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

[Mr Zoat]

12th March 2011
09:26 GMT

Rob squints towards where John is setting up the ritual. "You sure this'll work in the middle of the day?"

I shrug. "I don't know. I've read up on magic but I'd hardly call myself an expert. If John says it's okay then it's probably okay."

John looks around. "It's harder, but it'll make it easier to send him on his way if he's not happy about being woken up. Trevor, you ready?"

Mister Marrack Senior is standing next to one of the standing stones, his hands pressed against it and his eyes closed as he reconnects it to the local geomantic energy systems. I don't really know enough to say whether geomantic energy 'should' be channelled or left to run where it will. I do know which is more useful to my allies, though.

He steps away, blinking heavily. "This was a damn sight quicker than applying to English Heritage." He looks over to me. "Any chance you could find time to do the rest as well?"

I shrug. "Sure. Do you have time to align them all?"

He waves his right hand in the direction of his son. "Rob can do that over the summer holidays."

Rob sighs. "Cheers, Dad."

"It'll be good practice for you."

"'Cause it's not like I had plans or anything."

"It'll help with your magic." Rob slumps slightly in a very teenagery way. "Anyway, yes. I'd like to leave it for a bit just to make sure, but it should be ready to go now. What happens if it's not quite..?"

John nods. "If it's not, it won't make anything go wrong. The summoning just won't work."

"Right. Well then." Mister Marrack walks back towards where I put the stuff he brought with him.

"John, are you about ready?"

"Ready as I'm going to get." He exhales. "You sure I can't have a quick fag?"

"Graham Marrack was very anti-smoking. Said it polluted the air and harmed the lungs. And I'm sure -as a man who nearly died of lung cancer- you can appreciate where he's coming from."

Rob's eyes widen. "You had lung cancer? Was it, like, a little bit of lung cancer-?"

"He smokes twenty a day, what do you-?"

"I cut down afterwards. Fifteen a day at most." He takes one out of his pocket and sniffs it. "No. I had the malignant, coughing-up-blood-and-lumps-of-growth type lung cancer."

"You know, I can remove your nicotine addiction if you want. The trick you used to heal yourself wouldn't work again."

"What did you do?"

John grins. "Well, I-."

"He sold his soul simultaneously to the three joint rulers of Hell then killed himself. They had the choice of either putting him back together or fighting to the death for his soul."

He rolls his eyes at me. "Oh, suck all the friggin' fun out of it, why don't you?"

"Fortunately for John, the rulers of Hell were really stupid and it didn't occur to them to, say, cut off his arms and legs or rewire his central nervous system to put him in perpetual agony. Or create a new Lukhavim especially to possess him after first making his body invulnerable so he got a front row seat at the horror it would unleash on the world in his name."

John stops smiling. "Was a bit."

"Um, Rob? How's.. your uncle getting on?"

He shrugs. "'bout as well as you could expect. I don't know how Batman got him out that quick but I'm bloody glad he did. We're looking after him for the moment."

I nod. "If there's anything I can do to help…"

Mister Marrack returns, very carefully carrying an old fashioned travel case with him. "This has got Granddad's old uniform in it. Given all the time he spent wearing it, it should have the strongest specific link out of anything I've got."

John doesn't look sure about that. "You wouldn't have a bit of bone or something, would you? It'd be a lot easier."

Mister Marrack shakes his head. "He was cremated. His ashes got spread near here, that was why I thought this place would be best to try reaching him." He reverentially places the case in the middle of John's diagram within the stone circle, undoes the clasps and then retreats back towards Rob and I. Once he reaches us, he turns back to John. "Alright, over to you then. What's next?"

"You're on battery duty. When he tries to animate his uniform, he won't be able to draw power like he did when he was alive. You'll need to provide it."

Mister Marrack looks a little uncomfortable. "Do I need-?"

"You can do it from out there."

He nods, looking a little relieved. I suppose he really hasn't had that much exposure to the exotic parts of the magic world. Or maybe he's just nervous about being in the presence of his patrician grandfather?

John starts walking a circle inside the ring of stones. "In this sacred space we call out to the spirit of our departed forebear, Graham Marrack. We humbly request that he hear us and come to us that he might share his wisdom."

Nothing appears to happen. John continues walking. "I say again, in this sacred space we call out to the spirit of our departed forebear, Graham Marrack. We humbly request that he hear us and come to us that he might share his wisdom." He keeps going until he completes a circuit. "No?" He waits for a moment. "Alright then."

He looks over to Rob and Mister Marrack. They nod -Mister Marrack wincing slightly- and walk to the closest two stones. They each then take out a small knife, make a small incision on the palm of their left hands and press them against the stone.

"In this sacred space we call out to the spirit of our departed forebear, Graham Marrack. We humbly request that he hear us and come to us that he might-" The air above the case starts to get very misty. I have the ring track the moisture and it's being dragged in fast enough to create an appreciable draft. "-share his wisdom."

The mist thickens into proper 'can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face stuff'. A moment more and I can see lightning crackling inside it. Rob starts looking a little pale, but he and his father both keep their hands on the stones. The mist then appears to contract, as if being sucked into the case while the uniform is drawn upwards. It looks a bit like a pre-World War One army uniform, with the addition of a St Piran's Flag emblazoned across the chest. As I watch, it moves to a more upright position with the water vapour filling it up and taking the form of the areas that would be uncovered; hands and head. The area around the apparition is still misty, but nothing like as intense, and the lightning appears to be restricting itself to the interior of the figure. At first the face is only roughly Human, but as I watch distinct features appear.

It seems that we've got our man.

It fixes its attention on John. "You, sir, reek of the devil-herb tobacco."

John rolls his eyes. "Haven't had one for hours."

"Hmm. I heard the call of my kinsmen's blood. This had best be important."

The living Marracks release their stones and slowly walk towards him, Trevor Marrack taking the lead. "Grandfather."

"Trevor." The apparition regards him for a moment. "Is that it? Is that as strong as you have become?"

"Yes. I've done my best with what Dad taught me-"

"Hhhh. That boy!"

"-but my son wants to know more than I can teach him. We called you up to ask if you'd be willing to tutor him instead."

"Step forward, great grandson." Rob obeys, meeting his great grandfather eyeball to crackly mistball. "Hm. We might yet make something of you. What's your name, boy?"

"Robert Marrack, sir."

"What day is this?"

"The twelfth of Mar-."

"What day?"

"Saturday, sir."

"You attend school?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. I should be able to maintain myself for a further eight hours. We will begin at once. I will expect to see you here early each Saturday and I will expect you to practise between our sessions. In return, I will offer you everything I learned in a lifetime of arcane study and combat. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, sir."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th March 2011
11:46 GMT +2

Adom narrows his eyes very slightly as we watch the convoy of lorries drive along the Wadi El Natrun - El Alamein Road, carrying food to the besieged former capital of Kahndaq. "To think that it has come to this."

Adom's people now control the rest of the country, and something that might reasonably be described as a constitutional convention is happening in Shiruta. He had been holding back from capturing the territory to the north of Cairo in the hope that the government's leaders might be persuaded to flee by sea, then the government started violently raiding it for equipment and resources and he didn't have much choice but to occupy the area.

"To be honest Mighty One, I'm still surprised that it's gone as well as it has."

It's not entirely clear what sort of position he's going to end up occupying once all the shouting calms down. There's been talk of making him king -either as an active constitutional monarch or a figurehead-, president -same again- or something else entirely. They're certainly going to need him. Plenty of those taking part have their own constituency of supporters, but none of them have nationwide support. There just aren't any other widely known political figures in the opposition movement, and that's… That's going to be a problem.

"Have I not offered them honourable terms? Their.. worthless lives, their stolen fortunes? How did a man prepared to hold his own people hostage… To starve them… How did he ever become ruler?"

"By being a bit quicker and a bit more ruthless than his rivals during the post war era." I shrug, though he isn't watching me. "I doubt he was always this bad. He just.. can't accept losing."

The front of the convoy comes to a halt at the agreed upon distance and a government… Should they still be called that when they don't actually govern most of the country? Whatever, a loyalist jeep drives up to the lead truck, those inside trying not to be too obvious about gawping at Adom. And me, I suppose.

"My military advisors counsel an attack. Had he not accepted this I would most likely have been forced to agree with them."

Adom and I worked out the plans for how to go about it if that ever became necessary together. If it happened there's almost no way he could lose, barring something completely unexpected like a scry warded nuclear weapon. On the other hand, casualties amongst the hostages even under favourable assumptions were far too high for us to countenance it.

"I'm glad he did, then."

Loyalist soldiers climb out of a truck and start their inspection. I'm not really sure what they're looking for. Spies, perhaps? Or maybe they're just trying to convince themselves that they're still in charge of something. I try looking a little deeper. They're not wearing wards. Green and yellow, but everyone who was really likely to try and get out has almost certainly left by now. I've no idea what they're telling themselves.

"The Kahndaqi army doesn't use Commissars. I'm not sure why they don't just drive away. As far as I can tell none of them have done anything especially vile." In someone not used to it that sort of thing usually shows up as a confused knot of yellow and red as the attempts at self-justification try and fail to take hold. Seen that a few times during this war.

"They have been told that I am a Demon. A fiend in the shape of a man. They made a propaganda film featuring Theodore and Sabbac." I nod. "You told me that you had a message for me from the American government."

"Yes, Mighty One. Well… They're not going to jump the gun on recognising you as ruler. This isn't a direct message so much as a statement of opinion and a request for information."

Adom breaks off his study of the convoy for a moment to look at me. "I understand, but… Before you do that, there is something I wish to say."

"Yes, Mighty One?"

"During my first life, I was Crown Prince from the moment of my birth, then, later, Pharaoh. Each moment of my day I was surrounded by subordinates, servants, slaves, lesser nobles and priests. I was 'Prince' and later 'Mighty One'. Once I received the gods' blessings, 'Mighty One' became less of a mark of respect and more one of veneration. I found… It was appropriate, I was their sovereign. But when I was among my equals, Rama Khan, Queen Gamemnae, Prince Khufu, Tezumak… When we were in an informal setting, I found that I preferred it when they addressed me by name. I would like it if you would do the same."

Gosh. It seems a little silly, given how informal the people I know are most of the time. But for him, that's a big deal. "Thank you, Adom. Likewise, please feel free to use my name whenever you think it appropriate."

A nod and.. the very slightest of smiles. Then he returns his attention to the convoy, where the first and second trucks have been waved on and the soldiers are moving on to the third. "What thoughts does America wish you to express to me?"

"Their largest concern is your relationship with Israel. They've been more or less bribing President Muhunnad to be nice to them and they want to be sure… They're prepared to offer the same terms to you, but they definitely want to hear something positive sounding pretty soon."

"I have no grudge against the people of Israel. Nor do I intend to make war on their country at any point in the foreseeable future. But I do not like the idea of accepting bribes from a foreign government, and I am less than sanguine about the blockading of the Palestinians."

"You understand why they do it."

"Because they will not control their own fanatics but demand that their neighbours control theirs." He says nothing for a moment. "The smuggling of weapons will remain a crime, but I would wish to discuss the situation with the Israeli ambassador before making further judgement."

"I'll pass that on. Their other concern was oil."

He nods. "I have learned enough about the modern world to guess that the United States would be concerned about oil."

Beautiful deadpan understatement, there. "What exactly do you plan to do with Kahndaq's industry? They are somewhat concerned that you might nationalise the whole thing. That's happened before, and you'd be a bit harder to remove than Prime Minister Mossadegh was."

"I do not think that radical changes in my country's economic model are in anyone's interest. Certainly not in the short term. Please tell them that I have no plans to nationalise either oil extraction or refinement, though I will make no promises regarding oversight or taxation. It is not entirely clear that I will have the power to do so anyway."

"Do you intend to attempt to become a member of OPEC?"

"It does seem wise to establish friendly relations with countries with whom we share common interests. But foreign policy initiatives of that sort will have to wait until my country has stabilised." The third lorry accelerates away from the checkpoint and into Cairo. "Now I have a question for you."

"Of course."

"Queen Beena has offered to arrange peace talks between myself and those who remain loyal to Asim Muhunnad." Ah. Interesting. "She had maintained diplomatic relations with him for her entire reign and had previously offered him sanctuary in the event that he accepted my offer to let him leave. I would say that she is his only remaining political ally. I would like to think that she may be able to persuade him where I have failed. Still, I am aware of her past behaviour and I cannot entirely escape the feeling that this is some manner of trap. I also cannot see what she hopes to gain."

"I'm not sure how it could be a trap, Adom. Even if she hosted, that's only half an hour flight time for you. Less if I'm around and I just transition you back."

"That is true. I was concerned that perhaps my enemy might attempt to use it as a distraction in order to commit some great atrocity, not to win but simply to enrage me to the point where I would do something… Impolitic." Rip people apart in public. "I would have to attend in person and I see no realistic prospect of Asim Muhannad doing likewise."

"I don't know why she's offering, but… You know as well as I do how many people will die if we end up having to force this. If we take precautions to moderate the risk, I think it's worth going for."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
11:22 GMT -4:30

I wince as Kon looks at me. "What'd he say?"

I generate a gag round the would-be armed robber's mouth. Kon speaks fluent Spanish-Spanish, but that diatribe had several words from native languages and slang that hasn't made it into Cadmus' database as yet. "I have no desire to repeat it."

Kon nods in understanding, then gets out his mobile phone as he walks a little way away from the building, elbowing the mouthy man in the back hard enough to send him staggering into the wall. "Police? Superboy. Yeah, we've found them. Petare Barrio, near-." He pauses, looking back at me. "Yeah, we can do that. Do you want us to tape the area off?" He pauses for a moment, then moves the phone away from his mouth and looks at me. "Why is he laughing?"

I look away, towards the crowd gathering on the periphery of our working area. Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but I'm sure I've heard the word 'cake' at least twice. "Do you really think anyone would take the slightest bit of notice?"

"I guess…" He returns the phone to his ear. "Okay, we'll be there in a few minutes."

I turn to the investigative reporter who tried taking pictures of the wrong group of drug pedlars. "Ma'am? We can drop you off if you like."

Fabiana Holguin looks up from checking her camera. The gang might have grabbed her for taking pictures of them, but they recognised an expensive camera when they saw one and didn't just smash it. Looks like it's in full working order. "Thank you. I would appreciate that."

I nod and attach an orange filament to her before rising into the Caracan sky. The gang members get to dangle off the construct-ropes binding them while I grant Ms Holguin the courtesy of a more normal flight profile alongside me. Kon hangs around for a moment before following us into the air and taking the lead.

"How come two American superheroes-" I shudder. "-are in Caracas, anyway?"

"Do I sound like an American?"

"Ah. Maybe? Are you not American?"

"I'm English."

"I've only ever seen you in America."

"I was in England last week! There was this.. fear elemental thing in Cornwall."

"Where?"

"J-? Do I call you Mexican?"

"Okay, sorry." She brings her camera up and starts taking pictures. "So why are you here?"

"Training. Normally, we'd just get sent out on our own recognisance, but Superboy and I live somewhere with a very low crime rate." The entire Justice League meeting semi-regularly in a place can have that effect. There's actually a small plaque in Happy Harbour dedicated to 'the most unlucky burglar in America' after a petty thief somehow managed to run straight into nearly the entire League line up. "That's true for several of our fellow trainees, so we got our choice of cities to go to."

"And you picked Caracas?"

I nod. "Highest crime rate of any city in the world."

"Are you a masochist, then?"

"Once you've fought a couple of eldritch abominations, men with guns just aren't that scary. I mean, I was a little surprised that the government were okay with the League sending us here-" The President here isn't Hugo Chavez, but he isn't much more US friendly. "-but the police seem to appreciate it."

Kaldur and Garth are in Cape Town, while Tula and M'gann got Acapulco. When we visited it before we pretty much stayed on the beach. I imagine that seeing the rest will be an eye-opener. I asked to be paired with Kon, on the grounds that with everything that's been going on we haven't been spending as much time together as we used to. He's been busy with school stuff, Amazon stuff and M'gann while I've been busy with Zatanna. I mean, we live together, it's not as if we haven't spent time around each other, but he was right; it hasn't been the same.

"Wait, Superboy? As in Superman?"

I cup my right hand against my mouth. "Kon!"

He glances back then looks away for a moment before dropping back. "What do you want to know?"

"Are you..? Superman's son? You do.. look a little like him… And you're wearing an 'S'."

Kon sighs. He's in his Nth metal armour, which is sufficiently un-Supermany that people who just get a quick look usually don't notice the 'S' on the breastplate. "I'm a partial clone of Superman. I'm not his son, he didn't even know I'd been created until last July."

"Someone cloned Superman?"

"Yes. A company called 'Cadmus'."

"I thought cloning people was illegal in America."

"No, only cloning Humans." Kon looks away again. "The guy in charge is in prison and everyone else said they were being mind controlled."

I look down at the city as we fly over-. I extend an orange grabbing arm and hoik another drug pedlar off the ground, using a filament to pick up his stash as he tries to throw it away. He gets added to the prisoner group.

"Could we do an interview later? This sounds like something I could get an award for."

"Sure, but, ah… The story already broke in the US. It's not exactly news any more."

After the attack on the LexCorp headquarters various reporters have been asking the League who the chap in plate armour was and eventually Diana, Kon and Catherine Cobert decided between them that it would be better to explain the situation rather than allow the speculation frenzy to continue. Fortunately, I knew someone who would be happy to write a piece and -frankly- wasn't inclined to interview in an aggressive way that would wind Kon up. The public desire to know resulted in Dana Dearden's interview actually getting published, along with follow up pieces about the rest of us. Nationwide, as I understand it. I understand that Superman's been fielding some slightly uncomfortable questions but Kon was clear that he's happy with the situation.

Oh, for goodness sake. How blatant are drug dealers around here?

"It was news to me, so it will probably be news to my paper's readers as well."

"Ah. If we get time, sure."

"How long are you and…" She glances at me.

"Orange Lantern."

"Orange Lantern going to be here for?"

"Probably all day. You know, as long as nothing happens that means we need to be someplace else." He thinks for a moment. "Given the crime rate, we probably won't. Hey, Paul? Would it be alright if she came with us?"

"Um. I suppose. If she wants to?" I turn to her. "There aren't any significant supervillains active in Caracas at the moment, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep you safe."

"I've been kidnapped and kept in a cage under armed guard for two days. Compared to that, following a superhero around sounds pretty safe."

"Okay then. We can pick you up after you've given a witness statement about your kidnapping."

"Are you going to be coming back after today?"

"Depends. Maybe next weekend. After that… Probably not for a while."

"Okay then. I'll give a statement, phone my editor and then I will join you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
12:03 GMT -4:30

"If you keep this up, we're going to need a bigger gaol!"

The custody sergeant means it as a joke, but he has a point. Things are starting to get a little cramped. "We can start taking them to a different police station if you like."

"Doesn't the Justice League have some sort of prison?"

"No, they don't really get involved in that sort of thing."

He frowns as we head back out to where Kon and Miss Holguin are waiting and where the police in the office are trying to look like they're working rather than staring. "So where do they put the villains they arrest?"

"Depends on what they can do. Normal criminals get handed over to the local police like we're doing here."

"And the supervillains?"

"There's an assessment process… Most of them would be escorted to Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary. That's the United States' metahuman containment facility. It costs a lot to keep metahumans reliably imprisoned, so most places send their supervillains there."

He looks at me quizzically. "I thought Superman's enemies got sent somewhere called 'Stryker's Island'?"

"That's where Metropolis' prison is, and they had a metahuman detainment wing… Still have, actually. But they had to custom build the cells for each detainee, then they couldn't let them out for exercise or socialisation."

"And?" I raise my eyebrows. "Hey, I'm not saying the guards should beat them or anything, but if they're dangerous enough to need Superman to deal with them…"

"It was also a pretty expensive way of doing things and not all that reliable. And… There isn't much point putting them in prison if you're not at least going to make an effort to rehabilitate them. Belle Reve's actually got quite a good education program."

Kadabra's classes have expanded a bit. Even people who probably don't have any interest in going straight have started attending, if only because the alternative is a few more hours in their cells. Abra himself seems to like having an audience, and his experience with showmanship means that he knows how to deal with hecklers. I also think he rather enjoys the fact that whatever prison rules say they don't actually have any way to prevent inmates using magic.

They have a set of my manacles but at the moment those are only approved for the transfer of dangerous prisoners. They're still seeking funding to add a magic user detention wing of the prison. Senator Knight's been campaigning on the issue. Apparently he's the bookies' favourite to win the Republican Party nomination next year. Other than being vaguely aware of the fact I haven't really spent much time learning what's going on in American politics. I can't vote, and whoever wins they're still going to need supervillains stopped. Heck, I might not even spend significant time on Earth during his term, assuming that he wins.

The sergeant comes to a stop as we near Kon and Miss Holguin. "I will start getting the paperwork together so they can be formally charged. Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome."

He turns and walks away as I draw nearer my team mate.

"…have you been doing this, then?"

"My first fight with a supervillain was in July last year."

"And you're how old?"

Kon hesitates. "That… Kinda depends on when you count from."

Miss Holguin smiles. "Why? Were you created in a tank or something?"

"Yes."

The smile crystallises then fractures. "Ohhhh."

"If you count from when I got out of the pod, then I'm seven months old. But I finished growing last March, so if you count from then I'm nearly a year old."

Bit of a dispute between M'gann and I on that point. She thinks he should be celebrating his birthday in just over a week on the 21st. I say that he wasn't 'born' until he left the tank and started interacting with the world. Kon himself doesn't appear to be sure why it matters. It's not as if any law relating to a person's age can be meaningfully applied to him anyway. And while I was planning to leave Earth almost as soon as my year was up, it's not as if hanging around for a few days is going to matter.

Looks like Miss Holguin doesn't really know how to respond.

"Ready to head out?"

Kon looks around and nods. "Did they say where they want us next?"

"No."

"So how do you decide-"

"Which means it's your turn to pick."

"-where you're going to go?"

"We know where the high crime areas are. It's basically the barrios and around the airport, but the barrios have all kinds of crime and the airport it's mostly just thefts. But on the other hand, we can probably make all the airport thieves take a day off just by showing up once or twice, and you saw how the drug dealers barely slowed down when we flew over."

"So..?"

"Let's hit the airport first. It's nearly time for lunch and they've got better restaurants than Palo Verde."

"Rightyho. Lead the way."

Kon leads the way out of the police station. There's only been enough time for a small crowd to gather outside, but we get more than a few pictures taken as we take off and head out across the city. Right, start scanning for motorcyclists. Hundreds of orange crosshairs appear before my eyes. I imagine that it's a bit more than 1% around here.

"Can you really see what's going on down there?"

"Kryptonians have really good distance vision. If I focus, I can read the story in the newspaper that guy's-" He points downwards. "-reading."

Miss Holguin squints at where he's pointing. "What.. guy?"

"He's in a café just off that road. I don't think you can see him."

"Can you see through solid objects?"

"Kinda. I can see into the infrared part of the spectrum, so if there's a hot object I'll know about it."

"What about x-ray vision?"

"No, my range doesn't go that far. I think Superman's does, though."

She turns to me. "How about you?"

"My vision's good, but Human-good, not superhuman-good. I have to use the ring to scan for things."

Kon accelerates slightly as we approach the airport. "Are you picking up anything happening right now?"

Ring? "No obvious thefts in progress, though there are a few suspicious characters we could lurk over until they get the message."

"Okay, let's go-."

"Priority alert! Boom tube detected!"

Are the Bialyans getting another delivery? I stop in the air and hold out my left hand, palm upwards. "Ring, where is it?"

"Location: Paris."

Oh heck.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
12:09 GMT -4:30

"What's a boom-" I'm bringing my left hand to my ear even as I begin lowering her at speed to the street below us "-tuuuube!?"

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower."

"Icon here. I assume that you have also detected the boom tube."

"Yep." Kon stops as well and floats up in front of me. "Superboy and I can be there in about five seconds."

"Members of your team are not supposed-."

"Which is less time than it'll take anyone else to run to a zeta tube and then get to-" Ring?

