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

[Mr Zoat]

15th August 2000
18:36 GMT

I frown slightly as the excited-looking Bláthnaid stabs her wooden fork through her cod's batter and splits it open, a thin whiff of water vapour rising out.

"Are you sure.. this is alright?"

She looks around, taking in the sea, the wooden bench we're sitting at, the wood and wrought iron pier the fish and chip shop we order from is build into and, past it, the rest of the seafront.

"We're far enough away. And we don't get a lot a' fish in th' cavern."

I nod as I make vents in the batter around my huss. "Can you eat human food?"

"Just about everything we've tried. But we haven't had much variety recently." She spears and lump of fish and batter and brings it into her mouth. Then her eyes widen.

"Good? Ver g-?"

"Hot!" She grabs her coke can and tries to twist the top off. "Too hot!"

Hands moving in a blur, I grab it from her and pull the ring pull. Carbonated sugar water bubbles out for a moment before she brings it to her mouth and takes a gulp. For a moment, she experiences relief.

"Pjcuh-cgh!"

Then the bubbles hit, and she cough-choke-sneezes!

"What the bluddy hell-" I pass her a tissue and she wipes her mouth and nose. "-was that?"

"Carbon dioxide dissolved in the drink. A lot of people enjoy the sensation."

She stares at me in incomprehension. "'re they daft?"

"You're not supposed to drink it quite that fast." I smile. "Or breathe it in."

"Oi'm not a plant. What do oi want wit' carbon dioxide?"

I reach over to my right, pick up my one pint milk bottle and hold it up. "I don't drink it. You're the one who wanted it."

She looks over to the other five drink cans I bought her. "'re they all loik this?"

"They're all carbonated, yes. Try drinking some when you're not burning your mouth."

She takes a moment to steady herself, then nods. "Alright, fine."

She takes a deep breathe, passes the damp tissue back to me, then cautiously raises the coke to her mouth before taking a extremely cautious sip. She looks a little awkward when the bubbles hit, but she doesn't seem to hate the experience.

"What's in it?"

I point to the can. "It's written on the back."

She turns it around and peers at it, frowning in concentration. "What's 'tartaric acid'?"

I shake my head. "I have no idea. I know it's safe for human consumption, if that's any help."

She takes another sip, and appears to decide that she doesn't hate it. "How'd it go wi' th' machine man?"

"I had to dress up in a suit made of shadoen flesh to attract its attention, then it turned out that the thing it was looking for was actually there. I could have done nothing and achieved more or less the same result. And then the military destroyed it, which is going to create a huge problem."

She frowns. "But you're no' keeping th' Alliance a secret."

"Yes, but whereas before the Alliance did whatever it wanted, now we've got to discuss how far our authority goes with every country on Earth. The British government decided to use military aircraft, and they didn't notify us before the strike happened. So now Director Logan has to sort out why they did it and who's pushing what agenda."

She shrugs. "Why's it mattur?"

"For you, it matters because at the moment the Alliance is responsible for liaising between human governments and nonhuman settlements. But there isn't really anything stopping a government from refusing to allow us to work in their territory, or the world's most powerful governments setting up their own agency and… Technically they can't force us to shut down, but they can refuse to acknowledge our credentials which would effectively do the same thing."

She stares at me in incomprehension. "What 're you talking about?"

"Ah…" What would be the equivalent..? "Imagine if the queens on the banshee homeworld found out that the vampires on Earth weren't really doing anything and ordered all the banshee on Earth to move to another planet."

Her eyes widen. "They can't do that!"

"You know them better than I do, but that's basically what's happening to the Alliance."

"Does that mattur t' th' banshee?"

"Not so long as you have a decent relationship with the Irish government. It's more a potential problem for species with conventional technology like the vampires."

"Oi don't much care what happens t' th' loiks o' them."

"If the major nations of the world start seizing examples of advanced technology and then fighting each other for more, it will start to become an issue. Vampires selling to everyone with the world unified against a potential shadoen return works out best because there's no competition." I sigh as I spear a sufficiently cooled chip. "I'm just glad that we could move the wrecks before the British government could seize them. If they even wanted to."

"Maybe they jus' wanted t' kill th' robots."

I shake my head. "They didn't check the situation on the ground. It's very bad practice to bomb a place without doing that."

She frowns. "Would that a' hurt you?"

