oh, Robin ran into Morrow's base once the fight started. Grabbed his head, downloaded some files. It was Tornado giving the other two a speech that got them to join in on our side. The League's building him a new body, apparently this isn't the first time he's been damaged like this."

Thomas sits back in his chair on the other side of the divide. After the thing with Ivo I thought I'd make an effort to come during normal visiting hours today. Several of the guards took time out from their busy schedule of scowling at people to greet me when I came in, mostly people I'd healed after the break out attempt. That felt good, actually.

"You saved the whole darn planet, just like that."

"What, you mean by dumb luck? Yes, pretty much. I mean, no one knew Morrow was going to try something like that. All too often, that's what it comes down to."

"And y'all kicked his ass anyways."

"His ass got ground into scrap by Red Volcano, but yes, basically. Even with earth, wind and fire manipulation we were able to bring enough force to bear that his new robot couldn't cope."

"Lemme make shure ah'm hearin' y'right. Wahl ah've been coolin' mah heels inside a' heeyah, you gots t'fight two super robots-"

"I didn't really fight them much myself."

"-super monkeys, super rats an' super gorillas-"

"Team effort, but yes."

"-an' some kinda crazy plant monstah."

The League appears to have decided that telling people that we'd been sent to fight the Injustice League would push even the relaxed child endangerment laws of this version of the United States. Diana said that I could mention my involvement -being over eighteen- but I decided not to in a show of solidarity.

"A lot of people fought that thing."

"Guess you were righaht abaht getting bettah fights thun me."

"And don't forget the company. I mean, I'm sure Tuppence is a peach once you get to know her, but that's it, right?"

"She stiw not talkin' t'you?"

"No, no she's not."

He shifts a little in his chair. "Ah told her she should. Not lahk our Mama or Daddy gonna be visitin' any tahm soon."

I understand about his mother but I don't see why his father wouldn't visit, even if it was just to give them a hard time about it. Perhaps a new subject?

"Ooh, I've been meaning to ask actually. There's this guy.. urp, sorry, skipping ahead. You said you'd always been as strong as you are?"

"Hehw mahn, with this here collar own, ahm as weak as a puppy."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. So?"

"Have you ever thought about why?"

He frowns. He's not stupid, but he is unused to self reflection. "Ahm a metuhhuman. Same as Tuppy."

"That's really more of a category than a... Look, I'll cut to the chase. As far as I can work out, before you and your sister were born you were dosed with something called the Danner Formula."

His eyes narrow a little and he frowns. "How'd that happen?"

"No idea. Shouldn't have happened, there's a handful of places it could have come from. No idea how your mother got hold of it."

"This Dannah stuff do anythang else?"

"You heal faster than most people and you'll probably live a bit longer. There may be other effects, we haven't really studied it enough. Reason I bring this up, other than yourself and your sister I know of one other Danner Formula enhanced human in the world and he told me that he wants to meet you."

"Who?"

"His name's Doctor Arnold Munro. His grandfather was the man who created the Formula."

"An' he's strong as me an' Tuppy?"

"Roughly. He's probably a little past his prime."

"Is he related to us or somein'?"

"No. Well, I don't think so, I didn't really... Oh, no, everything I've read on the subject says that the Formula doesn't run in families. He's just interested in meeting someone else like him."

Thomas shrugs. "Sure. Not lahk I got someplace else t'be. You kin send him raht along."

"Oh, he will be pleased."

I take a moment to absorb the sounds of the room. Ms Snart's back speaking to her brother, who both recognised me and found the time to sneer at me as I walked over to Thomas' booth. Don't recognise the rest. Mostly mothers and a few wives. A couple of what even the most ardent campaigner against racial profiling will excuse me for calling gang members.

I mean, damn. Living the stereotype.

"One last thing-."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, they do GED courses."

He tries moving the chair closer to the screen, which doesn't work due to being bolted to the floor. Recognising this, he shuffles to the edge of the chair and leans over.

"Be abaht tha only guy doin' it. Whuts it gonna do fer me, anyway?"

"Probably nothing. That isn't the point. You do it, it shows that you're doing something productive with your time. Show that someone who might want to give you a job can trust you to do it and not just go on another rampage. You give that any thought?"

"Whut was that thang you said? Ship breakin'? Hows that wurk?"

"Companies have old ships they need breaking up for scrap. Usually they sail the big ones over to India and pay the locals peanuts to take them apart slowly with power tools. But, given how strong you are, you could rip one up in a couple of hours."

"Pays peanuts?"

"For a couple of hundred guys working for weeks, yes. For one man working for a few hours? If they paid you a tenth of what they'd have to pay their entire workforce it would still be worth their while, and you'd still make thousands of dollars."

"Fer real?"

"Sure! Look, are you looking for something that pays really well, something that's fun, or something that's kind of a mix?"

"Think ah'd always enjoy getten that much moneh."

"Thomas, I've got to be honest with you: I think you'd love getting paid to smash up a ship. You'd probably quite like getting paid to smash up three or four. But by the end of the second month, when it's just another day at work? I don't think you'd like it so much."

"Maybe. Whut else?"

"I know LexCorp is doing research on the Danner Formula. That's who Doctor Munro is working for. Probably be better talking to him if you want to get involved with that. There's quite good money in being a celebrity bodyguard, but you'll need to learn a lot of things to make a go of that. I imagine some rap musicians would love having a metahuman ex-con bodyguard, but they'll need to know that you'll stick at it."

"Fight'n off rival rappers? You think that'll be fun?"

"Oh, no. It'd be dead boring. By the time a record company big enough to make it worth your time gets hold of them they're well tamed. All mouth and trousers. But if you need an outlet, if that's what it takes, I know a few people in your weight class you could spar with."

"Lahk who?"

I smile. "You enjoyed fighting Wonder Woman, didn't you?"

 

11th October
13:07 GMT -5

Mister Kord holds the data stick up like a banknote of uncertain providence.

"Not that I wanna sound ungrateful, but doesn't the League usually give this sorta thing to STAR Labs?"

The visitor chair in his office was clearly inadequate for a man of my dimensions, to say nothing of my weight. He didn't appear to have thought of that in advance and was a little self conscious about it until I simply lifted it aside and created a construct chair instead.

"STAR Labs has a copy as well, but I was able to convince Wonder Woman that it would be advantageous to make use of this information sometime before the next millennium."

"Okay, but why me?"

"WayneTech doesn't have a cybernetics division."

"LexCorp does. North American Robotics would kill for something like this."

Because I know a trap when I smell one. I don't intend to unproductively provoke my superiors in the League by suggesting something like that. They didn't appear to care about me killing a sophont android and the furore over me killing Ocean Master seems to have died down, but I'm on best behaviour for the foreseeable future.

"The League is reluctant to work with Mister Luthor, in part due to the ongoing dispute between him and Superman."

"Mm, well, given all the practical work Doctor Morrow did it shouldn't be too hard to get something into production. Red Torpedo's synthetic skin was really that good?"

"No one noticed anything wrong for seventy years. Appearance, temperature and texture all pass all but the closest examination."

"I've seen some experimental designs that actually use living tissue..?"

"No, all synthetic. The body is hairless and the eyebrows and eyelashes don't grow. We're still not sure how his hairstyle changed."

"Maybe the Morrow android visited him every few years?"

"Perhaps. I believe that Batman is following up on the matter today."

"What happened to Torpedo anyway?"

Ah.

"A little embarrassing, that. When he and Red Inferno attacked our base he caught me with my trousers down. Literally. I was forced to fight him without this ring."

I hold it up. I hadn't really given it any thought before, but it is a little interesting how it resized itself when I grew to my current stature.

"Since I didn't know precisely how he was controlling the water I couldn't risk leaving much intact."

Mister Kord puts down the stick and pokes the mechanical arm lying on the desk before him.

"So..?"

"That used to be his, yes. Once he was out of commission it was a trivial matter to collect the ring, and after that..."

"Wasn't.. wouldn't Red Inferno be as powerful as Red Tornado?"

"Perhaps." I shrug. "She was built a little earlier and has a smaller chassis. From what I observed, she was able to generate flame without reference to an external heat source, while in the absence of air Red Tornado would be unable to create his signature twisters. Her, I was able to bring down whole."

"And she led you to Morrow?"

"It would be more true to say that our invasive probing of her brain led us to Morrow. Impressive cryptography, I'm told."

"And Tornado was okay with you doing that to his.. sister..?"

"He wanted to access her mental network himself. Fortunately I was able to convince the League that such an attempt would create unnecessary risk."

"I saw a piece on the news this morning about the League's attack on Morrow's base at Yellowstone."

"The Morrow android and his assistant are in custody, and their improved android was destroyed in the attack. With my assistance-"

And that of my team mates, but Theodore Kord isn't cleared to know about us quite yet.

"-it was possible to take the base whole and undamaged. They haven't decided what to do with the Morrow android yet. According to Wonder Woman it behaves exactly as he did when he fought the Justice Society."

"Any luck finding the man himself?"

"Tornado tracked him to a hospice in Milwaukee. He isn't much of a threat to anyone anymore, and won't be one at all before too long." I make a shrugging gesture with my right arm.
"Given how old he is… Not much point in attempting to bring him to trial, really. Tornado wanted to spend some time with him before he finally dies."

"What are they doing with Red Inferno?"

"I'm not sure. Morrow did something to her when he removed her from her grave to reactivate her. She retains her memories of being Danette Reilly, but as if they were lived by someone else. Without her 'father' to give direction she is somewhat aimless, but it's a League matter now."

Perhaps the greatest cause for concern, I can't see her desires in the same way I can see her younger brother's. Perhaps it was not some action of Morrow's, but the fact of her death causing her soul to be cast adrift? Could Constantine or Papa Midnite find and reattach it? Something to ponder.

"What exactly.. does the League.. want?"

"That you use this information for the greater good. In terms of civil uses, I imagine you could find a market for improved cybernetics and robotics. Personally, I would be interested in acquiring armour based on the epidermis of the final android. It proved immensely resilient."

But not power ring or magic sword proof. Even Morrow can't build quite that sophisticated just yet. Probably won't get the chance now. I know it's necessary but I can't help but feel that it's an unfortunate loss to the species.

"I can get our robotics people working on this right away, but if there's as much information here as you're saying it's gonna take a while to sift through it all."

"Then don't. I arranged the contents by category, just find something with commercial potential and bring it to market as fast as is practical. You aren't on an overall time limit here."

He thinks for a moment. "Does it include information on Morrow's element control technology?"

I give a shallow nod and faint smile. "Yes."

"Oh God." He puts his right hand over his mouth. "There's so many civilian applications for that I don't even know where to... We could shut down tornadoes before they form. Control flood waters, stop fires, halt earthquakes."

"I knew I came to the right place."

"Blue Beetle, power armoured master of the elements!"

And there goes my confidence.

 

16th October
11:56 GMT -5

Doctor Lockhart shakes his head emphatically.

"You're not listening, little brother. I didn't even like being Red Torpedo all that much when I thought I was Human."

Robin and I are in Red Tornado's quarters. Not what I'd call comfortable. The rock and the metal of the floor are bare but for a workshop area with a small fabrication plant where Robin is working. No, that isn't quite right. There's a small shelf on the main workbench upon which rests a small number of items which seem out of place. Keepsakes? Is that really all he's kept from sixty years of life? Given how personal they must be I haven't wanted to look too closely.

"If that is truly your choice then I will respect it."

Red Tornado is making do with a temporary body, mostly made from salvaged parts of Mister Twister. The oversized arms make him look a bit like a gorilla. Creaks less than his normal one though. He wanted us to focus on repairing his siblings, but once we removed Morrow's control programming his brother was quite definite that he did not want to be restored to combat effectiveness. His highest priority was looking like Doctor James Lockhart again. He had been wearing highly sophisticated synthetic flesh when the Morrow android took him from the Windward Assisted Living Home in Bar Harbour, Maine. When Morrow cut it off him he put it in storage in his base but both skin and base were destroyed during the eruption. Now I've finally finished reattaching the replacement version he looks exactly like the old man on the missing posters.

"My choice would be for this whole mess never to have happened."

He's got back into crotchety old man character almost as soon as he reactivated. Not sure if it's a behaviour subroutine activated by the presence of skin in order to preserve his cover or a coping mechanism. I could relate to that. He even wanted us to remove his water control system, but that just isn't possible. It serves as his main power source and we're nowhere near advanced enough to replace it with something of comparable output or size. His other systems are now back in working order, though not restored to factory settings as we just don't have those. He also refused to upgrade to the 'next generation' processor that his youngest brother had.

