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

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
14:51 GMT +2

Adom is floating just off the floor, looking out through the balcony window. This isn't the largest guest room in the place -those have all been repurposed- but it does have a Cairo-facing balcony in case he needs to fly there quickly. Kahndaq's official capital is just under four hundred kilometres away and if he really guns it he can be there in ten minutes. I mean, he wouldn't be able to see anything much on the way and he'd be spitting out insects for the rest of the week but I very much doubt that the President's had a good night's sleep since Adom demonstrated that particular ability to a group of international journalists. After Suez came over to his side he did try modern dress, but it didn't last; he's back in his black and golds now.

"Mighty One. Thank you for seeing me."

"Your company is hardly a great burden." He turns and drifts back through the room towards me. His face is a little bit less impassive than it was, but I think at this point this is all we're getting. "You said there was something urgent that you wished to discuss?"

"I believe that this is a conversation we should have in private." I raise my left hand, sigil towards him. "Do you mind?"

He makes a dismissive gesture with his right hand and I send orange light flowing around the interior of the room. No listening devices within and any nonmagical attempt to listen from outside will fail. "What has you so concerned, my friend?"

"As we speak the entire Justice League -with the exception of Red Tornado- have been mind controlled. These little.. things." I generate a construct image of the Starro-tech. "We recovered them after a fight with people in the employ of an alliance of supervillains called the Light but… But I think we were meant to. At some point last night they were used on the League and now someone's running them like puppets."

"That is a grave matter. Do you know who perpetrated this attack?"

I shake my head. We don't really know much, do we? "No, not yet. We're trying to track down Red Ar-."

"Incoming communication, highest priority!"

That.. isn't an alert the ring uses. "I'm sorry. Ring, answer."

"Paul, we've got Red Arrow and Artemis." Zatanna's face appears above the ring. How is..? Magic, right. "They're not infected. We're heading for the rendezvous location now."

"Do we know who's behind this yet?"

"Red Arrow says that Vandal Savage was in control."

"Savage still lives?" Adom zooms across the room and peers at Zatanna's face. Huh. I've only heard him use that tone of voice for the Wizard before. I remember something about an Element Man and Savage from the comics but I didn't think that had happened here.

"Yes, Mighty One, he does. Zatanna, I'm with Adom now. Adom, we could very much use your help."

"The fact that Princess Diana is in need of me is reason enough for me to agree. But Savage… You have no idea what horrors that man inflicted on this region during my first life. Killing him again will be my pleasure. Do you intend to attack immediately?"

"No. We need to develop a way to free our mentors first before going after them aggressively. Either that, or.. a way to keep them contained while one is developed."

He nods. "It would be unwise for me to leave Kahndaq for a significant span if it can be avoided, and I know little of science." He puts his left hand on my right shoulder. That's… Whaw. He usually hates touching people. "Call me when it is time for the briefing and I will come, and fight beside you."

Do I..? Put my hand on his shoulder? I don't want to push him if he's leaving his comfort zone anyway, so I settle for putting my right hand on top of his left. "Thank you."

"It is my privilege to repay a small part of what you and Princess Diana have done for me." I remove my hand and he lifts his off my shoulder, putting it behind his back. "The report of your arrival mentioned that you brought companions with you."

"They're just outside. We need to get going, but if you want an introduction…" He nods and I lead the way out of his room.

"…running the meter, so…" Mister Free trails off as Adom and I emerge. "Teth Adom. I hear good things about you."

"I will endeavour to be worthy of them."

"Mighty One, this is Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Firebrand and Green Lantern."

"Yes." He inclines his head slightly to Alan. "I believe that we met briefly at the Embassy. My English at the time was not good enough for me to converse with you."

"From the sound of it you've come a long way."

"I'm sorry, but we need to go. Barda, to the rendezvous point. It should be obvious." But just in case I extend my environmental shield around them as we huddle up and she raises the mega-rod.

31st December
10:55 GMT -2

"That was quick." Sephtian's stuck his head through the glowing membrane which marks the transition point between the room we're in and the rest of the Conservatory. Surface worlder friendly air filled rooms are something he's been working on as part of the drive to improve diplomatic relations… Or get some, at least. "We haven't quite finished setting up yet. Did you bring the sample with you?"

"No, Zatanna's bringing it."

Alan and Mister Free walk over to a 'window' on Sephtian's left and take a look out across the Poseidonis skyline. Um, waterline? Alan gazes out in wonder. "Good Lord, will you look at that. Can barely believe it's been down here my whole life."

"Reminds me of an escape I did for my last tour." Mister Free pokes the membrane with his right hand, passing through it easily. He pulls his hand back and the water stays on the far side.

"You've disabled the zeta tube, right?"

"Yes yes, but King Orin hasn't tried to contact us since his 'acquisition'."

"How's Her Majesty taking it?"

"Her husband is being mind controlled by a mass murdering criminal, how do you think she's taking it?" His head shudders. "I've been instructed to extend you every courtesy and assistance."

"I'm sure that you can handle the arcane elements of the problem, but… Do you know anything about nanotech?"

"I hadn't even heard the word until today. In a way I still haven't; Atlantean Greek doesn't have a word for it. Young Kaldur had to explain the concept to me in English. I also haven't done any significant work with fleshcrafting for over a decade. Still, if we put our heads together, I'm sure we can come up with something."

Barda walks over to join her husband while Danni stays in the centre of the room. Fire gynoid, billions of tonnes of sea water.

"About that. What if there were a way to.. improve your knowledge?"

"In what way?"

"A telepathic network. G-Gnomes can share knowledge and skills amongst a group. Downside is that whoever you do it with will know everything you do. While it's active, anyway."

"You have someone in mind?"

"Doctor Roquette's a nanotech specialist. She's safe and she's never shown any interest in magic. The Genomorphs themselves should be able to provide the biotechnological knowledge. I realise this is a weird idea but I think it would speed things up a lot."

"Hmm. I have no principled objection. Maaaay be better to attempt to study the Starro artefact in a normal fashion first though."

"Yes of course. Barda?" She looks around. "Please take me to Cadmus labs. I need to talk to Dubbilex."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
07:55 GMT -5

"Who is it?"

I nod at Scott and press the phone construct a little closer to my ear. "Guy, good morning. Glad I caught you."

"Hey Grey. Y'know, if yer gunna call my cell you should really do it from a phone that lets me do caller ID. I nearly just hung up on yeh."

"This is a burnable phone. I wanted to tell you that I'm not going to be able to make our session today."

"Oh? They call you up too? Thought you bein' with the Little Leaguers was kinda weird."

"Did who call me up?"

"The Justice League. Yeah, apparently they're doin' try-outs for future members. Wondy didn't clue you in?"

"No… Did they perchance say who else was auditioning?"

"No, Canary just called and told me to be on the Watchtower by eight. She still seein' Green Arrow?"

"Yes. Guy, I hate to break this to you but the League is currently being mind controlled."

"Oh, hah hah. Look Grey, it's probably just an oversight. Maybe they're doin' them in batches or somethin'."

"No, Guy, I'm being deadly serious. Ask your ring about Star Conquerors. Vandal Savage and Klarion are up on the Watchtower right now pulling the strings. I rather imagine that the first thing that would happen when you stepped out of the Zeta tube would be that you'd get nobbled too."

"Huh." He stays silent for a moment. "Well, that sucks. What're we doin' about it?"

I hold the phone away for a moment and press a button on the control console in front of me. "Tao, ready?" On the monitor I see him nod and I return the phone to my ear. "I'm opening a hush tube directly above you. Come on through."

I dismiss the phone construct as on the monitor I see Guy fly though the hush tube into the hangar area. From the lack of response on the part of Tao, Zatanna or Scott it looks like he's in the clear.

Barda gives me a curious look. "Of all the people Savage or the Boy Witch might have recruited, what makes him so special?" "Why do you care what happens to him?"

"Faster than light travel, a direct line to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the fact that power rings make their users supremely adaptable." "He's my anger management coach."

Barda raises her eyebrows at me. On the monitor Zatanna raises her arms and then the three of them appear near us in the training area in a flare of golden light. There haven't been any further attacks since we dealt with Mister O'Brian, Captain Adams and Mister Allen. In fact, we haven't recorded any League activity on the Earth at all. With my usually reliable scans being defeated by whatever protections Klarion has put in place we don't have perfect coverage but there isn't anything stopping me connecting to satellites or CCTV cameras.

At least, I don't think there is. Troublesome.

Batman, Mister Allen and Kaldur are up and coherent, though none are in any shape for a fight. O'Brian's sort of flapping about in the corner. No idea what's wrong with him. His body defies rational analysis. If he hasn't sorted himself out by the time we've finished then I'll consider worrying about it. Captain Adams' still out cold and like with O'Brian I don't have enough data on him or the Starro-tech to work out why. Red Tornado is similarly out of action. Shouldn't matter too much. None of the plans we've thrown about are anything that requires them. Scott's busying himself upgrading the hush tube into something that can get us past the Watchtower's defences. I still need to get its actual location from Nabu; Batman knew where it was when he left but I checked and they appear to have moved it.

"Hey.. Batman." Guy looks a little uncertain. Batman's upright but he's visibly unsteady and looks weirdly vulnerable like this. Not weak in absolute terms but it's such a departure from the norm for him that it emphasises the state, and I suppose Guy hasn't had cause to ever see him not looking in control of the situation. I on the other hand have seen what he looks like after going five rounds with Waylon Jones.

"Mister Miracle to Grayven."

The phone construct comes back up to my ear. "Go ahead."

"I'm about as ready as I'm going to get down here."

"Will it work?"

"If a whole lot of things work exactly as we're hoping, yes. Blocking their location is a lot easier than blocking a hush tube but I'm hardly an expert on chaos magic."

"Fair enough." I open a tube from him to me and he walks through. Guy takes a moment to get a good look at his costume and just about manages to conceal his amusement.

"If we're all ready." Everyone turns to Batman. "Grayven, give the briefing."

If Guy can manage not to crack up upon seeing Scott's costume I can keep my smug at having a better anti-Justice League plan than Batman in check. "At twenty three forty one eastern standard time yesterday Vandal Savage and Klarion took complete mental control of the Justice League using devices we have come to call Starro-tech." I float one of the arrow-pierced ones out in front for everyone to look at. "The precise mechanism by which they work is unknown at this time, though we think-" I nod at Zatanna. "-that it's Klarion who is controlling them using a sympathetic link between them and his own chaos magic. They work on baseline Humans, metahumans, Thanagarians, Kryptonians, Martians and Terminans so whoever you are-" Eye contact with Barda. "-they work on you. We don't know how many they have, though given the call which Lantern Gardner received it seems highly likely they have at least one more. Based on the fact that we haven't seen them anywhere else we currently think it likely that all remaining members of the League are on the Watchtower, along with anyone else they've brought up as reinforcements. That could be other superheroes they've called up for try outs and taken control of, or it could be people knowingly in the employ of Savage or his allies."

Images of the Light's membership appear on the holoscreen behind me. "His closest allies. The Brain may have contributed augmented animals of the sort we saw in India and Africa." Pictures of the Venom Bustered monkeys, vultures and crocodiles appear next to Brain's image and Mister Tawny takes the opportunity to snarl. "Queen Beena has an army, though denied Apokoliptian weaponry the threat they present is much reduced. Alexander Luthor is unlikely to risk his security force but may well have supplied deniable equipment to others as he's done in the past." Images appear of Metallo, the Kryptonite Man and Parasite. "Ra's al Ghul has ninjas, mostly armed with primitive weapons. Report all threats as you see them."

A cut away of the Watchtower itself appears on the screen. "The Watchtower itself has no internal defence systems other than locking doors, though Savage could probably make the Greenies under his control turn off the artificial gravity if he wanted. As such, everyone will be issued with aero-discs. Savage and Klarion are believed to be in the main hall. Klarion himself is the main threat on this mission. As we saw on Roanoke Island, my killing of his familiar hasn't quite rendered him impotent in the way I'd hoped. We really have no idea of the full range of abilities he and Bedlam possess." I give that a moment to sink in. "Our objectives are as follows. Firstly, liberate controlled members of the League and anyone else they've called in. At present, only Tao and Zatanna are capable of removing the Starro-tech devices. People freed have so far briefly lost consciousness and then awoken disorientated and weak. Don't assume that anyone we free will be in a position to help us within a useful timeframe. We also have no guarantee that attacking Klarion will interrupt control at all."

"Secondly, retake the Watchtower intact. The Watchtower's power systems are almost impossible to critically overload but if they've brought a nuclear weapon up it will do the job nicely. Third, apprehend Savage, Klarion and anyone helping them voluntarily. Savage's most notable ability is his immortality. He will eventually heal any injury, including death. As such, I recommend killing him as quickly as possible. He'll get up eventually but based on past encounters it should take him some time. Klarion…" I make eye contact with my team mates. "I've made my feeling on the matter clear. He is responsible for hundreds of thousands of murders, mostly of young children. At present, seventeen countries have sentenced him to death, including two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The testimony of our only expert on the matter -the Lord of Order Nabu- is that he cannot be contained in any sort of prison for any length of time and even if it were theoretically possible we have no such containment unit ready. I will tell you now that I will kill him if the opportunity presents itself." No one likes it, but I've come closer than I thought possible to getting them to accept the idea.

"Otherwise, standard rules of engagement apply. Given the lack of information we have about exactly what we'll find up there any plan has to be somewhat fluid. When everyone is prepared I will make contact with Construct Lantern Nabu and instruct him to take control of Mister Zatara in order to aid us. All being well he will reveal the location of the Watchtower to us and update us on the conditions we are likely to encounter there. Assuming that they haven't assembled an utterly overwhelming force we will open hush tubes and attack. The team will be transported to two separate locations-" These appear on the holoscreen. "-and aim to carry out ambushes on League members and such others as are present. You've all been equipped with Vertigo inducers and should deploy them everywhere."

I take muffler earpieces out of subspace and float them over to Guy. "With any luck they will incapacitate most opponents you will encounter. Robin and Kid Flash have also been issued with Gold Kryptonite lasers. A glancing hit on a Kryptonian will depower them for about two minutes. A solid hit and they'll probably be out of commission for months." Gold Kryptonite is a product of my research into Kryptonian physiology and Kryptonite. It took some effort, but creating other colours is much easier if you know they're there to find. Batman's contingency plan involved the green stuff but there's less risk this way. "The armour Kon and Match wear should prevent it from affecting them but watch out for friendly fire anyway. Barda, Mister Miracle, Lantern Gardner and myself will be attacking Klarion and Savage directly." Guy can't kill with his ring but he will be invaluable in fending off controlled League members. Scott will be trying to disrupt Klarion's control with his multi-cube. He vetoed my offer to put the thumbscrews on Barda's captured Mother Box and Father Box refuses to help him. "Naturally, hush tubes will be constantly available for site to site transportation. Does anyone have any questions?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
07:59 GMT -5

"Yeah." Wallace half raises his right hand. "What happens if Nabu can't get us in?"

"The Watchtower isn't particularly fast. I'll head up and start scanning the volume of space it may have travelled to while Zatanna and Mister Miracle get to work on other forms of tracking. Needless to say that would be an extremely sub par eventuality."

"I got one." Match looks more than a little concerned. "I've worked out with Mom… Ah, Wonder Woman a lot, and she's a lot better than me. How exactly..?"

"Simple. Don't fight her. Match, this isn't about some sort of cathartic beating up of our elders, this is about stopping the bad guys. If a particular person is a bad match up for you then let one of your team mates handle them. You might struggle against Wonder Woman but Rocket could easily contain her. Failing that, you don't need to win the fight, just keep her off Celestial Archer until he can get a clear shot." He nods. Should I..? "If anyone still has concerns, I am prepared to issue you with these." A small grey device which looks a little like a joy buzzer appears in my right hand.

Richard glares at me. "You couldn't mention those sooner?"

"Robin, this is an agony matrix. Not only does it cause incredible pain in the target, it also prevents them from losing consciousness. People affected have been known to commit suicide even after the effect has ended because the suffering was so intense. A few seconds' use on a League member should be safe but I've no idea if Klarion would even notice." I look around. "Anyone want one?" No takers. Back to subspace with you. "Anything else?" No one responds. "Very well then." I hold my left hand out in front of me, palm upward. "Zatanna, if you would."

"On ymene llahs tceted siht noissimsnart."

Wonder if she could do something like that long term? An inquiry for later. "Lantern Grayven to Construct-Lantern Nabu. Respond."

An image of his helmet appears over the ring. Unlike a normal inter-ring transmission the image is glitching and distorting. I haven't bothered speaking to him directly since Roanoke so I've no idea whether or not this is normal for him. "i ReSpOnD."

"Do you know where the Watchtower is located?"

"nOt PrEcIsElY."

"Are you alone?"

"nO NeVeR nEvEr AlOnE."

Odd. But not helpful. "Is there anyone other than Giovanni Zatara in your immediate physical location?"

"wE aRe AcCoMpAnIeD bY iCoN aNd LaNtErN jOrDan."

Tricky then. Jordan's easy enough to take if you get the drop on him and he's not shielding himself. I don't think Terminans have any particular weaknesses. Can he stealth it? Interfere with Klarion's control in a way the Witch Boy can't detect? On the other hand, does it matter? There's no way Klarion won't feel Mister Zatara leaving the network. "Construct-Lantern Nabu, in a moment I will remove my instructions regarding obeying Mister Zatara. You are to take Jordan's ring onto your finger and render Icon unconscious, then broadcast your location in a fashion we can detect. Do you believe that you are capable of following those instructions through?"

"tHe WiTcH bOy HaS nOt WaRdEd HiS tHrAlLs."

"I'll take that as a yes." Of course, if we're disarming Jordan anyway, it would behove us to ensure that he can't simply re-arm. Nabu, if you are successful I will open a small hush tube to your location. You will send me Jordan's ring. I look up from the ring. "Everyone ready?"

Nods all round. M'gann goes invisible, arrows go on strings, Miss Ervin and the Kryptonians rise into the air and Zatanna's armour glows gold. My team is split into two groups. Robin will be leading one group comprised of himself, Kon, M'gann, Mister Harper and Zatanna while Wallace leads Match, Miss Ervin, Artemis and Tao. Ambushes are the order of the day as sprawling brawls with the League members would only play to their advantages. Surprised me a little when I realised that with Kaldur not mission fit and myself being required elsewhere aside from Richard there wasn't really anyone left with leadership experience. Might need to do something about that as the team grows.

"Nabu, I hereby order you to take control of Mister Zatara." The eyes of the helmet image appear to glow for a moment and then the image disappears. I cup my right hand against my chest, making certain that it will obscure any green light. Is my will strong enough to wrestle control away? Should I just send it back to Oa? That would probably work. Even if he could call it back it would take ages to get here and that would serve to notify the Guardians that something was up. On the other hand, full database. All the high tech goodies of the Green Lantern Corps. No, you'd need to be a far better man than I to pass something like that-.

A set of spatial coordinates appears in the ring's database, along with a full layout of the Watchtower. Well done Nabu. I pick out an isolated corridor and open a hush tube next to Robin's team. M'gann heads through first, swiftly followed by Kon, Richard and Zatanna with Mister Harper bringing up the rear. I shut it down and open another in the arboretum. Wallace nearly dashes through on instinct but thinks better of it, letting Miss Ervin and Match go first before following them through. You know, this looks so much better with coordinated Apokoliptian uniforms. More professional, less like a group just haphazardly thrown together. Once Artemis and Tao are through I close that portal and open a tiny one next to Nabu to see how lucky I got. Nabu, portal open at your location. Send me Jordan's ring if you've got it, then proceed along corridor G six to meet up with Robin's team. No response. What? He passed on the location, he must still be-? Then I feel it in my hand.

Warning, unauthorised access attempt detected.

Ring, your user was compromised by mind control technology. If you work with me-.

You are hereby warned to cease any attempts-.

Fine. Ring, assimilate and data probe.

Ghghghghghgh.

Usurpation in progress. Data theft in progress. Emotional spectrum energy store detected.

"Ah, Grey? Should we be going?"

"Just a moment, Guy. I want to be sure that Klarion is well distracted." Ring, theft progress?

Two percent.

Can't afford to delay while it finishes. Which is a pain because I really want that dat-.

Eight percent.

Hm. I open a hush tube into the upper part of the Watchtower's main hall. Scott and Barda lunge through first. He'll be using his aero-discs to stay near the top of the room out of the way to do his thing. Barda just wanted the momentum. Guy and I transition through in a flash and then the hush tube closes behind us.

31st December
13:03 GMT

There are five people on the ground below. Klarion's sitting in the air surrounded by what look like holographic computer screens. His form is fairly Human at the moment, save for his eyes which are glowing purple and the three extra pairs of arms he's using to manipulate the controls. Savage stands a few metres away, looking at him. Next to him, staff at the ready, stands August Colonel in Iron. Willing? No, I feel the Starro-tech inside him and in the young looking man in the green and yellow gi next to him. The same cannot be said for the hulking figure in power armour nearby, but then Socialist Red Guardsman is a bloodthirsty animal. Cutting off my allies. Clever.

**Grayven to team, Great Ten active on site.**

But not clever enough. Colonel Fang spots Barda a split second before she lands and swings his staff at her. She parries in mid air with enough strength to knock him back before carrying on her own swing. Savage manages a brief moment of bewilderment before her mega rod strikes his face and keeps going without slowing down, utterly pulverising his head and sending blood, bone and brain matter flying across the floor. Colonel Fang returns to the attack immediately but for once he finds himself facing an opponent who is his better in both skill and strength. Guardsman opens his armour's chest to fire on her and I send in a filament to disconnect the power supply from the weapon. I drop lower, orange beams from my eyes striking his armour's leg and arm joints, destroying the motor control systems and leaving him immobile. Guy creates a small squad of American football player constructs and rushes them at Yang Kei-Ying who flips sideways in an attempt to evade. Guy responds by simply making more of them. They grapple the Deadly Bother, smash him against the wall and then pummel him to the ground. Through his screen I see Gu snarl at me as he reaches for his ejection mechanism. Not wanting the whole place to get irradiated I destroy that as well. He hammers impotently on the inside of his canopy and I give him a cheeky wave.

"You're ruining my game again!"

I turn my attention back to the primary malefactor. Ring? Assimilate the little fucker.

By your command.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
13:04 GMT

Orange beams lance down at him from my eyes only for Klarion to manifest a giant purple hand and bat them away. I don't try and keep control of the beam and allow it to flicker out. The research I've done on chaos magic so far shows that it's very good at circumventing attempts at precise direction. To say nothing of the risks of some sort of back hacking.

**Team one, Hawkman's down and we've linked up with Nabu. Zatanna's working on freeing Green Lantern and Icon.**

Colonel Fang overextends on a thrust. Barda sidesteps, grabs his staff just behind the head and pulls it past her. He's more intelligent than to try and keep hold of it but is left without a way to block the mega rod strike to his side.

**Ah, team two, some sort of Yeti.. looking.. thing..? Do the Great Ten have a Yeti?**

I shut down my constructs and activate my personal force field as Klarion distends his mouth to exhale the same dust as he tried using on Roanoke at me. He really shouldn't have boasted about having a way to shut down Lanterns. **Yes, Doctor Hu.** The dust storm howls around the outside of my force field but can't penetrate. I smile, transition to an open space on the far side of the room and fire a broad beam maser at it. The dust moves to follow me and in doing so presents a perfect densely packed target, melting to slag as the microwave radiation hits. **Savage, Klarion, Red Guardsman, One Deadly Bother and August Colonel in the meeting hall. Guy, don't let Klarion's dust touch you.**

"No problem!" He drops his linemen constructs, binding Mister Yang in heavy green manacles. No, that's not-! Mister Yang smirks and shimmers, another copy of him appearing next to him. Ugh. Sure, I don't think he's strong enough to threaten us but that was careless. Guy jerks back in the air as two more Mister Yangs appear, then shrugs and manacles them as well. Three hundred year old Human martial artist, meet power ring.

**Atom down.**

Klarion's frantically pressing buttons with six of his arms while the last two try chucking purple lightning at me. I create shields and leave them in place while I dodge. I'm still not really sure exactly how powerful Klarion is at present, so the knowledge that the energy discharge is easily powerful enough to destroy the shields is useful if a little disconcerting. **Robin, if you can spare Nabu-?**

**Kinda busy here! Green Arrow, Black Canary and.. Shaolin Robot. And there's some kind of drone weapon keeping us pinned down.**

Quick scan. **Immortal Man in Darkness is in the shuttle bay with the Dragonwing. Team two, hush tube is available.**

**Immortal.. Man..?** Clearly Wallace hasn't been doing his reading.

**A fighter pilot.** Tao doesn't sound happy about it. Is he unsure how much he's allowed to say? **Please, convey me to his location.**

**Convey all of us.**

**I-.**

**Tube opening.**

"You won't be so confident without that ring!"

Faint purple lights glimmer around me. I look down at my left hand but the ring stays put. There's something.. oppressive about it, but it takes more than twinkling lights to stop the God of Conquest. Not sure what Klarion's trying to do but not a lot appears to be happening. My ward shouldn't be enough to stop him if he makes an effort and I think by this stage I've sort of earned his hatred. Is this really all he's got?

"You're not even the real Grayven! How are you doing that!"

I glance at Guy and see that he's strapped vertigo inducers to the now fully numerated Seven Deadly Brothers' heads and dumped them at the side of the room. Colonel Fang's still hanging in there but it looks like that's mostly because Barda can't work out how she can disable him in a way that won't risk killing him. A jab to the face staggers him then a strike to the side of his head with her mega rod finally sends him crashing to the floor. Guardsman's rocket motors flare for a moment before I send a filament burrowing into his armour to destroy the rest of his nonessential systems. The brief thrust is still enough to send him sliding across the floor on his face.

"I'm real enough." Assimilate. Again, the beams are swatted away but Klarion is forced to raise another hand defensively when Barda fires a blast from her mega rod and Guy opens up with emerald ring blasts. I fire again and he's starting to look worried. This would still be a good deal easier with a second ring.

Usurpation nineteen percent complete. Data extraction fifty three percent complete.

Go faster.

**Immortal Man in Darkness is down. And.. dead.** I wonder how well Tao knew him? Immortal Men don't have much of an active lifespan but their replacements usually receive their training in the Great Wall Complex before taking on the role. They might well have known each other.