"Unless it caught me completely by surprise, no. But they didn't know that."

She forks another piece of cod, and this time manages to eat it without burning herself. I eat a chip, taking a moment to consider… Her. Alright, I knew that banshees could function in society because that's what Senior Agent Blaze does every day. But it's a little odd to see one out here…

"I got the impression that you only agreed to this because I didn't back down."

"You're not bad comp'ny. And I would'nae have any idea where t'go."

"So is this going to become a regular thing, or were you just curious?"

She snorts. "Got competition, have oi?"

"I think one of the vampire agents was hitting on me." Her eyes widen. "Either that, or she was just hungry." Her face hardens. "I think she wants to increase her status by using me as a threat in being to other vampires."

"Don't you be spendin' time with the loiks a' her."

"I said 'no' to being fed on, thank you for your concern."

"Roit. I'm keepin' y', then."

I blink. "Um."

"Oi'm not lettin' m'-. You outta moi soit if'n some poisonous snake it jus' going t' snatch y' oop."

"I appreciate the thought, but she and I both work for the Alliance-."

"Foin!"

15th August 2000
14:06 GMT -7

"Here!"

Senior Agent Blaze looks up from her desk, frowning, as Bláthnaid slams her application paperwork down in front of her. She takes it from her, realises what it is and then turns to stare incredulously at me.

I smile politely. "Date went well, sir."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July 2013
12:36 GMT

Donna looks the ship over, frowning at it. "Where did Vandal Savage even get a spaceship?"

"Opal City. A mad inventor-"

"There's a surprise."

"-built it in the nineteenth century, then various people upgraded it. Its main drive comes from Starman One, but it's also got a Mother Box so it can use boom tubes."

"So we can get home in a few minutes?"

"Yep." Hm. "I'd like to just give it to Arsenal, but we should.. probably check that no one owns it first."

"If Vandal Savage had it, and no one tried to claim it, do you really think that's likely?"

"If they were renting it to him, we might get a lead on him. And… There's a rather close similarity to the model of cosmic converter this ship uses as its main generator, and the model Stagg Enterprises is using for commercial power generation."

"Aren't they one of… Three..?" I nod. "Next generation power companies?"

"They are indeed. So at best they bought the rights to Starman One's work and finally commercially exploited it, and Savage got someone to build a generator to the same design… And at worst they're in cahoots."

"Are you surprised? Stagg wasn't exactly clean."

"Yes, but there's 'a bit shady' and then there's 'cooperates with the man behind mass child murder'."

"I guess you've got something to investigate, then."

"And we still don't know who's helping Batman. Did you see anything while you were up there?"

"Plenty, and Arisia recorded it. But… We couldn't see people who weren't there, and I don't have a Supertown census."

"Right." I sigh. "Well. Maybe Highfather will find them."

I glance over to where Roy is poking the corpse of the burrowing laser creature.

"Can you give us a minute?"

"Uh, sure? I can go talk to Doctor Knight." She smiles. "See if he's got any good stories about Diana."

I nod as she flies to the entrance, and then walk over to Roy.

"Is it dead?"

He gives it one last kick. "Yeah. It's dead."

"None of them had mind control powers. It was probably unique."

He nods. "Do we need to tell the Primitives that it's here?"

"No, I'm sure something will scavenge it before too long. And Sserpa saw it, so if they really need to know then he can tell them. It was when I met Mantis."

He looks at me, frowning slightly. "What was?"

"When I got infected. I took off my helmet so he could see my face and turned off my environmental shield so he could smell me. And if I hadn't done that and just worked around him he wouldn't be on Apokolips right now."

"And Sserpa and me would be dead because he's the one who picked up the ground shaking before that thing attacked."

"Did you see him go through the boom tube?"

He shakes his head. "No. I thought he was running after the guy in the forest. So that's something else I messed up."

"It was a reasonable decision."

"Not keeping track of Mantis?"

"Shooting the machine."

"It was keeping S'ivaa out of reality. If I hadn't shot it, we'd just have had to fight them and we'd have been done."

"Maybe."

"It-."

"Alright, probably. But there was no way to know that in advance, and it might have let them control what S'ivaa was doing. No one on Earth except Scott Free, Big Barda and.. Batman, understand New God technology well enough to spot what they do in advance, and usually blowing up a supervillain's equipment is a good idea."