Red Inferno turns her head from where she's lying on a sort of steel bed thing. Unlike her eldest brother she has opted to be brought up to full combat effectiveness. We still haven't finished finalising her design. Since I am very far from understanding how Morrow's systems are supposed to work my best suggestion has been a smaller and more feminine version of Volcano's body but at the moment I've limited myself to restoring her head and giving her the processor upgrade Torpedo refused, the rest of her body being skeletal robotic components that grant her mobility but little else. That's what Robin is working on now.

"If Father had not come for you then you might have remained in the Home indefinitely. In spite of appearances you do not age. Finding out simply means that you are less ignorant."

"Then ignorance is bliss." He looks down for a moment, trying to work out how best to articulate his bitterness. "The only people this works out for are my medical insurance providers. What a waste of money that was. Ah, to hell with it. Who do I have to see about getting a ride home?"

He could just walk out to sea and then travel there himself. Not sure exactly what his top speed is. Guess he just doesn't want to. I shuffle nervously. I feel like I'm intruding on a family row, but I can't leave without drawing attention to myself.

Red Tornado takes a step forwards.

"There is no need for you to return there. You know now that your apparent infirmity was part of your infiltration programming. If you wanted, you could live elsewhere."

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Tornado, I really do. But right now I just need to be somewhere familiar."

Red Tornado lowers his head slightly. "There is a Zeta tube in Augusta. I will escort you.. home. Would it be acceptable if I were to visit you, once you have had a chance to settle back in?"

Doctor Lockhart hunches slightly. I know that there's nothing wrong with his motors or joints, though they're much weaker than the ones which his original chassis had. Habit, I suppose. He looks over Tornado's mismatched body parts for a moment.

"Sure. Sure. Everyone else gets visits from family, and it's not like any of us have anyone else."

Red Tornado walks over to the floor opening to his quarters and opens the iris. Doctor Lockhart follows him, but Tornado hesitates for a moment.

"What of our father?"

"That rat bastard can die in his bed for all I care."

"I had thought that the.. Human thing to do would be to look after him. Since you are a medical doctor and have no other responsibilities-."

"First time I met our father he ordered me out of my home, had me dig up Da-. Our sister's body, ordered me to kidnap you and nearly kill a group of children, and then try to destroy the human race by setting off a supervolcano. Hate's a very human characteristic too, Tornado. Maybe you should try that instead."

He takes hold of his brother's proffered right arm and they rise up in the air a little with a blast of wind before dropping through the hole to the training area. I relax slightly.

"Orange Lantern." Red Inferno is looking at me. If our first meeting had left any residual fear of her, seeing her partially dismantled body would have removed them. "I wish to.. apologize, for my actions while under Father's command."

I walk over to the bed/slab thing. I'm trying to make the angle more comfortable for her.. but that actually doesn't make sense. Her neck actuators can handle any angle they can make with no pain feedback. Not that she's getting any pain feedback at present. She looks a bit like.. I don't know, actually. Not a Cylon, not a Terminator, not a Necron. Her arms and legs are basic to say the least. There are motors in the joints, but with none of the super strength muscle fibres her combat avatar had she looks skeletal to say the least. Her spine -which is clearly visible as we haven't even started on the outer plating yet- supports her head and connects to legs salvaged from the robot version of Mister Stikk. Wires from her power plant/fire control system visibly run to every part that requires power from a box hanging from her shoulders under her head.

I wave her apology off. "Oh don't worry. I was fine once I got the ring back."

Robin looks up from the computer interface he's working at. "You were kind of a mess before that, Oh El."

"I couldn't really see myself. But I'm not going to hold a grudge over an injury I could easily heal, particularly when inflicting it wasn't really your choice."

"That is not entirely true."

Eh?

"While I was compelled to obey Father's instructions, it was my decision how those orders were to be implemented. Though I bore you no personal malice I took the decision to rouse you by burning your face, and to strike you when I found I could not deny the logic of your arguments."

That's a bit...

"May I ask why you made that decision?"

She turns her head to stare up at the ceiling. A minute passes and I start to get concerned for her well-being.

"Danette Reilly was not merely working as a superhero, she... I devoted myself completely to becoming the most heroic person I could be. She had no other interests. No friends beyond her team mates. When she saw Dragon King pointing a weapon at The Flash... At Jay, she did not hesitate. She died knowing that she had done the right thing. That was her identity. Then, I woke up, and I was no longer Danette Reilly. I found myself compelled to obey a man I knew to be villainous in contravention of her every moral belief. I wanted to lash out and you were convenient. That choice was mine."

No, I still don't see any point in holding a grudge about it. "If you wanted, you could be Danette Reilly -Firebrand- again. We can restore your chassis and it's not as if having two names is uncommon around here."

"Danette would not hesitate to say yes. I am no longer certain."

"If you aren't certain, why did you ask to be fully repaired?"

"I cannot rely on my own judgements. But, whatever new goal I decide to pursue being fully functional would make achieving it easier. In addition, it allows me to delay making that final decision."

"Would it help you to talk about it with Jay Garrick or Alan Scott?"

Her head reorientates on me. Diana and her were in the All-Star Squadron together, but she told me that she was going to hold off on reintroducing herself until Inferno was ready for it. She hasn't told their other surviving contemporaries yet. She told me that she hadn't known that Danette was a robot, but that she couldn't swear that the others hadn't.

"They are still alive?"

"Yes. You didn't know? Alan mentioned you when we were going through his photo albums a few weeks ago."

"Do they know what I truly am?"

"Not sure. I've been meaning to ask. But I think you're doing Alan a grave disservice if you think he'd care."

 

16th October
15:53 GMT -5

Teekl sniffs at the corner of the stone block I'm sitting on before jumping up onto it. Captain Marvel only just got Teekl's approval for taking care of Wolf for the duration of the exercise, but Wolf herself has apparently decided that she's had enough excitement for now and has gone to sleep in his arms. Her adopted kitten in safe hands Teekl has condescended to resume her original stature. Odd, I'd started getting used to her being a big cat. Kon, Aqualad, Artemis and M'gann are already lying down on their blocks, while Robin and Wallace seem a good deal less happy about the situation. Mister J'onzz is standing off to the side talking to Batman while we prepare ourselves.

**Does this seem like a really bad idea to anyone else?**

I wonder if Wallace realises that Mister J'onzz can almost certainly hear that? I will admit to not being entirely sanguine about the situation myself. I mean, he had a point when he pointed out that there isn't really any other way to practise for an alien invasion. But when he said 'fully immersive telepathic illusion' my Star Trek redshirt death sense started tingling.

**Wally. This sort of training is a core part of the Manhunter training program. Uncle J'onn has been through hundreds of this sort of sessions like this, and I've done dozens. It's perfectly safe.**

I should probably ask. **Has he ever done this with humans before?**

**Of course he has! The Justice League do training like this all the time.**

**Uncle Barry said he did it twice.**

**Well... Okay, but they still did it.**

**And my telepathic shield construct won't disrupt it?**

**Your awareness will be limited to the illusory world. You won't be able to form real constructs, just alter the illusion based on what you'd normally be able to do.**

**Has that been tested? I don't want to risk smashing up the place by creating a construct in the real world.**

**The Green Lanterns did the training. They glowed a bit, but they didn't create any constructs.**

**And what happens if I try to use the ring in an original way? Something I haven't tried before?**

**Like what?**

**Errrr... Telepathy broadcast disruptor?**

**Well, your shields wouldn't-.**

**No, I mean something that would disrupt it over an area. If I scanned the brain of an illusory telepath inside the scenario, would it let me learn how to block that, or would the fact that I've never done that before make it impossible?**

**Umm...**

**The system is adaptable, within limits.** Mister J'onzz leaves Batman and walks over to us. **In the example you gave, as long as you had the necessary data to support your belief that the telepath could be blocked using the technique you developed, it would work as expected. That said, a completely original use might fail when it would work in reality. I have noticed that you are.. somewhat more creative than either of the Green Lanterns I have worked alongside.**

**Thank you sir.**

**If that occurs, simply assume that you did not in fact have the necessary data to support your conclusions, and practise the technique once the scenario is concluded. Remember, the purpose of this exercise is to aid in your training. You can learn just as much -if not more- from failure as you can from success.**

Well, this is happening then. I lay down, careful not to kick Teekl as I swing my legs around. She looks at my legs, then walks up between them onto my stomach.

"Teekl, that's not-."

She turns in a circle, pads, then curls up on top of me. Bloody cat.

**Is Teekl coming too?**

Kon seems amused by the situation. Teekl never usually sleeps on me. I'm not sure that she actually does sleep. A normal cat will sleep if it doesn't feel the need to eat, excrete or patrol, but Teekl seems a lot more mentally complex. Teekl's head comes up, and she looks at Mister J'onzz.

"I am able to make contact with her mind. M'gann told me of her actions in Bialya and Louisiana. If you wish for me to include her in the scenario as an active participant it should be possible for me to enable that."

He looks at me for confirmation. I look at Kaldur and raise my eyebrows.

He thinks for a moment. "I have no objection. Teekl, do you wish to participate?"

"Teekl sleep hunt."

Kaldur regards her curiously. "Does she mean 'yes'?"

"Probably, but don't assume that she won't just wander off when the scenario starts."

Robin's head jerks up. "Hey, why isn't Zatanna doing this?"

"Grounded for life, remember." Artemis shifts awkwardly on her bier. That's the word. Bier. What coffins are put on. Not ominous at all. "Why don't these things have cushions?"

"If you are all ready?"

I raise my right hand, wave it, then lay my head back on the hard surface of the bier. The biers are arranged in a circle, our heads are pointing towards Mister J'onzz in the centre. I hope we're using these things for a reason, it wouldn't have taken me more than a couple of minutes to move our beds out here. I tilt my head and flick my eyes back to see Mister J'onzz raise his hands slightly.

Wooow. We're standing in a misty purple void. Or dull lilac, possibly? Robin, Artemis, Wallace and M'gann are now in uniform, and Kaldur has changed from his old uniform into his Ocean Master gear. Kind of assumed that I'd feel something first. Hm. Interesting.

**Is anyone experiencing any sort of discomfort?**

There's a general shaking of heads. Mister J'onzz isn't in here with us, but will be monitoring events externally. You know, maybe the League needs to get another telepath. If this drags on he's going to be stuck here for a while.

**Then I will begin the scenario.**

Gradually, the mists part and the training room emerges. The floor appears first, then the main screen with Tornado -how he looks when fully repaired, not how he looks at the moment- standing next to it. Batman's image fills the screen. Looks like he's in some kind of aircraft.

"Deploying camera sensor units."

The image shifts from Batman's face to some kind of alien spacecraft. Our opponent for the afternoon, I suppose. I turn my head to the side as the far walls of the room appear, then the end of the corridor and the ceiling until the illusion is complete. Just to make sure I create an orange sigil over the ring. Yep, that works.

On the screen one half remains locked on the target craft, while the other follows Batman's spaceship. We watch as Lanterns Jordan and Stewart fly up to the alien ship.

"Attention, you have entered the boundaries of Earth space. Disengage all weapons and engines."

I frown. "Pretty sure that's not in accordance with standard Lantern Corps protocol. Why are they both standing right-."

The alien ship fires some sort of huge beam weapon. The Greenies create bubble shields with their rings, but they are swiftly overpowered and incinerated.

"Saw that coming. Are we assuming that the weapon destroyed their rings as well? Because if they didn't we should get a couple of new Greenies out of that. And the Guardians would certainly be-."

Wallace gives me a sour look. "Are you going to keep this up for the whole thing?"

 

Gotham City
15th October
18:37 GMT -5

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-day.

The zeta tube light fades behind me as I walk out of the Gotham alley onto a side street. I had thought that zeta tube placement represented appallingly bad security, but when I asked I was informed that it doesn't matter all that much if their location is discovered. It's happened a few times, and all that happens is that it gets deactivated and a new one placed in what is hopefully a more secure location. The worst thing that can happen is that the area around it gets booby trapped, but Batman put various types of sensors around each terminal when they were constructed and these days Mister Zatara wards them to be unnoticeable.