**Hush tube opening to a flanking position on team one's attackers.** That leaves Thundermind and Ghost Fox Killer on the Great Ten side… Ring? No, Thundermind's still in Beijing. Lucky escape there.

**Green Arrow and Black Canary down.**

**Good work Artemis.** Can't find Ghost Fox Killer but she needs skin contact to use her instant death ability. Full helm on then. Where are the League's most powerful members? Nothing, not on the Watchtower and as far as I can tell not on Earth either. That just leaves-.

"Recognised, Captain Marvel, one five."

He's barely materialised before speeding across the room and smashing Guy into a wall! His left hand is around Guy's neck and he pulls his right back-

"Finally got it!"

-before his eyes cross and he sways dazedly where he stands. I glance up at my smug-looking brother before having another shot at Klarion. This time a small amount of the purple energy enveloping him appears to evaporate away from his defensive cover. Can I assimilate Bedlam separately? **Robin, we could really do with getting Nabu up here about now.**

Guy frees himself from Marvel's grip at the same moment as Barda runs out of patience and charges Klarion in an attempt to bludgeon him. Father Box tells me that the melee output of the mega rod is far greater than its ranged output, and with Klarion's attention fairly well tied to-.

"Oops! Don't got it!"

**Aquaman down. I'll send Nabu just as soon as he's free of the Starro-tech.**

Marvel swings around and flies at Scott. My reactions may not be as fast as his but thanks to the ring I can move about as fast. I shoot upwards, my right fist his meeting his diaphragm in a perfect uppercut, just about managing not to shout 'shoryuken' as I do it.

"Boopfh!"

Scott hurriedly beats a retreat and starts fiddling again. Marvel's not out yet, but the fact that my blow doesn't seem to have winded him is both the best indication so far of how much stronger my divinity has made me and how resilient he is. Punching him out will take too long, I'm not sure a submission hold would work. I seem to remember that the Stamina of Atlas means he doesn't need to breathe… What then? He's still wearing the Sword of Beowulf. William Batson might be pure as the driven snow -something I give until he hits puberty- but Klarion's turned himself into some sort of Chaos Lord Elemental thingy. How easy is he to provoke? I grin and draw my own sword. "Come at me, puppet."

An un-Marvellike snarl appears on his face as he takes the hilt in his right hand. "Abannan afol Beowulf! AHHHHHGGHHH!" Lightning crackles around him as the Sword thoroughly rejects him. Doesn't turn him back into William which is a bit of a pity, but he does go limp in the air. I sheathe my sword and fly at him, grabbing him by the hair with my right hand and slamming his forehead down hard against my right knee. Nothing broken, but the drop off in brain activity suggests that he's thoroughly out of it.

A blast of purple energy throws Barda back but doesn't appears to have injured her. She gets to her feet almost immediately, mega rod held in a two-handed guard position. Guy's created a huge vice construct and is squeezing it around Klarion's barrier. "Fine! I thought it was a stoopid plan anyway!" Five purple circles appear on the floor and rise upwards, leaving the remaining League members in their wake. Around them a horde of men with pale green skin, blank white eyes and black hair that's suffered an attack by a crazed gel enthusiast precipitate out from the air, all looking at me.

Ooh, hi Faust.

**Seriously, Robin. Nabu any time.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
13:08 GMT

Prescience of Mind.

Priority threat Superman.

An orange laser cannon construct with a glowing gold shard of cultured Kryptonite contained within appears on my left arm, targets and fires at Kal-El as he lunges across the room, striking him full in the face. He drops from the air as his capacity for flight vanishes.

Priority threat Ghost Fox Killer.

Her bound Ghosts fly in Kal-El's wake but I can't see the woman herself. They're more an irritation than an actual threat. Ignore them. I don't know her full range of abilities. Can she make herself Ghost-like? It would certainly fit her theme. Ring, monitor for minor temperature fluctuations.

Priority threat Wonder Woman.

Diana lunges for Barda, turning aside a mega rod strike with her right bracer and slamming her left fist across into Barda's cheek. Barda reels back but the clamps on the soles of her boots prevent her from going flying. With Diana inside her reach she drops the mega rod to grapple.

Priority threat Lantern Stewart.

Guy abandoned his vice construct as soon as the remaining League members appeared. Don't know how well he gets on with Stewart but from the way he's swinging that baseball bat construct I'm going to guess 'not well'. Stewart blocks with a shield construct and retaliates with a buzz saw, which Guy destroys with a blast of energy straight from his ring.

The Ghosts have surrounded me and are clawing at my construct armour. They can cripple someone by sapping their vitality but they aren't doing a thing to me. I'll ignore them.

Priority threat Hawkwoman.

I drop in the air and Hawkwoman shoots over my head, Ghosts being shredded and then reforming in my wake. Between the ring and my goggles the Ghosts did nothing to conceal her approach. Her Nth Metal mace can hurt me but she's too slow to be a major threat. I send a filament to tag her neck with a Vertigo inducer and she careens out of control into the wall.

"Little help, dear brother!?"

Priority threat Klarion.

Another transition takes me out of the path of some sort of purple cloud Klarion's putting out. One of his other hands points at Barda and fires purple lightning at her just as she knocks Diana down. Another orange beam encourages him to look to his own defence.

Priority threat Martian Manhunter.

Above me Scott ducks and weaves through the air, using the aero-discs to evade or ride out Mister J'onzz's telekinetic attacks. Scott is attempting to retaliate with his glove's concussion blasts but Mister J'onzz is presently intangible. That does present a minor problem. I have ways to bypass it but they're all a bit fatal. How about..? Hawkwoman's mace is still strapped to her forearm where she lies on the floor, her disorientation aided by a high speed impact between her head and the wall. I liberate it and hurl it upwards through the space Mister J'onzz occupies.

**Nabu's coming through now.**

The mace reaches his leg and hits him. He reels away and is knocked back into phase. I grab back the mace and stick a Vertigo inducer on him. Unfortunately it appears that Martian inner ears work too differently to Human ones and it doesn't do anything. Brutality it is then. I use a filament to spray him with petrol before hitting it with a maser beam.

"YAAAGHH!"

Klarion tries helping Stewart by flinging lightning at Guy and Nabu appears behind him. Love those hush tubes!

Data available.

Guy has to scramble to evade Klarion's shot and Stewart mercilessly takes advantage of the opening, using a hammer construct to knock him towards a rock crusher construct. In the room's other fight Barda and Diana are grappling on the floor. Looks like Barda has a slight strength advantage. Must be a while since Diana's fought someone seriously like this.

"i HaVe YoU nOw, WiTcH bOy!" Nabu throws his arms wide and two corrupted orange ankhs appear on either side of Klarion, glowing brilliantly as they suck what looks like purple dust out of Klarion's flesh.

"No! No!"

Priority threat Ghost Fox Killer.

Agh! I grimace and transition to the top of the room as three glowing green energy darts pierce both my construct armour and Apokoliptian armour, embedding themselves in the lower right front of my torso. Nothing critical but ow that hurts! Don't seem to be able to cut the sensation. Ghost Fox Killer's arcane technology weapon. Am I evil enough or is it simply Klarion's doing? She's standing near one of the room's doors, ducked down behind one of her Jade Lions. Would her death touch work on Klarion? Nabu's busy stripping his borrowed power from him so I can't risk distracting him. I send a filament in her direction and drop off a Vertigo inducer. She falls to the ground and the Ghosts in the air around me go still. Think I'll recommend the League adopt earplugs as part of their standard gear once this is over. Werner Vertigo might be a fool and a criminal but these things are jolly useful.

**Robin, Kid Flash, hush tubes are available. I think we're nearly done.**

I fire orange eye beams at Lantern Stewart, sending him spinning across the room and breaking his connection to the rock crusher doing its best to chew on Guy. Guy's breathing hard and what's left of his armour construct fails as I watch. Respect to him though, he only takes a brief moment to get his breath back before recreating it and sticking a clamp around Wonder Woman, binding her arms so Barda can finally punch her out. Klarion looks around desperately and Kal-El tries charging Barda from behind. He goes for a full nelson but deprived of his super strength she's in no danger at all.

Richard and Wallace step through a newly opened hush tube in the far wall. I lift the Jade Lion guarding Ghost Fox Killer off the floor. **Zatanna, please free Ghost Fox Killer first.** I feel her incomprehension through the telepathic link. **Woman in the green dress over there.** I try to communicate the idea of her relative location.

Artemis takes one look at the Ghosts and backs up a half step. **What are those things?**

Tao checks that they aren't moving and then notches, draws and looses at Lantern Stewart. **Ghosts. The souls of the villains she has slain and bound to her service.** The arrow goes through Stewart's chest and spears the Starro within. He falls unconscious to the ground. **With their mistress removed from the field they are of little threat.**

Kon and Match rush to check on Wonder Woman while M'gann looks around for Mister J'onzz. **What happened to him?!**

**A small amount of burning petrol. Not enough to cause lasting injury.**

"Hcet-orrats eb edamnu." Immediately the Ghosts reorientate on their mistress before floating over to form a circle around her. I put the Jade Lion on the ground and it walks over to Ghost Fox Killer while keeping its distance from Zatanna. Is she going to get up in time? From the looks of it Nabu's going to do a number on Klarion without external intervention. His little computer screens are gone and he's fallen to his knees with only three arms remaining.

Hm. No enemy effectives left on the field, discounting Kal-El who isn't getting out of that headlock anytime soon. Ring, assimilation progress?

Thirty nine percent complete.

It's not disarming an opponent anymore, it's straight up theft. Darn. Oh well, I suppose that the data was the main thing. "Gardner." I land and toss the ring to him. He catches it, looks at it and then gives me an interrogative look. "Jordan's. Took it off him so he couldn't use it. Feel free to smug at him when you give it back." He nods and grins.

"Gahh!" Klarion manages to lift his head up for a weak purple lightning bolt which is harmlessly nullified by Nabu's shield. Are we actually going to get him?

Priority threat Vandal Savage.

But he's-. Oh, right. He leaps to his feet, strikes Nabu in the kidneys from behind as he lunges for his weakened comrade. Do I take a shot? Savage sprouts arrows as Artemis and Mister Harper do their best to stop him but Tao's out of position and I haven't had a chance to speak to Batman about-. Purple light precipitates out of the air and folds in around them. Gone. Oh well. It's a bit annoying but perhaps this way I'll be able to kill him without my friends trying to stop me. Zatanna watches him vanish and then returns her attention to Hawkwoman. She and Kal-El have both stopped struggling now their domitor has left and they'll be truly free before too long.

Nabu glows orange for a moment as he restores his host body. "Good work, Nabu. Now purify your host and then relinquish control."

"i ObEy." His head tips back slightly and there's another orange flash before he reaches up and lifts the Helmet off. Mister Zatara blinks and shakes his head slightly, then smiles as Zatanna runs over.

Robin walks over to the hall's holographic control panel in order to get in contact with Batman while the rest of my team mates drift over to look out of the main window at the Earth below. Not a bad morning's work, all told. But now I've got more important things to do. By the time the League wakes up this place will have decent internal security systems, courtesy of Jordan's Sector House schematics.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
11:55 GMT -2

"Mother always said I should have gone into dentistry but no, I just had to go into robotics."

"And we are most grateful that you did." Professor Vulko seems to be tolerating Doctor Roquette's moaning reasonably well. Given how discussions on normalising relations with the surface are going I suppose that it shouldn't surprise me that the Atlantean Scientific Centre has a room like this set up. It's air filled and maintained at a pleasant twenty one degrees. He explained that they weren't yet able to make a room like this at this depth without ongoing spellcraft to prevent the walls from being crushed, but there's nothing that shouts 'magic in use here' to me. It just looks like… Actually, the thing it reminds me of most is the Noveria research station in Mass Effect. Or maybe that research station from Deep Blue Sea.

Those aren't really good associations…

Anyway, standard plunge pool in the middle of the room kept down by air pressure, except it also has enchantments on it which allow the water to rise up in a column which reaches to the ceiling. Currently it's occupied by Sephtian. He did try, but if anything he was exaggerating about his ability to cope out of water. He just sort of flopped into this wheelchair buggy thing and I could see full well how painful his skin was getting.

"Download finished." I nod to Dubbilex and Doctor Roquette. "All the data you wanted is now on the server. You think of anything else you need, just let me know." The server was a gift from an electronics research company whose CEO is a friend of Senator Knight. They've been very interested in getting involved with arcane research, or at least in studying applications of existing magics; a brief explanation of refrigeration runes alone resulted in their representative drooling.

Doctor Roquette's left eye twitches. "About five years! And what happened to this?" She gesticulates at the Starro-tech device sitting on the electron microscope. "Was it brought in by a cat or something?"

"Yes."

"Doctor, please, a little comportment." I guess Professor Vulko's used to dealing with temperamental academics. "I realise this is difficult, but we're on a clock."

Doctor Sterling tries looking at Dubbilex again. "But…"

"I realize that the idea is a strange one, Doctor." He gently puts his right hand on her left shoulder. "But I assure you that there will be no ill effects. Genomorphs have shared information and experiences telepathically since our creation. No Human with whom we have interfaced has suffered anything worse than a mild headache."

She sighs. "Fine. But if I end up a vegetable because of you-."

"I could probably fix that actu-." I see the wince in Vulko's eyes. "Not the point. I'll just.. go and talk to the others."

The horns of the G-Gnomes we brought with us light up as I step into the water cylinder underneath Sephtian and transfer back to the palace's dry room. It's getting a little crowded in there but there just isn't any space to expand into unless we want to risk going somewhere on the surface. Sephtian said that one of his projects was a wearable air bubble but he doesn't have a prototype yet, not that he'd want to risk on a pressure vulnerable air breather anyway.

Danni's still deep in conversation with her father. Doctor Morrow said that while he didn't mind joining the science team he didn't really see what he'd have to offer since he knows nothing about either biotechnology or nanotechnology. Plus, he couldn't take part in the telepathic communion as he lacks an organic brain.

Kon and M'gann went sightseeing at M'gann's suggestion. Kon was getting more and more wound up about Klarion being in control of Diana and about there not being anything he could do to contribute to getting it fixed. Garth and Tula went with them. They're in the know about what's happened to King Orin but otherwise it's need to know only. Queen Mera wants to keep this very quiet, and I can understand why.

Artemis notices me in the murk -ring assisted vision meant that I hadn't realised quite how dark it was down here for most people- and motions for me to come inside. I push through the membrane and drop to the floor next to her. "How are the brain trust getting along?"

"Tolerably. They were about to set up the telepathic link when I.. umm…"

She smirks. "Got kicked out."

"Basically." I look over to where Mister Free, Mister Metcalf, Kaldur and Robin are huddled around a terminal. "How's it coming here?"

"Hardware wants to build a bunch of gravity sensors, Kaldur wants to do what we did to find Roanoke again, Miracle Man wants to build something to track a Zeta tube and Robin wants to try sticking a transmitter on a League member."

"All of those probably could work. And doing one doesn't necessarily stop us doing the others." I nod at John, who's standing next to one of the water barriers. "What's he been up to?"

"Mostly? Staring into space and asking why he's not allowed to smoke."

"It's probably a self hypnosis thing."

She looks at me dubiously. "Are you sure he knows what he's doing?"

"Reasonably."

"Would…" She glances at my lantern. "Would the snake be able to find it?"

"Maybe. I don't really want to try that until we have a way to remove the Starro-tech that doesn't require Teekl surgery."

"You really think they're looking for us?"

"I would, but we don't really know what Klarion's doing with them."

"Still no sign?"

"Ring?"

"No reports of Justice League activity have been shown on listed news networks."

"I picked up Icon and King Orin leaving the mountain but since then? Nothing." I shrug. "How's Red Arrow been doing?"

"Moping." She rolls her eyes. "Calling him 'Evil Roy' really didn't help."

I look over to where he's half-heartedly nodding along as Wallace gabbles at him. "It was a joke. And it's not like any of us actually met the original. How come he risked going to you for help?"

"We've.. bonded. He knows things about me no-one else on the team except you-."

"And almost certainly Robin."

She gives me a look. "He used that to check I was still me."

"That's not.. actually.. a very good test. If someone's being mind controlled the person doing the controlling usually has access to everything…" She scowls. "I'm just saying."

"Are we gonna be able to find.. other Roy?"

"Dubbilex said that the Genomorphs didn't know who any of the people Cadmus cloned were. He didn't even recognise Guardian when he came back to work on security." I shrug. "I'll help look and I'll try twisting Lex's arm, but you know he's just going to say that it was all Doctor Desmond's fault."

"How about talking to him?"

"Tried that." I think back to that particular prison visit. "He wasn't exactly cooperative and the Blockbuster Formula's done a number on his brain. M'gann or someone might be able to get something out of him, but I'm not hopeful."

She nods and walks past me to look out across Poseidonis. "D'you think I could survive out there now?"

"Urm. You'd drown."

"With an air mask. Ass."

Hmm. "I.. think so. You're more resilient than M'gann and she handles it fine. Might want to wear some goggles though, and you might have trouble moving around."

"Then can we get out of here, just for a little while? It's kinda claustrophobic in here, and I'm.. not really contributing…"

"Sure, we can do that." I take an air mask out of subspace and hand it to her. "I should be able to give you the tour by now." But before we go… I walk over to my personal lantern and kneel down next to it. "Ophidian, do what you can to focus their minds on their objectives and not their egos, will you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
12:14 GMT -2

"So this is where Kaldur went to school, huh?"

Artemis and I float in the water just above the Conservatory of Sorcery. Unlike with John where I have to more or less drag him around in order to go faster than walking pace Artemis is strong enough to swim around Atlantean style. Her eyes are glowing orange where I'm enhancing them to allow her to see effectively. "For a while. He started studying here when he was fourteen and went part time when King Orin took him on."

"Wait, so he just..?"

"What?"

"Stopped going to school. I mean, does he have any qualifications or anything?"

"Um. No, I don't suppose he does. I mean, there's some civil exams I'm.. pretty sure he took, but he wouldn't have completed any normal courses."

"Kaldur's a delinquent?" She seems to find the idea amusing.

"No, of course not. This isn't like.. skiving off school to go on patrol. Kaldur's a member of the Atlantean military. King Orin's taken personal responsibility for his tuition. It's not just King Orin who teaches him, he's been there when Atlantean generals discuss the defence of the realm with their sovereign, when city-state politicians and senators bring him their problems. Just about anything that happens in court, he's seen. Kaldur's learning tactics and strategy, economics and politics as well as combat skills. If our team hadn't come together he'd probably have a commission in the Atlantean military by now."

She nods, turns in the water and starts swimming down towards the research centre. I follow along behind. Before we left I pointed out that her armour would probably be a bit constricting. Though at first she was dubious about my motives I was able to persuade her to change to a grey wetsuit with flippers. Even though the switch was instant she still insisted on me creating a screen construct when I did the switch.

"Queen Mera really teaches here?"

"She taught here before she became queen. She doesn't really have much to do with ruling the country. Well, she didn't. With Prince Orm… She might now, I don't know."

"Doesn't that make her really vulnerable?"

"There's guards to defend the place and she's a qualified battlemage. The Conservatory isn't quite as heavily warded as the palace but it's not far behind. Black Manta was such a problem at least in part because Atlantean defence plans revolved around defending against melee and magic attacks, not advanced technology." I stop and point at where Sephtian's people have started building the dome bubble generator along the rim of the Conservatory's mesa. "And when that's finished, those won't be a problem any more either."

"Some sort of force field?"

"Basically. It.. sort of makes the water disinclined to move. Like a bubble, but really tough."

"Let's go take a look." She turns away from the main building and starts towards it.

"Okay, but there's not really going to be much to see at this stage."

About a quarter of the metal ring which will be used to generate the bubble has already been laid out and a small group of Atlanteans are working on chiselling out the groove for the rest of it to run in. Their sharkman overseer looks up as we swim down to their level.

"Hey, Slayer! Who's your friend?"

"Good afternoon, Alkiphron. This is Artemis, Artemis, Alkiphron."

"Ahh… Hi."

Alkiphron has his mouth slightly open and I think Artemis is being transfixed by his teeth. "I thought all of the soldiers Poseidonis borrowed from Nanauve had gone back home?"

"Oh, they did. But High King Orin let anyone who wanted to stay on transfer over." He suddenly twists in the water. "Keep working, rock munchers! Just because I'm talking doesn't mean you can!" He keeps watching for a moment as they bend themselves to their task. "Hm." He turns back towards us at a more normal pace. "Probation oversight. Guess some parts of the job are the same whatever city you're in."

"What made you stay?"

"Spending time here made me realise that if King Blunt Brain can handle a school like this, then I can too. Blood mages back home are really picky about who they take on but here? After my probation's up in five months' time I can apply for arcane training. I mean, I'm never going to be like the High Queen or anything but I'll have more to offer than just another guy with a sword."

"Did a lot of Nanauvians stay on?"

"Not many. I mean, obviously Ceyx did… Be weird without him. But it was mostly officers looking for promotion rather than regular soldiers like us. Hey, hey, ah…" He points back at the prisoners. "Didn't you bring them in?"

I look past him. Oh. James, Steven and Richard, the formerly fearsome fish eaters. "How did they end up down here?"

"Ah, think they chose this over a surface prison. No, wait, hang on." He reaches down to his belt, pulls out an arcane tablet and touches one of the runes. "Oh, that's it. Their parents signed off on them coming here rather than going to a surface prison."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Apparently, your country doesn't have a prison for young.. meta.. humans..? So it was this or… The Tower? That might not be quite right. Sometimes name translations on these things don't work like they're meant to."

"No, that's right. The Tower of London."

Artemis appears to have recovered her wits. "I thought that was just a tourist place?"

"Some parts are, but there's an underground facility for housing special prisoners. It uses magic rather than power suppressors, so it works on all types. There just isn't much space and they don't really know how to make it bigger anymore." I shrug. "It would break the European Convention on Human Rights to put anyone who wasn't a supervillain in there."

Alkiphron tilts his head to the side. "That doesn't make sense. If their spells are still working anyone who knows anything about magic could work it out eventually, even if they couldn't cast it themselves."

"John Dee was a big believer in job security. It's not like Atlantis where there's books on magic in every street. Someone from his era on the surface would have had to spend years... Decades, doing research and hunting down manuscripts. He had to reinvent nearly everything from scratch, and then his library got vandalised while he was away… Now I think the government's just too worried about wrecking it to try anything creative."

Alkiphron thinks for a moment. "Couldn't we do that? I mean, there's plenty of researchers around here and the High King's trying to make friends with the surface?"

"How many would volunteer to spend months or years on the surface with only fresh water to swim in?"

Artemis frowns. "London's on the coast."

"Yes, and it's been on the coast for about twenty one hundred years. How polluted do you think that water is by now?" I turn to Alkiphron. "You would vomit through your gills."

"Ugh. Okay. You could still probably find a Pureblood who'd do it. Ahh, not the vomiting thing, but if it was interesting enough they'd probably put up with the dryness."

"I suppose it's something I could look into."

Alkiphron nods in a satisfied manner, then something occurs to him. "Oh, if you're looking for Professor Sephtian I think he went over to the Science Centre. Maybe. He's not here anyway."

"No, no, I was just showing Artemis around."

"Alright, I'll tell him you were here." He takes a closer look at Artemis' wetsuit. "Heeeey, is that shark scale?"

Her eyes widen, she blinks and looks down at her chest. "Um…"

He nods in satisfaction. "Cutting off people's hands and wearing the skin of your fallen enemies. You surface people are more like us than I thought!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
13:35 GMT -2

Looks like there's something exciting going on inside the palace's air room. My team mates and the other hangers on are gathered around a space while John is drawing something on the floor. And it appears to have Red Tornado in the centre of it. Oh, that's an alarm bell. I push my way back into the room and walk up behind Donna. "What's going on?"

She glances back at me before returning her attention to the circle. "Constantine's had an idea for detecting the Watchtower." A pensive and heavily pregnant looking Queen Mera is watching proceedings on the far side from us, flanked by Kaldur and Zatanna. "He thinks he should be able to detect the echo of the sympathetic link Klarion is using to control the Justice League by doing.. something involving Tornado, Teekl and some hair from someone called The Changing Man."

Teekl's lying down in a smaller circle surrounded by occult symbols and Enochian script, playing with something small and black. The Changing Man's hair, presumably. "The Changing Man's a Lord of Chaos, Teekl was Klarion's familiar and Tornado was under his control. I don't know much about magic but that sounds like it could work."

"I don't know much about magic either but, speaking as a demigoddess? That thing he's drawing on the floor is making me feel very uneasy. I don't think I can explain it properly-."

"If you're spending time around John Constantine it would be strange if you didn't feel like that."

"I'd got used to that. It just feels like something that really shouldn't exist." She frowns. "Why does he feel.. so..?"

"Cut his own soul in half then patched it up using whatever was on hand. He's actually got a demonic doppelganger around the place somewhere that grew out of the other half."

When she looks at me she doesn't waste time with disbelief and goes straight for horrified. "And… We're relying on this guy?"

"If I knew of someone better I'd have got them instead. Look, Queen Mera's given the design the once over. I doubt she'd let off something inside the palace that would doom us all."

"Alright!" John stands up, having finished the last inscription. "Think that's it." He carefully crosses the space and stands in what I recognise as the ritualist's space and carefully gives his design the once over. "Oh, hang on." Three careful steps and he bends down to draw what to me looks like a squiggle on one of the larger symbols. Another look around and he makes a shrugging gesture at Queen Mera.

She looks it over very carefully as well. "It seems to be complete. I would have liked to have taken longer to review it more carefully but time is not on our side." She looks directly at him. "Proceed."

"Right then." He tiptoes back to his circle before sitting down with his legs crossed and his hands palms upward on his knees. "Few pointers for the peanut gallery. First thing is: do not cross the outer circle." I generate an orange barrier twenty centimetres away from that edge and expand it, nudging several people away. John nods at me. "Nice to see you escaped bowgirl in one piece." Donna gives me an amusedly curious look. Does she still think I'm gay? I've rather lost track. "Second thing: do not cross the flamin' circle! You wouldn't believe the number of people I've seen killed doing something stupid they knew they shouldn't. Treat this whole thing like a live electric cable. Just 'cause you can't see anything dangerous doesn't mean it isn't there." He looks around to make sure we've got it, then reaches into his jacket and fishes out what looks like a series of astrology charts and a pendulum. The charts get spread out in front of him inside his circle and the pendulum gets held lightly in his right hand so it can swing freely.

