Replanting
6th September 2013
09:36 GMT
Dr. Mist looks at the place where Roger Hayden once lay.
"Anything?
"
"Yes. Nothing thet would explain…
" He holds up a vial of Hayden Juice and frowns at it for a moment.
"This, but I can feel the remains of the spell thet was used.
"
"Anything outside?
"
"No. I think it may be an issue of non-arcane dimensional… Interference.
"
"How'd you work that one out?
"
"Eh, basic logic. Your machine should heff prevented him moving to a parallel universe. If he hed used magic, it is almost impossible that I could not feel it while I em standing here. But, I cannot feel it when Mirror Master opens a portal through two mirrors. It is a strange phenomenon, but it is not magic.
"
"Uh-uuuuuuuugh…" Marvellous. Weird knotholes in reality that technically aren't magic. One of the few areas left that I don't know anything about, and don't know anyone who knows anything about.
"McCulloch just bought the Mirror Master equipment and Scudder's dead. Charles Halstead's dead, so if he ever had anything to do with the second Psycho Pirate -which was never proven- we can't easily ask him.
"
"You could simply ask Charles Andrews.
"
"I
did. He claims that he thought Mister Hayden was in a persistent vegetative state and that he has no idea how he vanished.
"
"Did you confirm thet?
"
"I mean, he turned his defensive spells off and I got a good look at him. I-.
" I sigh, shrugging.
"I know what my reputation's like, but I.. don't
really want to resort to extreme measures to triple check an answer when the crime is relatively minor.
Hayden doesn't even have any significant outstanding warrants, even if I
suspect him of trying to kill the people I was investigating. I'd check that he was physically healthy before trying to arrest him.
"
"It is good thet you do not resort to extremes all of the time. But do I need to remind you thet the King of Tears is from such a place?
"
I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Apparently, yes. I thought it was just from a parallel universe with different physical laws to ours?
"
"Mister Miracle checked the site where Johnny Sorrow originally left the material universe. Apparently, there were enough resonances there thet he was able to determine what happened.
"
"So we need him to take a look at this?
"
"Mister Miracle has a great deal of work. All of us do. Do you think it is necessary for him to make this a priority?
"
"No, I suppose not. It's just a little frustrating. Do you want to see where the shrine was?
"
"Yes, I think thet is best.
"
I lead the way down the corridor and then down the stairs, past the police arcane hazard warning notice and down into the basement proper. Not much here now, other than the blackened and charred concrete where the shrine used to be.
"You used incendiaries?
"
"Yes. Mage slayers drain magical energy to disrupt spells, but there's a finite amount of energy they can absorb. I felt that physically destroying the shrine was a better bet than trying to drain something that might not be a delicately structured spell and might just be a site of raw power.
"
"Ah.
" He nods.
"And of course you could not be completely sure thet what you saw was really there.
"
I nod.
"I don't know how Boss Smiley works. Is dimensional manipulation inherently disruptive to magic?
"
"Do you know, I do not know?
" He glances at me before giving the carbonised patch of floor his full attention.
"Joining the Justice League is giving me so many novel experiences.
"
"Happy to help. Getting anything, or-.
"
"Yes… And
no. The spell architecture is clearly an elemental binding thet was adapted for something else, but it is… Solipsistic? A shrine to a shrine, excluding all other influences. It is like
the box on the internet, where activating the mechanism sends forth an armature to deactivate the mechanism. It would work, but it should not
do anything.
"
"He told me that he doesn't exist.
"
"If something told you thet, then it was a lie. Spirits are not demons; they can lie freely.
"
"I was… Thinking. About how computers store data.
"
"I can use a word processor.
"
"Ah-. The important point is that the term 'cloud' is nonsense. All data is stored in a physical location. Right?
"
"Yes?
"
"Now, with older forms of data storage, connecting to where the data storage existed in the physical world required things to move around. I remember reading about a computer where they couldn't work out how data was getting from one point to another, because according to the design of the system it shouldn't be able to. It turned out that two locations were close enough together that the data reader could be made to jump across from one-.
" He gives me a blank look.
"Ah, like a record player with two records, and you hit the needle to make it jump to the other record.
"
"Ah! I understend now.
"
"So… Is there a way-?
" His eyes widen.
"There i-?
"
"An indirect evocation, made by-.
" His mouth slowly forms into a smile.
"Thet is
brilliant.
"
"My knowledge of magic is
slightly better than your knowledge of server architecture, but-.
"
"You can evoke the God of Lies by evoking the God of Lies. But you can
also evoke the God of Lies by lying a great deal.
"
"Yes?
"
"I…
Think this… Do you have an image of the shrine?
"
"Yes, but I've seen Boss Smiley manifest through-.
"
"Show me images of the individual elements.
"
I nod, taking out a hologram projector and
carefully going through each object one after the other.
"Yes. See, this? I believe thet these objects are related to his nature. Corruption, governance, and concealed power.
"
A parking ticket, a police identification badge, a postal ballot… A few other items whose significance escapes me.
"So he links the corruption to the corruption, and that's enough?
"
"It could be. I will need to think about this. Well done, Orange Lantern. We may finally have eh lead on him.
"
I suppose his organisational skills are more helpful, but he still does prefer to do them in green long-johns.