So, back in Gotham. I took the time to read up on the currently active 'theme criminals' before coming here. No Hagen, obviously. He's reliquefied, and the last report I read from STAR Labs was that he was managing to speak simple sentences coherently. Napier and Isley are back in Arkham, Isley more or less catatonic and Napier his usual self. Dent's in Arkham too, from a case last year when he tried using a gang of blackmailed identical twins to commit robberies using their twin to secure an alibi. Cobblepot is a more or less legitimate businessman these days and Catwoman doesn't do muggings, so unless I walk into Mister Jones or Mister Lynns there shouldn't be any trouble on that front. Of course, I'm quite a bit more confident in my abilities now than I was when I first came to this world. I'm sure that any engagement with anyone known to be operating in Gotham at present would go worse for them, but I'd rather not get involved in anything liable to make me late for dinner.

I could just fly there. I mean, the fact that Orange Lantern knows Paula Nguyen isn't a secret. Neither is the fact that Paula has a second daughter. But it occurred to me that it's probably best not to draw attention to the fact. I may not have been around long enough to pick up an actual nemesis, but in Gotham all it would take is one nut taking an interest. So, no flying into a residential area. Twelve minutes walking time, more or less. Funny, despite being in the murder capital of the east coast I'm feeling really good. Confident. Did Kal-El grow up feeling like this? No one here can hurt me. I'm humming happily, and I'll probably be singing under my breath by the time I reach my destination.

My oh my what a wonderful day.

Shame Torpedo's taking the whole being a robot so badly. Maybe he just needs time to adjust? Combined with my scan of Red Volcano the data Robin was able to extract from Morrow's base should start getting improved robotic designs into production some time next year. Batman was surprisingly reasonable when I raised the possibility of not just handing the whole thing over to STAR Labs and forgetting about it. The proto responsometer thing tech that powers the androids and gives them elemental powers will go to STAR, but the more mundane stuff will be making Ted Kord a very happy man.

I didn't even bother raising the possibility of sharing with Luthor. Letting everyone have access to the data might work to prevent accusations of favouritism, but the League's preference is to restrict access -big surprise- and their charter allows them to do this.

Hah! There's three tough looking youths sitting on those steps over there, and I don't even slightly feel like crossing the road to avoid them! With this ring I can afford to think the best of people, and if I'm wrong it doesn't matter.

"Fuck you lookin' at, fuckin' fagget?"

And with a grunt, the alpha male howler monkey marks his territory.

I stop walking. I was sort of hoping something like this wouldn't happen. For a moment, I'm reminded of the scene in Wanted, where the now supervillain trained Wesley confronts the people who shout and throw things at him every day when he walks home from work. Oh, why not. I smile at them.

"Three upstanding citizens, I'm sure."

And they immediately jump to their feet. One black man and two Hispanic men, though I suppose that might just mean that their families come from Brazil. The black chap has a red jacket and a black woolly hat, while his friends favour hoodies, grey and green respectively. Grey hoodie takes the lead.

"The fuck is your problem, limey!?"

Back in my home parallel I had people shout at me -usually from cars- while I've been walking or cycling along quite peacefully once too often. I remember a television series that I used to watch on the Science Fiction channel. It was based on an American supermarket tabloid, but the weird things they claimed were happening actually were. What was it called? Ah, yes, that was it: The Chronicle. Anyway, there was an episode with what appeared to be a superhero, so the three reporters did some research on the subject. The nerdy reporter offers his colleagues a range of quality comics from his own collection to read up on, the jock dismissively rejects Dark Knight Returns because 'he watched the series' and the woman complains that comics are basically power trip fantasies for emotionally retarded adolescent males.

Or something. It was a while ago, and I like to think that I've been mostly level headed about the whole thing. But I'd never attempt this without the ring.

"Well, you see, I was just peacefully walking down the street, when-."

He reaches me and tries shoving me. I decided that an orange shirt would be appropriate for this evening rather than my usual grey vest. It's one of those that Artemis picked, and among its virtues is that it conceals my well developed ring forged musculature. The small calibre bullet proof environmental shield doesn't exactly hurt. I don't move so he tries shoving again, harder. Again, I remain in place. He takes a closer look at my face and starts.

"The fuck is wrong with your eyes?"

Perhaps his colleagues are more observant, because they stopped walking towards me before he spotted that. For a start, my body language is wrong. Batman's lesson on body language was really quite interesting. I should be defensive or aggressive, but instead I'm at ease. Strange. I'd have thought that the old instincts would still be in operation but I haven't been consciously forcing myself into a particular behaviour pattern and I don't feel even slightly tense.

"Oh, they've been like this for months."

Transition. I appear behind them.

"Now, I'm going to suggest that-"

They jump, backing away in earnest. Even in Gotham, most murders aren't caused by' theme criminals'. Those are just the ones the newspapers focus on. Murders related to normal crime -usually robbery- is the largest figure. The robbery rate isn't all that much higher than in other places, the thieves just seem much more willing to use lethal force.

"-perhaps you're being unnecessarily confrontational about this? Really, I'm just going for a walk here."

Red jacket has ended up closest to me, his right hand going into his pocket. Oh! That's what those guys at Bluebeards Bikes were doing, reaching for their guns. Suddenly I feel less bad about their arrest. I nod at it, still smiling.

"That really something you want to do?"

Green hoodie slaps him on the back and he slowly withdraws his hand, empty.

"Uh, look man, it's cool-."

"Don't worry about it. In fact, just to show there's no ill feeling, here."

One of my 'what happens when you put food in subspace' pizzas appears on a plate in my right hand, still warm from the oven. As far as I know, the answer is 'nothing', though storing living rats there ate silly amounts of ring power. Dead rats take much less. Weirdly, subspace seems to differentiate between living and dead matter. Something to do with mystical presence, perhaps? I hold the plate out to red jacket and he looks at it like I'm offering him a landmine. With what I assume is a Gotham-evolved survival sense, green hoodie steps around him, takes the plate while showing submissive body language and then steps back.

"Thanks, man. We'll get out of your way, you can just carry on with your walk."

"So kind. You all have a good evening now."

I nod, then carry on down the pavement, listening carefully to what's going on behind me.

"The fuck you doin'? Don't fuckin' eat it! You see how he was smilin', probably put Smilex or some shit in it!"

Ah Gotham, don't you ever change.

 

16th October
17:08 GMT -5

"All I'm saying is, if it hasn't, then there's three perfectly good personal lanterns just sitting there."

We're in the bioship, heading to the alien fighter which has 'conveniently' isolated itself next to the Fortress of Solitude. We skipped most of the distance with the aid of the ring, but Kaldur didn't want to take us in too close in case the orange trail was spotted. I know that this whole scenario is premised on us being all that's left after the League die, but would it really have killed Mister J'onzz to make it a little more believable? Diana fighting with her lasso; something which I know and he should know she doesn't bring with her on missions where capturing the foe is not a realistic option. And dying to a shot she blocked, which if I understand the spells bound to her bracers right is basically impossible. Guy fighting from a static position when in fact he is always moving during a fight. Weapons used by the Earth's military forces being ineffectual but somehow Green Arrow's arrows do something. That was one of the things which annoyed me about the Justice League Unlimited episode Dark Heart: bullets do nothing but Huntress' staff can destroy the nanotech-enriched killer robots just fine.

Wallace sags as he looks at me. "Are you still going on about that?"

"It's a plot hole. Guy even gave me the access frequency for his lantern's subspace pocket. If the Greenies aren't going to send someone to investigate the death of three of their members -and they would, by the way- I might as well pick them up."

Anyway, Superman, Captain Atom, Captain Marvel and Mister J'onzz die charging the alien mothership. Batman died in his spaceship after getting shot by the alien fighter craft which are even now swarming Earth based defence centres and strafing cities. The rest of the League -and Guy Gardner, nice touch there- die in the atmosphere. The panicked news reports provide a nice in-universe way of explaining the plot to us. We don't know the aliens' motivations in the scenario but to be honest it doesn't look like Mister J'onzz has bothered giving them one. Interstellar warfare only makes sense in a very limited range of situations, and given that the mothership landed in Smallville of all places and that the fighter craft are not just killing anything that fights back but also attacking concentrations of civilians... He seems to have gone for some sort of 'because we're evil' motive.

Kaldur holds up his right hand in an attempt to prevent further bickering. "The alien weapons are far too dangerous to risk you recovering Lantern Gardner's lantern."

Stupid arbitrarily powerful weapons. Power ring shields are designed to take the worst the universe can throw at their bearers. If anything could down sector Lanterns like Jordan and Stewart that easily then everyone would be using them and power rings would be obsolete. But no. Strength D. No saves for you.

"How about looting the Fortress then? Bound to be some decent weapons in there."

"Perhaps. Time permitting. But please, try to take this scenario seriously."

"Right. Sorry." I lean back in my chair and strum the fingers of my right hand on the top of the box containing the illusory representation of my personal lantern. Ah heck. "Ring, display New York, Inwood and the Themysciran Embassy."

An image appears in front of me. Inwood has been badly shot up. Just check... Yes, Alan's house is one of those that has been hit. The Embassy has similarly ceased to be. Their armoury should still be intact, but if the aliens' bullshit weapons could shoot through the spells on Diana's bracers then it might not be.

"Status of Green Lantern A-."

Wait, does everyone here know Alan's name? Wallace does, but Artemis didn't seem to last night, and I haven't got around to asking his permission to tell people yet.

"A zero three."

"Unable to locate."

Hm. Well, that's realistic, at least. Would have been nice if I could have handed Guy's lantern to illusionary Alan but I suppose just assembling a new Justice League and making this their problem would rather defeat the object of the exercise.

There's a chime from the ring, indicating the presence nearby of an alien fighter patrol. I dismiss New York and set the ring to monitor them. If their guns are cheaty bullshit then so far their sensors have proven not to be. Which is odd, because a gravity sensor would detect the bioship if I didn't actively disrupt it, and Earth can build those. Or at least salvage them. No, alien ships are pulling away. I can't think of any advantage they might gain by letting us carry on if they knew that we are here.

"Orange Lantern." I look around at Kaldur. "Try to work out which part of the alien ship serves as their communications array. We will need to destroy that first when we make our ambush."

"Scanning." The feedback makes little sense to me in terms of Earth aircraft, but... "I think that red glowing thing on the end of the right wing is their communications node. There's complex energy patterns being emitted from it on all of those fighters I've scanned so far. Ring can't decode it though -which is bullshit, by the way-."

"Orange Lantern-."

"But it is! Decryption is hardly an original use. Fine. I can't decode it. It could be reports, it could be a remote control system, it could be part of a hive mind. Could be anything, but I can't detect any other likely candidates."

"What if they're telepathic?"

I look at M'gann and shake my head. "I can't detect anything like an organic brain. If they're telepathic then it's nothing like any form of telepathy I've seen before. Of course, that doesn't mean that isn't what's happening."

Kaldur nods. "We will simply have to hope that you are correct. And work quickly in case you are not. Miss Martian, since they do not seem able to detect us through the bioship's stealth, it is logical to assume that they will be unable to detect you whilst you are invisible. Destroying the target vessel's communication device will fall to you. Orange Lantern, what can you tell of their propulsion system?"

Ring? Uuuuuh.

"There's no exhaust gas, no ionic discharge and no significant heat that I can detect. Based on those ship designs Lantern Gardner showed me I'd say it's probably some sort of gravity control system. And either their inertial dampeners are ridiculously good or there aren't any actual crew inside those things. I'd guess that it's located at the base of the main module, but none of the designs that I've seen are similar enough to this that I'd want to bet on it."

Kon shrugs. "We just want the gun, right? Why not just smash everything else, just to be sure?"

Wallace smiles. "Sounds like a plan to me."

I roll my eyes. "That's not a plan, that's an aim."

Kaldur gets up and walks to M'gann's pilot station. Teekl watches him go, then jumps into his chair and curls up.

"Artemis, we will drop you off before the attack begins. Get to a place of concealment and await my order. Miss Martian, once Artemis is in place move us in to fifty meters behind the target. Once we are in position exit the bioship and get into position as close as you can to the target. I will leave with Artemis and get underneath the alien craft. Superboy, once the ship is immobile board it and remove the main gun. You and Miss Martian will then attach it to the bioship. Orange Lantern, take control of the bioship once Miss Martian leaves. Be ready to take evasive action at the slightest sign it has detected us. We cannot afford to lose this ship. Robin, Kid Flash, I want you prepared to help with stripping the alien ship as soon as it is defeated. In addition to the main gun it would be most helpful to have access to its memory banks. Teekl-." He looks at his chair, where my cat now has taken up residence. "-stay exactly where you are. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah." Robin looks at M'gann. "How long will it take the bioship to.. connect to the alien gun?"