"I'm not quite mental enough to try connecting to Klarion himself, but I should be able to follow the magic and get a good idea of where he is. Once the weight picks out a place on each picture we'll get another load of pictures for that general area and repeat the process again and again 'til we've narrowed it down to something you can land that Martian spaceship on. Since I'm not directly getting involved in Klarion's spell he shouldn't realise I'm there. But just in case, the edge of the circle's got the same hiding wards as I stuck on Paul's tattoos. Third thing, this isn't going to be particularly fast. I'm going to be raising power and feeling out the connection slowly, so don't feel you all need to keep staring at me. Fourthly, I'm going to be outside my body for most of it so don't be surprised if I'm not exactly talkative. Stepping over the circle 'cause it looks like I've died will just get us both killed. Fifthly, if something starts going wrong, refer to points one an' two. If Klarion spots what I'm doing I'll be shuttin' this whole thing down bloody quick. There'll be basically nothing you can do to help so don't distract me by puttin' yourself in danger. Everyone got it?" There's a general nodding. "Right then. Cat, stay where you are. Red, make yourself comfortable." John leans forwards slightly, holds the pendulum over the first picture and unfocuses his eyes.

I step away from the ring of people and walk around the outside until I come to Wallace and Robin. "Any news on the-?"

Wallace jerks around. "Shhh! He needs to concentrate."

"John could do this ritual in the middle of a Black Sabbath gig." I frown. "In fact, I think he did once. He wasn't joking about it taking a while and lots of background noise is better than just a little bit."

"Oh. Really?"

"That's.. what he told me. Not like I do it myself."

"Huh."

"So, Robin. I know Batman wasn't keen on me scanning Kryptonite with the ring, but we are actually going to have to fight Kal-El and I'd be much better at regulating dosage than natural exposure." Robin thinks for a moment, then nods and fishes a small lead lined box out of his utility belt. "You know, that stuff can cause cancer in Humans with prolonged exposure."

"It spends most of its time in a fortified vault lined with lead and concrete."

"Might want to add a force field."

"Superboy not back yet?"

"No. Artemis and I met up with them when we were out and they wanted to do more exploring." I create a semipermeable barrier around the box as he opens it. Glowing green crystal, maybe a tiny little bit darker than green constructs are. The ring gives me a summary of the radiation bandwidths it's emitting. I don't know enough about Kryptonian biology to understand why it has the effect that it does but I've.. still got my old scans of Kal-El and Kon on the ring. I.. should just be able to clone a small blood sample and record the results. My knowledge of Kryptonian physiology… No, my knowledge is fine, my understanding of Kryptonian physiology is sorely lacking. I nod and Robin closes the lid before returning the box to his utility belt. "Don't suppose you've got any other colours, have you?"

"Other colors?" He frowns. "What d'you mean?"

"You know, other radioactive lumps of Krypton, possibly emitting at different wavelengths. I mean, the lower lethality the better, right?"

"I don't.. think there are any other colors, Oh El."

"Oh well. Any plans for what to do when we find the Watchtower?"

Wallace shrugs. "Depends whether we've got a cure or not. I mean, if we get a cure first it might be better to try and lure them out."

"I've still got the design for Vertigo's Vertigo Inducer thing on file. I think most League members would be vulnerable to it."

"So why didn't-? Oh, right, Physician manipulates sound. What about those brain things we have in the mountain?"

"I'm a little uncomfortable using them when we don't know how they'll interact with the Starro-tech. I mean, Icon and…" I glance at Queen Mera. "The first thing Physician probably did was haul them away and fix them up. It's fairly short ranged and isn't necessarily immediately disabling. I'm.. more inclined to go for a power suppression system."

Robin shakes his head. "They have to be wearing the collars for them to work and they haven't been tested on the League members. For all we know aliens aren't affected. Did you manage to get hold of Oa?"

"No. I tried Clarissi Salaak and a couple of other Lanterns at random. I think my calls are being screened. I was briefly able to get hold of Chairman Jiang of the Chinese Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs but he doesn't know me and I think I heard someone say 'cake' in the background. I did explain the situation to the man in charge of Russia's metaweapon development, but he just sort of grunted at me until I hung up."

Wallace nods. "Guess we're on our own then."

I look around the room. "Oh… I wouldn't say that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
15:47 GMT

Aaaaaand done. I step back with a smile on my face as the Watchtower's deep space sensors are restored to full functionality. A touch of a button later and the basic view of the solar system grudgingly granted us by the Guardians' cast off space station is replaced by a far more detailed view of nearly the entire space sector. Not quite up to the standard of an actual Sector House's scan; I don't have a spare green personal lantern to run it on and some of the advanced systems require that. Hmm. I don't want to do a half arsed job of this and I've been meaning to investigate those 'Guardian containment vessels' the ring detected when I first arrived here for some time. Worth prioritising in the new year? Maybe. I'll see how my talk with Batman goes first.

I turn to look at my audience. "Think they'll appreciate it?"

Mister Tawny looks around when I speak, grunts and then goes back to playing with the Sphere. I think he's annoyed with me for not bringing him with us during the attack. It's just that we were relying so much on precision and I'm still not sure exactly how intelligent he is. Besides, he'd have hated the headphones he'd have been forced to wear. That's odd, actually; I know full well that a power ring can translate animal noises into words but I've never heard him say anything. Tigers aren't the most vocal of animals but they're usually more vocal than he is. In any case the ring should be translating what I say into ideas he can understand.

"Mister Tawny, can you understand me?"

He shoves the Sphere backwards with his head, look at me, sniffs at the Sphere and then turns around to amble in my direction. When he gets up close he rears up, putting his forepaws on my shoulders. He's done that before when we've wrestled, but this time rather than trying to bite or headbutt me I can almost see him weighing me up.

Then he nods. Tigers don't nod. "Of course I can."

What?

"Though I hope you don't mind if we keep it between the two of us."

What?

No, seriously. What?

"Oh, come now. Surely you're not completely unfamiliar with the idea of a talking Tiger?"

"Nn-. No, not completely. I have heard animal speech before via the ring. Yours is just a little more advanced than I've become accustomed to."

"The BBC World Service really is a wonderful institution."

"Is that really all there is to it?"

"No." He pulls back slightly and drops back to the floor. He's a little more massive than me but a good deal shorter. "I learn quickly, but I grew up in a jungle in India. Inorganic environments still make me a little uncomfortable. Furthermore, as best as I have been able to determine, I am an unusually intelligent Tiger. Not a Tiger-shaped Human. My thought processes are different to theirs."

I nod. "Is there a reason why you've decided to break your silence now?"

"Because you had the cheek to leave me behind. And because you were becoming suspicious. What gave me away?"

"I've been studying Tiger behaviour. Your behaviour's been a little off for as long as I've known you. I wanted to be sure I wasn't.. mistreating you."

"If you had been, I assure you, you would have known about it."

"Do you intend to tell the others?"

"No. Without your ring to intercede on my behalf the quality of my English is appalling."

"You can actually speak-?"

His opens his mouth in a yawn and licks his fangs. "Not with these. I'm tentatively prepared to appreciate what The Brain did to me -on balance- but Venom Buster aside he left my form little changed. No lips and large fangs don't make for the most intelligible conversation."

"There might be a way around that. I had been thinking about it anyway…"

"Oh? Do tell."

"There's no particular reason why Divine Awakening shouldn't work on you. You're Earth-native, you have a spiritual presence. I can't be entirely sure what the result would be…"

"But you use it on your other friends without hesitation." He nuzzles his head against my left leg. "Do it. God me."

I reach down and lay my left hand on his head. That.. feels a little more weird than it did before he started talking to me. "Awaken." The orange light radiates out and I lift my hand away immediately once it finishes.

"What?" He sits down and looks me in the eye. "Ooh. I see. You must understand, Grayven: I'm not Human. My instinctive body language is quite different. If you become uncomfortable touching me in the way that you have been, then it will become psychologically uncomfortable for me to be around you."

"I should have realised." I reach forwards and rub the top of his head. "I apologise."

"Quite alright. I realise this requires a degree of adjustment."

"Justice League members approaching."

Mister Tawny glances over at the door. "Mum's the word." A last nuzzle of my hand and then he rises and charges at the Sphere.

I stand at ease as the door slides open, revealing Diana and Kal-El. I nod at my sponsor. "Wonder Woman. Good to see that you've recovered."

Diana looks me over. "Kon said that you were injured."

"Three green energy projectiles from Ghost Fox Killer." I point to where they struck me. "Not sure exactly what they were made of but they've faded since and there doesn't seem to have been any lasting damage."

Kal-El nods to me. "Grayven."

I smile. "Manman."

"Grayven."

"Sorry, Kal-El. Childish of me. I apologise."

He doesn't look much happier. "How long does it last?"

I make a show of carefully considering the question. "You understand… I was only able to test it on tissue samples. When I exposed Kon's blood to the crystalline form of gold kryptonite, half a second's exposure was enough to shut his photoreceptive organelles down for about two minutes. With prolonged exposure they start to die off… You had fairly intense exposure…"

Diana sets her face. "Grayven, direct-."

"Low blow, Wonder Woman. I don't know, okay? This isn't fully tested. I just knew that unlike the green stuff it couldn't kill you. Given what my scans are showing now, I'd say, you'll be back in full fighting form in… Two months."

His eyes widen. "Two months?!"

"Three at the outside. The organelles will repropagate, but you took an intense hit to the head and chest. If it happened any faster you'd risk your body pulling itself apart as the fully restored bits got stronger than the unrestored bits next to them." That's total bullshit -given how Kryptonian strength is based on a strong nuclear force manipulation field rather than organic strength- but from the barely contained horror on his face it doesn't look like he knows that. What exactly have he and Jor-El been talking about?

Diana turns to him and puts her right hand on his left shoulder. "It's only two months-."

"Or three!"

She glares me into silence. "Maybe a break from League work wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would give you time to focus on your.. other work."

"I… I guess."

"Ah, I'm just messing you about." Glares from both, though Kal-El's is deliciously brittle. "Oh, that was all true, but with your powers down to nearly nothing I can use the ring to fix you up the same way I did Kon and Match. Take twenty seconds." He doesn't immediately respond, trying to keep himself under control. "I don't have to if you don't want me to."

He grits his teeth. "Thank you, Grayven. I would appreciate that."

I hold out my left hand and with a little effort -I mean, it's not as if I like the guy- orange strobes flare out and recreate the microscopic structures within his cells while shielding him from the wavelengths that will cause them to reactivate before I'm finished. Nineteen seconds later I shut it down. "There you go. Half an hour sunbathing and you'd never know it ever happened." Except in your head.

He nods, then turns to leave the room while Diana gets into lecture mode. "Grayven, that was unnecessary."

"It was just a joke. This has been a fairly stressful day for us as well, you know." She appears to accept the answer. "Now, how about I show you some of the improvements I've made to the Watchtower." I hold out my right hand to the sensor display and she walks past me to get a better look.

She can only lip read if she can see my lips. "If you're listening, Kal-El, mark my words. I respect Batman and Wonder Woman but you? You're just that guy who made my closest friend feel worthless for two months. Doesn't feel nice, does it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
16:01 GMT

"…really wanted to install railgun hardpoints to reduce the maintenance requirements buttttt… Those could theoretically be used against low flying aircraft."

I know that the League aren't hung over, but from the trouble most of them are having focusing the effect is really quite similar. Wonder Woman and Kal-El look fine, as do Mister J'onzz and William. Everyone else is having trouble focusing. Lantern Stewart in particular appears to be suffering, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing the bridge of his nose for the fourth time since Wonder Woman called everyone together. She was a little concerned after I showed her the full extent of the modifications I'd made while the League were in no position to argue.

"And I know how much you all want to avoid the Watchtower looking like an orbital supremacy platform."

Even though that's what it is. Even though it would make your job much easier.

Batman takes a deep breath. "How many laser turrets did you build?"

"I wasn't quite sure what the optimal number was, but I thought -to grant overlapping fields of fire and allowing some redundancy to mitigate the effect of losses due to enemy action- sixty eight would probably be sufficient."

Hung over and bewildered. Zatanna did say that she could purge the lingering effects, but I asked her to focus her efforts on creating defensive wards around the Watchtower itself instead. Essential, and something I can't deal with myself. Mister Zatara didn't want to risk doing anything while he was still suffering from the 'Klarion hangover' himself. The Great Ten have been quartered in the Watchtower until we've had a chance to fully check them for residual chaos magic. They were more willing to go along with that than I thought they'd be. Ghost Fox Killer even did a full apology bow for shooting me. I was so moved by her comportment that I constructed for her a device that can replicate the ring effect I used to bypass my formerly insensitive skin. Should work on the good Colonel, and from how her pupils dilated slightly and from how quickly she hid the thing I think she got the idea. The exception from that reasonable arrangement was Gu Lao, who is currently in my newly constructed brig. I did offer to arrange for him to have died valiantly while fighting against Klarion but Colonel Fang said that it wasn't his decision. Guardsman claimed that he was following legitimate orders… Well. He isn't my priority.

"Cool." William grins, notices the glares from his colleagues and then tries to serious it up. "I mean, they'd only be used if the Watchtower was attacked, right?"

"I set them up to intercept missiles, attack craft and boarding craft. They aren't enough to fend off a serious assault by an interstellar polity."

"I notice that you appear to have incorporated Martian technology into your Zeta tube quarantine units." Mister J'onzz is too tough for the petrol fire to have seriously hurt him but I made a point of healing his burns myself anyway. Any anger I still felt about his fucked up training exercise has faded to time and Guy's wise counsel. And after this it's not as if the rest of the League look any more competent. He seems to have dealt with the psychological effects of my attack well enough. M'gann wasn't entirely sanguine about what I did but she did understand the necessity. "From where did you acquire them?"

"Mars, of course. It isn't a restricted technology. In fact, the person I bought them from seemed to be implying that they were rather out of date. Still, they should be enough to detect unnatural mental influences of the telepathic variety. Don't worry, full mental shields the whole way. The seller didn't learn anything from me I didn't want them to."

Lantern Jordan looks like he wants to say something, then looks past me and thinks twice about it. Guy wasn't invited to participate but he created a chair construct just behind me and to my right anyway and he's been staring at Jordan with a grin on his face ever since. Jordan for his part has been avoiding looking at him. Even better, every few minutes he slides his ring off his finger and wipes it.

Batman calls up a holographic representation of the Watchtower in the middle of the table. "I understand that you've also added force field generators."

"Yes sir. I felt that with an entirely passive system there was no need to restrict myself. Even in the event of a violent de-orbit they'd actually serve to reduce the force of the impact."

"Apokoliptian technology."

"Yes sir, though it's hardly visible from the outside. It's based on the system that.. thing in Bialya had protecting it. The Zeta tube won't function while it's up but arcane teleportation should be unaffected."

Batman moves the diagram around a few times to get a better look. "How long can the Watchtower's fusion reactor power it for?"

"About half a second. That's why I tossed it." I point at the display. "May I?" He nods, and I expand the view of the power plant. "These are Bleed Membrane Instability Generators." The Hawks and Mister Freeman appear to relax a little while Kal-El and the Lanterns look even more concerned. "They should be more than enough to power-."

"They generate power using Bleed instability!?" Lantern Stewart, your ignorance is showing.

"Of course not. That would be insane. Rather, they take advantage of the fact that physical laws get a bit fuzzy in the membrane between our universe and the Bleed to generate power."

Hawkman nods. "Systems like that are used throughout Thanagarian space. They're almost completely safe because the first thing that happens if anything goes wrong is that the connection to the Bleed is lost. It's like generating power with a black hole; it sounds like it should be dangerous when in fact the most powerful safety feature is built in."

Doctor Palmer tries to get his head around the idea. "Physical laws get fuzzy?"

I nod. "It's a little difficult to explain. Essentially, a universe is delineated by a set of physical laws which make sense in terms of themselves. In the Bleed, there are no consistent laws… Except, when a universe forms and is protected by its own cohesion. But, in the membrane…"

"The rules apply only partially." He nods, more or less to himself. "That disproves entropy. It's not even about the size of the system being larger than just one universe. That could still mean that they were all winding down. If these things allow you to add energy without taking it from somewhere else…"

"One can equal two. Or turquoise. Or banana. Physical laws only apply in a given set of conditions, though as I understand it most alternate universes do have something like entropy within themselves. At least, most for which I've been able to see records."

Hawkwoman leans closer to the display. "Those six wouldn't be enough to power a warship."

"Quite right, sir. Six was pushing what the Watchtower's power distribution systems can handle and.. well. Laser turrets. Not exactly 'high draw'." She nods. "I could have built blasters oooor hyper blasters instead but I know that even this is going to be a hard sell."

Mister Allen shakes his head. "And.. why exactly do you think we need any of this?"

"Sir, today you all got your arses kicked. Twice. Firstly, by mind controlled Red Arrow and the Starro-tech." Mister Harper is.. not handling this situation well. I need to deflect his attention. "Secondly, by my team. Now, you couldn't reasonably have predicted Red Arrow turning on you, but you could have predicted League members encountering mind control. You didn't. You don't do routine screening for-" I count on my fingers. "-magic, telepathy, nanotech, parasites or cybernetic control implants. All of those are things you know to exist. No one got screened. You can't reduce the risk to zero, but you can get it a good deal lower than it is now." I make eye contact with Mister Zatara and then with King Orin. "The Watchtower is entirely unwarded, a gaping vulnerability. One Zatanna's busy fixing." My eyes tour the League. "No flak and.. frankly basic armour means that a few nuclear missiles launched from the planet's surface is all it would take to destroy this place." Stewart, then Jordan. "No long range deep space sensors or interdiction fields means that an invader can drop out of FTL right on top of you."

That gets Jordan to look at me. "You built an interdiction field?"

"No one in this system uses FTL except us Lanterns and we won't be affected."

"Ah?" Mister Queen waves his right hand. "For those of us without power rings?"

Lantern Stewart looks at him. "An interdiction field is a type of technology which prevents faster than light travel within an area. Usually you use it if you're attacking someone and want to prevent them from escaping."

I nod. "Now, anyone trying to enter the system with any of the more commonly used forms of FTL will drop out just inside the edge of the Oort cloud." I think for a moment. "Maybe Neptune orbital distance if they don't mind wrecking their engines. In either case, we get lots of warning. Full technical manuals and SOPs have been loaded into the Watchtower's database. Now, is there anything else you would like to ask before I take the Great Ten home?"

"Yes." Wonder Woman looks at me curiously. "What prompted you to incorporate these technologies in the Watchtower now?"

Kal-El's eyes narrow. "Without asking us."

"To answer you both, because I had been assuming that you could look after your own defences. Clearly, I misjudged." A few scowls. I shake my head and raise my right hand in a pacifying gesture. "That wasn't intended as an insult. I have a particular ability with regards to technological adaptation and reverse engineering. I don't expect Green Arrow to brawl with giant cyborg apes or Superman to run a strategic intelligence network. This happens to be what I have to offer. Make use of it, or this will not be the last time this happens."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
20:47 GMT -2

Adom regards Robin with an air of disquiet. "You are fourteen? I had assumed that you were simply short." Wallace turns his snigger into a cough and turns his head away as Robin glares at him. "I do not mean to insult you by saying that. If anything, your youth means that your deeds do you even more credit."

"Thanks… I think."

With Adom having joined us everyone's here. John's laid out at the back of the room getting himself back together. His attempts at scrying eventually met with success, and with the location and a conceptual link he, Mister Free and Queen Mera were able to find a way to modify an experimental Dolmen Gate to bypass the defences. John doesn't think that Klarion noticed him, but he was fairly clear that we shouldn't assume that.

"If we could have your attention please?" Professor Vulko stands at one end of the room with Doctor Roquette and Dubbilex. Sephtian floats behind them in the water on the other side of the shield barrier. To their left are Kaldur and Queen Mera, along with two G-Dwarves and four G-Gnomes. The rest of us shuffle around until we're all facing them. "We believe we.. have something." He opens the case he brought with him, revealing what look like rows of tiny white circuit boards. "We have taken to calling it 'cure-tech'. Through a combination of magic absorption, nanotech disruption and telepathic stimulation it should neutralize the Starro-tech infection in any affected individuals."

Doctor Roquette glances back at Sephtian, who motions her forwards. She delicately slides one of the wafers out of its housing. "To use it, all you have to do is hold it against an infected person's skin for one second. That'll trigger it to start working. It will look like it's phasing through their skin but it's actually the nanotech components spreading out to attack the Starro-tech inside the host's body."

Dubbilex nods. "Furthermore, we strongly advise everyone here to make use of it before starting the attack. One application should be sufficient to render a person immune." He holds out his right arm to Doctor Roquette, who presses the white wafer against it. One second, then it starts to disappear around the edges, a process which is complete another second later.

Kaldur takes one from Vulko, who then comes forwards with the case and holds it out towards the front row. Mister Free takes one out and gives it a quick scan with his multi-cube before pulling back his left sleeve and applying it to his skin. Garth and Tula don't even bother checking it over before using it and Vulko continues moving down the line. "If you become infected this cure-tech should be sufficient to neutralise the infection almost immediately. Unfortunately, when applied to someone who is already infected it is more likely that they will be forced into a state of unconsciousness."

He reaches me and I take a wafer, give it a quick ring scan and then apply it to my forehead. A moment later there's a slight tingling but I don't otherwise notice anything. I then take three more and pass them down to Teekl and Fatty and.. um. Other Fatty. Robin and Wallace take theirs without complaint but Adom looks a little more unhappy about it. "Mighty One, the Starro-tech worked on Captain Marvel. You are vulnerable."

His eyes narrow slightly as he picks up a wafer. "Marvel is a good man, but is not wise in the ways of the gods. The power Lord Atum has granted me should be enough for me to resist this.. thing."

"Is it worth risking it unnecessarily?"

"I suppose not." He presses it again his left palm and we both watch as it disappears. "Your pardon, teacher Vulko. I did not mean to besmirch your work. I am simply unused to this manner of operating."

Vulko turns his head in our direction and Alan and Danni take theirs. "Free King Orin and we'll say no more about it."

The eleven G-Elves Dubbilex insisted we have join us reach out and take their wafers and Vulko walks back to the front of the room. The Genomorph warriors' claws were hard enough for the leading edge to take the x-ionisation process and since he won't be coming himself Dubbilex has assigned them to M'gann's control. Things could get a bit tricky if she gets hurt as the rest of us can't effectively communicate with them, but G-Elves are agile and vicious and I'm sure they'll be very useful.

At the front of the room Kaldur touches an illusory display and calls up a blue and white translucent image of the Watchtower. Time for the briefing proper then. "John Constantine was able to not merely locate the Watchtower, but also detect the number of League members still on board." Red dots appear. "Klarion is here, in the main hall. From the cluster here it seems likely that he has ordered League members under his control to steal technology from the League's storerooms. After the destruction of STAR Labs' San Francisco facility a large number of highly dangerous artefacts were transferred there."

Wallace slumps. "Aww, man. The Medusa Mask again?"

"As you can see, only fifteen League members are present. We have no information on who they are or where the others are. It is likely that wherever they are Klarion will call them to return as soon as he discovers that he is under attack. As such, most of us will travel to the Watchtower by means of the Bio-Ship. Once we are in position, Orange Lantern and Teth Adom will launch a diversionary attack on the main hall while we cut our way through the outer hull. Mister Miracle and Robin will access internal sensors while masking our presence from Klarion. We will then split up in order to ambush as many League members with the cure-tech in our first strike as possible. That will almost certainly cause Klarion to become aware of our presence and rally his defense."

He moves over to a nearby table and picks up a Spell Eater. "Orange Lantern and Professor Sephtian developed these to protect against attacks by magic. Everyone who does not already have one should take one before embarking." A little further along. "These chains should be able to bind even the most powerful magic user. We have three sets available. Teth Adom and Orange Lantern will take one each and attempt to use them to neutralize Klarion. Superboy will take the third in case it becomes necessary to forcibly restrain Doctor Fate." My eyes briefly meet Zatanna's. Or we could just do that anyway. Will we get the chance?

"Garth, Tula and I will be carrying miniature Dolmen Gates linked to the ocean. Not only will that make it far easier for us to use our spells in the Watchtower, but it will also fuel their protective equipment." Both of them are sporting what looks like brass jewellery. It's superficially similar to the shield design I made for Kaldur months ago, refined by someone -Sephtian- who actually knew what he was doing. The water membrane itself is now more precisely controlled and the protection it offers is massively increased. It will no-sell a lot of simple attacks including massive impact trauma and does so without obscuring their vision or mobility. In a prolonged fight the drain it puts on their mana reserves might be a problem, but we're not going to win a drawn out fight against the Justice League and Klarion.

"Everyone will be issued with four cure-tech wafers. Take care not to inadvertently use them on yourselves." I'll be loading mine into the ring. "It will be far easier to administer them by taking the League members by surprise than by beating them into submission. Precise co-ordination will be required. Do not simply rush on ahead." Robin and Wallace glance at each other. "Once we have control of internal sensors we can use them to give false readings in order to lure them into ambushes."

Robin shakes his head. "Batman's too smart to fall for a false sensor reading."

"Were he in his right mind I would agree with you. But with Klarion controlling him to the point where his very patterns of speech are altered I suspect that will no longer be true. In any case we do not know that Batman will be among those present on the Watchtower." He moves further along the table. "These sonic grenades will replicate the effect of Count Vertigo's headset within a radius of about three meters, or nearly ten feet. They can be set to the duration of your choice but only have a total of thirty seconds' continual activity each. The most effective tactic will be to use them for short bursts to disorientate your target before closing the range and using the cure-tech. To prevent you from being affected yourself you will need to be wearing your ear pieces. Be warned that opponents with ear protection, invulnerability or power rings will most likely prove immune to them."

"If it becomes necessary, Robin has a piece of Kryptonite and Orange Lantern has scanned it. The radiation it gives off is extremely painful to Kryptonians.. and I am told that prolonged exposure is unhealthy for Humans as well. If anyone sees opponents who are not League members they are to report on it at once. Does anyone have any questions?"

Alan smiles. "When do we start?"

Kaldur looks around the room. No one else has anything they want to ask. "Very well. Come to the front of the room to be issued with your equipment and then follow Miss Martian to the Bio-Ship." The people at the front of the room start drifting forwards. Garth and Tula have their armour inactive. Even in its current relatively close location it will still take them about a quarter of an hour in the Bio-Ship to reach the Watchtower.

Alan strolls in my direction, Danni close behind. "Looks like this is it, then."