"I-I guess… It's just-. I messed up the mission, then I had to just stand there while you and Highfather fixed it."

"I got turned into an octopus."

"And you still did more than me."

"Okay. So… Is that the issue? Because it's not like I knew what the machine did."

"It-. I guess-. They're both this issue."

"If you want more power and a priori knowledge of what things around you do, I suggest… Magic? You'd be starting a little late, but Hepheastaean could use a warrior. Or you can try using a power ring-."

"I don't-. I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Thanks."

"Huh-? No, I didn't mean it like that. I just don't know if I've got the right.. way of thinking to use it right."

"And Hepheastaean?"

"Maybe? It's-. I'll think about it."

"There may be other options. Because… It's always possible to get stronger, get more… Options, learn more… And still run into something you don't understand and can't beat. I'd have been just as stuck as you if Highfather hadn't turned up."

He snorts quietly. "I doubt it. But… Thanks for the pep talk."

"And even if I did do more, the mission's still a failure, so-."

He holds up his right hand. "Okay, you can stop."

I nod, smiling. "Alright, let's get out of here. And hope nothing's gone crazier on Earth while we were gone."

He nods, and we head towards the ship.

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th July 2013
09:44 GMT -5

Mr. Queen swivels on his heel with an arrow on his string pointing straight at me.

"Green Arrow. I apologise if I-." He lowers the arrow. "-caught you at a bad time."

"No, you're fine." He goes back to his vigil, overlooking Star City. "Thought you were Hal."

"Did you hear me?"

"No. Spotted your shadow. Lanterns glow, so it looks different to the other fliers." Finding nothing amiss in his city, he looks up at me. "So on a scale of zero to doomed..?"

"Oh, no. As far as I know, nothing special is going wrong in Star City. It's about Arsenal."

He snorts, smiling. "Hal never got me a spaceship."

"Um. If you want a spaceship, NEMO is capturing a lot of ships from deniable Reach assets that we don't need ourselves. I can probably get you one if you want it."

"Ah… Thanks, but I think I'll put off my midlife crisis for a few years." He frowns. "I thought Roy seemed kinda down for a guy who just got a new starship."

"It's not actually new. It had a recent refit, but the original hull is over a hundred years old."

"Ooh, one-" He nods. "-of those."

"Ah. The designer built it and then spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. So I'm not sure if he was a classical modern mad scientist, or just an early rocketry pioneer."

"Alright. So what's Roy's problem?"

"I'll send you the full report and mission videos, but the short answer is that I got into a fight with an Old God and he couldn't contribute."

"Ah, no?" He frowns for a moment. "Wait, that's why he's bummed out?"

"He made what turned out to be a poor decision in combat, but it was perfectly justifiable. It just.. turned out to be incorrect."

He nods. "And then you had to deal with it while he just stood there. Yeah, that's a kick in the gut."

"So is it the sort of thing he'll just get over, or should I do something?"

"You told him it wasn't his fault, right?"

I nod. "Yes, of course. And I suggested several things he could do which might let him-" He winces. "-be less.. likely-. What?"

"Okay, look. If you said there were things he could do to get better, then he's probably beating himself up for not doing them already. And if the ideas come from you… Well…"

"I realise that a power ring's not for everyone."

"So let me guess… Super magical power armour?"

I nod. "That was one of my suggestions."

He holds up his right hand and beckons me down. I land just in front of him as he leans back against the railing around the edge of the roof.

"You remember the assessment you gave everyone on the League?"

"Yes, I don't think anyone will let me forget."

"I-." Something occurs to him. "Hey, have you done Mister Atom yet?"

"I.. tried, but it turns out that he's being maximally effective. And aside from one or two things which he struggles to understand due to being an A.I., there isn't much I can help him with because he's a lot more intelligent than me."

"Ah, shoot. Ah. Point is, I got kind hurt when I got a 'D'."

"That's not exactly what I was trying to communicate."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But then I got thinking about it, and I ended up saying to myself: Ollie, you're a guy with a bow. What did you think you were going to get?"

"Well, everyone can improve."

He smiles ruefully. "You're not exactly the best advert for self-improvement, Paul."

"I have become far more effective than I was when I started. I have fewer vulnerabilities."

"Do you have a..? Life, outside the job?"

"How do you mean?"

"When was the last time you went on holiday?"

