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

[Mr Zoat]

September 27th, 2013
15:21 MST
Argent, right now

It's not like I wanna stare at Ian's… Face, but… C'm on. A girl can only stare at a queue of people doing nothing for so long.

And then he notices. "Yeah?"

Ah… Oh, he's got a badge on his belt. Ask about that.

I point to it. "Are you.. actually a police officer?"

"Kind of." He goes back to watching the crowd.

"'cause I thought we all… Under eighteen? Hunter can't be more than fourteen and I think Toyman's, like, twelve."

"Uh. I'm eighteen. Sort of."

"What'd you mean, 'sort of'?"

"I spent fourteen months in a coma after my accident. So I've only actually 'lived' seventeen years. Or bit less if you count all the time I was in hospital."

"Oh." I thought-. Or he.. didn't actually say… "I just kinda assumed that Doctor Schadel started working on you right after, or… Nearly right after."

He snorts, which… Sounds all kinds a' weird. "Had you heard of him?"

"Ah… No."

"Neither had my parents. Neither had the doctors. Janus Senior had to find me. Them."

"How did you-?" Maybe I shouldn't-. "I mean, are you okay talking about this?"

"Last year I'd have been boasting about it."

"It's just… I'm trying ta think of a way a car and a bunch a' shotgun shells could mess your head up so much that the doc had ta remove your head… And… Yeah, I could see it, but I don't see how your brain would make it through that in one piece."

"It didn't."

"… Oh. I mean… Did… Doctor Schadel fix that, too..?"

"The left and right sides of the brain copy a lot of stuff from each other. The Doc grew replacement parts, and… I don't think my personality changed all that much, and I was in a coma for a year."

"Where is it?"

He reaches up and pats the skin between his shoulders. "There. It's… Well, they showed me a picture, and it looks different from a normal human brain. The other parts of my body aren't.. enough like normal human body parts for a normal brain to be able to handle them."

"Huh." And I nod, because that makes sense and I don't want to.. make him feel bad because he freaked me out. Uh, change the subject, change the subject… "And you joined the police?"

"Huh?"

He looks around the crowds again. He doesn't look like all the people staring bother him. It-. Bothers me sometimes. But it happened while everyone else was Anti-Lifed, and then everyone I actually knew just kind of accepted it because they'd already seen it when they had bigger problems. Some living statues paint themselves silver… Maybe people think that's what I've done?

"The police. Your badge?"

"Oh. Well, Aberrance is built on land the Department of Energy used to own."

"How come?"

"Er… It's where they used to do nuclear testing. But they weren't using it when Damian Kane showed everyone what the army was doing with the second generation, so the Un-Men got given it."

"Isn't it radioactive?"

"Not really. Radiation doesn't stick around forever, and Un-Men are… Tough. The stuff Arcane did to make our bodies work at all tends to ignore things. I don't think any Un-Man has ever caught a normal disease. Damian Kane turned into cancer because the stuff that made his body work broke down, not because of radiation." He looks around the crowd again. "Anyway. Aberrance is in Nevada, but it's not really part of Nevada. It's like an Indian reservation, for us. Or like Disney World in Florida. Law's not the same."

"So you are a policeman, or you're not?"

"I mean, legally, there's no real difference between park security and police. Uncorporation can make anyone they want a police officer. And… Because I was a metahuman anyway, there was a plan to… Make me the official superhero of Aberrance. So some strings got pulled and I'm technically a Special Agent of the Department of Energy."

"I didn't even know the Department of Energy had Special Agents?"

"I can't arrest anyone unless they're in Aberrance or they're stealing a nuke. And like I said, it's a technical thing. I'm not supposed to actually do anything with it, it's just supposed to make things legally easier when I'm out being a superhero."

"Can I get in on that?"

"Uh, you're not an Aberrance-resident or an Un-Man." Oh. "And… You'll probably get some sort of I.D. from the Justice League, and… That's gunna do way more than a badge that says I'm an agent as long as I don't try to be an agent."

"I guess…" I don't actually know what powers the Justice League has. I kinda assumed that they just… Handed people over to the police, but I guess they are… Kind of official… But they don't have a jail or a prison, so I guess they just drag people somewhere..? I'll ask Orange Lantern when he comes back. "So are you actually..? Trained..?"

"Not fully. But this part's easy."

"What part?" I look around at the exact same crowds. "We're not doing anything."

He shakes his torso. "We're not here to catch anyone doing anything. If we do, that's fine, but it's better if we don't."

"Huh?"

"We're here so anyone who might think of acting up doesn't. And to reassure people. You know, prevent crime. And maybe pose with the tourists."

"… Oh. So… We're just walking around?"

"Yeah, basically. You decided what you want your costume to look like yet?"

I sigh. Because I haven't. I don't know anything about armor, and I can't really hide who I am unless I wear something that covers me up completely. And then I'd just need to get a little tear and, oh look! The mysterious vigilante has silver skin! Who can they be?!

My other idea was just kind of a swimsuit thing, but that woulda made me look like a stripper.

"No. You?"

"I've got less area to work with. I can't cover my-" He gestures to his chest-face. "-face, and there's not a lot you can do with pants."

"I guess you can't really wear body armor, either."

"I was thinking about getting a helmet, just because it would be funny."

How would he-? That-?

"Yeah." He grins. "You're thinking about it now, aren't you?"

I chuckle. "Alright. Uh, so, other than walking around, is there anything we're supposed to be doing?"

"Look out for anything odd. Anything that's unusual. People usually act odd when they're up to something. Not always, sometimes they've just had some bad news or something-"

I take another look at the crowd, and… Huh.

"-and then-."

"A lot of them are wearing hats." He stops talking and takes another look himself. "Is that something I should watch out for, or is that common wherever the portal's going at the moment?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

September 27th, 2013
15:26 MST
Ian

I think about what Toni just said as I look the crowd over.

Hats.

There's a joke there, but I'm working right now so someone else can make it. Aberrance sells hats to the tourists and we're in Nevada, so we usually have a higher than usual hat-to-head ratio. Temperature right now is… Warmish? People are mostly dressed in t-shirts and pants, a couple have light jackets… Hats are… Baseball caps, sun hats… I'm not a hat expert-.

Oh, there it is.

Not hats it's weird to wear here…

"I'm not an expert on hats-."

Toni bites her lip and then looks away.

"Heh, yeah, yeah, funny, but I'm not seeing anything weird. Is it that weird?"

"I was thinking they might be robots again."

"'cause they're wearing hats?"

"Sure, like they're not gunna spend a lot of time on dressing robots. So they just bulk-buy clothes." Huh? "You didn't notice? Those robots we fought had, like, three different outfits."

"Didn't really get a good look." I look around at the hats again. And then at the people wearing them. "I don't think they're robots. Too many different body shapes."

And their facial expressions are… Normal? They look normal to me, anyway.

"Don't suppose your powers give you any kind of mind reading?"

"No. You?"

"No, just temperature control. You wanna call Orange Lantern?"

"Not over hats. There any supervillains who are weird about hats?"

I shrug. "Probably. Can't think of any off-. Right now. You got a smart phone?"

"Yeeeeah, but Dad checks my search history. I don't wanna look up 'supervillains who are weird about hats' in case I get something... Y'know."

No. But, okay. "Okay, well, I got two ideas, then. First one is, we just walk up to someone wearing a hat and talk to them."

"What about?"

"Oh, just make conversation. I've never been to Hub before. You?"

"No. Okay. And then what?"

"If they're totally normal, then I guess we're just in Hat Country. Do a couple more to make sure, then stop worrying."

"Or…"

"You watching the hatties?"

She glances at me, then focuses on a hat-wearing crowd. "Yeah?"

I tilt my back back, and breathe out a plume of fire. Not super-. Plasma, or whatever, just the kind of regular fire I can keep up for… Minutes. I can hear a slight stirring in the crowd, but since it's not pointed at anyone, that should be okay. And stop breathing fire, tilt back to normal…

"Ah, what was that?"

"Did they look around?"

"Huh?"

"Did they look around?"

"Most of 'em did?"

"Okay, which-" I look where she was looking. "-ones didn't, and we'll go talk to one of them."

"Ah… The Hub City Hooligans guy."

Right, blue baseball hat with a… Picture of a homeless guy swinging a trash can lid on it… Local sports team? He's also wearing a light jacket, collar shirt and jeans and sunglasses. Nothing particularly odd looking about him. He's in the line for the worm implant… Doesn't have his phone out and isn't fidgeting much. Can't see any headphones. That's a bit odd. Doesn't look like he's with anyone.

"Right. Follow me."

I walk over to the line. Standard metal barriers keeping everyone in line. You can duck out under it and there's enough space for a family to walk next to each other inside it, but… He's on his own.

"Hey there!"

He stays looking ahead for a moment, and then turns towards me, blinking in surprise. Probably doesn't see many headless guys.

"Hello?"

I give him my best for-the-rubes smile. "So what brings you to Hub City?!"

"I'm here to get one of those worm things."

And he turns back towards the front of the line. A bit odd, but it could be that he's just not that social.

"You come far?"

He blinks, and then turns back towards me. "What was that?"

"Did you come far? We didn't get told where the portal's opening to."

"No, it's… It's not far."

"So, where-" He's turned back to the front of the queue again. "-are you from?"

"Um." And back to me again. Yeah, something isn't right here, but… It's a guy in a line. Can't see a gun or a knife. And the genomorphs are giving those things out for free. "What?"

"Where did you come here from?"

"Place near Mount Dora."

P.R. smile and wait… And his attention goes back to the front of the line. I turn and walk away, and Toni follows me.

"That was weird, right?"

"Could be he's just not that talkative. Could be he's autistic, or just has a lot on his mind. Can you knock his hat off without it being obvious?"

"My plasma looks like silver fire. I know some of the Lanterns can make real thin constructs but mine doesn't work like that. Why don't we just ask him to take it off?"

"Because-." Because we don't want to make someone's visit to the park unpleasant. And that doesn't exactly apply here, but this is Orange Lantern's favorite city-. "If he comes from Mount Dora-" Wherever that is. "-then where did he get a local hat?"

"Maybe it's not his first visit? Hey, why don't we just-?"

"Yeah?"

"Get one of those psychic genomorphs to read his mind. There's a bunch of them in the clinic, right?"

Good idea. "Yeah, good idea. You go get one, and I'll keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

She nods and makes a plasma disc for herself. I look around as she flies into the air, and… Yeah, the guy doesn't look around. A couple of others don't either.

What's going on?

 

[Mr Zoat]

September 27th, 2013
15:31 MST
Argent

The genomorphs just… Stare at me. The little ones with the tentacle arms, the human-sized ones with the big ears and hands, one of the really big ones and the little one on its shoulder.

"Ah… Hi?"

Their eyes glow a little, but otherwise they just keep staring. Can they talk? I know at least some of them can because I remember when Dubbilex took the Oath of Allegiance, but none of these guys look quite like him and I think I remember Dad saying something about not all of them being intelligent?

"Can you guys talk?"

The big one picks up one of the tentacles ones and puts it down in front of me. It's got a notepad and a pen. Oh, okay. It turns the pad around and points to 'Are you here for an implant?'.

"No no no, there's this guy. Did Orange Lantern tell you I was working security?"

It flicks to another page. 'Yes.'

"Great. Okay, is one of you telepathic?"

'Yes.'

"Good. Can I borrow-?" Ah. "Can one of you come with me? There's a guy acting suspicious outside and we need to find out if he's sketchy or just autistic."

'Yes.'

"Thank-" The big one lumbers closer, then takes hold of the little one on its shoulder and hold it out to m-. No, just puts it on my shoulder and-

**Uuoouurrgh?!**

Huh?

**Unneccesary.** / **No threat.**

The big-hand-.

**G-Elf.**

Ugh, G-Elfs-. Elves? Walk away, and the… G-Troll? Picks up the G-Dwarf and ambles off.

**Issue successfully managed.**

Wait, I'm hearing them.. think..? Huh, that's… Really useful.