"Place du Carrousel."

"-Place du Carrousel. Including Paris' superheroes, insane fencing man and bad headdress woman."

"I will notify Batman of your involvement."

Ring, zeta tube.

A glowing orange circle appears in the air before us. Compliance.

"Remain in constant contact and do not hesitate to say so if you require additional support."

"Right." I lower my hand. "Kon, ready?"

He nods, and inside him I can see the excitement and desire to pit himself against a physical equal in combat. "Yeah."

"The Paris tube-."

"I know." He darts forwards.

"Recognised, Superboy, zero four."

I fly forwards myself.

13th March 2011
17:41 GMT +1

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, zero six." Kon's already headed off all full speed. I generate construct armour around myself and transition to Place du Carrousel. The scenery flickers and I'm floating next to him above a grass-covered roundabout with some sort of water feature in the middle of it.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

The Louvre Palace surrounds the area on three sides-

"It just..! Its teeth..!"

-with what looks like a park to the west-north-west. Beneath us people are streaming away from the Louvre itself-. Oh dear. A chunk of the glass pyramid immediately above the entrance appears to have been smashed. Too big or just acting out? Boom tube hasn't stayed open, so-.

"Priority alert! Boom tube detected!"

Where-?! The crosshair appears over my field of view, drawing my eyes to the roof of the Palace. For a moment I see a landscape of barren rock illuminated by a reddish light, then a figure steps lightly forth onto the roof. He looks Human, though his clothing marks him out as not being from around here. He's wearing a lilac tunic with what appears to be a representation of an eclipse embroidered on the front and a yellow belt around the waist, lilac leggings and a yellow cap with a feather sticking out. He's also wearing yellow gloves, boots and a cream coloured cape. His hair is short and black and a neatly trimmed goatee sits upon his chin. In his left hand he carries a short-barrelled pistol and in his right a sort of sword-like object. It appears to be missing most of the blade.

He quickly looks around the plaza, taking in the people streaming away from the gallery. Then his eyes flick up to Kon and I think I see him smile slightly. Then he shimmers and disappears, the boom tube shutting down behind him.

That was Kanto. Mister Free said that they'd never met and Barda didn't know much about him, though she was able to confirm what I remembered from the comics. Got above himself as a boy, was sent to Renaissance Italy -she hadn't known that he'd been sent to Earth, but she knew that he'd been banished somewhere primitive- before his predecessor tracked him down and killed his wife. He returned to Apokolips, they duelled and Kanto 13 died to his poison.

At least it's probably not an invasion. "Ring, scan for him."

"Unable to locate."

Wonderful. Hardly unexpected, though. "Kon, can you still see him?"

"No, but I can see the guy in the museum. He's riding a giant dog. And he's got a hostage."

"Orange Lantern to Icon. We're at the Louvre. Two Apokoliptians on site: Kanto and what sounds like a Dog Soldier. No idea why they're here. Suggest you try getting hold of Mister Miracle. Superboy and I are moving to engage."

"Understood."

I could just transition us both in there, but… I get an image in my head of what would happen if Kanto's using one of the many man portable FTL disruption devices that were described in detail on John's ring's database. It's the sort of thing I'd have if I were him.

I do a quick scan of the crowd to make sure there aren't any injured, then nod to Kon. "After you."

He switches to the swimmer pose as he arcs towards the Louvre entrance, fists first. Could a Dog Soldier take getting hit by him at anything like full force? Maintaining my upright pose I follow on behind him. Probably not, but I trust Kon not to do anything too extreme. I'm more worried about what Kanto's doing. Is he hunting the Dog Soldier? Perhaps, but -other than possibly sport- why would he? Dog Soldiers are pretty much mindlessly obedient.

We swoop over the escalator and the panicking people on it who are running upwards to escape. In the distance I can hear what I presume to be a French police siren. Huge dirty paw prints lead into the Richelieu Wing. Again, can't see anyone hurt. Apokoliptians aren't exactly known for avoiding civilian casualties; either he's here for something or just doesn't feel like killing at the moment. Kon pauses for a moment to look at me, then heads left after whoever it is we're chasing. Ring, scan for weaponry.

No concealed weapons found. Target is wearing armour which resists scan. Target is carrying a sword which resists scan. Canine of unusual size is armed with teeth, claws and a bad attitude.

Right. And the hostage?

I get an image of a woman strapped to the side of the huge Dog. She's dressed in nondescript rags and doesn't appear to be conscious.

Hostage is-. Error. Error. Error.

Stop. I do not like the sound of that. Some sort of Typhoid Mary?

I follow Kon as we head down another level and then take a left turn.

"…technical skill, I find myself somewhat disappointed. If he is a slave, where are the marks of his servitude? Where are his wounds? The signs on his flesh showing the hardships he has endured?"

People have already fled this section, so I get my first clear view of the man in grey and gold armour sitting astride. His steed is similarly arrayed, the decoration on its armour giving it a slightly reptilian look and reminding me of the Sphere. Is it cybernetic? Or is that just what New God technology looks like?

"But this! You see, Dreamer? This other is better. See how he conceals his struggle against his bonds? See how he stares down his oppressor, not deigning to visibly acknowledge his own reduced status? Such exquisite defiance." He twists in his seat as Kon approaches, interposing a shield. Kon strikes it with both fists, then stops dead in the air, all momentum arrested. The Dog turns, allowing the Soldier to slash at Kon with his sword and forcing Kon to pull back. "But perhaps I may find beauty in physicality as well."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
17:44 GMT +1

Kon edges back and floats around in order to get on his far side. The Soldier dips his shield slightly as he takes us both in.

"Alright, Apokoliptian, who are you and what do you w-?"

His shield-arm comes up and gun! I tran-.

Kanto!

I dod-.

Art gallery!

I create a shield construct, the energy from his pistol burning into it but failing to break it. Kon flies in once more only for the Dog to rear and lunge, clamping its teeth around his forearms and twisting its head to hurl him at-! Shit, no! A crash barrier construct catches Kon before he can demolish the Soldier of Marathon Announcing the Victory, a statue with which I have particular sympathy.

"Whom do I have the pleasure of fighting?"

I form a railgun construct and load a solid slug. "You first."

"My name is Canis Minor, Human. I have come for your art."

I hold up my right hand and Kon nods. "Orange Lantern two eight one four. If you like it so much, why are you trying to get it demolished?"

"It builds character. In its destruction it can relay the pure savagery of our actions just as well as it can the emotional intent of the original sculptor. With gun and with sword we may reinvent it." He looks around. "To who does this belong? What member of Earth's ruling council has sent his warriors after me?"

I send filaments out across the room, upping my glow slightly to disguise them. "Ruling council?"

"Yes, the Justice League. Your lords and masters." Kon and I exchange a puzzled look, which he spots. "Do not take me for a fool. I've studied Earth symbology. You-" He gestures at Kon with his sword. "-wear the emblem of the Superman." He switches his attention to me as a filament on the far side of him rises up and cuts through the straps binding his hostage with an x-ionised knife. "Your emblem I do not recognise, but I do recognise your rings. I have seen similar rings in Darkseid's trophy halls." Nice to have confirmation about First Lantern Qarrigat's attack. "Is the second a battle trophy?" Bonds severed, I maintain the pressure of her presence against the Dog's side with a construct, attach a filament to her and pull her away. "Or simply a sign of your mastery?"

"Little from column A, little from column B." The Dog shifts slightly and lets out a low growl. It can't see her from where its head is, the construct is silent, it can't have felt the weight shift…

Scent. The environmental shield around her is blocking her smell. I yank her violently away as the Dog turns to snap at her retreating form. Another filament deposits an x-ionised sword out of subspace just in front of Kon as my railgun fires, nailing Canis in the chest and knocking him off his mount.

He doesn't even grunt as he rolls to his feet.

Kon flies along the length of the room before darting at Canis, sword at the ready. Canis goes to block with his shield again but Kon's ready for it. He strikes the shield as before, then shifts his fist to grab the outer edge of it and pulls, causing Canis to stagger forwards and giving Kon an opening which he uses to punch his foe in the side of his helmet.

The Dog barely reacts to its master vanishing. Instead, it fixes me with a stare and growls, huge teeth bared, saliva dripping onto the gallery floor. How mundane is its physiology? Don't know. On the other hand, empathic vision tells me that it isn't sentient. I jam the filaments I have spread across the floor into its body and apply electric current. The ones which try to attach to the armoured portions of its body can't get hold of it but all of them zap it.

"Reww!" It shudders for a moment, then -"Rerrrrrrrrrr."- charges me, tearing free of the bonds. Okay, super strong and super tough. But still a Dog. I dart sideways faster than it can turn and stick manacle constructs around its hind legs, yanking them back while they're off the ground. The Dog trips, slams shoulder first into the ground and slides towards Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. The hostage safe-. Wait, would Kanto have been after her? Damn it, can't let her out of my sight either. I bring her back from the reception area and deposit her just outside this wing. The Dog I lift into the air by all four ankles, just managing to avoid smashing into Cupid's outstretched wing. Right, it's probably still basically a normal creature. I jam a gas mask over its muzzle and start forcing xenon into its lungs. Heavier than air but otherwise inert, that should render it unconscious without risking further harm.

It bucks fiercely against the restraints, but they're flexible enough to stand it. Yes, good, use up all your oxygen. I glance in Kon's direction and see that he's actually fighting a sword-duel. Canis' technique is better but -as they cross guards and Kon holds him off one-handed while punching him in the gut- it looks like Kon's stronger. Whatever armour Canis is wearing must be highly effective. Still, I've got a direct line to Kon's earpiece and a railgun with crumbler rounds that will chew through whatever force field it's projecting. I can just tell Kon to pull back-.

A bolt of brilliant golden-orange energy hits the Dog in the chest, causing it to spasm and yelp! I drop it on a clear area of the floor. Where did that-?!

"Brut!" Canis appears to suddenly slide to the side, slashing at Kon's armoured flank. Kon gasps as Canis' sword makes contact but I'm busy trying to spot where the shot-. There! An orange destructive pulse blasts from the ring on my right hand and disintegrates… Some sort of drone weapon? What's left is mostly black with the typical Apokoliptian tron lines picked out in grey. Okay, scan-. The remains disintegrate as I watch. Didn't get anything useful.

I pull back towards where Kon is feeling his side to check whether or not he's bleeding while Canis checks on his Dog. As far as I know the only other thing active around here that might have access to Apokoliptian weaponry is Kanto. I don't remember what sort of weapons he preferred in the comics, though infantry-directed drone weapons are a fairly standard science fiction thing that I suppose it makes sense Apokoliptians would have access to.

"Kon, you alright?"

"Think so."

"Is the armour alright?" He shoots me a look. "I don't want to have to replace it, do I?"

Canis holsters his pistol so that he can touch his Dog's face with his left gauntlet. I see red light roil within him, momentarily forming the picture of Kanto's face. The.. texture..? Of the light seems different to what I'm used to. Is that a New God thing? I haven't seen Mister or Missus Free since New Year and I didn't spend much time studying them then. A moment later, apparently satisfied that his Dog is still alive, Canis steps away from his unconscious body. "Face me assas-!" Another brilliant bolt hits him in the leg and causes him to collapse to the floor.

"I think not." "Appropriate location for it."

Canis draws his pistol again and shoots at a nearby wall, plaster and brick exploding from the point of impact! Need to stop that. "Kon, get him. Keep him from wrecking the place. I'll get Kanto."

"Right."

Kon flies in again with his sword at the ready as I open my empathic vision to the fullest extent. Come on, he's a New God, he's got to have some sort of-. There! The background is somewhat distracting, but he's got the same sort of weird depth as Canis. I can't see any drones, but then I didn't see the first one. Phasing and some form of stealth? Tricky, but nothing I can't replicate.

My full power armour manifests around me and filaments shoot outwards, running through the Louvre corridors and galleries. Once I'm confident that I've got the surround my Praexis Demon horde pulls itself free from them in a scene reminiscent of the way low level enemies appeared in the first Devil May Cry game, pulling themselves from the floor.

I picture the networks of energy that I see where Kanto stands clearly in my mind.

Praexis Demons, feed.

"Yay!"

Then I trigger my own phasing system and fly through the wall towards the Assassin God.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
17:48 GMT +1

How does Kanto fight? Hm. I slow slightly to watch the first Praexis Demons reach his location. I can't see exactly what he's doing, but the particulars of his desire-flares suggest-. Yes, the first Demon disintegrates without any detectable energy discharge. He stabbed it rather than shooting it. My construct-shield easily soaked Canis' shot and Kanto's gun looked about the same size. Kanto probably has access to better stuff, but that might well be as small as those whatever-they-ares can be made. Another two Praexis Demons reach his approximate location and swiftly vanish. A fourth barely has time to get into the room before disappearing. A shot of some sort? They should be able to consume just about any form of energy. Can they not detect Kanto by themselves in order to respond to his actions? Seems plausible.

There's a tiny flash of well controlled yellow as I pause in a corridor to replenish the Praexis Demon horde. None of them lasted long enough to gain useful information but they're all eager for another try. I re-engage phasing and accelerate. The courtyard which Kanto's in doesn't appear to contain anything absolutely irreplaceable. Okay, how much force am I willing to use here? He's a murderous minor god in the service of Darkseid, and I don't know exactly how tough that makes him. Or how resilient to what. Several walls flash by me, then both I and a tourist get an unpleasant surprise as I phase directly through him.

Up ahead, the Praexis work out that solo attacks aren't working and mass for a charge, only for Kanto to use some sort of explosive, okay, need to sort this out now! I accelerate even more, finally passing through the last wall between us and appearing in the air over his position. With construct armour active there's no point in invisibility. Praexis Demons stream past me as I raise my hands and use my revulsion at the idea of Earth ending up like Apokolips to fire an orange energy pulse at him. There's a little more yellow in the mix now as he dives to evade, sword -I presume- slicing through another couple of Demons.

The second energy pulse hits him in mid-air, striking him in roughly the centre of his mass. Empathic vision just shows me where he is, it doesn't let me see him. Much as I'd like to do a called shot to his sword arm that just isn't possible.

"Agg." "Why do I bother with invisibility?"

Whatever device he was using to prevent visible light revealing him fails as he hits the far wall, his costume fraying a little at the edges. Even as he lands he throws two knives directly at my face. I counter with two small railgun constructs, slivers of iron shooting them out of the air. I mean, those can't possibly have been normal knives, right? I let the Praexis horde move to surround him as he regains his feet and points his sword at me in a classical fencing pose.

"Surprisingly effective, for a mortal. But you meddle in affairs-."

"You're Kanto -formerly Iluthin- of Apokolips. You're Darkseid's court assassin. You grew up in Granny Goodness' orphanage and were briefly exiled to Earth after growing too confident -rightly confident- in your abilities for her tastes. You worked for Cesare Borgia and were briefly married to his sister before your predecessor -Kanto Thirteen- attacked and killed her in revenge for you showing him up. You then returned to Apokolips and duelled him, winning by poisoning the water he drank before the fight started. You have a beard now because Darkseid instructed you to grow one when he confirmed your position, because he was concerned that you looked too young for it." He can't see it under my faceplate, but I've raised my eyebrows. "How did I do?"

He tilts his head to the side. "Sur-prisingly well. But you don't know why I'm here now." "Interesting."

"Darkseid instructed you to kill Canis shortly after he was revealed to have killed his father, Canis Major. Not an art lover, I assume." I create a new railgun construct, loading… I don't know… Mageslayer? The advantage of a Mageslayer round being that in addition to the anti-magic effect it's still a supersonic lump of metal and stone. "Tell me why you're here and then go home, and I'll let you go unmolested."

"Let me think for a moment." His free hand dips to his belt and-. What? Space distorted around him, the wall behind him sort of twisting out of his way.

No matter. I wave the Praexis Demons forwards and reactivate my own phase generator before accelerating forwards. He's reached the surface but since I can't see anyone else I'm going to assume that the area has been evacuated. The wall and roof flash past me as I head after him. What's his plan here? Am I.. badly misunderstanding power levels here? One last layer to go. What could gragh?

Kanto smiles smugly at me as I try and work out why I've stopped moving. "A phase shifter? I suppose I should be surprised that you could get something like that on Earth." My body's stuck in the brickwork. Bits of me appear to have fused with it. That's.. not good. "But there are any number of counter strategies a man such as-."

The destructive bolt from my face hits him in the mouth, knocking him off his feet with a few fewer teeth than he started with. Right, my brain's fine. A flare of orange cuts a me-shaped piece out of the wall. I float forwards, trying to ignore the extremely uncomfortable feeling of large parts of my body not really interacting with the others. Wholeness Rightly Assumed oh that's better. Oh, and fix the phase shifter and.. probably the wall as well.

Compliance.

At least I can feel mildly happy that I didn't try using faster than light travel. And that whatever he just did didn't trigger while my brain was… Yeah, okay. Less happy.

Railgun, crumbler.

Kanto's just pushing himself up as my round strikes him in the centre of his sunburst.

"Ggah!" "Firepits!"

He staggers back as the decoration is obliterated, leaving the lilac under-armour showing. That layer is only mildly abraded. Interesting. Wonder how it does that? The Praexis Demons finally start to catch up with us as I grab his wrists with cons-. They dissipate. Fine, I take manacles out of subspace and clamp them around his wrists, pulling him up into the air. A silver burst of energy strikes me in the side of the head as another drone weapon makes an attack. It starts burning through my construct armour in earnest for a moment before my railgun turret tracks the point of origin and fires once. The beam cuts out.

Kanto runs his tongue around the inside of his mouth and spits out blood. Be analysing that later. He looks at me curiously. "Are you a god?"

"That's complicated." I take hold of his discarded sword and pistol with filaments. "Now, are you going to answer me or do I have to brand you first?"

He smiles reinforcing armour! There's a pulse of vibrations from his wrists as the metal clamps melt and drip off. Brand!

"Extreme resistance detected."

Okay, still not seeing on exactly how he plans on hurting me, but I trigger the Demons anyway. Like the obedient ambulatory mouths they are they swarm forwards as Kanto leaps back and throws another knife. This one isn't aimed at me, but at the closest Demon, which…

"Ahh!"

Appears to be sucked into it. Not good. I do not want an Apokoliptian in a position to analyse my constructs. Kanto raises his right hand and the dagger reverses its course to return to him, before being shot out of the air by a crumbler round. The dagger is reduced to nothing and I feel the Demon return to the ring. Okay, now-. Kanto doffs his hat, steps backwards and… Disappears. Can't see his emotional resonance any longer. I send a construct line forwards after him and it disappears where he did. Okay, invisible portal. I take a neural shock grenade out of subspace and fire it through, only for it to pass where I believed the aperture to be and clank down on the paving stone on the far side. Just to check I wave a ten foot steel pole across the plaza. No, that's it. He's gone.

What was that? Some sort of stealth boom tube? I raise my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern here. Kanto appears to have disengaged. I'm uninjured, minimal collateral damage. Any news?"

"Might need you to repair some ueh-. Some statues. This guy's not h-happy about his Dog."

"Barda has indicated that she will be joining you shortly."

I turn to return to Kon. Ah. Probably shouldn't risk phasing until Mister Free can check the area over. I plot a route and instruct the ring to fly me there as swiftly as possible. "I'm going to need about twenty seconds to get back to you, Kon. Are you going to be alright-?"

I hear a yelp in the background. "Turns out his eyes are vulnerable."

"Well spotted." My course takes me back through the main entrance and through the corridors. "I'll check the hostage. Let me know when Barda-." From the end of the corridor comes the flash of light which I remember from New Year signals her teleportation. "Never mind." I stop in front of the hostage. Still pretty out of it. I create a construct stretcher for her and load her onto it before returning to the sculpture room.

Canis' sword is embedded in… Oh dear. I pull it out as gently as possible and use my prior scans to restore the statue. Kon's got Canis pinned front first onto the ground with his arms around Canis' neck. His helmet has been lost at some point and for the first time I can see his face. Brown skin, medium length black hair and a look of exertion on his face as he struggles against Kon's hold.

Barda stares down at him, mega rod in hand. "You have lost. Yield or die."

Canis tries pulling once more then relaxes, exhaling in frustration. "Yes, Aunt Barda."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
17:01 GMT

Diana looks through the window into the Watchtower medical bay's secure observation room. "Who is she?"

Canis hesitates to respond, then twitches slightly as Barda tightens her hand around his shoulder. "Her name is Dreamer. She is of New Genesis."

Inside, Mister Free is unpacking some rather odd-looking equipment he brought with him. He's wearing his red, green and yellow costume but currently has the mask folded back out of the way. None of us are really qualified to deal with spiritual injuries or New God physiology, so he's our best bet. It was a stroke of luck that Barda's captured Mother Box started pingpingpinging as soon as it saw who was in need of assistance. Apparently it has decided to accept that its owners are now on the side of righteousness and appears to be trying to make up for all the time it spent silent by talking their ears off. The Sphere is inside as well, remaining still but constantly revving itself in what appears to be nervousness. Icon is busy explaining things to the French authorities while Kon and I are up here to give our reports in person.

"I understand that you are from Apokolips."

Canis' Dog -its name translates as 'Béton Brut'- is chained up in one of the secure cells as far as we could manage to put it from the quantum horse herd out in the gardens. They seem to have settled in nicely to their new home but I don't know how they'd respond to a large predator. Once he was quartered Canis didn't seem all that worried about him so I'm assuming that either he's not seriously injured or can regenerate.

"I am." "Truth and beauty in one. This pleases me."

Diana turns to face him. "Then how did she come to be in your possession?"

He curls the left side of his lip upwards. "Bernadeth guarded her inadequately."

Barda turns, grabbing the bottom of his cuirass and using that to lift him and hurl him against the far wall. He hits it with the back of his head before sliding down. With his helmet gone the impact seems to briefly stun him. "My mother had many children and I have many nephews. If you wish to have a place here you will start being helpful!"

He recovers slightly and goes to push himself up. Then he stops. "Have I your permission to rise, Captain?" "I will comply." Barda's eyes narrow for a moment, then she gives him a small nod. Not quite taking his eyes off her he rises to his feet. "Some time ago Desaad boasted of a great victory against New Genesis: capturing a group of their younger warriors alive. Lord Darkseid was greatly pleased with him, and bade him use all of his art upon them to attempt to break their will." He shrugs. "She was being transported to Granny Goodness' Orphanage when I learned of her location. Slaying her guards was no great feat, but her suffering to that point had rendered her somewhat incoherent. And Kanto was once more nipping at my heels in a disagreeable fashion. I needed to be away, and since I would not be welcome on New Genesis I thought that perhaps you and-" His eyes flick to the glass screen. "-Scott Free may be able to help her."

Barda peers at him. "You expect me to believe that you helped her out of the goodness of your heart?" "Thin ice, nephew."

I'm certainly not seeing any indigo. It's actually a little strange. Most people have at least a little within them. Even thugs are capable of comradely concern, even if they don't do much with it most of the time. He's genuinely got none.

Canis looks slightly puzzled. "No, of course not. I simply don't have the information that I want on New Genosian artwork. I had thought to interrogate her but as I said, she was not really capable of cogent discourse."

Barda blinks. "Art?" "That's even less credible."

"An unusual pursuit for one of Apokolips, I know. Father left much of my upbringing to a damaged Mother Box. I believe that she used the opportunity to expand my horizons." He shrugs again. "I find beauty in many things. Many places. Dreamer is.. not beautiful, not as she is, but she may become so. At the very least, I could satisfy my own curiosity as to what it is that her people regard as beautiful."

Diana takes a step forwards. "How many others are they holding?"

Canis' eyes dip for a moment. "I don't know. I only needed one as an information source. More than two, less than ten."

"What exactly are they doing to them?"

"I-."

"Desaad is a master torturer. He takes great pleasure in matching each form of suffering to those his victim dreads most. At the most basic level, he would use electrocution and pain stimulation, both to cause suffering and to demonstrate his victim's powerlessness. He might make use of cruder techniques… Knives, poisons, engineered diseases and memetic programming, but if his aim were to break them…" Barda walks over to the intercom built into the observation window. "Have a care, Scott. She has been-."