"I went on a tour with Jade… Last year? I-. We kept tripping over work to do."

"Any friends who aren't part of the community?"

"… One? Karon's dating Catwoman's… Ward?"

"No one completely outside of it?"

"Does Bleez count?"

"No."

"Then… No. Ah… So… What you're saying is..?"

"I've got my city. Obviously I don't know everyone in it, but I know a lot of people. And everyone knows me. If something happens I know who to talk to, what to do… I guess I'm a fish in a pond that fits my size, you know?" I nod tentatively. "And I read what you put in that 'big League' outline. I think I could handle wrangling a team."

"You're literally the first League member to talk to me about that."

"But I don't think I could stand spending all my spare time chasing more power, and then… Dealing with the consequences, and then going from place to place without… Settling down or seeing a familiar face. I don't think I wanna do the things I'd have to do to become you. Or even Hal."

"Lantern Jordan isn't-."

"Him flying all over the Sector is why him and Carol broke up. You see a lot of Jade?"

"Not as much as I was. But I don't want to.. be too far away from Earth for that.. long."

"Right."

"I could probably… I mean, the Watchtower has a fracture pulse transmitter, so it should be alright… It's not like we don't speak…"

"I'm getting déjà vu here. Look, maybe… Send me your mission report and I'll have a talk to Roy about his professional goals. Maybe drag William into it. But-. I know your heart's in the right place, but I don't think you're the guy to help with this. Okay?"

"Okay. Ah, thank you. I'm… Going to go and visit Jade now."

He smiles. "You do that. See you around, Paul."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Cappare

25th July 2013
02:12 GMT

I take a moment to watch the workers employed by the reclamation part of… Well, it's technically part of the Darkstars, but is in effect a civilian agency under the control of the Controllers for building new worlds for refugees and rebuilding worlds recaptured from the Reach. That latter part has only really become one of its actual responsibilities recently with us actually reclaiming worlds, and it's required a massive increase in staffing. Fortunately, it's a good deal easier to convince people to join a civilian relief agency than an aggressive military.

And it's a good place to put Lanterns who are either verging on becoming stress casualties or are otherwise not good people to put in a combat zone. In theory, Lantern Coutara could take her place in the war zone. She's certainly demonstrated that she can kill when motivated. But when we tried having her spar with other Lanterns, she just… She can't muster the drive when there isn't an immediate and personal offence. But, she liked working to rebuild her home county after the purge, and when I made it clear that we had plenty of room for someone with desires like that, she was happy to join up.

And of course that puts Lantern Taranna and Lantern Yat under her supervision. Lantern Yat is far too young to be in combat without taking psychological damage. Lantern Taranna on the other hand has expressed an interest in moving to a combat role, which…

I understand where she's coming from, but her mother has been very clear that she's not happy about it, and… Taranna isn't a particularly violent person either. So Lantern Ratchet acknowledged her change in status and assigned her to picket duty on worlds that her mother and foster brother were working on.

"Illustres to Lantern Coutara."

The response is immediate, her face appearing over my ring. "Yes, Illustres?"

"No need to drop what you're doing, but when you have a moment I'm a few miles over the headquarters building."

She nods. "Of course. What is this about?"

"A possible new assignment. As I said, no hurry."

I end the communication. I-.

"Whow!" Lantern Yat flies closer, staring at me. "Illustres! How come you're here? Are we getting invaded?"

"Not as far as I know. And it would be a very sorry invader who tried taking us on, right?"

He nods. "And Taranna! She's really good at fighting too!"

I nod. "And Lantern Taranna. Speaking of who, shouldn't she be keeping an eye on you?"

"She is." He looks a little awkward. "But she can't spend all the time with me, and I've got stuff to do too!"

"I know, I get the reports."

He blinks in astonishment. "You read my reports?!"

"I read all the reports written by Lanterns I recruited."

Even if they're lacking in sentence structure, depth, and are in general about what I'd expect a child your age to write as a piece of 'what I did on my holiday' homework rather than a military after action report. The Corps is well past the point where I could read everyone's reports, but the handful of Lanterns I actually recruited don't eat up too much of my time.

"I wanted-. Ah."

I glance up as Lantern Taranna appears, eyes slightly wide.

"M-Illustres! What brings you here?"

"Ah, well, I'm here to offer the three of you a transfer."

"A.. transfer?"