**[Pride.]**

I make a disk for us and fly out, heading back to where Face is watching Hat Man. This is…. Weird. I mean, I don't know what I was expecting, exactly. Classroom lessons? One of those is supposed to be happening this Saturday… Or fighting bad guys. But according to Orange Lantern, they don't really want to make us fight anyone serious yet, which, yeah, that makes sense. And there aren't that many fights on our level that the League knows about, because… They'd have dealt with them or got someone else to. So between the equipment, the classes and… Actually getting to know each other, we're just gunna get random stuff like this thrown at us. Which… Okay, if it helps, I guess.

He's probably just on drugs.

**[Confusion. Inability.]**

No, no, I just need you to check his brain. Doing something about it is my problem.

**[Gratitude.]**

People in the line stare as we land. Not hostile or scared, just curious-.

**[Information.]**

Or just looking at the one interesting thing happening around them because that's what humans tend to do. Not Hat Man, though. And not a couple of others…

Okay, G-gnome? That guy. What's up with him?

I feel the G-gnome shift position on my shoulder, and-.

**[The world drops away. There's the path in front of me, and some obstacles that I must be patient with, and at the end, the thing that will solve all my problems. I must wait, and get it, and then return. And then my work will be complete.]**

And then the world snaps back into focus, and…

Fuuuuuuuck. That was not right. Okay, ah, little guy? That guy over there, the one who didn't look when we landed.

**[The world drops away. There's the path in front of me, and some obstacles that I must be patient with, and at the end, the thing that will solve all my problems. I must wait, and get it, and then return. And then my work will be complete.]**

Yeah, that's not autism.

"Face, something's wrong with them."

"Okay." Face steps back up to Hat Man. "Excuse me, sir?"

Hat Man kind of shakes, and turns to face Face. "What was that?"

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm gunna have to ask you to take off your hat."

**[Keep the hat on!]**

"What?" Hat Man leans away from Face. "I'm not taking my hat off!"

Face motions for me to move around, and I duck into the line behind him. The people around him can read the room and back off to give us space.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you sir. Please carry on."

Hat Man blinks… And then returns his attention to the line. I-. I put small plasma pads under my feet and float up -he just ignores me- and then reach forward, grabthebrimandpull!

"My hat!" He twists around and I float back out of arm's reach. My inertia belt should protect me from everything he can do… But Orange Lantern said he died once because the Reach filled a warship that couldn't hurt him with a super-explosive that could, so… "Give it back!" He reaches for it. "Give…" He blinks. "Give… What? Wh-?" He looks around. "Where am I?"

I look at the insides of the hat… Yeah, that's some kind of circuitry. Not touching that, that can go to Hiro.

"Sir?"

"Where am-? Ah!"

Hat Man freezes as he gets a look at Face, which… Yeah, I did that too.

"Yes, I know what I look like, but-" I show him the insides of the hat. "-it looks like you've been mind controlled by your hat. Do you remember anything about that?"

"Ah-. Shit, sorry. Ah. No? I was just… I was in town 'cause I… I wanted to see the portal open…" He shakes his head. "Then it's all a blur. I'm… In Hub City?"

"Yes, and you're in the line for one of those medical worm implants. Did you want to get one?"

"Ah, noo." He steps out of line, and I follow him. "Do you-? Do you need me for anything or can I head home?"

"It would be best if we had someone check you over before you go home, but if you really want to get out of here you can just give us your details and someone will follow up later."

"Right. Yeah, I'll, I'll take the check-up."

Face turns to me. "We should probably find as many of the others as we can. Can the-?"

Five people burst out of line and dash away down the street!

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th September 2013
15:34 GMT -6

"…even the sewers have never been cleaner." Mayor Fermin puts down the last report and sits back. "Honestly… Hub City has never had it so good."

"No problems at all? Nothing untoward happening? With the… Old crowd?"

"The old crowd is dead." She shakes her head. "Or they ran so far they might as well be. The people who live here now… I mean, they're people. If Hub had stayed the same, they'd probably have joined in. But as long as we keep it clean, they'll stay clean too."

"Anything I can do to help with that?"

"I don't think-." She frowns. "Alright, I guess there is one thing. The genomorphs have been helping out with policing. Using g-gnomes saves a lot of time during interviews, and the g-elves are great at foot chases. The only issue is with actually talking to them. Dubbilex can't be here all the time."

"What about the g-pooka?"

"They act like hyperactive children a lot of the time. I know that their psychic network is supposed to let them share skills, but the others can't talk and the g-pooka can't focus."

"The g-magtatangal can talk."

"But whenever it does, it reroutes the conversation towards surgery."

"Okay, I can bring it up with Dubbilex. There are enough other genomorph types that he can't really complain about being forced into a human-shaped hole."

"Human.. shaped hole?"

"Genomorphs aren't human. But more than that… They're not really Earth-creatures. G-pooka aren't humans with a fixation; they're entirely mentally healthy g-pooka. G-goblins can fake being human-like in a way the others can't, but they're… Not. And Dubbilex didn't want the genomorphs to be forced to become more human-like in exchange for recognition."

"Because he-. He could have just grown more g-goblins whenever he wanted."

"The Genomorph Entire could have. And then… Well. We'd probably treat the g-goblins as humans, and the other genomorph types as animals."

She nods. "Which they're not. So-."

My ring blinks, and I hold it up slightly. "Excuse me. Orange Lantern, go ahead."

"We found a guy being mind controlled, but when we broke the control a load of other people who'd been acting suspicious ran off."

Fingers to forehead. "Excuse me again." I

step out, the desires of my students being easy enough to

distinguish from rest of the population. Ian lowers his communicator while Toni is looking down the road towards someone running away. She's.. got a g-gnome on her shoulder, which is a good show of initiative when dealing with mind control. She jerks her head towards me for a moment and thrusts a… Baseball cap towards me-? Ah, I see.

"Looks like Mad Hatter's work." And yeah, there's the scry ward. Just on the technology, not on the hat or the wearer. "How many ran?"

Face shifts awkwardly. "Five that I saw, but if they're all being controlled then there might be others."

"Right." I tether both of them and transition upwards. "Now, the wards mean that I can't scan for the mind control hat directly, but there are only so many people running away from where you were working."

Orange tendrils flash out, and then they're running in the air next to us, suspended in a flight aura.

"Mister Tetch, have your abilities grown to encompass long distance puppetting?"

His latest victims are flailing and trying to get away-. And I can see the fake drives overlying their natural ones.

Toni frowns at me. "Shouldn't you just-?"

I remove the hats and float them closer to me, the flailing stopping almost immediately.

"Sirs and madams, I'm sorry to say that you've been acting under mental control. You are presently in Hub City in Illinois."

The initial panic of waking up fully clothed somewhere they don't recognise fading, they all manage to give me their attention.

"I'm going to drop you and Face off at the local police station, please give full reports to the interviewing officer."

And transition, and the I float Argent upwards. Hm. How best to go about this without causing panic?

"Can you.. do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just send them to the police station?"

"Yes? There's an ongoing attack, and the local police have the skills to help them. If you mean, 'can I compel them to give testimony?', then no, but I'm afraid that U.S. law and practice is that as long as they don't flat out refuse I'm allowed to imply that they're obliged to assist me. Even if they're not mentally firing on all cylinders yet."

"That's a bit…"

"You read the first victim's mind to find out whether he was being controlled or not?"

"Yeah?"

"In your opinion, could the same technique have been used to create an assassin?"

"Um. I don't-. Maybe?"

"And we don't know that it hasn't been used for that, just that the first six weren't programmed in that way. While there is a degree of disagreement amongst Justice League members and affiliates on how paranoid we're supposed to be, I believe that the majority would accept what I just did. Now." I halt our upwards travel. "How do you think we should deal with this?"

"Aaaaaah… Stop anyone using the portal so they can't get away, and… Get the police to check everyone?"

"Impractical. Hub City Police Department hasn't got enough trained officers for something like that. Honestly, I don't think anywhere in the country does. Not that they could spare."

"Okay, then… What?"

"The ward prevents me from scanning for the mind control hat. It doesn't do anything to block my empathic abilities, and people who are having their minds altered stand out when I look for them."

I stare downwards, looking for the unnaturally twisted desires that I saw in the hatted.

"And… How should I do it? Because I don't think I can do that."

"Calling me is an option, but failing that, genomorphs can do a similar thing if you spread the g-gnomes out across the city centre. Your new colleagues Hunter and Toyman could probably figure something out with magic or technology. If nothing better occurs to you, contact whoever's on console duty and ask for advice."

And there they are, another six. None of them are fleeing, but they all show the same mental restrictions. Filaments flick out and bring them up to us before removing their hats.

"Now, let's see if this helps us actually find Mister Tetch."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd January 2257
0801, Station Time

"Hey there!" The man wearing what I've come to understand is what passes for a suit in the 23rd century smiles as I enter his small office. Space is at a premium on a space station like this, so no one can really afford space that they don't need. "Why don't you take a seat, and tell me how your government can help you today!"

"Ah." I cross the room and take the indicated chair. "Thank you. But… Did you really just say 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help'?"

He shrugs, still smiling. He's balding, and… I think of mixed European and Asian ancestry. "Reagan was a cynic. I like to think that a lot of us volunteered to work here because we really wanna make a difference. You know, in a positive way. Oh, ah, do you have an ident card?"

I shake my head. "I'm afraid not."

"Okay, ah, any other sort of identification?"

"Not that's going to be on any current database. That's why I'm here."

"Okay… Sounds like there's a story there?"

I nod. "Ah… I do understand that what I'm about to say sounds ridiculous. I'm perfectly happy to sign a waver for telepathic confirmation…"

He shrugs. "This was gunna be a slow day anyway. Why don't you let me decide?"

"Alright. I should exist in pre-unification British records, I just don't know if it got transferred over to the current system, and… I don't have any supporting paperwork, so even if you did find the record, I can't prove that it's me."

He frowns, and gives me a small shrug. "What about a D.N.A. sample?"

"At the time, D.N.A. samples were only taken in Britain if you were arrested by the police. It was actually a… Mildly contentious issue at the time, because they weren't obliged to destroy them if they didn't press charges or you were found not guilty."

"Huh." He frowns. "That's a little-." His frown deepens. "At the.. time?"

"Twenty thirteen."

He blinks. "Twenty… Thirteen."

"Yes indeed. I did say."

"You… Did. So you're..?" He shakes his head, shrugging. "Two hundred and forty years old?"

"Chronologically? I'm two hundred and seventy five. Except… I wasn't… Around for two hundred and forty of those years. I just… Woke up, and it's the future." I lean back in the chair with a smile and a shrug. "I'll just… Sit here until the men in the white coats get here, shall I?"

He takes a moment to think that over.

"Twenty thirteen. So you were on Earth?"

"Yes."

"And you woke up somewhere else?"

"Yes."

"And you don't remember how you got there."

"No idea at all. Woke up in my pyjamas. I only found out what year it was when I got to this station."

"Was there..? Anyone around when you woke up? Who could confirm your story?"

Yes.

My right hand slides over to cover my left. "Some… Robots. Someone could probably recover their databases. I… Couldn't really… Bring them with me…"

That's not entirely true. I woke up in space, and I don't think that their sensors were that good. But the robots inside the reliquary could certainly confirm my presence. Assuming that they have that sort of memory storage and didn't flash their drives after I disabled them.

"So there weren't any people around? Including… Aliens." He frowns. "Have you..? Met any aliens, yet?"

"Yeah, um…" I point my thumb towards the door. "A… Fellow with a.. bone crest on the back of his head was kind enough to point me in the right direction. He was an.. alien, right? Not someone with some sort of.. wart growth-."

"No, no. That was an alien." He looks at me like he's expecting more.

"Well, once I realised the date, and the fact that you had faster than light travel, having aliens around is… Was expected. I'm a bit surprised that they look so human, but I'm not really… I'd have been more surprised if there weren't aliens."

Dear, you're sharing your head with-.

Yesyes, I know. Just… Let me get through this meeting, and I'll get to work.

My interviewer nods. "Do you think you could have been abducted?"

"I mean, mayb-. Does that actually happen?"

"Litigation is ongoing. A few species have abducted humans, and some of the people who were abducted experienced a degree of time loss. Never anything like two hundred years, but it's not unheard of."