"Exposed to the Anti-Life." He nods. "I noticed."

"Pingpingping."

"Apparently it's only a secondary infection. I should be able to get rid of it, at least enough for her to function again." "Not sure what sort of state she'll be in."

"Orange Lantern." Diana turns to me. "How powerful was Kanto?"

"Not very, to be honest. I suspect that I could have killed him, though… He might have had access to technologies I didn't see him use. Nothing I saw him do couldn't have been replicated by an athletic and well equipped Human."

Kon looks at me. "I thought you said he trapped you in a wall."

"I knew phasing was disruptable. As far as I know-" I look at Barda for confirmation. "-that was a technological device, not an innate ability he gets from being the New God of Assassination."

She nods. "His godhood grants him an instinct on how to use it, but it would just have been a trap he deployed." Barda turns to Diana. "The most powerful members of the Justice League can fight New Gods as equals." She hesitates for a moment. "Most of them, anyway."

"Equals? Is that why you complain whenever I fly during our spars?"

I punch the air with my right fist. "Wooo! Fifth World rules!"

Barda ignores my juvenile outburst. "You do not have the resources to fight all the armies of Apokolips. And you do not have the strength to fight Darkseid."

Kon looks offended. "Says who?"

"Says the former leader of his bodyguard. I know what he is capable of better than anyone."

I nod. "His Omega Effect? Does it.. actually erase anything from existence, or is it just a powerful energy beam?"

"The Effect is an outward manifestation of his cruel and vile domination. A being with a strong soul may survive for a few seconds, but that is the most I have ever seen anyone last."

"Then, yes,-" I nod. "-we're a very long way from being able to fight Darkseid."

"What about that sword, the one with the two pronged blade?"

"Oh, that could certainly kill him. The trick would be getting close enough to use it without getting Omega Effected. The Omega Effect is fast and he can consciously redirect it. And if he doesn't feel like fighting you himself he can just have you swarmed under by Parademons."

"Maybe if the Flash used it?"

"If they could counter phasing, they could probably counter superspeed. And that's assuming that the Flash was willing to kill someone, which I'm not convinced about."

Diana nods. "The League will need to discuss what -if any- action we intend to take."

Barda grimaces. "If Kanto has come to Earth, there can be no doubt that Darkseid knows that Scott and I-."

Scott knocks on the window. "She's waking up."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
17:05 GMT

Diana enters the secure observation room while the rest of us look on through the one way glass. This could well get a bit awkward. Dreamer has almost certainly heard of Mister Free, but I doubt that she'd be able to recognise him by sight. She certainly won't know Diana. Would she recognise this as a Green Lantern Corps facility? Do they even have Green Lanterns in her neck of the woods? If she won't talk to us then we won't be able to either send her back to New Genesis or raid Apokolips to free her colleagues.

Diana takes position near the door while Mister Free removes the most disturbing-looking medical probes. The Sphere has quietened down while-

"Pingpingping."

-the Mother Box is getting even more excited.

"Mra box?" Dreamer's eyes open the tiniest of slits, her irises unfocused. Mister Free takes a step away from the bed, staying in her line of sight but trying not to crowd her. "Wha'?"

"Pingping! Pingping!"

The Sphere warbles joyfully along with the Mother Box as Mister Free smiles down at Dreamer. "How are you feeling?" "You're among friends here."

The moment she hears a voice her eyes snap open, her respiration rate increases and she pulls her legs in, moving to a crouch and watching the two other people in the room like a cornered rat.

"Hey." Mister Free holds up his hands in a placatory gesture. "No one's going to hurt you." I'm not sure whether she's just trembling or shaking her head. "Do you know who I am?"

"N. N. N-n-no."

"My name is Scott Free. When I'm at work, people call me Mister Miracle. But.. you wouldn't know me by that name. I was only given it after I left New Genesis."

"Why did you leave?"

"My father handed me over to Darkseid-" At the mention of the name she cringes, curling up and covering her head with her hands. "-in exchange for Orion." Freedom. Mister Free looks away for a moment. "That would have been about two hundred Earth years ago. Huh. When you put it like that it sounds like a really long time."

Dreamer keeps watching him, uncurling slightly.

"Ping!"

"You have a Mother Box? How-?" The Sphere revs and Dreamer's eyes flick towards it. "The.. New Genesphere…"

Mister Free raises his right eyebrow. "That's not very original. You couldn't call her the 'Ultrasphere' or the 'Trispherecle'?"

"Pingpingping!"

Dreamer slowly lowers her arms, then sits with her knees pulled up to her chest. "I'm really back on Earth."

Diana takes a step forward, immediately drawing Dreamer's attention. "Do you remember how you got here?"

"I-." Her eyes widen again and she starts shaking. "I think they were moving me, from… From-." Her jaw clamps shut.

"Okay." Mister Free holds out his right hand in a warding gesture. "That's fine. You don't have to think about it right now." Dreamer nods. "I grew up in Granny Goodness' Orphanage myself. I remember what it was like." He gives her a moment to settle down. "You said that you'd been to Earth before?"

She nods hesitantly. "Yes. We…" She shudders again. "We came to Earth seeking stolen New Genesis technology."

Diana nods. "When was that?"

"I.. don't know your dating system. Mother Box… Our Mother Box led us to a mountain on the coastline of this world's smaller landmass where she had detected the New Genesphere. But before we arrived she said that she detected some sort of elemental life form which she did not think that we would be able to defeat."

Huh. Smaller landmass being the Americas and the mountain presumably being Mount Justice. Which means that the Ophidian scared them off. Four and a half months ago, then.

"We then went after another New Genosian artefact, the Rescue Drill. It was being used by a group of thieves to break into a vault containing large amounts of gold." Think I remember reading the report. "They were armed with weapons from Apokolips, and were able to fend us off until we summoned Infinity Man."

Infinity Man? Isn't that what Darkseid's brother started calling himself after his attempt to merge with the Omega Force resulted in Desaad and his brother backstabbing him? That makes Dreamer one of those children who swap places with him. I don't really remember much else about him… Wait, wasn't it him who ended up killing all the other New Gods off when the Source went mental?

"Infinity Man. I don't know who that is."

"Infinity Man is a titanic machine that draws power from the Source, making it unstop-." Another wave of shudders. A machine? That's not how it was in the comics. Does that mean no Drax? Or did he build it on that planet he ended up on? "It was.. a powerful force for good."

"What happened to it?"

"After we recovered the stolen technology, we pursued the thieves to a aircraft launch centre. We were ambushed by more Humans armed with Apokoliptian weapons. We fought them, and when they threatened to overwhelm us we once again summoned Infinity Man." She stops, clearly reliving the moment.

Next to me, Canis frowns. "They could not even overcome a small group of Humans without calling upon this 'Infinity Man'?"

Barda glowers at him. "She's little more than a child, Canis."

"And? I led an army to victory when I was her age, and against a far more capable foe."

Mister Free nods sympathetically. "What happened next?"

"Desaad himself was disguised amongst the Humans. He provided them with a Father Box, which they threw at us as we merged to create Infinity Man. It corrupted our connection to the Source with Anti-Life, changing Infinity Man from a warrior for good into an Engine of Destruction loyal to Darkseid." She pauses again. "I am not sure what happened next. When I.. came around, we were bound and being presented to-." Another series of shudders.

Mister Free nods. "Darkseid." "Tyranny." "Who else was taken with you?"

"My friends. Vykin, Bear, Moonrider and Serifan." She looks up at him imploringly. "Please, they are still on Apokolips! You must help them!"

"Pingpingping!"

Mister Free nods. "Mother Box is right. Attacking Apokolips without a lot more information would be very risky."

Dreamer nods. "With your Mother Box, I could open a boom tube to Supertown on New Genesis. I am sure that Highfather-" Mister Free looks away for a moment. "-would offer his aid."

Diana steps forward again, laying her right hand on Dreamer's left shoulder. "We will take that under advisement. For now, try to get some rest."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
17:09 GMT

"Who-? Who are you?"

"My name is Princess Diana of Themyscira."

"Are you from New Genesis as well?"

Diana smiles and shakes her head. "No. I am from Earth."

Dreamer doesn't look entirely convinced. "But.. you feel as if you are from New Genesis." She looks at Mister Free for confirmation.

He shakes his head. "Aside from Himon, you're the first person from New Genesis I've ever met."

"I don't know exactly what you mean by 'feeling' like I'm from New Genesis-."

"Ping pingping!"

Diana pauses for a moment. I.. suppose that noise meant something to her? "Ah. In that case, perhaps the fact that I was given life by one of this world's elder gods is causing you confusion."

Next to me, Canis turns away from the window and prods me in the chest. "You, Human. This world has Old Gods?"

"I don't know what that term means for New Gods, but we do have quite a lot of sentient arcane life forms, many of which can take on corporeal forms."

He frowns. "But… This is the seat of the Justice League's power. Why are they not here?"

"Because they're not members?"

He looks at me in absolute disbelief. "They're not.. members…" "How.. powerful is the League?!"

Missus Free glances at him with a very slight look of amusement on her lips. Um. "Ah. I can introduce you to the Ophidian later, if you like. She's not exactly a god, but-."

The door to the secure medical bay opens and Diana leads the way out. "-happy to assign you quarters, either here-" Dreamer follows close behind her. "-or on Earth. I am certain-."

Dreamer sees Missus Free, and I get a brief yellow light review of Missus Free's career as a Female Fury before she was persuaded to leave Apokolips by Mister Free. Dreamer steps back, and her field of vision expands to see Canis and myself. "NO!" Her eyes go wide with fear and she starts trying to back away, nearly tripping over her own feet and more or less collapsing into Mister Free. "Apokolips! They're-!"

"Dreamer, it's okay." "Barda, could you lose the-?" Barda presses a button on her belt, her armour disappearing and… Ah. It seems that she didn't have time to dress before the call came in. "Barda doesn't work for Darkseid any more. Orange Lantern never did and Canis is the one who rescued you."

Dreamer nods and attempts to steady her breathing, clinging a little less tightly to Mister Free. After a moment she is in control of herself well enough to nod. "Is..?" She looks at Canis. "Are you part of Himon's resistance?"

Mister Free looks a little uncertain for a moment. "Ah, well-."

Canis shakes his head. "No, I am a loyal servant of mighty Darkseid!"

Mister Free shakes his head. "He doesn't mean that." "Canis, shut up."

"Certainly I do!" "I despise such deception." "I was personally trained by his uncle. I fought at the head of his army. And he has shown his favour by sending numerous assassins after me, to ensure that my skills are always at their sharpest."

Eh?

"Aero Troopers, Parademons, my own Aunts! Shortly before I liberated you I learned that he had even dispatched Kanto to slay me!"

He's smiling. Er. Is that..? It could be an Apokoliptian thing, but I was rather under the impression that Darkseid tried to kill things when he wanted them dead. I remember that the Parademon in the Secret Six felt better about things once he'd been tortured for a while. Would Darkseid send killers after someone as a show of affection? I glance at Barda. Ah. No, no he wouldn't.

Canis nods to himself. "I am truly blessed."

…

At least Dreamer doesn't look scared any more.

Kon looks at Diana. "What happens next?"

"Now, Mister Miracle attempts to contact his father and I contact Batman. If the League decides to get involved it's something we need to decide as a group."

"It's not like we'd be initiating hostilities. Apokolips has already involved itself with Earth, sending weapons to Bialya and apparently-."

She regards me levelly. "Yes Orange Lantern. I am aware of that."

Right, of course. "Sorry sir." I raise my eyebrows. "Where do you want Superboy and I?"

Diana pauses for a moment and takes in our group. "Mister Miracle." He's pulled his face mask on. "How long will you need to visit your father?"

"Opening the boom tube should only take a few seconds. Telling him about what happened… Fifteen minutes? I don't particularly want to have a long conversation with him."

Two hundred years ago the man handed him over to the God of Tyranny. It wouldn't be surprising if he held a bit of a grudge, but what I'm seeing is more like what Kon feels for Superman: it might have been nice but it didn't happen. He hasn't seen the man since he was an infant. Of course, Kon ended up with Diana while he got Granny Goodness.

Missus Free looks at her husband. "I'm going."

"Honey, I don't-" Her jaw hardens. "-see any reason why you shouldn't." He smiles winsomely.

Canis nods. "I myself would like to see the capital-."

Missus Free stares at him. "You can stay here where you can do less harm."

"But the whole reason I did this was to learn of the art of New Genesis. If I don't see anything then I've wasted my time with the wench."

"Orange Lantern, Superboy: escort Canis Minor to the guest quarters and give him access to a hologram projector and a database of Earth's art and history."

Canis looks truculent. "That is hardly-."

"As a temporary measure while we decide what we're going to do with him."

"If it helps, these rings have databases filled with the artistic knowledge of thousands of civilisations. I'm sure we can find something that you consider appealing."

He considers for a moment. "Very well. For now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
18:12 GMT
It's referencing this.
The Drones waddle through the terrified city like Skynet's own Tachikoma, their six legs conveying them across the ground with deceptive speed. The four turrets mounted on the conning tower like structure on their hull swivel constantly, checking for targets. The Human civilians don't warrant enough of a threat to be worth firing upon. No, their prey of choice is considerably more meaty.

Behind them, the Machine Harbinger deploys its heavy constructor array and uses a full half of its stored resources to begin constructing a Harvest Node. It only takes a few seconds for the bulbous, four-legged inverted egg-shape to begin appearing as the Harbinger's fabricator beam paints matter into thin air. Eight seconds later the Harvest Node waddles away towards the city under its own power and the Harbinger gets to work on the first Harvester while the traffic helicopter overhead relays the news to the huddled masses.

"If you're heading home, try to avoid Sixth and Mason. Nothing's moving and it doesn't look like anything's going to be moving any time soon."

Having passed the half way point on their journey through the city without encountering the enemy, the Drones spread out. One deploys, a shimmering force field humming into life as it diverts power from its motive systems. Another heads southwest, the third southeast and the fourth maintains its current heading. The Node slowly advances towards the deployed Drone while the first Harvester scurries after it. Moderately armoured but completely unarmed, the Harvester looks like a larger and fatter Drone. The obvious difference is that the front two legs have been replaced by grasping appendages, which enable it to pick up the fuel source the Machines need to continue their fight.

The city's Human inhabitants.

Twelve seconds into its job and the first Machine Factory is complete, waddling off to join the deployed Drone. Now in position, the Harvest Node deploys and patiently waits for the Harvester to catch up with it. The Harbinger pauses for a moment, as if uncertain what the next object in its build order should be. This doubt is swiftly resolved when the forward Drone encounters the first of the enemy: the Mirigites. A group of five of the bizarre, obese, red skinned humanoid frog people have gathered in a crescent moon formation just inside the far edge of the city. They hesitate for a moment on seeing the Drone, then bellow a war cry and charge at it.

The Machine Factory deploys in the city centre, its fabrication systems starting work on another Drone. The Harbinger likewise begins Drone construction as the adventurous Drone begins to retreat from the Mirigites, firing upon them as it goes. Two are seriously wounded as its gauss cannons punch through their bulbous flesh. They fall back as the others continue the pursuit.

The Harvester has reached the Harvest Node and orientates on a nearby office complex. It then scurries forwards, arms thrusting through the walls of the building to grab the poor unfortunates within and deliver them into its storage bays. The Machine Factory finishes its Drone a little faster than the Harbinger and the Drone moves up to deploy next to the one already standing guard. The Harbinger's Drone is completed a moment later and begins its walk to the forward base. Its initial resources expended, the Harbinger undeploys its heavy constructor array and edges closer to the city. Its weapons don't have the range to offer its offspring fire support as yet, and the large city buildings prevent it from pressing on.

The Drones assigned to flanking duty have reached the far edges of the city without encountering any enemy. The one to the south pulls back slightly and deploys, while the one to the north heads out of the city towards the enemy encampment, relaying everything it sees to the rest of its mechanical brethren. The towering Psuchawrlonian of the Ancient Ones is gestating a second Slime Temple while additional Mirigites are already pulling themselves forth from the first to form a screen around a Shaklatite, whose grasping tentacles are pulling apart a nearby block of flats to grab the juicy Humans within and tossing them into its gaping maw.

Noting that the active units are some distance away the Drone creeps towards the first Slime Temple and deploys, its guns scoring an easy kill in the shape of a clueless Mirigite that pulled itself from the transdimensional portal only to be drilled through the head by four ferrous slugs. It targets a second and opens fire, only for the ground beneath it to erupt in a frenzy of dark pink tentacles which latch on and pull down, shattering it into scrap.

The retreating Drone reaches the outer edge of the deployed Drone's weapon's range. It continues its approach for a short distance then deploys. Only two Mirigites have continued the advance this far and one takes the fire from all four gauss guns, swiftly being cut down. The last bellows in rage and charges, covering the distance faster than the turrets can acquire it. A huge alien fist slams into the force field protecting the Drone, which buckles and fails even as the Drones on overwatch open fire and cut the Mirigite down. Immediately the two Drones on overwatch duty undeploy and advance to level with the forward Drone before deploying again to form a solid defensive line.

Two more Harvesters have joined the first and together they attack a high rise office complex. There aren't quite enough of them to do this with maximum efficiency as the quickest and luckiest Humans stream past them, dodging their grabbing arms and heading for what they hope will be safety. Even so, it doesn't take long for the Harvesters to fill their containers and head back towards the Harvester Node.

"Protestors are occupying the city centre tonight. City police urge caution."

The additional resources prompt a new round of Drone building from the Factory while the Harbinger deploys and creates another Node. The first Node undeploys and advances under the protective guns of the deployed Drones. By the time that the Harvesters have finished with the next building the second node will be in position to receive them.

Kon looks up at me from across the room. "Are you just rushing me again?"

"Maybe."

He smiles slightly. "You know, the definition of insanity-."

"The definition of rationality is learning from your mistakes and doing it better the next time."

I look to my left as Canis lean forwards, frowning slightly as he tries to make sense of what's on the screen. "Is this.. some sort of training simulator?"

Right, they don't really have computer games on Apokolips, do they? "A strategy game, yes."

In this game, basic units more or less can't destroy the Harbinger or Psuchawrlonian. The aim of rushing them is to force them to spend their time defending themselves, rather than building up their base. I've used it a few times but it's pretty fragile.

"What are those little things they're picking up?"

"Humans. They're used for fuel."

"Yes, they are." "I have never seen them fed upon by machines, though. Perhaps it is a commentary on the cycle of industrial production?"

The second Factory trudges towards the southern Drone and sets down just behind it to start building further Drones while the Harbinger works on another Node to send its way. This isn't a technique that would work in something like Starcraft, where resource collection units are dependent on expensive and usually static base units. It would barely work in Tiberium Wars, where resource collection is slow and done by a far smaller quantity of units, even among high level players.

"There seems to be little variety-" I erect a sound baffle. "-in their force composition. Where are their gods? Who rules them?"

"This battlefield is not yet worthy of a god's attention."

What I'm trying to do is mine out the buildings in the path of the Ancient One advance, taking a slight hit on my early game construction speed in exchange for denying my opponent resources mid to late game. It's one of the things I like about this game, actually: the way you fight over the area with the resources in it, instead of there being a main, a natural and a 'don't build here'.

"When does that happen?"

"Depends how fast these units gather resources."

He makes an expression of distaste. "This is no war game. It is a farming simulator!"

"Strength has to be earned, Canis. If my lowly Harvesters won't make the effort, why should the gods appear?"

His head jerks around to look at me, looking at me as if I've said something astonishing. I return my attention to the game. Kon's a pretty good tactician, but his strategy is a bit predictable. Assuming that he's doing what he's done for the last three games his Goat Temple should go down in about… Two minutes? Until then a small line of deployed Drones should be enough to hold off a small attack. He could advance his whole force with his Shaklatite, but that second Slime Temple means that he won't have been able to afford a second one yet and he'd risk losing the game right away if I had the units on hand to kill it. I don't, but he's only scouting a little way rather than probing my lines and can't know that.

"Yes… They mimic the actions of their betters in homage. Even those too weak to strive are even granted the honour of serving as fuel for the greater work. And at the peak of their efforts, their labours climax in the appearance of something greater, not as a thing to be feared but as the culmination of their existence."

That said, I sort of need to get the ability to kill it nowish. My Harbinger immediately starts work on a Sentinel, while my Factories continue with a mixture of Drones and Harvesters. I'm queuing production, but fortunately that works like it did in Command and Conquer where you pay for a unit as it's built rather than when you queue it. Okay, finally got enough Harvesters near the largest building on Kon's half of the map to harvest it in a reasonably efficient manner. He doesn't have anyone in position to see what they're doing, so if he uses this as a target to aim his attack for, then-.

"It's beautiful."

Oh dear. One of my Harvesters is knocked clean from the building by a.. Byakhee. He's gone for fliers? That's novel. The drones below are firing upwards but they aren't a dedicated AA unit and yep, lost a second Harvester before it goes down. I think I still come out ahead slightly on resource expenditure there, but now he knows that I'm active there and can… Yes, here come the Mirigites.

"Cheerfully the beast-men run to their deaths! Stalwart, the simple machines stand! Kill, and in turn be killed!"

I pull a couple of Drones away from other positions to create a fallback corridor and use the newly complete Sentinel's rocket booster to get it up onto a building which should give it line of sight if there's another Byakhee around. The Mirigites are falling but the front line is getting closer… I manually retreat the Harvesters working on the ground in the hope that.. yes, they're on auto-attack and follow them right into my killzone. Okay, second Sentinel, Drone, Drone, Drone and… Scuttler, because if Kon's changed his build order I need to scout him again.

"I need to commemorate this." I jerk as I feel Canis' left hand on my right shoulder. "I shall return." He looks.. rather focused as he turns away and leaves the room at a fast walk. Wonder what's going on with him?

Never mind. Do I need to pull back my front line now? This whole set up is designed with the assumption that I'd do that… No. I haven't harvested enough Humans yet to make what I've done effective. Oh, what? The Mirigites attacking me suddenly get a red aura and lunge forwards at a far faster speed than normal. Four drones are torn apart and a couple of them start climbing the building after the remaining Harvesters. Crap, um… I do a manual trigger of the Sentinel rocket while rushing the second one forward to a more advantageous position. That clears up the attack on the ground, and… Yes, the remaining Drones can pick off the climbing Mirigites.

Another wave of Mirigites attacks my position to the South but the Drone line there looks like it should be able to hold without much oversight. The Scuttler oh, that's interesting…

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
18:38 GMT

Kon and I stare at the horrific sight before us. "Richard. Say it isn't so."

He sighs and looks away. "Yeah. It is."

He came to find us when Batman arrived for the League meeting.

With Talia al Ghul.

Who is now Batwoman.

I mean… Yes, she's obviously got the skills required to keep up with him. She no longer has the alternate pulls on her loyalties which might lead to her holding back in helping him in some way. I'd rather assumed that she spent her time managing the League of Shadows' surviving legitimate business interests. Turns out that I was completely wrong. Or that she manages to find time for this as well. The costume is clearly a female riff on the black and grey one Batman himself wears, sensibly armoured without weighing the user down and equipped with a variety of useful gadgets. The electrified baton is unique, presumably a replacement for the sword she now feels would be inappropriate.

Kon shifts his attention to Richard. "When's the wedding?"

"May."

"Really?"

Richard shrugs exhaustedly. "They've been seeing each other for a couple of years now. With Ra's out of the way… Why wait any longer?"

Batman… Getting married… I realise that's a thing people who aren't contractually obliged to be miserable do, it's just… A little weird.

"Are you okay with that?"

Richard shrugs. "I guess? I used to joke about him marrying a supervillainess, and now it's really happening. Oh, you're.. both invited, by the way."

"Thank you. But what's our cover story? I don't have a secret identity, and Kon's got no reason to know the son of Gotham billionaire Bruce Wayne."

He shakes his head. "Just don't wear anything orange. No one's going to look at you unless you draw attention to yourself." Something occurs to him. "Aren't you two supposed to be watching Canis?"