I nod and pull his ring out of my left hip pouch before holding it out to him. "Remember what I said, please. Don't use it if you don't have to."

He takes it and holds it firmly in his right hand. "I'll ask Klarion nicely to lay off, shall I?"

I smile. "No, I'll do it for you."

He pulls me in for a hug. "Good luck Paul."

I try to avoid crushing him with my power armour as I return the hug. "Ah, we don't need it. I've prepared for this."

"Hm." He lets go and heads towards the table.

Danni watches him go for a moment before putting her arms around my chest. "I would be displeased if you were to die. Endeavor not to do so."

"I'll do my b-." She leans forward, kisses me on the lips and then pulls back, watching my face for a response for a moment before stepping away and donning her helmet. "Don't.. you die either." She stays looking at me a moment longer before turning to gather her remaining equipment.

Adom looks at me with his left eyebrow slightly raised. "I had not realised that you were so popular."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
21:01 GMT -2

"She is an.. artificial life form?"

Apparently Adom's gods are curious about Danni so -since we didn't have anything else to do once the Dolmen gate was put into position- we've been talking about her. For the first time I'm uncertain if his gods really want to know or he's just disguising his own curiosity. From what I know about his character that seems unlikely, but I'm struggling to think why Montu would care about her.

"Yes. She was originally built by the criminal Thomas Morrow sixty eight years ago and was violently taken off line three years after that. An android duplicate of him repaired her a few months ago, though most of her current body was my work." I look down at my lantern. "Mine and the Ophidian's."

"And… She is alive? She has a soul?"

"That depends on exactly what you mean by those terms. She was originally built to just do what Doctor Morrow wanted but her mind has grown a great deal since then. As for a soul… She has an enduring arcane presence. Beyond that you'd need to talk to a specialist or a priest."

Vulko turns around, glowing communication stone in hand. "They're nearing the Watchtower now."

I nod, and Adom picks up his breathing mask. Since we can both fly, making a hull breach seems like it might end up being a sensible thing to do. Shu's stamina means that he doesn't need to breathe to live, but he does need air in his lungs to talk.

"One last thing, Mighty One." He raises his eyebrows slightly. "As I understand it, saying the wizard's name would cause you to revert to your mortal form. Is that correct?"

"Yes. I have not had cause to transform myself since the start of my second life but I can think of no reason why it would not still work in that fashion."

"What happens if Marvel grapples you and says it? The lightning strikes both of you..?"

He nods in understanding. "We would both transform, and I would be vulnerable."

"How would you feel about me augmenting your mortal form? Reducing that vulnerability."

He looks at his left hand for a moment, then nods. "The gods do not object. I am… It is a strange idea, that your alchemies can grant power as the gods can."

"Not quite that good, I'm afraid. You'd still be a lot weaker like that."

"I understand." He thinks for a moment. "You have my consent."

Ooh, this is going to be awkward. "Sorry, Mighty One, but Atum's power? Makes it very difficult to alter your body. You'd have to-."

His eyes narrow. "Say his name."

"Um. Yes. Sorry."

"You counselled me to master my hatred. If I cannot even speak his name to save a friend from slavery then I am unworthy of the gods' blessings. Shazam." Lightning comes from nowhere to crackle around him.

His appearance doesn't change much. His uniform is cut a little differently, presumably the version he's 'actually' wearing. Or since he hasn't changed back since Louisiana, perhaps the version Theodore was actually wearing. He's also slightly slimmer. He sags ever so slightly and grimaces. Given how I feel whenever I take the ring off I can empathise.

"One Danner Formula augmentation coming up." I hold out my left hand, palm of my gauntlet facing him. Orange light strobes out and I take the opportunity to scan for physiological abnormalities. More than a few scars and his deranged father's ear clipping, but other than that he's in perfect health. The strobe cuts out and I do a quick check scan. "Right, that should do-"

"Shazam."

Another flash and he's back to normal. "-it. Feel any different?"

"Should I?"

"I wasn't sure if Lord Heryshaf's blessing increased your strength to a particular amount, or by a particular amount. If it's by then you'll be a great deal stronger now."

He nods, then frowns. "Lord Heryshaf tells me that he does not know. It will be curious to find out." He thinks for a moment. "I understand the value of keeping criminals alive, and I have no wish to offend Princess Diana, but how much effort should I expend in preventing the death of Savage or the Witch Boy?"

"Savage is immortal. Killing him first thing makes sense, because it'll keep him out of the way and we know he'll get up again. Klarion…" I form a railgun construct and load Mageslayer rounds. "I don't want to try to claim to be a perfect judge of morals. I'm going to try doing everything to take him down and if that means that he dies, so be it. I don't think I'd.. kill him if he were powerless and my prisoner. The courts can do that. Anyone else, you should probably do everything you can to take them alive."

He nods, and we stare at the inactive Dolmen Gate for a few moments.

"You know, I used to come to Poseidonis quite regularly."

That gets Vulko's attention. "Really? I had heard that you had only recently been restored to life."

"That is true. I visited last during my first life as a guest of its queen." He looks out through the water barriers at the edge of the room. "I recognise the architecture, though it is strange to see it under water."

Vulko boggles and Queen Mera turns her attention his way as well. "Above water? What was the name of the queen whom you visited?"

"Gamemnae." He's not looking at them and so misses the looks of shock and horror her name provokes. Queen Mera is quick to school her features while Vulko just turns aside. "She and her consort Lord Rama Khan were among my closest allies and friends." He turns back to look at Queen Mera. "If records survive, I would be interested to learn-."

Vulko turns back. "They're in position now!"

Queen Mera raises her hands and tendrils of eldritch energy flow from her to the Gate. "Five seconds!"

I rise into the air and raise my construct armour while Adom attaches his mask and ear pieces. A moment passes and then a view of the interior of the Watchtower's main hall appears.

Accelerated perception.

Klarion floats in the air in front of the hall's main window, small holographic screens in the air around him. On the ground next to him Guy's kneeling. He's glowing brilliant green and appears to be shaking. Savage stands a little further away, talking to a large blonde man wearing black body armour with red are those swastikas!? And a figure in purple wizard robes decorated with gold thread and carrying a spear who is facing away from us.

Adom makes it through the portal just ahead of me as I bring my railgun construct to bear on Klarion.

31st December
23:04 GMT

"-integrated with-"

The railgun hums as Klarion spots me. A purple barrier appears.

"…to… To combat evil with all…"

Adom accelerates, diving into and through Vandal Savage, spraying bits of him everywhere.

The first Mageslayer round strikes the barrier, which holds for a second and then collapses. Klarion gasps and recoils.

Adom turns in the air and comes back around, aiming for the man in armour.

The second Mageslayer strikes Klarion on the right shoulder, tearing off his… Several arms and knocking him out of his perch.

The man in armour smiles savagely, moves to a guard stance and deflects Adom's attack before sending a counterpunch into his face which sends him reeling.

A third Mageslayer hits Klarion in the stomach, punching clean through. Purple mist flows from his wounds.

The figure in purple looks past me. His face is covered by a golden mask. "John Stewart. Hate."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:05 GMT

"You!"

A green hammer construct strikes me from behind and I transition away before it can slam me into the floor. **Captain Nazi and some guy with the Medusa Mask spotted.**

Captain Nazi doesn't leave the ground as he goes for another punch, allowing Adom to grab his arm and strike the elbow with his knee. Adom doesn't go for submission holds but he has long since mastered both 'lock then strike' and integrating his ability to fly into his techniques. Somehow, Nazi's elbow doesn't snap.

Stewart goes for construct miniguns and I counter with a construct shield while sending another Mageslayer into Klarion. He'd managed to raise another shield but it goes down immediately and he's knocked onto his back.

"Orange Lantern. Love."

Stewart upgrades to some sort of missile launcher and fires glowing green rockets at me. I transition to evade and they home in on my new location.

"Enlightened? How frustrating. Black Adam. Fear."

Captain Nazi tanks a shot to the diaphragm in order to pull off a haymaker. Exactly the sort of blow Diana's been telling everyone not to bother with in super strength versus super strength fights. Adom allows it to push him back a few metres before stabilising in the air. "A weak effort, sorcerer."

**We got sensors!**

Nazi goes for a follow up, shooting upwards with his right fist extended. Adom grabs the wrist to turn it aside and slams his left elbow into Nazi's nose. "Blwg!"

I'm forced to transition away again as Stewart's missiles herd me towards what looks like a large mangle construct. Well, if being shot repeatedly hasn't stopped Klarion yet, maybe the system works on automatic? No other Leaguers in the hall, so prioritise Lantern Stewart.

"One people!" Nazi takes the elbow in his stride and powers into Adom, striking him on both sides of his head. "One empire!" He then grips Adom's head and stabs at his eyes with his thumbs. "One-!" Adom grips his wrists and spins back, slamming his right shin into Nazi's groin. He winces but keeps the pressure on, twisting his arms outwards to draw Adom closer before ramming his forehead into Adom's face. "Leader!"

Stewart has some sort of const- oh. That's an FTL jammer. Transition's out until I can deal with it.

Adom is momentarily stunned, which allows Nazi to free his right hand and slam his fist into Adom's face. The follow up punch also strikes home before Adom can get his guard up, knocking him towards the floor.

Orange filaments radiate out from me in an attempt to get a connection to Stewart which I can use to deliver the cure-tech. But he already has a bubble shield up. That needs to go-.

Flames envelop me as the robed figure points up at me with some sort of arcanotechnological gauntlet. The flame pattern reminds me of Danni's ability, though it's far less powerful than hers and far less hot than it would need to be in order to threaten me. He gives up as I fly out of the inferno to avoid Stewart's hammer constructs. Truggs was making stuff for the Nazis? I duck under another hammer construct that turns into a sword as it passes over me.

**Physician down.**

I plot-to-rapid-fly behind Stewart and am immediately forced to reinforce my armour as he surrounds me with a swarm of green construct blades. I try sending a filament at him but it gets severed almost immediately. Right, the stupid way. I form a standard broad construct connection and fire it at him just as hard as I can, wanting

baBUM

it through as hard as I can. Some sort of grinder construct forms around it, teeth spinning, but I'm able to reinforce it and push it up to his shield while maintaining my own FTL-jammer to prevent him from backing off. He creates clamps around my armour and shoves, spinning us both around the room. The ring keeps my inner ears from disorientating me and I try to keep my eyes on him. I make contact with his bubble shield

baBUM

and infect the area I touch with orange light. He slams me into the wall as I finally force a filament through his defence and slap a cure-tech wafer onto the left side of his neck. He jerks as it makes contact and fades into his skin, constructs fading around him.

"Not this time!" Klarion's Human form is consumed and superseded as a cloud of purple boils upwards and solidifies into an even larger version of the melee shape he used on me on Roanoke. I fire another Mageslayer round in his direction but it stops just before it hits him. Ah, indirect effects. Yes, that'll work. I grab Stewart and duck down as Klarion storms forwards and swings his right talon at me. "I'll swat you for good!"

**More Stormtroopers in corridor seven! And they're not being controlled!**

**Since when have Nazis needed to be mind controlled to be evil?**

**Power armor? Seriously!?**

Ring, assimilate! An orange beam flashes out from the ring only for Klarion to catch it with his right hand and pull-.

Warning! Power drain-

I cut the power and the light in his hand fades away.

-detected.

He grabs at me with his left. I evade, then he turns his left palm towards me. "Remember this?" Grey dust swirls towards me and encrusts on my construct armour

baBUM

before exploding off and vaporising. With a snarl, Klarion blurs and ooof! Sends me hurtling across the room!

"Krieger! Do something about the other Lantern!"

The wizard looks at him, and then at where Stewart's fallen. "To use this spell on a lesser race…"

I send my nullification chain at Klarion and manage to wrap it around his left ring finger. He winces and then grabs it with his right hand. Why? The chain can't be oh he just tore his own finger off! I didn't take into account ridiculous changes in volume when I made them! Dodge! The finger he threw just misses me and embeds itself in the wall by the nail-claw. Right. Still need to keep him occupied and he seems to be coping with my attacks so far. How do I-?

Ah. I yank the chain-bound finger out of the wall, unbind the chain and bring Fatty and Chubby out of the ring, forcing their mouths open and shoving them both along the finger from opposite ends. Their stomachs bulge like those of the excessively penetrated female leads in pornographic manga and their eyes bulge wide as they get what I hope will be a massive injection of elemental magic.

"My finger!"

I apply pressure to the tops and bottoms of their jaws, cutting the finger in half with their construct teeth. They're both starting to look unwell. "Fatty, Chubbs, eat as much of him as you like."

"So… Much… Food…"

The man in the robes gestures at Stewart with his spear and he's briefly surrounded by a corona of white light. He pushes himself to his feet and blearily looks around. "Red.. Arrow..?"

"The might of the Aesir now flows through you, negro. Perhaps it will counteract your natural inferiority. Overwhelming hatred."

Stewart's back in the air and flying at me immediately. Right, that wizard guy needs to stop. I fire a Mageslayer round at his stomach only for him to somehow intercept it with his spear. What? How can ah! I'm forced to evade Stewart as Klarion grows an extra head and arms from his finger stump so he can manipulate screens again while staying on his guard. Adom and Nazi appear to have gone through one of the interior walls at some point. Come on guys-! Yes! Chubbs vomits forth his offspring first and it immediately charges Klarion. The Giant Witch Boy looks mildly disconcerted before firing a bolt of purple energy down at it. It catches the energy in its mouth, swallows and then vomits forth another Praexis Demon. Both of them grin evilly and then charge onwards again.

Klarion's eyes widen. "Krieger! Get him off the Watchtower NOW!"

"John Stewart, you want to leave."

And then Stewart's Redstone rocket construct ploughs into my chest armour.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:08 GMT

Accelerated perception.

Rocket impact force negligible. Armour fine. Continual force being applied. Heading for main window. Everyone has vacuum protection except the Nazi wizard.

I fire three Crumbler rounds directly at the window.

I hear the howling of escaping air for a second and then the ring filters it out. Debris from the Watchtower and bits of Savage are sucked past me and into space and the wizard… Krieger, Klarion called him? Realises that the main hall's floor is completely flat and devoid of handholds and that robes make great sails. I'm already through the hole as he hits one of the pillars on the side of the middle window. He sets fire to his garment with his gauntlet and melts part of the pillar in an attempt to anchor himself in place. Shooting him now would kill him. No, harmless.

Then Earth and the Watchtower disappear and the stars skip. What-?

Alert! Involuntary FTL transition.

I look around. There's.. nothing… Ring, where are we?

Location unknown.

Well, fuck. Um. Okay, armour repair, ready in sixty four directions, prep Crumbler. Either Stewart is still under the Medusa Mask's hate effect in which case he'll probably come after me, or he isn't and hopefully he'll come and pick me up. Um. Ring, charge?

Eighty nine percent charge remaining.

Nice thing about using a railgun is that it barely consumes any power. Heck, a good part of that power use was probably from Klarion's energy drain and I imagine that the micro FTL hops account for most of the rest. Where is Stewart? Oh, I'm still accelerated. Agh, can't turn it off in case he appears while I'm distracted by the after effects. The ring pulses for a moment and one of my new Praexis Demons plops out into space. Painfully slowly it swings its head around to take in its new environment. Hang on. If I ratchet the acceleration down slowly…

"I'm going to call you Tubbs. How's the fight going, Tubbs?"

"Whaaaaaaat?"

Its voice is lower pitch than either of the other two. Or maybe that's a side effect of the remaining perception acceleration. Does it work like-?

Warning! Will detected!

I transition to Stewart's side as he prepares some sort of gun construct and slam the Crumbler into his chest at point blank range. His environmental shield evaporates and the air shoots out of his lungs as he's exposed to vacuum. His face spasms and he loses control of his weapon construct. ShockCrown. StunCrown. Ring off. Check his brain activity? Pfew, it worked. Extend environmental shield around him.

And now what?

Another lost Praexis Demon appears as I think about it. My team mates are fighting an unknown number of Nazi soldiers… can I call them soldiers? They're not going to be affiliated to any nation… Ugh, whatever. Given that we don't yet know where Truggs' production facility is they might well have power armour, invisibility, phasing -though fortunately Truggs' invisibility and phasing systems don't work together- and possibly elemental control systems if Krieger's gauntlet was anything to go by. Plus, the League and whoever else Savage got hold of. Ring, analyse nearby stars. Anything look familiar?

Location is within the Milky Way galaxy. Insufficient data for further analysis.

Aah! Why wasn't Guy allowed to transfer me a copy of his star charts! What did the blood.. dy… I look at Stewart's ring. I could try asking nicely… No, can't afford further delays. My team needs me too much.

baBUM

I grab it with my left hand and press it up against its orange counterpart. Ring, assimilate.

baBUM

Usurpation in progress. Orange light flares from my closed hand. Usurpation complete. Combined charge at one hundred forty seven percent normal maximum. Do you wish to merge databases?

Whow the Guardians are going to be pissed off with me.

Ring, copy database from the new ring to yourself.

Processing. Operation complete. Stellar navigation available.

I didn't get his personal lantern as well, did I?

Personal lantern tied to ring formerly designated Green two eight one four C not within ring's associated subspace pocket. Connection to remote subspace pockets lost due to usurpation.

Well, they might not send the Corpse after me. Maybe. I slip Stewart's ring onto my right ring finger, orange sigil inwards. And I know where we are. Not all that far, as these things go. He just jumped us a good long way towards the galactic west and down on the galactic plane. Transition.

The Earth reappears, as does the Watchtower. The armoured shutters have automatically deployed, covering the hull breach. Hang on. How am I going to get back in? Can I connect to the zeta tubes? Survey says.. yes. A tube construct forms in front of me and I fly myself and Stewart through it.

"Recognised, Green Lantern one four, Orange Lantern B zero six, Fatty C zero four, Fatty C zero four."

The two Praexis Demons fly off immediately to join in the orange pile in front of us. There must be thirty of so of the things, all frantically trying to bite the magic holding them back. Through their eyes I see Klarion and Krieger standing in the centre of some sort of magic circle. Klarion has a number of what look like bite injuries and he's lost most of his clothing. He's shrunk back down to twice his standard size and is frantically tapping on two floating screens. Off to my side Guy staggers to his feet, eyes glowing green and his aura the most intense I've ever seen it.

"Guy?"

"We're fine."

If he were under control Klarion would have him attack me, wouldn't he? I don't want to waste wafers. Focus on the primary target. The runes in the circle look vaguely Nordic but I don't recognise them or the design of the circle. John had a book on galdr but he said he just had it for reference and that he'd never really studied the field. Nazis had a thing about some parts of Norse mythology, didn't they? I know the Thule Society here was a serious magic research institute rather than the joke they were back home, but I doubt this Krieger's old enough to be an original member. He's far too spry.

I pull back a couple of the Praexis Demons and mentally instruct them to try eating through the floor and coming up from beneath. I feel a momentary resistance -Klarion's magic is just too tasty compared to dull metal, rock and concrete- but when I show them that it might get them past the barrier they nod in unison and start chewing. Railgun, Mageslayer rounds. I honestly had no idea the Praexis would be this effective but I'm not going to look a gift Demon in the mouth.

"Part."

I momentarily get an unobstructed view of my targets. Can't tell what Krieger's expression is under the mask but Klarion's definitely looking scared. His hands glow purple and he shoves them forwards as I fire. The first round stops two metres away and drops to the floor. The second makes it to within a metre and a half. The third just under a metre. Klarion grasps hold of the spear and funnels his purple aura into it as the fourth hits the barrier, which glows white as its power is absorbed. They tend to do worse against clever barriers than against raw power ones but that isn't a problem. I've got plenty.

Warning! Spell Eater approaching critical temperature.

Huh? There isn't any-. Within the circle I see Krieger stamp the butt of the spear down on two of the runes which respond by glowing purple. Wait. Spear? Nazis? I couldn't get a good picture of the Spear of Destiny but that thing used to be able to mind control anyone who entered Nazi territory. And there's Nazis all over the Watchtower. It's an area effect so being unscryable won't help! I load another Mageslayer and target Krieger and then.. my gun.. lowers itself.

"An old spell, but a good one I think."

"Knew there was a reason I brought you along. Now bring him over here so I can tear him apart!"

I can't look down but I feel my left foot move of its own accord. Ah hell. **Orange Lantern here. If anyone's free-?**

Klarion holds up some mush to Krieger. "Does this look like an amygdala to you? Savage'll get all pissy if we-."

"No." Guy points his hands forwards and green energy rockets towards the Praexis pile. The Demons are knocked flying and the shield beneath only manages a fraction of a second before falling. Klarion and Krieger are knocked clean across the room and as Krieger loses his grip on the spear I regain the ability to control my own movements. Quickly I swap out the blazing hot Spell Eater for a fresh one in subspace while Guy pins the magicians to glowing Green Lantern sigils. I look around and catch sight of the binding chain and grab hold of it. Hey, we could do this!

BOOM!

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:11 GMT

"Let's see how well you do against the Justice League!"

A series of brilliant golden concentric circles appears in the middle of the room. If the noise wasn't enough of a give away Stewart's ring identifies it as a boom tube and from whatever distant location they were sent I see the League's founding members charging down its length. I think Klarion's panicking, the air here's too thin for…

Flash makes it out first and I throw out filaments in all directions in a frantic attempt to make contact before he ahh! I think he's striking my armour at superspeed but he's too fast for me to see anything beyond a red blur. I try countering with solid constructs to deny him an area to attack but his impacts are too strong! How do I-? He collapses to the ground. Why-? Air! There's still barely any air in here. Do I-? Damn it, I've only got three wafers left, I can't do them all! I yank him inside my barrier, ShockCrown him and extend my environmental shield around him. **Orange Lantern to anyone, Savage down, Klarion trapped, Founding Seven approaching, requesting assistance.**

**Sorry, Oh El, got our hands full!**

The Praexis Demons get over their fear of the green light and charge forwards only for two beams of red light scythe to through them. Superman can hold his breath for a long time, right? He lunges straight into the mob and starts lashing out. Confused Praexis Demons tumble out of the left ring as he moves on to the sigil holding Klarion. Guy seems fixated on holding them there and isn't responding to the attack. I try distracting Superman with regular railgun rounds but he responds by accelerating and jinking, getting some distance before diving at the sigil while keeping the Demons back with heat vision. He's too quick and unpredictable to reliably tag but I know what he's planning. I extend a filament in Klarion's direction and create a broad beam Kryptonite radiation generator. "Grahh!" Superman drops out of the air, curling in on himself in a reflexive attempt to block the painful stimulus. Filament, wafer, grab and shield.

**Nazis. This takes me way back.**

The rest of the founders arrive together and I check my mental shields. Can they stand up to Manhunter? Damn, I'll have to try and get him first without crippling him. Diana and King Orin head towards me at a run while Jordan goes after Guy. Mister J'onzz must already be intangible. They're not going to give me time to work out where he is, are they?

**Garth, look out!**

I feel the oppressive force of Manhunter going for a mind crush as Diana lunges at me sword in hand and Jordan fires a boxing glove construct at Guy. I shift aside, turning away her sword arm while using a filament to tag her with a wafer as she goes past. She staggers a pace and then falls bonelessly to the ground. King Orin's slower, the lack of breathable air is clearly causing him difficulty. The boxing glove hits Guy right in the face only to stop dead and then blink out.

"You may not use our light."

Jordan's environmental shield disappears next and he falls from the air and starts gasping. I see his ring leave his hand and fly at full speed towards Guy, who catches it in his left hand. His eyes haven't left Klarion and Krieger. When I look at him I see green light and nothing else. I… That's not good long term.

**Captain Marvel's a child?**

I try shoving King Orin away as he leaps at me but my construct slides off his armour. Gripping manacles around his arms and legs works fine, though. He struggles against the constructs but at this point he's barely able to stay conscious. ShockCrown, dump him off. Next to Klarion I see Batman hit the sigil he's bound to with a batarang. Oh, that's a Crumbler! Imitation is the most annoying form of flattery! Klarion's free for a brief moment while Batman throws another at Krieger's sigil as well. I send one filament to ensnare the spear while a cluster of others speed towards Klarion carrying the binding chains. Batman dives for cover while throwing more Crumbler batarangs at my filaments. A metal plate from subspace intercepts a couple but the spear clatters to the floor as a near miss disrupts my hold. Krieger's head snaps around at the sound and he dives for it, just getting his right hand on the very end of the shaft.

As I go to grab both him and it he raises his left hand towards Klarion and rainbow light flares from his hand. When it clears a second later they're both gone.

And then Mister J'onzz sticks his hand through my chest. I let my armour fade as his hand moves upwards from the bottom of my lungs towards my heart. Flesh disruption's supposed to be hard, he's.. still under the floor. He's extended his arm up so I can't target him directly. Don't.. know what happens if I transition with his arm still inside me. Oh, there goes the spine. I pull myself away and up into the air, constructs bypassing melted nerves and keeping my still intact flesh alive. He tries to maintain the attack but after I get a few metres away he can't maintain his extension and his arm falls behind me. I turn, my empathic vision showing me exactly where he lies under the floor. I've no idea what happens to Martians who rematerialise while inside something so I can't risk something that might kill him.

Ah, heck. I take one of Trugg's phase shifters out of subspace while Guy grabs and disarms Batman. I press it against my chest armour, match frequencies, plot a route through Mister J'onzz's cover and execute. A moment of blackness and then I'm out with an invisible something in my gauntlets. Before he can respond and melt more of my organs I transition back, spray petrol into the air in his direction and set it alight with a maser pulse. He rematerialises in shock and I stick a filament on his head and wafer him. He shudders and then drops to the ground.

I take a look at the fallen Justice League members and re-establish my environmental shield over them. That's all of my wafers. I'll have to drag them to-.

"Klarion is still on board. We must find him." Guy heads for a hole in the wall that looks like it was made by Adom and Captain Nazi.

Ring?

One hundred eleven percent normal maximum power remaining.

That's going to be weird. I send the Praexis Demons outward through the Watchtower in all directions. Could he survive in space? There're still areas I can't scan inside the structure. "Guy, you'll need this!" I toss him the binding chain but he ignores it and accelerates out of the room, leaving me with the fallen League members. Right. I lift them and hold them in two clusters; Stewart, Kal-El, Diana and Mister J'onzz in one and Batman, King Orin, Mister Allen and Lantern Jordan in the other. Another cluster of filaments pick up the chain.