I nod. "My homeworld suffered a rather unpleasant attack a little while ago, and I could use your help putting it back together. It's basically the same sort of work that you've been doing here, but my homeworld has an entirely accurate reputation for having all sorts of strange things happen on it and I know that you've wanted to get some combat experience. Most fighting that happens on Earth is well below the level that a Scarab Warrior can reach, but it will be practice against people actually trying to kill you."

"Your homeworld? Why didn't the whole Corps head over there? Or at least a few dozen Lanterns? I didn't even know you were under attack!"

"Memetic hazard. I couldn't risk the Corps getting infected with Anti-Life. And I didn't think it was worth pulling Lanterns away from the work we're doing here when my homeworld was pulling itself together without them. But we got rid of the memetic hazard -for now- and I checked the resettlement figures and… Well, you can be spared, if you're interested. I think I'd like to have a few more Orange Lanterns around."

"Will.. you.. be.. training us?"

"I can, and there are also other Lanterns or high-powered warriors who can help you upskill. Oh." I turn to Lantern-. I turn to Sodam. "As well as several kryptonians who can help you learn to use your natural abilities."

"Really!?"

"Really. Ak-Var has only started using them recently, so you'll have someone you can measure yourself against."

"Are there any kids my age?"

"On my entire planet? Yes. I-." Huh. Cassandra is almost… "Yes, one who has abilities like yours and is roughly your age. One I know, I mean, there are probably plenty of others."

He's practically vibrating with excitement. "That's great!"

Taranna looks at him sharply, and gives him a poke.

"What?"

"You were using too much. You know what happens."

He dips his head. "Sorry, Taranna. I'll be more careful."

"Good."

"Oh, and one other thing. Ah…" She looks at me curiously. "A friend of mine, a hero in good standing… Has expressed an interest in dating."

"Dating?"

"Courtship. I know that in your culture your betrothal would have been arranged by your father, and I don't know… What you were thinking about doing in regards to that."

"Are..?" She regards me cautiously. "You arranging one..? For me?"

"No! No. I'm arranging a meeting between two people who might get on and might not. Unless you're already seeing someone, in which case forget about it."

"Oh. No? I… Suppose I can meet him?"

"Glad to hear it. So, assuming that your mother-."

"No."

"No?"

"I'm not waiting on her approval. She won't give it anyway. Just tell her we're training and I'll meet him then."

"I-. Okay, I can do that. Assuming that no one invades, why don't you both-" I send them both the cultural and current affairs package. "-read up on that while I square things with her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th July 2013
07:43 GMT -5

"Mister Knight?"

Jack Knight makes a point of straightening up from the mid-run slump he was in, and trying not to look quite as knackered as I suspect he feels. Getting properly into shape in your forties while running a small business and raising two children is not easy, especially when his way of fighting crime doesn't actually involve much exercise.

"Paul, right?"

I nod as I land just in front of him, and hold out my right hand. After wiping his own on his sleeve he takes it.

"Thanks for finding Dad's ship. Arsenal came over after you came back from New Genesis."

"Ah, good. I was hoping you could fill me in on the ship's history."

He pulls out a water bottle and takes a swig. Then he squirts some over his face. It-.

"Allow me."

I extend my ring's environmental shield to him, bringing his temperature down and cleaning him up a bit.

He blinks at me incredulously. "Those things come with air-con?"

"They're designed to keep us alive in any environment, from a wasteland of frozen methane to a sun's corona. You thought they couldn't take a little sweat?"

He nods. "Should'a asked Dad to add that to the staff."

"You're getting back into it, then?"

"Well…" He pats his stomach. "I could use the exercise anyway. But with everything that happened… I think I kinda need to." He squints at me. "Okay, I gotta ask: do those guys with the Mohawks creep you out too?"

"Oh heck yes. And believe me, they don't-" I shake my head. "-get more reassuring when you learn more about them."

"Good. I was worried it was just me. So I guess my-" He shrugs. "-next question is: is the Justice League actually taking over the world, or are you just kinda bad at interviews?"

"I can't talk about the Justice League taking over the world."

He does a double take. "You seriously say that?"

I nod. "I seriously say that. On a completely unrelated matter, would you happen to know how Vandal Savage of all people got hold of your father's starship?"