I hold out my left hand, generating an image of his current location. "Turns out that he's more interested in performance art than static images. When he got bored with the database we took him out to see the Horses. He's out in the gardens now with a lump of granite, trying to capture their likeness."

"I thought you couldn't scan for him?"

"No, I can scan for him, his armour just prevents me from scanning inside it."

"Who else is coming?"

Richard brings up his arm computer. "Well, it's a whole League thing, so-."

"No, I mean to the wedding."

"Oh. Ah, I invited the whole team, and some.. friends from school. Talia invited Nyssa and she's bringing Doctor Munro. She's also… She hasn't had a lot of contact with her mother's family lately, but she's sent out a few invites. Her Grandfather's already said he's coming and he's going to be giving her away. Bruce has invited anyone on the Justice League who could explain why they're there. The Hawks, Guy Gardner and Plastic Man had to turn it down-."

"How about Nabu?"

Richard shakes his head. "Zatara's one of Bruce's oldest friends. He'd have liked him to come, but Fate didn't want to take off the helmet."

As if I needed more motivation. Hm. Would Richard..? No. I'm not involving my team mates if I can possibly avoid it. And if Batman approved his appointment to the League-. No, I'm not going in circles with that again.

"So does Canis look like a god?"

"His armor had the same designs on it as the Sphere and those weapons the Bialyans had." Kon nods his head to the side. "I dunno. He was weaker than I am, but not by much."

"Didn't throw lightning at you or anything?"

"No.. just a.. strong guy with a sword."

"Come on, Richard. Throwing lightning isn't hard, anyone with a taser can do it."

"It's not quite the same thing, Oh El-."

"Hey." The three of us look around as Red… Um, Speedy, walks around the corner. "Wonder Woman said I could find you here."

Richard grins. "Hey Roy. How you been?"

"Okay, I.. guess." He half turns, looking in the direction of the room in which the League are meeting. "It's weird seeing a guy who looks just like me on the Justice League. Other than that, everything's pretty much back to how it was before." He turns back to us. "Can I ask you guys something?"

"Yeah." / "Certainly?" / "What is it?"

"Is this hat goofy?" He picks his yellow.. cap.. thing.. off his head and holds it out in front of him. It has a red feather in it. Actually, it looks quite a lot like the one Kanto was wearing.

"Yeah." / "Um…" / "Kinda."

The other two look at me. "Does it have any protective qualities?"

"No, it's.. just a hat."

"In that case, yes. Kon and I fought a guy from the twelfth century today, and he was wearing the same hat. And why is it yellow?"

"It was what they had at the store." He folds it up and slips it into his utility belt. "Ollie used to wear one as well. He switched to the hood while I was out of commission. I didn't really think about it before, but everyone on the team's wearing body armor these days-" He glances at Richard and Kon. "-even if they don't really need it. And after seeing how the other Roy dresses, I feel like I kinda went in the wrong direction with my costume."

"If you're considering a-"

Richard smirks. "Makeover."

"-redesign, I know a guy in Metropolis who does a line in personalised personal protective equipment. Assuming you're.. not interested in power armour."

"That's not.. really me. But, thanks." He nods. "I'll look him up."

I take a card with Mister Peter Gambi's details on it out of subspace and pass it to him. He takes it and slides it into his belt with the hat.

Kon nods at Roy. "Are you gunna be joining the team?"

He nods. "Ollie's going to talk to Batman about it today. Ah, I don't have super strength or anything…"

Richard smiles at him. "It'll be good to have you anyway."

"And if you want super strength-."

"Ah… No. Thanks." He glances at Talia. "Who's the Batman cosplayer?"

"Talia al Ghul. My soon-to-be stepmother." Roy looks at him to try and tell whether or not he's serious. "Oh, I'm not kidding. I don't think there's anything I could say to make this more weird than it already is."

"Batman's marrying-?"

"Speedy." Ah, she was listening. "Do you have some problem with my marital relations?"

He shrinks back slightly. "Noma'am."

She's totally Batwoman! She's got the voice and the glare off pat!

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
18:48 GMT

"Huh."

The four of us -and a couple of the Horses- watch Canis work on his statue. He isn't using a hammer as his strength is more than enough to cause the chisel to penetrate the dense stone. Similarly, he isn't bothering with any sort of smoothing or polishing tool; he just rubs his hand over the surface. It's a revelation for me; I'd always regarded super strength as the power hardest to put to a non-destructive use, and here's an Apokoliptian making a.. really quite beautiful sculpture.

One of the Horses nudges me in the back with its nose. I turn away from Canis' work and give it a stroke along its neck. The Horses appear to have taken to their new environment fairly well, and are quite friendly towards their landlords. They aren't actually that big by horse standards, little more than ponies really. Aside from the weird thing going on with their legs they could be normal Icelandic Horses. The herd tends to stay in one unit and it's quite lucky that the environmental control systems the Greenies put in can cope with the dung.

I take an apple out of subspace and hold it out. The Horse looks at the fruit for a moment before thrusting its head forwards and latching on with its teeth and lifting the fruit away. There's a crunch as the Horse bites the apple in half, one half being messily crunched up in its mouth while the other half falls to the floor. One of the other Horses makes a grab for the fallen piece while another tries nuzzling me to see if any more fruit will be forthcoming. I'm not really a horse person, but these guys are-. Okay, okay, back off a bit.

"Would Orange Lantern and Canis please report to the meeting room."

Diana's voice on the intercom. I instinctively look up towards the balcony as I lift the ring to my ear. "On my way, sir." I lower it again. "Canis, do you need a lift?"

He doesn't look around. "I will come when I am finished here. Darkseid is my master, not Wonder Woman."

I smile politely at the back of his head. "Would you like a lift, or would you prefer me to throw you up there with a construct-catapult?"

He sighs in frustration, but lays his chisel down on an untouched part of the stone. "I do not see the urgency. If the youths of New Genesis have broken then they have broken, and there is nothing further to lose. If they have not broken yet then it is unlikely that they will do so in an hour or two."

"We're going because we've been told to go." I generate a zeta tube construct. "After you."

"Recognized, Canis Minor, A four one, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Heads turn -or twist in Mister O'Brian's case- around to watch us. A nearly-full Justice League meeting with the addition of Missus and Mister Free. Or perhaps I should say Big Barda and Mister Miracle. Guy and Jordan are here as constructs being projected from John's ring. I try to avoid making eye contact with Nabu as Canis and I walk to the open end of the table to join them. I stand at ease while he begins studying the room.

"Sirs? What can we do for you? "

"The Justice League has decided to attempt to rescue Dreamer's companions."

Looks like Kal-El's chairing the meeting. I take another look at the assembled faces. I don't think everyone is totally on board with that decision. "Then I'm.. sure you've been briefed on the risks. If I may ask, how much help are New Genesis providing?"

Missus Free's face hardens and Mister Free turns his head my way. "You're looking at it." "I still can't believe he did that."

Ooooh dear. "May I ask 'why'?"

Mister Free shakes his head. "My father intends to stick to the letter of the treaty. I can use this Mother Box-"

"Pingping!"

"-to get there and to locate them, but that's about it."

"But… You being here at all and not on Apokolips means that the treaty is broken anyway."

Mister Free looks away with a grimace while Missus Free turns to me. "Highfather believes that if Darkseid is behaving as if it were in effect, then he should as well."

"Our current plan-" I return my attention to Kal-El. "-is to do reconnaissance on the places the children are being held, then strike them simultaneously with overwhelming force. We were hoping -since I'm told that you 'feel' Apokoliptian to the 'New Gods'- that you would be willing to participate."

I nod. "Certainly, sir. But may I ask why you plan to wait four months before-" Diana winces slightly. "-making the rescue attempt?"

Kal-El looks puzzled. "I'm.. not sure I-."

Batman looks down slightly. "Part of the oath he swore before being given the first Green Lantern's personal lantern was a promise not to leave this star system for one year. Which means that he can't go to Apokolips without violating it."

"That's correct, sir. I mean, I could stand on this side of a boom tube and send constructs through, but I don't think having an open connection between Earth and Apokolips is a particularly good idea and it would really cut down on my mobility."

Kal-El looks mildly abashed. No real reason for him to have read up on that particular part of my record, though I imagine that Diana's kicking herself at the moment. "Then.. I.. suppose we'll just have to manage without you. Though if you're not going to be involved in the attack-" He glances at Diana, who nods. "-we do have another use for you."

"I'm at your disposal, sir."

"The reconnaissance could take some time, and our chances of being detected are lower if we only open the boom tube once. As a result, everyone taking part will travel to Apokolips together and stay for the duration of the mission. Some of us will be staying behind, but nothing like enough to deal with a crisis occurring. We could be gone several days, and we'll need people to help out here in our absence."

"I'd be happy to help, sir."

Batman fixes me with his eyes. "We would also appreciate anything you know -or think you know- about Apokolips that hasn't made it onto the Justice League's database yet."

"I'm not sure I can tell you anything you can't get elsewhere, sir. The Green Lantern Corps-."

Guy leans back slightly in his chair. "Ain't goin' nowhere near it. Guardians banned us, just like you said."

John and Lantern Jordan look a little discomforted. "Ah. Um." I switch my attention to the Hawks. "Thanagar?"

Mister Hol shakes his head. "I hadn't heard of the place until I read the name in your report on your Bialya mission."

Missus Hol smiles faintly. "Thanagarians have been in space for a while, but we've barely visited a fraction of this galaxy's systems. We've certainly never been to Apokolips."

"Ah." Ophidian?

Yes, my Agent?

Have you eaten anyone from Apokolips?

Yes. They tasted like poop. I spat them out.

No help there, then. I turn to the Frees. "This may sound a little odd, but do you know anything about a 'Prince Drax'?" The Frees look blank. "The late Queen Heggra's eldest son?"

Missus Free shakes her head. "Darkseid has ruled Apokolips for far longer than I have been alive. If he once had a brother, then he has had him written out of history."

I nod. "Then I'm sorry, sir. I don't think I've got anything. Other than.. emphasising that while Darkseid might decide to ignore a minor incursion… If he takes to the field himself, then the mission's a bust and you all need to leave immediately. If any of you want additional equipment before the mission starts, just ask." I make eye contact with Batman. "Sir-."

"I will be part of the reconnaissance group. I have my own power armor for when combat starts."

"Mine's better sir. And I can make it use the same control scheme." He nods.

Kal-El turns his attention to Canis. "Canis Minor. Anything you can tell us about the disposition of guards around the holding area would be invaluable."

Canis focuses on him. I wonder what he thinks of this? "Certainly, Superman. The great edifice that is the Tower of Rage itself…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
20:22 GMT -4

"And tonight! For one night only ladies and gentlemen-"

I wonder how the attack on Apokolips is going?

"-Metropolis' favorite Prankster is proud to present-"

Not that I mind filling in for the League.

"-on the highest high dive board in all of history-"

Really, it's an honour that they think Kon and I are up to doing this.

"-the Daily Planet's own Lois Lane! Everyone give the intrepid reporter a big hand!"

It's just… I could be dealing with drug dealers and muggers right now. Instead, I'm stuck in Metropolis dealing with this idiot. Oswald Loomis, aka 'Uncle Oswald', -and according to Wallace not knowing him by that name indicates the lack of a soul far better than my tattoos- aka The Prankster. Ever wondered what a Metropolis-themed version of the Joker would look like?

Me neither. But apparently you switch the purple for green and add about twenty years.

Ms Lane is currently standing on a diving board extending over the edge of the Rushmont Building, thirty seven storeys up. Her arms are tied behind her back with rope. Eight… I want to say 'thugs', but… No, they're all drama students from Metropolis University. They're holding a soiree of some sort 'hostage' with what the rings clearly show me are fake guns. Maybe they don't look fake to the people inside, or maybe they're playing along. I honestly can't tell if this is a crime in progress or street theatre.

"Looks like a real crime to me."

I glance at Kon. "Yeah, but how stupid are we going to look if it's not?"

"Was he supposed to get a permit for that? I mean… That diving board's gotta be a fire hazard or something."

"I don't think there's anything specific…"

"Really?"

"Well… You wouldn't, would you? Who's going to put a diving board off the edge of the building? I mean, look at those guys. Were they going for 'circus' or 'pirate'?"

"Does that reporter look scared to you?"

"No. Just annoyed." I watch as she wobbles slightly in the wind and then stabilises. "She's got good balance, actually. I wonder if this sort of thing happens a lot?"

"As you can see ladies and gentlemen, the daring Miss Lane-"

Down at street level, a flat bed truck with a paddling pool filled with some sort of green gel pulls up directly underneath the diving board. Huh. I know that there are impact absorbing gel that can take massive impacts, but for a Human woman of Ms Lane's dimensions falling that far they'd need a good deal more for the landing to be safe. Ring, molecular structure? Yep.

"-will be aiming for the regulation, union-approved paddling pool."

Up the sides of the building a series of windows open and… Hoops containing a glowing blue energy field stick out.

"'But Uncle Oswald', I hear you cry, 'that's far too far for someone to land safely'."

Huh. Some sort of momentum cancelling thing. Nothing John's ring database isn't familiar with, though it is a little odd to see it on Earth. Wonder where he got it from?

"And you're right! In order to survive the fall, Miss Lane has to pass through at least five of the eight rings on the way down."

Hmm. Theoretically possible, but I'm not detecting any backup plan if she missed. Edging towards 'probably a crime'.

"So place your bets, Ladies and-!"

Ms Lane rolls her eyes. "Oh God, please just push me off already."

Mister Oswald takes a couple of steps towards the edge of the building, until he's alongside where she stands on the diving board. He leans closer to her. "Oh, come on, play along. We both know what's going to happen next. You jump off, then-."

"Do you know how many times someone's pushed me off a building just to get Superman's attention?"

"Aaaahhmm. Three?"

"Try thirty."

"Oh." Mister Oswald strokes his moustache. "You know, when you put it like-" He pulls a lever and the diving board collapses, dropping Ms Lane down the building in no position to angle her fall at all! "-that."

Kon lunges forwards, blurring as he flies to intercept her. Yeah, he's got that. I transition to just behind Mister Oswald. He's peering over the parapet, his full attention on the falling Ms Lane. "Huh. Looks less red than-" I create an orange platform under his feet and toss him off the edge. "-normaaaaaaal!"

Ring, monitor.

Compliance.

I turn back to his henchees. "Obviously, you're all under arrest. Please put down the fake guns and stand against the wall in an orderly fashion." Huh. Well, he missed the first ring, but he got the next couple. He should be… No, the wind caught his jacket and blew it in his face and he can't see where he's falling. Ah well. I extend a filament down after him and attach it to his ankle. He just has time to get his jacket out of his face and raise his arms in an attempt to ward off the pavement before I nullify his momentum. It takes him a moment to realise that he's not dead and open his eyes. He beams manically with relief.

Then I drop him on his face.

"I'm really sorry, Superboy."

Cradling Ms Lane in his arms, Kon flies back over the parapet. He looks a little embarrassed. "No, it's.. fine. A lotta people make that mistake."

"Yeah, but if I can't-" He sets her down and she regains her feet. "-tell that-" She spots me. "-you're not Superman…" She looks around. "Hey, where'd Oswald go?"

"I threw him over the side. You alright?"

"This isn't my first rode-. You threw him over the side?"

"Eh, ironic punishments. He's fine. Any idea what the next stage was meant to be?"

A motion in the corner of my eye causes me to turn in time to see two of the guests draw some sort of sidearm while another throws a tiny fragment of green Kryptonite in Kon's direction. Orange filaments connect my left hand to the guns for a moment before yanking them over to me while Kon steps around Ms Lane to stand over the glowing mineral.

"Focused sonics… Is this a bowel disruptor?" I look at the dial on the side. "You were going to lure Superman here, hit him with a little Kryptonite radiation and then make him shit himself. That is ridiculous and it is horrible."

Kon turns to Ms Lane. "Could I borrow your purse?"

She looks puzzled, her eyes moving from the crystal and back to him. "You're… Immune to Kryptonite?"

"No, but my personal radiation shield is. I don't really wanna touch it, but I can carry it in a bag just fine." She passes him the bag and he bends down to gingerly push the Kryptonite into it before standing up. "Thanks."

I move the dial to 'watery' before turning back to our would-be attackers. No sense making things too unpleasant for the police. "Ironic punishment time, chaps."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th March 2011
22:48 GMT -4

"Recognised, Superboy, B zero four, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Kon and I trudge out of the cave zeta tube in the general direction of the kitchens. It was nice to see the chaps and chapesses of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit again, but it's… It's been kind of a long day.

"Hey." Kon looks at me. "Kitchen?"

Ring? M'gann and Zatanna are there, while the Atlanteans and.. Roy the First are in the hangar. "Kitchen."

We amble along the corridors in a kitchenward direction.

"You gunna be able to cope on your own tomorrow? I can get Mom to write…" He trails off. "I can.. get Missus Candy to write me a sick note and forge Mom's signature?"

"Thank you, but unless there's some sort of major crime wave I should be able to manage. And you can't slack off on your schooling just because Diana isn't here to watch you."

"No, I'd have, y'know, caught up…"

We hear the skittering of claws against the smooth floor surface before Wolf careens into view. She dashes up to Kon first, sniffing at his legs with her tail frantically wagging before rearing up on her hind legs to try and lick his face. She's nearly fully grown now, but since she's only a little heavier than a normal Wolf despite her strength Kon's more than capable of supporting her weight. He smiles, trying to avoid her tongue while he rubs the sides of her face with both hands. "Yeah, I've missed you too, girl."

She gives him another five seconds of licking and nuzzling before leaning over towards me, her paws still supported by Kon's shoulders. I go to rub the top of her head only for her to turn her muzzle in order to sniff and lick my hand. "Yes, I've missed you as well, you horrible, smelly, ambulatory rug you."

She makes a snort of exhale-snort noise, then returns her attention to Kon.

"And I'm sure Teekl will be dashing around the corner to see me any moment now." I nod. "Any moment."

"rWuff." Wolf drops down, gives me a quick sniff and then circles around us in what looks like an attempt to herd us towards the kitchen.

Kon smiles down at her. "Okay, we're going."

"Any moment."

She pushes between us, trotting about half way back to the kitchen entrance before stopping and looking back to make sure that we're still coming. Another good reason for Kon not to spend all his time in Metropolis with me: they usually do obedience training on Mondays, which is a bit more critical for an animal that will probably be used in combat. I know I want to be sure that she knows what she's doing before we take her out into the field. Normal police dog training is about thirteen weeks in duration, but that's an intensive course and there flat out isn't a course for super animals.

"Welcome back, Conner!" M'gann -still haven't quite got used to her in white mode- wafts through the air to greet her boyfriend with a kiss. Kon wraps his arms around her back and leans into her.

…

Okay, they could be there for a while. I continue on into the living room. Zatanna smiles up at me from the settee, her eyes dragging themselves back from Kon and M'gann… Ah. "How was Metropolis?"

"Bright and shiny." I drop down next to her. "We had to deal with some idiot whose evil plan was to lure Superman in and shoot him with a bowel disruptor."

Her face is a picture. "A.. bowel..? Disruptor?"

I nod. "That was it. No ransom, no theft, just: tiny bit of Kryptonite then right in the gut."

"Why would-?"

"Supervillain." She nods in understanding. "Now, when a British person tries to do a PG version of the Joker, they do it with class. With things that are actually funny, not puerile attempts at scatological humour. I should have dropped the git on his face twice." I shake my head and lean back. "How was school?"

"I, um… Yoooou.. remember the cake."

"I remember the cake. The internet remembers the cake. Two hundred years from now, alien civilisations that have never met a Human before will address me as 'The Cake Man'. "

"I had to write a report on it."

"That's a bit unfair, isn't it? You were actually there."

"It's more about the sort of sociological implications of really powerful superhumans. How they can just completely ignore all the rules of society-"

"I settled those lawsuits." I did.

"-and do whatever they want."

"Was I really the best example of that?"

"The best example that wasn't actually criminal. We live in a world where someone can merge with a giant snake and make a giant cake in the air."

"But what are you supposed to contrast it to? I mean… Weird stuff like that has been happening since at least the Second World War, right? You'd have to try living on my old homeworld for a while to get a baseline comparison."

Kon and M'gann manage to pry themselves apart and take their seats on the opposite settee, Wolf circling around for a moment before taking up station at her father's feet. Kon turns slightly to look at M'gann as she snuggles against his shoulder. "How was Acapulco?"

She shrinks in on herself slightly. "Horrible. Tula and I spent all morning chasing down drug dealers. Then there was a gang shoot out, and we had to go and help out with that instead of doing any follow up on their suppliers."

Kon nods. "We had pretty much the same thing in Caracas. Until Canis appeared, anyway."

"Statistically, very little crime actually involves supervillains. I don't know, maybe it would be better if we just picked one city and worked at it until it was more or less functional, rather than doing metaphorical fire fighting in several places. Kaldur, Tula, Garth and I have the time…" I hear the door on the far side of the kitchen open and turn my head to see the other four residents -and my Cat- enter the room. "And Roy might as well. Kaldur, what do you think about-?"

He looks straight at me, his face deadly serious. "Turn on the news."

"Ah, okay? Ring, BBC News Twenty Four."

"…story tonight, after a lull in fighting while emergency food aid was provided to Cairo, hopes of a negotiated settlement appear to have been dashed by a sudden and devastating attack on the rebel stronghold of Shiruta." I stare at the screen in shock as I see fires and explosions across the city I was in only a few days ago. The people I... "The rebel leader Teth Adom was attending a peace conference in-."

"Ring, zeta tube."

"Compliance."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th March 2011
04:53 GMT +2

Shiruta doesn't have a zeta tube. Like Bialya, Kahndaq wasn't a signatory to the UN's charter. That's a bit like diplomatic parking fines; while diplomats can get away with not paying, you can tell roughly how corrupt a country is by whether they do or not. The Justice League's charter doesn't let them overthrow governments, and it actively curtails their ability to act against state sponsored 'evildoing'. The only reason not to sign it is if you're sufficiently bad that you can't stand the thought of having Leaguers around the place.

"Recognised-."

I transition away from the Dhabar zeta tube before it finishes announcing my arrival, appearing in the dawn sky above the burning city of Shiruta. I can hear screams, the roar of flames, gunfire and the crack and hiss of energy and plasma weapons. Orange lights appear in my visual field as the ring marks airborne targets: soldiers in black armour riding on aero-discs, wielding it doesn't matter.

"Railguns."

Two guns form alongside me as my power armour emerges from subspace and is overlain by my construct armour. The heads of the members of the closest aerial team evaporate as three crumbler rounds find their marks, their aero-discs riding corpses swirling and falling from the sky.

Apokoliptian gear.

"Praexis horde." My Demons shimmer into being around me. Huh, I'm putting out quite a lot of orange here. "Hunt and consume anything Apokoliptian."

"Feed!"

They fly off in various directions, which is really the most I could hope for. My railguns target another flight of soldiers and fire again, this time aiming for each individual's centre of mass. They read as Human. Who..? Why? Who could possibly gain by-? No, focus. First, centre of government. With Apokoliptian tech in the field I can't risk transitioning or phasing so I restrict myself to rapid flight.

The hotel's… A ruin. I get about half a second to take it in before I come under fire from infantry concealed in the surrounding rubble. A brilliant purple beam splashes off my construct faceplate

BABUM. BABUM. BABUM.

and the railguns scream my response. About twelve men simply cease to be, along with their cover. How did they even get here? Rebel territory has a constant combat air patrol, as well as radar and mundane spotters! Okay, where else? Main barracks? I surge through the air once more, just in time to see some sort of dragon-tank hybrid roll into position to incinerate the outer fortifications. It must be twelve metres long with giant solid wheels to pull it over and through any obstacle and a fore-mounted turret shaped like a reptile's neck.

BABUM.

A construct-claw clamps it around the chassis and lifts it into the air as my railguns annihilate its infantry escort. Once it's high enough that I don't have to worry about it setting anyone else on fire a second hand appears and crushes it, super hard Apokoliptian armour splintering and deforming in my grasp. White bolts of energy pierce the air around me, giving me a perfect target for my new incendiary wrecking ball. Dimly I hear their cries as they're flattened and their remains burned.