**League founders down, Klarion and a Nordic-themed wizard in flight somewhere in the Watchtower. Lantern Gardner's active and on our side. Anyone seen Adom?**

**Think him and Nazi went outside.** Wallace sounds serious but not worried. I guess we're either winning or we've won then. **Do they need to breathe?**

**Adom doesn't, don't know about Nazi. Got any spare wafers?**

**Yeah, give me a sec, we're just… Okay, think that's the last of the Nazis. I'll be right-** Wallace blurs into being in front of me. "-up. Whow. Uh…" His right hand goes to his throat and he looks a little worried. "Is it me or is it a little-?"

"Hull breach." I glance at the shutters. "If the security door was open the air pressure should nearly be normal now."

He nods and takes a couple of wafers out of a pouch. "I've only got two left. You think-?"

I move Mister Allen and King Orin over to him. One wafer goes on King Orin's neck, then he pulls up Mister Allen's cowl slightly to put the other on his chin.

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Lantern Gardner just blasted a hole in an interior wall and is heading for the arboretum. Is he still under the effect of the Starro-tech?**

**I'm not.. sure? I didn't wafer him if that's what-.**

**Miss Martian, go.**

**Be careful, he's extremely-!**

**He's down.**

**That leaves only Lantern Stewart unaccounted for.**

**No, don't worry, I already got him.** And his ring. I've got no idea how I'm going to handle that one. **Anyone see Klarion?**

**He's hiding behind some trees over in section four.** **Trying to escape the god of freedom. There's something uncomfortably poetic about that.**

**Anyone wounded?**

There's a moment of silence. **Lantern Scott, please remain with the prisoners. Everyone else, converge on Klarion's location. Do not attack until I give the word.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:14 GMT

As I hurry in Wallace's wake down the corridor I see Barda scoop up Guy and Ms Lance before rodding herself back to… Ring? Ah, medical.

Alan looks up at me. "You alright there, P-? Um, Orange Lantern?" He's got a series of hoop constructs holding the least injured prisoners where they are. My scan shows that the rest have been disarmed, shoved into lockable rooms and left there. Robin only has so many zip ties after all.

I nod and gently lay the League members I have with me down. "Got any wafers left?"

"Yeah, all four. Never was one for sneaking around." He eyes the League members for a moment before reaching into his hip pouch, fishing them out and passing them to me. One each for Batman and Jordan and then I deposit them on the floor away from the Nazis. The fascists' armour looks like it was torn off. And it incorporated the same flame generating gauntlet as Krieger had. Adapted from Danni's design presumably. Wonder if they had air, water and rock versions, because fire would have got trumped hard by Danni and Atlantean water generation.

"Fucking Justice League." One of the Nazis spits at Batman, coming up well short. "Not so fucking tough now, are-?"

He slumps to the side as I ShockCrown him. His comrades in arms take one look at his recumbent body and decide not to push their luck any further. Shit, a bunch of Nazis knowing about the Watchtower. I'm not clear why the League are so keen on keeping this place secret, but Diana was fairly definite about the importance of it. Are M'gann and Mister J'onzz up to wiping that many memories?

I take a pile of manacles out of subspace. With ankle, wrist and neck rings and no keyhole to pick they're the most secure I could devise. "Put these on them and then stick them somewhere out the way." I give him a stern look and then glance at his ring. He rolls his eyes and then grudgingly nods. Predictably he's looking younger. Can't see any visible change in the ring yet but this has got to be taking power he can't afford to use.

There's a flash of light as Barda reappears. "Green Lan-." She cuts off as she sees me and the unconscious League members. "You were able to best them yourself?"

"Gardner got Jordan. Can you manage them?"

"Of course." Kal-El gets scooped up and dumped over her left shoulder. She then carefully picks up Diana in both arms before pressing her mega rod's activator.

Right. Where are we getting together?

I transition to the ground entry to arboretum section four. From here I can see the clouds of mist generated by the Atlanteans throwing water at the flaming Nazis. Oh, I am so not cleaning that up. Just about everyone's here, though the ring says that Donna, Rocket and Hardware along with a few of the G-Elves are still on the far side of the Watchtower. They're on their way but we can't really afford to wait. My Construct Demons are forming a rough circle around the 'sky' of the arboretum. **Aqualad, any sign of Adom?**

He turns away from John and Zatanna to acknowledge my presence. **He is still outside, and we have not been able to establish contact. Were your 'Mage Slayer' rounds effective against Klarion?** Wait, when'd John get up here? I.. suppose they could just have opened the Dolmen Gate again.

A few faces look around. We're on team chat here, though someone will have to tell Danni and Tornado the outcome. **Yes, to begin with. I scored several hits on his body which appeared to disrupt his physical presence. Unfortunately he came up with a counter which involved manipulating them indirectly. Similarly, he got around the chain by just growing too big to be properly bound by it. On the other hand, between them and the Praexis Demons it looks like he's lost a lot of power. Krieger had to teleport them out of the hall, and he only made it this far.**

**Krieger.** The last few members of our force fly in as Robin does a quick search on his arm computer. **Wolf Krieger was a leading member of the Thule Society in Nazi Germany. But if that's him…**

Wallace looks at the file on Robin's holographic display. **He'd be a hundred and thirty years old!**

Kaldur's eyes narrow slightly. **Whether it is him or not, our main target is Klarion. Zatanna, Mister Constantine, please repeat to everyone what you told me.**

The crowd parts slightly and I see that John and Zatanna are standing next to a chain bound Nabu. John looks around. **My turn, is it? Right. Klarion's still powerful despite not having a familiar anymore 'cause he's merged with Bedlam. Since we haven't got a bloody clue how powerful Bedlam is we've got no way to tell how much we'd need to drain to stop 'im. Best solution I've come up with is doing what Orange did the first time: break the link between the host and the witch. From how you described what happened on Roanoke it sounded like Bedlam wasn't exactly a willin' participant, an' there's ways to deal with spiritual entities if they kick up a fuss.**

**How can this be achieved?**

**This.** He holds up a quickly drawn magic circle on a piece of paper. **Klarion goes here, Nabu goes here an' acts as a counterweight. Constructs work just as well as chalk so it doesn't even need to be on the ground, you can just move it with him if he tries to run away.**

I do a quick scan with the ring. Nothing too difficult from the looks of it. "I should be able to do that. Should probably point out that Krieger has the Medusa Mask and the Spear of Destiny. Red Tornado, you ran into that once, didn't you?"

"Yes." He inclines his head slightly. "An extremely disconcerting experience. But the Watchtower is no longer under Nazi control. The area effect control spell should not still be in effect."

"He got me by just pointing it at me. He also got Lantern Stewart to attack me after I used the cure on him by commanding him to hate me." I do a quick sonic scan of our target and bring up a holographic image of the surrounding area. "I don't know what they're doing but I doubt it will take much longer."

Kaldur looks over everyone. "Brainwave, stay back. We need you to conceal our approach as best you can and defend us against telepathic attack. Tula, Garth, Red Tornado: you and I will strike with as much elemental force as we can manage to try to get them off balance. Orange Lantern, Zatanna, Cornwall Boy and Rocket will protect Constantine while he readies the spell. Everyone else, surround them and remain ready to react to whatever foul sorcery our foes employ." There's nodding from everyone except Mister King who's focusing his efforts on projecting an illusion of empty space. Would that even work on Klarion? No harm in trying I suppose and he's not all that much use in a brawl. "Move out."

Orange filaments connect me to everyone in my squad group, though it takes me two attempts to make one stick to Nabu. Plot course to-.

"Hey, Orange." Artemis makes eye contact then points to her depleted quiver. "Got any more-?" An orange strobe waves over her quiver and Mister Harper's, topping them up with anti-magic arrows. She nods in thanks before activating her flight belt and zooming off into a position to flank the target. Those arrows need a better name. Can't call them Mageslayer because even with her augmented strength they still don't hit quite as hard as railgun rounds-.

"Oi." John thrusts the paper at me and I have the ring scan it. Surprisingly good penmanship, considering. "You better make bloody sure you get this right. I don't want that little toe rag getting away."

I recognise some of that. " Can I assume this arrangement separates both subjects?"

"Not just a pretty face, am I? The arrangement's different enough from how Atlanteans do things that they didn't notice."

I nod, re-establish my links with the group and transition us into a concealed position behind a surprisingly large pile of rubble close to where Klarion and Krieger are working on.. something. The ring shows me everyone moving up and occupying concealed positions with ranged fighters a little further back and John's escort a little closer. I take a moment to make sure I have everyone's attention.

"We need Krieger out of the way for this to work. Let the Atlanteans hit them first. Rocket, shield John. It won't make any difference to his magic and he's a bit squishy."

"Hey." John blinks and rubs his head. "Oh."

"What?"

"Whatever they're doing, they're doing it now."

**Aqualad, we need-!**

Wind swirls from nowhere and hundreds of gallons of water spurt towards our enemy. I transition everyone to a solid looking section of broken corridor on top of the rubble. Without a better connection John's going to need line of sight.

"…loose the Einherjar!"

The scene before me decays into an insane underwater electrified hurricane as a hole opens in space and undead Viking warriors charge out with barrow blades drawn.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:17 GMT

Runes of protection glow on their armour, allowing them to continue their charge regardless of the elemental effects raging around them. Plate armour such as only the richest Vikings would actually have been able to afford, I note. Their skin is a little pale but otherwise they look much as I imagine they would have in life. Their swords and axes glow a ghostly blue and I see one cut through a flying tree trunk with no effort at all.

Their summoners are not so well protected. Krieger cries out in pain as he's repeatedly electrocuted before being slammed into a still standing tree. Klarion does something that causes gaseous purple tendrils to flow from his hands into the ground but that's all that's keeping him from flying after his partner in crime. The air around Krieger calms for a moment and Wallace dashes in, punches him in the diaphragm, throws the spear and mask clear -ew, he looks those hundred and thirty years- and carries him away. Right, got my chain, Kon's is on Nabu and Adom's is… Shouldn't have given him one. Now how do I get it around Klarion without the Einherjar getting in the way?

Then the leading Einherjar takes an anti magic arrow in the left eye. He doesn't drop immediately, but whatever magic allowed him to carry on after death is gradually eaten away. His body visibly rots as he desperately tries to pull the arrow free, skin and fat sloughing from his face. I fire a Mageslayer round at another. He takes it on his warded kite shield and gets thrown back by the force, shield reduced to splinters. How alive are they? I can't see their desires but with all those wards that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

"Abannan afol Beowulf. Daah!"

"Lios nrut ot dnaskciuq!" The Einherjar heading in our direction sink up to their waists in the now liquid soil. A little behind them the one who pulled the arrow out of his eye stabs his sword into the ground, runes glowing brilliantly. "Ah!" Zatanna shudders. "I felt that!"

The Einherjar points at us. "Seiðkona." Why aren't I getting a translation? He looks back towards the portal. "Ullrkarl!"

A blast of lightning from Kaldur's trident hits him but he completely ignores it. In fact, I think his injuries are regenerating. Looks like they don't need the wizards to be functional to maintain the portal. More arrows rain down and the Einherjar are forced to form a shield wall. "Ready John?"

"As I'm going to get."

I extend a filament to the space right next to Klarion and make a transition. By the time he's even aware I'm there the chain is tight around his arms and legs. Mageslayer railgun rounds shoot out the purple magics binding him to the ground and I yank him away, dodging sword strokes as I fly. I throw him to the ground next to the stone and steel rubble just in time to see a rank of Einherjar archers emerge from the portal and loose at everyone. I quickly form John's circle and shove Klarion and Nabu into their respective positions before sticking up a dome barrier.

**Cease elemental attacks. Red Tornado, disrupt their formation. Garth, Tula: try and work out how to close the portal.**

Klarion takes a quick look at the construct. "NO!" He struggles against the chains and becomes increasingly frantic as he gets nowhere. I really wasn't sure it would hold but it looks like it will.

I jerk back in the air as an arrow pierces the construct dome and hits the ground just in front of me. Construct penetrating, sure, why not? I create two minigun turrets and set them to shoot the arrows down.

"Sworra reev yawa dna ssim!"

A few of them wobble as they come in but most stay true and I'm forced to yank John out of the way. On the other side of their formation Artemis runs out of patience and goes for a full power shot, knocking the shield wall back into their own archers. My filaments lash out, grabbing dropped weapons and throwing one each to Kon and Donna before pulling a third back for Rob. Most of their archers redeploy to face Artemis' direction and three go down to anti-magic arrows to the face. I grab an arrow off the ground next to me for later analysis before flying our group back over the rubble barrier.

"Cornwall, keep an eye out. Shout if they start loosing on us again" He nods and scrambles up the detritus, keeping his head down to stay out of sight as much as possible. Plonking Nabu and Klarion down again I re-establish John's pattern. Have to hope that stripping Klarion of what's left of his power does something about the Einherjar portal. I mean, really: do we look like Ice Giants?

**Fighting Vikings is kinda… Satisfying.** Glad Kon's enjoying himself.

"Right then. Let's get this started." John kneels down next to the outer edge of the circle and holds out his hands, palms facing the design. A moment later there's a slight shimmering inside it.

"It'll never work! You don't have the power!"

"That's what Nergal said, more or less. And The King of the Vampires. Think the First of the Fallen said it as well, though might be misremembering. I was a bit out of it when I fought him." There's a very fine purple haze surrounding Klarion now, and a golden one around Mister Zatara. "Thing about this spell? Pretty much runs itself. I just have to hold it in place and it'll get faster and faster as your power an' his push against each other stronger an' stronger. More complex than my usual stuff, but I've been back to school lately."

Klarion makes a concerted effort to burst his chains but all he manages to do is fall over. "Warriors of As-." I apply sound baffles and watch him try calling the Einherjar in our direction only to fail. He screams in silent rage before trying to escape by punching his containment circle. With his strength reduced to that of his Human form he doesn't stand a chance. As I watch the purple mist is drawn further into the design, moving around but never quite mixing with the gold. John doesn't seem to be finding it difficult to maintain the spell.

**Um, Orange Lantern?**

**They coming for us?**

**Not yet, but I can see Captain Nazi-** I look towards the external window which makes up virtually the entire external wall. Adom has Nazi pinned against it and is drawing back his fist. **-and-.**

The rest of his reply is lost as Nazi is punched clean through with enough force to pulverise the window behind him and send huge cracks across its entire surface. Nazi crashes to the ground as hurricane force winds pull everything not connected to the ground towards the rapidly growing hole to space. The League really need to armour this place better! I fly in the direction of the gaping hole and stick a construct barrier over it while on the other side Adom looks as if he was surprised by what just happened. Damn it, I thought Zehuti would be able to explain about space physics!

"Eloh ot ecaps, riaper-."

**Zatanna, no. I've got this. Focus on looking after John.**

**… Okay.**

We still have gravity, so with the winds no longer blowing debris falls back to the ground.

**We have a counter spell, but we need to get closer to use it!**

**Superboy, Troia, provide an escort.**

Ring, charge remaining?

Eighty seven percent of normal maximum power remaining.

I form a new railgun construct and aim it at the portal. Would brute force work?

**They've got horses!**

The ring shows me Einherjar on eight legged horses gallop out through the portal. Kon has to throw himself to the ground in order to avoid the leader's blade. Seeing dense terrain ahead the rider pulls on his reins and.. the horse canters into the sky!? I so call BS. I aim and fire the railgun at the rider, scoring a clean hit to his stomach and knocking him off his mount.

**Look out! Nazi's-!** I look down and see Wallace knocked aside as the heavily bleeding Captain Nazi grabs Krieger and the spear before flying towards nonono! I load Crumbler rounds and fire at him but he's jinking too much for me to hit at velocities I can use in close fire support! I feel a scalding pain as the spear slices through the filament connecting me to the circle confining Klarion! Okay, but he still can't escape. The only exit-.

With one of his accomplices under each arm he flies through the Einherjar's portal. A second later the portal collapses, the Einherjar themselves falling dead to the ground.

Damn.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:38 GMT

I've patched up the holes in the outer surface of the Watchtower. There's still lingering water vapour from where Garth, Tula and Kaldur took them down by using their magic and minigates to flood the whole section. Now I'm starting on the largest piece of internal damage. Exactly how much-?

For a moment I'm speechless. I just stare at the new hallway which starts in corridor G seventeen and terminates in B three, four and five. The ring tells me that the metal and stone which made up the intervening space hasn't been vaporised. No, it was brutally shoved out and is even now resting in the crater it made in the arboretum. We were using it as cover earlier. Thought it looked a bit odd.

"Guy.. really did that?"

Mister King nods. "Wall glowed green for a moment then it just sort of whooshed on by."

Once Guy left the main hall he appears to have just blasted through everything that was directly between him and Klarion, though it doesn't look like he moved particularly fast himself. That's weird because an FTL transfer would have got him there far faster. "And M'gann could just walk up to him?"

"He didn't even notice until he fell over. I've got to tell you, I've never felt mental focus like that from anyone. Is he always like that?"

"No." It could have just been a result of his training combined with Klarion losing focus on him, but that wouldn't have resulted in him calling himself 'us'. The other obvious example of that sort of behaviour seems to suggest that he may just have been visited by Ion. On the plus side, the Green Whale of Will doesn't seem to have a problem with me. Bad news is, I've got no idea how to handle it if Guyon becomes a full time thing. Or how the Guardians would react if they knew. Assuming they don't already.

The man himself is already up and about, sitting at the end of the tunnel watching over the arboretum with his legs hanging over the edge. The forest will take a good deal of work before it returns to normal, and I think the birds are all hiding somewhere in the Watchtower tunnels. Heh, and when this place is sorted out they'll probably be joined by a small herd of eight legged flying horses. I'm not sure if they simply weren't drawing power through the portal or if unlike their former masters they're properly alive but the Sleipnir-looking things have adapted to the green indoor forest of the Watchtower without any fuss at all.

One of them is even now nuzzling Guy, who half-heartedly pushes it away. "Go on. I didn't bring any sugar lumps."

"Mister King, would you mind giving us a few minutes?"

He looks away from Guy and the horse and at me. "Sure thing. I'll.. go and check on the rest of the Justice League."

"Might be worth having a chat with Red Arrow as well. He's dour at the best of times and.. given what he just found out…"

He nods and turns away. I walk the rest of the way down the tunnel, taking care to walk heavily enough that Guy can hear me. The horse takes fright when it sees me and bolts for the arboretum floor. Its legs… It doesn't exactly have eight legs in the normal sense. There is clearly only one in each corner. Its equine musculature and bone structure wouldn't support any other arrangement. It's just that sometimes the legs are in more than one place at the same time.

Guy looks up. "How'd everyone make out?"

I think about it as I sit down next to him. Six months ago I wouldn't have dared do this. Heights and the risk of falling really scared me. Now, nothing. "A few minor cuts and plenty of bruises but no one on our side was seriously injured."

"That's.. good." He doesn't sound as confident as he usually does. Sounds odd. "You kids really pulled through, y'know that?"

"Yeah. Guy, we need to talk about-."

"Yeah, I…" He looks away for a moment. "I know. Ask."

"You were the only one who wasn't affected."

"I was. Red got me the same time he got everybody else. But, I'm trained to resist control. I guess.. between my Spell Eater, the resistance training I got from you and Kilowog and my own willpower-" He makes a fist with his right hand as his ring glows. "-it was enough."

"I think I heard you saying your oath."

"My mouth was just about the only thing I could move. The oath's a mantra, helps you focus. Long as I was doin' that, I wasn't doin' the stuff Klarion was puttin' in my head."

I nod. "You'll have to show Jordan and Stewart how to do it. And I'll get everyone on the League Spell Eaters." He's fidgeting more. He knows what I have to know. "Guy, something happened to you between Stewart kicking me off the Watchtower and me getting back. Guy, I need to-."

"I know, okay?" He sighs and rubs his face with his right hand. "I was just.. kneeling there. It was taking everything I had to keep resisting. Then.. you and that Adom guy fly in from nowhere and I realise: this is it. This is our rescue. And I'm trussed up like.. some kinda broad tied to the railroad tracks in an old western. I wasn't strong enough to get myself out."

I shrug. "What did you do?"

"I.. prayed. I mean, I guess my family's Catholic. Kind of. Weren't exactly regular churchgoers but Dad dragged us along for Christmas mass and stuff like that." He shakes his head. "I always figured that if Dad was into it then it was as full of shit as he was, but what did I have to lose? I'm sitting there watching Adom and Nazi beat seven kinds a'crap outta each other… I didn't just ask for a favor, I was reaching out for.. for anything… And then…" He's staring into the distance. "It was like when I charge my ring, only instead of goin' away it kept gettin' stronger an' stronger. I don't really… And then it was like there was nothin' in the whole universe 'cept for me an' Klarion and I knew I was gonna beat him down." He relaxes slightly. "So." He looks at me and manages a weak grin. "How long 'till I flip out completely and make with the giant cakes?"

"I don't think you will."

"That was it though, wasn't it? The Green Entity? Errr… Ion, right?"

"That's what it's called and I think it was. But if you're normal now I don't think you've got anything to worry about. I mean, I'd like to be on hand when you next recharge just in case, but Ion isn't the Ophidian. Less clingy."

"Didn't think I felt enlightened. That gonna happen again?"

"Not sure. On the one hand, you know the series of thoughts you need to have to get Ion's attention. If you don't want its attention, just don't think like that. On the other hand, it's been in you once. Maybe it knows where you live?"

"That's reassurin'."

I look into his soul for a moment. His fears relating to powerlessness are aroused but I can't see any structural changes or a lingering presence. "There's a limit to what I can say without lying, Guy. If you're worried, maybe we could get Constantine to contact Ion with magic so you could talk things out. Or you could just try it again in controlled conditions."

"Mmm. Think I'll pass on it fer now." He looks at me again, this time more thoughtfully. "I'm guessin' you don't think I should try talking about this with the Guardians?"

"I'd advise against it. I'm not sure they'd respond well to someone dominating their colour. You remember turning off Jordan's ring?" He nods. "Their protection against someone else pulling a Sinestro is their ability to do remote shutdowns. With Ion, not only would you be immune to that, you could do it to them. You really think they'd be okay with that?"

He looks thoughtful for a moment. "So, how 'bout them Vikings?"

"Is that an American Football reference?"

"No, it's a Nazi zombie reference."

"We don't actually know that they were Nazis."

"Looked like they were fighting fer Team Swastika to me."

"Fight. Vikings." He nods, conceding the point. "Nazis had a thing for Norse mythology and they've had decades to work out how much was myth and how much fact. And I don't think they actually coordinated with Krieger or Klarion once they arrived."

"The horses are fine but we can't just leave those guys' bodies here."

"I'd like to hand their armour and weapons over to Atlantis, see if we can reverse engineer them. The Einherjar themselves… We could either try reopening the portal and sending them back or give them a funeral. But I'm happy to leave that decision up to the League."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:46 GMT

We're holding the Nazi foot soldiers in the Watchtower's shuttle bay. It has heavy doors, a control room that looks out over the main area and if we really had to we could vent them into space. I don't think that will be necessary, though. The ones who aren't unconscious or heavily injured have enough sense not to start fights with superheroes while unarmed.

"Not so bad for an old man, huh?"

Alan pretty much just piled the Nazi soldiers' armour in the corner of the control room. Mister Free and Construct Lantern Morrow are going through it. It seems to have the same design as the stuff Truggs' people used, though the colour scheme has been modified to reflect their political beliefs. I'm not seeing any phasing or invisibility generators but most of them have the same sort of flame gauntlet thing Krieger had. And none of the wearers had a Starro-tech infection. You really don't need to mind control Nazis to make them evil.

"I haven't had a chance to go through the recordings yet. How much power-?" He winces slightly. "Al-an!"

He looks at his ring. "Down to about half of what I started with, I think." Six months, three eighths left? Is that enough? He holds his hands up defensively. "Now don't get all-."

I shake my head. "No, no, I knew you'd burn through power doing this. That was.. probably about the best I could have hoped for." That's true, and I really don't want to argue with him at this point. I walk over to the window and nod at the captured fascists beyond it. "Any idea what we're doing with them?"

Perversely -given the stated viewpoint of the man they were working for on 'Slavs and other animal men'- they seem to be mostly Russian. All men, all white and mostly members of the Russian Union of National Socialists. There are a few of the swastika and eagle tattoos I expected but a sort of crosshairs thing appears more common. I don't know if Captain Nazi or whoever just sent out a call to their Aryan brothers and these are the people who responded or whether there's an actual arrangement between the Light and the RUNS. If they're getting top end technology like this Russia could be in serious trouble. When we're finished here I'm going to have to send a warning to the Russian government.

His eyes drop for a second and he smiles faintly. The rejuvenating effect of using that much power is readily apparent. He could pass for my slightly older brother at this point. "Not a clue. Back in my day we'd just hand them over to the POW people."

"It's funny. I'm not sure they've actually committed a crime."

He frowns. "What d'you mean? Of course they have."

"Really?" I look around the control room. "What jurisdiction are we in?"

"Aah." He thinks for a moment. "Huh. The United Nations?"

"Good luck bringing charges against people who attacked a space station that officially doesn't exist. Everyone thinks the League operate out of the Hall of Justice, remember?"

"They can't just.. let them go."

I wave my left hand and overlay the window with a display showing the names, ages and criminal records of the men below. "Several have outstanding warrants in Russia and the Ukraine. They can just be handed over, but most don't have anything. The League can say they were seen working with Savage, Klarion and Captain Nazi -Russia still remembers him- but they can't say where or doing what."

"This is why honesty is the best policy. I can't see Diana being okay just letting Nazis go."

"I can't see any of them being okay with it. I imagine Mister J'onzz will give them the once over-" I tap the right side of my head. "-before they make any decision."

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

I hold the ring to my left ear. The original ring, that is. "Orange Lantern here."

"The Justice League have begun to wake up. Lantern Stewart is asking for you."

I feel the weight of his ring in my right leg pouch. "I'll be right there." I lower the ring. "Alan, you mind..?"

"I'm sure Scott won't mind keeping an old man company."

Mister Free glances around from the flame gauntlet he's probing with his multi-cube. "Actually, I'm nearly twice your age."

"Huh. Well if that don't beat all."

"Barda reaches her quarter millennium next year."

A flicker and I transition to the waiting room just outside the medical bay proper. William's looking a little unsteady on his feet as Adom lectures him. "…not merely resilience but also the capacity for healing. Focus your spirit on the part of the gods' blessing that comes from Lord Atlas as I do Lord Shu."