"Ah. Well, I can't confirm it, but if you need something to put in the files…"

"What was the planet like?"

"I don't know what classification system you use. The… One area I looked at looked like a ruined city, mostly made of stone blocks… It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, and… But there wasn't anything growing, no lichen or anything like that." I shrug. "So maybe some sort of radiation weapon completely sterilised it?"

"Would you recognize it if you saw it again?"

"Oh yes." I nod. "Definitely."

"So how did you get from that planet.. to here?"

Why are you bothering with the foolishness? Get to work!

Let the man be, Darish.

"There was a… Small ship? Shuttle? The moment I got on board it engaged some sort of auto-pilot. Flew me to the system's… Jump gate? Which was pretty darn terrifying because I had no idea what it was. And then, after a little while in hyperspace, I came out somewhere called 'Rota'… I don't know if that was the planet or the town, and when I asked about contacting the human government some of the people there suggested that I come here."

"And the ship..?"

"Currently in the docking bay."

He nods. "That's helpful. Having actual physical evidence lets me prove that something happened to you. And if you know the location of a formerly inhabited planet, our friends down the hall at Interplanetary Expeditions will wanna hear about it."

No!

"So you wanna get added to our database." He nods. "We can do that. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Ah… I'll probably need a passport, or whatever you use for that sort of thing today… I don't know if you can find whoever grabbed me, but I assume that I should talk to… Police, or someone in intelligence? Other than that, I just want to… Head back to Earth and work out what I'm going to do with myself."

"That all sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I can go through the registration process with you now." He smiles a customer service smile. "On behalf of the twenty-third century, welcome to Babylon Five."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th September 2013
19:22 GMT -5

"Recognized, D zero one, Toyman."

Hiro strolls out of the construct zeta tube with his hands in his pockets, hesitating briefly when he notices that it is a construct and he hasn't come to one of the normal exits.

"Ah. Convenient." He makes eye contact with me. "You have the hats?"

I gesture to the work bench where the baseball hats sit, along with the tools necessary to dissect them. Hiro nods and walks closer, activating something in his coat to tighten the loose sleeves and run a sterilising field over his gloves.

"Have you done an analysis yourself?"

"Yes, but I don't necessarily understand what I'm looking at. My results are on the system."

He lowers his goggles and links them to the workshop's system. "Ah. What am I looking for?"

"Anything that might help us locate whoever built them. Any potential long term harm to the people exposed to it. Possible countermeasures and detection techniques."

He calls up an exploded view and starts examining a hat. "Does the League not already have those?"

"Sort of. Zeta tubes have built-in systems to detect mental alterations, and several Justice League members can detect things like that with their own abilities. And several Justice League members have learned techniques which make controlling their minds difficult. But just as for every form of attack there is a perfect defence, for every form of defence there is a perfect attack. And, of course, a technology or technique which is limited to a handful of people can't protect the entire world."

He magnifies the ward. "Is this an ofuda?"

"Something like that. It's intended to channel just enough magic to hide from power ring scans. It also causes the object to be hidden from certain forms of magic detection, but that isn't why it's become popular recently."

"I do not know magic. Is Hunter coming, too?"

"It's late at night in Britain. I've left him a note, but as far as I can tell it's completely standard. Tetch isn't a magician either."

"Do you know that it was made by the Mad Hatter?"

"Technically, no, but there are skin cells in there that match his D.N.A. so it seems like a safe bet. Plus it's a mind control hat. I'm not ignoring the possibility that it was someone else, it's just that it almost certainly was him."

"Mm."

"Should I leave you to it, or do you want someone to be impressed by your brilliance?"

"Do you know someone intelligent enough to understand it?"

"Who's your favourite Sivana?"

"Beautia."

Well, she's not Power Girl, but she's not far off I suppose. "Puberty hitting you already?"

"I like to be prepared. And the Justice League files on Georgia and Thaddeus Junior say that they are spending most of their time off-planet. Were you going to offer them a place here?"

"Oh goodness me, no. They've de facto joined NEMO, and that's probably the best place for them."

"But not for me?"

"You could just have bunkered up when the Anti-Life Broadcast happened. And you could have nuked Washington. You didn't. While I'd rather have given you a few years before approaching you… You'd already effectively joined the community. It made more sense to offer you support and guidance than expect you to go back to what you were doing before."

"I thought that we were selected by Batman."

"You were, but we could still have refused to teach you if we felt strongly enough about it."

"You don't follow Batman's orders?"

"Depends what you mean. This is a voluntary association, not an army. Batman isn't my commanding officer in the sense that I've sworn to follow the orders of my duly designated superiors. I follow his orders because of the personal respect I have for his abilities and accomplishments. I can't think of a situation that's likely to occur where I'd disobey his orders in the field, but if he was the sort of person to give unconscionable orders then I wouldn't be here. And he probably wouldn't be here."

"But if it did, you would."

"In theory. I'd probably ask for an explanation rather than outright refusing… And then check him for mental contamination."

"Zatanna told us about how you freed her father."

She-? I mean, I haven't asked her recently how she feels about it. I don't see any reason to constantly bring it up. On the other hand…

"In what context?"

"What I should do if I don't think that what I have been told to do is right."

"To be clear, I'm pretty sure I could have handled that whole thing better. And I think that's a.. bit heavy for your first week."

"I don't think that she gave me every detail. She just wanted to be sure that I would not just do whatever someone from the League told me to do just because they were a member of the League."

"That sort of situation is very rare. Because again, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be here now. So… Did you want to talk about that while you work?"

"No, I'm done." He deactivates the hologram and steps back. "The device is essentially combines Mad Hatter's normal mind control with a more conventional sonic hypnosis device. But that is a technology that other criminals have used before. Someone who has a hat placed on their head should have a few seconds to remove it before the hat is in full control, but wearing any sort of helmet would work to block the control system. The components are either generic or custom made, and there are no recent thefts of such components on the League's database."

"He either bought them legitimately, salvaged them from things no one is complaining about, or made them himself."

"Yes. You understand correctly."

"Guess we'll have to wait for the police to type up their interviews, then. Thank you."

"There is… One thing. The crystal used in the hypnosis array. That is not unique, but it is not how it is usually done. And it is not an approach he has used before. It may be worth investigating."

"No. I already know where he learned about that." I take a rune stone out of a pouch and move it closer to a hat. It glows faintly when it gets closer to the crystal.

"Magic?"

"Just a touch, to keep the whole thing going. A little magic added to something that nearly works can make it actually work, and that's usually far easier than making the whole thing purely magical."

Oh, Lonnie. What are you doing now?

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd January 2257
0829, Station Time

You are wasting time.

The fork in my right hand shakes slightly as the combined desires of the peanut gallery well up…

I'm not wasting time. This is the first chance I've had to eat human food since this started.

It's not great human food, mind. I looked at how long at takes to ship food from the closest agricultural planet to this space station, deliberately built in the middle of nowhere so that no one would feel like they were in someone else's territory. It's several weeks, and as a result we're the recipients of things that don't go off quickly, can be packed tight and mostly don't require refrigeration. And from the menu I suspect that it was intended for the American pallet. But the bread is bread, the eggs… Were probably real eggs at one point, and the bacon… It's a bit salty, but it's… Okay.

Talk to my-! / It's important-! / You must-! / Do you know who I-! / Just another liar!

Look!

They grudgingly quieten down.

I have some things I need to sort out. I've got an official identity and a bank account. Next, I need to find somewhere to live. Then I can focus on your tasks. Now, from the sounds of things, some of them aren't going to be things I can handle quickly anyway, and they aren't going to become harder in a few weeks than they are now, because you were all in storage for a long time.

I can feel their disquiet.

But, as a show of good faith, if one of you has a task that I can handle here, quickly, then I'll do it. After I've finished eating.

The milk tastes weirdly sweet. It's not bad, just disconcerting.

Also, are you all tasting this?

Ugh, human food. / I don't really taste… / Could use more maggots. / I have an idea.

About the food? I don't mind trying alien food, as long as it's not fatal to humans.

Not that. My task. My… 'Unfinished business', as you put it. You should be able to deal with it swiftly.

Oh, okay. Who are you, and what is it?

An image forms at the forefront of my mind. One of the bald, spotted-headed aliens. Narns. As the image strengthens I see scars, burns and a build that suggests emaciation.

I am G'Nun. I fought the centauri when they occupied the homeworld.

Which covers a period from 2109 to 2231. The narn won their freedom in living memory.

I'm not picking a fight with the Centauri Republic, if that's what you're planning on asking.

I know all too well that would not be swift. No, I merely want you to share knowledge of my cadre's actions with the Kha'Ri. I want to make sure that the Seventh Circle includes our tales with others from the occupation.

Ah. Alright, that sounds doable. If you focus on what you want to say, we can use the ring to transpose it into text. And then I can post it-.

The Kha'Ri will not accept an anonymous work of fiction! No, we will need to speak with Ambassador G'Kar and convince him that my tales are genuine. Then, I will recount them before an official recorder.

That sounds like it will take longer.

A few hours. And I will be the one doing most of the work.

I take another bite of fried bread as I think it over. That… Should be simple enough. It's not complex, and just involves talking to people.

Any objections?

Mercifully, the peanut gallery is silent. I can distantly feel that some of them aren't happy, but none raise a genuine objection.

Alright. I'll finish breakfast, and then-.

You may wish to eat quickly.

Uh. Why?

The woman three tables to your right is the Ambassador's assistant.

I look to my right, and-. Yep, that's a narn. I'll take his word for 'woman'. I'm no great judge of narn expressions but she looks like whatever she ate disagreed with her. Cleaned her plate though, which does make me more favourably disposed towards her.

She puts her cutlery down-.

I sigh, get up and walk towards her. "Excuse me, ma'am."

Her eyes lock onto me-. Not.. red, I notice. Cybernetic, perhaps? "Yes? What is it?"

"Might I have a moment of your time to-?"

"If this is an attempt to convince me to mate with you, you're wasting your time. We're not all like the Ambassador."

Um.

You could do worse. She is certainly a healthy-.

Masculine facial structure, bald. I could do worse, but celibacy is always an option.

"That isn't why I want to talk to you. I wish to book an appointment with Ambassador G'Kar."

"What for?"

"I promised a now-dead narn by the name of G'Nun that I would tell his people what his resistance group achieved during the war with the centauri. I like to think that his spirit will rest a little easier once I've done that."

"I've never heard of a.. G'Nun."

"Yes, ma'am. That's my point. Or… His point. What's the… Line? 'For every battle honour, a thousand heroes die, unsung and unremembered'. I'd like to correct that in his case."

She thinks that over for a moment.

"You speak our language very well."

"Thank you. I had an excellent teacher."

"Were you close to G'Nun?"

I nod. "Extremely close. I like to think that I carry a part of his spirit with me."

You literally do.

Yes, that's the joke.

Ah. Narn humour is a little more sophisticated.

The narn woman studies me for a moment.

"Very well. I will arrange matters. Leave your diary open. The Ambassador has… Many demands on his time."

"Thank you. That won't be a problem."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
12:36 GMT -5

I have my ring feed the witness statements into my mind as I walk up the path towards Shadowcrest. Short term memory loss. They were all in Mount Dora for various reasons. Most were on their own, though there was one couple. No children, which is… Something. Face volunteered to liaise with Mount Dora police to see if they could find anything out, but Mister Tetch should be long gone. There's nothing unifying the victims other than they were in Mount Dora and wouldn't immediately be missed.

And Tetch sent them to get g-sanchong implanted. Why? Don't know. There are thousands of people with g-sanchong implanted. There's no… Central list, as far as I'm aware, but it wouldn't be hard to monitor people leaving the clinic. Or just the people who boast about it online.

Of course, he is called the Mad Hatter.

I reach the front door of Shadowcrest and reach out with my right fist to knock, only for the house to decide to play to type and open the door before my knuckles reach it.

"Very stereotypical. Please let Giovanni know that I'm here."

And then I walk inside, and-. Hah. The door starts to close behind me at a speed that would result in it closing just fast enough to catch my arse.

So I stop right in the doorway.

The door makes a mildly disappointed creak, and stops in turn.

"I thought not."