Another aero-disc flight is cut down as I fly towards the barracks. Medical… Most of those burned are already dead, but the handful that aren't I restore. I land and grab the closest by his jacket. "Who's in charge here! Tell me!"

"A-? A-? I don't, I don't know. They just… Came out of nowhere. I-I, there's… I'm…"

In mid-air I create a series of energy weapons, larger versions of the ones I created for the Metropolis SCU after our fight with Doctor Ivo. Once I'm confident that I've got everyone's attention I start shoving them into the chests of the soldiers. "The people attacking you are using Apokoliptian weapons, which means that I get to replace your AK Forty Sevens with these. I suggest that you hunker down, I'll send any civilians I encounter in this direction." My railguns are firing non-stop now as their fliers focus on an area of resistance. I'm forced to erect a larger construct barrier to cover my allies as a sergeant starts grabbing people and shoving them into motion. "Does anyone here know where the Council ended up?"

The sergeant grabs a gun for himself before turning to me. "No, Orange Lantern. The radio is being jammed and we haven't been able to send runners anywhere."

Fuck. "Do the best you can."

He nods. "Allah watch over you." Then he turns away and points at two of his subordinates. "You, you, take up position-!"

I shoot back into the air. Okay, Adom told me the evacuation plan but that looks like it was a total bust. The assumption was that in the event of a large infantry attack that they'd have plenty of warning. Did they teleport? Boom tubes? Ring, show me civilian- aaaagh!

I swoop away, rings already repairing the melted armour around my right arm and restoring the construct armour. Whatever these weapons are, they seem to be a good deal more potent than what we took from the soldiers in Qurac when we rescued President Harjavti. Where did that shot-?

A blood red robot shoots through the air towards me at supersonic speed, its powerful left fist swinging at my head! Two crumbler rounds strike it in the chassis as I fly directly away from it, but some sort of plasma field effect prevents them from connecting properly with its chassis when they detonate. Having missed its melee strike, the robot raises the gun which forms its right hand for another shot. I replace a railgun with a particle beam and load the remaining railgun with solid slugs before opening fire. The purple beam gouges a furrow across its chest and the solid slugs smash into its head but I can't scan to tell where the most important components are! Another sheet of sun-hot plasma from its flamethrower thing forces me to dart away again. Not too far though, I can't risk it going after the Kahndaqi infantry. Ring, can we work out where its flight systems are?

Scans of gravity distortions suggest that flight systems are spread throughout-

It accelerates towards me once more and I evade, trying to shoot out its eyes with the particle beam. Pacifier, that's what they're called.

-the structure, having no central locus.

"Come back, little one. Test your puny might-" Its eyepieces are gone, but it seems still able to track me. "-against me."

Not enough self to brand or assimilate. I hold out my left hand, ring glowing brilliantly as I prepare an energy pulse. The Pacifier changes tack, viffing for all it's worth to prevent me getting a clear shot. It's a sub-light attack… Fine. I drop my gun constructs and plot-to-rapid-fly directly into its back, slamming my hands against the metal plate and clamping myself in position with a chain construct. It tries turning its plasma flamethrower back towards me but its own mass is restricting its motion.

"Destruction!"

The orange beam punches cleanly through the chassis, fragments of orange light running outwards throughout the structure and tearing at it until only smoke and falling scrap remains.

Ring, show me enemy armour.

Eleven targets get marked. Two.. weirdly 'U' shaped flying machines standing on overwatch at high altitude, presumably waiting for Kahndaqi aircraft or Adom himself.

BABUM.

I rocket up between them, hold out my hands and core them both with bright orange beams before grabbing hold of them and transitioning them back down to the ground, where they appear in pieces. There is a jammer.

BABUM.

A squad of three Pacifiers similar to the one I just destroyed. As I hurtle down towards them they raise their guns to incinerate an air raid shelter. The closest I slice in twain with a construct blade.

BABUM.

The other two immediately turn their attention to me, plasma throwers firing. I redouble my barriers and fire destructive beams through them. The barrier gets eaten away but the beams strike true and the robots are wrecked.

BABUM.

A flight of aero-troopers fly escort to four flying gun platforms, firing downwards into the city with no specific target in mind. Crumblers scythe them down.

BABUM.

Another flame tank, this one just trying to set fire to everything in its path. An orange beam bisects it, its interior fuel tanks being set alight a moment later by its own weapon.

BABUM.

Last one. Where is it?

"The party… Is over."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th March 2011
04:56 GMT +2

A purple beam strikes me in my right side and I'm yanked through the air across the burning cityscape towards a still standing eight storey building. I manage to slow myself slightly but this is ugh, through the wall and aaagh!

The beam shuts off as a colossal metal something comes at me through the building's interior, striking my construct armour and throwing me out back the way I came! I hurtle out of control for a moment before righting myself just off the ground. Okay, what was-?

Something strikes me directly in the middle of the faceplate, and a second later I'm surrounded in a ball of plasma. Ring, generate a magnetic field to repulse it and fly away from the building.

Compliance.

The ball explodes off me as I leap into the air just in time to avoid a hail of automatic fire from inside the building. The shots are far heavier than anything that could really be infantry-carried and they're moving even faster than I normally fire my own railgun shots. A half-second later there's a smashing sound as the weapon redirects its aim to follow its glowing orange target. I set the ring to jink randomly and aim my particle beam at the bullets' point of origin. Ring, what am I figh-?

The purple beam strikes me again, dragging me forwards as the front of the building explodes outwards, spraying dust and lumps of concrete and stone outwards in my direction. A huge pincer lunges out of the cloud, its task of grabbing me made a good deal easier by the fact that I'm now stuck moving on a predictable path. As it clamps onto my construct armour and begins squeezing the ring finally manages to give me a decent return on its appearance.

It doesn't have the scry immunity that I've become accustomed to, it's just designed not to give much away when a sophisticated scanner starts looking for it. From its feet to the top of its head it's about eight metres tall, though the curve of its spine and the bulky armoured plates on its shoulders make it look taller still. It's also about six metres broad, with a pincer for a right hand, a circular saw for a left hand and gun turrets mounted on either shoulder. The tractor beam appears to come from its mouth, mounted on the lowest part of the beetle-like head. The whole chassis is a bronze colour with only the smallest tron line signature marking it as being of New God design. When the spikes are taken into account it puts me in mind of something from Robot Wars more than a serious weapon, but the files Mister Free gave me indicate that it's quite effective.

The Arakno-Mekkanoid leans its head slightly closer as the claw begins crumpling my construct armour. "Secondary target acquired. Termination in progress." The circular saw arm comes around, aimed at my head!

Three x-ionised blades come out of subspace and hew through the base of the pincer's outer claw. I fire a destructive beam directly at the Mekkanoid's face even as the metal drops off and I fall free, the saw blade slicing through the top of my construct armour and narrowly missing my helmet. I generate a construct-talon and grab the falling claw, interposing it between the two of us as its mouth glows and the purple tractor beam thing lances forth once more. For a fraction of a second the huge blade jumps towards the giant robot's head, then the beam cuts off.

Yes, that would have been a bit easy.

"Fear me, Lantern."

Yellow lights appear along its back and an instant later I feel the gnawing tension and uncertainty that indicate an empathic fear attack. If I were a Green Lantern that might be crippling. If I hadn't experienced enlightenment and had that encounter with the Terror Thing last week it would be damaging. As it is there's barely any drop off in construct strength. I dart to the side, careful to keep the claw between myself and its head as I thrust my right arm forwards.

"Die!"

It steps free of the rubble and turns, interposing its right armour plate as the orange beam strikes home. The beam leaves a ragged scar but that isn't anything like what an attack from a Lantern of my power level should do. Apokoliptians may not use power rings but they clearly understand the theoretical underpinnings of emotional spectrum manipulation. Fine then, freeze rays. The Mekkanoid turns again as my constructs change, the plasma mortar on its left shoulder opening fire at the same time as the autocannon on its right. I swoop, duck and dive around a hail of miniature suns as it brings its circular saw arm around to slash at the claw I'm using to fend off the tractor beam. Alright, x-ionised blades again-.

Devices around the plasma mortar light up, lasers -are those lasers?- burning beams of light through the air to intercept my knives, melting them to slag. Autocannon rounds slam into my construct armour as the blue beams from my freeze rays strike the Mekkanoid's legs. It's got a lot of mass, it's well insulated and its brain is most likely at the centre of the hull. These aren't going to be instant kill weapons as they would be against an organic. The glow from the fear generators cuts out and… Some sort of energised plasma field forms around its body. Not explosive and burning like what it's firing at me, but it's sort of forming a cushion to stop my freeze rays directly striking its armour.

There's the horrible sound of metal rending metal as its circular saw slices into the claw. It makes it about halfway through before jamming as the super hard metal exerts friction on the top and bottom of the blades. Right, highest priority is uuh. Bastard thing got a near miss with the plasma mortar. Ring, how are we doing for power?

Eighty seven percent remaining.

That's what I get for going all day without recharging. The Mekkanoid pulls with its left arm in an attempt to get the circular saw free. I generate a railgun construct and fire a solid slug at the tractor beam projector. It strikes home even as the laser point defence turrets target my railgun construct and fire, slicing through and shattering it. Alright, two can play at that game. I abandon my freeze ray construct and generate a laser turret construct instead, setting it to shoot any rounds from the plasma mortar before they can detonate. I then stop moving and reorientate myself, generating a large multi-layered barrier and a new railgun. The Mekkanoid's autocannon will chew through the outer layers of the barrier quickly enough, but I can just shove them forwards and add new layers to the back. It fires its plasma mortar again and yes, it does work as I thought it did. The shell gives off a nasty burst of radiation but fails to go critical if damaged. Good to know.

Just as the Mekkanoid works its saw blade free enough to start rotating it again I open fire at maximum speed and maximum power at its head with solid slugs of iron jacketed tungsten. Its armour's good, but to have a projector like that on the outside you have to make it at least a little vulnerable and a little is all I need. Even as it slashes my metal barrier in half and warms up the beam to drag me in once more it's shuddering under the power of the repeated impacts. I don't know exactly how the device is structured but from the way the purple light has gone out I'm going to assume that I've been successful.

Laser and autocannon fire is hammering my outer barrier but with the tractor beam out of commission this fight is looking a lot more manageable. I dart out from behind my barrier with my armoured fists glowing and fire another destructive bolt. With the robot's empathic shield deactivated this one has a great deal more effect, wrecking the circular saw and most of the arm bearing it. The Mekkanoid turns to try and bring its laser turrets to bear so I reorientate the railgun and pound them to scrap as well. Finally getting somewhere! Next I point the railgun at the autocannon and this time destroying it causes some sort of flashback to the magazine. Metal sprays outwards as the internal explosion blasts the shoulder apart from within and sends the back-mounted armour plate flying into the facia of a nearby building!

Great! Now I just need-.

Alert: energy build up detected.

Ah, can't see any way for it to fire-. Self destruct. How big..? No way to know. The immediate area around me has been evacuated… Or more likely the people there have already been killed, I suppose. South is the Red Sea, but a big enough explosion there could flood coastal settlements. North are some mountains and an empty desert, but making a huge explosion near the border with a decidedly nervous Israel sounds like a very bad plan. West and East are both out of the question and I'm not going to try and load it into subspace.

I try and stick a flight aura around it, but the yellow glow starts up again and I lose the connection. Does that mean I could freeze it? No, can't risk it. I use an x-ionised blade to finish cutting the claw in half, then x-ionise the sharper part and ram it into the Mekkanoid! The robot makes a sort of grunted wail as it goes in. I link construct chains to the parts of the claw still outside the chassis and lift, wrenching it off the ground and into the sky. Don't know how long I have, need to go faster.

BABUM.

Faster.

BABUM.

Fasterfasterfasterfaster

BABUM.

and throw! I take a few breaths as the Mekkanoid flies away at more than its escape velocity. Well. Okay, a quick ring-calculation shows that it would crash back down on Earth eventually, but-.

My view of the outside world darkens as the ring compensates for the sudden brightness. I watch and wait for a few moments, then dart forwards to grab the largest pieces before they can fall on anything. Right. Back to Shiruta.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th March 2011
07:29 GMT +2

I sit on a large lump of what was once a wall, my hands massaging my temples. Well… Attack's over. The surviving military officers from the Shiruta garrison are taking charge of the clean… Of the clean up. The wounded are being treated in makeshift field hospitals, but there aren't actually that many injuried. It's a little like a Dalek attack: their weapons are so deadly when used against baseline Humans that there are hardly any survivors. You either flat out die or you're fine.

There's a soft thud just in front of me and I look up. Despite his power, the League felt it best that Captain Marvel remain behind. Partly because he should be able to deal with most situations which arise in the absence of the rest of the League's most powerful members and partly because he has school later today. "Captain. What can I do for you?" William isn't looking at me. He's staring to his right, at… Ah. "We haven't prioritised clearing the bodies away. I know it's not.. ideal…"

"Oh God. What..?" He shakes himself and turns back to me. "What happened here?"

"Not entirely sure, sir. A group of people -Humans, probably- attacked the city using Apokoliptian equipment and combat robots. Adom was in Al-Qawiya and normal military units can't effectively fight things like that. I got here at oh four fifty three local time and began killing the attackers. Unfortunately, they'd killed most of the Shiruta Council during their initial attack… After that… Well, we can analyse their exact movements later, but it looks like they just went on the rampage."

"Who..?" He looks as lost as I feel. "Who was it? Who would do something like this?"

"I don't know." My head goes down into my hands again. "We know Bialya has had dealings with Apokolips, but we've had them under satellite observation and I've set the ring to notify me of any boom tubes opening near Earth. We haven't seen or heard anything in that direction since last year. Those criminals Dreamer mentioned could have accessed the equipment… Maybe, I don't know. And if they've got a way to get around boom tube detection systems then they could have given it to just about anyone." I look up and glance around at the devastation that surrounds us. "Or just sent them here themselves."

William looks straight at me. "I wanna talk to your prisoners."

"Prisoners?" I shake my head. "There aren't any."

"You..? You killed all of them?"

"A lot, but no." I take a partially reconstructed set of aero-trooper armour out of subspace. "Once I killed their fliers and destroyed their heavy equipment, I attempted to take one or two of the others alive. Their armour contained a very thorough suicide system, which incorporated a G-Sanitizer. A G-Sanitizer is a rather nasty piece of short lived nanotechnology which -when properly utilised- completely breaks down organic matter. Including the subject's DNA. I've been trying to use what's left to identify them, but what I've got is nothing I'd want to make any definite conclusions with. I had the rings take a crack at the robots' central processing units… Same problem. Not enough left."

He nods. "Who's in charge here?"

I stand up, stretching a little more out of habit than any real need. Rings aren't quite exhausted yet. "Me, actually. Adom's not here, every high ranking politician's dead, along with the general who was in charge of the city's defence… We only found the radio jammer ten minutes ago. Lieutenant Colonel Negm is organising the recovery efforts but I think he's a bit shell shocked." My eyes unfocus for a moment as I have the ring give me an overview of the city. Things.. seem to be progressing… "Have they attacked anywhere else?"

William shakes his head. "No. Just here."

"I had wondered if this was a reprisal. But, if they've just come here…"

"It probably wasn't."

I nod. "Have we heard anything from the team that went to Apokolips yet?"

He shakes his head. "This doesn't mean that anything's happened to them."

"I know. I just thought they might be able to shed some light…" I shake my head. "Where's Adom?"

William winces. "Cairo."

Oh shit. "Doing what?"

"We're not sure. I wanted you to be there when I went to talk to him."

I bow my head slightly, squeezing my eyes shut. Even under optimal conditions… And that was with me working alongside him and with as much of the army as could be spared assisting, attacking Cairo was going to result in massive collateral damage. Of course, if he's there then it's already happened. There's no way this happened and he didn't retaliate. I nod. "Okay. No sense leaving it."

I attach a filament to William and transition us to the air over the Heliopolis Palace. An entire wing of the place has been demolished, and the ring scans show that the people within have been pulverised. He didn't fight them. He didn't slow down. Slowing down to fight them would have been inefficient. We did actually.. plan this… The reason that we didn't implement it was that just about everyone in the target area would be killed. Not just the people in control of the government, but their aides, staff and other civil servants. When he's going that fast… Ring, scan…

Yes. The minimum number of civilian casualties that could be achieved in an attack by him alone, as long as you exclude anyone remotely involved in government or military function from your assessment of 'civilian'. Fewer people than died in Shiruta…

William goes pale as we descend through the sky towards Adom's entry point. The Palace itself would have been the last place he struck. No hostages here after all. We head further into the building and I'm glad that the ring's environmental shield is filtering out the smell. In Shiruta we'd at least gotten around to covering up most of the bodies. Here, there's bits of person nearly everywhere I look.

Adom looks up from his seat as we enter the cabinet meeting room, the bodies of Kahndaq's late rulers laying in squishy pieces around him. His eyes move over our faces for a moment, then he returns to staring into the middle distance. "Orange Lantern. Captain Marvel. Is Shiruta secure?"

I go to land, then realise that there isn't really anywhere I can land without stepping on a piece of someone. "The attack's over, Mighty One."

"The attackers?"

"Dead. All of them."

"Where were they from?"

I hesitate, trying to ignore quite how much blood there is on his uniform. "I.. can't say with any certainty. They were using Apokoliptian equipment-."

"So, Bialya. It was just a trick." He exhales sharply. "That is disappointing."

"We don't.. know for certain-."

"CAN THERE BE ANY DOUBT?!" The muscles on his neck stand out as he glares directly at me. "Who else has motive?! My city, the city named for my wife, lies bleeding and broken…" He leaps into the air, level with William and I. "And now you will no doubt try to dissuade me from avenging Kahndaqi blood." He shakes his head. "No. No. This is more than I can bear. The sands of Bialya will turn RED for this!"

"Adom, even if it was Bialya-" William floats forwards, hands raised in a placatory gesture. "-and we don't know that for sure yet, that's not the right way to go about dealing with this! You said you wanted to lead Kahndaq to a better future and you won't be able to do that if you keep killing people!"

"You may be surprised what one may do and still be considered an upstanding statesman." He turns, looking out through the broken wall to the city beyond. "And where was the Justice League?"

"They're.. off world."

"How many of my people died in Shiruta today?"

"Um…" I shake my head. "We don't know yet. Every major politician who was there, and a lot more besides. We'll know more in a few hours."

"I should be back by then." He bows his head slightly. "This was not how I wanted to begin my reign."

"Adom, I can't let-." I turn, frantically shaking my head at William as Adom raises his eyebrows. The absolute last thing that needs to happen now is the two of them fighting. Whoever wins, Kahndaq would be in even more of a mess. He spots me, then hesitates as Adom turns to regard him. "I mean, you're angry. You're not thinking clearly. I understand why. This is an absolutely horrifying thing to have happened, but you just need-."

"I need nothing. And I will not be lectured by the Wizard's lackey, a man who has never-."

"Show him."

Adom turns to glare at me. "Show me what?"

"William. Show him."

He hesitates for a moment, then lands on the cleanest part of the floor. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath. "Shazam!"

"Removing your powers will not-!" Adom boggles as the smoke clears. "You're… You're a-a child? The Wizard chose a.. c-child?"

"Hey." William smiles, though I imagine that without Achilles' courage he's finding our environment even more shocking. "I'm not a baby. I'm eleven."

Adom drops to the floor, flabbergasted. "My… My own s-." He looks William over, clearly not quite believing his eyes. "Why? Why did he choose you? You cannot have been a warrior or leader. What did you do to so earn his favour?"

"You're right. I'm not a warrior or a leader. He chose me because he thinks he can trust me to use the power properly. That I was a good enough person not to end up..." He looks around the room. "After the two of you fell out, after five thousand years, I was the first person he met he thought he could risk it on. And I'm telling you, you don't want to make this decision when you're angry."

Adom.. seems to shrink in on himself slightly. He stands completely still for several seconds. At long last, he nods. "I will.. be guided by you. I will wait. Orange Lantern, please convey me back to Shiruta. I must see to my people's needs."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th March 2011
16:26 GMT

There's an explosion and a rush of displaced air as the boom tube appears in the Watchtower's main meeting room. I come to parade rest just behind William as the League members troop through. They look… Rested. There are a few bandages, but nothing looks particularly serious. I extend my ring-granted senses through the boom tube-. Ah. They're coming from what I presume to be Supertown, New Genesis. I can't think of any reason for Apokolips to have a place like that.

"Hey guys! How'd it go?"

William's managing to stay relatively upbeat. We… Adom and I full time, and Captain Marvel, Lieutenant Marvel and Mary Marvel whenever William Batson, Frederick Freeman and Mary Bromfield didn't have to be somewhere else. We've been clearing up the mess in Shiruta and Cairo. Back to bagging up bodies and returning them to their next of kin in my case. Islam requires that the dead be buried within a couple of days of their death and I think everyone should be able to meet that deadline.

Captain Adams looks our way and starts walking towards us, Mister Freeman and Mister Allen glance at us for a moment then head for the zeta tubes, while the Hols give us a nod before taking to the air and heading towards the Watchtower's residential section. Adams has assumed his Human form, and… Huh, I think this is the first time I've seen him like that and not wearing a military uniform. "The mission went about as well as could be expected, given the limited amount of forward planning we could do. We were able to recover all four of the prisoners and suffered no serious injuries ourselves. There were a few close calls, but nothing we couldn't handle."

"Were they okay?"

"As well as can be expected. Highfather said that he expected them to make a full recovery, eventually."

"Recognised, Flash, zero four." / "Recognised, Icon, one eight."

"And Infinity Man?"

Captain Adams shakes his head. "Desaad had torn it apart before we got there. Lucky for us. Hyalt -one of the New Genosian weapon techs- gave us a run down of what it could have done if they'd left it under their control and it didn't sound like anything I'd want to tangle with. Anything much happen while we were gone?"

"Recognised, Plastic Man, two three." / "Recognised, Martian Manhunter, zero seven."

"Ye-ah. We kinda need to talk to Wonder Woman about it."

"Is it urgent?"

William glances at me and I nod. "I'd like to inform her as soon as possible, but it doesn't require immediate League attention."

Adams nods. "She should be coming through in a minute. She wanted to talk to Barda about something." He turns his head to look towards the zeta tube as Batman and Mister Free come through. "You'll have to excuse me, I need to get back to Monthan. With that bastard Eiling in prison the brass are dumping a lot of extra work onto me."

"Recognised, Red Tornado, one six." / "Recognised, Accomplished Perfect Physician, two zero."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Recognised, Atom, two two."

He turns back with a small smile. "Actually, it's 'Major'. Since I got cleared of murder the new guy in overall command decided I was worth promoting."

"Congratulations!"

"I have been serving since the fifties." He turns away to head toward the zeta tubes himself. "Long overdue if you ask me."

Canis comes through the boom tube, Diana and Missus Free just behind him. The boom tube then shuts down. No Kal-El? Oh, he's a big boy, and Adams said no one was seriously injured on our side. Maybe he just wants to spend some time sightseeing? Major Adams waves them goodbye as he enters the zeta tube and types in his desired location.

"Recognised, Captain Atom, one two."

I make eye contact with Diana and she pauses in her conversation. "Excuse me, Barda." Missus Free nods and Diana walks in our direction. "Is something wrong?"

"Well…" William tries to work out how to put it. "On the positive side, the Kahndaqi civil war is over."

"Early Monday morning someone attacked Shiruta while Adom was at the peace conference in Bialya. They were using Apokoliptian weapons and indiscriminately attacked everyone and everything. I got there in time to prevent it being a total massacre, but a lot of people died."

William nods. "Adom went crazy and attacked Cairo on his own. The entire government's dead."

"Hera. I thought the negotiations..?"

"Someone didn't read the script. Captain Marvel was just about able to persuade him not to fly right to Al-Qawiya and avenge his country on their government, but there's a very angry superhuman running the country at the moment."

"Any word from Queen Bee?"