"Ah, okay?"

Adom's more than a little bruised from his encounter with Captain Nazi and most of the costume has been torn from his torso. He takes a breath then exhales slowly, his body shimmering slightly as he does so. His costume reknits, his bruises fade and the blood from his split lip and the swelling around his left eye vanish.

"Golly, that looks useful. So.. I just…" William doesn't manage it with quite the same dignity, but a moment later he's standing up straighter. "That feels pretty good. Oh, hey Paul."

I wave to him as Adom turns around. "Orange Lantern… Paul. I wish to apologise for endangering everyone's life as I did. If I had not-."

"No, I should have realised that you didn't know about air pressure-."

"But I did. It is… One of the gifts of Lord Montu is the capacity for a berserk rage. It makes me-." He glances at William. "Us, stronger, at the cost of mental acuity. I unleashed it upon Captain Nazi, and the result was what you saw."

"Why? I.. thought you were doing alright against him before that."

"He… Said something about Princess Diana. I will not repeat it, but rest assured that my pulverising his ribcage was a just retaliation."

I don't think I'll ask. "It's been thousands of years, Mighty One. You're bound to be a little rusty."

"Hey, you know… You could spar with me sometime. I mean, if you wanted…"

"Thank you Captain. I would appreciate that." He sighs. "Loathsome a man as he is, I will admit that I was impressed by Captain Nazi's mental fortitude. A weaker man would have admitted defeat. Or died. Yet, he was still aware enough to rescue his allies."

"If it's any consolation we're still scraping bits of Savage up off the meeting room floor. If he tries healing from any of the bits we've got, we'll have him."

"It is little consolation when the greater prize escapes." He pauses. "But I have tarried too long. I must return to Kahndaq."

"I've authorised you for zeta tube use. Just head down that corridor and back into the main hall."

"Thank you. Captain." Remaining upright he flies in the direction I indicated.

"He needs to learn to lighten up a bit."

"That's a long term project. Lantern Stewart was asking for me?"

"Oh, yeah, he's just through there."

I nod and walk into medical proper. Stewart's on his feet but everyone else is still out cold on either a gurney or a bed. Kon looks up from where he's sitting next to Diana and gives me a nod, a gesture mirrored by M'gann from Mister J'onzz's bedside. Robin left Batman a note before leaving to make sure the Watchtower isn't bugged or booby trapped, and stuck another note next to it ordering that no one remove his mask.

"Lantern Stewart. What can I do for you?"

"It's all kind of fuzzy, but I think you and me had a fight. I'm a bit surprised you're still standing."

"Yeah, um, you actually went down pretty easily? I'm going to be charitable and assume that Klarion or the mind control system was messing up your mental focus and tactical awareness."

He bows his head for a moment. "Okay, fine. With Krieger around I can understand you taking my ring away. But I'm my own man again now and I'd like it back."

"Yeahhhh… About that…"

He frowns, concerned. "What, did you destroy it?"

I reach down with my right hand, open the pouch and reach in to take it out. For a moment I hold it in my closed fist. "Not exactly." I hold my right fist out and then open it, his now orange ring resting on my palm.

His face drops.

"Sorry, but I didn't know where you'd dumped us and I couldn't risk Krieger's spell still being live… It's still your ring, you can have it back if you-."

He leans slightly away from it. "Keep it. You.. just.. keep it. I'll.. put in for a replacement from Salaak." He actually looks pained. I can relate to that. "Please tell me you didn't get my lantern as well?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:58 GMT

John peers out of the meeting room window at the Earth below. "How the other half live, eh?"

"Six billion below, about sixty people up here if we include the Nazis? It's a lot less than half."

He nods, then looks around as my team mates and our menagerie head in. Including Kon and M'gann so I'm going to assume… Yes, Diana and Mister J'onzz are up and about. "Time for me to be off. Think I could give Chas a bell?"

"I've entered you into the zeta tube system, though I've got a sneaky suspicion that Nabu will override it once someone finds and unchains him."

"Best not hang about then."

As he turns to go I gently put my right hand on his right arm to stop him. "About the.. Klarion matter. I think it's time to consult an expert. How soon can you get hold of him?"

His expression doesn't change significantly, though I do detect a mild curiosity. "Need to get some sleep, get some gear together. T-." He checks his watch. "Tomorrow evening good for you?" I nod. "Right then. Be seeing you." Hands in pockets he strolls over to the zeta tube. He stops to give the entrance an appraising look before walking in.

"Recognised, John Constantine, A two five."

Kaldur watches him go. "I was not aware that Batman had granted him access to the zeta system."

I shrug. "Batman was mind controlled then unconscious. Did you want him to walk home?"

"I suppose that would be somewhat time consuming. I -on the other hand- have spoken to Batman." The rest of us gather around in a semicircle. "Donna, Garth, Tula. Today marks the second occasion on which you have fought by our side. Though I appreciate that it will not be possible for you to work or train with us on a regular basis I would like to extend to you an invitation to join the team."

Donna nods almost immediately while Garth and Tula look at each other and try to have a silent conversation. After a moment Garth nods at her and then they turn back to face Kaldur. "We've got our field elective coming up. Given what's happened I.. think Queen Mera will be willing to let us spend it with your team."

Kaldur steps forwards and offers Garth his right hand. His smile's genuine but I can still see the violet image of Tula's face inside him. This is not going to be easy for him. Garth shakes it and then so does Tula.

"Welcome on board. You know, formally." Kon's already congratulating Donna and since I know her rather better than Tula or Garth I offer her my hand as well.

"Thanks. I'm really not going to be able to do much until summer though."

"Are you joining us for the Themyscira visit?"

"Yes. It's going to be so great seeing it again. Oh, and Diana's invited Cassandra and her mother along as well."

"Is that a good idea? Themyscira's blessed by Hera, and-."

The holo display generates a large clock showing 00:00 UTC. "Happy New Year, Justice League."

Tula frowns. "But the solstice was weeks ago."

I shake my head. "I know, the timing makes no sense. I don't really know why we have it here either, but-."

"Heeey." Artemis walks over to me, smiling. Jade has the same smile and.. now I'm nervous.

"Yes? How can I-?"

She reaches up to my armoured shoulder, pulls me forwards so I overbalance into her and kisses me on the lips. Um. I can't move away without risking-. She pushes me back up. I'm… What? "Um, okay. I'm…" Kon and M'gann appear to have also taken the clock's appearance as a signal to begin kissing. Garth and Tula shrug and follow suit and I see Raquel approach Kaldur. Wallace looks like he's thinking about trying his luck with Donna, who notices, rolls her eyes and gives him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Hey!" Zatanna gives Artemis a quick glare and then looks at me expectantly. I hesitate for a moment before bending down to a more kissable height. Honesty would indeed have been the best policy, I am too old to be-. Maybe I should have pretended to be gay? She puts her right arm around my shoulder and gently presses her lips against mine. If I feel tongue I'm confessing right now. No, that's not happening but she's maintaining the kiss. I'm feeling creepy but I can deal with that. Another.. eight seconds and she pulls away, smiling, a slight blush visible on her cheeks.

Artemis gives an amused smirk at my discomfort. "That not how they do New Year's in England?"

My eyes widen. "Rob, emergency Auld Lang Syne, now!"

He blinks. "Ah, er, okay mate. Um. S-sshould auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?"

There're more than a few smiles as everyone whose lips aren't otherwise occupied joins in.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."

The ring's feeding me the rest of the lyrics but I think that would just be showing off. Robin raises an eyebrow. "I thought that was a Scottish song?"

"Eh, we stole a lot of things from the Scottish. That song. Stone of Scone. Oil. Sobriety."

Wallace thinks for a moment. "Wait. The Watchtower's on UTC, right? It's not New Year in the US for another five hours."

Robin nods. "Technically it's New Year somewhere for the first time all day."

Zatanna pulls on my arm. "Can I.. talk to you for a minute? In private?" I feel Artemis pat me on the back as I nod. The balcony overlooking the arboretum is unoccupied.. and structurally sound. I transition us there. Zatanna looks down at the greenery for a moment and then up at me. "John was trying to get Nabu, wasn't he?" I nod and she sighs. "After I used the cure on him I tried removing the Helmet. Even with the chains on it still wouldn't come off."

"They're designed to drain active magic use, not drain reserves. We don't know exactly how the-" I flap my right hand at my head. "-bonding thing works. You know, it's just a first attempt. We will try again." She nods. "John's setting up.. that thing we talked about in London." She frowns, not quite getting it. "If you're free later I understand that Salem has a great New Year parade." Her eyes widen slightly as she gets it, then she nods. "And… Ugh. I… I don't think kissing me is appropriate."

"Oh." Her eyes widen slightly. "I didn't, um…"

"Leaving aside the fact that you're four years younger than me… You're depending on me a lot at the moment, emotionally. And I'm here for you, I'd just.. feel I was taking advantage if we did.. that. I'm sorry."

"Oh. O-okay. I can.. respect that." She turns away from me. "I'm just going to go-."

"I can send you-."

"No, I've got it. Lacigam gniylf esroh, raeppa." One of the horses gallops up from under the balcony and Zatanna drops onto its back. It whinnies before taking off across the arboretum sky at a run.

"I thought you handled that well." I look back as Kal-El descends onto the balcony. "Fate had been expressing concerns about you two, but I see there was nothing to it."

"I still feel like a prize arse though. Something I can do for you, sir?"

"I.. need your advice. I-."

"Don't worry about it, sir. No one's ever been able to pull off the external underwear look."

An amused exhalation. "No, you made your feelings on my costume very clear. I wanted to talk to you about Superboy." Oh? "You're his closest friend. I've been thinking about what Batman and Diana said and I think.. I'd like to build some sort of relationship with him. I was wondering what you thought the best way would be to go about doing that."

Eh? Why would..?

"Sir, I… Look, I understand finding out he exists was a pretty unpleasant shock for you. And Batman and Diana putting pressure on you to assume responsibility made it worse and… Well, I was in the same mental place they were and that was unreasonable. He isn't your son. Really, there was no more reason for you to build a closer relationship with him than with.. someone completely random."

"I.. don't know that I'd go that far. I think it was mostly the idea that Luthor had been cloning-."

"Thing is sir, it's been six months. He has friends, a girlfriend and a mother who loves him and whom he loves in return. You opted out of his life -which is fine, fine, I understand why- and now there's no you shaped hole in it. He neither needs nor wants you, and all you trying to get involved now will do is.. mess him about. If you want to talk to him, he's just up there." I point up at the main hall. "But I'm not helping you patch things up when there's never been anything there to break."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2011

Gaolbreak

1st January
04:23 GMT

"Recognised, Batman, zero two, Robin, B zero one."

Robin waves back at us as he disappears. They should just about have time to get to Mayor Skowcroft's New Year's party in their civilian identities before the local New Year. Pretty much everyone else on the team has already left, and a good chunk of the Justice League too. After a short stop off in Atlantis to recover my personal lantern I've been dual wielding my way through the Watchtower's repairs. Usually this sort of thing would be Lantern Stewart's job but apparently new rings take a few days at least to forge and that will only start after our Greenies have gone to Oa for a full debriefing.

That database… I don't have the Green Lantern Corps' full database. Just what was loaded onto Stewart's ring at the time I took it. Thing is, that's a lot more than it might have been. It turns out that the Guardians usually only recruit from interstellar civilisations. When they need to recruit from primitives like us -such as when one of their veterans falls in combat and has to recruit a replacement as quickly as possible- they load up their rings with everything they need to know about technologies commonly used by starfaring species so that they can interact with them intelligently. I've basically got an Idiot's Guide to Uplift here.

And I don't know where to start.

I could.. build a starship. An actual FTL capable starship with.. shields and artificial gravity and my choice of about thirty different types of energy projector.. or kinetic or.. heck, there's even the design for a sort of psionic amplification array! And yes, all I've got on some of the fancier weapons is a quick summary of their effects with no technical detail but I'd hardly need it!

I could build what is basically a stargate. A matter replicator. A weather control network. I even have a file on antimatter and its ADHD little brother qwa matter. I could… There's so much! I'm going to need to spend some time thinking about how to implement this. A new power plant for my Ice Fortress seems like a good place to start. Maybe.. move out of the mountain? If we keep expanding the team's membership as we have been doing we might end up getting a little pushed for space. No, I'd.. rather stay, but my inner Space Warlord is crying out for a flying Doom Fortress.

i CaN mAkE dOoM fOrTrEsSeS nOw!

"Is something funny?" I look around as Diana, Kon and Donna walk in. Diana is looking at me with curiosity. I was giggling, wasn't I? Yes, yes I was.

"Um, Lantern Stewart's ring. I now have all of the data on it and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by all the possible applications."

Kon grins. "What, you can make alien cakes now?"

"No! Well, yes, there's a few.. recipes humanoids might be able to eat, but I was mostly thinking of the technology." The glorious glorious tech-. I'm giggling again.

I think Diana's getting concerned. "Are you alright holding two rings? I've never seen a Green Lantern try that before."

"That's probably because it's inefficient. All having a second ring does is extend my total power reserves, it doesn't make my constructs any more powerful. Psychological effects… I don't think there'll be any problem. That was just excited giggling, not mad giggling."

She doesn't look entirely convinced. "I wanted to tell you that in light of what happened today I've moved our visit to Themyscira to next Saturday." I nod. I was expecting something like that. "I want to remain on monitor duty in case any of the League's enemies try to capitalise on our vulnerability."

"Finished tracking your movements yet?"

She sighs. "No. We can't account for the movements of the founders for the twelve hour period shortly after we were infected."

Donna shakes her head. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about. If they were trying to.. I don't know, damage your reputation by making you carry out an attack or a robbery on somewhere, we'd have heard about it on the news."

"Incoming priority communication." A holographic image of the words 'incoming priority communication' appear on the main display.

Donna takes a step backwards. "That wasn't me."

Diana takes a step towards it. "Source."

"Washington DC, Department of Metahuman Affairs."

"Answer."

Amanda Waller's face appears on the screen. She looks surprised for a second and then her expression turns to one of relief. "Thank God."

"Ms Waller, what-?"

"It's Belle Reve. I don't know what the hell's happened down there but we've got a mass break out in progress. Phone line's down, satellite link's down and some of the nastiest supervillains in the country are on the loose two hours from Houma."

"They escaped?"

"Satellite images shows that the walls are intact. Beyond that I've got no idea what's happening. I'm trying to get the Louisiana State Guard to form roadblocks but I can hardly get hold of anyone 'cause it's New Year!"

Shit, who do we actually have available? With Klarion puppeting them unrelentingly for an entire day most League members were showing definite signs of tiredness. Guy's still here, Alan's… Not coming, whatever he says. Red Tornado, Danni and the Hawks are still about along with a whole herd of flying horses but everyone else has gone home and probably to sleep.

"We'll have a task force on the ground within an hour. Wonder Woman out." The holo screen deactivates as she turns to me. "How much charge do you have left in your rings?"

"I'm fresh off my post-rebuild recharge. Two hundred percent normal maximum power."

"Orange Lantern, Superboy, Troia. Head to Belle Reve Penitentiary as quickly as possible. I need you to assess the situation there and report back while I find out who's available to deal with the breakout. If you can subdue the prisoners or free any prison workers without endangering yourselves, do so. The zeta tube in-."

"Baton Rouge." I make eye contact with Kon and Donna. "Ready?" Two nods and the three of us fly into the zeta tube on the far side of the room.

"Recognised, Superboy, B zero four, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Troia, B one two."

31st December 2010
22:36 GMT -6

The Baton Rouge zeta tube is located inside a storm drain so the three of us remain airborne when we rematerialise. I used to think that it was strange how a zeta tube could be large like the ones in the mountain and small like the hidden units but it turns out that the smaller 'tubes' are just focusing arrays and security systems for the actual full sized tube somewhere else in the city. That's why the terminals can be moved relatively easily if they get discovered.

"Ring, Belle Reve. Show me somewhere we can land without being spotted."

Orange images of the prison I've got to know so well during my frequent visits flash before my eyes. The main bunker gate of the prison proper is wide open while the outer gate has been smashed down. By an armoured lorry or by someone like Mister Flinders I really couldn't say. One of the guard towers looks like it's taken a battering but those things are designed to survive metahuman attack. Heck. Kadabra can look after himself but I'm worried that Thomas might have done something ill-advised. The prison itself… The image flickers and fizzles out. That's new. They scry warded it?

"We can get into one of the guard towers. It should have a dedicated hard line to the prison. My attempts to scan the prison-."

Kon nods. "Wards. They didn't have those before. Are there any wizards being held in Belle Reve?"

"Not according to their most recent records, and it's not really designed for holding them anyway. Strange might have had it added, but I can't think why." Except, supervillain. Damn it.

Donna nods. "You know the prison better than I do."

"Alright, that's where we're going. Transitioning in two, one,-."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
22:37 GMT -6

"-now."

Belle Reve guard towers are a little tougher than the conventional sort. Steel reinforced concrete towers fifteen metres high, decorated only with automated turrets ten metres up and pivot mounted heavy machine guns around the manned section at the top. The glass between the platform around the guardroom and the guardroom itself is heavily reinforced and the only entrance is a heavily armoured door. It's even fully CBRN protected, which is why I can't transition us directly inside.

Kon looks over the side wall. "I can't see anyone."

"I can't see anything."

"Oh, right, sorry." I take a pair of night vision goggles out of subspace and pass them to her.

She shakes her head. "No, just give me a sec." She takes a small jar out of her pocket and unscrews the lid. Oh-kay… I send the goggles back to subspace and do a full scan of the swampland that makes up the grounds of Belle Reve. Some muddy footprints but nothing I could definitively link to one person. Someone appears to have frozen a section on one side of the road but there are several people who could have done that. "Hail Nyx, goddess of night. I humbly ask that you accept my offering and grant me your blessing." For a moment I smell something sweet.. honey, and then it's gone. "There." She looks at me and smiles, her eyes completely black. "How do I look?"

"I did not know you could do that."

"What did you do? I'm seeing in infrared here."

I walk over to the door and extend filaments into it. Usually opening it requires confirmation by the off-site facility but it's just metal. "Her eyes went completely black."

Donna nods. "Which is what happens when the Olympian goddess of night lets you see in the dark."

"You can just ask them for stuff?"

"Some. You have to go to their temple and make an offering. You know, establish a connection. Nyx has a bit of a sweet tooth." The door clanks open. The lights inside start to come on but I shut them off. "That's probably part of why Diana wants to take you to Themyscira."

"I read up on some of the mythology. The Greek gods just sounded like huge jerks to me."

We enter the guard tower. No one's here. No signs of violence, so that's something. Quick scan… No signs that metahuman powers have been employed.

"Well… Some of them are. They didn't become gods by being nice, they just have powers over things. Nyx has always liked me, Athena's trustworthy, Aphrodite's easy to get along with-."

"Unless you're married to her." I raise the ring… The ring on my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. We're at Belle Reve. No one between the exterior fence and the central keep. Some signs that a lot of people have moved through, but I'm not detecting anyone in the vicinity of the prison. The prison itself has been warded. Were we informed that was going to happen?"

There's a short pause. "No, we weren't."

"Do you want us to try and follow those who have left, or get into the prison?"

Kon frowns. "What if they left by boat?"

"Then they've gone." I shrug. "They've had plenty of time to get into cover or get picked up by someone else. Once we take a roll call we can work out who's still missing."

"Can you gain access to the prison?"

"Front door's open. Can't scan inside to tell you about the interior doors."

"Proceed, with caution. The safety of the prison workers is your top priority. Superman and Lantern Jordan will start sweeping the surrounding area shortly. Keep me apprised."

"Sir." I take my left hand away from my ear and close it, breaking the connection. "Either of you have a preference on how we approach it?"

"If they're in lock down, those walls are supposed to be Superman proof." There's a clank as Kon smacks his right fist into his left hand. "You think they're Nth metal proof?"

"Punching steel and concrete is quite an energy intensive way to try and get through it."

Donna looks at the phone on the wall. "Why don't we try calling them?"

"Because we don't know who's on the other end."

"The prison's full of cameras, right? If someone's in the warden's office they'll know we're here as soon as we get inside."

"Be my guest then. This is tower Interior Two."

She picks up the receiver and presses the 'call' button. "This is Tower Interior Two?" She stiffens slightly as she hears a reply, then returns the receiver to the cradle. "What's 'Kali Yuga'?"

Ooooooh poop. He's here, isn't he? "Literally, 'The Age of Vice'. In Hinduism, it's part of the cycle of gradual moral degradation which leads to regeneration. In our line of work, if someone says 'Faith to Kali Yuga' then they're probably a Kobra Cultist. I mean, it's worth checking, just in case they're a real guru or something… But probably not."

"Kobra?" Kon remembers the name. "Jeffrey Burr's inside Belle Reve!"

"Yep. Or at least he was. And Kobra has magic users working for it, which might explain how they knew how to ward the place."

Donna takes a look through the glass at the prison. "Are the inmates going to be armed?"

"Special equipment is kept off site, but they'll have access to any of the guards' weapons that they haven't smashed as well as their own metahuman abilities."

Kon raises his eyebrows. "They got any guns that can hurt us?"

"You'd feel a plasma weapon's shot, if it were at maximum power. Super power attacks are more of a threat and I'm still more worried about the civilians than us."

Donna shakes her head. "Hate to say it, but if they were going to kill them they've probably done it already."

Ritual sacrifice being a good way to jump start a spell. Wonderful. "Front door then? I know from the plans where all the cameras are. I can just destroy them before we enter." Kon and Donna look at each other, then nod. "Probably best if we fly there. Less orange glow."

Donna leads the way back out onto the balcony then floats upwards. I don my helmet, turn down my environmental shield to minimum and follow her using my armour's integrated flight belt. Donna's black with white pinpricks armour isn't ideal for stealth but it isn't as if she's had time to change. I'll have to check the ring database for armour styles and materials suitable for super strong people. Or maybe I can sort something out with Io next week?

We come in high towards the front entrance. Below us the telephone poles on either side of the road lie smashed and on their sides, the wires ripped in several places. The lights which usually shine from the prison battlements and watchtowers are off and there's clearly no one on watch. No damage I can see to the exterior so whatever happened it probably wasn't an external assault, which was just about the only conventional attack I didn't think Belle Reve could handle. There are no shouts of alarm as we reach the wall and I extend a filament down the wall through the very top of the front door's opening. No one immediately inside, though the security cameras are still active. I could take control of what they're seeing, but that would require me maintaining a constant connection and some of the people in here are dangerous enough that I might not be able to do that. With a thought my filaments extrude Arrows of Unmaking and stab them into the walls in which the cameras are mounted, destroying them utterly. That done, I drop down and fly inside.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
22:41 GMT -6

The emergency lighting is on and there's no one around. Again, I can't see any obvious damage to the building. The ultra-strength internal security doors haven't been deployed…

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Any word from the off-site control room?"

"Currently unmanned. Warden Strange gave the people who were supposed to be manning it the evening off."

"Bit late now."

There were machine gun positions by the main door but it looks like they've been removed. Not destroyed by the escapees; there's paint on the ground and it's newer than what is next to it. Strange had been encouraging me to use the staff entrance on my visits. Said something about me being part of the rehabilitation team.

"Entry's clear, no sign of damage. Proceeding into prisoner areas."

"Understood. Orange Lantern, the Flash isn't mission fit and it would be extremely helpful if we had someone with super speed available. How reliable is Rush Hour?"

I hold out my right hand and experimentally use Lantern Stewart's old ring to send a filament to open the armoured interior door to the next section. It doesn't feel any different to using the original one. "Rush Hour?" The ring-. The rings prompt me with his file but I can remember it easily enough. Aavai Singh, seventy one, British national of Punjabi origin. Not quite Flash fast but a bystander probably wouldn't notice the difference. "He's getting on a bit, but he's capable enough. Wouldn't Jesse Tyler be better?"

"She's not answering her phone. Would you recommend the younger two Rush Hours instead?"

I kill the camera on the far side and then the three of us walk into the short access corridor which leads to the visitor room. "They won't leave him behind, but yes."

"Hey, Orange Lantern? Can you scan anyone yet?"

I look back to Kon as the rings start on the inner door. "No, the walls are blocking me. Can you see through them?"

He shakes his head. "Too well insulated. D-? Troia? Any of your gods feel like helping out?"

"I haven't really had anything to do with Hecate yet. She's a bit.. strange."

The door opens and after I destroy the cameras on the far side we proceed into the visiting room. Aside from the main lights being off and the door to the guard part of the prison being open there's nothing out of the ordinary again. Starting to get a Mary Celeste vibe from the place.

"So, do you.. actually worship them? The gods, I mean?"

"I.. don't know. It isn't like going to church, and I haven't done that for years. Amazon relationships with the Olympians are usually much more direct and personal. I've been to most of the temples on Themyscira and prayed to most of the gods at some point. Not Ares, for obvious reasons."

The corridor is empty. Guard station or break room? Armoury or cell block? Best to stay in the outer part of the prison until we have a better idea about what's going on. I take the turning to the left, towards the break room. The doors in this part of the prison are still armoured and can be locked remotely but there's less hassle about getting through them during normal operation. No lights, no sign of anyone.

"Yeah, Mom told me about him. She's got me reading Amazon historical records at the-." His head jerks up. "Someone in the next room. They're.. watching TV."

Only one door between us and there. I run my filaments throughout the door and eliminate the friction between every moving part before carefully opening it. Once there's a gap between it and the frame I create a sound deadening field on the far side before swinging it the rest of the way open. The three of us float through into the antechamber. Mess hall through to the right, male and female showers and locker rooms further on towards the staff entrance... I can hear the television now myself. I can scan this whole section now and for the first time I see something amiss. Several tables and chairs are either knocked flying or smashed apart. Someone big and strong went through there. Not picking up a significant amount of blood…

Kon taps me on the shoulder and raises his eyebrows. I point towards the break area and he leads the way.

"-bad way to spend New Year. Sure, Crystal's frigid and that cute shrink's gonna get her sweet head beat in, but I suppose shouldn't look a gift beer in the mouth. Cap. Whatever."

How..? Why is he here? At least he won't be any trouble to subdue.

"Call Zoe or not? Well, con, I get an earful from Michelle. She might not even be up…"

The three of us come into the room at more or less the same time. Mister Lawton straightens slightly. He's sprawled on a sofa facing away from us and towards a wide screen television with three empty bottles by his feet and another in his left hand. There's a handgun on the seat next to him but he doesn't reach for it. Ah, there's a mirror on the table in front of him.