"All Dad's-." He shakes his head, shrugging. "He was working on… You know, uses for his technology that didn't involve being a superhero. I wasn't much help with that side of things, so other than asking him how it was going every so often I didn't really have anything to do with it. After he died, it all went to the company he'd been talking to. And that's the last I heard of it."

"That would be… Stagg Enterprises?"

"No, it wasn't them. It-." He thinks for a moment. "I don't remember the name of the company. 'Applied…' 'Applied Futuristics…'? Something like that. First time I hear of 'Stagg Enterprises' was when they made the announcement. I'd pretty much given up on it. I was shocked when they finally brought out a power plant based on Dad's work. Happy, but…" He sighs. "I'm surprised it took so long. I don't know, I thought that scaling it up would be easier or that.. Dad would have focused on that."

"I'm pretty sure that they had it working for a while before they released it, and only released it when they did because I was going to destroy the energy market otherwise."

He considers that, then sags. "Yeah, that makes sense. But… Why? It's like inventing oil." He frowns at me. "Isn't it?"

"What do you know about the Dyson vacuum cleaner?"

"It's a whole lot easier to use than the old bag design."

"The inventor originally offered it to Hoover. They turned him down. After his company took off he met the executive who turned him down at a party and he said that if he'd known what was going to happen he'd have bought the rights and then sat on them."

"Huh?"

"They had the market working out exactly the way they liked it. Stopping someone disrupting that and forcing them to actually innovate would cost far less than actually making an effort. I imagine that if I looked into it I'd find that Stagg Enterprises were getting a payoff from… OPEC? The bastard children of Standard Oil?"

"Is that a..? Crime?"

"I'd have to check the contracts involved, but it's entirely conceivable that no crime was committed. I assume that the ship was included in your father's bequest?"

"I don't remember." He shrugs. "Probably. Is that a problem? Do you have to give it back?"

"We have some fairly expansive confiscation powers these days. Given that they didn't report it missing, I'm inclined to use them."

"You think they're working with Savage?"

"I doubt it's quite that direct. They'd be in a lot of trouble if that was the case. It would make far more sense for there to be enough cut outs that they could claim in court that they didn't know exactly who they were working with. Still, for something the size of a starship…"

"It can't just fall off the back of a truck."

"I would very much like to permanently deal with Vandal Savage. I just don't think it's worth wrecking a company like Stagg Enterprises right now to do it."

Mr. Knight looks less than impressed. "You wanna explain that one to me? 'cause I just found out that Vandal Savage got control of my Dad's life's work."

"Thanks to their involvement in the electrical supply sector, not only did Stagg Enterprises survive the Anti-Life fairly well, they've actually expanded. They've been taking shares in place of payment from companies that were barely functioning until they sorted themselves out."

"Is that legal?"

"Would it matter if it wasn't? They've kept quite large parts of America functioning. In a couple of years it hopefully won't matter, but at the moment the consequences of poking them would be rather severe."

He nods. "Unless the Justice League takes over the world."

"I can't talk about the Justice League taking over the world. Uh. But if a group were to take over the world, they'd still have to keep Stagg Enterprises operating, which would be difficult if the employees just walked away from their jobs or ignored that group's instructions. Brute force has some limits."

"What about Savage?"

"Compared to the collapse of the global economy and supply chains, one immortal caveman just isn't that big an issue. The Justice League has to focus on the things which are most important, otherwise people who have mostly gotten with the program but who have things to hide might go off-task. If we make it through to the next growing season without starving then we can revisit the issue. Of course, if someone else wanted to ask Stagg Enterprises a few friendly questions and happened to discover something interesting, that would be another matter."

He nods, stretching his calves. "Good thing I'm retired from heroing, huh? Otherwise that might have to be me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th July 2013
09:59 GMT -5

Lantern Coutara regards Hub City with mild curiosity. I suppose that she's seen a great many cities being rebuilt, but probably hasn't seen one with precisely these problems or this divergence of technologies.

"This is.. your city?"

"No."

She turns her head to look at me. "Then why are we here?"

"It's the city I'm rebuilding. I don't live here or own it."

"Does it have some spiritual significance?"

"In a sense, it's where the Anti-Life broadcast started. It was also in a pretty sorry state before that."

"Did you live here then?"

"Gosh no."

"Then I don't-" She shakes her head. "-understand why you're rebuilding this city. Or… Why you're taking so long about it. Your power is immense. This is something that I had thought you could do with a wave of your hand."