William nods. "She's saying it wasn't her. But she also says that Bialya hasn't ever had any contact with aliens and that their government is democratically elected."

"Adom wants to talk to you. I don't think he knows how to handle the situation and most of his Kahndaqi advisors didn't survive the attack. I've set up a zeta tube in Shiruta…"

She nods. "Of course. Please, accompany me." She turns away, striding towards the zeta tube. As we head after her I see Batman call up recent Kahndaq-related news articles on his personal computer.

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Captain Marvel, one five, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

16th March 2011
18:29 GMT +2

The hotel what's left of the governing council now occupies looks considerably more hotel-y than the last place. I fabricated some portacabin-type buildings to serve as office space but with the clean up ongoing no one's really had time to organise things better.

"This way, sir." I take to the air, looking down on the site. Adom's office is over there and… Yes, he's in. I accelerate towards it, setting down just outside the door.

The guards on duty outside recognise me, and the one on the left knocks on the door. "Orange Lantern, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman are here, Mighty One."

"Let them in."

The guard nods and pulls open the door for us. Adom's floating just off the floor while a man I recognise as the Bialyan ambassador to Kahndaq is seated before his desk. Adom hasn't quite adapted to desks yet and his secretary was amongst the dead.

Captain Marvel and I take up station on this side of the door while Diana approaches Adom. "You asked to see me?"

"Highness." Adom performs a shallow bow, which Diana mirrors. "Thank you for coming."

"I have only just heard what has happened. You and your country have my deepest condolences. How can I help?"

"This man-" He glowers at the Ambassador. "-wishes for me to meet with his Queen as soon as possible. Thanks to your Justice League, the world knows that Bialya has had dealings with the ones who attacked us. The United Nations is discussing further sanctions and some are even talking about military action. In an attempt to prevent this, I have been invited to her palace. She wishes to try to convince me in person of her innocence. But I do not trust her even slightly. I certainly would not trust her to speak truthfully to me on this matter. If she told me the sky were blue, I would check the sky. I am told that you can tell when someone is lying to you. Is this so?"

Diana nods. "It is."

"Then I would be grateful if you could accompany me. It is the only way this visit will not be a complete waste of time I can ill afford to spend away from my people."

"Of course, I can-."

"Mighty One." The ambassador shakes his head. "The Justice League are not permitted-."

Adom snarls. "You are in no place to make demands of me! You will tell your mistress that Princess Diana of Themyscira is coming, and you will tell her that if I detect even the slightest attempt at trickery then it will not take an invasion to remove her from power. No, I will kill the witch immediately myself."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th March 2011
07:03 GMT -4

"…our special guest this morning, Orange Lantern."

"Good morning, Catherine. Thank you for having me on."

I've had quite a few requests to grant interviews in the months I've been on Earth 16. Usually I don't bother with them. I'm not a media personality. I have a serious job. And to be honest I don't like having to defend myself to people I don't know and can't see. But after everything that's happened in Kahndaq over the past few days I think a little effort on my part is warranted, and Catherine Grant is my 'known' journalist. Which is how I ended up on GBS breakfast the morning after Adom's.. meeting, with Queen Beena. This isn't the last one of these I'll be doing today but it is the first one. At times like this it's important to get your message out as quickly as possible.

Not that there's a coherent message coming from anywhere else.

"Now, we've got a lot of questions to ask about what's been happening in Kahndaq. Why don't you start by telling us how you first met-" Please get it right. "-Teth Adom."

I don't have a standard superhero 'costume', and none of my armour variants were really appropriate. I had to create this get up for interview purposes. It's a super light version of the armour Mister Gambi made for me. It has minimal protective qualities but it looks like armour, so I can wear it without feeling like one of.. my respected colleagues. It's still grey with orange decoration… It could be worse.

It could have a cape and external underwear.

"I first met Teth Adom in Louisiana, as part of the team sent in to deal with the Injustice League. I'd known for some time that there was no way either the wizard Shazam or the gods of ancient Kahndaq would have given super powers to someone like Doctor Theodore Adam-."

"That would be Black Adam, Captain Marvel's enemy."

"Yes, but I prefer to use his real name. It reduces the chance of anyone confusing two very different men. Essentially, what he'd done was trap Teth Adom's soul in an amulet and -while I don't understand the exact spell craft involved- that somehow made the gods think that he was Teth Adom. As such, they gave him the power he needed to be 'Black Adam'."

"Are you saying that Teth Adom was dead?"

She knows, of course. I handed the studio as much briefing material as didn't violate League security procedures so she could plan this properly.

"Yes, Adom had been dead for about five thousand years at that point. Without.. wanting to unnecessarily offend anyone, souls are real. Afterlives are real. And I.. do mean plural, there are quite a few. He isn't the only person I've met who can come back from the dead: Vandal Savage infamously can regenerate literally any injury-" Though we haven't heard anything from him since New Year. Here's hoping! "-and Ra's al Ghul -the former head of the League of Shadows- had access to an alchemical bath that could restore him in a similar way. I personally observed him recover from a high calibre shot to the head that pulverised most of his brain without any apparent side effect."

"That.. sounds amazing."

I nod, and give the camera a rueful smile. "In my line of work you can become a little blasé about amazing things. Unfortunately, we have no idea how either of those abilities actually work."

"So Doctor Adam summoned back Teth Adom's soul from the ancient Kahndaqi afterlife-" Close enough. "-to steal his power. Why did he go on a rampage with it?"

"Because he's a-." I hesitate. "Because he was a deeply unpleasant person. I never met him before his transformation, but afterwards the only thing he was really interested in was fighting superheroes for fun. And the best way to attract superheroes is to go on a super powered rampage." I turn back to the camera. "Don't try that at home, kids. We may not like beating people unconscious and sending them to prison for the rest of their natural lives but we've got quite good at it now."

"If Teth Adom was dead, then how is he back?"

"The ritual Doctor Adam used to call his soul back essentially converted him to the ancient Kahndaqi religion. And it turns out that their gods don't necessarily wait until you're dead to judge you. Once they became aware of the situation, they dragged Doctor Adam off for punishment and gave Teth Adom his former body."

"How well did he cope with that?"

"In the same way that Captain Marvel is guided by the Wisdom of Solomon, Teth Adom is guided by the Wisdom of Zehuti. Adapting was difficult -he didn't even speak any modern languages- but between myself and Wonder Woman we were able to bring him up to speed."

"When did he start going back to Kahndaq?"

"Shortly after the Roanoke Island incident. The.. former Kahndaqi government attempted to violently stop the protests which sprang up in its wake, and he intervened to prevent them from doing so. From that point on, groups that hated the government were increasingly able to ignore it without having to worry about being shot or bombed by the Kahndaqi military. The actual fighting didn't start until the majority of the country had already decoupled itself from Cairo."

"He was taking over the country."

"Sort of. He was in favour of the government being changed, but he wasn't forcing people to follow him. It's very hard to control an entire country using super powers, even if your powers lend themselves to that. And his don't. But even though he would quite like to run the country, he doesn't have to force himself on them. If there was a presidential election in Kahndaq tomorrow, he'd win a larger majority than any American president for the last two hundred years."

"What happened this weekend?"

"The war was effectively over. The government only held Cairo, and they were dependant on Teth Adom's side for food. Their representatives and Teth Adom himself were in Al-Qawiya in Bialya for a peace conference, basically trying to persuade the heads of the government to go into exile. Then… Someone -we're still not sure who- attacked Shiruta using advanced alien weaponry and combat robots, killing everyone they could see. The total death toll was about two thousand, mostly civilian and including a lot of the people who would have been part of the new government after the civil war ended."

"Do you or the Justice League have any idea who it was?"

"The weapons were almost certainly from a planet called Apokolips. We knew that Bialya had had dealings with them before, but we couldn't specifically prove that they were responsible for this attack."

"How did they get to Shiruta?"

"Mister Miracle and I went over the city with a fine tooth-comb. We think they used a form of spatial portal called a hush tube, but unfortunately we can't tell where it came from. They just don't leave enough of a trace. We built a detection system so that hopefully whoever it was won't be able to try it again, but we don't currently have any way to stop it." I also left quite a lot of my advanced equipment with the local garrison just in case.

"How did Teth Adom react to that?"

"He was furious. He immediately blamed the government and headed to Cairo, where he single-handedly killed every member of it he could find, as well as a substantial number of military personnel. I think at this point everyone who wants to has seen the pictures that were taken in the aftermath. And for everyone who wants superheroes to take a more active role in international events? That is what it would look like if we did. It's not clean and it's not pretty and that's why most of us don't do it."

"What happened next?"

"He knew as well as I did that Bialyan involvement seemed likely. Queen Beena denied everything and asked for a meeting. Both myself and Wonder Woman accompanied him to her palace in Al-Qawiya, me because I was the one who defended Shiruta during the attack and Wonder Woman because one of her many abilities is the ability to tell when someone is lying to her."

"You were there when it happened?"

I nod. "Yes. Queen Beena had a podium set up. I think she was expecting to do the normal press conference thing before the meeting. Adom decided to start the actual meat of the discussion there instead. He shared a number of details about Bialya's actions that hadn't been made public…" I'm not quite sure how to finish this bit. "He'd been declaiming solidly for about three minutes when he suddenly stopped. Queen Beena's metahuman ability is to release a specialised pheromone which made most men and some women extremely suggestible. I checked afterwards and she was definitely using it at the time. The Courage of Montu makes Teth Adom highly resistant to that sort of thing, something that I don't think she knew. He shouted -and again I'm sure you've already seen the footage- 'Treacherous witch!'."

"And then he tore her in half."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Carpe Tempus

18th March
09:26 GMT -7

"Whoooooooohoooooooww!"

Niko shoots past the rooftop with a look of pure and unbridled joy on her face. She isn't a great flier, not yet. This is the first time since the procedure that she's been able to get properly airborne and I'm still half-poised to leap into the air and grab her myself if it looks like she's starting to flag. Plus, I think the lack of a left arm is throwing off her flight profile. More drag on one side.

"Ahh…" Cranius has Otto turn so that he can follow her. He isn't capable of sighing exactly, his respiratory system just doesn't allow him to store enough air for that sort of exhalation. But he is willing to make an effort for my benefit. "It is a wondrous sight, to see her in zhe air like zhis." Otto turns him back towards me as Niko climbs higher into the air. "I zhank you, Grayven. From zhe deepest part of my spirit. Without your knowledge of xenophysiology unt zhis…" Otto holds up the remains of my Nth metal sample. "Remarkable material, such a zhing would never heff been possible."

I wave my right hand dismissively. "Come now Doctor, don't sell yourself short. Without your mastery of metahuman physiology all I could have done is give her an autoimmune disease. Human bodies just aren't designed to make use of Nth metal like that."

"Collaboration. Hm. It is not a zhing which I am used to, but between yourself and my brozher… I zhink I could grow accustomed to it."

Niko dives directly for the rooftop before flipping over a mere five metres up and flapping downwards, the Nth metal swiftly nullifying her downward momentum. "This is amazing!"

"I'm impressed how quickly you've picked it up."

"I'm an Un-Man." She makes an uneven flap, then draws her wings around her as she twists in a spiral.

…

For a moment I'm rendered insensible by the beauty of the sight. She notices as she comes out of the spiral, granting me a more personal smile as she hovers once more. "I wasn't born to do this. I was reborn to do it."

Cranius smiles. "Well said, my dear. Do you.. feel tired? I would not want you to overstress yourself."

She immediately shakes her head. "I feel like I could do this all day." She thinks for a moment. "Maybe another half hour?"

Otto spreads his arms. "Even if zhis were not a validation of everyzhing I heff worked for, I could not deny it to you."

One mighty downward flap and she's gone again, this time heading out over Aberrance. Cranius and I watch her go. Ah, well that's the unquestionably nice part of the visit taken care of. Now… Business.

"How.. is the… Project work going?"

"Eh. We were.. able to conclude our business with zhe Gotham police unt zhe Justice League… Wizhout too badly upsetting our partners in zhe Department of Energy. I am not heppy with how zhings turned out… After zhe.. excitement, zhe network decided to delay… Well. In effect, to cancel. Buuut, such is fate, I suppose. We will recover."

"Made any progress in understanding Arcane's writing?"

"Yes… Somewhat. I believe zhat before zhe year is over I may heff regained zhe ability to uncreate. Unt.. wizh my brozher, several fascinating new avenues of possibility heff opened zhemselves."

"Doctor… You understand, my admiration for the pioneering work you do here is undimmed…"

"But you wish to make some criticism?" He swivels slightly on Otto's shoulders. "Grayven, you are family. Please, if you believe zhat zhere is some way in which our working here could be improved upon, you heff but to speak." His neck pulses. "I will not promise zhat I will agree, but I will listen."

"Thank you. I suppose… As I understand it, your current plan is to go for.. high impact modifications. You want to show… Want people to realise exactly how malleable the Human body is. To get the idea out there into the world that this is something which can happen. In a controlled way. The fact that you can do these things is something of which you are rightly proud. But -and this is my concern- the people who are interested in undergoing this sort of modification are.. a minority. A very small one. And will probably remain so for the foreseeable future."

Cranius is looking thoughtful, but he doesn't speak as I pause.

"Now, if you get a new television deal… Then, twenty, thirty years on… You may start to see wider acceptance. Maybe. Do you know how long you're going to live, Doctor?"

"It is impossible for me to say." His eyes narrow slightly. "You heff some ozher approach you wish to suggest?"

"I think… Look, the Human brain is rigged to see healthy Human bodies as beautiful. I know you don't, and I realise that there's no objective reason to consider the product of evolution as more beautiful than the product of a laboratory, but these are the preconceptions… Hard wired preconceptions we're working against." I pause again. "What do you know about multidrug resistant microbes?"

"I am not a medical doctor, but I read zhe trade magazines. Dependency on antibiotics is slowly but surely breeding a generation of bacteria who no longer have need to fear zhem."

"Only one major pharmaceutical company is even bothering to continue researching new types of antibiotics. The future appears to belong to bacteriophages, viruses which-."

"I know what a bacteriophage is, Grayven. Amusing as zhe idea is, I do not zhink zhat I could create an 'Un-Virus'."

"Right. But could you create an implantable organ that monitored the user's blood and could perform an intelligent filtering operation? Targeting elements that should not be there."

"Perhaps… Yes, I zhink zo." He frowns, deep in thought. "Some sort of addition to zhe endocrine system..? I may even be able to modify zhe pancreas zo zhat-." His eyes widen. "You feel zhat people would be more open to zhe idea of a subtle modification. It benefits zhem, it does not challenge zhem…"

"And it gets your technology out there. Once they've accepted the wedge's thin end, you would have an opening in which you could discuss.. other things. And by that stage-."

"Zhey would already be Un-Men." He hesitates. "I… Intellectually, I understand where you are coming from, but… I do not like it, Grayven. My work here… I pride myself on releasing people's true inner selves. What you are asking, it does not do zhat. It is… Ugk, pandering. To zhe norms of zhe Human flesh."

I shrug expansively. "You work with what you have. You're trying to convince Humans to do something highly counterintuitive. I really think.. a little pandering could help immensely. And hey, once you've got the basics of the organ design down you can hand it off to your subordinates anyway. It's not as if you'll need to install every single one personally." He doesn't look happy. "Consider it this way: the original method you were using was attracting freak show enthusiasts. This? This would attract-" I point at the buildings being occupied by pharmaceutical concerns. "-serious medical researchers and practitioners. If you pull it off, you steal a march on all of those companies who restrict themselves to tinkering chemically with Human bodies. Would you rather feature in National Enquirer… Or New Scientist?"

"Ah, zhe ego. My one weakness. Heh."

"Well? Do you think the idea has legs? Or-" I look around. "-ambulatory tentacles, at least?"

"I… I heard what you heff said in zhe spirit in which it is intended. Haaaaaaaa. I… Do not know. I see zhe reason, but all zhe time I heff in my head zhe idea zhat zhis is not what I am meant to be doing."

He looks away, trying to catch sight of Niko again. Trying to see the physical validation of his preferred form of work. No, she's moved behind one of the buildings.

"I.. will need to discuss zhe matter, with Janus unt with Crassus. Investigate how practical it is, howww.. much of my research can cross over between zhe two streams. From what has been said of our cash flow… I imagine zhat Janus will be in favor of somezhing swiftly marketable. Zhe Atlantean techniques for zhe growing of limbs, perhaps."

"I realise that this is a wretch, but I really think that getting a unique and valuable product out there will spread the Uncorporation name better than another set of Third Generation Un-Men."

"Yes. You are most likely right. But zhis thought does not fill me with happiness."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th March
14:23 GMT -6

Colorado rocky mountain hi-igh!

If the giant grey man standing in the middle of their city park didn't attract the attention of the residents of Denver, the burst of golden light certainly should. Despite what John Denver led me to believe the city which shares his name isn't particularly wild or mountainous. I feel a bit cheated, actually. My smile falters only slightly as two people emerge from the glowing triquetra, rather than the one I was expecting.

"Good afternoon, Zatanna. Orana. Don't.. remember inviting you..?"

"I'm here as her bodyguard."

Zatanna ducks my interrogative eyebrow. Kaaay..? "Is that really necessary?"

"When you aligned yourself with Princess Diana's enemies, it became necessary."

"Oh, come on! You? You're getting pissy at me for killing Klarion? The mass murdering god of chaos?"

"I do not precisely understand why she has taken such exception to that. But she is my princess, and you have greatly disappointed her. No longer will those you have Awakened be permitted to visit you alone or left unsupervised with you."

"Ah." I nod. "Antigone." Should have expected something along these lines, I suppose.

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Your meaning?"

"Are you familiar with the play? Antigone seeks to perform death rites for her deceased brother, contrary to the commandments of her king. He seeks to fulfil his role as bringer of order to the polis by condemning a traitor while she attempts to fulfil her familial duty. Similarly, I have performed a righteous deed but done so in such a way as to insult and alienate the community." I think for a moment. "Only, because we're basically rational people instead of characters in a farcical tragedy we limit ourselves to shouting at each other instead of killing ourselves. I prefer the reality."

"Poetic."

"What exactly does Diana-" Her eyes narrow. "-think-?"

"You will address her by her title."

I pause, taking a breath. I doubt that Diana told her to say that. "What exactly does Wonder Woman think I'm going to do? Zatanna's my friend. They're all my friends. And -even if you're ignoring that- I need their help to understand how the Awakening works on Humans. Harming her gains me nothing. And if I intended to abduct her-" Zatanna raises her eyebrows. "-which I don't, I wouldn't suggest meeting me in a public place. Heck, you wouldn't hear from me at all."

Zatanna raises her eyebrows. "Glad to know you've thought it through."

"It's just obvious." I turn back to Orana. "And you're still carrying the sword I made for you, as well as wearing the armour I made for you. That's far easier to sabotage if.. I.. was.. inclined…" Yeah, I'm just going to stop there. "How did the essay go down?"

"It went… Well, actually." Something appears to be bothering her. "How do you know when someone's turned you evil?"

Um. "I suppose it would depend on what moral system you were using." I turn aside and gesture at the path with my ring hand. "Shall we?"

Zatanna nods, and starts walking with me in the direction I indicated. Orana keeps pace, but stays a little behind us so that she can keep me in full view, right hand hovering over the sword I made for her. I could make a sarcastic comment about women walking behind their menfolk, but… No. Now is the time for subverting expectations. Being reasonable, being nice.

"I don't really believe in 'evil' myself. My own moral system is essentially utilitarian, so… I suppose if I started acting wantonly in defiance of the general good I would consider myself.. bad..? Though if I were inclined to do that I doubt I would care. Why do you ask?"

"You've helped our… The whole team. Then you blew up at the Justice League. I'm.. sort of waiting for your recruitment pitch."

I look at her incredulously. "What, recruiting you for Team Evil?"

She shakes her head. "I'm… I never thought killing someone was the right thing to do. I understand.. sometimes, there's no other way. But… I think you were right. And I can't… I don't know why I think that. I.. don't think I should."

Hm. "Zatanna, I don't practise your religion. The Source exists, but saying that's like saying gravity exists. I'm not convinced the thing's even purposive. I can't answer for the failings of a being you want to believe is omnipotent. My opinion is that you're maturing mentally, moving away from deontological ethics, believing things you've been told that you should believe, on to something you're reasoning out for yourself. Something that matches your experience of the world. In terms of everything you value you know Klarion deserved to die. You've just got this nonsense 'parent knows best' stuff stuck in your head, and until it's fully gone you're going to feel a little off."

"So you're not trying to turn me to the Dark Side?"

"If I was going to do that…" I look up into the sky for a moment. "I wouldn't have told you how old I was,-" She blushes slightly. "-and I either wouldn't have killed Klarion or I'd have done it quietly. I wouldn't gain anything by revealing myself." I lean a little closer. "Of course, if you want to join Team Evil..?"

She chuckles and shakes her head. "I.. don't think so."

"Because if you do, I can probably lay my hands on the regulation leather and chain mail brassiere at-" Her eyes widen and her cheeks colour. "-fairly short notice."

"No. No. No." She exhales sharply and gives her head a small shake. "Why exactly are we in Colorado? Do you.. live here now?"

"No, I've been living on Ceres for the past few days. Just as a temporary thing." I continue walking down the path along the bank of Denver City Park's Ferril Lake. "I plan on moving into more permanent accommodation later today. It'll be a bit of a fixer-upper, but I need the practice fabricating things with my yellow ring."

I really do. Turns out that working on inanimate objects with a yellow ring is much harder than building with orange.

"So… Um… You.. work for Sinestro now."

I raise my eyebrows. "Of course I don't work for Sinestro. That would be insane."

"Green Lantern seemed to be pretty sure-."

"You know power rings can have different voices. The orange one sounds kind of like the cyborg from Tiberian Sun, Guy's sounds like Mister Rogers…"

"You.. set your ring to sound like Sinestro?"

"No."

"Then-?"

"That's the default setting." She looks at me cautiously, trying to work out how serious I'm being. "Look, when I went to Earth Fifty, I didn't have any of my usual equipment with me other than Father Box, right? They killed their version of Sinestro years ago, and his ring was being kept in a secure warehouse. Given that I desperately needed it to save their planet, I helped myself."

She looks a little relieved. "You're not working with Sinestro."

"Sort of. The ring's got a copy of Sinestro's memories and the AI appears to have been patterned after his mind. Exactly how much of Sinestro's actually in there I can't tell, but he never met this universe's Sinestro."

She exhales in frustration. "If you're not working for Sinestro why did you let Green Lantern think you were?!"

I grin. "Did you see his face!?"

"Grayven!"

"Oh, come on! That was funny!"

"That was not funny!"

She's smiling, though. I turn away, checking the road for traffic. Yep, quite a bit. A moment's concentration on that horrible moment as the car tries to screech to a halt and you can't get out of the way and I'm able to generate a glowing yellow bridge over it. "How come your father's letting you out like this?"

She hesitates for a moment before getting on the bridge, testing the first step with her right foot before following me on. "He was pretty unhappy. Then, he put Nabu on and Nabu told him about everything Klarion had done before you killed him. Now… I think he agrees, that it was the right thing to do. But why do you always have to antagonise people like this?"

"I provoke people in order to force them to recognise their own contradictions. None of the League wanted Klarion alive. Including Diana. They just wanted to sugarcoat it, or hide it away. No. I will not indulge them. I will show people what our work really involves and I will look to them to make an intelligent decision, rather than palming it off onto their gods."

"Gods?"

"Heroes… Whatever." "Yep."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th March
14:27 GMT -6

Beneath us, traffic slows as people stare at my construct. Sinestro, monitor and let me know if anyone's about to crash.

If I must, Corpsman.

"Why the Light?"

"Fair question. The Light… Have identified a real problem, but are trying to address it in supervillain ways. But, with Klarion dead… I think… I think I might be able to persuade them to alter the way they work a little. I mean, within limits, they're certainly not going to become 'nice guys'. You know, retarget their energies a bit."

"You.. do remember that time they mind controlled the entire Justice League?"