I transition forwards, and the door swings shut catching nothing but air. That was odd. As far as I know, Shadowcrest is a place of magical power but it isn't intelligent in its own right. Certainly, it never showed that sort of intelligence when I used to visit regularly. I suppose Giovanni might have… Changed the settings. Or maybe they bound some sort of spirit to the place.

"Ahoy the house!"

"We're in the library!"

I head through the foyer and down the corridor, through the indoor rock garden seating area and then into the grand library. Obviously, it's too large internally to fit within the external dimensions of the house, and just as obviously it's decorated by various magical knickknacks in warded glass cases.

"Hey Paul!"

I look up to see Zatanna waving from the second floor balcony, while Timothy just watches.

"Good afternoon, Zatanna. Hunter."

He cringes slightly. "You can just call me 'Tim'."

I smile. "So would you say-?"

He cringes more. "Yes, there are.. some who call me 'Tim'."

Zatanna blinks. "Is that a movie quote? Is this going to be like Cornwall Boy all over again?"

"Yes, yes it is. Do you know why the front door tried to grab my bottom?"

"Ah-uh… No..?"

Timothy straightens up slightly. "That was me."

"Uh… Huh?"

"I brought a pooka with me as a housewarming present. She really likes it here."

"Oh, ah, good. Please tell her that while I'm flattered, I'm not on the market."

"She can hear you."

"Ah." I look around the room, staring at nothing in particular. "Ma'am, I'm afraid that I'm not available."

A chair next to me jumps, the arm rest-. Oh, great, I'm being sexually harassed by furniture.

Timothy shrugs. "She can hear you. That doesn't mean that she cares what you say."

"Alright. Tell her that if she does it again we will eat her."

The chair falls over.

"She can still-." He nods. "Okay. Zoe, knock it off, alright?"

"Thank you."

Zatanna looks curious. "So what did you come here for? Planning on stealing my other student?"

"I called dibs."

"We already did this argument, Paul."

I take out a bag containing the crystals which had been mounted in the hats. "I need to find out where these came from. It'll probably be warded. If you can't do that-"

"Llafwols." Zatanna jumps over the balcony railing and drifts towards the ground floor.

"-then I'd like to know what sort of machinery they were around."

Timothy follows his mentor over the edge, wooden hands extending from the wood to carry him to the floor.

Zatanna approaches and takes the bag from me. "What's so special about them?"

"Jarvis Tetch used them in his latest generation mind control headwear."

"Is he branching out into magic?"

"I'm more worried about Lonnie Machin. One of the parallel universe versions of me I've met lived in a parallel where he used magically empowered crystals as part of a large scale brainwashing machine. Or… He called it an unbrainwashing machine, but it amounted to the same thing. Tetch hasn't used crystals in his technology before, and I'm concerned that he's collaborating."

"On a magic crystal brainwashing machine?" She sits down at a table and shakes the crystals out across the surface. "S'rellewej epuol."

A jeweller's magnifying monocle appears in the air in front of her and she takes a closer look at one of the crystals.

"Yes, he aligned them to parts of the moral compass and used that to compel everyone to become profoundly honest. Horrible situation."

"I can imagine."

Timothy wanders closer. "Can I take a look?"

"By all means."

Timothy reaches across the table and taps one of the crystals, which… Promptly sprouts arms and legs and stands up, facing him.

Huh?

He notices my surprise. "Earth elemental. If whatever Miss Zatara's planning doesn't work, we can try asking it."

"Can it talk?"

"You can't hear it?"

"Okay." Zatanna stands up, brushing the inanimate crystals back into the bag. "Tim, you should interrogate the elemental while Paul and I set up the ritual. Hopefully, this won't take too long."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
12:42 GMT -5

"…wasn't all that happy about it, but the C.I.A. has to spend all that drug money on something."

I'm grinning as I copy her design onto the floor. I probably shouldn't be, but when it comes to ways to monetise a superpower…

"And they don't need to be recharged?"

"Of course they need to be recharged. Service fees are where the real money is." She sighs. "Of course, it's kinda pointless now. How long 'til the economy gets fixed?"

"Depending on how you define 'fixed', a year."

She looks mildly disconcerted. "Really?"

"After a year, the food supply will have demonstrably been fixed. Fuel should be, too. And that's it. We'll basically be waiting for people to start doing things for themselves again, and if it-. I mean, it should be happening by then. Assume there aren't any more shocks."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "'And if it' what?"

I exhale through my nose. "If it hasn't happened by then, then it isn't going to. Something in our civilisation is fundamentally broken, and I'm not really sure what we do about it." I hold up my hands and wave them apart and together a few times. "But I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen. Ah, good idea, selling enchanted objects."

"It's a living. Or it was."

"Are you still doing the stage shows?"

"That's the plan. Of course, we're not doing them right now. Other than the occasional impromptu show, anyway. There's just too much to do, and I don't think people would really enjoy it."

I nod. "And how are things with your new students?"

She snorts. "Now I know exactly how Sephtian felt when I showed him how I use magic."

"Oh?"

"Tim isn't actually all that powerful. Everything I've been able to do to measure his raw magical force and stamina tells me that he's doing okay for someone who just started learning magic… He's only about as powerful as La'gaan."

I frowns. "Ah… That.. doesn't match-."

She exhales heavily. "I know. And that's because somehow he's got a… Thaumic… Presence that's way more powerful than it should be. He can do the things he does not because he's super-powerful but because he's doing things for a fraction of the… Effort it should take."

"Like you with talking backwards."

"Actually, no. It takes me the same amount of effort that it takes a classically trained Atlantean, I just got to bypass learning how to cast spells the normal way and a boost in my starting power. He's… I don't know. I can't think of anything quite like it, and I've looked. I've got him doing normal starting exercises because he does actually need to build up his metaphysique to do anything that doesn't involve summoning his friends."

"Is-?"

"And you remember how I couldn't get any information about where you come from using magic?"

I nod. "Yes."

"He's even worse. Everything I do gives a different result. I couldn't even be sure that his dad is his dad when he was in the same room. I mean, I know for you that the universe doesn't know what to make of you because your original universe doesn't quite fit, but with him it's almost like…"

She trails off, shaking her head and shrugging.

"Is any of that a problem for him?"

"It means I'm not sure what he'll be able to do, but… I can probably work around it."

"And Toyman?"

"I'm just having him do physical exercise. I think his parents basically kept him shut up in a workshop for years. I can relate, but if he's going to be a superhero he's going to have to build some muscle." I nod. "How about you?"

"I think I have adequate muscle?"

I flex my arms, which doesn't really show through my armour.

Zatanna chuckles. "No. I mean, your students."

"To be blunt, neither of them have the potential that yours do. Argent has most utility-."

"How are you making them better?"

"Field work. That way I can see how they react to the sort of situations we're training them to deal with, and we can all see what they need to learn in order to get better. Based on what I've seen so far, Face could do with the sort of training actual police officers get. He's got the experience from working security in Aberrance but I get the impression that his boss just wanted to have a metahuman on staff."

"I can't imagine not having a head. What's he like?"

"Sociable enough. Enthusiastic about improving. Reasonable policing-related people skills from his work in Aberrance. He's level head-."

Zatanna gives me a look.

"He's not excitable. Haven't seen how he worked under combat pressure yet."

"How about Argent?"

"I'm going to need to work with her on shielding different things. Try and get her to make constructs faster. Since she has school and is.. probably going to want to get a job at some point, I can't really pick anything too time-intensive."

"Where does her power actually come from?"

"I can't tell. She definitely underwent a… Form of novel genetic expression. I have no idea what her genes looked like before the Anti-Life broadcast, but there are substantial nonhuman segments in her D.N.A. now."

"Nonhuman? She's an alien?"

"No, I mean, not found in normal humans. Metahuman genetics usually read as weird nonsense. I couldn't even tell you why her skin's shiny. I managed to take a tissue sample; it changes back the moment it's removed. She might even be able to learn to control it."

I look down at the floor.

"How's it coming?"

"Erehw did eht latsyrc emoc morf!"

A puff of mist rises off the diagram, air whistling around the design before the pressure equalises.

"Wohs em erehw!"

The room… Shakes faintly, and then Zatanna's eyes glow gold.

"Are you alright?"

She blinks, and the light fades. And then she smiles.

"I think we've got them."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd January 2257
1655, Station Time

Thank you.

I blink, Ambassador G'Kar peering at me curiously. He maintains eye contact for a moment, and then leans back. "Ah. I see you're back with me."

G'Nun?

…

"Yes. I'm… Sorry, I appear to.. have some.. time loss. What just happened?"

"Oh, we were having a fascinating discussion on the resistance activities of narn 'guest workers'." He shakes his head. "I admit, I was wholly ignorant of their contribution to the liberation struggle. And I will ensure that G'Nun's testimony is entered into our historical archive."

I smile. "Thank you, Ambassador. I'm sure that would have meant a great deal-."

"But I was surprised-" He waves his right forefinger at me. "-to suddenly find myself sitting across from him. For a moment I thought that it was a hologram of some sort, but while you speak our language very well, there are phrases that a native speaker would use which you do not."

"Ah."

Thanks a lot, G'Nun.

"I.. see that you're not wearing the badge of the human Psi Corps. And even if you were an unregulated human telepath, since I knew nothing of the subject you could not have been learning about it from my mind." He sits back in his chair. "This makes me extremely curious."

"It would make most people extremely curious."

I… Think he's frowning. Narns don't appear to have particularly mobile faces.

"I was sitting in this room, with a dead man."

"A.I. chatbots can be remarkably realistic."

"Then, was his story invented? Because if so then I would have to withdraw my offer. I cannot shame my people's martyrs by turning their history into a work of fiction."

"No."

"So… Will you answer, or shall I simply continue to guess?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Mm." He shrugs. "My door isn't locked. You can leave."

"Yes."

"But you won't. Because this matters to you. More than concealing whatever that was."

"I didn't actually know that could happen. If I had, I would have been a good deal more circumspect."

He nods, eyes averted as he thinks-. Something occurs to him.

"Aah. Were you aware that a soul hunter vessel is currently docked with the station?"

I shake my head. "I don't know what a soul hunter is."

"No, I suppose you wouldn't. As far as I know, they've never had any contact with your species. But the rest of us usually take their presence as an ill-omen."

"And why would that be?"

"They claim that they collect the souls of the dead-." He smiles. "Ah. I'm getting warmer."

"Could you describe them?"

"Their faces look somewhat like human faces, the tops of their heads look like the top of my people's heads, just without the spots. They also have a small raised area in the middle of their forehead. No?" I shake my head. "Hm. As I was saying, they collect the souls of the dead whom they consider 'special' or 'significant', and store them in great reliquaries."

Ah. That's what that was.

"Humans may not care, but the populations of the other species on the station are in a state of uproar. Ambassador Delenn in particular is waxing wroth."

"Ah."

"But no soul hunter has been seen. Truly, a mystery-."

"Okay fine, I'll tell you."

"Are you sure?" He raises his eye ridges. "I was having fun planning my next avenue of questioning."

"Yes, I found a reliquary. I made a deal with the trapped souls. I help them, they help me. I didn't see a soul hunter while I was there, but I… Guess that I should ditch the ship."

"The narn government would be interested in acquiring such a ship. We know little of their capabilities, but I suspect that at least some of their systems are superior to ours."

Hm. I don't really need a ship. And apparently this one stands out…

"What's the smallest jump-capable narn ship?"

"Oh, that would be the T'Loth-class Heavy Cruiser. They're outmoded as front line warships and we have made sales of our decommissioned vessels to friendly governments… But I suspect they'd be a little large for your personal use."

Yeah. With a power ring, I don't really need a jump-capable ship… But having something I could live in would be helpful. But I've learned that unlike in Star Trek, faster than light drives are all pretty big here. And energy shields are basically unheard of. So really, an out of date heavy cruiser would probably be a liability even if I could make it work.

"Alright, sure. Make me a good offer and let me know where you want it dropped off. I suspect that Earthforce would rather it left their station as quickly as possible."

He smiles. "Would you like payment in cash or part exchange?"

"Cash and exchange. It's got the location of the reliquary in its navigation database."

"What are you looking for?"