"I can't be completely sure. I'd guess a few minutes, and we won't be able to use camouflage mode while it's happening."

Ring?

"Two other alien fighters within easy intercept distance. Even if we get the communications array, they could probably see us."

Kaldur nods. "We will simply have to be ready for them."

 

Gotham City
15th October
18:53 GMT -5

I tend to walk quickly when not restrained by the presence of others. In fact, my legs were the only part of my body that could be said to be in reasonable shape before I came here. But this evening I've decided to slow things down a bit. Left hand in pocket, smiling, right hand waving at people and wishing them a good evening. I've gotten more than a few stares but some people have nervously returned my greeting. A street light flickers and I fix it with a nod. Then it hits me: I'm trying to be Benton Fraser.

Whow.

I check both ways before crossing the road to Artemis' apartment building in something of a daze. Due South. Haven't thought about that for years. How old was I when that series was on? Fourteen? Younger? I step aside as two men walk out of the door of the building, then push my way inside. Ring? Ninety five? I was eleven? Whow. Have to see if I can get hold of it here.

I nod at the concierge, a young white man with long and slightly straggly looking hair. His eyes flick up from the textbook he's looking at as I walk over to the intercom panel. Just as shiny as I left it on my last visit. Still says 'Crock' next to the box for flat 302. Did she decide to keep the name? I assumed that she'd change it back and she hasn't corrected me when I've called her that, but I never actually asked. Should I ask? Eh, no point worrying about it, she'll tell me if she finds it annoying.

I press the intercom button, hear a buzz and wait.

"Yeah?"

"Good evening, Artemis." I go to say my name and realise that I can't. "Me.. here."

I hear an amused snort. "Hey Paul. Come on up."

"With you in a moment."

I step away and head towards the door to the stairs. Wait, wasn't there something..? I take a quick look around. Last time I was here I did a few repairs with the ring, but-. The windows! A quick look shows that the concierge chap isn't looking now that I've shown that I'm supposed to be here. Clean. What looks like twenty years of accumulated dirt and bird muck evaporates from the small windows over the door. Ah, why not? I extend the effect upwards, cleaning the front windows of every apartment. The wave of orange might be noticeable to anyone looking directly at it, but it only lasts a moment and isn't all that bright. Eh, and what if someone does notice?

Plenty of sunshine heading my way.

Through the door that should probably be a fire door just a moment, there we go- and up the stairs. Getting too into it, I have to come to a sudden halt halfway up the second flight and move to the side to avoid running into an elderly black woman. She gives me a surprised and mildly affronted look for a moment. Yes, probably a bit juvenile.

"Good evening."

"Oh, I know you. You're that young English man been seein' Paula's daaghtah."

"Um... W-which one do you think..?"

"The older one. The one in prisaan."

"I've been visiting Jade, certainly."

Her look is now amused and appraising. "Good! That woman, she had a lotta hard times. It's good that someone's looking out for her, not like that husband of hers."

"Ex-husband..?"

She nods, and starts down the stairs again. Alright, on to- And she pinched my bum. She pinched my bum, and now she's chortling down to the entrance. She's sixty if she's a day and... Alright then. A short walk down the corridor takes me to number 302 and I take a bunch of purple carnations out of subspace before knocking on the door. I've got the actual thank you for having me gift set up for later, but I thought it might be nice-.

Artemis pulls open the door, looks at my face, looks at the flowers and then looks away.

I blink.

…

No, I'm actually seeing it.

"Are you wearing a dress?"

Okay, that was a bit stupid, but I've never seen-. Is she blushing? Then she snatches the flowers and walks back into the flat.

"I'm sorry, it's just I've never seen you wearing-."

"I have other clothes!"

"Well, yes, of course..."

Err, okay. I follow her as she leads me into the kitchen. Oh! No, bad. Slippers, and clean the floor.

"Mom, do we have a vase I can put these in?"

Ms Nguyen is standing at the cooker, stirring a pot. Doesn't smell too offensive. Actually, smells kind of nice. She turns around as we walk in. "Oh! Those are.. carnations? I didn't know there were purple carnations."

"Um. It's a fairly recent thing. There's an Australian biotech company that modified them using genes taken from petunias."

She takes the bouquet from Artemis and sniffs them. I bought them from one of the main greenhouse complexes in Australia just before coming here, so they're as fresh as they get.

"There should be one in the cupboard in the living room."

Artemis nods and walks back out while her mother props the bouquet up in the sink.

"Dinner should be ready in about ten minutes. It's been a while since I've cooked anything Vietnamese. Artemis and.. Jade.. both grew up in the US."

I admit, I spent some time since getting the invite preparing myself for worst case scenarios concerning Vietnamese cooking. Snakes and snails are both very real risks here. But, I've never eaten either. For all I know they're delicious, and that's sort of the point of this.

"How's your physical therapy going? I don't see any crutches..?"

"Very well, thank you." She walks back to the stove. "I'm not back to full fitness yet, but-"

Artemis comes back in with a glass vase decorated with flowers. Her mother takes it from her and puts it under the tap to pour water in.

"-I can walk around and use the stairs on my own. I'll leave the acrobatics to Artemis." She smiles. "For now, anyway."

I nod. Shouldn't be too much of a surprise that she'd ideally like to get back to full fighting fitness. And if Batman can drag his sons around when he fights crime...

With the vase half filled with water Paula removes the flowers from their paper binding and inserts them into it. She moves them around a bit until she's happy with the arrangement, then puts the vase in the middle of the kitchen table. Then she walks back to the cooker, stirs the pot once more before turning her head to look at me.

"Did you have any trouble getting here?"

"No, not really. There were these three guys who seemed to think they owned the street, but they don't think that anymore."

Artemis looks interested. "Why, what did you do?"

"Scared them a little, then gave them a pizza." I shrug. "Didn't really see any point in starting a fight. It's too nice a day for it."

"You.. gave them a pizza."

"Yes. You remember I said that I wanted to test what happens to things I put in subspace?"

"You gave them a subspace pizza. Did you check it was alright before you gave it to them?"

Um. Whoops.

"It.. looked fine. And I don't think they were going to eat it. Seemed to think I might have laced it with Smilex for some reason. Oh, and I bumped into an old woman when I was coming up the stairs and she pinched me."

Paula looks a little puzzled. "Misses Owens? Where did she pinch you?"

"Well..." I shift a little uncomfortably, and clench. Paula notices and tries to suppress her smile. Failing, she turns back to the stove. Artemis just snorts.

 

16th October
17:22 GMT -5

I close my eyes and see the world through the bioship's senses. Took a while to work out exactly the mental attitude and ring constructs necessary to replicate M'gann's connection to it, but it was time well spent. And Mister J'onzz hasn't decided to arbitrarily remove the ability either, which is nice. M'gann's in position behind the alien fighter which is holding position just outside the entrance to the Fortress of Solitude, a metre or so off the ground. Artemis is behind a snow bank to its right. I'm not completely sure that the snow will give her cover but it should conceal her precise location. Unless Mister J'onzz has decided to give them bullshit sensors after all. Kaldur's just coming up to position underneath the alien fighter. According to him the ice is thin enough for him to attack through.

Everyone except me has switched to thermally insulated Arctic camouflage. Robin raised the point that it might be worth upgrading my armour with the smart fabric they use but I countered that I'd still glow orange so there'd be little point. The rest of the team are ready for rapid deployment if the initial attack is a success. If it isn't, then we either leg it or I use the ring to force open the Fortress. I haven't actually scanned the real Fortress. It seemed that might be pushing my boundaries a bit, especially given my total non-relationship with Superman. Since I haven't seen any Kryptonian technology anywhere I can't even judge whether or not the risk would be worth it.

Kaldur's now in position. With the bioship's sensors and the ring I'm best placed to coordinate, especially since I pointed out that we don't know that the aliens can't detect telepathic broadcasts.

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Everyone is in position and ready to attack on your order. Two alien craft still within intercept range.**

**Acknowledged. Miss Martian, Artemis, target communications and the gravity drive. Now!**

I watch as the tip of the fighter's right wing buckles before being ripped clean off. I didn't detect any irregular outbound signals and it didn't seem to be in communion with its fellows, but the clock has definitely started ticking.

**Communications disabled.**

An arrow strikes the fighter low on its right side and a chunk of it ceases to be. It lurches in the air and then falls to the ice.

**Gravity drive disabled.**

The top mounted bullshit gun swivels in Artemis' direction and opens fire. Doesn't look like it got a precise fix on her, and the weapon doesn't seem to be penetrating the densely packed snow very well. It penetrates a little and then an oval of snow just disappears. Curious. Might be possible to defend against by using a larger bubble shield, rather than my usual construct armour.

I begin manoeuvring the bioship closer now that the target is downed. Kaldur's put on his light gear for this, his attack twisting the frozen waters of the ice sheet and causing it to buckle beneath the fighter. I'm not completely convinced that was necessary, but it does put him in melee range if any alien crew disembark and now that it's frozen to the ice the fighter will find it harder to take off if it has some sort of backup system. At least I persuaded him to stay underwater. I mean, for goodness sake, what would be the point of exposing himself when he can attack from below its arc of fire?

The bioship shakes as Kon launches himself at the fighter's turret. At this range it has no chance to traverse before he gets below its minimum elevation. He sticks his right arm through its outer hull armour to brace himself, then jabs his left forwards through the centre of the gun's 'stalk'. Red energy -some sort of plasma discharge?- crackles around him as he rips through, causing the turret to flop to the side. Once he sees that its lights have gone out he manoeuvres into a better position on the fighter's top surface, kneels, grips, and wrenches it free.

You know? Looks kind of like an Eldar Falcon now. No sign of any crew. No sign of secondary weapon systems either.

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Weapon disabled.**

**Understood. Miss Martian, Superboy, begin installing the weapon.**

I call up an image of the other two fighters as I deactivate the camouflage. The bioship lists slightly as Kon jumps onto the roof. He holds the gun in place while M'gann begins the joining process. One useful thing that's come out of this: first thing I'm doing once this session is over is getting a plasma gun for the real bioship. I've been so concerned with something permanent, some perfect solution, that I've been ignoring the possibility of abusing the shapeshifting capabilities of the ship to use something good enough. Just plug something into the hull and take it off once the mission's over. As long as it only needs electricity to function there's no problem.

**Rerouting systems to integrate weapon into ship's biomatrix.**

**Understood.** Kaldur forces the ice aside and jumps out onto the surface next to the fighter. **Artemis, return to the ship. Wallace, Robin, study the alien ship but be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Orange Lantern, status of the other fighters?**

**Still coming in this direction, no change in speed. I'll keep you appraised.**

Since the ring's translation and analysis functions have 'mysteriously' failed Robin and Wallace really are the best people on the team to try and identify memory storage units within the fighter. Robin's attaching what look like ultrasound probes to try and get a picture of the interior.

**Don't think that's gunna work, Rob. How about we go with Superboy's suggestion?**

Honestly, I'm with Wallace on this one. I try taking another look at the fighter's interior myself but none of what I see makes any sense to me. Maybe it would to Robin? Shame we can't do some sort of telepathic skill sharing network thing.

**I think I've got something. Aqualad, try cutting here and here.**

Kaldur brings his water bearers to bear on the spot indicated. Neither the ship's sense nor the ring can tell exactly what he's doing, but from the looks of it he's cutting through part of the red dome at the front. Incoming fighters? Uh oh.

**Aqualad, the enemy fighters appear to have spotted us and are accelerating. Yikes, they're moving fast. Estimate one minute to intercept, and I'll remind you that construct shields do not reliably stop their primary weapon.**

**Understood. We will have to hurry. Miss Martian, will the weapon be integrated with the bioship by the time they arrive?**

**No. Sorry Aqualad, it's too soon.**

I see Artemis reach the alien ship and put one of my arrows to her bow. **What direction are they coming from?**

**South west south. They're coming in low, twenty metres.**

She takes cover behind the bulk of the fighter's hull and takes aim. If I can't stop the beam with a barrier, what can I..? Ah, that might work.

**The biggest target here is the bioship and it's a sitting duck. Robin, do you need either of the alien ship's wings?**

**No. I think its primary data storage is behind here.**

Kaldur's finished cutting a hole and stands aside as Robin points a light inside.