"Not quite that quickly, but-" I nod. "-within a few hours. Less if I had a clear plan to work from."

She goes back to examining the city, her eyes glowing as she scans it.

"I don't understand, Illustres."

"You don't understand… Why I don't do it all myself?" She nods. "Hm."

I stare blankly at the city myself. How to put it?

"I could fight the Reach on my own. I would have had to have started later, and assimilated millions of intelligent beings to use as construct lanterns before starting my attack, but I could do it. Goodness knows there are plenty of beings around the universe whom I wouldn't mind assimilating. Since I didn't know any of the people involved, I didn't have any particular attachment that would have made the delay unconscionable. But, I didn't. I built a Corps of living people, recruited Clarissi Dox to run things… In fact, despite the importance I place on the war I barely spend any time fighting it myself. Why do you think that is?"

"Illustres, I was there when the Clarissi complained that you were overshadowing him."

"Right, but I didn't tell him to just do better in future."

She nods thoughtfully. "No, you did not. Very well: why?"

"A number of factors, but primarily because the orange light is for everyone. Everyone wants things, and… Due to my enlightened state, I see those desires. I find their realisation beautiful. And fundamentally I don't think that I have unlimited license to override the desires of other people and force everyone to do things my way. Other people aren't my chattel, and I don't want them to be."

"So if people want to be free of the Reach, or to have a city, then they should either work for it or accept that they will not be free or have a city?"

"Yes. But it's also… What happens next?"

"The refugees will return to their home worlds."

"And the rest? What about the rest of Reach-controlled space?"

"The Controllers will resurrect the species that they can. Perhaps if Grayven of Apokolips will agree to a peace treaty he will take some of their core worlds."

"And then?"

"I do not know what you are trying to communicate."

"There's a quote from a famous book on Earth. 'That which is given has no value.' If I fought the Reach on my own and won, then a few worlds will be slightly grateful and most would ignore it. But if they're compelled by events to put effort in, then they'll care. Something like this is the sort of event that leaves a permanent mark on a civilisation. And not just the military alliance; consider how technology and raw materials are being traded within the alliance now."

"They will be bound together by blood. Are you..? Building an empire?"

"Depends what you mean by that. I have no desire to rule anyone, even as a figurehead. Nor do I have any idea to put Dox or anyone else in that position. I like to think that I'm building a federation of people who will be bound together by economic interests and shared experiences long after the war is over."

"Which requires them to all fight."

I nod. "And suffer and die." I bow my head and exhale through my nose. "Of course, one perfectly plausible result of me trying to do it all myself is that I'd die, lose control of the billions of construct lanterns and cause a galactic apocalypse. So it's not a purely philosophical and long term planning thing."

She nods slowly. "And you-. Apocalypse?"

"Yes."

"I have not taken a construct lantern, but is that possible? Would that happen?"

"It did happen. Look up the file on Abra Kadabra."

Her eyes glow for a moment, and then she frowns. "He travelled backwards in time. That is nonsense."

"Welcome to Earth."

"No-. But-. That is not-." She shakes her head. "I don't understand."

"The potential for time travel fits within the standard model of physics. And it's far easier in real physics. Something in the far future caused a tidal wave of orange constructs to consume a large part of the galaxy, then he travelled backwards in time to before it happened."

"But now it will not happen."

"It still might. You understand why I'm concerned about the possibility, because no one knows exactly what caused it."

"Is it inevitable, then?"

"No."

"But how did he see it if it is not inevitable?"

"The event did not accompany him back, just his own memories. Why should that compel our future actions?"

She appears to be struggling with the idea.

"Look, Lantern Coutara, you have to understand… This is Earth. It is a madhouse. And I don't just mean the poeple. All sorts of things that the rational mind says should be impossible happen here. Not all the time, but usually a few times a year. If something happens and you think it's impossible… Well, double check it, and then accept that your ideas about what's possible and impossible are just wrong."

"Yes, Illustres. Where will we be staying while we are here?"

"Unless you want to make your own arrangements, you can all stay with me. I've got plenty of room, and no neighbours to complain about the noise. Oh, and, ah… I wanted to introduce Taranna to a few people while she's here?"

"Ah." She nods. "I see."

"Okay, let's do a quick review and then I can introduce you to the people you'll be working with."