"Yes, and what did they get out of it? Earned themselves a place on China's shit list as well as ours. I'm.. going to try and make them see that."

She looks away from me, taking in our environment as we step off the bridge. I'm tempted to make it start evaporating from the back so that Orana has to hurry… No. "Are we going somewhere for my check-up?"

I shake my head. "You don't need a check-up. You're fine. The magic is integrating perfectly into your expanded metaphysique, and according to Father Box it's going to keep doing that."

"So, why did you want to see-" She glances back at Orana. "-us?"

"Conversation isn't reason enough?" I smile winsomely at her. She's not buying it. "While I was on Earth Fifty, I met your alter ego. She was able to speed up the rate at which I heal by dumping raw magic into me. It occurred to me that if we had a device that could do that… Some sort of mana siphon or infuser… Then I and everyone else who's gone through the Awakening could power themselves up faster. I want to commission you to design and build it. Obviously I'll pay you for your work-."

"Hey, whow." She shakes her head. "That's.. way outside what I know how to do."

"Zatanna, you're the New Goddess of Magic. This is your domain. This is what you're for. Unless you'd rather get a weekend job… Delivering papers.. or.. pouring coffee? I've culled a few ideas from some Atlantean books, but it isn't my area…"

"I'll.. think about it." She looks around again. "Where exactly are you taking us?"

"I'm taking you to meet my new landlady. She lives in a nearby old people's home, just around-. Ah! There we are." Zatanna falls behind a little as I push open the doors and head on past the front desk towards the assisted living wing.

The receptionist looks up in shock, but gets himself together after a few moments. "Excuse me? Who are you?"

I stop dead and stare at him incredulously. "Seriously? I'm huge and grey, who am I going to pretend to be?"

"Ah, right. I mean, are you here to see someone?"

"Yes."

"I don't remember you visiting before. Are you family?"

"No, just nosy." I start towards the door again.

"W-! You can't just go barging in on people!"

I chuckle. "I would be fascinated to see how you intend to enforce that." I push the door open and stride through. Now, whereabouts-. Yes, there it is. The door bangs again as Zatanna runs through after me. She draws breath to speak, so I decide to pre-empt her. "Do you know what's very scary?"

She looks around for a moment. "Getting old? Dying?"

"Bit boring. I was thinking about Alzheimer's Disease. Consider: in the early stages, you're compos mentis enough to know what's happening. You forget a thing, and you know you've forgotten something, but it's just not there. A thing that was in your head for so long… How to dress yourself. Where a room in your house is. As it progresses, everyday objects and people.. become strange and unfamiliar. People you've known for years… Your own children. You can't recognise them anymore. And then.. you get brief moments, where your memories and thoughts line up for once and you're briefly yourself again. And you know it's going to go, that in a few moments all the 'you' is just going to dribble out your ears… That must be absolutely terrifying."

"Yes, it's a horrible disease. But what does that have to do-?"

I shove open a door and glower at the frail old woman sitting in a comfy chair in the corner. "Hey June! We've never met! I'm big and scary! Rarr!"

The seventy four year old Doctor June Robbins quails at my appearance. Excellent! I've learned that one of the great things about a yellow power ring is that I can use it to heal people I don't give a monkey's about. No personal investment required. Just fear. And as a woman who these days is afraid of just about everything even slightly out of the ordinary because her failing brain just can't cope with it any longer, Dr Robbins is giving me exactly what I need.

I stick out my right hand, a yellow beam linking my ring to the cranium of the last surviving Challenger of the Unknown. And therefore, owner of the Challenger Mountain facility. There are a lot fewer secret mountain bases around than you'd think, and after living in Mount Justice anything else would feel like a downgrade. I monitor the ring's progress as it uses her fear of everything to repair her surviving neurons, add in new ones to the degraded areas of her brain and tinker a little with her DNA to make sure this can't happen again. Oh, and to give her a general health boost as well, the years during which she's been here haven't been kind to her formerly athletic frame. She won't get her whole mind back; I can't recreate memories that are just gone. But she will get her self back.

I continue walking across the room as her fear starts to drop off and her eyes focus as her alertness increases. Brain… Yes, that looks done to me. I shut off the beam and kneel down in front of her as behind me Zatanna lowers her hand slightly where she had a golden triquetra ready to blast me. And Orana lowers her sword slightly, which is nice of her. Doctor Robbins' eyes unfocus for a moment and she blinks, probably trying to get her reconstructed brain back into working order.

"Hello there. My name's Grayven. Back with us?"

"Yes. I… Am."

"Glad to hear it. Do you know where you are?"

She looks around. "A home for old people. How long..?"

"You've been here about eight years, too doolally to look after yourself at all for about five of them."

"Grayven!"

I look back at Zatanna. "You don't join the Challengers of the Unknown because you want life sugar-coated for you."

"And I doubt you fixed my brain out of the goodness of your heart."

I grin, my attention focused on her. "Sophoncy to suspicion in ten seconds. You should give classes!"

"I outlived my closest friends that way. I'm not sure it was a total positive, but it got to be a habit."

"I fixed your brain because I want to rent your mountain. Fix it up, use it as a base. And a home."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to finish me off and buy it from the estate?"

"Probably. But then I'd lose the pleasure of your company. And the chance to study the most interesting thing about you of all."

"My glamor model looks?"

"Your immunity to destiny."

She looks at me for a moment. "Okay, sure. But you have to run everything by me and I'm going to be living on site. I think I had to sell my home to afford a place here."

"You did. But it's no problem."

"And…" She looks down at her shapeless, easy-to-clean apparel. "Get me some clothes. I look like an old person."

"You are an old person."

"That's no excuse." She waves at her wardrobe. "Go on."

I raise my ring again. Still plenty of fear left over from her narrow escape. The yellow beam hits her in the chest, taking the clothing I prepared out of subspace. Pale grey cargo trousers, dark grey work boots, white vest and a vaguely Star Trek looking jacket in purple with grey trim and with the Challenger's hourglass insignia in place of the rank pips at the neck. "Any good?"

"Mm." She looks it over, then shuffles to the edge of her chair and cautiously pushes herself upright. "I think I can make it work."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th March
16:41 GMT -4

"His Excellency will see you now."

I nod at the secretary- "Thank you." -as I get to my feet. I managed to arrange this meeting a while ago, but in light of what's been happening in Kahndaq I rather imagine that things are going to get somewhat hijacked. I don't have any real contacts in the Russian government, but I have spoken briefly to Mr Churkin at a couple of diplomatic functions. As good a place to start as any, I suppose.

I follow the secretary a short way down the corridor, then into an outer office. As one might expect from the sixth richest country in the world, it's pretty plush. The secretary holds out a hand to stop me as he approaches the door to the Ambassador's office, before walking up to the door, knocking politely and opening it slightly. "Orange Lantern to see you, your Excellency."

"Yes, yes. Show him in."

The secretary pushes the door the whole way open and steps into the room, holding it open for me. Best foot forwards… The ambassador rises to his feet as I enter the room. "Orange Lantern, good to see you." He holds his right hand out over his impressively robust looking desk. I walk over to the near side and reach out to shake hands, noticing that his eyes dip momentarily to the glowing ring on my right ring finger. "Please, take a seat."

"Thank you, your Excellency." I lower myself into the visitor seat as he sits back down.

"The Russian Federation wishes to extend its condolences to the people of Kahndaq, regarding the Shiruta Massacre. Have you been able to find anything else out about where they came from?"

"I'm afraid not." I shake my head. "Has my initial report been forwarded to you yet?" He gestures to a folder on his desk with his right hand. "The biological self destruct system left next to nothing for me to analyse. There's.. some hair that might have come from one of the attackers, but at that level of detail it might just as well have come from a tourist. The hush tubes could have come from anywhere in the galaxy."

He nods. "That is unfortunate. Were you able to recover examples of their technology?"

"Yes. Critical systems self destructed, but we were able to collect up some armour fragments."

"I am aware that the Justice League likes to use American companies for technological analysis, but we do have our own laboratories. If there is enough to go around..?"

"The Kahndaqi government is keeping possession for now, pending guidance from the Security Council on the status of Teth Adom's government. Frankly, Adom's been too busy trying to get the country organised to take any further action in that regard."

"How is that going?"

"Slowly. The attack killed most people who were in a position to join the national government, and Adom's own attack on Cairo killed people.. he'd been planning to pardon in exchange for staying in their jobs. The de facto situation is that virtually all power has been devolved to the governorates while Adom himself speaks for the country as a whole. We're hoping that they'll be able to get something a bit more stable in place in the next couple of weeks."

He nods. "I wish you luck, but the Russian government will wait for that before making any strong statements either in favour or against. I doubt that we're the only nation concerned about a superhuman taking over-" My mouth starts to open. "-though we are aware of the level of self restraint Teth Adom had been exercising prior to last week's events. We would only be seriously concerned if he continued to prosecute aggressive wars against his neighbours."

"He has no further plans to attack anyone."

"It is not his plans that worry me. In your interviews you've been at pains to state that you don't know for certain whether or not Queen Bee was responsible. With no clear trail of evidence Teth Adom killed over two hundred people, one of them a head of state. That doesn't speak well for regional stability."

"Whether she was behind the attack or not, she was trying to affect his mind." I shake my head. "As long as no one else invades his country or tries mind controlling him, I really don't think he's going to pick a fight with anyone."

He nods. "And what of whoever it is directing Apokoliptian soldiers and combat robots?"

"The Justice League is working on a way to detect hush tubes, at least approximately. I think Batman also plans to request additional funding to expand the zeta tube network so that they can respond more quickly in the event of a future attack."

"I understand that you provided the Kahndaqi military with weapons from the Justice League's arsenal. I haven't been briefed on that policy. Could you.. enlighten me?"

"Not.. really. I'm not a member of the Justice League. I believe that the League's policy is that they don't provide governments with weapons, but the weapons I provided were my personal property. I lent them out to assist in fighting against an alien attack. I know where they all are and I'll be taking them back once things have calmed down. For reasons I'm sure you can understand, I'm reluctant to upgrade the weaponry of national militaries, though I have given weapons to some police forces in areas with high metahuman crime rates. Obviously, if alien incursions become a regular occurrence I may have to reconsider that."

"Is there some reassurance the Russian Federation could give you about their use in order to persuade you to change your mind?"

"Certainly. If you can push the formation of a unified planetary defence force through the Security Council, I will be happy to provide them with whatever weapons they want."

He chuckles. "I.. don't think that will be possible."

I smile ruefully. "No, I didn't think it would be."

He pauses for a moment, then pulls a new dossier across the desk. "Now, on to your request to move your 'Ice Fortress' down through the Bering Strait. I will be clear, the Russian government doesn't think that you are planning to use it for intelligence gathering. Aside from anything else, if you wanted to observe our country there's no reason why you couldn't just do what the Americans do and monitor us from orbit."

"Thank you."

"Unfortunately, the answer is still no." I give him a look of mystification. "I'm afraid that the authority to authorise this rests with the Director of Defence Research and he is a very suspicious man."

The chap I spoke to for a few minutes when the League got mind controlled. Not exactly chummy. "Couldn't your President overrule him?"

"Yes, but that would be tantamount to asking for his resignation, and that isn't something he's prepared to do."

"Okay. Is there some way I could persuade him or am I going to have to fly it over Canada?"

"There is a matter he thinks you could assist with. When the Justice League's charter was submitted for Security Council approval, the Russian Federation voted in favour despite most of the members being American." He shrugs. "Better to have some control than none. We rather assumed that it would continue to be an American organisation. Then we found out that a member of the Great Ten had joined."

I can see where this is going. "Accomplished Perfect Physician is only a member of the Great Ten on paper."

"Nonetheless, China has one of their metahumans in the Justice League now. And I understand that you were instrumental in making that happen."

"I… Assembled some information on candidates that.. might have otherwise gone unnoticed."

"The Russian Federation would.. appreciate it, if you could bring one or two of our people to the League's attention in a similar way." He watches my face for a moment. "Now, we're not going to try and force them to take Steel Wolf or Proletariat or anyone like that. We're only going to suggest people we feel could adapt to the League's way of working."

Ahh… I suppose there's no harm in looking. "League membership isn't in my gift. But, if a candidate has the ability, I don't mind taking a look at them and -possibly- giving them my recommendation."

He smiles. "I'm glad to hear it. Here-" He picks up a ring binder and holds it out to me. "-is the full service history of Sergeant Dmitri Pushkin, as well as the technical specifications of the armour he would be using. I am confident that you will find him satisfactory."

He stands, which I assume is my signal to leave. I get up and take hold of the binder. "Thank you, your Excellency. I'll let you know when I've finished reviewing it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Siberian Special Defence Area
19th March
06:29 GMT +12

Sergeant Pushkin stood to attention outside the Director's office, trying to keep himself from sweating too much. Not something that was usually a problem in this part of Siberia, but when the person who'd been in charge of Russia's special projects for as long as anyone could remember asked to speak to you -and with no prior warning- you'd have to be some kind of robot not to be a little nervous. Dmitri honestly didn't think that he'd ever even heard the Director speak before. A few times he thought he'd seen him watching the tests when his unit flew around in the force armour suits, but that was about the closest he'd ever got. Even then, the way the man just stood there in a jacket and scarf while the suit's systems struggled to cope with the freezing cold and the snow had been more than a little disturbing.

Of course, there were rumours about that. Ever since he'd heard that the Director's hulking bodyguard wasn't just some sort of natural giant, but was actually the Great Patriotic War hero Steel Wolf himself, he couldn't help but start to wonder whether or not the Director was entirely Human either. And exactly how many of the other men on the base were secretly Red Shadows-. No, hang on, they were supposed to be called something else now, weren't they? The post-Communist rebranding had tried to change a lot of things but he'd grown up hearing of the great deeds of the People's Heroes and most of it hadn't really stuck in his head.

Anyway. He'd been a soldier of Mother Russia for nearly twenty years now, and in a country busy rediscovering Orthodox Christianity he'd remained stubbornly atheist. He liked to think he was a practical man. Superstition… Worrying about things outside your control? Why give yourself ulcers? And even if he had done something to irritate the Director -and he didn't think he had- what was the worst that could happen? He was already in Siberia. Where would they send him for punishment? Detroit? No. It would be a wrench getting thrown off the program after all this time, but he wouldn't exactly tear up if he was sent back to Khabarovsk. Might get a chance to see more of Belina and the children that way.

"Sergeant. You are prompt." Dmitri snapped out of his internal reverie to realise that the Director had already walked past him and that one of the few men on the base taller than him -to say nothing of hugely stronger than him and.. those things he did in the Ukraine…- was now glowering at him from a metre away. "You will follow me."

"Yes, Director." Dmitri didn't quite quick-march after the Director, but it was pretty close. Is he annoyed? He doesn't sound.. significantly annoyed. Maybe he was one of those people who sounded annoyed all of the time? Discipline was pretty good on the base, compared to a lot of places he'd served before. Rule of the Grandfathers wasn't tolerated, and the order preventing officers using conscripts as servants was harshly enforced and professional NCOs like himself got the respect due to them. And now he was thinking about how it was enforced, and the frozen corpse hung up by its wrists he'd seen next to the road when he first arrived.

Get a grip, Sergeant Pushkin.

"Sergeant. What is your assessment of the readiness level of the force armour suits?"

"I would say that the standard suit is as ready as it is going to get, Director. I am.. not as familiar with the work on the advanced suits, but from the field trials I have witnessed they appear to be fully functional as well."

"They are. You are correct in both cases. In the case of the standard force armour suits we have waited only so that we can build up a reserve of sufficient suits to equip a meaningful number of soldiers. In less than a month Second Platoon will be dispatched to begin training regular formations in their use. In keeping with current orthodoxy, these formations will consist entirely of contract soldiers. Professionals like yourself, and with a sensible proportion of commissioned and non-commissioned officers. They will be ready for field deployment in battalion strength by the end of the year."

Dmitri glanced back as they passed a checkpoint with barely a nod. They were heading into the part of the facility housing the advanced materials laboratory. As an NCO he'd been to the engineering areas on many occasions, taking part in working out the remaining kinks in the suit's design and learning how to conduct field repairs on it. It was a rugged design, but you needed to have some idea what you were doing. He'd never been here before.

"Director, I do not have clearance-."

"As of two hours ago, you do." The Director didn't look around as he responded, a soldier up ahead scanning his pass through a security reader and opening the door as the Director reached it. "The advanced suits are nearly ready for deployment. Unlike the standard suit, they will never be mass produced. Powerful as they are, they simply require too much highly skilled maintenance to keep them in good operational order during long field deployments. To say nothing of the financial cost. Those soldiers here with the highest assessment scores will be assigned to a new unit and drilled extensively in their use. From that point on, entry will be by standardised testing on an as-needed basis."

Dmitri took a look around the partly assembled advanced suits as the technicians and engineers worked on them. His attention was drawn to an odd-looking device partially concealed by blast shields towards one side of the workshop area. Of course, that was the other rumour, wasn't it? That some of the technologies in the suits came from extraterrestrial sources. Dmitri liked to think that he was a fairly patriotic man, but he would admit that he had assumed that the country with the first suits of military force armour would be America and not Russia. It just seemed more.. in character. Of course, anyone who had ever flown the standard suit would quickly agree that uncomfortably rugged design was about as Russian as it got, but on the handful of occasions he'd been assigned to fly an advanced suit it had none of those problems. It was what he'd imagined actually having super powers would be like. Everyone on the base looked forward to their turns to fly those. Sadly, his ratings would be unlikely to be high enough to qualify for the unit. Ah, besides, those sorts of things should go to younger men anyway.

"There is also a third type of suit." Dmitri blinked in surprise. That was news. "As of two hours ago you have been removed from your position in command of your unit and transferred to the team working on it. It is technologically reliable, but contains many components we cannot readily replicate."

Another, larger security door. This time the Director placed his palm on the reader to make the locking mechanism release.

"You will be trained in the use of this suit. It is our intention that within a year, you will join the Justice League as its first Russian member."

…

"Director? I… Are you-?"

The Director turned his head to look directly at Dmitri, his lips turned permanently slightly down at the corners and his eyes stern and foreboding. Dmitri nodded and looked away. Of course he's sure, he's the Director! But.. the.. Justice League?

The Director led the way through, into another workshop. The materials here… Yes, they really didn't look like anything from Earth. "There are better pilots than you. Though not so many that you would prove an embarrassment. There are many more ardent patriots. In fact, given your literary, musical and cinematic tastes, I would say that you are about as American as it is possible to get while still possessing a Russian passport. But that itself is the reason why you have been selected. That, and your faculty for the English language." The Director nodded to one of the researchers, who in turn gestured to his subordinates. "While you are serving with the Justice League, you will be outside normal chains of command. Though you will be representing Russia, you will not be micromanaged. We cannot allow any hint that you are serving national interests contrary to the aims of the League. You are a personable man. Make friends. You may also be promoted, most likely to a commissioned officer rank. Some parts of the public relations side of things have not yet been finalised."

Dmitri made an effort to get his thoughts in order. "Thank you, Director. May I.. ask a question?"

"You are not an idiot, Sergeant. You will ask more than one."

"You said that we could not replicate the suit? Is.. it..?"

"Several of the parts were salvaged from alien spacecraft. In fact, most of it was extracted in pieces to allow the craft's automatic repair system to replace the components we removed."

"Did it.. come from Tunguska?"

The Director doesn't smile, but the degree to which he grimaces decreases very slightly. "Tunguska. Whenever I want to distract the attention of spies or conspiracy theorists I arrange to have crates with 'Tunguska' printed on the side shipped around the country to attract their attention. No. Russia has had any number of encounters with aliens. Anything we can salvage ends up here."

"What does Russia gain from this? If I am not going to be receiving orders..?"

"Firstly, there is the obvious matter of prestige. Relying on a team of Americans to defend us does not sit well with a great many people. Even worse when the third most notable member of the League is from a country whose total population is smaller than that of a mid-sized Russian city. Secondly, the suit is designed to resemble the other two models while being considerably more powerful. The more people see the suit in action, the more they will believe that the other models are capable of similar feats."

"Thirdly, it has come to our attention that the League has a youth team. And that they have used them at least once to bypass the legal restrictions on the Justice League's own actions. This has caused some disquiet in the Kremlin. Once you have joined, you will be able to recommend a person for this youth team. We have a candidate in mind. Fourthly, telemetry from your suit during Justice League fights will allow us to gain a better understanding of how the suits function in real combat than we could get merely using them against local targets. "

Dmitri nodded. This was… What was the English phrase? His.. socks were blown off? The Justice League! And a promotion… Well, the Americans had a Captain, it made sense… "I understand, Director."

The Director nods in return. "We will meet daily to discuss the situation as it develops. But for now-" The Director stops and inclines his head slightly towards a reinforced platform. "-it is time for you to be fitted for your suit."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th March
09:45 GMT +3

"Absolutely not."

I blink in surprise as Captain Philippus steps between myself and Queen Hippolyta. "I'm.. sorry?" She looks distinctly annoyed and.. Queen Hippolyta doesn't look particularly pleased either. Not sure exactly why asking to use the Lasso on her elicited so strong a response. "I.. apologise if I've caused offence, but I.. don't understand what the problem is."

Queen Hippolyta lays her right hand on Philippus' shoulder, pulling her back slightly. "He wouldn't know." I give them both a look of polite puzzlement. "Though Alkyone would." She frowns at me. "I am.. surprised, that she asked this."

"She didn't specifically ask this, but I've been trying to work out what sort of level of proof she'd want and how I could get it… And what would have to have happened in order for her to be right, and using the Lasso on you seems like the most reliable way to start. I don't.. mean to imply that I don't think you're honest or something…" I switch my gaze from one to the other. A shallow empathic scan isn't showing me anything beyond mild irritation and I don't particularly want to go deeper than that. "If it's the use of the Lasso that's bothering you, there are lesser truth compulsion magics. She just won't be as inclined to accept them."

"Paul, has your education in our history included the events leading up to our exile here?"

"Yes, of course."

"Was the Lasso mentioned at any point?"

I look down at the ground, trying to remember. It wasn't, but was there something in the comics about it? "I don't.. think so..? Is this some sort of cultural thing no one's told me about yet? Diana didn't say anything when Kaldur tied me up with it."

Philippus returns to her default 'watchful' state. Crisis averted, I think. I study Queen Hippolyta's face in the hope of getting a better idea of exactly what the problem is. She looks thoughtful for a moment. "After Herakles broke our truce and led his soldiers in the conquest of the Old City, he chose to parade me before my subjects bound in the Lasso as a way of humiliating me and crushing our will to resist."

"I'm so terribly sorry."

She waves it off with her right hand. "It was over three thousand years ago, and I doubt that my daughter would have thought to detail the events precisely." She takes a deep, calming breath. "But, please understand: I am extremely reluctant to be bound by any man in such a fashion again."

Philippus frowns. "What great truth was this supposed to reveal?"

"Alkyone asked that I not reveal the specifics. In the.. generality, the Lasso can -I'm told- be used to erase false memories and restore the true ones they replaced."

Hippolyta nods. "She believes that my mind has been altered?"

"Um. Are you ordering me to tell you, or are you just thinking out loud?"

"Why do you ask?"

"She asked me not to tell people, and.. it may impact my ability to investigate if people become aware of exactly what I'm doing. When I told her that if you ordered me to I would tell you she seemed to accept that."

"Is.. this essential?"

"No, not at the moment. There's at least one other avenue of investigation I can pursue first. Though I'm not entirely sure that it's less disruptive."

They look at each other for a moment. Hippolyta closes her eyes and murmurs something I don't quite hear as Philippus visibly takes a deep breath. Oh, come on!

"What exactly are you planning this time, Paul?"

"I need to go to Tartarus." As a woman of over three thousand years, Philippus has got quite good at schooling her features. "As I understand it, entering the Underworld while still alive involved walking through the Necropolis, down a rather lengthy flight of stairs-."

Philippus raises her right eyebrow. "And treating politely with Lord Hades. Without overturning what stability remains between the gods after your previous actions."