**Miss Martian, can the bioship support the gun's weight yet?**

**It should be able to, yes.**

**Superboy, would you mind snapping off the alien fighter's wings? I can probably use them to block one shot each, at least.**

**On it.**

He jumps down, wraps his arms around the one on the left and squeezes until the armour breaks. I extend a tendril construct out of the rear door to take hold of it. If the aliens hit the bioship... I don't know what would happen. How much mass can those guns cope with? I move the ship to a hull down position behind the fighter, rear door towards my team mates so they can embark quickly. Kon crosses to this side and snaps off the other wing. Right. I move each of them into the line of fire between us and the enemy.

And here they come.

 

Gotham City
15th October
19:16 GMT -5

"Which part of England are you from?"

Apparently, the stuff we're eating is called Far. As far as I can tell, it consists of a chicken broth with chicken pieces, onion, bean sprouts, peppers and some sort of leaves. The broth is spiced, but not so strongly or unpleasantly that I have to give the ring instructions to change it. There were sauces available. Artemis sprinkled an amber coloured one over her dish quite liberally, but I've been a good deal more conservative. After getting a stern look from her mother she was just able to stop herself laughing when I nervously tried my first bite.

I had no idea how to go about eating it. Paula provided me with a soup spoon and a fork in addition to chopsticks. They just have the chopsticks, so I thought I'd have a go without the aid of western implements. Before this evening I've never successfully used chopsticks before and I'm only managing it now with ring assistance.

"The south coast, just east of Brighton." Not actually all that close to Brighton, but it's the only place in that general area she might have heard of. "The village where I grew up is called Westham, but it doesn't exist in this parallel."

Paula frowns. "This parallel? I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh. I haven't told..? Sorry, I'm just used to everyone knowing. I come from a parallel universe. Quite a lot like this one, a few differences."

Okay, no idea how to eat broth with sticks. I'm just going to have to use the spoon. And since the sticks are in my right hand and I don't want to dirty the table by putting them down, have to use the left hand. Haven't worked out how to use the ring to make myself ambidextrous yet.

"A.. parallel.. universe?"

I nod. Artemis makes an 'umm' noise as she swallows, and clicks her sticks together to get her mother's attention.

"They don't have magic or super powers or aliens."

"Well, we might have aliens somewhere. We just haven't met any, as far as I know."

"How did you get here?"

"Um. Not sure. There's a sort of mostly sealed Bleed tear thing in near Earth space where I came through, but no one in the League has been able to work out how it happened." I take a sip from my spoon and shrug. "I went to sleep in my bed at home and woke up in space here, this ring on my finger. And promptly freaked out, because where I'm from that sort of thing doesn't happen. Sat on the moon a bit until I calmed down enough to think clearly, then tried looking for home. Didn't find it."

Paula looks concerned. "Do your parents know where you are?"

"Prrrobably not. As I said, I don't know how I was transferred. There might be some sort of huge glowing hole in reality on my home parallel's end. Or, I might be a copy of me and the original me is carrying on with our life unaware that anything has happened. There's really no way for me to tell." I lower the spoon and look out of the window into the darkening city. "Mum's probably frantic, but I can't get back at the moment. Can't even send a message."

I don't like thinking about it. I can take my new environment, even enjoy it, but I hate being helpless. Bleed portals... I asked Guy about it. There are a few civilisations which make limited use of Bleed technology, but tracking an uncontrolled transition after the fact is supposed to be basically impossible. I can't fix it, and I probably never will be able to.

There's a pressure on my stick hand, and I jerk my head around to see Paula patting it. I give her a slight smile. No, shouldn't worry about it if I can't fix it. Keep me eyes and ears open, but, yeah. Hah, I suppose there might be a character remarkably like a recently disappeared Englishman appearing in DC comics even now. Have they done another bloody crisis lately? I remember something about a New 52 but the whole thing sounded so stupid it may well not have lasted. And this place is a lot calmer than I'd expect a post crisis DC-verse to look like.

"Anyway, erm, Pevensey and Westham Church of England primary school, Willingdon Secondary, followed by-" Here come the lies. "-a year and a half of gainful employment before my unscheduled planeshift."

Artemis frowns. "I thought you said you were an atheist."

"I am. Oh, no, that was just the name of the local primary, it wasn't a religious school in the sort of way you're thinking. I mean, okay, I'm still word perfect on a whole load of hymns and Saint Mary's was right next door, but it wasn't... Huh. I guess it was, actually."

I just thought of the place as normal, but I suppose that compared with the theoretically secular American state run schools it would seem a bit indoctrinatory. Wasn't like we did Bible readings in lessons or got taught that the world was only seven thousand years old or anything. And I still ended up an atheist.

"Saint Mary's is still there. Here. Worth a look if you're in the area. It's over nine hundred years old and-."

Artemis picks up her bowl, raises it to her lips and starts slurping. I blink, then look at my soup spoon and then back to her.

"Was I meant to be doing that?"

Paula suppresses a giggle. "That is the usual way to drink it. Though, I think your way is more... Stately."

Thank you, I think? Just doesn't feel right to do that with a soup bowl. I'll stick with the spoon, but maybe a bit faster?

"Most of the old buildings are still there. Here. You know. The building that's the reception classroom was built here, but it's a museum now and the rest of the school was never built. The castle's still there-."

Artemis hurriedly puts down the bowl. "Your village has a castle?"

"Yes. Well, it's called Pevensey Castle in the tourist brochures, but it's actually between Pevensey and Westham. The keep's in Pevensey, so maybe that's why it's called that? The outer wall was built by the Romans when it was a Roman fort and the Normans built the inner keep. It's pretty ruined, though. Hasn't been used for centuries." She looks sceptical. "I can take you there after dinner if you don't believe me."

Paula gives her a reproachful tap on the upper arm and she resumes her drinking.

"Compared to my home parallel the area that should be Westham was never really developed. Pevensey's bigger, and the village on the other side is a bit bigger but my house isn't there."

Think I've just about got all of the broth now. I start picking out the last few bits of bean sprout.

Paula looks a little puzzled by something. "You said that you are eighteen?"

I nod. "Yes?"

"And you had a job for over a year?"

"Yes? Oh! British compulsory education stops at sixteen. I could have gone on to college but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, there was a job going at a place that sounded interesting..."

Not sure whether or not the company I worked for would have employed a sixteen year old. Probably should try taking the conversation in another direction. Wait, what time is it in Vietnam? No, still a bit early for that. She said any time after six in the morning but I'd like to give her a bit longer.

Paula smiles. "I have some news in that regard."

Artemis jerks her head around. "You got a job! Mom, that's great!"

"I will just be working a checkout at the local supermarket, it isn't anything very exciting."

I beam at her. "Congratulations anyway."

That is good news. Quite aside from the extra income, employment is a major part of a person's sense of self worth. Even if it isn't a particularly exalted position -and far less than she can do- this is a big step towards reintegrating with society in general. For just about the first time since I got here I've effected a positive change in the world.

 

16th October
17:26 GMT -5

The two enemy fighters skim us at high speed, throwing up clouds of loose snow. As they pass the pressure wave hits and for a moment I have to focus on stabilising the bioship. Artemis' position behind the hull shields her but Robin and Wallace are knocked flat for a moment before quickly getting back to work. Now that they've had a look at us the two fighters do a banked turn at the other side of the ice field, bleeding off speed and bringing their weapons to bear. Why were they banking? At their level of technological sophistication -to say nothing of their total lack of aerodynamics- they shouldn't need to bother.

I move the bioship around the downed fighter so that it's between us and its comrades again. Artemis runs around as well before kneeling, switching arrows and taking aim. The airborne aliens are finally making use of their inertia control, spinning and yanking themselves to the side in order to make themselves a more difficult target even as they charge their main guns. I doubt that she'd be able to hit with an Unmaker, so going with high explosive makes sense.

Ring, track enemy turrets and show targeting predictions.

Compliance.

I shift the wings I'm holding to the best intercept positions. Should I attempt to shoot them down myself? Energy pulses would be too slow and given that we're facing a worldwide invasion I don't think a power hog like the particle beam would be a good idea. Railgun it is then. Artemis looses at the enemy squadron a second before my railgun fires but my slug still hits home first. It impacts on the front dome of the fighter to the right and penetrates, but it doesn't seem to have done further damage. The explosive arrow reaches them and is detonated by its proximity fuse at the same moment they fire their main guns. Not sure if it was the force of the blast alone or a combination of that and their gravity control system but both of them are shoved sideways in the air, throwing off their shots. The beam from the one I hit strikes the ice sheet about ten metres to the left of the downed fighter. A chunk of ice disappears, but the beam cuts off almost immediately as the fighter readjusts. The beam from the other flickers over our heads for a fraction of a second but gets cancelled too.

The still-active fighters are keeping their distance, splitting up and moving around us in clockwise and anticlockwise directions respectively as Kaldur takes a second to assess the situation as I fire again.

**Robin, how much longer?**

Robin pulls a small and vaguely organic looking thing from inside the downed fighter. **I think these are part of its data storage system. Superboy, break the armor here.**

Artemis puts three Unmakers on her string as two of my slugs hit the anticlockwise fighter, causing its hull to wobble. Its return shot is pointed directly at the bioship and I shield the wing before blocking at what I hope to be a safe distance. The beam strikes the shield and in a flicker of light the wing segment is gone, shield along with it. It didn't feel like it was broken exactly, not as the Unmakers do. Weird. Artemis looses, but it's at her extreme range and none of the arrows hit. She reaches for a rocket propelled arrow as I swing the bioship aside to dodge the missed fighter's return fire.

**Aqualad, either I need to use heavier attacks or we need to leave.**

**Superboy, Kid Flash, into the bioship.**

I drop the ship down and Wallace and Kon board and hurry to their seats.

**Robin-.**

**I'm almost done.**

I stand, keeping my hands over the controls. "Superboy, take over, I'm needed outside."

He comes over to the pilot position. The clockwise fighter tries to slow for a more stable firing position but has to move again as the rocket arrows home in on it. A glancing hit buckles its left wing -damn, they're going to have reported in now, aren't they?- but it fires anyway and I'm forced to intercept the shot with my last wing. That one was targeted at their fallen comrade.

**Robin, they're targeting you.**

**Just a little longer.**

I nod to Kon and we swiftly switch positions. Right, now that I don't have to concentrate on that I transition to directly behind the fighter that's been ignoring my railgun. It jerks as I appear and tries to evade but this close it can't evade my particle beam projector. A purple beam bisects the fighter across its centre, causing the two parts to fall away from each other and detonate in the air. I glance at its partner and see it plummet to the ground as the damage to its wing cripples its manoeuvrability. Good show. Any others?

**Aqualad, reinforcements coming in from orbit. We really need to-.**

I watch as Artemis looses another Unmaker at the downed fighter. I see it reorientate its turret in her direction and begin to charge. I see Robin pull another processor thingy free from inside the first ship and start moving towards the bioship.

**Okay, I got-.**

The arrow hits and a chunk of the front of the fighter crumbles to nothing. Artemis throws herself aside as the dying fighter returns fire and I try to stick a shield in the way. Fortunately it overshoots, and Artemis comes up to her knees and launches a rocket arrow straight at the gun. The arrow accelerates away and strikes before the gun can recharge, wrecking it. Okay, done, now we can...

Wait. Where's R-?

**Robiiiiiiiiiinnnn!**

I feel M'gann's scream in my mind even as I transition to directly above the crippled fighter and destroy it utterly. For a moment I just watch it explode, numb. It just... Robin just died. I hear a whoosh as Wallace dashes out of the bioship to his friend's last location and I begin flying back.

Oh goodness.

"Rob!"

Wallace runs at the first fallen fighter and punches it in the front dome. The force of the attack overwhelms the already damaged ship and it jumps slightly before crumpling in on itself. His face is a picture of rage contained grief.

"They're dead! Every single alien is dead! If it's the last thing I do!"

O-orbital... They're still coming.

**Kaldur, Wallace, I'm sorry, but we need to get out of here.**

Kaldur walks over to Wallace and puts a hand on his shoulder. Wallace jerks away, leaning on the remains of the alien fighter and trying to collect himself. I know.. how close they are. Were. Come on, this is a comic book, there must be something we can do about that! Robin was.. was.. analysing the processor units from that fighter. Scan. No, they were destroyed as well. Um. The ship I just destroyed is too destroyed to have anything left, but the other? Yes, transition and cut. Three of them. I don't know what good they'll do...

I transition to the interior of the bioship and collapse into my chair as it hits me. It's not just Robin. Alan, Diana, Guy... And the world, so many dead. Right. Organise and prioritise. We need to leave before the reinforcements get into firing range. I have no idea where to. Kon looks at me in shock.

"Is Robin really..?"