"Took you long enough." He takes a swig and uses his right hand to pick up the control box and lower the volume. Looks like he was watching GBS's coverage of the New York celebrations. "The Justice League had a bit much New Year cheer or were you tryin' to raid the fridge?" He half looks around and waves the bottle at us. "'Cause if you were, you're too late. I've already had the good stuff."

"Mister Lawton, good evening."

"Think there's still some cooking liquor."

"Mister Lawton, this will go considerably easier on you if you cooperate."

"Thirty nine, Gemini, parents were Lutheran but I've never practiced, divorced father of one, not much of a social life recently-"

"Mister Lawton."

"-but when I get the chance I like ballroom dancing, horse riding and darts." He looks away for a moment. "Can't believe there wasn't a dartboard back here."

Donna looks confused. "Who is this guy?"

He gestures with the beer bottle again. "Okay, now, imagine-" He makes a circle with his right hand and holds it over his right eye. "-white mask, red armor, black coat..?"

Donna looks at me. "Who is this guy?"

"Floyd Lawton, aka 'Dead Shot'."

"Nono. One word. Deadshot."

"Mister Lawton, please tell me what has happened in this prison."

"What's in it fer me?"

"Um. I have… Better beer?" I fan out my hands.

"Not sure I'd really appreciate-."

Kon lands, stomps over to him and hauls him out of his seat by the scruff of his neck. "Tell us what happened!"

Mister Lawton blinks at him. "Do I know you from someplace?"

Rings, sobriety.

Orange light flares out from me and he jerks like he's been slapped. "Oh, just when I had a good buzz going."

I remove a box of twelve British craft beers from subspace. "Either you get helpful or I employ force. I don't do torture but I think I could justify mind control."

He rolls his eyes. "Okay, fine. The guards disappeared and the prisoners rioted when they realized there wasn't anyone to stop them. Most of them have left but that Burr guy's still around. Him and his creepy cultists."

Donna frowns. "Why are you still here?"

"The only reason I haven't been executed yet is I've got fifteen states suing over the right to be the ones pushing the button. I don't wanna give them more motivation to move things along. Besides, how long are they actually going to be free? Way I see it, might as well get some beer inside me, instead of wasting time wading through a swamp with the Justice League on my tail."

"You mentioned Doctor Quinzel?"

"Oh, yeah, some of the staff barricaded themselves in the offices. The Kobras are tryin' to get them out. You should probably hurry up and give me the beer."

Kon tosses him back onto the settee and I set the beer down on the table. "Thank you for your help, Mister Lawton. Most appreciated."

Then I ShockCrown him.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
22:46 GMT -6

We head to the offices in fits and starts. The internal security doors are designed so that they can't all be opened at once which is bloody annoying at times like this. I transition to the next and get to work opening it while Kon and Donna fly after me. I wish I knew better what was going on, I've.. really got used to being the one in the know. The only way I could go faster would be lashing out and Crumbling everything. Tempting as that is, I can't even tell that there's no one on the other side of these doors before opening them! That and they're not exactly quiet. Still no response to our presence. Still don't really know how many inmates decided-.

"Uuuhhg…"

I transition past the slowly opening door onto the walkway overlooking the prisoner gymnasium. Someone's punched a hole clear through the partition between the male and female sections, and from the meltwater I'm going to assume it was frozen by someone first. Cameras don't point at this bit so I take a second to destroy the ones watching the floor below. Gun turrets look dead… There! I transition down next to the prisoner below. He's managed to crawl over to the wall and prop himself up but from the way the right side of his chest has been crushed I don't think he's going much further. His external wounds are superficial but even without a ring scan I can tell from the blood running from his mouth that his internal injuries might well end up being fatal.

He struggles to look up as I crouch down in front of him. "Mister Walker. You've seen better days." No sense restoring him fully, but… He's only got another two years on his sentence. Heck, he only got sent to Belle Reve instead of Blackgate due to that ridiculous Moth costume. I repair his lung and ribcage as Donna and Kon fly down behind me.

He just about manages to focus on me, and seems to recognise me. "Fucking… You. Shoulda know that bastard.. would…" He slumps sideways, unconscious. Blood loss and shock.

The gym doors aren't fortified, a preventative measure against the inmates trying to barricade themselves inside. That might explain why they're smashed off their hinges. More injured prisoners, minor or no powers from the looks of things. One of the more coherent ones tries to build up an electrical blast and gets a ShockCrown for his trouble. What the heck happened?

"Donna, you don't have a truth lasso, do you?"

"No, that's one of a kind."

I generate construct armour around us as we come out into an open section of hallway. Guard station up to the offices is deserted and the security door's been torn through by someone with super strength.

Kon's head jerks up. "People ahead."

"…to break down a fucking barricade!"

An electrical crackling sound. "It's wood! What am I supposed-?"

"Kobra'll have our hearts if we can't-."

"Get out the way." Heavy footsteps and then a crash.

"You made the wrong choice, Terror!"

Line of sight established. Doctor Zuel has grown to about twice her normal size and is stepping back from the door she just shoulder charged. Having seen Klarion that size recently she just isn't that scary, especially as she has to pause in order to redeploy her ersatz halter top due to her prison uniform not expanding with her body. Some long haired blonde guy the ring identifies as a Mister Bailey is also watching the door intently while Miss Wasserman and Mister Hato are more focused on their argument. Flames billow from Zara's hands as she takes a crack at it. The ring helps me identify the others but they aren't a threat without their equipment. Or in the case of Mister Weiss, to anyone, ever, except himself.

The orange glow attracts their attention as soon as I come into view. Mister Hato's fastest to respond but I easily counter his electrical blast with a construct shield as Donna and Kon surge past me. Doctor Zuel instinctively grows and promptly jams herself between the walls and ceiling. Mister Hato manages one more shot at Kon which is easily turned aside by his armour before Kon punches him in the diaphragm then the head, stunning him. Zara and Mister Bailey try elemental blasts at the same time but his wind pulls apart her fireball and Kon downs him before he can get enough power behind it to trouble us.

I weave a network of filaments around Miss Wasserman's head and give her a dose of knockout gas. Can't risk a normal stun not taking her telepathic abilities out of action. Her unusual neural architecture means that it still isn't as reliable as I'd like so I'll have to keep monitoring her until we can get the power suppression system working again. Mister Merkyn's got a guard issue rifle from somewhere. He kneels, sights and opens fire on Donna as she bursts through Zara's fire to punch her out. Donna crouches, deflecting the shots away with her bracers as I ShockCrown him and send his gun into subspace.

"Damn it!" Doctor Zuel manages to lie down and expand further, grabbing for Kon with her giant right hand. He punches her ring finger and I hear the proximal phalanges snap. "Aagh!" She tries pulling the hand back but her elbow is stuck between her body and the walls. She really didn't think this through. Think she's lost what was left of her clothes-. You know what? ShockCrown.

Kon gets amongst the other gun armed prisoners and violently disarms them. By some miracle they go down without managing to shoot each other first.

"Got you!" Mister Weiss looks inordinately excited about getting a lasso around Donna. She looks more nonplussed. "Faith to Kali Yuga! Hail the Naga Naga! Now you-" He tugs on the rope and she doesn't move. He tries again. "-will-" And again. "-come-!" Donna gets a two handed grip on the rope and yanks it. He's pulled off his feet and into the air where she meets his head with her right fist. He drops to the floor in a stupor and I gas him into unconsciousness.

"Troia, any idea how to get Doctor Zuel to shrink back down when she's unconscious?"

She looks up at the fallen giantess as she unknots Mister Weiss' rope. "No, it has to be voluntary. Diana and I usually have to get a lowboy to tow her away."

"A what?"

"You know, a truck with a flat trailer." I nod as she coils the rope up and slings it over her shoulder.

"Brand." Doctor Zuel's eyes flicker as a filament plugs into her forehead and an orange sigil shimmers into being. "Doctor Zuel, you want to shrink down to normal size." Nothing happens for a moment and then the space around her starts to grow as her volume reduces. Since she's naked but for rags I put a straightjacket on her as soon as she reaches the proper size. Fix her finger, tie up the straps and then remove the brand. Job done.

I walk over to the blackened and cracked door and knock delicately on it with my right hand. "Okay, they're down." Nothing. "Thomas? Are you in there?"

"You ain't foolin' me lahk that agehn!" Heavy office furniture has been pushed up against the other side of the door and the twins are braced against it. Nothing there aren't a dozen ways for us to force our way past but I can see the yellow and red; they aren't thinking rationally at the moment. Going in heavy could ruin all the work I've put into rehabilitating them. Well, him anyway.

Kon looks at me. "Want me to break it down?"

I shake my head and step away from the door. I need information from someone who I can trust to be honest and volunteer things and unless I want to try tracking down Kadabra that's Thomas. I walk past Doctor Zuel and around the corner of the corridor before taking four Arrows of Unmaking out of subspace and pointing them at the side wall of Doctor Quinzel's office. Cut down the radius a little… Then stab them forwards. Four neat circles are cut through the wall causing the rest to crumble away.

"Ah'll kill ya'll anyway!" Thomas and Tuppence charge out of the gap, she slamming Kon into the wall behind us and he smashing his right fist into my chestplate.

"Thomas, calm down!" A one two combination to my construct faceplate fractures it and I send my helmet into subspace. "Thomas, it's me!"

"Whu-?" He pauses his fourth swing and takes a closer look at me. I know he hasn't seen me in this armour but weren't the glowing sigils a give away? "Paul?"

"No, the other Orange Lantern." He blinks in confusion. "Yes of course it's me!"

"Oh. Ah." He backs off a little, looking ever so slightly sheepish. "How ya'll been, man?"

"Hey, you think-" Kon's grabbed both of Tuppence's wrists and is holding them away but she's perfectly happy to knee him in the chest instead. "-you could call her off?"

And then a short blonde woman charges out and hits Donna with a giant mallet.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
22:50 GMT -6

"Get-"

Poof!

The head of the hammer strikes her directly on the forehead but doesn't seem to-.

"-back-"

Poof!

Donna's too surprised to really react as the hammer comes around again. The texture doesn't-?

"-you ungrateful-."

Poof!

That's an inflatable hammer. Why would why would what?

Donna grabs hold of the head of the hammer as it comes around again. She squeezes and there's a bang as she pops the outer plastic. The head flattens almost immediately and Donna steps back and assumes a defensive posture, clearly a little behind events. Who the heck would attack..?

Oh.

Doctor Quinzel stares wide eyed and hyperventilating at Donna as her wilting novelty deflates to the ground. She's got her hair up in bunches and is wearing a red turtleneck pullover with a short black skirt and white lab coat. Why is she wearing a lab coat?

Thomas puts his right hand on her shoulder. "Doc, y'c'n knock it off. They're on our sahd." She keeps staring and starts to back away, tripping over the recumbent form of Zara and falling onto her bum. She tries to scrabble to her feet but one of her heels has snapped off and-. No, no, we have a mission.

I connect a filament to her and cover her in a flight aura, pulling her back towards me. "Doctor Quinzel, we're here to rescue you. Please try to calm down."

From her pupil dilation and storm of yellow within I'm going to guess that she isn't hearing me. Rings, reduce her adrenaline level to normal and slowly lower her heart rate.

Compliance. / Involuntary alteration of the vital processes of another life form is a violation-.

Stewart-ring, if I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it. Left ring has priority. Confirm command.

Command accepted.

Doctor Quinzel appears to calm down a little, her breathing slowing. She's still scared but she's actually aware of her environment now. Tuppence stopped attacking Kon while they both watched and now she pulls her arms out of his grip with a scowl.

"Feeling better, Doctor?"

A couple of deep breaths and she quickly checks herself over. "Ye-eah, I think so."

"Alright then." I lower her to the ground and she stumbles into Thomas, who catches hold of her to support her.

"Thomas, what the heck happened here?"

He shrugs. "Ah don' rightly know. Gaht woken up bah mah cell door openin'. Mah powers were workin' so ah figured someone wuz doin' a break out again, only this tahm there weren't no guards around an' tha blast doors weren't closin'. Ah wuz jus' gonna stay put 'til ah heard tha Doc screamin' fer help."

"Yeah, my hero. There were, like, twen'y guys and he was just like... Pow!" She throws a mock punch.

"I.. saw. Thomas, Tuppence, while I very much approve of what you've done you do understand that you're not going to be safe-."

And Tuppence is right up in my face. "If it weren't fer you fillin' mah brother's head with this stuff we could be halfway across tha state bah now!"

"They'd find you, Tuppence. It wouldn't even take that long."

"Our chances would be bettah out there than they are in here! Come on, Tommy. Orange boy gaht theus." She tries pulling on Thomas' right arm but he doesn't move.

He looks uncomfortably at me and then at her. "Uh, Tuppy? Ah don' think-."

She looks back at him and for a split second I see her aggression and anger at everything vanish from her face. Then the shields go back up. "Fiahn! You c'n go play with yer heero buddy. Ah'm gett'n gahwn while the goin's good."

I stride forwards and put my hand on her shoulder. "No, I'm fed up with this. You're going to tell me what your bloody problem with me is, right now!"

She shakes herself free. "What mah problem is!? You got tha last person you trahd t'help killed!"

I shake my head in incomprehension. "What?"

"My cellmate tole me! She took a shot fer that Martian girl last tahm this happened an' gaht froze to deyath!"

She thinks Jade's… That makes sense. "Your cellmate. This would be.. Crystal Frost."

"Yeah, an' she-!"

"The sociopathic, manipulative, lying, remorseless serial killer, Crystal Frost?" Who should never have been put in a cell with an emotionally vulnerable eighteen year old?

She calms down a little. "Whut you try'na say?"

"Jade isn't dead. She was badly frostbitten when we got back to the prison but still alive. I-" I raise the rings and cause them to glow a little brighter. "-healed her."

"Then where tha hell is she!?"

"The Gloria McDonald prison in Rhode Island. She spent a few days staying in medical because she wouldn't have been safe mixing with the general population and then Warden Waller was able to arrange the transfer."

She seems a little taken aback while Thomas smiles at her. "Ah tole you he wouldn' let that happen."

"Is that seriously why you haven't been willing to speak to me?"

"Prove it."

"What?"

"Prove that's whut happened."

"Um… Okay." I have the ring generate an image of how Jade was when she was in medical with Paula before I got to her. I show the injuries being healed and Jade sitting up. The next image is of me watching her being loaded onto a prison lorry and being driven away from Belle Reve. Another of her being driven into the arrivals area at Gloria McDonald. A fourth of her working in their kitchens, which she's pretty much taken over now since the League of Shadows did cookery tuition as part of their physical discipline program. She's made them go all vegetarian but good veg is so much cheaper than poor meat that there haven't been many complaints. Another of her doing the Tai Chi class. "Happy?"

"You could just've made awl thayt up."

"I'm not flying you there to check in person, she's probably in bed. Tuppence, you've got seven years and four months in here to look forward to. If you run, they will add to it. If you help me, I'll see what I can do about getting it reduced. Is that a deal you are interested in?"

"How much reduced?"

That didn't take long. "I'll ask Warden Waller. I can't promise anything and we can't hang about. Doctor Quinzel, do you know how many other members of staff were still on site?"

She shakes her head. "No, no, I was just… I think I saw two of the guys bein' carried off…"

"Right. We can't let you run for it because the whole region is teeming with escaped supervillains. There's nowhere safe in here because: supervillains. You'll have to come with us. Thomas, we're heading for Kadabra's cell next-."

"Hey! Ah ain't said ah'm helpin' yew!"

I look at Tuppence. "Then.. don't. I'm not going to keep arguing with you about this. Stay, or leave." She looks like she wants to tear me in half, but one more shared look with her brother appears to convince her. She gives a slight and very grudging nod. "Right then. Superboy, lead the way."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth -14
Lunar Watchtower
1st January
04:51 GMT

"…Mayhem, B zero five."

And that's everyone. I take a moment to look at the still form of the late and probably unlamented Emperor Rickard. Really, I'm more than a little surprised that he's been the first man I've murdered since coming here. I don't feel bad about it exactly, just… Hollow would be the word I suppose. It should be a big deal but the emotion I might have expected just isn't materialising. Still, with him dead…

"Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: two percent."

I clench my right fist around the ring. Just what I wanted to hear. On the other side of the room the first squad of US Space Marines takes aim at me from just inside the hole in the wall. "Freeze!" I give a jaunty wave as I step backwards into the zeta tube.

"Recognised, Power Ring, Made Man of Ultraman."

Earth -14
Happy Mountain
31st December
23:52 GMT -5

"Recognized, Power Ring, Made Man of Ultraman."

"…you possibly think that went well!?" And as usual Talon's the one starting the argument. Not that the others look much happier. "It's barely been three months and we already lost one member of the new Management!"

Before the Decapitation Jonathan would have put Mister Todd in his place immediately. But since we confirmed Ultraman's death he's become much less incisive than he used to be. Still, he's only six months old and the whole reason the Syndicate put me here was to keep adolescent tempers in check. "Talon, that fight went as well as it could."

Talon's eyes narrow at me while Mary Mayhem sneers. "Went well? The only one who died was on our side!"

I look down and shake my head sadly. "He was taken prisoner by our enemies. Realistically speaking, the chance of us-."

Talon takes a step towards me. "And how exactly-?"

"That's enough." Jonathan -his Ultraboy persona fully in place- takes a moment to make eye contact with each member of the group, myself included. "I ain't exactly happy about where we are either, but Power Ring's right. That was the best way it coulda gone down. Guys, we nearly had a repeat of the Decapitation on our hands. Have you all forgotten what that was like? The Management gone, President Slade's people everywhere and all those stupid pointless turf wars as Made Men who shoulda known better tried carving out their own little slices of nothing?" His eyes do another tour and I'm not the only one nodding. That.. was not fun.

"That. Did not. Happen. Today. And the reason it didn't happen today, the reason every Made Man out there owes us, is because we stepped up. The Emperor died. It happens." He looks at Zorina. "But Doctor Chaos?" Talon. "The Answer?" At me. "Capo Scott?" At Lamprey. "Barracuda? They're still here, not mind controlled, not luring the rest of the Syndicate into a trap. Things could have gone a lot worse."

Jackie Quick shakes his head. "Should have gone better."

"It should have." Lamprey agreed. "However, we have foiled the Justice Underground's plot to destroy us today. We blinded the Mirror Man, broke the Clock Knight's arms, purged the 'miraculous vitamin' from Paladín's system, and forced Newcastle Black to order a retreat. Our temporary weakness has made the Justice Underground bold of late. It will be some time before they are so bold again."

Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: three percent.

Thank you, Lamprey.

"And that calls for a celebration!" Arrowette cheers. "Power Ring! Go buy us something that'd get a Kryptonian drunk! I wanna do shots off Jackie's abs!"

Oh, the joy of babysitting delinquents. "I'm sorry Arrowette, but this ring's still out of power." Bloody Emperor Rickard. I gesture to the faintly glowing blue ring on my right ring finger. "I don't even have enough power to fly at the moment. Why don't-?"

"Hey, no worries babe. I got this." Jackie pulls Arrowette close and the two of them lock lips more passionately and for longer than I'm really comfortable watching. After a good fifteen seconds he pulls away, looking inordinately pleased with himself. "I'll knock someplace over and be back before you know it." A rush of displaced air and he zooms off in the direction of the surface exit.

M'gavv converts her right arm into a tentacle and winds it around Jonathan's body, pulling him in the direction of the zeta tube. He grins and allows himself to be dragged along after her. "Hey, don't you guys wait up for us, alright?"

"Recognised, Ultraboy, B zero one, Mistress Martian, B zero three."

"Hey Zorina?" Arrowette's taken hold of a mildly irritated Mary's hand and pulled her over to Zorina and Mister Todd. "Can you take us to the kitchen real quick?"

Zorina frowns for a moment before raising her hands to chest height. "Tropsnart eht ruof fo su ot eht nehctik."

They disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving me in the training room. I do not like the sound of that.

"I believe that I will head out as well." I look around as Lamprey walks towards the other zeta tube. "Tritonians do not celebrate New Year at this time of the year and I wish to consult with my shogun."

"I'll pass that on. Try to relax, though. That was a major mission the team went through."

He nods politely and then walks into the tube.

"Recognised, Lamprey, B zero eight."

And now I'm rushing to the kitchens. I've tried using the nanotech I took off Mister Pocus to monitor the whole of the Mountain but it just doesn't have the longevity. Not to mention that the team find it irritating. I make it to the corridor immediately adjoining the lounge area before I can clearly hear their voices. Time to eavesdrop.

"…a rather stimulating form of magic that allows a person to divine their next year's fortune in a New Year's kiss?" Zorina sighs. "What is it that has you so wound up?"

"I'm telling you, he's up to something!" Arrowette's voice is quiet, barely above a whisper.

"We're all up to something, Arrowette. We're supervillains." I know Zorina's got my back, but if the rest are concerned enough to openly complain about my conduct this could get very nasty.

"But he's up to something… Something heroic!" Arrowette growls. "You know he was there when Emperor Rickard died! I bet he's working with the Justice Underground! He's infiltrated our ranks, and now he's taking us out one by one!"

I hear a sigh. "Arrowette, that's just paranoid."

"Hey babe." I hear a jangle as Jackie puts some bottles down on the kitchen table. If I have to clean up their vomit again…

"Hey. Look, I know how deep cover operations go. When did he ever steal something he didn't have to? When has he seriously hurt someone?"

"That's.. just.. the way he operates. He's polite, and organized, and different from the rest of us. That helps him pull off jobs any one of us would have trouble with, even if we had power rings. We all have virtues. His is keeping things quiet."

"I bet he's listening in right now." Oh, that's not-. The corridor blurs and oh fiddlesticks I'm handcuffed to a chair, a smug looking Jackie smiling down at me. "See?" Arrowette gestures to me. "I told you! He was spying on us!"

"Ah…" As I fumble around for any sort of excuse. Nanotech caches in my armour can eat through the metal easily enough but I need to talk my way out of this one. Mary, Mister Todd and Arrowette are glaring at me while Jackie is more interested in lining up shot glasses.

"Ah." Zorina gives a small sigh. "I suppose you may have a point. Arrowette, Talon, Mary, Jackie? Peels." The four of them collapse to the floor. She glances at the corner of the room, then at me. "After Father warded the place, I can't affect the cameras anymore."

"I'll deal with it." Editing the recording isn't exactly hard with a power ring. I rattle my handcuffs. "Would you mind?"

She looks at me levelly. "No, you can stay there for now. Llet em eht hturt."

I feel the compulsion take hold. How much leeway is there? "Of course."

"Are you an agent of the Justice Underground?"

"No." What's she doing? "I have.. approached a few of them, tried to establish some sort of dialogue. But, at best we're acquaintances. Not friends. I've never given them any information they could use against the Syndicate." I roll my right shoulder, remembering what happened when I tried to set up a meeting with Sir Solomon. "Most of them are too fanatical to give me the time of day anyway."

Zorina taps her chin. "Were you responsible for today's attack?"

"No."

"Did you know it was coming?"

"No."

"But you did take advantage of it to kill Emperor Rickard?"

Agh. "Yes. Killing the Emperor completed the mission. Even if all the other Heads were killed, without him the empathic network would have been useless."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "And the fact that his hope manipulation nullified your power ring?"

"It was a factor, but if he'd been reliably on our side I wouldn't have killed him." She nods solemnly. "You don't exactly seem broken up about it."

"Emperor Rickard wanted to do away with the oligarchical meritocracy that gives the Syndicate its stability. The very system we've built our power on." She shakes her head in frustration. "Honestly. A few problems with the White House and they go crying to the first political strong man who offers to take care of their problems for them. No. If being in his presence was enough to drain your power ring's energy I hate to imagine what the world he would have created would be like."

"You don't seem all that surprised about it either."

She smiles. "This happens sometimes. Two of our own have goals that don't align. We usually solve disputes like that rationally, but sometimes it comes to blows and when that happens you choose what side you're on. When Owlman and Superwoman decided to blow up the world, the rest of the Syndicate fought against them. When Doctor Chaos took over my father… Well. The Syndicate made its choice." She looks at me curiously. "What do you think about that situation?"

"Doctor Chaos may be powerful, but he's causing more trouble than he's worth. I also don't think Boss Giovanni fully appreciated what he was letting himself in for when he put the Helmet on."

She eyes me suspiciously. "Alan Scott didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"Alan's… Practical. Doctor Chaos is what he has to work with."

Her eyebrows raise. "And if that were to change?"

"As I said, practical."

"Hmm." She paces a short distance across the room and then turns back to me. "Then getting rid of Doctor Chaos serves both our interests. You get your less aggressive Syndicate… And I get my father back."

Possibly interesting. "True…"

"Then start being open with me. You disappeared for several minutes. It can't have just been to kill the Emperor."

No compulsion. She made a statement rather than asking a question. "I.. tried to access the Syndicate's secure database. I'll need time to go through it before I'll know whether I got anything useful or not."

"Clever. And not something any of the others thought about."

"I think they assume that Talon's got it all anyway."

"As if Owlman ever trusted anyone with anything." She kneels over Jackie Quick. "Ekaw pu, tegrof touba siht… Dna hctef azzip. Morf Silopaennim." He groggily pushes himself to his feet and zooms away.

"Can I get up now?"

"No." Zorina places her hands on the sides of Arrowette's head. "Tegrof ruoy snuoicipsus fo Rewop Gnir." Whaw. I know Boss Giovanni sometimes altered people's minds a la Identity Crisis, but I didn't know Zorina would be willing to cast a spell like that on her best friend.

She looks up. "Just to be clear, I never make decisions lightly. If you fail to live up to my expectations? If you betray me? Then Zauriel the Fallen will let you live just long enough to be very, very sorry about it."

Ah, threats I've grown used to. "I understand. Don't worry, I'm committed."

"I hope you are." Her gaze softens slightly and she walks back over to me. Hopefully with a key for the handcuffs. "Now, seeing as we're going to be spending a great deal of time working together on this, I think a little prescience is in order."

"Um, alright? What do you need me-?" She sits down on my lap, placing her arms on my shoulders. "Um?"

A clock appears on the sideboard, showing us flip over into the new year. "Happy New Year Young Offenders."