Aside from a brief confrontation over two thousand years ago when the Amazons changed their funeral rituals without consulting him first, this version of Hades has far better relations with the Amazons than the version from Justice League Animated. "I think I can manage."

"Forgive my scepticism."

"No, seriously, I've been planning this. I've got-" Various items begin precipitating out of subspace. "-perfumed oils, foodstuffs unknown to the ancient Greeks, technological devices including but not limited to musical instruments and recordings, books on magic theory and practice, a couple of the smaller type of Dolmen Gate, and.. you know… There's always cash. And Diana's been tutoring me on the normal way of speaking to the gods. Though I should point out that so far the gods I've spoken to have responded pretty well to my way of doing things and so maybe the normal isn't all that great after all."

Queen Hippolyta takes another steadying breath. "I strongly suggest trying it first."

"Rightyho."

"Are the preparations for the theatre troupe visit complete?"

"The political side is sorted, and theatre side is as organised as it can get until Clio can speak to the people there herself. Donna's taking questions on American society and dress now."

"And you aren't assisting her?"

"She was.. talking about certain.. female specific issues, that I don't know enough about to have any useful input on." Hippolyta nods in sympathetic understanding.

Amazons may have slightly more relaxed attitudes to nudity than I'm used to, but I still felt somewhat off about hanging around while they experimented with western clothing. And Donna most definitely doesn't share their attitudes. Amazons do have chest bindings -if they didn't they'd find sports a good deal more uncomfortable than they do- but bras in the sense that I'm used to are largely unknown. Same with knickers. Loincloths just aren't the same, and most Amazons don't wear anything under their chitons.

I think I need a girlfriend.

"If your Majesty will excuse me, I will begin my journey."

"Gods be with you, Paul."

I bow, then turn away and rise into the air, heading for the entrance to the necropolis.

I know the Hierarchy. I have companionship, but I can't deny that I'm feeling a bit more libidinous these days than I used to. As well as more confident in my own appeal. I'm.. just really not sure how to go about acquiring one. Lying about my age hasn't done me any favours there, the Amazons conceptualise gender relations radically different from what I'm used to and.. most of the women I know have other issues associated with them. I didn't get involved with Holly and Karon for that reason, but I'm starting to wonder if that was really the right decision. Maybe if we'd talked about it more first, rather than me running off to ask Mister Queen? Jade gets out of prison in just over a week, and there's the Spring Dionysia coming up here on Themyscira. That was one of the traditional times for men and women to get together in Old Themyscira and Kon and I are both invited… I can feel myself hesitating, concern about unknown outcomes holding me back.

But I really think I've got to start going for it. Otherwise I could wake up one morning as a still single three hundred year old and I certainly don't want that.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th March
09:51 GMT +3

It's got to be magic.

Amazon stonemasons are good, but this is an island. I'm well under sea level here and there's none of the signs of seepage that I expected. The air isn't even damp. I can't see any water extraction devices but however they've managed it rainwater doesn't appear to be getting in either. I could.. test it, have the ring transmute some water and see what happens to it… No. That's not appropriate. I can just ask them about it later.

My guide turns her head to look at me as we continue down the stone corridor. "Few of my sisters come here any longer. Fewer still would even consider the journey you are about to make."

"And I can't imagine there's a great deal of competition for your job either, Thana."

"Hm. True." Like virtually all Amazons it's impossible to tell her age by looking at her. Since she doesn't have the look of seniority that those who came here by boat have I'd.. guess that she was born on the island, but beyond that it's impossible to say. I wonder if all Amazons know how old all other Amazons are, or if even with three thousand years to get to know one another there are still people they just don't know that well. "The effect it had on the minds of my predecessors has rather put my sisters off. But that was a foolish tradition in any case."

"Yeah, how did that even get started? Your priestesshood can't have been doing thousand-year tours of duty in the Old City."

"It was felt at the time that -given how many had died during the war and in the escape- that some form of grand offering to the God of the Dead was the appropriate course of action. These catacombs are larger than any other temple on the island, larger even than those of the five. In the Old City it wasn't unusual for those of us who served Hades to spend weeks in isolation in the crypts…" She returns her attention to the passageway. "We had just been granted immortality, or at least the next best thing. I am sure that at the time agreeing a period of service of a thousand years sounded perfectly sensible."

"Are you a necromancer?"

She nods, slowly. "Lord Hades has granted me certain insights. Donna once told me that in the works of fiction of Man's World, necromancers are depicted as being able to conjure corpses and shades to do their bidding."

"It's hard to power game the ability to merely speak to the dead. Sort of an NPC class skill." Her eyebrows rise slightly. "Can you do those things?"

She shakes her head. "I am not the ruler of the dead. If this holy place was attacked, Lord Hades would most likely permit me to call some of my fallen sisters back into the living world to defend it, but I do not simply animate bones to serve my own needs." That fits with what Io told me about her metalwork. "I can speak with the dead, and that is a skill I prefer. In former times, I would have been the first person the guards called upon in the event of a violent death. Even now, my sisters do occasionally call upon my services to speak with their departed friends and kin."

"Has Had-. Has Lord Hades said anything about what I'm doing? The new pregnancies and the expanded contact with the outside world?"

"He has." She smiles. "But that is for him to discuss with you when you see him."

"So… He is alright with me seeking an audience?"

"I would not be guiding you if he were not."

Fair enough. "Are you able to speak to any dead, or just the dead who worshipped the Olympians in life?"

"The dead of Greece are easier, certainly, but Lord Hades has permitted me to treat with other death gods. It is not something I do frequently. There is little cause for it."

"Does that include monotheistic religions?"

She looks a little uncomfortable as we approach the huge fortified door which I can only assume is the entry point to the Underworld. "No. The rulers of the Silver City jealously guard their flocks. I still have burns on my shoulder from their rejection."

"Shouldn't those have healed? Usually Themyscira's blessings-."

"Yes. I believe they are making a point. Still, it was a useful reminder that not all gods are as merciful as ours."

Oh, snap! Take that, Abraham!

She stops just before the door and turns fully to face me. "Ordinarily at this point, I would warn one of my sisters against the perils of the Underworld. However, in your case, I imagine that such a warning is entirely unwarranted. Between your raw power and your warding tattoos I doubt that you will be troubled by anything.. in the outer parts, at least."

"Okay." I wait for her to open it. Nothing happens. "Um..?" I point at the door with my right forefinger.

"I'm afraid that you have to open it yourself."

Ring scan's not showing anything. Arcane boundary thing? I doubt that I'm going to be going under the Earth physically. Just have to hope that the magics of the place still work on me. Ah, right. I send my Spell Eater into subspace. Hm. There's probably some big death-related metaphor here but I'm just going to try shoving…

Huh.

That was easier than I though it would be. Barely took any effort at all.

"Okay, I'm off. I'll try and be back before take-off." I walk through the opening and start down the steps. Braziers of ghostly white light are attached to the rough-hewn walls and the steep steps are cut directly into the rocks. I wonder..? I stop a few steps down and turn back to look at the upright part.

"Having second thoughts?"

"No, we've just got this expression where I'm from: 'The road to Hell is paved with good intentions'. There's a recurring joke about it being literally true, rather than just a metaphor for snowballing moral failings. I know that the Underworld is all of the Greek afterlife and that it's neither Hell nor a real Hell-equivalent. I just thought it would be amusing."

"I'm afraid that the masons who made this corridor would not have heard of that. And would probably be offended by the suggestion that they do anything so tawdry with so holy a site."

"Right, yeah. I suppose-."

"Those are further in."

I squint at her, but her poker face is impenetrable. I think that was an off-the-cuff, but I will be checking stones in the general vicinity of Tartarus proper. Turning back around, I carry on down the stairs. Ring, monitor our surroundings. I want to know when things start getting properly strange.

Compliance.

Can't see anything through the rocks. Can't see anything in front of me apart from the steps immediately around me and the twinkling lights in the distance. And.. that was the door behind me closing. Hm. I think this is supposed to be intimidating, but to be honest, after everything I've gone through recently it's a little dull.

Unable to detect Themyscira.

Would it be alright if I flew down? No, that's probably not a good idea.

…

Pffffffff.

Okay, absolutely no one I know who has died would have ended up here. No one I know well has died on this Earth, the Kahndaqis would have gone to the Silver City… Not sure where Missus Gordon-Hewitt would have gone.

…

I don't remember there being much Greek stuff in her house.

That could get weird.

…

How long's this going to take?

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th March
12:05 GMT +3

Not.. moaning. It's a long way down to the Underworld.

Clearly.

I'd been hearing blowing wind for quite a while, but it isn't until the tunnel I'd been walking down leads me out onto what looks like a simple platform of carved stone blocks that I get any sort of view of the Underworld itself. Right, if I remember my mythology correctly the river Styx should be somewhere around here, along with Charon. Shouldn't he? I take a look around. No, no boatman in evidence. Nor a river. Also, no creature that could be either Grief, Anxiety, Disease, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Death, Agony, Sleep or 'Guilty Joy', whatever that is. Maybe they just gave up when people stopped coming?

It would have been helpful if Eris was here, at least. I tried, but after about twenty minutes-.

Thirteen minutes.

Thank you. After about thirteen minutes of walking down the steps I just loaded Human Resources up on the ring. I'm sure that the craftswomanship of the passage was very impressive but it was completely repetitive. Maybe they could spend some time decorating it?

The ghost lights here are much larger than those in the passageway, and appear to float freely over what I can see of the landscape. And what I can see appears to be trees. Apple trees. The combined effect of the ghost lights makes it only about as bright as an overcast day, but they seem healthy enough. The rows in which they're planted are clearly artificial. This is an orchard. Do the Greek dead need food? I suppose that this place is for both the punishment of the guilty and the reward of the deserving dead. Even if they don't need nutrition any longer, taste and purpose in work would be useful.

Okay, clearly no one's here to greet me. Ring, can we map the area?

Affirmative.

Huh. Alright, since I'm not actually dead I haven't come in through the standard entrance. In fact -I look back- the interior passage back to Themyscira doesn't have an external component. There's just a lump of stone rather than any sort of stone tube reaching back up towards the surface world. I exhale. Alright, I've come this far by foot, Lord Hades' palace isn't all that far. I jump off the platform-

"Hha?"

-and turn around as a young looking woman in expensive looking ancient Greek clothing who'd been asleep leaned up against it suddenly jerks awake. She blinks at me in confusion.

"Bad dream?"

Her eyes narrow. "Oh, very funny. What kept you?"

"Nothing. It was a long walk."

"I thought you could fly? You are-" She gets out a small vellum scroll and unrolls it. "-Pavlos the Orange Lantern, aren't you?"

"Yes, and I.. can fly, I just thought it would be-" She gets up and brushes her robes off. "-disrespectful. I'm coming as a petitioner."

"Yes, I'm sure that made perfect sense at the time you thought it." She replaces the scroll inside a satchel at her side. "My name is Melinoë, and I will be your psychopomp for the duration of your visit."

"Pleased to meet you."

She looks at me like I'm a moron. "You really are too much." She rolls her eyes. "How fast can you fly?"

"Fast enough that I don't like to go full speed in an atmosphere?"

"Right, come on, the palace is-" She points in the direction of the palace with her right forefinger. "-that way."

"Rightyho." I attach a filament to her and lift us both up into the air.

"Hey!" I give her an interrogative look and a shrug. "I thought you were going to.. pick me up."

I frown. "I have. I mean, do you want me to hold onto-?"

She looks away. "No. That's fine." She sort of shimmers as what I assume are her own innate magics take hold and she begins floating over the trees surrounding us.

Melinoë… That was.. the Nymph of Nightmares and Madness, right? She seems nice enough. I float off the ground after her. Actually… Okay, the grey skin, orange eyes and downwards curving horns are a little unusual, but all in all she's not bad looking. And if I'm really resolved to try attracting a mate…

"Have you been down here l-?"

"Oh! Gods!"

Okay. Fine. Knocking that one on the head.

The orchards appear to extend for miles in all directions, punctuated in places by narrow, gravel covered roads. The palace itself glows brightly at the far edge as the orchard gives way to sheds and barns which in turn yield to the palace proper.

"I admit, I was expecting something more Greek looking."

"The dead didn't stop coming here just because Greece converted to Christianity. We usually even get one or two foreigners a year. Classics professors, archaeologists, people with no strong religious leaning who found some depiction or other of the gods inspiring. A few of them had ideas for upgrading the palace, and they had a ready workforce as well as all of the materials they wanted."

Hundreds of ghost lamp posts supplement the glow of the lights overhead, making it seem as if the palace was in the middle of summer. Not a great deal of warmth to the place, but at least I won't have to worry about finding my way.

"Where exactly are we heading?"

"Just follow me."

She leads the way towards the far side of the palace -the ring can't work out north or south here- and in through the side of a long colonnade and inwards towards the palace building proper. The quality of the construction reminds me of Themyscira, actually: primitive in technology but perfect in execution. Even the trailing vines and other ornamental plants go where they're intended, no weeds sticking up through the blocks.

Or perhaps that isn't the result of mortal skill. Perhaps Gaea's dominion ends at the door.

Melinoë picks up speed, darting along the corridor and taking a sharp right. I accelerate after her, the ring's scanner not quite knowing what to make of my environment.

"What news, daughter?"

"He's here, finally. Macaria can go next time."

A short hallway leads into a richly appointed room, with several well dressed men and women standing facing a powerfully built man sitting on a throne. I land as he turns his attention to me. "What kept you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th March
12:11 GMT +3

I'm.. probably too far away from the throne to bow. I think? I settle for hurrying forwards and dipping my head slightly. "I apologise, my Lord. There were many stairs."

Hades looks puzzled. "I had been under the impression that you could fly. Was I mistaken?"

"He can fly, Father. He just didn't."

He turns his head towards Melinoë. "Whyever not? Is he injured?"

"Only in the head."

"Again, my Lord, I apologise-."

"Diana flies." He makes a vague gesture towards me with his right hand. "You're an Eris-worshipper, aren't you? Is this some sort of strange Discordian ritual?" One of the courtiers -a clean-shaven, young-looking man- makes an amused cough behind me. "Usually, those are somewhat more creative, but I suppose an allowance should be made for your youth and inexperience."

"It was strongly implied to me that requesting a meeting with you was a serious, sombre, theological affair and that I should treat it as such. Not as a.. business meeting. If there are steps, presumably they are to be walked, as part of the ritual of attaining entry."

"And if you had come in by the Gate of Shades, would you have walked then? And at the Acheron awaited Charon, and paid him for his service? Despite the fact that it was entirely unnecessary?"

"I'm.. increasingly realising that this is the wrong answer, my Lord, but yes, I would. I would have observed what I thought to be the ritual to the best of my abilities."

He stares at me for a moment, then shakes his head slightly. "Why?"

"Because you don't become a Discordian if you can't take a joke, my Lord." I hold my arms out slightly to the sides. "One day you're telling the joke, the next you're the butt of it. Chaos is not merely a thing which happens to other people, and if I've forgotten that then I'm due to have the universe take me down a peg or two."

"Hmm." Hades' right hand strokes his beard for a moment as he considers my answer. "A curious philosophy. Would you like to wander around a little more, or are you ready to start?"

I stop about four metres from the throne and bow from the waist. "I am quite ready to begin, thank you."

"Very well. My court is now in session. What is your petition?"

Wasn't I supposed to bribe him first? Um. Okay? "I seek entry to Tartarus, my Lord. And, passage back."

"I doubted that you wished to stay there eternally." Hades nods. "For what reason?"

"I wish to speak with the Hekatonkheir Cottus."

"Idle curiosity? You wish to keep him waiting for two hours?"

"No, my Lord."

"Then speak in complete sentences, complete thoughts. Does the land of the living no longer teach rhetoric?"

"In point of fact, my Lord, no. But I'm acting under a series of nearly conflicting obligations and I'm trying to make sure that I don't misspeak."

"That makes a little more sense. Continue."

"I need to confirm Cottus' presence or absence from a particular place at a particular time. An accusation has been made against him and I think it only fair that he be given the opportunity to answer it."

"And then?"

"Once I have as full a picture of events as the surviving evidence allows me to put together, I will most likely present my findings to Queen Hippolyta and leave judgement on the matter in her hands. Assuming that her judgement has not been compromised in some way."

Hades frowns slightly. "It would be no simple matter to compromise the judgement of Queen Hippolyta."

"I know, my Lord. But it is possible, so I cannot dismiss it without information which I currently lack."

"You seek to do no violence to Cottus?"

"Not at this stage. I certainly would not initiate any, and would endeavour to disengage if attacked."

Hades nods. "Aeacus? The mortal falls under your jurisdiction. What say you?"

"I see little to object to, my Lord." The young-looking man comes forwards to stand beside me. Aeacus, formerly King of Aegina and now Judge of the Dead of Europe. "The Hekatonkheires usually hold station a short way inside the gates, so there is little risk that one of their charges might escape." He looks at me and raises his eyebrows in curiosity. "Though I will admit to some degree of curiosity as to what Cottus is supposed to have done. He has always seemed to me to be a dutiful being, and given his size we could hardly have missed his egress if he had left to perform some mischief."

"I'm sorry, your honour. The precise nature of the accusation gets.. rather to the heart of the matter, and I agreed that I would not speak of it unless absolutely essential." If Diana came down here it would hardly be unusual for them to comment on her student's actions to her, after all.

Melinoë rolls her eyes, and Hades glances at her. "You have some comment you wish to make, Daughter?"

"Cottus has a job. If this mortal won't provide a decent reason as to why he should be granted access, why let him?"

"I did come prepared with what I believe to be a substantial tribute. Ifff.. that helps?"

"Like what?"

"Exotic foods, books on modern thaumaturgy, perfumes, musical instruments, recordings of music and… Gold..? I wasn't sure what was appropriate."

"Which of those are for me?"

Um? "Which do you want most?"

She looks away from me. "Objection withdrawn. I'll take him myself."

"Any other objections?" Hades looks around and there's a general shaking of heads. "Very well. Melinoë, please escort Pavlos to a vault where his tribute may be stored until the assayers can examine it, and then lead him into Tartarus."

She curtseys. "Of course, Father."

I bow as well. "Thank you, my Lord."

"It is naught but my duty as God of the Dead. Perhaps when your duties are less pressing you could introduce yourself to my court in full?"

Not sure where he's going with that, but I suppose there's no reason to refuse. "Certainly, my Lord. I'll look forwards to it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th March
12:18 GMT +3

"You've really lived in the Underworld your whole life?"

Melinoë glances at me and rolls her eyes again as we fly back over the orchard, heading in the direction of the Gate of Dusk. Turns out that the inhabitants don't have a way of telling directions relative to the ones we living folk use upstairs. Instead of following the magnetic field or the direction of the planet's rotation they refer to directions by the nearest Gate, the four fortified entry points to the Underworld. Most of the Dead enter from the Gate of Shades… South, if you like. Unusually heroic souls -or those favoured by one god or another- would simply turn up in the west, through the Gate of Dawn. To the 'north' is the Gate of Horn and Ivory, a direct passage to the Dreaming for anyone willing to chance it.

"Erebos."

"Gesundheit."

"What?"

"In German, it's the polite thing to say after someone sneezes. You said a word without any explanation that would let me work out what you were talking about, so you may as well just have sneezed."

She scowls. "Nearly every pantheon has somewhere for their worshippers' dead. If you call it 'The Underworld' the whole time no one knows which one you're talking about. This is Erebos, after the Titan whom Father defeated."

"Odd to name your kingdom after a fallen enemy."

"Not when you use his body to make it."

I nod and look around. I assume that there's a roof somewhere above us but I can't see it and the ring's scans get a bit odd when I try detecting it. "Surprised it doesn't whiff a bit by now."

"Why would it? He's still alive." Ahh. "So's Tartarus, actually. Father had to sew them together to make the system work."

"Ahh."

Her hands go to her hips. "Really? That's what disturbs you? I have horns, you know."

"Yes, and jolly pretty ones they are too. The lighter cream and white contrasts beautifully with your skin. I'll show you a G-Gnome sometime. They have red horns, doesn't work at all."

Her eyes widen slightly. "What? No, shut up. I'm not talking to you."

She accelerates towards our destination, descending through the air as she goes. Is it.. air..? Logically, the Dead would have no need to breathe. Would the gods? And they can definitely eat, so... I don't know. Maybe Sephtian could make more sense of the magics working here. Or.. maybe the extra overwork would finally be too much for him and he'd explode.

I shrug and fly after her. Hm, while I'm here though… I take a small piece of obsidian out of subspace and generate a filament between myself and the ground. And transition… No, seriously, transition? Huh. Can't transition here. Wonder why? I return the stone to subspace and start making an actual effort to catch up. The ghost lights in this part of Erebos have a slightly orange tint to them, finally giving the area we're passing over a slightly hellish appearance. Which is odd, because the part of Erebos most like Hell is the Fields of Punishment and those are Hornwards of the palace. And mostly empty, the Dead of Ancient Greece having long since served the punishment Hades believed due to them for their crimes.

Finite torment for sinners. Because anything else would be barbaric. Suck it, Jehovah.

I'm not sure how big I was expecting the Gate to be. Huge, probably. I mean, Hades wasn't much larger than me but that was probably for practical reasons and primordial beings like the Hekatonkheires are likely massive. If they shoved the -presumably unwilling- Titans down here after the war, along with any other eldritch thing that pissed them off enough, then surely the entrance must be large enough to grant them access? But to be honest, it doesn't look much bigger than a normal doorway. A choke point thing, maybe?

Melinoë has already landed and she's talking to someone… A woman, I think. Looks a bit on the thin side, a tattered cloak clutched around her chest by bony, long-nailed fingers. That's not right. Why would someone here look like that? I frown as I accelerate again.

"…permission, but I'd prefer it if you could talk to him first."

The thin woman's bones figuratively creak as she inclines her head, and I get a good look at her face. Cuts cover her cheeks, some scabbed over and others bleeding freely. Her nose is running and I'm handing her a box of tissues before I become fully aware of it. My nose ran a lot in primary school and I remember all too well how unpleasant it is for that to be happening and have no control over it. "Melinoë, would you introduce me to your friend?"

The woman looks at me curiously for a moment, then tries to pull a tissue out of the box with painfully arthritic looking fingers. She scratches at the uppermost one for a moment, then I take pity and pull one out with a filament for her. "Allow me."

The woman takes the tissue and begins wiping her nose as Melinoë frowns at me once more, in puzzlement rather than irritation this time. "This is Akhlys. There's no point trying to make her happy. She's misery personified."

"Does she have to look the part, though? Hades doesn't look like a corpse."

"I don't know, this is just how she-"

BABUM.

"-is what was that?"

The rings glow brilliantly. "Ophidian's Benediction, Akhlys." Orange smoke flows out of the rings and covers her. I'm not exactly sure if my usual biomantic techniques can work on divine or semi-divine beings, but damn it I'm going to try. She looks like a famine victim someone took a whip to!

BABUM. BABUM.

Melinoë's eyes widen slightly. "Stop it. Stop it now."

BABUM.

The orange vapour flows into Akhlys' wounds, binds itself to her limbs and flares as it tries to respond to my desires, my despising of the wrongness of her broken down state. For a moment I see her whole and hale, outlined in orange light. Radiant. Beautiful.

And then everything I've ever valued is gone and I'm lost and it's like a crushing weight and I can barely think beyond my immediate misery and tears are flowing down my cheeks and I can't stand or look up and my mouth is dry and my skin throbs in pain and the tiny grains of stone in the ground under my hands grates and cuts as the hunger begins to gnaw at my-.

I gasp and look up, choking back my own sobs as Akhlys lays her right hand on my left shoulder.

"Thank you. For your consideration." She turns to look at Melinoë, the cuts on her face already starting to reappear. "I do not think this one will be dissuaded."

I shake my head, blink to clear my eyes, then have the ring Rightly Assume my Wholeness. "Keep the tissues." I rise to my feet. "This isn't the end of the matter."

Keeping one eye on me, Melinoë lays her left hand on the slab of stone covering the doorway, then pulls it away as the slab sinks into the ground. "That was interesting. Try to do something interesting with Cottus as well."