"Something that one person can control and live in for a few weeks without feeling too cramped. And can handle hyperspace travel, obviously."

He nods. "We have a few vessels which fit that description. Centauri pleasure yachts that were left behind when they fled our homeworld. I think there was a plan to use them for intelligence gathering, but nothing ever came of it. Some were stripped for parts, but our own shipyards are more than capable for supplying our needs these days."

"I assume that their original owners aren't likely to complain?"

His smile takes a sinister edge. "No."

"Then that sounds good. I'm sure that your people will want to take a look at the ship before confirming a price, and I'll want to see the yachts…"

"I will arrange matters. My assistant will be in touch."

"Thank you, Your Excellency. And G'Nun's personal account?"

"A dead hero of the liberation sat before me and recounted his testimony. I can hardly dispute it. Though I… Do have one last question."

"Yes?"

"Were there any souls from others of my people?"

"There… They weren't labelled. Give me a moment."

Any other narns in here?

There's a moment of silence.

Yes. But now is not my time.

"One, but they don't want anything."

"Very well." G'Kar nods. "Be sure to let me know if that situation changes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
12:58 GMT -5

We appear five miles away from the site Zatanna scryed, because I am not a moron. Toyman immediately pulls out…

I smile. "Hey, I used to play with something like that when I was your age!"

It looks like a little plastic cassette-sized block, with a small toy helicopter and plastic pull cord embedded in it. You pull the helicopter out of its compartment and plug the base of it into its stand, then push the cord through the teeth of the cog inside the cassette under the helicopter and then pull, and it goes flying. Heck, I think I was younger than him when I first bought one… At a garage sale, I think?

"Yes. I make my machines-" He pulls the cord, the helicopter's propeller's spin, and it goes flying off far faster than any pull I managed. "-look like toys. That is why I am called 'Toyman'."

Could make a jab about being 'toyboy', but I think that would be inappropriate, and it almost certainly wouldn't translate properly.

Timothy watches it go. "So what does it do?"

"It's a micro spy drone. It doesn't have a motor, but it's so light that by using a tiny battery it can generate enough ion wind to stay aloft for hours. It also has a camera."

"I could just ask a fairy to go take a look."

Zatanna says that he creates life instead of casting a spell. She didn't say what happens when he's done with it.

"I prefer not using magic around targets whose skills with magic are unknown."

Zatanna nods. "And fairies can be a bit tricky. Let's let Toyman's drone do its thing."

Timothy nods, looking around as Toyman studies his Etch A Sketch-.

"Does that actually work as an Etch A Sketch?"

"Of course." He holds the screen up towards me and turns the knobs, making a scraggly line. "Anything else would be lazy."

"I apologise, I did not mean to insult your work ethic. But… You realise that you don't need to stick to your theme now, right? You needed parental consent to take part in this project."

"It may be useful if I need to seem harmless."

"I think someone using an Etch A Sketch in the twenty-first century might actually make you stand out more."

"But harmlessly."

I nod as the Etch A Sketch sketches out an overhead view. A trailer park, though given Lonnie's skill with construction it's entirely possible that they've got some sort of underground base set up… If they're even there. I remember from the comics that he was pretty good with organising and motivating his homeless workforce… Tetch on the other hand spent years not interacting socially with anyone he wasn't mind controlling. We're too far from a city for Mr. Sage to use his abilities… But of course we don't know everything that sphere thing can do.

"Alright. Let me know if you see an elderly chimpanzee."

Zatanna frowns. "You don't think they hurt Bobo, do you?"

"I don't know. It's not clear from the security footage if he went with them voluntarily or not. If they didn't try to ransom him and didn't just release him immediately… I'm a little worried that Mister Tetch might try to reverse engineer his implant."

"So Mad Hatter might have a Thinker's Cap?"

"Yes. Or several. Or a squad of subverted OMAC infiltrators with Thinker's Caps."

Zatanna frowns in concern, glancing at Timothy and Hiro. Hiro's eyes are glued to his screen, but Timothy does look a little concerned.

"And this is a valuable lesson. Power does not equal aggression. Hunter, have you read-?"

"Mad Hatter-" Hiro doesn't look up as he speaks. "-believes that the Justice League is attempting to take control of the Earth."

"Something like that. I think it's more 'take control of human civilisation with immoral methods for immoral ends'. It's actually slightly nice that he's actually concerned about something like that, given what he was doing. Now, Hunter, what does that suggest about how he'll respond to our presence?"

"He won't really care about me or Toyman, because we're not part of the Justice League."

"Nearly. He's been a supervillain for long enough that he may well be paranoid enough to react badly to a child he doesn't recognise appearing in his neighbourhood."

"But… If he's working with a superhero like The Question, he won't do anything too mental."

"He probably won't, no. But the thing about stressed out mentally unstable people is that sometimes they don't know what they're going to do. Sometimes, people don't bother thinking about the future, about what rationally advances their position, about what makes any kind of sense at all, and they just do what it occurs to them to do at that exact moment. Got your belt?"

He nods, and lifts up his jumper to show me.

"Good lad."

Zatanna gives me a hard look. "We're not taking them into a fight like that."

"Of course not. But sometimes, the fight comes to you."

Timothy frowns thoughtfully. "Are you going to fight him?"

"Depends. Toyman?"

He's points to the screen. "I found Bobo."

Oh? I look over his head at the screen, and… Well, it's a chimpanzee in a deerstalker smoking a cigarette-. I thought they weren't giving those to him any more-? Ted wasn't giving those to him any more, not after they found out that he actually wouldn't rip the intern's head off if they didn't. Mr. Tetch made no such promise. And thanks to me, it's legally not animal cruelty.

I just hope that he isn't giving him liquor as well.

"He actually prefers 'Detective Chimp'. Where's that relative to the rest of the trailer park?"

He turns a knob, and the image pulls out… No, that's still well in view of the rest of it.

"Well done. Keep looking."

He nods, doing so. Zatanna considers me thoughtfully.

"How do you want to handle this?"

"I was happy to leave them to it, but mind controlling people is a bit beyond a useful external investigation. Unless they've got a very good explanation, I intend to arrest them."

Hiro turns a knob, frowning. "What is this?"

I look at the screen. Looks like someone's doing an outside… Lecture? Church service? And the face…

Lonnie Machin. With Yap sitting next to him. Probably a political lecture, then. Worth picking up, but there's no sphere and no Tetch.

"Good work. Keep looking."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:17 GMT -5
Tim Hunter

I should probably have asked Zatanna or Orange Lantern before I did this. I'm used to Molly jumping in when things like this happen, so I have to go along with her. But Hiro didn't look up from his Etch A Sketch, and neither of the actual superheroes noticed when I put on this dream cloak…

Molly's going to tell me off tomorrow.

But I don't look like me… I mean, this me doesn't look like me. Me-1 and Me-2 can merge when I get back, I've done this before, but the important thing is that I don't look or sound like myself. I can't do American accents, and I don't even know what sort of accent the people in this part of America have.

"…know the difference between right and wrong, why do you need someone to tell you what it is?"

"Ah… 'cause… Sometimes, I'm selfish and don't care about other people?"

Lonnie Machin is setting in a circle of other kids, and… He looks a lot more interested in it than they do. But I can't see anything forcing them to stay, so maybe I caught him at a bad time?

"That's… Not really what I meant, but alright. What else?"

"Because what I-. I think one thing's right and someone else thinks something else is right? So if there's… Y'know, someone telling us both, then that's… Settled."

"Settled by who?"

"My Mom, usually."

I walk closer. There are other caravan children over to my right having a kickabout, but Lonnie's group don't seem all that interested in joining them.

"And what makes you listen to her?"

"Because I want dinner."

Lonnie looks up at me for a moment as I get closer, but I shouldn't look out of place. On the other hand, if this is supposed to be invite-only, then he might just tell me to get lost without realising that there's anything odd about me. If he does, then I'll just go and watch the football while I keep an ear pointed this way.

"Hey." Lonnie nods at me. "Are you joining up?"

I keep walking closer. "I guess? If you don't mind?"

"Of course not. I wish more people would come." He waves his right hand at a slightly emptier patch of grass. "Take a seat, and join in when you feel like."

"Thanks. Ah, I'm Gary."

I enter the circle and sit down, a little further away than the others. They look me over, but if this works like the caravan parks in England then they're probably used to people coming and going. I don't feel any suspicion or hostility.

"What are we talking about?"

Lonnie… He doesn't look entirely happy. "When the Anti-Life broadcast happened-" A couple of the other kids twitch or cringe. "-it made us all feel differently about things. Ourselves, the people around us, our civilization and the whole world. And the Life broadcast did the same. I don't think that trying to forget about it is a good idea."

Several other kids nod.

"So we're talking about it?"

"So we're talking about the things it made us believe. Whether they're true or not. And how we should think or feel about things."

One of the other boys nods. "It was-. I don't wanna care about this kinda thing? But if some supervillain can just make us, then we can't just pretend things are fine, y'know?"

I nod. "Yeah."

At the start, London wasn't hit too badly. Map sent our broadcaster… Somewhere, along with their teleportation machine. But that just meant that they had to send Justifiers from somewhere else. We still weren't affected as badly as some people, but we got occupied by Mannheim's soldiers instead. They never found Map, but they never stopped looking, and that made using magic risky.

One of the other kids brightens up. "Hey, maybe you can answer better than me. Why do you do what your mom tells you?"

That's-. I know he doesn't know, and since that was mostly how the Anti-Life tried to get at me… I'm used to the.. feeling-.

"Ah, I don't. My mom died in a car crash."

"Oh. Sorry."

I don't feel like saying 'it wasn't you' any more. Or 'it wasn't your fault'. Not 'why, was it you?', either. I actually said that once, and my teacher panicked. I never thought the crash was my fault, but Dad did. I think he still does, a bit. But I'm used to the feeling, and making me feel bad wasn't this guy's fault.

"It's fine."

Because it's about as fine as it's going to get.

"Er…"

"But if you're asking why I do what my Dad tells me, it's because I don't want to make his life any harder."

Lonnie nods. "Does that apply to other things?"

"How do you mean?"

"Do you do what you're told because you don't want to make life hard for other people?"

"Depends. I probably would if they looked like they were having a hard time, too. For a bit."

"For a bit?"

"Well… Yeah. If they always acted like everything was the worst thing ever then I'd probably stop trying eventually."

"What if it was something that you didn't want to do?"

"Like, cleaning my room, or like telling the Justifiers where someone they were looking for is?"

"Both. Whatever you think is important."

"Cleaning my room's not that hard." And Dad didn't tell me to do it. I kept doing it because Mum used to do it and I wanted it to keep being like she left it. "And the Justifiers… Maybe. Depends."

"On what?"

I shrug, playing with a buttercup with my right hand. "Who they were threatening. If I could get away or not. If the person they were asking about could get away or not."

"How about the law?"

I frown. "Uh. No?"

"How about what the President would do?"

One of the other kids smirks. "Do we still have one?"

"Ah." So, the Prime Minster? Or the Queen? That would be a pretty strange thing to worry about. "No?"

"The police?"

"No."

"Would you listen to your dad?"

"Yes."

Lonnie smiles, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small crystal. "Catch."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:22 GMT -5

"If we're sure that none of the others are here, then-."

The world around us undulates, and Zatanna gasps!

"Zatanna?"

Hiro frowns at his screen. "I have lost my drone."

Zatanna's staring at our surroundings. "Someone just-." She gets a grip on herself. "Hang on. Tahw-."

Her eyes widen as she sees Tim-. Half of him, split vertically. It doesn't seem to bother him, though. He's standing on one leg as if his second leg was still there.

"Hunter, would you like to explain?"

He cringes. "I sent a doppelgänger to talk to Anarky."

"Aren't… Doppelgänger separate creatures, rather than half of the original person's body?"

"Sorry, I was simplifying."

Zatanna frowns at me. "You can understand him?"

"Yes? You can't?"

"It's like half the sounds are missing."

"Toyman, tie break for us?"

"I cannot understand him either."

I extend a filament to each of them and include them in the ring's translation effect. "Hunter, I think that a full explanation might be appropriate."