"Just in time."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
22:56 GMT -6

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman?" Donna glances down at me from the second level as I listen to the silence. No, nothing. Not sure if she's busy or if whatever magic's running through this place is blocking me. Stewart's ring provides me with the designs for four different forms of communication system that would probably bypass it, but they all need receiver stations. Oh, so that's what a Bleed Fracture-Pulse receiver really looks like. I wasn't even sure that was a thing…

"This here's his cell, but Abra's lowg gawn." Thomas gestures and the cell is indeed empty. "Kind'a a shame. You know he'd bin tutorin' me?"

"I think you mentioned it." Of course, the fact that we can't see him doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't there. Kon and Donna are making a quick visual inspection of the other cells just in case someone's done something clever while Tuppence glowers at my back with her arms crossed. The heavy machinegun that's usually on overwatch over this cellblock has been removed -neatly- and the guard post is abandoned. That gun could hurt Thomas and Tuppence, maybe seriously with sustained fire or if the shooter got lucky. I start flicking through Stewart's ring's armour designs as I scan Kadabra's cell. Hm. I put my right hand into the apparent opening between the bars at the front of the cell and the open door. The illusion ripples, and for a moment I see the real door, firmly closed.

Thomas' eyes widen as he sees it too. "Hay! I though all'a his gear got confiscated!"

"Abra Kadabra is a very clever and cunning man." Rings, scan… Ooh, I have new scanning options! I don't even know what some of that stuff is! "His unusual abilities come from technology from the future-."

"That was trew?" Doctor Quinzel shrinks back as we look at her. "When he said that in one of our sessions I thawt it was just, y'know, self aggrandisement or somethin'."

"No, he genuinely comes from the future. Rings, decloak." Orange light strobes out and covers the cell interior. The device obscuring the cell door fails first, revealing the firmly locked cell door which I open with a filament. Inside the centre of the cell itself a shadowy humanoid outline appears, flickering in black as the rings detect the tiny space-time distortions Kadabra's phase cloak generates. The spectral form appears to look in my direction and then gradually becomes more and more real as Kadabra precipitates out of the air.

He takes a moment to get his breath back and then nods at me. "I hoped it would be you. I was a little worried one of Kobra's people might notice my.. hiding place."

"Mister Kadabra, do you have a better idea about what's going on than we do?"

"Probably. Kobra's been making.. converts-" His lip curls. "-ever since he got here. Once Waller left he became even more brazen about it." He shakes his head. "I've got data infections throughout the prison but my implants are still off. They can transmit but I can't receive."

Thomas frowns. "Power supresser's nawt workin' no more."

"My implants run on conventional thirty ninth century technology, not 'super powers'. Orange Lantern deactivated them after my sentencing."

I take his wand out of my subspace pocket and let it float in front of me. "Do I need to make clear what will happen if you cross me on this?"

His eyes flick between the wand and my face. "No, you were quite clear when we spoke in Central City."

"Right then." I extend my left palm towards him. "Ring, reactivate Mister Kadabra's implants."

"Compliance."

Another strobe, this time focused on his head. He recoils only slightly, then unfocuses his eyes and blinks heavily as the implants remesh with his organic brain. Nervously, he holds out his right hand and I relinquish control of his wand, which leaps into his hand. He risks a narrow smile before changing his stance to that of a stage magician. "And for my first trick?" He taps the wand against the air over his own head and a quick blast of ionised vapour later he's back in his open collared shirt and black trousers.

"Wouldn't armour be more sensible?"

"My clothes are reinforced with carbon nanotubes and-" Another wand wave and they get a little shinier. "-a personal force field."

"Right, what can you tell us?"

"Kobra and his old followers have occupied Warden Strange's office. They've also looted the armoury. The rest of the guards are being held in the women's mess hall, except…" He trails off.

"Yes?"

He shakes his head. "It's a little hard to tell which are alive and which are dead. How is it that you can't simply scan them yourself?"

"Some sort of ward. I'm assuming it's Mister Burr's doing, though I don't suppose it really matters." I look at him for a moment. "Mister Kadabra, are you willing to assist us?" He visibly cringes. "I'm not.. demanding. If you want to just stay in your cell, that's fine. However, if you agree to help, I'll leave your implant's data store active and load up a copy of An Introduction to Basic Thaumaturgy before I go. Sound fair?"

From the way the orange and blue lights in his soul are churning I'd say that it's all he can do to prevent himself from whooping for joy. His facial expression on the other hand barely shifts from polite curiosity. "That…" He nods. "Is a fair offer." I step back from the door as he walks out.

"Then c'n we go already?" Tuppence makes a gesture of appeal as Donna and Kon drop down to our level.

Kon shakes his head. "No one hiding up there." He looks over Mister Kadabra and then turns to me with his eyebrows raised. "Wait, Kadabra too?"

"I'm receiving compensation for my services. Now." He holds his wand's pointy end up and moves it in a circle, creating a holographic map of the prison. "We're here-" A blue dot in the male cells. "-Lord 'Snake Snake' is here-" A green dot. "-and the remaining guards are here." A red dot.

Donna looks at the image. "Can you tell if Warden Strange is there as well?"

Mister Kadabra shakes his head. "There was limited space for facial recognition programming and at the time I didn't think the prison psychiatrist was worth recognising."

"Do you think Strange could have been involved with this?"

"Hey!" Doctor Quinzel pokes me in the chest. "Don't stawt blamin' the victim for this! I'm sheuwer Doc Strange was just as surprised as everyone else."

"Someone knew it was going to happen." Kadabra waves the wand again and expands the canteen. The hologram shows people but doesn't give any definition. I'm guessing that the ones sitting down with armed people around them are the guards and that the ones not identified as having weapons have combat usable superpowers but I'm not going to assume anything. "Belle Reve has a minimum of forty six guards on duty at any one time, as well as the Warden and support staff. From the look of it they've only got eleven prisoners in there."

Her eyes widen. "You don't think they killed them awul?"

"No, there aren't enough bodies. Even counting the ones by the prison gym-."

"Those were inmates-."

Thomas looks horrified. "They weren't dead when ah left!"

"They're lying on the ground and not moving."

"They're not dead, I checked on the way through." I take a copy of the hologram into the rings, just in case. "First priority is freeing the guards. Second is getting them to safety."

Kon nods. "Then we go after Kobra?"

I shake my head. "Why? He's already in prison and it doesn't look like he wants to go anywhere. No, after that we contact Wonder Woman and ask where she wants us. If the escapees are running rampant she'll probably want us out there rather than in here. Right. We need a better idea about who's in there and I'm pretty sure we'd all be recognised. Mister Kadabra, how exactly does your communications implant work?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:02 GMT -6

I don't suck at stealth quite as badly as I used to. With power armour I don't feel the same need to have my environmental shield on and with the flight belt I don't need to glow in order to fly. The Kobra affiliated prisoners were intelligent enough to have someone on guard duty but Otto Fisher doesn't appear to be the most alert fellow. It's a little surprising that he's involved, actually. His psychological profile suggests that aside from a desire to get revenge on Lantern Jordan for something he didn't actually do Mister Fisher's supposed to be reasonably together, mentally speaking. I wouldn't trust Strange's report but it's been confirmed by both the police psychologist who was called in to look at him when the police saw that costume and by Doctor Quinzel. What I can see in his soul rather backs that up: none of the weird orange, yellow and violet mix associated with a devoted follower. If anything I'd say that he doesn't want to be involved at all.

Happy to oblige. I use filaments to check that no one is in line of sight -optical scans as I'm still having trouble with more advanced stuff- extend a sound nullifying zone around him and hoik him into the air. He drops his gun in shock as he rises into the air but I catch it with another filament before it can hit the ground. Just a shotgun. Hmm.

He takes a moment to take in my armour -particularly the sigil emblazoned on the front- and appears to calm down. In fact he looks almost.. relieved. Ring, two way communication is authorised.

Compliance.

"Good morning Mister Fisher."

"Are you here with the Justice League? Is it finally over?"

"I work for the League, certainly. I'm surprised that you're happy about us being here."

"Are you kidding?" His hands go to his face. "I didn't want anything to do with the crazy snake heads, but when the guards disappeared I didn't have a choice!"

"You could have fled the prison."

"I've got a parole board hearing in a couple of months. My lawyer says I've got…" His head droops a little. "I had a good chance to get out of here, try to put my life back together. I don't want to escape at all but if I tried just staying in my cell they'd have killed me!"

"Alright then, I'll make you a deal. You help me, and I talk to the authorities about not counting this against you."

He stares at me for a moment before nodding. "What do you need?"

"Aside from the cafeteria, are they keeping guards anywhere else?"

"I don't… I don't think so? Kobra took Strange with him and… Oh God."

"Mister Fisher?"

"I think… I think they killed a couple of them. I-I overheard one of the cultists saying something about rounding up all the guards but.. the number they said they had… It was two more than the number they brought into the food hall."

Looks like they did a ritual after all. "How many inmates are there in the cafeteria?"

"Fifteen." Matches Kadabra's scan. "Only five real cultists and ten other guys."

"Any of them have superpowers?"

"Some of the cultists have this drug, makes them stronger and faster. I think one of the other prisoners can control magnetic fields, but… You're a Lantern, right?" I nod. "I tried fighting Green Lantern once. I don't think any of them except Dillon would really be a threat to you."

Roscoe Dillon, aka The Fucking Top. Wonderful, a telepathic speedster. A mental case telepathic speedster. Better here than in Houma I suppose. What do I know about him? His range for hearing what someone's thinking is supposed to be point blank only. On the other hand I seem to remember him reprogramming people's brains in the comics and.. I don't think I'm that resilient. "Thank you for the information. One last thing for you to do."

"You don't want me to.. fight them, do you? I-I'm just a circus performer."

"No, of course not. What I need you to do is walk through the cafeteria doors."

He looks at me for a moment. "That's it?"

"They've done something that makes it impossible for me to scan through the prison's walls and doors. As soon as the door's open I'll be able to get an accurate scan of what's going on inside and I'll be able to protect the prison guards."

"C-can't you just charge in yourself?"

"If they didn't have a speedster, maybe. But if I went in there without knowing what was inside I'd risk someone being faster on the trigger than I am with a power ring. There's nothing here I can't beat-" Probably. That the six of us can't beat, certainly. "-in a fight but I can't risk the hostages like that."

"And.. you'd be protecting me too, right?"

"Of course. From what I can tell you're genuine about wanting a new start. That makes you a very rare and valuable commodity in a place like Belle Reve. Here." His prison overalls expand slightly. "Body armour. Should protect you against small arms fire."

"One of the Kobra's' got a machine gun."

"You'll only be exposed for a second or two. When I say 'now', drop to the floor. It shouldn't take long, I'll be shielding you and they won't be aiming at you. Heh, that's why we wear these symbols on our chests: so we make better targets."

"Okay… Just walk in then get down?" I nod. "Okay. I c.. I can do that."

"I'm going to put you down now-."

"And you'll put in a good word with the parole board?"

"Of course. Look, you do realise… It wasn't Green Lantern, right? He didn't kill her. Even if he'd wanted to his ring wouldn't let-."

"I know." He squeezes his eyes shut. "I know." He opens them again. "After she died I just wanted someone to blame. Someone I could lash out at and hurt. That.. new Doctor? Quinzel? Strange just wanted me to keep going on and on about what it was like when it happened, but she's… She's really helped me put the whole thing in perspective." He looks at the floor. "Okay, okay, let me down. Let's do this."

I check the corridors once again. No one's come looking for him. I lower him gently to the ground and hand him back the shotgun. "One moment." I raise the left ring to my ear. "Everyone ready?"

"We're all ready over here." Kadabra's with Kon, Thomas and Tuppence, ready to come in on the far side. Radios would be a risk but the ring can communicate directly with Kadabra's implanted quantum entanglement communicator. There are guards outside the door on their side so I'm going to assume that there are on this side as well. I'm going to have to use accelerated perception and I.. I just don't like that function. Even if it doesn't hurt anymore. Especially as it doesn't hurt anymore. I glance around and see Donna nod at me.

"I'll transmit an image of the room's interior as soon as I have it, but you're pretty much going to have to dive in right away." I take a few vertigo inducers out of subspace. That should put paid to organised resistance. "Mister Fisher? You're up."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:08 GMT -6

I watch via an optic filament as Mister Fisher strolls past the inmates on guard duty with barely a murmur. The rougher looking one slaps him on the shoulder but it's just an automatic attempt at intimidation and not an indication of suspicion. I wince as he nearly looks in my direction, a near invisible filament waiting next to him for him to open the door. I tried just shoving it through the doors but it started fading away as I sent it towards the gap. Need to get Sephtian to take a look at the arrangement Mister Burr used to pull this off. If it was actually him.

Mister Fisher checks the safety on his shotgun before pushing through the door.

Accelerated perception. Scan.

A triple barrelled rotary cannon from the cellblock has been set up on the serving counter. It's manned by inmates wearing Kobra hoods. Were those sent in, or did they run them up themselves? The tables were screwed into the floor but the ferrokinetic inmate is hard at work undoing the bolts and shoving them to the sides of the room. Some of the prisoners have dragged a couple of the liberated tables over to the wall mounted television and seven of them are sitting, watching nationwide New Year celebrations. The other inmates are standing in armed huddles around the prison staff but I note that with one exception they're staying away from the Kobra clique. Mister Dillon appears to have no such reservation, though it looks like the cultists would rather that he did. The guards and.. looks like a caretaker or cleaner? It doesn't look like any of them are critically injured, though I can see blood on more than a few uniforms. Five cameras mounted on the walls that will need to go first.

I'm transmitting the layout of the room to Kadabra even as I attach filaments to the guards outside the door, ShockCrown and gas them and start lowering them gently to the ground. I'm not sure exactly how fast I'm thinking now but in the brief moment between them losing control of their legs and them starting to fall it felt like they were going very slowly. My eyes… My eyes are dragging as I try to turn them to look at my first two targets. Even closing them so that I can focus better on the input from the rings is too slow. Ignore it. Can't transition into the room because Dillon might react faster than me. Plot flight path. Filaments in position to shield.

"Down!"

Mister Fisher starts to duck. There's no noticeable reaction from any of the inmates but Dillon's glanced around! Execute! The ring tells me that I'll be through the doors in little over a second but it still feels like I'm drifting like a dandelion spore in a breeze. Mini railgun rounds destroy cameras, construct armour coats Mister Fisher and a shield bubble appears around the prison staff. That provokes a reaction. Eyes widen, people start to turn and the guard on the turret starts to swing it towards my door.

And Dillon grins. He hasn't slowed down at all.

I drop a vertigo inducer near each inmate concentration even as the prison-orange blur he's becoming starts to pirouette across the room. Shots are fired as fingers clamp down on unsafed triggers in shock. Two rifle rounds and a smattering of shotgun pellets are absorbed by the shield around the prison staff as the inmates start to fall, hands clasped over their ears. The doors on the far side explode inwards as Kon and Thomas throw themselves inwards at full speed while behind them I see Tuppence punch out one inmate and a flash of blue-white as Kadabra electrocutes another.

Mister Dillon twists sideways in the air as he reaches Mister Fisher, grabs hold of his ankle and throws him up at me! I try catching him with a construct but he's got far more kinetic force than he should have! I'm sent backwards in the air as Kon flies at Dillon and Thomas heads for the rotary turret. I won't hit the wall for a few subjective seconds so I take the time to ShockCrown the more active looking inmates, Mister Plazchek especially as he gets it together enough to send a table flying into Kon. Kon smashes it aside without slowing as Mister Plazchek goes limp.

I feel the pressure as my back hits the wall but the construct armour can easily take it. Kon swings his right fist at the space occupied by Mister Dillon only for Dillon to spin aside and… Somehow he just accelerated Kon into the cafeteria floor. He didn't even touch him! Thomas' earplugs appear to be working as he crumples the rotary cannon and grabs as many of the guns on the floor as he can. Making sure to keep Tuppence between him and any potential attacker Kadabra fires nerve janglers at the disorientated inmates. Kon doesn't bother getting to his feet but instead flies at Dillon from his prone position and tries to grapple. Another spinning sidestep from Dillon and Kon is launched across the room into Tuppence. They both hit the wall and go down.

I push Mister Fisher towards the ground and try surrounding Mister Dillon with a filament cage, Lantern Kreon style. Try spinning your way out of-! Oh. The filaments reach his blurred form and bend away. I try to bring them back around only for him to dance aside, deflecting faster than I can correct. I try spraying gas at him but his demented spinning forms air currents too strong to let it settle around him.

Then Donna dives past me and takes his legs out. He spins laterally on his axis seven times at super speed before landing on the floor on his back. "Guh!" Donna lunges down at him, aiming for his diaphragm with her fists. Dillon manages to half push himself up and turns slightly, the space around him bending in response to his motion. Donna's lunge misses but she sticks out her leg as she goes past, knocking him flying towards the serving counter- "Aagh!" -and.. yep, that's a broken hip. Thomas hauls him up by his jumpsuit collar before he can do anything else and bear hugs him. Dillon shimmers as he tries to shake his way free but his distraction and relative stillness allow me to stick two Tesla coil constructs to either side of his head and shock him. "Yeahghghgh!" He jerks in Thomas' arms and then flops so I turn it off in order to ShockCrown and gas him properly.

Thomas releases his hold and Dillon collapses to the floor as the vertigo inducers cut out. A couple of the inmates near the prison staff try reaching for their weapons only to find Tuppence standing over them. She folds her arms across her chest and shakes her head. They get the message. Okay, now I need to start slowing down…

"Naga Naga!" Two of the cultists try jumping Thomas but I intercept them with Badger constructs, pinning them to the wall before ShockCrowning… Oh, right, Americans. Probably don't know what a Badger even is.

Another cultist tries attacking Thomas, only for him to stick out his right arm and catch hold of her by the front of her robe, lifting her off her feet. "What you try'an t'do? Ah got super strength."

"Welcome to my world." I ShockCrown and gas her before dumping her with the others. Would there be some sort of call in system? The other two cultists seem a little more hesitant. I send filaments to their foreheads and apply brands to them as Kon and Tuppence shove the inmates who have retained motor control over to one side. Mister Fisher gets up and goes to stand near Thomas. "Gentlemen, you really want to tell me what Mister Burr has going on."

Their eyes and brands glow orange as they hear in my words the ultimate purpose of their existences. Too much power? "Lord Kobra ordered us to-." / "We are to hold the infidels-."

"One at a time. You." I point to the one on my left. "Is he expecting you to call in?"

"Radio contact every five minutes." He pulls a guard walkie-talkie out from under his robes and holds it out to me, a mildly deranged grin on his face.

"No, you keep it. Your job is now to confirm that everything is fine here." I pause for a moment, considering what I just said. "In accordance with how he wants it to be, not how it is."

"I can do that, no problem at all!" He clutches the device to his face, fingers hovering over the activation button. I let him go and he crouches down next to the serving counter, staring at the walkie-talkie, utterly enthralled by the possibility of needing to use it.

I wonder if there's a way to make branded people less obviously mental?

"Hey." One of the guards… It's Bendemann! Kind of nice to know that he.. probably wasn't anything to do with this. He's knocking on the inside of the shield bubble. "We got injured here. You going to let us out of this any time soon?"

Donna and Kon look at me. We could, but we still don't really know how this happened. If it was an inside job… Nothing obvious in their souls to suggest they had anything to do with it. Damn, having M'gann here right now would be useful. "I'm sorry Deputy Assistant Warden, but I don't think that's a good idea." His face tightens. "This was clearly an inside job to at least some extent. I'd like to be able to trust you and your people but I can't. Not until you've been properly questioned and I just don't have time to do that now."

"You're trusting Kadabra and the Terrors more than us?"

"I know them. I know what motivates them and I'm bribing them. I don't really know you, not well enough."

He thinks for a moment before nodding. "I… I'm not happy about it, but I suppose it makes sense."

"We'll treat the injured, but until Warden Waller or the Louisiana State Militia people get here I can't risk that some of you are working for the bad guys."

"So what do you plan on doing with us in the meanwhile?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st December
23:16 GMT -6

More than a few of the guards are glaring at me as I close the last cell door. The rest are too busy staring at the Praexis Demons hovering in the air in the middle of the cellblock. Hopefully this will only be for an hour or so. Didn't Lord Vetinari say something about never building a prison you'd mind spending time in yourself? The various inmates we've rounded up are in the cells on the lower level while the guards, caretaker, Doctor Quinzel and Mister Fisher are on the upper level directly above them. I treated broken bones, serious cuts, burns and concussions with the ring and Kon fetched a couple of first aid kits. They'll just have to put up with the rest.

I only have ten power suppression collars in subspace and they all lack the Belle Reve shock feature. I put them around the necks of the most dangerous metahuman inmates and then put those inmates in cells on their own at least one empty cell away from anyone who might be able to help pull the collars off or break them. They're also gassed, though that won't keep them out indefinitely. In fact, even with this formulation it would be rather dangerous to try.

I fly up and over the railing and down towards the control room where the others are waiting. Neither Donna nor Kon are particularly happy about this course of action, though they appear to accept my justification. Tuppence on the other hand is struggling to contain her mirth, though she does appear to be trying to lurk out of sight. Pointless as far as concealing the fact that she helped us is concerned; they clearly saw her and the gas doesn't harm long term memory. Hang up over ingroup betrayal guilt? Thomas doesn't seem to care much either way.

And 'Chief Trustee' Kadabra's too busy to have an opinion. I'll leave the Praexis Demons on guard duty but I'm not confident that they'll work for low lethality suppression if I'm not here to direct them individually. Their instinctive mode of attack is to try to eat their target and they aren't intelligent enough to understand an instruction to do something else instead. I'd trust Teekl to keep them in line but she's still in Poseidonis.

"I conjure ye anew."

I'm still a little worried that if I gave him anything significant he'd leg it.

"Constrained and commanded by my seal and by this wand of artifice."

But by combining his existing knowledge of plasma physics and his wand's electron induction capacity-

"Flesh of plasma!"

-and the most basic lightning elemental summoning rite I could find in the books Mister Nelson gave me-

"Nerves of lightning!"

-we should be able to get some easily controlled help. The simple summoning circle sketched out with a circuit pen is glowing brilliantly and Kadabra's soul is a vibrant orange and blue combination.

"Heed my command and come forth!"

The gathered electrical energy funnels up from the design towards the centre of the design before shooting up to a point about a metre and a half above the ground.

"Come forth!"

A glowing ball of purple gas contains the roiling electrical charge, its outline slowly expanding.

"I command you to come forth!"

The ball bursts, electrical energy and purple gas surge out to fill an invisible outline. What I can see of its head is vaguely frog like, hanging down slightly from the plasma ball located where its arms and neck attach to its spine. The arms are long and thin, terminating in three fingered hands that trail on the ground, tiny sparks jumping up to them from the summoning circle below it. The spine trails away into a thin tail which curves down and then out behind it. Radiating out from the back wisps of plasma suggest the formation of wings. The purple gasses making up its body shift like clouds around the crackling electricity but the magnetic fields and magic prevent them from simply floating away.

Kadabra stares up at his creation in wonder. "I did it."

"Congratulations. Earth's first Plasma Elemental."

"I…." He tears his eyes away for a moment to make eye contact with me. "It worked." His eyes grow vacant as he consults the data in his quantum wafer. "But it isn't a Plasma Elemental, it's a Lightning Elemental binding a plasma field. A true Plasma Elemental would be far stronger."

"Are yew done yet?" Tuppence clearly isn't impressed. "We got things t'dew."

Kadabra returns his attention to the Elemental and raises his wand high. A thick electrical discharge leaps from the tip to the Elemental's head. Its eyes brighten slightly and then it flows through the air and the reinforced glass into the lower part of the cell block.

Yeah. No one's going to go anywhere now.

"Heh. Heh. Heh." Kadabra leans against the wall, breathing hard and still unable to take his eyes off it.

"Yew want a paper bag t' breathe in or somethang?"

"You have no idea."

"Alright, show's over. Kadabra-."

"Abra." He looks around and shrugs. "You may as well use my first name."

"Alright, Abra. Stay here and keep watch." I recall a couple of Praexis Demons to watch his back. "I don't think you'll get any trouble but don't hesitate to administer a few electric shocks if you do. Everyone else, our target is the laundry and what is probably the ritual site. As far as we know the only people left on Mister Burr's side are hardcore Kobra cultists. They have plasma weapons, at least one magic user, some sort of combat drug and they've somehow destroyed Abra's data infections in that part of the prison. At this point I'm assuming they know that someone's in the prison but they shouldn't know who we are. The only hostage they've got is Professor Strange."

"It's him though, ain't it? The one who set alla this urp?" Thomas shrugs. "'Else, why they keepin' him away from tha rest a' them?"

"Could be a power thing for Mister Burr, wanting to be seen to be in control of the man who was running Belle Reve. Or you could be right. If we run into them our new top priority becomes keeping him alive and getting him away safely. We can always have one of the Martians probe his mind afterwards." I generate a construct image of the laundry room. Strange gave me a tour during one of my previous visits and I doubt the Kobra people have bothered lugging heavy machinery around to change the layout. "Two internal entrances, one from the guard side and another from the prison side. Before they were destroyed, Abra's devices showed what were probably two corpses here, just next to the workshop area. That's probably the focal point for the ritual and I'll be targeting it as soon as we get inside. Thomas, please lead the way."

He nods and heads out of the door. "Hey, how come ah don't get no code name?"

"Because you don't have a secret identity."

"Neither do you. Yer name's Pawl. Y'all bin tellin' anyone who asks."

Kon, Donna and Tuppence all smirk. Then Tuppence spots that Donna's smirking and stops, scowling.

"I'm referred to as Orange Lantern because I'm a member of the Orange Lantern Corps." Thomas stops at the first door and looks at me. Since they're bound to know that we're here I don't have much of a reason not to use indirect scanning techniques any more. I generate four ultrasound constructs and hold them up to the door. Within a centimetre of it they start getting disrupted so I pull back a little and fire a quick burst. Sound return says nothing unexpected on the far side. I nod and he pushes it open. "What would you want to be called, anyway?"

Tuppence tosses her head. "Ah liked 'Terror' jus' fiahn."

"Try not to say that to Waller when she gets here."

Thomas reaches a turn and stops. "Uh?" On the ground blocking our route is a glowing white line with a shimmering translucent barrier projecting upwards. On the far side I see 'Reject the Unworthy' written in Devanagari script.

"How far do we have to go?"

"Down t' tha end, double duwers, take a left. 'Bout sixty feet."

I generate a railgun construct and load a Mageslayer, pointing it directly at the barrier. "Get ready to run."