I nod, still not quite comprehending myself. Our friend just died. I mean, after the Reds attacked the mountain I knew something like this was a possibility, particularly today with the opposition we're facing. But...

Artemis walks in and sits in her chair, head down. She unslings her bow and starts fiddling with it. Wallace and Kaldur are next in. Wallace's fists are clenched, muscles taut. He throws himself into his chair. Kaldur slowly approaches Kon and lays a hand on his shoulder.

**Miss Martian, is the gun fully interfaced?**

**Y-yes. Yes. Stealth should work now.**

He bows his head. "Superboy, take us away from here."

 

Gotham City
15th October
19:23 GMT -5

Before today I had never heard of the Docynia Fruit. Having eaten a bowl flavoured with ginger and sugar I find myself wondering if it would be rude to ask for seconds. Artemis notices me staring at my spoon.

"Finding it.. interesting?"

"Noo. Wait. Yes. Um..."

Artemis snorts while Paula looks confused. Artemis waves her spoon. "Paul told me about one time at his high school, when a Chinese kid offered him a duck's foot and he ate it to be polite even though he hated it. When they asked if he liked it he said he found it 'interesting'."

"But this I actually quite like."

Paula nods slowly and gives me an arch look. Glass! I pick up my glass of milk and take a drink.

Artemis wrinkles her nose. "I don't know how you drink so much of that stuff. We have soda, you know."

Escape! Thank you Radio 4.

"Genetics. You see, all infant mammals produce a chemical called lactase, which lets them digest milk better. Obviously that's so they can feed from their mothers. In Humans it usually stops being produced when they're somewhere between two and five years old, but, Europeans-" I bring my hands to my chest. "-have been drinking so much milk for so long that we've actually mutated to produce lactase our entire lives."

Artemis stares at me in disbelief. "Really. Did you just make that up?"

I shake my head. "No, honest. Paula, you've got the 'milk, yuk' version of the gene and both of your daughters inherited it." I raise the ring. "It's actually an easy fix if you want me to-."

Artemis raises her right hand in a warding gesture. "No. I'm fine with not drinking milk. Where did you even hear about that?"

"BBC Radio 4. There was a guy on who was doing some research on historically recent human evolutionary change. That was one of the ones they talked about."

"What other ones were there?"

"Um. It was a while ago, I'm not sure... I think black people tend to recover from very loud noises slightly faster."

"Aaand Asians?"

"I remember them saying that Japanese people starve slightly slower. I don't think they said anything about other countries."

Ring, status of… Oh, good. Best not keep her waiting.

"Oh, there was something else I.. thought I'd bring, as well as the flowers."

Paula smiles. "Paul, you didn't need to bring anything at all."

"With a power ring I don't really have an excuse for not doing everything I can, and, turns out, 'everything' is quite a lot." I push back my chair and get up, taking a 2D screen out of subspace and attaching it to a spare area of wall. It isn't quite 2D, but it's pretty darn close. Even rolls up.

"We don't need a new TV, Paul."

"Artemis, this isn't a television. Ring, access satellite aaand phone."

The ring rings. Aaaand nothing happens. Ah. We went through this but I'm not sure she-.

The screen comes to life, the image... A woman's chest. Come on, we talked about tha-. The woman sits back, revealing herself to be an elderly Asian woman. Nguyen Thi Nhung, eighty one, Paula's mother and Artemis and Jade's grandmother. She gives them a smile and a royal wave.

"Hello Paula! Hello little Artemis! Oh, you're not so little anymore."

Paula's eyes are wide. "M-mom?"

I'm still not sure that I've judged this right. "Yes, I.. spent some time in Vietnam this week. Um. You know, tidied her garden up a bit. Redid the village's electrical systems, phone lines.. and sewers and.. storm drains. And put in some streetlights, and there's a properly tarmaced road to the nearest national road now. Hah, that took a while. Oh, she also doesn't have osteoporosis anymore."

Silence from my hosts. Mrs Nguyen Senior leans around to try and get a better angle on me, before pointing at me with her right hand. "He is a good boy. Very patient, teaching me how to use this."

I nod at her and go into clearly enunciating for an old person mode. "I thought you did very well, Misses Nguyen."

She had a bit of age related memory loss. I fixed that, but she didn't want improved milk drinking either. The screen I left with her is a bit bigger than this one so she can get a better view of the whole room. Paula gets to her feet a little unsteadily and walks towards the screen. I step aside as she approaches.

"Hello Mom. How have you been?"

I feel Artemis' hand on my shoulder and turn my head to face her. She nods towards the open door. "Come on."

I follow her out, Paula and Mrs Nguyen's conversation disappearing into the background. She leads the way into the living room and shuts the door behind me as I shuffle nervously in the middle of the floor. I remember a comic where Power Girl? Or was it Supergirl? One of them said something about feeling a little awkward that they could join in a fight and effortlessly do what a whole team couldn't. My DPS isn't at Earth 1 Kryptonian level but now I sort of see where she's coming from.

"Did I..? Was that alright? I mean I wasn't really..."

"The last time we saw Grandma was at Grandpa's funeral. That was about eleven years ago. We flew over there, but I don't really remember it."

Eleven years ago would have been while Paula was still active as Huntress. Artemis sits in front of an armchair, her back against its front with legs curled up next to her. I sit opposite her, cross legged. She doesn't look straight at me.

"Mom gets letters from her and from one of my cousins. I've spoken to her on the phone a few times but I only recognized her from photographs."

"Originally I was just going to teach her how to use Skype but things sort of snowballed 'cause.. their phone lines weren't really good enough and they use generators rather than... Well."

I shrug. I sort of accidentally your grandmother's whole village. Is that bad?

"So you just... Everything."

"Yyyes."

"This can't be because you still feel guilty about.. our argument."

"No. Two reasons really. The first one's pretty simple. We're superheroes. What's our job?"

She frowns. "Stop bad people? No, you told Luthor-."

I nod. "I wanted to make the world better, not just stop it getting worse. The ring-" I wave it. "-only lets me act on selfish motives but you, your mother and your sister are my friends. Your good is my good. There's thousands of isolated villages who could benefit from stuff like that and I can only help the one where I've got some personal connection. But if I can't even do that-" I shrug. "-then what's the point of me?"

She gives a shallow nod. "So, what's the other reason?"

"That one's a bit more complicated."

 

16th October
17:36 GMT -5

Without a specific destination in mind I just transitioned us to a section of the US/Canada border which the aliens are ignoring. Thanks to the ring I'm not shaking, but I don't know... I've never had a friend die suddenly before. I'm hesitating to say anything because I don't want to risk causing offence. Wallace is clearly taking it the hardest, tremors of rage running through his body. M'gann has been weeping quietly since it happened. Artemis has removed and replaced every arrow left in her quiver at least twice now.

I need to get it together. I am an Orange Lantern. What do I want?

!Team mine!

Easy. I want everyone back. I want the aliens gone, killed, whatever. And I want those of my team mates who are still alive to remain that way. That's first, then. I turn my chair and lean over to Artemis.

"Artemis?"

She doesn't look up.

"Artemis?" I lean forwards and tap her lightly on the upper right arm with my right hand. She jumps slightly then looks at me. "I didn't want to push before, but given what just happened-."

"You want to upgrade me."

"As a matter of priority, yes."

"Do you think it would have helped-."

She cuts off and looks at the floor. I admit, I hadn't been pushing Robin quite as I'd been pushing her, but he's.. he'd been active longer. He must have known what was available? I did tell him I'd be happy to-. No. Not productive.

"It might, and it will certainly help you."

She keeps looking down. "Do it."

"Which..?"

"Strength. I wanna break them apart with my bare hands."

Not the most efficient... Uh. Ring, Danner Formula upgrade. An orange strobe passes over her as the ring makes the indicated changes. It only takes a second or two. She holds up her right hand, clenching and unclenching it.

"I don't feel any different."

"You won't. Not until you try doing something. Here."

I take a small steel rod out of subspace and pass it to her. She takes it in her right fist and bends it easily with her thumb. I return it to subspace. She picks up her bow and pulls lightly on the string.

"Thought it'd be harder to compensate."

"Only when you're under st-."

"Naah! Ghaah!" I twist around and see Wallace beating the instrument panel in front of him. "Aah! Guh! Aaaauhh!"

"There will be time to mourn later." Kaldur gets to his feet. "For now, we have a job to do: defend the Earth, and ensure that Robin's sacrifice is not in vain."

"No." I wave my right index finger at him. "The death of my team mates is not acceptable to me."

Wallace half rises, his eyes fixed on me. "You can't fix dead, Oh El!"

"Certainly I can. You appear to have forgotten that a little over a month ago I stole a Lazarus Pit from Ra's al Ghul." I raise my left hand and create an image of it. "The League's been keeping it in a warehouse in Cleveland which... The aliens are ignoring."

Wallace's eyes widen. "We can get him back?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "Using untested mystic artefacts-."

Wallace turns on him. "It's not untested, Ra's has been using it for centuries!"

I hold up my right hand. "Wallace. He's the only one who knows how it works, and it requires at least a small tissue sample. Which we don't have. I wanted to make you aware of the possibility, but it's going to be a while before we can use it safely."

He nods. He's still shaking slightly but his relief is palpable.

Kaldur seems less impressed. "And if it cannot be made to work?"

"Then when this madness is over I will find a way to circumvent my obligation to remain in this star system and go and get the parts needed for a white power ring. Or use some other technique. When I say something is not acceptable, I mean it."

M'gann seems to recover slightly. "W-where do we go next?"

Hmm.

"The Hall of Justice." Kaldur turns back to M'gann. "The Human race must know that there are still heroes defending them."

Um?

"Begging your pardon, Aqualad, but is announcing our continued existence on a channel the aliens may be monitoring really a good idea?"

He turns to me. "You have a suggestion?"

"Well, if there's one man on Earth who's prepared for an alien invasion, it's going to be Lex Luthor. Why don't I get in touch?"

Kon squints. "Luthor?"

"It's his planet too." I generate an image of the LexCorp tower in Metropolis. The buildings around it look somewhat the worse for wear but Mister Luthor's tower stands proud behind an ovoid energy shield. A small swarm of alien fighters are pouring weapon fire into it for no apparent effect, though there is no return fire at all. I hold the image up so everyone can see it. "Worth looking into?"

Kaldur nods. "Attempt communication. We need all the help we can get."

Ring, contact Mister Luthor.

Compliance.

I hear a ringing.

"This better be important." Mister Luthor picking up his own phone?

"Mister Luthor, Orange Lantern two eight one four. How are you holding up?"

"Orange..." He exhales. "Better than the rest of Metropolis. How many of you are left?"

"Not many. How secure is your building?"

"Oh, it should be safe. For another minute or so, at least."

"Your.. shield..?"

"A special project. An incomplete one, it won't hold. I've told the rest of the staff to evacuate, though I don't know how far they'll get."

"What about you?"

"The activation of LexCorp special projects is tied to me, personally. If I leave my office it will shut down, and any chance my employees have..."

Damn. "Is there.. anything..?"

"Your ring. I presume it has near infinite data storage?"

"Yes I.. I think so."

"Can you open a connection to my desk computer?"

Ring, do it.

Compliance.

"Should be on now."

Datastream detected.

"I'm sending you LexCorp's entire technical database. Beat them for us, Orange Lantern."

On the image the barrier starts to contract around the building.

"I'll.. I'll try."

"Is my son..?"

I look over at Kon. The ring stimulates my auditory nerves directly, there's no sound for him to overhear.

"Yes, he's here."

"Then that's something, I suppose."

"You know, it's... I was going to send this ring to you. If I knew I was going to die."

"Hm. I'm sorry to deny you the opportunity. It seems that you'll simply have to-."

The building disappears, and I hear only static.

 

16th October
17:36 GMT -5

Artemis is dead.

I'm a little surprised by how much that is affecting me. It's certainly true that I liked her but I had assumed that at this point I was a bit more ruthless than this. Shouldn't believe my own hype, I suppose. M'gann's sobbing at the pilot's station while Wallace shakes with impotent rage.

Assuming we win, I'll make time to assimilate Ra's al Ghul and resurrect her. I wonder if I can network the knowledge of construct Lanterns without having to wait for them to speak to one another? If I remember the comics correctly -and if the same rules apply here- Lazarus Pits can only be created in certain places and will only work a certain number of times. Shouldn't be a problem. There are only so many people I care about enough to bring back.