"I… Sort of created a second me, and then disguised it with… Fragments of ideas, so it wouldn't look like me?" Zatanna's face looks a little strained. "And would act how people expected him to act?"

Zatanna nods slowly. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"No, we have to merge back together for me to know that."

"And you can't merge remotely."

"No, we have to be touching."

She sighs. "Anarky can't have missed that."

"Right." Scan… "Oh, great."

"How bad?"

"I can only scan for a couple of miles. I'm not sure where we are, but we're not physically on Earth."

Timothy looks half-sheepish. "Whoops."

I take a rune stone out of my harness… And it's glowing.

Zatanna nods. "I've got a theory. Erehw era ew?"

Her eyes flicker white, and she nods again. "We haven't physically moved. Hunter, you just merged everything with their dream-selves."

"Uh… Other me did that?"

"The other you is still basically you. When we get out of this we're going to go over every type of magic you know how to do, so I can work out which ones can go this… Wrong."

Toyman looks around. "So we cannot just walk out?"

Zatanna glares at Timothy. "I don't know. Hunter, can we?"

"Um. I should-. Oh."

"Oh?"

"Ah… Normally-. Uh. It looks like I can't fix it by myself. I need my other half."

I shrug. "Covert surveillance is a bust, anyway. Might as well introduce ourselves. Not like they can run until Hunter ends… This."

"Sorry."

"Technically, you're only half-sorry."

Toyman puts his Etch A Sketch in his bag and looks around. "Is this place safe?"

"We don't know."

Zatanna nods. "Yes, because I haven't seen anything about anyone doing something like this. Paul, is there anything you're keeping secret?"

"Ah… Not secret, but one parallel universe version of Master Machin used crystals to store magic energy which he used to build a machine to project that energy outwards in a mind control wave."

"That sounds a little out of character."

"He wanted to alter their thoughts to force everyone to be profoundly honest and self-aware. It wasn't until Batman-" Punched him really hard. "-broke the machine and he got to see what the consequences would be that he realised that forcing people to see things his way was immoral."

"He's got magic energy storage crystals?"

"A somewhat older parallel universe version of him did. I don't think our version can have built the machine he did. But I've never seen this either."

"Could Mad Hatter? Or maybe that-"

Ugh.

"Sphere." / "-Sphere-."

"Yeah, that might do it. Alright, let's go and talk to Master Machin. Hunter, can you walk alright?"

He… Takes a step with his leg, and then sort of leans forwards for a moment before taking another.

"I think so. It's strange."

"No." I try summoning heavier armour, but… No. Instead, my attempt just… Causes my light armour to thicken slightly. "Really?"

"Has anything like this happened to anyone before?"

"I think one of Green Lantern's villains did something like that to him once." I start marching towards the trailer park, the other three keeping pace with me. "Being Green Lantern, he smashed the device used to do it the moment he got his hands on it."

"Am… I in trouble?"

I make a point of looking at Zatanna.

"You approached someone we were surveilling, without telling me or Orange Lantern. I won't know how much you were actually responsible for what just happened until we find your other half. Yes, you're in trouble, and you're going to explain to everyone trapped here with us what you did and apologise for doing it."

He sighs. "Alright. I'm sorry."

"And so you should be."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:26 GMT -5

Hiro frowns as we look at the caravans. "They have moved closer."

Zatanna shakes her head. "We're no longer in an entirely real environment. Ideas and habits matter as much as geography."

I nod. "Inhabited buildings have more of a presence than a small patch of scrubland."

"That sure is a nice thing for you to say!"

One of the caravans… Oh, that's disturbing. Eyes have opened in its front face, and a mouth… It's like from a old-style Disney animation. Or one of the cars from Brave Little Toaster.

Behind me, Hiro steps back and falls on his arse.

"Not at all, sir. You fulfil a valuable role."

"Yea, but it's nice to be recognised!"

The voice sounds masculine and… In a way I can't quite explain, mechanical.

"Oh, hey! You're the other half of that Gary kid, ain't you?"

Timothy does a half-nod as Hiro gets up, still staring. "Yes. Do you know where he is?"

"I only saw him walking past, but I think he was headed to the crystal tower."

"The crystal tower?"

"Sure! Just about the only thing anyone can talk about these days."

"Ah saw a tower, once." One of the other caravans opens its eyes. "Sure weren't made of crystal."

"Well I don't know what it's made of, just what it's called."

"Damn fool name."

"Thank you for the information, sir. Which direction would that be in?"

Ah. It looks like they're Disneyified enough to bend a little, but they can't really move. He's able to indicate a direction by turning his 'head' and eyes, and… That'll do for us.

"Thank you again."

"Mind how you go, now! I think that Lonnie boy's up to something!"

We walk onwards, other caravans opening their eyes to watch us walk past, and then appearing to go back to sleep. Hiro is jerking his head from one to the next, wide-eyes.

Zatanna regards him with concern. "Toyman, are you okay?"

"The mobile homes are talking! They are talking! They have eyes, and-. And they can talk! There should not be enough room in their interior for their mouth!"

Timothy half-frowns at him. "Have you never seen magic before?"

"No!"

"What about the gremlins who destroyed those robots?"

"Talking to goblins is not the same as… That! A goblin looks like a shaved monkey! That was a talking cabin!"

"What, you couldn't build one?"

He blinks, and calms as he's forced to consider it. Then he shakes his head. "Not one that looked like that. That was too realistic. What are they? Living creatures made by a mad scientist? Aliens? Monsters?"

Timothy half-shakes his head. "Motor homes."

"Motor.. homes..?"

"Do you know what the empathetic fallacy is?"

"No."

"It's where you talk to an inanimate object like it's alive. Have you ever done that?"

"I sometimes insult machines that don't work properly. Is that what you mean?"

Timothy nods. "When enough people do it, magic… Associations build up. Add raw magic energy, and it's easy to make objects people treat as if they're people become like people."

"Did.. you.. do that?"

"I didn't mean to. You get… Problems."

"Problems?"

"It's alright if I decide how much like people they are, but… What does a motor home do if it starts getting hungry?"

"Eat?"

"Yeah."

"…oh. How does that work?"

"It-. It's really messy. So-. When this is finished, these will all go back to being regular motor homes again."

Hiro looks at me. "Is that allowed? Do America's laws on artificial intelligence not apply to them?"

"The Supreme Court hasn't made a ruling on the subject, but my feeling is that since they provably don't have any cognitive abilities of their own, they're essentially just chatbots with unusual bodies. Just-. Ah, Hunter? If you make them too intelligent, that law would apply, so don't go around creating mentally sophisticated people unless you're ready to be a father."

"I won't."

"Good show."

Alright, I can see the field where Lonnie was holding court. Even if they're not there, we should be able to find some sign-

One of the nearby caravans opens its mouth-.

-of-.

A… Creature made of black slime… Pulls itself out of the caravan, and I now see that the caravan itself is… Dead? Its eyes whited out and its panels are in poor repair. The creature has the body proportions of a g-elf, but as it pulls itself free I see that it's considerably more flexible. And it appears to have six eyes, three on each side of its head.

And then another pulls itself out of the caravan door, and another crawls out from underneath, and another shoves the left eyeball aside enough to crawl out of the socket…

Behind us, one pulls itself out of a pile of ash.

Zatanna takes a half-step forwards. "What are you, and what do you want?"

"We are parts of people, cast aside. We must be made whole."

"And you're not too fussy about who makes you whole, is that it?"

"We prefer to make ourselves whole. But we will accept others. Can you find our other halves for us?"

"Why can't you find them yourselves?"

"The crystals burn."

"We'll see what we can do." Zatanna looks pointedly towards the field. "Excuse us?"

"No…" They move to form a complete circle around us. "We think we will not."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:31 GMT -5

"Neat!" My ring and eyes start glowing, and the shades hesitate. "I've been meaning to get more construct lanterns. Thank you for volunteering!"

"Um." Timothy looks half-awkward. "Usually in situations like this, helping people get put back together is a good thing?"

"I don't think they'd have cast these things aside if they still wanted them."

One of them rises out of my shadow, elongated fingers reaching for my face. I try to form a construct to grab it but nothing happens. Alright, fine. I bolster my environmental shield and grab it with my right hand.

"Excuse me."

It shimmers, and for a moment I'm back in the fight where my clone tried to Anti-Life me. And then the moment ends, and I'm back amongst the dead caravans.

The black thing recoils, cringing as if struck. "How!?"

"I've had an interesting life. And-."

"Uh." Toyman steps back as a couple of the shades slowly approach him.

"Kniht yppah sthguoht."

A wave of peach light radiates slowly out from her, then shades cringing and covering their faces with their hands as it passes over them. With her left hand she shoves-. Oh right. She shoves Toyman towards the grassland, which is where we're supposed to be going.

This… This feels like a situation where we're supposed to come up with a clever solution, using our knowledge and flexibility to negotiate a favourable bargain with the eldritch monsters. This issue is that Zatanna and I both have the skill and power to forcibly resolve this the way we want. And… I've seen a lot of people try and fail to process their Anti-Life experiences. If these people have just cast them out, then I think that destroying them immediately is the best-

"I'll take you."

-solution-.

"What?"

Timothy half-turns and points to his missing-.

"Hunt-"

A shade dives into his missing side, a black tint appearing across the cut surface.

"-er!"

And then another, and another-.

I look to Zatanna for some sort of guidance, but she's just staring.

"Zatanna?"

"Ah… Tcetorp Retnuh!"

"It's okay!" Timothy winces as the missing half of his body gets… Filled in by black… Sludge? It reminds me a little of Mr. Swift's ability, except… The texture is different. "I'm-. Okay."

"You don't sound okay." But magic weirdness is supposed to be his wheelhouse, while I'm more of a blunt instrument. "And-."

Zatanna clenches her jaw. "And when we get back we're going to have a talk about throwing yourself into danger for no reason. What are they making you feel?"

"Nothing I didn't feel back in January. And… They're not my problems, so it's less… Bad."

The last of them steps into his newly reassembled left side, and he moves his arm and leg to check that they still work.

"See? It's fine."

I look around. The shadows certainly seem less oppressive, but the dead caravans are still dead.

"Hunter, would you care to explain your reasoning there?"

"They were parts of people, I'm missing half of myself. I can carry them until we find the rest of them."

"Zatanna, is there some sort of unspoken magical guarantee that that's how it works?"

"No."

"That's how it works. They can't be just bad feelings; they had personalities and desires. Bad feelings don't mean anything if they're not connecting to things that explain why they're bad. If the kids here push that away just because it feels bad, they lose… Whatever else is in here."

"So you feel fine right now."

"No, I feel terrible." He.. gags. "But I've felt terrible before. Come on." He walks towards the field. "If weguh!"

On the very border of the grassland he stops, flesh half on the grass and shadow half… Rippling, looking like it's trying to get away. He looks down, immediately noticing and stepping back.

"U-mm."

"We can go around-."

"No, I can manage. If I-."

"Dleihs Yhtomit S'retnuh krad edis." The black shakes, and then snaps back into position. Zatanna shudders. "I already know that was a terrible idea."

Timothy smiles at her. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me; you didn't really leave me a choice. Toyman, are you alright?"

He nods nervously, and I notice that he's drawn… Some sort of raygun looking weapon. He didn't shoot, but I'm not sure if that's because he was waiting for orders or because he decided not to.

"Ah. Yes. I am not hurt."

"I'll say again: superheroes run into crazy things. Are you sure you want to keep going?"

He doesn't look certain, but he nods.

"Right." I stride out across the glass land, the rest of the squad only a little behind me. "Hunter, any idea what we're looking for?"

"Anarky was sitting under a tree."

"Was his dog there?"

"Yes."

"YAP! YOU HERE, BOY!? LONNIE!"

Nothing. I can see forests off in the distance, but I can't see this place's version of the tree. There's a playground over-

"Rooff!"

-there-.

The ground erupts as a colossal dog made of crystal lunges at me, teeth bared!

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:36 GMT -5

Spreadarmsreinforceenvironmentalshieldbrace!

SNAP!

The field shoots past my field of vision as Crystal Yap worries me, because I can't-! I can't really get a grip on anything! My legs are bent against the base of his mouth and-

"Ugh."

-his tongue's stopping me seeing anything while my hands blindly grip-. I think that's his gums? The ring's still stabilising my inner ear and suppressing any stomach upset that I might feel-

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

-but there's no obvious way out-. Inertia shield isn't working either, marvellous. At least the environmental shield is keeping the saliva off.

Right, keep bracing. If Yap is behaving like a normal dog, a sharp pain should make him let go. I've got an x-ionised knife in my belt but I can't let go-.

"Tel mih og!"

Yap tosses his head back, sending me shooting out of his mouth and into the air! Flight aura, no, inertia belt, no, armour thruster-.

I jerk in the air as my gravity impeller kicks in, because apparently whatever cockamamie rules this places uses-.

Yaps teeth crunch down on my left leg and yank-!

"Gah!"

Draw knife, ignore scenery, reach up to nose and STAB!

"Ruugh!"

Okay, that's a tree. Helmet on, raise my arms to shield my head, because a purple healing ray can-.

Oof!

The tree's bending-. Oh, not Loony Toon ru-

The tree unbends, sending my flying back towards my team mates and the irate and orange-glowing Crystal Yap.
-les! Twist in the air and activate thrusters again to try and lose momentum… Working a bit, legs are the most expendable body part so try and land legs first-.

Gah!

Blah!

OOF!

Uh. Hit legs first but flipped over. Legs ache and back aches, but I don't think anything's critical. Uh. I could get out my healing ray, or I could just soldier through and keep fighting Yap.

I-. I don't know what-.

I should-.

Zatanna looks down at me. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know. I don't-." Something's wrong, my thoughts aren't-. "Something doesn't feel right."

"Your environmental shield looks weaker. Concussion?" She reaches down to help pull me up, which, realistically, she wouldn't be able to do while I'm wearing armour, but it gives me a direction of travel to focus on. "S'tahw gnorw htiw Luap?"

I get my feet under me and watch… Toyman fire some sort of sonic weapon at Orange Crystal Yap and cause it to flee. Don't need to worry about that, so I-. Heal myself? Keep an eye out for any other attackers? Healing myself is probably most sensible-.

Zatanna gasps quietly.

Um. Yes, healing ray, shoot myself, and… Hopefully someone else can work out why my thoughts feel so woolly, and why I don't seem… To be able to focus. That does sound like concussion, but I remember being concussed and it didn't feel like this.

Yap's… Gone, and…

What am I doing here?

I don't know why I'm still here.

I don't know what I want.

"HUNTER!"

He turns towards me as I stomp towards him. "Ah, yes?"

"What did Yap take from me, and can I get it back?"

His eyes run all over me. "I thought it was your ring power."

"No. It appears to have taken my enlightenment, which I didn't think was possible."

"Huh." He blinks, one normal eye and one slime eye. "I didn't know you were enlightened."

"Yes, I merged with the Ophidian and had to fully integrate all of my desires with my conscious mind. It wasn't much fun and I don't want to have to do it again."

"Then… Don't?"

"The Orange Lantern Corps rather relies on having a super-Lantern like me in their back pocket in case the Reach tries something clever. As of right now, I'm no stronger than an average Lantern. Plus, I'm going to have to start meditating again to organise my thoughts."

"You should be able to get it back. It should be the same process as the one I'm going to use to put this oil back in its owners; it's still part of you, it's just not in you right now."

Zatanna lays a hand on my shoulder-. Yeah. Yeah. Flying off the handle at a teenager who didn't mean to do this…

I nod to her.

Knife. Gun.

"Zatanna, are the protective spells on your costume still working?"

She smiles confidently. "Sure are. I guess I'm taking the lead, then."

I nod. "I'm afraid so. I suspect that we need to head after Yap, but my thoughts are somewhat disordered at the moment."

Toyman looks over towards… The tree I hit, which is still swaying from the impact. "Should we check the grove first? There might be someone or something there."

Zatanna raises her eyebrows at me, and I shrug. "My judgements are suspect right now. I'd like my enlightenment back, but-." I want it! Need it! "But… I want to go after it right now. A lot."

"But that's not the best decision."

I shrug helplessly.

"Did you used to be like this? I think you said something about it in your book, but I only really got to know you after you got enlightened."

"No. I mean… Yes, more like this. But I've gotten used to not having to worry about certain things, whereas before I obsessed about them. It's not quite the same."

"Alright." She thinks for a moment. "We'll go to the grove first, then we'll go after Yap. Everyone ready?"

We all nod, and she leads the way across the grassland.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2257
253 Yard Time

The paint scheme is so last century. / Needs a lot of work. / Lacks armour. / Slow and primitive.

I wince as the elderly narn yard master takes me around the ship…

"I'm sorry, does this ship have a name?"

"Mm?" He stops and turns around, and… I get a good look at his facial scars and prosthetic eye. "What?"

"Does this ship have a name?"

"Of course! This proud ship…" He smiles. "Is the Hectocotylus!"

No.

"I think that quite unlikely. Though… Knowing the centauri, not entirely impossible."

"No, no, I see why-" He makes a pushing motion with his right hand. "-you'd think that, but its literal name is a metaphor which translates that way. More or less."

"And what is it literally?"

He widens his eyes slightly. "The Six-Fold Delver."

I squeeze my eyes shut. "Oh, good grief. Why?"

"I learned-" He reaches up and pats the scars covering his left eye crevice. "-not to ask that sort of question. You can change it officially. We can handle that once we've finished the refit."

I snort. "I don't know. I doubt that the name would mean anything to anyone who wasn't centauri or narn. Is that something narns would find funny?"

He shrugs. "We're usually happy to hear about the centauri losing things. But unless they knew the story, I doubt that anyone would laugh. And they might shoot you; from a distance, humans and centauri look the same. Especially when they're in custom-made centauri pleasure ships."

"How about painting it in black and red, just to make it really obvious that it was taken by narns?"

"If you do that, narns won't shoot you. The centauri might, but that's not my problem." I nod. "What do you want done with the other systems?"

"How far can you upgrade them?"

"That depends on… Time, money, how you want to specialise, what our government prioritises and whether we can source the parts, ease of maintenance..."

"Break it down for me."

"Time… The more you want changed, the longer it will take. If you just want it restored and don't mind us using narn-built parts… Four weeks, if no one calls the yard-workers away."

"I thought it would be longer."

"Someone in the Kha'Ri likes you. You've got priority… For the moment."

"For the moment? Am I getting on someone's bad side?"

"No, but this is a military mothball yard. If relations with the centauri deteriorate further, my workers get transferred to military projects and you'll have to wait. The quicker we finish, the less chance there is of that happening."

"I'm not really in a rush."

"Fine. Then there is the matter of money. Some problems go away if you have money to burn. Pay more, you get priority on parts. Better parts. We could even hire alien engineers to complete the work faster."

"Oh?"

"We've had brakiri working here before." He gives me a small smile. "Not centauri, through."

"That's a shame. I imagine they're the only ones more familiar with centauri systems than narns are."

He sneers. "As long as the others didn't want them back."

"Well, money's not really a problem. The deal I made says I can have it refitted any way I want, so…"

"Any way?"

"Yes, it-."

He holds up his right hand. "I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Now, specialising. That's where you'll have to start making decisions. The reactor only has so much power. The more we route to the main drive, the higher your peak acceleration. The more we route to directional thrusters, the more agile you are. A bigger reactor means less interior space and more trouble with cooling. A small reactor means that you can hide better, because there isn't much I can do to make a ship like this more survivable."

"I'm really just planning to use it as a caravan, so it doesn't need to be all that fast or agile."

"A caravan?"

"Yeah, you know… Park in a system, take a shuttle down, look around…"

He looks nonplussed. "Have you budgeted for shuttle fuel?"

"Yes."

"Ah. You're rich?"

"I do alright."

"If you plan to fly from orbit to the ground and back again every day, you're doing better than 'alright'. But what about the reactor?"

"I don't want it to look like I'm a Q-ship, so make sure it's proportionate. Comfort in the habitation section is my highest priority, and since I'm not sneaking around, active sensors?" He nods. "Acceleration is more important than manoeuvring, but I don't want it to be a complete hog. Ah. I don't need to fly in atmosphere-."

"Good. Because it can't. The shuttle can, as long as all you want is up and down, but the ship would come apart."

"That's fine."

"Centauri technology is common enough that most shipyards will be able to work on it. The main issue would be the artificial gravity. That would limit you to narn or centauri shipyards, and the centauri don't like other species getting access to their more advanced technology. You might have an 'accident'."

"And I don't really want to fly back to the narn homeworld without gravity." I frown. "Do you know why Earthforce didn't reverse engineer artificial gravity from minbari wrecks?"

He looks dismissive. "Your people didn't wreck enough minbari ships. And when they did wreck them, the minbari fleet pushed them back before they could salvage anything. The only other people your species has fought in significant numbers are the dilgar, and they didn't have the technology."

"Would working on the gravity system need a shipyard, or could a trained engineer or two handle it?"

"If they were skilled, and it was only routine maintenance, then an engineer could handle it. But it's not really efficient to keep engineers with all the skills you'd need sitting around on a ship like this. And I thought that you wanted to fly it on your own?"

"I'm not wedded to the idea. Know any highly skilled maintenance engineers with experience with working on starships who might be interested in a new job?"

"I… Might. Depends on the pay and conditions."

I shrug. "You're in charge of renovations. Make sure that accommodations are liveable-." I frown. "Can humans and narn eat the same food?"

He looks blank. "You're the first human I've met."

"Alright, make sure that the kitchen's easy to sterilise, just in case. Can you draw up a work schedule?"

He nods. "Give me a few hours. I can put something together."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:43 GMT -5

"Hey." Zatanna tilts her head my way as we march across the grassland. "How bad is it?"

I see her face… Just her face, and the grass below her, and the distant tree line…

This must be what it's like for telepaths when they talk to robots.

"To quote 'The Life of Brian'."

"Oh no."

"'You come from nothing, you're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!'."

"Doesn't..? He say that..? When they're getting crucified?"

"Yes." I sigh. "Aside from-." No, wait, do I-? "For a couple of years now, whenever I've looked at a person I can see their desires. If I don't push it's just a coloured blur, but I knew it was there. And now I don't see anything. It's like looking at someone's face with half the features removed."

She nods sympathetically. "Or like a telepath talking to a robot."

"That's what I was thinking. I've only been able to do it for a couple of years, but it's like… When I started wearing glasses."

"You don't wear glasses."

"I don't need to any more. My ring fixed my short-sightedness. My vision wasn't even particularly bad, but once I had glasses and distant shop signs stopped being a blurred mess, I never looked back."

"I get it. Dad nearly had a heart attack when he found out I inherited his magic, but I can't imagine being without it." She considers me again. "But if it did vanish one day, it wouldn't change how I think."

"I think it would. There are-."

"Paul."

"It's confusing. It's what I imagine early stage Alzheimer's is like. I've gone from knowing what I'm doing to being in a confused haze."

"The same haze almost everyone else in the galaxy is in."

"Hey, it's the same haze I spent most of my life in. But when you've been out of the haze, you know what a mess it is."

She looks unimpressed. "Thanks."

Ugh, was that a mistake I wouldn't have made..? What am I even trying to do, talking to her? If I-. I'm not trying to reassure her, she's trying to reassure me. To make sure that I'm not freaking out. So…

"I'll manage. Once this is over, I-."

Oh no. It just…

"What?"

"It just occurred to me that Yap might have stolen my capacity for enlightenment, as well as enlightenment itself. Which means that without major thaumic chirurgy I wouldn't ever be able to get it back. And the Ophidian might be freaking out because I don't share her perspective any more..."

"Couldn't Xalitan Xor handle that now?"

"I… Yeah… Depends on how the two of them relate."

"Hasn't he spoken to her?"

"Yes, once that I know about. But he doesn't have the same sort of relationship that I have with her. Or… Maybe that's the pride talking. No, it's-. I hatehatehate having my mind altered like this."

"Your eyes just… Glowed."

"Warn me if my irises turn into orange sigils."

"Why?"

"It's a sign that I've taken leave of my senses and am ignoring everything other than the desire I'm currently feeling. I can be reasoned with in that state, but don't take any unnecessary risks."