Wait a moment. Why is this making Wallace angry? His uncle died under two hours ago and they were very close. His parents live in the suburbs of Central City so they might still be alive, but virtually everyone else he knows is dead and this is what gets him? That.. could happen, but something feels off. Were they romantically involved? I didn't notice anything, but I'm not always the most observant. Hmm.

Mister Black says that one way to detect telepathic interference is to compare one's own memories of one's own actions and of the actions of others and see if they still make sense to you. Mister Scott may have been looking for me to be something I'm not, but I was fond of him. Princess Diana too. When I confirmed Mister Scott's death earlier today, I.. shrugged. I feel remorse, even guilt now for my earlier lack of empathy, but at the time I thought of it as an inconvenience.

Why?

And the others. Richard loves Mister Wayne, but when we saw him die... I remember him smiling. Why would he..? Are my memories being altered? Hard to check. Nothing sticks out as inappropriate, but if the practitioner were skilled...

"Naah! Ghaah!" I turn my head and see Wallace beating the instrument panel in front of him. "Aah! Guh! Aaaauhh!"

"There will be time to mourn later." Kaldur gets to his feet. "For now, we have a job to do: defend the Earth, and ensure that Artemis' sacrifice is not in vain."

Is she even..? No, it doesn't matter. Someone is fucking with us and no one gets to do that.

M'gann turns to him, grateful for his sense of direction. "Back to the cave?"

I raise my right hand. "A moment, Aqualad."

"If you wish to say a few words..."

"No. I may activate a contingency, later, but at the moment I have a different concern. Does our recent behaviour not seem... Strange, to anyone else?"

Kaldur's eyes narrow. "If you believed you had a better plan-."

"No, I did not mean to criticise in that sense. I meant, Robin, your father just died. M'gann, Wallace, your uncles. Kaldur, you always spoke with the utmost respect and affection for King Orin and yet when we heard of his death you were unmoved. All of you were. We are all displaying greater grief over the death of a young woman we have barely known for two months."

Kaldur's eyes open fully as he thinks about it, but he shakes his head. "If it were... Shock..."

"No, you are reinterpreting. Remember what you felt at the time."

They're all facing me now. Eyes drop to the floor as they try to reinstate.

Robin frowns. "I didn't.. feel anything. I was.. I think I was expecting it. But that doesn't make sense. I..."

I watch as Kaldur forces his face to relax. "What do you believe to be happening?"

"Someone is affecting our minds."

Wallace squints. "Who? I mean, we're being invaded by aliens-."

"Are we? How do we know that?"

"Well..." He blinks.

"Insidious, isn't it? This is why -with the greatest respect, M'gann- I will never be completely comfortable with telepathy."

She shakes her head. "I haven't felt anything, but if you're right I wouldn't remember it if I had."

Kaldur nods. "If our minds have been altered, what do you intend to do about it?"

"I have sought out additional tuition on the subject of counter-telepathy techniques." I raise my left hand to the side of my head, ring pressed to my skin. "A sufficiently strong ring-generated feedback pulse should cause such agonising pain to an attacker that they will either back off or lose consciousness. M'gann, if you have any presence in my mind, withdraw it and shield yourself."

Kaldur frowns. "If the alterations to our memories have already been made, would they not simply be unable to amend them further?"

"No. I have experienced it before; implanted false memories should have broken as soon as we became aware of them. Someone is continually doing this."

"I am not completely convinced. Still, if you are right..." Kaldur nods. "Do it."

"Mindfray."

Oooouughghgh. I clamp my teeth shut with a grimace. The main drawback with this technique is the pain and disorientation it inflicts on the use-.

"Aaaaagh!" M'gann seizes hold of the sides of her head and screams! I told the silly woman to shield herself! I can take this, but the whole point is that telepaths-.

Wallace dashes to her side. "Hey, you're hurting M'gann!"

"Spill over. I.. -mreh!- warned her."

Or perhaps not. I narrow my eyes. Why would she do this? Or not her. After all, that isn't her natural form. Could I distinguish between her and another Martian? I never bothered scanning Mister J'onzz, I've never been to Mars...

M'gann bends over, screaming silently. I find myself curious as to what-.

"Stop it. Stop it now." Kaldur looks serious.



He's being stupid.

"No. I will not tolerate this mental interference. Ring, increase inten-."

He grabs my arm and tries to pull it away from my head. He's strong -far stronger than a man of his musculature should be- but I'm stronger still. The others are on their feet now, undecided as to how to act. Ugh. If they think I'm killing M'gann they should attack me. If they believe me then they should restrain Kaldur. Ditherers.

"Ring, increase intensity!"

Orange energy spirals around my head and-

-purple mists-

-and I snap open my eyes. I'm looking at the ceiling of the training area in the mountain. I push up to a sitting position as my team mates similarly begin to show signs of life. I rise to my feet and look to the middle of the circle to where Mister J'onzz is kneeling on the floor clutching his head. Three strides bring me over to him and I grab him by the front of his uniform and haul him up to my eye level.

"Completely. Safe. Is it. Sir!?"



"BAAAAGH!" I slam him into the ground.

"Orange Lantern, that's enough! Stand down!" I meet Batman's stare with my own, orange energy crackling around my body.

"It is not enough. It is not nearly enough." I release Mister J'onzz and stride past him in the direction of the lifts. "Once he has recovered ask him about his stunning display of incompetence this day, and do not even suggest such training sessions again."

 

16th October
17:41 GMT -5

We materialise over the outskirts of Washington D.C. and I immediately begin scanning for both aliens and human resistance.

"Three alien fighters making attack runs against a US army position outside the Capitol building."

The ring shows me a small group of people running down a street just as another alien squadron turns the corner. The turret glows and the people are incinerated. Another fires a red energy beam from what we thought was its communications device at a car someone is using in an attempt to escape. The driver tries to swerve but the first shot melts the left rear of the vehicle, bringing it to a halt. The second pierces the engine and the car explodes, killing those inside.

"S.. six other fighters making attack runs at everything they can see. Next nearest alien fleet concentration is Metropolis."

Kaldur nods. "Miss Martian, plot an intercept course for the closest alien ship. It's time to test our new gun."

"Wouldn't it be better if I handled the alien fighters? Does... I mean, can we fire while camouflaged?"

Kaldur looks at M'gann. She thinks for a moment. "We should be able to. It... I don't know exactly how much power the gun takes and anyone who's watching can see where the shot comes from, but the stealth system will keep working."

A squadron of three alien fighters flies across our front, swooping down on the Washington waterfront. Kaldur points. "Take us in, as close as possible."

The scenery tilts and we accelerate after the rear fighter. I don't know whether they're just idling or going full pace, but the bioship is a lot faster than them. I suppose it would be too much to hope that the Martians would come to help us? No, M'gann said that it would take months for them to get here anyway. Could I transport them here? I could...

We're at point blank range when -with a quiet crackling sound- our stolen gun turret fires. The fighter disappears in a wave of golden light which spreads out from the point of impact. It's gone in a second and we accelerate after the second, then the third. They have no chance to respond before they're eliminated. Whow. A few ships like this... Fuck it, I'll just steal them, it'll take the Martians months to send someone to arrest me.

Kaldur nods. "Is the power use acceptable?"

M'gann closes her eyes for a moment. "Yes. The gun doesn't really use much power at all."

"Then our next target is the squadron attacking the Capitol Building."

"Ah?" Kon half raises his right hand for a moment. "Should we try and get more of the aliens' guns? I mean, shooting them doesn't seem to leave anything behind."

M'gann thinks about it. "I could drop you down on top of one of them and shoot the other two?"

I look at Artemis, who nods. "Drop me too."

Kaldur frowns. "Using your specialist arrows at that range-."

I shake my head. "Artemis volunteered for augmentation. She's not much weaker than Kon now."

He looks her over. "Very well then. Do not endanger yourselves unnecessarily, but anything we could salvage would be very useful."

She and Kon get up from their seats and walk over to next to where the floor opening normally appears. I prepare to transition us, but the bioship easily crosses the distance from the waterfront to the Capitol Building in seconds. The US military position consists of four Abrams tanks and thirty or so infantry. No dedicated anti-air, not even infantry borne homing missiles.

The floor iris opens. Artemis clenches her right fist. "So, how exactly..?"

Kon's already watching for his target. "Just grip onto the armour then hit it. Really hard."

"Oh-kay. I can do that."

The alien fighters start shooting their secondary weapons at the tanks as we come up to them. Kon leaps down as we pass the first, then we bank right and Artemis throws herself at the second. Down a little and our main gun takes care of the third. The infantry has scattered away from the tanks, two of which are destroyed as their armour is utterly overpowered by the alien beam weaponry. Wonder if we should salvage those as well?

I watch their attack through the front window. Kon falls onto his ship just ahead of its turret. He crouches, grips its armour with his left hand to brace himself and then brings his right fist down over his head in a powerful thump. A section of its upper surface just crumples and he has to shift position and get a better grip as it wobbles in the air. Another blow and the armour at the bottom of the fighter explodes and he hangs on as it tumbles from the air.

Artemis lands directly on the turret and grabs on for dear life. Should I have pointed out that a fall from this height won't hurt her anymore? Of course, grabbing on at her new strength results in the turret 'arm' crunching and going dead. The area around the 'gun' bit is so crushed that it falls off due to its own weight, nearly taking her with it as it goes. The fighter bucks and she's thrown forward, sliding over its armour and nearly falling off the front before forcing her fingers through the armour over the top of the forward dome. Once she's sure that she's not going to fall she pulls back her right fist and punches it right in the centre of the dome. It breaks easily and she sinks in up to her elbow. Recovering, she shoves it in the rest of the way before pulling its innards out. When the fighter doesn't immediately fall out of the sky she grips the interior of the dome and wrenches it to the side. It cracks, and she rips it clear from its housing before assaulting the inside. A moment later it stops in the air, tips nose down and falls from the sky.

The fighter Kon is on comes in at a low angle and he hangs on as it slides along the ground, coming to a halt just in front of the assembled soldiers. An officer I don't immediately recognise steps forwards and says something to him as M'gann brings the bioship in and turns it around for us to exit. The position also allows her to keep the gun pointed at the most likely route of attack for the remaining fighter craft. Kaldur walks towards the rear hatch and the rest of us get up to follow him. Ooh, should probably check on Artemis.

**Orange Lantern to Artemis. You still in one piece?**

**Think my boots have had it, but yeah. Gimme a sec to get a grip on this thing.**

We walk down the ramp to the cheers of the assembled soldiers and Kaldur leads the way over to Kon and the officer, a general, judging by the rank insignia.

"See, it is Superman." One of the soldiers elbows the guy standing next to him. "Told'ja he wouldn't leave us out here alone."

"I don't know. Looks kinda young. Where's the cape?"

"I'm not Superman."

Yeah, whispering near a man with super hearing. That'll work. Wonder if those two actually knew Kal-El?

"I know that." The General takes a step towards him "But right now I don't care. You wear the 'S' and you got the job done."

The soldiers to my left step back and raise their weapons. Turning, I see the fighter Artemis took down rise into the air and flip onto its roof as she gets a good enough grip on the inside of the hull to move it.

**Yuuughk.**

She's covered in some sort of black goop and her boots are indeed ruined. She kicks them off before leaping over to us and landing in a crouch.

Clean.

Kaldur walks up to the General, who salutes him. "General Samuel Lane, US army."

Lane. Lane? Oh, this could go very wrong. Or possibly not. The whole US government anti-superhero thing doesn't seem to have started in this timeline, so hopefully he's still rational about things like us.

"Aqualad, Justice League. We'll help you salvage as many of the aliens' cannons as possible. Then we start taking back what is ours."

 

Gotham City
15th October
19:28 GMT -5

I hold out my left hand, palm upward.

"I was.. thinking about what you said, about not having done anything to earn this ring."

"Paul, you've-."

"Nuh nuh nuh." I wave and she stops to let me finish. "See, I haven't. But, most Lanterns don't. None of the local ones did. In fact, the only Lanterns I can think of who did something big enough to qualify for a ring in advance are Katma Tui and Bro'Dee Walker. For everyone else, it's... The seeker program doesn't check for achievements, it checks your personality. It assesses... Whether or not you're the sort of person who should be given a ring. And this ring doesn't have a seeker program. Someone -and I've no idea who- decided that I was a fit and proper person to have a power ring. That's.. a huge show of faith from them even before you consider that orange rings tend to induce insanity. I mean, with this.. I'm a one man post-scarcity civilisation."

I lean back a little.

"'Here you go, you're now one of the ten most powerful people in your Space Sector, and I reckon you're such a good guy I'm not even going to bother checking up on you.' I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to do enough to justify that faith. Even if I do everything I can I'm not sure there's an amount I could do that would justify it."

"You seem to be doing an okay job to me."

I look at the floor for a moment and smile a little. "Thank you. But you're.. kind of.. biased. And it's not as big a deal as you think."

"Not a big deal!"

"Taking on a group of men armed with guns when you're a baseline human with a pointy stick launcher takes immense skill and courage. Taking them on when you're bullet proof is just, like, whatever."

I shrug.

"Doing that work in your Nan's village manually would take a hundred construction workers months and cost millions. But, for me? Thirty hours. If we assume I count as a semi-skilled manual labourer, twelve dollars an hour... It's three hundred and sixty dollars' worth of work."

"Not to the people who benefit, it's not."

"Mmmm. They're not the ones trying to pay off a power ring. Anyway, after next July I'll know one way or the other."

"Why's that?"

Wait... Is my origin story in my personnel file? I never bothered reading it in detail...

"Did I.. do you know how I ended up joining the team?"

"Wonder Woman sponsored you."

"Right, but I came to this world on the 5th of July and the team first met on the 8th. When I first got here I didn't know anyone."

"Sooo, how'd you do it?"

"Green Lantern. You know, the Green Lantern who was a member of the Justice Society. Think he used to live around here, actually."

She thinks for a moment. "The blonde guy from Mister Nelson's funeral?"

"That's him."

She frowns. "But he'd have to be ninety."

"Ninety six."

"Whaw. He doesn't look it."

"He does now." She gives me an inquisitive look. "When I got here, I had a ring but no lantern. No lantern, no way to recharge. Once I got a rough idea of the sort of place I was in, I went looking for one. And I found him. We had a chat, I tried to buy it... Well, he was retired. He was alright about giving it to me, but he wanted some assurance that I'd use it appropriately. So, he made a phone call to his old colleague Princess Diana. She.. was less keen. I mean, my story's ridiculous and this ring's powered by avarice, you can see where she's coming from."

Artemis nods.

"The only way I could think to persuade her was to make a magically binding oath. I have to obey orders from her and Batman almost without question and I can't leave this star system. It lasts a year, and after that point I consider myself obliged to.. 'report in'." I shrug. "Assuming the Controllers don't make contact with me first."

"Who are the Controllers?"

"Like the Guardians, only taller. My bosses in the Corps, inasmuch as I've got one."

"So.. why does Green Lantern look like his real age now?"

"Because his Lantern was keeping him young. Now he's given it to me, it doesn't." I rub my temples with my right hand. "I don't even know if he's realised that's why it's happening."

"Could you.. give it back?"

"I don't think so. I had to change it from green to orange so I could use it. I can't change it back and he's not avaricious enough to use it as it is now. Best chance would be to get him a replacement but I'm stuck here for a year."

I exhale slowly. Whaw, that's depressing to think about. New topic.

"So, how'd you get involved in this costumed tomfoolery?"

She twitches and looks out the window for a moment. "Does Jade ever.. talk about our dad?"

"Sometimes. Not much. He's not exactly her favourite subject. I mean, I know about most of his professional history..."

She has talked a bit about his training regimen. Turned my stomach. I think she feels a bit bad about leaving Artemis there, but it wasn't as if she had concrete plans herself at the time. She was thirteen, for goodness sake.

!Jade mine!

"After Mom got out of prison, she didn't want anything to do with that sort of life anymore. He left. I went out for the first time that evening. Stopped a robbery at a grocery store."

"Well done you. My first night on the job I walked in on a major drugs and firearms sale and completely missed that it was happening. I bought some clothes and walked out."

She snorts in amusement.

"How'd you meet up with Green Arrow?"

"Him and Batman were waiting here when I got back from patrol one evening. He offered to be my tutor."

"I haven't spent much time with him. What's he like?"

"He's really easy going. Supportive. Just.. nice. I was kinda expecting it to be like with Dad, only, y'know, less evil, but I actually get on well with him. Black Canary's great too."

"Have you.. given any more thought to visiting Jade?"

She rolls her eyes for a moment. "Every time Mom goes to visit she tells me that I can come with her if I want, but I don't have to and that she understands if I don't want to. Guilt trip much."

I shrug. "Might be easier to go on your own. Or I can hang around, if you want."

"When's she getting out?"

"The lawyers are still wrangling. Probably some time around mid-March next year."

She fidgets. "Yeah, okay. Not sure what we're gonna talk about... Do you think the others know? About Dad, and Jade?"

"Robin, almost certainly. The others, probably not."

She stares into my eyes, and jabs her right index finger at me. "You can't tell them."

I raise my hands in a surrender gesture. "I won't. I won't. But, I don't think they'll react as badly as you seem to think. Batman and Green Arrow certainly know and they're fine with you. Mmm. On a lighter note, given any more thought to getting super powers?"

"Uh. Nooot really."

"Oh come on..."

"Wouldn't being super strong mean I'd just.. just be breaking stuff the whole time? And I'd have to spend time retraining..."

"No. I already have the collar configuration to block the effect. You could train to use it, then turn the collar on and go right back to how you were. Here." I take the slim collar out of subspace. Okay, not that slim, but much less bulky than the electroshock variant Belle Reve uses. She takes it from me. "I can make it look like pretty much whatever you want, long as it's about this weight. Try it on."

She raises her right eyebrow. I roll my eyes and shrug. She pushes her hair out of the way and puts it around her neck.

"Can you.. help me do it up?"

"Sure, hang on."

"You can't tell anyone about this either."

"No problem, but if you decide-."

The door is pushed open and Paula walks through. "Artemis, your grandmother wants.. to..."

She trails off as she.. sees.. me collaring her daughter. The artificial leather collar with the metal pull ring.

Darn.

 

16th October
17:58 GMT -5

I stand in the driveway of what used to be Alan's house, his lantern held limply in my left hand. The whole area's been shot up but they seem to have targeted this place in particular. It's been reduced to rubble and wreckage. Could they detect his ring? Or were they simply working a priority target list that was slightly out of date?

"Green old man gone?"

I reach up with my right hand to where Teekl sits on my left shoulder and rub her head.

"Yes. He has."

But I can't worry about that. The soldiers are moving to the Hall of Justice with the bioship providing air cover, but I'll need to be back when they arrive. I hold up my left arm and look into the core of my personal lantern. I hope Gaea's paying attention. Hope I'm close enough. I kneel, lower my lantern to the brick surface and let go.

"I return this lantern to its owner, Alan Scott."

It took me a while to realise it, but the oath doesn't really cover what happens if I give the lantern back and then steal it. It also doesn't cover the fact that Alan's willed the lantern to me in the event of his death. So, it briefly becomes his and then goes back to being mine. I pick it up again. Now -in theory at least- I can leave the system without incurring Gaea's wrath. I'm not planning on doing a runner, but the sad fact is... I'm not convinced we can win this. And if it really comes down to it, I can now evacuate thousands -possibly millions- of people to the nearest habitable world.

Transition.

A twelve story apartment building has been reduced to a burned out shell. I'm floating over where the floor to Guy's flat used to be before damage to the structure caused it to cave in. Could they detect the subspace pocket containing his lantern? I'd have thought that they'd have been more thorough if they could.

Ring, transmit access frequency.

An orange strobe, and Guy's lantern appears in mid air, rotating slowly. I really hope that the Guardians haven't added anti-me security. I gingerly reach out with my right hand.

"Authorized user detected"

Guy... Thanks, Guy, I... No, focus.

Transition.

Another broken pile of stones. There's no cover here, but the alien fighters appear to have moved off. No matter, I know where the embassy's armoury used to be. Dig. Bricks and stone shower upwards. Artemis needs a better bow, and some of the stuff here might be useful for Kon or Wallace. Or Donna? Oh noo, I'd hoped that she'd be alright...

The normal entry corridor doesn't exist anymore so I rip through what used to be the armoury's wall. With Diana's death her last 'don't touch' orders would bind me, but now I've dealt with the oath I could just loot this whole place. Except that neither I nor my colleagues have trained in the use of enchanted primitive weapons, and I'm not even sure what some of the enchantments do. Can't risk trying to use them then. Maybe when this is over I can return this stuff to Themyscira?

I don't know why Diana didn't take some of this stuff with her. Maybe she just didn't get enough notice to pick it up? It would explain the lasso. Under the rubble the walls of the armoury were more or less intact before I dug through them. The aliens don't seem to have focused on this place. I haven't seen them using anything I'd recognise as magic yet, so I'm not sure why they attacked the embassy at all.

Teekl stands and stretches, digging her claws into my shoulder armour as she does so. Then she jumps down onto the floor and stretches again before walking over to where Diana's training bow rests on its stand. I follow her and pick up the bow and quiver before subspacing both. Next, the training swords she lent to the Cornwalls. Right. One last thing I need to check.

Transition.

Teekl and I look out across the surface of Mars. The sky on the horizon is a sandy yellow, contrasting with the rust red dust and the small dull brown rocks scattered about. And the alien motherships. None of them are particularly close to where we are, but in the distance across the Martian surface I can see two... no, three of them, sitting on the ground surrounded by swarms of fighters. Map. Yes, each one directly over a subterranean Martian city. There's no help to be had here. I can't even risk grabbing Martian technology. Or rescuing civilians. Damn it. Damn it.

Transition.

We appear at the top of the steps outside the Hall of Justice. On the plaza below the soldiers are setting up barricades. Looks like they've made contact with other surviving units and rallied them here. They've brought a couple of extra tanks -probably worthless as anything other than a distraction- and several four by fours mounting some kind of SAM system. That could be useful. A flicker of OrangeVision shows me the bioship in camouflage mode standing watch over the gathering.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

I turn and see Kaldur, turned back to look at me as the others walk through the doors into the ruined Hall. I hold up the glowing green lantern. "Some of it. Artemis in there?" He nods, then turns to join the others. "Wait." He stops. "They hit Mars first. I saw three motherships. There were probably more."

He bows his head slightly. "It cannot be helped. I think it would be best if we kept this from M'gann for now."

I nod. "Right."

Teekl and I follow him into the building. Somehow, despite the damage to the walls and interior the glass front is largely intact. I see Artemis, Wallace and M'gann looking up at the partially destroyed statues of our mentors. I suppose Kon's still in the bioship. I find my own eyes searching for Diana's statue. Just to Superman's right, wasn't it? Looks like something hit that side hard. Her legs are all that survive. I feel a momentary impulse to restore her. It. No, waste of time and energy. Think about something else.

"You know... I've.. never actually been in here before." Kaldur takes his eyes off King Orin's statue on the far left to see if I'm being serious. I shrug. "Well, why would I? All the stuff I need's either at the mountain or the Embassy."

M'gann floats over to the fallen head of the J'onn J'onzz statue. She reaches out with her left hand and lays it on his face for a moment before collapsing to her knees and sobbing. There.. isn't really anything I can say. He's dead. Probably, the rest of her family is dead. But perhaps there's some way to make her hurt less? I start walking towards her when she suddenly starts. I don't see..? She leaps into the air away from the stone remains, thrusts her hands forwards and starts lifting what's left of the statue from the ground. Once it gets a bit of clearance there's... Shit. Is that..?

"Uncle J'onn!"

How the hell did he survive? He sits up, looking a little bewildered as M'gann tosses the statue remains aside and swoops down on him. Kaldur looks at me. Ring, is that actually..? Apparently it is. I nod at Kaldur in confirmation. First good news I've had all day. M'gann wraps her arms around her uncle's chest. He still seems to be a little behind events. Kaldur takes a step forwards.

"Martian Munhunter. I do not wish to sound ungrateful, but how is it that you are still alive? We saw you, all the League, vaporized."

M'gann helps Mister J'onzz up. He's holding his right hand to his head.

"Yes, I remember. But I cannot remember how I survived. Or how I arrived here."

M'gann hasn't stopped hugging him. "Maybe you were density shifting and the beam passed right through you?"

Wallace rubs his chin. "Depending on the type of radiation they use, that might explain the amnesia. And if you survived like that..."

The Flash might have survived. I tried checking for him earlier, on the basis that they're not dead until you see a body. Couldn't find him, but then I couldn't find Mister J'onzz either and he's right here. Some types of technology and magic do interfere with ring scans. I just don't know.

"My mind is clouded. I feel certain I had something important to tell you."

Wallace hits his forehead with the heel of his left palm. **Hello Wally. C'mon!**