She looks away. "Right."

Yeah, that's not really a fun thing to-. Or maybe she's thinking about how she acted under the influence of the Star Sapphire? I'm not-.

Timothy dashes forward at a dead sprint while Hiro stops and gasps! What did-?

Ah. heck.

Lonnie Machin has been speared to the tree, feet hanging two metres above the ground. His mask is moving as if it's his face, silently gasping in agony. The spear was thrust downward, and I think he's trying to push himself up the shaft to escape while it's getting lubricated with his blood and causing him to slip. He… Shouldn't be alive. Probably shouldn't still be bleeding either, unless…

"Pots gnitruh flesruoy!"

Zatanna runs after Timothy, who's reached the base of the tree and is looking for a way to climb up.

"T'nod eid!"

Okay, they can-.

Next to me, Hiro is staring in horror.

I-. Don't-.

What would Alan do?

Ah.

I trigger my armour's flight system, launching myself at the tree, holstering my gun as I go. I slam into the tree next to him and grab the branches with my legs and free arm.

"Uuh."

"Zatanna, get ready to catch!" Knife to the spear behind him… And enchanted wood beats science fiction knife. Fine.

"Netfos dnuorg!"

I cut into the tree, slicing wedges out easily enough. Lonnie appears to spot what I'm doing and braces himself. There, I can see the head of the spear, cut from beneath-.

Lonnie drops, spear clasped through his chest. He turns to his side as he hits the ground, trying to prevent further trauma to the spear wound. But instead of a heavy impact, the ground undulates underneath him like a bouncy castle. Ripples expand across the surrounding field, vanishing into the distance as the point of impact returns to normal level.

I push off the tree, using my thrusters to slow my descent in case that was a Lonnie-only thing.

Zatanna's next to Lonnie. She pulls his costume jacket away from the site of the wound-

"Hself stink rehtegot sa eht raeps sevael!"

-and then.. pulls, the spear slowly sliding free of Lonnie's body as Timothy helps prop him up.

I land next to Hiro. "You alright?"

He nods, eyes wide and staring at the field chirurgy.

"You're clearly not alright. He's alive, and he's going to stay that way. Have you never seen a wound like that before?"

"Not-not in person. On the screens, yes, not… Like this."

"Love to be able to tell you this is the last time you will, but that would be a lie. Think about that when we get out of here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
13:48 GMT -5

Lonnie sits with his back to the tree, getting his breath back. Zatanna is studying the spear while Timothy keeps an eye on Lonnie.

I nod at the spear. "That's not actually Gungnir, is it?"

"No, this is just a spear symbolising Gungnir."

Timothy gulps as he turns his head towards us. "Was that-? Was that me?"

Zatanna hesitates, her eyes flicking towards me for a moment before focusing on Timothy. "I don't think your other half stabbed him. And someone might have stabbed him anyway. But people don't symbolically impale people onto trees with a spear unless magic's involved."

Lonnie straightens up slightly. "Gary?"

I take a moment to check that I haven't released my fungoid construct lantern… No.

Timothy points to himself. "Me?"

"Apparently not. What's your real name, then?"

"Tim Hunter. And you're Lonnie Machin."

"Not at the moment." He reaches up to his chin and tries to pull his mask-face off. It doesn't come, and I can't see a seam.

"Anarky." I walk up to him and crouch down. "Crystals. Personal resonances. A crystal tower, and your dog biting a chunk out of my conceptual nature. None of these things make me happy, and I'm going to suggest to you that now is the time to make a clean breast of things before-"

"Of course."

"-it-. Oh-. Okay, good. First thing, are we on a time limit?"

"Yes."

"Can you move?"

"I'll have to."

I stand, then bend down and offer him my right hand. He takes it and pulls himself upright.

"Which way to the tower, and what's happening?"

"I'll-. Show you. It-."

"Ah." Timothy is holding out his left arm-. The black ooze it extruding a tendril from his shoulder. "Anarky, did you..? Ah, expel one of your bad experiences from your psyche?"

"No, I just overcame them." Lonnie stares at the ooze. "What is that?"

"Some people pushed their trauma away. When…" He looks around. "-this happened, the trauma manifested as fragments of people."

"I don't remember doing that… But I suppose that I wouldn't. Is that part mine?"

"I think so."

I shake my head. "We're in a hurry. I don't think-." Lonnie walks up to Timothy and reaches his right hand out towards the slime, which elasticates onto him before merging with him. "You don't-. Okay. Fine."

Lonnie shudders slightly, then tests his mask for a seam and finds nothing before lowering his hand. "I believe in honesty. If I need to change then I should work on myself to change myself, not just cut out parts and leave them to someone else to deal with."

Zatanna runs her eyes over Timothy. "Hunter, are you alright?"

He holds up his right arm, which is now missing the little finger. "I think so."

Zatanna nods. "Anarky?"

"I'm still not entirely myself, but I feel a bit more like I should. I'd… Forgotten-." He shakes his head, and heads out across the field at a jog in the approximate direction Yap went in. "This way!"

I jog after him, jerking my head back to make sure that Hiro isn't getting left behind. Lonnie is about his age, but he's dedicated everything to getting physically capable enough to act as a superhero. Hiro on the other hand has the physique I had before getting my ring, plus he's not fully grown.

"Anarky." Zatanna's keeping up easily, as she fixes the back of his head with a stern glare. "We still want an explanation."

"I was experimenting with spiritual resonance. I already know that Anti-Life can be transmitted, and that Hatter's sphere can do something similar."

I sigh. "Were you attempting to banish the human inclination to self-interest?"

"I-. Hadn't gotten that far. But I admit that I was considering doing something like that. It depended on exactly what the technology could achieve."

"Anarky, if you actually make a mass brainwashing machine, I'm not going to be able to soft-peddle you anymore. Whether you make it to rob a bank or in a genuine attempt to make people better, that's not a technology I can tolerate. And after the Anti-Life broadcast-."

"It isn't the same-."

"It doesn't matter. I know that you're not Bruno Mannheim, and that your motives are more high-minded. You're still trying to mind control everyone in the world. Even if I trusted you, which I don't, and even if I thought that your technical skills are perfect, which they're not, and even if I thought that you knew everything about the subject, which you don't, I still wouldn't let you build it."

"But-."

"Someone want to do the C.S. Lewis quote for-"

Timothy nods. "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

"-me? Thank you, Hunter. Anarky, no one likes people messing with their brains."

"I-. Yes. I… See the problem."

"That wasn't quite 'I won't keep building it', was it?"

"No, it wasn't. But I will agree to pursue other avenues first."

I know that he actually means it, but without knowing what other avenues he means, how much effort he's going to put into them and what he's actually aiming for, it doesn't really help.

"We can talk about it later. What else?"

"Someone else who'd been studying crystal resonances like I was got in contact. We started working together, sharing ideas. I was making more progress with their help than I had on my own…"

"Yeeees..?"

"I don't know what happened. Gary-. Hunter, took one of the crystals I've been using to take resonance impressions, and then… He nailed me to the tree."

"Did he say anything?"

"He thanked me for my work."

"Did you get his name?"

"Yes, but it was an obvious fake. I didn't press him, because I've used pseudonyms myself and I'm not a hypocrite."

"Anarky, your plan to prevent mind control is to mind control people. We came here because you sent people with your new crystal-tech mind puppet hats to Hub City."

"I-. I didn't-."

"Someone did. It sounds like you need to start vetting your collaborates better in future."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th January 2257
Uh… Night, local time?

"Of course. We would be happy to arrange an engineering team to work on your ship." The brakiri… He's either a governor or a capo, and I'm not completely sure that the brakiri distinguish between the two-.

Naturally, we do. We have governors, and other species have capos.

Well, he looks pretty happy. One of my passengers-

Zanthei Mosanda, at your service.

-was a.. privateer?

An unlicenced privateer.

That's just a pirate.

Not if you're as good as me.

And he left a pile of cash on a rock in the middle of nowhere, along with certain cultural relics… Hang on, were they brakiri cultural relics?

They were certainly cultural relics.

Great. Well, he left them somewhere without letting anyone in his syndicate know. And providing them a few handfuls of his goods as evidence along with a recording of the site and its coordinates allowed me to arrange for the extra engineers Ja'Kurn suggested.

"I'm glad to hear it. Then unless there's anything else-."

"There.. are.. one or two matters." I slump slightly. "For my.. own curiosity."

Oh here we go. I was wondering how long he'd take.

"Yes?"

"The value of the late captain's treasure trove is significantly larger than the cost of employing engineers for a ship refurbishment. Even… Hiring the very best and covering the contract-breaking penalty fees so that they can leave their current employer immediately. I am a little concerned that you are not being entirely open and honest with me."

Tell him-.

"Of course I'm not being entirely open and honest with you. You're a business partner, not my confessor."

The governor visibly relaxes.

That works.

"You see, if it were me and I came across a fortune like this, I would auction it off… Slowly, over a period of years, while increasing my personal security so as to ensure that my safety was maintained. You… Aren't doing that."

"Maintaining good relations with prospective business partners sometimes involves taking a temporary hit in order to preserve the… Legislative environment. The trove isn't mine. I didn't earn it. And I have an obligation to its legitimate owner which places on me the burden to actually follow the law. And I don't think you're going to forget this."

"You did this for a favourable business relationship? I mean, certainly, the Rooshnoon-Koravii Syndicate will add you to our favoured client list, but… Even so…"

Feed him the line about earning your own success! I fooled a dozen pellet-eaters with that one!

"If I hadn't, and your syndicate found out about it, how many assassins would I have been looking at?"

"None. But about four loss adjusters. Possibly five, if you were incautious."

"And legal action."

"We'd try, but I'm not sure if we'd have won."

"All to keep money I found by total fluke. I want my success to be mine. If I'd followed clues and investigated dozens of possible sites I might feel that I'd earned it, but as it is…" I shake my head.

"That… Does make a little more sense. Now, about my fees."

He's a pirate!

"Surely that's between you and the rest of the Rooshnoon-Koravii Syndicate?"

"It could be, but it doesn't have to be."

A pirate I tell you!

I shake my head again. "Forgive me, I'm not that familiar with brakiri culture."

"May I assume that you have a complete record of all of the valuables recovered?"

"You may."

As if I'd forget.

"Well, a fee for arranging transportation, storage and sales would not be unreasonable, hm?"

I look at him askance. "Ah…"

"Now, this would be a private arrangement between you and me."

And me!

"You would still be a favoured customer whether you agree or not. But if you agreed, I would be your point of contact going forwards, and I can be very quiet and very efficient."

Okay, is this a-?

Three percent net or five percent cash, no deductions.

Do I just say that, or is that a negotiating positio-?

Of course it's a negotiating position! How did your species discover asset leverage?!

Perverse incentives and self-destructive monetary policy, mostly.

"Given the risk in transportation and the work this will involve on your part, I believe that three percent of the net value would be a reasonable level of remuneration which won't see 'loss adjusters' sent after either of us."

"But we won't know the net value for some time, while my costs are up front."

"You could just bill the Syndicate? Or if that would be… Risky, perhaps five percent of the cash? That would allow you to turn a profit almost immediately, and I'm sure that there are other kickbacks you could arrange during the asset realisation process."

"Ten percent is more usual in situations like this."

"Ten percent implies that you're not just going to use your cousin's shipping company."

Ooh, good guess.

He tilts his head to the left. "Second cousin, actually."

"Ten percent also implies that you did some work rather than getting lucky when if fell into your lap. I'm willing to go up to six, or cover your costs."

"I just assumed that costs were included."

"Assumptions and two grulls will buy you a sandwich."

"Hah!" He smiles broadly. "I will remember that phrase. Can I tell the other syndicate leaders that you want me to handle the sale?"

"Once the treasure is in Rooshnoon-Koravii Syndicate hands, I am-" I fan out my hands. "-happy to go along with whatever my brakiri cultural consultant thinks is best."

"Then we have an understanding. I will have the documents drafted for your approval at once. Please consider Rooshnoon-Koravii Syndicate for all your future dealings with the Brakiri Syndicracy."

I nod politely. "I certainly will."